TREASURY DEPARTMENT CIRCULAR

CONCERNING

Trade with and in States Declared in Insurrection,

AND CONCERNING

ABANDONED AND CAPTURED PROPERTY.

To the Special Agents of the Treasury Department :

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, September 11, 1863. GENTLEMEN: The President of the United States, having, by Proclamation of July 1, 1862, declared and proclaimed that the States of South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and the State of Virginia, except the following counties, Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Marshall, Wetzel, Marion, Monongalia, Preston, Taylor, Pleasants, Tyler, Ritchie, Doddridge, Harrison, Wood, Jackson, Wirt, Roane, Calhoun, Gilmer, Barbour, Tucker, Lewis, Braxton, Upshur, Randolph, Mason, Putnam, Kanawha, Clay, Nicholas, Cabell, Wayne, Boone, Logan, Wyoming, Webster, Fayette, and Raleigh, are in insurrection and rebellion:

And having also by Proclamation on the 31st of March, 1863, revoked certain exceptions made by his former Proclamation dated August 16, 1861, and declared that the inhabitants of the States of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties of Virginia designated as West Virginia, and except, also, the ports of New Orleans, Key West, Port Royal, and Beaufort, in North Carolina,) are in a state of insurrection against the United States, and that all commercial intercourse, not licensed and conducted as provided in said act, between the said States and the inhabitants thereof with the exceptions aforesaid, and the citizens of other States and other parts of the United States, is unlawful, and will remain unlawful until such insurrection shall cease or has been suppressed, and notice thereof has been duly given by Proclamation; and all cotton, tobacco, and other products, and all other goods and chattels, wares, and merchandise coming from any of said States, with the exceptions aforesaid, into other parts of the United States, or proceeding to any of said States, with the exceptions aforesaid, without the license and permission of the President, through the Secretary of the Treasury, will, together with the vessel or vehicle conveying the same, be forfeited to the United States;

And the act of Congress "further to provide for the collection of duties on imports and for other purposes, approved July 13, 1861," having authorized said Proclamation, and the License and Regulations referred to;

And the act of Congress supplementary to said act of July 13, 1861, approved May 20, 1862, having conferred additional powers on said Secretary, and prescribed further conditions of trade;

And the act of Congress approved March 12, 1863, entitled "An act to provide for the collection of abandoned property and for the prevention of frauds in insurrectionary districts within the United States," having declared

"That it shall be lawful for the Secretary of the Treasury, from and after the passage of said act, as he shall from time to time see fit, to appoint a special agent or agents to receive and collect all abandoned or captured property in any State or Territory, or any portion of any State or Territory, of the United States designated as in insurrection against the lawful government of the United States by the proclamation of the President of July 1, 1862: Provided, That such property shall not include any kind or description which has been used, or which was intended to be used, for waging or carrying on war against the United States, such as arms, ordnance, ships, steamboats, or other water craft, and the furniture, forage, military supplies, or munitions of war;"

And further, "That any part of the goods or property received or collected by such agent or agents may be appropriated to public use on due appraisement and certificate thereof, or forwarded to any place of sale within the loyal States, as the public interests may require, and that all sales of such property shall be at public auction to the highest bidder, and the proceeds thereof shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States;"

And further, "that he shall cause a book or books of account to be kept, showing from whom such property was received, the cost of transportation, and the proceeds of the sale thereof;"

And further," that any person claiming to have been the owner of any such abandoned or captured property may, at any time within two years after the suppression of the rebellion, prefer his claim to the proceeds thereof in the Court of Claims; and on proof, to the satis faction of said court, of his ownership of said property, of his right to the proceeds thereof, and that he has never given any aid or comfort to the present rebellion, to receive the residue of such proceeds after deducting the expenses of transportation and sale of said property, and any other lawful expenses attending the disposition thereof;"

And further," that it shall be the duty of any officer or private of the regular or volunteer forces of the United States, or any officer, sailor, or marine in the naval service of the United States, upon the inland waters of the United States, who may take or receive any such abandoned property, or cotton, sugar, rice, or tobacco, from persons in such insurrectionary districts, or have it under his control, to turn the same over to an agent appointed as aforesaid, who shall give a receipt therefor; and in case he shall refuse to do so he shall be

tried by a court-martial, and punished as said court shall order, with the approval of the President of the United States;"

And the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy having respectively made and published orders, for the enforcing of said acts; The following Regulations are prescribed for the government of the several Supervising, Assistant, and Local Special Agents and Agency Aids, appointed to carry said acts and the Regulations made under them, into effect, and for the purpose of conducting the commercial intercourse licensed and permitted by the President, and preventing the conveyance of munitions of war and supplies to insurgents, or to localities declared to be in insurrection against the United States, or in such quantities that there will be imminent danger of their falling into the possession or under the control of insurgents; and are published, together with the Proclamations and License of the President, the several acts of Congress, and the Orders of the Secretaries of War and of the Navy, for the information of parties interested.

All officers charged with the execution of these Regulations, while using necessary vigilance to prevent supplies to rebels, either directly or by undue accumulation at points where there will be imminent danger of their falling into their hands, and in collecting abandoned or captured property, will be careful to occasion as little inconvenience as possible to any legitimate trade or intercourse, or to loyal people.

S. P. CHASE, Secretary of the Treasury.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, September 11, 1863.

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

Washington, September 11, 1863.

The following Revised Regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury having been seen and considered by me, are

hereby approved.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

TRADE REGULATIONS

PRESCRIBED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE LIMITED COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE, LICENSED BY THE PRESIDENT, BETWEEN THE CITIZENS OF LOYAL STATES AND THE INHABITANTS OF STATES AND PARTS OF STATES HERETOFORE DECLARED TO BE IN INSURRECTION, AS REVISED AND REPUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 11, 1863.

I. The States and parts of States declared to be in insurrection, between which and the citizens of loyal States comDistricts created mercial intercourse has been or may be licensed by the called Special President, to be conducted and carried on in pursuance Agencies. of Regulations and Rules prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, are hereby divided into districts, called Special Agencies, to which Supervising Special Agents, appointed by the Secretary, are assigned.

II. The Special Agencies are distinguished numerically, and described as follows:

scribed.

Special Agencies The First Special Agency comprises the district of named and de- the United States west of the Alleghany mountains, known as the Valley of the Mississippi, and extending southward so as to include so much of the States of Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana, as is or may be occupied by national forces operating from the North.

The Second Special Agency comprises the State of Virginia, and so much of the State of West Virginia as lies east of the Alleghany mountains; also the territory north and east thereof, from which trade is carried on with the States or parts of States declared to be in insurrection.

The Third Special Agency comprises the State of North Carolina. The Fourth Special Agency comprises the States of South Carolina. Georgia, and Florida.

The Fifth Special Agency comprises the State of Texas and so much of the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, and Mississippi as is, or may be, within the lines of the national forces operating from the South.

Additional Special Agencies, if established, will be numerically designated in the order of their establishment; and if the boundaries of Agencies already established shall be changed, due notice thereof will be given.