There is reason to believe that an armed expedition is about to be
fitted out in the United States with an intention to invade the island
of Cuba or some of the Provinces of Mexico. The best information which
the Executive has been able to obtain points to the island of Cuba as
the object of this expedition. It is the duty of this Government to
observe the faith of treaties and to prevent any aggression by our
citizens upon the territories of friendly nations. I have therefore
thought it necessary and proper to issue this my proclamation to warn
all citizens of the United States who shall connect themselves with an
enterprise so grossly in violation of our laws and our treaty
obligations that they will thereby subject themselves to the heavy
penalties denounced against them by our acts of Congress and will
forfeit their claim to the protection of their country. No such persons
must expect the interference of this Government in any form on their
behalf, no matter to what extremities they may be reduced in consequence
of their conduct. An enterprise to invade the territories of a friendly
nation, set on foot and prosecuted within the limits of the United
States, is in the highest degree criminal, as tending to endanger the
peace and compromit the honor of this nation; and therefore I exhort all
good citizens, as they regard our national reputation, as they respect
their own laws and the laws of nations, as they value the blessings of
peace and the welfare of their country, to discountenance and prevent by
all lawful means any such enterprise; and I call upon every officer of
this Government, civil or military, to use all efforts in his power to
arrest for trial and punishment every such offender against the laws
providing for the performance of our sacred obligations to friendly
powers.
Given under my hand the 11th day of August, A.D. 1849, and the
seventy-fourth of the Independence of the United States.