Special Message

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit to the Senate a copy of a dispatch of the 12th of April last, addressed by Anson Burlingame, esq., the minister of the United States to China, to the Secretary of State, relative to a modification of the twenty-first article of a treaty between the United States and China of the 18th of June, 1858, a printed copy of which is also herewith transmitted.

These papers are submitted to the consideration of the Senate with a view to their advice and consent being given to the modification of the said twenty-first article, as explained in the said dispatch and its accompaniments.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.