PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



797 



commend to your consideration the propriety of abol- 

 ishing it, and providing for the organization of the 

 several staff corps in such number and with such rank 

 as will meet all the wants of the service. To secure 

 the requisite ability for the more important positions, it 

 will be necessary to provide for officers of higher rank 

 than is now authorized for these corps. To give to the 

 officers the proper relation and intelligence in their 

 respective corps, and to preserve in the chief of each 

 useful influence and control over his subordinates, 

 there should be no gradation on the basis of the rank 

 of the general with whom they might be serving by 

 appointment. To the personal staff of a general it 

 would seem proper to give a grade corresponding 

 with his rank, and the number might be fixed to cor- 

 respond wittrhis command. To avoid the consequence 

 of discharge upon a change of duty, the variable por- 

 tion of the personal staff might be taken from the line 

 of the army, and allowed to retain their line com- 

 missions. 



The disordered condition of the currency, to which I 

 have already alluded, has imposed upon the Govern- 

 ment a system of supplying the wants of the army, 

 which is so unequal in its operation, vexatious to the 

 producer, and injurious to the industrial iuterests, and 

 productive of such discontent among the people, as 

 only to be justified by the existence of an absolute ne- 

 cessity. The report of the Secretary on this point es- 

 tablishes conclusively that the necessity which has 

 forced the bureaux of supply to provide for the army 

 by impressment, has resulted from the impossibility of 

 purchase by contract, or in the open market, except at 

 such rapidly increased rates as would have rendered 

 the appropriations inadequate to the wants of the army. 

 Indeed, it is believed that the temptation to hoard sup- 

 plies for the higher prices which could be anticipated 

 with certainty, has been checked mainly by the fear 

 of the operations of the impressment law; and that 

 commodities have been offered in the markets princi- 

 pally to escape impressment and obtain higher rates 

 than those fixed by appraisement. The complaints 

 against this vicious system have been well founded, 

 but the true cause of the evil has been misappre- 

 hended. The remedy is to be found, not in a change 

 of the impressment law, but in the restoration of the 

 currency to such a basis as will enable the Depart- 

 ment to purchase necessary supplies in the open mar- 

 ket, and thus render impressment a rare and excep- 

 tionable process. 



The same remedy will effect the result universally 

 desired, of an augmentation of the pay of the army. 

 The proposals made at your previous sessions to in- 

 crease the pay of the soldier by an additional amount 

 of Treasury notes, would have conferred little benefit 

 on him ; but a radical reform of the currency will re- 

 store the pay to a value approximating that which it 

 originally had, and materially improve his condition. 



The reports from the ordnance and mining bureaux 

 are very gratifying, and the extension of our means of 

 supply of arms and munitions of war from our home 

 resources, have been such as to insure our ability soon 

 to become mainly, if not entirely, independent of sup- 

 plies from foreign countries. The establishments for 

 the casting of guns and projectiles, for the manufac- 

 ture of small arms and of gunpowder, for the sup- 

 ply of nitre from artificial nitre beds, and mining 

 operations generally, have been so distributed through 

 the country as to place our resources beyond the reach 

 of partial disasters. 



The recommendations of the Secretary of War on 

 other points are minutely detailed in his report, which 

 is submitted to you, and extending, as they do, to al- 

 most every branch of the service, merit careful con- 

 sideration. 



I regret to inform you that the enemy have returned 

 to the barbarous policy with which they inaugurated the 

 war, and that the exchange of prisoners has been for 

 some time suspended. The correspondence of the Com- 

 missioners of Exchange is submitted to you by the Sec- 

 retary of War, and it has already been published for 

 the information of all now suffering useless imprison- 



ment. The conduct of the authorities of the United 

 States has been consistently perfidious on this subject. 

 An agreement for exchange, in the incipiency or the 

 war, had just been concluded, when the fall of Fort 

 Donelson reversed the previous state of things, and 

 gave them an excess of prisoners. The agreement was 

 immediately repudiated by them, and so remained 

 till the fortune of war again placed us in possession of 

 the larger number. A new cartel was then made, and 

 under it, for many months, we restored to them many 

 thousands of prisoners in excess of those whom they 

 held for exchange, and encampments of the surplus pa- 

 roled prisoners delivered up by us were established in 

 the United States, where the men were enabled to re- 

 ceive the comforts and solace of constant communica- 

 tion with their homes and families. In July last the for- 

 tunes of war again favored the enemy, and they were 

 enabled to exchange for duty the men previously de- 

 livered to them, against those captured and paroled at 

 Vicksburg and Port Hudson. The prisoners taken at 

 Gettysburg, however, remained in their bauds, and 

 should have been returned to our lines on parole, to 

 await exchange. Instead of executing a duty imposed 

 by the plainest dictates of justice and good faith, pre- 

 texts were instantly sought for holding them in per- 

 manent captivity. General orders rapidly succeeded 

 each other from the bureau at Washington, placing 

 new constructions on an agreement which had given 

 rise to no dispute while we retained the advantage in 

 the number of prisoners. With a disregard of honor- 

 able obligations, almost unexampled, toe enemy did 

 not hesitate, in addition to retaining the prisoners cap- 

 tured by them, to declare null the paroles given by the 

 prisoners captured by us in the same series of engage- 

 ments, and liberated on condition of not again serving 

 until exchanged. They have since openly insisted on 

 treating the paroles given by their own soldiers aa in- 

 valid, and those of our soldiers, given under precisely 

 similar circumstances, as binding. A succession o'f 

 similar unjust pretensions has been set up in a corre- 

 spondence tediously prolonged, and every device em- 

 Eloyed to cover the disregard of an obligation which, 

 etween belligerent nations, is only to be enforced by a 

 sense of honor. 



No further comment is needed on this subject ; bat it 

 may be permitted to direct your special attention to 

 the close of the correspondence submitted to you, from 

 which you will perceive that the final proposal made 

 by the enemy, in settlement of all disputes under the 

 cartel, is, that we should liberate all prisoners held by 

 us, without offering to release from captivity any o'f 

 those held by them. 



In the mean time a systematic and concerted effort 

 has been made to quiet the complaints in the United 

 States of those relatives and friends of the prisoners in 

 our hands, who are unable to understand why the car- 

 tel is not executed in their favor, by the groundless 

 assertion that we are the parties who refuse com- 

 pliance. Attempts are also made to shield themselves 

 from the execration excited by their own odious treat- 

 ment of our officers and soldiers now captive in their 

 hands, by misstatements, such as that the prisoners 

 held by us are deprived of food. To this last accusa- 

 tion the conclusive answer has been made that, in ac- 

 cordance with our law and the general orders of the 

 Department, the rations of the prisons are precisely the 

 same, in quantity and quality, as those served out to 

 our own gallant soldiers in the field, and which have 

 been found sufficient to support them in their arduous 

 campaigns, while it is not pretended by the enemv that 

 they treat prisoners by the same generous rule. By an 

 indulgence, perhaps unprecedented, we have even al- 

 lowed the prisoners in our hands to be ^supplied by 

 their friends at home with comforts not enjoyed by the 

 men who captured them in battle. In contrast to this 

 treatment, the most revolting inhumanity has charac- 

 terized the conduct of the United States toward pris- 

 oners held by them. One prominent fact, which ad- 

 mits no denial or palliation, must suffice as a test. 

 The officers of our army, natives of Southern and semi- 

 tropical climates, and unprepared for the cold of a 



