ate_:

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 14th instant,
requesting information in regard to arrests in the State of Kentucky, I
transmit a report from the Secretary of War, to whom the resolution was
referred.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, _May 22, 1862_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
20th instant, requesting information in regard to the indemnity obtained
by the consul-general of the United States at Alexandria, Egypt, for the
maltreatment of Faris-El-Hakim, an agent in the employ of the American
missionaries in that country, I transmit a report from the Secretary of
State and the documents by which it was accompanied.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, _May 23, 1862_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, in answer to the
resolution of the House of Representatives of the 22d instant, calling
for further correspondence relative to Mexican affairs.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

[The same message was sent to the Senate, in answer to a resolution
of that body.]

WASHINGTON, _May 26, 1862_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

The insurrection which is yet existing in the United States and
aims at the overthrow of the Federal Constitution and the Union was
clandestinely prepared during the winter of 1860 and 1861, and assumed
an open organization in the form of a treasonable provisional government
at Montgomery, in Alabama, on the 18th day of February, 1861. On the
12th day of April, 1861, the insurgents committed the flagrant act of
civil war by the bombardment and capture of Fort Sumter, which cut off
the hope of immediate conciliation. Immediately afterwards all the roads
and avenues to this city were obstructed, and the capital was put into
the condition of a siege. The mails in every direction were stopped, and
the lines of telegraph cut off by the insurgents, and military and naval
forces which had been called out by the Government for the defense of
Washington were prevented from reaching the city by organized and
combined treasonable resistance in the State of Maryland. There was no
adequate and effective organization for the public defense. Congress had
indefinitely adjourned. There was no time to convene them. It became
necessary for me to choose whether, using only the existing means,
agencies, and processes which Congress had provided, I should