Chapter XLIV

THE CAPITAL FREE.--PROCLAMATION OF FREEDOM.

In 1862 slavery was abolished in the District of Columbia, the honor of which in the main belongs to Henry Wilson, Senator from Massachusetts.

With the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, commenced a new era at our country’s capital. The representatives of the governments of Hayti and Liberia had both long knocked in vain to be admitted with the representatives of other nations. The slave power had always succeeded in keeping them out. But a change had now come over the dreams of the people, and Congress was but acting up to this new light in passing the bill admitting the representatives of the black republics.

As we have before stated, the slave-trade was still being carried on between the Southern States and Africa. Ships were fitted out in the Northern ports for the purpose of carrying on this infernal traffic. And although it was prohibited by an act of Congress, none had ever been convicted for dealing in slaves. The new order of things was to give these trafficers a trial, and test the power by which they had so long dealt in the bodies and souls of men whom they had stolen from their native land.

One Nathaniel Gordon was already in prison in New York, and his trial was fast approaching. It came, and he was convicted of piracy in the United States District Court in the city of New York; the piracy consisting in having fitted out a slaver, and shipped nine hundred Africans at Congo River, with a view to selling them as slaves. The same man had been tried for the same offence before; but the jury failed to agree, and he accordingly escaped punishment for the time. Every effort was made which the ingenuity of able lawyers could invent, or the power of money could enforce, to save this miscreant from the gallows; but all in vain; for President Lincoln utterly refused to interfere in any way whatever, and Gordon was executed on the 7th of February.

This blow appeared to give more offence to the commercial Copperheads than even the emancipation of the slaves in the District of Columbia; for it struck an effectual blow at a very lucrative branch of commerce, in which the New Yorkers were largely interested. Thus it will be seen that the nation was steadily moving on to the goal of freedom.

In September, 1862, the colored people of Cincinnati, Ohio, organized the “Black Brigade,” and rendered eminent service in protecting that city from the raids of John Morgan and other brigands.

On the first of January, 1863, President Lincoln put forth his Emancipation Proclamation, as follows:--

“Whereas, On the 22d day of September, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, 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 any designated part of a State, the people
whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States,
shall be then, henceforward, and forever, free; and the Executive
Government of the United States, including the military and naval
force thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such
persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or
any of them, in any effort 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 therein respectively shall then be in
rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State
or 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 times of actual
rebellion against the authorities and government of the United
States, and as a fit and necessary war-measure for suppressing
this rebellion, do on this, the 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 of the first
above-mentioned order, 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, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia.

“Louisiana (except the parishes of Placquemines, St. Mary,
Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension,
Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Bernard, 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 Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth
City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of
Norfolk and Portsmouth, which excepted parts are for the present
left precisely as if this proclamation were not made.

“And by virtue of the power, 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 the Executive Government of the United States, including
the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and
maintain the freedom of such persons.

“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 where allowed, they labor
faithfully for reasonable wages.

“And I further declare and make known, that such persons, if in
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, sincerely believed to be an act of justice warranted
by the constitution, and upon military necessity, I invoke the
considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty
God.

“In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the
seal of the United States to be affixed.

“Done at the city of Washington, this first day of January, in
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three,
and of the independence of the United States of America the
eighty-seventh.

(Signed) “ABRAHAM LINCOLN.”