Part 56

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I submit to Congress the expediency of extending to other Departments of the Government the authority conferred on the President by the eighth section of the act of the 8th of May, 1792, to appoint a person to temporarily discharge the duties of Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, and Secretary of War in case of the death, absence from the seat of Government, or sickness of either of those officers.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, January 3, 1863.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit to the Senate, for consideration with a view to ratification, a convention for the mutual adjustment of claims between the United States and Ecuador, signed by the respective plenipotentiaries of the two Governments in Guayaquil on the 25th November ultimo.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, January 5, 1863.

To the House of Representatives:

In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 22d ultimo, in relation to the alleged interference of our minister to Mexico in favor of the French, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the papers with which it is accompanied.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, January 6, 1863.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit for the consideration of Congress, and with a view to the adoption of such measures in relation to the subject of it as may be deemed expedient, a copy of a note of the 8th instant addressed to the Secretary of State by the minister resident of the Hanseatic Republics accredited to this Government, concerning an international agricultural exhibition to be held next summer in the city of Hamburg.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, January 14, 1863.

To the House of Representatives:

The Secretary of State has submitted to me a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 5th instant, which has been delivered to him, and which is in the following words:

Resolved, That the Secretary of State be requested to communicate to this House, if not in his judgment incompatible with the public interest, why our minister in New Granada has not presented his credentials to the actual Government of that country; also the reasons for which Señor Murillo is not recognized by the United States as the diplomatic representative of the Mosquera Government of that country; also what negotiations have been had, if any, with General Herran, as the representative of Ospina's Government in New Granada, since it went into existence.

On the 12th day of December, 1846, a treaty of amity, peace, and concord was concluded between the United States of America and the Republic of New Granada, which is still in force. On the 7th day of December, 1847, General Pedro Alcántara Herran, who had been duly accredited, was received here as the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of that Republic. On the 30th day of August, 1849, Señor Don Rafael Rivas was received by this Government as chargé d'affaires of the same Republic. On the 5th day of December, 1851, a consular convention was concluded between that Republic and the United States, which treaty was signed on behalf of the Republic of Granada by the same Señor Rivas. This treaty is still in force. On the 27th of April, 1852, Señor Don Victoriano de Diego Paredes was received as chargé d'affaires of the Republic of New Granada. On the 20th of June, 1855, General Pedro Alcántara Herran was again received as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, duly accredited by the Republic of New Granada, and he has ever since remained, under the same credentials, as the representative of that Republic near the Government of the United States. On the 10th of September, 1857, a claims convention was concluded between the United States and the Republic of Granada. This convention is still in force, and has in part been executed. In May, 1858, the constitution of the Republic was remodeled, and the nation assumed the political title of "The Granadian Confederacy." This fact was formally announced to this Government, but without any change in their representative here. Previously to the 4th day of March, 1861, a revolutionary war against the Republic of New Granada, which had thus been recognized and treated with by the United States, broke out in New Granada, assuming to set up a new government under the name of "The United States of Colombia." This war has had various vicissitudes, sometimes favorable, sometimes adverse, to the revolutionary movements. The revolutionary organization has hitherto been simply a military provisionary power, and no definitive constitution of government has yet been established in New Granada in place of that organized by the constitution of 1858. The minister of the United States to the Granadian Confederacy, who was appointed on the 29th day of May, 1861, was directed, in view of the occupation of the capital by the revolutionary party and of the uncertainty of the civil war, not to present his credentials to either the Government of the Granadian Confederacy or to the provisional military Government, but to conduct his affairs informally, as is customary in such cases, and to report the progress of events and await the instructions of this Government. The advices which have been 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.

JANUARY 17, 1863.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

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.