Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 5 [Oct. 24, 1861-Dec. 12, 1862].

About this Item

Title: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 5 [Oct. 24, 1861-Dec. 12, 1862].
Author: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865.
Publication: New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press; 1953.
Rights/Permissions: The University of Michigan Library provides access to these materials for educational and research purposes, with permission from their copyright holder. If you decide to use any of these materials, you are responsible for making your own legal assessment and securing any necessary permission.
Cite this Item: "Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 5 [Oct. 24, 1861-Dec. 12, 1862]." In the digital collection Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/lincoln5. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 6, 2024.

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Authorization for the Pembroke1Jump to section

[October 28, 1861]

Abraham Lincoln,

President of the United States of America

To all whom these presents may concern

Greeting:

Know Ye, that, whereas, by the first section of the Act of Congress approved the 5th. of August last, entitled ``An Act supplementary, to an Act entitled `An act to protect the commerce of the United States, and Punish the Crime of Piracy,''' it is enacted ``That any vessel or boat which shall be built, purchased, fitted out in whole or in part, or held for the purpose of being employed in the commission of any piratical aggression, search, restraint, depredation, or seizure, or in the commission of any other act of piracy, as defined by the law of nations, shall be liable to be captured and brought into any port of the United States if found upon the high seas, or to be seized if found in any port or place within the United States, whether the same shall have actually sailed upon any piratical expedition or not, and whether any act of piracy shall have been committed or attempted upon or from such vessel or boat or not; and any such vessel or boat may be adjudged and condemned, if captured by a vessel authorized as herein after mentioned, to the use of the United States and to that of the captors, and if seized by a collector, surveyor, or marshal, then to the use of the United States, after due process and trial, in like manner

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as is provided in section four of the act to which this act is supplementary, which section is hereby made in all respects applicable to cases arising under this act.''

And whereas by the second section of the same Act, the President of the United States is authorized to instruct the commander of any suitable vessel to subdue, seize, take, and, if on the high seas, to send into any port of the United States any vessel or boat, built, purchased, fitted out or held as in the said first section mentioned:

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in pursuance of the authority thus in me vested, do hereby authorize the propeller Pembroke, owned by R. B. Forbes of Boston and commanded by to take any vessel or boat, built, purchased or fitted out as aforesaid, and for so doing, this shall be his warrant.

[L.S.]

Given under my hand and the seal of the United States at Washington this twenty-eighth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty one, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-sixth.

By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

Annotation

[1] Copy, DNA WR NB RG 45, Executive Letters, No. 96a.

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