THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION:

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION:

By the President of the United States of America:

A PROCLAMATION

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 supressing 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.

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On Jan. 1, 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln declared free

all slaves residing in territory in rebellion against the federal

government. This Emancipation Proclamation actually freed few

people. It did not apply to slaves in border states fighting on

the Union side; nor did it affect slaves in southern areas already

under Union control. Naturally, the states in rebellion did not

act on Lincoln's order. But the proclamation did show Americans--

and the world--that the civil war was now being fought to end slavery.

Lincoln had been reluctant to come to this position. A believer

in white supremacy, he initially viewed the war only in terms of

preserving the Union. As pressure for abolition mounted in

Congress and the country, however, Lincoln became more

sympathetic to the idea. On Sept. 22, 1862, he issued a preliminary

proclamation announcing that emancipation would become effective

on Jan. 1, 1863, in those states still in rebellion. Although the

Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in America--this was

achieved by the passage of the 13TH Amendment to the Constitution

on Dec. 18, 1865--it did make that accomplishment a basic war goal

and a virtual certainty.

DOUGLAS T. MILLER

Bibliography: Commager, Henry Steele, The Great Proclamation

(1960); Donovan, Frank, Mr. Lincoln's Proclamation (1964);

Franklin, John Hope, ed., The Emancipation Proclamation (1964).