By
the President of the United States of America:
A PROCLAMATION
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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:
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"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.
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"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."
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Analysis
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
