that all business be suspended during this day
and to-morrow.

JAMES K. POLK.

WAR DEPARTMENT, _February 24, 1848_.

The President of the United States with deep regret announces to the
Army the death of John Quincy Adams, our eminent and venerated
fellow-citizen.

While occupying his seat as a member of the House of Representatives, on
the 21st instant he was suddenly prostrated by disease, and on the 23d
expired, without having been removed from the Capitol. He had filled
many honorable and responsible stations in the service of his country,
and among them that of President of the United States; and he closed his
long and eventful life in the actual discharge of his duties as one of
the Representatives of the people.

From sympathy with his relatives and the American people for his loss
and from respect for his distinguished public services, the President
orders that funeral honors shall be paid to his memory at each of the
military stations.

The Adjutant-General will give the necessary instructions for carrying
into effect the foregoing orders.

W.L. MARCY,
_Secretary of War_.

II. On the day succeeding the arrival of this general order at each
military post the troops will be paraded at 10 o'clock a.m. and the
order read to them, after which all labors for the day will cease.

The national flag will be displayed at half-staff.

At dawn of day thirteen guns will be fired, and afterwards, at intervals
of thirty minutes between the rising and setting sun, a single gun, and
at the close of the day a national salute of twenty-nine guns.

The officers of the Army will wear crape on the left arm and on their
swords and the colors of the several regiments will be put in mourning
for the period of six months.

By order:

R. JONES,
_Adjutant-General._

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON, _December 5, 1848_.

_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:

Under the benignant providence of Almighty God the representatives of
the States and of the people are again brought together to deliberate
for the public good. The gratitude of the nation to the Sovereign
Arbiter of All Human Events should be commensurate with the boundless
blessings which we enjoy.

Peace, plenty, and contentment reign throughout our borders, and our
beloved country presents a sublime moral spectacle to the world.

The troubled and unsettled condition of some of the principal European
powe