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president AbrAHAm lincoln A proclAmAtion, April 15, 1861 Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers university Press, 1953), 4:331–32. At 4:30 a.m. on Friday, April 12, 1861, the Confederate artillery batteries surrounding federal Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, started their bombardment. During the 1860–1861 session winter, the formation of the so-called Confederacy, the start of Abraham lincoln’s administration, and the question of whether Confederate forces would allow the last federal installation in the South, Fort Sumter, to be resupplied all came to a head with the start of the military action that Friday morning. After thirty-four hours of bombardment, the commanding officer in Fort Sumter, Kentuckian major Robert Anderson, agreed to a cease-fire on the condition that the formal surrender occur the next day after a salute to the united States flag; Confederate authorities agreed. on Sunday, April 14, Anderson surrendered the fort. The following day, monday, April 15, President lincoln called upon the states to send the federal government 75,000 troops to deal with the crisis and “to re-possess the forts, places, and property which have been seized from the union.” He urged those in rebellion to cease their actions within twenty days and called Congress into special session; not right away, but on the symbolic date of July 4, 1861. In response to the outbreak of violence in Charleston by the Confederates and to lincoln’s actions in calling up the militia to use force against the secessionists, the voters of the upper South, led by their fire-eater politicians, decided on secession. Preserving what the Founders had established —the union—became lincoln’s primary war goal, and it remained so throughout the war. By the President of the united States: A Proclamation. Whereas the laws of the united States have been for some time past, and now are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in the States of South Documentary History of the American Civil War era 38 Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, mississippi, louisiana and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings , or by the powers vested in the marshals by law, Now therefore, I, Abraham lincoln, President of the united States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution, and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the several States of the union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed. The details, for this object, will be immediately communicated to the State authorities through the War Department. I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National union, and the perpetuity of popular government; and to redress wrongs already long enough endured. I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby called forth will probably be to re-possess the forts, places, and property which have been seized from the union; and in every event, the utmost care will be observed, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or interference with, property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the country. And I hereby command the persons composing the combinations aforesaid to disperse, and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within twenty days from this date. Deeming that the present condition of public affairs presents an extraordinary occasion, I do hereby, in virtue of the power in me vested by the constitution , convene both Houses of Congress. Senators and Representatives are therefore summoned to assemble at their respective chambers, at 12 o’clock, noon, on Thursday, the fourth day of July, next, then and there to consider and determine, such measures, as, in their wisdom, the public safety, and interest may seem to demand. 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 fifteenth day of April in the year of our lord one thousand, eight hundred and Sixty-one, and of the Independence of the united States the eighty-fifth. [l.S.] Abraham lincoln. By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State. ...

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