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 [L S.] and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.

"ABRAHAM LINCOLN."

"WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State."

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

66 WE 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

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 suid 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, 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. 8.] 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 procla mation 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

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

•Vide McPherson, p. 232.

The black man from this time, became not only a soldier, but a fellow soldier.

Congress, not less emphatically than the people, endorsed the proclamation.

On the 15th of December, 1862, on motion of Mr. Fessenden, of Maine, the House, by a very large majority of votes,

"Resolved, That the proclamation of the President of the United States, of the date of the 22d of September, 1862, is warranted by the Constitution; that the policy of emancipation, as indicated in that proclamation, is well adapted to hasten the restoration of peace, was well chosen as a war measure, and is an exercise of power, with proper regard for the rights of the States, and the prosperity of free Government."

The principle of justice to the colored man, and liberty to all, theretofore advocated by a party long stigmatized as abolitionists, a name which had ceased to be a term of reproach, had advanced until the proclamation was justly regarded as heralding its final and complete triumph.

Along the pathway of the once feeble, obscure, and contemned abolitionist, to final victory, can be traced the wrecks of many parties, many ecclesiastical organizations, and many great names of those who had fallen by placing themselves in the way of its progress. Truth and justice, right and liberty be mighty things to conjure with, and vain is the power of man when he tries to stop their advance. The timid and over cautious were startled by the boldness of the measure, and the opponents of the administration and those who sympathized with secession, hoped to make this act the means of the political defeat of the administration. They under-estimated the strength of a great cause, and the power of boldness in behalf of a great principle. From this day down to its final triumph, the Union was crowned with victory and success. Meanwhile, addresses of congratulation and sympathy poured in from the peoples of European Kingdoms. By presenting the National struggle as a clearly defined contest between liberty and slavery, the attitude of Europe towards the United States was changed. The Government of no intelligent people, could now afford to intervene