CHAP. LXIV.]

the freedmen.

PROCLAMATION OF SEPTEMBER 22d.

609

and colonization of fort to colonize persons of African descent, with their consent, upon the continent or elsewhere, with the previously obtained consent of the governments existing there, will be continued.

He will proclaim emancipation in rebel states

"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, on the first day of by proclamation, designate the states, and parts of the following year, 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 in rebellion against the United States.

and will then designate the states in rebellion.

He cites certain laws,

"That attention is hereby called to an act of Congress, entitled 'An Act to make an additional Article of War,' approved March 13th, 1862, and which act is in the words and figures 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 :

"SECTION I. 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.

"SECTION II. 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

II.—Q Q

and confiscate property of Rebels, and for other purposes,' approved July 16th, 1862, and which sections are in the words and figures following:

"SECTION 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 afterward occupied by 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.

666 "SECTION 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 offense against the laws, unless the person claiming such 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 or comfort thereto; and no person engaged in the military or naval service of the United States shall, under any pretense 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.'

requiring the army

"And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged in the military and naval service of the United States and navy to observe to observe, obey, and enforce, within their respective spheres of service, the act and sections above

them.

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. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

"By the President:

"WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State."

In this considerate manner the President earnestly of

CHAP. LXIV.] LINCOLN RESOLVES ON EMANCIPATION.

611

fered compensation to those whose slaves he foresaw must inevitably be made free.

His religious inter

military events.

"I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me." Such, as we have just seen, was his solemn declaration a short time before his death. He added, "The condition of the nation is not what any party or any man expected or devised." With that religious feeling which seemed to possess him more and more thoroughly as he approached his end, he affirmed, "It is the work of God." pretation of certain Sincerely believing that God not only reigns, but governs, he saw, in the events transpir ing before him, that there was something more than the wishes and will of man. In every phase of the conflict he perceived the arbitrament of a Higher Power. Not as a delusion of fancy, but as a reality, he recognized the dread alternative presented to his nation-do justice or die. To his surrounding friends he pointed out that, though the North was pouring forth her blood like water, and squandering treasuries of money, success was denied. The rebukes he had given to Fremont and Hunter had been confronted by the horrible catastrophe of the Chickahominy, and by the repulse of Pope into the fortifications of Washington. Once more a day of grace had been granted at Antietam, but that only half regarded, the stern summons had been again renewed from the cannon that were permitted to sweep off fourteen thousand men at Marye's Hill, and hurl Burnside's army across the Rappahannock. "What am I," said Lincoln, "that I should contest the will of God?"

From the rivers of Virginia to the Mexican confines of the Republic arose a mournful wail-How long, O Lord! The slaves expect how long! It came from the weary laborer, leaning on his hoe in the cotton-field un

ing deliverance.

der the noontide sun-it came through the moaning midnight forests, solemn and clear above their multitudinous inarticulate sounds-it came from children torn from their parents, from wives and husbands parted at the auction block, from mothers in despair, from strong men fainting under the lash, from the aged whose heads were frosted by time. In their quaint prayers the Africans talk to God as a man talks face to face with his friend. Slavery had made HIM their friend. By the flickering fires of their cabins they stealthily spelt out the Bible to see what He had promised to them. It was their dreadful lot that had caused Jefferson, himself a slave-owner, to expostulate solemnly with his countrymen, and to deprecate the wrath of God. For who shall escape when from the hand of Eternal Justice her scales have dropped as useless-when from her brow the bandage has been raised that her uncovered and angry eyes may gaze upon unutterable wrong-when her uplifted arm, quivering with indignation, is ready to strike a blow that shall make a whole continent tremble?

On the evening of the last day of the year 1862, many of those Africans, who were living in towns, and who were connected with various Christian denominations, repaired to their places of worship, and waited for the midnight clock to strike. Many of those who were living on plantations knelt down in their humble cabins, with their wives and children. Many of those who were alone, and had no friend in the world, went into the woods, in pres ence of that eye which pierces the darkness as well as the light. They prayed that ALMIGHTY GOD would take pity upon them, and strengthen the hand of Abraham Lincoln on the coming day.

And on that day, being the first day of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, there was issued

CHAP. LXIV.] THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.

slaves,

"A PROCLAMATION,

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

613

"Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year Emancipation of the of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixtytwo, 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, who are henceforth 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.

free

"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 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, 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, Plaquemine, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Or

in places now in revolt.