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Enslavement

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The Violent Decade

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Year of Jubilee (1863)

Text of the Emancipation Proclamation

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 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 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 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.

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

Local Reaction

Editorial blurb regarding the proclamation in the Democratic newspaper Lancaster Intelligencer. (6 January 1863). Text of the article:

THE PRESIDENT'S PROCLAMATION.
The Emancipation Proclamation appears in our columns this morning. Another death blow aimed at the Constitution, but which will fail or its purpose, for the reason that the States must first be conquered before the negroes can be liberated by the Government.

To the right, a similar viewpoint from the editor of the Gettysburg Compilier, a self-described "Democratic and Family Journal." (5 January 1863)
Text below:
 
THE NEGRO PROCLAMATION.
On Thursday last President Lincoln issued a proclamation setting free all the negroes in the States in rebellion, viz: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (excepting thirteen parishes and the city of New Orleans,) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except West Virginia and eight other counties,) which excepted parts are for the present left as if the proclamation were not issued. The slaves thus freed are hereafter to be received into the armed service of the United States, and the authorities of the Government are pledged to recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons. The proclamation is issued under the pretence of a necessity of the war.
Ever since the negro was put forward by Congress and the Administration as a prominent object in the war, the Federal armies have met with little else than disaster. The people, too, have lent the aid of their voices at the ballot box, to give the Administration further warning against persisting in its fanatical and ruinous course. But all to no purpose, it would seem. The radicals have the President in their hands, and he appears to be but too willing a tool in the carrying out of their reckless schemes. This unconstitutional act will draw down upon Abraham Lincoln the condemnation of every white laboring man in the North, if not in the world.

The Columbia Spy, however, supported the Emancipation Proclamation as a "stunning blow to the rebellion." (3 January 1863)
Text below:
 
The Proclamation. -- On Thursday, President Lincoln issued his promised Procolamation of Emancipation to the slaves of the Rebels, which important document will be found in another colulmn. This measure, so earnestly discussed since its announcement in September, is probably the most important adopted by the administration since the commencement of the war, and it remains to be seen whether it will produce the hoped for results. Of course it will be utterly assailed by the opponents of the government, north and south, but we are at a loss to know where even the warmest "sympathizers" can carp at the proclamation as an act of hostility. We are not at peace with the Rebels, nor it our object to soothe; therefore the acts of our authorities should be in accordance with the relations between the loyal and disloyal sections of our country. This, it is hoped, will prove a stunning blow to the rebellion, and we are glad that it has been struck. The northern sympathizers may condemn the proclamation as an act of conciliation, but surely no man can find fault with it as a deadly earnest thrust at the heart of treason. We are not sufficiently prophetic to foretell the result, but we hope and believe it will at least be the destruction of one of the main props of the accursed rebellion in the South.

Sources

"Emancipation Proclamation" transcription is from the National Archives and Records Administration.

Newspaper clippings as noted.