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Emancipation Proclamation
Abraham
Lincoln and his Emancipation Proclamation / The Strobridge Lith. Co.,
Cincinnati.
President Abraham Lincoln issued
the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its
third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons
held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward
shall be free."
Despite this expansive wording,
the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to
states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal
border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had
already come under Northern control. Most important, the freedom it promised
depended upon Union military victory.
Although the Emancipation
Proclamation did not immediately free a single slave, it fundamentally
transformed the character of the war. After January 1, 1863, every advance of
federal troops expanded the domain of freedom. Moreover, the Proclamation
announced the acceptance of black men into the Union Army and Navy, enabling the
liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 black
soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom.
From the first days of the Civil
War, slaves had acted to secure their own liberty. The Emancipation Proclamation
confirmed their insistence that the war for the Union must become a war for
freedom. It added moral force to the Union cause and strengthened the Union both
militarily and politically. As a milestone along the road to slavery's final
destruction, the Emancipation Proclamation has assumed a place among the great
documents of human freedom.
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.
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