The Emancipation Proclamation alone makes America the most powerful nation on earth.

[Octafish]

3. Thank you. You are absolutely correct.

I understand the Constitution to be a living document that has grown and been adapted successfully to the changes in the nation's understanding of what it means to be a citizen. In posting, I wanted to make clear the importance of the Emancipation Proclamation in our nation's development as a place where ideas matter and where people matter more than things.

'Watch Nights,' A New Year's Celebration Of Emancipation

by Allison Keyes
NPR.org
Published: December 29, 2012

EXCERPT...

What The Proclamation Actually Did

Reginald Washington, African-American records specialist at the National Archives, says the Emancipation Proclamation didn't immediately free any slave.

Washington says the proclamation applied only to areas where the federal government had no control or ability to enforce its provisions. The document that actually freed the slaves was the 13th Amendment.

The proclamation, however, changed the character of the conflict from a war to preserve the union to a war for human liberation. Washington says when President Lincoln started to sign it, he hesitated.

SOURCE: http://m.npr.org/news/front/2100752

Thus, to me, the Emancipation Proclamation is more than just a document outlining the federal government's position in a time of civil war. It demonstrated to the world that human life is more important than property in the United States. I believe this idea would be to the minds of those classes empowered with wealth, position, power a revolutionary thought.