At first when Lincoln announced the Emancipation proclamation he said that only the slaves of the Rebel states were to be set free.(this was a war tactic. The border states still had slaves and they were crucial for the defeat of the North.). Up until this point the main goal of the war was to preserve the union. Many people, especially the New York Irish that didn't need more people to compete with for jobs, had riots and demonstrated there disapproval of the emancipation proclamation.(Not all Irish. I have nothing against Irish it's just that there was an abundance of hard working Irish immigrants at this time.) The abolitionists, however, approved of the emancipation proclamation.