ore 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 of intention from renouncing their purpose to become
citizens, and that, on the contrary, such persons under treaties or the
law of nations retain a right to renounce that purpose and to forego the
privileges of citizenship and residence within the United States under the
obligations imposed by the aforesaid act of Congress:

Now, therefore, to avoid all misapprehensions concerning the liability of
persons concerned to perform the service required by such enactment, and
to give it full effect, I do hereby order and proclaim that no plea
of alienage will be received or allowed to exempt from the obligations
imposed by the aforesaid act of Congress any person of foreign birth
who shall have declared on oath his intention to become a citizen of the
United States under the laws thereof, and who shall be found within
the United States at any time during the continuance of the present
insurrection and rebellion, at or after the expiration of the period of
sixty-five days from the date of this proclamation; nor shall any such
plea of alienage be allowed in favor of any such person who has so,
as aforesaid, declared his intention to become a citizen of the United
States, and shall have exercised at any time the right of suffrage, or
any other political franchise, within the United States, under the laws
thereof, or under the laws of any of the several States.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this
eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the
eighty-seventh.

A. LINCOLN.

By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. HOOKER.

WASHINGTON, D. C. May 8, 1863. 4 P.M.

MAJOR-GENERAL HOOKER:

The news is here of the capture by our forces of Grand Gulf--a large and
very important thing. General Willich, an exchanged prisoner just from
Richmond, has talked with me this morning. He was there when our cavalry
cut the roads in that vicinity. He says there was not a sound pair of legs
in