Nonsense. Your entire premise is false. As the seizure and control of an enemy's territory doesn't happen complete and in total from one day to the next. It happens incrementally.
And any territory that the Union seized resulted in freed slaves. As an added bonus, many slaves fled to the North after the Proclamation. Virginia for example lost 60% of its adult male slaves by 1865. With those pieces of Confederate territory that remained behind Union lines for most of the war having losses in excess of 70%.
What the fuck are you rattling on about? The map posted showing the status of slaves when the EP was issued is not happening incrementally. The blue areas are areas which were under Union control at the time EP became effective. Slaves there were NOT freed because it would have been unconstitutional. The government CANNOT seize property without due process.
Any territory seized by the Union resulted in CONFISCATED slaves who became property of the US Army for the duration of the war. They were NOT freed!
Yes... MANY slaves, in the chaos of war, managed to escape and flee North where they gained their freedom. That's a far cry from being liberated by the EP.
Again... for the not-so-bright... He could not Constitutionally free slaves belonging to legitimate law-abiding American citizens.
Sure he could. The Confiscation Acts, specifically those of 1862 allowed for the seizure of any slave contributing to the war effort. Which it defined as any slave in the Confederacy. The US government took possession of the slaves. And as the owners of said slaves had every authority to free them.
As remember, the Confederates weren't 'law abiding American citizens'. But criminals in rebellion waging war against their government. And as such any property they owned that contributed to that insurrection was forfeit.
Again.... for the millionth time... the Confiscation Acts were military actions approved by Congress. [...allowed for the seizure of any slave contributing to the war effort.] Slaves were NOT freed, hence the name, CONFISCATION Act. They were impressed by the Union Army and used to dig trenches and graves, dispose of corpses and amputated limbs, etc. Thousands upon thousands DIED under the "care" of the Union Army.
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As pointed out before- and ignored by you- the Confiscation Act preceded the Emancipation Proclamation- and provided the legal framework for the freeing of the slaves.
The Confiscation Acts provided for the seizure of slaves to prevent their use by the Rebel states(and by the way- thousands died under the 'care' of the Confederacy also)
The Emancipation Proclamation freed those slaves who were confiscated.
“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, (January 1, 1863) all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
“That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States.”
Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:
And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
Doesn't get much clearer than that- and of course- the result was that immediately tens of thousands of slaves were legally free, and millions more were freed as Federal troops liberated rebel held territories.