North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1862-10-01
IPo1itical.
IMPORTANT PROCLAMATION by THE
Ws5 PRESIDENT.

L, Abraham Lincoln, President OF the Uni
ted States of America, and Commander-in-
Chief Of the Army and Navy thereof, do here
by proclaim and declare that hereafter, as
heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for
the object of practically restoring the consti-
tutional relation between the United States
and the people thereof, in which States that
relation is, or may be, suspended or dis
turbed; that it is my purpose J, upon the
next meeting of Congress, to again recon-
mend the adoption of a practical measure ten
dering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance,
erTejection of all the slave States so called,
the people whereof may not then be in re-
bsllionagainst the United States, and which
States may then have voluntarily adopted
or thereafter may voluntarily adopt. the i'm
mediate or gradual adjustment of slavery
within their respective limits and that the
effort to colonize persons of African descent,
with their consent, upon this continent or
elsewhere, with the previously-obtained con-
sent fthe governments existing there, will
be continued that on the first day of Janu-
ary, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons
held as slaves within any State, or any desig-
mated part of State, the people whereof shall
then be in rebellion against the United States,
shall be thenceforth and forever free, and the
Executive Government of the United States,
including the military and naval authority
thereof, will recognize ard maintain the free
dom 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 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 Uni
ted States by members chosen thereto at
elections wherein 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 have
not been IN rebellion against the United
States
That attention is hereby called to an act of
Congress entitled In act to make an add-
tional article of war; approved March Is,
1861, and which act is in the words and fig
ures following:
BE 1t enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives. of the United States of Anser-
icG in Congress assemblies: That hereafter
the following shall be promulgated as an ad-
ditional article of war, for the government of
the army of the United States, and shall be
obeyed and observed as such:
article. All officers or persons in the mill
tary or naval service of the United States are
prohibited from employing any of the forces
under their respective commands for the pur-
pose of returning fugitives from service or la
Dor, who may have escaped from any persons
to whom such labor is claimed to be due, and
any officer who shall be found guilty by
court-martial of violating this article shall be
dismissed from the service.
SEC. 2. A'ad be ii further enacted, That
this act shall take effect from and after its
passage.
Also, to the ninth and tenth sections of an
act entitled An act to suppress iDsurrec:ion.
to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and
confiscate the property Of rebels, and for 9th
er purposes" approved July II, 1862, and
which sections are in the words aud figures
following: ..--..
Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That
all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be
engaged in rebellion against the Government
OF the United States, or who shall in any
way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping
from such persons and taking refuge within
the lines of the army; and all slaves captur-
ed from such persons or dserted by them and
coming under the control of the Government
of the United States; and all slaves of such
persons found on 70. being within) any place
occupied by rebel forces of the United States.
shall be deemed captures of war, and shall be
forever free of their servitude and not again
held as slaves.
Sec. 10. Aad be 1t further enacted, That
no slave escaping into any State, Territory,
or the District of Columbia, from any of the
States, shall be delivered up OF in any way
impeded or hindered of his liberty, except for
crime or some offence against the laws, unless
the person claiming said fugitive shall first
make oath that the person to whom the la
Dor on service of such fugitive is alleged to be
Que, is his lawful owner, and has not been in
arms against the United States in the pres
ent rebellion, nor in any way given aid and
comfort thereto !; and no person engaged in
the military or naval service of the United
States shall under any pretence whatever,
assume 10 decide on the validity of the claim
Of any person to the service or labor ofany
other person, or surrender up any such per-
son to the claimant, on pain of being dismiss
cd from the service.
And do hereby enjoin upon and order all