736 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



this credit is fully justified by the comparatively small 

 amount of accumulated debt, notwithstanding the 

 magnitude of our military operations. The legislation 

 of the last session provided for the purchase of sup- 

 plies with the bonds of the Government, but the pref- 

 erence of the people for Treasury notes has been so 

 marked that the legislation is recommended to author- 

 ize au increase in the issue of Treasury notes, which 

 the public service seems to require. No grave incon- 

 venience need be apprehended from this increased is- 

 sue, as the provision of law by which these notes are 

 convertible into eight per cent, bonds, forms an effi- 

 cient and permanent safeguard against any serious de- 

 preciation of the currency. Your attention is also in- 

 vited to the means proposed by the Secretary for facili- 

 tating the preparation of these notes, and for guarding 

 them against forgery. It is due to our people to state 

 that the manufacture of counterfeit notes exists with- 

 in our limits, and that they are imported also from 

 the Northern States. 



The report of the Secretary of War, which is sub- 

 mitted, contains numerous suggestions for the legisla- 

 tion deemed desirable in order to add to the efficiency 

 of the service. I invite your favorable consideration 

 especially to those recommendations which are intend- 

 ed to secure the proper execution of the conscript law, 

 and the consolidation of companies, battalions, and 

 regiments, when so reduced in strength as to impair 

 that uniformity of organization which is necessary in 

 the army, while an undue burden is imposed on the 

 Treasury. The necessity for some legislation for con- 

 trolling military transportation on the railroads, and 

 improving their present defective condition, forces it- 

 self upon the attention of the Government, and I trust 

 that you will be able to devise satisfactory measures 

 for attaining this purpose. The legislation on the sub- 

 ject of general officers involves the service in some 

 difficulties which are pointed out by the Secretary, and 

 for which the remedy suggested by him seems appro- 

 priate. 



In connection with this subject I am of opinion that 

 prudence dictates some provision for the increase of 

 the army, in the event of emergencies not now antici- 

 pated. The very large increase of force recently called 

 into the field by the President of the United States 

 may render it necessary hereafter to extend the pro- 

 visions of the conscript law, so as to embrace persons 

 between the age of thirty-five and forty-five years. 

 The vigor and efficiency of our present forces, their 

 condition, and the skill and ability which distinguish 

 their leaders, inspire the belief that no further enrol- 

 ment will be necessary, but a wise foresight requires 

 that if a necessity should be suddenly developed during 

 the recess of Congress requiring increased forces for 

 our defence, means should exist for calling such forces 



appointment 



provisional army, it was to be anticipated that mis- 

 takes would be made, and incompetent officers of all 

 grades introduced into the service. In the absence of 

 experience, and with no reliable guide for selection, 

 executive appointments, as well as elections, have been 

 sometimes unfortunate. The good of the service, the 

 interests of our country, require that some means be 

 devised for withdrawing the commissions of officers 

 who are incompetent for the duties required by their 

 position, and I trust that you will find means for reliev- 

 ing the army of such officers by some mode more 

 prompt and less wounding to the sensibility than judg- 

 ment of court martial. 



Within a recent period we have effected the object 

 so long desired, of an arrangement for the exchange 

 of prisoners, which is now being executed by delivery 

 at the points agreed upon, and which will, it is hoped, 

 speedily restore our brave and unfortunate countrymen 

 to their places in the ranks of the army, from which, 

 by the fortune of war, they have for a time been sep- 

 arated. The details of this arrangement will be com- 

 municated to you in a special report when further 

 progress has been made in their execution. 



Of other particulars concerning the operations of the 

 War Department you will be informed by the Secre- 

 tary in his report and the accompanying documents. 



The report of the Secretary of the Navy embraces a 

 statement of the operations and present condition of 

 this branch of the public service, both afloat and 

 ashore ; the construction and equipment of armed ves- 

 sels at home and abroad, the manufacture of ordnance 

 and ordnance stores, the establishment of workshops 

 and the development of our resources of coal and of 

 iron. Some legislation seems essential for securing 

 crews for vessels. The difficulties now experienced 

 on this point are fully stated in the Secretary^ report, 

 and I invite your attention to providing a remedy. 



The report of the Postmaster-General discloses the 

 embarrassments which resulted in the postal service 

 from the occupation by the enemy of the Mississippi 

 river and portions of the territory of the different 

 States. The measures taken by the department for re- 

 lieving these embarrassments, as far as practicable, 

 are detailed in the report. It is a subject of congratu- 

 lation, that during the ten months which ended on the 

 31st of March last, the expenses of the department 

 were largely decreased, whilst its revenue was aug- 

 mented, as compared with a corresponding period end- 

 ing on the 30th June, 1860, when the postal service for 

 these States was conducted under the authority dele- 

 gated to the United States. Sufficient time has not 

 yet elapsed to determine whether the measures here- 

 tofore devised by Congress will accomplish the end 

 of bringing the expenditures of the department within 

 the limit of its own revenues by the first of March 

 next, as required by the Constitution. 



I am happy to inform you that, in spite both of blan- 

 dishments and threats, used in profusion by the agents 

 of the Government of the United States, the Indian na- 

 tions within the Confederacy have remained firm in their 

 loyalty and steadfast in the observance of their treaty 

 engagements with this Government. Nor has their 

 fidelity been shaken by the fact that, owing to the va- 

 cancies in some of the offices of agents and superin- 

 tendents, delay has occurred in the payments of the 

 annuities and allowances to which they are entitled. 

 I would advise some provision authorizing payments 

 to be made by other officers, in the absence of those 

 especially charged by law with this duty. 



We have never-ceasing cause to be grateful for the 

 favor with which God has protected our infant Confed- 

 eracy. And it becomes us reverently to return our 

 thanks and humbly to ask of his bounteousness that 

 wisdom which is needful for the performance of the 

 high trusts with which we are charged. 



JEFFERSON DAVIS. 



Emancipation Proclamation of President LIN- 

 COLN, issued January 1st, 1863. 



Whereas on the 22d day of September, in the year 

 of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 

 two, a proclamation was issued by the President of 

 the United States, containing, among other things, the 

 following, to wit: 



" That on the first day of January, in the year of 

 our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, 

 all persons held as slaves within any States or desig- 

 nated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be 

 in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, 

 thenceforward, and for ever free ; and the Executive 

 Government of the United States, including the mili- 

 tary and naval authority thereof, will recognize and 

 maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no 

 act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in 

 any efforts they may_ make for their actual freedom. 



" That the Executive will, on the first day of January 

 aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and 

 parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, 

 respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the 

 United States ; and the fact that any State, or the peo- 

 ple thereof, shall on that day be in good faith repre- 

 sented in the Congress of the United States, by mem- 

 bers chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of 





