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EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

Washington, Jan. 1, 1863.

Whereas, on the 22d 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, to wit:

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 states 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 the 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, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, Ste. Marie, 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, Northampton, 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 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 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.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, 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, [L. S.] and of the independence of the United States the eightyseventh.

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Mr. President:—If I speak tardily in this debate, I hope for the indulgence of the Senate. Had I been able to speak earlier, I should have spoken; but, though present in the Chamber, and voting when this bill was under consideration formerly, I was at the time too much of an invalid to take an active part in the debate. In justice to myself and to the great question, I cannot be silent.

I have already voted to give Missouri twenty million dollars to secure freedom at once for her slaves, and to make her at once a free state. I am ready to vote more, if more be needed for this good purpose; but I will not vote money to be sunk and lost in an uncertain scheme of prospective emancipation, where freedom is a jack-o'-lantern, and the only certainty is the Congressional appropriation. For money paid down, freedom must be delivered.

Notwithstanding all differences of opinion on this important question, there is much occasion for congratulation in the progress made.

Thank God, on one point the Senate is substantially united. A large majority will vote for emancipation. This is much, both as a sign of the present and a prophecy of the future. A large majority, in the name of Congress, will offer pecuniary aid. This is a further sign and prophecy. Such a vote, and such an appropriation, will constitute an epoch. Only a few short years ago the very mention of slavery in Congress was forbidden, and all discussion of it was stifled. Now emancipation is an accepted watchword, while slavery is openly denounced as a guilty thing worthy of death.

It is admitted, that now, under the exigency of war, the United States ought to co-operate with any state in the abolition of slavery, giving it pecuniary aid; and it is proposed to apply this principle practically in Missouri. It was fit that emancipation, destined to end the rebellion, should begin in South Carolina, where the rebellion began. It is also fit that the action of Congress in behalf of emancipation should begin in Missouri, which, through the faint-hearted remissness of Congress, as late as 1820, was opened to slavery. Had Congress at that time firmly insisted that Missouri should enter the Union as a free state, the vast appropriation now proposed would have been saved, and, better still, this vaster civil war would have been prevented. The whole country is now paying with treasure and blood for that fatal surrender. Alas, that men should forget that God is bound by no compromise, and that, sooner or later, He will insist that justice shall be done! There is not a dollar spent, and not a life sacrificed, in this calamitous war, which does not plead against any repetition of that wicked folly. Palsied be the tongue that speaks of compromise with slavery! Though, happily, compromise is no longer openly mentioned, yet it insinuates itself in this debate. In former times it took the shape of barefaced concession, as in the admission of Missouri with slavery, in the annexation of Texas with slavery, the waiver of the prohibition of slavery in the territories, the atrocious bill for the renslavement of fugitives, and the opening of Kansas to slavery, first by the Kansas Bill, and then by the Lecompton Constitution. In each of these cases there was concession to slavery which history records with shame, and it was by this that your wicked slaveholding conspiracy waxed confident and strong, till at last it became ripe for war.

And now it is proposed, as an agency in the suppression of the Re

bellion, to make an end of slavery. By proclamation of the President, all slaves in certain states and designated parts of states are declared free. Of course this proclamation is a war measure, rendered just and necessary by exigencies of war. As such, it is summary and instant in operation, not prospective or procrastinating. A proclamation of prospective emancipation would have been an absurdity,—like a proclamation of a prospective battle, where not a blow was to be struck or a cannon pointed before 1876, unless, meanwhile, the enemy desired it. What is done in war must be done promptly, except, perhaps, under the policy of defence. Gradualism is delay, and delay the betrayal of victory. If you would be triumphant, strike quickly, let your blows be felt at once, without notice or premonition, and especially without time for resistance or debate. Time deserts all who do not appreciate its value. Strike promptly, and time becomes your invaluable ally; strike slowly, gradually, prospectively, and time goes over to the enemy.

But every argument for the instant carrying out of the proclamation, every consideration in favor of despatch in war, is especially applicable to whatever is done by Congress as a war measure. In a period of peace Congress might fitly consider whether emancipation should be immediate or prospective, and we could listen with patience to the instances adduced by the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Doolittle) in favor of delay,-to the case of Pennsylvania, and to the case of New York, where slaves were tardily admitted to their birthright. Such arguments, though, to my judgment of little value at any time, might then be legitimate. But now, when we are considering how to put down the rebellion, they are not even legitimate. There is but one way to put down the rebellion, and that is instant action; and all that is done, whether in the field, in the Cabinet, or in Congress, must partake of this character. Whatever is postponed for twenty years, or ten years, may seem abstractedly politic or wise; but it is in no sense a war measure nor can it contribute essentially to the suppression of the rebellion. I think I may assume, without contradiction, that the tender of money to Missouri for the sake of emancipation is a war measure, to be vindicated as such under the Constitution of the United States. It is also an act of justice to an oppressed race. But it is not in this unquestionable character that it is now commended. If it was urged on no other ground, even if every consideration of philanthropy and of religion pleaded for it with rarest eloquence, I fear it would stand but little chance in either house of Congress. Let us not disguise the truth. Except as a war measure to aid in putting down the rebellion, this proposition could expect little hospitality here. Senators are ready to vote money-as the British Parliament voted subsidies-to supply the place of soldiers, or to remove a stronghold of the rebellion, all of which is done by emancipation. I do not overstate the case. Slavery is a stronghold, which through emancipation will be removed, while every slave, if not every slave-master, becomes an ally of the

ence.

government. Therefore, emancipation is a war measure, and constitutional as the raising of armies or the occupation of hostile territory. In vindicating emancipation as a war measure, we must see that it is made under such conditions as to exercise a present, instant influIt must be immediate, not prospective. In proposing prospective emancipation, you propose a measure which can have little or no influence in the war. Abstractly senators may prefer that emancipation shall be prospective rather than immediate; but this is not the time for the exercise of any abstract reference. Whatever is done as a war measure must be immediate, or it will cease to have this character, whatever you call it.

If I am correct in this statement-and I do not see how it can be questioned, then is the appropriation for immediate emancipation just and proper under the Constitution, while that for prospective emancipation is without sanction, except what it finds in the sentiments of justice and humanity.

It is proposed to vote ten million dollars to promote emancipation ten years from now. Perhaps I am sanguine, but I cannot doubt that before the expiration of that period slavery will die in Missouri under the awakened judgment of the people, even without the sanction of Congress. If our resources were infinite, we might tender this large sum by way of experiment; but with a treasury drained to the bottom, and a debt accumulating in fabulous proportions, I do not understand how we can vote millions, which, in the first place, will be of little or no service in the suppression of the rebellion, and, in the second place, will be simply a largess in no way essential to the subversion of slavery.

Whatever is given for immediate emancipation is given for the national defence, and for the safety and honor of the republic. It will be a blow at the rebellion. Whatever is given for prospective emancipation will be a gratuity to slaveholders and a tribute to slavery. Pardon me, if I repeat what I have already said on this question: "Millions for defence, but not a cent for tribute;" millions for defence against peril, from whatever quarter it may come, but not a cent for tribute in any quarter,-especially not a cent for tribute to the loathsome tyranny of slavery.

I know it is sometimes said that even prospective emancipation will help weaken the rebellion. That it will impair the confidence in slavery, and also its value, I cannot doubt. But it is equally clear that it will leave slavery still alive and on its legs; and just so long as this is the case, there must be a controversy and debate, with attending weakness, while reaction perpetually lifts its crest. Instead of tranquillity, which we all seek from Missouri, we shall have contention. Instead of peace, we shall have prolonged war. Every year's delay, ay, sir, every week's delay, in dealing death to slavery leaves just so much of opportunity to the rebellion; for so long as slavery is

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