In consideration of these circumstances and of the right of every nation
to regulate its own police, to provide for its peace and for the safety
of its citizens, and consequently to refuse the admission of armed
vessels into its harbors or waters, either in such numbers or of such
descriptions as are inconsistent with these or with the maintenance
of the authority of the laws, I have thought proper, in pursuance of
the authorities specially given by law, to issue this my proclamation,
hereby requiring all armed vessels bearing commissions under the
Government of Great Britain now within the harbors or waters of the
United States immediately and without any delay to depart from the same,
and interdicting the entrance of all the said harbors and waters to the
said armed vessels and to all others bearing commissions under the
authority of the British Government.
And if the said vessels, or any of them, shall fail to depart as
aforesaid, or if they or any others so interdicted shall hereafter
enter the harbors or waters aforesaid, I do in that case forbid all
intercourse with them, or any of them, their officers or crews, and
do prohibit all supplies and aid from being furnished to them, or any
of them.
And I do declare and make known that if any person from or within the
jurisdictional limits of the United States shall afford any aid to any
such vessel contrary to the prohibition contained in this proclamation,
either in repairing any such vessel or in furnishing her, her officers
or crew, with supplies of any kind or in any manner whatsoever; or if
any pilot shall assist in navigating any of the said armed vessels,
unless it be for the purpose of carrying them in the first instance
beyond the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, or unless it
be in the case of a vessel forced by distress or charged with public
dispatches, as hereinafter provided for, such person or persons shall
on conviction suffer all the pains and penalties by the laws provided
for such offenses.
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