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LINCOLN, Abraham, EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. Partly printed document signed ("Abraham Lincoln") as President, also signed by SECRETARY OF STATE WILLIAM H. SEWARD ("William H. Seward") and by John G. Nicolay, "Private Secretary to the President," to certify the document is "A true copy, with the autograph signatures of the President and the Secretary of State." [Text:] Whereas, on the Twenty-Second Day of September...a Proclamation was issued by the President...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, thenceforth, and FOREVER FREE...Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, by virtue of the power vested in me as Commander in Chief of the Army and the Navy...I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves, within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be free...the Executive Government of the United States, including the Military and Naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the Freedom of said persons.... [Philadelphia: Frederick Leypoldt, 6 June 1864]. Eberstadt, Emancipation Proclamation , 32. Folio broadside, 22 x 17 3/8 in., watermarked "J. Whatman 1861," heading at top ("By the President of the United States of America"), in large sans-serif capitals, second line ("A Proclamation") in gothic-style type, body of the text, printed in a single column, THE SHEET WITH FULL MARGINS, minute stain to left of signature, clean tear to blank lower left corner, with a triangular section of paper neatly renewed, otherwise in very fine condition, without the rust spots or foxing some copies exhibit. "A NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM": THE AUTHORIZED EDITION OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, SIGNED BY PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND SECRETARY OF STATE SEWARD As historian John Hope Franklin has written, Lincoln's Proclamation "has maintained its place as one of America's truly important documents," even though "it had neither the felicity of the Declaration of Independence nor the simple grandeur of the Gettysburg Address." But it undoubtedly constituted a critical "step toward the extension of the ideal of equality about which Jefferson had written." And in time, Franklin adds, "the greatness of the document dawned upon the nation and the world. Gradually, it took its place with the great documents of human freedom" ( The Emancipation Proclamation , 1963, pp.143-144). The influence it commanded, from the very moment of its issuance is amply demonstrated by the multiple printed forms in which it was issued, in many localities, over the next year (this array of printed, engraved and lithographic versions is the subject of Charles Eberstadt's bibliography). While it did not and could not end slavery throughout the divided nation, the Emancipation Proclamation constituted a fundamental act of justice with potent moral and humanitarian significance. Frederick Douglas wrote that he "saw in its spirit a life and power far beyond its letter." By Lincoln's Proclamation, the road to freedom was thrown open to millions who had previously existed only as chattel slaves. It paved the way for the soon-to-be-adopted Thirteenth Amendment, which finally eliminated slavery within the United States, a major step towards the fulfillment of the promise of Jefferson's ringing pronouncement in the Declaration of Independence: "all men are created equal." Truly, it gave the nation what Lincoln himself, in the Gettysburg Address would rightly term, a few months later, "a new birth of freedom." The oversize, deluxe authorized oversize printing of the historic text was the creation of two Philadelphians, both dedicated to the cause of the Union and profoundly opposed to slavery. Charles Godfrey Leland (1824-1903), author and journalist, studied with Bronson Alcott as a youth and l