The life and public services of Abraham Lincoln ... together with his state papers, including his speeches, addresses, messages, letters, and proclamations, and the closing scenes connected with his life and death. By Henry J. Raymond. To which are added anecdotes and personal reminiscences of President Lincoln, by Frank B. Carpenter.

STATE PAPERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

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The execution of the laws for the suppression of the African slave-trade
has been confided to the Department of the Interior. It is a subject of gratulation that the efforts which have been made for the suppression of this
inhuman traffic have been recently attended with unusual success. Five
vessels being fitted out for the slave-trade have been seized and condemned. Two mates of vessels engaged in the trade, and one person in
equipping a vessel as a slaver, have been convicted and subjected to theo
penalty of fine and imprisonment, and one captain, taken with a cargo of
Africans on board his vessel, has been convicted of the highest grade of
offence under our laws, the punishment of which is death.
The Territories of Colorado, Dakotah, and Nevada, created by the last
Congress, have been organized, and civil administration has been inaugurated therein under auspices especially gratifying, when it is considered
that the leaven of treason was found existing in some of these new countries when the Federal officers arrived there.
The abundant natural resources of these Territories, with the security
and protection afforded by organized government, will doubtless invite to
them a large immigration when peace shall restore the business of the
country to its accustomed channels. I submit the resolutions of the Legislature of Colorado, which evidence the patriotic spirit of the people of
the Territory. So far the authority of the United States has been upheld in
all the Territories, as it is hoped it will be in the future. I commend their
interests and defence to the enlightened and generous care of Congress
I recommend to the favorable consideration of Congress the interests
of the District of Columbia. The insurrection has been the cause of
much suffering and sacrifice to its inhabitants, and as they have no representative in Congress, that body should not overlook their just claims
upon the Government.
At your late session a joint resolution was adopted authorizing the
President to take measures for facilitating a proper representation of the
industrial interests of the United States at the exhibition of the industry
of all nations to be holden at London in the year 1862. I regret to say
I have been unable to give personal attention to this subject-a subject at
once so interesting in itself, and so extensively and intimately connected
with the material prosperity of the world. Through the Secretaries of
State and of the Interior a plan or system has been devised and partly
matured, and which will be laid before you.
Under and by virtue of the act of Congress entitled " An act to confiscate property used for insurrectionary purposes," approved August 6,
1861, the legal claims of certain persons to the labor and service of certain other persons have become forfeited; and numbers of the latter, thus
liberated, are already dependent on the United States, and must be provided for in some way. Besides this, it is not impossible that some of the
States will pass similar enactments for their own benefit respectively,
and by operation of which persons of the same class will be thrown upon