Order to Suspend Habeas Corpus, July 2, 1861

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You are engaged in suppressing an insurrection against the laws of the United States. If at any point on or in the vicinity of the military line which is now or which shall be used between the city of New York and the city of Washington you find resistance which renders it necessary to suspend the writ of habeas corpus for the public safety, your personally, or through the officer in command at the point where resistance occurs, are authorized to suspend that writ.

Given under my hand and the seal of the United States at the city of Washington, this second day of July, 1861, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-fifth.

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By the President:, Secretary of State.