pton, 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-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 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."

CHAPTER XIX.

HISTORICAL REVIEW.

Let us now refresh recollection by glancing backward over the history of
our Country, and we shall see, as recorded in these pages, that, from
the first, there existed in this Nation a class of individuals greedily
ambitious of power and determined to secure and maintain control of this
Government; that they left unturned no stone which would contribute to
the fostering and to the extension of African Slavery; that, hand in
hand with African Slavery--and as a natural corollary to it--they
advocated Free Trade as a means of degrading Free White labor to the
level of Black Slave labor, and thus increasing their own power; that
from the first, ever taking advantage of the general necessities o