BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

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 75,000, 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,