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 pretense,
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.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this 19th day of April, A.D. 1861, and
of the Independence of the United States the eighty-fifth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.