If they or any of them shall be by Congress disposed of in reward or compliment of military service, I think General Butler is entitled to the first consideration.

I have in my possession three valuable swords, formerly the property of General David E. Twiggs, which I now place at the disposal of Congress.

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a treaty between the United States and the Republic of Liberia, signed at London by the plenipotentiaries of the parties on the 21st of October last.

This is as full and complete a response to the resolution as it is in my power to make.

I have ordered the other thirty-nine to be executed on Friday, the 19th instant.

Anxious to not act with so much clemency as to encourage another outbreak on the one hand, nor with so much severity as to be real cruelty on the other, I caused a careful examination of the records of trials to be made.

In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 17th of July last, requesting the communication of correspondence relating to the arrest of a part of the crew of the brig Sumter at Tangier, Morocco, I herewith transmit a…

I most cordially recommend that Lieutenant-Commander George U. Morris, United States Navy, receive a vote of thanks of Congress for the determined valor and heroism displayed in his defense of the United States ship of war Cumberland.

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the United States of the 13th of March last, requesting a copy of the correspondence relative to the attempted seizure of Mr. Fauchet by the commander of the Africa within the waters of…

I most cordially recommend that Commander John L. Worden, United States Navy, receive a vote of thanks of Congress for the eminent skill and gallantry exhibited by him in the late remarkable battle between the United States ironclad…

I recommend an appropriation of this sum for the benefit of the owners of the Jules et Marie.

The obligation of this Government to make amends therefor could not be questioned if the injury resulted from any fault on the part of the San Jacinto.

In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free – honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve.

The immense mineral resources of some of those Territories ought to be developed as rapidly as possible.

We must think anew, act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves from the past, and then we shall save our country.

Fellow-citizens, we can not escape history.

The treaty with Great Britain for the suppression of the slave trade has been put into operation with a good prospect of complete success.

The struggle has been, of course, contemplated by foreign nations with reference less to its own merits than to its supposed and often exaggerated effects and consequences resulting to those nations themselves.