In wake of President Obama’s order on immigration, some historical perspective is in order
The Emancipation Proclamation was an Executive Order by President Abraham Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation provides the foundational precedent for President Obama’s executive order on immigrants in the country illegally. Bruce Ackerman, a professor of law and political science at Yale
The proclamation was criticized by the so-called Copperhead Democrats who opposed the Civil War and wanted a negotiated settlement with the Confederacy. The Copperheads were northern members of Congress who wanted to oust Lincoln from office along with the Republicans who supported him. They saw him as an imperial president destroying American values.
The titles have reversed, but how much has changed?