The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without any thing more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity toward other nations. The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me, a predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress, without interruption, to that degree of strength and consistency which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes. Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my own defects, not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and that after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service, with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love toward it, which is so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations; I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat, in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government—the ever favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers. UNITED STATES, 17th September, 1796. G. WASHINGTON. APPENDIX F. PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. Whereas, On the 22d day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, 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, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, 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 first 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 state 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-inchief 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 your 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 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, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, Ste. Marie, 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, izabeth 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 naval and military 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. And upon this act, 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. Intestimony whereof I have hereunto set my name, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, APPENDIX G. CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF UNITED STATES HISTORY. 986. Herjulfson discovers America. 1492. Columbus discovers the West Indies. 1497. North America discovered by the Cabots. 1512. 1513. 1517. Cordova discovers Yucatan. 1520. 1521. 1524. 1528. 1534. 1541. D'Ayllon discovers Carolina. Cortes conquers Mexico. Verrazzano explores the coast. Narvaez visits Florida. Cartier discovers the St. Lawrence. De Soto discovers the Mississippi. 1562. The Huguenots attempt to colonize Florida. 1565. St. Augustine founded. 1579. 1585-7. 1602. Drake explores western coast of North America. 1605. De Monts founds Port Royal. 1607. Jamestown founded. 1608. Quebec founded by Champlain. 1609. Hudson River discovered. 1614. New York settled by the Dutch. 1619. Slavery introduced in Virginia. 1670. New Jersey settled at Elizabethtown. 1673. Joliet and Marquette on the Mississippi. 1682. 1689. Philadelphia founded. La Salle descends the Mississippi. 1690. Port Royal captured. 1697. The treaty of Ryswick. 1702. Queen Anne's War begins. Port Royal captured. 1710. 1713. 1733. The treaty of Utrecht. 1732. George Washington born.. Georgia settled at Savannah. King George's War begins. 1745. Louisburg captured. 1744 1748. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. .Feb. 22, The French expelled from Acadia. 1756. Oswego captured by the French. 1757. Fort William Henry surrendered to the French. 1758. Abercrombie defeated at Ticonderoga. Louisburg taken by Amherst. ..July 9. Forts Frontenac and Duquesne captured by the English 1759. Fort Niagara captured by the English. Amherst occupies Ticonderoga. Battle of the Plains of Abraham.. Quebec surrendered to the English. Montreal captured by the English. 1763. The treaty of Paris. 1760. Pontiac's conspiracy. 1765. Stamp Act passed by Parliament. 1766. Stamp Act repealed. 1767. Another tax act passed. 1770. The Boston massacre. 1773. The Boston Tea-party." 1774. The Boston Port Bill passed. Colonial Congress meets in Philadelphia. .Sept. 13 |