4.  Spanish merchant vessels in any ports or places within the United States shall be allowed till May 21, 1898, inclusive, for loading their cargoes and departing from such ports or places; and such Spanish merchant vessels, if met at sea by any United States ship, shall be permitted to continue their voyage if on examination of their papers it shall appear that their cargoes were taken on board before the expiration of the above term:  Provided, That nothing herein contained shall apply to Spanish vessels having on board any officer in the military or naval service of the enemy, or any coal (except such as may be necessary for their voyage), or any other article prohibited or contraband of war, or any dispatch of or to the Spanish Government.

5.  Any Spanish merchant vessel which prior to April 21, 1898, shall have sailed from any foreign port bound for any port or place in the United States shall be permitted to enter such port or place and to discharge her cargo, and afterwards forthwith to depart without molestation; and any such vessel, if met at sea by any United States ship, shall be permitted to continue her voyage to any port not blockaded.

6.  The right of search is to be exercised with strict regard for the rights of neutrals, and the voyages of mail steamers are not to be interfered with except on the clearest grounds of suspicion of a violation of law in respect of contraband or blockade.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington on the 26th day of April, A.D. 1898, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and twenty-second.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

By the President: 
  ALVEY A. ADEE,
    Acting Secretary of State.

[Footnote 26:  See p. 201.]

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas an act of Congress was approved on the 25th day of April, 1898,[27] entitled “An act declaring that war exists between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Spain;” and

Whereas by an act of Congress entitled “An act to provide for temporarily increasing the military establishment of the United States in time of war and for other purposes,” approved April 22, 1898, the President is authorized, in order to raise a volunteer army, to issue his proclamation calling for volunteers to serve in the Army of the United States: 

Now, therefore, I, William McKinley, President of the United States, by virtue of the power vested in me by the Constitution and the laws, and deeming sufficient occasion to exist, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, volunteers to the aggregate number of 75,000 in addition to the volunteers called forth by my proclamation of the 23d of April, in the present year,[28] the same to be apportioned, as far as practicable, among the several States and Territories and the District of Columbia according to population and to serve for two years unless sooner discharged.  The proportion of each arm and the details of enlistment and organization will be made known through the War Department.  In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.