The State of South Carolina, by the Convention of the People of the said State, to Robert W. Barnwell, James H. Adams, and James L. Orr:

Whereas the Convention of the People of the State of South Carolina, begun and holden at Columbia on the seventeenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty, and thence continued by adjournment to Charleston, did, by resolution, order "That three Commissioners to be elected by ballot of the Convention, be directed forthwith to proceed to Washington, authorized and empowered to treat with the Government of the United States for the delivery of the forts, magazines, light-houses, and other real with their appurtenances, within the limits of South Carolina, and also for an apportionment of the public debt and for a division of all other property held by the Government of the United States as agent of the confederated States, of which South Carolina, was recently a member; and, generally, to negotiate as to all other measures and arrangements proper to be made and adopted in the existing relations of the parties, and for the continuance of peace and amity between this Commonwealth and the Government at Washington":

And whereas the said Convention did, by ballot, elect you to the said office of Commissaries to the Government at Washington:

Now, be it known that the said Convention, by these presents, doth commission you, Robert W. Barnwell, James H. Adams, and James L. Orr, as Commissaries to the Government at Washington, to have, to hold, and to exercise the said office, with all the powers, rights, and privileges conferred upon the same by the terms of the resolution herein cited.

Given under the seal of the State, at Charleston, the twenty-second day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty.

[L. S.]

D. F. JAMISON,

President.

ISAAC H. MEANS,

Secretary of State.

Attest:

B. F. ARTHUR,

Clerk of the Convention.

[Memorandum.]

WASHINGTON, D. C., December 28, 1860.

The following message was delivered by Lieutenant-Colonel Lay, aide-de-camp, from the General-in-Chief to the President of the United States, in person about 3 1/2 p.m., December 27;

Since the formal order, unaccompanied by special instructions, assigning Major Anderson to the command of Fort Moultrie, no order, intimation, suggestion or communication for his government and guidance has gone to that officer, or any of his subordinates, from the Headquarters of the Army; nor have any reports or communications been addressed to the General-in-Chief from Fort Moultrie later than a letter written by Major Anderson, almost immediately after his arrival in Charleston Harbor, reporting the then state of the work.

G. W. LAY,

Lieutenant-Colonel, A. D. C.

The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.