same be commanded by
Major-General Fremont.

That all the commanders of departments, after the receipt of this order by
them, respectively report severally and directly to the Secretary of War,
and that prompt, full, and frequent reports will be expected of all and
each of them.

A. LINCOLN.

FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GENERAL MCCLELLAN.

WAR DEPARTMENT, March 13, 1862.

MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN:

The President, having considered the plan of operations agreed upon by
yourself and the commanders of army corps, makes no objection to the same
but gives the following directions as to its execution:

1. Leave such force at Manassas Junction as shall make it entirely certain
that the enemy shall no repossess himself of that position and line of
communication.

2. Leave Washington entirely secure.

3. Move the remainder of the force down the Potomac, choosing a new base
at Fortress Monroe or anywhere between here and there, or, at all events,
move such remainder of the army at once in pursuit of the enemy by some
route.

EDWARD M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

SPEECH TO A PARTY OF MASSACHUSETTS GENTLEMAN

WASHINGTON, MARCH 13, 1862

I thank you, Mr. Train, for your kindness in presenting me with this truly
elegant and highly creditable specimen of the handiwork of the mechanics
of your State of Massachusetts, and I beg of you to express my hearty
thanks to the donors. It displays a perfection of workmanship which I
really wish I had time to acknowledge in more fitting words, and I might
then follow your idea that it is suggestive, for it is evidently expected
that a good deal of whipping is to be done. But as we meet here socially
let us not think only of whipping rebels, or of those who seem to think
only of whipping negroes, but of those pleasant days, which it is to be
hoped are in store for us, when seated behind a good pair of horses we can
crack our whips and drive through a peaceful, happy, and prosperous land.
With this idea, gentlemen, I must leave you for my business duties. [It
was likely a Buggy-Whip D.W.]

MESSAGE TO CONGRESS.

WASHINGTON CITY, March 20, 1862.

TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

The third section of the "Act further to promote the efficiency of the
Navy," approved December 21, 1861, provides:

"That the President of the United States, by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate, shall have the authority to detail from the retired
l