“I wonder what was on Lincoln’s mind when he signed it,” Randolph said of the proclamation. “Why didn’t he say, ‘Ya’ll free today?’ Why was there a Sabbatical?
“I know what the thinking was. There was a battle. The Confederates were winning.”
Rubbish. Read Lincoln’s reasons—he had promised God that he would free the slaves, and he kept his promise.
Freeing them actually meant that the South would thereafter never accept peace terms; it was an end to hopes for a compromise end to the war.
Now it's more accurate.