Any general text on the war will tell you that President Lincoln issued the EP to cover only areas in actual rebellion against the lawful government. His thought his war powers as president only extended so far.
President Lincoln was a strong proponent of the 13th amendment for the same reason. His presidential proclamation might not have force in time of peace.
It should also be noted that as soon as the so-called seceded states issued their revolutionary documents in 1860-61, it was urged upon President Lincoln to seize the slaves of the rebels, as the rebels had vacated their rights as American citizens by their acts of rebellion and treason.
President Lincoln eschewed strong measures for as long as he could. He wrote:
"I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either surrendering the Union, and with it the Constitution, or of laying strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the latter. In choosing it, I hoped for greater gain than loss; but of this, I was not entirely confident. More than a year of trial now shows no loss by it in our foreign relations, none in our home popular sentiment, none in our white military force, no loss any how or any where. On the contrary, it shows a gain of quite one hundred and thirty thousand soldiers, seamen and laborers. These are palpable facts, about which there can be no cavilling. We have the men; and we could not have them without the measure.
And now let any Union man who complains of the measure, test himself by writing down in one line that he is for subduing the rebellion by force of arms; and in the next, that he is for taking these hundred and thirty thousand men from the Union side, and placing them where they would be but for the measure he condemns. If he can not face his case so stated, it is only because he can not face the truth.
I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In telling this tale I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. Now, at the end of three years struggle the Nation's condition is not what either party, or any man devised, or expected. God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North as well as you of the South, shall pay for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God."
4/4/64
Walt
Oh, pooh. Sure, there are books that offer that ridiculous excuse, just as there are books that say ridiculous things like Lincoln wasn't prejudiced. As to his "power", those exempted areas were still under martial, or if you prefer, Military law for the rebellion. They were completely within the sway of his "war powers", otherwise they would not be under Military Rule. BTW, he wasn't going to exempt Tennessee at first, but did so only at the personal request of it's Military Governor, Andrew Johnson. The "emancipation" proclamation was nothing more than what he said it was, a war measure enacted against the states that refused to surrender by the deadline. He was attempting to disrupt the labor force that kept the Confederacy going. After it's release, The London Spectator put it best: "The Union government liberates the enemy's slaves as it would the enemy's cattle, simply to weaken them in the conflict. The principle is not that a human being cannot justly own another, but that he cannot own him unless he is loyal to the United States."
President Lincoln was a strong proponent of the 13th amendment for the same reason. His presidential proclamation might not have force in time of peace.
LOL. When did he say that? Which 13th amendment, the first one Lincoln pushed that made slavery an untouchable institution forever and ever, or the second one which abolished it? Maybe you can post some snippets of Lincoln's stumping for the passage of the second one explaining his conerns about his "power".
President Lincoln eschewed strong measures for as long as he could. He wrote:...
I agree with you that the "proclamation" was nothing more than what Lincoln said it was, a war measure against the enemy. As he states in the quote you gave, he was trying to subvert the enemy's resources and apply them to his own use. And it is quite telling how he admits that the north should be grateful because every southern black induced into serving in the union military would mean that a union white man wouldn't have to.