Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1861-09-06
Proclamation from Gen. FIRE.
mont-Martial Law in Mis-
SO11ri


souri,.
ST. LOUIS, Saturday, August 81.
The following proclamation was is
sued this morning:
HEADoUARTEs, WESTERN DEPARTMENT,
ST. LOUIS, FRIDAY, August 80.
circumstances, IN my judgment,
render it necessary that the Command
ing General of this Depar tment should
assume the administrative power of the
State.
"Its disorganized condition, the total
insecurity OF life, and the devastation
of property by bands of murderers and
lnarauders who infest nearly every
county in the State, and avail them
selves Of the public misfortunes and the
vicinity Of a hostile force, to crafty pri-
vate and neighborhood vengeance, and
who find an enemy wherever they find
plunder, finally demand the severest
measures ro repress the daily increasing
crimes and outrages which are driving
off the inhabitants and running the State.
"ln this condition the public safety
and the success Of our arms require
unity Of purpose, without let or hind
rance to the prompt administration of
affairs.
''ln order, therefore, to suppress dis
order, to maintain, as far as is now
practicable, the public peace, and to
give security and protection to the per-
sons and property of loyal citizens, do
hereby extend and declare established
martial law throughout the State of
Missouri.
''The lines of the army of occupation
in this State are for the present declared
to extend from Leayenworth, by way of
the posts of Jefferson City, Rolla, and
Ironton, to Cape Girardeau, on the
Mississippi river.
"All persons who shall be taken with
arms in their hands within these lines
shall be tried by a Court Martial, and, if
found guilty, will be shot.
"The property, real and personal, of
all persons in the State of Missouri, who
shall take up arms against the United
States, or who shall be directly proven
to have taken an active part with their
enemies in the field, is declared to be
confscated to the public use, and their
slaves, if any they have, are hereby de-
clared free men.
'All persons who shall be proven to
have destroyed (after publication of this
order railroad tracks, bridges or tele-
graphs, shall suffer the extreme penalty
of this law.
"All persons engaged in reasonable
correspondence, in giving or procuring
aid to the enemies of the United States,
in fomenting tumults, in disturbing the
public tranquility by creating and cir
culating false reports, Or incendiary doc
uments, are, for their own interest,
warned that they are exposing them
selves to severe and sudden punishment.
"All persons who have been led away
from their allegiance are required to re-
turn forthwith to their homes, and any
such absence, without sufficient cause,
will be held to be presumptive evidence
against them.
"The object of this declaration is to
place in the hands of the military au-
thorities the power to give instantaneous
effect to existing laws and to supply
such deficiencies as the conditions Of
war demand; but it is not intended to
suspend the ordinary tribunals of the
country, where the law will be admins
tered by the civil officers in the usual
manner and with their customary au-
thority while the same can be peaceably
exercised
''The Commanding General will labor
for. the public welfare, and in
his efforts for their safety, hopes to OBJ
tain not only the acquiescence, but the
active support of the people Of the
country.
~. C. FREMONT,
"Major General Commanding"