Current Shareware 1994 January/SHAR194.ISO/textfile/uscon2.zip/EMP.DAT

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 Emancipation Proclamation (1862)

 Whereas on the 22d 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 not 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 suppressing 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, 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 Berkeley, Accomac, Northhampton,
 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-defense; 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.