16th South Carolina Volunteers
Emancipation Proclamation: Freedom or Fraud?
Following is the actual wording of the Emancipation Proclamation, a most famous document that freed not a single slave.
By the President of the United States of America: A Proclamation.
Whereas, on the twenty-second 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 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 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, 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 forty-eight 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 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-defense; 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 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.
By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State
Despite its expansive wording, the Emancipation Proclamation did not
free all of the slaves in the United States. Rather, it applied only to states
that had seceded and were not under Union control. It took effect January 1,
1863, several years after the Confederate States of America had become a
separate nation. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had
come under the control of the Union Army (Tennessee, parts of Louisiana, parts of Virginia).
William Seward, Lincoln's secretary of state, commented, "We show our sympathy with slavery by
emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them and holding them in bondage where we can set them free."
Lincoln was fully aware of the hypocrisy, but he did not want to antagonize the slave states loyal
to the Union by setting their slaves free. The proclamation was merely a political ploy to stave
off help for the Confederacy from European nations.
Slavery was actually officially ended on Dec. 18, 1865--eight months after Lincoln's assassination--when
the Constitution's 13th Amendment was ratified.
By the President of the United States of America: A Proclamation.
Whereas, on the twenty-second 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 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 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, 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 forty-eight 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 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-defense; 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 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.
By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State
William Seward, Lincoln's secretary of state, commented, "We show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them and holding them in bondage where we can set them free." Lincoln was fully aware of the hypocrisy, but he did not want to antagonize the slave states loyal to the Union by setting their slaves free. The proclamation was merely a political ploy to stave off help for the Confederacy from European nations.
Slavery was actually officially ended on Dec. 18, 1865--eight months after Lincoln's assassination--when the Constitution's 13th Amendment was ratified.
