tate 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 and Government of the United States, and as a fit and
necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this 1st
day of January, A.D. 1863, 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 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-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