PROCLAMATION CONCERNING BLOCKADE, NOVEMBER 19, 1864
BF 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 deeemd 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 first 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. Done at the city of Washington, this nineteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
FIVE-STAR MOTHER
TO MRS. BIXBY.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 21, 1864.
MRS. BIXBY, Boston, Massachusetts.
DEAR MADAM:--I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.
I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of *******.
Yours very sincerely and respectfully, ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
TO J. PHILLIPS.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 21, 1864.
DEACON JOHN PHILLIPS.
MY DEAR SIR:--I have heard of the incident at the polls in your town, in which you acted so honorable a part, and I take the liberty of writing to you to express my personal gratitude for the compliment paid me by the suffrage of a citizen so venerable.
The example of such devotion to civic duties in one whose days have already been extended an average lifetime beyond the Psalmist's limit, cannot but be valuable and fruitful. It is not for myself only, but for the country which you have in your sphere served so long and so well, that I thank you.
Your friend and servant, ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE.
WASHINGTON, D. C. NOVEMBER 22, 1864.
GOVERNOR BRAMLETTE, Frankfort, Ky.:
Yours of to-day received. It seems that Lieutenant-Governor Jacobs and Colonel Wolford are stationary now. General Sudarth and Mr.
Hodges are here, and the Secretary of War and myself are trying to devise means of pacification and harmony for Kentucky, which we hope to effect soon, now that the passion-exciting subject of the election is past.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GOVERNOR CURTIN, WASHINGTON, D.C., NOVEMBER 25, 1864
GOVERNOR CURTIN, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania;I have no knowledge, information, or belief, that three States--or any States, offer to resume allegiance.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL ROSECRANS.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON D.C., NOV. 26, 1864
MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS:
Please telegraph me briefly on what charge and evidence Mrs. Anna B.
Martin has been sent to the penitentiary at Alton.
A. LINCOLN.
MEMORANDUM, DECEMBER 3, 1864.
On Thursday of last week, two ladies from Tennessee came before the President, asking the release of their husbands held as prisoners of war at Johnson's Island. They were put off until Friday, when they came again, and were again put off until Saturday. At each of the interviews one of the ladies urged that her husband was a religious man, and on Saturday the President ordered the release of the prisoners, when he said to this lady: "You say your husband is a religious man; tell him when you meet him, that I say I am not much of a judge of religion, but that, in my opinion, the religion that sets men to rebel and fight against their own government, because, as they think, that government does not sufficiently help some men to eat their bread in the sweat of other men's faces, is not the sort of religion upon which people can get to heaven."
A. LINCOLN.
ORDER CONCERNING THE STEAMER "FUNAYMA SOLACE."
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 3, 1864.