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 supressing 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."
"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.
Abraham Lincoln
L.S.
By the President:
William H. Seward
Secretary of State