A
Transcription By the President of the United States of America:
A
Proclamation.
Whereas,
on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the
United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the first day of January, in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 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 efforts 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 elections 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
State, 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 in time of actual armed rebellion
against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and
necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of
January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three,
and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full
period of one hundred 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 St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson,
St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche,
St. Mary, St. Martin, 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 Berkley, 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.
Done at the City of Washington, this first day of
January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three,
and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.
By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
