d, or into
which they may be taken and proceedings first instituted.

SEC. 3. The Attorney-General, or any district attorney of the United
States in which said property may at the time be, may institute the
proceedings of condemnation, and in such case they shall be wholly for
the benefit of the United States; or any person may file an information
with such attorney, in which case the proceedings shall be for the use
of such informer and the United States in equal parts.

SEC. 4. Whenever hereafter, during the present insurrection against the
Government of the United States, any person claimed to be held to labor
or service under the law of any State, shall be required or permitted by
the person to whom such labor or service is claimed to be due, or by the
lawful agent of such persons, to take up arms against the United
States, or shall be required or permitted by the person to whom such
labor or service is claimed to be due, or his lawful agent, to work or
to be employed in or upon any fort, navy yard, dock, armory, ship,
intrenchment, or in any military or naval service whatsoever, against
the Government and lawful authority of the United States, then, and in
every such case, the person to whom such labor or service is claimed to
be due, shall forfeit his claim to such labor, any law of the State or
of the United States to the contrary notwithstanding. And whenever
thereafter the person claiming such labor or service shall seek to
enforce his claim, it shall be a full and sufficient answer to such
claim that the person whose service or labor is claimed had been
employed in the hostile service against the Government of the United
States, contrary to the provisions of this act.

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN

MARCH 4TH, 1861.

_Fellow-Citizens of the United States_:

In compliance with a custom as old as the Government itself, I appear
before you to address you briefly, and to take, in your presence, the
oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be taken by
the President, before he enters on the execution of his office.

I do not consider it necessary, at present, for me to discuss those
matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety or
excitement. Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern
States, that, by the accession of a Republican Administration, their
property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered.
There has