Lincoln's controversial Emancipation Proclamation was made possible because of the victory at Antietam and abolished slavery within the Union, establishing that "all persons held as slaves within any State ... shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." The government, he attested, would protect these peoples' rights and freedoms and those who tried to deny these rights and freedoms would have to face consequences. Therefore, any state who refused to obey the Proclamation would be deemed a rebel, and the people within it could claim that they themselves were not rebels against the Union, rather, their state was. As commander in chief, Lincoln had certain wartime powers such as sending the US Army and Navy to fight such rebels. He went on to list the areas in which slavery would be illegal, and stated and those areas had to recognize the freedmen's rights and freedoms, and that he wished to engage in violence only as self defense. He concluded by saying that freed slaves had to work faithfully and loyally as American citizens, and could now participate in the military. Lincoln's decision made with the Proclamation was serious, and he meant to enforce it, for it was an act that he "sincerely believed to be an act of justice."
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