Lincoln as Emancipator

Abraham Lincoln was conscious that the constitution gave him no authority to emancipate slaves under peacetime circumstances. Hence, his first movement toward emancipation was a plan for gradual, compensated emancipation of the slaves of the loyal border states. But even this plan was opposed by those states. So, in mid-1862, Lincoln turned to the powers he believed the constitution conferred on him as commander-in-chief to liberate the confederacy's slaves as a military measure for winning the war. He issued a preliminary emancipation proclamation in September, 1862, attempting to make it palatable beforehand by extracting promises of colonization abroad by the freed slaves. He then proceeded to issue a final proclamation on January 1, 1863. The colonization plan came to nothing. But Lincoln remained anxious about the constitutionality of his proclamation, and in January, 1865, obtained from congress a 13th amendment entirely abolishing slavery.