by the commission which tried them, for commutation to ten
years imprisonment I have ordered the other thirty-nine to be executed on
Friday the 19th instant. The order was despatched from here on Monday, the
8th instant, by a messenger to General Sibley, and a copy of which order
is herewith transmitted, marked D.

An abstract of the evidence as to the forty is herewith inclosed, marked
E.

To avoid the immense amount of copying, I lay before the Senate the
original transcripts of the records of trials, as received by me.

This is as full and complete a response to the resolution as it is in my
power to make.

A. LINCOLN.

MESSAGE TO CONGRESS.

December 12, 1862.

FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

I have in my possession three valuable swords, formerly the property of
General David E. Twiggs, which I now place at the disposal of Congress.
They are forwarded to me from New Orleans by Major-General Benjamin F.
Butler. If they or any of them shall be by Congress disposed of in reward
or compliment of military service, I think General Butler is entitled to
the first consideration. A copy of the General's letter to me accompanying
the swords is herewith transmitted.

A. LINCOLN.

TO FERNANDO WOOD.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON DECEMBER 12, 1862.

HON. FERNANDO WOOD.

MY DEAR SIR:--Your letter of the 8th, with the accompanying note of same
date, was received yesterday. The most important paragraph in the letter,
as I consider, is in these words:

"On the 25th of November last I was advised by an authority which I deemed
likely to be well informed, as well as reliable and truthful, that the
Southern States would send representatives to the next Congress, provided
that a full and general amnesty should permit them to do so. No guarantee
or terms were asked for other than the amnesty referred to."

I strongly suspect your information will prove to be groundless;
nevertheless, I thank you for communicating it to me. Understanding the
phrase in the paragraph just quoted--"the Southern States would send
representatives to the next Congress"--to be substantially the same as
that "the people of the Southern States would cease resistance, and would
reinaugurate, submit to, and maintain the national authority within the
limits of such States, under the Constitution of the United States," I say
that in such case the war would cease on the part of the United States;
and that