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 twenty-fourth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth.

[L. S.] ANDREW JOHNSON.

By the President:

W. HUNTER,

Acting Secretary of State.

IV. April 29, 1865.-Executive order removing restrictions on trade, except in articles contraband of war, in certain States.

EXECUTIVE CHAMBER,

Washington, April 29, 1865.

Being desirous to relieve all loyal citizens and well-disposed persons residing in insurrectionary States from unnecessary commercial restrictions, and to encourage them to return to peaceful pursuits, it is hereby ordered:

I. That all restrictions upon internal, domestic, and coastwise commercial intercourse be discontinued in such parts of the State of Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and so much of Louisiana as lies east of the Mississippi River as shall be embraced within the lines of national military occupation, excepting only such restrictions as are imposed by acts of Congress and regulations in pursuance thereof, prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury and approved by the President, and excepting also from the effect of this order the following articles contraband of war, to wit, arms, ammunition, all articles from which ammunition is manufactured, gray uniforms and cloth, locomotives, cars, railroad iron, and machinery for operating railroads, telegraph wires, insulators, and instruments for operating telegraph lines.

II. All existing military and naval orders in any manner restricting internal, domestic, and coastwise commercial intercourse and trade with or in the localities above named be, and the same are hereby, revoked; and that no military or naval officer in any manner interrupt or interfere with the same, or with any boats or other vessels engaged therein, under proper authority, pursuant to the regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

V. May 22, 1865.-Reopening of ports, except four in Texas, disallowing belligerent rights in certain cases, and removing certain restriction on trade.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, by the proclamation of the President of the eleventh 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