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The Emancipation Proclamation, 9/22/1862 - By
President Abraham Lincoln
A PROCLAMATION
Whereas on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 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, A.D. 1863, 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 1st 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 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 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 the authority and
government of the United States, and as a fit
and necessary war measure for supressing said
rebellion, do, on this 1st day of January, A.D.
1863, and in accordance with my purpose so to
do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of
one hundred days from the first day 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 St. Bernard, Palquemines, Jefferson, St.
John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension,
Assumption, Terrebone, 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 forty-eight counties
designated as West Virginia, and also the
counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Morthhampton,
Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and
Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and
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 case 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 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. |
Born
in Corinth, Mississippi, he earned a B.A. from
the University of Mississippi; Master of Music
Ed. from Delta State University; Master of
Divinity from Howard University; and the Doctor
of Divinity from Perkins School of Theology at
Southern Methodist University. Bishop
Carter was elected 55th Bishop of the CME
Episcopal Church in the Thirty-Fifth Quadrennial
Session and the Thirty-Sixth General Conference
meeting in Memphis, Tennessee June 2006.
He is currently the Presiding Prelate of the
Sixth Episcopal District.