[Footnote 5:
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was
issued by the President of the United States, containing, among
other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the first day of January in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, 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 first 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
counter-vailing 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 first day of January, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance
with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period
of one hundred days from the day first 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, Terre Bonne, 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,
Northampton, 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.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the
seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this first day of January, in the
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of
the independence of the United States of America the
eighty-seventh.