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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of State of the Union Addresses
+by Grover Cleveland
+(#20 in our series of US Presidential State of the Union Addresses)
+
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+Title: State of the Union Addresses of Grover Cleveland
+
+Author: Grover Cleveland
+
+Release Date: February, 2004  [EBook #5029]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on April 11, 2002]
+[Date last updated: December 16, 2004]
+
+Edition: 11
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF ADDRESSES BY GROVER CLEVELAND ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by James Linden.
+
+The addresses are separated by three asterisks: ***
+
+Dates of addresses by Grover Cleveland in this eBook:
+  December 8, 1885
+  December 6, 1886
+  December 6, 1887
+  December 3, 1888
+
+
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Grover Cleveland
+December 8, 1885
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Grover Cleveland
+December 6, 1886
+
+To the Congress of the United States:
+
+In discharge of a constitutional duty, and following a well-established
+precedent in the Executive office, I herewith transmit to the Congress at
+its reassembling certain information concerning the state of the Union,
+together with such recommendations for legislative consideration as appear
+necessary and expedient.
+
+Our Government has consistently maintained its relations of friendship
+toward all other powers and of neighborly interest toward those whose
+possessions are contiguous to our own. Few questions have arisen during the
+past year with other governments, and none of those are beyond the reach of
+settlement in friendly counsel.
+
+We are as yet without provision for the settlement of claims of citizens of
+the United States against Chile for injustice during the late war with Peru
+and Bolivia. The mixed commissions organized under claims conventions
+concluded by the Chilean Government with certain European States have
+developed an amount of friction which we trust can be avoided in the
+convention which our representative at Santiago is authorized to
+negotiate.
+
+The cruel treatment of inoffensive Chinese has, I regret to say, been
+repeated in some of the far Western States and Territories, and acts of
+violence against those people, beyond the power of the local constituted
+authorities to prevent and difficult to punish, are reported even in
+distant Alaska. Much of this violence can be traced to race prejudice and
+competition of labor, which can not, however, justify the oppression of
+strangers whose safety is guaranteed by our treaty with China equally with
+the most favored nations.
+
+In opening our vast domain to alien elements the purpose of our lawgivers
+was to invite assimilation, and not to provide an arena for endless
+antagonism. The paramount duty of maintaining public order and defending
+the interests of our own people may require the adoption of measures of
+restriction, but they should not tolerate the oppression of individuals of
+a special race. I am not without assurance that the Government of China,
+whose friendly disposition toward us I am most happy to recognize, will
+meet us halfway in devising a comprehensive remedy by which an effective
+limitation of Chinese emigration, joined to protection of those Chinese
+subjects who remain in this country, may be secured.
+
+Legislation is needed to execute the provisions of our Chinese convention
+of 1880 touching the opium traffic.
+
+While the good will of the Colombian Government toward our country is
+manifest, the situation of American interests on the Isthmus of Panama has
+at times excited concern and invited friendly action looking to the
+performance of the engagements of the two nations concerning the territory
+embraced in the interoceanic transit. With the subsidence of the Isthmian
+disturbances and the erection of the State of Panama into a federal
+district under the direct government of the constitutional administration
+at Bogota, a new order of things has been inaugurated, which, although as
+yet somewhat experimental and affording scope for arbitrary exercise of
+power by the delegates of the national authority, promises much
+improvement.
+
+The sympathy between the people of the United States and France, born
+during our colonial struggle for independence and continuing today, has
+received a fresh impulse in the successful completion and dedication of the
+colossal statue of "Liberty Enlightening the World" in New York Harbor--the
+gift of Frenchmen to Americans.
+
+A convention between the United States and certain other powers for the
+protection of submarine cables was signed at Paris on March 14, 1884, and
+has been duly ratified and proclaimed by this Government. By agreement
+between the high contracting parties this convention is to go into effect
+on the 1st of January next, but the legislation required for its execution
+in the United States has not yet been adopted. I earnestly recommend its
+enactment.
+
+Cases have continued to occur in Germany giving rise to much correspondence
+in relation to the privilege of sojourn of our naturalized citizens of
+German origin revisiting the land of their birth, yet I am happy to state
+that our relations with that country have lost none of their accustomed
+cordiality.
+
+The claims for interest upon the amount of tonnage dues illegally exacted
+from certain German steamship lines were favorably reported in both Houses
+of Congress at the last session, and I trust will receive final and
+favorable action at an early day.
+
+The recommendations contained in my last annual message in relation to a
+mode of settlement of the fishery rights in the waters of British North
+America, so long a subject of anxious difference between the United States
+and Great Britain, was met by an adverse vote of the Senate on April 13
+last, and thereupon negotiations were instituted to obtain an agreement
+with Her Britannic Majesty's Government for the promulgation of such joint
+interpretation and definition of the article of the convention of 1818
+relating to the territorial waters and inshore fisheries of the British
+Provinces as should secure the Canadian rights from encroachment by the
+United States fishermen and at the same time insure the enjoyment by the
+latter of the privileges guaranteed to them by such convention.
+
+The questions involved are of long standing, of grave consequence, and from
+time to time for nearly three-quarters of a century have given rise to
+earnest international discussions, not unaccompanied by irritation.
+
+Temporary arrangements by treaties have served to allay friction, which,
+however, has revived as each treaty was terminated. The last arrangement,
+under the treaty of 1871, was abrogated after due notice by the United
+States on June 30, 1885, but I was enabled to obtain for our fishermen for
+the remainder of that season enjoyment of the full privileges accorded by
+the terminated treaty.
+
+The joint high commission by whom the treaty had been negotiated, although
+invested with plenary power to make a permanent settlement, were content
+with a temporary arrangement, after the termination of which the question
+was relegated to the stipulations of the treaty of 1818, as to the first
+article of which no construction satisfactory to both countries has ever
+been agreed upon.
+
+The progress of civilization and growth of population in the British
+Provinces to which the fisheries in question are contiguous and the
+expansion of commercial intercourse between them and the United States
+present to-day a condition of affairs scarcely realizable at the date of
+the negotiations of 1818.
+
+New and vast interests have been brought into existence; modes of
+intercourse between the respective countries have been invented and
+multiplied; the methods of conducting the fisheries have been wholly
+changed; and all this is necessarily entitled to candid and careful
+consideration in the adjustment of the terms and conditions of intercourse
+and commerce between the United States and their neighbors along a frontier
+of over 3,500 miles.
+
+This propinquity, community of language and occupation, and similarity of
+political and social institutions indicate the practicability and obvious
+wisdom of maintaining mutually beneficial and friendly relations.
+
+Whilst I am unfeignedly desirous that such relations should exist between
+us and the inhabitants of Canada, yet the action of their officials during
+the past season toward our fishermen has been such as to seriously threaten
+their continuance.
+
+Although disappointed in my efforts to secure a satisfactory settlement of
+the fishery question, negotiations are still pending, with reasonable hope
+that before the close of the present session of Congress announcement may
+be made that an acceptable conclusion has been reached.
+
+As at an early day there may be laid before Congress the correspondence of
+the Department of State in relation to this important subject, so that the
+history of the past fishing season may be fully disclosed and the action
+and the attitude of the Administration clearly comprehended, a more
+extended reference is not deemed necessary in this communication.
+
+The recommendation submitted last year that provision be made for a
+preliminary reconnoissance of the conventional boundary line between Alaska
+and British Columbia is renewed.
+
+I express my unhesitating conviction that the intimacy of our relations
+with Hawaii should be emphasized. As a result of the reciprocity treaty of
+1875, those islands, on the highway of Oriental and Australasian traffic,
+are virtually an outpost of American commerce and a stepping-stone to the
+growing trade of the Pacific. The Polynesian Island groups have been so
+absorbed by other and more powerful governments that the Hawaiian Islands
+are left almost alone in the enjoyment of their autonomy, which it is
+important for us should be preserved. Our treaty is now terminable on one
+year's notice, but propositions to abrogate it would be, in my judgment,
+most ill advised. The paramount influence we have there acquired, once
+relinquished, could only with difficulty be regained, and a valuable ground
+of vantage for ourselves might be converted into a stronghold for our
+commercial competitors. I earnestly recommend that the existing treaty
+stipulations be extended for a further term of seven years. A recently
+signed treaty to this end is now before the Senate.
+
+The importance of telegraphic communication between those islands and the
+United States should not be overlooked.
+
+The question of a general revision of the treaties of Japan is again under
+discussion at Tokyo. As the first to open relations with that Empire, and
+as the nation in most direct commercial relations with Japan, the United
+States have lost no opportunity to testify their consistent friendship by
+supporting the just claims of Japan to autonomy and independence among
+nations.
+
+A treaty of extradition between the United States and Japan, the first
+concluded by that Empire, has been lately proclaimed.
+
+The weakness of Liberia and the difficulty of maintaining effective
+sovereignty over its outlying districts have exposed that Republic to
+encroachment. It can not be forgotten that this distant community is an
+offshoot of our own system, owing its origin to the associated benevolence
+of American citizens, whose praiseworthy efforts to create a nucleus of
+civilization in the Dark Continent have commanded respect and sympathy
+everywhere, especially in this country. Although a formal protectorate over
+Liberia is contrary to our traditional policy, the moral right and duty of
+the United States to assist in all proper ways in the maintenance of its
+integrity is obvious, and has been consistently announced during nearly
+half a century. I recommend that in the reorganization of our Navy a small
+vessel, no longer found adequate to our needs, be presented to Liberia, to
+be employed by it in the protection of its coastwise revenues.
+
+The encouraging development of beneficial and intimate relations between
+the United States and Mexico, which has been so marked within the past few
+years, is at once the occasion of congratulation and of friendly
+solicitude. I urgently renew my former representation of the need or speedy
+legislation by Congress to carry into effect the reciprocity commercial
+convention of January 20, 1883.
+
+Our commercial treaty of 1831 with Mexico was terminated, according to its
+provisions, in 1881, upon notification given by Mexico in pursuance of her
+announced policy of recasting all her commercial treaties. Mexico has since
+concluded with several foreign governments new treaties of commerce and
+navigation, defining alien rights of trade, property, and residence,
+treatment of shipping, consular privileges, and the like. Our yet
+unexecuted reciprocity convention of 1883 covers none of these points, the
+settlement of which is so necessary to good relationship. I propose to
+initiate with Mexico negotiations for a new and enlarged treaty of commerce
+and navigation.
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate, I communicated to that body
+on August 2 last, and also to the House of Representatives, the
+correspondence in the case of A. K. Cutting, an American citizen, then
+imprisoned in Mexico, charged with the commission of a penal offense in
+Texas, of which a Mexican citizen was the object.
+
+After demand had been made for his release the charge against him was
+amended so as to include a violation of Mexican law within Mexican
+territory.
+
+This joinder of alleged offenses, one within and the other exterior to
+Mexico, induced me to order a special investigation of the case, pending
+which Mr. Cutting was released.
+
+The incident has, however, disclosed a claim of jurisdiction by Mexico
+novel in our history, whereby any offense committed anywhere by a
+foreigner, penal in the place of its commission, and of which a Mexican is
+the object, may, if the offender be found in Mexico, be there tried and
+punished in conformity with Mexican laws.
+
+This jurisdiction was sustained by the courts of Mexico in the Cutting
+case, and approved by the executive branch of that Government, upon the
+authority of a Mexican statute. The appellate court in releasing Mr.
+Cutting decided that the abandonment of the complaint by the Mexican
+citizen aggrieved by the alleged crime (a libelous publication) removed the
+basis of further prosecution, and also declared justice to have been
+satisfied by the enforcement of a small part of the original sentence.
+
+The admission of such a pretension would be attended with serious results,
+invasive of the jurisdiction of this Government and highly dangerous to our
+citizens in foreign lands. Therefore I have denied it and protested against
+its attempted exercise as unwarranted by the principles of law and
+international usages.
+
+A sovereign has jurisdiction of offenses which take effect within his
+territory, although concocted or commenced outside of it; but the right is
+denied of any foreign sovereign to punish a citizen of the United States
+for an offense consummated on our soil in violation of our laws, even
+though the offense be against a subject or citizen of such sovereign. The
+Mexican statute in question makes the claim broadly, and the principle, if
+conceded, would create a dual responsibility in the citizen and lead to
+inextricable confusion, destructive of that certainty in the law which is
+an essential of liberty.
+
+When citizens of the United States voluntarily go into a foreign country,
+they must abide by the laws there in force, and will not be protected by
+their own Government from the consequences of an offense against those laws
+committed in such foreign country; but watchful care and interest of this
+Government over its citizens are not relinquished because they have gone
+abroad, and if charged with crime committed in the foreign land a fair and
+open trial, conducted with decent regard for justice and humanity, will be
+demanded for them. With less than that this Government will not be content
+when the life or liberty of its citizens is at stake.
+
+Whatever the degree to which extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction may
+have been formerly allowed by consent and reciprocal agreement among
+certain of the European States, no such doctrine or practice was ever known
+to the laws of this country or of that from which our institutions have
+mainly been derived.
+
+In the case of Mexico there are reasons especially strong for perfect
+harmony in the mutual exercise of jurisdiction. Nature has made us
+irrevocably neighbors, and wisdom and kind feeling should make us friends.
+
+The overflow of capital and enterprise from the United States is a potent
+factor in assisting the development of the resources of Mexico and in
+building up the prosperity of both countries.
+
+To assist this good work all grounds of apprehension for the security of
+person and property should be removed; and I trust that in the interests of
+good neighborhood the statute referred to will be so modified as to
+eliminate the present possibilities of danger to the peace of the two
+countries.
+
+The Government of the Netherlands has exhibited concern in relation to
+certain features of our tariff laws, which are supposed by them to be aimed
+at a class of tobacco produced in the Dutch East Indies. Comment would seem
+unnecessary upon the unwisdom of legislation appearing to have a special
+national discrimination for its object, which, although unintentional, may
+give rise to injurious retaliation.
+
+The establishment, less than four years ago, of a legation at Teheran is
+bearing fruit in the interest exhibited by the Shah's Government in the
+industrial activity of the United States and the opportunities of
+beneficial interchanges.
+
+Stable government is now happily restored in Peru by the election of a
+constitutional president, and a period of rehabilitation is entered upon;
+but the recovery is necessarily slow from the exhaustion caused by the late
+war and civil disturbances. A convention to adjust by arbitration claims of
+our citizens has been proposed and is under consideration.
+
+The naval officer who bore to Siberia the testimonials bestowed by Congress
+in recognition of the aid given to the Jeannette survivors has successfully
+accomplished his mission. His interesting report will be submitted. It is
+pleasant to know that this mark of appreciation has been welcomed by the
+Russian Government and people as befits the traditional friendship of the
+two countries.
+
+Civil perturbations in the Samoan Islands have during the past few years
+been a source of considerable embarrassment to the three
+Governments-Germany, Great Britain, and the United States--whose relations
+and extraterritorial rights in that important group are guaranteed by
+treaties. The weakness of the native administration and the conflict of
+opposing interests in the islands have led King Malietoa to seek alliance
+or protection in some one quarter, regardless of the distinct engagements
+whereby no one of the three treaty powers may acquire any paramount or
+exclusive interest. In May last Malietoa offered to place Samoa under the
+protection of the United States, and the late consul, without authority,
+assumed to grant it. The proceeding was promptly disavowed and the
+overzealous official recalled. Special agents of the three Governments have
+been deputed to examine the situation in the islands. With a change in the
+representation of all three powers and a harmonious understanding between
+them, the peace, prosperity, autonomous administration, and neutrality of
+Samoa can hardly fail to be secured.
+
+It appearing that the Government of Spain did not extend to the flag of the
+United States in the Antilles the full measure of reciprocity requisite
+under our statute for the continuance of the suspension of discriminations
+against the Spanish flag in our ports, I was constrained in October last to
+rescind my predecessor's proclamation of February 14, 1884, permitting such
+suspension. An arrangement was, however, speedily reached, and upon
+notification from the Government of Spain that all differential treatment
+of our vessels and their cargoes, from the United States or from any
+foreign country, had been completely and absolutely relinquished, I availed
+myself of the discretion conferred by law and issued on the 27th of October
+my proclamation declaring reciprocal suspension in the United States. It is
+most gratifying to bear testimony to the earnest spirit in which the
+Government of the Queen Regent has met our efforts to avert the initiation
+of commercial discriminations and reprisals, which are ever disastrous to
+the material interests and the political good will of the countries they
+may affect.
+
+The profitable development of the large commercial exchanges between the
+United States and the Spanish Antilles is naturally an object of
+solicitude. Lying close at our doors, and finding here their main markets
+of supply and demand, the welfare of Cuba and Puerto Rico and their
+production and trade are scarcely less important to us than to Spain. Their
+commercial and financial movements are so naturally a part of our system
+that no obstacle to fuller and freer intercourse should be permitted to
+exist. The standing instructions of our representatives at Madrid and
+Havana have for years been to leave no effort unessayed to further these
+ends, and at no time has the equal good desire of Spain been more hopefully
+manifested than now.
+
+The Government of Spain, by removing the consular tonnage fees on cargoes
+shipped to the Antilles and by reducing passport fees, has shown its
+recognition of the needs of less trammeled intercourse.
+
+An effort has been made during the past year to remove the hindrances to
+the proclamation of the treaty of naturalization with the Sublime Porte,
+signed in 1874, which has remained inoperative owing to a disagreement of
+interpretation of the clauses relative to the effects of the return to and
+sojourn of a naturalized citizen in the land of origin. I trust soon to be
+able to announce a favorable settlement of the differences as to this
+interpretation.
+
+It has been highly satisfactory to note the improved treatment of American
+missionaries in Turkey, as has been attested by their acknowledgments to
+our late minister to that Government of his successful exertions in their
+behalf.
+
+The exchange of ratifications of the convention of December 5, 1885, with
+Venezuela, for the reopening of the awards of the Caracas Commission under
+the claims convention of 1866, has not yet been effected, owing to the
+delay of the Executive of that Republic in ratifying the measure. I trust
+that this postponement will be brief; but should it much longer continue,
+the delay may well be regarded as a rescission of the compact and a failure
+on the part of Venezuela to complete an arrangement so persistently sought
+by her during many years and assented to by this Government in a spirit of
+international fairness, although to the detriment of holders of bona fide
+awards of the impugned commission.
+
+I renew the recommendation of my last annual message that existing
+legislation concerning citizenship and naturalization be revised. We have
+treaties with many states providing for the renunciation of citizenship by
+naturalized aliens, but no statute is found to give effect to such
+engagements, nor any which provides a needed central bureau for the
+registration of naturalized citizens.
+
+Experience suggests that our statutes regulating extradition might be
+advantageously amended by a provision for the transit across our territory,
+now a convenient thoroughfare of travel from one foreign country to
+another, of fugitives surrendered by a foreign government to a third state.
+Such provisions are not unusual in the legislation of other countries, and
+tend to prevent the miscarriage of justice. It is also desirable, in order
+to remove present uncertainties, that authority should be conferred on the
+Secretary of State to issue a certificate, in case of an arrest for the
+purpose of extradition, to the officer before whom the proceeding is
+pending, showing that a requisition for the surrender of the person charged
+has been duly made. Such a certificate, if required to be received before
+the prisoner's examination, would prevent a long and expensive judicial
+inquiry into a charge which the foreign government might not desire to
+press. I also recommend that express provision be made for the immediate
+discharge from custody of persons committed for extradition where the
+President is of opinion that surrender should not be made.
+
+The drift of sentiment in civilized communities toward full recognition of
+the rights of property in the creations of the human intellect has brought
+about the adoption by many important nations of an international copyright
+convention, which was signed at Berne on the 18th of September, 1885.
+
+Inasmuch as the Constitution gives to the Congress the power "to promote
+the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to
+authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and
+discoveries," this Government did not feel warranted in becoming a
+signatory pending the action of Congress upon measures of international
+copyright now before it; but the right of adhesion to the Berne convention
+hereafter has been reserved. I trust the subject will receive at your hands
+the attention it deserves, and that the just claims of authors, so urgently
+pressed, will be duly heeded.
+
+Representations continue to be made to me of the injurious effect upon
+American artists studying abroad and having free access to the art
+collections of foreign countries of maintaining a discriminating duty
+against the introduction of the works of their brother artists of other
+countries, and I am induced to repeat my recommendation for the abolition
+of that tax.
+
+Pursuant to a provision of the diplomatic and consular appropriation act
+approved July 1, 1886, the estimates submitted by the Secretary of State
+for the maintenance of the consular service have been recast on the basis
+of salaries for all officers to whom such allowance is deemed advisable.
+Advantage has been taken of this to redistribute the salaries of the
+offices now appropriated for, in accordance with the work performed, the
+importance of the representative duties of the incumbent, and the cost of
+living at each post. The last consideration has been too often lost sight
+of in the allowances heretofore made. The compensation which may suffice
+for the decent maintenance of a worthy and capable officer in a position of
+onerous and representative trust at a post readily accessible, and where
+the necessaries of life are abundant and cheap, may prove an inadequate
+pittance in distant lands, where the better part of a year's pay is
+consumed in reaching the post of duty, and where the comforts of ordinary
+civilized existence can only be obtained with difficulty and at exorbitant
+cost. I trust that in considering the submitted schedules no mistaken
+theory of economy will perpetuate a system which in the past has virtually
+closed to deserving talent many offices where capacity and attainments of a
+high order are indispensable, and in not a few instances has brought
+discredit on our national character and entailed embarrassment and even
+suffering on those deputed to uphold our dignity and interests abroad.
+
+In connection with this subject I earnestly reiterate the practical
+necessity of supplying some mode of trustworthy inspection and report of
+the manner in which the consulates are conducted. In the absence of such
+reliable information efficiency can scarcely be rewarded or its opposite
+corrected.
+
+Increasing competition in trade has directed attention to the value of the
+consular reports printed by the Department of State, and the efforts of the
+Government to extend the practical usefulness of these reports have created
+a wider demand for them at home and a spirit of emulation abroad.
+Constituting a record at the changes occurring in trade and of the progress
+of the arts and invention in foreign countries, they are much sought for by
+all interested in the subjects which they embrace.
+
+The report of the Secretary of the Treasury exhibits in detail the
+condition of the public finances and of the several branches of the
+Government related to his Department. I especially direct the attention of
+the Congress to the recommendations contained in this and the last
+preceding report of the Secretary touching the simplification and amendment
+of the laws relating to the collection of our revenues, and in the interest
+of economy and justice to the Government I hope they may be adopted by
+appropriate legislation.
+
+The ordinary receipts of the Government for the fiscal year ended June 30,
+1886, were $336,439,727.06. Of this amount $192,905,023.41 was received
+from customs and $116,805,936.48 from internal revenue. The total receipts,
+as here stated, were $13,749,020.68 greater than for the previous year, but
+the increase from customs was $11,434,084.10 and from internal revenue
+$4,407,210.94, making a gain in these items for the last year of
+$15,841,295.04, a falling off in other resources reducing the total
+increase to the smaller amount mentioned.
+
+The expense at the different custom-houses of collecting this increased
+customs revenue was less than the expense attending the collection of such
+revenue for the preceding year by $490,608, and the increased receipts of
+internal revenue were collected at a cost to the Internal-Revenue Bureau
+$155,944.99 less than the expense of such collection for the previous
+year.
+
+The total ordinary expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ended
+June 30, 1886, were $242,483,138.50, being less by $17,788,797 than such
+expenditures for the year preceding, and leaving a surplus in the Treasury
+at the close of the last fiscal year of $93,956,588.56, as against
+$63,463,771.27 at the close of the previous year, being an increase in such
+surplus of $30,492,817.29.
+
+The expenditures are compared with those of the preceding fiscal year and
+classified as follows:
+
+For the current year to end June 30, 1887, the ascertained receipts up to
+October 1, 1886, with such receipts estimated for the remainder of the
+year, amount to $356,000,000.
+
+The expenditures ascertained and estimated for the same period are
+$266,000,000, indicating an anticipated surplus at the close of the year of
+$90,000,000.
+
+The total value of the exports from the United States to foreign countries
+during the fiscal year is stated and compared with the preceding year as
+follows:
+
+The value of some of our leading exports during the last fiscal year, as
+compared with the value of the same for the year immediately preceding, is
+here given, and furnishes information both interesting and suggestive:
+
+Our imports during the last fiscal year, as compared with the previous
+year, were as follows:
+
+In my last annual message to the Congress attention was directed to the
+fact that the revenues of the Government exceeded its actual needs, and it
+was suggested that legislative action should be taken to relieve the people
+from the unnecessary burden of taxation thus made apparent.
+
+In view of the pressing importance of the subject I deem it my duty to
+again urge its consideration.
+
+The income of the Government, by its increased volume and through economies
+in its collection, is now more than ever in excess of public necessities.
+The application of the surplus to the payment of such portion of the public
+debt as is now at our option subject to extinguishment, if continued at the
+rate which has lately prevailed, would retire that class of indebtedness
+within less than one year from this date. Thus a continuation of our
+present revenue system would soon result in the receipt of an annual income
+much greater than necessary to meet Government expenses, with no
+indebtedness upon which it could be applied. We should then be confronted
+with a vast quantity of money, the circulating medium of the people,
+hoarded in the Treasury when it should be in their hands, or we should be
+drawn into wasteful public extravagance, with all the corrupting national
+demoralization which follows in its train.
+
+But it is not the simple existence of this surplus and its threatened
+attendant evils which furnish the strongest argument against our present
+scale of Federal taxation. Its worst phase is the exaction of such a
+surplus through a perversion of the relations between the people and their
+Government and a dangerous departure from the rules which limit the right
+of Federal taxation.
+
+Good government, and especially the government of which every American
+citizen boasts, has for its objects the protection of every person within
+its care in the greatest liberty consistent with the good order of society
+and his perfect security in the enjoyment of his earnings with the least
+possible diminution for public needs. When more of the people's substance
+is exacted through the form of taxation than is necessary to meet the just
+obligations of the Government and the expense of its economical
+administration, such exaction becomes ruthless extortion and a violation of
+the fundamental principles of a free government.
+
+The indirect manner in which these exactions are made has a tendency to
+conceal their true character and their extent. But we have arrived at a
+stage of superfluous revenue which has aroused the people to a realization
+of the fact that the amount raised professedly for the support of the
+Government is paid by them as absolutely if added to the price of the
+things which supply their daily wants as if it was paid at fixed periods
+into the hand of the tax gatherer.
+
+Those who toil for daily wages are beginning to understand that capital,
+though sometimes vaunting its importance and clamoring for the protection
+and favor of the Government, is dull and sluggish till, touched by the
+magical hand of labor, it springs into activity, furnishing an occasion for
+Federal taxation and gaining the value which enables it to bear its burden.
+And the laboring man is thoughtfully inquiring whether in these
+circumstances, and considering the tribute he constantly pays into the
+public Treasury as he supplies his daily wants, he receives his fair share
+of advantages.
+
+There is also a suspicion abroad that the surplus of our revenues indicates
+abnormal and exceptional business profits, which, under the system which
+produces such surplus, increase without corresponding benefit to the people
+at large the vast accumulations of a few among our citizens, whose
+fortunes, rivaling the wealth of the most favored in antidemocratic
+nations, are not the natural growth of a steady, plain, and industrious
+republic.
+
+Our farmers, too, and those engaged directly and indirectly in supplying
+the products of agriculture, see that day by day, and as often as the daily
+wants of their households recur, they are forced to pay excessive and
+needless taxation, while their products struggle in foreign markets with
+the competition of nations, which, by allowing a freer exchange of
+productions than we permit, enable their people to sell for prices which
+distress the American farmer.
+
+As every patriotic citizen rejoices in the constantly increasing pride of
+our people in American citizenship and in the glory of our national
+achievements and progress, a sentiment prevails that the leading strings
+useful to a nation in its infancy may well be to a great extent discarded
+in the present stage of American ingenuity, courage, and fearless
+self-reliance; and for the privilege of indulging this sentiment with true
+American enthusiasm our citizens are quite willing to forego an idle
+surplus in the public Treasury.
+
+And all the people know that the average rate of Federal taxation upon
+imports is to-day, in time of peace, but little less, while upon some
+articles of necessary consumption it is actually more, than was imposed by
+the grievous burden willingly borne at a time when the Government needed
+millions to maintain by war the safety and integrity of the Union.
+
+It has been the policy of the Government to collect the principal part of
+its revenues by a tax upon imports, and no change in this policy is
+desirable. But the present condition of affairs constrains our people to
+demand that by a revision of our revenue laws the receipts of the
+Government shall be reduced to the necessary expense of its economical
+administration; and this demand should be recognized and obeyed by the
+people's representatives in the legislative branch of the Government.
+
+In readjusting the burdens of Federal taxation a sound public policy
+requires that such of our citizens as have built up large and important
+industries under present conditions should not be suddenly and to their
+injury deprived of advantages to which they have adapted their business;
+but if the public good requires it they should be content with such
+consideration as shall deal fairly and cautiously with their interests,
+while the just demand of the people for relief from needless taxation is
+honestly answered.
+
+A reasonable and timely submission to such a demand should certainly be
+possible without disastrous shock to any interest; and a cheerful
+concession sometimes averts abrupt and heedless action, often the outgrowth
+of impatience and delayed justice.
+
+Due regard should be also accorded in any proposed readjustment to the
+interests of American labor so far as they are involved. We congratulate
+ourselves that there is among us no laboring class fixed within unyielding
+bounds and doomed under all conditions to the inexorable fate of daily
+toil. We recognize in labor a chief factor in the wealth of the Republic,
+and we treat those who have it in their keeping as citizens entitled to the
+most careful regard and thoughtful attention. This regard and attention
+should be awarded them, not only because labor is the capital of our
+workingmen, justly entitled to its share of Government favor, but for the
+further and not less important reason that the laboring man, surrounded by
+his family in his humble home, as a consumer is vitally interested in all
+that cheapens the cost of living and enables him to bring within his
+domestic circle additional comforts and advantages.
+
+This relation of the workingman to the revenue laws of the country and the
+manner in which it palpably influences the question of wages should not be
+forgotten in the justifiable prominence given to the proper maintenance of
+the supply and protection of well-paid labor. And these considerations
+suggest such an arrangement of Government revenues as shall reduce the
+expense of living, while it does not curtail the opportunity for work nor
+reduce the compensation of American labor and injuriously affect its
+condition and the dignified place it holds in the estimation of our
+people.
+
+But our farmers and agriculturists--those who from the soil produce the
+things consumed by all--are perhaps more directly and plainly concerned
+than any other of our citizens in a just and careful system of Federal
+taxation. Those actually engaged in and more remotely connected with this
+kind of work number nearly one-half of our population. None labor harder or
+more continuously than they. No enactments limit their hours of toil and no
+interposition of the Government enhances to any great extent the value of
+their products. And yet for many of the necessaries and comforts of life,
+which the most scrupulous economy enables them to bring into their homes,
+and for their implements of husbandry, they are obliged to pay a price
+largely increased by an unnatural profit, which by the action of the
+Government is given to the more favored manufacturer.
+
+I recommend that, keeping in view all these considerations, the increasing
+and unnecessary surplus of national income annually accumulating be
+released to the people by an amendment to our revenue laws which shall
+cheapen the price of the necessaries of life and give freer entrance to
+such imported materials as by American labor may be manufactured into
+marketable commodities.
+
+Nothing can be accomplished, however, in the direction of this much-needed
+reform unless the subject is approached in a patriotic spirit of devotion
+to the interests of the entire country and with a willingness to yield
+something for the public good.
+
+The sum paid upon the public debt during the fiscal year ended June 30,
+1886, was $44,551,043.36.
+
+During the twelve months ended October 31,1886, 3 per cent bonds were
+called for redemption amounting to $127,283,100, of which $80,643,200 was
+so called to answer the requirements of the law relating to the sinking
+fund and $46,639,900 for the purpose of reducing the public debt by
+application of a part of the surplus in the Treasury to that object. Of the
+bonds thus called $102,269,450 became subject under such calls to
+redemption prior to November 1, 1886. The remainder, amounting
+to $25,013,650, matured under the calls after that date.
+
+In addition to the amount subject to payment and cancellation prior to
+November 1, there were also paid before that day certain of these bonds,
+with the interest thereon, amounting to $5,072,350, which were anticipated
+as to their maturity, of which $2,664,850 had not been called, Thus
+$107,341,800 had been actually applied prior to the 1st of November, 1886,
+to the extinguishment of our bonded and interest-bearing debt, leaving on
+that day still outstanding the sum of $1,153,443,112. Of this amount
+$86,848,700 were still represented by 3 per cent bonds. They however, have
+been since November 1, or will at once be, further reduced by $22,606,150,
+being bonds which have been called, as already stated, but not redeemed and
+canceled before the latter date.
+
+During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1886, there were coined, under the
+compulsory silver-coinage act of 1878,29,838,905 silver dollars, and the
+cost of the silver used in such coinage was $23,448,960.01. There had been
+coined up to the close of the previous fiscal year under the provisions of
+the law 203,882,554 silver dollars, and on the 1st day of December, 1886,
+the total amount of such coinage was $247,131,549.
+
+The Director of the Mint reports that at the time of the passage of the law
+of 1878 directing this coinage the intrinsic value of the dollars thus
+coined was 94 1/4 cents each, and that on the 31st day of July, 1886, the
+price of silver reached the lowest stage ever known, so that the intrinsic
+or bullion price of our standard silver dollar at that date was less than
+72 cents. The price of silver on the 30th day of November last was such as
+to make these dollars intrinsically worth 78 cents each.
+
+These differences in value of the coins represent the fluctuations in the
+price of silver, and they certainly do not indicate that compulsory coinage
+by the Government enhances the price of that commodity or secures
+uniformity in its value.
+
+Every fair and legal effort has been made by the Treasury Department to
+distribute this currency among the people. The withdrawal of United States
+Treasury notes of small denominations and the issuing of small silver
+certificates have been resorted to in the endeavor to accomplish this
+result, in obedience to the will and sentiments of the representatives of
+the people in the Congress. On the 27th day of November, 1886, the people
+held of these coins, or certificates representing them, the nominal sum of
+$166,873,041, and we still had $79,464,345 in the Treasury as against about
+$142,894,055 so in the hands of the people and $72,865,376 remaining in the
+Treasury one year ago. The Director of the Mint again urges the necessity
+of more vault room for the purpose of storing these silver dollars which
+are not needed for circulation by the people.
+
+I have seen no reason to change the views expressed in my last annual
+message on the subject of this compulsory coinage, and I again urge its
+suspension on all the grounds contained in my former recommendation,
+reenforced by the significant increase of our gold exportations during the
+last year, as appears by the comparative statement herewith presented, and
+for the further reasons that the more this currency is distributed among
+the people the greater becomes our duty to protect it from disaster, that
+we now have abundance for all our needs, and that there seems but little
+propriety in building vaults to store such currency when the only pretense
+for its coinage is the necessity of its use by the people as a circulating
+medium.
+
+The great number of suits now pending in the United States courts for the
+southern district of New York growing out of the collection of customs
+revenue at the port of New York and the number of such suits that are
+almost daily instituted are certainly worthy the attention of the Congress.
+These legal controversies, based upon conflicting views by importers and
+the collector as to the interpretation of our present complex and
+indefinite revenue laws, might be largely obviated by an amendment of those
+laws.
+
+But pending such amendment the present condition of this litigation should
+be relieved. There are now pending about 2,500 of these suits. More than
+1,100 have been commenced within the past eighteen months, and many of the
+others have been at issue for more than twenty-five years. These delays
+subject the Government to loss of evidence and prevent the preparation
+necessary to defeat unjust and fictitious claims, while constantly accruing
+interest threatens to double the demands involved.
+
+In the present condition of the dockets of the courts, well filled with
+private suits, and of the force allowed the district attorney, no greater
+than is necessary for the ordinary and current business of his office,
+these revenue litigations can not be considered.
+
+In default of the adoption by the Congress of a plan for the general
+reorganization of the Federal courts, as has been heretofore recommended, I
+urge the propriety of passing a law permitting the appointment of an
+additional Federal judge in the district where these Government suits have
+accumulated, so that by continuous sessions of the courts devoted to the
+trial of these cases they may be determined.
+
+It is entirely plain that a great saving to the Government would be
+accomplished by such a remedy, and the suitors who have honest claims would
+not be denied justice through delay.
+
+The report of the Secretary of War gives a detailed account of the
+administration of his Department and contains sundry recommendations for
+the improvement of the service, which I fully approve.
+
+The Army consisted at the date of the last consolidated return of 2,103
+officers and 24,946 enlisted men.
+
+The expenses of the Department for the last fiscal year were
+$36,990,903.38, including $6,294,305.43 for public works and river and
+harbor improvements.
+
+I especially direct the attention of the Congress to the recommendation
+that officers be required to submit to an examination as a preliminary to
+their promotion. I see no objection, but many advantages, in adopting this
+feature, which has operated so beneficially in our Navy Department, as well
+as in some branches of the Army.
+
+The subject of coast defenses and fortifications has been fully and
+carefully treated by the Board on Fortifications, whose report was
+submitted at the last session of Congress; but no construction work of the
+kind recommended by the board has been possible during the last year from
+the lack of appropriations for such purpose.
+
+The defenseless condition of our seacoast and lake frontier is perfectly
+palpable. The examinations made must convince us all that certain of our
+cities named in the report of the board should be fortified and that work
+on the most important of these fortifications should be commenced at once.
+The work has been thoroughly considered and laid out, the Secretary of War
+reports, but all is delayed in default of Congressional action.
+
+The absolute necessity, judged by all standards of prudence and foresight,
+of our preparation for an effectual resistance against the armored ships
+and steel guns and mortars of modern construction which may threaten the
+cities on our coasts is so apparent that I hope effective steps will be
+taken in that direction immediately.
+
+The valuable and suggestive treatment of this question by the Secretary of
+War is earnestly commended to the consideration of the Congress.
+
+In September and October last the hostile Apaches who, under the leadership
+of Geronimo, had for eighteen months been on the war path, and during that
+time had committed many murders and been the cause of constant terror to
+the settlers of Arizona, surrendered to General Miles, the military
+commander who succeeded General Crook in the management and direction of
+their pursuit.
+
+Under the terms of their surrender as then reported, and in view of the
+understanding which these murderous savages seemed to entertain of the
+assurances given them, it was considered best to imprison them in such
+manner as to prevent their ever engaging in such outrages again, instead of
+trying them for murder. Fort Pickens having been selected as a safe place
+of confinement, all the adult males were sent thither and will be closely
+guarded as prisoners. In the meantime the residue of the band, who, though
+still remaining upon the reservation, were regarded as unsafe and suspected
+of furnishing aid to those on the war path, had been removed to Fort
+Marion. The women and larger children of the hostiles were also taken
+there, and arrangements have been made for putting the children of proper
+age in Indian schools.
+
+The report of the Secretary of the Navy contains a detailed exhibit of the
+condition of his Department, with such a statement of the action needed to
+improve the same as should challenge the earnest attention of the
+Congress.
+
+The present Navy of the United States, aside from the ships in course of
+construction, consists of--
+
+First. Fourteen single-turreted monitors, none of which are in commission
+nor at the present time serviceable. The batteries of these ships are
+obsolete, and they can only be relied upon as auxiliary ships in harbor
+defense, and then after such an expenditure upon them as might not be
+deemed justifiable.
+
+Second. Five fourth-rate vessels of small tonnage, only one of which was
+designed as a war vessel, and all of which are auxiliary merely.
+
+Third. Twenty-seven cruising ships, three of which are built of iron, of
+small tonnage, and twenty-four of wood. Of these wooden vessels it is
+estimated by the Chief Constructor of the Navy that only three will be
+serviceable beyond a period of six years, at which time it may be said that
+of the present naval force nothing worthy the name will remain.
+
+All the vessels heretofore authorized are under contract or in course of
+construction except the armored ships, the torpedo and dynamite boats, and
+one cruiser. As to the last of these, the bids were in excess of the limit
+fixed by Congress. The production in the United States of armor and gun
+steel is a question which it seems necessary to settle at an early day if
+the armored war vessels are to be completed with those materials of home
+manufacture. This has been the subject of investigation by two boards and
+by two special committees of Congress within the last three years. The
+report of the Gun Foundry Board in 1884, of the Board on Fortifications
+made in January last, and the reports of the select committees of the two
+Houses made at the last session of Congress have entirely exhausted the
+subject, so far as preliminary investigation is involved, and in their
+recommendations they are substantially agreed.
+
+In the event that the present invitation of the Department for bids to
+furnish such of this material as is now authorized shall fail to induce
+domestic manufacturers to undertake the large expenditures required to
+prepare for this new manufacture, and no other steps are taken by Congress
+at its coming session, the Secretary contemplates with dissatisfaction the
+necessity of obtaining abroad the armor and the gun steel for the
+authorized ships. It would seem desirable that the wants of the Army and
+the Navy in this regard should be reasonably met, and that by uniting their
+contracts such inducement might be offered as would result in securing the
+domestication of these important interests.
+
+The affairs of the postal service show marked and gratifying improvement
+during the past year. A particular account of its transactions and
+condition is given in the report of the Postmaster-General, which will be
+laid before you.
+
+The reduction of the rate of letter postage in 1883, rendering the postal
+revenues inadequate to sustain the expenditures, and business depression
+also contributing, resulted in an excess of cost for the fiscal year ended
+June 30, 1885, of eight and one-third millions of dollars. An additional
+check upon receipts by doubling the measure of weight in rating sealed
+correspondence and diminishing one-half the charge for newspaper carriage
+was imposed by legislation which took effect with the beginning of the past
+fiscal year, while the constant demand of our territorial development and
+growing population for the extension and increase of mail facilities and
+machinery necessitates steady annual advance in outlay, and the careful
+estimate of a year ago upon the rates of expenditure then existing
+contemplated the unavoidable augmentation of the deficiency in the last
+fiscal year by nearly $2,000,000. The anticipated revenue for the last year
+failed of realization by about $64,000, but proper measures of economy have
+so satisfactorily limited the growth of expenditure that the total
+deficiency in fact fell below that of 1885, and at this time the increase
+of revenue is in a gaining ratio over the increase of cost, demonstrating
+the sufficiency of the present rates of postage ultimately to sustain the
+service. This is the more pleasing because our people enjoy now both
+cheaper postage proportionably to distances and a vaster and more costly
+service than any other upon the globe.
+
+Retrenchment has been effected in the cost of supplies, some expenditures
+unwarranted by law have ceased, and the outlays for mail carriage have been
+subjected to beneficial scrutiny. At the close of the last fiscal year the
+expense of transportation on star routes stood at an annual rate of cost
+less by over $560,000 than at the close of the previous year and steamboat
+and mail-messenger service at nearly $200,000 less.
+
+The service has been in the meantime enlarged and extended by the
+establishment of new offices, increase of routes of carriage, expansion of
+carrier-delivery conveniences, and additions to the railway mail
+facilities, in accordance with the growing exigencies of the country and
+the long-established policy of the Government.
+
+The Postmaster-General calls attention to the existing law for compensating
+railroads and expresses the opinion that a method may be devised which will
+prove more just to the carriers and beneficial to the Government; and the
+subject appears worthy of your early consideration.
+
+The differences which arose during the year with certain of the ocean
+steamship companies have terminated by the acquiescence of all in the
+policy of the Government approved by the Congress in the postal
+appropriation at its last session, and the Department now enjoys the utmost
+service afforded by all vessels which sail from our ports upon either
+ocean--a service generally adequate to the needs of our intercourse.
+Petitions have, however, been presented to the Department by numerous
+merchants and manufacturers for the establishment of a direct service to
+the Argentine Republic and for semimonthly dispatches to the Empire of
+Brazil, and the subject is commended to your consideration. It is an
+obvious duty to provide the means of postal communication which our
+commerce requires, and with prudent forecast of results the wise extension
+of it may lead to stimulating intercourse and become the harbinger of a
+profitable traffic which will open new avenues for the disposition of the
+products of our industry. The circumstances of the countries at the far
+south of our continent are such as to invite our enterprise and afford the
+promise of sufficient advantages to justify an unusual effort to bring
+about the closer relations which greater freedom of communication would
+tend to establish.
+
+I suggest that, as distinguished from a grant or subsidy for the mere
+benefit of any line of trade or travel, whatever outlay may be required to
+secure additional postal service, necessary and proper and not otherwise
+attainable, should be regarded as within the limit of legitimate
+compensation for such service.
+
+The extension of the free-delivery service as suggested by the
+Postmaster-General has heretofore received my sanction, and it is to be
+hoped a suitable enactment may soon be agreed upon.
+
+The request for an appropriation sufficient to enable the general
+inspection of fourth-class offices has my approbation.
+
+I renew my approval of the recommendation of the Postmaster-General that
+another assistant be provided for the Post-Office Department, and I invite
+your attention to the several other recommendations in his report.
+
+The conduct of the Department of Justice for the last fiscal year is fully
+detailed in the report of the Attorney-General, and I invite the earnest
+attention of the Congress to the same and due consideration of the
+recommendations therein contained.
+
+In the report submitted by this officer to the last session of the Congress
+he strongly recommended the erection of a penitentiary for the confinement
+of prisoners convicted and sentenced in the United States courts, and he
+repeats the recommendation in his report for the last year.
+
+This is a matter of very great importance and should at once receive
+Congressional action. United States prisoners are now confined in more than
+thirty different State prisons and penitentiaries scattered in every part
+of the country. They are subjected to nearly as many different modes of
+treatment and discipline and are far too much removed from the control and
+regulation of the Government. So far as they are entitled to humane
+treatment and an opportunity for improvement and reformation, the
+Government is responsible to them and society that these things are
+forthcoming. But this duty can scarcely be discharged without more absolute
+control and direction than is possible under the present system.
+
+Many of our good citizens have interested themselves, with the most
+beneficial results, in the question of prison reform. The General
+Government should be in a situation, since there must be United States
+prisoners, to furnish important aid in this movement, and should be able to
+illustrate what may be practically done in the direction of this reform and
+to present an example in the treatment and improvement of its prisoners
+worthy of imitation.
+
+With prisons under its own control the Government could deal with the
+somewhat vexed question of convict labor, so far as its convicts were
+concerned, according to a plan of its own adoption, and with due regard to
+the rights and interests of our laboring citizens, instead of sometimes
+aiding in the operation of a system which causes among them irritation and
+discontent.
+
+Upon consideration of this subject it might be thought wise to erect more
+than one of these institutions, located in such places as would best
+subserve the purposes of convenience and economy in transportation. The
+considerable cost of maintaining these convicts as at present, in State
+institutions, would be saved by the adoption of the plan proposed, and by
+employing them in the manufacture of such articles as were needed for use
+by the Government quite a large pecuniary benefit would be realized in
+partial return for our outlay.
+
+I again urge a change in the Federal judicial system to meet the wants of
+the people and obviate the delays necessarily attending the present
+condition of affairs in our courts. All are agreed that something should be
+done, and much favor is shown by those well able to advise to the plan
+suggested by the Attorney-General at the last session of the Congress and
+recommended in my last annual message. This recommendation is here renewed,
+together with another made at the same time, touching a change in the
+manner of compensating district attorneys and marshals; and the latter
+subject is commended to the Congress for its action in the interest of
+economy to the Government, and humanity, fairness, and justice to our
+people.
+
+The report of the Secretary of the Interior presents a comprehensive
+summary of the work of the various branches of the public service connected
+with his Department, and the suggestions and recommendations which it
+contains for the improvement of the service should receive your careful
+consideration.
+
+The exhibit made of the condition of our Indian population and the progress
+of the work for their enlightenment, notwithstanding the many
+embarrassments which hinder the better administration of this important
+branch of the service, is a gratifying and hopeful one.
+
+The funds appropriated for the Indian service for the fiscal year just
+passed, with the available income from Indian land and trust moneys,
+amounting in all to $7,850,775.12, were ample for the service under the
+conditions and restrictions of laws regulating their expenditure. There
+remained a balance on hand on June 30, 1886, of $1,660,023.30, of which $
+1,337,768.21 are permanent funds for fulfillment of treaties and other like
+purposes, and the remainder, $322,255.09, is subject to be carried to the
+surplus fund as required by law.
+
+The estimates presented for appropriations for the ensuing fiscal year
+amount to $5,608,873.64, or $442,386.20 less than those laid before the
+Congress last year.
+
+The present system of agencies, while absolutely necessary and well adapted
+for the management of our Indian affairs and for the ends in view when it
+was adopted, is in the present stage of Indian management inadequate,
+standing alone, for the accomplishment of an object which has become
+pressing in its importance--the more rapid transition from tribal
+organizations to citizenship of such portions of the Indians as are capable
+of civilized life.
+
+When the existing system was adopted, the Indian race was outside of the
+limits of organized States and Territories and beyond the immediate reach
+and operation of civilization, and all efforts were mainly directed to the
+maintenance of friendly relations and the preservation of peace and quiet
+on the frontier. All this is now changed. There is no such thing as the
+Indian frontier. Civilization, with the busy hum of industry and the
+influences of Christianity, surrounds these people at every point. None of
+the tribes are outside of the bounds of organized government and society,
+except that the Territorial system has not been extended over that portion
+of the country known as the Indian Territory. As a race the Indians are no
+longer hostile, but may be considered as submissive to the control of the
+Government. Few of them only are troublesome. Except the fragments of
+several bands, all are now gathered upon reservations.
+
+It is no longer possible for them to subsist by the chase and the
+spontaneous productions of the earth.
+
+With an abundance of land, if furnished with the means and implements for
+profitable husbandry, their life of entire dependence upon Government
+rations from day to day is no longer defensible. Their inclination, long
+fostered by a defective system of control, is to cling to the habits and
+customs of their ancestors and struggle with persistence against the change
+of life which their altered circumstances press upon them. But barbarism
+and civilization can not live together. It is impossible that such
+incongruous conditions should coexist on the same soil.
+
+They are a portion of our people, are under the authority of our
+Government, and have a peculiar claim upon and are entitled to the
+fostering care and protection of the nation. The Government can not relieve
+itself of this responsibility until they are so far trained and civilized
+as to be able wholly to manage and care for themselves. The paths in which
+they should walk must be clearly marked out for them, and they must be led
+or guided until they are familiar with the way and competent to assume the
+duties and responsibilities of our citizenship.
+
+Progress in this great work will continue only at the present slow pace and
+at great expense unless the system and methods of management are improved
+to meet the changed conditions and urgent demands of the service.
+
+The agents, having general charge and supervision in many cases of more
+than 5,000 Indians, scattered over large reservations, and burdened with
+the details of accountability for funds and supplies, have time to look
+after the industrial training and improvement of a few Indians only. The
+many are neglected and remain idle and dependent, conditions not favorable
+for progress and civilization.
+
+The compensation allowed these agents and the conditions of the service are
+not calculated to secure for the work men who are fitted by ability and
+skill to properly plan and intelligently direct the methods best adapted to
+produce the most speedy results and permanent benefits.
+
+Hence the necessity for a supplemental agency or system directed to the end
+of promoting the general and more rapid transition of the tribes from
+habits and customs of barbarism to the ways of civilization.
+
+With an anxious desire to devise some plan of operation by which to secure
+the welfare of the Indians and to relieve the Treasury as far as possible
+from the support of an idle and dependent population, I recommended in my
+previous annual message the passage of a law authorizing the appointment of
+a commission as an instrumentality auxiliary to those already established
+for the care of the Indians. It was designed that this commission should be
+composed of six intelligent and capable persons--three to be detailed from
+the Army--having practical ideas upon the subject of the treatment of
+Indians and interested in their welfare, and that it should be charged,
+under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, with the management
+of such matters of detail as can not with the present organization be
+properly and successfully conducted, and which present different phases, as
+the Indians themselves differ in their progress, needs, disposition, and
+capacity for improvement or immediate self-support.
+
+By the aid of such a commission much unwise and useless expenditure of
+money, waste of materials, and unavailing efforts might be avoided; and it
+is hoped that this or some measure which the wisdom of Congress may better
+devise to supply the deficiency of the present system may receive your
+consideration and the appropriate legislation be provided.
+
+The time is ripe for the work of such an agency.
+
+There is less opposition to the education and training of the Indian youth,
+as shown by the increased attendance upon the schools, and there is a
+yielding tendency for the individual holding of lands. Development and
+advancement in these directions are essential, and should have every
+encouragement. As the rising generation are taught the language of
+civilization and trained in habits of industry they should assume the
+duties, privileges, and responsibilities of citizenship.
+
+No obstacle should hinder the location and settlement of any Indian willing
+to take land in severalty; on the contrary, the inclination to do so should
+be stimulated at all times when proper and expedient. But there is no
+authority of law for making allotments on some of the reservations, and on
+others the allotments provided for are so small that the Indians, though
+ready and desiring to settle down, are not willing to accept such small
+areas when their reservations contain ample lands to afford them homesteads
+of sufficient size to meet their present and future needs.
+
+These inequalities of existing special laws and treaties should be
+corrected and some general legislation on the subject should be provided,
+so that the more progressive members of the different tribes may be settled
+upon homesteads, and by their example lead others to follow, breaking away
+from tribal customs and substituting therefor the love of home, the
+interest of the family, and the rule of the state.
+
+The Indian character and nature are such that they are not easily led while
+brooding over unadjusted wrongs. This is especially so regarding their
+lands. Matters arising from the construction and operation of railroads
+across some of the reservations, and claims of title and right of occupancy
+set up by white persons to some of the best land within other reservations
+require legislation for their final adjustment.
+
+The settlement of these matters will remove many embarrassments to progress
+in the work of leading the Indians to the adoption of our institutions and
+bringing them under the operation, the influence, and the protection of the
+universal laws of our country.
+
+The recommendations of the Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner
+of the General Land Office looking to the better protection of public lands
+and of the public surveys, the preservation of national forests, the
+adjudication of grants to States and corporations and of private land
+claims, and the increased efficiency of the public-land service are
+commended to the attention of Congress. To secure the widest distribution
+of public lands in limited quantities among settlers for residence and
+cultivation, and thus make the greatest number of individual homes, was the
+primary object of the public-land legislation in the early days of the
+Republic. This system was a simple one. It commenced with an admirable
+scheme of public surveys, by which the humblest citizen could identify the
+tract upon which he wished to establish his home. The price of lands was
+placed within the reach of all the enterprising, industrious, and honest
+pioneer citizens of the country. It was soon, however, found that the
+object of the laws was perverted, under the system of cash sales, from a
+distribution of land among the people to an accumulation of land capital by
+wealthy and speculative persons. To check this tendency a preference right
+of purchase was given to settlers on the land, a plan which culminated in
+the general preemption act of 1841. The foundation of this system was
+actual residence and cultivation. Twenty years later the homestead law was
+devised to more surely place actual homes in the possession of actual
+cultivators of the soil. The land was given without price, the sole
+conditions being residence, improvement, and cultivation. Other laws have
+followed, each designed to encourage the acquirement and use of land in
+limited individual quantities. But in later years these laws, through
+vicious administrative methods and under changed conditions of
+communication and transportation, have been so evaded and violated that
+their beneficent purpose is threatened with entire defeat. The methods of
+such evasions and violations are set forth in detail in the reports of the
+Secretary of the Interior and Commissioner of the General Land Office. The
+rapid appropriation of our public lands without bona fide settlements or
+cultivation, and not only without intention of residence, but for the
+purpose of their aggregation in large holdings, in many cases in the hands
+of foreigners, invites the serious and immediate attention of the
+Congress.
+
+The energies of the Land Department have been devoted during the present
+Administration to remedy defects and correct abuses in the public-land
+service. The results of these efforts are so largely in the nature of
+reforms in the processes and methods of our land system as to prevent
+adequate estimate; but it appears by a compilation from the reports of the
+Commissioner of the General Land Office that the immediate effect in
+leading cases which have come to a final termination has been the
+restoration to the mass of public lands of 2,750,000 acres; that 2,370,000
+acres are embraced in investigations now pending before the Department or
+the courts, and that the action of Congress has been asked to effect the
+restoration of 2,790,000 acres additional; besides which 4,000,000 acres
+have been withheld from reservation and the rights of entry thereon
+maintained.
+
+I recommend the repeal of the preemption and timber-culture acts, and that
+the homestead laws be so amended as to better secure compliance with their
+requirements of residence, improvement, and cultivation for the period of
+five years from date of entry, without commutation or provision for
+speculative relinquishment. I also recommend the repeal of the desert-land
+laws unless it shall be the pleasure of the Congress to so amend these laws
+as to render them less liable to abuses. As the chief motive for an evasion
+of the laws and the principal cause of their result in land accumulation
+instead of land distribution is the facility with which transfers are made
+of the right intended to be secured to settlers, it may be deemed advisable
+to provide by legislation some guards and checks upon the alienation of
+homestead rights and lands covered thereby until patents issue.
+
+Last year an Executive proclamation was issued directing the removal of
+fences which inclosed the public domain. Many of these have been removed in
+obedience to such order, but much of the public land still remains within
+the lines of these unlawful fences. The ingenious methods resorted to in
+order to continue these trespasses and the hardihood of the pretenses by
+which in some cases such inclosures are justified are fully detailed in the
+report of the Secretary of the Interior.
+
+The removal of the fences still remaining which inclose public lands will
+be enforced with all the authority and means with which the executive
+branch of the Government is or shall be invested by the Congress for that
+purpose.
+
+The report of the Commissioner of Pensions contains a detailed and most
+satisfactory exhibit of the operations of the Pension Bureau during the
+last fiscal year. The amount of work done was the largest in any year since
+the organization of the Bureau, and it has been done at less cost than
+during the previous year in every division.
+
+On the 30th day of June, 1886, there were 365,783 pensioners on the rolls
+of the Bureau.
+
+Since 1861 there have been 1,018,735 applications for pensions filed, of
+which 78,834 were based upon service in the War of 1812. There were 621,754
+of these applications allowed, including 60,178 to the soldiers of 1812 and
+their widows.
+
+The total amount paid for pensions since 1861 is $808,624,811.57.
+
+The number of new pensions allowed during the year ended June 30, 1886, is
+40,857, a larger number than has been allowed in any year save one since
+1861. The names of 2,229 pensioners which had been previously dropped from
+the rolls were restored during the year, and after deducting those dropped
+within the same time for various causes a net increase remains for the year
+of 20,658 names.
+
+From January 1, 1861, to December 1, 1885, 1,967 private pension acts had
+been passed. Since the last-mentioned date, and during the last session of
+the Congress, 644 such acts became laws.
+
+It seems to me that no one can examine our pension establishment and its
+operations without being convinced that through its instrumentality justice
+can be very nearly done to all who are entitled under present laws to the
+pension bounty of the Government.
+
+But it is undeniable that cases exist, well entitled to relief, in which
+the Pension Bureau is powerless to aid. The really worthy cases of this
+class are such as only lack by misfortune the kind or quantity of proof
+which the law and regulations of the Bureau require, or which, though their
+merit is apparent, for some other reason can not be justly dealt with
+through general laws. These conditions fully justify application to the
+Congress and special enactments. But resort to the Congress for a special
+pension act to overrule the deliberate and careful determination of the
+Pension Bureau on the merits or to secure favorable action when it could
+not be expected under the most liberal execution of general laws, it must
+be admitted opens the door to the allowance of questionable claims and
+presents to the legislative and executive branches of the Government
+applications concededly not within the law and plainly devoid of merit, but
+so surrounded by sentiment and patriotic feeling that they are hard to
+resist. I suppose it will not be denied that many claims for pension are
+made without merit and that many have been allowed upon fraudulent
+representations. This has been declared from the Pension Bureau, not only
+in this but in prior Administrations.
+
+The usefulness and the justice of any system for the distribution of
+pensions depend upon the equality and uniformity of its operation.
+
+It will be seen from the report of the Commissioner that there are now paid
+by the Government 131 different rates of pension.
+
+He estimates from the best information he can obtain that 9,000 of those
+who have served in the Army and Navy of the United States are now
+supported, in whole or in part, from public funds or by organized
+charities, exclusive of those in soldiers' homes under the direction and
+control of the Government. Only 13 per cent of these are pensioners, while
+of the entire number of men furnished for the late war something like 20
+per cent, including their widows and relatives, have been or now are in
+receipt of pensions.
+
+The American people, with a patriotic and grateful regard for our
+ex-soldiers, too broad and too sacred to be monopolized by any special
+advocates, are not only willing but anxious that equal and exact justice
+should be done to all honest claimants for pensions. In their sight the
+friendless and destitute soldier, dependent on public charity, if otherwise
+entitled, has precisely the same right to share in the provision made for
+those who fought their country's battles as those better able, through
+friends and influence, to push their claims. Every pension that is granted
+under our present plan upon any other grounds than actual service and
+injury or disease incurred in such service, and every instance of the many
+in which pensions are increased on other grounds than the merits of the
+claim, work an injustice to the brave and crippled, but poor and
+friendless, soldier, who is entirely neglected or who must be content with
+the smallest sum allowed under general laws.
+
+There are far too many neighborhoods in which are found glaring cases of
+inequality of treatment in the matter of pensions, and they are largely due
+to a yielding in the Pension Bureau to importunity on the part of those,
+other than the pensioner, who are especially interested, or they arise from
+special acts passed for the benefit of individuals.
+
+The men who fought side by side should stand side by side when they
+participate in a grateful nation's kind remembrance.
+
+Every consideration of fairness and justice to our ex-soldiers and the
+protection of the patriotic instinct of our citizens from perversion and
+violation point to the adoption of a pension system broad and comprehensive
+enough to cover every contingency, and which shall make unnecessary an
+objectionable volume of special legislation.
+
+As long as we adhere to the principle of granting pensions for service, and
+disability as the result of the service, the allowance of pensions should
+be restricted to cases presenting these features.
+
+Every patriotic heart responds to a tender consideration for those who,
+having served their country long and well, are reduced to destitution and
+dependence, not as an incident of their service, but with advancing age or
+through sickness or misfortune. We are all tempted by the contemplation of
+such a condition to supply relief, and are often impatient of the
+limitations of public duty. Yielding to no one in the desire to indulge
+this feeling of consideration, I can not rid myself of the conviction that
+if these ex-soldiers are to be relieved they and their cause are entitled
+to the benefit of an enactment under which relief may be claimed as a
+right, and that such relief should be granted under the sanction of law,
+not in evasion of it; nor should such worthy objects of care, all equally
+entitled, be remitted to the unequal operation of sympathy or the tender
+mercies of social and political influence, with their unjust
+discriminations.
+
+The discharged soldiers and sailors of the country are our fellow-citizens,
+and interested with us in the passage and faithful execution of wholesome
+laws. They can not be swerved from their duty of citizenship by artful
+appeals to their spirit of brotherhood born of common peril and suffering,
+nor will they exact as a test of devotion to their welfare a willingness to
+neglect public duty in their behalf.
+
+On the 4th of March, 1885, the current business of the Patent Office was,
+on an average, five and a half months in arrears, and in several divisions
+more than twelve months behind. At the close of the last fiscal year such
+current work was but three months in arrears, and it is asserted and
+believed that in the next few months the delay in obtaining an examination
+of an application for a patent will be but nominal.
+
+The number of applications for patents during the last fiscal year,
+including reissues, designs, trade-marks, and labels, equals 40,678, which
+is considerably in excess of the number received during any preceding
+year.
+
+The receipts of the Patent Office during the year aggregate $1,205,167.80,
+enabling the office to turn into the Treasury a surplus revenue, over and
+above all expenditures, of about $163,710.30.
+
+The number of patents granted during the last fiscal year, including
+reissues, trade-marks, designs, and labels, was 25,619, a number also quite
+largely in excess of that of any preceding year.
+
+The report of the Commissioner shows the office to be in a prosperous
+condition and constantly increasing in its business. No increase of force
+is asked for.
+
+The amount estimated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1886, was
+$890,760. The amount estimated for the year ending June 30, 1887, was
+$853,960. The amount estimated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1888, is
+$778,770.
+
+The Secretary of the Interior suggests a change in the plan for the payment
+of the indebtedness of the Pacific subsidized roads to the Government. His
+suggestion has the unanimous indorsement of the persons selected by the
+Government to act as directors of these roads and protect the interests of
+the United States in the board of direction. In considering the plan
+proposed the sole matters which should be taken into account, in my
+opinion, are the situation of the Government as a creditor and the surest
+way to secure the payment of the principal and interest of its debt.
+
+By a recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States it has been
+adjudged that the laws of the several States are inoperative to regulate
+rates of transportation upon railroads if such regulation interferes with
+the rate of carriage from one State into another. This important field of
+control and regulation having been thus left entirely unoccupied, the
+expediency of Federal action upon the subject is worthy of consideration.
+
+The relations of labor to capital and of laboring men to their employers
+are of the utmost concern to every patriotic citizen. When these are
+strained and distorted, unjustifiable claims are apt to be insisted upon by
+both interests, and in the controversy which results the welfare of all and
+the prosperity of the country are jeopardized. Any intervention of the
+General Government, within the limits of its constitutional authority, to
+avert such a condition should be willingly accorded.
+
+In a special message transmitted to the Congress at its last session I
+suggested the enlargement of our present Labor Bureau and adding to its
+present functions the power of arbitration in cases where differences arise
+between employer and employed. When these differences reach such a stage as
+to result in the interruption of commerce between the States, the
+application of this remedy by the General Government might be regarded as
+entirely within its constitutional powers. And I think we might reasonably
+hope that such arbitrators, if carefully selected and if entitled to the
+confidence of the parties to be affected, would be voluntarily called to
+the settlement of controversies of less extent and not necessarily within
+the domain of Federal regulation.
+
+I am of the opinion that this suggestion is worthy the attention of the
+Congress.
+
+But after all has been done by the passage of laws, either Federal or
+State, to relieve a situation full of solicitude, much more remains to be
+accomplished by the reinstatement and cultivation of a true American
+sentiment which recognizes the equality of American citizenship. This, in
+the light of our traditions and in loyalty to the spirit of our
+institutions, would teach that a hearty cooperation on the part of all
+interests is the surest path to national greatness and the happiness of all
+our people; that capital should, in recognition of the brotherhood of our
+citizenship and in a spirit of American fairness, generously accord to
+labor its just compensation and consideration, and that contented labor is
+capital's best protection and faithful ally. It would teach, too, that the
+diverse situations of our people are inseparable from our civilization;
+that every citizen should in his sphere be a contributor to the general
+good; that capital does not necessarily tend to the oppression of labor,
+and that violent disturbances and disorders alienate from their promoters
+true American sympathy and kindly feeling.
+
+The Department of Agriculture, representing the oldest and largest of our
+national industries, is subserving well the purposes of its organization.
+By the introduction of new subjects of farming enterprise and by opening
+new sources of agricultural wealth and the dissemination of early
+information concerning production and prices it has contributed largely to
+the country's prosperity. Through this agency advanced thought and
+investigation touching the subjects it has in charge should, among other
+things, be practically applied to the home production at a low cost of
+articles of food which are now imported from abroad. Such an innovation
+will necessarily, of course, in the beginning be within the domain of
+intelligent experiment, and the subject in every stage should receive all
+possible encouragement from the Government.
+
+The interests of millions of our citizens engaged in agriculture are
+involved in an enlargement and improvement of the results of their labor,
+and a zealous regard for their welfare should be a willing tribute to those
+whose productive returns are a main source of our progress and power.
+
+The existence of pleuro-pneumonia among the cattle of various States has
+led to burdensome and in some cases disastrous restrictions in an important
+branch of our commerce, threatening to affect the quantity and quality of
+our food supply. This is a matter of such importance and of such
+far-reaching consequences that I hope it will engage the serious attention
+of the Congress, to the end that such a remedy may be applied as the limits
+of a constitutional delegation of power to the General Government will
+permit.
+
+I commend to the consideration of the Congress the report of the
+Commissioner and his suggestions concerning the interest intrusted to his
+care.
+
+The continued operation of the law relating to our civil service has added
+the most convincing proofs of its necessity and usefulness. It is a fact
+worthy of note that every public officer who has a just idea of his duty to
+the people testifies to the value of this reform. Its staunchest, friends
+are found among those who understand it best, and its warmest supporters
+are those who are restrained and protected by its requirements.
+
+The meaning of such restraint and protection is not appreciated by those
+who want places under the Government regardless of merit and efficiency,
+nor by those who insist that the selection of such places should rest upon
+a proper credential showing active partisan work. They mean to public
+officers, if not their lives, the only opportunity afforded them to attend
+to public business, and they mean to the good people of the country the
+better performance of the work of their Government.
+
+It is exceedingly strange that the scope and nature of this reform are so
+little understood and that so many things not included within its plan are
+called by its name. When cavil yields more fully to examination, the system
+will have large additions to the number of its friends.
+
+Our civil-service reform may be imperfect in some of its details; it may be
+misunderstood and opposed; it may not always be faithfully applied; its
+designs may sometimes miscarry through mistake or willful intent; it may
+sometimes tremble under the assaults of its enemies or languish under the
+misguided zeal of impracticable friends; but if the people of this country
+ever submit to the banishment of its underlying principle from the
+operation of their Government they will abandon the surest guaranty of the
+safety and success of American institutions.
+
+I invoke for this reform the cheerful and ungrudging support of the
+Congress. I renew my recommendation made last year that the salaries of the
+Commissioners be made equal to other officers of the Government having like
+duties and responsibilities, and I hope that such reasonable appropriations
+may be made as will enable them to increase the usefulness of the cause
+they have in charge.
+
+I desire to call the attention of the Congress to a plain duty which the
+Government owes to the depositors in the Freedman's Savings and Trust
+Company.
+
+This company was chartered by the Congress for the benefit of the most
+illiterate and humble of our people, and with the intention of encouraging
+in them industry and thrift. Most of its branches were presided over by
+officers holding the commissions and clothed in the uniform of the United
+States. These and other circumstances reasonably, I think, led these simple
+people to suppose that the invitation to deposit their hard-earned savings
+in this institution implied an undertaking on the part of their Government
+that their money should be safely kept for them.
+
+When this company failed, it was liable in the sum of $2,939,925.22 to
+61,131 depositors. Dividends amounting in the aggregate to 62 per cent have
+been declared, and the sum called for and paid of such dividends seems to
+be $1,648,181.72. This sum deducted from the entire amount of deposits
+leaves $1,291,744.50 still unpaid. Past experience has shown that quite a
+large part of this sum will not be called for. There are assets still on
+hand amounting to the estimated sum of $16,000.
+
+I think the remaining 38 per cent of such of these deposits as have
+claimants should be paid by the Government, upon principles of equity and
+fairness.
+
+The report of the commissioner, soon to be laid before Congress, will give
+more satisfactory details on this subject.
+
+The control of the affairs of the District of Columbia having been placed
+in the hands of purely executive officers, while the Congress still retains
+all legislative authority relating to its government, it becomes my duty to
+make known the most pressing needs of the District and recommend their
+consideration.
+
+The laws of the District appear to be in an uncertain and unsatisfactory
+condition, and their codification or revision is much needed.
+
+During the past year one of the bridges leading from the District to the
+State of Virginia became unfit for use, and travel upon it was forbidden.
+This leads me to suggest that the improvement of all the bridges crossing
+the Potomac and its branches from the city of Washington is worthy the
+attention of Congress.
+
+The Commissioners of the District represent that the laws regulating the
+sale of liquor and granting licenses therefor should be at once amended,
+and that legislation is needed to consolidate, define, and enlarge the
+scope and powers of charitable and penal institutions within the District.
+
+I suggest that the Commissioners be clothed with the power to make, within
+fixed limitations, police regulations. I believe this power granted and
+carefully guarded would tend to subserve the good order of the
+municipality.
+
+It seems that trouble still exists growing out of the occupation of the
+streets and avenues by certain railroads having their termini in the city.
+It is very important that such laws should be enacted upon this subject as
+will secure to the railroads all the facilities they require for the
+transaction of their business and at the same time protect citizens from
+injury to their persons or property.
+
+The Commissioners again complain that the accommodations afforded them for
+the necessary offices for District business and for the safe-keeping of
+valuable books and papers are entirely insufficient. I recommend that this
+condition of affairs be remedied by the Congress, and that suitable
+quarters be furnished for the needs of the District government.
+
+In conclusion I earnestly invoke such wise action on the part of the
+people's legislators as will subserve the public good and demonstrate
+during the remaining days of the Congress as at present organized its
+ability and inclination to so meet the people's needs that it shall be
+gratefully remembered by an expectant constituency.
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Grover Cleveland
+December 6, 1887
+
+To the Congress of the United States:
+
+You are confronted at the threshold of your legislative duties with a
+condition of the national finances which imperatively demands immediate and
+careful consideration.
+
+The amount of money annually exacted, through the operation of present
+laws, from the industries and necessities of the people largely exceeds the
+sum necessary to meet the expenses of the Government.
+
+When we consider that the theory of our institutions guarantees to every
+citizen the full enjoyment of all the fruits of his industry and
+enterprise, with only such deduction as may be his share toward the careful
+and economical maintenance of the Government which protects him, it is
+plain that the exaction of more than this is indefensible extortion and a
+culpable betrayal of American fairness and justice. This wrong inflicted
+upon those who bear the burden of national taxation, like other wrongs,
+multiplies a brood of evil consequences. The public Treasury, which should
+only exist as a conduit conveying the people's tribute to its legitimate
+objects of expenditure, becomes a hoarding place for money needlessly
+withdrawn from trade and the people's use, thus crippling our national
+energies, suspending our country's development, preventing investment in
+productive enterprise, threatening financial disturbance, and inviting
+schemes of public plunder.
+
+This condition of our Treasury is not altogether new, and it has more than
+once of late been submitted to the people's representatives in the
+Congress, who alone can apply a remedy. And yet the situation still
+continues, with aggravated incidents, more than ever presaging financial
+convulsion and widespread disaster.
+
+It will not do to neglect this situation because its dangers are not now
+palpably imminent and apparent. They exist none the less certainly, and
+await the unforeseen and unexpected occasion when suddenly they will be
+precipitated upon us.
+
+On the 30th day of June, 1885, the excess of revenues over public
+expenditures, after complying with the annual requirement of the
+sinking-fund act, was $17,859,735.84; during the year ended June 30, 1886,
+such excess amounted to $49,405,545.20, and during the year ended June 30,
+1887, it reached the sum of $55,567,849.54.
+
+The annual contributions to the sinking fund during the three years above
+specified, amounting in the aggregate to $138,058,320.94, and deducted from
+the surplus as stated, were made by calling in for that purpose outstanding
+3 per cent bonds of the Government. During the six months prior to June 30,
+1887, the surplus revenue had grown so large by repeated accumulations, and
+it was feared the withdrawal of this great sum of money needed by the
+people would so affect the business of the country, that the sum of
+$79,864,100 of such surplus was applied to the payment of the principal and
+interest of the 3 per cent bonds still outstanding, and which were then
+payable at the option of the Government. The precarious condition of
+financial affairs among the people still needing relief, immediately after
+the 30th day of June, 1887, the remainder of the 3 per cent bonds then
+outstanding, amounting with principal and interest to the sum of
+$18,877,500, were called in and applied to the sinking-fund contribution
+for the current fiscal year. Notwithstanding these operations of the
+Treasury Department, representations of distress in business circles not
+only continued, but increased, and absolute peril seemed at hand. In these
+circumstances the contribution to the sinking fund for the current fiscal
+year was at once completed by the expenditure of $27,684,283.55 in the
+purchase of Government bonds not yet due bearing 4 and 41/2 per cent
+interest, the premium paid thereon averaging about 24 per cent for the
+former and 8 per cent for the latter. In addition to this, the interest
+accruing during the current year upon the outstanding bonded indebtedness
+of the Government was to some extent anticipated, and banks selected as
+depositories of public money were permitted to somewhat increase their
+deposits.
+
+While the expedients thus employed to release to the people the money lying
+idle in the Treasury served to avert immediate danger, our surplus revenues
+have continued to accumulate, the excess for the present year amounting on
+the 1st day of December to $55,258,701.19, and estimated to reach the sum
+of $113,000,000 on the 30th of June next, at which date it is expected that
+this sum, added to prior accumulations, will swell the surplus in the
+Treasury to $140,000,000.
+
+There seems to be no assurance that, with such a withdrawal from use of the
+people's circulating medium, our business community may not in the near
+future be subjected to the same distress which was quite lately produced
+from the same cause. And while the functions of our National Treasury
+should be few and simple, and while its best condition would be reached, I
+believe, by its entire disconnection with private business interests, yet
+when, by a perversion of its purposes, it idly holds money uselessly
+subtracted from the channels of trade, there seems to be reason for the
+claim that some legitimate means should be devised by the Government to
+restore in an emergency, without waste or extravagance, such money to its
+place among the people.
+
+If such an emergency arises, there now exists no clear and undoubted
+executive power of relief. Heretofore the redemption of 3 per cent bonds,
+which were payable at the option of the Government, has afforded a means
+for the disbursement of the excess of our revenues; but these bonds have
+all been retired, and there are no bonds outstanding the payment of which
+we have a right to insist upon. The contribution to the sinking fund which
+furnishes the occasion for expenditure in the purchase of bonds has been
+already made for the current year, so that there is no outlet in that
+direction.
+
+In the present state of legislation the only pretense of any existing
+executive power to restore at this time any part of our surplus revenues to
+the people by its expenditure consists in the supposition that the
+Secretary of the Treasury may enter the market and purchase the bonds of
+the Government not yet due, at a rate of premium to be agreed upon. The
+only provision of law from which such a power could be derived is found in
+an appropriation bill passed a number of years ago, and it is subject to
+the suspicion that it was intended as temporary and limited in its
+application, instead of conferring a continuing discretion and authority.
+No condition ought to exist which would justify the grant of power to a
+single official, upon his judgment of its necessity, to withhold from or
+release to the business of the people, in an unusual manner, money held in
+the Treasury, and thus affect at his will the financial situation of the
+country; and if it is deemed wise to lodge in the Secretary of the Treasury
+the authority in the present juncture to purchase bonds, it should be
+plainly vested, and provided, as far as possible, with such checks and
+limitations as will define this official's right and discretion and at the
+same time relieve him from undue responsibility.
+
+In considering the question of purchasing bonds as a means of restoring to
+circulation the surplus money accumulating in the Treasury, it should be
+borne in mind that premiums must of course be paid upon such purchase, that
+there may be a large part of these bonds held as investments which can not
+be purchased at any price, and that combinations among holders who are
+willing to sell may unreasonably enhance the cost of such bonds to the
+Government.
+
+It has been suggested that the present bonded debt might be refunded at a
+less rate of interest and the difference between the old and new security
+paid in cash, thus finding use for the surplus in the Treasury. The success
+of this plan, it is apparent, must depend upon the volition of the holders
+of the present bonds; and it is not entirely certain that the inducement
+which must be offered them would result in more financial benefit to the
+Government than the purchase of bonds, while the latter proposition would
+reduce the principal of the debt by actual payment instead of extending
+it.
+
+The proposition to deposit the money held by the Government in banks
+throughout the country for use by the people is, it seems to me,
+exceedingly objectionable in principle, as establishing too close a
+relationship between the operations of the Government Treasury and the
+business of the country and too extensive a commingling of their money,
+thus fostering an unnatural reliance in private business upon public funds.
+If this scheme should be adopted, it should only be done as a temporary
+expedient to meet an urgent necessity. Legislative and executive effort
+should generally be in the opposite direction, and should have a tendency
+to divorce, as much and as fast as can be safely done, the Treasury
+Department from private enterprise.
+
+Of course it is not expected that unnecessary and extravagant
+appropriations will be made for the purpose of avoiding the accumulation of
+an excess of revenue. Such expenditure, besides the demoralization of all
+just conceptions of public duty which it entails, stimulates a habit of
+reckless improvidence not in the least consistent with the mission of our
+people or the high and beneficent purposes of our Government.
+
+I have deemed it my duty to thus bring to the knowledge of my countrymen,
+as well as to the attention of their representatives charged with the
+responsibility of legislative relief, the gravity of our financial
+situation. The failure of the Congress heretofore to provide against the
+dangers which it was quite evident the very nature of the difficulty must
+necessarily produce caused a condition of financial distress and
+apprehension since your last adjournment which taxed to the utmost all the
+authority and expedients within executive control; and these appear now to
+be exhausted. If disaster results from the continued inaction of Congress,
+the responsibility must rest where it belongs.
+
+Though the situation thus far considered is fraught with danger which
+should be fully realized, and though it presents features of wrong to the
+people as well as peril to the country, it is but a result growing out of a
+perfectly palpable and apparent cause, constantly reproducing the same
+alarming circumstances--a congested National Treasury and a depleted
+monetary condition in the business of the country. It need hardly be stated
+that while the present situation demands a remedy, we can only be saved
+from a like predicament in the future by the removal of its cause.
+
+Our scheme of taxation, by means of which this needless surplus is taken
+from the people and put into the public Treasury, consists of a tariff or
+duty levied upon importations from abroad and internal-revenue taxes levied
+upon the consumption of tobacco and spirituous and malt liquors. It must be
+conceded that none of the things subjected to internal-revenue taxation
+are, strictly speaking, necessaries. There appears to be no just complaint
+of this taxation by the consumers of these articles, and there seems to be
+nothing so well able to bear the burden without hardship to any portion of
+the people.
+
+But our present tariff laws, the vicious, inequitable, and illogical source
+of unnecessary taxation, ought to be at once revised and amended. These
+laws, as their primary and plain effect, raise the price to consumers of
+all articles imported and subject to duty by precisely the sum paid for
+such duties. Thus the amount of the duty measures the tax paid by those who
+purchase for use these imported articles. Many of these things, however,
+are raised or manufactured in our own country, and the duties now levied
+upon foreign goods and products are called protection to these home
+manufactures, because they render it possible for those of our people who
+are manufacturers to make these taxed articles and sell them for a price
+equal to that demanded for the imported goods that have paid customs duty.
+So it happens that while comparatively a few use the imported articles,
+millions of our people, who never used and never saw any of the foreign
+products, purchase and use things of the same kind made in this country,
+and pay therefor nearly or quite the same enhanced price which the duty
+adds to the imported articles. Those who buy imports pay the duty charged
+thereon into the public Treasury, but the great majority of our citizens,
+who buy domestic articles of the same class, pay a sum at least
+approximately equal to this duty to the home manufacturer. This reference
+to the operation of our tariff laws is not made by way of instruction, but
+in order that we may be constantly reminded of the manner in which they
+impose a burden upon those who consume domestic products as well as those
+who consume imported articles, and thus create a tax upon all our people.
+
+It is not proposed to entirely relieve the country of this taxation. It
+must be extensively continued as the source of the Government's income; and
+in a readjustment of our tariff the interests of American labor engaged in
+manufacture should be carefully considered, as well as the preservation of
+our manufacturers. It may be called protection or by any other name, but
+relief from the hardships and dangers of our present tariff laws should be
+devised with especial precaution against imperiling the existence of our
+manufacturing interests. But this existence should not mean a condition
+which, without regard to the public welfare or a national exigency, must
+always insure the realization of immense profits instead of moderately
+profitable returns. As the volume and diversity of our national activities
+increase, new recruits are added to those who desire a continuation of the
+advantages which they conceive the present system of tariff taxation
+directly affords them. So stubbornly have all efforts to reform the present
+condition been resisted by those of our fellow-citizens thus engaged that
+they can hardly complain of the suspicion, entertained to a certain extent,
+that there exists an organized combination all along the line to maintain
+their advantage.
+
+We are in the midst of centennial celebrations, and with becoming pride we
+rejoice in American skill and ingenuity, in American energy and enterprise,
+and in the wonderful natural advantages and resources developed by a
+century's national growth. Yet when an attempt is made to justify a scheme
+which permits a tax to be laid upon every consumer in the land for the
+benefit of our manufacturers, quite beyond a reasonable demand for
+governmental regard, it suits the purposes of advocacy to call our
+manufactures infant industries still needing the highest and greatest
+degree of favor and fostering care that can be wrung from Federal
+legislation.
+
+It is also said that the increase in the price of domestic manufactures
+resulting from the present tariff is necessary in order that higher wages
+may be paid to our workingmen employed in manufactories than are paid for
+what is called the pauper labor of Europe. All will acknowledge the force
+of an argument which involves the welfare and liberal compensation of our
+laboring people. Our labor is honorable in the eyes of every American
+citizen; and as it lies at the foundation of our development and progress,
+it is entitled, without affectation or hypocrisy, to the utmost regard. The
+standard of our laborers' life should not be measured by that of any other
+country less favored, and they are entitled to their full share of all our
+advantages.
+
+By the last census it is made to appear that of the 17,392,099 of our
+population engaged in all kinds of industries 7,670,493 are employed in
+agriculture, 4,074,238 in professional and personal service (2,934,876 of
+whom are domestic servants and laborers), while 1,810,256 are employed in
+trade and transportation and 3,837,112 are classed as employed in
+manufacturing and mining.
+
+For present purposes, however, the last number given should be considerably
+reduced. Without attempting to enumerate all, it will be conceded that
+there should be deducted from those which it includes 375,143 carpenters
+and joiners, 285,401 milliners, dressmakers, and seamstresses, 172,726
+blacksmiths, 133,756 tailors and tailoresses, 102,473 masons, 76,241
+butchers, 41,309 bakers, 22,083 plasterers, and 4,891 engaged in
+manufacturing agricultural implements, amounting in the aggregate to
+1,214,023, leaving 2,623,089 persons employed in such manufacturing
+industries as are claimed to be benefited by a high tariff.
+
+To these the appeal is made to save their employment and maintain their
+wages by resisting a change. There should be no disposition to answer such
+suggestions by the allegation that they are in a minority among those who
+labor, and therefore should forego an advantage in the interest of low
+prices for the majority. Their compensation, as it may be affected by the
+operation of tariff laws, should at all times be scrupulously kept in view;
+and yet with slight reflection they will not overlook the fact that they
+are consumers with the rest; that they too have their own wants and those
+of their families to supply from their earnings, and that the price of the
+necessaries of life, as well as the amount of their wages, will regulate
+the measure of their welfare and comfort.
+
+But the reduction of taxation demanded should be so measured as not to
+necessitate or justify either the loss of employment by the workingman or
+the lessening of his wages; and the profits still remaining to the
+manufacturer after a necessary readjustment should furnish no excuse for
+the sacrifice of the interests of his employees, either in their
+opportunity to work or in the diminution of their compensation. Nor can the
+worker in manufactures fail to understand that while a high tariff is
+claimed to be necessary to allow the payment of remunerative wages, it
+certainly results in a very large increase in the price of nearly all sorts
+of manufactures, which, in almost countless forms, he needs for the use of
+himself and his family. He receives at the desk of his employer his wages,
+and perhaps before he reaches his home is obliged, in a purchase for family
+use of an article which embraces his own labor, to return in the payment of
+the increase in price which the tariff permits the hard-earned compensation
+of many days of toil.
+
+The farmer and the agriculturist, who manufacture nothing, but who pay the
+increased price which the tariff imposes upon every agricultural implement,
+upon all he wears, and upon all he uses and owns, except the increase of
+his flocks and herds and such things as his husbandry produces from the
+soil, is invited to aid in maintaining the present situation; and he is
+told that a high duty on imported wool is necessary for the benefit of
+those who have sheep to shear, in order that the price of their wool may be
+increased. They, of course, are not reminded that the farmer who has no
+sheep is by this scheme obliged, in his purchases of clothing and woolen
+goods, to pay a tribute to his fellow-farmer as well as to the manufacturer
+and merchant, nor is any mention made of the fact that the sheep owners
+themselves and their households must wear clothing and use other articles
+manufactured from the wool they sell at tariff prices, and thus as
+consumers must return their share of this increased price to the
+tradesman.
+
+I think it may be fairly assumed that a large proportion of the sheep owned
+by the farmers throughout the country are found in small flocks, numbering
+from twenty-five to fifty. The duty on the grade of imported wool which
+these sheep yield is 10 cents each pound if of the value of 30 cents or
+less and 12 cents if of the value of more than 30 cents. If the liberal
+estimate of 6 pounds be allowed for each fleece, the duty thereon would be
+60 or 72 cents; and this may be taken as the utmost enhancement of its
+price to the farmer by reason of this duty. Eighteen dollars would thus
+represent the increased price of the wool from twenty-five sheep and $36
+that from the wool of fifty sheep; and at present values this addition
+would amount to about one-third of its price. If upon its sale the farmer
+receives this or a less tariff profit, the wool leaves his hands charged
+with precisely that sum, which in all its changes will adhere to it until
+it reaches the consumer. When manufactured into cloth and other goods and
+material for use, its cost is not only increased to the extent of the
+farmer's tariff profit, but a further sum has been added for the benefit of
+the manufacturer under the operation of other tariff laws. In the meantime
+the day arrives when the farmer finds it necessary to purchase woolen goods
+and material to clothe himself and family for the winter. When he faces the
+tradesman for that purpose, he discovers that he is obliged not only to
+return in the way of increased prices his tariff profit on the wool he
+sold, and which then perhaps lies before him in manufactured form, but that
+he must add a considerable sum thereto to meet a further increase in cost
+caused by a tariff duty on the manufacture. Thus in the end he is aroused
+to the fact that he has paid upon a moderate purchase, as a result of the
+tariff scheme, which when he sold his wool seemed so profitable, an
+increase in price more than sufficient to sweep away all the tariff profit
+he received upon the wool he produced and sold.
+
+When the number of farmers engaged in wool raising is compared with all the
+farmers in the country and the small proportion they bear to our population
+is considered; when it is made apparent that in the case of a large part of
+those who own sheep the benefit of the present tariff on wool is illusory;
+and, above all, when it must be conceded that the increase of the cost of
+living caused by such tariff becomes a burden upon those with moderate
+means and the poor, the employed and unemployed, the sick and well, and the
+young and old, and that it constitutes a tax which with relentless grasp is
+fastened upon the clothing of every man, woman, and child in the land,
+reasons are suggested why the removal or reduction of this duty should be
+included in a revision of our tariff laws.
+
+In speaking of the increased cost to the consumer of our home manufactures
+resulting from a duty laid upon imported articles of the same description,
+the fact is not ever looked that competition among our domestic producers
+sometimes has the effect of keeping the price of their products below the
+highest limit allowed by such duty. But it is notorious that this
+competition is too often strangled by combinations quite prevalent at this
+time, and frequently called trusts, which have for their object the
+regulation of the supply and price of commodities made and sold by members
+of the combination. The people can hardly hope for any consideration in the
+operation of these selfish schemes.
+
+If, however, in the absence of such combination, a healthy and free
+competition reduces the price of any particular dutiable article of home
+production below the limit which it might otherwise reach under our tariff
+laws, and if with such reduced price its manufacture continues to thrive,
+it is entirely evident that one thing has been discovered which should be
+carefully scrutinized in an effort to reduce taxation.
+
+The necessity of combination to maintain the price of any commodity to the
+tariff point furnishes proof that someone is willing to accept lower prices
+for such commodity and that such prices are remunerative; and lower prices
+produced by competition prove the same thing. Thus where either of these
+conditions exists a case would seem to be presented for an easy reduction
+of taxation.
+
+The considerations which have been presented touching our tariff laws are
+intended only to enforce an earnest recommendation that the surplus
+revenues of the Government be prevented by the reduction of our customs
+duties, and at the same time to emphasize a suggestion that in
+accomplishing this purpose we may discharge a double duty to our people by
+granting to them a measure of relief from tariff taxation in quarters where
+it is most needed and from sources where it can be most fairly and justly
+accorded.
+
+Nor can the presentation made of such considerations be with any degree of
+fairness regarded as evidence of unfriendliness toward our manufacturing
+interests or of any lack of appreciation of their value and importance.
+
+These interests constitute a leading and most substantial element of our
+national greatness and furnish the proud proof of our country's progress.
+But if in the emergency that presses upon us our manufacturers are asked to
+surrender something for the public good and to avert disaster, their
+patriotism, as well as a grateful recognition of advantages already
+afforded, should lead them to willing cooperation. No demand is made that
+they shall forego all the benefits of governmental regard; but they can not
+fail to be admonished of their duty, as well as their enlightened
+self-interest and safety, when they are reminded of the fact that financial
+panic and collapse, to which the present condition tends, afford no greater
+shelter or protection to our manufactures than to other important
+enterprises. Opportunity for safe, careful, and deliberate reform is now
+offered; and none of us should be unmindful of a time when an abused and
+irritated people, heedless of those who have resisted timely and reasonable
+relief, may insist upon a radical and sweeping rectification of their
+wrongs.
+
+The difficulty attending a wise and fair revision of our tariff laws is not
+underestimated. It will require on the part of the Congress great labor and
+care, and especially a broad and national contemplation of the subject and
+a patriotic disregard of such local and selfish claims as are unreasonable
+and reckless of the welfare of the entire country.
+
+Under our present laws more than 4,000 articles are subject to duty. Many
+of these do not in any way compete with our own manufactures, and many are
+hardly worth attention as subjects of revenue. A considerable reduction can
+be made in the aggregate by adding them to the free list. The taxation of
+luxuries presents no features of hardship; but the necessaries of life used
+and consumed by all the people, the duty upon which adds to the cost of
+living in every home, should be greatly cheapened.
+
+The radical reduction of the duties imposed upon raw material used in
+manufactures, or its free importation, is of course an important factor in
+any effort to reduce the price of these necessaries. It would not only
+relieve them from the increased cost caused by the tariff on such material,
+but the manufactured product being thus cheapened that part of the tariff
+now laid upon such product, as a compensation to our manufacturers for the
+present price of raw material, could be accordingly modified. Such
+reduction or free importation would serve besides to largely reduce the
+revenue. It is not apparent how such a change can have any injurious effect
+upon our manufacturers. On the contrary, it would appear to give them a
+better chance in foreign markets with the manufacturers of other countries,
+who cheapen their wares by free material. Thus our people might have the
+opportunity of extending their sales beyond the limits of home consumption,
+saving them from the depression, interruption in business, and loss caused
+by a glutted domestic market and affording their employees more certain and
+steady labor, with its resulting quiet and contentment.
+
+The question thus imperatively presented for solution should be approached
+in a spirit higher than partisanship and considered in the light of that
+regard for patriotic duty which should characterize the action of those
+intrusted with the weal of a confiding people. But the obligation to
+declared party policy and principle is not wanting to urge prompt and
+effective action. Both of the great political parties now represented in
+the Government have by repeated and authoritative declarations condemned
+the condition of our laws which permit the collection from the people of
+unnecessary revenue, and have in the most solemn manner promised its
+correction; and neither as citizens nor partisans are our countrymen in a
+mood to condone the deliberate violation of these pledges.
+
+Our progress toward a wise conclusion will not be improved by dwelling upon
+the theories of protection and free trade. This savors too much of bandying
+epithets. It is a condition which confronts us, not a theory. Relief from
+this condition may involve a slight reduction of the advantages which we
+award our home productions, but the entire withdrawal of such advantages
+should not be contemplated. The question of free trade is absolutely
+irrelevant, and the persistent claim made in certain quarters that all the
+efforts to relieve the people from unjust and unnecessary taxation are
+schemes of so-called free traders is mischievous and far removed from any
+consideration for the public good.
+
+The simple and plain duty which we owe the people is to reduce taxation to
+the necessary expenses of an economical operation of the Government and to
+restore to the business of the country the money which we hold in the
+Treasury through the perversion of governmental powers. These things can
+and should be done with safety to all our industries, without danger to the
+opportunity for remunerative labor which our workingmen need, and with
+benefit to them and all our people by cheapening their means of subsistence
+and increasing the measure of their comforts.
+
+The Constitution provides that the President "shall from time to time give
+to the Congress information of the state of the Union." It has been the
+custom of the Executive, in compliance with this provision, to annually
+exhibit to the Congress, at the opening of its session, the general
+condition of the country, and to detail with some particularity the
+operations of the different Executive Departments. It would be especially
+agreeable to follow this course at the present time and to call attention
+to the valuable accomplishments of these Departments during the last fiscal
+year; but I am so much impressed with the paramount importance of the
+subject to which this communication has thus far been devoted that I shall
+forego the addition of any other topic, and only urge upon your immediate
+consideration the "state of the Union" as shown in the present condition of
+our Treasury and our general fiscal situation, upon which every element of
+our safety and prosperity depends.
+
+The reports of the heads of Departments, which will be submitted, contain
+full and explicit information touching the transaction of the business
+intrusted to them and such recommendations relating to legislation in the
+public interest as they deem advisable. I ask for these reports and
+recommendations the deliberate examination and action of the legislative
+branch of the Government.
+
+There are other subjects not embraced in the departmental reports demanding
+legislative consideration, and which I should be glad to submit. Some of
+them, however, have been earnestly presented in previous messages, and as
+to them I beg leave to repeat prior recommendations.
+
+As the law makes no provision for any report from the Department of State,
+a brief history of the transactions of that important Department, together
+with other matters which it may hereafter be deemed essential to commend to
+the attention of the Congress, may furnish the occasion for a future
+communication.
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Grover Cleveland
+December 3, 1888
+
+To the Congress of the United States:
+
+As you assemble for the discharge of the duties you have assumed as the
+representatives of a free and generous people, your meeting is marked by an
+interesting and impressive incident. With the expiration of the present
+session of the Congress the first century of our constitutional existence
+as a nation will be completed.
+
+Our survival for one hundred years is not sufficient to assure us that we
+no longer have dangers to fear in the maintenance, with all its promised
+blessings, of a government rounded upon the freedom of the people. The time
+rather admonishes us to soberly inquire whether in the past we have always
+closely kept in the course of safety, and whether we have before us a way
+plain and clear which leads to happiness and perpetuity.
+
+When the experiment of our Government was undertaken, the chart adopted for
+our guidance was the Constitution. Departure from the lines there laid down
+is failure. It is only by a strict adherence to the direction they indicate
+and by restraint within the limitations they fix that we can furnish proof
+to the world of the fitness of the American people for self-government.
+
+The equal and exact justice of which we boast as the underlying principle
+of our institutions should not be confined to the relations of our citizens
+to each other. The Government itself is under bond to the American people
+that in the exercise of its functions and powers it will deal with the body
+of our citizens in a manner scrupulously honest and fair and absolutely
+just. It has agreed that American citizenship shall be the only credential
+necessary to justify the claim of equality before the law, and that no
+condition in life shall give rise to discrimination in the treatment of the
+people by their Government.
+
+The citizen of our Republic in its early days rigidly insisted upon full
+compliance with the letter of this bond, and saw stretching out before him
+a clear field for individual endeavor. His tribute to the support of his
+Government was measured by the cost of its economical maintenance, and he
+was secure in the enjoyment of the remaining recompense of his steady and
+contented toil. In those days the frugality of the people was stamped upon
+their Government, and was enforced by the free, thoughtful, and intelligent
+suffrage of the citizen. Combinations, monopolies, and aggregations of
+capital were either avoided or sternly regulated and restrained. The pomp
+and glitter of governments less free offered no temptation and presented no
+delusion to the plain people who, side by side, in friendly competition,
+wrought for the ennoblement and dignity of man, for the solution of the
+problem of free government, and for the achievement of the grand destiny
+awaiting the land which God had given them.
+
+A century has passed. Our cities are the abiding places of wealth and
+luxury; our manufactories yield fortunes never dreamed of by the fathers of
+the Republic; our business men are madly striving in the race for riches,
+and immense aggregations of capital outrun the imagination in the magnitude
+of their undertakings.
+
+We view with pride and satisfaction this bright picture of our country's
+growth and prosperity, while only a closer scrutiny develops a somber
+shading. Upon more careful inspection we find the wealth and luxury of our
+cities mingled with poverty and wretchedness and unremunerative toil. A
+crowded and constantly increasing urban population suggests the
+impoverishment of rural sections and discontent with agricultural pursuits.
+The farmer's son, not satisfied with his father's simple and laborious
+life, joins the eager chase for easily acquired wealth.
+
+We discover that the fortunes realized by our manufacturers are no longer
+solely the reward of sturdy industry and enlightened foresight, but that
+they result from the discriminating favor of the Government and are largely
+built upon undue exactions from the masses of our people. The gulf between
+employers and the employed is constantly widening, and classes are rapidly
+forming, one comprising the very rich and powerful, while in another are
+found the toiling poor.
+
+As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the
+existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is
+struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel.
+Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law
+and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people's masters.
+
+Still congratulating ourselves upon the wealth and prosperity of our
+country and complacently contemplating every incident of change inseparable
+from these conditions, it is our duty as patriotic citizens to inquire at
+the present stage of our progress how the bond of the Government made with
+the people has been kept and performed.
+
+Instead of limiting the tribute drawn from our citizens to the necessities
+of its economical administration, the Government persists in exacting from
+the substance of the people millions which, unapplied and useless, lie
+dormant in its Treasury. This flagrant injustice and this breach of faith
+and obligation add to extortion the danger attending the diversion of the
+currency of the country from the legitimate channels of business.
+
+Under the same laws by which these results are produced the Government
+permits many millions more to be added to the cost of the living of our
+people and to be taken from our consumers, which unreasonably swell the
+profits of a small but powerful minority.
+
+The people must still be taxed for the support of the Government under the
+operation of tariff laws. But to the extent that the mass of our citizens
+are inordinately burdened beyond any useful public purpose and for the
+benefit of a favored few, the Government, under pretext of an exercise of
+its taxing power, enters gratuitously into partnership with these
+favorites, to their advantage and to the injury of a vast majority of our
+people.
+
+This is not equality before the law.
+
+The existing situation is injurious to the health of our entire body
+politic. It stifles in those for whose benefit it is permitted all
+patriotic love of country, and substitutes in its place selfish greed and
+grasping avarice. Devotion to American citizenship for its own sake and for
+what it should accomplish as a motive to our nation's advancement and the
+happiness of all our people is displaced by the assumption that the
+Government, instead of being the embodiment of equality, is but an
+instrumentality through which especial and individual advantages are to be
+gained.
+
+The arrogance of this assumption is unconcealed. It appears in the sordid
+disregard of all but personal interests, in the refusal to abate for the
+benefit of others one iota of selfish advantage, and in combinations to
+perpetuate such advantages through efforts to control legislation and
+improperly influence the suffrages of the people.
+
+The grievances of those not included within the circle of these
+beneficiaries, when fully realized, will surely arouse irritation and
+discontent. Our farmers, long suffering and patient, struggling in the race
+of life with the hardest and most unremitting toil, will not fail to see,
+in spite of misrepresentations and misleading fallacies, that they are
+obliged to accept such prices for their products as are fixed in foreign
+markets where they compete with the farmers of the world; that their lands
+are declining in value while their debts increase, and that without
+compensating favor they are forced by the action of the Government to pay
+for the benefit of others such enhanced prices for the things they need
+that the scanty returns of their labor fail to furnish their support or
+leave no margin for accumulation.
+
+Our workingmen, enfranchised from all delusions and no longer frightened by
+the cry that their wages are endangered by a just revision of our tariff
+laws, will reasonably demand through such revision steadier employment,
+cheaper means of living in their homes, freedom for themselves and their
+children from the doom of perpetual servitude, and an open door to their
+advancement beyond the limits of a laboring class. Others of our citizens,
+whose comforts and expenditures are measured by moderate salaries and fixed
+incomes, will insist upon the fairness and justice of cheapening the cost
+of necessaries for themselves and their families.
+
+When to the selfishness of the beneficiaries of unjust discrimination under
+our laws there shall be added the discontent of those who suffer from such
+discrimination, we will realize the fact that the beneficent purposes of
+our Government, dependent upon the patriotism and contentment of our
+people, are endangered.
+
+Communism is a hateful thing and a menace to peace and organized
+government; but the communism of combined wealth and capital, the outgrowth
+of overweening cupidity and selfishness, which insidiously undermines the
+justice and integrity of free institutions, is not less dangerous than the
+communism of oppressed poverty and toil, which, exasperated by injustice
+and discontent, attacks with wild disorder the citadel of rule.
+
+He mocks the people who proposes that the Government shall protect the rich
+and that they in turn will care for the laboring poor. Any intermediary
+between the people and their Government or the least delegation of the care
+and protection the Government owes to the humblest citizen in the land
+makes the boast of free institutions a glittering delusion and the
+pretended boon of American citizenship a shameless imposition.
+
+A just and sensible revision of our tariff laws should be made for the
+relief of those of our countrymen who suffer under present conditions. Such
+a revision should receive the support of all who love that justice and
+equality due to American citizenship; of all who realize that in this
+justice and equality our Government finds its strength and its power to
+protect the citizen and his property; of all who believe that the contented
+competence and comfort of many accord better with the spirit of our
+institutions than colossal fortunes unfairly gathered in the hands of a
+few; of all who appreciate that the forbearance and fraternity among our
+people, which recognize the value of every American interest, are the
+surest guaranty of our national progress, and of all who desire to see the
+products of American skill and ingenuity in every market of the world, with
+a resulting restoration of American commerce.
+
+The necessity of the reduction of our revenues is so apparent as to be
+generally conceded, but the means by which this end shall be accomplished
+and the sum of direct benefit which shall result to our citizens present a
+controversy of the utmost importance. There should be no scheme accepted as
+satisfactory by which the burdens of the people are only apparently
+removed. Extravagant appropriations of public money, with all their
+demoralizing consequences, should not be tolerated, either as a means of
+relieving the Treasury of its present surplus or as furnishing pretext for
+resisting a proper reduction in tariff rates. Existing evils and injustice
+should be honestly recognized, boldly met, and effectively remedied. There
+should be no cessation of the struggle until a plan is perfected, fair and
+conservative toward existing industries, but which will reduce the cost to
+consumers of the necessaries of life, while it provides for our
+manufacturers the advantage of freer raw materials and permits no injury to
+the interests of American labor.
+
+The cause for which the battle is waged is comprised within lines clearly
+and distinctly defined. It should never be compromised. It is the people's
+cause.
+
+It can not be denied that the selfish and private interests which are so
+persistently heard when efforts are made to deal in a just and
+comprehensive manner with our tariff laws are related to, if they are not
+responsible for, the sentiment largely prevailing among the people that the
+General Government is the fountain of individual and private aid; that it
+may be expected to relieve with paternal care the distress of citizens and
+communities, and that from the fullness of its Treasury it should, upon the
+slightest possible pretext of promoting the general good, apply public
+funds to the benefit of localities and individuals. Nor can it be denied
+that there is a growing assumption that, as against the Government and in
+favor of private claims and interests, the usual rules and limitations of
+business principles and just dealing should be waived.
+
+These ideas have been unhappily much encouraged by legislative
+acquiescence. Relief from contracts made with the Government is too easily
+accorded in favor of the citizen; the failure to support claims against the
+Government by proof is often supplied by no better consideration than the
+wealth of the Government and the poverty of the claimant; gratuities in the
+form of pensions are granted upon no other real ground than the needy
+condition of the applicant, or for reasons less valid; and large sums are
+expended for public buildings and other improvements upon representations
+scarcely claimed to be related to public needs and necessities.
+
+The extent to which the consideration of such matters subordinate and
+postpone action upon subjects of great public importance, but involving no
+special private or partisan interest, should arrest attention and lead to
+reformation.
+
+A few of the numerous illustrations of this condition may be stated.
+
+The crowded condition of the calendar of the Supreme Court, and the delay
+to suitors and denial of justice resulting therefrom, has been strongly
+urged upon the attention of the Congress, with a plan for the relief of the
+situation approved by those well able to judge of its merits. While this
+subject remains without effective consideration, many laws have been passed
+providing for the holding of terms of inferior courts at places to suit the
+convenience of localities, or to lay the foundation of an application for
+the erection of a new public building.
+
+Repeated recommendations have been submitted for the amendment and change
+of the laws relating to our public lands so that their spoliation and
+diversion to other uses than as homes for honest settlers might be
+prevented. While a measure to meet this conceded necessity of reform
+remains awaiting the action of the Congress, many claims to the public
+lands and applications for their donation, in favor of States and
+individuals, have been allowed.
+
+A plan in aid of Indian management, recommended by those well informed as
+containing valuable features in furtherance of the solution of the Indian
+problem, has thus far failed of legislative sanction, while grants of
+doubtful expediency to railroad corporations, permitting them to pass
+through Indian reservations, have greatly multiplied.
+
+The propriety and necessity of the erection of one or more prisons for the
+confinement of United States convicts, and a post-office building in the
+national capital, are not disputed. But these needs yet remain answered,
+while scores of public buildings have been erected where their necessity
+for public purposes is not apparent.
+
+A revision of our pension laws could easily be made which would rest upon
+just principles and provide for every worthy applicant. But while our
+general pension laws remain confused and imperfect, hundreds of private
+pension laws are annually passed, which are the sources of unjust
+discrimination and popular demoralization.
+
+Appropriation bills for the support of the Government are defaced by items
+and provisions to meet private ends, and it is freely asserted by
+responsible and experienced parties that a bill appropriating money for
+public internal improvement would fail to meet with favor unless it
+contained items more for local and private advantage than for public
+benefit.
+
+These statements can be much emphasized by an ascertainment of the
+proportion of Federal legislation which either bears upon its face its
+private character or which upon examination develops such a motive power.
+
+And yet the people wait and expect from their chosen representatives such
+patriotic action as will advance the welfare of the entire country; and
+this expectation can only be answered by the performance of public duty
+with unselfish purpose. Our mission among the nations of the earth and our
+success in accomplishing the work God has given the American people to do
+require of those intrusted with the making and execution of our laws
+perfect devotion, above all other things, to the public good.
+
+This devotion will lead us to strongly resist all impatience of
+constitutional limitations of Federal power and to persistently check the
+increasing tendency to extend the scope of Federal legislation into the
+domain of State and local jurisdiction upon the plea of subserving the
+public welfare. The preservation of the partitions between proper subjects
+of Federal and local care and regulation is of such importance under the
+Constitution, which is the law of our very existence, that no consideration
+of expediency or sentiment should tempt us to enter upon doubtful ground.
+We have undertaken to discover and proclaim the richest blessings of a free
+government, with the Constitution as our guide. Let us follow the way it
+points out; it will not mislead us. And surely no one who has taken upon
+himself the solemn obligation to support and preserve the Constitution can
+find justification or solace for disloyalty in the excuse that he wandered
+and disobeyed in search of a better way to reach the public welfare than
+the Constitution offers.
+
+What has been said is deemed not inappropriate at a time when, from a
+century's height, we view the way already trod by the American people and
+attempt to discover their future path.
+
+The seventh President of the United States--the soldier and statesman and
+at all times the firm and brave friend of the people--in vindication of his
+course as the protector of popular rights and the champion of true American
+citizenship, declared: The ambition which leads me on is an anxious desire
+and a fixed determination to restore to the people unimpaired the sacred
+trust they have confided to my charge; to, heal the wounds of the
+Constitution and to preserve it from further violation; to persuade my
+countrymen, so far as I may, that it is not in a splendid government
+supported by powerful monopolies and aristocratical establishments that
+they will find happiness or their liberties protection, but in a plain
+system, void of pomp, protecting all and granting favors to none,
+dispensing its blessings like the dews of heaven, unseen and unfelt save in
+the freshness and beauty they contribute to produce. It is such a
+government that the genius of our people requires--such an one only under
+which our States may remain for ages to come united, prosperous, and free.
+In pursuance of a constitutional provision requiring the President from
+time to time to give to the Congress information of the state of the Union,
+I have the satisfaction to announce that the close of the year finds the
+United States in the enjoyment of domestic tranquillity and at peace with
+all the nations.
+
+Since my last annual message our foreign relations have been strengthened
+and improved by performance of international good offices and by new and
+renewed treaties of amity, commerce, and reciprocal extradition of
+criminals.
+
+Those international questions which still await settlement are all
+reasonably within the domain of amicable negotiation, and there is no
+existing subject of dispute between the United States and any foreign power
+that is not susceptible of satisfactory adjustment by frank diplomatic
+treatment.
+
+The questions between Great Britain and the United States relating to the
+rights of American fishermen, under treaty and international comity, in the
+territorial waters of Canada and Newfoundland, I regret to say, are not yet
+satisfactorily adjusted.
+
+These matters were fully treated in my message to the Senate of February 20
+1888, together with which a convention, concluded under my authority with
+Her Majesty's Government on the 15th of February last, for the removal of
+all causes of misunderstanding, was submitted by me for the approval of the
+Senate.
+
+This treaty having been rejected by the Senate, I transmitted a message to
+the Congress on the 23d of August last reviewing the transactions and
+submitting for consideration certain recommendations for legislation
+concerning the important questions involved.
+
+Afterwards, on the 12th of September, in response to a resolution of the
+Senate, I again communicated fully all the information in my possession as
+to the action of the government of Canada affecting the commercial
+relations between the Dominion and the United States, including the
+treatment of American fishing vessels in the ports and waters of British
+North America.
+
+These communications have all been published, and therefore opened to the
+knowledge of both Houses of Congress, although two were addressed to the
+Senate alone.
+
+Comment upon or repetition of their contents would be superfluous, and I am
+not aware that anything has since occurred which should be added to the
+facts therein stated. Therefore I merely repeat, as applicable to the
+present time, the statement which will be found in my message to the Senate
+of September 12 last, that--Since March 3, 1887, no case has been reported
+to the Department of State wherein complaint was made of unfriendly or
+unlawful treatment of American fishing vessels on the part of the Canadian
+authorities in which reparation was not promptly and satisfactorily
+obtained by the United States consul-general at Halifax. Having essayed in
+the discharge of my duty to procure by negotiation the settlement of a
+long-standing cause of dispute and to remove a constant menace to the good
+relations of the two countries, and continuing to be of opinion that the
+treaty of February last, which failed to receive the approval of the
+Senate, did supply "a satisfactory, practical, and final adjustment, upon a
+basis honorable and just to both parties, of the difficult and vexed
+question to which it related," and having subsequently and unavailingly
+recommended other legislation to Congress which I hoped would suffice to
+meet the exigency created by the rejection of the treaty, I now again
+invoke the earnest and immediate attention of the Congress to the condition
+of this important question as it now stands before them and the country,
+and for the settlement of which I am deeply solicitous.
+
+Near the close of the month of October last occurrences of a deeply
+regrettable nature were brought to my knowledge, which made it my painful
+but imperative duty to obtain with as little delay as possible a new
+personal channel of diplomatic intercourse in this country with the
+Government of Great Britain.
+
+The correspondence in relation to this incident will in due course be laid
+before you, and will disclose the unpardonable conduct of the official
+referred to in his interference by advice and counsel with the suffrages of
+American citizens in the very crisis of the Presidential election then near
+at hand, and also in his subsequent public declarations to justify his
+action, superadding impugnment of the Executive and Senate of the United
+States in connection with important questions now pending in controversy
+between the two Governments.
+
+The offense thus committed was most grave, involving disastrous
+possibilities to the good relations of the United States and Great Britain,
+constituting a gross breach of diplomatic privilege and an invasion of the
+purely domestic affairs and essential sovereignty of the Government to
+which the envoy was accredited.
+
+Having first fulfilled the just demands of international comity by
+affording full opportunity for Her Majesty's Government to act in relief of
+the situation, I considered prolongation of discussion to be unwarranted,
+and thereupon declined to further recognize the diplomatic character of the
+person whose continuance in such function would destroy that mutual
+confidence which is essential to the good understanding of the two
+Governments and was inconsistent with the welfare and self-respect of the
+Government of the United States.
+
+The usual interchange of communication has since continued through Her
+Majesty's legation in this city.
+
+My endeavors to establish by international cooperation measures for the
+prevention of the extermination of fur seals in Bering Sea have not been
+relaxed, and I have hopes of being enabled shortly to submit an effective
+and satisfactory conventional projet with the maritime powers for the
+approval of the Senate.
+
+The coastal boundary between our Alaskan possessions and British Columbia,
+I regret to say, has not received the attention demanded by its importance,
+and which on several occasions heretofore I have had the honor to recommend
+to the Congress.
+
+The admitted impracticability, if not impossibility, of making an accurate
+and precise survey and demarcation of the boundary line as it is recited in
+the treaty with Russia under which Alaska was ceded to the United States
+renders it absolutely requisite for the prevention of international
+jurisdictional complications that adequate appropriation for a
+reconnoissance and survey to obtain proper knowledge of the locality and
+the geographical features of the boundary should be authorized by Congress
+with as little delay as possible.
+
+Knowledge to be only thus obtained is an essential prerequisite for
+negotiation for ascertaining a common boundary, or as preliminary to any
+other mode of settlement.
+
+It is much to be desired that some agreement should be reached with Her
+Majesty's Government by which the damages to life and property on the Great
+Lakes may be alleviated by removing or humanely regulating the obstacles to
+reciprocal assistance to wrecked or stranded vessels.
+
+The act of June 19, 1878, which offers to Canadian vessels free access to
+our inland waters in aid of wrecked or disabled vessels, has not yet become
+effective through concurrent action by Canada.
+
+The due protection of our citizens of French origin or descent from claim
+of military service in the event of their returning to or visiting France
+has called forth correspondence which was laid before you at the last
+session.
+
+In the absence of conventional agreement as to naturalization, which is
+greatly to be desired, this Government sees no occasion to recede from the
+sound position it has maintained not only with regard to France, but as to
+all countries with which the United States have not concluded special
+treaties.
+
+Twice within the last year has the imperial household of Germany been
+visited by death; and I have hastened to express the sorrow of this people,
+and their appreciation of the lofty character of the late aged Emperor
+William, and their sympathy with the heroism under suffering of his son the
+late Emperor Frederick.
+
+I renew my recommendation of two years ago for the passage of a bill for
+the refunding to certain German steamship lines of the interest upon
+tonnage dues illegally exacted.
+
+On the 12th [2d] of April last I laid before the House of Representatives
+full information respecting our interests in Samoa; and in the subsequent
+correspondence on the same subject, which will be laid before you in due
+course, the history of events in those islands will be found.
+
+In a message accompanying my approval, on the 1st day of October last, of a
+bill for the exclusion of Chinese laborers, I laid before Congress full
+information and all correspondence touching the negotiation of the treaty
+with China concluded at this capital on the 12th day of March, 1888, and
+which, having been confirmed by the Senate with certain amendments, was
+rejected by the Chinese Government. This message contained a recommendation
+that a sum of money be appropriated as compensation to Chinese subjects who
+had suffered injuries at the hands of lawless men within our jurisdiction.
+Such appropriation having been duly made, the fund awaits reception by the
+Chinese Government.
+
+It is sincerely hoped that by the cessation of the influx of this class of
+Chinese subjects, in accordance with the expressed wish of both
+Governments, a cause of unkind feeling has been permanently removed.
+
+On the 9th of August, 1887, notification was given by the Japanese minister
+at this capital of the adjournment of the conference for the revision of
+the treaties of Japan with foreign powers, owing to the objection of his
+Government to the provision in the draft jurisdictional convention which
+required the submission of the criminal code of the Empire to the powers in
+advance of its becoming operative. This notification was, however,
+accompanied with an assurance of Japan's intention to continue the work of
+revision.
+
+Notwithstanding this temporary interruption of negotiations, it is hoped
+that improvements may soon be secured in the jurisdictional system as
+respects foreigners in Japan, and relief afforded to that country from the
+present undue and oppressive foreign control in matters of commerce.
+
+I earnestly recommend that relief be provided for the injuries accidentally
+caused to Japanese subjects in the island Ikisima by the target practice of
+one of our vessels.
+
+A diplomatic mission from Korea has been received, and the formal
+intercourse between the two countries contemplated by the treaty of 1882 is
+now established.
+
+Legislative provision is hereby recommended to organize and equip consular
+courts in Korea.
+
+Persia has established diplomatic representation at this capital, and has
+evinced very great interest in the enterprise and achievements of our
+citizens. I am therefore hopeful that beneficial commercial relations
+between the two countries may be brought about.
+
+I announce with sincere regret that Hayti has again become the theater of
+insurrection, disorder, and bloodshed. The titular government of president
+Saloman has been forcibly overthrown and he driven out of the country to
+France, where he has since died.
+
+The tenure of power has been so unstable amid the war of factions that has
+ensued since the expulsion of President Saloman that no government
+constituted by the will of the Haytian people has been recognized as
+administering responsibly the affairs of that country. Our representative
+has been instructed to abstain from interference between the warring
+factions, and a vessel of our Navy has been sent to Haytian waters to
+sustain our minister and for the protection of the persons and property of
+American citizens.
+
+Due precautions have been taken to enforce our neutrality laws and prevent
+our territory from becoming the base of military supplies for either of the
+warring factions.
+
+Under color of a blockade, of which no reasonable notice had been given,
+and which does not appear to have been efficiently maintained, a seizure of
+vessels under the American flag has been reported, and in consequence
+measures to prevent and redress any molestation of our innocent merchantmen
+have been adopted.
+
+Proclamation was duly made on the 9th day of November, 1887, of the
+conventional extensions of the treaty of June 3, 1875, with Hawaii, under
+which relations of such special and beneficent intercourse have been
+created.
+
+In the vast field of Oriental commerce now unfolded from our Pacific
+borders no feature presents stronger recommendations for Congressional
+action than the establishment of communication by submarine telegraph with
+Honolulu.
+
+The geographical position of the Hawaiian group in relation to our Pacific
+States creates a natural interdependency and mutuality of interest which
+our present treaties were intended to foster, and which make close
+communication a logical and commercial necessity.
+
+The wisdom of concluding a treaty of commercial reciprocity with Mexico has
+been heretofore stated in my messages to Congress, and the lapse of time
+and growth of commerce with that close neighbor and sister Republic confirm
+the judgment so expressed.
+
+The precise relocation of our boundary line is needful, and adequate
+appropriation is now recommended.
+
+It is with sincere satisfaction that I am enabled to advert to the spirit
+of good neighborhood and friendly cooperation and conciliation that has
+marked the correspondence and action of the Mexican authorities in their
+share of the task of maintaining law and order about the line of our common
+boundary.
+
+The long-pending boundary dispute between Costa Rica and Nicaragua was
+referred to my arbitration, and by an award made on the 22d of March last
+the question has been finally settled to the expressed satisfaction of both
+of the parties in interest.
+
+The Empire of Brazil, in abolishing the last vestige of slavery among
+Christian nations, called forth the earnest congratulations of this
+Government in expression of the cordial sympathies of our people.
+
+The claims of nearly all other countries against Chile growing out of her
+late war with Bolivia and Peru have been disposed of, either by arbitration
+or by a lump settlement. Similar claims of our citizens will continue to be
+urged upon the Chilean Government, and it is hoped will not be subject to
+further delays.
+
+A comprehensive treaty of amity and commerce with Peru was proclaimed on
+November 7 last, and it is expected that under its operation mutual
+prosperity and good understanding will be promoted.
+
+In pursuance of the policy of arbitration, a treaty to settle the claim of
+Santos, an American citizen, against Ecuador has been concluded under my
+authority, and will be duly submitted for the approval of the Senate.
+
+Like disposition of the claim of Carlos Butterfield against Denmark and of
+Van Bokkelen against Hayti will probably be made, and I trust the principle
+of such settlements may be extended in practice under the approval of the
+Senate.
+
+Through unforeseen causes, foreign to the will of both Governments, the
+ratification of the convention of December 5, 1885, with Venezuela, for the
+rehearing of claims of citizens of the United States under the treaty of
+1866, failed of exchange within the term provided, and a supplementary
+convention, further extending the time for exchange of ratifications and
+explanatory of an ambiguous provision of the prior convention, now awaits
+the advice and consent of the Senate.
+
+Although this matter, in the stage referred to, concerns only the
+concurrent treaty-making power of one branch of Congress, I advert to it in
+view of the interest repeatedly and conspicuously shown by you in your
+legislative capacity in favor of a speedy and equitable adjustment of the
+questions growing out of the discredited judgments of the previous mixed
+commission of Caracas. With every desire to do justice to the
+representations of Venezuela in this regard, the time seems to have come to
+end this matter, and I trust the prompt confirmation by both parties of the
+supplementary action referred to will avert the need of legislative or
+other action to prevent the longer withholding of such rights of actual
+claimants as may be shown to exist.
+
+As authorized by the Congress, preliminary steps have been taken for the
+assemblage at this capital during the coming year of the representatives of
+South and Central American States, together with those of Mexico, Hayti,
+and San Domingo, to discuss sundry important monetary and commercial
+topics.
+
+Excepting in those cases where, from reasons of contiguity of territory and
+the existence of a common border line incapable of being guarded,
+reciprocal commercial treaties may be found expedient, it is believed that
+commercial policies inducing freer mutual exchange of products can be most
+advantageously arranged by independent but cooperative legislation.
+
+In the mode last mentioned the control of our taxation for revenue will be
+always retained in our own hands unrestricted by conventional agreements
+with other governments.
+
+In conformity also with Congressional authority, the maritime powers have
+been invited to confer in Washington in April next upon the practicability
+of devising uniform rules and measures for the greater security of life and
+property at sea. A disposition to accept on the part of a number of the
+powers has already been manifested, and if the cooperation of the nations
+chiefly interested shall be secured important results may be confidently
+anticipated.
+
+The act of June 26, 1884, and the acts amendatory thereof, in relation to
+tonnage duties, have given rise to extended correspondence with foreign
+nations with whom we have existing treaties of navigation and commerce, and
+have caused wide and regrettable divergence of opinion in relation to the
+imposition of the duties referred to. These questions are important, and I
+shall make them the subject of a special and more detailed communication at
+the present session.
+
+With the rapid increase of immigration to our shores and the facilities of
+modern travel, abuses of the generous privileges afforded by our
+naturalization laws call for their careful revision.
+
+The easy and unguarded manner in which certificates of American citizenship
+can now be obtained has induced a class, unfortunately large, to avail
+themselves of the opportunity to become absolved from allegiance to their
+native land, and yet by a foreign residence to escape any just duty and
+contribution of service to the country of their proposed adoption. Thus,
+while evading the duties of citizenship to the United States, they may make
+prompt claim for its national protection and demand its intervention in
+their behalf. International complications of a serious nature arise, and
+the correspondence of the State Department discloses the great number and
+complexity of the questions which have been raised.
+
+Our laws regulating the issue of passports should be carefully revised, and
+the institution of a central bureau of registration at the capital is again
+strongly recommended. By this means full particulars of each case of
+naturalization in the United States would be secured and properly indexed
+and recorded, and thus many cases of spurious citizenship would be detected
+and unjust responsibilities would be avoided.
+
+The reorganization of the consular service is a matter of serious
+importance to our national interests. The number of existing principal
+consular offices is believed to be greater than is at all necessary for the
+conduct of the public business. It need not be our policy to maintain more
+than a moderate number of principal offices, each supported by a salary
+sufficient to enable the incumbent to live in comfort, and so distributed
+as to secure the convenient supervision, through subordinate agencies, of
+affairs over a considerable district.
+
+I repeat the recommendations heretofore made by me that the appropriations
+for the maintenance of our diplomatic and consular service should be
+recast; that the so-called notarial or unofficial fees, which our
+representatives abroad are now permitted to treat as personal perquisites,
+should be forbidden; that a system of consular inspection should be
+instituted, and that a limited number of secretaries of legation at large
+should be authorized.
+
+Preparations for the centennial celebration, on April 30, 1889, of the
+inauguration of George Washington as President of the United States, at the
+city of New York, have been made by a voluntary organization of the
+citizens of that locality, and believing that an opportunity should be
+afforded for the expression of the interest felt throughout the country in
+this event, I respectfully recommend fitting and cooperative action by
+Congress on behalf of the people of the United States.
+
+The report of the Secretary of the Treasury exhibits in detail the
+condition of our national finances and the operations of the several
+branches of the Government related to his Department.
+
+The total ordinary revenues of the Government for the fiscal year ended
+June 30, 1888, amounted to $379,266,074.76, of which $219,091,173.63 was
+received from customs duties and $124,296,871.98 from internal revenue
+taxes.
+
+The total receipts from all sources exceeded those for the fiscal year
+ended June 30, 1887, by $7,862,797.10.
+
+The ordinary expenditures of the Government for the fiscal year ending June
+30, 1888, were $259,653,958.67, leaving a surplus of $119,612,116.09.
+
+The decrease in these expenditures as compared with the fiscal year ended
+June 30, 1887, was $8,278,221.30, notwithstanding the payment of more than
+$5,000,000 for pensions in excess of what was paid for that purpose in the
+latter-mentioned year.
+
+The revenues of the Government for the year ending June 30, 1889,
+ascertained for the quarter ended September 30, 1888, and estimated for the
+remainder of the time, amount to $377,000,000, and the actual and estimated
+ordinary expenditures for the same year are $273,000,000, leaving an
+estimated surplus of $104,000,000.
+
+The estimated receipts for the year ending June 30, 1890, are $377,000,000,
+and the estimated ordinary expenditures for the same time are
+$275,767,488.34, showing a surplus of $101,232,511.66.
+
+The foregoing statements of surplus do not take into account the sum
+necessary to be expended to meet the requirements of the sinking-fund act,
+amounting to more than $47,000,000 annually.
+
+The cost of collecting the customs revenues for the last fiscal year was
+2.44 per cent; for the year 1885 it was 3.77 per cent.
+
+The excess of internal-revenue taxes collected during the last fiscal year
+over those collected for the year ended June 30, 1887, was $5,489,174.26,
+and the cost of collecting this revenue decreased from 3.4 per cent in 1887
+to less than 3.2 per cent for the last year. The tax collected on
+oleomargarine was $723,948.04 for the year ending June 30, 1887, and
+$864,139.88 for the following year.
+
+The requirements of the sinking-fund act have been met for the year ended
+June 30, 1888, and for the current year also, by the purchase of bonds.
+After complying with this law as positively required, and bonds sufficient
+for that purpose had been bought at a premium, it was not deemed prudent to
+further expend the surplus in such purchases until the authority to do so
+should be more explicit. A resolution, however, having been passed by both
+Houses of Congress removing all doubt as to Executive authority, daily
+purchases of bonds were commenced on the 23d day of April, 1888, and have
+continued until the present time. By this plan bonds of the Government not
+yet due have been purchased up to and including the 30th day of November,
+1888, amounting to $94,700,400, the premium paid thereon amounting to
+$17,508,613.08.
+
+The premium added to the principal of these bonds represents an investment
+yielding about 2 per cent interest for the time they still had to run, and
+the saving to the Government represented by the difference between the
+amount of interest at 2 per cent upon the sum paid for principal and
+premium and what it would have paid for interest at the rate specified in
+the bonds if they had run to their maturity is about $27,165,000.
+
+At first sight this would seem to be a profitable and sensible transaction
+on the part of the Government, but, as suggested by the Secretary of the
+Treasury, the surplus thus expended for the purchase of bonds was money
+drawn from the people in excess of any actual need of the Government and
+was so expended rather than allow it to remain idle in the Treasury. If
+this surplus, under the operation of just and equitable laws, had been left
+in the hands of the people, it would have been worth in their business at
+least 6 per cent per annum. Deducting from the amount of interest upon the
+principal and premium of these bonds for the time they had to run at the
+rate of 6 per cent the saving of 2 per cent made for the people by the
+purchase of such bonds, the loss will appear to be $55,760,000.
+
+This calculation would seem to demonstrate that if excessive and
+unnecessary taxation is continued and the Government is forced to pursue
+this policy of purchasing its own bonds at the premiums which it will be
+necessary to pay, the loss to the people will be hundreds of millions of
+dollars.
+
+Since the purchase of bonds was undertaken as mentioned nearly all that
+have been offered were at last accepted. It has been made quite apparent
+that the Government was in danger of being subjected to combinations to
+raise their price, as appears by the instance cited by the Secretary of the
+offering of bonds of the par value of only $326,000 so often that the
+aggregate of the sums demanded for their purchase amounted to more than $
+19,700,000.
+
+Notwithstanding the large sums paid out in the purchase of bonds, the
+surplus in the Treasury on the 30th day of November, 1888, was
+$52,234,610.01, after deducting about $20,000,000 just drawn out for the
+payment of pensions.
+
+At the close of the fiscal year ended June 30, 1887, there had been coined
+under the compulsory silver-coinage act $266,988,280 in silver dollars,
+$55,504,310 of which were in the hands of the people.
+
+On the 30th day of June, 1888, there had been coined $299,708,790; and of
+this $55,829,303 was in circulation in coin, and $200,387,376 in silver
+certificates, for the redemption of which silver dollars to that amount
+were held by the Government.
+
+On the 30th day of November, 1888, $312,570,990 had been coined,
+$60,970,990 of the silver dollars were actually in circulation, and
+$237,418,346 in certificates.
+
+The Secretary recommends the suspension of the further coinage of silver,
+and in such recommendation I earnestly concur.
+
+For further valuable information and timely recommendations I ask the
+careful attention of the Congress to the Secretary's report.
+
+The Secretary of War reports that the Army at the date of the last
+consolidated returns consisted of 2,189 officers and 24,549 enlisted men.
+
+The actual expenditures of the War Department for the fiscal year ended
+June 30, 1888, amounted to $41,165,107.07, of which sum $9,158,516.63 was
+expended for public works, including river and harbor improvements.
+
+"The Board of Ordnance and Fortifications" provided for under the act
+approved September 22 last was convened October 30, 1888, and plans and
+specifications for procuring forgings for 8, 10, and 12 inch guns, under
+provisions of section 4, and also for procuring 12-inch breech-loading
+mortars, cast iron, hooped with steel, under the provisions of section 5 of
+the said act, were submitted to the Secretary of War for reference to the
+board, by the Ordnance Department, on the same date.
+
+These plans and specifications having been promptly approved by the board
+and the Secretary of War, the necessary authority to publish advertisements
+inviting proposals in the newspapers throughout the country was granted by
+the Secretary on November 12, and on November 13 the advertisements were
+sent out to the different newspapers designated. The bids for the steel
+forgings are to be opened on December 20, 1888, and for the mortars on
+December 15, 1888.
+
+A board of ordnance officers was convened at the Watervliet Arsenal on
+October 4, 1888, to prepare the necessary plans and specifications for the
+establishment of an army gun factory at that point. The preliminary report
+of this board, with estimates for shop buildings and officers' quarters,
+was approved by the Board of Ordnance and Fortifications November 6 and 8.
+The specifications and form of advertisement and instructions to bidders
+have been prepared, and advertisements inviting proposals for the
+excavations for the shop building and for erecting the two sets of
+officers' quarters have been published. The detailed drawings and
+specifications for the gun-factory building are well in hand, and will be
+finished within three or four months, when bids will be invited for the
+erection of the building. The list of machines, etc., is made out, and it
+is expected that the plans for the large lathes, etc., will be completed
+within about four months, and after approval by the Board of Ordnance and
+Fortifications bids for furnishing the same will be invited. The machines
+and other fixtures will be completed as soon as the shop is in readiness to
+receive them, probably about July, 1890.
+
+Under the provisions of the Army bill for the procurement of pneumatic
+dynamite guns, the necessary specifications are now being prepared, and
+advertisements for proposals will issue early in December. The guns will
+probably be of 15 inches caliber and fire a projectile that will carry a
+charge each of about 500 pounds of explosive gelatine with full-caliber
+projectiles. The guns will probably be delivered in from six to ten months
+from the date of the contract, so that all the guns of this class that can
+be procured under the provisions of the law will be purchased during the
+year 1889.
+
+I earnestly request that the recommendations contained in the Secretary's
+report, all of which are, in my opinion, calculated to increase the
+usefulness and discipline of the Army, may receive the consideration of the
+Congress. Among these the proposal that there should be provided a plan for
+the examination of officers to test their fitness for promotion is of the
+utmost importance. This reform has been before recommended in the reports
+of the Secretary, and its expediency is so fully demonstrated by the
+argument he presents in its favor that its adoption should no longer be
+neglected.
+
+The death of General Sheridan in August last was a national affliction. The
+Army then lost the grandest of its chiefs. The country lost a brave and
+experienced soldier, a wise and discreet counselor, and a modest and
+sensible man. Those who in any manner came within the range of his personal
+association will never fail to pay deserved and willing homage to his
+greatness and the glory of his career, but they will cherish with more
+tender sensibility the loving memory of his simple, generous, and
+considerate nature.
+
+The Apache Indians, whose removal from their reservation in Arizona
+followed the capture of those of their number who engaged in a bloody
+and murderous raid during a part of the years 1885 and 1886, are now held
+as prisoners of war at Mount Vernon Barracks, in the State of Alabama. They
+numbered on the 31st day of October, the date of the last report, 83 men,
+170 women, 70 boys, and 59 girls; in all, 382 persons. The commanding
+officer states that they are in good health and contented, and that they
+are kept employed as fully as is possible in the circumstances. The
+children, as they arrive at a suitable age, are sent to the Indian schools
+at Carlisle and Hampton.
+
+Last summer some charitable and kind people asked permission to send two
+teachers to these Indians for the purpose of instructing the adults as well
+as such children as should be found there. Such permission was readily
+granted, accommodations were provided for the teachers, and some portions
+of the buildings at the barracks were made available for school purposes.
+The good work contemplated has been commenced, and the teachers engaged are
+paid by the ladies with whom the plan originated.
+
+I am not at all in sympathy with those benevolent but injudicious people
+who are constantly insisting that these Indians should be returned to their
+reservation. Their removal was an absolute necessity if the lives and
+property of citizens upon the frontier are to be at all regarded by the
+Government. Their continued restraint at a distance from the scene of their
+repeated and cruel murders and outrages is still necessary. It is a
+mistaken philanthropy, every way injurious, which prompts the desire to see
+these savages returned to their old haunts. They are in their present
+location as the result of the best judgment of those having official
+responsibility in the matter, and who are by no means lacking in kind
+consideration for the Indians. A number of these prisoners have forfeited
+their lives to outraged law and humanity. Experience has proved that they
+are dangerous and can not be trusted. This is true not only of those who on
+the warpath have heretofore actually been guilty of atrocious murder, but
+of their kindred and friends, who, while they remained upon their
+reservation, furnished aid and comfort to those absent with bloody intent.
+
+These prisoners should be treated kindly and kept in restraint far from the
+locality of their former reservation; they should be subjected to efforts
+calculated to lead to their improvement and the softening of their savage
+and cruel instincts, but their return to their old home should be
+persistently resisted.
+
+The Secretary in his report gives a graphic history of these Indians, and
+recites with painful vividness their bloody deeds and the unhappy failure
+of the Government to manage them by peaceful means. It will be amazing if a
+perusal of this history will allow the survival of a desire for the return
+of these prisoners to their reservation upon sentimental or any other
+grounds.
+
+The report of the Secretary of the Navy demonstrates very intelligent
+management in that important Department, and discloses the most
+satisfactory progress in the work of reconstructing the Navy made during
+the past year. Of the ships in course of construction five, viz, the
+Charleston, Baltimore, Yorktown, Vesuvius, and the Petrel, have in that
+time been launched and are rapidly approaching completion; and in addition
+to the above, the Philadelphia, the San Francisco, the Newark, the
+Bennington, the Concord, and the Herreshoff torpedo boat are all under
+contract for delivery to the Department during the next year. The progress
+already made and being made gives good ground for the expectation that
+these eleven vessels will be incorporated as part of the American Navy
+within the next twelve months.
+
+The report shows that notwithstanding the large expenditures for new
+construction and the additional labor they involve the total ordinary or
+current expenditures of the Department for the three years ending June 30,
+1888, are less by more than 20 per cent than such expenditures for the
+three years ending June 30, 1884.
+
+The various steps which have been taken to improve the business methods of
+the Department are reviewed by the Secretary. The purchasing of supplies
+has been consolidated and placed under a responsible bureau head. This has
+resulted in the curtailment of open purchases, which in the years 1884 and
+1885 amounted to over 50 per cent of all the purchases of the Department,
+to less than 11 per cent; so that at the present time about 90 per cent of
+the total departmental purchases are made by contract and after
+competition. As the expenditures on this account exceed an average of
+$2,000,000 annually, it is evident that an important improvement in the
+system has been inaugurated and substantial economies introduced.
+
+The report of the Postmaster-General shows a marked increase of business in
+every branch of the postal service.
+
+The number of post-offices on July 1, 1888, was 57,376, an increase of
+6,124 in three years and of 2,219 for the last fiscal year. The
+latter-mentioned increase is classified as follows:
+
+New England States -
+
+Middle States - 181
+
+Southern States and Indian Territory (41) - 1,406
+
+The States and Territories of the Pacific Coast - 190
+
+The ten States and Territories of the West and Northwest - 435
+
+District of Columbia - 2 -
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF ADDRESSES BY GROVER CLEVELAND ***
+
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