ch bonds.

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

_Washington, July 15, 1862_.

Hon. SOLOMON FOOT,
_President pro tempore of the Senate_.

SIR: Please inform the Senate that I shall be obliged if they will
postpone the adjournment at least one day beyond the time which I
understand to be now fixed for it.

Your obedient servant,

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

[The same message was addressed to Hon. Calusha A. Crow, Speaker of the
House of Representatives.]

JULY 17, 1862.

_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives_:

Considering the bill for "An act to suppress insurrection, to punish
treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate the property of rebels,
and for other purposes," and the joint resolution explanatory of said
act as being substantially one, I have approved and signed both.

Before I was informed of the passage of the resolution I had prepared
the draft of a message stating objections to the bill becoming a law,
a copy of which draft is herewith transmitted.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

_Fellow-Citizens of the House of Representatives_:

I herewith return to your honorable body, in which it originated, the
bill for an act entitled "An act to suppress treason and rebellion, to
seize and confiscate the property of rebels, and for other purposes,"
together with my objections to its becoming a law.

There is much in the bill to which I perceive no objection. It is wholly
prospective, and touches neither person nor property of any loyal
citizen, in which particulars it is just and proper. The first and
second sections provide for the conviction and punishment of persons who
shall be guilty of treason and persons who shall "incite, set on foot,
assist, or engage in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority
of the United States or the laws thereof, or shall give aid and comfort
thereto, or shall engage in or give aid and comfort to any such existing
rebellion or insurrection." By fair construction persons within these
sections are not to be punished without regular trials in duly
constituted courts, under the forms and all the substantial provisions
of law and of the Constitution applicable to their several cases. To
this I perceive no objection, especially as such persons would be within
the general pardoning power and also the special provision for pardon
and amnesty contained in this act.

It is also provided that the slaves of persons convicted unde