License of Commercial Intercourse1Jump to section
March 31, 1863.
Whereas, by the act of Congress approved July 13, 1861, entitled ``An act to provide for the collection of duties on imports, and for other purposes,'' all commercial intercourse between the inhabitants of such States as should by proclamation be declared in insurrection against the United States and the citizens of the rest of the United States, was prohibited so long as such conditions of hostility should continue, except as the same shall be licensed and permitted by the President to be conducted and carried on only in pursuance of rules and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury; and whereas it appears that a partial restoration of such intercourse between the inhabitants of sundry places and sections heretofore declared in insurrection in pursuance of said act, and the citizens of the rest of the United States, will favorably affect the public interests:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, exercising the authority and discretion confided to me by the said act of Congress, do hereby license and permit such commercial intercourse between the citizens of loyal States and the inhabitants of such insurrectionary States in the cases and under the restrictions described and expressed in the regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, bearing even date with these presents, or in such other regulations as he may hereafter, with my approval, prescribe. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
Annotation
[1] NH, VIII, 238-39.