New York State Library

Virtual Exhibit: The Emancipation Proclamation

About the Document | Transcript of the Text

A House Divided: New Yorkers' Perspectives on the Emancipation Proclamation
New York Facts About The Emancipation Proclamation
Preservation and Presentation	Other Resources
Historic Photographs of Final Emancipation Proclamation Manuscript

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Lincoln's Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation: About the Document

One of the nation's greatest documentary treasures, the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862, has been part of the New York State Library's collection since 1865.

The unassuming appearance of this four page declaration in Lincoln's hand tends to mask the significance of what one source declared to be the "most important and far-reaching document ever issued since the formulation of this government".

Though Lincoln had always found slavery morally repugnant, he consistently stated that the Civil War was being fought solely for the purpose of restoring the Union. However, the continuing failure of the Union armies demonstrated the significance of emancipation as a military necessity. Besides, as Lincoln knew, simple justice and moral imperative demanded it. The partial Union victory at the terrible Battle of Antietam in September 1862 provided an opportunity for Lincoln to issue his epoch-making decree. It had taken nearly a century, many years of abolitionist agitation and two years of America's bloodiest war to begin to apply the meaning of the Declaration of Independence to the nation's black population.

The proclamation declared that all slaves in states which were still in rebellion on January 1, 1863 "shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free."

Lincoln read this document to his Cabinet on September 22 and told them that he firmly believed in its principles, though he would accept minor changes of wording. Secretary of State William H. Seward, a former Governor of New York and lifelong abolitionist, suggested certain additions which strengthened it and then actually wrote in his revisions. Except for these revisions and the formal beginning and ending written by the Chief Clerk, the document is otherwise entirely in Lincoln's hand. The next day the nation's newspapers gave prominent attention to the Proclamation, beginning a discussion of its importance which culminated three months later.

On January 1, 1863, the Confederacy was still in full rebellion and Lincoln issued his final Emancipation Proclamation which declared that "all persons held as slaves...shall be free." The Chicago Historical Society acquired the manuscript copy of this document. Unfortunately, it was lost when the Society's building was burned during the great Chicago fire of 1871.

The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation was acquired by the New York State Library through an interesting series of events.

In February and March of 1864, the Army Relief Bazaar was held to raise money for the U.S. Sanitary Commission, a precursor of the Red Cross that helped provide medical care for Union soldiers.

To assist the Bazaar in its fund drive, Lincoln donated the Preliminary Proclamation, sending it to Emily Weed Barnes through Frederick W. Seward, son of the Secretary of State. On the very last day of the Bazaar, the manuscript was won in a lottery by well-known abolitionist Gerrit Smith. Smith generously gave the proclamation to the U.S. Sanitary Commission to be sold to raise more money.

Three days after Lincoln's funeral train passed through Albany on April 25, 1865, the Legislature purchased the proclamation for the New York State Library.

Some have questioned the true significance of the Emancipation Proclamation in U.S. history. However, a black freedwoman from Buffalo with a son in the 54th Regiment, New York Infantry, wrote to Lincoln of the Proclamation:

"They tell me, some do, you will take back the Proclamation, don't do it. When you are dead and in Heaven, in a thousand years that action of yours will make the Angels sing your praises."

A transcription of the text of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation follows.

I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of American, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the constitutional relation between the United States, and each of the 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 all slave-states, so called, the people whereof may not then be in rebellion against the United States, and which states [and] may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, immediate, or gradual abolishment of slavery within their respective limits; and that the effort to colonize persons of African descent [with the consent] upon this continent, or elsewhere, [with the previously obtained consent of the governments existing there elsewhere,] will be continued.

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 thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States [including the military and naval authority thereof] will, during the continuance in office of the present incumbents, recognize [and maintain the freedom of] such persons, as being free, 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 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.

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 words and figure following:

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:

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 respective spheres of service, the act and sections above recited.

And the executive will [in due time] [at the next session of congress] 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 that relation shall have been suspended or disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, including the loss of slaves.

By the President:

William H. Seward

Secretary of State

Last modified on November 24, 2006/dvm
Last reviewed on July 13, 1999
URL: http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/library/features/ep/index.html