A Proclamation.
whereas, in my Proclamation of the twenty-seventh of April, 1861, the ports of the States of
Virginia and
North-Carolina were for reasons therein set forth, placed under blockade; and, whereas, the port of
Alexandria, Virginia, has since been blockaded, but as the blockade of that port may now be safely relaxed, with advantage to the interests of commerce; now, therefore, be it known that I,
Abraham Lincoln,
President of the
United States, pursuant to the authority in me vested by the fifth section of the Act of Congress, approved on the thirteenth of July, 1861, entitled “An Act further to provide for the collection of duties on imports, and for other purposes,” do hereby declare that the blockade of the said port of
Alexandria shall so far cease and determine from and after this date; that commercial intercourse with the said port, except as to persons, things, and information, contraband of war, may from this date be carried on, subject to the laws of the
United States, and to the limitations, and in pursuance of the regulations which are prescribed by the
Secretary of the Treasury, in his order, which is appended to my proclamation of the tenth of May, 1862.
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 twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord 1862, and of the independence of the
United States the eighty-third.
