One hundred and fifty years ago, on Sept. 22, 1862, Republican
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emancipation
Proclamation, announcing his intention to free the slaves in the states
rebelling against the Union.
By the President of the United States of America.
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 prosecuted 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 part 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.
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.
[Signed:] Abraham Lincoln
By the President
[Signed:] William H. Seward
Secretary of State
President
Lincoln didn't officially free the slaves in the Confederacy until the
formal Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863. According to Wikipedia,
Lincoln first discussed the proclamation with his cabinet in July 1862.
He believed he needed a Union victory on the battlefield so his
decision would appear positive and strong.
The Battle of Antietam
in Maryland, the bloodiest single day in American military history, gave
Lincoln his opportunity. In the battle almost 23,000 Union and
Confederate soldiers dead, wounded, missing or captured. Military
historians consider the battle a draw. President Lincoln called it a
Union victory and said it showed that the Union army could enforce
orders coming out of Washington. Five days later, Lincoln issued the
Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. When it went into effect on
January 1, 1863, it freed slaves in the rebellious Confederate states
and made the abolition of slavery an official U.S. policy.
The only
surviving version of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in
Lincoln's handwriting is on display as part of "The First Step to
Freedom" exhibition at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black
Culture in Harlem through Monday. The exhibit is on an eight-city tour
of New York state:
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