The operations of the surgical department have been aided by humane and benevolent associations. The horrors of battle have been assuaged by ministers of mercy, and it is worthy to be recorded of the medical profession that their services have been voluntarily and gratuitously offered on every occasion. Relief associations in every State have done much to comfort and assist the sick and wounded in camps and hospitals, and their vigilant superintendence has perhaps operated to check the negligence, abuse, and fraud that too often prevail, even in such institutions. Religious congregations and societies have also tendered to the Government their church buildings for hospitals, while their pastors have ministered to the patients. These matters are proper to be brought to your notice, because, while war stimulates every evil passion, the virtues developed in this great struggle to maintain our national existence should not pass unnoticed.

The report of Major Myer, of the Signal Corps, deserves your attention.* The services of this corps to armies in the field, and for many military and naval purposes, is highly estimated. At present it is without distinct organization, and is made up of officers detailed from other branches of service. A separate organization is recommended.

The acknowledgment of this Department is due to Colonel Stager, Major Eckert, and their assistants of the Telegraph Corps. In diligence, fidelity, and important aid they have been unsurpassed by any branch of the service.

With this presentation of the past operations and present condition of the War Department, the duty required of me by the act of Congress to make an annual report is, in a great measure, fulfilled. It is seen that a force has been placed, by the people of the United States, at the command of the Government, to maintain its authority, more mighty in all the elements of warlike power than was ever before arrayed under one banner. How shall that force be emery hand, to attack his armies and strongholds, to occupy his ports, clear the great rivers of the West from his obstructions, and pause not until he is subdued, is our plain duty. Above all, it is our duty to disdain no legitimate aid that may save the lives of our gallant soldiers, diminish their labors, provide for their wants, and lessen the burdens of our people. No aphorism is more universally received than that "the sole object of a just war is to make the enemy feel the evils of his injustice, and, by his sufferings, amend his ways; he must therefore be attacked in the most accessible quarter." The power of the rebels rests upon their peculiar system of labor, which keeps laborers on their plantations to support owners who are devoting their time and strength to destroy our armies and destroy our Government. Whenever that system is in hostility to the Government, it is, in my opinion, the duty of those conducting the war to strike down the system and turn against the rebels the productive power that upholds the insurrection. Rightly organized in the recovered territory, the laborers of the rebel States will not only aid in holding fortified positions, but their labor will, as in India, free the white soldier from the most unwholesome exposure of the South. They will cultivate the corn and forage which will feed our cavalry and artillery horses, and save the country a portion of the enormous burden now attending their purchase and transport from the North. This cultivation would have been of greater advan-

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* See p. 754.

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