Order to Suspend Habeas Corpus, April 27, 1861

• Order to General Scott
• author = Abraham Lincoln
• notes = Order to General Scott, Issued: 27 April 1861, ( Abraham Lincoln: Complete Works, Comprising His Speeches, Letters, State Papers, and Miscellaneous Writings, ed. John G. Nicolay and John Hay, vol. II (New York: The Century Co., 1894), 39. )
  Authorizes Gen. Scott to suspend habeas corpus between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., during the Civil War.

To the Commanding General, Army of the United States

You are engaged in suppressing an insurrection against the laws of the United States. If at any point on or in the vicinity of any military line which is now or which shall be used between the city of Philadelphia and the city of Washington you find resistance which renders it necessary to suspend the writ of habeas corpus for the public safety, you personally, or through the officer in command at the point at which resistance occurs, are authorized to suspend that writ.

Abraham Lincoln

Washington, April 27, 1861

Notes

See Related:

• Order to Suspend Habeas Corpus, July 2, 1861
• Ex parte Merryman, May 28, 1861
• Amnesty to Political or State Prisoners, February 14, 1862