Winik continued:
"In some respects, the Congress was not unfair when it remarked that the Proclamation added little to what it had already done with the Confiscation Act. But in the final analysis, these criticisms miss their mark: the Emancipation Proclamation was the most revolutionary document in the country's history since the Declaration of Independence; it truly began the end of slavery, in the North and the South. The psychological impact of the proclamation cannot be underestimated; Lincoln, in a masterful stroke, had become a personal emblem of freedom, and the Emancipation Proclamation was its parchment. As a war act, it was a stunning measure, imbuing the Northern war effort with a larger moral purpose without overshooting its mark. And for approximately 180,000 blacks - mostly slaves - it was nothing short of a miracle. They would go in to serve valiantly in the Union army."
When Winston Churchill, speaking on the victory at el Alamein, said "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning" nobody dismissed him by saying the German troops still remained in Egypt and Libya. Lincoln's proclamation was not the end of slavery in either the North or the South. But it was most definitely the beginning of the end. A line had been drawn that could not be crossed again. The South could never end its rebellion on the terms of keeping the status quo; their slaves weren't slaves anymore. It definitely set the stage for the next logical step, the 13th Amendment and did much to remove possible opposition to its passage. Those who say that the Emancipation Proclamation did nothing of substance take a very short-sighted viewpoint. The Emancipation began the process of ridding the U.S. of the scourge of slavery, it kept the European powers from joining the side of the Southern slaveocracy, and it helped bring the rebellion to an early end.
The slaves were freed...but the states were forced to stay...which is the opposite of freedom.
A strange hypocrisy, but a hypocrisy nonetheless.
I agree with Winik’s assessment that you quoted. I also agree with Winik’s quote from the London Spectator. Both are correct, IMO. Winik’s continuing words are an assessment of the impact of the Proclamation on the war effort, while the Spectator’s quote is a strictly correct statement about the terms of the Proclamation.