aim that the said act shall take effect and be in force
from and after sixty days from the date hereof.

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 20th day of April, A.D. 1863,
and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
_Secretary of State_.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas the Congress of the United States at its last session enacted a
law entitled "An act for enrolling and calling out the national forces
and for other purposes," which was approved on the 3d day of March last;
and

Whereas it is recited in the said act that there now exists in the
United States an insurrection and rebellion against the authority
thereof, and it is, under the Constitution of the United States, the
duty of the Government to suppress insurrection and rebellion, to
guarantee to each State a republican form of government, and to preserve
the public tranquillity; and

Whereas for these high purposes a military force is indispensable, to
raise and support which all persons ought willingly to contribute; and

Whereas no service can be more praiseworthy and honorable than that
which is rendered for the maintenance of the Constitution and Union and
the consequent preservation of free government; and

Whereas, for the reasons thus recited, it was enacted by the said
statute that all able-bodied male citizens of the United States and
persons of foreign birth who shall have declared on oath their intention
to become citizens under and in pursuance of the laws thereof, between
the ages of 20 and 45 years (with certain exceptions not necessary to be
here mentioned), are declared to constitute the national forces, and
shall be liable to perform military duty in the service of the United
States when called out by the President for that purpose; and

Whereas it is claimed by and in behalf of persons of foreign birth
within the ages specified in said act who have heretofore declared on
oath their intentions to become citizens under and in pursuance of the
laws of the United States, and who have not exercised the right of
suffrage or any other political franchise under the laws of the United
States or of any of the States thereof, that they are not absolutely
concluded by their aforesaid declaration