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PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



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 tl 



Northern winter, have been conveyed, for imprison- 

 ment, during the rigors of the present season, to the 

 niust northern and exposed situation that could be se- 

 lected by the enemy. There, beyond the reach of com- 

 forts, and even of news from home and family, exposed 

 to the piercing cold of the Northern lakes, they are 

 held by men who cannot be ignorant of, even if they 

 do not design, the probable result. How many of our 

 unfortunate friends and comrades, who have passed 

 unscathed through numerous battles, will perish on 

 Johnson's Island, under the cruel trial to which they 

 are subjected, none but the Omniscient can foretell. 

 That they will endure this barbarous treatment with 

 the same stern fortitude that they have ever evinced 

 in their country's service, we cannot doubt. But who 

 can be found to believe the assertion that it is our re- 

 fusal to execute the cartel, and not the malignity of 

 the foe, which has caused the infliction of such in- 

 tolerable cruelty on our own loved and honored de- 

 fenders ? 



Regular and punctual communication with the 

 Trans-Mississippi is so obstructed as to render diffi- 

 cult a compliance with much of the legislation vesting 

 authority in the executive branch of the Government. 

 To supply vacancies in office; to exercise discretion on 

 certain matters connected with the military organiza- 

 tions ; to control the distribution of the funds collected 

 from taxation, or remitted from the Treasury ; to carry 

 on the operations of the Post Office Department, and 

 other like duties, require, under the constitution and 

 existing laws, the action of the President and heads of 

 departments. The necessities of the military service 

 frequently forbid delay, and some legislation is re- 

 quired, providing for the exercise of temporary au- 

 thority, until regular action can be had at the seat of 

 government. I would suggest, especially in the Post 

 Office Department, that an assistant be provided in the 

 States beyond the Mississippi, with authority in the 

 bead of that Department to vest in his assistant all such 

 powers now exercised by the Postmaster-General as 

 may be requisite for provisional control of the funds of 

 the Department in those States, and their application 

 to the payment of mail contractors; for superinten- 

 dence of 'the local post offices, and the contracts for 

 carrying the mail ; for the temporary employment of 

 proper pet-sons to fulfil the duties of postmasters and 

 contractors in urgent cases, until appointments can be 

 made, and for other like purposes. Without some le- 

 gislative provision on the subject, there is serious risk 

 of the destruction of the mail service, by reason of the 

 delays and hardships suffered by contractors under the 

 present system, which requires constant reference to 

 Richmond of their accounts, as well as the returns of 

 the local postmasters, be_fore they can receive payment 

 for services rendered. Like provision is also necessary 

 in the Treasury Department ; while, for military affairs, 

 it would seem to be sufficient to authorize the Presi- 

 dent and Secretary of War to delegate to the com- 

 manding general so much of the discretionary powers 

 vested in them by law as the exigencies of the service 

 shall require. 



The report of the Secretary of the Navy gives in de- 

 tail the operations of that Department since January 

 lost, embracing information of the disposition and em- 

 ployment of the vessels, officers, and men, and the con- 

 struction of vessels at Richmond, Wilmington, Charles- 

 ton, Savannah, Mobile, Selma, and on the rivers 

 Roanoke, Neuse, Pedee, Chattahoochee, and Tombig- 

 bee; the accumulation of ship timber and supplies, 

 and the manufacture of ordnance, ordnance stores, and 

 equipments. The founderies and workshops have been 

 greatly improved, and their capacity to supply all de- 

 mands for heavy ordnance for coast and harbor de- 

 fences is only limited by our deficiency in the re- 

 quisite skilled labor. The want of such labor and of 

 seamen seriously affects the operations of the Depart- 

 ment. 



The skill, courage, and activity of our cruisers at 

 sea cannot be too highly commended. They have in- 

 flicted heavy losses on the enemy without suffering a 

 single disaster, and have seriously damaged the ship- 



ping interests of the United States by compelling 

 their foreign commerce to seek the protection of neutral 

 flags. 



Your attention is invited to the suggestions of the re- 

 port on the subject of supplying seamen for the ser- 

 vice, and of the provisions of the law in relation to the 

 volunteer navy. 



The Postmaster-General reports the receipts of that 

 Department for the fiscal year ending the 30th June 

 last, to have been $3,837,853.01, and the expenditures 

 for the same period $2,662,804.67. The statement thus 

 exhibits an excess of receipts amounting to 1075,048.44, 

 instead of a deficiency of more than a million of dol- 

 lars, as was the case in the preceding fiscal year. It 

 is gratifying to perceive that the Department'has thus 

 been made self-sustaining, in accordance with sound 

 principle, and with the express requirements of the 

 constitution that its expenses should be paid out of its 

 own revenues after the 1st March, 1863. 



The report gives a full and satisfactory account of 

 the operations of the Post Office Department for the 

 last year, and explains the measures adopted for giving 

 more certainty and regularity to the service in the 

 States beyond" the Mississippi, and on which reliance 

 is placed for obviating the difficulties heretofore en- 

 countered in that service. 



The settlement of the accounts of the Department is 

 greatly delayed by reason of the inability of the First 

 Auditor to perform all the duties now imposed on him 

 by law. The accounts of the Departments of State, of 

 the Treasury, of the Navy, and ot Justice, are all super- 

 vised by that officer, and more than suffice to occupy 

 his whole time. The necessity for a Third Auditor to 

 examine and settle the accounts of a department so 

 extensive as that of the Post Office, appears urgent, 

 and his recommendation on that subject meets my 

 concurrence. 



I cannot close this Message without again adverting 

 to the savage ferocity which still marks the conduct o? 

 the enemy in the prosecution of the war. After their 

 repulse from the defences before Charleston, they first 

 sought revenge by an abortive attempt to destroy the 

 city with an incendiary composition, thrown by im- 

 proved artillery from a distance of four miles. Failing 

 in this, they changed their missiles, but fortunately 

 have thus far succeeded only in killing two women in 

 the city. Their commanders, Butler, McNeil, and Tur- 

 chin, whose horrible barbarities have made their names 

 widely notorious and everywhere execrable, are still 

 honored and cherished by the authorities at Washing- 

 ton. The first named, after having been withdrawn 

 from the scenes of his cruelties against women and 

 prisoners of war (in reluctant concession to the de- 

 mands of outraged humanity in Europe), has just been 

 put in a new command at Norfolk, where helpless wo- 

 men and children are again placed at his mercy. 



Nor has less unrelenting warfare been waged by 

 these pretended friends of numan rights and liberties 

 against the unfortunate negroes. Wherever the en- 

 emy have been able to gain access, they have forced 

 into the ranks of their army every able-bodied man 

 that they could seize, and have either left the aged, the 

 women,*nd the children to perish by starvation, or 

 have gathered them into camps, where they have been 

 wasted by a frightful mortality. Without clothing or 

 shelter, often without food, incapable, without super- 

 vision, of taking the most ordinary precautions against 

 disease, these helpless dependants, accustomed to have 

 their wants supplied by the foresight of their musters, 

 are being rapidly exterminated wherever brought in 

 contact with the invaders. By the Northern mini, on 

 whose deep-rooted prejudices no kindly restraining in- 

 fluence is exercised, they are treated with aversion 

 and neglect. There is little hazard in predicting th:it, 

 in all localities where the enemy have gained a tempo- 

 rary foothold, the negroes, who, under our care, in- 

 creased sixfold in number since their importation into 

 the colonies of Great Britain, will have oeen reduced 

 by mortality, during tlie war, to not more than one 

 half their previous number. 



Information on this subject is derived not only from 





