It seems, therefore, to be proper that we should show to any of them who may apply for that purpose that, compatibly with our cardinal policy and with an enlightened view of our own interests, we are willing to encourage them by…

Under the call for three-years' volunteers 50,000 men will be accepted as raised and reported by the respective State governors.

You are authorized to do whatever you may deem expedient to open for use in the shortest possible time all military railroads now or hereafter required in said department;

You are also authorized to take possession of and use all railroads, engines, cars, buildings, machinery, and appurtenances within the geographical limits of the Department of the Rappahannock.

You are also authorized to form a permanent corps of artificers, organized, officered, and equipped in such manner as you may prescribe;

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.

There was no time to convene them.

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…

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.

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

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…

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.

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