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| Original Document, page 1 |
January 1, 1863
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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