Whereas by my proclamation of the 19th of April, 1861, it was declared
that the ports of certain States, including those of Beaufort, in the
State of North Carolina; Port Royal, in the State of South Carolina; and
New Orleans, in the State of Louisiana, were, for reasons therein set
forth, intended to be placed under blockade; and
Whereas the said ports of Beaufort, Port Royal, and New Orleans have
since been blockaded; but as the blockade of the same ports 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 13th of July last,
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 ports of Beaufort, Port Royal, and New Orleans shall so far
cease and determine, from and after the 1st day of June next, that
commercial intercourse with those ports, except as to persons, things,
and information contraband of war, may from that time 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 of this date, which is appended to this
proclamation.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 12th day of May, A.D. 1862, and of
the Independence of the United States the eighty-sixth.