GENERAL ORDERS, 
No. 233. 
WAR DEPARTMENT, 
ADJUTANT GENERAL’S OFFICE, 
Washington, July 19, 1864. 
By the President of the United States of America. 
A PROCLAMATION. 
To suspend writ of habeas corpus, and establishing martial law in 
Kentucky. 
Whereas, by a proclamation which was issued on the loth day of 
April, 1801, the President of the United States announced and de- 
clared that the laws of the United States had been for some time 
past, and then were, opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, 
in certain States therein mentioned, by combinations too powerful 
to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or 
by the powers vested in the Marshals by law ; 
And whereas, immediately after the issuing of the said proclama- 
tion, the land and naval forces of the United States were put into 
activity to suppress the said insurrection and rebellion ; 
And whereas, the Congress of the United States, by an act ap- 
proved on the 3d day of March, 1863, did enact that during the said 
rebellion the President of the United States, whenever in his judg- 
ment the public safety may require it, is authorized to suspend the 
privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in any case throughout the 
United States, or in any part thereof: 
And whereas, the said insurrection and rebellion still continue, 
endangering the existence of the Constitution and Government of 
the United States; 
And whereas, the military forces of the United States are now ac- 
tively engaged in suppressing the said insurrection and rebellion in 
various parts of the States where the said rebellion has been suc- 
cessful in obstructing the laws and public authorities, especially in 
the States of Virginia and Georgia ; 
And whereas, on the fifteenth day of September last, the Presi- 
dent of the United States duly issued his proclamation, wherein he 
declared that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus should be 
suspended throughout the United States in the cases where, by the 
authority of the President of the LTnited States, military, naval, and 
civil officers of the United States, or any of them, hold persons 
under their command or in their custody, either as prisoners of war, 
spies, or aiders or abettors of the enemy, or officers, soldiers, or 2 
seamen enrolled or drafted or mastered or enlisted in, or belonging 
to, the land or naval forces of the United States or as deserters 
therefrom, or otherwise amenable to military law or the Rules and 
Articles of War, or the rules or regulations prescribed for the mili- 
tary or naval services, by authority of the President of the United 
States, or for resisting a draft, or for any other offence against the 
military or naval service; 
And whereas, many citizens of the State of Kentucky have joined 
the forces of the insurgents, and such insurgents have, on several 
occasions, entered the said State of Kentucky in large force, and, 
not without aid and comfort furnished by disaffected and disloyal 
citizens of the United States residing therein, have not only greatly 
disturbed the public peace, but have overborne the civil authorities 
and made flagrant civil war, destroying property and life in various 
parts of that State; 
And whereas, it has been made known to the President of the 
United States by the officers commanding the national armies, that 
combinations have been formed in the said State of Kentucky, with 
a purpose of inciting rebel forces to renew the said operations of 
civil war within the said State, and thereby to embarrass the United 
States armies now operating in the said States of Virginia and 
Georgia, and even to endanger their safety: 
Now. therefore, 1, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United 
States, bj- virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution 
and laws, do hereby declare that, in my judgment, the public safety 
especially requires that the suspension of the privilege of the writ of 
habeas corpus, so proclaimed in the said proclamation of the loth 
of September, 1S(*J, be made effectual and be duly enforced in and 
throughout the said State of Kentucky, and that martial law be for 
the present established therein. 1 do, therefore, hereby require of 
the military officers in the said State that the privileges of the writ 
of habeas corpus be effectually suspended wit hin the said State, ac- 
cording to the aforesaid proclamation, and that martial law be estab- 
lished therein, to take effect from the date of this proclamation, the 
said suspension and establishment of martial law to continue until 
this proclamation shall be revoked or modified, but not beyond the 
period when the said rebellion shall have beeti suppressed or come 
to an end. And 1 do hereby require and command, as well all mili- 
tary officers as all civil officers and authorities existing or found within the said State of Kentucky, to take notice of this proclama- 
tion and to give full effect to the same. 
The martial law herein proclaimed, and the things in that respect 
herein ordered, will not be deemed or taken to interfere with the 
holding of lawful elections, or with the proceedings of the constitu- 
tional Legislature of Kentucky, or with the administration of justice 
in the courts of law existing therein between citizens of the United 
States in suits or proceedings which do not affect the military opera- 
tions or the constituted authorities of the Government of the United 
States. 
fn testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused 
the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the 
[l. s.] city of Washington this fifth day of July, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, and of 
the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth. 
By the President: 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
William H. Seward, 
Secretary of State. 
order of the Secretary of War: 
E. D. TOWNSEND, 
Assistant Adjutant General. 
Official: 
Assistant Adjutant General.