And, furthermore, in case any State or number of States shall fail to furnish by the fifteenth day of June next their assigned quotas, it is hereby ordered that the same be raised by immediate and peremptory draft. The details for this object will be communicated to the State authorities through the War Department.
I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of the National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government.
In witness 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 17th day of May, one thousand, eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
Abraham Lincoln.
By the President:
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
This was immediately contradicted by the Government, as follows:
To the Public.
Department of State, Washington, D. C.
May 18, 1864.
A paper purporting to be a proclamation of the President, countersigned by the Secretary of State, and bearing date of the 17th inst. is reported to this Department as having appeared in the New York "World" of this date. This paper is an absolute forgery. No proclamation of this kind has been made, or proposed to be made, by the President, or issued, or proposed to be issued, by the State Department, or any other Department of the Government.
Wm. H. Seward,
Secretary of State.