No military or naval officer, or other person engaged in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, shall order, bring, keep, or have under his authority or control any troops or armed men at the place where any general or special election is held in any State, unless it be necessary to repel the armed enemies of the United States or to keep the peace at the polls.

Every officer of the Army or Navy, or other person in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, who orders, brings, keeps, or has under his authority or control any troops or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held in any State, unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States or to keep the peace at the polls, shall be fined not more than $5,000 and suffer imprisonment at hard labor not less than three months nor more than five years.

There shall be, as there have always been, peace and friendship between the United States of America and the Ta Tsing Empire, and between their people respectively.

The external commerce of the United States has for many years been the subject of solicitude because of the outward drain of the precious metals it has caused.

To the Senate of the United States: I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, together with the copies of papers therein referred to, in compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 27th of May last.

To the Senate of the United States: I transmit, for the consideration of the Senate with a view to ratification, a declaration respecting trade-marks between the United States and Brazil, concluded and signed at Rio de Janeiro on the 24th day of September last.

To the Senate of the United States: I transmit, for the consideration of the Senate with a view to ratification, a convention revising certain portions of existing commercial treaties and further extending commercial intercourse between the United States and Japan, concluded and signed at Washington on the 25th day of July last.

I respectfully recommend that an adequate appropriation be made for certain expenses of the conference and of the commissioners attending the same on behalf of the United States.

The battle of Gettysburg will probably always be regarded as the battle which did more than any other to determine the result of the great civil war in the United States.

To the Senate of the United States: I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to its ratification, a consular convention between the United States and the Netherlands, signed on the 23d instant.

To the Senate of the United States:In further answer to the resolution of the Senate of December 7, 1877, as to the cost of the Sioux War, I transmit copies of additional reports on the subject received from the Military Division of the Missouri.

In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 3d ultimo, requesting to be furnished with the correspondence between the Government of Venezuela and that of the United States had since the adjournment of the first session of the Forty-fourth Congress in relation to the Venezuela Mixed Claims Commission, I transmit the report of the Secretary of State, together with its accompanying documents.

To the Senate of the United States: I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 13th instant, a report from the Secretary of State.

And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

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.

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 the United States, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents by which it was accompanied.

Whereas it has become necessary to call into service not only volunteers, but also portions of the militia of the States by draft in order to suppress the insurrection existing in the United States

the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the constitutional relation between the United States and each of the States