NEWS OF 150 YEARS AGO
January and February 1863
From The Missouri Democrat, Saturday, January 3, 1863.
BY TELEGRAPH.
REGULAR AFTERNOON DISPATCHES.
THE YEAR OF JUBILEE.
Proclamation of the President.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 1, 1863.
PROCLAMATION BY 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 1st day of January, in the year of Our Lord 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated parts of a State, the people thereof 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 naval and military 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 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 elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States shall have participated, and shall in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State and the people thereof, are not 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 in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States, as a fit and necessary war measure, for suppressing said rebellion, do on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord 1863, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaim for the full period of one hundred days from the date of the first 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 La Bernard, Plaquemine, Jefferson, St. John’s, Sachas, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, La Fourche, St. Mary’s, 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 Western Virginia, and also the six counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne and Norfolk, including the cities 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 are and henceforward shall be, free, and that the executive government of the United States, including the military authorities there, 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-defence, and I recommend to them, that in all cases when allowed, they labor for reasonable wages. 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 in States, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. And upon this as it is sincerely believed to be an act of justice warranted by the constitution upon military necessity, I envoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God. In witness thereof 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, 1863, and of the independence of the United States of America the 87th.
By the President,
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.