Selected Correspondance of Abraham Lincoln 1863 Proclamation Opening The Port Of Alexandria, Virginia
by Abraham Lincoln
SEPTEMBER 24, 1863.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
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 said 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 Sates, pursuant to the authority in me vested by the fifth
section of the act of Congress, approved on the 13th 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 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 12th 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 one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three,
and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.
