He has inflicted great loss upon the enemy. He has crippled their strength and defeated their plans.

    In view, however, of the situation in Virginia, the disaster at Red River, the delay at Charleston, and the general state of the country, I, Abraham Lincoln, do hereby recommend that Thursday, the twenty-sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four be solemnly set apart throughout these United States as a day of fasting,humiliation, and prayer. Deeming, furthermore, that the present condition of public affairs presents an extraordinary occasion, and in view of the pending expiration of the service of 100,000 of our troops, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power vested in me by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the citizens of the United States between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years to the aggregate number of 400,000, in order to suppress the existing rebellious combinations and to cause the due execution of the laws. And furthermore, in case any State or number of States shall fail to furnish by the fifteenth day of June next their assigned quotas, it is hereby ordered that the same be raised by an immediate and peremptory draft. The details for this object will be communicated the State authorities through the War Department. I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our national Union, and the perpetuity of popular government. 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 seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

    ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

    By the President:

    WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

    Secretary of State. {END OF SPURIOUS LETTER - Gen Dix Signature left off, included after second message sent to Secretary of State Seward, below}

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NEW YORK, May 18, 1864.

(Received 11.35 a.m.)

Honorable W. H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State:

A proclamation by the President, countersigned by you, and believed to be spurious, has appeared in some of our morning papers calling for 400,000 men, and appointing the 26th instant as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer. Please answer immediately for steamer.

JOHN A. DIX,

Major-General

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DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

May 18, 1864.

TO THE PUBLIC:

A paper purporting to be a proclamation of the President, countersigned by the Secretary of State, and bearing date the 17th day of May, is reported to this Department as having appeared in the New York World of this date. The paper is an absolute forgery. No proclamation of that kind or any other has been made or proposed to