wxPython/demo/data/proclamation.txt

   1 EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION:
   2 By the President of the United States of America:
   3 A PROCLAMATION
   4
   5   Whereas on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation
   6 was issued by the President of the United States, containing,
   7 among other things, the following, to wit:
   8
   9   "That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as
  10 slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people
  11 whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall
  12 be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive
  13 government of the United States, including the military and naval
  14 authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such
  15 persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any
  16 of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
  17
  18   "That the executive will on the 1st day of January aforesaid,
  19 by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any,
  20 in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in
  21 rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State
  22 or the people thereof shall on that day be in good faith
  23 represented in the Congress of the United States by members
  24 chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified
  25 voters of such States shall have participated shall, in the
  26 absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive
  27 evidence that such State and the people thereof are not then
  28 in rebellion against the United States."
  29
  30   Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United
  31 States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-In-Chief
  32 of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed
  33 rebellion against the authority and government of the United States,
  34 and as a fit and necessary war measure for supressing said
  35 rebellion, do, on this 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, and in
  36 accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the
  37 full period of one hundred days from the first day above mentioned,
  38 order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the
  39 people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against
  40 the United States the following, to wit:
  41
  42   Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard,
  43 Palquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension,
  44 Assumption, Terrebone, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans,
  45 including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida,
  46 Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the
  47 forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the
  48 counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Morthhampton, Elizabeth City, York,
  49 Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and
  50 Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left
  51 precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
  52
  53   And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do
  54 order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said
  55 designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall
  56 be, free; and that the Executive Government of the United States,
  57 including the military and naval authorities thereof, will
  58 recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
  59
  60   And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to
  61 abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and
  62 I recommend to them that, in all case when allowed, they labor
  63 faithfully for reasonable wages.
  64
  65   And I further declare and make known that such persons of
  66 suitable condition will be received into the armed service of
  67 the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and
  68 other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
  69
  70   And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice,
  71 warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke
  72 the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor
  73 of Almighty God.
  74
  75 (signed)
  76 ABRAHAM LINCOLN
  77 -------------------------------------
  78
  79 On Jan. 1, 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln declared free
  80 all slaves residing in territory in rebellion against the federal
  81 government. This Emancipation Proclamation actually freed few
  82 people. It did not apply to slaves in border states fighting on
  83 the Union side; nor did it affect slaves in southern areas already
  84 under Union control. Naturally, the states in rebellion did not
  85 act on Lincoln's order. But the proclamation did show Americans--
  86 and the world--that the civil war was now being fought to end slavery.
  87
  88 Lincoln had been reluctant to come to this position. A believer
  89 in white supremacy, he initially viewed the war only in terms of
  90 preserving the Union. As pressure for abolition mounted in
  91 Congress and the country, however, Lincoln became more sympathetic
  92 to the idea. On Sept. 22, 1862, he issued a preliminary proclamation
  93 announcing that emancipation would become effective on Jan. 1, 1863,
  94 in those states still in rebellion. Although the Emancipation
  95 Proclamation did not end slavery in America--this was achieved
  96 by the passage of the 13TH Amendment to the Constitution on Dec.
  97 18, 1865--it did make that accomplishment a basic war goal and
  98 a virtual certainty.
  99
 100 DOUGLAS T. MILLER
 101
 102 Bibliography: Commager, Henry Steele, The Great Proclamation
 103 (1960); Donovan, Frank, Mr. Lincoln's Proclamation (1964);
 104 Franklin, John Hope, ed., The Emancipation Proclamation (1964).
 105
 106 -------------------------------------
 107
 108 Prepared by Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa300)
 109 Distributed by the Cybercasting Services Division of the
 110   National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN).
 111
 112 Permission is hereby granted to download, reprint, and/or otherwise
 113   redistribute this file, provided appropriate point of origin
 114   credit is given to the preparer(s) and the National Public
 115   Telecomputing Network.