Whereas in my proclamation of the 27th 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, Va., 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 States, 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.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 24th day of September, A.D. 1863,
and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.