Lincoln begins the Emancipation Proclamation by stating that "the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring between the United States, and each of the States, and the people thereof, in which States that relation is, or may be, suspended or disturbed." This sentence states that the object of his proclamation is to restore the relationship of the United States. It is not to end plantation life as he doesn't mention plantation life at all in the proclamation. He also does not state in this proclamation that his plan is to arm black soldiers or punish slaveholders. While some of these may have been the result of the emancipation proclamation, they were not his main reason for writing it.
