received from him have not hitherto been sufficiently conclusive to determine me to recognize the revolutionary Government. General Herran being here, with full authority from the Government of New Granada, which had been so long recognized by the United States, I have not received any representative from the revolutionary Government, which has not yet been recognized, because such a proceeding would in itself be an act of recognition.

Official communications have been had on various incidental and occasional questions with General Herran as the minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary of the Granadian Confederacy, but in no other character. No definitive measure or proceeding has resulted from these communications, and a communication of them at present would not, in my judgment, be compatible with the public interest.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

JANUARY 17, 1863.

I have signed the joint resolution to provide for the immediate payment of the Army and Navy of the United States, passed by the House of Representatives on the 14th and by the Senate on the 15th instant.

The joint resolution is a simple authority, amounting, however, under existing circumstances, to a direction, to the Secretary of the Treasury to make an additional issue of $100,000,000 in United States notes, if so much money is needed, for the payment of the Army and Navy.

My approval is given in order that every possible facility may be afforded for the prompt discharge of all arrears of pay due to our soldiers and our sailors.

While giving this approval, however, I think it my duty to express my sincere regret that it has been found necessary to authorize so large an additional issue of United States notes, when this circulation and that of the suspended banks together have become already so redundant as to increase prices beyond real values, thereby augmenting the cost of living to the injury of labor, and the cost of supplies to the injury of the whole country.

It seems very plain that continued issues of United States notes without any check to the issues of suspended banks and without adequate provision for the raising of money by loans and for funding the issues so as to keep them within due limits must soon produce disastrous consequences; and this matter appears to me so important that I feel bound to avail myself of this occasion to ask the special attention of Congress to it.

That Congress has power to regulate the currency of the country can hardly admit of doubt, and that a judicious measure to prevent the deterioration of this currency, by a seasonable taxation of bank circulation or otherwise, is needed seems equally clear. Independently of this general consideration, it would be unjust to the people at large to exempt banks

enjoying the special privilege of circulation from their just proportion of the public burdens.

In order to raise money by way of loans most easily and cheaply, it is clearly necessary to give every possible support to the public credit. To that end a uniform currency, in which taxes, subscriptions to loans, and all other ordinary public dues, as well as all private dues, may be paid, is almost, if not quite, indispensable. Such a currency can be furnished by banking associations, organized under a general act of Congress, as suggested in my message at the beginning of the present session. The securing of this circulation by the pledge of United States bonds, as therein suggested, would still further facilitate loans by increasing the present and causing a future demand for such bonds.

In view of the actual financial embarrassments of the Government and of the greater embarrassments sure to come if the necessary means of relief be not afforded, I feel that I should not perform my duty by a simple announcement of my approval of the joint resolution, which proposes relief only by increasing circulation, without expressing my earnest desire that measures such in substance as those I have just referred to may receive the early sanction of Congress.

By such measures, in my opinion, will payment be most certainly secured, not only to the Army and Navy, but to all honest creditors of the Government, and satisfactory provision made for future demands on the Treasury.

To the Senate of the United States:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, January 20, 1863.

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, in answer to the resolution of the Senate relative to the correspondence between this Government and the Mexican minister in relation to the exportation of articles contraband of war for the use of the French army in Mexico.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, January 21, 1863.

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:

I submit herewith, for your consideration, the joint resolutions of the corporate authorities of the city of Washington adopted September 27, 1862, and a memorial of the same under date of October 28, 1862, both relating to and urging the construction of certain railroads concentrating upon the city of Washington.

In presenting this memorial and the joint resolutions to you I am not prepared to say more than that the subject is one of great practical importance and that I hope it will receive the attention of Congress.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, January 23, 1863.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit, for the consideration of Congress, a report from the Secretary of State, transmitting the regulations, decrees, and orders for the government of the United States consular courts in Turkey.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, January 26, 1863.

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 13th instant, requesting a copy of certain correspondence respecting the capture of British vessels sailing from one British port to another having on board contraband of war intended for the use of the insurgents, I have the honor to transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents by which it was accompanied. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON CITY, January 28, 1863.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially recommend that Commander David D. Porter, United States Navy, acting rearadmiral, commanding the Mississippi Squadron, receive a vote of thanks of Congress for the bravery and skill displayed in the attack on the post of Arkansas, which surrendered to the combined military and naval forces on the roth instant.

To the House of Representatives:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, February 4, 1863.

In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 5th December last, requesting information upon the present condition of Mexico, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the papers by which it was accompanied.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, D. C., February 4, 1863.

To the Senate of the United States:

In pursuance of the joint resolution of Congress approved 3d February, 1863, tendering its thanks to Commander John L. Worden, United States Navy, I nominate that officer to be a captain in the Navy on the active list from the 3d February, 1863.

It may be proper to state that the number of captains authorized by the second section of the act of 16th July, 1862, is now full, but presuming that the meaning of the ninth section of the same act is that the officer receiving the vote of thanks shall immediately be advanced one grade I have made the nomination. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, February 5, 1863.

I submit to the Senate, for consideration with a view to ratification, a "convention between the United States of America and the Republic of Peru for the settlement of the pending claims of the citizens of either country against the other," signed at Lima on the 12th January ultimo, with the following amendment:

Article 1, strike out the words "the claims of the American citizens Dr. Charles Easton, Edmund Sartori, and the owners of the whale ship William Lee against the Government of Peru, and the Peruvian citizen Stephen Montano against the Government of the United States," and insert: all claims of citizens of the United States against the Government of Peru and of citizens of Peru against the Government of the United States which have not been embraced in conventional or diplomatic agreement between the two Governments or their plenipotentiaries, and statements of which soliciting the interposition of either Government may previously to 'he exchange of the ratifications of this convention have been filed in the Department of State at Washington or the department for foreign affairs at Lima, etc.

This amendment is considered desirable, as there are believed to be other claims proper for the consideration of the commission which are not among those specified in the original article, and because it is at least questionable whether either Government would be justified in incurring the expense of a commission for the sole purpose of disposing of the claims mentioned in that article. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, February 5, 1863.

I submit to the Senate, for consideration with a view to ratification, a "convention between the United States of America and the Republic of Peru, providing for the reference to the King of Belgium of the claims arising out of the capture and confiscation of the ships Lizzie Thompson and Georgiana," signed at Lima on the 20th December, 1862.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, February 6, 1863.

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the United States of yesterday, requesting information in regard to the death of General Ward, a citizen of the United States in the military service of the Chinese Government, I transmit a copy of a dispatch of the 27th of October last, and of its accompaniment, from the minister of the United States in China. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.