Proclamation 1606

by Warren G. Harding

By the President of the United States of America A PROCLAMATION. Whereas, the governor of the State of West Virginia has represented that domestic violence exists in said State, which the authorities of said State are unable to suppress; and Whereas, it is provided in the Constitution of the United States that the United States shall protect each state in this Union on application of the legislature or the executive when the legislature cannot be convened, against domestic violence; and Whereas, by the law of the United States, in pursuance of the above, it is provided that in all cases of insurrection in any state or of obstruction to the laws thereof it shall be lawful for the President of the United States, on application of the legislature of such state or the executive when the legislature cannot be convened, to call forth the militia of any other state or states or to employ such part of the land and naval forces of the United States as shall be judged necessary for the purpose of suppressing such insurrection and causing the laws to be duly executed; and Whereas, the legislature of the State of West Virginia is not now in session and cannot be convened in time to meet the present emergency and the executive of said State, under section 4 of Article IV of the Constitution of the United States and the laws passed in pursuance thereof, has made due application to me in the premises for such part of the military forces of the United States as may be necessary and adequate to protect the State of West Virginia and the citizens thereof against domestic violence and to enforce the due execution of the laws; and Whereas, it is required that whenever it may be necessary in the judgment of the President to use the military forces of the United States for the purposes aforesaid, he shall forthwith by proclamation command such insurgents to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective homes within a limited time; Now, therefore, I, Warren G. Harding, President of the United States, do hereby make proclamation and I do hereby command all persons engaged in said unlawful and insurrectionary proceedings to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes on or before twelve o’clock noon, on the first day of September, nineteen hundred and twenty one, and hereafter abandon said combinations and submit themselves to the laws and constituted authorities of said state; And I invoke the aid and co-operation of all good citizens thereof to uphold the laws and preserve the public peace. Warren G. Harding By the President: Charles Evans Hughes, Secretary of State.