en
leaves additional room for white men remaining or coming here. Mr.
Jefferson, however, placed the importance of procuring Louisiana more on
political and commercial grounds than on providing room for population.

On this whole proposition, including the appropriation of money with
the acquisition of territory, does not the expediency amount to absolute
necessity--that without which the government itself cannot be perpetuated?

The war continues. In considering the policy to be adopted for suppressing
the insurrection I have been anxious and careful that the inevitable
conflict for this purpose shall not degenerate into a violent and
remorseless revolutionary struggle. I have therefore in every case thought
it proper to keep the integrity of the Union prominent as the primary
object of the contest on our part, leaving all questions which are not
of vital military importance to the more deliberate action of the
Legislature.

In the exercise of my best discretion I have adhered to the blockade
of the ports held by the insurgents, instead of putting in force by
proclamation the law of Congress enacted at the late session for closing
those ports.

So also, obeying the dictates of prudence, as well as the obligations
of law, instead of transcending I have adhered to the act of Congress to
confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes. If a new law upon
the same subject shall be proposed, its propriety will be duly considered.
The Union must be preserved, and hence all indispensable means must be
employed. We should not be in haste to determine that radical and
extreme measures, which may reach the loyal as well as the disloyal, are
indispensable.

The inaugural address at the beginning of the Administration and the
message to Congress at the late special session were both mainly
devoted to topics domestic controversy out of which the insurrection and
consequent war have sprung. Nothing now occurs to add or subtract to or
from the principles or general purposes stated and expressed in those
documents.

The last ray of hope for preserving the Union peaceably expired at the
assault upon Fort Sumter, and a general review of what has occurred since
may not be unprofitable. What was painfully uncertain then is much better
defined and more distinct now, and the progress of events is plainly in
the right direction. The insurgents confidently claimed a strong support
from north of Mason and Dixon's line, and the frie