In general, an autonomous status was presumed to imply a special kind of constitution of the region, a reorganization of gendarmerie, broader representation of the local Christian population in it as well as in all the administration, similarly to what happened in the short-lived Eastern Rumelia. However, there was not a clear political agenda behind IMRO's idea about autonomy and its final outcome, after the expected dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.[112] Delcev, like other left-wing activists, vaguely determined the bonds in the future common Macedonian-Adrianopolitan autonomous region on the one hand,[113] and on the other between it, the Principality of Bulgaria, andde facto annexed Eastern Rumelia.[114] Even the possibility that Bulgaria could be absorbed into a future autonomous Macedonia, rather than the reverse, was discussed.[115] It is claimed that the personal view of the convinced republican Delchev,[116] was much more likely to see inclusion in a future Balkan Confederative Republic,[117][118] or eventually an incorporation into Bulgaria.[119][120][121] Both ideas were probably influenced by the views of the founders of the organization.[122]
The ideas of a separate Macedonian nation and language were as yet promoted only by small circles of intellectuals in Delchev's time,[123] and failed to gain wide popular support.[124] As a whole the idea of autonomy was strictly political and did not imply a secession from Bulgarian ethnicity.[125] In fact, for militants such as Delchev and other leftists, that participated in the national movement retaining a political outlook, national liberation meant "radical political liberation through shaking off the social shackles".[126] There aren't any indications suggesting his doubt about the Bulgarian ethnic character of the Macedonian Slavs at that time.[127] Delchev also used the Bulgarian standard language, and he was in any way interested in the creation of separate Macedonian language.[128] The Bulgarian ethnic self-identification of Delchev has been recognized аs from leading international researchers of the Macedonian Question,[129] as well as from part of the Macedonian historical scholarship, although reluctantly.[130][131][132]
However, despite his Bulgarian loyalty, he was against any chauvinistic propaganda and nationalism.[133] According to him, no outside force could or would help the Organization and it ought to rely only upon itself and only upon its own will and strength.[134] He thought that any intervention by Bulgaria would provoke intervention by the neighbouring states as well, and could result in Macedonia and Thrace being torn apart. That is why the peoples inhabited these two regions had themselves, to win their own freedom, within the frontiers of an autonomous Macedonian-Adrianople state.[135]