Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION (1863)
A seminal document in United States history, the Emancipation Proclamation not only failed to accomplish its stated goal, it also constituted a sharp reversal of the most deeply held convictions of its author. Abraham Lincoln, who viewed the Civil War primarily as a means of preserving the Union, had long favored a system of gradual, voluntary emancipation to be carried out by the states. However, as the abolitionist movement gained support throughout much of the North and in the Congress, the President begin to consider more seriously the idea of total emancipation through executive order. Largely a symbolic gesture of intent, the Proclamation applied only to slaves living in states controlled by the Confederacy, but because Lincoln feared alienating slave-holding border states friendly to the Federal government, did not affect slaves residing in Union-held territory nor those in Confederate regions already retaken by Union soldiers. Despite these very significant limitations, the Emancipation Proclamation made the freedom of African slaves in the United States a fundamental goal of the Civil War. Lauded by the British and the French, it also served to cut off crucial foreign support from the Confederacy. Before signing it, the formerly reluctant Lincoln is said to have remarked, "I never in my life felt more certain that I was doing right than I do in signing this paper."
Laura M. Miller,
Vanderbilt University
See also Civil War ; Emancipation Proclamation ; Slavery .
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 where of 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 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 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, 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 Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, 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 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 where of, 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.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
L. S.
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State
SOURCE: Richardson, James D., ed. Messages and Papers of the Presidents. New York: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1904.
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