Nearly 20 percent of Trump’s supporters disapprove of Lincoln freeing the slaves

[D Gary Grady]

43. Tens of thousands of slaves were freed the first day

You may well be right that it was a dumb-ass question. But in making that point you wrote, "The Emancipation Proclamation didn't actually free any slaves in Confederate states," and that actually isn't true. It freed more than three million.

Here you say that "when it was issued, the Emancipation Proclamation had no legal force anywhere where it would have mattered." I suspect it mattered to as many as 50,000 slaves freed the first day, and to the many more in succeeding days, weeks, and month, many of whom heard about Emancipation and escaped from areas still under Confederate control to reach Union lines and freedom. I don't understand your objection that the Proclamation required military force to implement. How could it have been otherwise? As for speculating on alternative histories, that can be interesting and even entertaining, but I think what happened in the real world is more important.

An incidental aside (not directly in response to what you wrote, just something I think worth mentioning in this context: Lincoln's courage in issuing the Proclamation should not be underestimated. See this article from Slate.