ant menace to the Government, and that the continuance
of such labor-system imminently jeopardizes the integrity of the
Union, and has become incompatible with the domestic tranquillity
of the country;

And whereas it has thus become evident that claims to the
involuntary service or labor of persons of African descent ought
not to be possessed by any inhabitant of the United States, but
should, in the just exercise of the power which inheres in every
independent government to protect itself from destruction by
seizing and destroying any private property of its citizens or
subjects which imperils its own existence, be taken, as for public
use, from their present possessors, and abrogated and
annulled,--just compensation being made to so many of the said
possessors of such claims as may demand it, and as may by their
loyalty be entitled thereto, for the claims so abrogated and
annulled; therefore,

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in
Congress assembled, that from and after the ---- day of ---- next
all claims to the services or labor of persons of African descent,
who shall then be held to involuntary service or labor in any of
the States of the Union under the laws thereof, be and the same
are hereby taken by the Government of the United States. And the
said claims are hereby abrogated and annulled. And all persons of
African descent within the United States, who shall, on the
said ---- day of ---- next, be held to involuntary service or
labor, except for crime of which the party shall have been legally
convicted, shall be released and emancipated from such claims in
as full and complete a manner as if the same had never existed;
the said release and emancipation to take effect from and after
the said ---- day of ----, thenceforth and forevermore.

And be it further enacted, that the faith of the United States be
and the same is hereby pledged for the payment of just
compensation to all persons who shall, on the said ---- day
of ----, hold such claims to service or labor; provided, that such
persons shall make application for such compensation in the form
and manner hereinafter prescribed, and provided further, that said
persons shall have been, throughout the present insurrection, and
shall continue to the close of the same, true and loyal to the