Beschreibung:

EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION]. By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation. Whereas...[46 lines text]...Done at the City of Washington this first day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three...Abraham Lincoln. By the President. [Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, ca. 3 January 1863]. One page, folio (printed on page 1 of a four-page folded sheet), 332 x 208 mm. (13 1/16 x 8 3/8 in.) . Fine condition. Charles Eberstadt, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, no.10. THE OFFICIAL STATE DEPARTMENT PRINTING OF THE FINAL EMANCIPTION PROCLAMATION Essentially, this constitutes the first obtainable printing of the final emancipation proclamation, issued immediately after the proclamation became law on 1 January 1863, and preceded only by a newspaper "extra" printing and a small-format broadside, both of which survive in only a single copy. The printed forms in which the Emancipation Proclamation appeared are legion, and include many broadside and ephemeral items issued in widely separated locales over a long period. To date, the sole guide to this bibliographical morass remains Charles Eberstadt's pioneering study, which describes and locates copies of most of the notable and early printings of the preliminary proclamation (Eberstadt nos.1-7) and the final, official proclamation (Eberstadt nos. 8-52). While Eberstadt does not adduce specific reasons for assigning the date "circa 3 January 1863" to the present broadside, he notes that "neither of the Library of Congress copies has an accession date," and that the one of the three copies at the Huntington Library bears an attached State Department authentication signed by Secretary of State Edwin M. Stanton. The present broadside is preceded by seven printings of the preliminary or draft proclamation of the text as announced by Lincoln on 22 September 1862. (The very existence of one of which, Eberstadt's no.7, is conjectural). The text of the final, official proclamation was the result of Lincoln's consultation with his cabinet on the morning of 31 December in which many changes were suggested. Lincoln then retired to consider all the cabinet members' recommendations and compose the final proclamation, which he completed late in the day. The text was quickly furnished to the government printer. The present official State Department printing of the final proclamation, then, is preceded only by the following: 1. Eberstadt 8. A small format (71/4 x 4 3/4 in.) two-page broadside, "printed in haste to serve the urgent need for a few copies until the resplendant, official folio edition [Eberstadt 10] could be prepared" (Eberstadt, p.17). Locations: Known in only a single copy. The present whereabouts of this copy, described by Eberstadt and owned by him in 19 are unknown. 2. Eberstadt 9: A broadside "extra" issued by the Illinois State Journal, Springfield, Illinois, 2 January 1863. Locations: Apparently unique, one copy recorded by Eberstadt at the Illinois State Historical Library in Springfield. Of the present broadside, Eberstadt records 2 copies at the Library of Congress, 3 copies at the Huntington Library, San Marina, California, and one copy at Brown University Library, plus an additional copy owned by the Rosenbach Company (present whereabouts unknown).