Whereas it has been the desire of the General Government of the United
States to restore unrestricted commercial intercourse between and in the
several States as soon as the same could be safely done in view of
resistance to the authority of the United States by combinations of
armed insurgents; and
Whereas that desire has been shown in my proclamations of the 29th of
April, 1865, the 13th of June, 1865, and the 23d of June, 1865; and
Whereas it now seems expedient and proper to remove restrictions upon
internal, domestic, and coastwise trade and commercial intercourse
between and within the States and Territories west of the Mississippi
River:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Andrew Johnson, President of the
United States, do hereby declare that all restrictions upon internal,
domestic, and coastwise intercourse and trade and upon the purchase and
removal of products of States and parts of States and Territories
heretofore declared in insurrection, lying west of the Mississippi River
(excepting only those relating to property heretofore purchased by the
agents or captured by or surrendered to the forces of the United States
and to the transportation thereto or therein on private account of arms,
ammunition, all articles from which ammunition is made, gray uniforms,
and gray cloth), are annulled; and I do hereby direct that they be
forthwith removed, and also that the commerce of such States and parts
of States shall be conducted under the supervision of the regularly
appointed officers of the customs, [who] shall receive any captured and
abandoned property that may be turned over to them under the law by the
military or naval forces of the United States and dispose of the same in
accordance with instructions on the subject issued by the Secretary of
the Treasury.
In testimony 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 24th day of June, A.D. 1865, and of
the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth.