no inconsiderable part of the coast of Florida, are held by the United States. The insurgents, with the slaves whom they yet hold in defiance of the President's proclamation, are now crowded into the central and southern portions of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, while the pioneer slaveholding insurgents beyond the Mississippi are cut off from the main force. On the other hand, although it is less than six months since the laws or customs of the United States would allow a man of African descent to bear arms in defence of his country, there are now in the field twenty-two thousand regularly enlisted, armed, and equipped soldiers of that class, while fifty regiments of a thousand each are in process of organization, and 62,800 persons of the same class are employed as teamsters, laborers, and camp followers. These facts show that, as the insurrection continues, the unfortu nate servile population, which was at the beginning an element of its strength, is being transferred to the support of the Union.

August 25, 1863. According to Richmond newspapers, Fort Sumter was reduced to a mass of ruins on Saturday, the 22d instant, by the combined land and naval attack of the Union forces. They also state that General Gilmore, having ascertained that by means of his rifled projectiles he could easily bombard Charleston, though at a distance of nearly five miles, had given the customary notice for the withdrawal of the women and children, and it is presumed that the bombardment has taken place accordingly.

August 31, 1863. The siege of Charleston is proceeding with apparent success. The movements of General Rosecrans and General Burnside, in their operations with regard to East Tennessee, are as difficult as they are important. Our information from them is satisfactory. The interests of the Union in Texas are not overlooked.

You will have already learned that the expectations of the insurgents which were built on a riot in New York, such as often happens in all great cities, have been disappointed. The reinforcement of the army and the increase of the navy are going on with all reasonable success. The riot proceeded upon a false assumption of interested persons that the country was wearied and exhausted by this unfortunate civil war. It is now perceived that it is as prosperous and as strong as it has been at any former period of its history. It desires peace, but not immoderately.

September 5, 1863. — No fortunate military incident has occurred to revive the hopes of the insurgents, while Union sieges and marches have gone on favorably. The insurgents have burned much and lost more of the cotton that they had pledged to European creditors, while the price of gold in their currency has risen, within two months, from 1,000 per cent. to 1,600 per cent., which is the last reported rate. The insurgent financiers last winter adopted wheat instead of gold for the standard of values, and fixed that of wheat, if I remember rightly, at five dollars per bushel. It is now reported that the farmer refuses to thresh his wheat, and the government agents are considering whether the power to appropriate at five dollars does not also include the necessary preliminary power to thresh the grain.

You have rightly assumed that the safe occupation of New Orleans, so long as it is maintained, is sufficient guarantee for the success of the government. We are, however, not without some concern on that subject; for in the first place we have no clearly reliable assurances that the British government will prevent the departure of the iron rams, which are being prepared in British shipyards for that or some similar purpose. And next, notwithstanding the great energy of the Navy Department, it has not yet brought out the vessels upon which we can confidently rely for adequate defence against such an enterprise. Nevertheless, Mr. Adams is making the best possible efforts with reference to the first point, and our naval means, which certainly are neither small nor inefficient, are rapidly increasing.

September 7, 1863. We continue to have favorable reports of our military and naval operations. Fort Sumter has virtually been destroyed, and the besieging officers report that the siege of Charleston is going on favorably.

General Rosecrans on the right, and General Burnside on the left, have occupied Stevenson, Kingston, and Knoxville, and thus effectually broken the chief military connection between the insurgents at Richmond and their Confederate forces in the Gulf states. I need not expatiate on the strategic importance of this movement. The United States forces are advancing successfully towards Little Rock, in Arkansas.

A new expedition is ready to proceed from New Orleans to Texas. There is no change in the position of the opposing forces in Virginia.

All local resistance of the draft seems at an end, and the United States armies are now being effectually augmented.

September 22, 1863. — The opening of the campaign is attended with some embarrassments, which, in the excitement of the moment, are likely to be exaggerated. The expedition of General Franklin to Sabine Pass was only one of three designed to reëstablish the national authority in Texas. Its repulse may retard, but it is not thought that it endangers, the success of the plan.

Official despatches from the army of the Cumberland have been received of a date so late as two o'clock P. M. of the 21st. They are inexplicit, but the general effect is thought to justify the expectation of our continuing to hold our important positions in Tennessee.

September 28, 1863. It seems desirable that you should have a correct view of the present military situation. We feel entirely safe in the occupation of New Orleans and the Mississippi. The forces are marching to occupy Texas.

We have a sufficient force in front of this capital, as we suppose, to assure us against aggressive movements of the insurgents in this quarter.

We trust that Rosecrans will be safe in Chattanooga until the large reinforcements, which are going to him from three points, shall reach him there. Once at Chattanooga, we think we shall have the principal forces of the insurgents confined and practically harmless within the circle of Georgia and Alabama. Charleston is not neglected.

October 20, 1863. Recent domestic military events have no striking importance. Our forces in East Tennessee have made successful advances. General Rosecrans has remained unmolested while fortifying and being reinforced at Chattanooga. The attempts of the insurgents to break his communications have failed, and they have suffered some disasters. Lee's army having crossed the Rapidan, General Meade withdrew to Centreville, where he observes the enemy. The siege of Charleston continues. We have heard favorable reports from General Banks' movement against Texas.

The annual elections have taken place in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Iowa, and the results, compared with those of the previous year, are auspicious to the Union.

The President has called for three hundred thousand troops by voluntary enlistment, with the alternative of a draft, and the public sentiment cheerfully sustains the call.

November 9, 1863. The progress of military operations in the several departments is, on the whole, not unsatisfactory. The elections for the year have closed with manifestations of confidence in the government, contrasting strongly with the despondency and distraction which attended the last meeting of Congress. Only one question seemingly agitated the public mind, namely, the principles in regard to slavery on which the Federal authority shall be restored in the insurgent region. I have already told you that, in the President's opinion, this question is as yet premature, because, as yet, neither of the insurgent states is actually asking restoration. I have now to add that, according to present indications, the question, when it shall arise, is likely to be attended with much less difficulty than is now generally apprehended. It is, perhaps, the most gratifying result of the war for the Union that, wherever its flag advances, convictions of the importance of emancipation meet it. No desire for the restoration or the preservation of slavery is manifested by the citizens who adhere or reaccede to the Union. On the other hand, the friends of the Union in the insurrectionary states manifest an unequivocal determination, even before reorganizing the state governments, to suppress slavery as an institution now proven to be economically useless and politically dangerous and revolutionary. We are, therefore, likely to find no slavery to contend with, when the war for the Union has come to an end. On the whole, we can now contrast our prospects with those of Europe without dissatisfaction.

November 28, 1863. Desirous to inform you as fully as we are possessed ourselves of the gratifying successes which have crowned the national arms in Georgia, I cannot perform this duty in any other way so effectually as I can by giving you a copy of a graphic report which was received last night from Quartermaster General Meigs, who, being accidentally in attendance upon General Grant's army, was an eye-witness of the great transaction. You will justly expect that this auspicious event will be followed by movements for the restoration of the civil authority in the states which have been heretofore the theatre of the civil war.

There are not wanting cheering indications that slavery will be willingly made a sacrifice by the loyal citizens of those states to regain and perpetuate the blessings of the Union.

December 15, 1863. The brilliant and signal defeat of the in

surgents, which occurred on the 24th and 25th days of November, in front of Chattanooga, was followed by the rapid movement of reinforcing columns of the army at that point to the support of General Burnside, at Knoxville. The siege of that town was immediately raised, and thus the great Alleghany ridge, next in military importance only to the great river channel of the west, is effectually reclaimed by the national government.

Congress assembled on the 7th instant, and the session was inaugurated on the 9th by the delivery of the President's annual message. It was well received by the national legislature, and it seems to be no less satisfactory to the loyal people of the United States.

The confidence of our fellow-citizens in the stability of the Union, which has been rapidly reviving since the great victories of July, has been entirely restored by the expositions of our moral, material, and physical resources, which are furnished by the heads of the several departments.

Through what seems a fortunate coincidence, the insurgent chief at Richmond has put forth an explanation of the present state of the rebellion simultaneously with the publication of the message of the President of the United States. It would be difficult, I think, to decide which of the two documents, namely, that message, or the appeal of the insurgent leader to his misguided faction, most clearly illustrates the absurdity of the attempt to build up an independent state on the foundation of human bondage within the existing boundaries of this firmly established and compactly organized free American republic. European statesmen will doubtlessly collate them. I shall be surprised if that process does not result in producing a universal conviction that the American people are, and must continue henceforth to be, one indivisible nation.

January 7, 1864.- At home the question first in practical importance is the renewal of our army, rendered necessary by an early expiration of the first enlistments. The process of renewal is successful.

The second question is that of reorganization in the insurrectionary states. Not time enough has elapsed to enable us to judge whether the plan suggested by the President will be generally adopted. It meets, however, less opposition than the policy in regard to slaves announced in the annual message of 1862-63, and