blockade; and on leaving
said port every vessel will be required to have a clearance from the
collector of the customs, according to law, showing no violation of the
conditions of the license. Any violations of said conditions will
involve the forfeiture and condemnation of the vessel and cargo and the
exclusion of all parties concerned from any further privilege of
entering the United States during the war for any purpose whatever.

In all respects except as herein specified the existing blockade remains
in full force and effect as hitherto established and maintained, nor is
it relaxed by this proclamation except in regard to the port to which
relaxation is or has been expressly applied.

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 18th day of February,
A.D. 1864, and of the Independence of the United States the
eighty-eighth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
_Secretary of State_.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas it has become necessary to define the cases in which insurgent
enemies are entitled to the benefits of the proclamation of the
President of the United States which was made on the 8th day of
December, 1863, and the manner in which they shall proceed to avail
themselves of those benefits; and

Whereas the objects of that proclamation were to suppress the
insurrection and to restore the authority of the United States; and

Whereas the amnesty therein proposed by the President was offered with
reference to these objects alone:

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do
hereby proclaim and declare that the said proclamation does not apply to
the cases of persons who at the time when they seek to obtain the
benefits thereof by taking the oath thereby prescribed are in military,
naval, or civil confinement or custody, or under bonds, or on parole of
the civil, military, or naval authorities or agents of the United States
as prisoners of war, or persons detained for offenses of any kind,
either before or after conviction, and that, on the contrary, it does
apply only to those persons who, being yet at large and free from any
arrest, confinement, or duress, shall voluntarily come forward and take
the said oath with the purpose of restoring peace and establishing the
national authority. Prisoners exclud