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| President's Lincoln's draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. |
A PROCLAMATION--By Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States of America:
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.
Source: National Archives: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/transcript.html
UPDATE: New
York Times Opinion Essay on Lincoln’s proclamation:
PRESIDENT OBAMA’S
PROCLAMATION ON THE PROCLAMATION.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/12/31/presidential-proclamation-150th-anniversary-emancipation-proclamation
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