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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.