The Emancipation
Proclamation
A Transcription
By the President of the
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
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
By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.