Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 13.djvu/760

 732 APPENDIX. In witness whereof: I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of tha United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this twentieth day of April, in the year [L. s.] of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By the President: Wunmm H. Sswann, Secretary of Smze. N 0. 4. _ Ev 8= ISGS' BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A PROCLAMATION. P°°“mm°‘ lVHEmtAs, The congress of the United States at its last session enacted a 135;,; eh_ 75_ law entitled "An act for enrolling and calling out the national forces, and for Vol. xii. p. 731. other purposes," which was approved on the 3d day of March last; and _ Whereas, It is recited in the said act that there now exists in the United States an insurrection and rebellion against the authority thereof and it is, under the Constitution of the United States, the duty of the government to suppress insurrection and rebellion, to guarantee to each state a republican form o1` government, and to preserve the public tranquillity, and W/zcrcas, For these high purposes a military fbrce is indispensable, t0.ra.ise and support which all persons ought willingly to contribute ; and lV?z4·rm.~r, No service can be more praiseworthy and hoiinralile than that which is rendered for the maintenance of the Constitution and Union, and the consequent preservation of free government; and Whereas, For the reasons thus re<:itc<l, it was enacted by the said statute that all able—bodied male citizens of the United States and persons of foreign birth who shall have declared on oath their intention to become citizens under and in pursuance of the laws thereof, between the ages of twenty and forty-tive years, (with certain exceptions not necessary to be here mentionuzl.) are declared to constitute the national forces, and shall be liable to perform military duty in the service of the United States, when called out by the President for that purpose; and Whereas, lt is claimed by and in behalf of persons of foreign birth within the ages specified in said act who have heretofore 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 21. 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 : Plea of alienage Now, therefore, to avoid all misapprehensions concerning the liability of per- “°l *° be °lg‘V°d sons concerned to perform the service required by such enactment, and topive °° °x°mpt’ °' 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 continuation ot' 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 ol alienage be allowed in favor of any such ersou who has so, as aforesaid, declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and shall have exercised at any time the rirrht of suffrage, or any other political franchise, within the United States, under the Ilaws 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 adixed. ·