Why didn't lincoln not free slaves at the beginning of the war in order to avoid

? ? ?

President Abraham Lincoln’s original Emancipation Proclamation in January 1862 was neither as sweeping nor as simple as posterity sometimes regards it. Politically motivated,  it was aimed primarily at the Southern states that were fighting the Union, essentially saying, “I was willing to tolerate your slavery if it would preserve the Union, but now all bets are off and they will be liberated after your inevitable defeat.” Those Southern territories already occupied, however, were kept exempt from the proclamation, in order to avoid their rising up against their occupiers.