Whereas, in virtue of the power conferred by the act of Congress
approved June 22, 1860, sections 15 and 24 of which act were designed by
proper provisions to secure the strict neutrality of citizens of the
United States residing in or visiting the Empires of China and Japan, a
notification was issued on the 4th of August last by the legation of the
United States in Japan, through the consulates of the open ports of that
Empire, requesting American shipmasters not to approach the coasts of
Suwo and Nagato pending the then contemplated hostilities between the
Tycoon of Japan and the Daimio of the said Provinces; and
Whereas authentic information having been received by the said legation
that such hostilities had actually commenced, a regulation in
furtherance of the aforesaid notification and pursuant to the act
referred to was issued by the minister resident of the United States in
Japan forbidding American merchant vessels from stopping or anchoring at
any port or roadstead in that country except the three opened ports,
viz, Kanagawa (Yokohama), Nagasaki, and Hakodate, unless in distress or
forced by stress of weather, as provided by treaty, and giving notice
that masters of vessels committing a breach of the regulation would
thereby render themselves liable to prosecution and punishment and also
to forfeiture of the protection of the United States if the visit to
such nonopened port or roadstead should either involve a breach of
treaty or be construed as an act in aid of insurrection or rebellion:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Andrew Johnson, President of the
United States of America, with a view to prevent acts which might
injuriously affect the relations existing between the Government of the
United States and that of Japan, do hereby call public attention to the
aforesaid notification and regulation, which are hereby sanctioned and
confirmed.
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 12th day of January, A.D. 1867, and
of the Independence of the United States the ninety-first.