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 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.
