At the beginning of the war, President Lincoln had to be cautious when defending his beliefs and viewpoints. Lincoln repeatedly explained that he was fighting to preserve the Union, not to abolish slavery. This topic was extremely important for he needed to protect the reliability of the slave-owning Border States. But as the war progressed, Lincoln's ideas went from "only wanting to keep the Union together, regardless of slavery" to "not directly or indirectly interfering with slavery in the States" and finally to "the slaves must be free or they themselves would be subdued for they are a major element and could be used to help the North." Lincoln issued a preliminary emancipation proclamation in September of 1862. It stated that as of January 1, 1863, all slaves were to be freed in those areas still in rebellion against the federal government. Not to upset the slave states, Lincoln repeated that he was still dedicated to restoring the Union however he wanted to express the need to end slavery once and for all. But he also declared that he supported the concept of compensated emancipation. After making this announcement Lincoln was condemned by some Northerners because he did not abolish slavery everywhere. However, he was not to blame for he claimed that only Congress and the Border States had the authority to do this. People in the South thought the Proclamation may cause slave revolts and they no longer supported Lincoln. Lincoln hoped that the rebellious states could somehow be convinced to come back into the Union. Still the Proclamation did create a moral impact for others. The future position of black people in the American society and America's place in a worldwide movement toward the abolition of slavery were major ideas brought up during wartime. It also aided the Union a great deal. Slaves now had a reason to escape into the Union territory and this in turn kept the Confederates from accomplishing their essential work.
