The Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves in the states that constituted the Confederacy. The document emphasizes that this action was a “war measure,” taken, in part, to protect the slaves who were being offered refuge in Union forts, garrisons, and vessels. The proclamation was also offered as a moral statement, as an “act of justice” in accordance with the U.S. Constitution, and as a “military necessity.” That President Abraham Lincoln was addressing not merely his countrymen and the rebels but the world and his maker as well is clear from the document’s parting statement: “I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty Lord.”