Foreign and Colonial NewsThe Illustrated London News, vol.41, no.1168, p.374.
October 11, 1862
By the arrival of the Canadian steamer, Bohemian, we have received telegrams, viâ Cape Race, to the evening of Sept. 29.
The most important news of the week is the issue of the following important 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 hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the constitutional relations 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 tending pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all the Slave States, so called, the people whereof may not 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 within their respective limits; and that the efforts to colonise persons of African descent, with their consent, upon the continent or elsewhere, with the previously-obtained consent of the Governments 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, including the military and naval authority 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 executive will on the 1st 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 figures 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 army 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 persons 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 be it 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 all 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 or persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the Government of the United States,
Page 375or who shall in any way give aid and 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 of 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 respective 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 throughout the rebellion shall, upon the restoration of the constitutional relations between the United 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 of September, in the year of our Lord 1862, and of the Independence of the United States the 87th.
By the President,William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
The Republican press approve of this proclamation; the Democratic press regard it with hostility. The governors of sixteen Northern States assembled at Altoona on the 24th ult. and adjourned on the 25th to Washington, where they presented an address to President Lincoln, expressing their determination to support his constitutional authority, approving the emancipation proclamation, and suggesting the expediency of raising a reserve force of 100,000 men. The Governor of Maryland objected to sign the address.
The President has been serenaded at Washington, on which occasion he made a speech, saying that he issued the proclamation after full deliberation and under a heavy sense of responsibility. He trusted in God that he had made no mistake. It was now for America and the world, he said, to judge of the proclamation and, it may be, to take action upon it.
The Chicago Emancipation Committee have published President Lincoln's reply to them, delivered an Sept. 13. The President therein states that he did not favour emancipation, as it would be inoperative if issued, and if the slaves were armed their arms would fall into the hands of the rebels.
The Federals have made two unsuccessful efforts to cross the Potomac at Sheperdstown into Virginia, but were each time repulsed. General M'Clellan has constructed a pontoon bridge upon which to cross the Potomac at Harper's Ferry. The Confederates have made Winchester, Virginia, the basis of their operations, but keep a force on the bank of the Potomac to prevent the Federals from crossing.
An engagement occurred on the 19th ult. south of Juka, Mississippi, between General Rosencrantz and General Price. The Confederates retreated south during the night. The Federals captured 250 prisoners.
General Davis shot General Nelson, commanding at Louisville, Kentucky, on the 29th, killing him instantly. The affair occurred through a personal dispute.
The draught in Philadelphia was to be carried into effect on the 25th ult. In New York 40,000 men were to be raised in the same manner on the 10th inst. The President has suspended the writ of habeas corpus and declared martial law throughout the United States with respect to all persons arrested for aiding the rebellion or hindering the draught.
In the money market gold has risen to the premium of 23 ½ per cent.