Proclamation 46A—Warning Against Lawless Incursions Into Canada

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

Whereas it has come to the knowledge of the Government of the United States that sundry secret lodges, clubs, or associations exist on the northern frontier; that the members of these lodges are bound together by secret oaths; that they have collected firearms and other military materials and secreted them in sundry places; and that it is their purpose to violate the laws of their country by making military and lawless incursions, when opportunity shall offer, into the territories of a power with which the United States are at peace; and

Whereas it is known that traveling agitators, from both sides of the line, visit these lodges and harangue the members in secret meeting, stimulating them to illegal acts; and

Whereas the same persons are known to levy contributions on the ignorant and gradulous for their own benefit, thus supporting and enriching themselves the basest means; and

Whereas lawful intentions of the members of these lodges have already been manifested in an attempt to destroy the lives and property of the inhabitants of Chippewa, in Canada, and the public property of the British Government there being:

Now, therefore, I, John Tyler President of the United States, do issue this my proclamation, admonishing all such evil-minded persons of the condign punishment which is certain to overtake them; assuring them that the laws of the United States will be rigorously executed against their illegal acts, and that if in any lawless incursion into Canada they fall into the hands of the British authorities they will not be reclaimed as American citizens nor any interference made by this Government in their behalf. And I exhort all well-meaning but deluded persons who may have joined these lodges immediately to abandon them and to have nothing more to do with their secret meetings or unlawful oaths, as they would avoid serious consequences to themselves. And I expect the intelligent and well-disposed members of the community to frown on all these unlawful combinations and illegal proceedings, and to assist the Government in maintaining the peace of the country against the mischievous consequences of the acts of these violators of the law.

Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, the 25th day of September, A. D. 1841, and of the Independence of the United States the sixty-sixth.

JOHN TYLER.

By the President

DANIEL WEBSTER,

Secretary of State.