UNITED STATES. 



835 



The extent of the operation of the proclama- 

 tion as regards the institution, was as follows: 

 all the slaves in the Border States of Delaware, 

 Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee, 

 were exempted from its scope, and remained in 

 bondage, as before, under the State laws. The 

 number in these States was, by the census of 

 1860. 705,115. Besides the States thus exempt- 

 ed from the application of the proclamation 

 there were thirteen parishes in Louisiana and 

 fifty-five counties in Virginia similarly except- 

 ed. In the thirteen parishes in Louisiana the 

 number of the slaves was 87,812. In the fifty- 

 five counties of Virginia there were 39,332 

 total in these two States, 127,144. The gross 

 number, therefore, which the proclamation rec- 

 ognized as slaves was 832,259. On the other 

 hand, the slaves in the following States are de- 

 clared to be free : 



Alabama. 435,080 



Arkansas 111,115 



Florida 61,745 



Georgia 462,198 



Mississippi 436,631 



North Carolina 331,059 



South Carolina 402,406 



Texas 182,566 



Total 2,412,750 



f he slaves declared to be free in parts of 

 States in rebellion are as follows ; 



In Louisiana, in thirty-five parishes, 243,914 

 In Virginia, in ninety-three counties, 451,533 



The total number of slaves " ordered and de- 

 clared " to be free in the designated States and 

 parts of States amounts, therefore, to about 

 3,108,197. 



The efficacy of the proclamation was proba- 

 bly very imperfectly manifested during 1863. 

 On the one hand, it did not appear to make free 

 any slave by its own operation during the year. 

 All those became free who came in contact with 

 the armies or within the military lines. This 

 freedom would have been obtained equally as 

 well without the existence of the proclamation, 

 for all officers and soldiers had been forbidden 

 to restore fugitives to rebel masters. On the 

 other hand it tended to awaken a great sym- 

 pathy among the slaves for the Union cause, 

 which held out to them the promise of certain 

 freedom by its success (see FREEDMEN) ; it 

 presented a strong stimulus to free blacks 

 to enter the army and fight for a cause 

 which would give freedom to their race; 

 it also stimulated the unconditional Union 

 men in Maryland, Missouri and Louisiana, 

 to make every effort to change the consti- 

 tutions of the former States so as to secure 

 immediate emancipation. (See MARYLAND, MIS- 

 SOURI and LOUISIANA.) But the great efficacy 

 of the proclamation was expected to become 

 apparent at a future day, when the insurrec- 

 tionary States should be recovered to the Union. 

 In short it made emancipation the policy of the 

 Administration, and encouraged the friends of 

 that great cause to make every exertion to se- 

 cure its speedy accomplishment. But it must 



not be supposed that this policy was adopted 

 without opposition. The President nowhere 

 during the year states that it is anything more 

 than a measure for the preservation of the 

 Union, and limits himself to this position. The 

 opposition to the Administration protested 

 against it. (See under the several States.) The 

 friends of the Administration, known as Union 

 men, approved of it as a war measure, and a 

 resolution to this effect passed the Republican 

 State convention of New York. The friends of 

 the Administration, known as unconditional 

 Union men, not only warmly approved of the 

 proclamation, but demanded a most vigorous 

 enforcement of it, by every method. (See un- 

 der the several States.) 



It now remains to notice the efforts which 

 were made to secure the advantages of the 

 proclamation, and the new questions which 

 arose in connection with those efforts. The 

 first movement was to bring the colored men 

 into the field as soldiers. For this purpose the 

 Secretary of War issued an order authorizing 

 the governor of Massachusetts to raise volun- 

 teer companies of artillery and corps of infantry 

 which might include persons of African descent. 

 In March Gen. Thomas was sent to the Mis- 

 sissippi valley to organize colored regiments. 

 (See AEMT OF THE UNITED STATES.) On the 

 27th of January a bill was introduced into 

 Congress to authorize the President to raise 

 one hundred and fifty thousand colored volun- 

 teers. ((Seepage 268.) The impulse thus given 

 by the Government resulted in bringing more 

 than fifty thousand into the field during the 

 year. On the 31st of July the President issued 

 an order declaring that the Government would 

 give the same protection to all of its soldiers; 

 and that if the enemy should sell or enslave 

 any one because of his color, the offence should 

 be punished by retaliation upon the enemy's 

 prisoners. An opinion had already been given 

 by the attorney-general, Mr. Bates, that the 

 colored man was a citizen of the United States 

 (see ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA, 1862, page 752) ; 

 and upon his appearance in the field under 

 arms, it was insisted by many that he should 

 possess all the rights and enjoy all the privileges 

 peculiar to that citizenship. lie should become 

 a voter, they argued, and eligible to public 

 office. A few went still further and advocated 

 an entire wiping out of all civil and social dis- 

 tinctions between the whites and blacks, and 

 an establishment of all the intimate relations 

 which exist between persons of one and the 

 same race. 



But these questions were generally regarded 

 as of little importance compared with the 

 greater one which arose relative to the rela- 

 tions of the insurrectionary States to the Fed- 

 eral Government, and which involved the 

 status of the slave at the close of the civil war. 

 Previous to the adoption of emancipation as a 

 principle and a policy of the Government, it 

 had been held by all except those who were 

 looking to ultimate emancipation, that it was 



