Yes and let us remember the Emancipation Proclamation did not free any slaves because that was not the intended purpose. Lincoln did not want to make any more enemies in the Union slave states or the occupied territories. He was a master politician and ruthless. His war against Americans was enough distraction to obfuscate his genocide of the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes that was coincidently taking place at the same time. Abe Lincoln, the Great Centralizer.