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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nada closed its session without having audited and passed upon all the
claims which were submitted to it. A proposition is pending to revive
the convention, that it be able to do more complete justice. The joint
commission between the United States and the Republic of Costa Rica
has completed its labors and submitted its report.
I have favored the project for connecting the United States with Europe by an Atlantic telegraph, and a similar project to extend the telegraph from San Francisco to connect by a Pacific telegraph with the line
which is being extended across the Russian Empire.
The Territories of the United States, with unimportant exceptions,
Ihave remained undisturbed by the civil war; and they are exhibiting
such evidence of prosperity as justifies an expectation that some of them
will soon be in a condition to be organized as States, and be constitutionally admitted into the Federal Union.
The immense mineral resources of some of those Territories ought to
be developed as rapidly as possible. Every step in that direction would
have a tendency to improve the revenues of the Government and diminish the burdens of the people. It is worthy of your serious consideration whether some extraordinary measures to promote that end cannot
be adopted. The means which suggests itself as most likely to be effective, is a scientific exploration of the mineral regions in those Territories,
with a view to the publication of its results at home and in foreign countries-results which cannot fail to be auspicious.
The condition of the finances will claim your most diligent consideration. The vast expenditures incident to the military and naval operations required for the suppression of the rebellion have been hitherto
met with a promptitude and certainty unusual in similar circumstances;
and the public credit has been fully maintained. The continuance of the
war, however, and the increased disbursements made necessary by the
augmented forces now in the field, demand your best reflections as to the
best modes of providing the necessary revenue, without injury to business, and with the least possible burdens upon labor.
The suspension of specie payments by the banks, soon after the commencement of your last session, made large issues of United States notes
unavoidable. In no other way could the payment of the troops and the
satisfaction of other just demands, be so economically or so well provided
for. The judicious legislation of Congress, securing the receivability of
these notes for loans and internal duties, and making them a legal tender
for other debts, has made them a universal currency, and has satisfied,
partially at least, and for the time, the long felt want of a uniform circulating medium, saving thereby to the people immense sums in discounts
and exchanges.
A return to specie payments, however, at the earliest period compatible with due regard to all interests concerned, should ever be kept in
view. Fluctuations in the value of currency are always injurious, and
to reduce these fluctuations to the lowest possible point will always be a