preparation invasions that were menaced.  The commissioners of the State having intimated that other portions of service stood on similar ground, the accounting officer has been instructed, in auditing the whole, to do it in such manner as to enable the Department to show distinctly under what circumstances each portion of service was rendered, whether voluntary, called out by invasion or the menace of invasion, or by public authority, and in such case whether the militia rendering such service was placed under the authority of the United States or retained under that of the State.

It affords me great pleasure to state that the present executive of Massachusetts has disclaimed the principle which was maintained by the former executive, and that in this disclaimer both branches of the legislature have concurred.  By this renunciation the State is placed on the same ground in this respect with the other States, and this very distressing anomaly in our system is removed.  It is well known that the great body of our fellow-citizens in Massachusetts are as firmly devoted to our Union and to the free republican principles of our Government as our fellow-citizens of the other States.  Of this important truth their conduct in every stage of our Revolutionary struggle and in many other emergencies bears ample testimony; and I add with profound interest and a thorough conviction that, although the difficulty adverted to in the late war with their executive excited equal surprise and regret, it was not believed to extend to them.  There never was a moment when the confidence of the Government in the great body of our fellow-citizens of that State was impaired, nor is a doubt entertained that they were at all times willing and ready to support their rights and repel an invasion by the enemy.

The commissioners of Massachusetts have urged, in compliance with their instructions, the payment of so much of their claim as applies to the services rendered by the fifth division, which have been audited, and I should have no hesitation in admitting it if I did not think, under all the circumstances of the case, that the claim in all its parts was cognizable by Congress alone.  The period at which the constitutional difficulty was raised by the executive of the State was in the highest degree important, as was the tendency of the principle for which it contended, and which was adhered to during the war.  The public mind throughout the Union was much excited by that occurrence, and great solicitude was felt as to its consequences.  The Executive of the United States was bound to maintain, and did maintain, a just construction of the Constitution, in doing which it is gratifying to recollect that the most friendly feelings were cherished toward their brethren of that State.  The executive of the State was warned, in the correspondence which then took place, of the light in which its conduct was viewed and of the effect it would have, so far as related