|
Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, September 22,
1862
A Transcription
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
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 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 part 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:
"Article-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 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 offence 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 pretence 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.
Done at the City of Washington this twenty-second day of September, in
the year of our Lord, one thousand, eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the
Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.
[Signed:] Abraham Lincoln
By the President
[Signed:] William H. Seward
Secretary of State
|
