Lincoln, Abraham | The "Authorized Edition" of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by President Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln, Lincoln

The "Authorized Edition" of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by Abraham Lincoln as sixteenth President

"By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation. Whereas, on the twenty-second 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 … 'That on the first 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'; … I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as commander-in-chief 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 … 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 military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. … And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States. … 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. … 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 of America the eighty-seventh."

Printed broadside document on a full sheet of wove paper (558 x 438 mm [type field 374 x 168 mm], watermarked Whatman | 1861 longitudinally at lower left margin), single column, 52 lines and headline, signed by President Lincoln ("Abraham Lincoln"), countersigned by the Secretary of State ("William H. Seward") and by the President's Private Secretary ("Jno. G. Nicolay"), who certifies that this printing of the Emancipation Proclamation is "A true copy, with autograph signatures of the President and the Secretary of State." [Philadelphia: Printed by Frederick Leypoldt for George Henry Boker and Charles Godfrey Leland to benefit the United States Sanitary Commission, June 1864.] Very light marginal browning, evidently from earlier matting, two small foxing spots, one just above the first L in Seward's signature, the other just outside the watermark, verso lightly browned; slightest fading to Seward and Nicolay signatures, but Lincoln's bold and dark. Matted, framed, and glazed to museum standards.