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 can not 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
indorse 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.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 19th day of April, A.D. 1861, and
of the Independence of the United States the eighty-fifth.