Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 1.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[173] in session, the whole of the slaveholding States of the late Union will respond to the call of honor and affection, and by uniting their fortune with ours, promote our common interests and secure our common safety.

In the Treasury Department, regulations have been devised and put into execution for carrying out the policy indicated in your legislation, on the subject of the navigation of the Mississippi River, as well as for the collection of the revenue on the frontier.

Free transit has been secured for vessels and merchandise passing through the Confederate States, and delay and inconvenience have been avoided as far as possible.

In organizing the revenue service for the various railways entering our territory, as fast as experience shall indicate the possibility of improvement in these regulations, no effort will be spared to free commerce from all unnecessary embarrassments and obstructions.

Under your act authorizing a loan, proposals were issued inviting subscriptions for five millions of dollars, and the call was answered by the prompt subscription of eight millions by our own citizens, and not a single bid was made under par.

The rapid development of the purpose of the President of the United States to invade our soil, capture our forts, blockade our ports, and wage war against us, induced me to direct that the entire subscription should be accepted. It will now become necessary to raise means to a much larger amount to defray the expenses of maintaining our independence and repelling invasion.

I invite your special attention to this subject, and the financial condition of the Government, with the suggestion of ways and means for the supply of the treasury, will be presented to you in a separate communication.

To the department of Justice you have confided not only the organization and supervision of all matters connected with the courts of justice but also those connected with patents and with the bureau of the public printing.

Since your adjournment all the courts, with the exception of those of Mississippi and Texas, have been organized by the appointment of marshals and district attorneys, and are now prepared for the exercise of their functions. In the two States just named the gentlemen confirmed as judges declined to accept the appointment, and no nominations have yet been made to fill the vacancies.

I refer you to the report of the Attorney-General, and concur in his recommendation for immediate legislation, especially on the subject of patent rights. Early provision should be made to secure to the subjects of foreign nations the full enjoyment of their property in valuable inventions, and to extend to our own citizens protection not only for their own inventions, but for such as may have been assigned to them or may hereafter be assigned by persons not alien enemies.

The patent office business is much more extensive and important than had been anticipated. The applications for patents, although confined under the laws exclusively to citizens of our Confederacy, already average seventy per month, showing the necessity for the prompt organization of a bureau of patents.

The Secretary of War, in his report and accompanying documents, conveys full information concerning the forces, regular, volunteer, and provisional, raised and called for under the several acts of Congress — their organization and distribution; also, an account of the expenditures already made, and the furthur estimates for the fiscal year ending on the 18th of February, 1862, rendered necessary by recent events.

I refer to the report, also, for a full history of the occurrences in Charleston harbor, prior to, and including the, bombardment and reduction of Fort Sumter, and of the measures subsequently taken for common defence on receiving the intelligence of the declaration of war against us, made by the President of the United States.

There are now in the field at Charleston, Pensacola, Forts Morgan, Jackson, St. Philip and Pulaski, 19,000 men, and 16,000 are now en route for Virginia. It is proposed to organize and hold in readiness for instant action, in view of the present exigencies of the country, an army of 100,000 men. If further force be needed the wisdom and patriotism of the Congress will be confidently appealed to for authority to call into the field additional numbers of our noble spirited volunteers, who are constantly tendering their services far in excess of our wants.

The operations of the Navy Department have been necessarily restricted by the fact that sufficient time has not yet elapsed for the purchase or construction of more than a limited number of vessels adapted to the public service. Two vessels have been purchased and manned, the Sumter and McRea, and are now being prepared for sea, at New Orleans, with all possible despatch. Contracts have also been made at that city, with two different establishments, for the casting of ordnance — cannon, shot and shell — with the view to encourage the manufacture of these articles, so indispensable for our defence, at as many points within our territory as possible. I call your attention to the recommendation of the Secretary for the establishment of a magazine and laboratory for the preparation of ordnance stores and the necessary appropriation required for that purpose.

Hitherto such stores have been prepared at the navy yards, and no appropriation was made at your last session for this object.

The Secretary also calls attention to the fact that no provision has been made for the payment of invalid pensions to our citizens. Many of these persons are advanced in life — they have no means of support — and by the secession of these States have been deprived of their claims against the Government of the United States.

I recommend the appropriation of the sum