Lot 489

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Description:

WAR DEPARTMENT'S ISSUANCE OF LINCOLN'S EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION
Rare, historic printed document, the War Department's General Order No. 1, giving official notice to the army of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation going into effect, 2pp. 8vo., Washington, Jan. 2, 1863, issued by the Adjutant General's Office. The order prints the text of Lincoln's proclamation, in part: "...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...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...a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion...". This general order in effect commands the military to enforce Lincoln's decree, putting "teeth" into his order and literally freeing slaves in the occupied areas of the southern states in rebellion. Lincoln's proclamation also had the effect of silencing all British complaints against the war; slavery had already been banned in Great Britain for decades, and any politician supporting the Southern cause following Lincoln's decree would have been ostracized. A light pencil mark appears in the top margin, else very good, matted with a photo portrait of Lincoln and set into an ornate frame.

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May 13, 2009 10:00 AM EDT
Stamford, CT, US

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