iven under my hand at the city of WASHINGTON, the 8th day of December,
A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States of America the
eighty-eighth.

A. LINCOLN.

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

ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, DECEMBER 8, 1863.

FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:--

Another year of health, and of sufficiently abundant harvests, has passed.
For these, and especially for the improved condition cf our national
affairs, our renewed and profoundest gratitude to God is due.

We remain in peace and friendship with foreign powers.

The efforts of disloyal citizens of the United States to involve us in
foreign wars, to aid an inexcusable insurrection, have been unavailing.
Her Britannic Majesty's government, as was justly expected, have exercised
their authority to prevent the departure of new hostile expeditions from
British ports. The Emperor of France has, by a like proceeding, promptly
vindicated the neutrality which he proclaimed at the beginning of the
contest. Questions of great intricacy and importance have arisen out of
the blockade, and other belligerent operations, between the Government and
several of the maritime powers, but they have been discussed, and, as
far as was possible, accommodated, in a spirit of frankness, justice, and
mutual good-will. It is especially gratifying that our prize courts, by
the impartiality of their adjudications, have commanded the respect and
confidence of maritime powers.

The supplemental treaty between the United States and Great Britain
for the suppression of the African slave-trade, made on the 17th day of
February last, has been duly ratified and carried into execution. It
is believed that, so far as American ports and American citizens are
concerned, that inhuman and odious traffic has been brought to an end.

I shall submit, for the consideration of the Senate, a convention for the
adjustment of possessory claims in Washington Territory, arising out of
the treaty of the 15th of June, 1846, between the United States and
Great Britain, and which have been the source of some disquiet among the
citizens of that now rapidly improving part of the country.

A novel and important question, involving the extent of the maritime
jurisdiction of Spain in the waters which surround the island of Cuba,
has been debated without reaching an agreement, and it is proposed, in
an amicable spirit, to refer