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 Faris-EI-Hakim, an agent in the employ of the American missionaries in that country, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents by which it was accompanied.
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My reason for so doing is that I am informed that this joint resolution was prepared during the last moments of the last session of Congress for the purpose of correcting certain errors of reference in the internal-revenue act which were discovered on an examination of an official copy procured from the State Department a few hours only before the adjournment.
And this result, so far from being bad faith to Vermont, is indispensable to keeping good faith with New Hampshire.
With deep gratitude to my countrymen for this mark of their confidence; with a distrust of my own ability to perform the duty required under the most favorable circumstances, and now rendered doubly difficult by existing national perils; yet with a firm reliance on the strength of our free government, and the eventual loyalty of the people to the just principles upon which it is founded, and above all with an unshaken faith in the Supreme Ruler of nations, I accept this trust.
Complaint is made to me, by Vermont, that the assignment of her quota for the draft on the pending call is intrinsically unjust, and also in bad faith of the Government's promise to fairly allow credits for men previously furnished.
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