RHODE ISLAND. 



State to come forward without delay and volunteer their 

 services in defence of the Constitution and the laws. 



Arrangements will at once be made for the com- 

 mandants of the several military companies to enroll 

 men to serve for three years or during the war, unless 

 sooner discharged. Let the response to this call be 

 prompt, decided, and such as will show that the mar- 

 tial spirit of our State is alike indomitable in victory 

 or defeat. SAM'L G. ARNOLD, Lieut.-Gov. 



By His Honor's command, 

 JOHN H. BARTLETT, Secretary of State. 



Gov. Sprague convened the Legislature, and 

 sent in a message, in which he said : 



" When the action of this body was first 

 taken, the State and the country felt that the 

 war would, from the necessities of the case, be 

 of short duration. Since that time events have 

 transpired which have opened the eyes of the 

 whole country to the magnitude of the rebellion 

 which they are called upon to crush out. The 

 repulse which the army has recently suffered 

 has been owing to so many causes that it is im- 

 possible to attribute it to any one which we 

 should regard as satisfactory all of them 

 pointing to the condition of things which we 

 now behold. The State and the country, how- 

 ever, may feel assured, from the change in the 

 programme at Washington, and by the people 

 throughout the whole North, that the errors 

 of the past will not be repeated in the future, 

 and also that every movement for the future 

 will hardly fail to result in success. 



" The war will, of necessity, be a long one. 

 "We have been in error as to the strength of the 

 enemy, and as to the long and persistent course 

 which has been pursued by the South, tending 

 towards this point. While we have been oc- 

 cupied in our business they have been creating 

 revolution. We were under the impression 

 that they were lacking in all the resources 

 which go to raise and maintain armies ; where- 

 as, in almost every particular, we have found 

 them superior to ourselves. We have found 

 not only the physique of their men equal to 

 ours, but their clothing, their arms, their sub- 

 sistence, and their means of transportation 

 every thing that goes to make up military effi- 

 ciency, superior to ours. And when we have 

 been obliged to be the attacking force, march- 

 ing under a Southern sun, exhausted, without 

 provisions and without shelter, they have been 

 encamped and in fortified positions, in a coun- 

 try unfriendly to us and friendly to them, 

 where they could receive information of every 

 movement of ours, and we could learn nothing 

 whatever as to theirs. 



" The probabilities are that in no case on the 

 record of the world's history has an army been 

 called into the field possessing so little knowl- 

 edge of the strength and position of the ene- 

 my : and, such being the case, it was impossible 

 for any troops in the position ours found them- 

 selves to have sustained themselves for any 

 considerable length of time. It has opened the 

 eyes of the country to the immensity of this 

 struggle, and in that view of the subject the re- 

 sult may be bearable." 



The Legislature was in session three days, 

 and adjourned, having authorized a bounty of 

 fifteen dollars for each recruit enlisted under 

 the authority of the State, to be paid to him on 

 being mustered into the service of the United 

 States. A resolution was adopted directing the 

 payment to the families of killed, wounded, or 

 disabled soldiers, of the bounty to which those 

 soldiers would be entitled by three months' ser- 

 vice under the acts of April and May. The 

 several towns were authorized to appropriate 

 and raise money for bounties to soldiers and 

 their families, on the same footing that money 

 for town expenses is appropriated and raised ; 

 and their past action in this respect was con- 

 firmed. 



An act was passed authorizing the General 

 Treasurer, under advice of the Governor, to 

 issue the bonds of the State, with semi-annual 

 coupons at six per cent, interest, for an amount 

 not exceeding $500,000, payable in ten years 

 from the first of October next ; but the State is 

 privileged to redeem them at any time afttr 

 five years. The sums allowed by the Urnud 

 States to the State in settlement of the war 

 claims are by the present act devoted to the 

 redemption of these bonds. 



The General Treasurer was empowered to 

 hire $500,000, or less, at not over six per cent., 

 and to renew said loans from time to time ; the 

 money was to be expended in raising and equip- 

 ping troops under the provisions of the military 

 act passed in April. The Governor was author- 

 ized to employ a proper person to adjust mili- 

 tary accounts between the State and the United 

 States. 



A resolution was adopted declaring that all 

 political parties should unite in supporting the 

 constitutionally elected Government of the 

 United States in the present crisis, and pledg- 

 ing the best exertions and the entire resources 

 of the State and its people to preserve the Union. 



The thanks of the Assembly were by resolu- 

 tion tendered to the Governor for his vigorous 

 conduct in camp and field, and he was present- 

 ed with the piece of cannon belonging to the 

 Second Rhode Island battery, and brought away 

 from the battle field at Bull Run. 



The Assembly, by resolution, thanked Am- 

 brose E. Burnside, late Colonel of the first 

 Regiment Rhode Island Yolunteers, for his gal- 

 lant services, and expressed its satisfaction that 

 the National Government had recognized and 

 rewarded those services ; the resolution also 

 signifies a wish that in his new capacity as brig- 

 adier-general he might be placed in immediate 

 command of the Rhode Island regiments. 



The call for troops was promptly responded 

 to, and the State furnished six regiments and 

 three batteries of artillery during the year. 

 The enrolled militia of Rhode Island, (compris- 

 ing all males between the ages of 18 and 45,) 

 numbers 20,283, which is an increase over 1860 

 of 1,742. Her quota of troops, under the call 

 for 500,000, was 4,057, but, according to the re- 

 port of the Adjutant-General Mauran, she had 



