SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The document in which Abraham Lincoln launched the Union military response to the outbreak of the Civil War is now among Illinois’ most prized papers on the 16th president, thanks to a donation from the state’s governor and first lady.
The order to prevent the Confederacy from shipping economically vital cotton or importing critical supplies was signed on April 19, 1861 – a week after secessionist forces fired on Fort Sumter at the entrance to Charleston Harbor in South Carolina.
An anonymous collector who owned the document put it up for auction, where Governor JB Pritzker and his wife, MK Pritzker, purchased it. The Pritzkers were scheduled to visit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield later Tuesday, where the artifact will be housed.
“This document — and the museum as a whole — serves as a reminder of how far we have come,” the Democratic multibillionaire governor said in a statement obtained in advance by The Associated Press. “Despite our divisions and challenges, more than 150 years later, our nation continues to survive.”
Assemblymember Pritzker said the newspaper is a testament to Lincoln’s “unwavering commitment to justice” and encouraged a visit to the museum to explore Illinois history “and the ways in which it is intertwined with the history of our nation.”
The purchase price was not disclosed, but the document is listed online and was sold by Heritage Auctions in July 2023 for $471,000.
The ‘Blockade Proclamation’ called on the Union to demonstrate its naval strength by cutting off shipping at ports in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas and formed the eastern part of General Winfield’s plan Scott for him in the Confederacy. In the western part, Union troops steamed down the Mississippi River to halve the secession. Critics seeking a more aggressive attack derisively dubbed it the “Anaconda Plan,” conjuring up images of a snake slowly suffocating its victim. The name stuck.
Virginia had seceded on April 17, but the state, along with North Carolina after it seceded from the Union on May 20, was later added to the blockade order.
“The terrible violence of the Civil War began with attacks on American troops. President Lincoln had to respond or accept that the nation had been torn in two, condemning millions of people to perpetual slavery,” Christina Shutt, executive director of the Presidential Library and Museum, said in a statement. “This incredible document represents Lincoln saying that America is worth fighting to save.”
Lincoln had to proceed cautiously, because a declaration of war would have meant taking up arms against his own people, but would also have legitimized the Confederacy as a nation that could establish international diplomatic ties. A blockade, he argued, was only a necessary step to put down an internal uprising.
The announcement of the blockade will be on display from Wednesday in the museum’s light- and climate-controlled Treasures Gallery. It will be on display until February 2025.