,
_Adjutant-General_.

SPECIAL ORDER.

NAVY DEPARTMENT, _Washington, March 9, 1874_.

The President of the United States announces the death of ex-President
Millard Fillmore in the following order:

[For order see preceding page.]

In pursuance of the foregoing order, it is hereby directed that the
ensign at each naval station and of each vessel of the United States
Navy in commission be hoisted at half-mast from sunrise to sunset, and
that a gun be fired at intervals of every half hour from sunrise to
sunset at each naval station and on board of flagships and of vessels
acting singly, on Thursday, the 12th instant, the day of the funeral,
where this order may be received in time, otherwise on the day after
its receipt.

The officers of the Navy and Marine Corps will wear the usual badge of
mourning attached to the sword hilt and on the left arm for the period
of thirty days.

GEO. M. ROBESON,

_Secretary of the Navy_.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., May 27, 1874_.

SIR:[82] The President directs me to say that the several Departments of
the Government will be closed on the 30th instant, in order to enable
the employees to participate in the decoration of the graves of the
soldiers who fell during the rebellion.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

O.E. BABCOCK, _Secretary_.

[Footnote 82: Addressed to the heads of the Executive Departments, etc.]

WASHINGTON, _May 29, 1874_.

The Civil Service Commission, at its sessions at Washington, having
recommended certain rules[83] to be prescribed by the President for the
government of the Light-House Service of the United States, these rules
as herewith published are approved, and their provisions will be
enforced by the proper officers.

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 83: Omitted.]

AUGUST 31, 1874.

It appearing to me from their trial at Washington and at the city of New
York that the further extension of the civil-service rules will promote
the efficiency of the public service, it is ordered that such rules be,
and they are hereby, extended to the several Federal offices at the city
and in the customs district of Boston, and that the proper measures be
taken for carrying this order into effect.

U.S. GRANT.

SIXTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _December 7, 1874_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

Since the convening of Congress one year ago the nation has undergone a
prostration in business and