ptions aforesaid, without the license and permission of the President,
through the Secretary of the Treasury, will together with the vessel or
vehicle conveying the same, be forfeited to the United States.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the
United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this second day of April, A.D. 1863, and
of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.

A. LINCOLN.

By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL HOOKER.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 3, 1863.

MAJOR-GENERAL HOOKER:

Our plan is to pass Saturday night on the boat, go over from Aquia Creek
to your camp Sunday morning, remain with you till Tuesday morning, and
then return. Our party will probably not exceed six persons of all sorts.

A. LINCOLN.

OPINION ON HARBOR DEFENSE.

April 4, 1863.

On this general subject I respectfully refer Mr.------__ to the
Secretaries of War and Navy for conference and consultation. I have a
single idea of my own about harbor defense. It is a steam ram, built so
as to sacrifice nearly all capacity for carrying to those of speed and
strength, so as to be able to split any vessel having hollow enough in her
to carry supplies for a voyage of any distance. Such ram, of course, could
not herself carry supplies for a voyage of considerable distance, and her
business would be to guard a particular harbor as a bulldog guards his
master's door.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY POTOMAC, April 9, 1863.

HON. SECRETARY OF THE NAVY:

Richmond Whig of the 8th has no telegraphic despatches from Charleston,
but has the following as editorial:

"All thoughts are now centred upon Charleston. Official intelligence was
made public early yesterday morning that the enemy's iron-clad fleet
had attempted to cross the bar and failed, but later in the day it was
announced that the gunboats and transports had succeeded in crossing and
were at anchor. Our iron-clads lay between the forts quietly awaiting the
attack. Further intelligence is looked for with eager anxiety. The Yankees
have made no secret of this vast preparation for an attack on Charleston,
and we may well anticipate a desperate conflict. At last the hour of trial
has come for Charleston, the hour of deliverance or destruction, for no
one believes the other altern