"Lincoln did not have the ability to grant freedom to slaves of loyal Union men."

Yes he did. As President he could have freed all the slaves under war time emergency. Yes temporary, and against the constitution, but under war time conditions he could have done it. To make it permanent, constitution would have to been changed or once the war was declared officially over by Congress, slavery would have commenced again. The fact that the E.M. did not have any teeth, and that nomore to free the slaves was done, kept Lincoln at odds with the radicals in his party. The straw that broke the camels back was the Davis-Wade Bill pocket veto, which made Lincoln many enemies within the radicals Republican ranks.

The biggest question of all is, if Slavery could be made illegal by Congress, why did they wait until 65-66? If Congress had the time to admit states into the Union, secede western Virginia away from its parent state and form a new state, and perform major legislative acts like...

August 5, 1861 - Revenue Act of 1861
May 20, 1862 - Homestead Act
July 1, 1862 - Revenue Act of 1862
July 1, 1862 - Pacific Railway Act
July 2, 1862 - Morrill Land Grant Colleges Act
July 17, 1862 - Militia Act
February 24, 1863 Arizona Territory was organized.
February 25, 1863 - National Banking Act
March 2, 1863 - False Claims Act
March 3, 1863 - Enrollment Act
March 3, 1863 Idaho Territory was organized.
May 26, 1864 Montana Territory was organized.
June 19, 1863 West Virginia was admitted as a state into the Union. It was formed from a portion of Virginia.
October 31, 1864 Nevada was admitted as a state into the Union.

Of course they tried earlier to abolish slavery but they just couldn't get their act together...

"There had been very little proposed legislation to abolish slavery. Congressman John Quincy Adams had made a proposal in 1839, but there were no new proposals until December 14, 1863, when a bill to support an amendment to abolish slavery throughout the entire United States was introduced by Congressman James Mitchell Ashley (Republican, Ohio). This was soon followed by a similar proposal made by Congressman James Falconer Wilson, (Republican, Iowa).

Eventually the Congress and the public began to take notice and a number of additional legislative proposals were brought forward. Senator John Brooks Henderson of Missouri submitted a joint resolution for a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery, January 11, 1864. The abolition of slavery had, historically, been associated with Republicans, but Henderson was a War Democrat. The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Lyman Trumbull (Republican, Illinois), became involved in merging different proposals for an amendment. Another Republican, Senator Charles Sumner (Radical Republican, Massachusetts), submitted a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery as well as guarantee equality on February 8 the same year. As the number of proposals and the extent of their scope began to grow, the Senate Judiciary Committee presented the Senate with an amendment proposal combining the drafts of Ashley, Wilson, and Henderson.[2]

After debating the amendment, the Senate passed it on April 8, 1864, by a vote of 38 to 6. Although they initially rejected the amendment, the House of Representatives passed it on January 31, 1865, by a vote of 119 to 56." Wikipedia.

Its simple, they could have freed the slaves much earlier if they really wanted to.

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David Upton