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The result of our conferences was that on March 31, 1863, Mr. Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring all commercial intercourse with the States in insurrection unlawful, except when carried on according to the regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury. These regulations Mr. Chase prepared at once. At the same time that Mr. Lincoln issued his proclamation, Mr. Stanton issued an order forbidding officers and all other members of the army to have anything to do with the trade. In spite of all these regulations, however, and the modifications of them which experience brought, there was, throughout the war, more or less difficulty over cotton trading.

From Washington I went back to New York. I had not been there long before Mr. Stanton sent for me to come to Washington. He wanted some one to go to Grant's army, he said, to report daily to him the military proceedings, and to give such information as would enable Mr. Lincoln and him to settle their minds as to