Proclamation 104

By the President of the United States of America.

A PROCLAMATION.

⁠Whereas, the Constitution of the United States has ordained that the privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it;

⁠And Whereas, a rebellion was existing on the third day of March, 1863, which rebellion is still existing;

⁠And Whereas, by a statute which was approved on that day, it was enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, in Congress assembled, that during the present insurrection, the President of the United States, whenever in his judgment the public safety may require, is authorized to suspend the privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus in any case throughout the United States or any part thereof;

⁠And Whereas, in the judgment of the President, the public safety does require that the privilege of the said Writ shall now be suspended throughout the United States in the cases where, by the authority of the President of the United States, military, naval, and civil officers of the United States, or any of them, hold persons under their command or in their custody, either as prisoners of war, spies, or alders or abettors of the enemy, or officers, soldiers, or seamen enrolled or drafted or mustered or enlisted in or belonging to the land or naval forces of the United States, or as deserters therefrom, or otherwise amenable to military law or the rules and articles of war or the rules or regulations prescribed for the military or naval services by authority of the President of the United States, or for resisting a draft, or for any other offense against the military or naval service:

⁠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 fifteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord, one thousand, eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-eighth.

⁠

[Abraham Lincoln]⁠

By the President:

William H. Seward,

Secretary of State.

Notes

Supersedes:

• Proclamation 94, September 24, 1862

Superseded by:

• Proclamation 148, December 1, 1865
• Proclamation 157, August 20, 1866

See Related:

• Habeas Corpus Suspension Act, Template:USStat (1863)
• Proclamation 113, July 5, 1864

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).