You are hereby appointed chief of construction and transportation in the Department of the Rappahannock, with the rank of colonel, and attached to the staff of Major-General McDowell.

It is due to Mr. Cameron to say that although he fully approved the proceedings they were not moved nor suggested by himself.

I am not aware that a dollar of the public funds thus confided without authority of law to unofficial persons was either lost or wasted, although apprehensions of such misdirection occurred to me as objections to those extraordinary…

There was no time to convene them.

By virtue of the authority vested by act of Congress, the President takes military possession of all the railroads in the United States from and after this date until further order.

To the House of Representatives: I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, in answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 22d instant, calling for further correspondence relative to Mexican affairs.

In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 20th instant, requesting information in regard to the indemnity obtained by the consul-general of the United States at Alexandria, Egypt, for the maltreatment of…

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 14th instant, requesting information in regard to arrests in the State of Kentucky, I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, to whom the resolution was referred.

whether it be competent for me, as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, to declare the slaves of any State or States free, and whether at any time, in any case, it shall have become a necessity indispensable to the maintenance of the…

Neither General Hunter nor any other commander or person has been authorized by the Government of the United States to make proclamations declaring the slaves of any State free

I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of them, ranging, if it may be, far above personal and partisan politics.

I bid you farewell.

For your kind expressions I am extremely grateful, but on the other hand I assure you that the nation is more indebted to you, and such as you, than to me.

It has not been customary heretofore, nor will it be hereafter, for me to say something to every regiment passing in review.

I hope that upon your return to your homes you will find your friends and loved ones well and happy.

The thanks of the nation will follow you, and may God's blessing rest upon you now and forever.

For their services and gallantry on those occasions I cordially recommend that they should by name receive a vote of thanks of Congress.

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 D. G. Farragut receive a vote of thanks of…