_To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting_:
Know ye that, whereas a paper bearing date the 31st day of December
last, purporting to be an agreement between the United States and one
Bernard Kock for immigration of persons of African extraction to a
dependency of the Republic of Hayti, was signed by me on behalf of the
party of the first part; but whereas the said instrument was and has
since remained incomplete in consequence of the seal of the United
States not having been thereunto affixed; and whereas I have been moved
by considerations by me deemed sufficient to withhold my authority for
affixing the said seal:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the
United States, do hereby authorize the Secretary of State to cancel my
signature to the instrument aforesaid.
Done at Washington, this 16th day of April, A.D. 1863.
[SEAL.]