Hayes' July 21 Proclamation: A Manifesto Against Domestic Violence

On July 21, 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes issued a proclamation ordering all strikers to disperse and return home. He noted that a state of "domestic violence" existed in Cumberland, Maryland, and "along the line" of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

THE PRESIDENT'S PROCLAMATION

A MANIFESTO AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE—THE RIOTERS ON THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO ROAD COMANDED TO DISPERSE BY NOON TO-DAY.

WASHINGTON,
July 21.—The following proclamation was issued this afternoon:

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, It is provided in the Constitution of the United States that the United States shall protect every State in the Union on application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence; and

Whereas, the Governor of the State of Maryland has represented to me that domestic violence exists in said State at Cumberland and along the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in said State, which the authorities of said State are unable to suppress; and

Whereas, the laws of the United States require that in all cases of insurrection in any State or of obstruction to the laws thereof, whenever in the judgment of the President it becomes necessary to use the military force to suppress such insurrection or obstruction to the laws, he shall forthwith by proclamation command such insurgents to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within a limited time.

Now, therefore, I, Rutherford B. Hayes, President of the United States, do hereby admonish all good citizens of the United States, and all persons within the territory and jurisdiction of the United States, against aiding, countenancing, abetting or taking part in such unlawful proceedings; and I do hereby warn all persons engaged in or connected with said domestic violence and obstruction of the laws, to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes on or before twelve o'clock noon, of the twenty-second day of July instant. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington this 21st day of July, in the year of our Lord, 1877, and of the independence of the United States of America the one hundred and second.

By the President—
R. B. Hayes
WM. M. EVARTS.