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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 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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