Instructions to Collectors and Surveyors

WASHINGTON, March 31. – It has already been stated that the Secretary of the Treasury has issued instructions to the Treasury agents, collectors and surveyors, on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers dispensing with applications to the Secretary of War for licenses to trade, and authorizing the shipments of all goods not intended for aid to the rebellion to all places occupied by our forces in the Valley States.  The Secretary in his recently letter of instructions says:

You will hereafter cease collecting any percentage or fees, or preventing the transit or exchange of merchandize between citizens of insurrectionary portions of the country occupied or controlled by the forces of the United States, other than the usual charge of 20 cents for each permit so granted, or you will make no charges for permits for merchandize forwarded from any place in a loyal State to another in the same or like State, nor exercise any supervision over the trade of such States, except such as may be necessary to prevent supplies of any description from being furnished to the insurgents.  It is furthermore directed that no permits be granted for any articles forwarded by the military authorities to be transported into any territory occupied by the forces of the United States.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 4