Secretary John G. Nicolay present's President's Annual Message to both houses of Congress. In the Senate, the clerk reads the message: "In the midst of unprecedented political troubles, we have cause of great gratitude to God for unusual good health, and most abundant harvests. . . . A disloyal portion of the American people have, during the whole year, been engaged in an attempt to divide and destroy the Union. . . . The Union must be preserved, and hence, all indispensable means must be employed. We should not be in haste to determine that radical and extreme measures, which may reach the loyal as well as the disloyal, are indispensable. The inaugural address at the beginning of the Administration, and the message to Congress at the late special session, were both mainly devoted to the domestic controversy out of which the insurrection and consequent war have sprung. Nothing now occurs to add or subtract, to or from, the principles or general purposes stated and expressed in those documents. . . . It continues to develop that the insurrection is largely, if not exclusively, a war upon the first principle of popular government—the rights of the people. . . . The struggle of today, is not altogether for today—it is for a vast future also." ["Schedule A" printed with Annual Message contains report on President's form letter to chaplains. See also Lincoln to Magrath, October 30, 1861.] In the House, the message is referred to the Committee of the Whole and ordered to be printed. Annual Message to Congress, 3 December 1861, CW, 5:35-54; Evening Star (Washington, DC), 3 December 1861, 3:2-6.