WASHINGTON, _February 21, 1862_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
The President of the United States was last evening plunged into
affliction by the death of a beloved child. The heads of the
Departments, in consideration of this distressing event, have thought it
would be agreeable to Congress and to the American people that the
official and private buildings occupied by them should not be
illuminated in the evening of the 22d instant.
WILLIAM H. SEWARD.
S.P. CHASE.
EDWIN M. STANTON.
GIDEON WELLES.
CALEB B. SMITH.
M. BLAIR.
EDWARD BATES.
WASHINGTON, _February 25, 1862_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I transmit to Congress a copy of an instruction from Prince Gortchakoff
to Mr. De Stoeckl, the minister of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of
Russia accredited to this Government, and of a note of the Secretary of
State to the latter, relative to the adjustment of the question between
the United States and Great Britain growing out of the removal of
certain of our citizens from the British mail steamer _Trent_ by order
of the commander of the United States war steamer _San Jacinto_.