So back when I was in college I wrote an essay on Lincoln. I have this memory ingrained but cannot find a source online to back it up but something won't let this thought leave my head. I remember reading that Lincoln had the Emancipation Proclamation written pretty much the day he took office but he kept it in his desk drawer because he knew that freeing the slaves would cause some northern-leaning states (whose economies relied on slavery) to immediately join the Confederacy. So he prudently allowed slavery to continue until a more strategically opportune time.
The above is simply my memory of what I read. I can't find anything to substantiate this online, but at the same time I find it weird that I remember so many vivid details about this (my) version of history.
Has anybody heard the same thing?
Lincoln expressed his willingness to issue the Proclamation in mid-1862. He brought this up before his cabinet, whose reactions were mixed. Most notably, Secretary of State William Seward advised waiting until a military victory to issue it, believing that otherwise it might seem like an act of desperation. Lincoln took Seward's advice, and waited until the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam in September 1862. So the wait was only about two months.