ANDREW JOHNSON.

WASHINGTON, December 14, 1867.

To the House of Representatives: 

In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 9th instant, I transmit herewith a copy of the papers relating to the trial by a military commission of Albert M.D.C.  Lusk, of Louisiana.  No action in the case has yet been taken by the President.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

WASHINGTON, December 17, 1867.

To the House of Representatives: 

I transmit for the information of the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary of State, with an accompanying paper.[32]

ANDREW JOHNSON.

[Footnote 32:  Report of George H. Sharpe relative to the assassination of President Lincoln and the attempted assassination of Secretary Seward.]

WASHINGTON, December 17, 1867.

To the Senate of the United States: 

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 6th instant, concerning the International Monetary Conference held at Paris in June last, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, which is accompanied by the papers called for by the resolution.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

WASHINGTON, December 17, 1867.

To the Senate of the United States: 

I transmit, for the consideration of the Senate, an agreement between the diplomatic representatives of certain foreign powers in Japan, including the minister of the United States, on the one part, and plenipotentiaries on the part of the Japanese Government, relative to the settlement of Yokohama.

This instrument can not be legally binding upon the United States unless sanctioned by the Senate.  There appears to be no objection to its approval.

A copy of General Van Valkenburgh’s dispatch to the Secretary of State, by which the agreement was accompanied, and of the map to which it refers, are also herewith transmitted.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 18, 1867.

Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives: 

An official copy of the order issued by Major-General Winfield S. Hancock, commander of the Fifth Military District, dated headquarters in New Orleans, La., on the 29th day of November, has reached me through the regular channels of the War Department, and I herewith communicate it to Congress for such action as may seem to be proper in view of all the circumstances.

It will be perceived that General Hancock announces that he will make the law the rule of his conduct; that he will uphold the courts and other civil authorities in the performance of their proper duties, and that he will use his military power only to preserve the peace and enforce the law.  He declares very explicitly that the sacred right of the trial by jury and the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be crushed out or trodden under foot.  He goes further, and in one comprehensive sentence asserts that the principles of American liberty are still the inheritance of this people and ever should be.