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 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.