Select Statutes And Other Documents Illustrative of the History of the United States No. 1. Call for 75,000 Volunteers April 15, 1861 THE proclamation of April 15 was issued, under authority of the act of February 28, 1795, the day after the fall of Fort Sumter. The call on the governors of the States was made through the War Department. May 3 a further call for 42,034 volunteers to serve for three years, together with an order for the increase of the regular army and the enlistment of seamen, was issued, the action of the President being legalized by an act of August 6. An act of February 24, 1864, authorized the President to call whenever necessary for such number of volunteers as might be required. REFERENCES. Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XII, 1258. Correspondence with the governors is in the War Records, Series III, Vol. I, pp. 68 seq. For comments of the press see Moore, Rebellion Record, I, 64-69 of documents. See also Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, I, 254–258. BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA : A PROCLAMATION. WHEREAS the laws of the United States have been, for some time past, and now are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law : Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed. The details for this object will be immediately communicated to the State authorities through the War Department. I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government; and to redress wrongs already long enough endured. I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby called forth will probably be to repossess the forts, places, and property which have been seized from the Union; and in every event, the utmost care will be observed, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or interference with, property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the country. And I hereby command the persons composing the combinations aforesaid to disperse, and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within twenty days from this date. Deeming that the present condition of public affairs presents an extraordinary occasion, I do hereby, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution, convene both Houses of Congress. Senators and Representatives are therefore summoned to assemble at their respective chambers, at twelve o'clock, noon, on Thursday, the fourth day of July next, then and there to consider and determine such measures as, in their wisdom, the public safety and interest may seem to demand. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. [L. S.] 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. By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. No. 2. Proclamation declaring a Blockade of Southern Ports April 19, 1861 In response to the proclamation of April 15, calling for 75,000 volunteers, Jefferson Davis, as president of the Confederate States, issued, on April 17, a proclamation inviting applications for letters of marque and reprisal. The proclamation declaring a blockade of Southern ports was issued in rejoinder. By a further proclamation of April 27, the blockade was extended to the ports of Virginia and North Carolina. References. — Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XII, 1258, 1259. Davis's proclamation is in Moore, Rebellion Record, I, 71 of documents. The proclamation was upheld in the Prize Cases, 2 Black, 635. 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 leave the blockaded port, she will be captured and sent to the nearest convenient port, for such proceedings against her and her cargo as prize, as may be deemed advisable. And I hereby proclaim and declare that if any person, under the pretended authority of the said States, or under any other pretence, shall molest a vessel of the United States, or the persons or cargo on board of her, such person will be held amenable to the laws of the United States for the prevention and punishment of piracy. No. 3. Act for the Collection of Duties IN his report of July 4, 1861, the Secretary of the Treasury, Chase, called the attention of Congress to the fact that "at the ports of several States of the Union the collection of lawful duties on imports has been forcibly obstructed and prevented for several months; " and the draft of a bill " to provide for the collection of duties on imports" was submitted. A bill for· e purpose was reported by the House Committee on Commerce July 9, and the next day, by a vote of 136 to 10, was read a third time and passed. The bill passed the Senate with only a verbal amendment on the 12th, by a vote of 36 to 6, and on the 13th the act was approved. In conformity with the provisions of section five of the act, President Lincoln, on August 16, issued a proclamation declaring the inhabitants of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida, “ except the inhabitants of that part of the State of Virginia lying west of the Alleghany mountains, and of such other parts of that State and the other States. . . named as may maintain a loyal adhesion to the Union and the Constitution, or may be, from time to time, occupied and controlled by forces of the United States engaged in the dispersion of such insurgents," to be in insurrection. The provisions of the act were made still more stringent by an act of May 20, 1862. REFERENCES. Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XII, 255-258. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals and the Congressional Globe, 37th Cong., 1st Sess. The report of the Secretary of the Treasury is in the Globe, Appendix; see also a letter from Chase explaining the necessity for, and asserting the constitutionality of, the proposed measure, ibid., proceedings of July 10. For a report of February 21 on the same subject see House Exec. Doc.72, 36th Cong., 2d Sess. An Act further to provide for the Collection of Duties on Imports, and for other Purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever it shall in the judgment of the President, by reason of unlawful combinations of persons in opposition to the laws of the United States, become impracticable to execute the revenue laws and collect the duties on imports by the ordinary means, in the ordinary way, at any port of entry in any collection district, he is authorized to cause such duties to be collected at any port of delivery in said district until such obstruction shall cease; and in such case the surveyors at said ports of delivery shall be clothed with all the powers, and be subject to all the obligations of collectors at ports of entry; and the Secretary of the Treasury, with the approbation of the President, shall appoint such number of weighers, gaugers, measurers, inspectors, appraisers, and clerks as may be necessary, in his judgment, for the faithful execution of the revenue laws at said ports of delivery, and shall fix and establish the limits within which such ports of delivery are constituted ports of entry, as aforesaid; and all the provisions of law regulating the issue of |