The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-30 00:00:00

President DaviEff , Message to the Congress,

(From the Ei *chmond Enquirer, March 15.)
The following 21 lessage was transmitted to Con-

gress on Monday
To THE SENATE .1 %ND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OF THE CONY EDERATE STATES OF AMERICA.
When informer 3 on Thursday last that it was the
intention of Consress to adjourn sine die on the
ensuing Saturday, I deemed it my duty to request
a postponement of the adjournment, in order that I
might submit for your consideration certain matters
of public interest which are now laid before you.
When that request was made the most important
measures that had occupied your attention during
the session had been so far advanced as to be sub-
mitted for executive action, and the state of the
country had been so materially affected by the events
of the last four months as to evince the necessity of
further and more energetic legislation than was con-
templated in November last.
Our country is now environed with perils which
it is our duty calmly to contemplate. Thus alone
can the measures necessary to avert threatened
calamities be wisely devised and efficiently enforced.
Recent military operations of the enemy have
been successful in the capture of some of our sea-
ports, and in devastating large districts of our
country. ThTe events have had the natural effect
of encouraging our foes and discouraging many of
our people. The capital of the Confederate States
is now threatened, and it is in greater danger than
it has heretofore been during the war. The fact is
stated without reserve or concealment, as due to the
people, whose servants we are, and in whose courage
and constancy entire trust is reposed ; as due to you,
in whose wisdom and resolute spirit the people have
confided for the adoption of the measures required
to guard them from threatened perils.
While stating to you that our country is in
danger, .1 also desire to state my deliberate con-
viction that it is within our power to avert
the calamities which menace us, and to secure
the triumph of the sacred cause for which so
much sacrifice has been made, so much suf-
fering endured, so many lives have been lost. This
result is to be obtained by fortitude, by courage, by
constancy in enduring the sacrifices still needed—in
a word by the prompt and resolute devotion of the
whole resources of men and money in the Confede-
racy to the achievement of our liberties and inde-
pendence.
The measures now required to be successful should
be prompt. Long deliberation and protracted debate
over important measures are not only natural, but
laudable, in representative assemblies under ordinary
circumstances ; but in fnoments of danger, when
action becomes urgent, the delay thus caused is itself
a new source of peril. Thus it has unfortunately
happened that some of the measures passed by you
in pursuance of the recommendations contained in
my message of November last have been so retarded
as to lose much of their value, or have, for the same
reason, been abandoned after being matured, be-
cause no longer applicable to our altered condition,

and others have not been brought under examina-
tion. In making these remarks, it is far from my
intention to attribute the loss of time to any other
causes than those inherent in deliberative assemblies,
but only urgently to recommend prompt action on
the measures now-submitted.

We need for carrying on the war successfully
men and supplies for the army. We have both
-within our country sufficient to attain success.
To obtain the supplies it is necessary to protect
productive districts, guard our lines of communica-
tions by an increase in the number of our forces,
and hence it results that with large augmentations
in the number of men in the army, the facility of
supplying the troops would be greater than with
our recent reduced strength.

For the purchase of supplies now required, espe
daily for the armies in Virginia and North Caro

lina, the treasury must be provided with means, and
a modification of the Impressment law is required.
It has been ascertained by examination that we have
within our reach a sufficiency of what is most needed
for the army, and without having recourse to the
ample provision existing in those parts of the Con-
federacy with which our communication has been
partially interrupted by hostile operations. But
in some districts from which supplies are to be
drawn, the inhabitants, being either within the
enemy's lines or in very close proximity, are unable
to make use of Confederate Treasury notes for the
purchase of articles of prime necessity, and it is
necessary that, to some extent, coin be paid in order
to obtain supplies. It is therefore recommended
that Congress devise the means of making available
the coin within the confederacy for the purpose of
supplying the army. The officers of the supply de-
partments report that with two millions of dollars
in coin the armies of Virginia and North Carolina
can be amply supplied for the remainder of the year,
and the knowledge of this fact should suffice to in-
sure the adoption of the measures necessary to
obtain this moderate sum.

The impressment law as it now exists prohibits
the public officers from impressing supplies without
making payment of the valuation at the time of im-
pressment. The limit fixed for the issue of Treasury
notes has been nearly reached, and the Treasury
cannot always furnish the funds necessary for
prompt payment, while the law for raising revenues
which would have afforded means for diminishing,
if not removing this- difficulty, was unfortunately
delayed for several months, and has just been
signed. In this condition of things it is impossible
to supply the army, although ample stores may exist
in the country. Whenever the owners refuse to give
credit to the public officer it is necessary that this
restriction on the power of impressment be removed.
The power is admitted to be objectionable, liable to
abuse, and unequal in its operation on individuals ;
yet all these objections must yield to absolute ne-
cessity. It is also suggested that the system of
valuation now established ought to be radically
changed. The legislation requires in such cases of
impressment that the market price be paid but
there is really no market price in many cases, and
then valuation is made arbitrarily and in a depre-
ciated currency. The result is that the most extra-
vagant prices are fixed, such as no one ever expects
to be paid in coin. None believe that the Govern-
ment can ever redeem in coin the obligation to pay
50 dollars a bushel for corn or seven hundred dol-
lars a barrel for flour. It would seem to be more
just and appropriate to estimate the supplies im-
pressed at their value in coin—to give the obligation
of the Government for the payment of the price in
coin with reasonable interest, or at the option of the
creditor, to return in kind the wheat or corn im-
pressed, with a reasonable interest, also payable in
kind, and to make the obligations thus issued re-
ceivable for all payments due herein to the Govern-
ment. Whatever be the value attached by Congress
to these suggestions, it is hoped that there will be
no hesitation in so changing the law as to render it
possible to supply the army in case of necessity by
the impressment of provisions for that purpose.
The measure adopted to raise revenue, though
liberal in its provisions, being clearly inadequate to
meet the arrears of debt and the current expendi-
tures, some degree of embarrassment in the manage-
ment of the finances must continue to be felt. It is
to be regretted, I think, that the recommendation of
the Secretary of the Treasury
of a tax on agricul-
tural income equal to the argumented tax on other
incomes, payable in Treasury notes, was rejected by
Congress. This tax would have contributed mate-
rially to facilitate the purchase of provisions and
diminish the necessity now felt for a supply of coin.
The measures passed by Congress during the ses-
sion for recruiting the army and
supplying the addi-
tionfd force needed for the public defence, have been,
in my judgment insufficient,and I am impelled by a
profound conviction of duty, and stimulated by a
sense of the perils which surround our country, to
urge upon you additional legislation on this subject.
The bill for employing negroes as soldiers has not
yet reached me, though the printed journals of your
proceedings inform me of its passage. Much benefit
is anticipated from this measure, though farless than
would have resulted from its adoption at an earlier
date, so as to afford time for their organisation and
instruction during the winter months.
The bill for diminishing the number of exempts
just been made the subject of a special message,
its provisions are such as would add no strength
army. The recommendation to abolish all