Andrew Johnson: “The orders issued by me upon this subject are in accordance with long-established usage and hitherto unquestioned…”

My object in this communication is to suggest certain defects in the Constitution which seem to me to require correction.

I transmit to Congress the accompanying documents, which I deem it proper to state are all the papers* that have been submitted to the President relating to the proceedings to which they refer in the States of South Carolina and Arkansas.

The foregoing views have long been entertained by me.

By direction of the President, Brigadier and Brevet Major-General Irvin McDowell is assigned to the command of the Department of the East.