ave been had on various incidental and
occasional questions with General Herran as the minister plenipotentiary
and envoy extraordinary of the Granadian Confederacy, but in no other
character. No definitive measure or proceeding has resulted from these
communications, and a communication of them at present would not, in my
judgment, be compatible with the public interest.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

JANUARY 17, 1863.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I have signed the joint resolution to provide for the immediate payment
of the Army and Navy of the United States, passed by the House of
Representatives on the 14th and by the Senate on the 15th instant.

The joint resolution is a simple authority, amounting, however, under
existing circumstances, to a direction, to the Secretary of the Treasury
to make an additional issue of $100,000,000 in United States notes, if
so much money is needed, for the payment of the Army and Navy.

My approval is given in order that every possible facility may be
afforded for the prompt discharge of all arrears of pay due to our
soldiers and our sailors.

While giving this approval, however, I think it my duty to express my
sincere regret that it has been found necessary to authorize so large an
additional issue of United States notes, when this circulation and that
of the suspended banks together have become already so redundant as to
increase prices beyond real values, thereby augmenting the cost of
living to the injury of labor, and the cost of supplies to the injury of
the whole country.

It seems very plain that continued issues of United States notes without
any check to the issues of suspended banks and without adequate
provision for the raising of money by loans and for funding the issues
so as to keep them within due limits must soon produce disastrous
consequences; and this matter appears to me so important that I feel
bound to avail myself of this occasion to ask the special attention of
Congress to it.

That Congress has power to regulate the currency of the country can
hardly admit of doubt, and that a judicious measure to prevent the
deterioration of this currency, by a seasonable taxation of bank
circulation or otherwise, is needed seems equally clear. Independently
of this general consideration, it would be unjust to the people at large
to exempt banks enjoying the special privilege of circulation from their
just proportion of the public burdens.

In order