THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

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 follow-
ing, 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 repre-
sented 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 Or-
leans), 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.

-------------------------------------

On Jan. 1, 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln declared free all slaves
residing in territory in rebellion against the federal government. This Eman-
cipation 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.

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. 

DOUGLAS T. MILLER

Bibliography: Commager, Henry Steele, The Great Proclamation (1960); Donovan,
Frank, Mr. Lincoln's Proclamation (1964); Franklin, John Hope, ed., The Eman-
cipation Proclamation (1964). 

-------------------------------------

Prepared by Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa300)


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