SEPTEMBER 22, 1862:
In the
aftermath of the Antietam victory, President Lincoln issues the long-delayed
Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, announcing that if the rebels do not end
the fighting and rejoin the Union by January 1, 1863, all slaves in the
rebellious states would be “forever free.”
The complete text reads:
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”
The Emancipation Proclamation legally applies only to those States and areas of States
still in rebellion. Thus, the Border States are excluded, as are areas (like western
Virginia, New Orleans and Alexandria and Norfolk Virginia) that have been
restored to the Union. Nevertheless, the issuance of the Proclamation leads to
thousands of slave escapes, hundreds of manumissions, and the State-by-State
abolition of slavery in the areas presently excluded. Slaves in the South,
hearing rumors of the Emancipation Proclamation, flee their plantations en masse for the Union lines. With most
of the men at war, few Missuses, overseers or older gentlemen can stop them
from going.
Slavery is dying in America.
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