of War, dated March
19, 1879, state that in their opinion--

Justice requires * * * such action as may be necessary to annul and set
aside the findings and sentence of the court-martial in the case of
Major-General Fitz John Porter and to restore him to the positions of
which that sentence deprived him, such restoration to take effect from
the date of his dismissal from the service.

The provisions of the bill now under consideration are avowedly based
on the assumption that the findings of the court-martial have been
discovered to be erroneous; but it will be borne in mind that the
investigation which is claimed to have resulted in this discovery was
made many years after the events to which that evidence related and
under circumstances that made it impossible to reproduce the evidence
on which they were based.

It seems to me that the proposed legislation would establish a dangerous
precedent, calculated to imperil in no small measure the binding force
and effect of the judgments of the various tribunals established under
our Constitution and laws.

I have already, in the exercise of the pardoning power with which the
President is vested by the Constitution, remitted the continuing penalty
which had made it impossible for Fitz John Porter to hold any office of
trust or profit under the Government of the United States; but I am
unwilling to give my sanction to any legislation which shall practically
annul and set at naught the solemn and deliberate conclusions of the
tribunal by which he was convicted and of the President by whom its
findings were examined and approved.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

PROCLAMATIONS.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas both Houses of Congress did on the 20th instant request the
commemoration, on the 23d instant, of the one hundredth anniversary of
the surrender by George Washington, at Annapolis, of his commission as
Commander in Chief of the patriot forces of America; and

Whereas it is fitting that this memorable act, which not only signalized
the termination of the heroic struggle of seven years for independence,
but also manifested Washington's devotion to the great principle that
ours is a civic government of and by the people, should be generally
observed throughout the United States:

Now, therefore, I, Chester A. Arthur, President of the United States, do
hereby recommend that either by appropriate exercises in conn