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Civil War Source: Text
citation: Basler, Roy P., editor.
The Collected works of
Abraham Lincoln, 8 vols. (New
Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press, 1953-55). Online citation: Basler, Roy P., editor. The Collected works of Abraham Lincoln,
8 vols. ( |
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Document 1: Vol. 5:
222-223: Proclamation
Revoking General Hunter's Order of Military Emancipation of May 9, 1862 May
19, 1862 By the President of The A Proclamation. Whereas there appears in the public prints, what
purports to be a proclamation, of Major General Hunter, in the words and
figures following, towit: Headquarters Department of the
South,} Hilton Head, S.C., May 9, 1862.} General Orders No. 11.---The
three States of Georgia, Florida and South Carolina, comprising the military
department of the south, having deliberately declared themselves no longer
under the protection of the United States of America, and having taken up arms
against the said United States, it becomes a military necessity to declare
them under martial law. This was accordingly done on the 25th day of April, 1862. Slavery and martial law in a free country are
altogether incompatible; the persons in these three States---Georgia, (Official) Major General Commanding. ED. W. SMITH, Acting Assistant Adjutant General. And whereas the same is producing some excitement,
and misunderstanding: therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, president of the I further make known that whether it be competent
for me, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, to declare the Slaves of
any state or states, free, and whether at any time, in any case, it shall
have become a necessity indispensable to the maintainance
of the government, to exercise such supposed power, are questions which,
under my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and which I can
not feel justified in leaving to the decision of commanders in the
field. These are totally different questions from those of police regulations
in armies and camps. On the sixth day of March last, by a special
message, I recommended to Congress the adoption of a joint resolution to be
substantially as follows: Resolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with
any State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such
State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State in its discretion to compensate
for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of
system. The resolution, in the language above quoted, was
adopted by large majorities in both branches of Congress, and now stands an
authentic, definite, and solemn proposal of the nation to the States and
people most immediately interested in the subject matter. To the people of
those states I now earnestly appeal. I do not argue.
I beseech you to make the arguments for yourselves. You can
not if you would, be blind to the signs of the times. I beg of you a
calm and enlarged consideration of them, ranging, if it may be, far above
personal and partizan politics. This proposal makes
common cause for a common object, casting no reproaches upon any. It acts not
the pharisee. The change it contemplates would come gently as the dews of
heaven, not rending or wrecking anything. Will you
not embrace it? So much good has not been done, by one effort, in all past
time, as, in the providence of God, it is now your high previlege
to do. May the vast future not have to lament that you have neglected it. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. [L.S.] Done at the City of By the President: WILLAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State. |
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Document two: Vol. 5:336-337: Emancipation Proclamation---First
Draft [July
22, 1862] In pursuance of the sixth section of the act of
congress entitled ``An act to suppress insurrection and to punish treason and
rebellion, to seize and confiscate property of rebels, and for other
purposes'' Approved July 17. 1862, and which act, and the Joint Resolution
explanatory thereof, are herewith published, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of
the United States, do hereby proclaim to, and warn all persons within the
contemplation of said sixth section to cease participating in, aiding,
countenancing, or abetting the existing rebellion, or any rebellion against
the government of the United States, and to return to their proper allegiance
to the United States, on pain of the forfeitures and seizures, as within and
by said sixth section provided. And I hereby make known that it is my purpose, upon
the next meeting of congress, to again recommend the adoption of a practical
measure for tendering pecuniary aid to the free choice or rejection, of any
and all States which may then be recognizing and practically sustaining the
authority of the United States, and which may then have voluntarily adopted,
or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, gradual abolishment of slavery within
such State or States---that the object is to practically restore,
thenceforward to be maintain[ed], the constitutional relation between the
general government, and each, and all the states, wherein that relation is
now suspended, or disturbed; and that, for this object, the war, as it has
been, will be, prossecuted. And, as a fit and
necessary military measure for effecting this object, I, as
Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, do order and
declare that on the first day of January in the year of Our Lord one
thousand, eight hundred and sixtythree, all persons
held as slaves within any state or states, wherein the constitutional
authority of the United States shall not then be practically recognized,
submitted to, and maintained, shall then, thenceforward, and forever, be
free. Emancipation Proclamation as first sketched and shown to the Cabinet in July 1862. |
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Document 3: Vol. 5: 433-436: Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation September
22, 1862 By the President of the 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 prossecuted 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 parts 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. L.S. 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. By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State. |
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Document 4: Vol. 5:
436-437: “Proclamation Suspending the Writ of Habeas Corpus September
24 1862 By the President of the A Proclamation. Whereas, it has become necessary to call into
service not only volunteers but also portions of the militia of the States by
draft in order to suppress the insurrection existing in the United States,
and disloyal persons are not adequately restrained by the ordinary processes
of law from hindering this measure and from giving aid and comfort in various
ways to the insurrection; Now, therefore, be it ordered, first, that during
the existing insurrection and as a necessary measure for suppressing the
same, all Rebels and Insurgents, their aiders and abettors within the United
States, and all persons discouraging volunteer enlistments, resisting militia
drafts, or guilty of any disloyal practice, affording aid and comfort to
Rebels against the authority of the United States, shall be subject to
martial law and liable to trial and punishment by Courts Martial or Military
Commission: Second. That the Writ of Habeas Corpus is suspended
in respect to all persons arrested, or who are now, or hereafter during the
rebellion shall be, imprisoned in any fort, camp, arsenal, military prison,
or other place of confinement by any military authority or by the sentence of
any Court Martial or Military Commission. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. [L.S.] Done at the City of By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State. |
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Document 5: Vol. 6: 28-30: January 1, 1863 By the President of the A Proclamation. Whereas, on the twentysecond
day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty two, a proclamation was issued by the President of
the United States, containing, among other things, the following, towit: “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 parts 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.” 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 of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion
against authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and
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, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the
full period of one hundred days, from the day 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, towit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of
St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. Johns, St. Charles, St. James[,]
Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and
Orleans, including the City of New-Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, South-Carolina, North-Carolina, and Virginia, (except the fortyeight counties designated as West Virginia, and also
the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton,
Elizabeth-City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of
Norfolk & Portsmouth [)]; and 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 said
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 thereof, 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
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
And upon this act, sincerely believed 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. [L.S.] By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State. |