Whereas by the proclamation of the President of the 11th day of April
last certain ports of the United States therein specified, which had
previously been subject to blockade, were, for objects of public safety,
declared, in conformity with previous special legislation of Congress,
to be closed against foreign commerce during the national will, to be
thereafter expressed and made known by the President; and
Whereas events and circumstances have since occurred which, in my
judgment, render it expedient to remove that restriction, except as to
the ports of Galveston, La Salle, Brazos de Santiago (Point Isabel), and
Brownsville, in the State of Texas:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Andrew Johnson, President of the
United States, do hereby declare that the ports aforesaid, not excepted
as above, shall be open to foreign commerce from and after the 1st day
of July next; that commercial intercourse with the said ports may from
that time be carried on, subject to the laws of the United States and in
pursuance of such regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of
the Treasury. If, however, any vessel from a foreign port shall enter
any of the before-named excepted ports in the State of Texas, she will
continue to be held liable to the penalties prescribed by the act of
Congress approved on the 13th day of July, 1861, and the persons on
board of her to such penalties as may be incurred, pursuant to the laws
of war, for trading or attempting to trade with an enemy.
And I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby declare
and make known that the United States of America do henceforth disallow
to all persons trading or attempting to trade in any ports of the United
States in violation of the laws thereof all pretense of belligerent
rights and privileges; and I give notice that from the date of this
proclamation all such offenders will be held and dealt with as pirates.
It is also ordered that all restrictions upon trade heretofore imposed
in the territory of the United States east of the Mississippi River,
save those relating to contraband of war, to the reservation of the
rights of the United States to property purchased in the territory of an
enemy, and to the 25 per cent upon purchases of cotton be removed. All
provisions of the internal-revenue law will be carried into effect under
the proper officers.
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 22d day of May, A.D. 1865, and of
the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth.