The Education Master 1994 (4th Edition)/EDUCATIONS_MASTER_4TH_EDITION.bin/files/eductory/usconx1/usconx2.exe/EMP.DAT

Text File | 1994-01-25 | 4KB | 76 lines

          Emancipation Proclamation (September 22, 1862)

 Whereas on the 22d 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 not 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,
 Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James,
 Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, 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, Northhampton, 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 cases 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.