You will please order an election to take place on the 28th of March, 1864, and returns to be made in fifteen days thereafter.

A. Lincoln.

MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, JANUARY 20, 1864

Gentlemen of the Senate and house of representatives: 

In accordance with a letter addressed by the Secretary of State, with my approval, to the Hon. Joseph A. Wright, of Indiana, that patriotic and distinguished gentleman repaired to Europe and attended the International Agricultural Exhibition, held at Hamburg last year, and has since his return made a report to me, which, it is believed, can not fail to be of general interest, and especially so to the agricultural community.  I transmit for your consideration copies of the letters and report.  While it appears by the letter that no reimbursement of expenses or compensation was promised him, I submit whether reasonable allowance should not be made him for them.

Abraham Lincoln.

ORDER APPROVING TRADE REGULATIONS.

Executive Mansion,
Washington, January 26, 1864.

I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States having seen and considered the additional regulations of trade prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and numbered LI, LII, LIII, LIV, LV, and LVI, do hereby approve the same; and I further declare and order that all property brought in for sale, in good faith, and actually sold in pursuance of said Regulations LII, LIII, LIV, LV, and LVI, after the same shall have taken effect and come in force as provided in Regulation LVI, shall be exempt from confiscation or forfeiture to the United States.

Abraham Lincoln.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL FOSTER.

War department, Washington, D. C., January 27, 1864.

Major-general Foster, Knoxville, Tenn.: 

Is a supposed correspondence between General Longstreet and yourself about the amnesty proclamation, which is now in the newspapers, genuine?

A. Lincoln.

TELEGRAM TO E. STANLEY.

Executive Mansion, Washington, January 28, 1864

Hon.  Edward Stanley, San Francisco, Cal.: 

Yours of yesterday received.  We have rumors similar to the dispatch received by you, but nothing very definite from North Carolina.  Knowing Mr. Stanley to be an able man, and not doubting that he is a patriot, I should be glad for him to be with his old acquaintances south of Virginia, but I am unable to suggest anything definite upon the subject.

A. Lincoln.

TO GENERAL H. W. HALLECK.