By the President of the United States of America. A proclamation. Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September ... a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States … That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand e

By the President of the United States of America. A proclamation. Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September ... a proclamation was issued by the President of the United 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 ... Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln ... do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated states and parts of states are and henceforward shall be free ... Done at the City of Washington this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three ... By the president: [signed Abraham Lincoln].