ments, passed, the vote being 23 to 17. On the 16th, in the House, further consideration of the bill was postponed until December. December 10 the bill was taken up, read three times, and, by a vote of 96 to 57, passed. The bill was not presented to the President until the 22d. The proclamation announcing the compliance of West Virginia with the conditions of the act was issued April 20, 1863.

REFERENCES. Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XII, 633, 634. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 37th Cong., 3d Sess., and the Cong. Globe. The memorial of the commissioners is Senate Misc. Doc. 99, 37th Cong., 2d Sess. See Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, VI, chap. 14.

An Act for the Admission of the State of "West Virginia
Union, and for other Purposes.

" into the

Whereas the people inhabiting that portion of Virginia known as West Virginia did, by a Convention assembled in the city of Wheeling on the twenty-sixth of November, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, frame for themselves a Constitution with a view of becoming a separate and independent State; and whereas at a general election held in the counties composing the territory aforesaid on the third day of May last, the said Constitution was approved and adopted by the qualified voters of the proposed State; and whereas the Legislature of Virginia, by an act passed on the thirteenth day of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, did give its consent to the formation of a new State within the jurisdiction of the said State of Virginia, to be known by the name of West Virginia, and to embrace the following named counties, to wit: Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Marshall, Wetzel, Marion, Monongalia, Preston, Taylor, Tyler, Pleasants, Ritchie, Doddridge, Harrison, Wood, Jackson, Wirt, Roane, Calhoun, Gilmer, Barbour, Tucker, Lewis, Braxton, Upshur, Randolph, Mason, Putnam, Kanawha, Clay, Nicholas, Cabell, Wayne, Boone, Logan, Wyoming, Mercer, McDowell, Webster, Pocahontas, Fayette, Raleigh, Greenbrier, Monroe, Pendleton, Hardy, Hampshire, and Morgan; and whereas both the Convention and the Legislature aforesaid have requested that the new State should be admitted into the Union, and the Constitution aforesaid being republican in form, Congress doth hereby

consent that the said forty-eight counties may be formed into a separate and independent State. Therefore

Be it enacted. . ., That the State of West Virginia be, and is hereby, declared to be one of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever, and until the next general census shall be entitled to three members in the House of Representatives of the United States: Provided, always, That this act shall not take effect until after the proclamation of the President of the United States hereinafter provided for.

It being represented to Congress that since the Convention of the twenty-sixth of November, eighteen hundred and sixtyone, that framed and proposed the Constitution for the said State of West Virginia, the people thereof have expressed a wish to change the seventh section of the eleventh article of said Constitution by striking out the same and inserting the following in its place, viz.: "The children of slaves born within the limits of this State after the fourth day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, shall be free; and that all slaves within the said State who shall, at the time aforesaid, be under the age of ten years, shall be free when they arrive at the age of twenty-one years; and all slaves over ten and under twentyone years shall be free when they arrive at the age of twentyfive years; and no slave shall be permitted to come into the State for permanent residence therein: " Therefore

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That whenever the people of West Virginia shall, through their said Convention, and by a vote to be taken at an election to be held within the limits of the said State, at such time as the Convention may provide, make, and ratify the change aforesaid, and properly certify the same under the hand of the president of the Convention, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to issue his proclamation stating the fact, and thereupon this act shall take effect and be in force from and after sixty days from the date of said proclamation.

APPROVED, December 31, 1862.

No. 28.

Emancipation Proclamation

January 1, 1863

A DRAFT of an emancipation proclamation was read to the Cabinet by Lincoln, July 22, 1862, but at Seward's suggestion the paper was laid aside until an important Union victory should have been won. The desired victory came at Antietam, September 16-17. A preliminary proclamation was issued September 22, and the definitive one January 1, 1863. December 15, in the House, a resolution declaring that the proclamation of September 22 "is warranted by the Constitution," and that the policy of emancipation was well chosen as a war measure, and is an exercise of power with proper regard for the rights of the States and the perpetuity of free government," was adopted by a vote of 78 to 51.

66

REFERENCES.-Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XII, 1268, 1269. Various resolutions submitted in the House and Senate are collected in McPherson, Rebellion, 209–233; on Fremont's proclamation of August 31, 1861, see ibid., 245-247. On the general subject see Adams, Charles Francis Adams, chap. 16; Morse, Lincoln, II, chaps. 1, 4; McCall, Thaddeus Stevens, chap. 12; Storey, Sumner, chap. 12; John Sherman, Recollections, I, chap. 14; Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, VI, chaps. 6, 8, 9; Rhodes, United States, IV, 69-72, 157-163, 212-219; Dunning, Essays, 49-56; Garrisons' Garrison, IV, chap. 3; House Exec. Doc. 72, 37th Cong., 3d Sess.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

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

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 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. 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 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 per

sons.

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.

No. 29.

Act to punish Correspondence with
Rebels

February 25, 1863

ACCORDING to Sumner, the purpose of this act was to extend the principle of an act of January 30, 1799, relating to treasonable correspondence with foreigners, to correspondence with supporters of the rebellion. The bill was introduced by Sumner January 7, and passed the Senate, February 13, without a division. The House passed the bill on the 21st, also without a divi sion. There was no debate of importance in either house.

REFERENCE. Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XII, 696.