BY THE PRESIDENT
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas existing
exigencies demand immediate and adequate measures for the protection of the
National Constitution and the preservation of the National Union by the
suppression of the insurrectionary combinations now existing in several States
for opposing the laws of the Union and obstructing the execution thereof, to
which end a military force, in addition to that called forth by my
proclamation of the fifteenth day of April, in the present year, appears to
be indispensably necessary:
Now, therefore, I,
Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, and Commander-in-Chief of the
Army and Navy thereof, and of the militia of the several States when called
into actual service, do hereby call into the service of the United States
42,034 volunteers, to serve for the period of three years, unless sooner
discharged, and to be mustered into service as infantry and cavalry. The
proportions of each arm and the details of enrollment and organization will be
made known through the Department of War.
And I also direct
that the Regular Army of the United States be increased by the addition of
eight regiments of infantry, one regiment of cavalry, and one regiment of
artillery, making altogether a maximum aggregate increase of 22,714 officers
and enlisted men, the details of which increase will also be made known through
the Department of War.
And I further direct
the enlistment, for not less than one nor more than three years, of 18,000
seamen, in addition to the present force, for the naval service of the United
States. The details of the enlistment and organization will be made known
through the Department of the Navy.
The call for
volunteers, hereby made, and the direction for the increase of the Regular
Army, and for the enlistment of seamen, hereby given, together with the plan of
organization adopted for the volunteers and for the regular forces hereby
authorized, will be submitted to Congress as soon as assembled.
In the meantime I
earnestly invoke the co-operation of all good citizens in the measures hereby
adopted for the effectual suppression of unlawful violence, for the impartial
enforcement of constitutional laws, and for the speediest possible restoration
of peace and order, and, with these, of happiness and prosperity throughout the
country.
In testimony whereof
I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be
affixed.
Done at the city of
Washington this third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-one, and of the Independence of the United States the
eighty-fifth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
WILLIAM
H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.
SOURCES: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series III,
Volume 1 (Serial No. 122), p. 145-6
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