ity or pretended authority in hostility to the United States; that I have not yielded a voluntary support to any pretended government, authority, power or constitution within the United States, hostile or inimical thereto. And I do further swear (or affirm) that, to the best of my knowledge and ability, I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God;"

No. 132.

...

Confiscation Act

July 17, 1862

A BILL "to confiscate the property of rebels for the payment of the expenses of the present rebellion" was reported in the House, May 14, 1862, by Thomas D. Eliot of Massachusetts, from the select committee on the confiscation of rebel property, together with a bill to free the slaves of rebels. On the 26th a substitute for the two bills, offered by Morrill of Vermont on the 20th, was rejected by a vote of 25 to 122, and the bill passed, the vote being 82 to 68. The House bill was more stringent than the act finally passed, but a substitute agreed to by the Senate, June 28, by a vote of 28 to 13, was thought by the House too lenient, and by a vote of 8 to 123 the amendment of the Senate was disagreed to. The report of the conference committee, being the Senate substitute with amendments, was agreed to by the House, July 11, by a vote of 82 to 42, and by the Senate, July 12, by a vote of 28 to 13. President Lincoln had intended to veto the bill on the ground that under it offenders would be forever divested of title to their real estate, and punishment would thus be made to extend beyond the life of the guilty party. To obviate this objection, a joint resolution explanatory of the act was hurried through both houses July 17. Lincoln, in communicating to Congress his approval of the act and the resolution, transmitted also the veto message which he had already prepared. A proclamation under section 6 of the act was issued the same day that the act as approved, and December 8, 1863, a proclamation of amnesty [No. 137] under section 13. The latter section was repealed, with the purpose of restricting the pardoning power of the President, July 17, 1867.

REFERENCES. - Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XII., 589-592. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 37th Cong., 2d Sess., and the Cong. Globe. The texts of ali amendments and substitutes are in the Globe. The debates called out numerous formal speeches. On the seizure of lands

under the act see a report by O. O. Howard, House Exec. Doc. 19, 39th Cong., Ist Sess.; see also Senate Exec. Doc. 58, 40th Cong., 2d Sess.

An Act to suppress Insurrection, to punish Treason and Rebellion, to seize and confiscate the Property of Rebels, and for other Purposes.

Be it enacted That every person who shall hereafter commit the crime of treason against the United States, and shall be adjudged guilty thereof, shall suffer death, and all his slaves, if any, shall be declared and made free; or, at the discretion of the court, he shall be imprisoned for not less than five years and fined not less than ten thousand dollars, and all his slaves, if any, shall be declared and made free;

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That if any person shall hereafter incite, set on foot, assist, or engage in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States, or the laws thereof, or shall give aid or comfort thereto, or shall engage in, or give aid and comfort to, any such existing rebellion or insurrection, and be convicted thereof, such person shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding ten years, or by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars, and by the liberation of all his slaves, if any he have; or by both of said punishments, at the discretion of the court.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That every person guilty of either of the offences described in this act shall be forever incapable and disqualified to hold any office under the United States.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That, to insure the speedy termination of the present rebellion, it shall be the duty of the President of the United States to cause the seizure of all the estate and property, money, stocks, credits, and effects of the persons hereinafter named in this section, and to apply and use the same and the proceeds thereof for the support of the army of the United States, that is to say:

First. Of any person hereafter acting as an officer of the army or navy of the rebels in arms against the government of the United States.

Secondly. Of any person hereafter acting as President, VicePresident, member of Congress, judge of any court, cabinet officer,

foreign minister, commissioner or consul of the so-called confederate states of America.

Thirdly. Of any person acting as governor of a state, member of a convention or legislature, or judge of any court of any of the so-called confederate states of America.1

Fourthly. Of any person who, having held an office of honor, trust, or profit in the United States, shall hereafter hold an office in the so-called confederate states of America.

Fifthly. Of any person hereafter holding any office or agency under the government of the so-called confederate states of America, or under any of the several states of the said confederacy, or the laws thereof, whether such office or agency be national, state, or municipal in its name or character: Provided, That the persons, thirdly, fourthly, and fifthly above described shall have accepted their appointment or election since the date of the pretended ordinance of cecession of the state, or shall have taken an oath of allegiance to, or to support the constitution of the so-called confederate states.

Sixthly. Of any person who, owning property in any loyal State or Territory of the United States, or in the District of Columbia, shall hereafter assist and give aid and comfort to such rebellion;

SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the government of the United States, or who shall in any way give aid or 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 captives of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves.

SEC. IO. And be it further enacted, That no slave escaping into any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, from any other State, shall be delivered up, or in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or some offence against the laws,

1 See joint resolution of July 17 (U. S. Stat. at Large, XII., 627). — ED.

unless the person claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that the person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful owner, and has not borne 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 labor of any other person, or surrender up any such person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the service.

SEC. II. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States is authorized to employ as many persons of African descent as he may deem necessary and proper for the suppression of this rebellion, and for this purpose he may organize and use them in such manner as he may judge best for the public welfare.

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

No. 133. Emancipation Proclamation

January 1, 1863

A DRAFT of an emancipation proclamation was read to the Cabinet by Lincoln July 22, 1862, but at Seward's suggestion the paper was laid aside until an important Union victory should have been won. The desired victory came at Antietam, September 16-17. A preliminary proclamation was issued September 22, and the definitive one January 1, 1863. December 15, in the House, a resolution declaring that the proclamation of September 22 "is warranted by the Constitution," and that the policy of emancipation "was well chosen as a war measure, and is an exercise of power with proper regard for the rights of the States and the perpetuity of free government," was adopted by a vote of 78 to 51.

REFERENCES.—Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XII., 1268, 1269. Various resolutions submitted in the House and Senate are collected in McPherson, Rebellion, 209-233; on Fremont's proclamation of August 31, 1861, see ibid., 245-247. See also House Exec. Doc. 72, 37th Cong., 3d Sess.

WHEREAS, ON [September 22, 1862]. . ., a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

all persons held as

slaves within any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever, free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority 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 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 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-inchief 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, [1863] . . and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the day 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, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, 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 Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth,) and which