196 



COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE. 



chief difficulty growing out of the change. The 

 cotton purchased now is not of the same quality 

 as the American, and will not answer the same 

 purposes; moreover, it is to be paid for in 

 money, and not in goods, as was the case with 

 the United States article ; and this fearful drain 

 of money in a new direction, has produced 

 great changes in the financial condition of 

 France and Great Britain, notwithstanding that 

 an improved harvest greatly reduced the pay- 

 ments abroad for food. 



COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE. Exten- 

 sive regulations were adopted by the Govern- 

 ment of the United States relative to trade 

 with the inhabitants within the lines of the 

 army in the insurrectionary States. 



On the 13th of July, 1861, Congress passed 

 an act to provide for the collection of duties on 

 imports and for other purposes, which author- 

 ized the President to issue his proclamation de- 

 claring certain States in insurrection, and pro- 

 hibiting all commercial intercourse with them, 

 except under certain conditions. 



On the 16th of August, 1861, the President, 

 by proclamation, declared certain. States and 

 parts of States to be in insurrection, and that 

 all commercial intercourse with them by citi- 

 zens of other parts of the United States was 

 unlawful, and would remain unlawful until 

 such insurrection should cease or be suppress- 

 ed, and that all goods, &c., coming from or 

 proceeding to any parts of such States without 

 his license through the Secretary of the Treas- 

 ury, would be forfeited. An exception was 

 made to this prohibition in these words : " ex- 

 cept 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 hereinbefore named as might maintain a 

 loyal adhesion to the Union and to the Consti- 

 tution, or might be from time to time occupied 

 and controlled by forces of the United States 

 engaged in the dispersion of said insurgents." 



Under this proclamation, licenses were grant- 

 ed by the Secretary, as the armies progressed ; 

 some ports, such as Beaufort, Port Royal, and 

 New Orleans, were opened under licenses, ex- 

 cept to whatever was contraband of war, and 

 the collectors and surveyors on the Ohio and 

 Mississippi rivers were instructed to act, dis- 

 pensing with applications to the Secretary for 

 licenses. 



On the 31st of March, 1863, the President 

 issued another proclamation, stating that em- 

 barrassments had arisen to the due enforce- 

 ment of the original act, by the exceptions of 

 the first proclamation ; therefore, so much was 

 withdrawn as " related to the parts of States 

 which might be from time to time occupied 

 and controlled by forces engaged in the disper- 

 sion of the insurgents." 



On the 12th of March, 1862, an act of Con- 

 gress was approved, which authorized the Sec- 

 retary of the Treasury to appoint special agents 

 to receive and collect all the abandoned prop- 

 erty in any of the States and Territories desig- 



nated as in insurrection against the United 

 States Government, and prescribed the manner 

 of proceeding. 



On the 20th of May, 1862, another act of 

 Congress was approved, which authorized the 

 Secretary of the Treasury to refuse a clearance 

 to any vessel or vehicle laden with goods, &c., 

 destined to any domestic or foreign port, when- 

 ever he thought such goods were destined ulti- 

 mately for places in possession of the enemy. 

 It further authorized the Secretary to take se- 

 curity in such cases and to establish such regu- 

 lations as he might deem necessary for the pur- 

 poses of the act. 



On the same day that the President issued 

 his last mentioned proclamation, general orders 

 were issued by the Secretaries of "War and 

 Navy to the officers of their respective de- 

 partments, for the purpose of "more effectu- 

 ally preventing all commercial intercourse with 

 insurrectionary States, except such as shall be 

 authorized in pursuance of law, and of secur- 

 ing consistent, uniform, and efficient action in 

 conducting snch intercourse as shall be author- 

 ized, and for the purpose of carrying out the 

 provisions of the act of Congress entitled ' An 

 act to provide for the collection of abandoned 

 property, and for the prevention of frauds in 

 insurrectionary States.' " These orders prohib- 

 ited every officer of the army or navy or any 

 person connected with either from having any 

 interest in the transportation of any goods, &c , 

 into any State declared by the President to be 

 in insurrection, excepting supplies for the mil- 

 itary and naval forces, and excepting sutlers' 

 supplies, and other things for the comfort of 

 the military and naval forces moving under au- 

 thorized permits of the Treasury. The orders 

 further continued : " nor shall any person afore- 

 said have any interest in the purchase or sale 

 therein of any goods or chattels, wares or mer- 

 chandise, cotton, tobacco, or other product of 

 the soil thereof; nor the transportation of the 

 same, except as aforesaid, therefrom or therein ; 

 nor shall any such officer or person authorize, 

 prohibit, or in any manner interfere with any 

 such purchase or sale or transportation, which 

 shall be conducted under the regulations of the 

 Secretary of the Treasury, unless under some 

 imperative military necessity, in the place or 

 section where the same shall be conductedj or 

 unless requested by an agent or some other au- 

 thorized officer of the Treasury Department, 

 in which case all commanders of military de- 

 partments, districts, and posts, will render such 

 aid in carrying out the provisions of the said 

 act, and in enforcing due observance of the 

 said regulations of the Secretary of the Treas- 

 ury, as can be given without manifest injury to 

 the public service." 



Further regulations prescribed the manner 

 of proceeding with abandoned property. 



At the same time, the Secretary of the Treas- 

 ury prescribed the Regulations for the govern- 

 ment of the several special agents and agency 

 aids in pursuance of the act of March 12th, 



