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The Emancipation Proclamation
January 1, 1863
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.
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