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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE
UNITED STATES. A PROCLAMATION
Whereas, on the 22d of
September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred sixty-two, a
proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing,
among other things, the following to wit:
"That on the 1st day of
January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred sixty-three,
all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a
State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United
States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive
Government of the United States, including the military and naval
authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such
persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of
them, in any effects they may make for their actual freedom.
"That the Executive will,
on the first day of January, aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the
States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof
respectively shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the
fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good
faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen
thereto at election wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such
State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong
countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such States
and the people thereof are not then in rebellion against the United
States."
Now, therefore, I, Abraham
Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me
vested as commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States and
as a fit and necessary war measure for repressing said rebellion, do, on
this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly
proclaimed for the full period of 100 days from the day first above
mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein
the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the
United States, the following to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana
(except the parishes of Saint Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, Saint John,
Saint Charles, Saint James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche,
Saint Mary, Saint Martha, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans),
Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina,
and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia,
and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City,
York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and
Portsmouth), and .which excepted parts are, for the present, left
precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power
and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons
held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and
henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive Government of the
United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will
recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. And I hereby enjoin
upon the people so declared to be free, to abstain from all violence,
unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that in all
cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and
make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into
the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions,
stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said
service.
And upon this act,
sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution,
upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and
the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In witness whereof, I have
hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be
affixed.
[L.S.] Done at the city of
Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred sixty-three, and of the independence of the United
States of America the eighty-seventh.
By the President: Abraham
Lincoln.
William H. Sewabd;
Secretary of State. |
