In September, 1862, Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary version of his Emancipation Proclamation. With this proclamation, Lincoln announced the fact that freeing the black slaves was a Northern objective in the Civil War. Specifically, the Emancipation Proclamation gave the South "until January 1, 1863, to return to the Union or face emancipation." Lincoln's statement was issued a few days after the Northern victory in the Battle at Antietam. The President had been waiting for a strong Northern victory before making his proclamation. Following the Battle at Antietam, Lincoln told the members of his administration that he "had made a covenant with God... that if the army drove the enemy from Maryland he would issue his Emancipation Proclamation."
Prior to that time, Lincoln was concerned only with restoring the South to the Union. At first, Lincoln was not particularly concerned with whether the slaves were freed or not. Rather, his goal was simply to bring the South back into the Union by whatever means necessary. Lincoln's early attitude toward emancipation was revealed in a letter that he wrote to Horace Greeley, a noted writer for the New York Tribune. The letter was written on August 22, 1862, just weeks before Lincoln issued his first Emancipation Proclamation. In the letter, the President claimed that he cared only for saving the Union. In addition, he claimed that he didn't care whether slavery was either saved or destroyed in the process. In Lincoln's words: "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that." In fact, prior to his announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln had indicated that he was in favor of "African colonization" as a solution to the American slavery problem. According to this idea, the black slaves were to be sh...