Issuing the E.P.
- Once Lincoln found a constitutional basis for freeing slaves and for focusing the Civil War on slavery, he needed to determine the mechanics of how to emancipate slaves.
- His result was the carefully crafted Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in states that were rebelling against the Union.
- The Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to the Border States, since Lincoln needed those states to support the Union, and not the Confederacy .
- Once Lincoln determined the mechanism of emancipating slaves, and the states which it applied to, he then needed to determine the best timing to enact the Emancipation Proclamation.