Whereas by a proclamation which was issued on the 15th day of April,
1861, the President of the United States announced and declared that the
laws of the United States had been for some time past, and then were,
opposed and the execution thereof obstructed in certain States therein
mentioned by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary
course of judicial proceedings or by the powers vested in the marshals
by law; and
Whereas immediately after the issuing of the said proclamation the land
and naval forces of the United States were put into activity to suppress
the said insurrection and rebellion; and
Whereas the Congress of the United States by an act approved on the 3d
day of March, 1863, did enact that during the said rebellion the
President of the United States, whenever in his judgment the public
safety may require it, is authorized to suspend the privilege of the
writ of _habeas corpus_ in any case throughout the United States or in
any part thereof; and
Whereas the said insurrection and rebellion still continue, endangering
the existence of the Constitution and Government of the United States;
and
Whereas the military forces of the United States are now actively
engaged in suppressing the said insurrection and rebellion in various
parts of the States where the said rebellion has been successful in
obstructing the laws and public authorities, especially in the States of
Virginia and Georgia; and
Whereas on the 15th day of September last the President of the United
States duly issued his proclamation, wherein he declared that the
privilege of the writ of _habeas corpus_ should 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; and
Whereas many citizens of the State of Kentucky have joined the forces of
the insurgents, and such insurgents have on several occasions entered
the said State of Kentucky in large force, and, not without aid and
comfort furnished by disaffected and disloyal citizens of the United
States residing therein, have not only greatly disturbed the public
peace, but have overborne the civil authorities and made flagrant civil
war, destroying property and life in various parts of that State; and
Whereas it has been made known to the President of the United States by
the officers commanding the national armies that combinations have been
formed in the said State of Kentucky with a purpose of inciting rebel
forces to renew the said operations of civil war within the said State
and thereby to embarrass the United States armies now operating in the
said States of Virginia and Georgia and even to endanger their safety:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by
virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws, do
hereby declare that in my judgment the public safety especially requires
that the suspension of the privilege of the writ of _habeas corpus_, so
proclaimed in the said proclamation of the 15th of September, 1863, be
made effectual and be duly enforced in and throughout the said State of
Kentucky, and that martial law be for the present established therein. I
do therefore hereby require of the military officers in the said State
that the privileges of the writ of _habeas corpus_ be effectually
suspended within the said State, according to the aforesaid
proclamation, and that martial law be established therein, to take
effect from the date of this proclamation, the said suspension and
establishment of martial law to continue until this proclamation shall
be revoked or modified, but not beyond the period when the said
rebellion shall have been suppressed or come to an end. And I do hereby
require and command as well all military officers as all civil officers
and authorities existing or found within the said State of Kentucky to
take notice of this proclamation and to give full effect to the same.
The martial law herein proclaimed and the things in that respect herein
ordered will not be deemed or taken to interfere with the holding of
lawful elections, or with the proceedings of the constitutional
legislature of Kentucky, or with the administration of justice in the
courts of law existing therein between citizens of the United States in
suits or proceedings which do not affect the military operations or the
constituted authorities of the Government of the United States.
In testimony 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 5th day of July, A.D. 1864, and of
the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.