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promotion or transfer to the equivalent grade of ensign would not completely indemnify them, the pay of an ensign on the retired list being only $500 per annum. It is the only relief, however, which is deemed within the intention of the existing laws, and it is the more willingly recommended in this case, as there is nothing in the character of the officers to be relieved which would make it objectionable. These are the only cases of the kind. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, February 28, 1863.

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 26th instant, requesting a copy of any correspondence which may have taken place between me and workingmen in England, I transmit the papers mentioned in the subjoined list. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, February 28, 1863.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit, for the consideration of Congress, a dispatch to the Secretary of State from the United States consul at Liverpool, and the address to which it refers, of the distressed operatives of Blackburn, in England, to the New York relief committee and to the inhabitants of the United States generally.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, March 2, 1863.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit to Congress a copy of a preamble and joint resolution of the legislative assembly of the Territory of New Mexico, accepting the benefits of the act of Congress approved the 2d of July last, entitled "An act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts." ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

PROCLAMATION.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas on the 22d day of September, A. D. 1862, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

That on the 1st day of January, A. D. 1863, 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 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 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 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 1st day of January, A. D. 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, Terrebonne, 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 Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

And by virtue of the power and 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 that the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them that in all cases when allowed they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known that such persons of 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.

"SIGNING THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION hangs over the landing of the eastern grand staircase in the Capitol. This famous picture was painted by Frank B. Carpenter from studies of Lincoln made in the White House, where he resided for a considerable time for that purpose. It was presented to Congress in 1878 by Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson.

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