BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A PROCLAMATION.

It has pleased Almighty God to vouchsafe signal victories to the land and naval forces engaged in suppressing an internal rebellion, and at the same time to avert from our country the dangers of foreign intervention and invasion.

It is therefore recommended to the people of the United States that at their next weekly assemblages in their accustomed places of public worship which shall occur after notice of this proclamation shall have been received they especially acknowledge and render thanks to our Heavenly Father for these inestimable blessings; that they then and there implore spiritual consolations in behalf of all who have been brought into affliction by the casualties and calamities of sedition and civil war, and that they reverently invoke the Divine guidance for our national counsels, to the end that they may speedily result in the restoration of peace, harmony, and unity throughout our borders, and hasten the establishment of fraternal relations among all the countries of the earth.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington this tenth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-sixth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State.

LOUISVILLE, April 10, 1862.

(Received 1.15 a. m. 11th.)

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

The boats which approach nearest my wants are the Switzerland, now at Portland, price $13,000, and Queen of the West, at Cincinnati, price $16,000. Please authorize Mr. Butler, of Cincinnati, to purchase both. I will send the Switzerland up to Madison to-morrow. There are no means of drawing her out at New Albany.

Respectfully,

CHAS. ELLET, JR.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington, D. C., April 11, 1862.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF OFFERS OF ASSISTANCE.

The Secretary of War makes public acknowledgment to the Governors of Massachusetts, Indiana, and Ohio, and to the mayor of Cincinnati, and to the Board of Trade of Pittsburg, Pa., for their prompt offers of assistance for the relief of the officers and soldiers wounded in the late great battle on the Tennessee River. These offers have been accepted. It is understood that similar humane and patriotic service has been tendered by other city and State authorities which have not been reported to the Department, but are thankfully acknowledged.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.