MESSAGES, DESPATCHES, ETC., ON FOREIGN AFfairs: Message to the Senate on Canadian Boundary Message to Congress on London Industrial Message to Congress on Fisheries Commission. Reply to the Tycoon of Japan on Opening Letter to the Viceroy of Egypt on His Punish- Message to Congress on Treaty with Great Britain to Suppress Slave Trade. June 10, Message to the House of Representatives on Relations with the Rival Governments of New Proclamation of Retaliation for Refusal of Port Privileges to American War Vessels Abroad. Message to the Senate on Act to Permit Circu- lation of Bank-Notes of Small Denominations in the District of Columbia. June 23, 1862 PREFACE THE present volume contains the state papers of President Lincoln which are not specifically addressed to an individual person in his proper name. Papers so addressed will be found in Letters, Volumes VII, VIII, and IX of the present edition, entered under the names of the addressees, which are arranged in alphabetical order. State papers relating to military and civil appointments, public congratulations, etc., will be found in LETTERS, listed under the names of the persons to whom they specifically refer. Documents issued by members of the Cabinet or other officials are included among the state papers when they convey the President's instructions or express his opinions. A number of state papers have been excluded from the present edition because their subjectmatter is of no historical importance, their style does not express Lincoln's personality, and even the fact of their existence gives no indication of executive ability beyond the perfunctory performance of routine duties. Such are messages to Congress transmitting documents which had been requested by that body, executive action, as required by the constitution, on acts of Congress, official endorsements of the reports and findings of commissions, etc., in whose labors the President had no part, formal receptions of foreign ministers, etc. In certain instances where documents have only historical value, an abstract of their contents is given. However, if even as much as a phrase is expressive of Lincoln's personality, it is quoted in his exact words. The state papers are arranged under the following heads: 1. General Messages to Congress; 2. Proclamations, Messages, etc., Concerning Slavery; 3. Proclamations and Recommendations of Days of Thanksgiving, Fasting, and Prayer; 4. Proclamations, Messages to Congress, and Military Orders Relating to the Conduct of the War; 5. Messages and Despatches on Foreign Affairs; 6. Messages and proclamations on Financial, Indian, and Administrative Affairs. Some documents could with propriety appear in more than one class: for example, the proclamations regarding slavery are necessarily connected with the conduct of the war-military necessity being advanced as the reason for their promulgation. One classification, therefore, would be logically sufficient, but Lincoln's preeminent fame as the great emancipator justifies from a practical point of view the segregation of those papers relating to slavery. For a similar reason the proclamations of days of thanksgiving, fasting, and prayer have been taken out of the military papers and put in a class by themselves. They present Lincoln's official recognition of a divine guidance in the affairs of nations. In each division the papers are arranged in chronological order. |