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April 19, 1861
By the President of the United States of America:
A Proclamation.
Whereas an insurrection against
the Government of the United States has broken out in the States of South
Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and the
laws of the United States for the collection of the revenue cannot be
effectually executed therein conformably to that provision of the Constitution
which requires duties to be uniform throughout the United States:
And whereas a combination of
persons engaged in such insurrection, have threatened to grant pretended
letters of marque to authorize the bearers thereof to commit assaults on the
lives, vessels, and property of good citizens of the country lawfully engaged
in commerce on the high seas, and in waters of the United States: And whereas
an Executive Proclamation has been already issued, requiring the persons
engaged in these disorderly proceedings to desist therefrom, calling out a
militia force for the purpose of repressing the same, and convening Congress in
extraordinary session, to deliberate and determine thereon:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham
Lincoln, President of the United States, with a view to the same purposes
before mentioned, and to the protection of the public peace, and the lives and
property of quiet and orderly citizens pursuing their lawful occupations, until
Congress shall have assembled and deliberated on the said unlawful proceedings,
or until the same shall have ceased, have further deemed it advisable to set on
foot a blockade of the ports within the States aforesaid, in
pursuance of the laws of the United States, and of the law of Nations, in such
case provided. For this purpose a
competent force will be posted so as to prevent entrance and exit of vessels
from the ports aforesaid. If, therefore,
with a view to violate such blockade, a vessel shall approach, or shall attempt
to leave either of the said ports, she will be duly warned by the Commander of
one of the blockading vessels, who will endorse on her register the fact and
date of such warning, and if the same vessel shall again attempt to enter or
leave the blockaded port, she will be captured and sent to the nearest
convenient port, for such proceedings against her and her cargo as prize, as
may be deemed advisable.
And I hereby proclaim and declare
that if any person, under the pretended authority of the said States, or under
any other pretense, shall molest a vessel of the United States, or the persons
or cargo on board of her, such person will be held amenable to the laws of the
United States for the prevention and punishment of piracy.
In witness whereof, I have
hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington,
this nineteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-one, and of the Independence of the United States the
eighty-fifth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State
April 27, 1861
By the President of the United States of America,
A Proclamation.
Whereas, for the reasons assigned
in my Proclamation of the 19th. instant,
a blockade of the ports of the States of South Carolina, Georgia,
Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, was ordered to be
established:
And whereas, since that date,
public property of the United States has been seized, the collection of the
revenue obstructed, and duly commissioned officers of the United States while
engaged in executing the orders of their superiors have been arrested and held
in custody as prisoners or have been impeded in the discharge of their official
duties without due legal process, by persons claiming to act under authorities
of the States of Virginia and North Carolina, an efficient blockade of the
ports of those States will also be established.
In witness whereof, I have
hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington,
this twenty-seventh day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty one, and of the Independence of the United States the
eighty-fifth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.
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