(A) He was too busy ordering troops around and didn‘t have time before the victory.
(B) He was waiting for the states to ratify it
(C) ** He wanted strong support for the proclamation from the people and felt that the timing was right after this major victory in the Civil War.
EXPLANATIONS BELOW
Concept note-1: -However, the summer of 1862 had been a bleak one for Federal forces, and Lincoln did not want to issue the proclamation when the North appeared to be losing. He did not want other countries to consider it an act of desperation. So he put the document in his desk drawer and waited for a victory.
Concept note-2: -Lincoln was persuaded by Secretary of State William Seward to wait until the Union had won a significant battlefield victory. The Union forces had just repulsed an attack by General Robert E. Lee’s forces at the Battle of Antietam, which Lincoln saw as the sign that the time had come for the Proclamation.
Concept note-3: -1862, July 22 Lincoln presented a draft Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet. Secretary Seward suggested waiting for a Union military victory before issuing a proclamation.
Concept note-4: -On September 22, 1862, partly in response to the heavy losses inflicted at the Battle of Antietam, President Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, threatening to free all the enslaved people in the states in rebellion if those states did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863.