s
should by proclamation be declared in insurrection against the United
States and the citizens of the rest of the United States was prohibited
so long as such condition of hostility should continue, except as the
same shall be licensed and permitted by the President to be conducted and
carried on only in pursuance of rules and regulations prescribed by the
Secretary of the Treasury; and:

Whereas it appears that a partial restoration of such intercourse between
the inhabitants of sundry places and sections heretofore declared in
insurrection in pursuance of said act and the citizens of the rest of the
United States will favorably affect the public interests:

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States,
exercising the authority and discretion confided to me by the said act of
Congress, do hereby license and permit such commercial intercourse between
the citizens of loyal States and the inhabitants of such insurrectionary
States in the cases and under the restrictions described and expressed in
the regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury bearing
even date with these presents, or in such other regulations as he may
hereafter, with my approval, prescribe.

A. LINCOLN.

TO GENERAL D. HUNTER.

(Private.) EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C April 1, 1863.

MAJOR-GENERAL HUNTER.

MY DEAR SIR:--I am glad to see the accounts of your colored force at
Jacksonville, Florida. I see the enemy are driving at them fiercely, as is
to be expected. It is important to the enemy that such a force shall not
take shape and grow and thrive in the South, and in precisely the same
proportion it is important to us that it shall. Hence the utmost caution
and vigilance is necessary on our part. The enemy will make extra efforts
to destroy them, and we should do the same to preserve and increase them.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN.

PROCLAMATION ABOUT COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE, APRIL 2, 1863

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A Proclamation.

Whereas, in pursuance of the act of Congress approved July 13, 1861, I
did, by proclamation dated August 16, 1861, declare that the inhabitants
of the States of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina,
Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida
(except the inhabitants of that part of Virginia lying west of the
Alleghany Mountains, and of such other parts of that State and the other
States h