September 22

1975, the second assassination attempt on President Ford

1927, the long count gave the boxing victory to Gene Tunney

1776, Nathan Hale was hung as a spy by the British

Today, September 22, 2024 marks the beginning of the season called Fall.

To me this is a very important day for it reminds us that God is sovereign and controlling.  It reminds all of us that despite the chaos, wars and uncertainty all around, there is a God who is managing all things to His declared end.

Genesis 8:22, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, sold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.”

God announced to Noah and mankind the advent of seasons and that they would NOT go away!  So, the shift from Summer to Fall today reminds me that God is faithful, sovereign and true.

Today, the beginning of Fall, reminds me to know that God keeps His word – to mankind, to the earth AND to me!!!  He has begun a good work in me and He will complete it, Phil 1:6.  He will never leave me, Heb 13:5.  He is preparing for me and coming for me, John 14:1-3.

Today, the Emancipation Proclamation idea was first announced by Abraham Lincoln.

Excerpt from history.com

On September 17, 1862, Union troops halted the advance of Confederate forces led by Gen. Robert E. Lee near Sharpsburg, Maryland, in the Battle of Antietam (some 23,000 killed or wounded).

Days later, Lincoln went public with the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which called on all Confederate states to rejoin the Union within 100 days – by January 1, 1863 – or their slaves would be declared “thenceforward, and forever free.”

Excerpt from Briannica.com

No state returned, and the threatened declaration was issued on January 1, 1863… Its international importance was far greater. The locking up of the world’s source of cotton supply had been a general calamity, and the Confederate government and people had steadily expected that the English and French governments would intervene in the war. The conversion of the struggle into a crusade against slavery made European intervention impossible.

The Emancipation Proclamation did more than lift the war to the level of a crusade for human freedom. It brought some substantial practical results, because it allowed the Union to recruit Black soldiers. To this invitation to join the army the Blacks responded in considerable numbers, nearly 180,000 of them enlisting during the remainder of the war.

…in February 1865 – Lincoln told portrait painter Francis B. Carpenter that the Emancipation Proclamation was “the central act of my administration, and the greatest event of the nineteenth century.” To Lincoln and to his countrymen it had become evident that the proclamation had dealt a deathblow to slavery in the United States, a fate that was officially sealed by the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865.

PK – I think the preliminary declaration of emancipation issued on September 22, 1862 – which was formalized on January 1, 1863 – is one of the most important dates in American History.  It is so very sad that it took tens of thousands of lives to make the opening words of the Declaration of Independence applicable to all Americans:  We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Lincoln’s words were heard around the world and changed the emphasis of the war and was likely the beginning of the end for the South as their European help soon dried up.

In my world, September 22, 1862, is a date of huge significance and ought to be so marked.  This date is more important than Juneteenth 1865 when the slaves of just one town (Galveston, TX) learned of their freedom.

September 22 is an important day!