Emancipation Proclamation : January 1, 1863
(from http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/emancipa.htm)
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
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
Done
at the City of
January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty three, and of the
By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.