In granting this respite, it becomes my painful duty to admonish the prisoner that, relinquishing all expectation of pardon by human authority, he refer himself alone to the mercy of the common God and Father of all men.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this fourth day of February, A.D. 1862, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-sixth.
A. LINCOLN.
By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
MESSAGE TO THE SENATE.
WASHINGTON CITY, February 4. 1862
To THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES:
The third section of the "Act further to promote the efficiency of the Navy," approved December 21, 1862, provides: