[Repeal The 17th]

"...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;..."

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The "emancipation proclamation" refers to the document in which Mr. Lincoln "freed" the slaves that were being held in a foreign country (The CSA).
When did he actually free the slaves that were being held in the United States?

[Rembrandt_fan]

You wrote, "The "emancipation proclamation" refers to the document in which Mr. Lincoln "freed" the slaves that were being held in a foreign country (The CSA)."

The CSA was never a foreign country because it was never a country. Its diplomats sought recognition as a distinct nation-state by the then-Great Powers, but never attained that recognition. Note that the Civil War was an attempt to secede from the United States. Secession was never accomplished. Guess what the biggest hurdle to such international recognition was, aside from President Lincoln's own initiatives in that regard? Go on, guess. Oh, yeah, that's right: slavery.

Even Czarist Russia, not known for its advanced ideals and egalitarian notions, had freed the serfs.

[rabscuttle385]

Slaves held in non-seceding states and other U.S. territories were freed when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in Jan. 1865.