"...and henceforward shall be free..."

[Clio the Leo]

And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, 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; 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.

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/transcript.html

President Obama Gives the Emancipation Proclamation a Place of Honor

Generations
Posted by Jesse Lee on January 18, 2010 at 05:10 PM EST

This afternoon the President took a few hours to host a conversation with a small group of African American seniors and their grandchildren on the legacy of the civil rights movement in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. They all took a moment to look over the Emancipation Proclamation, which was hung in the Oval Office over a bust of Dr. Martin Luther King.

The President gave a few brief remarks afterward:

Video at the link...
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/01/18/generations