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.
