Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

“ [372] the means which the laws of nations and usages of civilized warfare placed at its disposal.” He therefore invited all persons who desired to engage in the business of legalized piracy known as privateering, by depredating upon the commerce of the United States, to apply to him for authority to do so, when it would be given, under certain restrictions which were set forth in the proclamation. He also enjoined all persons holding offices, civil or military, under his authority, to be vigilant and zealous in their duties; and exhorted the people of the “Confederate States,” as they loved their country, as they prized the blessings of free government, as they felt the wrongs of the past, and others then threatened in an aggravated form, by those whose enmity was “more implacable, because unprovoked, to exert themselves in preserving order, in promoting concord, in maintaining the authority and efficacy of the laws, and in supporting and invigorating all the measures which may have been adopted for a common defense, and by which, under the blessing of Divine Providence,” they might “hope for a speedy, just, and honorable peace.”

The President at once met the proclamation of Davis, by declaring that he should immediately employ a competent force to blockade all the ports of States claimed as belonging to the Southern Confederacy; and also, that if any person, under the pretended authority of such States, or under any other pretense, should molest a vessel of the United States, or the persons or cargo on board of her, such persons should be held amenable to the laws of the United States for the prevention and punishment of piracy.¹

Davis had already summoned

April 12, 1861.

the so-called Congress of the Confederate States to meet at Montgomery on the 29th of April. That body, on the 6th of May, passed an Act with fifteen sections, “recognizing the existence of war between the United States and the Confederate States; and concerning letters of marque, prizes, and prize goods.” ² The preamble declared that the “Confederate States” had made earnest efforts to establish friendly relations between themselves and the United States; but that the Government of the latter had not only refused to hold any intercourse with the former, as a government in fact, but had prepared to make war upon them, and had avowed an intention of blockading their ports. Such being the case, they declared that war existed between the “two governments,” and in accordance with a cherished design of Davis, which he hinted at in his “inaugural address” at Montgomery,³ and had openly announced in his proclamation on the 17th, they authorized the “President of the Confederate States” to use their whole land and naval force “to meet the war thus commenced, and to issue to private armed vessels commissions or letters of marque and general reprisal, in such form as he shall think proper, under the seal of the Confederate States, against the vessels, goods, and effects of the Government of the United States, and of the citizens or inhabitants of the States and Territories thereof.” ⁴ The tenth