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Emancipation
Proclamation
1864
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-defense;
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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