Whereas the Constitution of the United States has ordained that the
privilege of the writ of _habeas corpus_ shall not be suspended unless
when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require
it; and
Whereas a rebellion was existing on the 3d day of March, 1863, which
rebellion is still existing; and
Whereas by a statute which was approved on that day it was enacted by
the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress
assembled that during the present insurrection the President of the
United States, whenever in his judgment the public safety may require,
is authorized to suspend the privilege of the writ of _habeas corpus_ in
any case throughout the United States or any part thereof; and
Whereas, in the judgment of the President, the public safety does
require that the privilege of the said writ shall now be suspended
throughout the United States in the cases where, by the authority of the
President of the United States, military, naval, and civil officers of
the United States, or any of them, hold persons under their command or
in their custody, either as prisoners of war, spies, or aiders or
abettors of the enemy, or officers, soldiers, or seamen enrolled or
drafted or mustered or enlisted in or belonging to the land or naval
forces of the United States, or as deserters therefrom, or otherwise
amenable to military law or the rules and articles of war or the rules
or regulations prescribed for the military or naval services by
authority of the President of the United States, or for resisting a
draft, or for any other offense against the military or naval service:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do
hereby proclaim and make known to all whom it may concern that the
privilege of the writ of _habeas corpus_ is suspended throughout the
United States in the several cases before mentioned, and that this
suspension will continue throughout the duration of the said rebellion
or until this proclamation shall, by a subsequent one to be issued by
the President of the United States, be modified or revoked. And I do
hereby require all magistrates, attorneys, and other civil officers
within the United States and all officers and others in the military and
naval services of the United States to take distinct notice of this
suspension and to give it full effect, and all citizens of the United
States to conduct and govern themselves accordingly and in conformity
with the Constitution of the United States and the laws of Congress in
such case made and provided.
[SEAL.]
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed this 15th day of September, A.D. 1863,
and of the Independence of the United States of America the
eighty-eighth.