The Emancipation Proclamation
亚伯拉罕·林肯 / Abraham Lincoln
亚伯拉罕·林肯（1809—1865），美国第十六届总统。出生在肯塔基州一个农民家庭。从7岁开始就帮助父母放牛、耕地和打柴。当过雇农、船夫、小店铺里的伙计，后来又当过乡村邮递员和土地测量员。他一生在学校学习的时间加起来不到一年，但是他刻苦勤学，通过自学成为一位博学的人。他先后任过州议员、律师、众议员，并于1856年加入共和党。他反对奴隶制度，认为奴隶制度违反自由平等原则。但他又不是废奴隶主义者，他只是要求限制奴隶制向西部扩张。任内发表了《解放宣言》，提出“民有、民治、民享”的口号，并领导人民投入南北战争，重新统一了美国。1864年连任总统。1865年4月14日被南方奴隶主反对派指使的暴徒杀害。
Ace in the Hole
Understand these new words before you listen to this article.
1. countervailing adj. 补偿的；弥补的；抵消的
2. testimony n. (法庭上证人的)证词；证明，证据
3. aforesaid adj. 上述的，前述的(常用于法律文件)
4. thenceforward adv. 从那时，其后
Whereas, on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 1862, 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, A.D. 1863, 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 1st 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 States 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-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 supressing said rebellion, do, on this 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, 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, Palquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bone, Lafourche, St. Mary, 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, Northhampton, Elizabeth 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.”
