Now, therefore, to the end that the authority of the laws may be maintained, and that those concerned, directly or indirectly, in any insurrection or combination against the same may be duly warned, I have issued this my proclamation, hereby commanding such insurgents and all concerned in such combination instantly and without delay to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes.  And I do hereby further require and command all officers having authority, civil or military, and all other persons, civil or military, who shall be found within the vicinage of such insurrections or combinations to be aiding and assisting by all the means in their power, by force of arms or otherwise, to quell and subdue such insurrections or combinations, to seize upon all those therein concerned who shall not instantly and without delay disperse and retire to their respective abodes, and to deliver them over to the civil authority of the place, to be proceeded against according to law.

[SEAL.]

In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand.

Given at the city of Washington, the 19th day of April, 1808, and in the year of the Sovereignty and Independence of the United States the thirty-second.

TH.  JEFFERSON.

By the President: 
  JAMES MADISON,
    Secretary of State.

EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

NOVEMBER 8, 1808.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: 

It would have been a source, fellow-citizens, of much gratification if our last communications from Europe had enabled me to inform you that the belligerent nations, whose disregard of neutral rights has been so destructive to our commerce, had become awakened to the duty and true policy of revoking their unrighteous edicts.  That no means might be omitted to produce this salutary effect, I lost no time in availing myself of the act authorizing a suspension, in whole or in part, of the several embargo laws.  Our ministers at London and Paris were instructed to explain to the respective Governments there our disposition to exercise the authority in such manner as would withdraw the pretext on of which the aggressions were originally founded and open the way for a renewal of that commercial intercourse which it was alleged on all sides had been reluctantly obstructed.  As each of those Governments had pledged its readiness to concur in renouncing a measure which reached its adversary through the incontestable rights of neutrals only, and as the measure had been assumed by each as a retaliation for an asserted acquiescence in the aggressions of the other, it was reasonably expected that the occasion would have been seized by both for evincing the sincerity of their professions, and for restoring to the commerce of the United States its legitimate freedom.