:::::Let's not misunderstand Wikipedia's mission in history articles: we report the consensus of scholars (or if there are several opposing interpretations we report that too). We do NOT do original research based on primary documents, which is what CSProfBill seems to call for. To my knowledge all historians see the Emancipation Proclamation as making the end of slavery a war goal in addition to saving the union. I cited some recent historians who say that; I have been unable to find ANY serious historian who disagrees or has some alternative reading.  Even the neoConfederates who hate Lincoln agree. Anyway, to keep CSProfBill happy I added a citation.  A further point: what is the goal of a war? that is a historians' question and the answer is "what historians decide on." Rarely is there a single unchanging goal that is stated unequivocally in official documents. (What is the single unchanging goal of our war in Afghanistan that has been going on for 8 years now? How about Iraq? Vietnam? Korea? etc etcin each case there are many goals mentioned in the official documents and the historians have to sort them out)