Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby proclaim and make known to all whom it may concern that the privilege of the writ of _habeas corpus_ is suspended throughout the United States in the several cases before mentioned, and that this suspension will continue throughout the duration of the said rebellion or until this proclamation shall, by a subsequent one to be issued by the President of the United States, be modified or revoked. And I do hereby require all magistrates, attorneys, and other civil officers within the United States and all officers and others in the military and naval services of the United States to take distinct notice of this suspension and to give it full effect, and all citizens of the United States to conduct and govern themselves accordingly and in conformity with the Constitution of the United States and the laws of Congress in such case made and provided.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed this 15th day of September, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-eighth.

A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Lincoln — Part 171

By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State_.

A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Lincoln — Part 171

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Lincoln — Part 171

Whereas in my proclamation of the 27th of April, 1861, the ports of the States of Virginia and North Carolina were, for reasons therein set forth, placed under blockade; and

Whereas the port of Alexandria, Va., has since been blockaded, but as the blockade of said port may now be safely relaxed with advantage to the interests of commerce:

Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, pursuant to the authority in me vested by the fifth section of the act of Congress approved on the 13th of July, 1861, entitled "An act further to provide for the collection of duties on imports and for other purposes," do hereby declare that the blockade of the said port of Alexandria shall so far cease and determine from and after this date that commercial intercourse with said port, except as to persons, things, and information contraband of war, may from this date be carried on, subject to the laws of the United States and to the limitations and in pursuance of the regulations which are prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury in his order which is appended to my proclamation of the 12th of May, 1862.