The Emancipation
Proclamation
January 1, 1863
A Transcription
(The comments below
and highlights listed in
the document are mine.) |
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:
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Lincoln granted himself,
as commander-in-chief,
the authority and jurisdiction over
the slaves and the
states where they resided. |
"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."
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"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." |
| Invoking War Powers |
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:
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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.
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Used War Powers to usurp
states rights by invoking
martial law. |
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.
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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.
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Simultaneously conscripted
freed slaves into
military service. |
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.
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Justifying his actions since
there is no precedence. |
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.
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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.
Note: This transcription
is taken from the Introduction by John Hope Franklin to The Emancipation
Proclamation : January 1, 1863. Washington, D.C. : National Archives and
Records Administration, 1994. 14 pages. (Milestone documents in the National
Archives) |
