In submitting my seventh annual message to Congress, in this centennial year of our national existence as a free and independent people, it affords me great pleasure to recur to the advancement that has been made from the time of the colonies, one hundred years ago. We were then a people numbering only 3,000,000. Now we number more than 40,000,000. Then industries were confined almost exclusively to the tillage of the soil. Now manufactories absorb much of the labor of the country. Our liberties remain unimpaired; the bondmen have been freed from slavery; we have become possessed of the respect, if not the friendship, of all civilized nations. Our progress has been great in all the arts--in science, agriculture, commerce, navigation, mining, mechanics, law, medicine, etc.; and in general education the progress is likewise encouraging. Our thirteen States have become thirty-eight, including Colorado (which has taken the initiatory steps to become a State), and eight Territories, including the Indian Territory and Alaska, and excluding Colorado, making a territory extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific. On the south we have extended to the Gulf of Mexico, and in the west from the Mississippi to the Pacific. One hundred years ago the cotton gin, the steamship, the railroad, the telegraph, the reaping, sewing, and modern printing machines, and numerous other inventions of scarcely less value to our business and happiness were entirely unknown. In 1776 manufactories scarcely existed even in name in all this vast territory. In 1870 more than 2,000,000 persons were employed in manufactories, producing more than $2,100,000,000 of products in amount annually, nearly equal to our national debt. From nearly the whole of the population of 1776 being engaged in the one occupation of agriculture, in 1870 so numerous and diversified had become the occupation of our people that less than 6,000,000 out of more than 40,000,000 were so engaged. The extraordinary effect produced in our country by a resort to diversified occupations has built a market for the products of fertile lands distant from the seaboard and the markets of the world. The American system of locating various and extensive manufactories next to the plow and the pasture, and adding connecting railroads and steamboats, has produced in our distant interior country a result noticeable by the intelligent portions all all commercial nations. The ingenuity and skill of American mechanics have been demonstrated at home and abroad in a manner most flattering to their pride. But for the extraordinary genius and ability of our mechanics, the achievements of our agriculturists, manufacturers, and transporters throughout the country would have been impossible of attainment. The progress of the miner has also been great. Of coal our production has small; now many millions of tons are mined annually. So with iron, which formed scarcely an appreciable part of our products half a century ago, we now produce more than the world consumed at the beginning of our national existence. Lead, zinc, and copper, from being articles of import, we may expect to be large exporters of in the near future. The development of gold and silver mines in the United States and Territories has not only been remarkable, but has had a large influence upon the business of all commercial nations. Our merchants in the last hundred years have had a success and have established a reputation for enterprise, sagacity, progress, and integrity unsurpassed by peoples of older nationalities. This "good name" is not confined to their homes, but goes out upon every sea and into every port where commerce enters. With equal pride we can point to our progress in all of the learned professions. As we are now about to enter upon our second centennial--commenting our manhood as a nation--it is well to look back upon the past and study what will be best to preserve and advance our future greatness From the fall of Adam for his transgression to the present day no nation has ever been free from threatened danger to its prosperity and happiness. We should look to the dangers threatening us, and remedy them so far as lies in our power. We are a republic whereof one man is as good as another before the law. Under such a form of government it is of the greatest importance that all should be possessed of education and intelligence enough to cast a vote with a right understanding of its meaning. A large association of ignorant men can not for any considerable period oppose a successful resistance to tyranny and oppression from the educated few, but will inevitably sink into acquiescence to the will of intelligence, whether directed by the demagogue or by priestcraft. Hence the education of the masses becomes of the first necessity for the preservation of our institutions. They are worth preserving, because they have secured the greatest good to the greatest proportion of the population of any form of government yet devised. All other forms of government approach it just in proportion to the general diffusion of education and independence of thought and action. As the primary step, therefore, to our advancement in all that has marked our progress in the past century, I suggest for your earnest consideration, and most earnestly recommend it, that a constitutional amendment be submitted to the legislatures of the several States for ratification, making it the duty of each of the several States to establish and forever maintain free public schools adequate to the education of all the children in the rudimentary branches within their respective limits, irrespective of sex, color, birthplace, or religions; forbidding the teaching in said schools of religious, atheistic, or pagan tenets; and prohibiting the granting of any school funds or school taxes, or any part thereof, either by legislative, municipal, or other authority, for the benefit or in aid, directly or indirectly, of any religious sect or denomination, or in aid or for the benefit of any other object of any nature or kind whatever. In connection with this important question I would also call your attention to the importance of correcting an evil that, if permitted to continue, will probably lead to great trouble in our land before the close of the nineteenth century. It is the accumulation of vast amounts of untaxed church property. In 1850, I believe, the church property of the United States which paid no tax, municipal or State, amounted to about $83,000,000. In 1860 the amount had doubled; in 1875 it is about $1,000,000,000. By 1900, without check, it is safe to say this property will reach a sum exceeding $3,000,000,000. So vast a sum, receiving all the protection and benefits of Government without bearing its proportion of the burdens and expenses of the same, will not be looked upon acquiescently by those who have to pay the taxes. In a growing country, where real estate enhances so rapidly with time as in the United States, there is scarcely a limit to the wealth that may be acquired by corporations, religious or otherwise, if allowed to retain real estate without taxation. The contemplation of so vast a property as here alluded to, without taxation, may lead to sequestration without constitutional authority and through blood. I would suggest the taxation of all property equally, whether church or corporation, exempting only the last resting place of the dead and possibly, with proper restrictions, church edifices. 
Our relations with most of the foreign powers continue on a satisfactory and friendly footing. Increased intercourse, the extension of commerce, and the cultivation of mutual interests have steadily improved our relations with the large majority of the powers of the world, rendering practicable the peaceful solution of questions which from time to time necessarily arise, leaving few which demand extended or particular notice. The correspondence of the Department of State with our diplomatic representatives abroad is transmitted herewith. I am happy to announce the passage of an act by the General Cortes of Portugal, proclaimed since the adjournment of Congress, for the abolition of servitude in the Portuguese colonies. It is to be hoped that such legislation may be another step toward the great consummation to be reached, when no man shall be permitted, directly or indirectly, under any guise, excuse, or form of law, to hold his fellow-man in bondage. I am of opinion also that it is the duty of the United States, as contributing toward that end, and required by the spirit of the age in which we live, to provide by suitable legislation that no citizen of the United States shall hold slaves as property in any other country or be interested therein. Chile has made reparation in the case of the whale ship Good Return, seized without sufficient cause upward of forty years ago. Though she had hitherto denied her accountability, the denial was never acquiesced in by this Government, and the justice of the claim has been so earnestly contended for that it has been gratifying that she should have at last acknowledged it. The arbitrator in the case of the United States steamer Montijo, for the seizure and detention of which the Government of the United States of Colombia was held accountable, has decided in favor of the claim. This decision has settled a question which had been pending for several years, and which, while it continued open, might more or less disturb the good understanding which it is desirable should be maintained between the two Republics. A reciprocity treaty with the King of the Hawaiian Islands was concluded some months since. As it contains a stipulation that it shall not take effect until Congress shall enact the proper legislation for that purpose, copies of the instrument are herewith submitted, in order that, if such should be the pleasure of Congress, the necessary legislation upon the subject may be adopted. In March last an arrangement was made, through Mr. Cushing, our minister in Madrid, with the Spanish Government for the payment by the latter to the United States of the sum of $80,000 in coin, for the purpose of the relief of the families or persons of the ship's company and certain passengers of the Virginius. This sum was to have been paid in three installments at two months each. It is due to the Spanish Government that I should state that the payments were fully and spontaneously anticipated by that Government, and that the whole amount was paid within but a few days more than two months from the date of the agreement, a copy of which is herewith transmitted. In pursuance of the terms of the adjustment, I have directed the distribution of the amount among the parties entitled thereto, including the ship's company and such of the passengers as were American citizens. Payments are made accordingly, on the application by the parties entitled thereto. The past year has furnished no evidence of an approaching termination of the ruinous conflict which has been raging for seven years in the neighboring island of Cuba. The same disregard of the laws of civilized warfare and of the just demands of humanity which has heretofore called forth expressions of condemnation from the nations of Christendom has continued to blacken the sad scene. Desolation, ruin, and pillage are pervading the rich fields of one of the most fertile and productive regions of the earth, and the incendiary's torch, firing plantations and valuable factories and buildings, is the agent marking the alternate advance or retreat of contending parties. The protracted continuance of this strife seriously affects the interests of all commercial nations, but those of the United States more than others, by reason of close proximity, its larger trade and intercourse with Cuba, and the frequent and intimate personal and social relations which have grown up between its citizens and those of the island. Moreover, the property of our citizens in Cuba is large, and is rendered insecure and depreciated in value and in capacity of production by the continuance of the strife and the unnatural mode of its conduct. The same is true, differing only in degree, with respect to the interests and people of other nations; and the absence of any reasonable assurance of a near termination of the conflict must of necessity soon compel the States thus suffering to consider what the interests of their own people and their duty toward themselves may demand. I have hoped that Spain would be enabled to establish peace in her colony, to afford security to the property and the interests of our citizens, and allow legitimate scope to trade and commerce and the natural productions of the island. Because of this hope, and from an extreme reluctance to interfere in the most remote manner in the affairs of another and a friendly nation, especially of one whose sympathy and friendship in the struggling infancy of our own existence must ever be remembered with gratitude, I have patiently and anxiously waited the progress of events. Our own civil conflict is too recent for us not to consider the difficulties which surround a government distracted by a dynastic rebellion at home at the same time that it has to cope with a separate insurrection in a distant colony. But whatever causes may have produced the situation which so grievously affects our interests, it exists, with all its attendant evils operating directly upon this country and its people. Thus far all the efforts of Spain have proved abortive, and time has marked no improvement in the situation. The armed bands of either side now occupy nearly the same ground as in the past, with the difference, from time to time, of more lives sacrificed, more property destroyed, and wider extents of fertile and productive fields and more and more of valuable property constantly wantonly sacrificed to the incendiary's torch. In contests of this nature, where a considerable body of people who have attempted to free themselves of the control of the superior government have reached such point in occupation of territory, in power, and in general organization as to constitute in fact a body politic; having a government in substance as well as in name; possessed of the elements of stability and equipped with the machinery for the administration of internal policy and the execution of its laws; prepared and able to administer justice at home, as well as in its dealings with other powers, it is within the province of those other powers to recognize its existence as a new and independent nation. In such cases other nations simply deal with an actually existing condition of things, and recognize as one of the powers of the earth that body politic which, possessing the necessary elements, has in fact become a new power. In a word, the creation of a new state is a fact. To establish the condition of things essential to the recognition of this fact there must be a people occupying a known territory, united under some known and defined form of government, acknowledged by those subject thereto, in which the functions of government are administered by usual methods, competent to mete out justice to citizens and strangers, to afford remedies for public and for private wrongs, and able to assume the correlative international obligations and capable of performing the corresponding international duties resulting from its acquisition of the rights of sovereignty. A power should exist complete in its organization, ready to take and able to maintain its place among the nations of the earth. While conscious that the insurrection in Cuba has shown a strength and endurance which make it at least doubtful whether it be in the power of Spain to subdue it, it seems unquestionable that no such civil organization exists which may be recognized as an independent government capable of performing its international obligations and entitled to be treated as one of the powers of the earth. A recognition under such circumstances would be inconsistent with the facts, and would compel the power granting it soon to support by force the government to which it had really given its only claim of existence. In my judgment the United States should adhere to the policy and the principles which have heretofore been its sure and safe guides in like contests between revolted colonies and their mother country, and, acting only upon the clearest evidence, should avoid any possibility of suspicion or of imputation. A recognition of the independence of Cuba being, in my opinion, impracticable and indefensible, the question which next presents itself is that of the recognition of belligerent rights in the parties to the contest. In a former message to Congress I had occasion to consider this question, and reached the conclusion that the conflict in Cuba, dreadful and devastating as were its incidents, did not rise to the fearful dignity of war. Regarding it now, after this lapse of time, I am unable to see that any notable success or any marked or real advance on the part of the insurgents has essentially changed the character of the contest. It has acquired greater age, but not greater or more formidable proportions. It is possible that the acts of foreign powers, and even acts of Spain herself, of this very nature, might be pointed to in defense of such recognition. But now, as in its past history, the United States should carefully avoid the false lights which might lead it into the mazes of doubtful law and of questionable propriety, and adhere rigidly and sternly to the rule, which has been its guide, of doing only that which is right and honest and of good report. The question of according or of withholding rights of belligerency must be judged in every case in view of the particular attending facts. Unless justified by necessity, it is always, and justly, regarded as an unfriendly act and a gratuitous demonstration of moral support to the rebellion. It is necessary, and it is required, when the interests and rights of another government or of its people are so far affected by a pending civil conflict as to require a definition of its relations to the parties thereto. But this conflict must be one which will be recognized in the sense of international law as war. Belligerence, too, is a fact. The mere existence of contending armed bodies and their occasional conflicts do not constitute war in the sense referred to. Applying to the existing condition of affairs in Cuba the tests recognized by publicists and writers on international law, and which have been observed by nations of dignity, honesty, and power when free from sensitive or selfish and unworthy motives, I fail to find in the insurrection the existence of such a substantial political organization, real, palpable, and manifest to the world, having the forms and capable of the ordinary functions of government toward its own people and to other states, with courts for the administration of justice, with a local habitation, possessing such organization of force, such material, such occupation of territory, as to take the contest out of the category of a mere rebellious insurrection or occasional skirmishes and place it on the terrible footing of war, to which a recognition of belligerency would aim to elevate it. The contest, moreover, is solely on land; the insurrection has not possessed itself of a single seaport whence it may send forth its flag, nor has it any means of communication with foreign powers except through the military lines of its adversaries. No apprehension of any of those sudden and difficult complications which a war upon the ocean is apt to precipitate upon the vessels, both commercial and national, and upon the consular officers of other powers calls for the definition of their relations to the parties to the contest. Considered as a question of expediency, I regard the accordance of belligerent rights still to be as unwise and premature as I regard it to be, at present, indefensible as a measure of right. Such recognition entails upon the country according the rights which flow from it difficult and complicated duties, and requires the exaction from the contending parties of the strict observance of their rights and obligations; it confers the right of search upon the high seas by vessels of both parties; it would subject the carrying of arms and munitions of war, which now may be transported freely and without interruption in the vessels of the United States, to detention and to possible seizure; it would give rise to countless vexatious questions, would release the parent Government from responsibility for acts done by the insurgents, and would invest Spain with the right to exercise the supervision recognized by our treaty of 1795 over our commerce on the high seas, a very large part of which, in its traffic between the Atlantic and the Gulf States and between all of them and the States on the Pacific, passes through the waters which wash the shores of Cuba. The exercise of this supervision could scarce fail to lead, if not to abuses, certainly to collisions perilous to the peaceful relations of the two States. There can be little doubt to what result such supervision would before long draw this nation. It would be unworthy of the United States to inaugurate the possibilities of such result by measures of questionable right or expediency or by any indirection. Apart from any question of theoretical right, I am satisfied that while the accordance of belligerent rights to the insurgents in Cuba might give them a hope and an inducement to protract the struggle, it would be but a delusive hope, and would not remove the evils which this Government and its people are experiencing, but would draw the United States into complications which it has waited long and already suffered much to avoid. The recognition of independence or of belligerency being thus, in my judgment, equally inadmissible, it remains to consider what course shall be adopted should the conflict not soon be brought to an end by acts of the parties themselves, and should the evils which result therefrom, affecting all nations, and particularly the United States, continue. In such event I am of opinion that other nations will be compelled to assume the responsibility which devolves upon them, and to seriously consider the only remaining measures possible--mediation and intervention, Owing, perhaps, to the large expanse of water separating the island from the peninsula, the want of harmony and of personal sympathy between the inhabitants of the colony and those sent thither to rule them, and want of adaptation of the ancient colonial system of Europe to the present times and to the ideas which the events of the past century have developed, the contending parties appear to have within themselves no depository of common confidence to suggest wisdom when passion and excitement have their sway and to assume the part of peacemaker. In this view in the earlier days of the contest the good offices of the United States as a mediator were tendered in good faith, without any selfish purpose, in the interest of humanity and in sincere friendship for both parties, but were at the time declined by Spain, with the declaration, nevertheless, that at a future time they would be indispensable. No intimation has been received that in the opinion of Spain that time has been reached. And yet the strife continues, with all its dread horrors and all its injuries to the interests of the United States and of other nations. Each party seems quite capable of working great injury and damage to the other, as well as to all the relations and interests dependent on the existence of peace in the island; but they seem incapable of reaching any adjustment, and both have thus far failed of achieving any success whereby one party shall possess and control the island to the exclusion of the other. Under these circumstances the agency of others, either by mediation or by intervention, seems to be the only alternative which must, sooner or later, be invoked for the termination of the strife. At the same time, while thus impressed I do not at this time recommend the adoption of any measure of intervention. I shall be ready at all times, and as the equal friend of both parties, to respond to a suggestion that the good offices of the United States will be acceptable to aid in bringing about a peace honorable to both. It is due to Spain, so far as this Government is concerned, that the agency of a third power, to which I have adverted, shall be adopted only as a last expedient. Had it been the desire of the United States to interfere in the affairs of Cuba, repeated opportunities for so doing have been presented within the last few years; but we have remained passive, and have performed our whole duty and all international obligations to Spain with friendship, fairness, and fidelity, and with a spirit of patience and forbearance which negatives every possible suggestion of desire to interfere or to add to the difficulties with which she has been surrounded. The Government of Spain has recently submitted to our minister at Madrid certain proposals which it is hoped may be found to be the basis, if not the actual submission, of terms to meet the requirements of the particular griefs of which this Government has felt itself entitled to complain. These proposals have not yet reached me in their full text. On their arrival they will be taken into careful examination, and may, I hope, lead to a satisfactory adjustment of the questions to which they refer and remove the possibility of future occurrences such as have given rise to our just complaints. It is understood also that renewed efforts are being made to introduce reforms in the internal administration of the island. Persuaded, however, that a proper regard for the interests of the United States and of its citizens entitles it to relief from the strain to which it has been subjected by the difficulties of the questions and the wrongs and losses which arise from the contest in Cuba, and that the interests of humanity itself demand the cessation of the strife before the whole island shall be laid waste and larger sacrifices of life be made, I shall feel it my duty, should my hopes of a satisfactory adjustment and of the early restoration of peace and the removal of future causes of complaint be, unhappily, disappointed, to make a further communication to Congress at some period not far remote, and during the present session, recommending what may then seem to me to be necessary. The free zone, so called, several years since established by the Mexican Government in certain of the States of that Republic adjacent to our frontier, remains in full operation. It has always been materially injurious to honest traffic, for it operates as an incentive to traders in Mexico to supply without customs charges the wants of inhabitants on this side of the line, and prevents the same wants from being supplied by merchants of the United States, thereby to a considerable extent defrauding our revenue and checking honest commercial enterprise. Depredations by armed bands from Mexico on the people of Texas near the frontier continue. Though the main object of these incursions is robbery, they frequently result in the murder of unarmed and peaceably disposed persons, and in some instances even the United States post-offices and mail communications have been attacked. Renewed remonstrances upon this subject have been addressed to the Mexican Government, but without much apparent effect. The military force of this Government disposable for service in that quarter is quite inadequate to effectually guard the line, even at those points where the incursions are usually made. An experiment of an armed vessel on the Rio Grande for that purpose is on trial, and it is hoped that, if not thwarted by the shallowness of the river and other natural obstacles, it may materially contribute to the protection of the herdsmen of Texas. The proceedings of the joint commission under the convention between the United States and Mexico of the 4th of July, 1868, on the subject of claims, will soon be brought to a close. The result of those proceedings will then be communicated to Congress. I am happy to announce that the Government of Venezuela has, upon further consideration, practically abandoned its objection to pay to the United States that share of its revenue which some years since it allotted toward the extinguishment of the claims of foreigners generally. In thus reconsidering its determination that Government has shown a just sense of self-respect which can not fail to reflect credit upon it in the eyes of all disinterested persons elsewhere. It is to be regretted, however, that its payments on account of claims of citizens of the United States are still so meager in amount, and that the stipulations of the treaty in regard to the sums to be paid and the periods when those payments were to take place should have been so signally disregarded. Since my last annual message the exchange has been made of the ratification of a treaty of commerce and navigation with Belgium, and of conventions with the Mexican Republic for the further extension of the joint commission respecting claims; with the Hawaiian Islands for commercial reciprocity, and with the Ottoman Empire for extradition; all of which have been duly proclaimed. The Court of Commissioners of Alabama Claims has prosecuted its important duties very assiduously and very satisfactorily. It convened and was organized on the 22d day of July, 1874, and by the terms of the act under which it was created was to exist for one year from that date. The act provided, however, that should it be found impracticable to complete the work of the court before the expiration of the year the President might by proclamation extend the time of its duration to a period not more than six months beyond the expiration of the one year. Having received satisfactory evidence that it would be impracticable to complete the work within the time originally fixed, I issued a proclamation (a copy of which is presented herewith) extending the time of duration of the court for a period of six months from and after the 22d day of July last. A report made through the clerk of the court (communicated herewith) shows the condition of the calendar on the 1st of November last and the large amount of work which has been accomplished. One thousand three hundred and eighty-two claims have been presented, of which 682 had been disposed of at the date of the report. I am informed that 170 cases were decided during the month of November. Arguments are being made and decisions given in the remaining cases with all the dispatch consistent with the proper consideration of the questions submitted. Many of these claims are in behalf of mariners, or depend on the evidence of mariners, whose absence has delayed the taking or the return of the necessary evidence. It is represented to me that it will be impracticable for the court to finally dispose of all the cases before it within the present limit of its duration. Justice to the parties claimant, who have been at large expense in preparing their claims and obtaining the evidence in their support, suggests a short extension, to enable the court to dispose of all of the claims which have been presented. 
I recommend the legislation which may be deemed proper to enable the court to complete the work before it. I recommend that some suitable provision be made, by the creation of a special court or by conferring the necessary jurisdiction upon some appropriate tribunal, for the consideration and determination of the claims of aliens against the Government of the United States which have arisen within some reasonable limitation of time, or which may hereafter arise, excluding all claims barred by treaty provisions or otherwise. It has been found impossible to give proper consideration to these claims by the Executive Departments of the Government. Such a tribunal would afford an opportunity to aliens other than British subjects to present their claims on account of acts committed against their persons or property during the rebellion, as also to those subjects of Great Britain whose claims, having arisen subsequent to the 9th day of April, 1865, could not be presented to the late commission organized pursuant to the provisions of the treaty of Washington. The electric telegraph has become an essential and indispensable agent in the transmission of business and social messages. Its operation on land, and within the limit of particular states, is necessarily under the control of the jurisdiction within which it operates. The lines on the high seas, however, are not subject to the particular control of any one government. In 1869 a concession was granted by the French Government to a company which proposed to lay a cable from the shores of France to the United States. At that time there was a telegraphic connection between the United States and the continent of Europe (through the possessions of Great Britain at either end of the line), under the control of an association which had, at large outlay of capital and at great risk, demonstrated the practicability of maintaining such means of communication. The cost of correspondence by this agency was great, possibly not too large at the time for a proper remuneration for so hazardous and so costly an enterprise. It was, however, a heavy charge upon a means of communication which the progress in the social and commercial intercourse of the world found to be a necessity, and the obtaining of this French concession showed that other capital than that already invested was ready to enter into competition, with assurance of adequate return for their outlay. Impressed with the conviction that the interests, not only of the people of the United States, but of the world at large, demanded, or would demand, the multiplication of such means of communication between separated continents, I was desirous that the proposed connection should be made; but certain provisions of this concession were deemed by me to be objectionable, particularly one which gave for a long term of years the exclusive right of telegraphic communication by submarine cable between the shores of France and the United States. I could not concede that any power should claim the right to land a cable on the shores of the United States and at the same time deny to the United States, or to its citizens or grantees, an equal fight to land a cable on its shores. The right to control the conditions for the laying of a cable within the jurisdictional waters of the United States, to connect our shores with those of any foreign state, pertains exclusively to the Government of the United States, under such limitations and conditions as Congress may impose. In the absence of legislation by Congress I was unwilling, on the one hand, to yield to a foreign state the right to say that its grantees might land on our shores while it denied a similar right to our people to land on its shores, and, on the other hand, I was reluctant to deny to the great interests of the world and of civilization the facilities of such communication as were proposed. I therefore withheld any resistance to the landing of the cable on condition that the offensive monopoly feature of the concession be abandoned, and that the right of any cable which may be established by authority of this Government to land upon French territory and to connect with French land lines and enjoy all the necessary facilities or privileges incident to the use thereof upon as favorable terms as any other company be conceded. As the result thereof the company in question renounced the exclusive privilege, and the representative of France was informed that, understanding this relinquishment to be construed as granting the entire reciprocity and equal facilities which had been demanded, the opposition to the landing of the cable was withdrawn. The cable, under this French concession, was landed in the month of July, 1869, and has been an efficient and valuable agent of communication between this country and the other continent. It soon passed under the control, however, of those who had the management of the cable connecting Great Britain with this continent, and thus whatever benefit to the public might have ensued from competition between the two lines was lost, leaving only the greater facilities of an additional line and the additional security in case of accident to one of them. But these increased facilities and this additional security, together with the control of the combined capital of the two companies, gave also greater power to prevent the future construction of other lines and to limit the control of telegraphic communication between the two continents to those possessing the lines already laid. Within a few months past a cable has been laid, known as the United States Direct Cable Company, connecting the United States directly with Great Britain. As soon as this cable was reported to be laid and in working order the rates of the then existing consolidated companies were greatly reduced. Soon, however, a break was announced in this new cable, and immediately the rates of the other line, which had been reduced, were again raised. This cable being now repaired, the rates appear not to be reduced by either line from those formerly charged by the consolidated companies. There is reason to believe that large amounts of capital, both at home and abroad, are ready to seek profitable investment in the advancement of this useful and most civilizing means of intercourse and correspondence. They await, however, the assurance of the means and conditions on which they may safely be made tributary to the general good. As these cable telegraph lines connect separate states, there are questions as to their organization and control which probably can be best, if not solely, settled by conventions between the respective states. In the absence, however, of international conventions on the subject, municipal legislation may secure many points which appear to me important, if not indispensable for the protection of the public against the extortions which may result from a monopoly of the right of operating cable telegrams or from a combination between several lines: I. No line should be allowed to land on the shores of the United States under the concession from another power which does not admit the right of any other line or lines, formed in the United States, to land and freely connect with and operate through its land lines. II. No line should be allowed to land on the shores of the United States which is not, by treaty stipulation with the government from whose shores it proceeds, or by prohibition in its charter, or otherwise to the satisfaction of this Government, prohibited from consolidating or amalgamating with any other cable telegraph line, or combining therewith for the purpose of regulating and maintaining the cost of telegraphing. III. All lines should be bound to give precedence in the transmission of the official messages of the governments of the two countries between which it may be laid. IV. A power should be reserved to the two governments, either conjointly or to each, as regards the messages dispatched from its shores, to fix a limit to the charges to be demanded for the transmission of messages. 
I present this subject to the earnest consideration of Congress. In the meantime, and unless Congress otherwise direct, I shall not oppose the landing of any telegraphic cable which complies with and assents to the points above enumerated, but will feel it my duty to prevent the landing of any which does not conform to the first and second points as stated, and which will not stipulate to concede to this Government the precedence in the transmission of its official messages and will not enter into a satisfactory arrangement with regard to its charges. Among the pressing and important subjects to which, in my opinion, the attention of Congress should be directed are those relating to fraudulent naturalization and expatriation. The United States, with great liberality, offers its citizenship to all who in good faith comply with the requirements of law. These requirements are as simple and upon as favorable terms to the emigrant as the high privilege to which he is admitted can or should permit. I do not propose any additional requirements to those which the law now demands; but the very simplicity and the want of unnecessary formality in our law have made fraudulent naturalization not infrequent, to the discredit and injury of all honest citizens, whether native or naturalized. Cases of this character are continually being brought to the notice of the Government by our representatives abroad, and also those of persons resident in other countries, most frequently those who, if they have remained in this country long enough to entitle them to become naturalized, have generally not much overpassed that period, and have returned to the country of their origin, where they reside, avoiding all duties to the United States by their absence, and claiming to be exempt from all duties to the country of their nativity and of their residence by reason of their alleged naturalization. It is due to this Government itself and to the great mass of the naturalized citizens who entirely, both in name and in fact, become citizens of the United States that the high privilege of citizenship of the United States should not be held by fraud or in derogation of the laws and of the good name of every honest citizen. On many occasions it has been brought to the knowledge of the Government that certificates of naturalization are held and protection or interference claimed by parties who admit that not only they were not within the United States at the time of the pretended naturalization, but that they have never resided in the United States; in others the certificate and record of the court show on their face that the person claiming to be naturalized had not resided the required time in the United States; in others it is admitted upon examination that the requirements of law have not been complied with; in some eases, even, such certificates have been matter of purchase. These are not isolated eases, arising at rare intervals, but of common occurrence, and which are reported from all quarters of the globe. Such occurrences can not, and do not, fail to reflect upon the Government and injure all honest citizens. Such a fraud being discovered, however, there is no practicable means within the control of the Government by which the record of naturalization can be vacated; and should the certificate be taken up, as it usually is, by the diplomatic and consular representatives of the Government to whom it may have been presented, there is nothing to prevent the person claiming to have been naturalized from obtaining a new certificate from the court in place of that which has been taken from him. The evil has become so great and of such frequent occurrence that I can not too earnestly recommend that some effective measures be adopted to provide a proper remedy and means for the vacating of any record thus fraudulently made, and of punishing the guilty parties to the transaction. 
In this connection I refer also to the question of expatriation and the election of nationality. The United States was foremost in upholding the right of expatriation, and was principally instrumental in overthrowing the doctrine of perpetual allegiance. Congress has declared the right of expatriation to be a natural and inherent right of all people; but while many other nations have enacted laws providing what formalities shall be necessary to work a change of allegiance, the United States has enacted no provisions of law and has in no respect marked out how and when expatriation may be accomplished by its citizens. Instances are brought to the attention of the Government where citizens of the United States, either naturalized or native born, have formally become citizens or subjects of foreign powers, but who, nevertheless, in the absence of any provisions of legislation on this question, when involved in difficulties or when it seems to be their interest, claim to be citizens of the United States and demand the intervention of a Government which they have long since abandoned and to which for years they have rendered no service nor held themselves in any way amenable. In other cases naturalized citizens, immediately after naturalization, have returned to their native country; have become engaged in business; have accepted offices or pursuits inconsistent with American citizenship, and evidence no intent to return to the United States until called upon to discharge some duty to the country where they are residing, when at once they assert their citizenship and call upon the representatives of the Government to aid them in their unjust pretensions. It is but justice to all bona fide citizens that no doubt should exist on such questions, and that Congress should determine by enactment of law how expatriation may be accomplished and change of citizenship be established. I also invite your attention to the necessity of regulating by law the status of American women who may marry foreigners, and of defining more fully that of children born in a foreign country of American parents who may reside abroad; and also of some further provision regulating or giving legal effect to marriages of American citizens contracted in foreign countries. The correspondence submitted herewith shows a few of the constantly occurring questions on these points presented to the consideration of the Government. There are few subjects to engage the attention of Congress on which more delicate relations or more important interests are dependent. In the month of July last the building erected for the Department of State was taken possession of and occupied by that Department. I am happy to announce that the archives and valuable papers of the Government in the custody of that Department are now safely deposited and properly cared for. The report of the Secretary of the Treasury shows the receipts from customs for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1874, to have been $163,103,833.69, and for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1875, to have been $157,267,722.35, a decrease for the last fiscal year of $5,936,111.34. Receipts from internal revenue for the year ending the 30th of June, 1874, were $102,409,784.90, and for the year ending June 30, 1875, $110,007,493.58; increase, $7,597,708.68. The report also shows a complete history of the workings of the Department for the last year, and contains recommendations for reforms and for legislation which I concur in, but can not comment on so fully as I should like to do if space would permit, but will confine myself to a few suggestions which I look upon as vital to the best interests of the whole people--coming within the purview of "Treasury;" I mean specie resumption. Too much stress can not be laid upon this question, and I hope Congress may be induced, at the earliest day practicable, to insure the consummation of the act of the last Congress, at its last session, to bring about specie resumption "on and after the 1st of January, 1879," at furthest. It would be a great blessing if this could be consummated even at an earlier day. Nothing seems to me more certain than that a full, healthy, and permanent reaction can not take place in favor of the industries and financial welfare of the country until we return to a measure of values recognized throughout the civilized world. While we use a currency not equivalent to this standard the world's recognized standard, specie, becomes a commodity like the products of the soil, the surplus seeking a market wherever there is a demand for it. Under our present system we should want none, nor would we have any, were it not that customs dues must be paid in coin and because of the pledge to pay interest on the public debt in coin. The yield of precious metals would flow out for the purchase of foreign productions and the United States "hewers of wood and drawers of water," because of wiser legislation on the subject of finance by the nations with whom we have dealings. I am not prepared to say that I can suggest the best legislation to secure the end most heartily recommended. It will be a source of great gratification to me to be able to approve any measure of Congress looking effectively toward securing "resumption." Unlimited inflation would probably bring about specie payments more speedily than any legislation looking to redemption of the legal-tenders in coin; but it would be at the expense of honor. The legal-tenders would have no value beyond settling present liabilities, or, properly speaking, repudiating them. They would buy nothing after debts were all settled. There are a few measures which seem to me important in this connection and which I commend to your earnest consideration: A repeal of so much of the legal-tender act as makes these notes receivable for debts contracted after a date to be fixed in the act itself, say not later than the 1st of January, 1877. We should then have quotations at real values, not fictitious ones. Gold would no longer be at a premium, but currency at a discount. A healthy reaction would set in at once, and with it a desire to make the currency equal to what it purports to be. The merchants, manufacturers, and tradesmen of every calling could do business on a fair margin of profit, the money to be received having an unvarying value. Laborers and all classes who work for stipulated pay or salary would receive more for their income, because extra profits would no longer be charged by the capitalists to compensate for the risk of a downward fluctuation in the value of the currency. Second. That the Secretary of the Treasury be authorized to redeem, say, not to exceed $2,000,000 monthly of legal-tender notes, by issuing in their stead a long bond, bearing interest at the rate of 3.65 per cent per annum, of denominations ranging from $50 up to $1,000 each. This would in time reduce the legal-tender notes to a volume that could be kept afloat without demanding redemption in large sums suddenly. Third. That additional power be given to the Secretary of the Treasury to accumulate gold for final redemption, either by increasing revenue, curtailing expenses, or both (it is preferable to do both); and I recommend that reduction of expenditures be made wherever it can be done without impairing Government obligations or crippling the due execution thereof. One measure for increasing the revenue--and the only one I think of--is the restoration of the duty on tea and coffee. These duties would add probably $18,000,000 to the present amount received from imports, and would in no way increase the prices paid for those articles by the consumers. These articles are the products of countries collecting revenue from exports, and as we, the largest consumers, reduce the duties they proportionately increase them. With this addition to the revenue, many duties now collected, and which give but an insignificant return for the cost of collection, might be remitted, and to the direct advantage of consumers at home. I would mention those articles which enter into manufactures of all sorts. All duty paid upon such articles goes directly to the cost of the article when manufactured here, and must be paid for by the consumers. These duties not only come from the consumers at home, but act as a protection to foreign manufacturers of the same completed articles in our own and distant markets. I will suggest or mention another subject bearing upon the problem of "how to enable the Secretary of the Treasury to accumulate balances." It is to devise some better method of verifying claims against the Government than at present exists through the Court of Claims, especially those claims growing out of the late war. Nothing is more certain than that a very large percentage of the amounts passed and paid are either wholly fraudulent or are far in excess of the real losses sustained. The large amount of losses proven--on good testimony according to existing laws, by affidavits of fictitious or unscrupulous persons--to have been sustained on small farms and plantations are not only far beyond the possible yield of those places for any one year, but, as everyone knows who has had experience in tilling the soil and who has visited the scenes of these spoliations, are in many instances more than the individual claimants were ever worth, including their personal and real estate. The report of the Attorney-General, which will be submitted to Congress at an early day, will contain a detailed history of awards made and of claim pending of the class here referred to. The report of the Secretary of War, accompanying this message, gives a detailed account of Army operations for the year just passed, expenses for maintenance, etc., with recommendations for legislation to which I respectfully invite your attention. To some of these I invite special attention: First. The necessity of making $300,000 of the appropriation for the Subsistence Department available before the beginning of the next fiscal year. Without this provision troops at points distant from supply production must either go without food or existing laws must be violated. It is not attended with cost to the Treasury. Second. His recommendation for the enactment of a system of annuities for the families of deceased officers by voluntary deductions from the monthly pay of officers. This again is not attended with burden upon the Treasury, and would for the future relieve much distress which every old army officer has witnessed in the past--of officers dying suddenly or being killed, leaving families without even the means of reaching their friends, if fortunate enough to have friends to aid them. 
Third. The repeal of the law abolishing mileage, and a return to the old system. Fourth. The trial with torpedoes under the Corps of Engineers, and appropriation for the same. Should war ever occur between the United States and any maritime power, torpedoes will be among if not the most effective and cheapest auxiliary for the defense of harbors, and also in aggressive operations, that we can have. Hence it is advisable to learn by experiment their best construction and application, as well as effect. Fifth. A permanent organization for the Signal-Service Corps. This service has now become a necessity of peace as well as war, under the advancement made by the present able management. 
Sixth. A renewal of the appropriation for compiling the official records of the war, etc. The condition of our Navy at this time is a subject of satisfaction. It does not contain, it is true, any of the powerful cruising ironclads which make so much of the maritime strength of some other nations, but neither our continental situation nor our foreign policy requires that we should have a large number of ships of this character, while this situation and the nature of our ports combine to make those of other nations little dangerous to us under any circumstances. Our Navy does contain, however, a considerable number of ironclads of the monitor class, which, though not properly cruisers, are powerful and effective for harbor defense and for operations near our own shores. Of these all the single-turreted ones, fifteen in number, have been substantially rebuilt, their rotten wooden beams replaced with iron, their hulls strengthened, and their engines and machinery thoroughly repaired, so that they are now in the most efficient condition and ready for sea as soon as they can be manned and put in commission. The five double-turreted ironclads belonging to our Navy, by far the most powerful of our ships for fighting purposes, are also in hand undergoing complete repairs, and could be ready for sea in periods varying from four to six months. With these completed according to the present design and our two iron torpedo boats now ready, our ironclad fleet will be, for the purposes of defense at home, equal to any force that can readily be brought against it. Of our wooden navy also cruisers of various sizes, to the number of about forty, including those now in commission, are in the Atlantic, and could be ready for duty as fast as men could be enlisted for those not already in commission. Of these, one-third are in effect new ships, and though some of the remainder need considerable repairs to their boilers and machinery, they all are, or can readily be made, effective. This constitutes a fleet of more than fifty war ships, of which fifteen are ironclad, now in hand on the Atlantic coast. The Navy has been brought to this condition by a judicious and practical application of what could be spared from the current appropriations of the last few years and from that made to meet the possible emergency of two years ago. It has been done quietly, without proclamation or display, and though it has necessarily straitened the Department in its ordinary expenditure, and, as far as the ironclads are concerned, has added nothing to the cruising force of the Navy, yet the result is not the less satisfactory because it is to be found in a great increase of real rather than apparent force. The expenses incurred in the maintenance of an effective naval force in all its branches are necessarily large, but such force is essential to our position, relations, and character, and affects seriously the weight of our principles and policy throughout the whole sphere of national responsibilities. The estimates for the regular support of this branch of the service for the next year amount to a little less in the aggregate than those made for the current year; but some additional appropriations are asked for objects not included in the ordinary maintenance of the Navy, but believed to be of pressing importance at this time. It would, in my opinion, be wise at once to afford sufficient means for the immediate completion of the five double-turreted monitors now undergoing repairs, which must otherwise advance slowly, and only as money can be spared from current expenses. Supplemented by these, our Navy, armed with the destructive weapons of modern warfare, manned by our seamen, and in charge of our instructed officers, will present a force powerful for the home purposes of a responsible though peaceful nation. The report of the Postmaster-General herewith transmitted gives a full history of the workings of the Department for the year just past. It will be observed that the deficiency to be supplied from the General Treasury is increased over the amount required for the preceding year. In a country so vast in area as the United States, with large portions sparsely settled, it must be expected that this important service will be more or less a burden upon the Treasury for many years to come. But there is no branch of the public service which interests the whole people more than that of cheap and rapid transmission of the mails to every inhabited part of our territory. Next to the free school, the post-office is the great educator of the people, and it may well receive the support of the General Government. The subsidy of $150,000 per annum given to vessels of the United States for carrying the mails between New York and Rio de Janeiro having ceased on the 30th day of September last, we are without direct mail facilities with the South American States. This is greatly to be regretted, and I do not hesitate to recommend the authorization of a renewal of that contract, and also that the service may be increased from monthly to semi-monthly trips. The commercial advantages to be gained by a direct line of American steamers to the South American States will far outweigh the expense of the service. By act of Congress approved March 3, 1875, almost all matter, whether properly mail matter or not, may be sent any distance through the mails, in packages not exceeding 4 pounds in weight, for the sum of 16 cents per pound. So far as the transmission of real mail matter goes, this would seem entirely proper; but I suggest that the law be so amended as to exclude from the mails merchandise of all descriptions, and limit this transportation to articles enumerated, and which may be classed as mail matter proper. The discovery of gold in the Black Hills, a portion of the Sioux Reservation, has had the effect to induce a large emigration of miners to that point. Thus far the effort to protect the treaty rights of the Indians to that section has been successful, but the next year will certainly witness a large increase of such emigration. The negotiations for the relinquishment of the gold fields having failed, it will be necessary for Congress to adopt some measures to relieve the embarrassment growing out of the causes named. The Secretary of the Interior suggests that the supplies now appropriated for the sustenance of that people, being no longer obligatory under the treaty of 1868, but simply a gratuity, may be issued or withheld at his discretion. The condition of the Indian Territory, to which I have referred in several of my former annual messages, remains practically unchanged. The Secretary of the Interior has taken measures to obtain a full report of the condition of that Territory, and will make it the subject of a special report at an early day. It may then be necessary to make some further recommendation in regard to legislation for the government of that Territory. The steady growth and increase of the business of the Patent Office indicates in some measure the progress of the industrial activity of the country. The receipts of the office are in excess of its expenditures, and the office generally is in a prosperous and satisfactory condition. The report of the General Land Office shows that there were 2,459,601 acres less disposed of during this than during the last year. More than one-half of this decrease was in lands disposed of under the homestead and timber-culture laws. The cause of this decrease is supposed to be found in the grasshopper scourge and the droughts which prevailed so extensively in some of the frontier States and Territories during that time as to discourage and deter entries by actual settlers. The cash receipts were less by $690,322.23 than during the preceding year. The entire surveyed area of the public domain is 680,253,094 acres, of which 26,077,531 acres were surveyed during the past year, leaving 1,154,471,762 acres still unsurveyed. The report of the Commissioner presents many interesting suggestions in regard to the management and disposition of the public domain and the modification of existing laws, the apparent importance of which should insure for them the careful consideration of Congress. The number of pensioners still continues to decrease, the highest number having been reached during the year ending June 30, 1873. During the last year 11,557 names were added to the rolls, and 12,977 were dropped therefrom, showing a net decrease of 1,420. But while the number of pensioners has decreased, the annual amount due on the pension rolls has increased $44,733.13. This is caused by the greatly increased average rate of pensions, which, by the liberal legislation of Congress, has increased from $90.26 in 1872 to $103.91 in 1875 to each invalid pensioner, an increase in the average rate of 15 per cent in the three years. During the year ending June 30, 1875, there was paid on account of pensions, including the expenses of disbursement, $29,683,116, being $910,632 less than was paid the preceding year. This reduction in amount of expenditures was produced by the decrease in the amount of arrearages due on allowed claims and on pensions the rate of which was increased by the legislation of the preceding session of Congress. At the close of the last fiscal year there were on the pension rolls 234,821 persons, of whom 210,363 were army pensioners, 105,478 being invalids and 104,885 widows and dependent relatives; 3,420 were navy pensioners, of whom 1,636 were invalids and 1,784 widows and dependent relatives; 21,038 were pensioners of the War of 1812, 15,875 of whom were survivors and 5,163 were widows. It is estimated that $29,535,000 will be required for the payment of pensions for the next fiscal year, an amount $965,000 less than the estimate for the present year. The geological explorations have been prosecuted with energy during the year, covering an area of about 40,000 square miles in the Territories of Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico, developing the agricultural and mineral resources and furnishing interesting scientific and topographical details of that region. The method for the treatment of the Indians adopted at the beginning of my first term has been steadily pursued, and with satisfactory and encouraging results. It has been productive of evident improvement in the condition of that race, and will be continued, with only such modifications as further experience may indicate to be necessary. The board heretofore appointed to take charge of the articles and materials pertaining to the War, the Navy, the Treasury, the Interior, and the Post-Office Departments, and the Department of Agriculture, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Commission of Food Fishes, to be contributed, under the legislation of last session, to the international exhibition to be held at Philadelphia during the centennial year 1876, has been diligent in the discharge of the duties which have devolved upon it; and the preparations so far made with the means at command give assurance that the governmental contribution will be made one of the marked characteristics of the exhibition. The board has observed commendable economy in the matter of the erection of a building for the governmental exhibit, the expense of which it is estimated will not exceed, say, $80,000. This amount has been withdrawn, under the law, from the appropriations of five of the principal Departments, which leaves some of those Departments without sufficient means to render their respective practical exhibits complete and satisfactory. The exhibition being an international one, and the Government being a voluntary contributor, it is my opinion that its contribution should be of a character, in quality and extent, to sustain the dignity and credit of so distinguished a contributor. The advantages to the country of a creditable display are, in an international point of view, of the first importance, while an indifferent or uncreditable participation by the Government would be humiliating to the patriotic feelings of our people themselves. I commend the estimates of the board for the necessary additional appropriations to the favorable consideration of Congress. The powers of Europe almost without exception, many of the South American States, and even the more distant Eastern powers have manifested their friendly sentiments toward the United States and the interest of the world in our progress by taking steps to join with us in celebrating the centennial of the nation, and I strongly recommend that a more national importance be given to this exhibition by such legislation and by such appropriation as will insure its success. Its value in bringing to our shores innumerable useful works of art and skill, the commingling of the citizens of foreign countries and our own, and the interchange of ideas and manufactures will far exceed any pecuniary outlay we may make. I transmit herewith the report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, together with the reports of the Commissioners, the board of audit, and the board of health of the District of Columbia, to all of which I invite your attention. The Bureau of Agriculture has accomplished much in disseminating useful knowledge to the agriculturist, and also in introducing new and useful productions adapted to our soil and climate, and is worthy of the continued encouragement of the Government. The report of the Commissioner of Education, which accompanies the report of the Secretary of the Interior, shows a gratifying progress in educational matters. In nearly every annual message that I have had the honor of transmitting to Congress I have called attention to the anomalous, not to say scandalous, condition of affairs existing in the Territory of Utah, and have asked for definite legislation to correct it. That polygamy should exist in a free, enlightened, and Christian country, without the power to punish so flagrant a crime against decency and morality, seems preposterous. True, there is no law to sustain this unnatural vice; but what is needed is a law to punish it as a crime, and at the same time to fix the status of the innocent children, the offspring of this system, and of the possibly innocent plural wives. But as an institution polygamy should be banished from the land. While this is being done I invite the attention of Congress to another, though perhaps no less an evil--the importation of Chinese women, but few of whom are brought to our shores to pursue honorable or useful occupations. Observations while visiting the Territories of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado during the past autumn convinced me that existing laws regulating the disposition of public lands, timber, etc., and probably the mining laws themselves, are very defective and should be carefully amended, and at an early day. Territory where cultivation of the soil can only be followed by irrigation, and where irrigation is not practicable the lands can only be used as pasturage, and this only where stock can reach water (to quench its thirst), can not be governed by the same laws as to entries as lands every acre of which is an independent estate by itself. Land must be held in larger quantities to justify the expense of conducting water upon it to make it fruitful, or to justify utilizing it as pasturage. The timber in most of the Territories is principally confined to the mountain regions, which are held for entry in small quantities only, and as mineral lands. The timber is the property of the United States, for the disposal of which there is now no adequate law. The settler must become a consumer of this timber, whether he lives upon the plain or engages in working the mines. Hence every man becomes either a trespasser himself or knowingly a patron of trespassers. My opportunities for observation were not sufficient to justify me in recommending specific legislation on these subjects, but I do recommend that a joint committee of the two Houses of Congress, sufficiently large to be divided into subcommittees, be organized to visit all the mining States and Territories during the coming summer, and that the committee shall report to Congress at the next session such laws or amendments to laws as it may deem necessary to secure the best interests of the Government and the people of these Territories, who are doing so much for their development. I am sure the citizens occupying the territory described do not wish to be trespassers, nor will they be if legal ways are provided for them to become owners of these actual necessities of their position. As this will be the last annual message which I shall have the honor of transmitting to Congress before my successor is chosen, I will repeat or recapitulate the questions which I deem of vital importance which may be legislated upon and settled at this session: First. That the States shall be required to afford the opportunity of a good common-school education to every child within their limits. Second. No sectarian tenets shall ever be taught in any school supported in whole or in part by the State, nation, or by the proceeds of any tax levied upon any community. Make education compulsory so far as to deprive all persons who can not read and write from becoming voters after the year 1890, disfranchising none, however, on grounds of illiteracy who may be voters at the time this amendment takes effect. Third. Declare church and state forever separate and distinct, but each free within their proper spheres; and that all church property shall bear its own proportion of taxation. Fourth. Drive out licensed immorality, such as polygamy and the importation of women for illegitimate purposes. To recur again to the centennial year, it would seem as though now, as we are about to begin the second century of our national existence, would be a most fitting time for these reforms. Fifth. Enact such laws as will insure a speedy return to a sound currency, such as will command the respect of the world. Believing that these views will commend themselves to the great majority of the right-thinking and patriotic citizens of the United States, I submit the rest to Congress.
In submitting my seventh annual message to Congress, in this centennial year of our national existence as a free and independent people, it affords me great pleasure to recur to the advancement that has been made from the time of the colonies, one hundred years ago. We were then a people numbering only 3,000,000. Now we number more than 40,000,000. Then industries were confined almost exclusively to the tillage of the soil. Now manufactories absorb much of the labor of the country. Our liberties remain unimpaired; the bondmen have been freed from slavery; we have become possessed of the respect, if not the friendship, of all civilized nations. Our progress has been great in all the arts--in science, agriculture, commerce, navigation, mining, mechanics, law, medicine, etc.; and in general education the progress is likewise encouraging. Our thirteen States have become thirty-eight, including Colorado (which has taken the initiatory steps to become a State), and eight Territories, including the Indian Territory and Alaska, and excluding Colorado, making a territory extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific. On the south we have extended to the Gulf of Mexico, and in the west from the Mississippi to the Pacific. One hundred years ago the cotton gin, the steamship, the railroad, the telegraph, the reaping, sewing, and modern printing machines, and numerous other inventions of scarcely less value to our business and happiness were entirely unknown. In 1776 manufactories scarcely existed even in name in all this vast territory. In 1870 more than 2,000,000 persons were employed in manufactories, producing more than $2,100,000,000 of products in amount annually, nearly equal to our national debt. From nearly the whole of the population of 1776 being engaged in the one occupation of agriculture, in 1870 so numerous and diversified had become the occupation of our people that less than 6,000,000 out of more than 40,000,000 were so engaged. The extraordinary effect produced in our country by a resort to diversified occupations has built a market for the products of fertile lands distant from the seaboard and the markets of the world. The American system of locating various and extensive manufactories next to the plow and the pasture, and adding connecting railroads and steamboats, has produced in our distant interior country a result noticeable by the intelligent portions all all commercial nations. The ingenuity and skill of American mechanics have been demonstrated at home and abroad in a manner most flattering to their pride. But for the extraordinary genius and ability of our mechanics, the achievements of our agriculturists, manufacturers, and transporters throughout the country would have been impossible of attainment. The progress of the miner has also been great. Of coal our production has small; now many millions of tons are mined annually. So with iron, which formed scarcely an appreciable part of our products half a century ago, we now produce more than the world consumed at the beginning of our national existence. Lead, zinc, and copper, from being articles of import, we may expect to be large exporters of in the near future. The development of gold and silver mines in the United States and Territories has not only been remarkable, but has had a large influence upon the business of all commercial nations. Our merchants in the last hundred years have had a success and have established a reputation for enterprise, sagacity, progress, and integrity unsurpassed by peoples of older nationalities. This "good name" is not confined to their homes, but goes out upon every sea and into every port where commerce enters. With equal pride we can point to our progress in all of the learned professions. As we are now about to enter upon our second centennial--commenting our manhood as a nation--it is well to look back upon the past and study what will be best to preserve and advance our future greatness From the fall of Adam for his transgression to the present day no nation has ever been free from threatened danger to its prosperity and happiness. We should look to the dangers threatening us, and remedy them so far as lies in our power. We are a republic whereof one man is as good as another before the law. Under such a form of government it is of the greatest importance that all should be possessed of education and intelligence enough to cast a vote with a right understanding of its meaning. A large association of ignorant men can not for any considerable period oppose a successful resistance to tyranny and oppression from the educated few, but will inevitably sink into acquiescence to the will of intelligence, whether directed by the demagogue or by priestcraft. Hence the education of the masses becomes of the first necessity for the preservation of our institutions. They are worth preserving, because they have secured the greatest good to the greatest proportion of the population of any form of government yet devised. All other forms of government approach it just in proportion to the general diffusion of education and independence of thought and action. As the primary step, therefore, to our advancement in all that has marked our progress in the past century, I suggest for your earnest consideration, and most earnestly recommend it, that a constitutional amendment be submitted to the legislatures of the several States for ratification, making it the duty of each of the several States to establish and forever maintain free public schools adequate to the education of all the children in the rudimentary branches within their respective limits, irrespective of sex, color, birthplace, or religions; forbidding the teaching in said schools of religious, atheistic, or pagan tenets; and prohibiting the granting of any school funds or school taxes, or any part thereof, either by legislative, municipal, or other authority, for the benefit or in aid, directly or indirectly, of any religious sect or denomination, or in aid or for the benefit of any other object of any nature or kind whatever. In connection with this important question I would also call your attention to the importance of correcting an evil that, if permitted to continue, will probably lead to great trouble in our land before the close of the nineteenth century. It is the accumulation of vast amounts of untaxed church property. In 1850, I believe, the church property of the United States which paid no tax, municipal or State, amounted to about $83,000,000. In 1860 the amount had doubled; in 1875 it is about $1,000,000,000. By 1900, without check, it is safe to say this property will reach a sum exceeding $3,000,000,000. So vast a sum, receiving all the protection and benefits of Government without bearing its proportion of the burdens and expenses of the same, will not be looked upon acquiescently by those who have to pay the taxes. In a growing country, where real estate enhances so rapidly with time as in the United States, there is scarcely a limit to the wealth that may be acquired by corporations, religious or otherwise, if allowed to retain real estate without taxation. The contemplation of so vast a property as here alluded to, without taxation, may lead to sequestration without constitutional authority and through blood. I would suggest the taxation of all property equally, whether church or corporation, exempting only the last resting place of the dead and possibly, with proper restrictions, church edifices. Our relations with most of the foreign powers continue on a satisfactory and friendly footing. Increased intercourse, the extension of commerce, and the cultivation of mutual interests have steadily improved our relations with the large majority of the powers of the world, rendering practicable the peaceful solution of questions which from time to time necessarily arise, leaving few which demand extended or particular notice. The correspondence of the Department of State with our diplomatic representatives abroad is transmitted herewith. I am happy to announce the passage of an act by the General Cortes of Portugal, proclaimed since the adjournment of Congress, for the abolition of servitude in the Portuguese colonies. It is to be hoped that such legislation may be another step toward the great consummation to be reached, when no man shall be permitted, directly or indirectly, under any guise, excuse, or form of law, to hold his fellow-man in bondage. I am of opinion also that it is the duty of the United States, as contributing toward that end, and required by the spirit of the age in which we live, to provide by suitable legislation that no citizen of the United States shall hold slaves as property in any other country or be interested therein. Chile has made reparation in the case of the whale ship Good Return, seized without sufficient because upward of forty years ago. Though she had hitherto denied her accountability, the denial was never acquiesced in by this Government, and the justice of the claim has been so earnestly contended for that it has been gratifying that she should have at last acknowledged it. The arbitrator in the case of the United States steamer Montijo, for the seizure and detention of which the Government of the United States of Colombia was held accountable, has decided in favor of the claim. This decision has settled a question which had been pending for several years, and which, while it continued open, might more or less disturb the good understanding which it is desirable should be maintained between the two Republics. A reciprocity treaty with the King of the Hawaiian Islands was concluded some months since. As it contains a stipulation that it shall not take effect until Congress shall enact the proper legislation for that purpose, copies of the instrument are herewith submitted, in order that, if such should be the pleasure of Congress, the necessary legislation upon the subject may be adopted. In March last an arrangement was made, through Mr. Cushing, our minister in Madrid, with the Spanish Government for the payment by the latter to the United States of the sum of $80,000 in coin, for the purpose of the relief of the families or persons of the ship's company and certain passengers of the Virginius. This sum was to have been paid in three installments at two months each. It is due to the Spanish Government that I should state that the payments were fully and spontaneously anticipated by that Government, and that the whole amount was paid within but a few days more than two months from the date of the agreement, a copy of which is herewith transmitted. In pursuance of the terms of the adjustment, I have directed the distribution of the amount among the parties entitled thereto, including the ship's company and such of the passengers as were American citizens. Payments are made accordingly, on the application by the parties entitled thereto. The past year has furnished no evidence of an approaching termination of the ruinous conflict which has been raging for seven years in the neighboring island of Cuba. The same disregard of the laws of civilized warfare and of the just demands of humanity which has heretofore called forth expressions of condemnation from the nations of Christendom has continued to blacken the sad scene. Desolation, ruin, and pillage are pervading the rich fields of one of the most fertile and productive regions of the earth, and the incendiary's torch, firing plantations and valuable factories and buildings, is the agent marking the alternate advance or retreat of contending parties. The protracted continuance of this strife seriously affects the interests of all commercial nations, but those of the United States more than others, by reason of close proximity, its larger trade and intercourse with Cuba, and the frequent and intimate personal and social relations which have grown up between its citizens and those of the island. Moreover, the property of our citizens in Cuba is large, and is rendered insecure and depreciated in value and in capacity of production by the continuance of the strife and the unnatural mode of its conduct. The same is true, differing only in degree, with respect to the interests and people of other nations; and the absence of any reasonable assurance of a near termination of the conflict must of necessity soon compel the States thus suffering to consider what the interests of their own people and their duty toward themselves may demand. I have hoped that Spain would be enabled to establish peace in her colony, to afford security to the property and the interests of our citizens, and allow legitimate scope to trade and commerce and the natural productions of the island. Because of this hope, and from an extreme reluctance to interfere in the most remote manner in the affairs of another and a friendly nation, especially of one whose sympathy and friendship in the struggling infancy of our own existence must ever be remembered with gratitude, I have patiently and anxiously waited the progress of events. Our own civil conflict is too recent for us not to consider the difficulties which surround a government distracted by a dynastic rebellion at home at the same time that it has to cope with a separate insurrection in a distant colony. But whatever causes may have produced the situation which so grievously affects our interests, it exists, with all its attendant evils operating directly upon this country and its people. Thus far all the efforts of Spain have proved abortive, and time has marked no improvement in the situation. The armed bands of either side now occupy nearly the same ground as in the past, with the difference, from time to time, of more lives sacrificed, more property destroyed, and wider extents of fertile and productive fields and more and more of valuable property constantly wantonly sacrificed to the incendiary's torch. In contests of this nature, where a considerable body of people who have attempted to free themselves of the control of the superior government have reached such point in occupation of territory, in power, and in general organization as to constitute in fact a body politic; having a government in substance as well as in name; possessed of the elements of stability and equipped with the machinery for the administration of internal policy and the execution of its laws; prepared and able to administer justice at home, as well as in its dealings with other powers, it is within the province of those other powers to recognize its existence as a new and independent nation. In such cases other nations simply deal with an actually existing condition of things, and recognize as one of the powers of the earth that body politic which, possessing the necessary elements, has in fact become a new power. In a word, the creation of a new state is a fact. To establish the condition of things essential to the recognition of this fact there must be a people occupying a known territory, united under some known and defined form of government, acknowledged by those subject thereto, in which the functions of government are administered by usual methods, competent to mete out justice to citizens and strangers, to afford remedies for public and for private wrongs, and able to assume the correlative international obligations and capable of performing the corresponding international duties resulting from its acquisition of the rights of sovereignty. A power should exist complete in its organization, ready to take and able to maintain its place among the nations of the earth. While conscious that the insurrection in Cuba has shown a strength and endurance which make it at least doubtful whether it be in the power of Spain to subdue it, it seems unquestionable that no such civil organization exists which may be recognized as an independent government capable of performing its international obligations and entitled to be treated as one of the powers of the earth. A recognition under such circumstances would be inconsistent with the facts, and would compel the power granting it soon to support by force the government to which it had really given its only claim of existence. In my judgment the United States should adhere to the policy and the principles which have heretofore been its sure and safe guides in like contests between revolted colonies and their mother country, and, acting only upon the clearest evidence, should avoid any possibility of suspicion or of imputation. A recognition of the independence of Cuba being, in my opinion, impracticable and indefensible, the question which next presents itself is that of the recognition of belligerent rights in the parties to the contest. In a former message to Congress I had occasion to consider this question, and reached the conclusion that the conflict in Cuba, dreadful and devastating as were its incidents, did not rise to the fearful dignity of war. Regarding it now, after this lapse of time, I am unable to see that any notable success or any marked or real advance on the part of the insurgents has essentially changed the character of the contest. It has acquired greater age, but not greater or more formidable proportions. It is possible that the acts of foreign powers, and even acts of Spain herself, of this very nature, might be pointed to in defense of such recognition. But now, as in its past history, the United States should carefully avoid the false lights which might lead it into the mazes of doubtful law and of questionable propriety, and adhere rigidly and sternly to the rule, which has been its guide, of doing only that which is right and honest and of good report. The question of according or of withholding rights of belligerency must be judged in every case in view of the particular attending facts. Unless justified by necessity, it is always, and justly, regarded as an unfriendly act and a gratuitous demonstration of moral support to the rebellion. It is necessary, and it is required, when the interests and rights of another government or of its people are so far affected by a pending civil conflict as to require a definition of its relations to the parties thereto. But this conflict must be one which will be recognized in the sense of international law as war. Belligerence, too, is a fact. The mere existence of contending armed bodies and their occasional conflicts do not constitute war in the sense referred to. Applying to the existing condition of affairs in Cuba the tests recognized by publicists and writers on international law, and which have been observed by nations of dignity, honesty, and power when free from sensitive or selfish and unworthy motives, I fail to find in the insurrection the existence of such a substantial political organization, real, palpable, and manifest to the world, having the forms and capable of the ordinary functions of government toward its own people and to other states, with courts for the administration of justice, with a local habitation, possessing such organization of force, such material, such occupation of territory, as to take the contest out of the category of a mere rebellious insurrection or occasional skirmishes and place it on the terrible footing of war, to which a recognition of belligerency would aim to elevate it. The contest, moreover, is solely on land; the insurrection has not possessed itself of a single seaport whence it may send forth its flag, nor has it any means of communication with foreign powers except through the military lines of its adversaries. No apprehension of any of those sudden and difficult complications which a war upon the ocean is apt to precipitate upon the vessels, both commercial and national, and upon the consular officers of other powers calls for the definition of their relations to the parties to the contest. Considered as a question of expediency, I regard the accordance of belligerent rights still to be as unwise and premature as I regard it to be, at present, indefensible as a measure of right. Such recognition entails upon the country according the rights which flow from it difficult and complicated duties, and requires the exaction from the contending parties of the strict observance of their rights and obligations; it confers the right of search upon the high seas by vessels of both parties; it would subject the carrying of arms and munitions of war, which now may be transported freely and without interruption in the vessels of the United States, to detention and to possible seizure; it would give rise to countless vexatious questions, would release the parent Government from responsibility for acts done by the insurgents, and would invest Spain with the right to exercise the supervision recognized by our treaty of 1795 over our commerce on the high seas, a very large part of which, in its traffic between the Atlantic and the Gulf States and between all of them and the States on the Pacific, passes through the waters which wash the shores of Cuba. The exercise of this supervision could scarce fail to lead, if not to abuses, certainly to collisions perilous to the peaceful relations of the two States. There can be little doubt to what result such supervision would before long draw this nation. It would be unworthy of the United States to inaugurate the possibilities of such result by measures of questionable right or expediency or by any indirection. Apart from any question of theoretical right, I am satisfied that while the accordance of belligerent rights to the insurgents in Cuba might give them a hope and an inducement to protract the struggle, it would be but a delusive hope, and would not remove the evils which this Government and its people are experiencing, but would draw the United States into complications which it has waited long and already suffered much to avoid. The recognition of independence or of belligerency being thus, in my judgment, equally inadmissible, it remains to consider what course shall be adopted should the conflict not soon be brought to an end by acts of the parties themselves, and should the evils which result therefrom, affecting all nations, and particularly the United States, continue. In such event I am of opinion that other nations will be compelled to assume the responsibility which devolves upon them, and to seriously consider the only remaining measures possible--mediation and intervention, Owing, perhaps, to the large expanse of water separating the island from the peninsula, the want of harmony and of personal sympathy between the inhabitants of the colony and those sent thither to rule them, and want of adaptation of the ancient colonial system of Europe to the present times and to the ideas which the events of the past century have developed, the contending parties appear to have within themselves no depository of common confidence to suggest wisdom when passion and excitement have their sway and to assume the part of peacemaker. In this view in the earlier days of the contest the good offices of the United States as a mediator were tendered in good faith, without any selfish purpose, in the interest of humanity and in sincere friendship for both parties, but were at the time declined by Spain, with the declaration, nevertheless, that at a future time they would be indispensable. No intimation has been received that in the opinion of Spain that time has been reached. And yet the strife continues, with all its dread horrors and all its injuries to the interests of the United States and of other nations. Each party seems quite capable of working great injury and damage to the other, as well as to all the relations and interests dependent on the existence of peace in the island; but they seem incapable of reaching any adjustment, and both have thus far failed of achieving any success whereby one party shall possess and control the island to the exclusion of the other. Under these circumstances the agency of others, either by mediation or by intervention, seems to be the only alternative which must, sooner or later, be invoked for the termination of the strife. At the same time, while thus impressed I do not at this time recommend the adoption of any measure of intervention. I shall be ready at all times, and as the equal friend of both parties, to respond to a suggestion that the good offices of the United States will be acceptable to aid in bringing about a peace honorable to both. It is due to Spain, so far as this Government is concerned, that the agency of a third power, to which I have adverted, shall be adopted only as a last expedient. Had it been the desire of the United States to interfere in the affairs of Cuba, repeated opportunities for so doing have been presented within the last few years; but we have remained passive, and have performed our whole duty and all international obligations to Spain with friendship, fairness, and fidelity, and with a spirit of patience and forbearance which negatives every possible suggestion of desire to interfere or to add to the difficulties with which she has been surrounded. The Government of Spain has recently submitted to our minister at Madrid certain proposals which it is hoped may be found to be the basis, if not the actual submission, of terms to meet the requirements of the particular griefs of which this Government has felt itself entitled to complain. These proposals have not yet reached me in their full text. On their arrival they will be taken into careful examination, and may, I hope, lead to a satisfactory adjustment of the questions to which they refer and remove the possibility of future occurrences such as have given rise to our just complaints. It is understood also that renewed efforts are being made to introduce reforms in the internal administration of the island. Persuaded, however, that a proper regard for the interests of the United States and of its citizens entitles it to relief from the strain to which it has been subjected by the difficulties of the questions and the wrongs and losses which arise from the contest in Cuba, and that the interests of humanity itself demand the cessation of the strife before the whole island shall be laid waste and larger sacrifices of life be made, I shall feel it my duty, should my hopes of a satisfactory adjustment and of the early restoration of peace and the removal of future causes of complaint be, unhappily, disappointed, to make a further communication to Congress at some period not far remote, and during the present session, recommending what may then seem to me to be necessary. The free zone, so called, several years since established by the Mexican Government in certain of the States of that Republic adjacent to our frontier, remains in full operation. It has always been materially injurious to honest traffic, for it operates as an incentive to traders in Mexico to supply without customs charges the wants of inhabitants on this side of the line, and prevents the same wants from being supplied by merchants of the United States, thereby to a considerable extent defrauding our revenue and checking honest commercial enterprise. Depredations by armed bands from Mexico on the people of Texas near the frontier continue. Though the main object of these incursions is robbery, they frequently result in the murder of unarmed and peaceably disposed persons, and in some instances even the United States post-offices and mail communications have been attacked. Renewed remonstrances upon this subject have been addressed to the Mexican Government, but without much apparent effect. The military force of this Government disposable for service in that quarter is quite inadequate to effectually guard the line, even at those points where the incursions are usually made. An experiment of an armed vessel on the Rio Grande for that purpose is on trial, and it is hoped that, if not thwarted by the shallowness of the river and other natural obstacles, it may materially contribute to the protection of the herdsmen of Texas. The proceedings of the joint commission under the convention between the United States and Mexico of the 4th of July, 1868, on the subject of claims, will soon be brought to a close. The result of those proceedings will then be communicated to Congress. I am happy to announce that the Government of Venezuela has, upon further consideration, practically abandoned its objection to pay to the United States that share of its revenue which some years since it allotted toward the extinguishment of the claims of foreigners generally. In thus reconsidering its determination that Government has shown a just sense of self-respect which can not fail to reflect credit upon it in the eyes of all disinterested persons elsewhere. It is to be regretted, however, that its payments on account of claims of citizens of the United States are still so meager in amount, and that the stipulations of the treaty in regard to the sums to be paid and the periods when those payments were to take place should have been so signally disregarded. Since my last annual message the exchange has been made of the ratification of a treaty of commerce and navigation with Belgium, and of conventions with the Mexican Republic for the further extension of the joint commission respecting claims; with the Hawaiian Islands for commercial reciprocity, and with the Ottoman Empire for extradition; all of which have been duly proclaimed. The Court of Commissioners of Alabama Claims has prosecuted its important duties very assiduously and very satisfactorily. It convened and was organized on the 22d day of July, 1874, and by the terms of the act under which it was created was to exist for one year from that date. The act provided, however, that should it be found impracticable to complete the work of the court before the expiration of the year the President might by proclamation extend the time of its duration to a period not more than six months beyond the expiration of the one year. Having received satisfactory evidence that it would be impracticable to complete the work within the time originally fixed, I issued a proclamation (a copy of which is presented herewith) extending the time of duration of the court for a period of six months from and after the 22d day of July last. A report made through the clerk of the court (communicated herewith) shows the condition of the calendar on the 1st of November last and the large amount of work which has been accomplished. One thousand three hundred and eighty-two claims have been presented, of which 682 had been disposed of at the date of the report. I am informed that 170 cases were decided during the month of November. Arguments are being made and decisions given in the remaining cases with all the dispatch consistent with the proper consideration of the questions submitted. Many of these claims are in behalf of mariners, or depend on the evidence of mariners, whose absence has delayed the taking or the return of the necessary evidence. It is represented to me that it will be impracticable for the court to finally dispose of all the cases before it within the present limit of its duration. Justice to the parties claimant, who have been at large expense in preparing their claims and obtaining the evidence in their support, suggests a short extension, to enable the court to dispose of all of the claims which have been presented. I recommend the legislation which may be deemed proper to enable the court to complete the work before it. I recommend that some suitable provision be made, by the creation of a special court or by conferring the necessary jurisdiction upon some appropriate tribunal, for the consideration and determination of the claims of aliens against the Government of the United States which have arisen within some reasonable limitation of time, or which may hereafter arise, excluding all claims barred by treaty provisions or otherwise. It has been found impossible to give proper consideration to these claims by the Executive Departments of the Government. Such a tribunal would afford an opportunity to aliens other than British subjects to present their claims on account of acts committed against their persons or property during the rebellion, as also to those subjects of Great Britain whose claims, having arisen subsequent to the 9th day of April, 1865, could not be presented to the late commission organized pursuant to the provisions of the treaty of Washington. The electric telegraph has become an essential and indispensable agent in the transmission of business and social messages. Its operation on land, and within the limit of particular states, is necessarily under the control of the jurisdiction within which it operates. The lines on the high seas, however, are not subject to the particular control of any one government. In 1869 a concession was granted by the French Government to a company which proposed to lay a cable from the shores of France to the United States. At that time there was a telegraphic connection between the United States and the continent of Europe (through the possessions of Great Britain at either end of the line), under the control of an association which had, at large outlay of capital and at great risk, demonstrated the practicability of maintaining such means of communication. The cost of correspondence by this agency was great, possibly not too large at the time for a proper remuneration for so hazardous and so costly an enterprise. It was, however, a heavy charge upon a means of communication which the progress in the social and commercial intercourse of the world found to be a necessity, and the obtaining of this French concession showed that other capital than that already invested was ready to enter into competition, with assurance of adequate return for their outlay. Impressed with the conviction that the interests, not only of the people of the United States, but of the world at large, demanded, or would demand, the multiplication of such means of communication between separated continents, I was desirous that the proposed connection should be made; but certain provisions of this concession were deemed by me to be objectionable, particularly one which gave for a long term of years the exclusive right of telegraphic communication by submarine cable between the shores of France and the United States. I could not concede that any power should claim the right to land a cable on the shores of the United States and at the same time deny to the United States, or to its citizens or grantees, an equal fight to land a cable on its shores. The right to control the conditions for the laying of a cable within the jurisdictional waters of the United States, to connect our shores with those of any foreign state, pertains exclusively to the Government of the United States, under such limitations and conditions as Congress may impose. In the absence of legislation by Congress I was unwilling, on the one hand, to yield to a foreign state the right to say that its grantees might land on our shores while it denied a similar right to our people to land on its shores, and, on the other hand, I was reluctant to deny to the great interests of the world and of civilization the facilities of such communication as were proposed. I therefore withheld any resistance to the landing of the cable on condition that the offensive monopoly feature of the concession be abandoned, and that the right of any cable which may be established by authority of this Government to land upon French territory and to connect with French land lines and enjoy all the necessary facilities or privileges incident to the use thereof upon as favorable terms as any other company be conceded. As the result thereof the company in question renounced the exclusive privilege, and the representative of France was informed that, understanding this relinquishment to be construed as granting the entire reciprocity and equal facilities which had been demanded, the opposition to the landing of the cable was withdrawn. The cable, under this French concession, was landed in the month of July, 1869, and has been an efficient and valuable agent of communication between this country and the other continent. It soon passed under the control, however, of those who had the management of the cable connecting Great Britain with this continent, and thus whatever benefit to the public might have ensued from competition between the two lines was lost, leaving only the greater facilities of an additional line and the additional security in case of accident to one of them. But these increased facilities and this additional security, together with the control of the combined capital of the two companies, gave also greater power to prevent the future construction of other lines and to limit the control of telegraphic communication between the two continents to those possessing the lines already laid. Within a few months past a cable has been laid, known as the United States Direct Cable Company, connecting the United States directly with Great Britain. As soon as this cable was reported to be laid and in working order the rates of the then existing consolidated companies were greatly reduced. Soon, however, a break was announced in this new cable, and immediately the rates of the other line, which had been reduced, were again raised. This cable being now repaired, the rates appear not to be reduced by either line from those formerly charged by the consolidated companies. There is reason to believe that large amounts of capital, both at home and abroad, are ready to seek profitable investment in the advancement of this useful and most civilizing means of intercourse and correspondence. They await, however, the assurance of the means and conditions on which they may safely be made tributary to the general good. As these cable telegraph lines connect separate states, there are questions as to their organization and control which probably can be best, if not solely, settled by conventions between the respective states. In the absence, however, of international conventions on the subject, municipal legislation may secure many points which appear to me important, if not indispensable for the protection of the public against the extortions which may result from a monopoly of the right of operating cable telegrams or from a combination between several lines: I. No line should be allowed to land on the shores of the United States under the concession from another power which does not admit the right of any other line or lines, formed in the United States, to land and freely connect with and operate through its land lines. II. No line should be allowed to land on the shores of the United States which is not, by treaty stipulation with the government from whose shores it proceeds, or by prohibition in its charter, or otherwise to the satisfaction of this Government, prohibited from consolidating or amalgamating with any other cable telegraph line, or combining therewith for the purpose of regulating and maintaining the cost of telegraphing. III. All lines should be bound to give precedence in the transmission of the official messages of the governments of the two countries between which it may be laid. IV. A power should be reserved to the two governments, either conjointly or to each, as regards the messages dispatched from its shores, to fix a limit to the charges to be demanded for the transmission of messages. I present this subject to the earnest consideration of Congress. In the meantime, and unless Congress otherwise direct, I shall not oppose the landing of any telegraphic cable which complies with and assents to the points above enumerated, but will feel it my duty to prevent the landing of any which does not conform to the first and second points as stated, and which will not stipulate to concede to this Government the precedence in the transmission of its official messages and will not enter into a satisfactory arrangement with regard to its charges. Among the pressing and important subjects to which, in my opinion, the attention of Congress should be directed are those relating to fraudulent naturalization and expatriation. The United States, with great liberality, offers its citizenship to all who in good faith comply with the requirements of law. These requirements are as simple and upon as favorable terms to the emigrant as the high privilege to which he is admitted can or should permit. I do not propose any additional requirements to those which the law now demands; but the very simplicity and the want of unnecessary formality in our law have made fraudulent naturalization not infrequent, to the discredit and injury of all honest citizens, whether native or naturalized. Cases of this character are continually being brought to the notice of the Government by our representatives abroad, and also those of persons resident in other countries, most frequently those who, if they have remained in this country long enough to entitle them to become naturalized, have generally not much overpassed that period, and have returned to the country of their origin, where they reside, avoiding all duties to the United States by their absence, and claiming to be exempt from all duties to the country of their nativity and of their residence by reason of their alleged naturalization. It is due to this Government itself and to the great mass of the naturalized citizens who entirely, both in name and in fact, become citizens of the United States that the high privilege of citizenship of the United States should not be held by fraud or in derogation of the laws and of the good name of every honest citizen. On many occasions it has been brought to the knowledge of the Government that certificates of naturalization are held and protection or interference claimed by parties who admit that not only they were not within the United States at the time of the pretended naturalization, but that they have never resided in the United States; in others the certificate and record of the court show on their face that the person claiming to be naturalized had not resided the required time in the United States; in others it is admitted upon examination that the requirements of law have not been complied with; in some eases, even, such certificates have been matter of purchase. These are not isolated eases, arising at rare intervals, but of common occurrence, and which are reported from all quarters of the globe. Such occurrences can not, and do not, fail to reflect upon the Government and injure all honest citizens. Such a fraud being discovered, however, there is no practicable means within the control of the Government by which the record of naturalization can be vacated; and should the certificate be taken up, as it usually is, by the diplomatic and consular representatives of the Government to whom it may have been presented, there is nothing to prevent the person claiming to have been naturalized from obtaining a new certificate from the court in place of that which has been taken from him. The evil has become so great and of such frequent occurrence that I can not too earnestly recommend that some effective measures be adopted to provide a proper remedy and means for the vacating of any record thus fraudulently made, and of punishing the guilty parties to the transaction. In this connection I refer also to the question of expatriation and the election of nationality. The United States was foremost in upholding the right of expatriation, and was principally instrumental in overthrowing the doctrine of perpetual allegiance. Congress has declared the right of expatriation to be a natural and inherent right of all people; but while many other nations have enacted laws providing what formalities shall be necessary to work a change of allegiance, the United States has enacted no provisions of law and has in no respect marked out how and when expatriation may be accomplished by its citizens. Instances are brought to the attention of the Government where citizens of the United States, either naturalized or native born, have formally become citizens or subjects of foreign powers, but who, nevertheless, in the absence of any provisions of legislation on this question, when involved in difficulties or when it seems to be their interest, claim to be citizens of the United States and demand the intervention of a Government which they have long since abandoned and to which for years they have rendered no service nor held themselves in any way amenable. In other cases naturalized citizens, immediately after naturalization, have returned to their native country; have become engaged in business; have accepted offices or pursuits inconsistent with American citizenship, and evidence no intent to return to the United States until called upon to discharge some duty to the country where they are residing, when at once they assert their citizenship and call upon the representatives of the Government to aid them in their unjust pretensions. It is but justice to all bona fide citizens that no doubt should exist on such questions, and that Congress should determine by enactment of law how expatriation may be accomplished and change of citizenship be established. I also invite your attention to the necessity of regulating by law the status of American women who may marry foreigners, and of defining more fully that of children born in a foreign country of American parents who may reside abroad; and also of some further provision regulating or giving legal effect to marriages of American citizens contracted in foreign countries. The correspondence submitted herewith shows a few of the constantly occurring questions on these points presented to the consideration of the Government. There are few subjects to engage the attention of Congress on which more delicate relations or more important interests are dependent. In the month of July last the building erected for the Department of State was taken possession of and occupied by that Department. I am happy to announce that the archives and valuable papers of the Government in the custody of that Department are now safely deposited and properly cared for. The report of the Secretary of the Treasury shows the receipts from customs for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1874, to have been $163,103,833.69, and for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1875, to have been $157,267,722.35, a decrease for the last fiscal year of $5,936,111.34. Receipts from internal revenue for the year ending the 30th of June, 1874, were $102,409,784.90, and for the year ending June 30, 1875, $110,007,493.58; increase, $7,597,708.68. The report also shows a complete history of the workings of the Department for the last year, and contains recommendations for reforms and for legislation which I concur in, but can not comment on so fully as I should like to do if space would permit, but will confine myself to a few suggestions which I look upon as vital to the best interests of the whole people--coming within the purview of "Treasury;" I mean specie resumption. Too much stress can not be laid upon this question, and I hope Congress may be induced, at the earliest day practicable, to insure the consummation of the act of the last Congress, at its last session, to bring about specie resumption "on and after the 1st of January, 1879," at furthest. It would be a great blessing if this could be consummated even at an earlier day. Nothing seems to me more certain than that a full, healthy, and permanent reaction can not take place in favor of the industries and financial welfare of the country until we return to a measure of values recognized throughout the civilized world. While we use a currency not equivalent to this standard the world's recognized standard, specie, becomes a commodity like the products of the soil, the surplus seeking a market wherever there is a demand for it. Under our present system we should want none, nor would we have any, were it not that customs dues must be paid in coin and because of the pledge to pay interest on the public debt in coin. The yield of precious metals would flow out for the purchase of foreign productions and the United States "hewers of wood and drawers of water," because of wiser legislation on the subject of finance by the nations with whom we have dealings. I am not prepared to say that I can suggest the best legislation to secure the end most heartily recommended. It will be a source of great gratification to me to be able to approve any measure of Congress looking effectively toward securing "resumption." Unlimited inflation would probably bring about specie payments more speedily than any legislation looking to redemption of the legal-tenders in coin; but it would be at the expense of honor. The legal-tenders would have no value beyond settling present liabilities, or, properly speaking, repudiating them. They would buy nothing after debts were all settled. There are a few measures which seem to me important in this connection and which I commend to your earnest consideration: A repeal of so much of the legal-tender act as makes these notes receivable for debts contracted after a date to be fixed in the act itself, say not later than the 1st of January, 1877. We should then have quotations at real values, not fictitious ones. Gold would no longer be at a premium, but currency at a discount. A healthy reaction would set in at once, and with it a desire to make the currency equal to what it purports to be. The merchants, manufacturers, and tradesmen of every calling could do business on a fair margin of profit, the money to be received having an unvarying value. Laborers and all classes who work for stipulated pay or salary would receive more for their income, because extra profits would no longer be charged by the capitalists to compensate for the risk of a downward fluctuation in the value of the currency. Second. That the Secretary of the Treasury be authorized to redeem, say, not to exceed $2,000,000 monthly of legal-tender notes, by issuing in their stead a long bond, bearing interest at the rate of 3.65 per cent per annum, of denominations ranging from $50 up to $1,000 each. This would in time reduce the legal-tender notes to a volume that could be kept afloat without demanding redemption in large sums suddenly. Third. That additional power be given to the Secretary of the Treasury to accumulate gold for final redemption, either by increasing revenue, curtailing expenses, or both (it is preferable to do both); and I recommend that reduction of expenditures be made wherever it can be done without impairing Government obligations or crippling the due execution thereof. One measure for increasing the revenue--and the only one I think of--is the restoration of the duty on tea and coffee. These duties would add probably $18,000,000 to the present amount received from imports, and would in no way increase the prices paid for those articles by the consumers. These articles are the products of countries collecting revenue from exports, and as we, the largest consumers, reduce the duties they proportionately increase them. With this addition to the revenue, many duties now collected, and which give but an insignificant return for the cost of collection, might be remitted, and to the direct advantage of consumers at home. I would mention those articles which enter into manufactures of all sorts. All duty paid upon such articles goes directly to the cost of the article when manufactured here, and must be paid for by the consumers. These duties not only come from the consumers at home, but act as a protection to foreign manufacturers of the same completed articles in our own and distant markets. I will suggest or mention another subject bearing upon the problem of "how to enable the Secretary of the Treasury to accumulate balances." It is to devise some better method of verifying claims against the Government than at present exists through the Court of Claims, especially those claims growing out of the late war. Nothing is more certain than that a very large percentage of the amounts passed and paid are either wholly fraudulent or are far in excess of the real losses sustained. The large amount of losses proven--on good testimony according to existing laws, by affidavits of fictitious or unscrupulous persons--to have been sustained on small farms and plantations are not only far beyond the possible yield of those places for any one year, but, as everyone knows who has had experience in tilling the soil and who has visited the scenes of these spoliations, are in many instances more than the individual claimants were ever worth, including their personal and real estate. The report of the Attorney-General, which will be submitted to Congress at an early day, will contain a detailed history of awards made and of claim pending of the class here referred to. The report of the Secretary of War, accompanying this message, gives a detailed account of Army operations for the year just passed, expenses for maintenance, etc., with recommendations for legislation to which I respectfully invite your attention. To some of these I invite special attention: First. The necessity of making $300,000 of the appropriation for the Subsistence Department available before the beginning of the next fiscal year. Without this provision troops at points distant from supply production must either go without food or existing laws must be violated. It is not attended with cost to the Treasury. Second. His recommendation for the enactment of a system of annuities for the families of deceased officers by voluntary deductions from the monthly pay of officers. This again is not attended with burden upon the Treasury, and would for the future relieve much distress which every old army officer has witnessed in the past--of officers dying suddenly or being killed, leaving families without even the means of reaching their friends, if fortunate enough to have friends to aid them. Third. The repeal of the law abolishing mileage, and a return to the old system. Fourth. The trial with torpedoes under the Corps of Engineers, and appropriation for the same. Should war ever occur between the United States and any maritime power, torpedoes will be among if not the most effective and cheapest auxiliary for the defense of harbors, and also in aggressive operations, that we can have. Hence it is advisable to learn by experiment their best construction and application, as well as effect. Fifth. A permanent organization for the Signal-Service Corps. This service has now become a necessity of peace as well as war, under the advancement made by the present able management. Sixth. A renewal of the appropriation for compiling the official records of the war, etc. The condition of our Navy at this time is a subject of satisfaction. It does not contain, it is true, any of the powerful cruising ironclads which make so much of the maritime strength of some other nations, but neither our continental situation nor our foreign policy requires that we should have a large number of ships of this character, while this situation and the nature of our ports combine to make those of other nations little dangerous to us under any circumstances. Our Navy does contain, however, a considerable number of ironclads of the monitor class, which, though not properly cruisers, are powerful and effective for harbor defense and for operations near our own shores. Of these all the single-turreted ones, fifteen in number, have been substantially rebuilt, their rotten wooden beams replaced with iron, their hulls strengthened, and their engines and machinery thoroughly repaired, so that they are now in the most efficient condition and ready for sea as soon as they can be manned and put in commission. The five double-turreted ironclads belonging to our Navy, by far the most powerful of our ships for fighting purposes, are also in hand undergoing complete repairs, and could be ready for sea in periods varying from four to six months. With these completed according to the present design and our two iron torpedo boats now ready, our ironclad fleet will be, for the purposes of defense at home, equal to any force that can readily be brought against it. Of our wooden navy also cruisers of various sizes, to the number of about forty, including those now in commission, are in the Atlantic, and could be ready for duty as fast as men could be enlisted for those not already in commission. Of these, one-third are in effect new ships, and though some of the remainder need considerable repairs to their boilers and machinery, they all are, or can readily be made, effective. This constitutes a fleet of more than fifty war ships, of which fifteen are ironclad, now in hand on the Atlantic coast. The Navy has been brought to this condition by a judicious and practical application of what could be spared from the current appropriations of the last few years and from that made to meet the possible emergency of two years ago. It has been done quietly, without proclamation or display, and though it has necessarily straitened the Department in its ordinary expenditure, and, as far as the ironclads are concerned, has added nothing to the cruising force of the Navy, yet the result is not the less satisfactory because it is to be found in a great increase of real rather than apparent force. The expenses incurred in the maintenance of an effective naval force in all its branches are necessarily large, but such force is essential to our position, relations, and character, and affects seriously the weight of our principles and policy throughout the whole sphere of national responsibilities. The estimates for the regular support of this branch of the service for the next year amount to a little less in the aggregate than those made for the current year; but some additional appropriations are asked for objects not included in the ordinary maintenance of the Navy, but believed to be of pressing importance at this time. It would, in my opinion, be wise at once to afford sufficient means for the immediate completion of the five double-turreted monitors now undergoing repairs, which must otherwise advance slowly, and only as money can be spared from current expenses. Supplemented by these, our Navy, armed with the destructive weapons of modern warfare, manned by our seamen, and in charge of our instructed officers, will present a force powerful for the home purposes of a responsible though peaceful nation. The report of the Postmaster-General herewith transmitted gives a full history of the workings of the Department for the year just past. It will be observed that the deficiency to be supplied from the General Treasury is increased over the amount required for the preceding year. In a country so vast in area as the United States, with large portions sparsely settled, it must be expected that this important service will be more or less a burden upon the Treasury for many years to come. But there is no branch of the public service which interests the whole people more than that of cheap and rapid transmission of the mails to every inhabited part of our territory. Next to the free school, the post-office is the great educator of the people, and it may well receive the support of the General Government. The subsidy of $150,000 per annum given to vessels of the United States for carrying the mails between New York and Rio de Janeiro having ceased on the 30th day of September last, we are without direct mail facilities with the South American States. This is greatly to be regretted, and I do not hesitate to recommend the authorization of a renewal of that contract, and also that the service may be increased from monthly to semi-monthly trips. The commercial advantages to be gained by a direct line of American steamers to the South American States will far outweigh the expense of the service. By act of Congress approved March 3, 1875, almost all matter, whether properly mail matter or not, may be sent any distance through the mails, in packages not exceeding 4 pounds in weight, for the sum of 16 cents per pound. So far as the transmission of real mail matter goes, this would seem entirely proper; but I suggest that the law be so amended as to exclude from the mails merchandise of all descriptions, and limit this transportation to articles enumerated, and which may be classed as mail matter proper. The discovery of gold in the Black Hills, a portion of the Sioux Reservation, has had the effect to induce a large emigration of miners to that point. Thus far the effort to protect the treaty rights of the Indians to that section has been successful, but the next year will certainly witness a large increase of such emigration. The negotiations for the relinquishment of the gold fields having failed, it will be necessary for Congress to adopt some measures to relieve the embarrassment growing out of the causes named. The Secretary of the Interior suggests that the supplies now appropriated for the sustenance of that people, being no longer obligatory under the treaty of 1868, but simply a gratuity, may be issued or withheld at his discretion. The condition of the Indian Territory, to which I have referred in several of my former annual messages, remains practically unchanged. The Secretary of the Interior has taken measures to obtain a full report of the condition of that Territory, and will make it the subject of a special report at an early day. It may then be necessary to make some further recommendation in regard to legislation for the government of that Territory. The steady growth and increase of the business of the Patent Office indicates in some measure the progress of the industrial activity of the country. The receipts of the office are in excess of its expenditures, and the office generally is in a prosperous and satisfactory condition. The report of the General Land Office shows that there were 2,459,601 acres less disposed of during this than during the last year. More than one-half of this decrease was in lands disposed of under the homestead and timber-culture laws. The because of this decrease is supposed to be found in the grasshopper scourge and the droughts which prevailed so extensively in some of the frontier States and Territories during that time as to discourage and deter entries by actual settlers. The cash receipts were less by $690,322.23 than during the preceding year. The entire surveyed area of the public domain is 680,253,094 acres, of which 26,077,531 acres were surveyed during the past year, leaving 1,154,471,762 acres still unsurveyed. The report of the Commissioner presents many interesting suggestions in regard to the management and disposition of the public domain and the modification of existing laws, the apparent importance of which should insure for them the careful consideration of Congress. The number of pensioners still continues to decrease, the highest number having been reached during the year ending June 30, 1873. During the last year 11,557 names were added to the rolls, and 12,977 were dropped therefrom, showing a net decrease of 1,420. But while the number of pensioners has decreased, the annual amount due on the pension rolls has increased $44,733.13. This is caused by the greatly increased average rate of pensions, which, by the liberal legislation of Congress, has increased from $90.26 in 1872 to $103.91 in 1875 to each invalid pensioner, an increase in the average rate of 15 per cent in the three years. During the year ending June 30, 1875, there was paid on account of pensions, including the expenses of disbursement, $29,683,116, being $910,632 less than was paid the preceding year. This reduction in amount of expenditures was produced by the decrease in the amount of arrearages due on allowed claims and on pensions the rate of which was increased by the legislation of the preceding session of Congress. At the close of the last fiscal year there were on the pension rolls 234,821 persons, of whom 210,363 were army pensioners, 105,478 being invalids and 104,885 widows and dependent relatives; 3,420 were navy pensioners, of whom 1,636 were invalids and 1,784 widows and dependent relatives; 21,038 were pensioners of the War of 1812, 15,875 of whom were survivors and 5,163 were widows. It is estimated that $29,535,000 will be required for the payment of pensions for the next fiscal year, an amount $965,000 less than the estimate for the present year. The geological explorations have been prosecuted with energy during the year, covering an area of about 40,000 square miles in the Territories of Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico, developing the agricultural and mineral resources and furnishing interesting scientific and topographical details of that region. The method for the treatment of the Indians adopted at the beginning of my first term has been steadily pursued, and with satisfactory and encouraging results. It has been productive of evident improvement in the condition of that race, and will be continued, with only such modifications as further experience may indicate to be necessary. The board heretofore appointed to take charge of the articles and materials pertaining to the War, the Navy, the Treasury, the Interior, and the Post-Office Departments, and the Department of Agriculture, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Commission of Food Fishes, to be contributed, under the legislation of last session, to the international exhibition to be held at Philadelphia during the centennial year 1876, has been diligent in the discharge of the duties which have devolved upon it; and the preparations so far made with the means at command give assurance that the governmental contribution will be made one of the marked characteristics of the exhibition. The board has observed commendable economy in the matter of the erection of a building for the governmental exhibit, the expense of which it is estimated will not exceed, say, $80,000. This amount has been withdrawn, under the law, from the appropriations of five of the principal Departments, which leaves some of those Departments without sufficient means to render their respective practical exhibits complete and satisfactory. The exhibition being an international one, and the Government being a voluntary contributor, it is my opinion that its contribution should be of a character, in quality and extent, to sustain the dignity and credit of so distinguished a contributor. The advantages to the country of a creditable display are, in an international point of view, of the first importance, while an indifferent or uncreditable participation by the Government would be humiliating to the patriotic feelings of our people themselves. I commend the estimates of the board for the necessary additional appropriations to the favorable consideration of Congress. The powers of Europe almost without exception, many of the South American States, and even the more distant Eastern powers have manifested their friendly sentiments toward the United States and the interest of the world in our progress by taking steps to join with us in celebrating the centennial of the nation, and I strongly recommend that a more national importance be given to this exhibition by such legislation and by such appropriation as will insure its success. Its value in bringing to our shores innumerable useful works of art and skill, the commingling of the citizens of foreign countries and our own, and the interchange of ideas and manufactures will far exceed any pecuniary outlay we may make. I transmit herewith the report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, together with the reports of the Commissioners, the board of audit, and the board of health of the District of Columbia, to all of which I invite your attention. The Bureau of Agriculture has accomplished much in disseminating useful knowledge to the agriculturist, and also in introducing new and useful productions adapted to our soil and climate, and is worthy of the continued encouragement of the Government. The report of the Commissioner of Education, which accompanies the report of the Secretary of the Interior, shows a gratifying progress in educational matters. In nearly every annual message that I have had the honor of transmitting to Congress I have called attention to the anomalous, not to say scandalous, condition of affairs existing in the Territory of Utah, and have asked for definite legislation to correct it. That polygamy should exist in a free, enlightened, and Christian country, without the power to punish so flagrant a crime against decency and morality, seems preposterous. True, there is no law to sustain this unnatural vice; but what is needed is a law to punish it as a crime, and at the same time to fix the status of the innocent children, the offspring of this system, and of the possibly innocent plural wives. But as an institution polygamy should be banished from the land. While this is being done I invite the attention of Congress to another, though perhaps no less an evil--the importation of Chinese women, but few of whom are brought to our shores to pursue honorable or useful occupations. Observations while visiting the Territories of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado during the past autumn convinced me that existing laws regulating the disposition of public lands, timber, etc., and probably the mining laws themselves, are very defective and should be carefully amended, and at an early day. Territory where cultivation of the soil can only be followed by irrigation, and where irrigation is not practicable the lands can only be used as pasturage, and this only where stock can reach water (to quench its thirst), can not be governed by the same laws as to entries as lands every acre of which is an independent estate by itself. Land must be held in larger quantities to justify the expense of conducting water upon it to make it fruitful, or to justify utilizing it as pasturage. The timber in most of the Territories is principally confined to the mountain regions, which are held for entry in small quantities only, and as mineral lands. The timber is the property of the United States, for the disposal of which there is now no adequate law. The settler must become a consumer of this timber, whether he lives upon the plain or engages in working the mines. Hence every man becomes either a trespasser himself or knowingly a patron of trespassers. My opportunities for observation were not sufficient to justify me in recommending specific legislation on these subjects, but I do recommend that a joint committee of the two Houses of Congress, sufficiently large to be divided into subcommittees, be organized to visit all the mining States and Territories during the coming summer, and that the committee shall report to Congress at the next session such laws or amendments to laws as it may deem necessary to secure the best interests of the Government and the people of these Territories, who are doing so much for their development. I am sure the citizens occupying the territory described do not wish to be trespassers, nor will they be if legal ways are provided for them to become owners of these actual necessities of their position. As this will be the last annual message which I shall have the honor of transmitting to Congress before my successor is chosen, I will repeat or recapitulate the questions which I deem of vital importance which may be legislated upon and settled at this session: First. That the States shall be required to afford the opportunity of a good common-school education to every child within their limits. Second. No sectarian tenets shall ever be taught in any school supported in whole or in part by the State, nation, or by the proceeds of any tax levied upon any community. Make education compulsory so far as to deprive all persons who can not read and write from becoming voters after the year 1890, disfranchising none, however, on grounds of illiteracy who may be voters at the time this amendment takes effect. Third. Declare church and state forever separate and distinct, but each free within their proper spheres; and that all church property shall bear its own proportion of taxation. Fourth. Drive out licensed immorality, such as polygamy and the importation of women for illegitimate purposes. To recur again to the centennial year, it would seem as though now, as we are about to begin the second century of our national existence, would be a most fitting time for these reforms. Fifth. Enact such laws as will insure a speedy return to a sound currency, such as will command the respect of the world. Believing that these views will commend themselves to the great majority of the right-thinking and patriotic citizens of the United States, I submit the rest to Congress.
in submitting my seventh annual message to congress in this centennial year of our national existence as a free and independent people it affords me great pleasure to recur to the advancement that has been made from the time of the colonies one hundred years ago we were then a people numbering only now we number more than then industries were confined almost exclusively to the tillage of the soil now manufactories absorb much of the labor of the country our liberties remain unimpaired the bondmen have been freed from slavery we have become possessed of the respect if not the friendship of all civilized nations our progress has been great in all the arts in science agriculture commerce navigation mining mechanics law medicine etc and in general education the progress is likewise encouraging our thirteen states have become including colorado which has taken the initiatory steps to become a state and eight territories including the indian territory and alaska and excluding colorado making a territory extending from the atlantic to the pacific on the south we have extended to the gulf of mexico and in the west from the mississippi to the pacific one hundred years ago the cotton gin the steamship the railroad the telegraph the reaping sewing and modern printing machines and numerous other inventions of scarcely less value to our business and happiness were entirely unknown in 1776 manufactories scarcely existed even in name in all this vast territory in 1870 more than persons were employed in manufactories producing more than of products in amount annually nearly equal to our national debt from nearly the whole of the population of 1776 being engaged in the one occupation of agriculture in 1870 so numerous and diversified had become the occupation of our people that less than out of more than were so engaged the extraordinary effect produced in our country by a resort to diversified occupations has built a market for the products of fertile lands distant from the seaboard and the markets of the world the american system of locating various and extensive manufactories next to the plow and the pasture and adding connecting railroads and steamboats has produced in our distant interior country a result noticeable by the intelligent portions all all commercial nations the ingenuity and skill of american mechanics have been demonstrated at home and abroad in a manner most flattering to their pride but for the extraordinary genius and ability of our mechanics the achievements of our agriculturists manufacturers and transporters throughout the country would have been impossible of attainment the progress of the miner has also been great of coal our production has small now many millions of tons are mined annually so with iron which formed scarcely an appreciable part of our products half a century ago we now produce more than the world consumed at the beginning of our national existence lead zinc and copper from being articles of import we may expect to be large exporters of in the near future the development of gold and silver mines in the united states and territories has not only been remarkable but has had a large influence upon the business of all commercial nations our merchants in the last hundred years have had a success and have established a reputation for enterprise sagacity progress and integrity unsurpassed by peoples of older nationalities this good name is not confined to their homes but goes out upon every sea and into every port where commerce enters with equal pride we can point to our progress in all of the learned professions as we are now about to enter upon our second centennial commenting our manhood as a nation it is well to look back upon the past and study what will be best to preserve and advance our future greatness from the fall of adam for his transgression to the present day no nation has ever been free from threatened danger to its prosperity and happiness we should look to the dangers threatening us and remedy them so far as lies in our power we are a republic whereof one man is as good as another before the law under such a form of government it is of the greatest importance that all should be possessed of education and intelligence enough to cast a vote with a right understanding of its meaning a large association of ignorant men can not for any considerable period oppose a successful resistance to tyranny and oppression from the educated few but will inevitably sink into acquiescence to the will of intelligence whether directed by the demagogue or by priestcraft hence the education of the masses becomes of the first necessity for the preservation of our institutions they are worth preserving because they have secured the greatest good to the greatest proportion of the population of any form of government yet devised all other forms of government approach it just in proportion to the general diffusion of education and independence of thought and action as the primary step therefore to our advancement in all that has marked our progress in the past century i suggest for your earnest consideration and most earnestly recommend it that a constitutional amendment be submitted to the legislatures of the several states for ratification making it the duty of each of the several states to establish and forever maintain free public schools adequate to the education of all the children in the rudimentary branches within their respective limits irrespective of sex color birthplace or religions forbidding the teaching in said schools of religious atheistic or pagan tenets and prohibiting the granting of any school funds or school taxes or any part thereof either by legislative municipal or other authority for the benefit or in aid directly or indirectly of any religious sect or denomination or in aid or for the benefit of any other object of any nature or kind whatever in connection with this important question i would also call your attention to the importance of correcting an evil that if permitted to continue will probably lead to great trouble in our land before the close of the nineteenth century it is the accumulation of vast amounts of untaxed church property in 1850 i believe the church property of the united states which paid no tax municipal or state amounted to about in 1860 the amount had doubled in 1875 it is about by 1900 without check it is safe to say this property will reach a sum exceeding so vast a sum receiving all the protection and benefits of government without bearing its proportion of the burdens and expenses of the same will not be looked upon acquiescently by those who have to pay the taxes in a growing country where real estate enhances so rapidly with time as in the united states there is scarcely a limit to the wealth that may be acquired by corporations religious or otherwise if allowed to retain real estate without taxation the contemplation of so vast a property as here alluded to without taxation may lead to sequestration without constitutional authority and through blood i would suggest the taxation of all property equally whether church or corporation exempting only the last resting place of the dead and possibly with proper restrictions church edifices our relations with most of the foreign powers continue on a satisfactory and friendly footing increased intercourse the extension of commerce and the cultivation of mutual interests have steadily improved our relations with the large majority of the powers of the world rendering practicable the peaceful solution of questions which from time to time necessarily arise leaving few which demand extended or particular notice the correspondence of the department of state with our diplomatic representatives abroad is transmitted herewith i am happy to announce the passage of an act by the general cortes of portugal proclaimed since the adjournment of congress for the abolition of servitude in the portuguese colonies it is to be hoped that such legislation may be another step toward the great consummation to be reached when no man shall be permitted directly or indirectly under any guise excuse or form of law to hold his in bondage i am of opinion also that it is the duty of the united states as contributing toward that end and required by the spirit of the age in which we live to provide by suitable legislation that no citizen of the united states shall hold slaves as property in any other country or be interested therein chile has made reparation in the case of the whale ship good return seized without sufficient because upward of forty years ago though she had hitherto denied her accountability the denial was never acquiesced in by this government and the justice of the claim has been so earnestly contended for that it has been gratifying that she should have at last acknowledged it the arbitrator in the case of the united states steamer montijo for the seizure and detention of which the government of the united states of colombia was held accountable has decided in favor of the claim this decision has settled a question which had been pending for several years and which while it continued open might more or less disturb the good understanding which it is desirable should be maintained between the two republics a reciprocity treaty with the king of the hawaiian islands was concluded some months since as it contains a stipulation that it shall not take effect until congress shall enact the proper legislation for that purpose copies of the instrument are herewith submitted in order that if such should be the pleasure of congress the necessary legislation upon the subject may be adopted in march last an arrangement was made through cushing our minister in madrid with the spanish government for the payment by the latter to the united states of the sum of in coin for the purpose of the relief of the families or persons of the ship company and certain passengers of the virginius this sum was to have been paid in three installments at two months each it is due to the spanish government that i should state that the payments were fully and spontaneously anticipated by that government and that the whole amount was paid within but a few days more than two months from the date of the agreement a copy of which is herewith transmitted in pursuance of the terms of the adjustment i have directed the distribution of the amount among the parties entitled thereto including the ship company and such of the passengers as were american citizens payments are made accordingly on the application by the parties entitled thereto the past year has furnished no evidence of an approaching termination of the ruinous conflict which has been raging for seven years in the neighboring island of cuba the same disregard of the laws of civilized warfare and of the just demands of humanity which has heretofore called forth expressions of condemnation from the nations of christendom has continued to blacken the sad scene desolation ruin and pillage are pervading the rich fields of one of the most fertile and productive regions of the earth and the incendiary torch firing plantations and valuable factories and buildings is the agent marking the alternate advance or retreat of contending parties the protracted continuance of this strife seriously affects the interests of all commercial nations but those of the united states more than others by reason of close proximity its larger trade and intercourse with cuba and the frequent and intimate personal and social relations which have grown up between its citizens and those of the island moreover the property of our citizens in cuba is large and is rendered insecure and depreciated in value and in capacity of production by the continuance of the strife and the unnatural mode of its conduct the same is true differing only in degree with respect to the interests and people of other nations and the absence of any reasonable assurance of a near termination of the conflict must of necessity soon compel the states thus suffering to consider what the interests of their own people and their duty toward themselves may demand i have hoped that spain would be enabled to establish peace in her colony to afford security to the property and the interests of our citizens and allow legitimate scope to trade and commerce and the natural productions of the island because of this hope and from an extreme reluctance to interfere in the most remote manner in the affairs of another and a friendly nation especially of one whose sympathy and friendship in the struggling infancy of our own existence must ever be remembered with gratitude i have patiently and anxiously waited the progress of events our own civil conflict is too recent for us not to consider the difficulties which surround a government distracted by a dynastic rebellion at home at the same time that it has to cope with a separate insurrection in a distant colony but whatever causes may have produced the situation which so grievously affects our interests it exists with all its attendant evils operating directly upon this country and its people thus far all the efforts of spain have proved abortive and time has marked no improvement in the situation the armed bands of either side now occupy nearly the same ground as in the past with the difference from time to time of more lives sacrificed more property destroyed and wider extents of fertile and productive fields and more and more of valuable property constantly wantonly sacrificed to the incendiary torch in contests of this nature where a considerable body of people who have attempted to free themselves of the control of the superior government have reached such point in occupation of territory in power and in general organization as to constitute in fact a body politic having a government in substance as well as in name possessed of the elements of stability and equipped with the machinery for the administration of internal policy and the execution of its laws prepared and able to administer justice at home as well as in its dealings with other powers it is within the province of those other powers to recognize its existence as a new and independent nation in such cases other nations simply deal with an actually existing condition of things and recognize as one of the powers of the earth that body politic which possessing the necessary elements has in fact become a new power in a word the creation of a new state is a fact to establish the condition of things essential to the recognition of this fact there must be a people occupying a known territory united under some known and defined form of government acknowledged by those subject thereto in which the functions of government are administered by usual methods competent to mete out justice to citizens and strangers to afford remedies for public and for private wrongs and able to assume the correlative international obligations and capable of performing the corresponding international duties resulting from its acquisition of the rights of sovereignty a power should exist complete in its organization ready to take and able to maintain its place among the nations of the earth while conscious that the insurrection in cuba has shown a strength and endurance which make it at least doubtful whether it be in the power of spain to subdue it it seems unquestionable that no such civil organization exists which may be recognized as an independent government capable of performing its international obligations and entitled to be treated as one of the powers of the earth a recognition under such circumstances would be inconsistent with the facts and would compel the power granting it soon to support by force the government to which it had really given its only claim of existence in my judgment the united states should adhere to the policy and the principles which have heretofore been its sure and safe guides in like contests between revolted colonies and their mother country and acting only upon the clearest evidence should avoid any possibility of suspicion or of imputation a recognition of the independence of cuba being in my opinion impracticable and indefensible the question which next presents itself is that of the recognition of belligerent rights in the parties to the contest in a former message to congress i had occasion to consider this question and reached the conclusion that the conflict in cuba dreadful and devastating as were its incidents did not rise to the fearful dignity of war regarding it now after this lapse of time i am unable to see that any notable success or any marked or real advance on the part of the insurgents has essentially changed the character of the contest it has acquired greater age but not greater or more formidable proportions it is possible that the acts of foreign powers and even acts of spain herself of this very nature might be pointed to in defense of such recognition but now as in its past history the united states should carefully avoid the false lights which might lead it into the mazes of doubtful law and of questionable propriety and adhere rigidly and sternly to the rule which has been its guide of doing only that which is right and honest and of good report the question of according or of withholding rights of belligerency must be judged in every case in view of the particular attending facts unless justified by necessity it is always and justly regarded as an unfriendly act and a gratuitous demonstration of moral support to the rebellion it is necessary and it is required when the interests and rights of another government or of its people are so far affected by a pending civil conflict as to require a definition of its relations to the parties thereto but this conflict must be one which will be recognized in the sense of international law as war belligerence too is a fact the mere existence of contending armed bodies and their occasional conflicts do not constitute war in the sense referred to applying to the existing condition of affairs in cuba the tests recognized by publicists and writers on international law and which have been observed by nations of dignity honesty and power when free from sensitive or selfish and unworthy motives i fail to find in the insurrection the existence of such a substantial political organization real palpable and manifest to the world having the forms and capable of the ordinary functions of government toward its own people and to other states with courts for the administration of justice with a local habitation possessing such organization of force such material such occupation of territory as to take the contest out of the category of a mere rebellious insurrection or occasional skirmishes and place it on the terrible footing of war to which a recognition of belligerency would aim to elevate it the contest moreover is solely on land the insurrection has not possessed itself of a single seaport whence it may send forth its flag nor has it any means of communication with foreign powers except through the military lines of its adversaries no apprehension of any of those sudden and difficult complications which a war upon the ocean is apt to precipitate upon the vessels both commercial and national and upon the consular officers of other powers calls for the definition of their relations to the parties to the contest considered as a question of expediency i regard the accordance of belligerent rights still to be as unwise and premature as i regard it to be at present indefensible as a measure of right such recognition entails upon the country according the rights which flow from it difficult and complicated duties and requires the exaction from the contending parties of the strict observance of their rights and obligations it confers the right of search upon the high seas by vessels of both parties it would subject the carrying of arms and munitions of war which now may be transported freely and without interruption in the vessels of the united states to detention and to possible seizure it would give rise to countless vexatious questions would release the parent government from responsibility for acts done by the insurgents and would invest spain with the right to exercise the supervision recognized by our treaty of 1795 over our commerce on the high seas a very large part of which in its traffic between the atlantic and the gulf states and between all of them and the states on the pacific passes through the waters which wash the shores of cuba the exercise of this supervision could scarce fail to lead if not to abuses certainly to collisions perilous to the peaceful relations of the two states there can be little doubt to what result such supervision would before long draw this nation it would be unworthy of the united states to inaugurate the possibilities of such result by measures of questionable right or expediency or by any indirection apart from any question of theoretical right i am satisfied that while the accordance of belligerent rights to the insurgents in cuba might give them a hope and an inducement to protract the struggle it would be but a delusive hope and would not remove the evils which this government and its people are experiencing but would draw the united states into complications which it has waited long and already suffered much to avoid the recognition of independence or of belligerency being thus in my judgment equally inadmissible it remains to consider what course shall be adopted should the conflict not soon be brought to an end by acts of the parties themselves and should the evils which result therefrom affecting all nations and particularly the united states continue in such event i am of opinion that other nations will be compelled to assume the responsibility which devolves upon them and to seriously consider the only remaining measures possible mediation and intervention owing perhaps to the large expanse of water separating the island from the peninsula the want of harmony and of personal sympathy between the inhabitants of the colony and those sent thither to rule them and want of adaptation of the ancient colonial system of europe to the present times and to the ideas which the events of the past century have developed the contending parties appear to have within themselves no depository of common confidence to suggest wisdom when passion and excitement have their sway and to assume the part of peacemaker in this view in the earlier days of the contest the good offices of the united states as a mediator were tendered in good faith without any selfish purpose in the interest of humanity and in sincere friendship for both parties but were at the time declined by spain with the declaration nevertheless that at a future time they would be indispensable no intimation has been received that in the opinion of spain that time has been reached and yet the strife continues with all its dread horrors and all its injuries to the interests of the united states and of other nations each party seems quite capable of working great injury and damage to the other as well as to all the relations and interests dependent on the existence of peace in the island but they seem incapable of reaching any adjustment and both have thus far failed of achieving any success whereby one party shall possess and control the island to the exclusion of the other under these circumstances the agency of others either by mediation or by intervention seems to be the only alternative which must sooner or later be invoked for the termination of the strife at the same time while thus impressed i do not at this time recommend the adoption of any measure of intervention i shall be ready at all times and as the equal friend of both parties to respond to a suggestion that the good offices of the united states will be acceptable to aid in bringing about a peace honorable to both it is due to spain so far as this government is concerned that the agency of a third power to which i have adverted shall be adopted only as a last expedient had it been the desire of the united states to interfere in the affairs of cuba repeated opportunities for so doing have been presented within the last few years but we have remained passive and have performed our whole duty and all international obligations to spain with friendship fairness and fidelity and with a spirit of patience and forbearance which negatives every possible suggestion of desire to interfere or to add to the difficulties with which she has been surrounded the government of spain has recently submitted to our minister at madrid certain proposals which it is hoped may be found to be the basis if not the actual submission of terms to meet the requirements of the particular griefs of which this government has felt itself entitled to complain these proposals have not yet reached me in their full text on their arrival they will be taken into careful examination and may i hope lead to a satisfactory adjustment of the questions to which they refer and remove the possibility of future occurrences such as have given rise to our just complaints it is understood also that renewed efforts are being made to introduce reforms in the internal administration of the island persuaded however that a proper regard for the interests of the united states and of its citizens entitles it to relief from the strain to which it has been subjected by the difficulties of the questions and the wrongs and losses which arise from the contest in cuba and that the interests of humanity itself demand the cessation of the strife before the whole island shall be laid waste and larger sacrifices of life be made i shall feel it my duty should my hopes of a satisfactory adjustment and of the early restoration of peace and the removal of future causes of complaint be unhappily disappointed to make a further communication to congress at some period not far remote and during the present session recommending what may then seem to me to be necessary the free zone so called several years since established by the mexican government in certain of the states of that republic adjacent to our frontier remains in full operation it has always been materially injurious to honest traffic for it operates as an incentive to traders in mexico to supply without customs charges the wants of inhabitants on this side of the line and prevents the same wants from being supplied by merchants of the united states thereby to a considerable extent defrauding our revenue and checking honest commercial enterprise depredations by armed bands from mexico on the people of texas near the frontier continue though the main object of these incursions is robbery they frequently result in the murder of unarmed and peaceably disposed persons and in some instances even the united states and mail communications have been attacked renewed remonstrances upon this subject have been addressed to the mexican government but without much apparent effect the military force of this government disposable for service in that quarter is quite inadequate to effectually guard the line even at those points where the incursions are usually made an experiment of an armed vessel on the rio grande for that purpose is on trial and it is hoped that if not thwarted by the shallowness of the river and other natural obstacles it may materially contribute to the protection of the herdsmen of texas the proceedings of the joint commission under the convention between the united states and mexico of the 4th of july 1868 on the subject of claims will soon be brought to a close the result of those proceedings will then be communicated to congress i am happy to announce that the government of venezuela has upon further consideration practically abandoned its objection to pay to the united states that share of its revenue which some years since it allotted toward the extinguishment of the claims of foreigners generally in thus reconsidering its determination that government has shown a just sense of which can not fail to reflect credit upon it in the eyes of all disinterested persons elsewhere it is to be regretted however that its payments on account of claims of citizens of the united states are still so meager in amount and that the stipulations of the treaty in regard to the sums to be paid and the periods when those payments were to take place should have been so signally disregarded since my last annual message the exchange has been made of the ratification of a treaty of commerce and navigation with belgium and of conventions with the mexican republic for the further extension of the joint commission respecting claims with the hawaiian islands for commercial reciprocity and with the ottoman empire for extradition all of which have been duly proclaimed the court of commissioners of alabama claims has prosecuted its important duties very assiduously and very satisfactorily it convened and was organized on the 22d day of july 1874 and by the terms of the act under which it was created was to exist for one year from that date the act provided however that should it be found impracticable to complete the work of the court before the expiration of the year the president might by proclamation extend the time of its duration to a period not more than six months beyond the expiration of the one year having received satisfactory evidence that it would be impracticable to complete the work within the time originally fixed i issued a proclamation a copy of which is presented herewith extending the time of duration of the court for a period of six months from and after the 22d day of july last a report made through the clerk of the court communicated herewith shows the condition of the calendar on the 1st of november last and the large amount of work which has been accomplished one thousand three hundred and claims have been presented of which 682 had been disposed of at the date of the report i am informed that 170 cases were decided during the month of november arguments are being made and decisions given in the remaining cases with all the dispatch consistent with the proper consideration of the questions submitted many of these claims are in behalf of mariners or depend on the evidence of mariners whose absence has delayed the taking or the return of the necessary evidence it is represented to me that it will be impracticable for the court to finally dispose of all the cases before it within the present limit of its duration justice to the parties claimant who have been at large expense in preparing their claims and obtaining the evidence in their support suggests a short extension to enable the court to dispose of all of the claims which have been presented i recommend the legislation which may be deemed proper to enable the court to complete the work before it i recommend that some suitable provision be made by the creation of a special court or by conferring the necessary jurisdiction upon some appropriate tribunal for the consideration and determination of the claims of aliens against the government of the united states which have arisen within some reasonable limitation of time or which may hereafter arise excluding all claims barred by treaty provisions or otherwise it has been found impossible to give proper consideration to these claims by the executive departments of the government such a tribunal would afford an opportunity to aliens other than british subjects to present their claims on account of acts committed against their persons or property during the rebellion as also to those subjects of great britain whose claims having arisen subsequent to the 9th day of april 1865 could not be presented to the late commission organized pursuant to the provisions of the treaty of washington the electric telegraph has become an essential and indispensable agent in the transmission of business and social messages its operation on land and within the limit of particular states is necessarily under the control of the jurisdiction within which it operates the lines on the high seas however are not subject to the particular control of any one government in 1869 a concession was granted by the french government to a company which proposed to lay a cable from the shores of france to the united states at that time there was a telegraphic connection between the united states and the continent of europe through the possessions of great britain at either end of the line under the control of an association which had at large outlay of capital and at great risk demonstrated the practicability of maintaining such means of communication the cost of correspondence by this agency was great possibly not too large at the time for a proper remuneration for so hazardous and so costly an enterprise it was however a heavy charge upon a means of communication which the progress in the social and commercial intercourse of the world found to be a necessity and the obtaining of this french concession showed that other capital than that already invested was ready to enter into competition with assurance of adequate return for their outlay impressed with the conviction that the interests not only of the people of the united states but of the world at large demanded or would demand the multiplication of such means of communication between separated continents i was desirous that the proposed connection should be made but certain provisions of this concession were deemed by me to be objectionable particularly one which gave for a long term of years the exclusive right of telegraphic communication by submarine cable between the shores of france and the united states i could not concede that any power should claim the right to land a cable on the shores of the united states and at the same time deny to the united states or to its citizens or grantees an equal fight to land a cable on its shores the right to control the conditions for the laying of a cable within the jurisdictional waters of the united states to connect our shores with those of any foreign state pertains exclusively to the government of the united states under such limitations and conditions as congress may impose in the absence of legislation by congress i was unwilling on the one hand to yield to a foreign state the right to say that its grantees might land on our shores while it denied a similar right to our people to land on its shores and on the other hand i was reluctant to deny to the great interests of the world and of civilization the facilities of such communication as were proposed i therefore withheld any resistance to the landing of the cable on condition that the offensive monopoly feature of the concession be abandoned and that the right of any cable which may be established by authority of this government to land upon french territory and to connect with french land lines and enjoy all the necessary facilities or privileges incident to the use thereof upon as favorable terms as any other company be conceded as the result thereof the company in question renounced the exclusive privilege and the representative of france was informed that understanding this relinquishment to be construed as granting the entire reciprocity and equal facilities which had been demanded the opposition to the landing of the cable was withdrawn the cable under this french concession was landed in the month of july 1869 and has been an efficient and valuable agent of communication between this country and the other continent it soon passed under the control however of those who had the management of the cable connecting great britain with this continent and thus whatever benefit to the public might have ensued from competition between the two lines was lost leaving only the greater facilities of an additional line and the additional security in case of accident to one of them but these increased facilities and this additional security together with the control of the combined capital of the two companies gave also greater power to prevent the future construction of other lines and to limit the control of telegraphic communication between the two continents to those possessing the lines already laid within a few months past a cable has been laid known as the united states direct cable company connecting the united states directly with great britain as soon as this cable was reported to be laid and in working order the rates of the then existing consolidated companies were greatly reduced soon however a break was announced in this new cable and immediately the rates of the other line which had been reduced were again raised this cable being now repaired the rates appear not to be reduced by either line from those formerly charged by the consolidated companies there is reason to believe that large amounts of capital both at home and abroad are ready to seek profitable investment in the advancement of this useful and most civilizing means of intercourse and correspondence they await however the assurance of the means and conditions on which they may safely be made tributary to the general good as these cable telegraph lines connect separate states there are questions as to their organization and control which probably can be best if not solely settled by conventions between the respective states in the absence however of international conventions on the subject municipal legislation may secure many points which appear to me important if not indispensable for the protection of the public against the extortions which may result from a monopoly of the right of operating cable telegrams or from a combination between several lines i no line should be allowed to land on the shores of the united states under the concession from another power which does not admit the right of any other line or lines formed in the united states to land and freely connect with and operate through its land lines ii no line should be allowed to land on the shores of the united states which is not by treaty stipulation with the government from whose shores it proceeds or by prohibition in its charter or otherwise to the satisfaction of this government prohibited from consolidating or amalgamating with any other cable telegraph line or combining therewith for the purpose of regulating and maintaining the cost of telegraphing iii all lines should be bound to give precedence in the transmission of the official messages of the governments of the two countries between which it may be laid iv a power should be reserved to the two governments either conjointly or to each as regards the messages dispatched from its shores to fix a limit to the charges to be demanded for the transmission of messages i present this subject to the earnest consideration of congress in the meantime and unless congress otherwise direct i shall not oppose the landing of any telegraphic cable which complies with and assents to the points above enumerated but will feel it my duty to prevent the landing of any which does not conform to the first and second points as stated and which will not stipulate to concede to this government the precedence in the transmission of its official messages and will not enter into a satisfactory arrangement with regard to its charges among the pressing and important subjects to which in my opinion the attention of congress should be directed are those relating to fraudulent naturalization and expatriation the united states with great liberality offers its citizenship to all who in good faith comply with the requirements of law these requirements are as simple and upon as favorable terms to the emigrant as the high privilege to which he is admitted can or should permit i do not propose any additional requirements to those which the law now demands but the very simplicity and the want of unnecessary formality in our law have made fraudulent naturalization not infrequent to the discredit and injury of all honest citizens whether native or naturalized cases of this character are continually being brought to the notice of the government by our representatives abroad and also those of persons resident in other countries most frequently those who if they have remained in this country long enough to entitle them to become naturalized have generally not much overpassed that period and have returned to the country of their origin where they reside avoiding all duties to the united states by their absence and claiming to be exempt from all duties to the country of their nativity and of their residence by reason of their alleged naturalization it is due to this government itself and to the great mass of the naturalized citizens who entirely both in name and in fact become citizens of the united states that the high privilege of citizenship of the united states should not be held by fraud or in derogation of the laws and of the good name of every honest citizen on many occasions it has been brought to the knowledge of the government that certificates of naturalization are held and protection or interference claimed by parties who admit that not only they were not within the united states at the time of the pretended naturalization but that they have never resided in the united states in others the certificate and record of the court show on their face that the person claiming to be naturalized had not resided the required time in the united states in others it is admitted upon examination that the requirements of law have not been complied with in some eases even such certificates have been matter of purchase these are not isolated eases arising at rare intervals but of common occurrence and which are reported from all quarters of the globe such occurrences can not and do not fail to reflect upon the government and injure all honest citizens such a fraud being discovered however there is no practicable means within the control of the government by which the record of naturalization can be vacated and should the certificate be taken up as it usually is by the diplomatic and consular representatives of the government to whom it may have been presented there is nothing to prevent the person claiming to have been naturalized from obtaining a new certificate from the court in place of that which has been taken from him the evil has become so great and of such frequent occurrence that i can not too earnestly recommend that some effective measures be adopted to provide a proper remedy and means for the vacating of any record thus fraudulently made and of punishing the guilty parties to the transaction in this connection i refer also to the question of expatriation and the election of nationality the united states was foremost in upholding the right of expatriation and was principally instrumental in overthrowing the doctrine of perpetual allegiance congress has declared the right of expatriation to be a natural and inherent right of all people but while many other nations have enacted laws providing what formalities shall be necessary to work a change of allegiance the united states has enacted no provisions of law and has in no respect marked out how and when expatriation may be accomplished by its citizens instances are brought to the attention of the government where citizens of the united states either naturalized or native born have formally become citizens or subjects of foreign powers but who nevertheless in the absence of any provisions of legislation on this question when involved in difficulties or when it seems to be their interest claim to be citizens of the united states and demand the intervention of a government which they have long since abandoned and to which for years they have rendered no service nor held themselves in any way amenable in other cases naturalized citizens immediately after naturalization have returned to their native country have become engaged in business have accepted offices or pursuits inconsistent with american citizenship and evidence no intent to return to the united states until called upon to discharge some duty to the country where they are residing when at once they assert their citizenship and call upon the representatives of the government to aid them in their unjust pretensions it is but justice to all bona fide citizens that no doubt should exist on such questions and that congress should determine by enactment of law how expatriation may be accomplished and change of citizenship be established i also invite your attention to the necessity of regulating by law the status of american women who may marry foreigners and of defining more fully that of children born in a foreign country of american parents who may reside abroad and also of some further provision regulating or giving legal effect to marriages of american citizens contracted in foreign countries the correspondence submitted herewith shows a few of the constantly occurring questions on these points presented to the consideration of the government there are few subjects to engage the attention of congress on which more delicate relations or more important interests are dependent in the month of july last the building erected for the department of state was taken possession of and occupied by that department i am happy to announce that the archives and valuable papers of the government in the custody of that department are now safely deposited and properly cared for the report of the secretary of the treasury shows the receipts from customs for the fiscal year ending june 30 1874 to have been and for the fiscal year ending june 30 1875 to have been a decrease for the last fiscal year of receipts from internal revenue for the year ending the 30th of june 1874 were and for the year ending june 30 1875 increase the report also shows a complete history of the workings of the department for the last year and contains recommendations for reforms and for legislation which i concur in but can not comment on so fully as i should like to do if space would permit but will confine myself to a few suggestions which i look upon as vital to the best interests of the whole people coming within the purview of treasury i mean specie resumption too much stress can not be laid upon this question and i hope congress may be induced at the earliest day practicable to insure the consummation of the act of the last congress at its last session to bring about specie resumption on and after the 1st of january 1879 at furthest it would be a great blessing if this could be consummated even at an earlier day nothing seems to me more certain than that a full healthy and permanent reaction can not take place in favor of the industries and financial welfare of the country until we return to a measure of values recognized throughout the civilized world while we use a currency not equivalent to this standard the world recognized standard specie becomes a commodity like the products of the soil the surplus seeking a market wherever there is a demand for it under our present system we should want none nor would we have any were it not that customs dues must be paid in coin and because of the pledge to pay interest on the public debt in coin the yield of precious metals would flow out for the purchase of foreign productions and the united states hewers of wood and drawers of water because of wiser legislation on the subject of finance by the nations with whom we have dealings i am not prepared to say that i can suggest the best legislation to secure the end most heartily recommended it will be a source of great gratification to me to be able to approve any measure of congress looking effectively toward securing resumption unlimited inflation would probably bring about specie payments more speedily than any legislation looking to redemption of the in coin but it would be at the expense of honor the would have no value beyond settling present liabilities or properly speaking repudiating them they would buy nothing after debts were all settled there are a few measures which seem to me important in this connection and which i commend to your earnest consideration a repeal of so much of the act as makes these notes receivable for debts contracted after a date to be fixed in the act itself say not later than the 1st of january 1877 we should then have quotations at real values not fictitious ones gold would no longer be at a premium but currency at a discount a healthy reaction would set in at once and with it a desire to make the currency equal to what it purports to be the merchants manufacturers and tradesmen of every calling could do business on a fair margin of profit the money to be received having an unvarying value laborers and all classes who work for stipulated pay or salary would receive more for their income because extra profits would no longer be charged by the capitalists to compensate for the risk of a downward fluctuation in the value of the currency second that the secretary of the treasury be authorized to redeem say not to exceed monthly of notes by issuing in their stead a long bond bearing interest at the rate of per cent per annum of denominations ranging from 50 up to each this would in time reduce the notes to a volume that could be kept afloat without demanding redemption in large sums suddenly third that additional power be given to the secretary of the treasury to accumulate gold for final redemption either by increasing revenue curtailing expenses or both it is preferable to do both and i recommend that reduction of expenditures be made wherever it can be done without impairing government obligations or crippling the due execution thereof one measure for increasing the revenue and the only one i think of is the restoration of the duty on tea and coffee these duties would add probably to the present amount received from imports and would in no way increase the prices paid for those articles by the consumers these articles are the products of countries collecting revenue from exports and as we the largest consumers reduce the duties they proportionately increase them with this addition to the revenue many duties now collected and which give but an insignificant return for the cost of collection might be remitted and to the direct advantage of consumers at home i would mention those articles which enter into manufactures of all sorts all duty paid upon such articles goes directly to the cost of the article when manufactured here and must be paid for by the consumers these duties not only come from the consumers at home but act as a protection to foreign manufacturers of the same completed articles in our own and distant markets i will suggest or mention another subject bearing upon the problem of how to enable the secretary of the treasury to accumulate balances it is to devise some better method of verifying claims against the government than at present exists through the court of claims especially those claims growing out of the late war nothing is more certain than that a very large percentage of the amounts passed and paid are either wholly fraudulent or are far in excess of the real losses sustained the large amount of losses proven on good testimony according to existing laws by affidavits of fictitious or unscrupulous persons to have been sustained on small farms and plantations are not only far beyond the possible yield of those places for any one year but as everyone knows who has had experience in tilling the soil and who has visited the scenes of these spoliations are in many instances more than the individual claimants were ever worth including their personal and real estate the report of the which will be submitted to congress at an early day will contain a detailed history of awards made and of claim pending of the class here referred to the report of the secretary of war accompanying this message gives a detailed account of army operations for the year just passed expenses for maintenance with recommendations for legislation to which i respectfully invite your attention to some of these i invite special attention first the necessity of making of the appropriation for the subsistence department available before the beginning of the next fiscal year without this provision troops at points distant from supply production must either go without food or existing laws must be violated it is not attended with cost to the treasury second his recommendation for the enactment of a system of annuities for the families of deceased officers by voluntary deductions from the monthly pay of officers this again is not attended with burden upon the treasury and would for the future relieve much distress which every old army officer has witnessed in the past of officers dying suddenly or being killed leaving families without even the means of reaching their friends if fortunate enough to have friends to aid them third the repeal of the law abolishing mileage and a return to the old system fourth the trial with torpedoes under the corps of engineers and appropriation for the same should war ever occur between the united states and any maritime power torpedoes will be among if not the most effective and cheapest auxiliary for the defense of harbors and also in aggressive operations that we can have hence it is advisable to learn by experiment their best construction and application as well as effect fifth a permanent organization for the corps this service has now become a necessity of peace as well as war under the advancement made by the present able management sixth a renewal of the appropriation for compiling the official records of the war etc the condition of our navy at this time is a subject of satisfaction it does not contain it is true any of the powerful cruising ironclads which make so much of the maritime strength of some other nations but neither our continental situation nor our foreign policy requires that we should have a large number of ships of this character while this situation and the nature of our ports combine to make those of other nations little dangerous to us under any circumstances our navy does contain however a considerable number of ironclads of the monitor class which though not properly cruisers are powerful and effective for harbor defense and for operations near our own shores of these all the ones fifteen in number have been substantially rebuilt their rotten wooden beams replaced with iron their hulls strengthened and their engines and machinery thoroughly repaired so that they are now in the most efficient condition and ready for sea as soon as they can be manned and put in commission the five ironclads belonging to our navy by far the most powerful of our ships for fighting purposes are also in hand undergoing complete repairs and could be ready for sea in periods varying from four to six months with these completed according to the present design and our two iron torpedo boats now ready our ironclad fleet will be for the purposes of defense at home equal to any force that can readily be brought against it of our wooden navy also cruisers of various sizes to the number of about forty including those now in commission are in the atlantic and could be ready for duty as fast as men could be enlisted for those not already in commission of these are in effect new ships and though some of the remainder need considerable repairs to their boilers and machinery they all are or can readily be made effective this constitutes a fleet of more than fifty war ships of which fifteen are ironclad now in hand on the atlantic coast the navy has been brought to this condition by a judicious and practical application of what could be spared from the current appropriations of the last few years and from that made to meet the possible emergency of two years ago it has been done quietly without proclamation or display and though it has necessarily straitened the department in its ordinary expenditure and as far as the ironclads are concerned has added nothing to the cruising force of the navy yet the result is not the less satisfactory because it is to be found in a great increase of real rather than apparent force the expenses incurred in the maintenance of an effective naval force in all its branches are necessarily large but such force is essential to our position relations and character and affects seriously the weight of our principles and policy throughout the whole sphere of national responsibilities the estimates for the regular support of this branch of the service for the next year amount to a little less in the aggregate than those made for the current year but some additional appropriations are asked for objects not included in the ordinary maintenance of the navy but believed to be of pressing importance at this time it would in my opinion be wise at once to afford sufficient means for the immediate completion of the five monitors now undergoing repairs which must otherwise advance slowly and only as money can be spared from current expenses supplemented by these our navy armed with the destructive weapons of modern warfare manned by our seamen and in charge of our instructed officers will present a force powerful for the home purposes of a responsible though peaceful nation the report of the herewith transmitted gives a full history of the workings of the department for the year just past it will be observed that the deficiency to be supplied from the general treasury is increased over the amount required for the preceding year in a country so vast in area as the united states with large portions sparsely settled it must be expected that this important service will be more or less a burden upon the treasury for many years to come but there is no branch of the public service which interests the whole people more than that of cheap and rapid transmission of the mails to every inhabited part of our territory next to the free school the is the great educator of the people and it may well receive the support of the general government the subsidy of per annum given to vessels of the united states for carrying the mails between new york and rio de janeiro having ceased on the 30th day of september last we are without direct mail facilities with the south american states this is greatly to be regretted and i do not hesitate to recommend the authorization of a renewal of that contract and also that the service may be increased from monthly to trips the commercial advantages to be gained by a direct line of american steamers to the south american states will far outweigh the expense of the service by act of congress approved march 3 1875 almost all matter whether properly mail matter or not may be sent any distance through the mails in packages not exceeding 4 pounds in weight for the sum of 16 cents per pound so far as the transmission of real mail matter goes this would seem entirely proper but i suggest that the law be so amended as to exclude from the mails merchandise of all descriptions and limit this transportation to articles enumerated and which may be classed as mail matter proper the discovery of gold in the black hills a portion of the sioux reservation has had the effect to induce a large emigration of miners to that point thus far the effort to protect the treaty rights of the indians to that section has been successful but the next year will certainly witness a large increase of such emigration the negotiations for the relinquishment of the gold fields having failed it will be necessary for congress to adopt some measures to relieve the embarrassment growing out of the causes named the secretary of the interior suggests that the supplies now appropriated for the sustenance of that people being no longer obligatory under the treaty of 1868 but simply a gratuity may be issued or withheld at his discretion the condition of the indian territory to which i have referred in several of my former annual messages remains practically unchanged the secretary of the interior has taken measures to obtain a full report of the condition of that territory and will make it the subject of a special report at an early day it may then be necessary to make some further recommendation in regard to legislation for the government of that territory the steady growth and increase of the business of the patent office indicates in some measure the progress of the industrial activity of the country the receipts of the office are in excess of its expenditures and the office generally is in a prosperous and satisfactory condition the report of the general land office shows that there were acres less disposed of during this than during the last year more than of this decrease was in lands disposed of under the homestead and laws the because of this decrease is supposed to be found in the grasshopper scourge and the droughts which prevailed so extensively in some of the frontier states and territories during that time as to discourage and deter entries by actual settlers the cash receipts were less by than during the preceding year the entire surveyed area of the public domain is acres of which acres were surveyed during the past year leaving acres still unsurveyed the report of the commissioner presents many interesting suggestions in regard to the management and disposition of the public domain and the modification of existing laws the apparent importance of which should insure for them the careful consideration of congress the number of pensioners still continues to decrease the highest number having been reached during the year ending june 30 1873 during the last year names were added to the rolls and were dropped therefrom showing a net decrease of but while the number of pensioners has decreased the annual amount due on the pension rolls has increased this is caused by the greatly increased average rate of pensions which by the liberal legislation of congress has increased from in 1872 to in 1875 to each invalid pensioner an increase in the average rate of 15 per cent in the three years during the year ending june 30 1875 there was paid on account of pensions including the expenses of disbursement being less than was paid the preceding year this reduction in amount of expenditures was produced by the decrease in the amount of arrearages due on allowed claims and on pensions the rate of which was increased by the legislation of the preceding session of congress at the close of the last fiscal year there were on the pension rolls persons of whom were army pensioners being invalids and widows and dependent relatives were navy pensioners of whom were invalids and widows and dependent relatives were pensioners of the war of 1812 of whom were survivors and were widows it is estimated that will be required for the payment of pensions for the next fiscal year an amount less than the estimate for the present year the geological explorations have been prosecuted with energy during the year covering an area of about square miles in the territories of colorado utah and new mexico developing the agricultural and mineral resources and furnishing interesting scientific and topographical details of that region the method for the treatment of the indians adopted at the beginning of my first term has been steadily pursued and with satisfactory and encouraging results it has been productive of evident improvement in the condition of that race and will be continued with only such modifications as further experience may indicate to be necessary the board heretofore appointed to take charge of the articles and materials pertaining to the war the navy the treasury the interior and the departments and the department of agriculture the smithsonian institution and the commission of food fishes to be contributed under the legislation of last session to the international exhibition to be held at philadelphia during the centennial year 1876 has been diligent in the discharge of the duties which have devolved upon it and the preparations so far made with the means at command give assurance that the governmental contribution will be made one of the marked characteristics of the exhibition the board has observed commendable economy in the matter of the erection of a building for the governmental exhibit the expense of which it is estimated will not exceed say this amount has been withdrawn under the law from the appropriations of five of the principal departments which leaves some of those departments without sufficient means to render their respective practical exhibits complete and satisfactory the exhibition being an international one and the government being a voluntary contributor it is my opinion that its contribution should be of a character in quality and extent to sustain the dignity and credit of so distinguished a contributor the advantages to the country of a creditable display are in an international point of view of the first importance while an indifferent or uncreditable participation by the government would be humiliating to the patriotic feelings of our people themselves i commend the estimates of the board for the necessary additional appropriations to the favorable consideration of congress the powers of europe almost without exception many of the south american states and even the more distant eastern powers have manifested their friendly sentiments toward the united states and the interest of the world in our progress by taking steps to join with us in celebrating the centennial of the nation and i strongly recommend that a more national importance be given to this exhibition by such legislation and by such appropriation as will insure its success its value in bringing to our shores innumerable useful works of art and skill the commingling of the citizens of foreign countries and our own and the interchange of ideas and manufactures will far exceed any pecuniary outlay we may make i transmit herewith the report of the commissioner of agriculture together with the reports of the commissioners the board of audit and the board of health of the district of columbia to all of which i invite your attention the bureau of agriculture has accomplished much in disseminating useful knowledge to the agriculturist and also in introducing new and useful productions adapted to our soil and climate and is worthy of the continued encouragement of the government the report of the commissioner of education which accompanies the report of the secretary of the interior shows a gratifying progress in educational matters in nearly every annual message that i have had the honor of transmitting to congress i have called attention to the anomalous not to say scandalous condition of affairs existing in the territory of utah and have asked for definite legislation to correct it that polygamy should exist in a free enlightened and christian country without the power to punish so flagrant a crime against decency and morality seems preposterous true there is no law to sustain this unnatural vice but what is needed is a law to punish it as a crime and at the same time to fix the status of the innocent children the offspring of this system and of the possibly innocent plural wives but as an institution polygamy should be banished from the land while this is being done i invite the attention of congress to another though perhaps no less an evil the importation of chinese women but few of whom are brought to our shores to pursue honorable or useful occupations observations while visiting the territories of wyoming utah and colorado during the past autumn convinced me that existing laws regulating the disposition of public lands timber and probably the mining laws themselves are very defective and should be carefully amended and at an early day territory where cultivation of the soil can only be followed by irrigation and where irrigation is not practicable the lands can only be used as pasturage and this only where stock can reach water to quench its thirst can not be governed by the same laws as to entries as lands every acre of which is an independent estate by itself land must be held in larger quantities to justify the expense of conducting water upon it to make it fruitful or to justify utilizing it as pasturage the timber in most of the territories is principally confined to the mountain regions which are held for entry in small quantities only and as mineral lands the timber is the property of the united states for the disposal of which there is now no adequate law the settler must become a consumer of this timber whether he lives upon the plain or engages in working the mines hence every man becomes either a trespasser himself or knowingly a patron of trespassers my opportunities for observation were not sufficient to justify me in recommending specific legislation on these subjects but i do recommend that a joint committee of the two houses of congress sufficiently large to be divided into subcommittees be organized to visit all the mining states and territories during the coming summer and that the committee shall report to congress at the next session such laws or amendments to laws as it may deem necessary to secure the best interests of the government and the people of these territories who are doing so much for their development i am sure the citizens occupying the territory described do not wish to be trespassers nor will they be if legal ways are provided for them to become owners of these actual necessities of their position as this will be the last annual message which i shall have the honor of transmitting to congress before my successor is chosen i will repeat or recapitulate the questions which i deem of vital importance which may be legislated upon and settled at this session first that the states shall be required to afford the opportunity of a good education to every child within their limits second no sectarian tenets shall ever be taught in any school supported in whole or in part by the state nation or by the proceeds of any tax levied upon any community make education compulsory so far as to deprive all persons who can not read and write from becoming voters after the year 1890 disfranchising none however on grounds of illiteracy who may be voters at the time this amendment takes effect third declare church and state forever separate and distinct but each free within their proper spheres and that all church property shall bear its own proportion of taxation fourth drive out licensed immorality such as polygamy and the importation of women for illegitimate purposes to recur again to the centennial year it would seem as though now as we are about to begin the second century of our national existence would be a most fitting time for these reforms fifth enact such laws as will insure a speedy return to a sound currency such as will command the respect of the world believing that these views will commend themselves to the great majority of the and patriotic citizens of the united states i submit the rest to congress
submitting seventh annual message congress centennial year national existence free independent people affords great pleasure recur advancement made time colonies one hundred years ago people numbering number industries confined almost exclusively tillage soil manufactories absorb much labor country liberties remain unimpaired bondmen freed slavery become possessed respect friendship civilized nations progress great arts science agriculture commerce navigation mining mechanics law medicine etc general education progress likewise encouraging thirteen states become including colorado taken initiatory steps become state eight territories including indian territory alaska excluding colorado making territory extending atlantic pacific south extended gulf mexico west mississippi pacific one hundred years ago cotton gin steamship railroad telegraph reaping sewing modern printing machines numerous inventions scarcely less value business happiness entirely unknown 1776 manufactories scarcely existed even name vast territory 1870 persons employed manufactories producing products amount annually nearly equal national debt nearly whole population 1776 engaged one occupation agriculture 1870 numerous diversified become occupation people less engaged extraordinary effect produced country resort diversified occupations built market products fertile lands distant seaboard markets world american system locating various extensive manufactories next plow pasture adding connecting railroads steamboats produced distant interior country result noticeable intelligent portions commercial nations ingenuity skill american mechanics demonstrated home abroad manner flattering pride extraordinary genius ability mechanics achievements agriculturists manufacturers transporters throughout country would impossible attainment progress miner also great coal production small many millions tons mined annually iron formed scarcely appreciable part products half century ago produce world consumed beginning national existence lead zinc copper articles import may expect large exporters near future development gold silver mines united states territories remarkable large influence upon business commercial nations merchants last hundred years success established reputation enterprise sagacity progress integrity unsurpassed peoples older nationalities good name confined homes goes upon every sea every port commerce enters equal pride point progress learned professions enter upon second centennial commenting manhood nation well look back upon past study best preserve advance future greatness fall adam transgression present day nation ever free threatened danger prosperity happiness look dangers threatening us remedy far lies power republic whereof one man good another law form government greatest importance possessed education intelligence enough cast vote right understanding meaning large association ignorant men considerable period oppose successful resistance tyranny oppression educated inevitably sink acquiescence intelligence whether directed demagogue priestcraft hence education masses becomes first necessity preservation institutions worth preserving secured greatest good greatest proportion population form government yet devised forms government approach proportion general diffusion education independence thought action primary step therefore advancement marked progress past century suggest earnest consideration earnestly recommend constitutional amendment submitted legislatures several states ratification making duty several states establish forever maintain free public schools adequate education children rudimentary branches within respective limits irrespective sex color birthplace religions forbidding teaching said schools religious atheistic pagan tenets prohibiting granting school funds school taxes part thereof either legislative municipal authority benefit aid directly indirectly religious sect denomination aid benefit object nature kind whatever connection important question would also call attention importance correcting evil permitted continue probably lead great trouble land close nineteenth century accumulation vast amounts untaxed church property 1850 believe church property united states paid tax municipal state amounted 1860 amount doubled 1875 1900 without check safe say property reach sum exceeding vast sum receiving protection benefits government without bearing proportion burdens expenses looked upon acquiescently pay taxes growing country real estate enhances rapidly time united states scarcely limit wealth may acquired corporations religious otherwise allowed retain real estate without taxation contemplation vast property alluded without taxation may lead sequestration without constitutional authority blood would suggest taxation property equally whether church corporation exempting last resting place dead possibly proper restrictions church edifices relations foreign powers continue satisfactory friendly footing increased intercourse extension commerce cultivation mutual interests steadily improved relations large majority powers world rendering practicable peaceful solution questions time time necessarily arise leaving demand extended particular notice correspondence department state diplomatic representatives abroad transmitted herewith happy announce passage act general cortes portugal proclaimed since adjournment congress abolition servitude portuguese colonies hoped legislation may another step toward great consummation reached man shall permitted directly indirectly guise excuse form law hold bondage opinion also duty united states contributing toward end required spirit age live provide suitable legislation citizen united states shall hold slaves property country interested therein chile made reparation case whale ship good return seized without sufficient upward forty years ago though hitherto denied accountability denial never acquiesced government justice claim earnestly contended gratifying last acknowledged arbitrator case united states steamer montijo seizure detention government united states colombia held accountable decided favor claim decision settled question pending several years continued open might less disturb good understanding desirable maintained two republics reciprocity treaty king hawaiian islands concluded months since contains stipulation shall take effect congress shall enact proper legislation purpose copies instrument herewith submitted order pleasure congress necessary legislation upon subject may adopted march last arrangement made cushing minister madrid spanish government payment latter united states sum coin purpose relief families persons ship company certain passengers virginius sum paid three installments two months due spanish government state payments fully spontaneously anticipated government whole amount paid within days two months date agreement copy herewith transmitted pursuance terms adjustment directed distribution amount among parties entitled thereto including ship company passengers american citizens payments made accordingly application parties entitled thereto past year furnished evidence approaching termination ruinous conflict raging seven years neighboring island cuba disregard laws civilized warfare demands humanity heretofore called forth expressions condemnation nations christendom continued blacken sad scene desolation ruin pillage pervading rich fields one fertile productive regions earth incendiary torch firing plantations valuable factories buildings agent marking alternate advance retreat contending parties protracted continuance strife seriously affects interests commercial nations united states others reason close proximity larger trade intercourse cuba frequent intimate personal social relations grown citizens island moreover property citizens cuba large rendered insecure depreciated value capacity production continuance strife unnatural mode conduct true differing degree respect interests people nations absence reasonable assurance near termination conflict must necessity soon compel states thus suffering consider interests people duty toward may demand hoped spain would enabled establish peace colony afford security property interests citizens allow legitimate scope trade commerce natural productions island hope extreme reluctance interfere remote manner affairs another friendly nation especially one whose sympathy friendship struggling infancy existence must ever remembered gratitude patiently anxiously waited progress events civil conflict recent us consider difficulties surround government distracted dynastic rebellion home time cope separate insurrection distant colony whatever causes may produced situation grievously affects interests exists attendant evils operating directly upon country people thus far efforts spain proved abortive time marked improvement situation armed bands either side occupy nearly ground past difference time time lives sacrificed property destroyed wider extents fertile productive fields valuable property constantly wantonly sacrificed incendiary torch contests nature considerable body people attempted free control superior government reached point occupation territory power general organization constitute fact body politic government substance well name possessed elements stability equipped machinery administration internal policy execution laws prepared able administer justice home well dealings powers within province powers recognize existence new independent nation cases nations simply deal actually existing condition things recognize one powers earth body politic possessing necessary elements fact become new power word creation new state fact establish condition things essential recognition fact must people occupying known territory united known defined form government acknowledged subject thereto functions government administered usual methods competent mete justice citizens strangers afford remedies public private wrongs able assume correlative international obligations capable performing corresponding international duties resulting acquisition rights sovereignty power exist complete organization ready take able maintain place among nations earth conscious insurrection cuba shown strength endurance make least doubtful whether power spain subdue seems unquestionable civil organization exists may recognized independent government capable performing international obligations entitled treated one powers earth recognition circumstances would inconsistent facts would compel power granting soon support force government really given claim existence judgment united states adhere policy principles heretofore sure safe guides like contests revolted colonies mother country acting upon clearest evidence avoid possibility suspicion imputation recognition independence cuba opinion impracticable indefensible question next presents recognition belligerent rights parties contest former message congress occasion consider question reached conclusion conflict cuba dreadful devastating incidents rise fearful dignity war regarding lapse time unable see notable success marked real advance part insurgents essentially changed character contest acquired greater age greater formidable proportions possible acts foreign powers even acts spain nature might pointed defense recognition past history united states carefully avoid false lights might lead mazes doubtful law questionable propriety adhere rigidly sternly rule guide right honest good report question according withholding rights belligerency must judged every case view particular attending facts unless justified necessity always justly regarded unfriendly act gratuitous demonstration moral support rebellion necessary required interests rights another government people far affected pending civil conflict require definition relations parties thereto conflict must one recognized sense international law war belligerence fact mere existence contending armed bodies occasional conflicts constitute war sense referred applying existing condition affairs cuba tests recognized publicists writers international law observed nations dignity honesty power free sensitive selfish unworthy motives fail find insurrection existence substantial political organization real palpable manifest world forms capable ordinary functions government toward people states courts administration justice local habitation possessing organization force material occupation territory take contest category mere rebellious insurrection occasional skirmishes place terrible footing war recognition belligerency would aim elevate contest moreover solely land insurrection possessed single seaport whence may send forth flag means communication foreign powers except military lines adversaries apprehension sudden difficult complications war upon ocean apt precipitate upon vessels commercial national upon consular officers powers calls definition relations parties contest considered question expediency regard accordance belligerent rights still unwise premature regard present indefensible measure right recognition entails upon country according rights flow difficult complicated duties requires exaction contending parties strict observance rights obligations confers right search upon high seas vessels parties would subject carrying arms munitions war may transported freely without interruption vessels united states detention possible seizure would give rise countless vexatious questions would release parent government responsibility acts done insurgents would invest spain right exercise supervision recognized treaty 1795 commerce high seas large part traffic atlantic gulf states states pacific passes waters wash shores cuba exercise supervision could scarce fail lead abuses certainly collisions perilous peaceful relations two states little doubt result supervision would long draw nation would unworthy united states inaugurate possibilities result measures questionable right expediency indirection apart question theoretical right satisfied accordance belligerent rights insurgents cuba might give hope inducement protract struggle would delusive hope would remove evils government people experiencing would draw united states complications waited long already suffered much avoid recognition independence belligerency thus judgment equally inadmissible remains consider course shall adopted conflict soon brought end acts parties evils result therefrom affecting nations particularly united states continue event opinion nations compelled assume responsibility devolves upon seriously consider remaining measures possible mediation intervention owing perhaps large expanse water separating island peninsula want harmony personal sympathy inhabitants colony sent thither rule want adaptation ancient colonial system europe present times ideas events past century developed contending parties appear within depository common confidence suggest wisdom passion excitement sway assume part peacemaker view earlier days contest good offices united states mediator tendered good faith without selfish purpose interest humanity sincere friendship parties time declined spain declaration nevertheless future time would indispensable intimation received opinion spain time reached yet strife continues dread horrors injuries interests united states nations party seems quite capable working great injury damage well relations interests dependent existence peace island seem incapable reaching adjustment thus far failed achieving success whereby one party shall possess control island exclusion circumstances agency others either mediation intervention seems alternative must sooner later invoked termination strife time thus impressed time recommend adoption measure intervention shall ready times equal friend parties respond suggestion good offices united states acceptable aid bringing peace honorable due spain far government concerned agency third power adverted shall adopted last expedient desire united states interfere affairs cuba repeated opportunities presented within last years remained passive performed whole duty international obligations spain friendship fairness fidelity spirit patience forbearance negatives every possible suggestion desire interfere add difficulties surrounded government spain recently submitted minister madrid certain proposals hoped may found basis actual submission terms meet requirements particular griefs government felt entitled complain proposals yet reached full text arrival taken careful examination may hope lead satisfactory adjustment questions refer remove possibility future occurrences given rise complaints understood also renewed efforts made introduce reforms internal administration island persuaded however proper regard interests united states citizens entitles relief strain subjected difficulties questions wrongs losses arise contest cuba interests humanity demand cessation strife whole island shall laid waste larger sacrifices life made shall feel duty hopes satisfactory adjustment early restoration peace removal future causes complaint unhappily disappointed make communication congress period far remote present session recommending may seem necessary free zone called several years since established mexican government certain states republic adjacent frontier remains full operation always materially injurious honest traffic operates incentive traders mexico supply without customs charges wants inhabitants side line prevents wants supplied merchants united states thereby considerable extent defrauding revenue checking honest commercial enterprise depredations armed bands mexico people texas near frontier continue though main object incursions robbery frequently result murder unarmed peaceably disposed persons instances even united states mail communications attacked renewed remonstrances upon subject addressed mexican government without much apparent effect military force government disposable service quarter quite inadequate effectually guard line even points incursions usually made experiment armed vessel rio grande purpose trial hoped thwarted shallowness river natural obstacles may materially contribute protection herdsmen texas proceedings joint commission convention united states mexico 4th july 1868 subject claims soon brought close result proceedings communicated congress happy announce government venezuela upon consideration practically abandoned objection pay united states share revenue years since allotted toward extinguishment claims foreigners generally thus reconsidering determination government shown sense fail reflect credit upon eyes disinterested persons elsewhere regretted however payments account claims citizens united states still meager amount stipulations treaty regard sums paid periods payments take place signally disregarded since last annual message exchange made ratification treaty commerce navigation belgium conventions mexican republic extension joint commission respecting claims hawaiian islands commercial reciprocity ottoman empire extradition duly proclaimed court commissioners alabama claims prosecuted important duties assiduously satisfactorily convened organized 22d day july 1874 terms act created exist one year date act provided however found impracticable complete work court expiration year president might proclamation extend time duration period six months beyond expiration one year received satisfactory evidence would impracticable complete work within time originally fixed issued proclamation copy presented herewith extending time duration court period six months 22d day july last report made clerk court communicated herewith shows condition calendar 1st november last large amount work accomplished one thousand three hundred claims presented 682 disposed date report informed 170 cases decided month november arguments made decisions given remaining cases dispatch consistent proper consideration questions submitted many claims behalf mariners depend evidence mariners whose absence delayed taking return necessary evidence represented impracticable court finally dispose cases within present limit duration justice parties claimant large expense preparing claims obtaining evidence support suggests short extension enable court dispose claims presented recommend legislation may deemed proper enable court complete work recommend suitable provision made creation special court conferring necessary jurisdiction upon appropriate tribunal consideration determination claims aliens government united states arisen within reasonable limitation time may hereafter arise excluding claims barred treaty provisions otherwise found impossible give proper consideration claims executive departments government tribunal would afford opportunity aliens british subjects present claims account acts committed persons property rebellion also subjects great britain whose claims arisen subsequent 9th day april 1865 could presented late commission organized pursuant provisions treaty washington electric telegraph become essential indispensable agent transmission business social messages operation land within limit particular states necessarily control jurisdiction within operates lines high seas however subject particular control one government 1869 concession granted french government company proposed lay cable shores france united states time telegraphic connection united states continent europe possessions great britain either end line control association large outlay capital great risk demonstrated practicability maintaining means communication cost correspondence agency great possibly large time proper remuneration hazardous costly enterprise however heavy charge upon means communication progress social commercial intercourse world found necessity obtaining french concession showed capital already invested ready enter competition assurance adequate return outlay impressed conviction interests people united states world large demanded would demand multiplication means communication separated continents desirous proposed connection made certain provisions concession deemed objectionable particularly one gave long term years exclusive right telegraphic communication submarine cable shores france united states could concede power claim right land cable shores united states time deny united states citizens grantees equal fight land cable shores right control conditions laying cable within jurisdictional waters united states connect shores foreign state pertains exclusively government united states limitations conditions congress may impose absence legislation congress unwilling one hand yield foreign state right say grantees might land shores denied similar right people land shores hand reluctant deny great interests world civilization facilities communication proposed therefore withheld resistance landing cable condition offensive monopoly feature concession abandoned right cable may established authority government land upon french territory connect french land lines enjoy necessary facilities privileges incident use thereof upon favorable terms company conceded result thereof company question renounced exclusive privilege representative france informed understanding relinquishment construed granting entire reciprocity equal facilities demanded opposition landing cable withdrawn cable french concession landed month july 1869 efficient valuable agent communication country continent soon passed control however management cable connecting great britain continent thus whatever benefit public might ensued competition two lines lost leaving greater facilities additional line additional security case accident one increased facilities additional security together control combined capital two companies gave also greater power prevent future construction lines limit control telegraphic communication two continents possessing lines already laid within months past cable laid known united states direct cable company connecting united states directly great britain soon cable reported laid working order rates existing consolidated companies greatly reduced soon however break announced new cable immediately rates line reduced raised cable repaired rates appear reduced either line formerly charged consolidated companies reason believe large amounts capital home abroad ready seek profitable investment advancement useful civilizing means intercourse correspondence await however assurance means conditions may safely made tributary general good cable telegraph lines connect separate states questions organization control probably best solely settled conventions respective states absence however international conventions subject municipal legislation may secure many points appear important indispensable protection public extortions may result monopoly right operating cable telegrams combination several lines line allowed land shores united states concession another power admit right line lines formed united states land freely connect operate land lines ii line allowed land shores united states treaty stipulation government whose shores proceeds prohibition charter otherwise satisfaction government prohibited consolidating amalgamating cable telegraph line combining therewith purpose regulating maintaining cost telegraphing iii lines bound give precedence transmission official messages governments two countries may laid iv power reserved two governments either conjointly regards messages dispatched shores fix limit charges demanded transmission messages present subject earnest consideration congress meantime unless congress otherwise direct shall oppose landing telegraphic cable complies assents points enumerated feel duty prevent landing conform first second points stated stipulate concede government precedence transmission official messages enter satisfactory arrangement regard charges among pressing important subjects opinion attention congress directed relating fraudulent naturalization expatriation united states great liberality offers citizenship good faith comply requirements law requirements simple upon favorable terms emigrant high privilege admitted permit propose additional requirements law demands simplicity want unnecessary formality law made fraudulent naturalization infrequent discredit injury honest citizens whether native naturalized cases character continually brought notice government representatives abroad also persons resident countries frequently remained country long enough entitle become naturalized generally much overpassed period returned country origin reside avoiding duties united states absence claiming exempt duties country nativity residence reason alleged naturalization due government great mass naturalized citizens entirely name fact become citizens united states high privilege citizenship united states held fraud derogation laws good name every honest citizen many occasions brought knowledge government certificates naturalization held protection interference claimed parties admit within united states time pretended naturalization never resided united states others certificate record court show face person claiming naturalized resided required time united states others admitted upon examination requirements law complied eases even certificates matter purchase isolated eases arising rare intervals common occurrence reported quarters globe occurrences fail reflect upon government injure honest citizens fraud discovered however practicable means within control government record naturalization vacated certificate taken usually diplomatic consular representatives government may presented nothing prevent person claiming naturalized obtaining new certificate court place taken evil become great frequent occurrence earnestly recommend effective measures adopted provide proper remedy means vacating record thus fraudulently made punishing guilty parties transaction connection refer also question expatriation election nationality united states foremost upholding right expatriation principally instrumental overthrowing doctrine perpetual allegiance congress declared right expatriation natural inherent right people many nations enacted laws providing formalities shall necessary work change allegiance united states enacted provisions law respect marked expatriation may accomplished citizens instances brought attention government citizens united states either naturalized native born formally become citizens subjects foreign powers nevertheless absence provisions legislation question involved difficulties seems interest claim citizens united states demand intervention government long since abandoned years rendered service held way amenable cases naturalized citizens immediately naturalization returned native country become engaged business accepted offices pursuits inconsistent american citizenship evidence intent return united states called upon discharge duty country residing assert citizenship call upon representatives government aid unjust pretensions justice bona fide citizens doubt exist questions congress determine enactment law expatriation may accomplished change citizenship established also invite attention necessity regulating law status american women may marry foreigners defining fully children born foreign country american parents may reside abroad also provision regulating giving legal effect marriages american citizens contracted foreign countries correspondence submitted herewith shows constantly occurring questions points presented consideration government subjects engage attention congress delicate relations important interests dependent month july last building erected department state taken possession occupied department happy announce archives valuable papers government custody department safely deposited properly cared report secretary treasury shows receipts customs fiscal year ending june 30 1874 fiscal year ending june 30 1875 decrease last fiscal year receipts internal revenue year ending 30th june 1874 year ending june 30 1875 increase report also shows complete history workings department last year contains recommendations reforms legislation concur comment fully like space would permit confine suggestions look upon vital best interests whole people coming within purview treasury mean specie resumption much stress laid upon question hope congress may induced earliest day practicable insure consummation act last congress last session bring specie resumption 1st january 1879 furthest would great blessing could consummated even earlier day nothing seems certain full healthy permanent reaction take place favor industries financial welfare country return measure values recognized throughout civilized world use currency equivalent standard world recognized standard specie becomes commodity like products soil surplus seeking market wherever demand present system want none would customs dues must paid coin pledge pay interest public debt coin yield precious metals would flow purchase foreign productions united states hewers wood drawers water wiser legislation subject finance nations dealings prepared say suggest best legislation secure end heartily recommended source great gratification able approve measure congress looking effectively toward securing resumption unlimited inflation would probably bring specie payments speedily legislation looking redemption coin would expense honor would value beyond settling present liabilities properly speaking repudiating would buy nothing debts settled measures seem important connection commend earnest consideration repeal much act makes notes receivable debts contracted date fixed act say later 1st january 1877 quotations real values fictitious ones gold would longer premium currency discount healthy reaction would set desire make currency equal purports merchants manufacturers tradesmen every calling could business fair margin profit money received unvarying value laborers classes work stipulated pay salary would receive income extra profits would longer charged capitalists compensate risk downward fluctuation value currency second secretary treasury authorized redeem say exceed monthly notes issuing stead long bond bearing interest rate per cent per annum denominations ranging 50 would time reduce notes volume could kept afloat without demanding redemption large sums suddenly third additional power given secretary treasury accumulate gold final redemption either increasing revenue curtailing expenses preferable recommend reduction expenditures made wherever done without impairing government obligations crippling due execution thereof one measure increasing revenue one think restoration duty tea coffee duties would add probably present amount received imports would way increase prices paid articles consumers articles products countries collecting revenue exports largest consumers reduce duties proportionately increase addition revenue many duties collected give insignificant return cost collection might remitted direct advantage consumers home would mention articles enter manufactures sorts duty paid upon articles goes directly cost article manufactured must paid consumers duties come consumers home act protection foreign manufacturers completed articles distant markets suggest mention another subject bearing upon problem enable secretary treasury accumulate balances devise better method verifying claims government present exists court claims especially claims growing late war nothing certain large percentage amounts passed paid either wholly fraudulent far excess real losses sustained large amount losses proven good testimony according existing laws affidavits fictitious unscrupulous persons sustained small farms plantations far beyond possible yield places one year everyone knows experience tilling soil visited scenes spoliations many instances individual claimants ever worth including personal real estate report submitted congress early day contain detailed history awards made claim pending class referred report secretary war accompanying message gives detailed account army operations year passed expenses maintenance recommendations legislation respectfully invite attention invite special attention first necessity making appropriation subsistence department available beginning next fiscal year without provision troops points distant supply production must either go without food existing laws must violated attended cost treasury second recommendation enactment system annuities families deceased officers voluntary deductions monthly pay officers attended burden upon treasury would future relieve much distress every old army officer witnessed past officers dying suddenly killed leaving families without even means reaching friends fortunate enough friends aid third repeal law abolishing mileage return old system fourth trial torpedoes corps engineers appropriation war ever occur united states maritime power torpedoes among effective cheapest auxiliary defense harbors also aggressive operations hence advisable learn experiment best construction application well effect fifth permanent organization corps service become necessity peace well war advancement made present able management sixth renewal appropriation compiling official records war etc condition navy time subject satisfaction contain true powerful cruising ironclads make much maritime strength nations neither continental situation foreign policy requires large number ships character situation nature ports combine make nations little dangerous us circumstances navy contain however considerable number ironclads monitor class though properly cruisers powerful effective harbor defense operations near shores ones fifteen number substantially rebuilt rotten wooden beams replaced iron hulls strengthened engines machinery thoroughly repaired efficient condition ready sea soon manned put commission five ironclads belonging navy far powerful ships fighting purposes also hand undergoing complete repairs could ready sea periods varying four six months completed according present design two iron torpedo boats ready ironclad fleet purposes defense home equal force readily brought wooden navy also cruisers various sizes number forty including commission atlantic could ready duty fast men could enlisted already commission effect new ships though remainder need considerable repairs boilers machinery readily made effective constitutes fleet fifty war ships fifteen ironclad hand atlantic coast navy brought condition judicious practical application could spared current appropriations last years made meet possible emergency two years ago done quietly without proclamation display though necessarily straitened department ordinary expenditure far ironclads concerned added nothing cruising force navy yet result less satisfactory found great increase real rather apparent force expenses incurred maintenance effective naval force branches necessarily large force essential position relations character affects seriously weight principles policy throughout whole sphere national responsibilities estimates regular support branch service next year amount little less aggregate made current year additional appropriations asked objects included ordinary maintenance navy believed pressing importance time would opinion wise afford sufficient means immediate completion five monitors undergoing repairs must otherwise advance slowly money spared current expenses supplemented navy armed destructive weapons modern warfare manned seamen charge instructed officers present force powerful home purposes responsible though peaceful nation report herewith transmitted gives full history workings department year past observed deficiency supplied general treasury increased amount required preceding year country vast area united states large portions sparsely settled must expected important service less burden upon treasury many years come branch public service interests whole people cheap rapid transmission mails every inhabited part territory next free school great educator people may well receive support general government subsidy per annum given vessels united states carrying mails new york rio de janeiro ceased 30th day september last without direct mail facilities south american states greatly regretted hesitate recommend authorization renewal contract also service may increased monthly trips commercial advantages gained direct line american steamers south american states far outweigh expense service act congress approved march 3 1875 almost matter whether properly mail matter may sent distance mails packages exceeding 4 pounds weight sum 16 cents per pound far transmission real mail matter goes would seem entirely proper suggest law amended exclude mails merchandise descriptions limit transportation articles enumerated may classed mail matter proper discovery gold black hills portion sioux reservation effect induce large emigration miners point thus far effort protect treaty rights indians section successful next year certainly witness large increase emigration negotiations relinquishment gold fields failed necessary congress adopt measures relieve embarrassment growing causes named secretary interior suggests supplies appropriated sustenance people longer obligatory treaty 1868 simply gratuity may issued withheld discretion condition indian territory referred several former annual messages remains practically unchanged secretary interior taken measures obtain full report condition territory make subject special report early day may necessary make recommendation regard legislation government territory steady growth increase business patent office indicates measure progress industrial activity country receipts office excess expenditures office generally prosperous satisfactory condition report general land office shows acres less disposed last year decrease lands disposed homestead laws decrease supposed found grasshopper scourge droughts prevailed extensively frontier states territories time discourage deter entries actual settlers cash receipts less preceding year entire surveyed area public domain acres acres surveyed past year leaving acres still unsurveyed report commissioner presents many interesting suggestions regard management disposition public domain modification existing laws apparent importance insure careful consideration congress number pensioners still continues decrease highest number reached year ending june 30 1873 last year names added rolls dropped therefrom showing net decrease number pensioners decreased annual amount due pension rolls increased caused greatly increased average rate pensions liberal legislation congress increased 1872 1875 invalid pensioner increase average rate 15 per cent three years year ending june 30 1875 paid account pensions including expenses disbursement less paid preceding year reduction amount expenditures produced decrease amount arrearages due allowed claims pensions rate increased legislation preceding session congress close last fiscal year pension rolls persons army pensioners invalids widows dependent relatives navy pensioners invalids widows dependent relatives pensioners war 1812 survivors widows estimated required payment pensions next fiscal year amount less estimate present year geological explorations prosecuted energy year covering area square miles territories colorado utah new mexico developing agricultural mineral resources furnishing interesting scientific topographical details region method treatment indians adopted beginning first term steadily pursued satisfactory encouraging results productive evident improvement condition race continued modifications experience may indicate necessary board heretofore appointed take charge articles materials pertaining war navy treasury interior departments department agriculture smithsonian institution commission food fishes contributed legislation last session international exhibition held philadelphia centennial year 1876 diligent discharge duties devolved upon preparations far made means command give assurance governmental contribution made one marked characteristics exhibition board observed commendable economy matter erection building governmental exhibit expense estimated exceed say amount withdrawn law appropriations five principal departments leaves departments without sufficient means render respective practical exhibits complete satisfactory exhibition international one government voluntary contributor opinion contribution character quality extent sustain dignity credit distinguished contributor advantages country creditable display international point view first importance indifferent uncreditable participation government would humiliating patriotic feelings people commend estimates board necessary additional appropriations favorable consideration congress powers europe almost without exception many south american states even distant eastern powers manifested friendly sentiments toward united states interest world progress taking steps join us celebrating centennial nation strongly recommend national importance given exhibition legislation appropriation insure success value bringing shores innumerable useful works art skill commingling citizens foreign countries interchange ideas manufactures far exceed pecuniary outlay may make transmit herewith report commissioner agriculture together reports commissioners board audit board health district columbia invite attention bureau agriculture accomplished much disseminating useful knowledge agriculturist also introducing new useful productions adapted soil climate worthy continued encouragement government report commissioner education accompanies report secretary interior shows gratifying progress educational matters nearly every annual message honor transmitting congress called attention anomalous say scandalous condition affairs existing territory utah asked definite legislation correct polygamy exist free enlightened christian country without power punish flagrant crime decency morality seems preposterous true law sustain unnatural vice needed law punish crime time fix status innocent children offspring system possibly innocent plural wives institution polygamy banished land done invite attention congress another though perhaps less evil importation chinese women brought shores pursue honorable useful occupations observations visiting territories wyoming utah colorado past autumn convinced existing laws regulating disposition public lands timber probably mining laws defective carefully amended early day territory cultivation soil followed irrigation irrigation practicable lands used pasturage stock reach water quench thirst governed laws entries lands every acre independent estate land must held larger quantities justify expense conducting water upon make fruitful justify utilizing pasturage timber territories principally confined mountain regions held entry small quantities mineral lands timber property united states disposal adequate law settler must become consumer timber whether lives upon plain engages working mines hence every man becomes either trespasser knowingly patron trespassers opportunities observation sufficient justify recommending specific legislation subjects recommend joint committee two houses congress sufficiently large divided subcommittees organized visit mining states territories coming summer committee shall report congress next session laws amendments laws may deem necessary secure best interests government people territories much development sure citizens occupying territory described wish trespassers legal ways provided become owners actual necessities position last annual message shall honor transmitting congress successor chosen repeat recapitulate questions deem vital importance may legislated upon settled session first states shall required afford opportunity good education every child within limits second sectarian tenets shall ever taught school supported whole part state nation proceeds tax levied upon community make education compulsory far deprive persons read write becoming voters year 1890 disfranchising none however grounds illiteracy may voters time amendment takes effect third declare church state forever separate distinct free within proper spheres church property shall bear proportion taxation fourth drive licensed immorality polygamy importation women illegitimate purposes recur centennial year would seem though begin second century national existence would fitting time reforms fifth enact laws insure speedy return sound currency command respect world believing views commend great majority patriotic citizens united states submit rest congress
submit seventh annual message congress centennial year national existence free independent people affords great pleasure recur advancement make time colony one hundred year ago people number number industry confine almost exclusively tillage soil manufactory absorb much labor country liberties remain unimpaired bondman free slavery become possessed respect friendship civilize nation progress great art science agriculture commerce navigation mining mechanic law medicine etc general education progress likewise encourage thirteen state become include colorado take initiatory step become state eight territory include indian territory alaska exclude colorado make territory extend atlantic pacific south extend gulf mexico west mississippi pacific one hundred year ago cotton gin steamship railroad telegraph reap sew modern printing machine numerous invention scarcely less value business happiness entirely unknown 1776 manufactory scarcely exist even name vast territory 1870 person employ manufactory produce product amount annually nearly equal national debt nearly whole population 1776 engage one occupation agriculture 1870 numerous diversify become occupation people less engaged extraordinary effect produce country resort diversify occupation build market product fertile land distant seaboard market world american system locate various extensive manufactory next plow pasture add connect railroad steamboat produce distant interior country result noticeable intelligent portion commercial nation ingenuity skill american mechanic demonstrate home abroad manner flattering pride extraordinary genius ability mechanic achievement agriculturists manufacturer transporter throughout country would impossible attainment progress miner also great coal production small many million ton mine annually iron form scarcely appreciable part product half century ago produce world consume begin national existence lead zinc copper article import may expect large exporter near future development gold silver mine united state territory remarkable large influence upon business commercial nation merchant last hundred year success establish reputation enterprise sagacity progress integrity unsurpassed people old nationality good name confine home go upon every sea every port commerce enters equal pride point progress learn profession enter upon second centennial comment manhood nation well look back upon past study best preserve advance future greatness fall adam transgression present day nation ever free threaten danger prosperity happiness look danger threaten u remedy far lie power republic whereof one man good another law form government great importance possess education intelligence enough cast vote right understand mean large association ignorant men considerable period oppose successful resistance tyranny oppression educate inevitably sink acquiescence intelligence whether direct demagogue priestcraft hence education mass become first necessity preservation institution worth preserve secured great good great proportion population form government yet devise forms government approach proportion general diffusion education independence think action primary step therefore advancement mark progress past century suggest earnest consideration earnestly recommend constitutional amendment submit legislatures several state ratification make duty several state establish forever maintain free public school adequate education child rudimentary branch within respective limit irrespective sex color birthplace religion forbid teaching say school religious atheistic pagan tenet prohibit grant school fund school tax part thereof either legislative municipal authority benefit aid directly indirectly religious sect denomination aid benefit object nature kind whatever connection important question would also call attention importance correct evil permit continue probably lead great trouble land close nineteenth century accumulation vast amount untaxed church property 1850 believe church property united state pay tax municipal state amount 1860 amount double 1875 1900 without check safe say property reach sum exceed vast sum receive protection benefit government without bear proportion burden expense look upon acquiescently pay tax grow country real estate enhances rapidly time united state scarcely limit wealth may acquire corporation religious otherwise allow retain real estate without taxation contemplation vast property allude without taxation may lead sequestration without constitutional authority blood would suggest taxation property equally whether church corporation exempt last resting place dead possibly proper restriction church edifice relation foreign power continue satisfactory friendly footing increase intercourse extension commerce cultivation mutual interest steadily improve relation large majority power world render practicable peaceful solution question time time necessarily arise leave demand extend particular notice correspondence department state diplomatic representative abroad transmit herewith happy announce passage act general cortes portugal proclaim since adjournment congress abolition servitude portuguese colony hop legislation may another step toward great consummation reach man shall permit directly indirectly guise excuse form law hold bondage opinion also duty united state contribute toward end require spirit age live provide suitable legislation citizen united state shall hold slave property country interested therein chile make reparation case whale ship good return seize without sufficient upward forty year ago though hitherto deny accountability denial never acquiesce government justice claim earnestly contend gratify last acknowledged arbitrator case united state steamer montijo seizure detention government unite state colombia hold accountable decide favor claim decision settle question pending several year continue open might less disturb good understand desirable maintain two republic reciprocity treaty king hawaiian island conclude month since contains stipulation shall take effect congress shall enact proper legislation purpose copy instrument herewith submit order pleasure congress necessary legislation upon subject may adopt march last arrangement make cushing minister madrid spanish government payment latter united state sum coin purpose relief family person ship company certain passenger virginius sum pay three installment two month due spanish government state payment fully spontaneously anticipated government whole amount pay within day two month date agreement copy herewith transmit pursuance term adjustment direct distribution amount among party entitle thereto include ship company passenger american citizen payment make accordingly application party entitle thereto past year furnish evidence approach termination ruinous conflict rag seven year neighbor island cuba disregard law civilize warfare demand humanity heretofore call forth expression condemnation nation christendom continue blacken sad scene desolation ruin pillage pervade rich field one fertile productive region earth incendiary torch fire plantation valuable factory building agent mark alternate advance retreat contend party protract continuance strife seriously affect interest commercial nation united state others reason close proximity large trade intercourse cuba frequent intimate personal social relation grow citizen island moreover property citizen cuba large rendered insecure depreciate value capacity production continuance strife unnatural mode conduct true differ degree respect interest people nation absence reasonable assurance near termination conflict must necessity soon compel state thus suffer consider interest people duty toward may demand hop spain would enable establish peace colony afford security property interest citizens allow legitimate scope trade commerce natural production island hope extreme reluctance interfere remote manner affair another friendly nation especially one whose sympathy friendship struggle infancy existence must ever remember gratitude patiently anxiously waited progress event civil conflict recent u consider difficulty surround government distract dynastic rebellion home time cope separate insurrection distant colony whatever cause may produce situation grievously affect interest exist attendant evil operate directly upon country people thus far effort spain proved abortive time mark improvement situation arm band either side occupy nearly ground past difference time time life sacrifice property destroyed wider extent fertile productive field valuable property constantly wantonly sacrifice incendiary torch contest nature considerable body people attempt free control superior government reach point occupation territory power general organization constitute fact body politic government substance well name possessed element stability equip machinery administration internal policy execution law prepare able administer justice home well dealings power within province power recognize existence new independent nation case nation simply deal actually exist condition thing recognize one power earth body politic possessing necessary element fact become new power word creation new state fact establish condition thing essential recognition fact must people occupy known territory unite know defined form government acknowledge subject thereto function government administer usual method competent mete justice citizen stranger afford remedy public private wrong able assume correlative international obligation capable perform correspond international duty result acquisition right sovereignty power exist complete organization ready take able maintain place among nation earth conscious insurrection cuba show strength endurance make least doubtful whether power spain subdue seem unquestionable civil organization exists may recognize independent government capable perform international obligation entitle treat one power earth recognition circumstance would inconsistent fact would compel power grant soon support force government really give claim existence judgment united state adhere policy principle heretofore sure safe guide like contest revolt colony mother country act upon clear evidence avoid possibility suspicion imputation recognition independence cuba opinion impracticable indefensible question next present recognition belligerent right party contest former message congress occasion consider question reach conclusion conflict cuba dreadful devastate incident rise fearful dignity war regard lapse time unable see notable success mark real advance part insurgent essentially change character contest acquire great age great formidable proportion possible act foreign power even act spain nature might point defense recognition past history united state carefully avoid false light might lead mazes doubtful law questionable propriety adhere rigidly sternly rule guide right honest good report question accord withhold right belligerency must judge every case view particular attend fact unless justified necessity always justly regard unfriendly act gratuitous demonstration moral support rebellion necessary require interest right another government people far affected pending civil conflict require definition relation party thereto conflict must one recognize sense international law war belligerence fact mere existence contending arm body occasional conflict constitute war sense refer apply exist condition affair cuba test recognize publicist writer international law observe nation dignity honesty power free sensitive selfish unworthy motif fail find insurrection existence substantial political organization real palpable manifest world form capable ordinary function government toward people state court administration justice local habitation possess organization force material occupation territory take contest category mere rebellious insurrection occasional skirmish place terrible footing war recognition belligerency would aim elevate contest moreover solely land insurrection possess single seaport whence may send forth flag mean communication foreign power except military line adversary apprehension sudden difficult complication war upon ocean apt precipitate upon vessel commercial national upon consular officer power call definition relation party contest consider question expediency regard accordance belligerent right still unwise premature regard present indefensible measure right recognition entail upon country accord right flow difficult complicated duty require exaction contend party strict observance right obligation confers right search upon high sea vessel party would subject carry arm munition war may transport freely without interruption vessel united state detention possible seizure would give rise countless vexatious question would release parent government responsibility act do insurgent would invest spain right exercise supervision recognize treaty 1795 commerce high sea large part traffic atlantic gulf state state pacific pass water wash shore cuba exercise supervision could scarce fail lead abuse certainly collision perilous peaceful relation two state little doubt result supervision would long draw nation would unworthy united state inaugurate possibility result measure questionable right expediency indirection apart question theoretical right satisfy accordance belligerent right insurgent cuba might give hope inducement protract struggle would delusive hope would remove evils government people experience would draw united state complication wait long already suffer much avoid recognition independence belligerency thus judgment equally inadmissible remains consider course shall adopt conflict soon bring end act party evils result therefrom affect nation particularly united state continue event opinion nation compel assume responsibility devolve upon seriously consider remain measure possible mediation intervention owe perhaps large expanse water separate island peninsula want harmony personal sympathy inhabitant colony send thither rule want adaptation ancient colonial system europe present time ideas event past century develop contend party appear within depository common confidence suggest wisdom passion excitement sway assume part peacemaker view earlier day contest good office united state mediator tender good faith without selfish purpose interest humanity sincere friendship party time decline spain declaration nevertheless future time would indispensable intimation receive opinion spain time reach yet strife continue dread horror injury interest united state nation party seem quite capable work great injury damage well relation interest dependent existence peace island seem incapable reach adjustment thus far fail achieve success whereby one party shall possess control island exclusion circumstance agency others either mediation intervention seem alternative must sooner later invoked termination strife time thus impressed time recommend adoption measure intervention shall ready time equal friend party respond suggestion good office united state acceptable aid bring peace honorable due spain far government concerned agency third power advert shall adopt last expedient desire united state interfere affair cuba repeat opportunity present within last year remain passive perform whole duty international obligation spain friendship fairness fidelity spirit patience forbearance negative every possible suggestion desire interfere add difficulty surrounded government spain recently submit minister madrid certain proposal hop may find basis actual submission term meet requirement particular griefs government felt entitle complain proposal yet reach full text arrival take careful examination may hope lead satisfactory adjustment question refer remove possibility future occurrence give rise complaint understood also renew effort make introduce reform internal administration island persuade however proper regard interest unite state citizen entitle relief strain subject difficulty question wrong loss arise contest cuba interest humanity demand cessation strife whole island shall lay waste large sacrifice life make shall feel duty hop satisfactory adjustment early restoration peace removal future cause complaint unhappily disappointed make communication congress period far remote present session recommending may seem necessary free zone call several year since establish mexican government certain state republic adjacent frontier remain full operation always materially injurious honest traffic operate incentive trader mexico supply without custom charge want inhabitant side line prevents want supplied merchant united state thereby considerable extent defraud revenue check honest commercial enterprise depredation arm band mexico people texas near frontier continue though main object incursion robbery frequently result murder unarm peaceably disposed person instance even united state mail communication attack renew remonstrance upon subject addressed mexican government without much apparent effect military force government disposable service quarter quite inadequate effectually guard line even point incursion usually make experiment armed vessel rio grande purpose trial hop thwart shallowness river natural obstacle may materially contribute protection herdsman texas proceeding joint commission convention united state mexico 4th july 1868 subject claim soon bring close result proceeding communicate congress happy announce government venezuela upon consideration practically abandon objection pay unite state share revenue year since allot toward extinguishment claim foreigner generally thus reconsider determination government show sense fail reflect credit upon eye disinterested person elsewhere regret however payment account claim citizen united state still meager amount stipulation treaty regard sum pay period payment take place signally disregard since last annual message exchange make ratification treaty commerce navigation belgium convention mexican republic extension joint commission respect claim hawaiian island commercial reciprocity ottoman empire extradition duly proclaimed court commissioner alabama claim prosecute important duty assiduously satisfactorily convene organized 22d day july 1874 term act create exist one year date act provide however find impracticable complete work court expiration year president might proclamation extend time duration period six month beyond expiration one year receive satisfactory evidence would impracticable complete work within time originally fix issue proclamation copy present herewith extend time duration court period six month 22d day july last report make clerk court communicate herewith show condition calendar 1st november last large amount work accomplish one thousand three hundred claim present 682 disposed date report inform 170 case decide month november argument make decision give remain case dispatch consistent proper consideration question submit many claim behalf mariner depend evidence mariner whose absence delay take return necessary evidence represent impracticable court finally dispose case within present limit duration justice party claimant large expense prepare claim obtain evidence support suggest short extension enable court dispose claim present recommend legislation may deem proper enable court complete work recommend suitable provision make creation special court confer necessary jurisdiction upon appropriate tribunal consideration determination claim aliens government unite state arisen within reasonable limitation time may hereafter arise exclude claim bar treaty provision otherwise find impossible give proper consideration claim executive department government tribunal would afford opportunity alien british subject present claim account act committed person property rebellion also subject great britain whose claim arise subsequent 9th day april 1865 could present late commission organize pursuant provision treaty washington electric telegraph become essential indispensable agent transmission business social message operation land within limit particular state necessarily control jurisdiction within operate line high sea however subject particular control one government 1869 concession grant french government company propose lay cable shore france united state time telegraphic connection united state continent europe possession great britain either end line control association large outlay capital great risk demonstrate practicability maintaining mean communication cost correspondence agency great possibly large time proper remuneration hazardous costly enterprise however heavy charge upon mean communication progress social commercial intercourse world find necessity obtain french concession show capital already invest ready enter competition assurance adequate return outlay impressed conviction interest people united state world large demand would demand multiplication mean communication separate continent desirous propose connection make certain provision concession deem objectionable particularly one give long term year exclusive right telegraphic communication submarine cable shore france united state could concede power claim right land cable shore united state time deny united state citizen grantee equal fight land cable shore right control condition lay cable within jurisdictional water united state connect shore foreign state pertains exclusively government unite state limitation condition congress may impose absence legislation congress unwilling one hand yield foreign state right say grantee might land shore deny similar right people land shore hand reluctant deny great interest world civilization facility communication propose therefore withheld resistance land cable condition offensive monopoly feature concession abandon right cable may establish authority government land upon french territory connect french land line enjoy necessary facility privilege incident use thereof upon favorable term company concede result thereof company question renounce exclusive privilege representative france inform understanding relinquishment construe grant entire reciprocity equal facility demand opposition land cable withdrawn cable french concession land month july 1869 efficient valuable agent communication country continent soon pass control however management cable connect great britain continent thus whatever benefit public might ensue competition two line lose leave great facility additional line additional security case accident one increase facility additional security together control combine capital two company give also great power prevent future construction line limit control telegraphic communication two continent possess line already lay within month past cable laid know united state direct cable company connect united state directly great britain soon cable report laid working order rate exist consolidated company greatly reduce soon however break announced new cable immediately rate line reduce raise cable repair rate appear reduce either line formerly charge consolidated company reason believe large amount capital home abroad ready seek profitable investment advancement useful civilizing mean intercourse correspondence await however assurance mean condition may safely make tributary general good cable telegraph line connect separate state question organization control probably best solely settled convention respective state absence however international convention subject municipal legislation may secure many point appear important indispensable protection public extortion may result monopoly right operate cable telegram combination several line line allow land shore united state concession another power admit right line line form united state land freely connect operate land line ii line allow land shore united state treaty stipulation government whose shore proceed prohibition charter otherwise satisfaction government prohibit consolidate amalgamate cable telegraph line combine therewith purpose regulate maintain cost telegraph iii line bound give precedence transmission official message government two country may lay iv power reserve two government either conjointly regard message dispatch shore fix limit charge demand transmission message present subject earnest consideration congress meantime unless congress otherwise direct shall oppose land telegraphic cable complies assent point enumerate feel duty prevent land conform first second point state stipulate concede government precedence transmission official message enter satisfactory arrangement regard charge among press important subject opinion attention congress direct relate fraudulent naturalization expatriation united state great liberality offer citizenship good faith comply requirement law requirement simple upon favorable term emigrant high privilege admit permit propose additional requirement law demand simplicity want unnecessary formality law make fraudulent naturalization infrequent discredit injury honest citizens whether native naturalized case character continually bring notice government representative abroad also person resident country frequently remain country long enough entitle become naturalized generally much overpassed period return country origin reside avoid duty united state absence claim exempt duty country nativity residence reason allege naturalization due government great mass naturalize citizen entirely name fact become citizen united state high privilege citizenship united state hold fraud derogation law good name every honest citizen many occasion bring knowledge government certificate naturalization hold protection interference claim party admit within united state time pretend naturalization never reside united state others certificate record court show face person claim naturalize reside required time united state others admit upon examination requirement law comply ease even certificate matter purchase isolated eas arise rare interval common occurrence report quarter globe occurrence fail reflect upon government injure honest citizens fraud discover however practicable mean within control government record naturalization vacate certificate take usually diplomatic consular representative government may present nothing prevent person claim naturalize obtain new certificate court place take evil become great frequent occurrence earnestly recommend effective measure adopt provide proper remedy mean vacate record thus fraudulently make punish guilty party transaction connection refer also question expatriation election nationality united state foremost upholding right expatriation principally instrumental overthrow doctrine perpetual allegiance congress declare right expatriation natural inherent right people many nation enact law provide formality shall necessary work change allegiance united state enact provision law respect mark expatriation may accomplish citizen instance bring attention government citizen united state either naturalized native bear formally become citizens subject foreign power nevertheless absence provision legislation question involve difficulty seem interest claim citizen united state demand intervention government long since abandon year render service hold way amenable case naturalize citizen immediately naturalization return native country become engaged business accept office pursuits inconsistent american citizenship evidence intent return united state call upon discharge duty country reside assert citizenship call upon representative government aid unjust pretension justice bona fide citizens doubt exist question congress determine enactment law expatriation may accomplish change citizenship establish also invite attention necessity regulate law status american woman may marry foreigner define fully child bear foreign country american parent may reside abroad also provision regulate give legal effect marriage american citizen contract foreign country correspondence submit herewith show constantly occur question point present consideration government subject engage attention congress delicate relation important interest dependent month july last building erect department state take possession occupy department happy announce archive valuable paper government custody department safely deposit properly care report secretary treasury show receipt custom fiscal year end june 30 1874 fiscal year end june 30 1875 decrease last fiscal year receipt internal revenue year end 30th june 1874 year end june 30 1875 increase report also show complete history working department last year contains recommendation reform legislation concur comment fully like space would permit confine suggestion look upon vital best interest whole people come within purview treasury mean specie resumption much stress lay upon question hope congress may induce early day practicable insure consummation act last congress last session bring specie resumption 1st january 1879 furthest would great blessing could consummate even earlier day nothing seem certain full healthy permanent reaction take place favor industry financial welfare country return measure value recognize throughout civilized world use currency equivalent standard world recognize standard specie become commodity like product soil surplus seek market wherever demand present system want none would customs due must pay coin pledge pay interest public debt coin yield precious metal would flow purchase foreign production united state hewer wood drawer water wiser legislation subject finance nation dealing prepare say suggest best legislation secure end heartily recommend source great gratification able approve measure congress look effectively toward secure resumption unlimited inflation would probably bring specie payment speedily legislation look redemption coin would expense honor would value beyond settle present liability properly speak repudiate would buy nothing debt settle measure seem important connection commend earnest consideration repeal much act make note receivable debt contract date fix act say later 1st january 1877 quotation real value fictitious one gold would longer premium currency discount healthy reaction would set desire make currency equal purport merchant manufacturer tradesman every call could business fair margin profit money receive unvarying value laborer class work stipulate pay salary would receive income extra profit would longer charge capitalist compensate risk downward fluctuation value currency second secretary treasury authorize redeem say exceed monthly note issue stead long bond bearing interest rate per cent per annum denomination range 50 would time reduce note volume could keep afloat without demand redemption large sum suddenly third additional power give secretary treasury accumulate gold final redemption either increase revenue curtail expense preferable recommend reduction expenditure make wherever do without impair government obligation cripple due execution thereof one measure increase revenue one think restoration duty tea coffee duty would add probably present amount receive import would way increase price pay article consumer article product country collect revenue export large consumer reduce duty proportionately increase addition revenue many duty collect give insignificant return cost collection might remit direct advantage consumer home would mention article enter manufacture sort duty pay upon article go directly cost article manufacture must pay consumer duty come consumer home act protection foreign manufacturer complete article distant market suggest mention another subject bear upon problem enable secretary treasury accumulate balance devise good method verify claim government present exist court claim especially claim grow late war nothing certain large percentage amount pass pay either wholly fraudulent far excess real loss sustain large amount loss proven good testimony accord exist law affidavit fictitious unscrupulous person sustain small farm plantation far beyond possible yield place one year everyone know experience till soil visit scene spoliation many instance individual claimant ever worth include personal real estate report submit congress early day contain detailed history award make claim pending class refer report secretary war accompany message give detailed account army operation year pass expense maintenance recommendation legislation respectfully invite attention invite special attention first necessity make appropriation subsistence department available begin next fiscal year without provision troop point distant supply production must either go without food exist law must violate attend cost treasury second recommendation enactment system annuity family decease officer voluntary deduction monthly pay officer attend burden upon treasury would future relieve much distress every old army officer witness past officer die suddenly kill leave family without even mean reach friend fortunate enough friend aid third repeal law abolish mileage return old system fourth trial torpedo corps engineer appropriation war ever occur united state maritime power torpedo among effective cheap auxiliary defense harbor also aggressive operation hence advisable learn experiment best construction application well effect fifth permanent organization corp service become necessity peace well war advancement make present able management sixth renewal appropriation compile official record war etc condition navy time subject satisfaction contain true powerful cruise ironclad make much maritime strength nation neither continental situation foreign policy require large number ship character situation nature port combine make nation little dangerous u circumstance navy contain however considerable number ironclad monitor class though properly cruiser powerful effective harbor defense operation near shore one fifteen number substantially rebuilt rotten wooden beam replace iron hull strengthen engine machinery thoroughly repair efficient condition ready sea soon man put commission five ironclad belong navy far powerful ship fight purpose also hand undergo complete repair could ready sea period vary four six month complete accord present design two iron torpedo boat ready ironclad fleet purpose defense home equal force readily bring wooden navy also cruisers various size number forty include commission atlantic could ready duty fast men could enlist already commission effect new ship though remainder need considerable repairs boiler machinery readily make effective constitutes fleet fifty war ship fifteen ironclad hand atlantic coast navy bring condition judicious practical application could spar current appropriation last year make meet possible emergency two year ago do quietly without proclamation display though necessarily straiten department ordinary expenditure far ironclad concern add nothing cruise force navy yet result less satisfactory find great increase real rather apparent force expense incur maintenance effective naval force branch necessarily large force essential position relation character affect seriously weight principle policy throughout whole sphere national responsibility estimate regular support branch service next year amount little less aggregate make current year additional appropriation ask object include ordinary maintenance navy believe press importance time would opinion wise afford sufficient mean immediate completion five monitor undergo repair must otherwise advance slowly money spar current expense supplement navy armed destructive weapon modern warfare man seaman charge instructed officer present force powerful home purpose responsible though peaceful nation report herewith transmit give full history working department year past observed deficiency supply general treasury increase amount require preceding year country vast area united state large portion sparsely settle must expect important service less burden upon treasury many year come branch public service interest whole people cheap rapid transmission mail every inhabited part territory next free school great educator people may well receive support general government subsidy per annum give vessel united state carry mails new york rio de janeiro cease 30th day september last without direct mail facility south american state greatly regret hesitate recommend authorization renewal contract also service may increase monthly trip commercial advantage gain direct line american steamer south american state far outweigh expense service act congress approve march 3 1875 almost matter whether properly mail matter may send distance mail package exceed 4 pound weight sum 16 cent per pound far transmission real mail matter go would seem entirely proper suggest law amend exclude mail merchandise description limit transportation article enumerate may class mail matter proper discovery gold black hill portion sioux reservation effect induce large emigration miner point thus far effort protect treaty right indians section successful next year certainly witness large increase emigration negotiation relinquishment gold field fail necessary congress adopt measure relieve embarrassment grow cause name secretary interior suggest supply appropriate sustenance people longer obligatory treaty 1868 simply gratuity may issue withheld discretion condition indian territory refer several former annual message remain practically unchanged secretary interior take measure obtain full report condition territory make subject special report early day may necessary make recommendation regard legislation government territory steady growth increase business patent office indicate measure progress industrial activity country receipt office excess expenditures office generally prosperous satisfactory condition report general land office show acre less dispose last year decrease land disposed homestead law decrease suppose find grasshopper scourge drought prevail extensively frontier state territory time discourage deter entry actual settler cash receipt less precede year entire survey area public domain acre acres survey past year leaving acre still unsurveyed report commissioner present many interesting suggestion regard management disposition public domain modification exist law apparent importance insure careful consideration congress number pensioner still continue decrease high number reach year end june 30 1873 last year names add roll drop therefrom show net decrease number pensioner decrease annual amount due pension roll increase cause greatly increased average rate pension liberal legislation congress increase 1872 1875 invalid pensioner increase average rate 15 per cent three year year end june 30 1875 pay account pension include expense disbursement less pay precede year reduction amount expenditure produce decrease amount arrearages due allow claim pension rate increase legislation precede session congress close last fiscal year pension roll person army pensioner invalid widow dependent relative navy pensioner invalid widow dependent relative pensioner war 1812 survivor widow estimate required payment pension next fiscal year amount less estimate present year geological exploration prosecute energy year cover area square mile territory colorado utah new mexico develop agricultural mineral resource furnish interesting scientific topographical detail region method treatment indian adopt begin first term steadily pursue satisfactory encouraging result productive evident improvement condition race continue modification experience may indicate necessary board heretofore appoint take charge article material pertain war navy treasury interior department department agriculture smithsonian institution commission food fish contribute legislation last session international exhibition hold philadelphia centennial year 1876 diligent discharge duty devolve upon preparation far make mean command give assurance governmental contribution make one marked characteristic exhibition board observe commendable economy matter erection build governmental exhibit expense estimate exceed say amount withdrawn law appropriation five principal department leave department without sufficient mean render respective practical exhibit complete satisfactory exhibition international one government voluntary contributor opinion contribution character quality extent sustain dignity credit distinguish contributor advantage country creditable display international point view first importance indifferent uncreditable participation government would humiliate patriotic feeling people commend estimate board necessary additional appropriation favorable consideration congress power europe almost without exception many south american state even distant eastern power manifest friendly sentiment toward united state interest world progress take step join u celebrate centennial nation strongly recommend national importance give exhibition legislation appropriation insure success value bring shore innumerable useful work art skill commingle citizen foreign country interchange idea manufacture far exceed pecuniary outlay may make transmit herewith report commissioner agriculture together report commissioner board audit board health district columbia invite attention bureau agriculture accomplish much disseminate useful knowledge agriculturist also introduce new useful production adapt soil climate worthy continue encouragement government report commissioner education accompanies report secretary interior show gratify progress educational matter nearly every annual message honor transmit congress call attention anomalous say scandalous condition affair exist territory utah ask definite legislation correct polygamy exist free enlighten christian country without power punish flagrant crime decency morality seem preposterous true law sustain unnatural vice need law punish crime time fix status innocent child offspring system possibly innocent plural wife institution polygamy banish land do invite attention congress another though perhaps less evil importation chinese woman bring shore pursue honorable useful occupation observation visit territory wyoming utah colorado past autumn convince exist law regulate disposition public land timber probably mine law defective carefully amend early day territory cultivation soil follow irrigation irrigation practicable land use pasturage stock reach water quench thirst govern law entry land every acre independent estate land must hold large quantity justify expense conducting water upon make fruitful justify utilizing pasturage timber territory principally confine mountain region hold entry small quantity mineral land timber property united state disposal adequate law settler must become consumer timber whether life upon plain engages work mine hence every man become either trespasser knowingly patron trespasser opportunity observation sufficient justify recommend specific legislation subject recommend joint committee two house congress sufficiently large divide subcommittee organize visit mining state territory come summer committee shall report congress next session law amendment law may deem necessary secure best interest government people territory much development sure citizen occupy territory describe wish trespasser legal way provide become owner actual necessity position last annual message shall honor transmit congress successor choose repeat recapitulate question deem vital importance may legislate upon settle session first state shall require afford opportunity good education every child within limit second sectarian tenet shall ever teach school support whole part state nation proceeds tax levy upon community make education compulsory far deprive person read write become voter year 1890 disfranchise none however ground illiteracy may voter time amendment take effect third declare church state forever separate distinct free within proper sphere church property shall bear proportion taxation fourth drive license immorality polygamy importation woman illegitimate purpose recur centennial year would seem though begin second century national existence would fit time reform fifth enact law insure speedy return sound currency command respect world believe view commend great majority patriotic citizen united state submit rest congress