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 comformably
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
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.
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State