[rose]

go to http://www.civilwar.si.edu/lincoln_first_reading.html

Sorry do not know how to post links, etc. This is from the Smithsonian.

[rose]

well well, it did it and I did not even know how.

[smug]

And that changes what? My statement still stands. I am not trying to be contrary. No president has any power with an executive order outside the executive branch.
If someone who owned slaves gave them up on 1/1/1863 that was the person that gave power to it. The EP was not a law.
Having said that it did give power to union officers to allow slaves to leave their owners influence, as they occupied Confederate land. That is because lincoln had executive control over the military. On 1/1/1863 the EP merely became
"policy".