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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 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:

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 court-martial of violating this article shall be dismissd 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 16, 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 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.

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 beween 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.

6

Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred [L. S.] and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.

"By the President:

"ABRAHAM LINCOLN."

"WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State."

On the 1st of January thereafter, the final proclamation was issued in these words:

"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 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 of, and Government of the United States, and

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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, St. 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.

แ And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, 1 iuvoke 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 [L. S.] year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States, the eighty-seventh. "ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

"By the President,

"WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State."

The States enumerated are ten, and the number of slaves made free by this edict, exceed three millions! Is there any act in history, which in its grandeur and sublimity can be ranked above, or compared with this?*

This immortal State paper gave effect to the deepest, strongest desire of the soul of its author-that slavery should be no more.

From its promulgation will be forever dated, the overthrow of slavery in the Republic, and Lincoln's name must justly go upon the record as the author of that overthrow.

The proclamation expressed the intense, enthusiastic, sublime devotion to liberty, which then pervaded the public mind. In it, Lincoln gave practical application to the great principle of right, embodied in the Declaration of Independence.

Before the sun went down on the memorable 22d of September, the proclamation had been flashed by the telegraph, to

*The original draft of the proclamation is now in the possession of Thomas B. Bryan, Esq., a citizen of Chicago. It was purchased by him, at the Northwestern Fair for the Sanitary Commission, held at Chicago, in the Autumn of 1863. The following notes will show how it came to the Fair:

To the PRESIDENT,

WASHINGTON, October 13, 1863.

My Dear Sir: I take the liberty of enclosing to you the circular of the Northwestern Fair for the Sanitary Commission, for the benefit and aid of the brave and patriotic soldiers of the Northwest. The ladies engaged in this enterprise, will feel honored by your countenance, and grateful for any aid it may be convenient for you to give them.

At their suggestion, I ask, that you would send them, the original of your proclamation of freedom, to be disposed of, for the benefit of the soldiers, and then deposited in the Historical Society of Chicago, where it would ever be regarded as a relic of great interest. This, or any other aid it may be convenient for you to render, would have peculiar interest as coming from one whom the Northwest holds in the highest honor and respect.

Very respectfully, yours,

ISAAC N. ARNOLD.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, October 26, 1863.

LADIES HAVING IN CHARGE THE NORTHWESTERN

FAIR FOR THE SANITARY COMMISSION, Chicago, Illinois, According to the request made in your behalf, the original draft of the emancipation proclamation, is herewith enclosed. The formal words at the top, and the conclusion, except the signature you perceive, are not in my handwriting. They were written at the State Department, by whom, I know not. The printed part was cut from a copy of the preliminary proclamation, and pasted on merely to save writing. I had some desire to retain the paper; but if it shall contribute to the relief or comfort of the soldiers, that will be better.

Your ob't serv't.

A. LINCOLN

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every portion of the Republic. It was hailed by a large majority of the loyal men of the Nation, with gratitude to God; bells rang out their joyous peals from all New England, New York, along the mountains of Pennsylvania, over the broad prairies of the West, and to the infant settlements skirting the base of the Rocky Mountains. Public meetings were held; resolutions of approval adopted, and in thousands of churches, public thanksgiving was rendered for the great event. In many portions of the army, the proclamation was received with cheers, and salvos of artillery; in others, and especially that commanded by General McClellan, some murmurs of dissatisfaction were heard; but the effect generally, was inspiriting. Elevated by its sublime sentiments, new vows were pledged to the country and to liberty; and the enthusiasm of a very large portion of the people was stimulated to the highest point.

The war now assumed an energy, vitality, and earnestness unknown before. From this time on, it meant universal liberty.

On the 24th of September, there was a meeting of the Governors of the loyal States, held at Altoona, Pennsylvania, and in an address to the President, they said, "We hail with heartfelt gratitude and encouraged hope, the proclamation of the President, issued on the 22d inst., declaring emancipated from their bondage, all persons held to service or labor, as slaves in the rebel States, where rebellion shall last until the first of January next ensuing."

"Now," said Mr. Lincoln, "we have got the harpoon fairly into the monster slavery, we must take care that in his extremity, he does not shipwreck the country."

The soldiers who now flocked to the Union standard, were like the Roundheads of Cromwell, strong in a great principle; and they never doubted success. When the words liberty and emancipation were thus sounded through the land, they aroused the manhood of the long enslaved African, and thousands upon thousands joined the Union cause, until before the close of the war, nearly two hundred thousand, as has been already stated, were mustered into the Union army.