556

maritime powers, with the lights they now enjoy, would not concede the privileges of a naval belligerent to the insurgents of the United States, destitute, as they are, and always have been, equally of ships-of-war and of ports and harbors. Disloyal emissaries have been neither less assiduous nor more successful during the last year than they were before that time in their efforts, under favor of that privilege, to embroil our country in foreign wars. The desire and determination of the governments of the maritime States to defeat that design are believed to be as sincere as, and cannot be more earnest than, our own. Nevertheless, unforeseen political difficulties have arisen, especially in Brazilian and British ports, and on the northern boundary of the United States, which have required, and are likely to continue to require, the practice of constant vigilance, and a just and conciliatory spirit on the part of the United States, as well as of the nations concerned and their governments.

balance in the Treasury of $18,842,558 71, as before sta-
ted.

For the actual receipts and disbursements for the first
quarter, and the estimated receipts and disbursements for
the three remaining quarters of the current fiscal year, and
the general operations of the Treasury in detail, I refer you
to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury. I concar
with him in the opinion that the proportion of moneys re-
quired to meet the expenses consequent upon the war de
rived from taxation should be still further increased; and
I earnestly invite your attention to this subject, to the end
that there may be such additional legislation as shall be
The public debt on the 1st day of July last, as appears by
required to meet the just expectations of the Secretary.
the books of the Treasury, amounted to $1,740,690,489 49.
Probably, should the war continue for another year, that
Held, as it is for the most part, by our own people, it has
amount may be increased by not far from $500,000,000.
become a substantial branch of national, though private,
property. For obvious reasons, the more nearly this prop
erty can be distributed among all the people the better.
become owners might, perhaps, with good effect and with-
To favor such general distribution, greater inducements to
this view, I suggest whether it might not be both compe
tent and expedient for Congress to provide that a limited
amount of some future issue of public securities might be
held by any bona fide purchaser exempt from taxation and
from seizure for debt, under such restrictions and limita-
tions as might be necessary to guard against abuse of so
important a privilege. This would enable every prudent
person to set aside a small annuity against a possible day of
want.

Commissioners have been appointed under the treaty with Great Britain on the adjustment of the claims of the Hudson's Bay and Puget Sound Agricultural Companies, in Oregon, and are now proceeding to the execution of the trust assigned to them. In view of the insecurity of life and property in the re-out injury, be presented to persons of limited means. With gion adjacent to the Canadian border, by reason of recent assaults and depredations committed by inimical and desperate persons who are harbored there, it has been thought proper to give notice that after the expiration of six months, the period conditionally stipulated in the existing arrangement with Great Britain, the United States must hold themserves at liberty to increase their naval armament upon the lakes if they shall find that proceeding necessary. The condition of the border will necessari y come into consideration in connection with the question of continuing or modifying the rights of transit from Canada through the United States, as well as the regulation of imposts, which were temporarily established by the reciprocity treaty of the 5th June, 1854.

I desire, however, to be understood, while making this statement, that the colonial authorities of Canada are not deemed to be intentionally unjust or unfriendly toward the United States; but, on the contrary, there is every reason to expect that, with the approval of the imperial govern ment, they will take the necessary measures to prevent new incursions across the border.

Privileges like these would render the possession of such securities, to the amount limited, most desirable to every person of small means who might be able to save enough creditors as well as debtors, with relation to the public for the purpose. The great advantage of citizens being debt, is obvious. Men readily perceive that they cannot be The public debt on the 1st day of July last, although much oppressed by a debt which they owe to themselves. somewhat exceeding the estimate of the Secretary of the Treasury made to Congress at the commencement of the in the preceding December, as to its probable amount at the last session, falls short of the estimate of that officer made beginning of this year, by the sum of $3,995,097 31. This fact exhibits a satisfactory condition and conduct of the

The act passed at the last session for the encouragement
of emigration has, so far as was possible, been put into
operation. It seems to need amendment which will ena-operations of the Treasury.
ble the officers of the government to prevent the practice
of frauds against the immigrants while on their way and on
their arrival in the ports, so as to secure them here a free
choice of avocations and places of settlement. A liberal
disposition toward this great national policy is manifested
by most of the European States, and ought to be recipro-
cated on our part by giving the immigrants effective na-
tional protection. I regard our emigrants as one of the
principal replenishing streams which are appointed by Prov-
idence to repair the ravages of internal war and its wastes
of national strength and health. All that is necessary is to
secure the flow of that stream in its present fullness, and
to that end the government must in every way make it
manifest that it neither needs nor designs to impose invol-
untary military service upon those who come from other
lands to cast their lot in our country.

The financial affairs of the government have been suc-
cessfully administered during the last year. The legisla-
tion of the last session of Congress has beneficially affected
the revenues, although sufficient time has not yet elapsed to
experience the full effect of several of the provisions of the
acts of Congress imposing increased taxation.

The receipts during the year, from all sources, upon the basis of warrants signed by the Secretary of the Treasury, including loans and the balance in the Treasury on the 1st day of July, 1863, were $1,394,796,007 62; and the aggre gate disbursements, upon the same basis, were $1,298,056,101 89, leaving a balance in the Treasury, as shown by warrants, of $96,739,905 73.

Deduct from these amounts the amount of the principal of the public debt redeemed, and the amount of issues in substitution therefor, and the actual cash operations of the Treasury were: receipts, $$84,076,646 57; disbursements, $865,234,087 86; which leaves a cash balance in the Treasury of $18,842,558 71.

Of the receipts, there were derived from customs, $102,316,152 99; from lands, $588,333 29; from direct taxes, $475,648 96; from internal revenue, $109,741,134 10; from miscellaneous sources, $47,511,448 10; and from loans applied to actual expenditures, including former balance,

The national banking system is proving to be acceptable to capitalists and to the people. On the 25th day of Norember five hundred and eighty-four national banks lad been organized, a considerable number of which were com versions from State banks. Changes from State systems to the national system are rapidly taking place, and it is hoped that very soon there will be in the United States no banks of issue not authorized by Congress, and no banknote circulation not secured by the Government. That the Government and the people will derive great benefit from this change in the banking systems of the country can hardly be questioned. The national system will create a reliable and permanent influence in support of the national credit, and protect the people against losses in the use of advisable for the suppression of State bank issues it will be paper money. Whether or not any further legislation is for Congress to determine. It seems quite clear that the Treasury cannot be satisfactorily conducted unless the Government can exercise a restraining power over the bank-note circulation of the country.

The report of the Secretary of War and the accompanying documents will detail the campaigns of the armies in the field since the date of the last annual message, and also the operations of the several administrative bureaus of the War Department during the last year. It will also specify the measures deemed essential for the national defence, and to The report of the Secretary of the Navy presents a com keep up and supply the requisite military force. prehensive and satisfactory exhibit of the affairs of that Department and of the naval service. It is a subject of congratulation and landable pride to our countrymen that a navy of such vast proportions has been organized in so brief a period, and conducted with so much efficiency and success.

The general exhibit of the Navy, including vessels under construction on the 1st of December, 1864, shows a total of an actual increase during the year, over and above all 671 vessels, carrying 4,610 guns, and of 510,396 tons, being losses by shipwreck or in battle, of 83 vessels, 167 guns, and The total number of men at this time in the naval ser 42,427 tons. including officers, is about 51,000. the Navy during the year

APPENDIX.

prize property, thus far reported, amount to $14,396.250 51.
A large amount of such proceeds is still under adjudica-
tion, and yet to be reported.
The total expenditure of the Navy Department of every
description, including the cost of the immense squadrons
that have been called into existence from the 4th of March,
1861, to the 1st of November, 1864, are $238,647,262 35.
Your favorable consideration is invited to the various
recommendations of the Secretary of the Navy, especially
in regard to a navy-yard and suitable establishment for the
construction and repair of iron vessels, and the machinery
and armature for our ships, to which reference was made
in my last annual message.

Your attention is also invited to the views expressed in the report in relation to the legislation of Congress at its last session in respect to prize on our inland waters.

I cordially concur in the recommendation of the Secretary as to the propriety of creating the new rank of vice admiral in our naval service.

Your attention is invited to the report of the Postmaster General for a detailed account of the operations and financial condition of the Post Office Department.

The postal revenues for the year ending June 30, 1864, amounted to $12,438,253 78, and the expenditures to $12,644,786 20; the excess of expenditures over receipts being $206,532 42.

The views presented by the Postmaster General on the subject of special grants by the government in aid of the establishment of new lines of ocean mail steamships and the policy he recommends for the development of increased commercial intercourse with adjacent and neighboring countries, should receive the careful consideration of Congress.

It is of noteworthy interest that the steady expansion of population, improvement, and governmental institutions over the new and unoccupied portions of our country has scarcely been checked, much less impeded or destroyed, by our great civil war, which at first glance would seem to have absorbed almost the entire energies of the nation.

The organization and admission of the State of Nevada has been completed in conformity with law, and thus our excellent system is firmly established in the mountains which once seemed a barren and uninhabitable waste between the Atlantic States and those which have grown up on the coast of the Pacific ocean.

The Territories of the Union are generally in a condition of prosperity and rapid growth. Idaho and Montana, by reason of their great distance and the interruption of communication with them by Indian hostilities, have been only partially organized; but it is understood that these difficulties are about to disappear, which will permit their governments, like those of the others, to go into speedy and full operation.

As intimately connected with and promotive of this material growth of the nation, I ask the attention of Congress to the valuable information and important recommendations relating to the public lands, Indian affairs, the Pacific railroad, and mineral discoveries contained in the report of the Secretary of the Interior, which is herewith transmitted, and which report also embraces the subjects of patents, pensions, and other topics of public interest pertaining to his Department.

The quantity of public land disposed of during the five quarters ending on the 30th of September last was 4,221,342 acres, of which 1,538,614 acres were entered under the homestead law. The remainder was located with military land warrants, agricultural scrip certified to States for railroads, and sold for cash. The cash received from sales and location fees was $1,019,446.

The income from sales during the fiscal year ending the 80th of June, 1864, was $678,007 21, against $136,077 95 received during the preceding year. The aggregate number of acres surveyed during the year has been equal to the quantity disposed of; and there is open to settlement about 133,000,000 acres of surveyed land.

|

Indian system be remodeled. Congress, at its last session,
acting upon the recommendation, did provide for reorgan-
izing the system in California, and it is believed that under
the present organization the mangement of the Indians
there will be attended with reasonable success. Much yet
remains to be done to provide for the proper government
of the Indians in other parts of the courtry to render it
secure for the advancing settler and to provide for the wel-
fare of the Indian. The Secretary reiterates his recom-
mendations, and to them the attention of Congress is in-
vited.

The liberal provisions made by Congress for paying pensions to invalid soldiers and sailors of the Republic, and to the widows, orphans, and dependent mothers of those who have fallen in battle, or died of disease contracted or of wounds received in the service of their country, have been diligently administered. There have been added to the pension rolls, during the year ending the 30th day of June last, the names of 16,770 invalid soldiers and of 271 disabled seamen, making the present number of army invalid ponsioners 22.767, and of navy invalid pensioners 712.

Of widows, orphans, and mothers, 22,198 have been placed on the army pension rolls, and 248 on the navy rolls. The present number of army pensioners of this class is 25,433, and of the navy pensioners 793. At the beginning of the year the number of revolutionary pensioners was 1,430; only twelve of them were soldiers, of whom seven have since died. The remainder are those who, under the law, receive pensions because of relationship to revolutionary soldiers. During the year ending the 30th of June, 1864, $4,504,616 92 have been paid to pensioners of all classes.

I cheerfully commend to your continued patronage the benevolent institutions of the District of Columbia which have hitherto been established or fostered by Congress, and respectfully refer, for information concerning them, and in relation to the Washington aqueduct, the Capitol, and other matters of local interest, to the report of the Secretary.

The Agricultural Department, under the supervision of its present energetic and faithful head, is rapidly commending itself to the great and vital interest it was created to advance. It is peculiarly the people's Department, in I commend it to the continued attention and fostering care which they feel more directly concerned than in any other. of Congress.

The war continues. Since the last annual message all the important lines and positions then occupied by our forces have been maintained, and our arms have steadily advanced; thus liberating the regions left in the rear, so that Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and parts of other The most remarkable feature in the military operations States have again produced reasonably fair crops. of the year is General Sherman's attempted march of three hundred miles directly through the insurgent region. It tends to show a great increase of our relative strength that our General-in-Chief should feel able to confront and hold in check every active force of the enemy, and yet to detach a well appointed large army to move on such an expedition. The result not yet beir g known, conjecture in regard to it is not here indulged.

Important movements have also occurred during the year to the effect of moulding society for durability in the Union. Although short of complete success, it is much in the right direction that twelve thousand citizens in each of the States of Arkansas and Louisiana have organized loyal State governments, with free constitutions, and are ear nestly struggling to maintain and administer them. The movements in the same direction, more extensive though less definite, in Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, should not be overlooked. But Maryland presents the example of complete success. Maryland is secure to liberty and Union for all the future. The genius of rebellion will no more out, it may seek to tear her, but it will woo her no more. claim Maryland. Like another foul spirit, being driven

At the last session of Congress a proposed amendment of the Constitution abolishing slavery throughout the United States passed the Senate, but failed for lack of the requi

The great enterprise of connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific States by railways and telegraph lines has been entered upon with a vigor that gives assurance of success, notwithstanding the embarrassments arising from the pre-site two-thirds vote in the House of Representatives. Alvailing high prices of materials and labor. The route of the main line of the road has been definitely located for one hundred miles westward from the initial point at Omaha City, Nebraska, and a preliminary location of the Pacific railroad of California has been made from Sacramento eastward to the great bend of the Truckee river in Nevada. Numerous discoveries of gold, silver, and cinnabar mines have been added to the many heretofore known, and the country occupied by the Sierra Nevada and Rocky mountains, and the subordinate ranges, now teems with euterprising labor, which is richly remunerative. It is believed that the product of the mines of precious metals in that region has, during the year, reached, if not exceeded, one hundred millions in value.

It was recommended in my last annual message that our

though the present is the same Congress, and nearly the
same members, and without questioning the wisdom or
patriotism of those who stood in opposition, I venture to
recommend the reconsideration and passage of the measure
at the present session. Of course the abstract question is
not changed; but an intervening election shows, almost
Hence there is only a question of time as to
certainly, that the next Congress will pass the measure if
this does not.
when the proposed amendment will go to the States for
their action. And as it is to so go, at all events, may we
not agree that the sooner the better? It is not claimed
that the election has imposed a duty on members to
additional element to be considered, their judgment may
change their views or their votes, any further than, as an
be affected by it. It is the voice of the people now, for the

558

first time, heard upon the question. In a great national | crisis like ours, unanimity of action among those seeking a common end is very desirable-almost indispensable. And yet no approach to such unanimity is attainable unless some deference shall be paid to the will of the majority simply because it is the will of the majority. In this case the common end is the maintenance of the Union; and, among the means to secure that end, such will, througli the election. is most clearly declared in favor of such constitutional amendment.

The most reliable indication of public purpose in this country is derived through our popular elections. Judging by the recent canvass and its result, the purpose of the people within the loyal States to maintain the integrity of the Union was never more firm nor more nearly unanimous than now. The extraordinary calmness and good order with which the millions of voters met and mingled at the polls give strong assurance of this. Not only all those who supported the Union ticket, so-called, but a great majority of the opposing party also, may be fairly claimed to enter: tain and to be actuated by the same purpose. It is an unanswerable argument to this effect, that no candidate for any office whatever, high or low, has ventured to seek votes on the avowal that he was for giving up the Union. There have been much impugning of motives, and much heated controversy as to the proper means and best mode of advancing the Union cause; but on the distinct issue of Union or no Union the politicians have shown their instinctive knowledge that there is no diversity among the people. In affording the people the fair opportunity of showing, one to another and to the world, this firmness and unanimity of purpose, the election has been of vast value to the national

cause.

The election has exhibited another fact not less valuable to be known-the fact that we do not approach exhaustion in the most important branch of national resources-that of living men. While it is melancholy to reflect that the war has filled so many graves and carried mourning to so many hearts, it is some relief to know that, compared with the surviving, the fallen have been so few. While c rps and divisions and brigades and regiments have formed and fought and dwindled and gone out of existence, a great majority of the men who composed them are still living. The same is true of the naval service. The election returns prove this. So many voters could not else be found. The States regularly holding elections both now and four years ago, to wit: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, cast 8,982,011 votes now against 3,870,222 cast then, showing an aggregate now of 3,982,011. To this is to be added 33,762 cast now in the new States of Kansas and Nevada, which States did not vote in 1860, thus swelling the aggregate to 4,015,773 and the net increase during the three years and a half of war to 145,551. A table is appended showing particulars. To this again should be added the number of all soldiers in the field from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Indiana, Illinois, and California, who, by the laws of those States, could not vote away from their homes, and which number cannot be less than 90,000. Nor yet is this all. The number in organized Territories is triple now what it was four years ago, while thousands, white and black, join us as the national arms press back the insurgent lines. So much is shown affirmatively and negatively by the election. It is not material to inquire how the increase has been produced or to show that it would have been greater but for the war, which is probably true. The important fact remains demonstrated that we have more men now than we had when the war began; that we are not exhausted nor in process of exhaustion; that we are gaining strength, and may if need be maintain the contest indefinitely. This as to men. Material resources are now more complete and abundant than ever. The national resources, then, are unexhausted, and, as we The public purpose to re-establish believe, inexhaustible. and maintain the national authority is unchanged, and, as we believe, unchangeable. The manner of continuing the effort remains to choose. On careful consideration of all the evidence accessible, it seems to me that no attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader could result in any good. He would accept nothing short of severance of the Union-precisely what we will not and cannot give. His declarations to this effect are explicit and oft repeated. He does not attempt to deceive us. He affords us no excuse to deceive ourselves. He cannot voluntarily reaccept the Union; we cannot voluntarily yield it. Between him and us the issue is distinct, simple, and inflexible. It is an issue

Some of them, we know, already desire peace and reunion.
follow. Although he cannot reaccept the Union, they can.
The number of such may increase. They can at any mo-
ment have peace simply by laying down their arms and
submitting to the national authority under the Constitution.
After so much, the Government could not, if it would, main-
tain war against them. The loyal people would not sustain
or allow it. If questions should remain, we would ad-
courts, and votes, operating only in constitutional and law
just them by the peaceful means of legislation, conference,
ful channels. Some certain, and other possible, questions
are, and would be, beyond the executive power to adjust;
as, for instance, the admission of members into Congress,
Pardons and remissions of
and whatever might require the appropriation of money.
The executive power itself would be greatly diminished by
the cessation of actual war.
forfeitures, however, would still be within executive con-
trol. In what spirit and temper this control would be ex-
ercised can be fairly judged of by the past.

A year ago general pardon and amnesty, upon specified
terms, were offered to all, except certain designated classes;
and it was, at the same time, made known that the excepted
classes were still within contemplation of special clemency.
During the year many availed themselves of the general
provision, and many more would, only that the signs of bad
faith in some, led to such precautionary measures as ren
dered the practical process less easy and certain. During
the same time also special pardons have been granted to
individuals of the excepted classes, and no voluntary appli-
cation has been denied. Thus, practically, the door has
be en, for a full year, open to all, except such as were not in
tody or under constraint. It is still so open to all. But the
condition to make free choice-that is, such as were in cas-
time may come-probably will come when public duty
orous measures than heretofore shall be adopted.
shall demand that it be closed; and that, in lieu, more rig
In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to
the national authority on the part of the insurgents, as the
only indispensable condition to ending the war on the part
of the Governnient, I retract nothing heretofore said as to
"while I remain in my present position I shall not attempt
slavery. I repeat the declaration made a year ago, that
to retract or no lify the emancipation proclamation, nor
shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms
of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress." If
the people should, by whatever mode or means, make it an
executive duty to re-enslave such persons, another, and not
I, must be their instrument to perform it.

In stating a single condition of peace, I mean simply to ABRAHAM LINCOLN. say that the war will cease on the part of the Government gan it. whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who be

Table showing the Aggregate Votes in the States named, at the Presidential Elections respectively in 1860 and 1864. 1860. 1864.

$110,000

86,610

16,924

318,235

280,645

143,331

#91,300

115,141

72,703

175,487

162,413

42.534

$90,000

09.111

121,125 128,680

470,745

$14,410

572,097

Memorandum of Changes in List of
Senators and Representatives.
The following changes occurred from the
last session:

IN SENATE.

1864, December 5-Nathan A. Farwell, of Maine, qua'ified as successor of William Pitt Fessenden, resigned to become Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Fessenden, having been reelected, resumed his seat March 4, 1865.

1865, February 1-William M. Stewart and James W. Nye took their seats as Senators from Nevada-the former drawing the term to expire March 3, 1867, the latter the term to expire March 3, 1869.

1865, February 13-Thomas Holliday Hicks, of Maryland, died. His successor, John A. J. Creswell, was not qualified until March 10, during the Special Executive Session of the Senate.

IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

1864, December 5-Dwight Townsend, of New York, qualified as successor of Henry G. Stebbins, resigned.

1864, December 21-Henry G. Worthington, of Nevada, qualified.

559

"An act relating to habeas corpus, and regulating judicial proceedings in certain cases."

Your instructions to me were, "to soo that the provisions of that law are observed in regard to all persons held in military custody." For the preparation of the lists required by those provisions, there were furnished me by you rolls of prisoners confined in the Government prisons at St. Louis, Fort Lafayette, Fort Mcllenry, Fort Delaware, and in the Alton, Louisville, Sandusky, Wheeling, Camp Chase, Ohio, Old Capitol Prison at Washington. In consequence of the late date of your letter of instruction, and of the receipt of the rolls, as well as on account of the pressure of business, the lists have not been furnished within the twenty days privileges of the prisoners in question, as will be seen by a specified in the act. This delay, however, cannot affect the end of this communication.

reference to the third section of the act alluded to at the

offences were committed, or by whose authority the ar-
Most of the rolls furnished are incomplete in view of the
requirements of the act, in that they do not state where the
casos, what was the offence or charge. The residence of
rests were made, and some of them do not specify, in many
prisoners, however, is generally given, and this, in nearly
terms of the act.
every case, affords a venue for trial, according to the

It not being generally stated in the rolls by whose authority the arrests which are the subject of this communication were made, it has been presumed (for the purposes of the present lists) that all were made by the authority, through the Secretary of War. In point of fact, however, either directly or indirectly, of the President, acting it is believed that these arrests were generally made by military commanders and provost marshals, without any intervention on the part of the President or Secretary.

A considerable number of the prisoners enumerated in some of the rolls, especially those from the prisons of St. Louis and Alton, are not included in the lists prepared by me for the United States judges. The act does not appear

Arrests of Citizens, and the Writ of to have been carefully framed, and has been found to be

Habeas Corpus.

ARRESTS OF CITIZENS.

extremely difficult of construction. In view of this fact and of the deficiencies in the rolls, as well as in consideration of the exigencies of the service, the act has been strictly 1865, February 18-The Secretary of War, by court-martial or military commission, and which are construed by me; and those cases which are clearly triable in reply to a resolution of the Senate, of Feb-being every day thus tried, and readily and summarily disruary 14,* sent a report to that body of his posed of, are not generally included in the lists. action under the act referred to, (see p. 183,) of which these extracts give the substance:

Shortly after the passage of said act, viz, on the 23d of March, 1863, Colonel Holt, Judge Advocate General, the chief law officer of the Department, was, by an order of that date, charged with the execution of the provisions of that act in the following instructions:

WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, March 23, 1863. COLONEL: I beg you to direct your attention to the provision of the late act of Congress requiring prisoners held under military authority to be released within a certain time, and to ask that proceedings may be taken against such as are not proper to be released, and that you will see that the provisions of that law are observed in regard to all persons held in military custody.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
EDWIN M. STANTON,
Secretary of War.

Hon. J. HOLT, Judge Advocate General.
After these instructions, the Judge Advocate General
made report, transmitting to this department a list of po-
litical prisoners, and reported that "duplicates had been
furnished to the judges of the circuit and district courts of
the United States, in compliance with the requirements of
the act of Congress." His report is as follows:

JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL'S OFFICE, SIR: Pursuant to instructions received from you under WASHINGTON, June 9, 1863. date of March 23, 1863, I have the honor to transmit herewith lists of political prisoners, of which duplicates have been furnished to the judges of the circuit and district courts of the United States, in compliance with the requirements of the act of Congress of March 3 last, entitled

*On motion of Mr. Powell, unanimously adopted: Resolved, That the Secretary of War be directed to inform the Senate whether or not he has furnished the judges of the circuit and district courts of the United States, and of the District of Columbia, a list of the names of the persons held as "State or political prisoners, or otherwise than as prisoners of war, as required by the second section of the art entitled 'An act relating to habeas corpus and regulating judicial proceedings in certain cases,"" approved March

3, 1900.

or

"bushwhackers," or as being connected with or aiding Such are cases of prisoners arrested as "guerrillas" these. So, too, of those arrested for communicating intelliand of those taken as spics. It is not believed that it was gence to the enemy in the sense of the 57th article of war, intended in the act to invite attention to cases of persons charged with purely military offences, or of persons suffering under sentences of military tribunals.

The cases of parties confined under sentences pronounced by military courts previous to the date of the act are, thereof prisoners, in whose case no charge or offence is set forth fore, not contained in the present lists. But the large class in the rolls, or who are noted as "awaiting charges," and during the war," (without it being added that they are unthe numerous class of those who are specified as "confined der sentence,) are both included. The lists also embrace those cases in which the charge is stated in general terms, as by the words "rebel," "disloyal," &c., &c., and further comprise prisoners held as "hostages" merely, or as "refugees."

The construction of the act which has been adopted by
prisoner not placed in the lists; for it is provided, in the
me is supported by the consideration that, under its provi-
third section, that in case a prisoner is omitted to be pre-
sions, such construction cannot impair the rights of any
sented by the Secretary to the judge in the formal list, he
may obtain, by a process therein prescribed, the judge's
order for his discharge upon the same terms as those which
govern the case of the prisoners whose names, &c., have
been furnished in the list by the Secretary.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. IOLT,

Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War.
Judge Advocate General.

held as State or political prisoners of the United States, by
order or authority of the President of the United States,
I have no knowledge or information of any other persons
or of the Secretary of State, or of the Secretary of War, in
port of the Judge Advocate General.
any fort, arsenal, or other place, since the date of the re-

measures had been taken by the Secretary of War to exam-
ine and determine the cases of State and political prisoners,
Prior to the passage of the act approved March 3, 1863,
by the appointment of commissioners to visit, from time to
time, the military prisons, with authority to discharge all
cases proper to be discharged. Since the passage of the
act, the same course has been nurgad is

manders, without authority from the President, Secretary | respectively arrested and confined, and upon what charges of State, or Secretary of War. their arrests were made; whether any of such persons are officers of the Army, and have been confined without a trial beyond the time in that respect prescribed by law or by the regulations in the military service; and whether any persons so in prison are confined without any written charges made against them; and whether there are any persons now in said prisons who have not had any trial; if so, report the names of such persons, the time when they were arrested, and the alleged cause of their arrest respectively; and that the said committee be, and they are hereby, authorized to send for persons and papers.