Ordered: First. That no further contracts be made by this Department or any bureau thereof for any article of foreign manufacture that can be produced or manufactured in the United States.

Second. All outstanding orders, agencies, authorities, or licenses for the purchase of arms, clothing, or anything else in foreign countries or of foreign manufactures for this Department are revoked and annulled.

Third. All persons claiming to have any contract, bargain, agreement, order, warrant, license, or authority, of whatsoever nature, from this Department, or any bureau thereof, for furnishing arms, clothing, equipment, or anything else to the United States, are required within fifteen days from this date to give written notice of such contract, and its purport, with a statement in writing of what has been done under it, and to file a copy thereof with the Secretary of War.

Fourth. All contracts, orders, and agreements for army supplies should be in writing and signed by the contracting parties, and the original or a copy thereof filed, according to paragraph 1049 of the Regulations, with the head of the proper bureau.

It is seldom that any necessity can prevent a contract from being reduced to writing, and even when made by telegraph its terms can speedily be written and signed; and every claim founded upon any pretended contract, bargain, agreement, order, warrant, authority, or license now cutstanding, of which notice and a copy is not filed in accordance with this order within the period mentioned, shall be deemed and held to be prima facie fraudulent and void, and no claim therein will be allowed or paid by this Department, unless upon full and satisfactory proof of its validity.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

SecreATE, Washington, January 29, 1862.

Honorable EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: I have the honor to communicate a copy of a letter to this Department from the Secretary of the Navy, and of the one from the U. S. consul at Havana to which it refers, and to suggest that should the exigencies of the public service permit, a military force of observation be posted opposite to or near to Matamoras, on the Rio Grande.

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

[First indorsement.]

JANUARY 30, 1862.

Respectfully referred to Major-General McClellan, commanding.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

[Second indorsement.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMY, February 2, 1862.

The occupation of Brazos de Santiago and Brownsville is important and desirable for many reasons. It would not be prudent, however, to attempt it without force sufficient to hold points farther north and east. We have not the disposable force at the present moment, nor would it do to risk a detached force in so remote a position, without retreat or succor, until certain that our foreign relations are entirely satisfactory.

Very respectfully,
GEO. B. McCLELLAN,

Major-General, Commanding.