By the President of the United States of America:
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
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, 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 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."
Lincoln had been reluctant to come to
this position.
A believer in white supremacy, he
initially viewed
the war
only in terms of preserving the Union.
As pressure
for abolition mounted in Congress and
the country,
however,
Lincoln became more sympathetic to the
idea. On
Sept. 22, 1862, he issued a preliminary
proclamation
announcing
that emancipation would become
effective on Jan. 1,
1863, in those states still in
rebellion. Although
the
Emancipation Proclamation did not end
slavery in
America--this was achieved by the
passage of the
13th Amendment
to the Constitution on Dec. 18,
1865--it did make
that accomplishment a basic war goal and
a virtual
certainty.
--------------------------------
On Jan. 1, 1863, U.S.
President
Abraham Lincoln declared free all slaves
residing in
territory
in rebellion against the federal
government. This
Emancipation Proclamation actually freed
few people.
It did
not apply to slaves in border states
fighting on
the Union side; nor did it affect slaves
in southern
areas
already under Union control. Naturally,
the states
in rebellion did not act on Lincoln's
order. But the
proclamation did show Americans--and
the
world--that the civil war was now being
fought to
end slavery.
----------------------------
13TH
AMENDMENT