What president declared a blockade on the southern ports?

• A. George Washington
• B. Andrew Jackson
• C. Ulysses S. Grant
• D. Abraham Lincoln

Answer: (D)

Blockading southern ports was a key wartime move to cripple the Confederacy by cutting off imports of arms, supplies, and foreign aid, while also limiting cotton exports to fund the war. This naval blockade was declared by President Abraham Lincoln at the start of the Civil War in 1861 and carried out by the Union Navy. It fit into the broader strategy to squeeze the rebellion economically. The other figures listed belong to earlier or different periods: Washington led the Revolution, Andrew Jackson was a 19th-century president known for his own policies, and Ulysses S. Grant was a Civil War general who later became president but did not declare the blockade.