2

Telegraphic.

WASHINGTON, January 1. — I, the president of the United States of America, whereas, on the 22d day of September, in the year of our Lord 1862, 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 henceforth 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 effort they may make for their actual freedom; that the executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid issue a proclamation designating the states and parts of states, if any, in which the people therein 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 an election in which 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 in the rebellion against the United States: Now, therefore, I Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested, commander-in-chief of the army and navy, in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States, as a 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, in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed, from the full period of one hundred days from the date of the first above mentioned order, and designate as the states and parts therein, the people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against the United States the following, to wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisana, except the parishes St. Bernard, Plaquemine, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terra Bonne, La Fourche, St. Mary, St. Martin and New Orleans, including the city of New Orleans; Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, except the 48 counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the city of Norfolk and Portsmouth, 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 the 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 therein, 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 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, sincerely believe 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.

(Signed) ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the president.

WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of States.