the Republic," and request the advice of the Senate as to the final acquiescence in or rejection of the award of the commissioner by the Government of the United States. As the "journal" is an original document, pertaining to the archives of the Department of State, it is proper, when the Senate shall have arrived at a conclusion on the subject, that the volume be returned to the custody of the Secretary of State.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

MARCH 6, 1862.

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your honorable bodies, which shall be substantially as follows:

Resolved, That the United States ought to cooperate with any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State, in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system.

If the proposition contained in the resolution does not meet the approval of Congress and the country, there is the end; but if it does command such approval, I deem it of importance that the States and people immediately interested should be at once distinctly notified of the fact, so that they may begin to consider whether to accept or reject it. The Federal Government would find its highest interest in such a measure, as one of the most efficient means of self-preservation. The leaders of the existing insurrection entertain the hope that this Government will ultimately be forced to acknowledge the independence of some part of the disaffected region, and that all the slave States north of such part will then say, "The Union for which we have struggled being already gone, we now choose to go with the Southern section." To deprive them of this hope substantially ends the rebellion, and the initiation of emancipation completely deprives them of it as to all the States initiating it. The point is not that all the States tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate emancipation; but that while the offer is equally made to all, the more northern shall by such initiation make it certain to the more southern that in no event will the former ever join the latter in their proposed confederacy. I say "initiation" because, in my judgment, gradual and not sudden emancipation is better for all. In the mere financial or pecuniary view any member of Congress with the census tables and Treasury reports before him can readily see for himself how very soon the current expenditures of this war would purchase, at fair valuation, all the slaves in any named State. Such a proposition on the part of the General Government sets up no claim of a right by Federal authority to interfere with slavery within State limits, referring, as it does, the absolute control of the subject in each case to the State and its people immediately interested. It is proposed as a matter of perfectly free choice with them.

In the annual message last December I thought fit to say "the Union

must be preserved, and hence all indispensable means must be employed." I said this not hastily, but deliberately. War has been made and continues to be an indispensable means to this end. A practical reacknowledgment of the national authority would render the war unnecessary, and it would at once cease. If, however, resistance continues, the war must also continue; and it is impossible to foresee all the incidents which may attend and all the ruin which may follow it. Such as may seem indispensable or may obviously promise great efficiency toward ending the struggle must and will come.

The proposition now made (though an offer only), I hope it may be esteemed no offense to ask whether the pecuniary consideration tendered would not be of more value to the States and private persons concerned than are the institution and property in it in the present aspect of affairs. While it is true that the adoption of the proposed resolution would be merely initiatory, and not within itself a practical measure, it is recommended in the hope that it would soon lead to important practical results. In full view of my great responsibility to my God and to my country, I earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people to the subject. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, D. C., March 7, 1862.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith, for the constitutional action of the Senate thereon, a treaty concluded at Paola, Kans., on the 18th day of August, between Seth Clover, commissioner on the part of the United States, and the delegates of the united tribes of Kaskaskia and Peoria, Piankeshaw, and Wea Indians.

I also transmit a communication of the Secretary of the Interior of the 6th instant and accompanying papers from the Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in relation to the subject.

To the Senate of the United States:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, March 12, 1862.

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 11th instant, requesting "a copy of any correspondence on the records or files of the Department of State in regard to railway systems in Europe," I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the papers by which it was accompanied. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, March 14, 1862.

With reference to my recent message on the subject of claims of citizens of the United States on the Government of Paraguay, I transmit a

copy of three memorials of the claimants and of their closing arguments in the case, together with extracts from a dispatch from Mr. Bowlin, the late commissioner of the United States to that country. These extracts show that President Lopez offered and expected to pay a large sum of money as a compromise of the claims.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, March 14, 1862.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I submit to Congress the accompanying copy of a correspondence between the Secretary of State, the Danish chargé d'affaires, and the Secretary of the Navy, concerning the case of the bark Jorgen Lorentzen, a Danish vessel seized on her voyage from Rio Janeiro to Havana by the United States ship Morning Light and subsequently released. I recommend the appropriation of the amount of the award of the referees. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON CITY, March 20, 1862.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

The third section of the "Act further to promote the efficiency of the Navy," approved December 21, 1861, provides—

That the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall have the authority to detail from the retired list of the Navy for the command of squadrons and single ships such officers as he may believe that the good of the service requires to be thus placed in command; and such officers may, if upon the recommendation of the President of the United States they shall receive a vote of thanks of Congress for their services and gallantry in action against an enemy, be restored to the active list, and not otherwise.

In conformity with this law, Captain Samuel F. Du Pont, of the Navy, was nominated to the Senate for continuance as the flag-officer in command of the squadron which recently rendered such important service to the Union in the expedition to the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

Believing that no occasion could arise which would more fully correspond with the intention of the law or be more pregnant with happy influence as an example, I cordially recommend that Captain Samuel F. Du Pont receive a vote of thanks of Congress for his service and gallantry displayed in the capture since the 21st December, 1861, of various points on the coasts of Georgia and Florida, particularly Brunswick, Cumberland Island and Sound, Amelia Island, the towns of St. Marys, St. Augustine, and Jacksonville and Fernandina.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, March 26, 1862.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit a copy of a communication* of the 21st of December last addressed to the Secretary of State by the governor of the Territory of Nevada, and commend to the particular attention of Congress those parts of it which show that further legislation is desirable for the public welfare in that quarter. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, March 31, 1862.

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a treaty of commerce and navigation between the United States and the Ottoman Empire, signed at Constantinople on the 25th of last month. Extracts from a dispatch of the same date, upon the subject of the treaty, from Mr. Morris, the United States minister at Constantinople, to the Secretary of State, are also herewith communicated.

It will be noticed that the exchange of ratifications is to take place within three months from the date of the instrument. This renders it desirable that the Senate should decide in regard to it as soon as this may be convenient, for if that decision be favorable the ratifications of this Government must reach Constantinople prior to the expiration of the three months adverted to. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

To the House of Representatives:

WASHINGTON, April 5, 1862.

In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of yesterday, requesting any information which may have been received at the Department of State showing the system of revenue and finance now existing in any foreign country, I transmit a copy of a recent dispatch from Mr. Pike, the United States minister at The Hague. This is understood to be the only information on the subject of the resolution recently received which has not been made public.

To the Senate of the United States:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, April 10, 1862.

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a treaty between the United States and Her Britannic Majesty for the suppression of the slave trade. A copy of the correspondence between the Secretary of State and Lord Lyons on the subject of the treaty is also herewith transmitted.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

*Containing a narrative of incidents pertaining to the government of the Territory of Nevada.

To the House of Representatives:

WASHINGTON, April 14, 1862.

In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 3d ultimo, requesting information in regard to the present condition of Mexico, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents by which it was accompanied.

To the Senate of the United States:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, April 15, 1862.

On the 26th of June, 1860, the Senate approved of the treaty of friendship and commerce between the United States and Nicaragua, signed on the 16th of March, 1859, with certain amendments.

On the next day, namely, June 27, 1860, the Senate adopted a resolution extending the period for the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty for six months from that date; that is, until the 27th of December, 1860.

Although the amendments of the Senate were immediately transmitted to our minister in Nicaragua for submission to the Government of that Republic, he failed, notwithstanding earnest efforts, to induce that Government to call an extra session of Congress to take into consideration the amendments of the Senate of the United States within the supplementary time named in the resolution of June 27, 1860, for the exchange of ratifications.

It was not until the 25th of March, 1861, nearly three months after the expiration of the six months extended by the Senate resolution, that the Congress of Nicaragua acted favorably upon the amendments of the Senate of the United States.

A translation of the decree of the Nicaraguan Government approving the treaty as amended, with an additional amendment, is herewith inclosed. It will be perceived that while the ratification of Nicaragua recites literally the second amendment of the Senate and accepts it with an additional clause, it does not in explicit terms accept the first amendment of the Senate, striking out the last clause of the sixteenth article.

That amendment is of so much importance that the adoption or rejection of it by the Government of Nicaragua should not be left to construction or inference.

The final amendment of that Government properly extended the time of exchanging ratifications for an additional twelve months. That time has expired. For obvious reasons connected with our internal affairs, the subject has not sooner been submitted to the Senate, but the treaty is now laid before that body, with this brief historical sketch and the decree of the Nicaraguan Government, for such further advice as may be deemed necessary and proper in regard to the acceptance or rejection of the amendments of Nicaragua. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.