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.
