ssness of the civil authority, the total
insecurity of life, and the devastation of property by bands of
murderers and marauders, who infest nearly every county in the
State, and avail themselves of the public misfortunes and the
vicinity of a hostile force to gratify private and neighborhood
vengeance, and who find an enemy wherever they find plunder,
finally demand the severest measures to repress the daily
increasing crimes and outrages which are driving off the
inhabitants and ruining the State. In this condition, the public
safety and the success of our arms require unity of purpose,
without let or hindrance to the prompt administration of affairs.

"In order, therefore, to suppress disorders, to maintain, as far
as now practicable, the public peace, and to give security and
protection to the persons and property of loyal citizens, I do
hereby extend and declare established martial law throughout the
Stale of Missouri. The lines of the army of occupation in this
State are, for the present, declared to extend from Leavenworth,
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 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 shall be directly proven to have taken
active part with their enemies in the field, is declared to be
confiscated to the public use; and their slaves, if any they
have, are hereby declared free men.

"All persons who shall be proven to have destroyed, after the
publication of this order, railroad tracks, bridges, or
telegraphs, shall suffer the extreme penalty of the law.

"All persons engaged in treasonable correspondence, in giving or
procuring aid to the enemies of the United States, in disturbing
the public tranquillity by creating and circulating false reports
or incendiary documents, are in their own interest warned that
they are exposing themselves.

"All persons who have been led away from their allegiance are
required to return to their homes forthwith; any such absence,
without sufficient cause, will be held to be presumptive e