t is directed that on the day after the receipt
of this order by the different navy-yards and stations and vessels of
war of the United States in commission the flags be hoisted at half-mast
from sunrise to sunset and that seventeen minute guns be fired at noon.

Officers of the Navy and Marine Corps will wear crape on the left arm
for thirty days.

The Navy Department will be draped in mourning and will be closed until
after the funeral.

ISAAC TOUCEY,

_Secretary of the Navy_.

THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON CITY, _December 19, 1859_.

_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives_:

Our deep and heartfelt gratitude is due to that Almighty Power which
has bestowed upon us such varied and numerous blessings throughout
the past year. The general health of the country has been excellent,
our harvests have been unusually plentiful, and prosperity smiles
throughout the land. Indeed, notwithstanding our demerits, we have much
reason to believe from the past events in our history that we have
enjoyed the special protection of Divine Providence ever since our
origin as a nation. We have been exposed to many threatening and
alarming difficulties in our progress, but on each successive occasion
the impending cloud has been dissipated at the moment it appeared ready
to burst upon our head, and the danger to our institutions has passed
away. May we ever be under the divine guidance and protection.

Whilst it is the duty of the President "from time to time to give to
Congress information of the state of the Union," I shall not refer in
detail to the recent sad and bloody occurrences at Harpers Ferry. Still,
it is proper to observe that these events, however bad and cruel in
themselves, derive their chief importance from the apprehension that
they are but symptoms of an incurable disease in the public mind, which
may break out in still more dangerous outrages and terminate at last in
an open war by the North to abolish slavery in the South.

Whilst for myself I entertain no such apprehension, they ought to
afford a solemn warning to us all to beware of the approach of danger.
Our Union is a stake of such inestimable value as to demand our constant
and watchful vigilance for its preservation. In this view, let me
implore my countrymen, North and South, to cultivate the ancient
feelings of mutual forbearance and good will toward each other and
strive to allay the demon spirit of sectional hatred a