public of Nicaragua, under date of the
28th of November, 1863, that no other or higher duties of tonnage and
impost have been imposed or levied since the second day of August, 1838,
in the ports of Nicaragua, upon vessels wholly belonging to citizens of
the United States, and upon the produce, manufactures, or merchandise
imported in the same from the United States, and from any foreign country
whatever, than are levied on Nicaraguan ships and their cargoes in the
same ports under like circumstances:

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of
America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several acts
imposing discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the United
States are, and shall be, suspended and discontinued so far as respects
the vessels of Nicaragua, and the produce, manufactures, and the
merchandise imported into the United States in the same from the dominions
of Nicaragua, and from any other foreign country whatever; the said
suspension to take effect from the day above mentioned, and to continue
thenceforward so long as the reciprocal exemption of the vessels of the
United States, and the produce, manufactures, and merchandise imported
into the dominions of Nicaragua in the same, as aforesaid, shall be
continued on the part of the government of Nicaragua.

Given under my hand at the city of Washington, the sixteenth day
of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three, and the eighty-eighth of the Independence of the United
States.

A. LINCOLN.

By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

MESSAGE TO CONGRESS,

DECEMBER 17, 1863.

TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES:

Herewith I lay before you a letter addressed to myself by a committee of
gentlemen representing the freedmen's aid societies in Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. The subject of the letter, as indicated
above, is one of great magnitude and importance, and one which these
gentlemen, of known ability and high character, seem to have considered
with great attention and care. Not having the time to form a mature
judgment of my own as to whether the plan they suggest is the best, I
submit the whole subject to Congress, deeming that their attention thereto
is almost imperatively demanded.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL HURLBUT.

[Cipher.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., Decem