September
22nd, 1862
Whereas
on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation
was issued by the President of the United States, containing,
among other things, the following, to wit:
"That
on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, 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 1st 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 States
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
1st day of January, A.D. 1863, and in accordance with
my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full
period of one hundred days from the first day 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,
Palquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James,
Ascension, Assumption, Terrebone, 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 Berkeley, Accomac, Morthhampton, Elizabeth City,
York, Princess Anne, 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 case 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.
