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The Emancipation Proclamation of January 1,1863 Excutive Order by the President of the
A PROCLAMATION Whereas on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 1862, 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, A.D. 1863, 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 1st 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 States 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 supressing said rebellion, do, on
this 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, and in accordance with my purpose so
to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from
the first day 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, Palquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James,
Ascension, Assumption, Terrebone, 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 Berkeley, Accomac, Morthhampton, Elizabeth City, York,
Princess Anne, 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 case 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 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.
Emancipation Proclamation Background |