I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America and
Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and
declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for
the object of practically restoring the constitutional relation between
the United States and each of the States and the people thereof in which
States that relation is or may be suspended or disturbed.
That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress, to again
recommend the adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid to
the free acceptance or rejection of all slave States, so called, the
people whereof may not then be in rebellion against the United States,
and which States may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may
voluntarily adopt, immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery within
their respective limits; and that the effort to colonize persons of
African descent with their consent upon this continent or elsewhere,
with the previously obtained consent of the governments existing there,
will be continued.
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 State 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.
That attention is hereby called to an act of Congress entitled "An act
to make an additional article of war," approved March 13, 1862, and
which act is in the words and figure following:
_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled_, That hereafter the following
shall be promulgated as an additional article of war for the government
of the Army of the United States, and shall be obeyed and observed as
such:
ART.--. All officers or persons in the military or naval service of the
United States are prohibited from employing any of the forces under
their respective commands for the purpose of returning fugitives from
service or labor who may have escaped from any persons to whom such
service or labor is claimed to be due, and any officer who shall be
found guilty by a court-martial of violating this article shall be
dismissed from the service.
SEC. 2. _And be it further enacted_, That this act shall take effect
from and after its passage.
Also to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled "An act to
suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and
confiscate the property of rebels, and for other purposes," approved
July 17, 1862, and which sections are in the words and figures
following:
SEC. 9. _And be it further enacted_, That all slaves of persons who
shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the Government of the
United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto,
escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the
army, and all slaves captured from such persons or deserted by them and
coming under the control of the Government of the United States, and all
slaves of such persons found on [or] being within any place occupied by
rebel forces and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States,
shall be deemed captives of war and shall be forever free of their
servitude and not again held as slaves.
SEC. 10. _And be it further enacted_, That no slave escaping into any
State, Territory, or the District of Columbia from any other State shall
be delivered up or in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty except
for crime or some offense against the laws, unless the person claiming
said fugitive shall first make oath that the person to whom the labor or
service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful owner and
has not borne arms against the United States in the present rebellion
nor in any way given aid and comfort thereto; and no person engaged in
the military or naval service of the United States shall, under any
pretense whatever, assume to decide on the validity of the claim of any
person to the service or labor of any other person or surrender up any
such person to the claimant on pain of being dismissed from the service.
And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged in the
military and naval service of the United States to observe, obey, and
enforce within their respective spheres of service the act and sections
above recited.
And the Executive will in due time recommend that all citizens of the
United States who shall have remained loyal thereto throughout the
rebellion shall, upon the restoration of the constitutional relation
between the United States and their respective States and people, if
that relation shall have been suspended or disturbed, be compensated for
all losses by acts of the United States; including the loss of slaves.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 22d day of September, A.D. 1862,
and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.