COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE. 



191 



for the market thus opened for articles other- 

 wise of no value in their hands. 



Iii December Secretary Fessenden issued 

 new regulations for the purchase of the prod- 

 ucts of the insurrectionary States. Xew Or- 

 leans, Memphis, Xashville, Xorfolk, Beaufort, 

 iu Xorth Carolina, Port Royal, and Pensacola 

 were designated as marts. Agents were ap- 

 pointed by the Secretary of the Treasury to 

 make purchases at other points for the United 

 States, who will give bonds and have no per- 

 sonal interest in those purchases. The prices 

 paid were not to exceed three-fourths of the 

 market value in the city of 'Xew York, deduct- 

 ing revenue taxes, permit fees, etc. The agents 

 were required to purchase all property offered, 

 but not to assume any other liability in the 

 matter. Safe conduct was to be allowed to all 

 persons having such articles to sell, and a cer- 

 tificate of the facts of sale to be given. All 

 products so purchased could be sold weekly at 

 public auction, under restrictions imposed by 

 the Secretary ; and they were to be allowed 

 transportation to a loyal State if desired. The 

 proceeds of sales and such other moneys as 

 the Secretary shall fu'rnisli are to constitute a 

 "purchasing fund," to be employed for the 

 purposes indicated. The President approved 

 the regulations, and issued an " executive or- 

 der " on the subject, authorizing all persons, 

 except those in military or naval service, hav- 

 ing products of States declared in insurrection^ 

 to carry them to the places of purchase, and 

 authorizing them to pass with the necessary 

 means of transportation to these points and to 

 return. Such persons were to be permitted 

 by the military authority to purchase from 

 any authorized dealer, or any other in a loyal 

 State, merchandise and articles not contraband 

 of war, or prohibited by the "War Department, 

 to the value of one-third of the articles sold 

 by him, and to have safe conduct for them. 

 All persons hindering or preventing such safe 

 conduct were deemed guilty of a military of- 

 fence, and punished therefor. Persons making 

 purchases, except in pursuance of these regula- 

 tions, were to be held guilty of military offence, 

 and the goods forfeited. Persons engaged in 

 the military or naval service were forbidden 

 from engaging in such trade. 



A letter from Major-General Canby, at Xew 

 Orleans, written at the close of the year, states 

 that if the trade with the insurrectionary States 

 is carried on in the manner and to the extent 

 claimed by speculators who now control it, the 

 inevitable result, in his judgment, will be to 

 add strength and efficiency to the rebel armies 

 east and west of the Mississippi, equivalent to 

 an addition of fifty thousand men, and will 

 stimulate into active opposition to the success- 

 ful prosecution of the operations at least ten 

 thousand men within our lines. Cotton specu- 

 lators in the Mississippi Valley have a pros- 

 pective hope to have an actual interest in every 

 bale of cotton within the enemy's lines. They 

 know that expeditions within the enemy's 



country are followed by the capture of cotton, 

 or its destruction, to prevent its falling into our 

 hands, and hence it is to their interest to give 

 information to the rebels of every contemplated 

 movement. He has not sent an expedition into 

 the enemy's lines without finding agents of this 

 character in communication, giving them infor- 

 mation regarding our movements, and nearly 

 every expedition has been foiled to some extent 

 in some of its objects by information so com- 

 municated. He has now several speculators, 

 captured in the enemy's country, awaiting trial 

 for giving information to the enemy ; but the 

 punishment of these men is no compensation 

 for the evil they have occasioned, and will not 

 secure us from future disasters from the same 

 cause. 



The rebel armies east and west of the Mis- 

 sissippi River have been supported mainly dur- 

 ing the past twelve months by the unlawful 

 trade carried on upon that river. The city of 

 Xew Orleans, since its occupation by our forces, 

 has contributed more to the support of these 

 armies, more to the purchase and equipment 

 of privateers that are preying upon our com- 

 merce, and more to maintain the credit of the 

 Confederate Government in Europe, than any 

 other portion of the country, with the single 

 exception of Wilmington ! 



The necessary steps were taken by Con- 

 gress to annul the reciprocity treaty relative 

 to the Canadas. This treaty between the 

 United States and Great Britain was ratified 

 at "Washington, June 5th, 1854. It secured 

 to the inhabitants of the United States, in 

 common with the subjects of her Britannic 

 Majesty, the liberty to fish, except for shell-fish, 

 on the coast and shores, and in the bays, har- 

 bors, and creeks of Canada, Xew Brunswick, 

 Xova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and of the 

 several islands thereunto adjacent, without be- 

 ing restricted to any distance from the shore. It 

 also secured in like manner the right to citizens 

 and inhabitants of the United States to navi- 

 gate the St. Lawrence and the canals of Cana- 

 da used as a means of communicating between 

 the great lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. It also 

 provided that the following articles, being the 

 growth and produce of either country, shall be 

 admitted into the other respectively free of 

 duty : 



Grain, flour, and breadstufis of all kinds. 



Animals of all kinds. 



Fresh, smoked, and salted meats. 



Cotton, wood, seeds, and vegetables. 



Undried fruits and dried fruits. 



Fish of all kinds. 



Products of fish and all other creatures hying in 

 water. 



Poultry, eggs. 



Hides, furs," skins, or tails undressed. 



Stone or marble in its crude or unwrought state. 



Slate. 



Butter, cheese, tallow, lard. 



Horns, minerals, ores of metals of all kinds coal. 



Pitch, tar. 



Timber and lumber of all kinds, round, hewed, and 

 sawed, unmanufactured in whole or in part. 



Firewood. 



