By command of General Sherman: 

E.D.  TOWNSEND,

Adjutant-General.

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 35.

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,

ADJUTANT-GENERAL’S OFFICE,

Washington, March 31, 1870.

I. By order of the President of the United States, the State of Texas having been admitted to representation in Congress, the command heretofore known as the Fifth Military District will cease to exist, and will hereafter constitute a separate military department, headquarters Austin, Tex., Brevet Major-General J.J.  Reynolds commanding.

II.  The department known as the Department of Louisiana will be broken up; the State of Louisiana is hereby added to the Department of Texas, and the State of Arkansas to the Department of the Missouri.  The commanding general Department of the Missouri will, as soon as convenient, relieve the garrison at Little Rock by a detachment from the Sixth Infantry, and the commanding officer of the troops now in Arkansas will report to General J.J.  Reynolds for orders, to take effect as soon as replaced.

III.  The new Department of Texas will form a part of the Military
Division of the South.

By command of General Sherman: 

E.D.  TOWNSEND,

Adjutant-General.

SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 5, 1870.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

A year of peace and general prosperity to this nation has passed since the last assembling of Congress.  We have, through a kind Providence, been blessed with abundant crops, and have been spared from complications and war with foreign nations.  In our midst comparative harmony has been restored.  It is to be regretted, however, that a free exercise of the elective franchise has by violence and intimidation been denied to citizens in exceptional cases in several of the States lately in rebellion, and the verdict of the people has thereby been reversed.  The States of Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas have been restored to representation in our national councils.  Georgia, the only State now without representation, may confidently be expected to take her place there also at the beginning of the new year, and then, let us hope, will be completed the work of reconstruction.  With an acquiescence on the part of the whole people in the national obligation to pay the public debt created as the price of our Union, the pensions to our disabled soldiers and sailors and their widows and orphans, and in the changes to the Constitution which have been made necessary by a great rebellion, there is no reason why we should not advance in material prosperity and happiness as no other nation ever did after so protracted and devastating a war.