ief of the Army and Navy, desires and
enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and men in
the military and naval service. The importance for man and beast of
the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and
sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a Christian people,
and a due regard for the divine will demand that Sunday labor in the army
and navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity.

The discipline and character of the national forces should not suffer nor
the cause they defend be imperilled by the profanation of the day or name
of the Most High. "At this time of public distress," adopting the words of
Washington in 1776, "men may find enough to do in the service of God and
their country without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality."
The first general order issued by the Father of his Country after the
Declaration of Independence indicates the spirit in which our institutions
were founded and should ever be defended:

"The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to
live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights
and liberties of his country."

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL BLAIR

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 17,1862.

HON. F. P. BLAIR:

Your brother says you are solicitous to be ordered to join General
McLernand. I suppose you are ordered to Helena; this means that you are
to form part of McLernand's expedition as it moves down the river; and
General McLernand is so informed. I will see General Halleck as to whether
the additional force you mention can go with you.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. A. DIX.

WASHINGTON, D. C., November 18, 1861.

MAJOR-GENERAL Dix, Fort Monroe:

Please give me your best opinion as to the number of the enemy now at
Richmond and also at Petersburg.

A. LINCOLN.

TO GOVERNOR SHEPLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 21, 1862.

HON. G. F. SHEPLEY.

DEAR SIR:--Dr. Kennedy, bearer of this, has some apprehension that
Federal officers not citizens of Louisiana may be set up as candidates for
Congress in that State. In my view there could be no possible object in
such an election. We do not particularly need members of Congress from
there to enable us to get along with legislation here. What we do want is
the conclusive evidence that respectable citizens of Louisiana are willing
to be members of Con