ssary instructions
to carry this order into effect.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

_Washington, D.C., September 4, 1867_.

The heads of the several Executive Departments of the Government are
instructed to furnish each person holding an appointment in their
respective Departments with an official copy of the proclamation of the
President bearing date the 3d instant, with directions strictly to
observe its requirements for an earnest support of the Constitution of
the United States and a faithful execution of the laws which have been
made in pursuance thereof.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

[Note.--The Fortieth Congress, second session, met December 2, 1867, in
conformity to the Constitution of the United States, and on July 27,
1868, in accordance with the concurrent resolution of July 24, adjourned
to September 21; again met September 21, and adjourned to October 16;
again met October 16, and adjourned to November 10; again met November
10 and adjourned to December 7, 1868; the latter meetings and
adjournments being in accordance with the concurrent resolution of
September 21.]

THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON, _December 3, 1867_.

_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives_:

The continued disorganization of the Union, to which the President has
so often called the attention of Congress, is yet a subject of profound
and patriotic concern. We may, however, find some relief from that
anxiety in the reflection that the painful political situation, although
before untried by ourselves, is not new in the experience of nations.
Political science, perhaps as highly perfected in our own time and
country as in any other, has not yet disclosed any means by which civil
wars can be absolutely prevented. An enlightened nation, however, with a
wise and beneficent constitution of free government, may diminish their
frequency and mitigate their severity by directing all its proceedings
in accordance with its fundamental law.

When a civil war has been brought to a close, it is manifestly the first
interest and duty of the state to repair the injuries which the war has
inflicted, and to secure the benefit of the lessons it teaches as fully
and as speedily as possible. This duty was, upon the termination of the
rebellion, promptly accepted, not only by the executive department, but
by the insurrectionary States themselves, and restoration in the first
moment of peace was believed to be as easy