The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1863-01-10
@ttana free or oer.
OTTAWA, ILL, JANUARY 10, 1863
The +" Proclamation Of Freedom"

..-o-->~->--1o~~~.~> 1>,-~~---~~,
OTTAWA, ILL, JANUARY 10, 1863
The s. Proclamation Of Freedom"
The President has gone and done it.
Promptly on the LIST Of January, the Presi-
dent issued his promised "proclation Of
freedom" The crowded stat e of our
columns renders it announcement this week
to publish the edict entire, nor is it neces-
sary The substance can be given in few
words. The President, as war measure"
designates certain states, to wit: Arkansas,
Texas, Louisiana Except certain parishes
designated,) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida.
Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina,
and Virginia, with the exception of GER
tain designated counties in the latter
"the people whereof are in rebellion
against the United States" and "orders
and declares that all persons held therein
as slaves are and henceforward shall be
free and that the Executive Government
OF the United States, including the mill
t,ry and naval authorities thereof, will re.
cognize and maintain the freedom Of such
persons" The President further enjoins
upon the people ST. declared to be free ito
abstain from all violence, unless in neces-
sary selfdefencr," and recommends to
them that in all cases, when allowed, they
He finally declares and makes known"
that liberated slaves Of suitable condition
will be received into the armed service of
the United States " to garrison forts, posi-
tions, stations, and other places, and to
man vessels of all sorts in SAID service"
We have so frequently expressed our
views Of this edict in anticipation of its
promu,gation that it would seem useless
to go over the ground again. All the
books on military law ever written, we
venture 10 affirm, agree that war
measure means an order or appliance to
produce a result 10y the ac,ural application
Of force Thus rs war measure" we
have never doubted the rresi{ lents right
:, seize. wherever bis armies could pene-
trate rebel Territory, the slaves of the
rebels, and. ii Il arms, set them free-that
is, take item out the possession Of their
masters and send them to the rear to be
returned or not at the end Of tho war, as our
government may please. Thib our army
not only can do, but constantly has done,
without the need of aproclamton. Butte
say that the President has the power to
"order and decree that IN certain States,
DC, wholly beyond our lines, q the law re-
specting Slavery shall be repealed or sus-
pended" and call this a war measure,
iS-~ sheer preversion and abuse Of language.
The Proclamation, whatever the Presl
dent may call it, is therefore not war
measure, for so FAR as the slaves in the
interior of South Carolina or Georgia are
they remain untuched. In re-
ference TO them it is jrutara fu!ssa-a Pope
bull against the Comet When our army
penetrates 10 the interior o. Georgia, and
South Carolina, and liberates the slaves,
then indeed they will have b zen set free
by war measure, but that will not have
been the proclamation, Tor nCress by the
act ordered and decreed'
their liberation in that way long before
the President even promised this procla-
nation.
An absurd piece of business corrected
with this proclamation is, that while it
can thus confessesly libera,e no more slaves /.
in territory beyond th- lines of our army /
than would be liberated without it, it puts
q stop 10 the active liberation of rebel 4
sIa yes that ,ras going On in Tennessee, a
state which the President now excerpts
from this benign effect of the presence
of our armies.
And perfdous piece of business con-
nected with it is, that while it will really
diminish the number of rebel slaves that
vonld otherwise have been liberated, its
effect will be to emancipate the slaves of
hose in the states named who have re-
NAMED loyal, thus making it more profta
de in those states to be re6el than loyal to
he Government To be rebels their pro-
,erty in the end may be saved-.o be loyal
s to lose it at once and inevitably.