JAMES H. COGGESHALL, Esq.,
  Marshal of the United States for the
  District of Rhode Island, Providence, R.I.

SIR:  By virtue of the authority conferred upon me by section 5287 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, and in execution of the same, you are hereby empowered and directed to take possession of the steamer Estelle, now or lately lying at Bristol, in Rhode Island, and to detain the same until further orders from me concerning the same, and to employ such portion of the land and naval forces of the United States as may be necessary for that purpose.

R.B.  HAYES.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, May 27, 1878.

SIR:[20] I am directed by the President to say that the several Departments of the Government will be closed on Thursday, the 30th instant, in respect to the memory of those who fell in defense of the Union, and to enable the employees to participate in the commemorative ceremonies of the day.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W.K.  ROGERS, Private Secretary.

[Footnote 20:  Addressed to the heads of the Executive Departments, etc.]

SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 2, 1878.

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: 

Our heartfelt gratitude is due to the Divine Being who holds in His hands the destinies of nations for the continued bestowal during the last year of countless blessings upon our country.

We are at peace with all other nations.  Our public credit has greatly improved, and is perhaps now stronger than ever before.  Abundant harvests have rewarded the labors of those who till the soil, our manufacturing industries are reviving, and it is believed that general prosperity, which has been so long anxiously looked for, is at last within our reach.

The enjoyment of health by our people generally has, however, been interrupted during the past season by the prevalence of a fatal pestilence (the yellow fever) in some portions of the Southern States, creating an emergency which called for prompt and extraordinary measures of relief.  The disease appeared as an epidemic at New Orleans and at other places on the Lower Mississippi soon after midsummer.  It was rapidly spread by fugitives from the infected cities and towns, and did not disappear until early in November.  The States of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee have suffered severely.  About 100,000 cases are believed to have occurred, of which about 20,000, according to intelligent estimates, proved fatal.  It is impossible to estimate with any approach to accuracy the loss to the country occasioned by this epidemic.  It is to be reckoned by the hundred millions of dollars.  The suffering and destitution that resulted excited the deepest sympathy in all parts of the Union.  Physicians and nurses hastened