I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

JOHN FORSYTH.

[Sent also to the governors of Vermont and Michigan.]

[From House Ex.  Doc.  No. 163, Fiftieth Congress, first session, p. 6.]

EXECUTIVE ORDERS TOUCHING DISPOSAL OF FLAGS CAPTURED IN WAR WITH MEXICO.

DECEMBER 26, 1848.

Pursuant to the second section of act approved April 18, 1814, directing that all flags, standards, and colors taken by the Army and Navy of the United States from their enemies be preserved and displayed under the direction of the President of the United States in such public place as he shall deem proper, the Secretary of War is directed to take measures to cause the flags, standards, and colors taken by the Army of the United States from their enemies in the recent war with Mexico to be deposited for the purpose specified in the act in the Military Academy at West Point.

JAMES K. POLK.

[From official records, War Department.]

WASHINGTON, September 11, 1861.

Major-General JOHN C. FRÉMONT.

SIR:  Yours of the 8th, in answer to mine of the 2d instant, is just received.  Assuming that you, upon the ground, could better judge of the necessities of your position than I could at this distance, on seeing your proclamation of August 30 I perceived no general objection to it.  The particular clause, however, in relation to the confiscation of property and the liberation of slaves appeared to me to be objectionable in its nonconformity to the act of Congress passed the 6th of last August upon the same subjects, and hence I wrote you expressing my wish that that clause should be modified accordingly.  Your answer, just received, expresses the preference on your part that I should make an open order for the modification, which I very cheerfully do.  It is therefore ordered that the said clause of said proclamation be so modified, held, and construed as to conform to and not to transcend the provisions on the same subject contained in the act of Congress entitled “An act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes,” approved August 6, 1861, and that said act be published at length with this order.

Your obedient servant,

A. LINCOLN.

[From McPherson’s History of the Rebellion, p. 248.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 4, 1861.

Major-General GEORGE B. McCLELLAN,
  Washington.

GENERAL:  I am directed by the President to call your attention to the following subject: 

Persons claimed to be held to service or labor under the laws of the State of Virginia and actually employed in hostile service against the Government of the United States frequently escape from the lines of the enemy’s forces and are received within the lines of the Army of the Potomac.

This Department understands that such persons afterwards coming into the city of Washington are liable to be arrested by the city police upon the presumption, arising from color, that they are fugitives from service or labor.