"The Quote Page"
THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION:
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, 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-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.
Epilog
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
Bibliography: Commager, Henry Steele,
The Great Proclamation (1960); Donovan, Frank, Mr. Lincoln's Proclamation
(1964); Franklin, John Hope, ed., The Emancipation Proclamation (1964).
Favorite Songs Page
Return Home
sharrell@beldar.com
This page was created by
The Harrell Family