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PROCLAMATION OF PRESIDENT…

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PROCLAMATION OF PRESIDENT LIN- COLN FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLA VES. The Royal Mail steamship Australasian, Captain Cook, which sailed from New York en the 24!.h and called off Cape Race on the 27th September, arrived in the Mersey about 11 o'clock on Monday morning. The following highly important proclamation in reference to slavery has been issued by President Lin- coln :— By THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. PROCLAMATION. WASHINGTON, SEPT. 22. I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that here- after, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the constitutional rela- tions between the United States and the people thereof, in which states that relation is, or may be, suspended or disturbed; that it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress, to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection of &ll the slave states, so called, the people whereof may not then be in rebellion against the United States, and which states may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, the immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery withic their respective limits; and that the efforts to colon isepersons of African descent, with their consent, upon the continent or else- where, with the previously obtained consent of the Go- vernments existing there, will be continued; that on the 1st day of January, in the year of our Lord 1863, all persons held as slaves within any state, or any designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be thenceforward and for ever free; and the executive Government of the United States, in- cluding the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognise 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 exe- cutive will on the 1st day of January aforesaid, by pro- clamation, 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 state shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong counter- vailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such state and the people thereof have not been in re- bellion against the United States. That attention is hereby called to an act of Congress, entitled An Act to make an additional Article of War,' approved March 13, 1862, and which act is in the word and figure following: Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that hereafter the following shall be promulgated as an additional article of war for the government of the a'rmy of the United States, and shall be obeyed and observed as such: 'Article.—All officers or persons in the military or naval service of the United States are prohibited from employing any of the forces under their respective commands for the purpose of returning fugitives from service or labour who may have escaped from any person to whom such service or labour is claimed to be due, and any officer who shall be found guilty by a court-martial of violating this article shall be dismissed from the service.' Section 2.—And it be further enacted that this act shall take effect from and after its passage. Also to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled An act to suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate property of rebels, and for other purposes,' approved July 17, 1862, and which sections are in the words and figures following' Section 9.-And be it further enacted that all slaves of per- sons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the Government of the United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the army, and all slaves captured from such persons, or deserted by them, and coming under the control of the Government of the United States, and all slaves of such persons found on (or being within) any place occupied by rebel forces, and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States, shall be deemed captures i f war, and shall be for ever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves. Section 10.-And be it further enacted that no slave escaping into any state, territory, or the district of Columbia, from any of the states, shall be delivered up, or in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty, except for crime or some offence against the laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that the person to whom the labour or service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful owner, and has not been in arms against the United States in the present rebellion, nor in any way given aid and comfort thereto; and no person engaged in the military or naval service of the United States shall, under any pretence whatever, assume to decide on the validity of the claim of any person to the service or labour of any other person, or surrender up any person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the service. "And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged in the military and naval service of the United States to observe, obey, and enforce within their re- spective sphere of service the act and sections above recited. "And the executive will in due time recommend that all citizens of the United States who shall have remained loyal thereto throughout the rebellion shall, upon the restoration of the constitutional relation between the United States and their respective states and people (if the 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. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Done at the City of Washington, this 22nd day of September, in the year of our Lord 1862, and of the In- dependence of the United States the 87th, By the President, WILLIAli H. SEWARD, Secretary of State." The Federal Government had already commenced the carrying out of the emancipation policy, as the following correspondence shows:— To the Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War. Washington. Cairo, Sept. 18. General Grant is sending here a large lot of negro women and children, and directs me to ask you what to do with them. Parties in Chicago and other cities wish them for servants. Will I be allowed to turn them over to responsible committees to be so employed? If so, can I transport them at Government expense? J. M. TIJTTLE, Brigadier-General, Commanding District of Cairo. To Brigadier-General Tuttle, Commanding. Washington, Sept 18, 6 p.m. You are authorised to turn over to responsible committees negro women and children, who will take them in charge and provide them with employment and support in the Northern States, and you may furnish transportation at Government ex- pense. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. Speaking of the President's proclamation the New York Times says The wisdom of the step taken (we refer at present to that clause in the document which declares free the slaves of rebel states after the 1st of January) is unquestionably a necessity indisputable. It had been declared by President Lincoln that as soon as this step became necessary he should adopt it. Its adoption now is not a confession that the military means of sup- pressing the great rebellion nave proved a failure, but simply that there is a point at which any other legitimate appliances that can be called in shall also be availed of. Slavery is an ele- ment of strength to the rebels; if left untouched it will assuredly prove an element of weakness—it may be of total destruction— to them and their cause-when we make such use of it and its victims as lies in our power. The New York Herald urges a reconstruction of the cabinet, in order to secure perfect harmony in the carrying out of the policy enunciated by the 'pro- clamation. The Tribune says, It is the beginning of the end of the rebellion-the beginning of the new life of the nation. God bless Abraham Lincoln The Tribune also says:- But while we rejoice and hope for the best, we still tremble. There are among us men whose foolishness will not depart from them though it be brayed in a mortar-other men who will not cease from wicked ways while in the flesh. But the emancipa- tion which the President has proclaimed is the emancipation of more than four millions of black slaves; it is the freedom of well nigh twenty millions from a thraldom they have been taught to reverence. Have they learned aright the lessons of the last two years ? Do they now know that they also have been in bondage, and will they accept this great boon of freedom which a wise ruler offers them ? We hope so; we devoutly pray that wisdom may enter into the hearts of all the people. Let the President know that everywhere throughout the laud he is hailed as wisest Rnd best, and that by this great deed of enfranchisement to an appressed people-a deed the doing whereof was never before I vouchsafed to any mortal ruler—he re-creates a nation, i

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