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The Emancipation
Proclamation
Drafted September 22, 1862;
Effective January 1, 1863
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.
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