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Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865) Emancipation Proclamation [California printing, Cheesman copy]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00742 Author/Creator: Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865) Place Written: San Francisco, California Type: Document signed Date: 1 January 1863 Pagination: 1p. ; 67 x 52 cm. Order a Copy PDF Download(s): PDF of images and transcript

One of three color lithographic broadsides. Printed by L. Nagel and copyright by "F.S. Butler, 1864." Presented to Lincoln for signing by David Williams Cheesman. Signed on back: "Property of Mrs. Maria Cheesman/ Phoenix/ Oregon." See Eberstadt, "Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation," New Colophon (2d Series, 1950) no. 19. The broadside, according to Eberstadt, was "executed by a fourteen-year-old boy. Benjamin F. Butler, who was a California pioneer of 1849 and established the first lithographing plant on the West Coast, may have been the boy's father." (p. 337)

Notes: The California printing of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by Abraham Lincoln. Printed by F. S. Butler. This is one of three copies presented by David William Cheesman of San Francisco for Lincoln to sign. Inscribed on verso: "Property of Mrs. Maria Cheesman, Phoenix [?] Oregon." Probably printed in 1864. See Charles Eberstat, "Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation," New Colophon (1950): 312-356.

President
Lincoln's
Emancipation
Proclamation,
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 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 day of the 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, Placquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafouvche, 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, Northhampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, 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 foils, 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, upon military necessity. I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of
Almighty God
Abraham Lincoln

Executed and published by F.S. Butler, 1864. Printed by L. Nagel.

Entered according to Act of Congress, the year 1864, by F.S. Butler, in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the Northern District of California.

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865

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