receipt, or other paper certifying the receipt of arms, ammunition, provisions, clothing, or other public property so used or to be used, who shall make or deliver the same to any person without having full knowledge of the truth of the facts stated therein, and with intent to cheat, defraud, or injure the United States; any person in said forces or service who shall knowingly purchase or receive, in pledge for any obligation or indebtedness, from any soldier, officer, or other person called into or employed in said forces or service, any arms, equipments, ammunition, clothes, or military stores, or other public property, such soldier, officer, or other person not having the lawful right to pledge or sell the same, shall be deemed guilty of a criminal offense, and shall be subject to the rules and regulations made for the government of the military and naval forces of the United States, and of the militia when called into and employed in the actual service of the United States in time of war, and to the provisions of this act. And every person so offending may be arrested and held for trial by a court-martial, and if found guilty shall be punished by fine and imprisonment, or such other punishment as the court-martial may adjudge, save the punishment of death. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That any person heretofore called or hereafter to be called into or employed in such forces or service who shall commit any violation of this act, and shall afterwards receive his discharge or be dismissed from the service, shall, notwithstanding such discharge or dismissal, continue to be liable to be arrested and held for trial and sentence by a court-martial in the same manner and to the same extent as if he had not received such discharge or been dismissed. EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 29, 1866. The President with profound sorrow announces to the people of the United States the death of Winfield Scott, the late Lieutenant-General of the Army. On the day which may be appointed for his funeral the several Executive Departments of the Government will be closed. The heads of the War and Navy Departments will respectively give orders for paying appropriate honors to the memory of the deceased. ANDREW JOHNSON. [From the Daily National Intelligencer, June 6, 1866.] ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, D. C., June 5, 1866. By direction of the President, you* are hereby instructed to cause the arrest of all prominent, leading, or conspicuous persons called “Fenians" who you may have probable cause to believe have been or may be guilty of violations of the neutrality laws of the United States. JAMES SPEED, *Addressed to district attorneys and marshals of the United States. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, June 18, 1866. The President directs the undersigned to perform the painful duty of announcing to the people of the United States that Lewis Cass, distinguished not more by faithful service in varied public trusts than by exalted patriotism at a recent period of political disorder, departed this life at 4 o'clock yesterday morning. The several Executive Departments of the Government will cause appropriate honors to be rendered to the memory of the deceased at home and abroad wherever the national name and authority are acknowledged. Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, D. C., October 26, 1866. Secretary of War. SIR: Recent advices indicate an early evacuation of Mexico by the French expeditionary forces and that the time has arrived when our minister to Mexico should place himself in communication with that Republic. In furtherance of the objects of his mission and as evidence of the earnest desire felt by the United States for the proper adjustment of the questions involved, I deem it of great importance that General Grant should by his presence and advice cooperate with our minister. I have therefore to ask that you will request General Grant to proceed to some point on our Mexican frontier most suitable and convenient for communication with our minister, or (if General Grant deems it best) to accompany him to his destination in Mexico, and to give him the aid of his advice in carrying out the instructions of the Secretary of State, a copy of which is herewith sent for the General's information. General Grant will make report to the Secretary of War of such matters as, in his discretion, ought to be communicated to the Department. Very respectfully, yours, ANDREW JOHNSON. EXECUTIVE MANSION, Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON, Washington, D. C., October 30, 1866. Secretary of War. SIR: General Ulysses S. Grant having found it inconvenient to assume the duties specified in my letter to you of the 26th instant, you will please relieve him from the same and assign them in all respects to William T. Sherman, Lieutenant-General of the Army of the United States. By way of guiding General Sherman in the performance of his duties, you will furnish him with a copy of your special orders to General Grant, made in compliance with my letter of the 26th instant, together with a copy of the instructions of the Secretary of State to Lewis D. Campbell, esq., therein mentioned. The Lieutenant-General will proceed to the execu tion of his duties without delay. Very respectfully, yours, ANDREW JOHNSON. Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON, EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, D. C., November 1, 1866. Secretary of War. SIR: In the report of General Grant of the 27th ultimo, inclosed in your communication of that date, reference is made to the force at present stationed in the Military Department of Washington (which embraces the District of Columbia, the counties of Alexander and Fairfax, Va., and the States of Maryland and Delaware), and it is stated that the entire number of troops comprised in the command is 2,224, of which only 1,550 are enumerated as "effective." In view of the prevalence in various portions of the country of a revolutionary and turbulent disposition, which might at any moment assume insurrectionary proportions and lead to serious disorders, and of the duty of the Government to be at all times prepared to act with decision and effect, this force is not deemed adequate for the protection and security of the seat of Government. I therefore request that you will at once take such measures as will insure its safety, and thus discourage any attempt for its possession by insurgent or other illegal combinations. SIR: There is ground to apprehend danger of an insurrection in Baltimore against the constituted authorities of the State of Maryland on or about the day of the election soon to be held in that city, and that in such contingency the aid of the United States might be invoked under the acts of Congress which pertain to that subject. While I am averse to any military demonstration that would have a tendency to interfere with the free exercise of the elective franchise in Baltimore or be construed into any interference in local questions, I feel great solicitude that should an insurrection take place the Government should be prepared to meet and promptly put it down. I accordingly desire you to call General Grant's attention to the subject, leaving to his own discretion and judgment the measures of preparation and precaution that should be adopted. Very respectfully, yours, ANDREW JOHNSON, SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. WASHINGTON, December 3, 1866. Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: After a brief interval the Congress of the United States resumes its annual legislative labors. An all-wise and merciful Providence has abated the pestilence which visited our shores, leaving its calamitous traces upon some portions of our country. Peace, order, tranquillity, and civil authority have been formally declared to exist throughout the whole of the United States. In all of the States civil authority has superseded the coercion of arms, and the people, by their voluntary action, are maintaining their governments in full activity and complete operation. The enforcement of the laws is no longer "obstructed in any State by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings," and the animosities engendered by the war are rapidly yielding to the beneficent influences of our free institutions and to the kindly effects of unrestricted social and commercial intercourse. An entire restoration of fraternal feeling must be the earnest wish of every patriotic heart; and we will have accomplished our grandest national achievement when, forgetting the sad events of the past and remembering only their instructive lessons, we resume our onward career as a free, prosperous, and united people. In my message of the 4th of December, 1865, Congress was informed of the measures which had been instituted by the Executive with a view to the gradual restoration of the States in which the insurrection occurred to their relations with the General Government. Provisional governors had been appointed, conventions called, governors elected, legislatures assembled, and Senators and Representatives chosen to the Congress of the United States. Courts had been opened for the enforcement of laws long in abeyance. The blockade had been removed, custom-houses reestablished, and the internal-revenue laws put in force, in order that the people might contribute to the national income. Postal operations had been renewed, and efforts were being made to restore them to their former condition of efficiency. The States themselves had been asked to take part in the high function of amending the Constitution, and of thus sanctioning the extinction of African slavery as one of the legitimate results of our internecine struggle. Having progressed thus far, the executive department found that it had accomplished nearly all that was within the scope of its constitutional authority. One thing, however, yet remained to be done before the work of restoration could be completed, and that was the admission to Congress of loyal Senators and Representatives from the States whose people had rebelled against the lawful authority of the General Government. This question devolved upon the respective Houses, which by the Constitution are made the judges of the elections, returns, and qualifications of their own members, and its consideration at once engaged the attention of Congress. In the meantime the executive department-no other plan having been proposed by Congress continued its efforts to perfect, as far as was practicable, the restoration of the proper relations between the citizens of the respective States, the States, and the Federal Government, extending from time to time, as the public interests seemed to require, the judicial, revenue, and postal systems of the country. With the advice and consent of the Senate, the necessary officers were appointed and appropriations made by Congress for the payment of their salaries. The proposition to amend the Federal Constitution, so as to prevent the existence of slavery within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction, was ratified by the requisite number of States, and on the 18th day of December, 1865, it was officially declared to have become valid as a part of the Constitution of the United States. All of the States in which the insurrection had existed promptly amended their constitutions so as to make them conform to the great change thus effected in the organic law of the land; declared null and void all ordinances and laws of secession; repudiated all pretended debts and obligations created for the revolutionary purposes of the insurrection, and proceeded in good faith to the enactment of measures for the protection and amelioration of the condition of the colored race. Congress, however, yet hesitated to admit any of these States to representation, and it was not until toward the close of the eighth month of the session that an exception was made in favor of Tennessee by the admission of her Senators and Representatives. I deem it a subject of profound regret that Congress has thus far failed to admit to seats loyal Senators and Representatives from the other States whose inhabitants, with those of Tennessee, had engaged in the rebellion. Ten States-more than one-fourth of the whole numberremain without representation; the seats of fifty members in the House of Representatives and of twenty members in the Senate are yet vacant, not by their own consent, not by a failure of election, but by the refusal of Congress to accept their credentials. Their admission, it is believed, would have accomplished much toward the renewal and strengthening of our relations as one people and removed serious cause for discontent on the part of the inhabitants of those States. It would have accorded with the great principle enunciated in the Declaration of American Independence that no people ought to bear the burden of taxation and yet be denied the right of representation. It would have been in consonance with the express provisions of the Constitution that "each State shall have at least one Representative" and "that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate." These provisions were intended to secure to every State and to the people of every |