of such state 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 date 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,
Plaquemine, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension,
Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, Ste. 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 said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to
abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; 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 th