Oregon sentinel., December 19, 1863, Image 2

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7tr both disbursements and debts will be
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t WAR IDXPAR1XKNT. ,
The report f the Secretary of War is
dociefft'f peat Interest. It consists ot
first, the nfritaryoperations of the year,
detailet fa the report of the General in
Chief; second, the organisation of 'colored
persons Into the war service; tbirdtbe ex
change of prisoners, fully set forth in the
fatter of Geu. Hitchcock; fourth, the op
eration tnder the Actifor enrolling and
calling oat the National 'forces, detailed in
the report of the Provost Marshal General;
fifth, the organisation of the Invalid Corps;
and sixth, tho operations of the several
Departments of the Quartermaster Gener
ol, Commissary General, Paymaster Gen-
eral, Chief or Engineers, 'Chief of Ordi
.nance, and Surgeon General. It has sip
scared impossible to make a summary of
this voluminons report, except auch as
would be too extended :for this place, and
hence I content myself in referring your
attcutioa to the report Itself.
MR NATTY DRrARTMRKT.
The duties devolving a the naval branch
f the service daring the year, and through-
at the whole or this unhappy contest,
have been discharged with fidelity, energy
and success. The blockade has been con
sinntly increasing fa dficiency, as the navy
has expanded; yet,"o so long a line, it has
so far been impossible to entirely suppress
illicit trade. From the returns received
at the Navy Department, it appears that
more than one thousand vessels have been
captured since the blockade was instituted,
and that the value of the prises sent in for
ndjsdication amounts to over thirteen mil
lion of dollars. The naval force of the
United States consists, at this time, of
558 vessels completed, and in course of
completion, and of these 75 are iron clods
armored steamers. Tho events of the
war give an increased interest and import
ance to the navy, which will probably ex
tend beyond the war itself. The armored
vessels in our navy completed and in ser
vice, or which arc under contract and ap
proaching completion, are believed to ex
ceed in number those of any other Power;
bat while these may bo relied upon for
babor defense and sea-coast survey, others
of greater strength and capacity will be
necessary for cruising pnrposes and to
maintain our rightful position on the
ocean. The change that has taken place
in navy vessels and naval warfare since the
introduction of steam as a motive power
for Hhips of war, demands cither a corres
ponding change in some of our existing
Xuvy Yards or the establishment of new
xjoeii (or the -construction and necessary re
pair of modern war vessels. No incon
niderable embarrassment, delay and public
injury has been experienced from the want
of such Government establishments. The
necessity of each a navy yard, so furnished,
at some suitable plaoe apon the Atlantic
seaboard, has, on repeated occasions, been
brought to the attention of Congress by
the Navy Department, and is again pre
vented in the report of the Secretary, which
accompanies this communication. I think
it my duty to invite your special attention to
this subject; and also to that of establishing
uyard or depot for naval purposes upon one
of the Western rivers. A naval force has
been created on these interior waters, and
under many disadvantages, within little
more than two years exceeding in num
ber the whole naval force of tho country
at the commencement of the present Ad
ministration. Satisfactory and important
H3 have been the performances of the he
roic men of the uavy at this interesting
period, they are scarcely more wonderful
tli mi the eerviccs of our mechanics und or
titans iu the production of war vessels
whicli have created a new form of naval
power. Our country has advantages su
perior to any other country, iu resources of
iron and timber, with inexhaustible quan
tities of fuel, in the immediate viciuity of
both, nnd till available and in close prox
imity to navigable waters. Without the
advantage of public works, the resources
of tho nation have been developed and its
power diepluyed in the construction of a
navy of such magnitude, which has at the
very period of its creation rendered signal
scrvico to the Union. The increase of the
number of seamen In the public service
(rem seven thousand wen, in the spring of
1661, to about twenty-four thousand at the
present time has been accomplished with
out any special legislation or extraordinary
bounty to promote that increase. It has
been' fonnd, however, that the operations
of the draft, with the high bounties paid
for army recrails, is beginning to effect the
naval service, and will, if not corrected, be
likely to impair its efficiency by detaching
seamen from their proper "vocation and In
ducing them to enter the army. I there
fore respectfully suggest that Congress
might aid both the army and the naval ser
vices by adequate provision on this sub
ject, which would at the same time be
equitable to the community more especially
interested. I recommend to your consld
cration the suggestions of the Secretary of
the Navy in regard te the policy ol foster
ing and training seamen for the naval ser
vice. Tho Naval Academy is rendering
signal service in preparing officers and sea
men for the responsible duties which here
inafter they will be required to perform.
In order that the country should not be de
prived of educated officers, for whom legal
provision has been mude at tho Naval
School, the vacancies caused by the neglect
or omission to make nominations from
States in insurrection have been filled by
the Secretary of the Navy. The school is
now more full and complete than at any
previous period, and in every respect is en
titled to the consideration of Congress.
TIIR TOHTAt. 8KRVICK.
During the past fiscal year the financial
condition of the Post Office Department
has been one of unceasing prosperity, and
I am gratified in being able to state that
the receipts of the Postal revenue huve
nearly equaled the entire expenditures, the
former amounting to 811,311,000 04, end
the latter to 811,461.417 09, lenving a de
ficiency of but 8150.41C 25. In 18C0. the
year immediately preceding tho rebellion,
the deficiency amounted to 85,050,705 49,
the postal receipts of that year being 82,
045,722 19 less than those of 180,'). The
decrease since 1800 in the annual amount
of transportation has been only about 25
per cent., but the annual expenditures on
account of the same have been reduced
35 per cent. It is manifest, therefore, that
the Post Office Department may become
self-sustaining in a few years, even with the
restoration of the whole service.
The International Conference or Postal
Delegates from the principal countries of
Europe and America, which was called at
the suggestion of the Postmaster General,
met at Paris on the 11th of May last, and
concluded its deliberations on the 8th of
June. The principles established by the
Conference are best adapted to facilitate
postal intercourse between nations, and as
the basis of future Couvenlious inaugurate a
general system of uniform international
charges, at reduced rates of postage, and
cannot fail to produce beneficial results.
TUK DRl'AHTMKNT OP TI1K INTKHIOK.
I refer you to the report of the Secretary
of the Interior, which is herewith laid be
fore you, for useful and varied information
in relation to the public lands, Indian af
fairs, patents, pensions, and other mutters
of public concern pertaining to his Depart
ment. The quantity of loud disposed of
during the last and the first quarter of- the.
present fiscal year was 3,841,549 acres, of
which 101,911 acres were sold for cash ;
1,456,514 acres were taken up under the
Homestead Lnw, and the rcsiducjdisposed
of under the laws granting lands for mili
tary accounts, for ru II road and other pur
poses. It also appears that the sales of the
public lands are largely on the increase. It
lias long been an opinion of some of our
wisest statesmen that the people of the
the United States had a higher and more
enduring interest in the early settlement
and EubMuntiul cultivation of the public
lands thun in the amount of direct revenue
to be derived from the sale of them. This
opinion has bud a controlling influenco in
shaping legislation on the subject of our
Nutional domain. As evidence of this,
may bo mentioned the liberal measures
adopted iu reference to actual settlers ; the
grant to the States of tho overflowed lands
within their limits, in order to their being
rendered fit for cultivation ; the grant to
railroad companies of alternate sections of
land upon the contemplated lines of their
roads, which, when completed, will largely
multiply the facilities for rcuching our dis
tant possessions. This policy has resulted
in most signal nnd benificent service to uc
tual settler. Sinco the first day of Janu
ary last,, the before mentioned quantity,
1,456,514 acres of land, has been taken up
under it provisions. This, with the umnunt
of sales, famishes gratifying evidence of in
creasing settlement upon the public lands,
notwithstanding the great stwjwlo is which J
the enemies of the nation have been eh
gaged has required so large a withdrawal
of our cltlseua from their accustomed pur
suits. I cordially concur in the recommen
dation of. the Secretary of the Interior,
suggesting a modification of the act in fa
vor nf those engaged in the milltnry nd
naval servlee of the United States. I
doubt not Congress will cheerfully adopt
surh measures as will, without essentially
changing the general features of the system,
reserve, to the greatest practicable extent,
its benefits to those who have left their
homes in defense of the country in Ibis ar
duous crisis.
MIKKRAT. LANDS.
I invite your attintlon to the vlewn of
the Secretary of War as to the propriety
of raising, by appropriation or legislation,
a revenue for the mineral lands of the Uni
ted States.
INDIAN AFFAIRS.
The measures provided at your last ses
sion ror toe removal m certain innian
tribes have been carried into effect. Sun
dry treaties have been negotiated, which
will, in due time, be submitted for the con
stitutional action of the Senate. They
contain stipulations for extinguishing the
postessory rights of the Indians to large
and valuable tracts of lands. It is proba
ble that the effect of these treaties will re
sult in the establishment of a permanent
friendly relation with such of those tribes
as have been brought into frequent and
bloody collisions with our outlying settle
ments and emigrants. Sound p&licy and
our imperative duty to these wards of the
Government demand our anxious and con
stant attention to their material well-being,
to see that they arc progressing in the arts
of civilization, and above all in that moral
training which, under the blessing of divine
Providenco, will confer upon them the ele
vated and sanctifying influence nf the hopes
and consolations of the Christain fuith. I
suggested in my last annual message the
propriety of reducing our Indian system.
Subsequent events have satisfied mo of its
necessity. Tho detuils set forth in the re
port of the Secretary will evince the urgent
need for immediate legislative action.
BBNKVOI.KNT INSTITUTIONS.
I commend the benevolence of the insti
tutions established or patronised by the
Government in this District to your gener
ous and fostering care.
TUK CANAI. KNr.AnOMRNT SCIIKMR.
The attention of Congress during the
last session was engaged to some extent
with a proposition for enlarging the water
communications between the Mississippi
river and the Northern Lakes and the East
ern seaboard, which propositions, however,
failed for the time. Since then, upon a
call of the greatest respectability, a Con
vention has been called at Chicago upon
the same subject, a summary of whose
views ia contained in an address to the
President and Congress, and which I now
huve the honor to lay before you. That
the enterprise is one which ere long will
force its own way I do not entertain a
doubt, while it is submitted entirely to your
wisdom as to what can be done now. Aug
mented interest is given this subject by the
formal commencement of work upon the
Pacific Railroad, under auspices so favora
ble to its rapid progress and completion.
Enlarged navigation becomes a prospective
need to the great road.
DKI'AIUMKNT OF AORICUI.TUnK.
I transmit the second annual report of
the Commissioner of the Department of
Agricnlture, asking your attention to its
requirements as of vital interest to the na
tion. TIIR SITUATION.
When Congress assembled, a year ago,
the war hod nlreudy lasted nearly twenty
months, and there had been many conflicts
on land and sea, with varying results. The
rebellion had been pressed back into re
duced limits, yet the tone of public feeling
and opinion at home nnd abroad was not
satisfactory. With other signs, the popu
lar elections then just passed indicated un
easiness among ourselves, while amid much
that was cold and menacing, the kindest
words coming from Kuropo were uttered in
accents of pity that we wcro too blind to
surrender. Our commerce was suffering
greatly from a few armed vessels built upon
and furnished from foreign shores, and we
were threatened with such addition from
the same quarter as wonld sweep our trade
from the sea and raiso our blockade, We
had failed to elicit from European G overi
ments anything hopeful npon this subject.
The Emancipation Proclamation, which
was .issued, in September, was ranniug its
assigned period' to the beginning of the
new year. A, month later the final procla
mation came, including the announcement
that colored men of suitable condition
would be received into the army service.
The policy of emancipation and employing
black soldiers guvc to the future a new as
pect, about which hope nnd fear and doubt
contends in uncertain conflict. According
to onr political system, as a matter of civil
administration the General Government
had no lawful power to effect emancipation
in any State, nnd for n long time it had
been hoped that the rebellion could be sup
pressed without resorting to it as a military
measure. It wus all the while deemed pos
sible that the necessity for it might come,
and that if it should, the crisis of the con
test would then be presented. It came,
nnd as was portended, it was followed by
durk and doubtful days.
Eleven months huve passed. We are
permitted to take another review. The
rebel borders are pressed still further back,
and by the complete opening of the Missis
sippi river, the country dominuted over by
the rebellion is divided into distinct parts,
with no practicable communication between
them. Tennessee and Arkansas have been so
substantially cleared of the insurgents and
their control and influence that the citisens
in each and the owners of slaves and those
who were advocates of slavery at the be
gining of the rebellion now declare openly
for emancipation in their respective States.
Of those States not included in the Emun-
cipution Proclamation were Maryland
and Missouri, neither of which years
ago would tolerate any restraint upoo
the extension of slavery into the new
Territories. The only dispute now is
as to the best mode of removing it
within their own limits. Of those who
were slaves at the beginning of the re
bellion folly one hundred thousand nre now
in the United States military service, abont
one-half of whicli number actually bear
arms in the runks, thus giving the double
advantage of taking so much labor from
the insurgents' cause and supplying the
places which otherwise must be filled by so
many white men. So fur as tested, it is
difficult to say that they are not as good
soldier as any. No servile insurrection or
tendency to violence or cruelty has marked
the measures of emancipation and arming
the blacks. These measures have been
much discussed in foreign countries, and
coteroporaneously with such discussion the
tone of public sentiment there is much im
proved. At home, the same measures have
been fully discussed, supported, criticised
and denounced, and the annual elections
following are highly encouraging to tbose
whose special duty it is to bear the country
through this great trial. We have the
reckoning. The crisis which threatened
to divide the friends of the Union is past.
TIIR RKCONSTRUCTION OF TIIR UNION.
Looking now to the present and future,
and with reference to a resumption of the
National authority within the States where
in that authority lias been suspended, 1
have thought fit to issue a proclamation.
It will appear, as is believed, amply justi
fied by the Constitution. True, tho form
of an oath is given, but do man is coerced
to tuko it. A man is only promised a par
don in coso ho volunturily takes the oath.
Tno Constitution authorizes the Executive
to grant purdon on such terms as are
fully established by the judicial and other
authorities. It is also proffered, that if
any of the States named assent, a Govern
ment slfall be, in the mode prescribed, set
up; that such Government shall be recog
nized and guaranteed by tho United States,
and that tho Stato shall, under tho Consti
tution, be protected, against invasion and
domestic violence. The constitutional ob
ligations of the United States to guaran
tee to every Stato in the Union a republi
can form of government, and to protect
the Stuto in the cases stated, is explicit
und full. But why tender the benefits of
this provision only to a State Government
set up in this particular way? This sec
tion of the Constitution contemplates a
case wherein the element within a State fa
able to a republican Government in the
Union may be too feeble for an opposite
and hostile element external to and even
within the Stute, and such arc precisely
the cases with which we are now dealing.
An attempt to guarantee and protect a
revised Stato Government, constructed in
whole or in preponderating part, from the
very element against whose hostility and
violence it is to b orotwMpd. N Jr"'
aWard. There must be a test by which
to separate 'opposing elements, so as to
bnild only from the saund; and that test is
a sufficiently liberal one which accepts as
sound whoever will make a sworn recogni
tion of his former unsoundness. But if
it be proper to require as a test of admis
sion to the political body, an oath of allegh
once to the Constitution of tho United
Stntes and the laws under it, why trot also
to laws and proclamations in regard to
slavery? These laws and proclamations
Were enacted and put forth for the purpose
of uiding the suppression of the rebellion.
To give them their fullest effect, their hnd,
been a pledge for their maintenance. In
my judgment they have aided, and will
ilrthernid, the cause for whicli they wero
enlisted. To give up this principle would
not only be to relinquish a lever of power,
but would also be a cruel nnd astounding
breach of faith. I may udd, at this point,
that While I remain in my present position
t shall not attempt to retract or modify
the emancipation proclamation; nor shall
I return to slavery any person who is free
by the terms of the proclamation or by any
Act of Congress. For these and other
reasons, it is thought best that the support
of these persons shall be included in the
oath, and it is believed the Executive may
lawfully claim it in return for pardon and
restoration of political rights, which ho
has a clear constitutional power to with
hold altogether, or grant upon the terms
which he shall deem wisest for the public
interest. It should bo observed, also, thut
this nnrt of the oath is subject to the
modifying und abrogating power of legis
lation and supreme judicial jurisdiction.
The proposed ucquiesence of the Nutional
Executive in any honorable temporary
Stute arrangement for the freed people is
made with the view of possibly modifying
the confusion and destitution which must
at least nttend all classes by a total revolu
tion of labor throughout whole Stutcs,and "
it is hoped the already deeply afflicted peo
ple in these Slates may be somewhut moro
ready to give up the cause of their afflic
tion, nnd to this extent this vital matter
is left to themselves, while no power of the
National Executive to prevent an abuse ia
abridged by the proposition. The sugges
tion in the proclamation as to maintaining
the political frameworks of the States, or
what is called reconstruction, is made in
the hope that it may do good, without tho
danger of harm. It will save labor und
avoid great confusion. But why any proc
lamation now on this subject ? This ques
question is beset with the conflicting views
that the step might be delayed too long, or
be taken too soon. Some elements for re
sumption seem ready for action, but re
main icactive, apparently for want of a ral
lying point or a plan of action. Why
shull A adopt the plan of B rather than B
that of A ? If A and B should agree how
can they know but the General Govern
ment here will reject their plan? By tho
proclamation a plan is presented which
may be accepted by them us a rallying
point, and which they are assured in ad
vance will not be rejected here. This may
bring them to net sooner than they other
wise would. The objection to a prema
ture presentation of a plan by tho Nation
al Executive consists in the danger of com
mitment on a point which could be more
safely left to further developments. Care
has been token to so slmpe the document
as to avoid embarrassment from this source.
In saying that on certain terms certain
classes will be pardoned with their rights
restored, it is not said that other classes on
other terms, will ever be included. In
saying a reconstruction will be accepted if
presented in a specified way, it is not sal$
it will never bo accepted any other way
The movements in the way of Stato ac
tions for emancipation in several of the
Slates not included in the emancipation
proclamation, are matters of profound
gratification, and wbilo I do not repeat in
detail what I heretofore bo earnestly urged
upon this subject, my general views and
feelings remain unchanged, and I trust that
Congress will omit no fair opportunity of
aiding these important steps to the great
consummation.
In the midst of other cares, however im
portant, we must not lose sight of the fact
that the war power is Btill our main reli
ance. To that power alone can we look
yet, for a time, to give confidence to the
people in contested regions that the insur
gent power will not again overrun them.
Until that confidence shall be established
"ule can be done there for what is called