the Treasury, relative to the assessment and collection of taxes under the act approved May 1, 1863.
To the Senate and House of Representatives.
I herewith transmit for your consideration a communication from the Secretary of the Treasury, submitting an estimate of additional sums needed for the support of the Government.
I recommend an appropriation of the amount specified for the purposes indicated.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Confederate States.
I feel impelled by the condition of the country earnestly to recommend to your adoption the extension of the conscription already recommended[1] in my annual message of the 7th of December last, and to inform you that the preparations made by the enemy for the campaign of the present year warn us that our armies in the field must be reënforced to the utmost possible extent.
The agricultural interests of the country must be protected and fostered, or we shall be unable to raise the supplies necessary for the subsistence of the Army as well as of the people at home. How is this to be done?
There is no possibility of affording adequate local protection by our armies in the field, which must of necessity be kept concentrated to resist the main columns of the invading forces of the enemy. Our farms and depots can be protected from destructive raids only by men who remain at home engaged in manufactural, agricultural, and other pursuits. There are but two modes of rendering these classes available for such purposes. One is by calling them out as militia; the other by enrolling them under Confederate authority. I propose in a few words to contrast these modes.
If those left at home are available only as militia, it will become necessary to make requisitions for them on the States in advance of any pressing necessity for their services, because of the delays
