I fully appreciate the hardship of the case, and would be glad if my convictions of duty allowed me to join in the proposed relief; but I can not consent to the doctrine which is found in this bill, as it seems to me, by which the National Treasury is exposed to all claims for property injured or destroyed by the armies of the United States in the late protracted and destructive war in this country.
U.S. GRANT.
PROCLAMATION.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas objects of interest to the United States require that the Senate should be convened at 12 o'clock on the 4th of March next, to receive and act upon such communications as may be made to it on the part of the Executive:
Now, therefore, I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States, have considered it to be my duty to issue this my proclamation, declaring that an extraordinary occasion requires the Senate of the United States to convene for the transaction of business at the Capitol, in the city of Washington, on the 4th day of March next, at 12 o'clock at noon on that day, of which all who shall at that time be entitled to act as members of that body are hereby required to take notice.
Given under my hand and the seal of the United States, at Washington, the 21st day of February, A.D. 1873, and of the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-seventh.
[SEAL.]
U.S. GRANT.