Final answer:
Jefferson Davis' specific 'counter proclamation' is not detailed in the provided information, but as the Confederate President, he opposed the Emancipation Proclamation, which Lincoln signed into effect to emancipate slaves in rebelling states and shift the Union’s war aims toward abolishing slavery.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question asks about Jefferson Davis' reaction to Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. The counter proclamation by Jefferson Davis in response to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation is not mentioned in the provided information. However, we know that Davis, as the President of the Confederacy, opposed the Emancipation Proclamation and would have seen it as an act of aggression by Lincoln and an attempt to incite slave rebellions in the South. Jefferson Davis faced his own political challenges, including resistance from states' rights supporters. Nevertheless, Lincoln's Proclamation declared emancipated slaves in the rebelling states to be "forever free," a step that significantly redefined the Union’s war aims.
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation came after the Union victory at Antietam and was put into effect on January 1, 1863. It aimed to free slaves in those Southern states still in rebellion, which made it also a strategy to weaken the Confederate resources vital to their war effort. Although the Proclamation did not immediately free all slaves, it started to change the character of the Civil War by making the abolition of slavery a central war goal. Despite exemption for certain regions and considerable challenges, the Proclamation marked a historic step towards ending slavery in the United States.