tes to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this fifteenth day of April, in the
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and of the
independence of the United States the eighty-fifth.

A. LINCOLN

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

PROCLAMATION OF BLOCKADE, APRIL 19, 1861

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A Proclamation.

Whereas an insurrection against the Government of the United States has
broken out in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida,
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and the laws of the United States
for the collection of the revenue cannot be effectually executed therein
conformably to that provision of the Constitution which requires duties to
be uniform throughout the United States:

And Whereas a combination of persons engaged in such insurrection have
threatened to grant pretended letters of marque to authorize the bearers
thereof to commit assaults on the lives, vessels, and property of good
citizens of the country lawfully engaged in commerce on the high seas, and
in waters of the United States:

And Whereas an executive proclamation has been already issued requiring
the persons engaged in these disorderly proceedings to desist therefrom,
calling out a militia force for the purpose of repressing the same, and
convening Congress in extraordinary session to deliberate and determine
thereon:

Now, therefore, I, Abraham LINCOLN, President of the United States, with
a view to the same purposes before mentioned, and to the protection of
the public peace, and the lives and property of quiet and orderly citizens
pursuing their lawful occupations, until Congress shall have assembled and
deliberated on the said unlawful proceedings, or until the same shall have
ceased, have further deemed it advisable to set on foot a blockade of the
ports within the States aforesaid, in pursuance of the laws of the United
States, and of the law of nations in such case provided. For this purpose
a competent force will be posted so as to prevent entrance and exit of
vessels from the ports aforesaid. If, therefore, with a view to violate
such blockade, a vessel shall approach or shall attempt to leave either
of the said ports, she will be duly warned by the commander of one of the
blockading vessels, who will indorse on her register the fact and date of
such warning, and if the same vessel shall again attempt to enter or