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What were the consequences of President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation?
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More than fifteen months after his Emancipation Proclamation, on April 4, 1864, Lincoln explained his action in a letter to A.G. Hodges, editor of a Frankfort, Kentucky, newspaper. “I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think, and feel. And yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling.” 
Thus, Lincoln justified his Emancipation Proclamation as an act of military necessity, based on power granted through the Constitution to the president in his capacity as commander in chief of the armed forces. He believed this was the best he could do within the limitations imposed by the Constitution. 
Lincoln understood that a constitutional amendment was required to abolish slavery immediately and everywhere in the United States. So, he advocated an anti-slavery amendment to the Constitution. Congress moved slowly to propose the amendment, but Lincoln continued to recommend it. The required two-thirds vote of members of both houses of Congress was achieved by January 31, 1865. Lincoln, however, did not live to see this work completed. The proposed Thirteenth Amendment was not ratified by the requisite three-fourths of the states until December 6, 1865. >
Thus, Lincoln justified his Emancipation Proclamation as an act of military necessity, based on power granted through the Constitution to the president in his capacity as commander in chief of the armed forces. He believed this was the best he could do within the limitations imposed by the Constitution. Lincoln understood that a constitutional amendment was required to abolish slavery immediately and everywhere in the United States. So, he advocated an anti-slavery amendment to the Constitution. Congress moved slowly to propose the amendment, but Lincoln continued to recommend it. The required two-thirds vote of members of both houses of Congress was achieved by January 31, 1865. Lincoln, however, did not live to see this work completed. The proposed Thirteenth Amendment was not ratified by the requisite three-fourths of the states until December 6, 1865. >
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