Office of the Historian

No. 1315.]

By the President of the United States of America

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, a Joint Resolution of Congress, approved March 14th, 1912,54 reads and provides as follows:—“That whenever the President shall find that in any American country conditions of domestic violence exist which are promoted by the use of arms or munitions of war procured from the United States, and shall make proclamation [Page 781] thereof, it shall be unlawful to export except under such limitations and exceptions as the President shall prescribe any arms or munitions of war from any place in the United States to such country until otherwise ordered by the President or by Congress”;

And whereas, it is provided by Section II of the said Joint Resolution, “That any shipment of material hereby declared unlawful after such a proclamation shall be punishable by fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding two years, or both”:

Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the Unitd States of America, acting under and by virtue of the authority conferred in me by the said Joint Resolution of Congress, do hereby declare and proclaim that I have found that there exist in Mexico such conditions of domestic violence promoted by the use of arms or munitions of war procured from the United States as contemplated by the said Joint Resolution; and I do hereby admonish all citizens of the United States and every person to abstain from every violation of the provisions of the Joint Resolution above set forth, hereby made applicable to Mexico, and I do hereby warn them that all violations of such provisions will be rigorously prosecuted. And I do hereby enjoin upon all officers of the United States, charged with the execution of the laws thereof, the utmost diligence in preventing violations of the said Joint Resolution and this my Proclamation issued thereunder, and in bringing to trial and punishment any offenders against the same.

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 nineteenth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifteen and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and fortieth.

[seal.]
Woodrow Wilson.

By the President:
Robert Lansing,
Secretary of State.

  1. For. Rel. 1912, p. 745.↩