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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 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 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.
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