THIRD SESSION.
MET AT RICHMOND, VA., JULY 20, 1861.
ADJOURNED AUGUST 31, 1861.
MESSAGES.
To the Congress of the Confederate States of America.
Gentlemen: My message,[1] addressed to you at the commencement of the session, contained such full information of the state of the Confederacy as to render it unnecessary that I should now do more than call your attention to such important facts as have occurred during the recess, and to matters connected with the public defense.
I have again to congratulate you on the accession of new members to our confederation of free, equal, and sovereign States. Our loved and honored brethren of North Carolina and Tennessee have consummated the action, foreseen and provided for at your last session, and I have had the gratification of announcing, by proclamation, in conformity with law, that those States were admitted into the Confederacy.
The people of Virginia also, by a majority previously unknown in her history, have ratified the action of her Convention, uniting her fortunes with ours. The States of Arkansas, North Carolina, and Virginia have likewise adopted the permanent Constitution of the Confederate States, and no doubt is entertained of its adoption by Tennessee at the election to be held early next month.
I deemed it advisable to direct the removal of the several Executive Departments, with their archives, to this city, to which you had removed the seat of government, immediately after your adjournment. The aggressive movements of the enemy required prompt and energetic action. The accumulation of his forces on the Potomac sufficiently demonstrated that his efforts were to be directed against Virginia; and from no point could the necessary measures for her defense and protection be so efficiently protected as from her own capital.
The rapid progress of events for the last few weeks has fully sufficed to strip the veil behind which the true policy and pur-
