War department, June 19, 1849.

The President of the United States with deep regret announces to the Army the death of James K. Polk, our distinguished and honored fellow-citizen.

He died at Nashville the 15th instant, having but recently left the theater of his high public duties at this capital and retired to his home amid the congratulations of his fellow-citizens.  He died in the prime of life, after having received and enjoyed the highest honors of the Republic.

His Administration was eventful.  No branch of the Government will be more intimately associated with it in history than the Army and its glorious achievements.  Accordingly, the President orders that appropriate military honors shall be paid to his memory by the Army of the United States.

The Adjutant-General will give the necessary instructions for carrying into effect the foregoing orders.

G.W.  Crawford,

Secretary of War.

II.  On the day succeeding the arrival of this general order at each military post the troops will be paraded at 10 o’clock a.m. and the order read to them, after which all labors for the day will cease.

The national flag will be displayed at half-staff.

At dawn of day thirteen guns will be fired, and afterwards at intervals of thirty minutes between the rising and setting sun a single gun, and at the close of the day a national salute of thirty guns.

The officers of the Army will wear crape on the left arm and on their swords and the colors of the several regiments will be put in mourning for the period of six months.

By order: 

R. JONES,

Adjutant-General.

FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON, December 4, 1849.

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

Sixty years have elapsed since the establishment of this Government, and the Congress of the United States again assembles to legislate for an empire of freemen.  The predictions of evil prophets, who formerly pretended to foretell the downfall of our institutions, are now remembered only to be derided, and the United States of America at this moment present to the world the most stable and permanent Government on earth.

Such is the result of the labors of those who have gone before us.  Upon Congress will eminently depend the future maintenance of our system of free government and the transmission of it unimpaired to posterity.

We are at peace with all the other nations of the world, and seek to maintain our cherished relations of amity with them.  During the past year we have been blessed by a kind Providence with an abundance of the fruits of the earth, and although the destroying angel for a time visited extensive portions of our territory with the ravages of a dreadful pestilence, yet the Almighty has at length deigned to stay his hand and to restore the inestimable blessing of general health to a people who have acknowledged His power, deprecated His wrath, and implored His merciful protection.