The Emancipation Proclamation

Page 1 of the Emancipation Proclamation Signature Page of the Emancipation Proclamation

 Britain never formally recognized the Confederacy (neither did France) and maintained peaceful relations with the Union despite the provocation late in 1861 of the Trent Affair , which was adroitly handled by Secretary of State Seward. Charles Francis Adams (1807-86) at London and John Bigelow at Paris were able diplomats, but probably more important in winning popular support for the Union in England and France was the Emancipation Proclamation , which Lincoln issued after Antietam.

This act appeased for a time the anti-Lincoln radical Republicans in Congress, among them Benjamin F. Wade , Zachariah Chandler , Thaddeus Stevens , and Henry W. Davis , with whom Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton were allied. Not all Unionists were abolitionists, however, and the Emancipation Proclamation was not applied to the border slave states: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri had all remained loyal. For Lincoln and kindred moderates, such as Postmaster General Montgomery Blair , the restoration of the Union, not the abolition of slavery, remained the principal objective of the war.


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 suppressing 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, Morthhampton, 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 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.

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