"
It was on July 22 that the President read to his cabinet the draft of
this first emancipation proclamation, which, after a formal warning
against continuing the rebellion, was in the following words:
"And I hereby make known that it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of
Congress, to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure for
tendering pecuniary aid to the free choice or rejection of any and all
States which may then be recognizing and practically sustaining the
authority of the United States, and which may then have voluntarily
adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, gradual abolishment of
slavery within such State or States; that the object is to practically
restore, thenceforward to be maintained, the constitutional relation
between the general government and each and all the States wherein that
relation is now suspended or disturbed; and that for this object the
war, as it has been, will be prosecuted. And as a fit and necessary
military measure for effecting this object, I, as commander-in-chief of
the army and navy of the United States, do order and declare 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 States
wherein the constitutional authority of the United States shall not then
be practically recognized, submitted to, and maintained, shall then,
thenceforward, and forever be free.
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