Selected Correspondance of Abraham Lincoln 1863 Proclamation Concerning Aliens
by Abraham Lincoln
MAY 8, 1863.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation
Whereas the Congress of the United States, at its last session,
enacted a law entitled "An act for enrolling and calling out the
national forces and for other purposes," which was approved on the 3d
day of March last; and
Whereas it is recited in the said act that there now exists in the
United States an insurrection and rebellion against the authority
thereof, and it is, under the Constitution of the United States, the
duty of the government to suppress insurrection and rebellion, to
guarantee to each State a republican form of government, and to
preserve the public tranquillity; and
Whereas for these high purposes a military force is indispensable, to
raise and support which all persons Ought willingly to contribute;
and
Whereas no service can be more praiseworthy and honorable than that
which is rendered for the maintenance of the Constitution and the
Union, and the consequent preservation of free government; and
Whereas, for the reasons thus recited, it was enacted by the said
statute that all able-bodied male citizens of the United States, and
persons of foreign birth who shall have declared on oath their
intention to become citizens under and in pursuance of the laws
thereof, between the ages of twenty and forty-five years (with
certain exceptions not necessary to be here mentioned), are declared
to constitute the national forces, and shall be liable to perform
military duty in the service of the United States when called out by
the President for that purpose; and
Whereas it is claimed by and in behalf of persons of foreign birth
within the ages specified in said act, who have heretofore declared
on oath their intentions to become citizens under and in pursuance of
the laws of the United States, and who have not exercised the right
of suffrage or any other political franchise under the laws of the
United States, or of any of the States thereof, that they are not
absolutely concluded by their aforesaid declaration of intention from
renouncing their purpose to become citizens, and that, on the
contrary, such persons under treaties or the law of nations retain a
right to renounce that purpose and to forego the privileges of
citizenship and residence within the United States under the
obligations imposed by the aforesaid act of Congress:
Now, therefore, to avoid all misapprehensions concerning the
liability of persons concerned to perform the service required by
such enactment, and to give it full effect, I do hereby order and
proclaim that no plea of alienage will be received or allowed to
exempt from the obligations imposed by the aforesaid act of Congress
any person of foreign birth who shall have declared on oath his
intention to become a citizen of the United States under the laws
thereof, and who shall be found within the United States at any time
during the continuance of the present insurrection and rebellion, at
or after the expiration of the period of sixty-five days from the
date of this proclamation; nor shall any such plea of alienage be
allowed in favor of any such person who has so, as aforesaid,
declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and
shall have exercised at any time the right of suffrage, or any other
political franchise, within the United States, under the laws
thereof, or under the laws of any of the several States.
In witness 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 eighth day of May, in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the
independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.