qual footing with the
original States.

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 31st day of October, A.D. 1864,
and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
_Secretary of State_.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas by my proclamation of the 19th of April, 1861, it was declared
that the ports of certain States, including those of Norfolk, in the
State of Virginia, Fernandina and Pensacola, in the State of Florida,
were, for reasons therein set forth, intended to be placed under
blockade; and

Whereas the said ports were subsequently blockaded accordingly, but
having for some time past been in the military possession of the United
States, it is deemed advisable that they should be opened to domestic
and foreign 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 ports of Norfolk, Fernandina, and Pensacola shall so far cease
and determine, from and after the 1st day of December next, that
commercial intercourse with those ports, except as to persons, things,
and information contraband of war, may from that time be carried on,
subject to the laws of the United States, to the limitations and in
pursuance of the regulations which may be prescribed by the Secretary of
the Treasury, and to such military and naval regulations as are now in
force or may hereafter be found necessary.

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 19th day of November, A.D. 1864,
and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
_Secretary of State_.

EXECUTIVE ORDERS.

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

_Washington, D.C., December 7, 1863_.

Reliable information being received that the insurgent force is
retreating from east Tennessee under circumstances rendering it probable
that the Union forces can not herea