To the Congress of the United States:

Your assembling is clouded by a sense of public bereavement, caused by the
recent and sudden death of Thomas A. Hendricks, Vice-President of the
United States. His distinguished public services, his complete integrity
and devotion to every duty, and his personal virtues will find honorable
record in his country's history.

Ample and repeated proofs of the esteem and confidence in which he was held
by his fellow-countrymen were manifested by his election to offices of the
most important trust and highest dignity; and at length, full of years and
honors, he has been laid at rest amid universal sorrow and benediction.

The Constitution, which requires those chosen to legislate for the people
to annually meet in the discharge of their solemn trust, also requires the
President to give to Congress information of the state of the Union and
recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall deem necessary
and expedient. At the threshold of a compliance with these constitutional
directions it is well for us to bear in mind that our usefulness to the
people's interests will be promoted by a constant appreciation of the scope
and character of our respective duties as they relate to Federal
legislation. While the Executive may recommend such measures as he shall
deem expedient, the responsibility for legislative action must and should
rest upon those selected by the people to make their laws.

Contemplation of the grave and responsible functions assigned to the
respective branches of the Government under the Constitution will disclose
the partitions of power between our respective departments and their
necessary independence, and also the need for the exercise of all the power
intrusted to each in that spirit of comity and cooperation which is
essential to the proper fulfillment of the patriotic obligations which rest
upon us as faithful servants of the people.

The jealous watchfulness of our constituencies, great and small,
supplements their suffrages, and before the tribunal they establish every
public servant should be judged.

It is gratifying to announce that the relations of the United States with
all foreign powers continue to be friendly. Our position after nearly a
century of successful constitutional government, maintenance of good faith
in all our engagements, the avoidance of complications with other nations,
and our consistent and amicable attitude toward the strong and weak alike
furnish proof of a political disposition which renders professions of good
will unnecessary. There are no questions of difficulty pending with any
foreign government.

The Argentine Government has revived the long dormant question of the
Falkland Islands by claiming from the United States indemnity for their
loss, attributed to the action of the commander of the sloop of war
Lexington in breaking up a piratical colony on those islands in 1831, and
their subsequent occupation by Great Britain. In view of the ample
justification for the act of the Lexington and the derelict condition of
the islands before and after their alleged occupation by Argentine
colonists, this Government considers the claim as wholly groundless.

Question has arisen with the Government of Austria-Hungary touching the
representation of the United States at Vienna. Having under my
constitutional prerogative appointed an estimable citizen of unimpeached
probity and competence as minister at that court, the Government of
Austria-Hungary invited this Government to take cognizance of certain
exceptions, based upon allegations against the personal acceptability of
Mr. Keiley, the appointed envoy, asking that in view thereof the
appointment should be withdrawn. The reasons advanced were such as could
not be acquiesced in without violation of my oath of office and the
precepts of the Constitution, since they necessarily involved a limitation
in favor of a foreign government upon the right of selection by the
Executive and required such an application of a religious test as a
qualification for office under the United States as would have resulted in
the practical disfranchisement of a large class of our citizens and the
abandonment of a vital principle in our Government. The Austro-Hungarian
Government finally decided not to receive Mr. Keiley as the envoy of the
United States, and that gentleman has since resigned his commission,
leaving the post vacant. I have made no new nomination, and the interests
of this Government at Vienna are now in the care of the secretary of
legation, acting as charge d'affaires ad interim.

Early in March last war broke out in Central America, caused by the attempt
of Guatemala to consolidate the several States into a single government. In
these contests between our neighboring States the United States forebore to
interfere actively, but lent the aid of their friendly offices in
deprecation of war and to promote peace and concord among the belligerents,
and by such counsel contributed importantly to the restoration of
tranquillity in that locality.

Emergencies growing out of civil war in the United States of Colombia
demanded of the Government at the beginning of this Administration the
employment of armed forces to fulfill its guaranties under the thirty-fifth
article of the treaty of 1846, in order to keep the transit open across the
Isthmus of Panama. Desirous of exercising only the powers expressly
reserved to us by the treaty, and mindful of the rights of Colombia, the
forces sent to the Isthmus were instructed to confine their action to
"positively and efficaciously" preventing the transit and its accessories
from being "interrupted or embarrassed."

The execution of this delicate and responsible task necessarily involved
police control where the local authority was temporarily powerless, but
always in aid of the sovereignty of Colombia.

The prompt and successful fulfillment of its duty by this Government was
highly appreciated by the Government of Colombia, and has been followed by
expressions of its satisfaction.

High praise is due to the officers and men engaged in this service. The
restoration of peace on the Isthmus by the reestablishment of the
constituted Government there being thus accomplished, the forces of the
United States were withdrawn.

Pending these occurrences a question of much importance was presented by
decrees of the Colombian Government proclaiming the closure of certain
ports then in the hands of insurgents and declaring vessels held by the
revolutionists to be piratical and liable to capture by any power. To
neither of these propositions could the United States assent. An effective
closure of ports not in the possession of the Government, but held by
hostile partisans, could not be recognized; neither could the vessels of
insurgents against the legitimate sovereignty be deemed hostes humani
generis within the precepts of international law, whatever might be the
definition and penalty of their acts under the municipal law of the State
against whose authority they were in revolt. The denial by this Government
of the Colombian propositions did not, however, imply the admission of a
belligerent status on the part of the insurgents.

The Colombian Government has expressed its willingness to negotiate
conventions for the adjustment by arbitration of claims by foreign citizens
arising out of the destruction of the city of Aspinwall by the
insurrectionary forces.

The interest of the United States in a practicable transit for ships across
the strip of land separating the Atlantic from the Pacific has been
repeatedly manifested during the last half century.

My immediate predecessor caused to be negotiated with Nicaragua a treaty
for the construction, by and at the sole cost of the United States, of a
canal through Nicaraguan territory, and laid it before the Senate. Pending
the action of that body thereon, I withdrew the treaty for reexamination.
Attentive consideration of its provisions leads me to withhold it from
resubmission to the Senate.

Maintaining, as I do, the tenets of a line of precedents from Washington's
day, which proscribe entangling alliances with foreign states, I do not
favor a policy of acquisition of new and distant territory or the
incorporation of remote interests with our own.

The laws of progress are vital and organic, and we must be conscious of
that irresistible tide of commercial expansion which, as the concomitant of
our active civilization, day by day is being urged onward by those
increasing facilities of production, transportation, and communication to
which steam and electricity have given birth; but our duty in the present
instructs us to address ourselves mainly to the development of the vast
resources of the great area committed to our charge and to the cultivation
of the arts of peace within our own borders, though jealously alert in
preventing the American hemisphere from being involved in the political
problems and complications of distant governments. Therefore I am unable to
recommend propositions involving paramount privileges of ownership or
right outside of our own territory, when coupled with absolute and
unlimited engagements to defend the territorial integrity of the state
where such interests lie. While the general project of connecting the two
oceans by means of a canal is to be encouraged, I am of opinion that any
scheme to that end to be considered with favor should be free from the
features alluded to.

The Tehuantepec route is declared by engineers of the highest repute and by
competent scientists to afford an entirely practicable transit for vessels
and cargoes, by means of a ship railway, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The obvious advantages of such a route, if feasible, over others more
remote from the axial lines of traffic between Europe and the pacific, and
particularly between the Valley of the Mississippi and the western coast of
North and South America, are deserving of consideration.

Whatever highway may be constructed across the barrier dividing the two
greatest maritime areas of the world must be for the world's benefit--a
trust for mankind, to be removed from the chance of domination by any
single power, nor become a point of invitation for hostilities or a prize
for warlike ambition. An engagement combining the construction, ownership,
and operation of such a work by this Government, with an offensive and
defensive alliance for its protection, with the foreign state whose
responsibilities and rights we would share is, in my judgment, inconsistent
with such dedication to universal and neutral use, and would, moreover,
entail measures for its realization beyond the scope of our national polity
or present means.

The lapse of years has abundantly confirmed the wisdom and foresight of
those earlier Administrations which, long before the conditions of maritime
intercourse were changed and enlarged by the progress of the age,
proclaimed the vital need of interoceanic transit across the American
Isthmus and consecrated it in advance to the common use of mankind by their
positive declarations and through the formal obligation of treaties. Toward
such realization the efforts of my Administration will be applied, ever
bearing in mind the principles on which it must rest, and which were
declared in no uncertain tones by Mr. Cass, who, while Secretary of State,
in 1858, announced that "what the United States want in Central America,
next to the happiness of its people, is the security and neutrality of the
interoceanic routes which lead through it."

The construction of three transcontinental lines of railway, all in
successful operation, wholly within our territory, and uniting the Atlantic
and the Pacific oceans, has been accompanied by results of a most
interesting and impressive nature, and has created new conditions, not in
the routes of commerce only, but in political geography, which powerfully
affect our relations toward and necessarily increase our interests in any
transisthmian route which may be opened and employed for the ends of peace
and traffic, or, in other contingencies, for uses inimical to both.

Transportation is a factor in the cost of commodities scarcely second to
that of their production, and weighs as heavily upon the consumer.

Our experience already has proven the great importance of having the
competition between land carriage and water carriage fully developed, each
acting as a protection to the public against the tendencies to monopoly
which are inherent in the consolidation of wealth and power in the hands of
vast corporations.

These suggestions may serve to emphasize what I have already said on the
score of the necessity of a neutralization of any interoceanic transit; and
this can only be accomplished by making the uses of the route open to all
nations and subject to the ambitions and warlike necessities of none.

The drawings and report of a recent survey of the Nicaragua Canal route,
made by Chief Engineer Menocal, will be communicated for your information.

The claims of citizens of the United States for losses by reason of the
late military operations of Chile in Peru and Bolivia are the subject of
negotiation for a claims convention with Chile, providing for their
submission to arbitration.

The harmony of our relations with China is fully sustained.

In the application of the acts lately passed to execute the treaty of 1880,
restrictive of the immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States,
individual cases of hardship have occurred beyond the power of the
Executive to remedy, and calling for judicial determination.

The condition of the Chinese question in the Western States and Territories
is, despite this restrictive legislation, far from being satisfactory. The
recent outbreak in Wyoming Territory, where numbers of unoffending
Chinamen, indisputably within the protection of the treaties and the law,
were murdered by a mob, and the still more recent threatened outbreak of
the same character in Washington Territory, are fresh in the minds of all,
and there is apprehension lest the bitterness of feeling against the
Mongolian race on the Pacific Slope may find vent in similar lawless
demonstrations. All the power of this Government should be exerted to
maintain the amplest good faith toward China in the treatment of these men,
and the inflexible sternness of the law in bringing the wrongdoers to
justice should be insisted upon.

Every effort has been made by this Government to prevent these violent
outbreaks and to aid the representatives of China in their investigation of
these outrages; and it is but just to say that they are traceable to the
lawlessness of men not citizens of the United States engaged in competition
with Chinese laborers.

Race prejudice is the chief factor in originating these disturbances, and
it exists in a large part of our domain, jeopardizing our domestic peace
and the good relationship we strive to maintain with China.

The admitted right of a government to prevent the influx of elements
hostile to its internal peace and security may not be questioned, even
where there is no treaty stipulation on the subject. That the exclusion of
Chinese labor is demanded in other countries where like conditions prevail
is strongly evidenced in the Dominion of Canada, where Chinese immigration
is now regulated by laws more exclusive than our own. If existing laws are
inadequate to compass the end in view, I shall be prepared to give earnest
consideration to any further remedial measures, within the treaty limits,
which the wisdom of Congress may devise.

The independent State of the Kongo has been organized as a government under
the sovereignty of His Majesty the King of the Belgians, who assumes its
chief magistracy in his personal character only, without making the new
State a dependency of Belgium. It is fortunate that a benighted region,
owing all it has of quickening civilization to the beneficence and
philanthropic spirit of this monarch, should have the advantage and
security of his benevolent supervision.

The action taken by this Government last year in being the first to
recognize the flag of the International Association of the Kongo has been
followed by formal recognition of the new nationality which succeeds to its
sovereign powers.

A conference of delegates of the principal commercial nations was held at
Berlin last winter to discuss methods whereby the Kongo basin might be kept
open to the world's trade. Delegates attended on behalf of the United
States on the understanding that their part should be merely deliberative,
without imparting to the results any binding character so far as the United
States were concerned. This reserve was due to the indisposition of this
Government to share in any disposal by an international congress of
jurisdictional questions in remote foreign territories. The results of the
conference were embodied in a formal act of the nature of an international
convention, which laid down certain obligations purporting to be binding on
the signatories, subject to ratification within one year. Notwithstanding
the reservation under which the delegates of the United States attended,
their signatures were attached to the general act in the same manner as
those of the plenipotentiaries of other governments, thus making the United
States appear, without reserve or qualification, as signatories to a joint
international engagement imposing on the signers the conservation of the
territorial integrity of distant regions where we have no established
interests or control.

This Government does not, however, regard its reservation of liberty of
action in the premises as at all impaired; and holding that an engagement
to share in the obligation of enforcing neutrality in the remote valley of
the Kongo would be an alliance whose responsibilities we are not in a
position to assume, I abstain from asking the sanction of the Senate to
that general act.

The correspondence will be laid before you, and the instructive and
interesting report of the agent sent by this Government to the Kongo
country and his recommendations for the establishment of commercial
agencies on the African coast are also submitted for your consideration.

The commission appointed by my predecessor last winter to visit the Central
and South American countries and report on the methods of enlarging the
commercial relations of the United States therewith has submitted reports,
which will be laid before you.

No opportunity has been omitted to testify the friendliness of this
Government toward Korea, whose entrance into the family of treaty powers
the United States were the first to recognize. I regard with favor the
application made by the Korean Government to be allowed to employ American
officers as military instructors, to which the assent of Congress becomes
necessary, and I am happy to say this request has the concurrent sanction
of China and Japan.

The arrest and imprisonment of Julio R. Santos, a citizen of the United
States, by the authorities of Ecuador gave rise to a contention with that
Government, in which his right to be released or to have a speedy and
impartial trial on announced charges and with all guaranties of defense
stipulated by treaty was insisted upon by us. After an elaborate
correspondence and repeated and earnest representations on our part Mr.
Santos was, after an alleged trial and conviction, eventually included in a
general decree of amnesty and pardoned by the Ecuadorian Executive and
released, leaving the question of his American citizenship denied by the
Ecuadorian Government, but insisted upon by our own.

The amount adjudged by the late French and American Claims Commission to be
due from the United States to French claimants on account of injuries
suffered by them during the War of Secession, having been appropriated by
the last Congress, has been duly paid to the French Government.

The act of February 25, 1885, provided for a preliminary search of the
records of French prize courts for evidence bearing on the claims of
American citizens against France for spoliations committed prior to 1801.
The duty has been performed, and the report of the agent will be laid
before you.

I regret to say that the restrictions upon the importation of our pork into
France continue, notwithstanding the abundant demonstration of the absence
of sanitary danger in its use; but I entertain strong hopes that with a
better understanding of the matter this vexatious prohibition will be
removed. It would be pleasing to be able to say as much with respect to
Germany, Austria, and other countries, where such food products are
absolutely excluded, without present prospect of reasonable change.

The interpretation of our existing treaties of naturalization by Germany
during the past year has attracted attention by reason of an apparent
tendency on the part of the Imperial Government to extend the scope of the
residential restrictions to which returning naturalized citizens of German
origin are asserted to be liable under the laws of the Empire. The
temperate and just attitude taken by this Government with regard to this
class of questions will doubtless lead to a satisfactory understanding.

The dispute of Germany and Spain relative to the domination of the Caroline
Islands has attracted the attention of this Government by reason of
extensive interests of American citizens having grown up in those parts
during the past thirty years, and because the question of ownership
involves jurisdiction of matters affecting the status of our citizens under
civil and criminal law. While standing wholly aloof from the proprietary
issues raised between powers to both of which the United States are
friendly, this Government expects that nothing in the present contention
shall unfavorably affect our citizens carrying on a peaceful commerce or
there domiciled, and has so informed the Governments of Spain and Germany.

The marked good will between the United States and Great Britain has been
maintained during the past year.

The termination of the fishing clauses of the treaty of Washington, in
pursuance of the joint resolution of March 3, 1883, must have resulted in
the abrupt cessation on the 1st of July of this year, in the midst of their
ventures, of the operations of citizens of the United States engaged in
fishing in British American waters but for a diplomatic understanding
reached with Her Majesty's Government in June last, whereby assurance was
obtained that no interruption of those operations should take place during
the current fishing season.

In the interest of good neighborhood and of the commercial intercourse of
adjacent communities, the question of the North American fisheries is one
of much importance. Following out the intimation given by me when the
extensory arrangement above described was negotiated, I recommend that the
Congress provide for the appointment of a commission in which the
Governments of the United States and Great Britain shall be respectively
represented, charged with the consideration and settlement, upon a just,
equitable, and honorable basis, of the entire question of the fishing
rights of the two Governments and their respective citizens on the coasts
of the United States and British North America. The fishing interests being
intimately related to other general questions dependent upon contiguity and
intercourse, consideration thereof in all their equities might also
properly come within the purview of such a commission, and the fullest
latitude of expression on both sides should be permitted.

The correspondence in relation to the fishing rights will be submitted. The
arctic exploring steamer Alert, which was generously given by Her Majesty's
Government to aid in the relief of the Greely expedition, was, after the
successful attainment of that humane purpose, returned to Great Britain, in
pursuance of the authority conferred by the act of March 3, 1885.

The inadequacy of the existing engagements for extradition between the
United States and Great Britain has been long apparent. The tenth article
of the treaty of 1842, one of the earliest compacts in this regard entered
into by us, stipulated for surrender in respect of a limited number of
offenses. Other crimes no less inimical to the social welfare should be
embraced and the procedure of extradition brought in harmony with present
international practice. Negotiations with Her Majesty's Government for an
enlarged treaty of extradition have been pending since 1870, and I
entertain strong hopes that a satisfactory result may be soon attained.

The frontier line between Alaska and British Columbia, as defined by the
treaty of cession with Russia, follows the demarcation assigned in a prior
treaty between Great Britain and Russia. Modern exploration discloses that
this ancient boundary is impracticable as a geographical fact. In the
unsettled condition of that region the question has lacked importance, but
the discovery of mineral wealth in the territory the line is supposed to
traverse admonishes that the time has come when an accurate knowledge of
the boundary is needful to avert jurisdictional complications. I recommend,
therefore, that provision be made for a preliminary reconnoissance by
officers of the United States, to the end of acquiring more precise
information on the subject. I have invited Her Majesty's Government to
consider with us the adoption of a more convenient line, to be established
by meridian observations or by known geographical features without the
necessity of an expensive survey of the whole.

The late insurrectionary movements in Hayti having been quelled, the
Government of that Republic has made prompt provision for adjudicating the
losses suffered by foreigners because of hostilities there, and the claims
of certain citizens of the United States will be in this manner
determined.

The long-pending claims of two citizens of the United States, Pelletier and
Lazare, have been disposed of by arbitration, and an award in favor of each
claimant has been made, which by the terms of the engagement is final. It
remains for Congress to provide for the payment of the stipulated moiety of
the expenses.

A question arose with Hayti during the past year by reason of the
exceptional treatment of an American citizen, Mr. Van Bokkelen, a resident
of Port-au-Prince, who, on suit by creditors residing in the United States,
was sentenced to imprisonment, and, under the operation of a Haytian
statute, was denied relief secured to a native Haytian. This Government
asserted his treaty right to equal treatment with natives of Hayti in all
suits at law. Our contention was denied by the Haytian Government, which,
however, while still professing to maintain the ground taken against Mr.
Van Bokkelen's right, terminated the controversy by setting him at liberty
without explanation.

An international conference to consider the means of arresting the spread
of cholera and other epidemic diseases was held at Rome in May last, and
adjourned to meet again on further notice. An expert delegate on behalf of
the United States has attended its sessions and will submit a report.

Our relations with Mexico continue to be most cordial, as befits those of
neighbors between whom the strongest ties of friendship and commercial
intimacy exist, as the natural and growing consequence of our similarity of
institutions and geographical propinquity.

The relocation of the boundary line between the United States and Mexico
westward of the Rio Grande, under the convention of July 29, 1882, has been
unavoidably delayed, but I apprehend no difficulty in securing a
prolongation of the period for its accomplishment.

The lately concluded commercial treaty with Mexico still awaits the
stipulated legislation to carry its provisions into effect, for which one
year's additional time has been secured by a supplementary article signed
in February last and since ratified on both sides.

As this convention, so important to the commercial welfare of the two
adjoining countries, has been constitutionally confirmed by the treaty-
making branch, I express the hope that legislation needed to make it
effective may not be long delayed.

The large influx of capital and enterprise to Mexico from the United States
continues to aid in the development of the resources and in augmenting the
material well-being of our sister Republic. Lines of railway, penetrating
to the heart and capital of the country, bring the two peoples into
mutually beneficial intercourse, and enlarged facilities of transit add to
profitable commerce, create new markets, and furnish avenues to otherwise
isolated communities.

I have already adverted to the suggested construction of a ship railway
across the narrow formation of the territory of Mexico at Tehuantepec.

With the gradual recovery of Peru from the effects of her late disastrous
conflict with Chile, and with the restoration of civil authority in that
distracted country, it is hoped that pending war claims of our citizens
will be adjusted.

In conformity with notification given by the Government of Peru, the
existing treaties of commerce and extradition between the United States and
that country will terminate March 31, 1886.

Our good relationship with Russia continues.

An officer of the Navy, detailed for the purpose, is now on his way to
Siberia bearing the testimonials voted by Congress to those who generously
succored the survivors of the unfortunate Jeannette expedition.

It is gratifying to advert to the cordiality of our intercourse with
Spain.

The long-pending claim of the owners of the ship Masonic for loss suffered
through the admitted dereliction of the Spanish authorities in the
Philippine Islands has been adjusted by arbitration and an indemnity
awarded. The principle of arbitration in such cases, to which the United
States have long and consistently adhered, thus receives a fresh and
gratifying confirmation.

Other questions with Spain have been disposed of or are under diplomatic
consideration with a view to just and honorable settlement.

The operation of the commercial agreement with Spain of January 2--February
13, 1884, has been found inadequate to the commercial needs of the United
States and the Spanish Antilies, and the terms of the agreement are
subjected to conflicting interpretations in those islands.

Negotiations have been instituted at Madrid for a full treaty not open to
these objections and in the line of the general policy touching the
neighborly intercourse of proximate communities, to which I elsewhere
advert, and aiming, moreover, at the removal of existing burdens and
annoying restrictions; and although a satisfactory termination is promised,
I am compelled to delay its announcement.

An international copyright conference was held at Berne in September, on
the invitation of the Swiss Government. The envoy of the United States
attended as a delegate, but refrained from committing this Government to
the results, even by signing the recommendatory protocol adopted. The
interesting and important subject of international copyright has been
before you for several years. Action is certainly desirable to effect the
object in view; and while there may be question as to the relative
advantage of treating it by legislation or by specific treaty, the matured
views of the Berne conference can not fail to aid your consideration of the
subject.

The termination of the commercial treaty of 1862 between the United States
and Turkey has been sought by that Government. While there is question as
to the sufficiency of the notice of termination given, yet as the
commercial rights of our citizens in Turkey come under the favored-nation
guaranties of the prior treaty of 1830, and as equal treatment is admitted
by the Porte, no inconvenience can result from the assent of this
Government to the revision of the Ottoman tariffs, in which the treaty
powers have been invited to join.

Questions concerning our citizens in Turkey may be affected by the Porte's
nonacquiescence in the right of expatriation and by the imposition of
religious tests as a condition of residence, in which this Government can
not concur. The United States must hold in their intercourse with every
power that the status of their citizens is to be respected and equal civil
privileges accorded to them without regard to creed, and affected by no
considerations save those growing out of domiciliary return to the land of
original allegiance or of unfulfilled personal obligations which may
survive, under municipal laws, after such voluntary return.

The negotiation with Venezuela relative to the rehearing of the awards of
the mixed commission constituted under the treaty of 1866 was resumed in
view of the recent acquiescence of the Venezuelan envoy in the principal
point advanced by this Government, that the effects of the old treaty could
only be set aside by the operation of a new convention. A result in
substantial accord with the advisory suggestions contained in the joint
resolution of March 3, 1883, has been agreed upon and will shortly be
submitted to the Senate for ratification.

Under section 3659 of the Revised Statutes all funds held in trust by the
United States and the annual interest accruing thereon, when not otherwise
required by treaty, are to be invested in stocks of the United States
bearing a rate of interest not less than 5 per cent per annum. There being
now no procurable stocks paying so high a rate of interest, the letter of
the statute is at present inapplicable, but its spirit is subserved by
continuing to make investments of this nature in current stocks bearing the
highest interest now paid. The statute, however, makes no provision for the
disposal of such accretions. It being contrary to the general rule of this
Government to allow interest on claims, I recommend the repeal of the
provision in question and the disposition, under a uniform rule, of the
present accumulations from investment of trust funds.

The inadequacy of existing legislation touching citizenship and
naturalization demands your consideration.

While recognizing the right of expatriation, no statutory provision exists
providing means for renouncing citizenship by an American citizen, native
born or naturalized, nor for terminating and vacating an improper
acquisition of citizenship. Even a fraudulent decree of naturalization can
not now be canceled. The privilege and franchise of American citizenship
should be granted with care, and extended to those only who intend in good
faith to assume its duties and responsibilities when attaining its
privileges and benefits. It should be withheld from those who merely go
through the forms of naturalization with the intent of escaping the duties
of their original allegiance without taking upon themselves those of their
new status, or who may acquire the rights of American citizenship for no
other than a hostile purpose toward their original governments. These evils
have had many flagrant illustrations.

I regard with favor the suggestion put forth by one of my predecessors that
provision be made for a central bureau of record of the decrees of
naturalization granted by the various courts throughout the United States
now invested with that power.

The rights which spring from domicile in the United States, especially when
coupled with a declaration of intention to become a citizen, are worthy of
definition by statute. The stranger coming hither with intent to remain,
establishing his residence in our midst, contributing to the general
welfare, and by his voluntary act declaring his purpose to assume the
responsibilities of citizenship, thereby gains an inchoate status which
legislation may properly define. The laws of certain States and Territories
admit a domiciled alien to the local franchise, conferring on him the
rights of citizenship to a degree which places him in the anomalous
position of being a citizen of a State and yet not of the United States
within the purview of Federal and international law.

It is important within the scope of national legislation to define this
right of alien domicile as distinguished from Federal naturalization.

The commercial relations of the United States with their immediate
neighbors and with important areas of traffic near our shores suggest
especially liberal intercourse between them and us.

Following the treaty of 1883 with Mexico, which rested on the basis of a
reciprocal exemption from customs duties, other similar treaties were
initiated by my predecessor.

Recognizing the need of less obstructed traffic with Cuba and Puerto Rico,
and met by the desire of Spain to succor languishing interests in the
Antilles, steps were taken to attain those ends by a treaty of commerce. A
similar treaty was afterwards signed by the Dominican Republic.
Subsequently overtures were made by Her Britannic Majesty's Government for
a like mutual extension of commercial intercourse with the British West
Indian and South American dependencies, but without result.

On taking office I withdrew for reexamination the treaties signed with
Spain and Santo Domingo, then pending before the Senate. The result has
been to satisfy me of the inexpediency of entering into engagements of this
character not covering the entire traffic.

These treaties contemplated the surrender by the United States of large
revenues for inadequate considerations. Upon sugar alone duties were
surrendered to an amount far exceeding all the advantages offered in
exchange. Even were it intended to relieve our consumers, it was evident
that so long as the exemption but partially covered our importation such
relief would be illusory. To relinquish a revenue so essential seemed
highly improvident at a time when new and large drains upon the Treasury
were contemplated. Moreover, embarrassing questions would have arisen under
the favored-nation clauses of treaties with other nations.

As a further objection, it is evident that tariff regulation by treaty
diminishes that independent control over its own revenues which is
essential for the safety and welfare of any government. Emergency calling
for an increase of taxation may at any time arise, and no engagement with a
foreign power should exist to hamper the action of the Government.

By the fourteenth section of the shipping act approved June 26, 1884,
certain reductions and contingent exemptions from tonnage dues were made as
to vessels entering ports of the United States from any foreign port in
North and Central America, the West India Islands, the Bahamas and
Bermudas, Mexico, and the Isthmus as far as Aspinwall and Panama. The
Governments of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Portugal, and Sweden and Norway
have asserted, under the favored-nation clause in their treaties with the
United States, a claim to like treatment in respect of vessels coming to
the United States from their home ports. This Government, however, holds
that the privileges granted by the act are purely geographical, inuring to
any vessel of any foreign power that may choose to engage in traffic
between this country and any port within the defined zone, and no warrant
exists under the most-favored-nation clause for the extension of the
privileges in question to vessels sailing to this country from ports
outside the limitation of the act.

Undoubtedly the relations of commerce with our near neighbors, whose
territories form so long a frontier line difficult to be guarded, and who
find in our country, and equally offer to us, natural markets, demand
special and considerate treatment. It rests with Congress to consider what
legislative action may increase facilities of intercourse which contiguity
makes natural and desirable.

I earnestly urge that Congress recast the appropriations for the
maintenance of the diplomatic and consular service on a footing
commensurate with the importance of our national interests. At every post
where a representative is necessary the salary should be so graded as to
permit him to live with comfort. With the assignment of adequate salaries
the so-called notarial extra official fees, which our officers abroad are
now permitted to treat as personal perquisites, should be done away with.
Every act requiring the certification and seal of the officer should be
taxable at schedule rates and the fee therefor returned to the Treasury. By
restoring these revenues to the public use the consular service would be
self-supporting, even with a liberal increase of the present low salaries.

In further prevention of abuses a system of consular inspection should be
instituted.

The appointment of a limited number of secretaries of legation at large, to
be assigned to duty wherever necessary, and in particular for temporary
service at missions which for any cause may be without a head, should also
be authorized.

I favor also authorization for the detail of officers of the regular
service as military or naval attaches at legations.

Some foreign governments do not recognize the union of consular with
diplomatic functions. Italy and Venezuela will only receive the appointee
in one of his two capacities, but this does not prevent the requirement of
a bond and submission to the responsibilities of an office whose duties he
can not discharge. The superadded title of consul-general should be
abandoned at all missions.

I deem it expedient that a well-devised measure for the reorganization of
the extraterritorial courts in Oriental countries should replace the
present system, which labors under the disadvantage of combining judicial
and executive functions in the same office.

In several Oriental countries generous offers have been made of premises
for housing the legations of the United States. A grant of land for that
purpose was made some years since by Japan, and has been referred to in the
annual messages of my predecessor. The Siamese Government has made a gift
to the United States of commodious quarters in Bangkok. In Korea the late
minister was permitted to purchase a building from the Government for
legation use. In China the premises rented for the legation are favored as
to local charges. At Tangier the house occupied by our representative has
been for many years the property; this Government, having been given for
that purpose in 1822 by the Sultan of Morocco. I approve the suggestion
heretofore made, that, view of the conditions of life and administration in
the Eastern countries, the legation buildings in China, Japan, Korea, Siam,
and perhaps Persia, should be owned and furnished by the Government with a
view to permanency and security. To this end I recommend that authority be
given to accept the gifts adverted to in Japan and Siam, and to purchase in
the other countries named, with provision for furniture and repairs. A
considerable saving in rentals would result.

The World's Industrial Exposition, held at New Orleans last winter, with
the assistance of the Federal Government, attracted a large number of
foreign exhibits, and proved of great value in spreading among the
concourse of visitors from Mexico and Central and South America a wider
knowledge of the varied manufactures and productions of this country and
their availability in exchange for the productions of those regions.

Past Congresses have had under consideration the advisability of abolishing
the discrimination made by the tariff laws in favor of the works of
American artists. The odium of the policy which subjects to a high rate of
duty the paintings of foreign artists and exempts the productions of
American artists residing abroad, and who receive gratuitously advantages
and instruction, is visited upon our citizens engaged in art culture in
Europe, and has caused them with practical unanimity to favor the abolition
of such an ungracious distinction; and in their interest, and for other
obvious reasons, I strongly recommend it.

The report of the Secretary of the Treasury fully exhibits the condition of
the public finances and of the several branches of the Government connected
with his Department. The suggestions of the Secretary relating to the
practical operations of this important Department, and his recommendations
in the direction of simplification and economy, particularly in the work of
collecting customs duties, are especially urged upon the attention of
Congress.

The ordinary receipts from all sources for the fiscal year ended June 30,
1885, were $322,690,706.38. Of this sum $181,471,939.34 was received from
customs and $112,498,725.54 from internal revenue. The total receipts, as
given above, were $24,829,163.54 less than those for the year ended June
30, 1884. This diminution embraces a falling off of $13,595,550.42 in the
receipts from customs and $9,687,346.97 in the receipts from internal
revenue.

The total ordinary expenditures of the Government for the fiscal year were
$260,226,935.50, leaving a surplus in the Treasury at the close of the year
of $63,463,771.27. This is $40,929,854.32 less than the surplus reported at
the close of the previous year.

The expenditures are classified as follows:

The amount paid on the public debt during the fiscal year ended June 30,
1885, was $45,993,235.43, and there has been paid since that date and up to
November 1, 1885, the sum of $369,828, leaving the amount of the debt at
the last-named date $1,514,475,860.47. There was however, at that time in
the Treasury, applicable to the general purposes of the Government, the sum
of $66,818,292.38.

The total receipts for the current fiscal year ending June 30, 1886,
ascertained to October 1, 1885, and estimated for the remainder of the
year, are $315,000,000. The expenditures ascertained and estimated for the
same time are $245,000,000, leaving a surplus at the close of the year
estimated at $70,000,000.

The value of the exports from the United States to foreign countries during
the last fiscal year was as follows:

Some of the principal exports, with their values and the percentage they
respectively bear to the total exportation, are given as follows:

Our imports during the year were as follows:

The following are given as prominent articles of import during the year,
with their values and the percentage they bear to the total importation:

Of the entire amount of duties collected 70 per cent was collected from the
following articles of import:

The fact that our revenues are in excess of the actual needs of all
economical administration of the Government justifies a reduction in the
amount exacted from the people for its support. Our Government is but the
means established by the will of a free people by which certain principles
are applied which they have adopted for their benefit and protection; and
it is never better administered and its true spirit is never better
observed than when the people's taxation for its support is scrupulously
limited to the actual necessity of expenditure and distributed according to
a just and equitable plan.

The proposition with which we have to deal is the reduction of the revenue
received by the Government, and indirectly paid by the people, from customs
duties. The question of free trade is not involved, nor is there now any
occasion for the general discussion of the wisdom or expediency of a
protective system.

Justice and fairness dictate that in any modification of our present laws
relating to revenue the industries and interests which have been encouraged
by such laws, and in which our citizens have large investments, should not
be ruthlessly injured or destroyed. We should also deal with the subject in
such manner as to protect the interests of American labor, which is the
capital of our workingmen. Its stability and proper remuneration furnish
the most justifiable pretext for a protective policy.

Within these limitations a certain reduction should be made in our customs
revenue. The amount of such reduction having been determined, the inquiry
follows, Where can it best be remitted and what articles can best be
released from duty in the interest of our citizens?

I think the reduction should be made in the revenue derived from a tax upon
the imported necessaries of life. We thus directly lessen the cost of
living in every family of the land and release to the people in every
humble home a larger measure of the rewards of frugal industry.

During the year ended November 1, 1885, 145 national banks were organized,
with an aggregate capital of $16,938,000, and circulating notes have been
issued to them amounting to $4,274,910. The whole number of these banks in
existence on the day above mentioned was 2,727.

The very limited amount of circulating notes issued by our national banks,
compared with the amount the law permits them to issue upon a deposit of
bonds for their redemption, indicates that the volume of our circulating
medium may be largely increased through this instrumentality.

Nothing more important than the present condition of our currency and
coinage can claim your attention.

Since February, 1878, the Government has, under the compulsory provisions
of law, purchased silver bullion and coined the same at the rate of more
than $2,000,000 every month. By this process up to the present date
215,759,431 silver dollars have been coined.

A reasonable appreciation of a delegation of power to the General
Government would limit its exercise, without express restrictive words, to
the people's needs and the requirements of the public welfare.

Upon this theory the authority to "coin money" given to Congress by the
Constitution, if it permits the purchase by the Government of bullion for
coinage in any event, does not justify such purchase and coinage to an
extent beyond the amount needed for a sufficient circulating medium.

The desire to utilize the silver product of the country should not lead to
a misuse or the perversion of this power.

The necessity for such an addition to the silver currency of the nation as
is compelled by the silver-coinage act is negatived by the fact that up to
the present time only about 50,000,000 of the silver dollars so coined have
actually found their way into circulation, leaving more than 165,000,000 in
the possession of the Government, the custody of which has entailed a
considerable expense for the construction of vaults for it deposit. Against
this latter amount there are outstanding silver certificates amounting to
about $93,000,000.

Every month two millions of gold in the public Treasury are paid our for
two millions or more of silver dollars, to be added to the idle mass
already accumulated.

If continued long enough, this operation will result in the substitution of
silver for all the gold the Government owns applicable to its general
purposes. It will not do to rely upon the customs receipts of the
Government to make good this drain of gold, because the silver thus coined
having been made legal tender for all debts and dues, public and private,
at times during the last six months 58 per cent of the receipts for duties
has been in silver or silver certificates, while the average within that
period has been 20 per cent. The proportion of silver and its certificates
received by the Government will probably increase as time goes on, for the
reason that the nearer the period approaches when it will be obliged to
offer silver in payment of its obligations the greater inducement there
will be to hoard gold against depreciation in the value of silver or for
the purpose of speculating.

This hoarding of gold has already begun.

When the time comes that gold has been withdrawn from circulation, then
will be apparent the difference between the real value of the silver dollar
and a dollar in gold, and the two coins will part company. Gold, still the
standard of value and necessary in our dealings with other countries, will
be at a premium over silver; banks which have substituted gold for the
deposits of their customers may pay them with silver bought with such gold,
thus making a handsome profit; rich speculators will sell their hoarded
gold to their neighbors who need it to liquidate their foreign debts, at a
ruinous premium over silver, and the laboring men and women of the land,
most defenseless of all, will find that the dollar received for the wage of
their toil has sadly shrunk in its purchasing power. It may be said that
the latter result will be but temporary, and that ultimately the price of
labor will be adjusted to the change; but even if this takes place the
wage-worker can not possibly gain, but must inevitably lose, since the
price he is compelled to pay for his living will not only be measured in a
coin heavily depreciated and fluctuating and uncertain in its value, but
this uncertainty in the value of the purchasing medium will be made the
pretext for an advance in prices beyond that justified by actual
depreciation.

The words uttered in 1834 by Daniel Webster in the Senate of the United
States are true to-day: The very man of all others who has the deepest
interest in a sound currency, and who suffers most by mischievous
legislation in money matters, is the man who earns his daily bread by his
daily toil. The most distinguished advocate of bimetallism, discussing our
silver coinage, has lately written: No American citizen's hand has yet felt
the sensation of cheapness, either in receiving or expending the silver-act
dollars. And those who live by labor or legitimate trade never will feel
that sensation of cheapness. However plenty silver dollars may become, they
will not be distributed as gifts among the people; and if the laboring man
should receive four depreciated dollars where he now receives but two, he
will pay in the depreciated coin more than double the price he now pays for
all the necessaries and comforts of life.

Those who do not fear any disastrous consequences arising from the
continued compulsory coinage of silver as now directed by law, and who
suppose that the addition to the currency of the country intended as its
result will be a public benefit, are reminded that history demonstrates
that the point is easily reached in the attempt to float at the same time
two sorts of money of different excellence when the better will cease to be
in general circulation. The hoarding of gold which has already taken place
indicates that we shall not escape the usual experience in such cases. So
if this silver coinage be continued we may reasonably expect that gold and
its equivalent will abandon the field of circulation to silver alone. This
of course must produce a severe contraction of our circulating medium,
instead of adding to it.

It will not be disputed that any attempt on the part of the Government to
cause the circulation of silver dollars worth 80 cents side by side with
gold dollars worth 100 cents, even within the limit that legislation does
not run counter to the laws of trade, to be successful must be seconded by
the confidence of the people that both coins will retain the same
purchasing power and be interchangeable at will. A special effort has been
made by the Secretary of the Treasury to increase the amount of our silver
coin in circulation; but the fact that a large share of the limited amount
thus put out has soon returned to the public Treasury in payment of duties
leads to the belief that the people do not now desire to keep it in hand,
and this, with the evident disposition to hoard gold, gives rise to the
suspicion that there already exists a lack of confidence among the people
touching our financial processes. There is certainly not enough silver now
in circulation to cause uneasiness, and the whole amount coined and now on
hand might after a time be absorbed by the people without apprehension; but
it is the ceaseless stream that threatens to overflow the land which causes
fear and uncertainty.

What has been thus far submitted upon this subject relates almost entirely
to considerations of a home nature, unconnected with the bearing which the
policies of other nations have upon the question. But it is perfectly
apparent that a line of action in regard to our currency can not wisely be
settled upon or persisted in without considering the attitude on the
subject of other countries with whom we maintain intercourse through
commerce, trade, and travel. An acknowledgment of this fact is found in the
act by virtue of which our silver is compulsorily coined. It provides
that--The President shall invite the governments of the countries
composing the Latin Union, so called, and of such other European nations as
he may deem advisable, to join the United States in a conference to adopt a
common ratio between gold and silver for the purpose of establishing
internationally the use of bimetallic money and securing fixity of relative
value between those metals. This conference absolutely failed, and a
similar fate has awaited all subsequent efforts in the same direction. And
still we continue our coinage of silver at a ratio different from that of
any other nation. The most vital part of the silver-coinage act remains
inoperative and unexecuted, and without an ally or friend we battle upon
the silver field in an illogical and losing contest.

To give full effect to the design of Congress on this subject I have made
careful and earnest endeavor since the adjournment of the last Congress.

To this end I delegated a gentleman well instructed in fiscal science to
proceed to the financial centers of Europe and, in conjunction with our
ministers to England, France, and Germany, to obtain a full knowledge of
the attitude and intent of those governments in respect of the
establishment of such an international ratio as would procure free coinage
of both metals at the mints of those countries and our own. By my direction
our consul-general at Paris has given close attention to the proceedings of
the congress of the Latin Union, in order to indicate our interest in its
objects and report its action.

It may be said in brief, as the result of these efforts, that the attitude
of the leading powers remains substantially unchanged since the monetary
conference of 1881, nor is it to be questioned that the views of these
governments are in each instance supported by the weight of public
opinion.

The steps thus taken have therefore only more fully demonstrated the
uselessness of further attempts at present to arrive at any agreement on
the subject with other nations.

In the meantime we are accumulating silver coin, based upon our own
peculiar ratio, to such an extent, and assuming so heavy a burden to be
provided for in any international negotiations, as will render us an
undesirable party to any future monetary conference of nations.

It is a significant fact that four of the five countries composing the
Latin Union mentioned in our coinage act, embarrassed with their silver
currency, have just completed an agreement among themselves that no more
silver shall be coined by their respective Governments and that such as has
been already coined and in circulation shall be redeemed in gold by the
country of its coinage. The resort to this expedient by these countries may
well arrest the attention of those who suppose that we can succeed without
shock or injury in the attempt to circulate upon its merits all the silver
we may coin under the provisions of our silver-coinage act.

The condition in which our Treasury may be placed by a persistence in our
present course is a matter of concern to every patriotic citizen who does
not desire his Government to pay in silver such of its obligations as
should be paid in gold. Nor should our condition be such as to oblige us,
in a prudent management of our affairs, to discontinue the calling in and
payment of interest-bearing obligations which we have the right now to
discharge, and thus avoid the payment of further interest thereon.

The so-called debtor class, for whose benefit the continued compulsory
coinage of silver is insisted upon, are not dishonest because they are in
debt, and they should not be suspected of a desire to jeopardize the
financial safety of the country in order that they may cancel their present
debts by paying the same in depreciated dollars. Nor should it be forgotten
that it is not the rich nor the money lender alone that must submit to such
a readjustment, enforced by the Government and their debtors. The pittance
of the widow and the orphan and the incomes of helpless beneficiaries of
all kinds would be disastrously reduced. The depositors in savings banks
and in other institutions which hold in trust the savings of the poor, when
their little accumulations are scaled down to meet the new order of things,
would in their distress painfully realize the delusion of the promise made
to them that plentiful money would improve their condition.

We have now on hand all the silver dollars necessary to supply the present
needs of the people and to satisfy those who from sentiment wish to see
them in circulation, and if their coinage is suspended they can be readily
obtained by all who desire them. If the need of more is at anytime
apparent, their coinage may be renewed.

That disaster has not already overtaken us furnishes no proof that danger
does not wait upon a continuation of the present silver coinage. We have
been saved by the most careful management and unusual expedients, by a
combination of fortunate conditions, and by a confident expectation that
the course of the Government in regard to silver coinage would be speedily
changed by the action of Congress.

Prosperity hesitates upon our threshold because of the dangers and
uncertainties surrounding this question. Capital timidly shrinks from
trade, and investors are unwilling to take the chance of the questionable
shape in which their money will be returned to them, while enterprise halts
at a risk against which care and sagacious management do not protect.

As a necessary consequence, labor lacks employment and suffering and
distress are visited upon a portion of our fellow-citizens especially
entitled to the careful consideration of those charged with the duties of
legislation. No interest appeals to us so strongly for a safe and stable
currency as the vast army of the unemployed.

I recommend the suspension of the compulsory coinage of silver dollars,
directed by the law passed in February, 1878.

The Steamboat-Inspection Service on the 30th day of June, 1885, was
composed of 140 persons, including officers, clerks, and messengers. The
expenses of the service over the receipts were $138,822.22 during the
fiscal year. The special inspection of foreign steam vessels, organized
under a law passed in 1882, was maintained during the year at an expense of
$36,641.63. Since the close of the fiscal year reductions have been made in
the force employed which will result in a saving during the current year of
$17,000 without affecting the efficiency of the service.

The Supervising Surgeon-General reports that during the fiscal year 41,714
patients have received relief through the Marine-Hospital Service, of whom
12,803 were treated in hospitals and 28,911 at the dispensaries.

Active and effective efforts have been made through the medium of this
service to protect the country against an invasion of cholera, which has
prevailed in Spain and France, and the smallpox, which recently broke out
in Canada.

The most gratifying results have attended the operations of the Life Saving
Service during the last fiscal year. The observance of the provision of law
requiring the appointment of the force employed in this service to be made
"solely with reference to their fitness, and without reference to their
political or party affiliation," has secured the result which may
confidently be expected in any branch of public employment where such a
rule is applied. As a consequence, this service is composed of men well
qualified for the performance of their dangerous and exceptionally
important duties.

The number of stations in commission at the close of the year was 203. The
number of disasters to vessels and craft of all kinds within their field of
action was 371. The number of persons endangered in such disasters was
2,439, of whom 2,428 were saved and only 11 lost. Other lives which were
imperiled, though not by disasters to shipping, were also rescued, and a
large amount of property was saved through the aid of this service. The
cost of its maintenance during the year was $828,474.43.

The work of the Coast and Geodetic Survey was during the last fiscal year
carried on within the boundaries and off the coasts of thirty-two States,
two Territories, and the District of Columbia. In July last certain
irregularities were found to exist in the management of this Bureau, which
led to a prompt investigation of its methods. The abuses which were brought
to light by this examination and the reckless disregard of duty and the
interests of the Government developed on the part of some of those
connected with the service made a change of superintendency and a few of
its other officers necessary. Since the Bureau has been in new hands an
introduction of economies and the application of business methods have
produced an important saving to the Government and a promise of more useful
results.

This service has never been regulated by anything but the most indefinite
legal enactments and the most unsatisfactory rules. It was many years ago
sanctioned apparently for a purpose regarded as temporary and related to a
survey of our coast. Having gained a place in the appropriations made by
Congress, it has gradually taken to itself powers and objects not
contemplated in its creation and extended its operations until it sadly
needs legislative attention.

So far as a further survey of our coast is concerned, there seems to be a
propriety in transferring that work to the Navy Department. The other
duties now in charge of this establishment, if they can not be profitably
attached to some existing Department or other bureau, should be prosecuted
under a law exactly defining their scope and purpose, and with a careful
discrimination between the scientific inquiries which may properly be
assumed by the Government and those which should be undertaken by State
authority or by individual enterprise.

It is hoped that the report of the Congressional committee heretofore
appointed to investigate this and other like matters will aid in the
accomplishment of proper legislation on this subject.

The report of the Secretary of War is herewith submitted. The attention of
Congress is invited to the detailed account which it contains of the
administration of his Department, and his recommendations and suggestions
for the improvement of the service.

The Army consisted, at the date of the last consolidated returns, of 2,154
officers and 24,705 enlisted men.

The expenses of the Departments for the fiscal year ended June, 30, 1885,
including $13,164,394.60 for public works and river and harbor
improvements, were $45,850,999.54.

Besides the troops which were dispatched in pursuit of the small band of
Indians who left their reservation in Arizona and committed murders and
outrages, two regiments of cavalry and one of infantry were sent last July
to the Indian Territory to prevent an outbreak which seemed imminent. They
remained to aid, if necessary, in the expulsion of intruders upon the
reservation, who seemed to have caused the discontent among the Indians,
but the Executive proclamation warning them to remove was complied with
without their interference.

Troops were also sent to Rock Springs, in Wyoming Territory, after the
massacre of Chinese there, to prevent further disturbance, and afterwards
to Seattle, in Washington Territory, to avert a threatened attack upon
Chinese laborers and domestic violence there. In both cases the mere
presence of the troops had the desired effect.

It appears that the number of desertions has diminished, but that during
the last fiscal year they numbered 2,927; and one instance is given by the
Lieutenant-General of six desertions by the same recruit. I am convinced
that this number of desertions can be much diminished by better discipline
and treatment; but the punishment should be increased for repeated
offenses.

These desertions might also be reduced by lessening the term of first
enlistments, thus allowing a discontented recruit to contemplate a nearer
discharge and the Army a profitable riddance. After one term of service a
reenlistment would be quite apt to secure a contented recruit and a good
soldier.

The Acting Judge-Advocate-General reports that the number of trials by
general courts-martial during the year was 2,328, and that 11,851 trials
took place before garrison and regimental courts-martial. The suggestion
that probably more than half the Army have been tried for offenses, great
and small, in one year may well arrest attention. Of course many of these
trials before garrison and regimental courts-martial were for offenses
almost frivolous, and there should, I think, be a way devised to dispose of
these in a more summary and less inconvenient manner than by
court-martial.

If some of the proceedings of courts-martial which I have had occasion to
examine present the ideas of justice which generally prevail in these
tribunals, I am satisfied that they should be much reformed if the honor
and the honesty of the Army and Navy are by their instrumentality to be
vindicated and protected.

The Board on Fortifications or other defenses, appointed in pursuance of
the provisions of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1885, will in a
short time present their report, and it is hoped that this may greatly aid
the legislation so necessary to remedy the present defenseless condition of
our seacoasts.

The work of the Signal Service has been prosecuted during the last year
with results of increasing benefit to the country. The field of instruction
has been enlarged with a view of adding to its usefulness. The number of
stations in operation June 30, 1885, was 489. Telegraphic reports are
received daily from 160 stations. Reports are also received from 25
Canadian stations, 375 volunteer observers, 52 army surgeons at military
posts, and 333 foreign stations. The expense of the service during the
fiscal year, after deducting receipts from military telegraph lines, was
$792,592.97. In view of the fact referred to by the Secretary of War, that
the work of this service ordinarily is of a scientific nature, and the
further fact that it is assuming larger proportions constantly and becoming
more and more unsuited to the fixed rules which must govern the Army, I am
inclined to agree with him in the opinion that it should be separately
established. If this is done, the scope and extent of its operations
should, as nearly as possible, be definitely prescribed by law and always
capable of exact ascertainment.

The Military Academy at West Point is reported as being in a high state of
efficiency and well equipped for the satisfactory accomplishment of the
purposes of its maintenance.

The fact that the class which graduates next year is an unusually large one
has constrained me to decline to make appointments to second lieutenancies
in the Army from civil life, so that such vacancies as exist in these
places may be reserved for such graduates; and yet it is not probable that
there will be enough vacancies to provide positions for them all when they
leave the military school. Under the prevailing law and usage those not
thus assigned to duty never actively enter the military service. It is
suggested that the law on this subject be changed so that such of these
young men as are not at once assigned to duty after graduation may be
retained as second lieutenants in the Army if they desire it, subject to
assignment when opportunity occurs, and under proper rules as to priority
of selection.

The expenditures on account of the Military Academy for the last fiscal
year, exclusive of the sum taken for its purposes from appropriations for
the support of the Army, were $290,712.07.

The act approved March 3, 1885, designed to compensate officers and
enlisted men for loss of private property while in the service of the
United States, is so indefinite in its terms and apparently admits so many
claims the adjustment of which could not have been contemplated that if it
is to remain upon the statute book it needs amendment.

There should be a general law of Congress prohibiting the construction of
bridges over navigable waters in such manner as to obstruct navigation,
with provisions for preventing the same. It seems that under existing
statutes the Government can not intervene to prevent such a construction
when entered upon without its consent, though when such consent is asked
and granted upon condition the authority to insist upon such condition is
clear. Thus it is represented that while the officers of the Government are
with great care guarding against the obstruction of navigation by a bridge
across the Mississippi River at St. Paul a large pier for a bridge has been
built just below this place directly in the navigable channel of the river.
If such things are to be permitted, a strong argument is presented against
the appropriation of large sums of money to improve the navigation of this
and other important highways of commerce.

The report of the Secretary of the Navy gives a history of the operations
of his Department and the present condition of the work committed to his
charge.

He details in full the course pursued by him to protect the rights of the
Government in respect of certain vessels unfinished at the time of his
accession to office, and also concerning the dispatch boat Dolphin, claimed
to be completed and awaiting the acceptance of the Department. No one can
fail to see from recitals contained in this report that only the
application of business principles has been insisted upon in the treatment
of these subjects, and that whatever controversy has arisen was caused by
the exaction on the part of the Department of contract obligations as they
were legally construed. In the case of the Dolphin, with entire justice to
the contractor, an agreement has been entered into providing for the
ascertainment by a judicial inquiry of the complete or partial compliance
with the contract in her construction, and further providing for the
assessment of any damages to which the Government may be entitled on
account of a partial failure to perform such contract, or the payment of
the sum still remaining unpaid upon her price in case a full performance is
adjudged.

The contractor, by reason of his failure in business, being unable to
complete the other three vessels, they were taken possession of by the
Government in their unfinished state under a clause in the contract
permitting such a course, and are now in process of completion in the yard
of the contractor, but under the supervision of the Navy Department.

Congress at its last session authorized the construction of two additional
new cruisers and two gunboats, at a cost not exceeding in the aggregate
$2,995,000. The appropriation for this purpose having become available on
the 1st day of July last, steps were at once taken for the procurement of
such plans for the construction of these vessels as would be likely to
insure their usefulness when completed. These are of the utmost importance,
considering the constant advance in the art of building vessels of this
character, and the time is not lost which is spent in their careful
consideration and selection.

All must admit the importance of an effective navy to a nation like ours,
having such an extended seacoast to protect; and yet we have not a single
vessel of war that could keep the seas against a first-class vessel of any
important power. Such a condition ought not longer to continue. The nation
that can not resist aggression is constantly exposed to it. Its foreign
policy is of necessity weak and its negotiations are conducted with
disadvantage because it is not in condition to enforce the terms dictated
by its sense of right and justice.

Inspired, as I am, by the hope, shared by all patriotic citizens, that the
day is not very far distant when our Navy will be such as befits our
standing among the nations of the earth, and rejoiced at every step that
leads in the direction of such a consummation, I deem it my duty to
especially direct the attention of Congress to the close of the report of
the Secretary of the Navy, in which the humiliating weakness of the present
organization of his Department is exhibited and the startling abuses and
waste of its present methods are exposed. The conviction is forced upon us
with the certainty of mathematical demonstration that before we proceed
further in the restoration of a Navy we need a thoroughly reorganized Navy
Department. The fact that within seventeen years more than $75,000,000 have
been spent in the construction, repair, equipment, and armament of vessels,
and the further fact that instead of an effective and creditable fleet we
have only the discontent and apprehension of a nation undefended by war
vessels, added to the disclosures now made, do not permit us to doubt that
every attempt to revive our Navy has thus far for the most part been
misdirected, and all our efforts in that direction have been little better
than blind gropings and expensive, aimless follies.

Unquestionably if we are content with the maintenance of a Navy Department
simply as a shabby ornament to the Government, a constant watchfulness may
prevent some of the scandal and abuse which have found their way into our
present organization, and its incurable waste may be reduced to the
minimum. But if we desire to build ships for present usefulness instead of
naval reminders of the days that are past, we must have a Department
organized for the work, supplied with all the talent and ingenuity our
country affords, prepared to take advantage of the experience of other
nations, systematized so that all effort shall unite and lead in one
direction, and fully imbued with the conviction that war vessels, though
new, are useless unless they combine all that the ingenuity of man has up
to this day brought forth relating to their construction.

I earnestly commend the portion of the Secretary's report devoted to this
subject to the attention of Congress, in the hope that his suggestions
touching the reorganization of his Department may be adopted as the first
step toward the reconstruction of our Navy.

The affairs of the postal service are exhibited by the report of the
Postmaster-General, which will be laid before you.

The postal revenue, whose ratio of gain upon the rising prosperity of 1882
and 1883 outstripped the increasing expenses of our growing service, was
checked by the reduction in the rate of letter postage which took effect
with the beginning of October in the latter year, and it diminished during
the two past fiscal years $2,790,000, in about the proportion of $2,270,000
in 1884 to $520,000 in 1885. Natural growth and development have meantime
increased expenditure, resulting in a deficiency in the revenue to meet the
expenses of the Department of five and a quarter million dollars for the
year 1884 and eight and a third million in the last fiscal year. The
anticipated and natural revival of the revenue has been oppressed and
retarded by the unfavorable business condition of the country, of which the
postal service is a faithful indicator. The gratifying fact is shown,
however, by the report that our returning prosperity is marked by a gain of
$380,000 in the revenue of the latter half of the last year over the
corresponding period of the preceding year.

The change in the weight of first-class matter which may be carried for a
single rate of postage from a half ounce to an ounce, and the reduction by
one-half of the rate of newspaper postage, which, under recent legislation,
began with the current year, will operate to restrain the augmentation of
receipts which otherwise might have been expected to such a degree that the
scale of expense may gain upon the revenue and cause an increased
deficiency to be shown at its close. Yet, after no long period of
reawakened prosperity, by proper economy it is confidently anticipated that
even the present low rates, now as favorable as any country affords, will
be adequate to sustain the cost of the service.

The operation of the Post-Office Department is for the convenience and
benefit of the people, and the method by which they pay the charges of this
useful arm of their public service, so that it be just and impartial, is of
less importance to them than the economical expenditure of the means they
provide for its maintenance and the due improvement of its agencies, so
that they may enjoy its highest usefulness.

A proper attention has been directed to the prevention of waste or
extravagance, and good results appear from the report to have already been
accomplished.

I approve the recommendation of the Postmaster-General to reduce the
charges on domestic money orders of $5 and less from 8 to 5 cents. This
change will materially aid those of our people who most of all avail
themselves of this instrumentality, but to whom the element of cheapness is
of the greatest importance. With this reduction the system would still
remain self-supporting.

The free-delivery system has been extended to 19 additional cities during
the year, and 178 now enjoy its conveniences. Experience has commended it
to those who enjoy its benefits, and further enlargement of its facilities
is due to other communities to which it is adapted. In the cities where it
has been established, taken together the local postage exceeds its
maintenance by nearly $1,300,000. The limit to which this system is now
confined by law has been nearly reached, and the reasons given justify its
extension, which is proposed.

It was decided, with my approbation, after a sufficient examination, to be
inexpedient for the Post-Office Department to contract for carrying our
foreign mails under the additional authority given by the last Congress.
The amount limited was inadequate to pay all within the purview of the law
the full rate of 50 cents per mile, and it would have been unjust and
unwise to have given it to some and denied it to others. Nor could
contracts have been let under the law to all at a rate to have brought the
aggregate within the appropriation without such practical prearrangement of
terms as would have violated it.

The rate of sea and inland postage which was proffered under another
statute clearly appears to be a fair compensation for the desired service,
being three times the price necessary to secure transportation by other
vessels upon any route, and much beyond the charges made to private persons
for services not less burdensome.

Some of the steamship companies, upon the refusal of the Postmaster-General
to attempt, by the means provided, the distribution of the sum appropriated
as an extra compensation, withdrew the services of their vessels and
thereby occasioned slight inconvenience, though no considerable injury, the
mails having been dispatched by other means.

Whatever may be thought of the policy of subsidizing any line of public
conveyance or travel, I am satisfied that it should not be done under cover
of an expenditure incident to the administration of a Department, nor
should there be any uncertainty as to the recipients of the subsidy or any
discretion left to an executive officer as to its distribution. If such
gifts of the public money are to be made for the purpose of aiding any
enterprise in the supposed interest of the public, I can not but think that
the amount to be paid and the beneficiary might better be determined by
Congress than in any other way.

The international congress of delegates from the Postal Union countries
convened at Lisbon, in Portugal, in February last, and after a session of
some weeks the delegates signed a convention amendatory of the present
postal-union convention in some particulars designed to advance its
purposes. This additional act has had my approval and will be laid before
you with the departmental report.

I approve the recommendation of the postmaster-General that another
assistant be provided for his Department. I invite your consideration to
the several other recommendations contained in his report.

The report of the Attorney-General contains a history of the conduct of the
Department of Justice during the last year and a number of valuable
suggestions as to needed legislation, and I invite your careful attention
to the same.

The condition of business in the courts of the United States is such that
there seems to be an imperative necessity for remedial legislation on the
subject. Some of these courts are so overburdened with pending causes that
the delays in determining litigation amount often to a denial of justice.
Among the plans suggested for relief is one submitted by the
Attorney-General. Its main features are: The transfer of all the original
jurisdiction of the circuit courts to the district courts and an increase
of judges for the latter where necessary; an addition of judges to the
circuit courts, and constituting them exclusively courts of appeal, and
reasonably limiting appeals thereto; further restrictions of the right to
remove causes from the State to Federal courts; permitting appeals to the
Supreme Court from the courts of the District of Columbia and the
Territories only in the same cases as they are allowed from State courts,
and guarding against an unnecessary number of appeals from the circuit
courts.

I approve the plan thus outlined, and recommend the legislation necessary
for its application to our judicial system.

The present mode of compensating United States marshals and district
attorneys should, in my opinion, be changed. They are allowed to charge
against the Government certain fees for services, their income being
measured by the amount of such fees within a fixed limit as to their annual
aggregate. This is a direct inducement for them to make their fees in
criminal cases as large as possible in an effort to reach the maximum sum
permitted. As an entirely natural consequence, unscrupulous marshals are
found encouraging frivolous prosecutions, arresting people on petty charges
of crime and transporting them to distant places for examination and trial,
for the purpose of earning mileage and other fees; and district attorneys
uselessly attend criminal examinations far from their places of residence
for the express purpose of swelling their accounts against the Government.
The actual expenses incurred in these transactions are also charged against
the Government.

Thus the rights and freedom of our citizens are outraged and public
expenditures increased for the purpose of furnishing public officers
pretexts for increasing the measure of their compensation.

I think marshals and district attorneys should be paid salaries, adjusted
by a rule which will make them commensurate with services fairly rendered.

In connection with this subject I desire to suggest the advisability, if it
be found not obnoxious to constitutional objection, of investing United
States commissioners with the power to try and determine certain violations
of law within the grade of misdemeanors. Such trials might be made to
depend upon the option of the accused. The multiplication of small and
technical offenses, especially under the provisions of our internal-revenue
law, render some change in our present system very desirable in the
interests of humanity as well as economy. The district courts are now
crowded with petty prosecutions, involving a punishment in case of
conviction, of only a slight fine, while the parties accused are harassed
by an enforced attendance upon courts held hundreds of miles from their
homes. If poor and friendless, they are obliged to remain in jail during
months, perhaps, that elapse before a session of the court is held, and are
finally brought to trial surrounded by strangers and with but little real
opportunity for defense. In the meantime frequently the marshal has charged
against the Government his fees for an arrest, the transportation of the
accused and the expense of the same, and for summoning witnesses before a
commissioner, a grand jury, and a court; the witnesses have been paid from
the public funds large fees and traveling expenses, and the commissioner
and district attorney have also made their charges against the Government.

This abuse in the administration of our criminal law should be remedied;
and if the plan above suggested is not practicable, some other should be
devised.

The report of the Secretary of the Interior, containing an account of the
operations of this important Department and much interesting information,
will be submitted for your consideration.

The most intricate and difficult subject in charge of this Department is
the treatment and management of the Indians. I am satisfied that some
progress may be noted in their condition as a result of a prudent
administration of the present laws and regulations for their control.

But it is submitted that there is lack of a fixed purpose or policy on this
subject, which should be supplied. It is useless to dilate upon the wrongs
of the Indians, and as useless to indulge in the heartless belief that
because their wrongs are revenged in their own atrocious manner, therefore
they should be exterminated.

They are within the care of our Government, and their rights are, or should
be, protected from invasion by the most solemn obligations. They are
properly enough called the wards of the Government; and it should be borne
in mind that this guardianship involves on our part efforts for the
improvement of their condition and the enforcement of their rights. There
seems to be general concurrence in the proposition that the ultimate object
of their treatment should be their civilization and citizenship. Fitted by
these to keep pace in the march of progress with the advanced civilization
about them, they will readily assimilate with the mass of our population,
assuming the responsibilities and receiving the protection incident to this
condition.

The difficulty appears to be in the selection of the means to be at present
employed toward the attainment of this result.

Our Indian population, exclusive of those in Alaska, is reported as
numbering 260,000, nearly all being located on lands set apart for their
use and occupation, aggregating over 134,000,000 acres. These lands are
included in the boundaries of 171 reservations of different dimensions,
scattered in 21 States and Territories, presenting great variations in
climate and in the kind and quality of their soils. Among the Indians upon
these several reservations there exist the most marked differences in
natural traits and disposition and in their progress toward civilization.
While some are lazy, vicious, and stupid, others are industrious, peaceful,
and intelligent; while a portion of them are self-supporting and
independent, and have so far advanced in civilization that they make their
own laws, administered through officers of their own choice, and educate
their children in schools of their own establishment and maintenance,
others still retain, in squalor and dependence, almost the savagery of
their natural state.

In dealing with this question the desires manifested by the Indians should
not be ignored. Here again we find a great diversity. With some the tribal
relation is cherished with the utmost tenacity, while its hold upon others
is considerably relaxed; the love of home is strong with all, and yet there
are those whose attachment to a particular locality is by no means
unyielding; the ownership of their lands in severalty is much desired by
some, while by others, and sometimes among the most civilized, such a
distribution would be bitterly opposed.

The variation of their wants, growing out of and connected with the
character of their several locations, should be regarded. Some are upon
reservations most fit for grazing, but without flocks or herds; and some on
arable land, have no agricultural implements. While some of the
reservations are double the size necessary to maintain the number of
Indians now upon them, in a few cases, perhaps, they should be enlarged.

Add to all this the difference in the administration of the agencies. While
the same duties are devolved upon all, the disposition of the agents and
the manner of their contact with the Indians have much to do with their
condition and welfare. The agent who perfunctorily performs his duty and
slothfully neglects all opportunity to advance their moral and physical
improvement and fails to inspire them with a desire for better things will
accomplish nothing in the direction of their civilization, while he who
feels the burden of an important trust and has an interest in his work
will, by consistent example, firm yet considerate treatment, and
well-directed aid and encouragement, constantly lead those under his charge
toward the light of their enfranchisement.

The history of all the progress which has been made in the civilization of
the Indian I think will disclose the fact that the beginning has been
religious teaching, followed by or accompanying secular education. While
the self-sacrificing and pious men and women who have aided in this good
work by their independent endeavor have for their reward the beneficent
results of their labor and the consciousness of Christian duty well
performed, their valuable services should be fully acknowledged by all who
under the law are charged with the control and management of our Indian
wards.

What has been said indicates that in the present condition of the Indians
no attempt should be made to apply a fixed and unyielding plan of action to
their varied and varying needs and circumstances.

The Indian Bureau, burdened as it is with their general oversight and with
the details of the establishment, can hardly possess itself of the minute
phases of the particular cases needing treatment; and thus the propriety of
creating an instrumentality auxiliary to those already established for the
care of the Indians suggests itself.

I recommend the passage of a law authorizing the appointment of six
commissioners, three of whom shall be detailed from the Army, to be charged
with the duty of a careful inspection from time to time of all the Indians
upon our reservations or subject to the care and control of the Government,
with a view of discovering their exact condition and needs and determining
what steps shall be taken on behalf of the Government to improve their
situation in the direction of their self-support and complete civilization;
that they ascertain from such inspection what, if any, of the reservations
may be reduced in area, and in such cases what part not needed for Indian
occupation may be purchased by the Government from the Indians and disposed
of for their benefit; what, if any, Indians may, with their consent, be
removed to other reservations, with a view of their concentration and the
sale on their behalf of their abandoned reservations; what Indian lands now
held in common should be allotted in severalty; in what manner and to what
extent the Indians upon the reservations can be placed under the protection
of our laws and subjected to their penalties, and which, if any, Indians
should be invested with the right of citizenship. The powers and functions
of the commissioners in regard to these subjects should be clearly defined,
though they should, in conjunction with the Secretary of the Interior, be
given all the authority to deal definitely with the questions presented
deemed safe and consistent.

They should be also charged with the duty of ascertaining the Indians who
might properly be furnished with implements of agriculture, and of what
kind; in what cases the support of the Government should be withdrawn;
where the present plan of distributing Indian supplies should be changed;
where schools may be established and where discontinued; the conduct,
methods, and fitness of agents in charge of reservations; the extent to
which such reservations are occupied or intruded upon by unauthorized
persons, and generally all matters related to the welfare and improvement
of the Indian.

They should advise with the Secretary of the Interior concerning these
matters of detail in management, and he should be given power to deal with
them fully, if he is not now invested with such power.

This plan contemplates the selection of persons for commissioners who are
interested in the Indian question and who have practical ideas upon the
subject of their treatment.

The expense of the Indian Bureau during the last fiscal year was more than
six and a halt million dollars. I believe much of this expenditure might be
saved under the plan proposed; that its economical effects would be
increased with its continuance; that the safety of our frontier settlers
would be subserved under its operation, and that the nation would be saved
through its results from the imputation of inhumanity, injustice, and
mismanagement.

In order to carry out the policy of allotment of Indian lands in severalty,
when deemed expedient, it will be necessary to have surveys completed of
the reservations, and, I hope that provision will be made for the
prosecution of this work.

In May of the present year a small portion of the Chiricahua Apaches on the
White Mountain Reservation, in Arizona, left the reservation and committed
a number of murders and depredations upon settlers in that neighborhood.
Though prompt and energetic action was taken by the military, the renegades
eluded capture and escaped into Mexico. The formation of the country
through which these Indians passed, their thorough acquaintance with the
same, the speed of their escape, and the manner in which they scattered and
concealed themselves among the mountains near the scene of their outrages
put our soldiers at a great disadvantage in their efforts to capture them,
though the expectation is still entertained that they will be ultimately
taken and punished for their crimes.

The threatening and disorderly conduct of the Cheyennes in the Indian
Territory early last summer caused considerable alarm and uneasiness.
Investigation proved that their threatening attitude was due in a great
measure to the occupation of the land of their reservation by immense herds
of cattle, which their owners claimed were rightfully there under certain
leases made by the Indians. Such occupation appearing upon examination to
be unlawful notwithstanding these leases, the intruders were ordered to
remove with their cattle from the lands of the Indians by Executive
proclamation. The enforcement of this proclamation had the effect of
restoring peace and order among the Indians, and they are now quiet and
well behaved.

By an Executive order issued on February 27, 1885, by my predecessor, a
portion of the tract of country in the territory known as the Old Winnebago
and Crow Creek reservations was directed to be restored to the public
domain and opened to settlement under the land laws of the United States,
and a large number of persons entered upon those lands. This action alarmed
the Sioux Indians, who claimed the territory as belonging to their
reservation under the treaty of 1868. This claim was determined, after
careful investigation, to be well rounded, and consequently the Executive
order referred to was by proclamation of April 17, 1885, declared to be
inoperative and of no effect, and all persons upon the land were warned to
leave. This warning has been substantially complied with.

The public domain had its origin in cessions of land by the States to the
General Government. The first cession was made by the State of New York,
and the largest, which in area exceeded all the others, by the State of
Virginia. The territory the proprietorship of which became thus vested in
the General Government extended from the western line of Pennsylvania to
the Mississippi River. These patriotic donations of the States were
encumbered with no condition except that they should the held and used "for
the common benefit of the United States." By purchase with the common fund
of all the people additions were made to this domain until it extended to
the northern line of Mexico, the Pacific Ocean, and the Polar Sea. The
original trust, "for the common benefit of the United States," attached to
all. In the execution of that trust the policy of many homes, rather than
large estates, was adopted by the Government. That these might be easily
obtained, and be the abode of security and contentment, the laws for their
acquisition were few, easily understood, and general in their character.
But the pressure of local interests, combined with a speculative spirit,
have in many instances procured the passage of laws which marred the
harmony of the general plan and encumbered the system with a multitude of
general and special enactments which render the land laws complicated,
subject the titles to uncertainty, and the purchasers often to oppression
and wrong. Laws which were intended for the "common benefit" have been
perverted so that large quantities of land are vesting in single
ownerships. From the multitude and character of the laws, this consequence
seems incapable of correction by mere administration.

It is not for the "common benefit of the United States" that a large area
of the public lands should be acquired, directly or through fraud, in the
hands of a single individual. The nation's strength is in the people. The
nation's prosperity is in their prosperity. The nation's glory is in the
equality of her justice. The nation's perpetuity is in the patriotism of
all her people. Hence, as far as practicable, the plan adopted in the
disposal of the public lands should have in view the original policy, which
encouraged many purchases of these lands for homes and discouraged the
massing of large areas. Exclusive of Alaska, about three-fifths of the
national domain has been sold or subjected to contract or grant. Of the
remaining two-fifths a considerable portion is either mountain or desert. A
rapidly increasing population creates a growing demand for homes, and the
accumulation of wealth inspires an eager competition to obtain the public
land for speculative purposes. In the future this collision of interests
will be more marked than in the past, and the execution of the nation's
trust in behalf of our settlers will be more difficult. I therefore commend
to your attention the recommendations contained in the report of the
Secretary of the Interior with reference to the repeal and modification of
certain of our land laws.

The nation has made princely grants and subsidies to a system of railroads
projected as great national highways to connect the Pacific States with the
East. It has been charged that these donations from the people have been
diverted to private gain and corrupt uses, and thus public indignation has
been aroused and suspicion engendered. Our great nation does not begrudge
its generosity, but it abhors speculation and fraud; and the favorable
regard of our people for the great corporations to which these grants were
made can only be revived by a restoration of confidence, to be secured by
their constant, unequivocal, and clearly manifested integrity. A faithful
application of the undiminished proceeds of the grants to the construction
and perfecting of their roads, an honest discharge of their obligations,
and entire justice to all the people in the enjoyment of their rights on
these highways of travel are all the public asks, and it will be content
with no less. To secure these things should be the common purpose of the
officers of the Government, as well as of the corporations. With this
accomplishment prosperity would be permanently secured to the roads, and
national pride would take the place of national complaint.

It appears from the report of the Commissioner of Pensions that there were
on the 1st day of July, 1885, 345,125 persons borne upon the pension rolls,
who were classified as follows: Army invalids, 241,456; widows, minor
children, and dependent relatives of deceased soldiers, 78,841; navy
invalids, 2,745; navy widows, minor children, and dependents, 1,926;
survivors of the War of 1812, 2,945; and widows of those who served in that
war, 17,212. About one man in ten of all those who enlisted in the late war
are reported as receiving pensions, exclusive of the dependents of deceased
soldiers. On the 1st of July, 1875, the number of pensioners was 234,821,
and the increase within the ten years next thereafter was 110,304.

While there is no expenditure of the public funds which the people more
cheerfully approve than that made in recognition of the services of our
soldiers living and dead, the sentiment underlying the subject should not
be vitiated by the introduction of any fraudulent practices. Therefore it
is fully as important that the rolls should be cleansed of all those who by
fraud have secured a place thereon as that meritorious claims should be
speedily examined and adjusted. The reforms in the methods of doing the
business of this Bureau which have lately been inaugurated promise better
results in both these directions.

The operations of the Patent Office demonstrate the activity of the
inventive genius of the country. For the year ended June 30, 1885, the
applications for patents, including reissues, and for the registration of
trade-marks and labels, numbered 35,688. During the same period there were
22,928 patents granted and reissued and 1,429 trade-marks and labels
registered. The number of patents issued in the year 1875 was 14,387. The
receipts during the last fiscal year were $ 1,074,974.35, and the total
expenditures, not including contingent expenses, $934,123.11.

There were 9,788 applications for patents pending on the 1st day of July,
1884, and 5,786 on the same date in the year 1885. There has been
considerable improvement made in the prompt determination of applications
and a consequent relief to expectant inventors.

A number of suggestions and recommendations are contained in the report of
the Commissioner of patents which are well entitled to the consideration of
Congress.

In the Territory of Utah the law of the United States passed for the
Suppression of polygamy has been energetically and faithfully executed
during the past year, with measurably good results. A number of convictions
have been secured for unlawful cohabitation, and in some cases pleas of
guilty have been entered and a slight punishment imposed, upon a promise by
the accused that they would not again offend against the law, nor advise,
counsel, aid, or abet in any way its violation by others.

The Utah commissioners express the opinion, based upon such information as
they are able to obtain, that but few polygamous marriages have taken place
in the Territory during the last year. They further report that while there
can not be found upon the registration lists of voters the name of a man
actually guilty of polygamy, and while none of that class are holding
office, yet at the last election in the Territory all the officers elected,
except in one county, were men who, though not actually living in the
practice of polygamy, subscribe to the doctrine of polygamous marriages as
a divine revelation and a law unto all higher and more binding upon the
conscience than any human law, local or national. Thus is the strange
spectacle presented of a community protected by a republican form of
government, to which they owe allegiance, sustaining by their suffrages a
principle and a belief which set at naught that obligation of absolute
obedience to the law of the land which lies at the foundation of republican
institutions.

The strength, the perpetuity, and the destiny of the nation rest upon our
homes, established by the law of God, guarded by parental care, regulated
by parental authority, and sanctified by parental love.

These are not the homes of polygamy.

The mothers of our land, who rule the nation as they mold the characters
and guide the actions of their sons, live according to God's holy
ordinances, and each, secure and happy in the exclusive love of the father
of her children, sheds the warm light of true womanhood, unperverted and
unpolluted, upon all within her pure and wholesome family circle.

These are not the cheerless, crushed, and unwomanly mothers of polygamy.

The fathers of our families are the best citizens of the Republic. Wife and
children are the sources of patriotism, and conjugal and parental affection
beget devotion to the country. The man who, undefiled with plural marriage,
is surrounded in his single home with his wife and children has a stake in
the country which inspires him with respect for its laws and courage for
its defense.

These are not the fathers of polygamous families.

There is no feature of this practice or the system which sanctions it which
is not opposed to all that is of value in our institutions.

There should be no relaxation in the firm but just execution of the law now
in operation, and I should be glad to approve such further discreet
legislation as will rid the country of this blot upon its fair fame.

Since the people upholding polygamy in our Territories are reenforced by
immigration from other lands, I recommend that a law be passed to prevent
the importation of Mormons into the country.

The agricultural interest of the country demands just recognition and
liberal encouragement. It sustains with certainty and unfailing strength
our nation's prosperity by the products of its steady toil, and bears its
full share of the burden of taxation without complaint. Our agriculturists
have but slight personal representation in the councils of the nation, and
are generally content with the humbler duties of citizenship and willing to
trust to the bounty of nature for a reward of their labor. But the
magnitude and value of this industry are appreciated when the statement is
made that of our total annual exports more than three-fourths are the
products of agriculture, and of our total population nearly one-half are
exclusively engaged in that occupation.

The Department of Agriculture was created for the purpose of acquiring and
diffusing among the people useful information respecting the subjects it
has in charge, and aiding in the cause of intelligent and progressive
farming, by the collection of statistics, by testing the value and
usefulness of new seeds and plants, and distributing such as are found
desirable among agriculturists. This and other powers and duties with which
this Department is invested are of the utmost importance, and if wisely
exercised must be of great benefit to the country. The aim of our
beneficent Government is the improvement of the people in every station and
the amelioration of their condition. Surely our agriculturists should not
be neglected. The instrumentality established in aid of the farmers of the
land should not only be well equipped for the accomplishment of its
purpose, but those for whose benefit it has been adopted should be
encouraged to avail themselves fully of its advantages.

The prohibition of the importation into several countries of certain of our
animals and their products, based upon the suspicion that health is
endangered in their use and consumption, suggests the importance of such
precautions for the protection of our stock of all kinds against disease as
will disarm suspicion of danger and cause the removal of such an injurious
prohibition.

If the laws now in operation are insufficient to accomplish this
protection, I recommend their amendment to meet the necessities of the
situation; and I commend to the consideration of Congress the suggestions
contained in the report of the Commissioner of Agriculture calculated to
increase the value and efficiency of this Department.

The report of the Civil Service Commission, which will be submitted,
contains an account of the manner in which the civil-service law has been
executed during the last year and much valuable information on this
important subject.

I am inclined to think that there is no sentiment more general in the minds
of the people of our country than a conviction of the correctness of the
principle upon which the law enforcing civil-service reform is based. In
its present condition the law regulates only a part of the subordinate
public positions throughout the country. It applies the test of fitness to
applicants for these places by means of a competitive examination, and
gives large discretion to the Commissioners as to the character of the
examination and many other matters connected with its execution. Thus the
rules and regulations adopted by the Commission have much to do with the
practical usefulness of the statute and with the results of its
application.

The people may well trust the Commission to execute the law with perfect
fairness and with as little irritation as is possible. But of course no
relaxation of the principle which underlies it and no weakening of the
safeguards which surround it can be expected. Experience in its
administration will probably suggest amendment of the methods of its
execution, but I venture to hope that we shall never again be remitted to
the system which distributes public positions purely as rewards for
partisan service. Doubts may well be entertained whether our Government
could survive the strain of a continuance of this system, which upon every
change of Administration inspires an immense army of claimants for office
to lay siege to the patronage of Government, engrossing the time of public
officers with their importunities, spreading abroad the contagion of their
disappointment, and filling the air with the tumult of their discontent.

The allurements of an immense number of offices and places exhibited to the
voters of the land, and the promise of their bestowal in recognition of
partisan activity; debauch the suffrage and rob political action of its
thoughtful and deliberative character. The evil would increase with the
multiplication of offices consequent upon our extension, and the mania for
office holding, growing from its indulgence, would pervade our population
so generally that patriotic purpose, the support of principle, the desire
for the public good, and solicitude for the nation's welfare would be
nearly banished from the activity of our party contests and cause them to
degenerate into ignoble, selfish, and disgraceful struggles for the
possession of office and public place.

Civil-service reform enforced by law came none too soon to check the
progress of demoralization.

One of its effects, not enough regarded, is the freedom it brings to the
political action of those conservative and sober men who, in fear of the
confusion and risk attending an arbitrary and sudden change in all the
public offices with a change of party rule, cast their ballots against such
a chance.

Parties seem to be necessary, and will long continue to exist; nor can it
be now denied that there are legitimate advantages, not disconnected with
office holding, which follow party supremacy. While partisanship continues
bitter and pronounced and supplies so much of motive to sentiment and
action, it is not fair to hold public officials in charge of important
trusts responsible for the best results in the performance of their duties,
and yet insist that they shall rely in confidential and important places
upon the work of those not only opposed to them in political affiliation,
but so steeped in partisan prejudice and rancor that they have no loyalty
to their chiefs and no desire for their success. Civil-service reform does
not exact this, nor does it require that those in subordinate positions who
fail in yielding their best service or who are incompetent should be
retained simply because they are in place. The whining of a clerk
discharged for indolence or incompetency, who, though he gained his place
by the worst possible operation of the spoils system, suddenly discovers
that he is entitled to protection under the sanction of civil-service
reform, represents an idea no less absurd than the clamor of the applicant
who claims the vacant position as his compensation for the most
questionable party work.

The civil-service law does not prevent the discharge of the indolent or
incompetent clerk, but it does prevent supplying his place with the unfit
party worker. Thus in both these phases is seen benefit to the public
service. And the people who desire good government, having secured this
statute, will not relinquish its benefits without protest. Nor are they
unmindful of the fact that its full advantages can only be gained through
the complete good faith of those having its execution in charge. And this
they will insist upon.

I recommend that the salaries of the Civil Service Commissioners be
increased to a sum more nearly commensurate to their important duties.

It is a source of considerable and not unnatural discontent that no
adequate provision has yet been made for accommodating the principal
library of the Government. Of the vast collection of books and pamphlets
gathered at the Capitol, numbering some 700,000, exclusive of manuscripts,
maps, and the products of the graphic arts, also of great volume and value,
only about 300,000 volumes, or less than half the collection, are provided
with shelf room. The others, which are increasing at the rate of from
twenty-five to thirty thousand volumes a year, are not only inaccessible to
the public, but are subject to serious damage and deterioration from other
causes in their present situation.

A consideration of the facts that the library of the Capitol has twice been
destroyed or damaged by fire, its daily increasing value, and its
importance as a place of deposit of books under the law relating to
copyright makes manifest the necessity of prompt action to insure its
proper accommodation and protection.

My attention has been called to a controversy which has arisen from the
condition of the law relating to railroad facilities in the city of
Washington, which has involved the Commissioners of the District in much
annoyance and trouble. I hope this difficulty will be promptly settled by
appropriate legislation.

The Commissioners represent that enough of the revenues of the District are
now on deposit in the Treasury of the United States to repay the sum
advanced by the Government for sewer improvements under the act of June 30,
1884. They desire now an advance of the share which ultimately should be
borne by the District of the cost of extensive improvements to the streets
of the city. The total expense of these contemplated improvements is
estimated at $1,000,000, and they are of the opinion that a considerable
sum could be saved if they had all the money in hand, so that contracts for
the whole work could be made at the same time. They express confidence that
if the advance asked for should be made the Government would be reimbursed
the same within a reasonable time. I have no doubt that these improvements
could be made much cheaper if undertaken together and prosecuted according
to a general plan.

The license law now in force within the District is deficient and uncertain
in some of its provisions and ought to be amended. The Commissioners urge,
with good reason, the necessity of providing a building for the use of the
District government which shall better secure the safety and preservation
of its valuable books and records.

The present condition of the law relating to the succession to the
Presidency in the event of the death, disability, or removal of both the
President and Vice-President is such as to require immediate amendment.
This subject has repeatedly been considered by Congress, but no result has
been reached. The recent lamentable death of the Vice-President, and
vacancies at the same time in all other offices the incumbents of which
might immediately exercise the functions of the presidential office, has
caused public anxiety and a just demand that a recurrence of such a
condition of affairs should not be permitted.

In conclusion I commend to the wise care and thoughtful attention of
Congress the needs, the welfare, and the aspirations of an intelligent and
generous nation. To subordinate these to the narrow advantages of
partisanship or the accomplishment of selfish aims is to violate the
people's trust and betray the people's interests; but an individual sense
of responsibility on the part of each of us and a stern determination to
perform our duty well must give us place among those who have added in
their day and generation to the glory and prosperity of our beloved land.