opinion at some length
will probably be presented by the attorney-general. Whether there shall be
any legislation upon the subject, and if any, what, is submitted entirely
to the better judgment of Congress.

The forbearance of this government had been so extraordinary and so long
continued as to lead some foreign nations to shape their action as if they
supposed the early destruction of our national Union was probable. While
this, on discovery, gave the executive some concern, he is now happy
to say that the sovereignty and rights of the United States are now
everywhere practically respected by foreign powers; and a general sympathy
with the country is manifested throughout the world.

The reports of the Secretaries of the Treasury, War, and the Navy will
give the information in detail deemed necessary and convenient for your
deliberation and action; while the executive and all the departments will
stand ready to supply omissions, or to communicate new facts considered
important for you to know.

It is now recommended that you give the legal means for making this
contest a short and decisive one: that you place at the control of
the government for the work at least four hundred thousand men and
$400,000,000. That number of men is about one-tenth of those of proper
ages within the regions where, apparently, all are willing to engage; and
the sum is less than a twenty-third part of the money value owned by the
men who seem ready to devote the whole. A debt of $600,000,000 now is a
less sum per head than was the debt of our Revolution when we came out of
that struggle; and the money value in the country now bears even a greater
proportion to what it was then than does the population. Surely each man
has as strong a motive now to preserve our liberties as each had then to
establish them.

A right result at this time will be worth more to the world than ten times
the men and ten times the money. The evidence reaching us from the country
leaves no doubt that the material for the work is abundant, and that it
needs only the hand of legislation to give it legal sanction, and the hand
of the executive to give it practical shape and efficiency. One of the
greatest perplexities of the government is to avoid receiving troops
faster than it can provide for them. In a word, the people will save their
government if the government itself will do its part only indifferently
well.

It might seem, at first thought, to be of little d