Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W.K.  ROGERS, Private Secretary.

[Footnote 37:  Addressed to the heads of the Executive Departments, etc.]

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,
  OFFICE OF THE SURGEON GENERAL,
    UNITED STATES MARINE-HOSPITAL SERVICE,

Washington, D.C., May 31, 1879.

To Medical Officers of the Marine-Hospital Service and others whom it may concern:

Official information having been received to the effect that the “plague” which existed in southern Russia is now almost extinct, the regulations issued March 3, 1879,[38] imposing certain restrictions upon the importation of rags, etc., into the United States, are hereby revoked.

By order of the Secretary of the Treasury: 

J.B.  HAMILTON,
  Surgeon-General United States Marine-Hospital Service.

Approved:  R.B.  HAYES.

[Footnote 38:  See pp. 549-550.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, November 1, 1879.

The sad intelligence of the death of Zachariah Chandler, late Secretary of the Interior, and during so many years a Senator from the State of Michigan, has been communicated to the Government and to the country, and in proper respect to his memory I hereby order that the several Executive Departments be closed to public business and their flags and those of their dependencies throughout the country be displayed at half-mast on the day of his funeral.

R.B.  HAYES.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, November 17, 1879.

DEAR SIR:[39] I am directed by the President to say that the several Departments of the Government will be closed on Wednesday, the 19th instant, to enable the employees to participate in the ceremonies attending the unveiling of the statue of the late General George H. Thomas.

Very truly, yours,

W.K.  ROGERS, Private Secretary.

[Footnote 39:  Addressed to the heads of the Executive Departments, etc.]

THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 1, 1879.

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

The members of the Forty-sixth Congress have assembled in their first regular session under circumstances calling for mutual congratulation and grateful acknowledgment to the Giver of All Good for the large and unusual measure of national prosperity which we now enjoy.

The most interesting events which have occurred in our public affairs since my last annual message to Congress are connected with the financial operations of the Government, directly affecting the business interests of the country.  I congratulate Congress on the successful execution of the resumption act.  At the time fixed, and in the manner contemplated by law, United States notes began to be redeemed in