[John.Galt2012]

Good old Abe...The Great Emancipator...except the Emancipation Proclamation freed ZERO slaves! From a .gov website: "the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control. Most important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union military victory."

[John.Galt2012]

Almost sounds a little Marxist/Socialist doesn’t it. Free the slaves of the people I don’t like, but keep my slaves and of course the people who I DO like can keep their slaves. No wonder he likes Lincoln so much.

[Tublecane]

“except the Emancipation Proclamation freed ZERO slaves!”

Not immediately, no. But with time.

It has been blown out of proportion. The Constitutional amendment was the big deal.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

Good old Abe...The Great Emancipator...except the Emancipation Proclamation freed ZERO slaves! From a .gov website: "the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control. Most important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union military victory."

That's why Lincoln put so much effort into permanently destroying slavery through constitutional amendment.

[Non-Sequitur]

...except the Emancipation Proclamation freed ZERO slaves!

That statement is incorrect. The Emancipation Proclamation freed every slave still in territory held by the forces of the rebellion. It may have taken a while before many of those slaves could take advantage of their freedom, but that doesn't change the fact that they were legally free and were illegally kept in bondage by their former masters.