A COMPILATION OF THE MESSAGES AND PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENTS
BY JAMES D. RICHARDSON
A REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF TENNESSEE
VOLUME VII
ULYSSES S. GRANT
Prefatory Note
The election of General Grant to the Presidency by the people of the
United States was another instance illustrating the gratitude of a
republic to a successful soldier. But for the great civil war no one
supposes he would ever have been elevated to this exalted post. His
services in that heroic struggle were such as to win the highest
encomiums from his countrymen, and naturally at the first opportunity
after the closing of the war when a Chief Executive was to be chosen
they turned their eyes to the most conspicuous figure in that war and
made him President of the United States. This volume, the seventh of the
series, comprises his eight years and the four years of his successor,
Mr. Hayes. During this period of twelve years--that is, from March 4,
1869, to March 4, 1881--the legislation for the restoration of the
Southern States to their original positions in the Union was enacted,
the reunion of the States was perfected, and all sections of the land
again given full and free representation in Congress. Much of the
bitterness engendered by the war, and which had been left alive at its
closing, and which was not diminished to any appreciable extent during
President Johnson's term, was largely assuaged during President Grant's
Administration, and under that of President Hayes was further softened
and almost entirely dissipated.
It will be seen that President Grant in his papers dwelt especially
upon the duty of paying the national debt in gold and returning to
specie payments; that he urged upon Congress a proposition to annex
Santo Domingo; that during his Administration the "Quaker Peace
Commission" was appointed to deal with the Indians, the fifteenth
amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proclaimed, the
treaty of Washington was negotiated, and, with a subsequent arbitration
at Geneva, a settlement was provided of the difficulties relating to the
Alabama claims and the fisheries; that in 1870 and frequently afterwards
he urged upon Congress the need of reform in the civil service. His
appeals secured the passage of the law of March 3, 1871, under which
he appointed a civil service commission. This commission framed rules,
which were approved by the President. They provided for open competitive
examination, and went into effect January 1, 1872; and out of these grew
the present civil-service rules. One of his most important papers was
the message vetoing the "inflation bill."
The closing months of his public life covered the stormy and exciting
period following the Presidential election of 1876, when the result as
between Mr. Tilden and Mr. Hayes was so long in doubt. There is very
little, however, in any Presidential paper of that period to indicate
the great peril to the country and the severe strain to which our
institutions were subjected in that memorable contest.
The Administration of Mr. Hayes, though it began amid exciting scenes
and an unprecedented situation which threatened disasters, was rather
marked by moderation and a sympathy with what he considered true reform.
Some of his vetoes are highly interesting, and indicate independence of
character and that he was not always controlled by mere party politics.
One of the most famous and best remembered of his messages is that
vetoing the Bland-Allison Act, which restored the legal-tender quality
to the silver dollar and provided for its limited coinage.
Other papers of interest are his message recommending the resumption of
specie payments; vetoes of a bill to restrict Chinese immigration, of
an Army appropriation bill, of a legislative, executive, and judicial
appropriation bill, and of the act known as the "funding act of 1881."
It was during Mr. Hayes's Administration, when the Forty-fifth Congress
met in extraordinary session on March 18, 1879, that for the first time
since the Congress that was chosen with Mr. Buchanan in 1856 the
Democratic party was in control of both Houses.
JAMES D. RICHARDSON,
FEBRUARY 22, 1898.
Ulysses S. Grant
March 4, 1869, to March 4, 1877
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was born at Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio,
April 27, 1822. He was of Scotch ancestry, but his family had been
American in all its branches for several generations. Was a descendant
of Mathew Grant, who arrived at Dorchester, Mass., in May, 1630. His
father was Jesse R. Grant and his mother Hannah Simpson; they were
married in Clermont County, Ohio, in June, 1821. In the fall of 1823 his
parents removed to Georgetown, the county seat of Brown County, Ohio.
Ulysses, the eldest of six children, spent his boyhood in assisting his
father on the farm, which was more congenial than working in the tannery
of which his father was proprietor. From an early age until 17 years
old attended the subscription schools of Georgetown, except during
the winters of 1836-37 and 1838-39, which were spent at schools in
Maysville, Ky., and Ripley, Ohio. In the spring of 1839, at the age of
17, was appointed to a cadetship in the Military Academy at West Point
by Thomas L. Hamer, a Member of Congress, and entered the Academy July
1, 1839. The name given him at birth was Hiram Ulysses, but he was
always called by his middle name. Mr. Hamer, thinking Ulysses his first
name, and that his middle name was probably that of his mother's family,
inserted in the official appointment the name of Ulysses S. Grant. The
officials of the Academy were notified by Cadet Grant of the error, but
they did not feel authorized to correct it, and it was acquiesced in and
became the name by which he was always known. Graduated from the Academy
in 1843, twenty-first in a class of thirty-nine members. Was attached to
the Fourth United States Infantry as brevet second lieutenant July 1,
1843; was appointed second lieutenant, Seventh Infantry, September 30,
1845, and transferred to the Fourth Infantry November 15, 1845. During
the Mexican War (1846-1848) took part with his regiment in active
service, and was in all the battles fought by Generals Scott and Taylor
except that of Buena Vista. Was brevetted for gallant conduct at the
battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, but declined the honor. At
the battle of Monterey distinguished himself by volunteering to run the
gantlet and bring ammunition for the troops into the city. September 8,
1847, was appointed brevet first lieutenant for gallant conduct at
Molino del Rey. Acted as regimental quartermaster April 1, 1847, to July
23, 1848, and from November 17, 1848, to August 5, 1853. September 13,
1847, was brevetted captain for gallant conduct at the battle of
Chapultepec, and on September 16 was appointed first lieutenant. At San
Cosme was mentioned in special orders by his commanders--regimental,
brigade, and division. After the Mexican War his regiment was sent to
Pascagoula, Miss., and afterwards to Sacketts Harbor, N.Y., and Detroit,
Mich. August 22, 1848, married Miss Julia Dent, of St. Louis, Mo. In
1852 his regiment was sent to the Pacific Coast. August 5, 1853, was
appointed captain. Resigned July 31, 1854, and went to live on a farm
near St. Louis, but in 1858 gave up farming on account of his health,
and entered into the real-estate business in St. Louis. In May, 1860,
removed to Galena, Ill., and became a clerk in his father's store.
In April, 1861, after President Lincoln's call for troops, presided
at a public meeting in Galena, which resulted in the organization of a
company of volunteers, which he drilled and accompanied to Springfield,
Ill. Was employed by Governor Yates in the adjutant-general's office,
and appointed mustering officer. Offered his services to the National
Government in a letter written May 24, 1861, but no answer was ever
made to it. June 17, 1861, was appointed colonel of the Twenty-first
Illinois Volunteers, and served until August 7, when he was appointed
brigadier-general of volunteers by the President, his commission to date
from May 17, 1861. Was assigned September 1 to command the District
of Southeastern Missouri. September 4 established his headquarters at
Cairo, and on the 6th captured Paducah, Ky. February 2, 1862, advanced
from Cairo; on the 6th captured Fort Henry, and on the 16th Fort
Donelson. Soon afterwards was made a major-general of volunteers, his
commission dating from February 16. March 4 was relieved from his
command and ordered to remain at Fort Henry, but on the 13th was
restored. Commanded at the battle of Shiloh, April 6 and 7, 1862.
General Halleck on April 11 assumed command of the combined armies, and
General Grant became second in command during the advance upon and the
siege of Corinth. In July Halleck became general in chief of all the
armies, and General Grant was placed in command of the District of West
Tennessee. In September fought the battle of Iuka, Miss., and in October
the battle of Corinth. January 29, 1863, moved down the Mississippi
River and took command of the troops opposite Vicksburg. On March 29
sent one corps of his army across the peninsula opposite Vicksburg, and
on April 16 ran the batteries with seven gunboats and three transports.
April 22 six other transports ran the batteries. His army was now below
Vicksburg, and on the 29th bombarded Grand Gulf. May 1 fought the battle
at Port Gibson, and on May 3 captured Grand Gulf. May 12 defeated the
Confederates at Raymond; and on the 14th captured Jackson, Miss. After
several engagements the Confederates were driven by him into Vicksburg,
when he began the siege of that city, which was surrendered July 4,
1863. On the same day was commissioned a major-general in the United
States Army. In August went to New Orleans to confer with General Banks,
and while reviewing the troops there was injured by his horse falling on
him. About the middle of October was assigned to the command of the
Military Division of the Mississippi, which included Rosecran's army at
Chattanooga, Tenn. Arrived at Chattanooga October 23, and the next day
issued orders which resulted in the battle of Wauhatchie on the 29th.
Attacked the Confederates under General Bragg on November 23, and
after three days' fighting captured Missionary Ridge, whereupon the
Confederates retreated to Dalton, Ga. For his successes Congress, in
December, 1863, passed a resolution of thanks to him and the officers
and soldiers of his command, and presented him with a gold medal. The
bill restoring the grade of lieutenant-general became a law in February,
1864, and on March 1 he was nominated for the position and was confirmed
the succeeding day. On March 12 assumed command of all the armies of the
United States, and immediately began the plan of campaign that kept all
of the armies in motion until the war ended. About May 4, 1864, this
campaign, the greatest of the war, began, and lasted until the surrender
of the Confederates in April, 1865. During this period there were fought
some of the bloodiest battles of the world. On April 9, 1865, General
Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox, Va., to General Grant, who then
displayed the greatest magnanimity to the Confederates, and won for
himself from his late enemies their warmest gratitude. His magnanimity
will always be remembered by the Confederate soldiers, and will stand
in history as long as nobility of character shall be appreciated by
mankind. On the closing of the war directed his attention to mustering
out of service the great army under his command and the disposal of the
enormous quantity of stores of the Government. In the discharge of his
duties visited different sections of the country and was received
everywhere with enthusiasm. The citizens of Philadelphia presented him
with a handsome residence in that city; his old neighbors in Galena gave
him a pretty home in their town; the people of New York presented to him
a check for $105,000. In November and December, 1865, traveled through
the Southern States, and made a report to the President upon the
conditions there. In May, 1866, submitted a plan to the Government for
the reorganization of the Regular Army of the United States, which
became the basis of its reorganization. July 25 Congress passed an act
creating the grade of general of the armies of the United States,
and on the same day he was appointed to this rank. August 12, 1867, was
appointed by President Johnson Secretary of War _ad interim_, which
position he held until January 14, 1868. At the national convention
of the Republican party which met in Chicago on May 20, 1868, was
unanimously nominated for President on the first call of States. His
letter of acceptance of that nomination was brief, and contained the
famous sentence, "Let us have peace." At the election in November was
chosen to be President, receiving 214 electoral votes, while Horatio
Seymour received 80. Was renominated by his party in national convention
in Philadelphia June 6, 1872, and at the election in November received
286 electoral votes, against 66 which would have been cast for Horace
Greeley if he had lived. Retired from office March 4, 1877. After his
retirement made a journey into foreign countries, and was received with
great distinction and pomp by all the governments and peoples he
visited. An earnest effort was made to nominate him for a third term,
but it failed. By special act of Congress passed March 3, 1885, was
placed as general on the retired list of the Army. He died July 23,
1885, at Mount McGregor, N.Y., and was buried at Riverside Park, New
York City, on the Hudson River.
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
_Citizens of the United States_:
Your suffrages having elected me to the office of President of the
United States, I have, in conformity to the Constitution of our country,
taken the oath of office prescribed therein. I have taken this oath
without mental reservation and with the determination to do to the best
of my ability all that is required of me. The responsibilities of the
position I feel, but accept them without fear. The office has come to me
unsought; I commence its duties untrammeled. I bring to it a conscious
desire and determination to fill it to the best of my ability to the
satisfaction of the people.
On all leading questions agitating the public mind I will always express
my views to Congress and urge them according to my judgment, and when
I think it advisable will exercise the constitutional privilege of
interposing a veto to defeat measures which I oppose; but all laws will
be faithfully executed, whether they meet my approval or not.
I shall on all subjects have a policy to recommend, but none to enforce
against the will of the people. Laws are to govern all alike--those
opposed as well as those who favor them. I know no method to secure the
repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent
execution.
The country having just emerged from a great rebellion, many
questions will come before it for settlement in the next four years
which preceding Administrations have never had to deal with. In meeting
these it is desirable that they should be approached calmly, without
prejudice, hate, or sectional pride, remembering that the greatest good
to the greatest number is the object to be attained.
This requires security of person, property, and free religious and
political opinion in every part of our common country, without regard
to local prejudice. All laws to secure these ends will receive my best
efforts for their enforcement.
A great debt has been contracted in securing to us and our posterity
the Union. The payment of this, principal and interest, as well as the
return to a specie basis as soon as it can be accomplished without
material detriment to the debtor class or to the country at large,
must be provided for. To protect the national honor, every dollar
of Government indebtedness should be paid in gold, unless otherwise
expressly stipulated in the contract. Let it be understood that no
repudiator of one farthing of our public debt will be trusted in public
place, and it will go far toward strengthening a credit which ought to
be the best in the world, and will ultimately enable us to replace the
debt with bonds bearing less interest than we now pay. To this should be
added a faithful collection of the revenue, a strict accountability to
the Treasury for every dollar collected, and the greatest practicable
retrenchment in expenditure in every department of Government.
When we compare the paying capacity of the country now, with the ten
States in poverty from the effects of war, but soon to emerge, I trust,
into greater prosperity than ever before, with its paying capacity
twenty-five years ago, and calculate what it probably will be
twenty-five years hence, who can doubt the feasibility of paying every
dollar then with more ease than we now pay for useless luxuries? Why,
it looks as though Providence had bestowed upon us a strong box in the
precious metals locked up in the sterile mountains of the far West, and
which we are now forging the key to unlock, to meet the very contingency
that is now upon us.
Ultimately it may be necessary to insure the facilities to reach these
riches, and it may be necessary also that the General Government should
give its aid to secure this access; but that should only be when a
dollar of obligation to pay secures precisely the same sort of dollar
to use now, and hot before. Whilst the question of specie payments is
in abeyance the prudent business man is careful about contracting debts
payable in the distant future. The nation should follow the same rule.
A prostrate commerce is to be rebuilt and all industries encouraged.
The young men of the country--those who from their age must be its
rulers twenty-five years hence--have a peculiar interest in maintaining
the national honor. A moment's reflection as to what will be our
commanding influence among the nations of the earth in their day, if
they are only true to themselves, should inspire them with national
pride. All divisions--geographical, political, and religious--can join
in this common sentiment. How the public debt is to be paid or specie
payments resumed is not so important as that a plan should be adopted
and acquiesced in. A united determination to do is worth more than
divided counsels upon the method of doing. Legislation upon this subject
may not be necessary now, nor even advisable, but it will be when the
civil law is more fully restored in all parts of the country and trade
resumes its wonted channels.
It will be my endeavor to execute all laws in good faith, to collect
all revenues assessed, and to have them properly accounted for and
economically disbursed. I will to the best of my ability appoint to
office those only who will carry out this design.
In regard to foreign policy, I would deal with nations as equitable law
requires individuals to deal with each other, and I would protect the
law-abiding citizen, whether of native or foreign birth, wherever his
rights are jeopardized or the flag of our country floats. I would
respect the rights of all nations, demanding equal respect for our own.
If others depart from this rule in their dealings with us, we may be
compelled to follow their precedent.
The proper treatment of the original occupants of this land--the
Indians--is one deserving of careful study. I will favor any course
toward them which tends to their civilization and ultimate citizenship.
The question of suffrage is one which is likely to agitate the public
so long as a portion of the citizens of the nation are excluded from
its privileges in any State. It seems to me very desirable that this
question should be settled now, and I entertain the hope and express
the desire that it may be by the ratification of the fifteenth article
of amendment to the Constitution.
In conclusion I ask patient forbearance one toward another throughout
the land, and a determined effort on the part of every citizen to do his
share toward cementing a happy union; and I ask the prayers of the
nation to Almighty God in behalf of this consummation.
MARCH 4, 1869.
[NOTE.--The Forty-first Congress, first session, met March 4, 1869,
in accordance with the act of January 22, 1867.]
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
WASHINGTON, D.C., _March 6, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
Since the nomination and confirmation of Alexander T. Stewart to the
office of Secretary of the Treasury I find that by the eighth section
of the act of Congress approved September 2, 1789, it is provided as
follows, to wit:
_And be it further enacted_, That no person appointed to any office
instituted by this act shall, directly or indirectly, be concerned or
interested in carrying on the business of trade or commerce; or be
owner, in whole or in part, of any sea vessel; or purchase, by himself
or another in trust for him, any public lands or other public property;
or be concerned in the purchase or disposal of any public securities of
any State or of the United States; or take or apply to his own use any
emolument or gain for negotiating or transacting any business in the
said Department other than what shall be allowed by law; and if any
person shall offend against any of the prohibitions of this act he shall
be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor and forfeit to the United States
the penalty of $3,000, and shall upon conviction be removed from office
and forever thereafter incapable of holding any office under the United
States: _Provided_, That if any other person than a public prosecutor
shall give information of any such offense, upon which a prosecution and
conviction shall be had, one-half the aforesaid penalty of $3,000, when
recovered, shall be for the use of the person giving such information.
In view of these provisions and the fact that Mr. Stewart has been
unanimously confirmed by the Senate, I would ask that he be exempted by
joint resolution of the two Houses of Congress from the operations of
the same.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _March 9, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit to the Senate, in compliance with its resolution of the 5th
instant, a report from the Secretary of State, communicating a list of
the public and private acts and resolutions passed at the third session
of the Fortieth Congress which have become laws, either by approval or
otherwise.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _March 9, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I have the honor to request to be permitted to withdraw from the Senate
of the United States my message of the 6th instant, requesting the
passage of a joint resolution of the two Houses of Congress to relieve
the Secretary of the Treasury from the disabilities imposed by section 8
of the act of Congress approved September 2, 1789.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _March 15, 1869_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_
I invite the attention of Congress to the accompanying communication[1]
of this date, which I have received from the Secretary of the Interior.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 1: Report of the Government directors of the Union Pacific
Railroad relative to an injunction issued by Judge Barnard, of the
supreme court of the city of New York, restraining and prohibiting an
election of officers or directors on the day directed by the law of
December 20, 1867.]
WASHINGTON, _March 16, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 11th instant,
asking if the first installment due from the Government of Venezuela
pursuant to the convention of April 25, 1866, has been paid, I transmit
a report from the Secretary of State, to whom the resolution was
referred.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _March 24, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the
1st instant, a report from the Secretary of State, together with
accompanying papers.[2]
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 2: Correspondence with the United states minister and the
secretary of legation at Madrid.]
WASHINGTON, _March 29, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In compliance with the request contained in the resolution of the Senate
of the 17th instant, in regard to certain correspondence[3] between
James Buchanan, then President of the United States, and Lewis Cass,
Secretary of State, I transmit a report from the Department of State,
which is accompanied by a copy of the correspondence referred to.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 3: Regarding the policy to be pursued to avert civil war, then
threatening, which correspondence led to the resignation of Mr. Cass.]
WASHINGTON, _March 31, 1869_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
30th of January last, calling for the papers relative to the claim of
Owen Thorn and others against the British Government, I transmit a
report from the Secretary of State, together with copies of the papers
referred to in said resolution.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _April 3, 1869_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
28th of January last, requesting information concerning the destruction
during the late war by rebel vessels of certain merchant vessels of
the United States, and concerning the damages and claims resulting
therefrom, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the
tabular statement which accompanied it.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, D.C., _April 5, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit herewith, for the constitutional action of the Senate,
certain articles of agreement made and concluded at the Kaw Indian
Agency, Kans., on the 13th ultimo, between the commissioners on the part
of the United States and certain chiefs or headmen of the Kansas or Kaw
tribe of Indians on behalf of said tribe, together with a letter from
the Secretary of the Interior, to which attention is invited.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _April 7, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 27th of May last, in
relation to the subject of claims against Great Britain, I transmit a
report from the Secretary of State and the papers which accompanied it.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, D.C., _April 7, 1869_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_
While I am aware that the time in which Congress proposes now to remain
in session is very brief, and that it is its desire, as far as is
consistent with the public interest, to avoid entering upon the general
business of legislation, there is one subject which concerns so deeply
the welfare of the country that I deem it my duty to bring it before
you.
I have no doubt that you will concur with me in the opinion that
it is desirable to restore the States which were engaged in the
rebellion to their proper relations to the Government and the country
at as early a period as the people of those States shall be found
willing to become peaceful and orderly communities and to adopt and
maintain such constitutions and laws as will effectually secure the
civil and political rights of all persons within their borders.
The authority of the United States, which has been vindicated and
established by its military power, must undoubtedly be asserted for the
absolute protection of all its citizens in the full enjoyment of the
freedom and security which is the object of a republican government; but
whenever the people of a rebellious State are ready to enter in good
faith upon the accomplishment of this object, in entire conformity with
the constitutional authority of Congress, it is certainly desirable that
all causes of irritation should be removed as promptly as possible, that
a more perfect union may be established and the country be restored to
peace and prosperity.
The convention of the people of Virginia which met in Richmond on
Tuesday, December 3, 1867, framed a constitution for that State, which
was adopted by the convention on the 17th of April, 1868, and I desire
respectfully to call the attention of Congress to the propriety of
providing by law for the holding of an election in that State at some
time during the months of May and June next, under the direction of
the military commander of that district, at which the question of the
adoption of that constitution shall be submitted to the citizens of
the State; and if this should seem desirable, I would recommend that a
separate vote be taken upon such parts as may be thought expedient, and
that at the same time and under the same authority there shall be an
election for the officers provided under such constitution, and that
the constitution, or such parts thereof as shall have been adopted by
the people, be submitted to Congress on the first Monday of December
next for its consideration, so that if the same is then approved the
necessary steps will have been taken for the restoration of the State
of Virginia to its proper relations to the Union. I am led to make this
recommendation from the confident hope and belief that the people of
that State are now ready to cooperate with the National Government in
bringing it again into such relations to the Union as it ought as soon
as possible to establish and maintain, and to give to all its people
those equal rights under the law which were asserted in the Declaration
of Independence in the words of one of the most illustrious of its sons.
I desire also to ask the consideration of Congress to the question
whether there is not just ground for believing that the constitution
framed by a convention of the people of Mississippi for that State, and
once rejected, might not be again submitted to the people of that State
in like manner, and with the probability of the same result.
U.S. GRANT.
PROCLAMATION.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas objects of interest to the United States require that the Senate
should be convened at 12 o'clock on the 12th day of April, 1869, to
receive and act upon such communications as may be made to it on the
part of the Executive:
Now, therefore, I, U.S. Grant, President of the United States, have
considered it to be my duty to issue this my proclamation, declaring
that an extraordinary occasion requires the Senate of the United States
to convene for the transaction of business at the Capitol, in the city
of Washington, on the 12th day of April, 1869, at 12 o'clock noon on
that day, of which all who shall at that time be entitled to act as
members of that body are hereby required to take notice.
Given under my hand and the seal of the United States, at Washington,
the 8th day of April, A.D. 1869, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the ninety-third.
[SEAL.]
U.S. GRANT.
By the President:
HAMILTON FISH,
_Secretary of State_.
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
WASHINGTON, _April 16, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit to the Senate, for consideration with a view to ratification,
a convention between the United States and the Emperor of the French,
signed this day by the plenipotentiaries of the parties, for the mutual
protection of trade-marks of their respective citizens and subjects.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _April 21, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution adopted in
executive session on the 16th of February last, requesting copy of the
official correspondence of Mr. Buchanan during his residence at St.
Petersburg as minister of the United States, a report from the Secretary
of State, with the accompanying papers.
U.S. GRANT.
PROCLAMATIONS.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
In pursuance of the provisions of the act of Congress approved April
10, 1869, I hereby designate the 6th day of July, 1869, as the time
for submitting the constitution passed by the convention which met in
Richmond, Va., on Tuesday, the 3d day of December, 1867, to the voters
of said State registered at the date of such submission, viz, July 6,
1869, for ratification or rejection.
And I submit to a separate vote the fourth clause of section I of
article 3 of said constitution, which is in the following words:
Every person who has been a Senator or Representative in Congress, or
elector of President or Vice-President, or who held any office, civil
or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having
previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of
the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an
executive or judicial officer of any State, shall have engaged in
insurrection or rebellion against the same or given aid or comfort to
the enemies thereof. This clause shall include the following officers:
Governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, auditor of public
accounts, second auditor, register of the land office, State treasurer,
attorney-general, sheriffs, sergeant of a city or town, commissioner
of the revenue, county surveyors, constables, overseers of the poor,
commissioner of the board of public works, judges of the supreme court,
judges of the circuit court, judges of the court of hustings, justices
of the county courts, mayor, recorder, alderman, councilmen of a city
or town, coroners, escheators, inspectors of tobacco, flour, etc.,
clerks of the supreme, district, circuit, and county courts and of the
court of hustings, and attorneys for the Commonwealth: _Provided_,
That the legislature may, by a vote of three-fifths of both houses,
remove the disabilities incurred by this clause from any person
included therein, by a separate vote in each case.
And I also submit to a separate vote the seventh section of article 3 of
the said constitution, which is in the words following:
In addition to the foregoing oath of office, the governor,
lieutenant-governor, members of the general assembly, secretary of
state, auditor of public accounts, State treasurer, attorney-general,
and all persons elected to any convention to frame a constitution for
this State or to amend or revise this constitution in any manner, and
mayor and council of any city or town, shall, before they enter on the
duties of their respective offices, take and subscribe the following
oath or affirmation: _Provided_, The disabilities therein contained may
be individually removed by a three-fifths vote of the general assembly:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I have never voluntarily borne
arms against the United States since I have been a citizen thereof;
that I have voluntarily given no aid, countenance, counsel, or
encouragement to persons engaged in armed hostility thereto; that I
have never sought nor accepted nor attempted to exercise the functions
of any office whatever under any authority or pretended authority in
hostility to the United States; that I have not yielded a voluntary
support to any pretended government, authority, power, or constitution
within the United States hostile or inimical thereto. And I do further
swear (or affirm) that, to the best of my knowledge and ability, I
will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against
all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and
allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without
any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and
faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to
enter. So help me God."
The above oath shall also be taken by all the city and county officers
before entering upon their duties, and by all other State officers not
included in the above provision. I direct the vote to be taken upon each
of the above-cited provisions alone, and upon the other portions of the
said constitution in the following manner, viz:
Each voter favoring the ratification of the constitution (excluding the
provisions above quoted) as framed by the convention of December 3,
1867, shall express his judgment by voting for the constitution.
Each voter favoring the rejection of the constitution (excluding the
provisions above quoted) shall express his judgment by voting against
the constitution.
Each voter will be allowed to cast a separate ballot for or against
either or both of the provisions above quoted.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 14th day of May, A.D. 1869, and of
the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-third.
U.S. GRANT.
By the President:
HAMILTON FISH,
_Secretary of State_.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas the act of Congress approved June 25, 1868, constituted, on and
after that date, eight hours a day's work for all laborers, workmen, and
mechanics employed by or on behalf of the Government of the United
States, and repealed all acts and parts of acts inconsistent therewith:
Now, therefore, I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States, do
hereby direct that from and after this date no reduction shall be made
in the wages paid by the Government by the day to such laborers,
workmen, and mechanics on account of such reduction of the hours of
labor.
In testimony whereof I have hereto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 19th day of May, A.D. 1869, and of
the Independence of the United States the ninety-third.
U.S. GRANT.
By the President:
HAMILTON FISH,
_Secretary of State_.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas satisfactory evidence has been received by me from His
Majesty the Emperor of France, through the Count Faverney, his chargé
d'affaires, that on and after this date the discriminating duties
heretofore levied in French ports upon merchandise imported from the
countries of its origin in vessels of the United States are to be
discontinued and abolished:
Now, therefore, I, U.S. Grant, President of the United States of
America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by an act of Congress
of the 7th day of January, 1824, and by an act in addition thereto of
the 24th day of May, 1828, do hereby declare and proclaim that on and
after this date, so long as merchandise imported from the countries of
its origin into French ports in vessels belonging to citizens of the
United States is admitted into French ports on the terms aforesaid, the
discriminating duties heretofore levied upon merchandise imported from
the countries of its origin into ports of the United States in French
vessels shall be, and are hereby, discontinued and abolished.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 12th day of June, A.D. 1869, and of
the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-third.
U.S. GRANT.
By the President:
HAMILTON FISH,
_Secretary of State_.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
In pursuance of the provisions of the act of Congress approved April
10, 1869, I hereby designate Tuesday, the 30th day of November, 1869,
as the time for submitting the constitution adopted on the 15th day of
May, 1868, by the convention which met in Jackson, Miss., to the voters
of said State registered at the date of such submission, viz, November
30, 1869.
And I submit to a separate vote that part of section 3 of Article VII of
said constitution which is in the following words:
That I am not disfranchised in any of the provisions of the acts known
as the reconstruction acts of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congress,
and that I admit the political and civil equality of all men. So help me
God: _Provided_, If Congress shall at any time remove the disabilities
of any person disfranchised in said reconstruction acts of the said
Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congress (and the legislature of this State
shall concur therein), then so much of this oath, and so much only, as
refers to the said reconstruction acts shall not be required of such
person so pardoned to entitle him to be registered.
And I further submit to a separate vote section 5 of the same article
of said constitution, which is in the following words:
No person shall be eligible to any office of profit or trust, civil or
military, in this State who, as a member of the legislature, voted for
the call of the convention that passed the ordinance of secession, or
who, as a delegate to any convention, voted for or signed any ordinance
of secession, or who gave voluntary aid, countenance, counsel, or
encouragement to persons engaged in armed hostility to the United
States, or who accepted or attempted to exercise the functions of any
office, civil or military, under any authority or pretended government,
authority, power, or constitution within the United States hostile or
inimical thereto, except all persons who aided reconstruction by voting
for this convention or who have continuously advocated the assembling
of this convention and shall continuously and in good faith advocate
the acts of the same; but the legislature may remove such disability:
_Provided_, That nothing in this section, except voting for or signing
the ordinance of secession, shall be so construed as to exclude from
office the private soldier of the late so-called Confederate States
army.
And I further submit to a separate vote section 5 of Article XII of the
said constitution, which is in the following words:
The credit of the State shall not be pledged or loaned in aid of any
person, association, or corporation; nor shall the State hereafter
become a stockholder in any corporation or association.
And I further submit to a separate vote part of the oath of office
prescribed in section 26 of Article XII of the said constitution, which
is in the following words:
That I have never, as a member of any convention, voted for or signed
any ordinance of secession; that I have never, as a member of any State
legislature, voted for the call of any convention that passed any such
ordinance.
The above oath shall also be taken by all the city and county officers
before entering upon their duties, and by all other State officials not
included in the above provision. I direct the vote to be taken upon each
of the above-cited provisions alone, and upon the other portions of the
said constitution in the following manner, viz:
Each voter favoring the ratification of the constitution (excluding the
provisions above quoted), as adopted by the convention of May 15, 1868,
shall express his judgment by voting for the constitution.
Each voter favoring the rejection of the constitution (excluding the
provisions above quoted) shall express his judgment by voting against
the constitution.
Each voter will be allowed to cast a separate ballot for or against
either or both of the provisions above quoted.
It is understood that sections 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,
and 15 of Article XIII, under the head of "Ordinance," are considered
as forming no part of the said constitution.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 13th day of July, A.D. 1869, and of
the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-fourth.
U.S. GRANT.
By the President:
HAMILTON FISH,
_Secretary of State_.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
In pursuance of the provisions of the act of Congress approved April 10,
1869, I hereby designate Tuesday, the 30th day of November, 1869, as the
time for submitting the constitution adopted by the convention which met
in Austin, Tex., on the 15th day of June, 1868, to the voters of said
State registered at the date of such submission, viz:
I direct the vote to be taken upon the said constitution in the
following manner, viz:
Each voter favoring the ratification of the constitution as adopted by
the convention of the 15th of June, 1868, shall express his judgment by
voting for the constitution.
Each voter favoring the rejection of the constitution shall express his
judgment by voting against the constitution.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 15th day of July, A.D. 1869, and of
the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-fourth.
U.S. GRANT.
By the President:
HAMILTON FISH,
_Secretary of State_.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
The year which is drawing to a close has been free from pestilence;
health has prevailed throughout the land; abundant crops reward the
labors of the husbandman; commerce and manufactures have successfully
prosecuted their peaceful paths; the mines and forests have yielded
liberally; the nation has increased in wealth and in strength; peace has
prevailed, and its blessings have advanced every interest of the people
in every part of the Union; harmony and fraternal intercourse restored
are obliterating the marks of past conflict and estrangement; burdens
have been lightened; means have been increased; civil and religious
liberty are secured to every inhabitant of the land, whose soil is trod
by none but freemen.
It becomes a people thus favored to make acknowledgment to the Supreme
Author from whom such blessings flow of their gratitude and their
dependence, to render praise and thanksgiving for the same, and devoutly
to implore a continuance of God's mercies.
Therefore I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States, do
recommend that Thursday, the 18th day of November next, be observed as
a day of thanksgiving and of praise and of prayer to Almighty God, the
creator and the ruler of the universe; and I do further recommend to
all the people of the United States to assemble on that day in their
accustomed places of public worship and to unite in the homage and
praise due to the bountiful Father of All Mercies and in fervent prayer
for the continuance of the manifold blessings he has vouchsafed to us
as a people.
[SEAL.]
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed, this 5th day of October, A.D. 1869, and
of the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-fourth.
U.S. GRANT.
By the President:
HAMILTON FISH,
_Secretary of State_.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas by the proclamation of the President of the United States of the
12th day of June last the levying of discriminating duties on
merchandise imported into the United States in French vessels from the
countries of its origin was discontinued; and
Whereas satisfactory information has since been received by me that the
levying of such duties on all merchandise imported into France in
vessels of the United States, whether from the countries of its origin
or from other countries, has been discontinued:
Now, therefore, I, U.S. Grant, President of the United States of
America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by an act of Congress
of the 7th day of January, 1824, and by an act in addition thereto of
the 24th day of May, 1828, do hereby declare and proclaim that on and
after this date, so long as merchandise imported into France in vessels
of the United States, whether from the countries of its origin or from
other countries, shall be admitted into the ports of France on the terms
aforesaid, the discriminating duties heretofore levied upon merchandise
imported into the United States in French vessels, either from the
countries of its origin or from any other country, shall be, and are,
discontinued and abolished.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 20th day of November, A.D. 1869,
and of the Independence of the United States of America the
ninety-fourth.
U.S. GRANT.
By the President:
HAMILTON FISH,
_Secretary of State_.
EXECUTIVE ORDERS.
GENERAL ORDERS, No. 10.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
_Washington, March 5, 1869_.
The President of the United States directs that the following orders be
carried into execution as soon as practicable:
1. The Department of the South will be commanded by Brigadier and Brevet
Major General A.H. Terry.
2. Major-General G.G. Meade is assigned to command the Military Division
of the Atlantic, and will transfer his headquarters to Philadelphia,
Pa. He will turn over his present command temporarily to Brevet
Major-General T.H. Ruger, colonel Thirty-third Infantry, who is assigned
to duty according to his brevet of major-general while in the exercise
of this command.
3. Major-General P.H. Sheridan is assigned to command the Department of
Louisiana, and will turn over the command of the Department of the
Missouri temporarily to the next senior officer.
4. Major-General W.S. Hancock is assigned to command the Department of
Dakota.
5. Brigadier and Brevet Major General E.R.S. Canby is assigned to
command the First Military District, and will proceed to his post as
soon as relieved by Brevet Major-General Reynolds.
6. Brevet Major-General A.C. Gillem, colonel Twenty-fourth Infantry,
will turn over the command of the Fourth Military District to the next
senior officer and join his regiment.
7. Brevet Major-General J.J. Reynolds, colonel Twenty-sixth Infantry, is
assigned to command the Fifth Military District, according to his brevet
of major-general.
8. Brevet Major-General W.H. Emory, colonel Fifth Cavalry, is assigned
to command the Department of Washington, according to his brevet of
major-general.
By command of the General of the Army:
E.D. TOWNSEND,
_Assistant Adjutant-General_.
GENERAL ORDERS, No. 11.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE,
_Washington, March 8, 1869_.
The following orders of the President of the United States are published
for the information and government of all concerned:
WAR DEPARTMENT,
_Washington City, March 5, 1869_.
By direction of the President, General William T. Sherman will assume
command of the Army of the United States.
The chiefs of staff corps, departments, and bureaus will report to and
act under the immediate orders of the General Commanding the Army.
All official business which by law or regulations requires the action of
the President or Secretary of War will be submitted by the General of
the Army to the Secretary of War, and in general all orders from the
President or Secretary of War to any portion of the Army, line or staff,
will be transmitted through the General of the Army.
J.M. SCHOFIELD, _Secretary of War_.
By command of the General of the Army:
E.D. TOWNSEND,
_Assistant Adjutant-General_.
SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 55.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
_Washington, March 9, 1869_.
* * * * *
6. By direction of the President, Brevet Major-General Adelbert Ames,
lieutenant-colonel Twenty-fourth United States Infantry, is hereby
assigned to command the Fourth Military District, according to his
brevet rank.
* * * * *
By command of General Sherman:
E.D. TOWNSEND,
_Assistant Adjutant-General_.
GENERAL ORDERS, No. 18.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
_Washington, March 16, 1869_.
By direction of the President of the United States, the following
changes are made in military divisions and department commands:
I. Lieutenant-General P.H. Sheridan is assigned to command the Military
Division of the Missouri.
II. Major-General H.W. Halleck is assigned to the command of the
Military Division of the South, to be composed of the Departments of
the South and Louisiana, of the Fourth Military District, and of the
States composing the present Department of the Cumberland; headquarters,
Louisville, Ky. Major-General Halleck will proceed to his new command as
soon as relieved by Major-General Thomas.
III. Major-General G.H. Thomas is assigned to command the Military
Division of the Pacific.
IV. Major-General J.M. Schofield is assigned to command the Department
of the Missouri. The State of Illinois and post of Fort Smith, Ark., are
transferred to this department.
V. Brigadier and Brevet Major General O.O. Howard is assigned to command
the Department of Louisiana. Until his arrival the senior officer,
Brevet Major-General J.A. Mower, will command, according to his brevet
of major-general.
VI. The Department of Washington will be discontinued and merged in the
Department of the East. The records will be sent to the Adjutant-General
of the Army.
VII. The First Military District will be added to the Military Division
of the Atlantic.
VIII. As soon as Major-General Thomas is ready to relinquish command of
the Department of the Cumberland, the department will be discontinued,
and the States composing it will be added to other departments, to be
hereafter designated. The records will be forwarded to the
Adjutant-General of the Army.
By command of General Sherman:
E.D. TOWNSEND,
_Assistant Adjutant-General_.
WAR DEPARTMENT, _Washington City, March 26, 1869_.
By direction of the President, the order of the Secretary of War dated
War Department, March 5, 1869, and published in General Orders, No. 11,
Headquarters of the Army, Adjutant-General's Office, dated March 8,
1869, except so much as directs General W.T. Sherman to "assume command
of the Army of the United States," is hereby rescinded.
All official business which by law or regulations requires the action of
the President or Secretary of War will be submitted by the chiefs of
staff corps, departments, and bureaus to the Secretary of War.
All orders and instructions relating to military operations issued by
the President or Secretary of War will be issued through the General of
the Army.
JNO. A. RAWLINS,
_Secretary of War_.
SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 75.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
_Washington, March 31, 1869_.
* * * * *
16. By direction of the President of the United States, Brevet
Major-General A.S. Webb, United States Army, is assigned to command the
First Military District, according to his brevet of major-general, until
the arrival of Brevet Major-General Canby to relieve him. He will
accordingly repair to Richmond, Va., without delay.
17. By direction of the President, Brevet Major-General George Stoneman,
colonel Twenty-first United States Infantry, is hereby relieved from the
temporary command of the First Military District, and will accompany his
regiment to the Military Division of the Pacific.
* * * * * *
By command of General Sherman:
E.D. TOWNSEND,
_Assistant Adjutant-General_.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., June 3, 1869_.
A commission of citizens having been appointed under the authority of
law to cooperate with the administrative departments in the management
of Indian affairs, consisting of William Welsh, of Philadelphia; John V.
Farwell, of Chicago; George H. Stuart, of Philadelphia; Robert Campbell,
St. Louis; W.E. Dodge, New York; E.S. Tobey, Boston; Felix R. Brunot,
Pittsburg; Nathan Bishop, New York, and Henry S. Lane, of Indiana, the
following regulations will till further directions control the action of
said commission and of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in matters coming
under their joint supervision:
1. The commission will make its own organization and employ its own
clerical assistants, keeping its "necessary expenses of transportation,
subsistence, and clerk hire when actually engaged in said service"
within the amount appropriated therefor by Congress.
2. The commission shall be furnished with full opportunity to inspect
the records of the Indian Office and to obtain full information as to
the conduct of all parts of the affairs thereof.
3. They shall have full power to inspect, in person or by subcommittee,
the various Indian superintendencies and agencies in the Indian country,
to be present at payment of annuities, at consultations or councils with
the Indians, and when on the ground to advise superintendents and agents
in the performance of their duties.
4. They are authorized to be present, in person or by subcommittee, at
purchases of goods for Indian purposes, and inspect said purchases,
advising the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in regard thereto.
5. Whenever they shall deem it necessary or advisable that instructions
of superintendents or agents be changed or modified, they will
communicate such advice through the office of Commissioner of Indian
Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior, and in like manner their
advice as to changes in modes of purchasing goods or conducting the
affairs of the Indian Bureau proper. Complaints against superintendents
or agents or other officers will in the same manner be forwarded to the
Indian Bureau or Department of the Interior for action.
6. The commission will at their board meetings determine upon the
recommendations to be made as to the plans of civilizing or dealing
with the Indians, and submit the same for action in the manner above
indicated, and all plans involving the expenditure of public money will
be acted upon by the Executive or the Secretary of the Interior before
expenditure is made under the same.
7. The usual modes of accounting with the Treasury can not be changed,
and all expenditures, therefore, must be subject to the approvals now
required by law and the regulations of the Treasury Department, and all
vouchers must conform to the same laws and requirements and pass through
the ordinary channels.
8. All the officers of the Government connected with the Indian service
are enjoined to afford every facility and opportunity to said commission
and their subcommittees in the performance of their duties, and to give
the most respectful heed to their advice within the limits of such
officers' positive instructions from their superiors; to allow such
commissioners full access to their records and accounts, and to
cooperate with them in the most earnest manner to the extent of their
proper powers in the general work of civilizing the Indians, protecting
them in their legal rights, and stimulating them to become industrious
citizens in permanent homes, instead of following a roving and savage
life.
9. The commission will keep such records or minutes of their proceedings
as may be necessary to afford evidence of their action, and will provide
for the manner in which their communications with and advice to the
Government shall be made and authenticated.
U.S. GRANT.
[From the Daily Morning Chronicle, Washington, September 8, 1869.]
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, _Washington, September 7, 1869_. [4]
It is my melancholy duty to inform you that the Hon. John A. Rawlins,
Secretary of War, departed this life at twelve minutes past 4 o'clock
on yesterday afternoon. In consequence of this afflicting event the
President directs that the Executive Departments of the Government
will be careful to manifest every observance of honor which custom has
established as appropriate to the memory of one so eminent as a public
functionary and so distinguished as a citizen.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
HAMILTON FISH.
[Footnote 4: Addressed to the heads of the Executive Departments.]
[From the Daily Morning Chronicle, Washington, September 8, 1869.]
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, _Washington, September 7, 1869_.
SIR:[5] I have the honor to inform you that the President directs me to
communicate to you his order that in honor of the memory of the Hon.
John A. Rawlins, late Secretary of War, who died yesterday at twelve
minutes past 4 o'clock p.m., the Executive Departments shall be draped
in mourning for a period of thirty days, and that they be closed from
the morning of the 8th instant until after the obsequies of the deceased
shall have been solemnized.
I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,
HAMILTON FISH.
[Footnote 5: Addressed to the heads of the Executive Departments.]
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, _Washington, September 7, 1869_.
The remains of the Hon. John A. Rawlins, late Secretary of War, will be
interred with military honors, under the direction of the General of the
Army, on Thursday, the 9th instant, at 10 o'clock a.m. The following
persons will officiate as pallbearers on the occasion:
Brevet Major-General Edward D. Townsend, Adjutant-General; Brevet
Major-General Randolph B. Marcy, Inspect or-General; Brevet
Major-General Joseph Holt, Judge-Advocate-General; Brevet Major-General
Montgomery C. Meigs, Quartermaster-General; Brevet Major-General Amos B.
Eaton, Commissary-General; Brevet Major-General Joseph K. Barnes,
Surgeon-General; Brevet Major-General B.W. Brice, Paymaster-General;
Brevet Major-General A.A. Humphreys, Chief of Engineers; Brevet
Major-General Alexander B. Dyer, Chief of Ordnance; Brevet
Brigadier-General Albert J. Myer, Chief Signal Officer; Brevet
Major-General O.O. Howard; Brevet Major-General John E. Smith; Commodore
Melancton Smith, Chief Bureau Equipment; Brigadier-General Jacob Zeilin,
Marine Corps; Brigadier-General Giles A. Smith, Second Assistant
Postmaster-General; Hon. Sayles J. Bowen, mayor of Washington.
On the day of the funeral the customary number of guns will be fired
from all arsenals, forts, and navy-yards in the United States and from
the Military and Naval Academies. Flags will be kept at half-mast,
custom-houses closed, and all public work suspended during the day.
The General of the Army and heads of the several Executive Departments
will issue the orders necessary for carrying these directions into
effect.
By order of the President:
HAMILTON FISH, _Secretary of State_.
GENERAL ORDERS, No. 69.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
_Washington, October 9, 1869_.
I. The following order of the President has been received from the War
Department:
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, October 8, 1869_.
The painful duty devolves upon the President of announcing to the people
of the United States the death of one of his honored predecessors,
Franklin Pierce, which occurred at Concord early this morning.
Eminent in the public councils and universally beloved in private life,
his death will be mourned with a sorrow befitting the loss which his
country sustains in his decease.
As a mark of respect to his memory, it is ordered that the Executive
Mansion and the several Departments at Washington be draped in mourning,
and all business suspended on the day of the funeral.
It is further ordered that the War and Navy Departments cause suitable
military and naval honors to be paid on the occasion to the memory of
this illustrious citizen who has passed from us.
U.S. GRANT.
II. In compliance with the instructions of the President and of the
Secretary of War, on the day after the receipt of this order at each
military post the troops will be paraded at 10 o'clock a.m. and the
order read to them, after which all labors for the day will cease.
The national flag will be displayed at half-staff.
At dawn of day thirteen guns will be fired, and afterwards at intervals
of thirty minutes between the rising and setting sun a single gun, and
at the close of the day a national salute of thirty-seven guns.
The officers of the Army will wear crape on the left arm and on their
swords and the colors of the several regiments will be put in mourning
for the period of thirty days.
By command of General Sherman:
J.C. KELTON,
_Assistant Adjutant-General_.
GENERAL ORDER.
NAVY DEPARTMENT, _Washington, October 9, 1869_.
The death of ex-President Franklin Pierce is announced in the following
order of the President of the United States:
[For order see preceding page.]
In pursuance of the foregoing order, it is hereby directed that
twenty-one guns be fired, at intervals of one minute each, at the
several navy-yards and stations, on the day of the funeral where this
order may be received in time, otherwise on the day after its receipt,
commencing at noon, and also on board the flagships in each fleet. The
flags at the several navy-yards, naval stations, marine barracks, and
vessels in commission will be placed at half-mast from sunrise to sunset
on the day when the minute guns are fired.
All officers of the Navy and Marine Corps will wear the usual badge of
mourning attached to the sword hilt and on the left arm for thirty days.
GEO. M. ROBESON, _Secretary of the Navy_.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
EXECUTIVE ORDER.
WASHINGTON, _October 19, 1869_.
All communications in writing intended for the executive department
of this Government and relating to public business of whatever kind,
including suggestions for legislation, claims, contracts, employment,
appointments, and removals from office, and pardons, must be transmitted
through the Department to which the care of the subject-matter of the
communication properly belongs. Communications otherwise transmitted
will not receive attention.
By order of the President:
HAMILTON FISH, _Secretary of State_.
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., December 6, 1869_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
In coming before you for the first time as Chief Magistrate of this
great nation, it is with gratitude to the Giver of All Good for the many
benefits we enjoy. We are blessed with peace at home, and are without
entangling alliances abroad to forebode trouble; with a territory
unsurpassed in fertility, of an area equal to the abundant support of
500,000,000 people, and abounding in every variety of useful mineral in
quantity sufficient to supply the world for generations; with exuberant
crops; with a variety of climate adapted to the production of every
species of earth's riches and suited to the habits, tastes, and
requirements of every living thing; with a population of 40,000,000 free
people, all speaking one language; with facilities for every mortal to
acquire an education; with institutions closing to none the avenues to
fame or any blessing of fortune that may be coveted; with freedom of
the pulpit, the press, and the school; with a revenue flowing into the
National Treasury beyond the requirements of the Government. Happily,
harmony is being rapidly restored within our own borders. Manufactures
hitherto unknown in our country are springing up in all sections,
producing a degree of national independence unequaled by that of any
other power.
These blessings and countless others are intrusted to your care and
mine for safe-keeping for the brief period of our tenure of office.
In a short time we must, each of us, return to the ranks of the people,
who have conferred upon us our honors, and account to them for our
stewardship. I earnestly desire that neither you nor I may be condemned
by a free and enlightened constituency nor by our own consciences.
Emerging from a rebellion of gigantic magnitude, aided, as it was,
by the sympathies and assistance of nations with which we were at
peace, eleven States of the Union were, four years ago, left without
legal State governments. A national debt had been contracted; American
commerce was almost driven from the seas; the industry of one-half of
the country had been taken from the control of the capitalist and placed
where all labor rightfully belongs--in the keeping of the laborer. The
work of restoring State governments loyal to the Union, of protecting
and fostering free labor, and providing means for paying the interest
on the public debt has received ample attention from Congress. Although
your efforts have not met with the success in all particulars that might
have been desired, yet on the whole they have been more successful than
could have been reasonably anticipated.
Seven States which passed ordinances of secession have been fully
restored to their places in the Union. The eighth (Georgia) held an
election at which she ratified her constitution, republican in form,
elected a governor, Members of Congress, a State legislature, and all
other officers required. The governor was duly installed, and the
legislature met and performed all the acts then required of them by the
reconstruction acts of Congress. Subsequently, however, in violation of
the constitution which they had just ratified (as since decided by the
supreme court of the State), they unseated the colored members of the
legislature and admitted to seats some members who are disqualified by
the third clause of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution--an
article which they themselves had contributed to ratify. Under these
circumstances I would submit to you whether it would not be wise,
without delay, to enact a law authorizing the governor of Georgia to
convene the members originally elected to the legislature, requiring
each member to take the oath prescribed by the reconstruction acts, and
none to be admitted who are ineligible under the third clause of the
fourteenth amendment.
The freedmen, under the protection which they have received, are making
rapid progress in learning, and no complaints are heard of lack of
industry on their part where they receive fair remuneration for their
labor. The means provided for paying the interest on the public debt,
with all other expenses of Government, are more than ample. The loss
of our commerce is the only result of the late rebellion which has not
received sufficient attention from you. To this subject I call your
earnest attention. I will not now suggest plans by which this object may
be effected, but will, if necessary, make it the subject of a special
message during the session of Congress.
At the March term Congress by joint resolution authorized the Executive
to order elections in the States of Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas, to
submit to them the constitutions which each had previously, in convention,
framed, and submit the constitutions, either entire or in separate
parts, to be voted upon, at the discretion of the Executive. Under this
authority elections were called. In Virginia the election took place on
the 6th of July, 1869. The governor and lieutenant-governor elected
have been installed. The legislature met and did all required by this
resolution and by all the reconstruction acts of Congress, and abstained
from all doubtful authority. I recommend that her Senators and
Representatives be promptly admitted to their seats, and that the State
be fully restored to its place in the family of States. Elections were
called in Mississippi and Texas, to commence on the 30th of November,
1869, and to last two days in Mississippi and four days in Texas. The
elections have taken place, but the result is not known. It is to be
hoped that the acts of the legislatures of these States, when they meet,
will be such as to receive your approval, and thus close the work of
reconstruction.
Among the evils growing out of the rebellion, and not yet referred to,
is that of an irredeemable currency. It is an evil which I hope will
receive your most earnest attention. It is a duty, and one of the
highest duties, of Government to secure to the citizen a medium of
exchange of fixed, unvarying value. This implies a return to a specie
basis, and no substitute for it can be devised. It should be commenced
now and reached at the earliest practicable moment consistent with a
fair regard to the interests of the debtor class. Immediate resumption,
if practicable, would not be desirable. It would compel the debtor class
to pay, beyond their contracts, the premium on gold at the date of their
purchase, and would bring bankruptcy and ruin to thousands. Fluctuation,
however, in the paper value of the measure of all values (gold) is
detrimental to the interests of trade. It makes the man of business an
involuntary gambler, for in all sales where future payment is to be made
both parties speculate as to what will be the value of the currency
to be paid and received. I earnestly recommend to you, then, such
legislation as will insure a gradual return to specie payments and put
an immediate stop to fluctuations in the value of currency.
The methods to secure the former of these results are as numerous as are
the speculators on political economy. To secure the latter I see but one
way, and that is to authorize the Treasury to redeem its own paper, at
a fixed price, whenever presented, and to withhold from circulation all
currency so redeemed until sold again for gold.
The vast resources of the nation, both developed and undeveloped, ought
to make our credit the best on earth. With a less burden of taxation
than the citizen has endured for six years past, the entire public debt
could be paid in ten years. But it is not desirable that the people
should be taxed to pay it in that time. Year by year the ability to pay
increases in a rapid ratio. But the burden of interest ought to be
reduced as rapidly as can be done without the violation of contract.
The public debt is represented in great part by bonds having from five
to twenty and from ten to forty years to run, bearing interest at the
rate of 6 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively. It is optional with the
Government to pay these bonds at any period after the expiration of the
least time mentioned upon their face. The time has already expired when
a great part of them may be taken up, and is rapidly approaching when
all may be. It is believed that all which are now due may be replaced by
bonds bearing a rate of interest not exceeding 4-1/2 per cent, and as
rapidly as the remainder become due that they may be replaced in the
same way. To accomplish this it may be necessary to authorize the
interest to be paid at either of three or four of the money centers
of Europe, or by any assistant treasurer of the United States, at
the option of the holder of the bond. I suggest this subject for the
consideration of Congress, and also, simultaneously with this, the
propriety of redeeming our currency, as before suggested, at its market
value at the time the law goes into effect, increasing the rate at which
currency shall be bought and sold from day to day or week to week, at
the same rate of interest as Government pays upon its bonds.
The subjects of tariff and internal taxation will necessarily receive
your attention. The revenues of the country are greater than the
requirements, and may with safety be reduced. But as the funding of
the debt in a 4 or a 4-1/2 per cent loan would reduce annual current
expenses largely, thus, after funding, justifying a greater reduction
of taxation than would be now expedient, I suggest postponement of this
question until the next meeting of Congress.
It may be advisable to modify taxation and tariff in instances where
unjust or burdensome discriminations are made by the present laws, but
a general revision of the laws regulating this subject I recommend the
postponement of for the present. I also suggest the renewal of the tax
on incomes, but at a reduced rate, say of 3 per cent, and this tax to
expire in three years.
With the funding of the national debt, as here suggested, I feel safe in
saying that taxes and the revenue from imports may be reduced safely
from sixty to eighty millions per annum at once, and may be still
further reduced from year to year, as the resources of the country are
developed.
The report of the Secretary of the Treasury shows the receipts of the
Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1869, to be $370,943,747,
and the expenditures, including interest, bounties, etc., to be
$321,490,597. The estimates for the ensuing year are more favorable to
the Government, and will no doubt show a much larger decrease of the
public debt.
The receipts in the Treasury beyond expenditures have exceeded
the amount necessary to place to the credit of the sinking fund, as
provided by law. To lock up the surplus in the Treasury and withhold it
from circulation would lead to such a contraction of the currency as to
cripple trade and seriously affect the prosperity of the country. Under
these circumstances the Secretary of the Treasury and myself heartily
concurred in the propriety of using all the surplus currency in the
Treasury in the purchase of Government bonds, thus reducing the
interest-bearing indebtedness of the country, and of submitting to
Congress the question of the disposition to be made of the bonds
so purchased. The bonds now held by the Treasury amount to about
seventy-five millions, including those belonging to the sinking fund.
I recommend that the whole be placed to the credit of the sinking fund.
Your attention is respectfully invited to the recommendations of the
Secretary of the Treasury for the creation of the office of commissioner
of customs revenue; for the increase of salaries to certain classes of
officials; the substitution of increased national-bank circulation to
replace the outstanding 3 per cent certificates; and most especially to
his recommendation for the repeal of laws allowing shares of fines,
penalties, forfeitures, etc., to officers of the Government or to
informers.
The office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue is one of the most
arduous and responsible under the Government. It falls but little, if
any, short of a Cabinet position in its importance and responsibilities.
I would ask for it, therefore, such legislation as in your judgment
will place the office upon a footing of dignity commensurate with its
importance and with the character and qualifications of the class of
men required to fill it properly.
As the United States is the freest of all nations, so, too, its people
sympathize with all people struggling for liberty and self-government;
but while so sympathizing it is due to our honor that we should abstain
from enforcing our views upon unwilling nations and from taking an
interested part, _without invitation_, in the quarrels between different
nations or between governments and their subjects. Our course should
always be in conformity with strict justice and law, international and
local. Such has been the policy of the Administration in dealing with
these questions. For more than a year a valuable province of Spain, and
a near neighbor of ours, in whom all our people can not but feel a deep
interest, has been struggling for independence and freedom. The people
and Government of the United States entertain the same warm feelings
and sympathies for the people of Cuba in their pending struggle that
they manifested throughout the previous struggles between Spain and
her former colonies in behalf of the latter. But the contest has at
no time assumed the conditions which amount to a war in the sense of
international law, or which would show the existence of a _de facto_
political organization of the insurgents sufficient to justify a
recognition of belligerency.
The principle is maintained, however, that this nation is its own judge
when to accord the rights of belligerency, either to a people struggling
to free themselves from a government they believe to be oppressive or to
independent nations at war with each other.
The United States have no disposition to interfere with the existing
relations of Spain to her colonial possessions on this continent. They
believe that in due time Spain and other European powers will find their
interest in terminating those relations and establishing their present
dependencies as independent powers--members of the family of nations.
These dependencies are no longer regarded as subject to transfer from
one European power to another. When the present relation of colonies
ceases, they are to become independent powers, exercising the right of
choice and of self-control in the determination of their future
condition and relations with other powers.
The United States, in order to put a stop to bloodshed in Cuba, and in
the interest of a neighboring people, proposed their good offices to
bring the existing contest to a termination. The offer, not being
accepted by Spain on a basis which we believed could be received by
Cuba, was withdrawn. It is hoped that the good offices of the United
States may yet prove advantageous for the settlement of this unhappy
strife. Meanwhile a number of illegal expeditions against Cuba have been
broken up. It has been the endeavor of the Administration to execute the
neutrality laws in good faith, no matter how unpleasant the task, made
so by the sufferings we have endured from lack of like good faith toward
us by other nations.
On the 26th of March last the United States schooner _Lizzie Major_ was
arrested on the high seas by a Spanish frigate, and two passengers taken
from it and carried as prisoners to Cuba. Representations of these facts
were made to the Spanish Government as soon as official information of
them reached Washington. The two passengers were set at liberty, and the
Spanish Government assured the United States that the captain of the
frigate in making the capture had acted without law, that he had been
reprimanded for the irregularity of his conduct, and that the Spanish
authorities in Cuba would not sanction any act that could violate the
rights or treat with disrespect the sovereignty of this nation.
The question of the seizure of the brig _Mary Lowell_ at one of
the Bahama Islands by Spanish authorities is now the subject of
correspondence between this Government and those of Spain and Great
Britain.
The Captain-General of Cuba about May last issued a proclamation
authorizing search to be made of vessels on the high seas. Immediate
remonstrance was made against this, whereupon the Captain-General issued
a new proclamation limiting the right of search to vessels of the United
States so far as authorized under the treaty of 1795. This proclamation,
however, was immediately withdrawn.
I have always felt that the most intimate relations should be cultivated
between the Republic of the United States and all independent nations on
this continent. It may be well worth considering whether new treaties
between us and them may not be profitably entered into, to secure more
intimate relations--friendly, commercial, and otherwise.
The subject of an interoceanic canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans through the Isthmus of Darien is one in which commerce is greatly
interested. Instructions have been given to our minister to the Republic
of the United States of Colombia to endeavor to obtain authority for a
survey by this Government, in order to determine the practicability of
such an undertaking, and a charter for the right of way to build, by
private enterprise, such a work, if the survey proves it to be
practicable.
In order to comply with the agreement of the United States as to a
mixed commission at Lima for the adjustment of claims, it became
necessary to send a commissioner and secretary to Lima in August last.
No appropriation having been made by Congress for this purpose, it is
now asked that one be made covering the past and future expenses of the
commission.
The good offices of the United States to bring about a peace between
Spain and the South American Republics with which she is at war having
been accepted by Spain, Peru, and Chile, a congress has been invited to
be held in Washington during the present winter.
A grant has been given to Europeans of an exclusive right of transit
over the territory of Nicaragua, to which Costa Rica has given its
assent, which, it is alleged, conflicts with vested rights of citizens
of the United States. The Department of State has now this subject under
consideration.
The minister of Peru having made representations that there was a state
of war between Peru and Spain, and that Spain was constructing, in and
near New York, thirty gunboats, which might be used by Spain in such a
way as to relieve the naval force at Cuba, so as to operate against
Peru, orders were given to prevent their departure. No further steps
having been taken by the representative of the Peruvian Government to
prevent the departure of these vessels, and I not feeling authorized to
detain the property of a nation with which we are at peace on a mere
Executive order, the matter has been referred to the courts to decide.
The conduct of the war between the allies and the Republic of Paraguay
has made the intercourse with that country so difficult that it has been
deemed advisable to withdraw our representative from there.
Toward the close of the last Administration a convention was
signed at London for the settlement of all outstanding claims between
Great Britain and the United States, which failed to receive the
advice and consent of the Senate to its ratification. The time and the
circumstances attending the negotiation of that treaty were unfavorable
to its acceptance by the people of the United States, and its provisions
were wholly inadequate for the settlement of the grave wrongs that had
been sustained by this Government, as well as by its citizens. The
injuries resulting to the United States by reason of the course adopted
by Great Britain during our late civil war--in the increased rates
of insurance; in the diminution of exports and imports, and other
obstructions to domestic industry and production; in its effect upon the
foreign commerce of the country; in the decrease and transfer to Great
Britain of our commercial marine; in the prolongation of the war and the
increased cost (both in treasure and in lives) of its suppression--could
not be adjusted and satisfied as ordinary commercial claims, which
continually arise between commercial nations; and yet the convention
treated them simply as such ordinary claims, from which they differ more
widely in the gravity of their character than in the magnitude of their
amount, great even as is that difference. Not a word was found in the
treaty, and not an inference could be drawn from it, to remove the sense
of the unfriendliness of the course of Great Britain in our struggle for
existence, which had so deeply and universally impressed itself upon the
people of this country.
Believing that a convention thus misconceived in its scope and
inadequate in its provisions would not have produced the hearty, cordial
settlement of pending questions, which alone is consistent with the
relations which I desire to have firmly established between the United
States and Great Britain, I regarded the action of the Senate in
rejecting the treaty to have been wisely taken in the interest of peace
and as a necessary step in the direction of a perfect and cordial
friendship between the two countries. A sensitive people, conscious of
their power, are more at ease under a great wrong wholly unatoned than
under the restraint of a settlement which satisfies neither their ideas
of justice nor their grave sense of the grievance they have sustained.
The rejection of the treaty was followed by a state of public feeling on
both sides which I thought not favorable to an immediate attempt at
renewed negotiations. I accordingly so instructed the minister of the
United States to Great Britain, and found that my views in this regard
were shared by Her Majesty's ministers. I hope that the time may soon
arrive when the two Governments can approach the solution of this
momentous question with an appreciation of what is due to the rights,
dignity, and honor of each, and with the determination not only to
remove the causes of complaint in the past, but to lay the foundation of
a broad principle of public law which will prevent future differences
and tend to firm and continued peace and friendship.
This is now the only grave question which the United States has with any
foreign nation.
The question of renewing a treaty for reciprocal trade between the
United States and the British Provinces on this continent has not been
favorably considered by the Administration. The advantages of such a
treaty would be wholly in favor of the British producer. Except,
possibly, a few engaged in the trade between the two sections, no
citizen of the United States would be benefited by reciprocity. Our
internal taxation would prove a protection to the British producer
almost equal to the protection which our manufacturers now receive from
the tariff. Some arrangement, however, for the regulation of commercial
intercourse between the United States and the Dominion of Canada may be
desirable.
The commission for adjusting the claims of the "Hudsons Bay and Puget
Sound Agricultural Company" upon the United States has terminated
its labors. The award of $650,000 has been made and all rights and
titles of the company on the territory of the United States have been
extinguished. Deeds for the property of the company have been delivered.
An appropriation by Congress to meet this sum is asked.
The commissioners for determining the northwestern land boundary between
the United States and the British possessions under the treaty of 1856
have completed their labors, and the commission has been dissolved.
In conformity with the recommendation of Congress, a proposition was
early made to the British Government to abolish the mixed courts created
under the treaty of April 7, 1862, for the suppression of the slave
trade. The subject is still under negotiation.
It having come to my knowledge that a corporate company, organized under
British laws, proposed to land upon the shores of the United States and
to operate there a submarine cable, under a concession from His Majesty
the Emperor of the French of an exclusive right for twenty years of
telegraphic communication between the shores of France and the United
States, with the very objectionable feature of subjecting all messages
conveyed thereby to the scrutiny and control of the French Government,
I caused the French and British legations at Washington to be made
acquainted with the probable policy of Congress on this subject, as
foreshadowed by the bill which passed the Senate in March last. This
drew from the representatives of the company an agreement to accept as
the basis of their operations the provisions of that bill, or of such
other enactment on the subject as might be passed during the approaching
session of Congress; also, to use their influence to secure from the
French Government a modification of their concession, so as to permit
the landing upon French soil of any cable belonging to any company
incorporated by the authority of the United States or of any State in
the Union, and, on their part, not to oppose the establishment of any
such cable. In consideration of this agreement I directed the withdrawal
of all opposition by the United States authorities to the landing of the
cable and to the working of it until the meeting of Congress. I regret
to say that there has been no modification made in the company's
concession, nor, so far as I can learn, have they attempted to secure
one. Their concession excludes the capital and the citizens of the
United States from competition upon the shores of France. I recommend
legislation to protect the rights of citizens of the United States,
as well as the dignity and sovereignty of the nation, against such
an assumption. I shall also endeavor to secure, by negotiation, an
abandonment of the principle of monopolies in ocean telegraphic cables.
Copies of this correspondence are herewith furnished.
The unsettled political condition of other countries, less fortunate
than our own, sometimes induces their citizens to come to the United
States for the sole purpose of becoming naturalized. Having secured
this, they return to their native country and reside there, without
disclosing their change of allegiance. They accept official positions of
trust or honor, which can only be held by citizens of their native land;
they journey under passports describing them as such citizens; and it
is only when civil discord, after perhaps years of quiet, threatens
their persons or their property, or when their native state drafts them
into its military service, that the fact of their change of allegiance
is made known. They reside permanently away from the United States,
they contribute nothing to its revenues, they avoid the duties of
its citizenship, and they only make themselves known by a claim of
protection. I have directed the diplomatic and consular officers of the
United States to scrutinize carefully all such claims for protection.
The citizen of the United States, whether native or adopted, who
discharges his duty to his country, is entitled to its complete
protection. While I have a voice in the direction of affairs I shall not
consent to imperil this sacred right by conferring it upon fictitious or
fraudulent claimants.
On the accession of the present Administration it was found that the
minister for North Germany had made propositions for the negotiation
of a convention for the protection of emigrant passengers, to which no
response had been given. It was concluded that to be effectual all the
maritime powers engaged in the trade should join in such a measure.
Invitations have been extended to the cabinets of London, Paris,
Florence, Berlin, Brussels, The Hague, Copenhagen, and Stockholm to
empower their representatives at Washington to simultaneously enter
into negotiations and to conclude with the United States conventions
identical in form, making uniform regulations as to the construction of
the parts of vessels to be devoted to the use of emigrant passengers, as
to the quality and quantity of food, as to the medical treatment of the
sick, and as to the rules to be observed during the voyage, in order
to secure ventilation, to promote health, to prevent intrusion, and to
protect the females; and providing for the establishment of tribunals in
the several countries for enforcing such regulations by summary process.
Your attention is respectfully called to the law regulating the tariff
on Russian hemp, and to the question whether to fix the charges on
Russian hemp higher than they are fixed upon manila is not a violation
of our treaty with Russia placing her products upon the same footing
with those of the most favored nations.
Our manufactures are increasing with wonderful rapidity under the
encouragement which they now receive. With the improvements in machinery
already effected, and still increasing, causing machinery to take the
place of skilled labor to a large extent, our imports of many articles
must fall off largely within a very few years. Fortunately, too,
manufactures are not confined to a few localities, as formerly, and it
is to be hoped will become more and more diffused, making the interest
in them equal in all sections. They give employment and support to
hundreds of thousands of people at home, and retain with us the means
which otherwise would be shipped abroad. The extension of railroads in
Europe and the East is bringing into competition with our agricultural
products like products of other countries. Self-interest, if not
self-preservation, therefore dictates caution against disturbing any
industrial interest of the country. It teaches us also the necessity of
looking to other markets for the sale of our surplus. Our neighbors
south of us, and China and Japan, should receive our special attention.
It will be the endeavor of the Administration to cultivate such
relations with all these nations as to entitle us to their confidence
and make it their interest, as well as ours, to establish better
commercial relations.
Through the agency of a more enlightened policy than that heretofore
pursued toward China, largely due to the sagacity and efforts of one of
our own distinguished citizens, the world is about to commence largely
increased relations with that populous and hitherto exclusive nation.
As the United States have been the initiators in this new policy, so
they should be the most earnest in showing their good faith in making it
a success. In this connection I advise such legislation as will forever
preclude the enslavement of the Chinese upon our soil under the name
of coolies, and also prevent American vessels from engaging in the
transportation of coolies to any country tolerating the system. I also
recommend that the mission to China be raised to one of the first class.
On my assuming the responsible duties of Chief Magistrate of the United
States it was with the conviction that three things were essential to
its peace, prosperity, and fullest development. First among these is
strict integrity in fulfilling all our obligations; second, to secure
protection to the person and property of the citizen of the United
States in each and every portion of our common country, wherever he may
choose to move, without reference to original nationality, religion,
color, or politics, demanding of him only obedience to the laws and
proper respect for the rights of others; third, union of all the States,
with equal rights, indestructible by any constitutional means.
To secure the first of these, Congress has taken two essential steps:
First, in declaring by joint resolution that the public debt shall be
paid, principal and interest, in coin; and, second, by providing the
means for paying. Providing the means, however, could not secure the
object desired without a proper administration of the laws for the
collection of the revenues and an economical disbursement of them.
To this subject the Administration has most earnestly addressed
itself, with results, I hope, satisfactory to the country. There has
been no hesitation in changing officials in order to secure an efficient
execution of the laws, sometimes, too, when, in a mere party view,
undesirable political results were likely to follow; nor any hesitation
in sustaining efficient officials against remonstrances wholly
political.
It may be well to mention here the embarrassment possible to arise from
leaving on the statute books the so-called "tenure-of-office acts," and
to earnestly recommend their total repeal. It could not have been the
intention of the framers of the Constitution, when providing that
appointments made by the President should receive the consent of the
Senate, that the latter should have the power to retain in office
persons placed there by Federal appointment against the will of the
President. The law is inconsistent with a faithful and efficient
administration of the Government. What faith can an Executive put in
officials forced upon him, and those, too, whom he has suspended for
reason? How will such officials be likely to serve an Administration
which they know does not trust them?
For the second requisite to our growth and prosperity time and a firm
but humane administration of existing laws (amended from time to time as
they may prove ineffective or prove harsh and unnecessary) are probably
all that are required.
The third can not be attained by special legislation, but must be
regarded as fixed by the Constitution itself and gradually acquiesced in
by force of public opinion.
From the foundation of the Government to the present the management
of the original inhabitants of this continent--the Indians--has been
a subject of embarrassment and expense, and has been attended with
continuous robberies, murders, and wars. From my own experience upon
the frontiers and in Indian countries, I do not hold either legislation
or the conduct of the whites who come most in contact with the Indian
blameless for these hostilities. The past, however, can not be undone,
and the question must be met as we now find it. I have attempted a new
policy toward these wards of the nation (they can not be regarded in any
other light than as wards), with fair results so far as tried, and which
I hope will be attended ultimately with great success. The Society of
Friends is well known as having succeeded in living in peace with the
Indians in the early settlement of Pennsylvania, while their white
neighbors of other sects in other sections were constantly embroiled.
They are also known for their opposition to all strife, violence,
and war, and are generally noted for their strict integrity and fair
dealings. These considerations induced me to give the management of
a few reservations of Indians to them and to throw the burden of the
selection of agents upon the society itself. The result has proven most
satisfactory. It will De found more fully set forth in the report of the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs. For superintendents and Indian agents
not on the reservations, officers of the Army were selected. The reasons
for this are numerous. Where Indian agents are sent, there, or near
there, troops must be sent also. The agent and the commander of troops
are independent of each other, and are subject to orders from different
Departments of the Government. The army officer holds a position for
life; the agent, one at the will of the President. The former is
personally interested in living in harmony with the Indian and in
establishing a permanent peace, to the end that some portion of his life
may be spent within the limits of civilized society; the latter has no
such personal interest. Another reason is an economic one; and still
another, the hold which the Government has upon a life officer to secure
a faithful discharge of duties in carrying out a given policy.
The building of railroads, and the access thereby given to all the
agricultural and mineral regions of the country, is rapidly bringing
civilized settlements into contact with all the tribes of Indians. No
matter what ought to be the relations between such settlements and the
aborigines, the fact is they do not harmonize well, and one or the other
has to give way in the end. A system which looks to the extinction of a
race is too horrible for a nation to adopt without entailing upon itself
the wrath of all Christendom and engendering in the citizen a disregard
for human life and the rights of others, dangerous to society. I see no
substitute for such a system, except in placing all the Indians on large
reservations, as rapidly as it can be done, and giving them absolute
protection there. As soon as they are fitted for it they should be
induced to take their lands in severalty and to set up Territorial
governments for their own protection. For full details on this subject
I call your special attention to the reports of the Secretary of the
Interior and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
The report of the Secretary of War shows the expenditures of the War
Department for the year ending June 30, 1869, to be $80,644,042, of
which $23,882,310 was disbursed in the payment of debts contracted
during the war, and is not chargeable to current army expenses. His
estimate of $34,531,031 for the expenses of the Army for the next fiscal
year is as low as it is believed can be relied on. The estimates of
bureau officers have been carefully scrutinized, and reduced wherever it
has been deemed practicable. If, however, the condition of the country
should be such by the beginning of the next fiscal year as to admit of a
greater concentration of troops, the appropriation asked for will not be
expended.
The appropriations estimated for river and harbor improvements and for
fortifications are submitted separately. Whatever amount Congress may
deem proper to appropriate for these purposes will be expended.
The recommendation of the General of the Army that appropriations be
made for the forts at Boston, Portland, New York, Philadelphia, New
Orleans, and San Francisco, if for no other, is concurred in. I also ask
your special attention to the recommendation of the general commanding
the Military Division of the Pacific for the sale of the seal islands of
St. Paul and St. George, Alaska Territory, and suggest that it either be
complied with or that legislation be had for the protection of the seal
fisheries from which a revenue should be derived.
The report of the Secretary of War contains a synopsis of the reports of
the heads of bureaus, of the commanders of military divisions, and of
the districts of Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas, and the report of the
General of the Army in full. The recommendations therein contained have
been well considered, and are submitted for your action. I, however,
call special attention to the recommendation of the Chief of Ordnance
for the sale of arsenals and lands no longer of use to the Government;
also, to the recommendation of the Secretary of War that the act of 3d
March, 1869, prohibiting promotions and appointments in the staff corps
of the Army, be repealed. The extent of country to be garrisoned and the
number of military posts to be occupied is the same with a reduced Army
as with a large one. The number of staff officers required is more
dependent upon the latter than the former condition.
The report of the Secretary of the Navy accompanying this shows the
condition of the Navy when this Administration came into office and the
changes made since. Strenuous efforts have been made to place as many
vessels "in commission," or render them fit for service if required, as
possible, and to substitute the sail for steam while cruising, thus
materially reducing the expenses of the Navy and adding greatly to its
efficiency. Looking to our future, I recommend a liberal, though not
extravagant, policy toward this branch of the public service.
The report of the Postmaster-General furnishes a clear and comprehensive
exhibit of the operations of the postal service and of the financial
condition of the Post Office Department. The ordinary postal revenues
for the year ending the 30th of June, 1869, amounted to $18,344,510, and
the expenditures to $23,698,131, showing an excess of expenditures over
receipts of $5,353,620. The excess of expenditures over receipts for the
previous year amounted to $6,437,992. The increase of revenues for 1869
over those of 1868 was $2,051,909, and the increase of expenditures was
$967,538. The increased revenue in 1869 exceeded the increased revenue
in 1868 by $996,336, and the increased expenditure in 1869 was
$2,527,570 less than the increased expenditure in 1868, showing by
comparison this gratifying feature of improvement, that while the
increase of expenditures over the increase of receipts in 1868 was
$2,439,535, the increase of receipts over the increase of expenditures
in 1869 was $1,084,371.
Your attention is respectfully called to the recommendations made by the
Postmaster-General for authority to change the rate of compensation to
the main trunk railroad lines for their services in carrying the mails;
for having post-route maps executed; for reorganizing and increasing the
efficiency of the special-agency service; for increase of the mail
service on the Pacific, and for establishing mail service, under the
flag of the Union, on the Atlantic; and most especially do I call your
attention to his recommendation for the total abolition of the franking
privilege. This is an abuse from which no one receives a commensurate
advantage; it reduces the receipts for postal service from 25 to 30 per
cent and largely increases the service to be performed. The method by
which postage should be paid upon public matter is set forth fully in
the report of the Postmaster-General.
The report of the Secretary of the Interior shows that the quantity of
public lands disposed of during the year ending the 30th of June, 1869,
was 7,666,152 acres, exceeding that of the preceding year by 1,010,409
acres. Of this amount 2,899,544 acres were sold for cash and 2,737,365
acres entered under the homestead laws. The remainder was granted to aid
in the construction of works of internal improvement, approved to the
States as swamp land, and located with warrants and scrip. The cash
receipts from all sources were $4,472,886, exceeding those of the
preceding year $2,840,140.
During the last fiscal year 23,196 names were added to the pension rolls
and 4,876 dropped therefrom, leaving at its close 187,963. The amount
paid to pensioners, including the compensation of disbursing agents, was
$28,422,884, an increase of $4,411,902 on that of the previous year.
The munificence of Congress has been conspicuously manifested in its
legislation for the soldiers and sailors who suffered in the recent
struggle to maintain "that unity of government which makes us one
people." The additions to the pension rolls of each successive year
since the conclusion of hostilities result in a great degree from the
repeated amendments of the act of the 14th of July, 1862, which extended
its provisions to cases not falling within its original scope. The large
outlay which is thus occasioned is further increased by the more liberal
allowance bestowed since that date upon those who in the line of duty
were wholly or permanently disabled. Public opinion has given an
emphatic sanction to these measures of Congress, and it will be conceded
that no part of our public burden is more cheerfully borne than that
which is imposed by this branch of the service. It necessitates for the
next fiscal year, in addition to the amount justly chargeable to the
naval pension fund, an appropriation of $30,000,000.
During the year ending the 30th of September, 1869, the Patent Office
issued 13,762 patents, and its receipts were $686,389, being $213,926
more than the expenditures.
I would respectfully call your attention to the recommendation of the
Secretary of the Interior for uniting the duties of supervising the
education of freedmen with the other duties devolving upon the
Commissioner of Education.
If it is the desire of Congress to make the census which must be taken
during the year 1870 more complete and perfect than heretofore, I would
suggest early action upon any plan that may be agreed upon. As Congress
at the last session appointed a committee to take into consideration
such measures as might be deemed proper in reference to the census and
report a plan, I desist from saying more.
I recommend to your favorable consideration the claims of the
Agricultural Bureau for liberal appropriations. In a country so
diversified in climate and soil as ours, and with a population so
largely dependent upon agriculture, the benefits that can be conferred
by properly fostering this Bureau are incalculable.
I desire respectfully to call the attention of Congress to the
inadequate salaries of a number of the most important offices of the
Government. In this message I will not enumerate them, but will specify
only the justices of the Supreme Court. No change has been made in their
salaries for fifteen years. Within that time the labors of the court
have largely increased and the expenses of living have at least doubled.
During the same time Congress has twice found it necessary to increase
largely the compensation of its own members, and the duty which it owes
to another department of the Government deserves, and will undoubtedly
receive, its due consideration.
There are many subjects not alluded to in this message which might with
propriety be introduced, but I abstain, believing that your patriotism
and statesmanship will suggest the topics and the legislation most
conducive to the interests of the whole people. On my part I promise
a rigid adherence to the laws and their strict enforcement.
U.S. GRANT.
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
WASHINGTON, _December 6, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I submit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to
ratification, an additional article to the convention of the 24th of
October, 1867, between the United States of America and His Majesty the
King of Denmark.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _December 6, 1869_
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I submit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to
ratification, a convention between the United States and His Hawaiian
Majesty, signed in this city on the 8th day of May last, providing for
the extension of the term for the exchange of the ratifications of the
convention for commercial reciprocity between the same parties, signed
on the 21st day of May, 1867.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _December 6, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I submit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to
ratification, a protocol, signed in this city on the 23d of October
last, to the convention upon the subject of claims between the United
States and the Mexican Republic, signed the 4th of July, 1868.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit, for the consideration of the Senate, the accompanying copy
of a correspondence between the Secretary of State and the minister
of the United States at Berlin, in relation to the exchange of the
ratifications of the naturalization convention dated July 27, 1868,
between the United States and the Government of Wurtemberg, which was
not effected within the time named in the convention.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit, for the consideration of the Senate, the accompanying copy
of a correspondence between the Secretary of State and the legation
of the United States at Brussels, in relation to the exchange of the
ratifications of the consular convention with Belgium signed on the 5th
of December, 1868, which was not effected within the time named in the
convention.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit to the Senate a copy of a correspondence, a list of which is
hereto annexed, between the Secretary of State and the minister resident
of the United States at Constantinople, and invite its consideration of
the question as to the correct meaning of the fourth article of the
treaty of 1830 between the United States and Turkey.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, D.C., _December 9, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 6th instant,
requesting reports of the military commander of the district of which
Georgia is a part in regard to the political and civil condition of that
State, the accompanying papers are submitted.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _December 9, 1869_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, in answer to a
resolution of the House of Representatives of yesterday, asking to be
informed what legislatures have ratified the proposed fifteenth
amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _December 15, 1869_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
I transmit a further report from the Secretary of State in answer to the
resolution of the House of Representatives of the 9th instant, making
known that official notice has been received at the Department of State
of the ratification by the legislature of the State of Alabama of the
amendment to the Constitution recently proposed by Congress as Article
XV.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _December 15, 1869_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 13th
instant, requesting a copy of official correspondence on the subject of
Cuba, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, to whom the
resolution was referred.
U.S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., December 15, 1869_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
In answer to the resolution of December 9, 1869, requesting a copy
of the charges, testimony, findings, and sentence in the trial by
court-martial of Passed Assistant Surgeon Charles L. Green, United
States Navy, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of the
Navy, to whom the resolution was referred.
U.S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., December 20, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I hereby request the return of such part of my message of December 9, in
response to Senate resolution of December 6, requesting the reports of
the military commander of the district of which Georgia is a part, to
wit, an anonymous letter purporting to be from "a Georgia woman." By
accident the paper got with those called for by the resolution, instead
of in the wastebasket, where it was intended it should go.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _December 20, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit to the Senate, in relation to their resolution of the 8th
instant, a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying
documents.[6]
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 6: Relating to the revolution in Cuba and the political and
civil condition of that island.]
WASHINGTON, _December 22, 1869_.
_To the Senate:_
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 20th instant, in
relation to correspondence between the United States and Great Britain
concerning questions pending between the two countries since the
rejection of the claims convention by the Senate, I transmit a report
from the Secretary of State upon the subject and the papers by which it
was accompanied.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _December 22, 1869_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 8th
instant, a report[7] from the Secretary of State.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 7: Stating that neither correspondence nor negotiation upon
the subject of trade and commerce between the United States and Canada
had been entered into.]
WASHINGTON, _January 10, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit to the Senate, for consideration with a view to its
ratification, a convention between the United States and the Dominican
Republic for a lease to the former of the bay and peninsula of Samana.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _January 10, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit to the Senate, for consideration with a view to its
ratification, a treaty for the annexation of the Dominican Republic to
the United States, signed by the plenipotentiaries of the parties on the
29th of November last.
U.S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., January 10, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In response to the resolution of the Senate of December 9, 1869,
requesting the information in possession of the President or any of the
Departments relating to the action which has been had in the District of
Virginia under the act "authorizing the submission of the constitutions
of Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas to a vote of the people, and
authorizing the election of State officers provided by the said
constitutions, and Members of Congress," approved April 10, 1869, I have
the honor to transmit herewith the reports of the Secretary of State,
the Secretary of War, and the Attorney-General, to whom, severally, the
resolution was referred.
U.S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., January 21, 1870_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
In answer to the resolution passed by the House of Representatives on
the 17th instant, requesting to be informed "under what act of Congress
or by other authority appropriations for the Navy are diverted to the
survey of the Isthmus of Darien," I transmit a report by the Secretary
of the Navy, to whom the resolution was referred.
U.S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., January 29, 1870_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_
I herewith transmit to Congress a report, dated 29th instant, with
the accompanying papers,[8] received from the Secretary of State, in
compliance with the requirements of the eighteenth section of the act
entitled "An act to regulate the diplomatic and consular systems of
the United States," approved August 18, 1856.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 8: Report of fees collected, etc., by consular officers of
the United States for 1868, and tariff of consular fees.]
WASHINGTON, _February 1, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit to the Senate, in compliance with its resolution of the 31st
ultimo, a report from the Secretary of State, communicating information
in relation to the action of the legislature of the State of Mississippi
on the proposed fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United
States.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _February 2, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 8th ultimo, I transmit a
report[9] from the Secretary of State and the papers which accompanied it.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 9: Relating to the insurrection in the Red River settlement,
in British North America.]
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 4, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I herewith lay before the Senate, for the consideration and action of
that body in connection with a treaty of December 4, 1868, with the
Seneca Nation of Indians, now pending, amendments to said treaty
proposed at a council of said Indians held at their council house on
the Catteraugus Reservation, in New York, on the 26th ultimo.
A letter of the Secretary of the Interior, of the 3d instant,
accompanies the papers.
U.S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 4, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
For the reasons stated in the accompanying communication from the
Secretary of the Interior, I respectfully request to withdraw the
treaties hereinafter mentioned, which are now pending before the Senate:
First. Treaty concluded with the Great and Little Osages May 27, 1868.
Second. Treaty concluded with the Sacs and Foxes of the Missouri and
Iowa tribes of Indians February 11, 1869.
Third. Treaty concluded with the Otoc and Missouria Indians February 13,
1869.
Fourth. Treaty concluded with the Kansas or Kaw Indians March 13, 1869.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _February 8, 1870_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
3d instant, calling for the number of copies of the tributes of the
nations to Abraham Lincoln now in possession of the Department of
State, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the paper
which accompanied it.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _February 11, 1870_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives
requesting me to furnish any information which may have been received by
the Government in relation to the recent assault upon and reported
murder of one or more American citizens in Cuba, I communicate a report
from the Secretary of State, with the papers accompanying it.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON CITY, _February 11, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
The papers in the case of Commander Jonathan Young, of the United States
Navy, show--
That when the naval promotions were made in 1866 the name of Commander
Jonathan Young was not included among them, and he was passed over,
while Commander George W. Young was not passed over; that among other
testimonials is one from Vice-Admiral D.D. Porter stating that
"Commander Jonathan Young was passed over by mistake; that he was
recommended for promotion, while Commander George W. Young was not
recommended for promotion, and by some singular mistake the latter was
promoted, while the former was passed over."
That eminent officers, formerly _junior_ to Commander Young, but
promoted over his head, desire his restoration to his former position,
because they consider such restoration due to his character, ability,
and services.
In view, therefore, of these facts, and of the general good standing
of Commander Jonathan Young, and of his gallant and efficient services
during the war, and to remedy so far as is now possible what is believed
to have been a clerical error of the Department, which has worked to
his injury, the Department now recommends that he be restored to his
original standing upon the navy list.
For these reasons I nominate Commander Jonathan Young to be restored to
his original position, to take rank from the 25th July, 1866, and next
after Commander William T. Truxtun.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, D.C., _February 11, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In reply to the resolution of the Senate of the 4th instant, requesting
information in regard to the proceedings had in the State of Georgia in
pursuance of the recent act of Congress entitled "An act to promote
the reconstruction of the State of Georgia," and in relation to the
organization of the legislature of that State since the passage of that
act, I herewith transmit the report of the Secretary of War, to whom the
resolution was referred.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _February 15, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In reply to a resolution of the Senate of the 9th instant, in relation
to the Central Branch, Union Pacific Railroad Company, I transmit a copy
of a letter addressed to me on the 27th ultimo by the Secretary of the
Interior. It contains all the information in my possession touching
the action of any of the Departments on the claim of that company to
continue and extend its road and to receive in aid of the construction
thereof lands and bonds from the United States.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _February 16, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In response to the resolution of the Senate of the 8th instant, asking
"how much of the appropriations heretofore made, amounting to $100,000,
to provide for the defense of certain suits now pending in the Court of
Claims, known as the cotton cases, has been expended, and to whom the
same has been paid; for what services rendered, and the amount paid to
each of said persons; and also the number of clerks in the Treasury
Department, and other persons, with their names, engaged or occupied
in the defense of said suits," I herewith transmit the report of the
Secretary of the Treasury, to whom the resolution was referred.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _February 16, 1870_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
10th instant, I transmit a report[10] from the Secretary of State, with
accompanying documents.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 10: Relating to the payment in currency, instead of coin, of
the semiannual installments of interest due to the United States under
the convention with Spain concluded February 17, 1834, and opinion of
the Attorney-General relative thereto.]
WASHINGTON, _February 17, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 24th
ultimo, the report from the Secretary of State, with accompaniments.[11]
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 11: Lists of officers commissioned by the Department of State,
their compensation, etc.]
WASHINGTON, _February 18, 1870_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
I transmit to the House of Representatives, in further answer to their
resolution requesting information in relation to the recent assault upon
and reported murder of one or more American citizens in Cuba, a report
from the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _February 19, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In reply to the resolution of the Senate of the 11th instant, requesting
"any information which may have been received by the Government of the
recently reported engagement of Colonel Baker with the Indians,[86] with
copies of all orders which led to the same," I transmit a report from
the Secretary of War, to whom the resolution was referred.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 12: Piegan in Montana.]
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., February 21, 1870_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
I transmit to the House of Representatives, in answer to their resolution
of the 7th instant, a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying
documents.[13]
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 13: Correspondence relative to affairs connected with Cuba and
to the struggle for independence in that island.]
WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 14th
instant, a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying
documents.[14]
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 14: Correspondence of the United States minister to Japan
relative to American interests in that country.]
WASHINGTON, _February 24, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 21st instant, directing
the Secretary of State to furnish the Senate with copies of all
correspondence relating to the imprisonment of Mr. Davis Hatch by the
Dominican Government, I transmit a report of the Secretary of State upon
the subject.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _February 28, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 19th instant,
requesting to be informed "if any officer of the Government has,
contrary to the treaty of July 19, 1866, with the Cherokee Nation,
enforced or sought to enforce the payment of taxes by Cherokees on
products manufactured in the Cherokee Nation and sold within the Indian
Territory," I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, to
whom the resolution was referred.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _February 28, 1870_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 15th
instant, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State upon the
subject,[15] and the papers by which it was accompanied.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 15: Imprisonment of American citizens in Great Britain for
political offenses.]
WASHINGTON, _March 1, 1870_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_
I transmit to Congress a communication from the Secretary of State, with
the accompanying documents, relative to the claims of citizens of the
United States on the Government of Venezuela which were adjusted by the
commission provided for by the convention with that Republic of April
25, 1866.
U.S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., March 3, 1870_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
I transmit herewith, in response to the resolution of the House asking
for information in relation to the repairs of Spanish war vessels at the
docks of the United States, the report of the Secretary of the Navy, to
whom the resolution was referred.
U.S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., March 8, 1870_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_
Herewith I have the honor to transmit a communication from the Secretary
of the Interior, relative to the obligation of Congress to make the
necessary appropriations to carry out the Indian treaties made by what
is known as the Peace Commission of 1867.
The history of those treaties and the consequences of noncompliance with
them by the Government are so clearly set forth in this statement that
I deem it better to communicate it in full than to ask the necessary
appropriation in a shorter statement of the reasons for it. I earnestly
desire that if an Indian war becomes inevitable the Government of the
United States at least should not be responsible for it. Pains will be
taken, and force used if necessary, to prevent the departure of the
expeditions referred to by the Secretary of the Interior.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _March 10, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 4th instant, in
relation to the "Transcontinental, Memphis, El Paso and Pacific Railroad
Company," I transmit reports from the Secretary of State and the
Secretary of the Interior, with accompanying papers.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _March 10, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 28th
ultimo, a report[90] from the Secretary of State, with accompanying
documents.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 16: Relating to legislation necessary to insure the
administration of justice and the protection of American interests in
China and Japan.]
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., March 14, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In reply to your resolution of the 14th of February, requesting to be
informed whether I desire that any of the Indian treaties now pending
before you be considered confidentially, I have to inform you that there
are none of them which I object to having discussed in open session.
U.S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., March 14, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I would respectfully call your attention to a treaty now before you for
the acquisition of the Republic of St. Domingo, entered into between the
agents of the two Governments on the 29th of November, 1869, and by its
terms to be finally acted upon by the people of St. Domingo and the
Senate of the United States within four months from the date of signing
the treaty. The time for action expires on the 29th instant, a fact to
which I desire expressly to call your attention. I would also direct
your notice to the fact that the Government of St. Domingo has no agent
in the United States who is authorized to extend the time for further
deliberation upon its merits.
The people of St. Domingo have already, so far as their action can go,
ratified the treaty, and I express the earnest wish that you will not
permit it to expire by limitation. I also entertain the sincere hope
that your action may be favorable to the ratification of the treaty.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _March 15, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, in answer to a
resolution of the Senate of the 3d instant, asking to be informed what
States have ratified the amendment known as the fifteenth amendment to
the Constitution of the United States, so far as official notice thereof
has been transmitted to the Department of State, and that information
from time to time may be communicated to that body, as soon as
practicable, of such ratification hereafter by any State.
U.S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., March 23, 1870_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_
In the Executive message of December 6, 1869, to Congress the importance
of taking steps to revive our drooping merchant marine was urged, and
a special message promised at a future day during the present session,
recommending more specifically plans to accomplish this result. Now that
the committee of the House of Representatives intrusted with the labor
of ascertaining "the cause of the decline of American commerce" has
completed its work and submitted its report to the legislative branch of
the Government, I deem this a fitting time to execute that promise.
The very able, calm, and exhaustive report of the committee points out
the grave wrongs which have produced the decline in our commerce. It is
a national humiliation that we are now compelled to pay from twenty to
thirty million dollars annually (exclusive of passage money, which we
should share with vessels of other nations) to foreigners for doing the
work which should be done by American vessels, American built, American
owned, and American manned. This is a direct drain upon the resources of
the country of just so much money, equal to casting it into the sea, so
far as this nation is concerned.
A nation of the vast and ever-increasing interior resources of the
United States, extending, as it does, from one to the other of the
great oceans of the world, with an industrious, intelligent, energetic
population, must one day possess its full share of the commerce of these
oceans, no matter what the cost. Delay will only increase this cost and
enhance the difficulty of attaining the result.
I therefore put in an earnest plea for early action in this matter, in
a way to secure the desired increase of American commerce. The advanced
period of the year and the fact that no contracts for shipbuilding will
probably be entered into until this question is settled by Congress, and
the further fact that if there should be much delay all large vessels
contracted for this year will fail of completion before winter sets in,
and will therefore be carried over for another year, induces me to
request your early consideration of this subject.
I regard it of such grave importance, affecting every interest of the
country to so great an extent, that any method which will gain the end
will secure a rich national blessing. Building ships and navigating them
utilizes vast capital at home; it employs thousands of workmen in their
construction and manning; it creates a home market for the products of
the farm and the shop; it diminishes the balance of trade against us
precisely to the extent of freights and passage money paid to American
vessels, and gives us a supremacy upon the seas of inestimable value in
case of foreign war.
Our Navy at the commencement of the late war consisted of less than 100
vessels, of about 150,000 tons and a force of about 8,000 men. We drew
from the merchant marine, which had cost the Government nothing, but
which had been a source of national wealth, 600 vessels, exceeding
1,000,000 tons, and about 70,000 men, to aid in the suppression of the
rebellion.
This statement demonstrates the value of the merchant marine as a means
of national defense in time of need.
The Committee on the Causes of the Reduction of American Tonnage, after
tracing the causes of its decline, submit two bills, which, if adopted,
they believe will restore to the nation its maritime power. Their report
shows with great minuteness the actual and comparative American tonnage
at the time of its greatest prosperity; the actual and comparative
decline since, together with the causes; and exhibits all other
statistics of material interest in reference to the subject. As the
report is before Congress, I will not recapitulate any of its
statistics, but refer only to the methods recommended by the committee
to give back to us our lost commerce.
As a general rule, when it can be adopted, I believe a direct money
subsidy is less liable to abuse than an indirect aid given to the same
enterprise. In this case, however, my opinion is that subsidies, while
they may be given to specified lines of steamers or other vessels,
should not be exclusively adopted, but, in addition to subsidizing very
desirable lines of ocean traffic, a general assistance should be given
in an effective way. I therefore commend to your favorable consideration
the two bills proposed by the committee and referred to in this message.
U.S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 25, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In reply to a Senate resolution of the 24th instant, requesting to
be furnished with a report, written by Captain Selfridge, upon the
resources and condition of things in the Dominican Republic, I have
to state that no such report has been received.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _March 25, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 15th ultimo, I transmit
a report, with accompanying paper,[17] from the Secretary of the Navy,
to whom the resolution was referred.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 17: Statement of the number and character of the ironclad
vessels of the Navy, their cost, by whom designed, who recommended their
construction, and their condition.]
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 29, 1870_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
In reply to your resolution of December 20, 1869, asking "whether any
citizens of the United States are imprisoned or detained in military
custody by officers of the Army of the United States, and, if any, to
furnish their names, date of arrest, the offenses charged, together
with a statement of what measures have been taken for the trial and
punishment of the offenders," I transmit herewith the report of the
Secretary of War, to whom the resolution was referred.
U.S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 30, 1870_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
It is unusual to notify the two Houses of Congress by message of
the promulgation, by proclamation of the Secretary of State, of the
ratification of a constitutional amendment. In view, however, of the
vast importance of the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution, this day
declared a part of that revered instrument, I deem a departure from the
usual custom justifiable. A measure which makes at once 4,000,000 people
voters who were heretofore declared by the highest tribunal in the land
not citizens of the United States, nor eligible to become so (with the
assertion that "at the time of the Declaration of Independence the
opinion was fixed and universal in the civilized portion of the white
race, regarded as an axiom in morals as well as in politics, that black
men had no rights which the white man was bound to respect"), is indeed
a measure of grander importance than any other one act of the kind from
the foundation of our free Government to the present day.
Institutions like ours, in which all power is derived directly from the
people, must depend mainly upon their intelligence, patriotism, and
industry. I call the attention, therefore, of the newly enfranchised
race to the importance of their striving in every honorable manner to
make themselves worthy of their new privilege. To the race more favored
heretofore by our laws I would say, Withhold no legal privilege of
advancement to the new citizen. The framers of our Constitution firmly
believed that a republican government could not endure without
intelligence and education generally diffused among the people. The
Father of his Country, in his Farewell Address, uses this language:
Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the
general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a
government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public
opinion should be enlightened.
In his first annual message to Congress the same views are forcibly
presented, and are again urged in his eighth message.
I repeat that the adoption of the fifteenth amendment to the
Constitution completes the greatest civil change and constitutes the
most important event that has occurred since the nation came into life.
The change will be beneficial in proportion to the heed that is given to
the urgent recommendations of Washington. If these recommendations were
important then, with a population of but a few millions, how much more
important now, with a population of 40,000,000, and increasing in a
rapid ratio. I would therefore call upon Congress to take all the means
within their constitutional powers to promote and encourage popular
education throughout the country, and upon the people everywhere to see
to it that all who possess and exercise political rights shall have the
opportunity to acquire the knowledge which will make their share in the
Government a blessing and not a danger. By such means only can the
benefits contemplated by this amendment to the Constitution be secured.
U.S. GRANT.
HAMILTON FISH, SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
_To all to whom these presents may come, greeting:_
Know ye that the Congress of the United States, on or about the 27th
day of February, in the year 1869, passed a resolution in the words
and figures following, to wit:
A RESOLUTION proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United
States.
_Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled_ (_two-thirds of both Houses
concurring_), That the following article be proposed to the legislatures
of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United
States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said legislatures,
shall be valid as a part of the Constitution, viz;
ARTICLE XV.
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not
be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account
of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.
And further, that it appears from official documents on file in this
Department that the amendment to the Constitution of the United States,
proposed as aforesaid, has been ratified by the legislatures of the
States of North Carolina, West Virginia, Massachusetts, Wisconsin,
Maine, Louisiana, Michigan, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arkansas,
Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New York, New Hampshire,
Nevada, Vermont, Virginia, Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Iowa,
Kansas, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Nebraska, and Texas; in all,
twenty-nine States;
And further, that the States whose legislatures have so ratified the
said proposed amendment constitute three-fourths of the whole number
of States in the United States;
And further, that it appears from an official document on file in this
Department that the legislature of the State of New York has since
passed resolutions claiming to withdraw the said ratification of the
said amendment, which had been made by the legislature of that State,
and of which official notice had been filed in this Department;
And further, that it appears from an official document on file in this
Department that the legislature of Georgia has by resolution ratified
the said proposed amendment:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State of
the United States, by virtue and in pursuance of the second section of
the act of Congress approved the 20th day of April, in the year 1818,
entitled "An act to provide for the publication of the laws of the
United States, and for other purposes," do hereby certify that the
amendment aforesaid has become valid to all intents and purposes as
part of the Constitution of the United States.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the Department of State to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington this 30th day of March, A.D. 1870, and
of the Independence of the United States the ninety-fourth.
HAMILTON FISH.
WASHINGTON, _March 31, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit, for consideration with a view to its ratification, a treaty
between the United States and the United States of Colombia for the
construction of an interoceanic canal across the Isthmus of Panama or
Darien, signed at Bogota on the 26th of January last.
A copy of a dispatch of the 1st ultimo to the Secretary of State from
General Hurlbut, the United States minister at Bogota, relative to the
treaty, is also transmitted for the information of the Senate.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _March 31, 1870_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_
I transmit to Congress a further communication from the Secretary of
State, with the accompanying documents, relative to the claims of
citizens of the United States on the Government of Venezuela which were
adjusted by the commission provided for by the convention with that
Republic of April 25, 1866.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _March 31, 1870_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 7th
instant, relating to fisheries in British waters, I transmit a report
from the Secretary of State and the papers which accompanied it, and I
have to state that the commanding officer of the naval steamer ordered
to the fishing grounds will be instructed to give his attention, should
circumstances require it, to cases which may arise under any change
which may be made in the British laws affecting fisheries within British
jurisdiction, with a view to preventing, so far as it may be in his
power, infractions by citizens of the United States of the first article
of the treaty between the United States and Great Britain of 1818, the
laws in force relating to fisheries within British jurisdiction, or any
illegal interference with the pursuits of the fishermen of the United
States.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _April 5, 1870_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 28th
ultimo, I transmit a report[18] from the Secretary of State, to whom the
resolution was referred.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 18: Declining to communicate a copy of the list of privileges
accompanying or relating to the San Domingo treaty while the subject is
pending before the Senate in executive session.]
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _April 6, 1870_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
In answer to your resolution of the 7th ultimo, requesting to be
furnished with a copy of orders, correspondence, reports of councils
with Indians by military and civil officers of the Government, in
possession of the Interior and War Departments, relating to difficulties
with the Cheyenne, Comanche, Arapahoe, Apache, and Kiowa tribes of
Indians during the year 1867, etc., I herewith transmit the reports
received from those Departments.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _April 14, 1870_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_
I transmit to Congress a report from the Secretary of State, relative
to results of the proceedings of the joint commission at Lima under the
convention between the United States and Peru of 4th of December, 1868,
and recommend that an appropriation be made to discharge the obligation
of the United States in the case of the claim of Esteban G. Montano, to
which the report refers.
U.S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _April 20, 1870_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
In answer to your resolution of the 21st ultimo, requesting to be
informed "whether any portion of the military forces of the United
States has been sent into the counties of Bourbon, Crawford, and
Cherokee, in the State of Kansas, and, if so, when, what number, for
what purpose, and on whose procurement; and also whether they have been
required to erect there any winter quarters, forts, fortifications, or
earth-works, and, if so, what, for what purpose, and at whose expense,
and at what probable expense to the Government have all said acts been
done," I transmit herewith a report, dated 18th instant, from the
Secretary of War, to whom the resolution was referred.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _April 26, 1870_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 9th
instant, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the
paper[19] which accompanied it.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 19: Supplemental report to the Department of State by Samuel
B. Ruggles, United States delegate to the International Monetary
Conference at Paris, 1867.]
WASHINGTON, _May 6, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 26th ultimo, I transmit
a report from the Secretary of State and the papers[20] by which it was
accompanied.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 20: Dispatches of J. Somers Smith, commercial agent of the
United States at San Domingo, relative to the imprisonment of Davis
Hatch by the Dominican Government.]
WASHINGTON, _May 21, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 18th
instant, calling for information relative to the passage of any English
or Canadian steamer through the canal of Sault Ste. Marie, a report from
the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _May 23, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In response to your resolution of the 12th instant, requesting
information "in relation to an organized band of persons at Cheyenne, in
the Territory of Wyoming, or vicinity, the number and designs of such
persons," I transmit herewith the reports of the Secretary of War and
the Secretary of the Interior, to whom the resolution was referred.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _May 23, 1870_.
_To the House of Representatives:_
I transmit to the House of Representatives, in answer to their
resolution of the 5th instant, a report from the Secretary of State and
its accompanying papers.[21]
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 21: Relating to the claims of United States citizens against
Venezuela.]
WASHINGTON, _May 26, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I have the satisfaction of transmitting to the Senate, for consideration
with a view to its ratification, a convention between the United States
and Her Britannic Majesty, relative to naturalization, signed in London
on the 13th instant.
The convention is substantially the same as the protocol on the subject
signed by Mr. Reverdy Johnson and Lord Stanley on the 9th of October,
1868, and approved by the Senate on the 13th April, 1869.
If the instrument should go into effect, it will relieve the parties
from a grievance which has hitherto been a cause of frequent annoyance
and sometimes of dangerous irritation.
A copy of Mr. Motley's dispatch on the subject and of the act of
Parliament of May 12, 1870, are also transmitted.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _May 28, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 24th instant, I
transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the document[22] by
which it was accompanied.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 22: Dispatch from Henry T. Blow, United States minister to
Brazil, relative to the commercial interests of the United States with
South America.]
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _May 31, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit to the Senate, for consideration with a view to its
ratification, an additional article to the treaty of the 29th of
November last, for the annexation of the Dominican Republic to the
United States, stipulating for an extension of the time for exchanging
the ratifications thereof, signed in this city on the 14th instant by
the plenipotentiaries of the parties.
It was my intention to have also negotiated with the plenipotentiary of
San Domingo amendments to the treaty of annexation to obviate objections
which may be urged against the treaty as it is now worded; but on
reflection I deem it better to submit to the Senate the propriety of
their amending the treaty as follows: First, to specify that the
obligations of this Government shall not exceed the $1,500,000
stipulated in the treaty; secondly, to determine the manner of
appointing the agents to receive and disburse the same; thirdly, to
determine the class of creditors who shall take precedence in the
settlement of their claims; and, finally, to insert such amendments as
may suggest themselves to the minds of Senators to carry out in good
faith the conditions of the treaty submitted to the Senate of the United
States in January last, according to the spirit and intent of that
treaty. From the most reliable information I can obtain, the sum
specified in the treaty will pay every just claim against the Republic
of San Domingo and leave a balance sufficient to carry on a Territorial
government until such time as new laws for providing a Territorial
revenue can be enacted and put in force.
I feel an unusual anxiety for the ratification of this treaty, because
I believe it will redound greatly to the glory of the two countries
interested, to civilization, and to the extirpation of the institution
of slavery.
The doctrine promulgated by President Monroe has been adhered to by
all political parties, and I now deem it proper to assert the equally
important principle that hereafter no territory on this continent shall
be regarded as subject of transfer to a European power.
The Government of San Domingo has voluntarily sought this annexation.
It is a weak power, numbering probably less than 120,000 souls, and yet
possessing one of the richest territories under the sun, capable of
supporting a population of 10,000,000 people in luxury. The people of
San Domingo are not capable of maintaining themselves in their present
condition, and must look for outside support.
They yearn for the protection of our free institutions and laws, our
progress and civilization. Shall we refuse them?
I have information which I believe reliable that a European power stands
ready now to offer $2,000,000 for the possession of Samana Bay alone.
If refused by us, with what grace can we prevent a foreign power from
attempting to secure the prize?
The acquisition of San Domingo is desirable because of its geographical
position. It commands the entrance to the Caribbean Sea and the Isthmus
transit of commerce. It possesses the richest soil, best and most
capacious harbors, most salubrious climate, and the most valuable
products of the forests, mine, and soil of any of the West India
Islands. Its possession by us will in a few years build up a coastwise
commerce of immense magnitude, which will go far toward restoring to us
our lost merchant marine. It will give to us those articles which we
consume so largely and do not produce, thus equalizing our exports and
imports.
In case of foreign war it will give us command of all the islands
referred to, and thus prevent an enemy from ever again possessing
himself of rendezvous upon our very coast.
At present our coast trade between the States bordering on the Atlantic
and those bordering on the Gulf of Mexico is cut into by the Bahamas and
the Antilles. Twice we must, as it were, pass through foreign countries
to get by sea from Georgia to the west coast of Florida.
San Domingo, with a stable government, under which her immense resources
can be developed, will give remunerative wages to tens of thousands of
laborers not now on the island.
This labor will take advantage of every available means of
transportation to abandon the adjacent islands and seek the blessings of
freedom and its sequence--each inhabitant receiving the reward of his
own labor. Porto Rico and Cuba will have to abolish slavery, as a
measure of self-preservation to retain their laborers.
San Domingo will become a large consumer of the products of Northern
farms and manufactories. The cheap rate at which her citizens can be
furnished with food, tools, and machinery will make it necessary that
the contiguous islands should have the same advantages in order to
compete in the production of sugar, coffee, tobacco, tropical fruits,
etc. This will open to us a still wider market for our products.
The production of our own supply of these articles will cut off more
than one hundred millions of our annual imports, besides largely
increasing our exports. With such a picture it is easy to see how our
large debt abroad is ultimately to be extinguished. With a balance of
trade against us (including interest on bonds held by foreigners and
money spent by our citizens traveling in foreign lands) equal to the
entire yield of the precious metals in this country, it is not so easy
to see how this result is to be otherwise accomplished.
The acquisition of San Domingo is an adherence to the "Monroe doctrine;"
it is a measure of national protection; it is asserting our just claim
to a controlling influence over the great commercial traffic soon to
flow from east to west by the way of the Isthmus of Darien; it is to
build up our merchant marine; it is to furnish new markets for the
products of our farms, shops, and manufactories; it is to make slavery
insupportable in Cuba and Porto Rico at once and ultimately so in
Brazil; it is to settle the unhappy condition of Cuba, and end an
exterminating conflict; it is to provide honest means of paying our
honest debts, without overtaxing the people; it is to furnish our
citizens with the necessaries of everyday life at cheaper rates than
ever before; and it is, in fine, a rapid stride toward that greatness
which the intelligence, industry, and enterprise of the citizens of the
United States entitle this country to assume among nations.
U.S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C. June 2, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In reply to your resolution of the 1st instant, requesting, "in
confidence," any information in possession of the President "touching
any proposition, offer, or design of any foreign power to purchase or
obtain any part of the territory of San Domingo or any right to the
Bay of Samana," I transmit herewith a copy of a letter, dated 27th of
April, 1870. addressed to "Colonel J.W. Fabens, Dominican minister,
Washington," by "E. Herzberg Hartmount, Dominican consul-general in
London."
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _June 3, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 18th
ultimo, a report from the Secretary of State, with an accompanying
paper.[23]
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 23: Communication from George Bancroft, United States minister
at Berlin, relative to political questions in Germany.]
WASHINGTON, _June 3, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit to the Senate, for consideration with a view to its
ratification, an additional convention to the treaty of the 7th of
April, 1862, for the suppression of the African slave trade, which
additional convention was signed on this day in the city of Washington
by the plenipotentiaries of the high contracting parties.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _June 6, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 3d
instant, the accompanying report[24] from the Secretary of State.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 24: Stating that he has received no official information
relative to a reported persecution and massacre of Israelites in
Roumania.]
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _June 13, 1870_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_
In my annual message to Congress at the beginning of its present session
I referred to the contest which had then for more than a year existed in
the island of Cuba between a portion of its inhabitants and the
Government of Spain, and the feelings and sympathies of the people and
Government of the United States for the people of Cuba, as for all
peoples struggling for liberty and self-government, and said that "the
contest has at no time assumed the conditions which amount to war in the
sense of international law, or which would show the existence of a _de
facto_ political organization of the insurgents sufficient to justify a
recognition of belligerency."
During the six months which have passed since the date of that message
the condition of the insurgents has not improved, and the insurrection
itself, although not subdued, exhibits no signs of advance, but seems to
be confined to an irregular system of hostilities, carried on by small
and illy armed bands of men, roaming without concentration through the
woods and the sparsely populated regions of the island, attacking from
ambush convoys and small bands of troops, burning plantations and the
estates of those not sympathizing with their cause.
But if the insurrection has not gained ground, it is equally true that
Spain has not suppressed it. Climate, disease, and the occasional bullet
have worked destruction among the soldiers of Spain; and although the
Spanish authorities have possession of every seaport and every town on
the island, they have not been able to subdue the hostile feeling which
has driven a considerable number of the native inhabitants of the island
to armed resistance against Spain, and still leads them to endure the
dangers and the privations of a roaming life of guerrilla warfare.
On either side the contest has been conducted, and is still carried on,
with a lamentable disregard of human life and of the rules and practices
which modern civilization has prescribed in mitigation of the necessary
horrors of war. The torch of Spaniard and of Cuban is alike busy in
carrying devastation over fertile regions; murderous and revengeful
decrees are issued and executed by both parties. Count Valmaseda and
Colonel Boet, on the part of Spain, have each startled humanity and
aroused the indignation of the civilized world by the execution, each,
of a score of prisoners at a time, while General Quesada, the Cuban
chief, coolly and with apparent unconsciousness of aught else than a
proper act, has admitted the slaughter, by his own deliberate order,
in one day, of upward of 650 prisoners of war.
A summary trial, with few, if any, escapes from conviction, followed by
immediate execution, is the fate of those arrested on either side on
suspicion of infidelity to the cause of the party making the arrest.
Whatever may be the sympathies of the people or of the Government of the
United States for the cause or objects for which a part of the people of
Cuba are understood to have put themselves in armed resistance to the
Government of Spain, there can be no just sympathy in a conflict carried
on by both parties alike in such barbarous violation of the rules of
civilized nations and with such continued outrage upon the plainest
principles of humanity.
We can not discriminate in our censure of their mode of conducting their
contest between the Spaniards and the Cubans. Each commit the same
atrocities and outrage alike the established rules of war.
The properties of many of our citizens have been destroyed or embargoed,
the lives of several have been sacrificed, and the liberty of others has
been restrained. In every case that has come to the knowledge of the
Government an early and earnest demand for reparation and indemnity has
been made, and most emphatic remonstrance has been presented against
the manner in which the strife is conducted and against the reckless
disregard of human life, the wanton destruction of material wealth,
and the cruel disregard of the established rules of civilized warfare.
I have, since the beginning of the present session of Congress,
communicated to the House of Representatives, upon their request, an
account of the steps which I had taken in the hope of bringing this sad
conflict to an end and of securing to the people of Cuba the blessings
and the right of independent self-government. The efforts thus made
failed, but not without an assurance from Spain that the good offices of
this Government might still avail for the objects to which they had been
addressed.
During the whole contest the remarkable exhibition has been made of
large numbers of Cubans escaping from the island and avoiding the risks
of war; congregating in this country, at a safe distance from the scene
of danger, and endeavoring to make war from our shores, to urge our
people into the fight which they avoid, and to embroil this Government
in complications and possible hostilities with Spain. It can scarce be
doubted that this last result is the real object of these parties,
although carefully covered under the deceptive and apparently plausible
demand for a mere recognition of belligerency.
It is stated on what I have reason to regard as good authority that
Cuban bonds have been prepared to a large amount, whose payment is made
dependent upon the recognition by the United States of either Cuban
belligerency or independence. The object of making their value thus
contingent upon the action of this Government is a subject for serious
reflection.
In determining the course to be adopted on the demand thus made for a
recognition of belligerency the liberal and peaceful principles adopted
by the Father of his Country and the eminent statesmen of his day, and
followed by succeeding Chief Magistrates and the men of their day, may
furnish a safe guide to those of us now charged with the direction and
control of the public safety.
From 1789 to 1815 the dominant thought of our statesmen was to keep
the United States out of the wars which were devastating Europe. The
discussion of measures of neutrality begins with the State papers of
Mr. Jefferson when Secretary of State. He shows that they are measures
of national right as well as of national duty; that misguided individual
citizens can not be tolerated in making war according to their own
caprice, passions, interests, or foreign sympathies; that the agents of
foreign governments, recognized or unrecognized, can not be permitted
to abuse our hospitality by usurping the functions of enlisting or
equipping military or naval forces within our territory. Washington
inaugurated the policy of neutrality and of absolute abstinence from
all foreign entangling alliances, which resulted, in 1794, in the first
municipal enactment for the observance of neutrality.
The duty of opposition to filibustering has been admitted by every
President. Washington encountered the efforts of Genèt and of the French
revolutionists; John Adams, the projects of Miranda; Jefferson, the
schemes of Aaron Burr. Madison and subsequent Presidents had to deal
with the question of foreign enlistment or equipment in the United
States, and since the days of John Quincy Adams it has been one of the
constant cares of Government in the United States to prevent piratical
expeditions against the feeble Spanish American Republics from leaving
our shores. In no country are men wanting for any enterprise that holds
out promise of adventure or of gain.
In the early days of our national existence the whole continent of
America (outside of the limits of the United States) and all its islands
were in colonial dependence upon European powers.
The revolutions which from 1810 spread almost simultaneously through all
the Spanish American continental colonies resulted in the establishment
of new States, like ourselves, of European origin, and interested in
excluding European politics and the questions of dynasty and of balances
of power from further influence in the New World.
The American policy of neutrality, important before, became doubly so
from the fact that it became applicable to the new Republics as well as
to the mother country.
It then devolved upon us to determine the great international question
at what time and under what circumstances to recognize a new power
as entitled to a place among the family of nations, as well as the
preliminary question of the attitude to be observed by this Government
toward the insurrectionary party pending the contest.
Mr. Monroe concisely expressed the rule which has controlled the action
of this Government with reference to revolting colonies pending their
struggle by saying:
As soon as the movement assumed such a steady and consistent form as
to make the success of the Provinces probable, the rights to which
they were entitled by the laws of nations as equal parties to a civil
war were extended to them.
The strict adherence to this rule of public policy has been one of
the highest honors of American statesmanship, and has secured to this
Government the confidence of the feeble powers on this continent,
which induces them to rely upon its friendship and absence of designs
of conquest and to look to the United States for example and moral
protection. It has given to this Government a position of prominence and
of influence which it should not abdicate, but which imposes upon it the
most delicate duties of right and of honor regarding American questions,
whether those questions affect emancipated colonies or colonies still
subject to European dominion.
The question of belligerency is one of fact, not to be decided by
sympathies for or prejudices against either party. The relations
between the parent state and the insurgents must amount in fact to
war in the sense of international law. Fighting, though fierce and
protracted, does not alone constitute war. There must be military forces
acting in accordance with the rules and customs of war, flags of truce,
cartels, exchange of prisoners, etc.; and to justify a recognition
of belligerency there must be, above all, a _de facto_ political
organization of the insurgents sufficient in character and resources
to constitute it, if left to itself, a state among nations capable
of discharging the duties of a state and of meeting the just
responsibilities it may incur as such toward other powers in the
discharge of its national duties.
Applying the best information which I have been enabled to gather,
whether from official or unofficial sources, including the very
exaggerated statements which each party gives to all that may prejudice
the opposite or give credit to its own side of the question, I am unable
to see in the present condition of the contest in Cuba those elements
which are requisite to constitute war in the sense of international law.
The insurgents hold no town or city; have no established seat of
government; they have no prize courts; no organization for the receiving
and collecting of revenue; no seaport to which a prize may be carried or
through which access can be had by a foreign power to the limited
interior territory and mountain fastnesses which they occupy. The
existence of a legislature representing any popular constituency is more
than doubtful.
In the uncertainty that hangs around the entire insurrection there is no
palpable evidence of an election, of any delegated authority, or of any
government outside the limits of the camps occupied from day to day by
the roving companies of insurgent troops; there is no commerce, no
trade, either internal or foreign, no manufactures.
The late commander in chief of the insurgents, having recently come to
the United States, publicly declared that "all commercial intercourse or
trade with the exterior world has been utterly cut off;" and he further
added: "To-day we have not 10,000 arms in Cuba."
It is a well-established principle of public law that a recognition by
a foreign state of belligerent rights to insurgents under circumstances
such as now exist in Cuba, if not justified by necessity, is a
gratuitous demonstration of moral support to the rebellion. Such
necessity may yet hereafter arrive, but it has not yet arrived, nor is
its probability clearly to be seen.
If it be war between Spain and Cuba, and be so recognized, it is
our duty to provide for the consequences which may ensue in the
embarrassment to our commerce and the interference with our revenue.
If belligerency be recognized, the commercial marine of the United
States becomes liable to search and to seizure by the commissioned
cruisers of both parties; they become subject to the adjudication of
prize courts.
Our large coastwise trade between the Atlantic and the Gulf States and
between both and the Isthmus of Panama and the States of South America
(engaging the larger part of our commercial marine) passes of necessity
almost in sight of the island of Cuba. Under the treaty with Spain of
1795, as well as by the law of nations, our vessels will be liable
to visit on the high seas. In case of belligerency the carrying of
contraband, which now is lawful, becomes liable to the risks of
seizure and condemnation. The parent Government becomes relieved from
responsibility for acts done in the insurgent territory, and acquires
the right to exercise against neutral commerce all the powers of a party
to a maritime war. To what consequences the exercise of those powers may
lead is a question which I desire to commend to the serious
consideration of Congress.
In view of the gravity of this question, I have deemed it my duty to
invite the attention of the war-making power of the country to all the
relations and bearings of the question in connection with the
declaration of neutrality and granting of belligerent rights.
There is not a _de facto_ government in the island of Cuba sufficient to
execute law and maintain just relations with other nations. Spain has
not been able to suppress the opposition to Spanish rule on the island,
nor to award speedy justice to other nations, or citizens of other
nations, when their rights have been invaded.
There are serious complications growing out of the seizure of American
vessels upon the high seas, executing American citizens without proper
trial, and confiscating or embargoing the property of American citizens.
Solemn protests have been made against every infraction of the rights
either of individual citizens of the United States or the rights of our
flag upon the high seas, and all proper steps have been taken and are
being pressed for the proper reparation of every indignity complained
of.
The question of belligerency, however, which is to be decided upon
definite principles and according to ascertained facts, is entirely
different from and unconnected with the other questions of the manner in
which the strife is carried on on both sides and the treatment of our
citizens entitled to our protection.
The questions concern our own dignity and responsibility, and they have
been made, as I have said, the subjects of repeated communications with
Spain and of protests and demands for redress on our part. It is hoped
that these will not be disregarded, but should they be these questions
will be made the subject of a further communication to Congress.
U.S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _June 17, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 8th instant, requesting
the President "to communicate, in confidence, the instructions of the
Navy Department to the navy officers in command on the coast of Dominica
and Hayti, and the reports of such officers to the Navy Department,
from the commencement of the negotiation of the treaty with Dominica,"
I herewith transmit the papers received from the Secretary of the Navy,
to whom the resolution was referred.
U.S. GRANT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _June 25, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In answer to the resolution of the 22d instant, requesting to be
furnished with "proposals received from any company or citizens of
the United States for constructing and placing iron steamships in
transatlantic service," I transmit herewith the only proposal of that
nature received by me.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _July 9, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In answer to the resolutions of the Senate of the 26th of May and of
the 14th of June last, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State
thereupon, and the papers[25] by which it was accompanied.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 25: Lists of American vessels seized by Spanish authorities in
Cuba; of American citizens executed and imprisoned in Cuba; of American
citizens whose property was confiscated or embargoed in Cuba, and of
decrees under which the Spanish authorities acted, and correspondence
showing steps taken by the United States Government in reference
thereto.]
WASHINGTON, _July 12, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit to the Senate, for consideration with a view to ratification,
a convention between the United States and Austria, concerning the
rights, privileges, and immunities of consuls in the two countries,
signed at Washington on the 11th instant.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _July 13, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 8th
instant, a report from the Secretary of State and the papers[26] which
accompanied it.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 26: Instructions to the minister to Spain stating the basis
on which the United States offered its good offices for the purpose of
terminating the war in Cuba, correspondence relative thereto, etc.]
WASHINGTON, _July 13, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In answer to their resolution of the 8th instant, I transmit to the
Senate a report from the Secretary of State and the papers[27] which
accompanied it.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 27: Correspondence between the United States and Great Britain
concerning questions pending between the two countries.]
WASHINGTON, _July 14, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 7th
instant, a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying
documents.
U.S. GRANT.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, _Washington, July 14, 1870_.
The Secretary of State, to whom was referred the resolution of the
Senate requesting the President "to institute an inquiry, by such means
as in his judgment shall be deemed proper, into the present condition
of the commercial relations between the United States and the Spanish
American States on this continent, and between those countries and other
nations, and to communicate to the Senate full and complete statements
regarding the same, together with such recommendations as he may think
necessary to promote the development and increase of our commerce with
those regions and to secure to the United States that proportionate
share of the trade of this continent to which their close relations of
geographical contiguity and political friendship with all the States
of America justly entitle them," has the honor to report:
The resolution justly regards the commercial and the political relations
of the United States with the American States of Spanish origin as
necessarily dependent upon each other. If the commerce of those
countries has been diverted from its natural connection with the United
States, the fact may probably be partly traced to political causes,
which have been swept away by the great civil convulsion in this
country.
For the just comprehension of the position of this Government in the
American political system, and for the causes which have failed to give
it hitherto the influence to which it is properly entitled by reason of
its democratic system and of the moderation and sense of justice which
have distinguished its foreign policy through successive Administrations
from the birth of the nation until now, it is necessary to make a brief
notice of such measures as affect our present relations to the other
parts of this continent.
The United States were the first of the European colonies in America to
arrive at maturity as a people and assume the position of an independent
republic. Since then important changes have taken place in various
nations and in every part of the world. Our own growth in power has been
not the least remarkable of all the great events of modern history.
When, at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, having conquered by
arms our right to exist as a sovereign state, that right was at length
recognized by treaties, we occupied only a narrow belt of land along the
Atlantic coast, hemmed in at the north, the west, and the south by the
possessions of European Governments, or by uncultivated wastes beyond
the Alleghanies, inhabited only by the aborigines. But in the very
infancy of the United States far-sighted statesmen saw and predicted
that, weak in population and apparently restricted in available
territory as the new Republic then was, it had within it the germs of
colossal grandeur, and would at no remote day occupy the continent of
America with its institutions, its authority, and its peaceful
influence.
That expectation has been thus far signally verified. The United States
entered at once into the occupation of their rightful possessions
westward to the banks of the Mississippi. Next, by the spontaneous
proffer of France, they acquired Louisiana and its territorial
extension, or right of extension, north to the line of the treaty
demarcation between France and Great Britain, and west to the Pacific
Ocean. Next, by amicable arrangement with Spain, they acquired the
Floridas, and complete southern maritime frontiers upon the Gulf of
Mexico. Then came the union with the independent State of Texas,
followed by the acquisitions of California and New Mexico, and then of
Arizona. Finally, Russia has ceded to us Alaska, and the continent of
North America has become independent of Europe, except so much of it as
continues to maintain political relations with Great Britain.
Meanwhile, partly by natural increase and partly by voluntary
immigration from Europe, our population has risen from 3,000,000 to
nearly 40,000,000; the number of States and Territories united under
the Constitution has been augmented from thirteen to forty-seven; the
development of internal wealth and power has kept pace with political
expansion; we have occupied in part and peopled the vast interior of
the continent; we have bound the Pacific to the Atlantic by a chain of
intervening States and organized Territories; we have delivered the
Republic from the anomaly and the ignominy of domestic servitude; we
have constitutionally fixed the equality of all races and of all men
before the law; and we have established, at the cost of a great civil
war--a cost, however, not beyond the value of such a result--the
indissoluble national unity of the United States.
In all these marked stages of national progress, from the Declaration
of Independence to the recent amendments of the Constitution, it is
impossible not to perceive a providential series and succession of
events, intimately attached one to the other, and possessed of definite
character as a whole, whatever incidental departures from such
uniformity may have marked, or seemed to mark, our foreign policy under
the influence of temporary causes or of the conflicting opinions of
statesmen.
In the time of Washington, of the first Adams, of Jefferson, and of
Madison the condition of Europe, engaged in the gigantic wars of the
French Revolution and of the Empire, produced its series of public
questions and gave tone and color to our foreign policy. In the time of
Monroe, of the second Adams, and of Jackson, and subsequently thereto,
the independence of the Spanish and Portuguese colonies of America
produced its series of questions and its apparent modification of our
public policy. Domestic questions of territorial organization, of social
emancipation, and of national unity have also largely occupied the minds
and the attention of the later Administrations.
The treaties of alliance and guaranty with France, which contributed so
much to our independence, were one source of solicitude to the early
Administrations, which were endeavoring to protect our commerce from the
depredations and wrongs to which the maritime policy of England and the
reaction of that policy on France subjected it. For twenty years we
struggled in vain to accomplish this, and at last drifted into war.
The avoidance of entangling alliances, the characteristic feature of the
foreign policy of Washington, sprang from this condition of things. But
the entangling alliances which then existed were engagements made with
France as a part of the general contract under which aid was furnished
to us for the achievement of our independence. France was willing to
waive the letter of the obligation as to her West India possessions, but
demanded in its stead privileges in our ports which the Administration
was unwilling to concede. To make its refusal acceptable to a public
which sympathized with France, the Cabinet of General Washington
exaggerated the principle into a theory tending to national isolation.
The public measures designed to maintain unimpaired the domestic
sovereignty and the international neutrality of the United States
were independent of this policy, though apparently incidental to it.
The municipal laws enacted by Congress then and since have been but
declarations of the law of nations. They are essential to the
preservation of our national dignity and honor; they have for their
object to repress and punish all enterprises of private war, one of the
last relics of mediaeval barbarism; and they have descended to us from
the fathers of the Republic, supported and enforced by every succeeding
President of the United States.
The foreign policy of these early days was not a narrow one. During
this period we secured the evacuation by Great Britain of the country
wrongfully occupied by her on the Lakes; we acquired Louisiana; we
measured forces on the sea with France, and on the land and sea with
England; we set the example of resisting and chastising the piracies of
the Barbary States; we initiated in negotiations with Prussia the long
line of treaties for the liberalization of war and the promotion of
international intercourse; and we steadily demanded, and at length
obtained, indemnification from various governments for the losses we
had suffered by foreign spoliations in the wars of Europe.
To this point in our foreign policy we had arrived when the
revolutionary movements in Spanish and Portuguese America compelled a
modification of our relations with Europe, in consequence of the rise of
new and independent states in America.
The revolution which commenced in 1810, and extended through all the
Spanish American continental colonies, after vain efforts of repression
on the part of Spain, protracted through twenty years, terminated in
the establishment of the independent States of Mexico, Guatemala, San
Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador,
Peru, Chile, Bolivia, the Argentine Republic, Uruguay, and Paraguay,
to which the Empire of Brazil came in time to be added. These events
necessarily enlarged the sphere of action of the United States, and
essentially modified our relations with Europe and our attitude to the
rest of this continent.
The new States were, like ourselves, revolted colonies. They continued
the precedent we had set, of separating from Europe. Their assumption of
independence was stimulated by our example. They professedly imitated
us, and copied our National Constitution, sometimes even to their
inconvenience.
The Spanish American colonies had not the same preparation for
independence that we had. Each of the British colonies possessed
complete local autonomy. Its formal transition from dependence to
independence consisted chiefly in expelling the British governor of the
colony and electing a governor of the State, from which to the organized
Union was but a step. All these conditions of success were wanting in
Spanish America, and hence many of the difficulties in their career
as independent states; and, further, while the revolution in British
America was the exclusive result of the march of opinion in the British
colonies, the simultaneous action of the separate Spanish colonies,
though showing a desire for independence, was principally produced by
the accident of the invasion of Spain by France.
The formation of these new sovereignties in America was important to us,
not only because of the cessation of colonial monopolies to that extent,
but because of the geographical relations to us held by so many new
nations, all, like ourselves, created from European stock and interested
in excluding European politics, dynastic questions, and balances of
power from further influence in the New World.
Thus the United States were forced into new lines of action, which,
though apparently in some respects conflicting, were really in harmony
with the line marked out by Washington. The avoidance of entangling
political alliances and the maintenance of our own independent
neutrality became doubly important from the fact that they became
applicable to the new Republics as well as to the mother country.
The duty of noninterference had been admitted by every President.
The question came up in the time of the first Adams, on the occasion
of the enlistment projects of Miranda. It appeared again under Jefferson
(anterior to the revolt of the Spanish colonies) in the schemes of Aaron
Burr. It was an ever-present question in the Administrations of Madison,
Monroe, and the younger Adams, in reference to the questions of foreign
enlistment or equipment in the United States, and when these new
Republics entered the family of nations, many of them very feeble, and
all too much subject to internal revolution and civil war, a strict
adherence to our previous policy and a strict enforcement of our laws
became essential to the preservation of friendly relations with them;
for since that time it has been one of the principal cares of those
intrusted with the administration of the Government to prevent piratical
expeditions against these sister Republics from leaving our ports.
And thus the changed condition of the New World made no change in the
traditional and peaceful policy of the United States in this respect.
In one respect, however, the advent of these new States in America did
compel an apparent change of foreign policy on our part. It devolved
upon us the determination of the great international question at what
time and under what circumstances to recognize a new power as entitled
to a place among the family of nations. There was but little of
precedent to guide us, except our own case. Something, indeed, could be
inferred from the historical origin of the Netherlands and Switzerland.
But our own case, carefully and conscientiously considered, was
sufficient to guide us to right conclusions. We maintained our position
of international friendship and of treaty obligations toward Spain, but
we did not consider that we were bound to wait for its recognition of
the new Republics before admitting them into treaty relations with us
as sovereign states. We held that it was for us to judge whether or
not they had attained to the condition of actual independence, and the
consequent right of recognition by us. We considered this question of
fact deliberately and coolly. We sent commissioners to Spanish America
to ascertain and report for our information concerning their actual
circumstances, and in the fullness of time we acknowledged their
independence; we exchanged diplomatic ministers, and made treaties of
amity with them, the earliest of which, negotiated by Mr. John Quincy
Adams, served as the model for the subsequent treaties with the Spanish
American Republics. We also, simultaneously therewith, exerted our good
offices with Spain to induce her to submit to the inevitable result and
herself to accept and acknowledge the independence of her late colonies.
We endeavored to induce Russia to join us in these representations.
In all this our action was positive, in the direction of promoting the
complete political separation of America from Europe.
A vast field was thus opened to the statesmen of the United States for
the peaceful introduction, the spread, and the permanent establishment
of the American ideas of republican government, of modification of the
laws of war, of liberalization of commerce, of religious freedom and
toleration, and of the emancipation of the New World from the dynastic
and balance of power controversies of Europe.
Mr. John Quincy Adams, beyond any other statesman of the time in this
country, had the knowledge and experience, both European and American,
the comprehension of thought and purpose, and the moral convictions
which peculiarly fitted him to introduce our country into this new field
and to lay the foundation of an American policy. The declaration known
as the Monroe doctrine, and the objects and purposes of the congress of
Panama, both supposed to have been largely inspired by Mr. Adams, have
influenced public events from that day to this as a principle of
government for this continent and its adjacent islands.
It was at the period of the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle and of
Laybach, when the "Holy Alliance" was combined to arrest all political
changes in Europe in the sense of liberty, when they were intervening
in southern Europe for the reestablishment of absolutism, and when they
were meditating interference to check the progress of free government
in America, that Mr. Monroe, in his annual message of December, 1823,
declared that the United States would consider any attempt to extend
the European system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to
our peace and safety. "With the existing colonies or dependencies of
any European power," he said, "we have not interfered and shall not
interfere; but with the governments who have declared their independence
and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great
consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view
any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in
any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light
than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United
States."
This declaration resolved the solution of the immediate question of the
independence of the Spanish American colonies, and is supposed to have
exercised some influence upon the course of the British cabinet in
regard to the absolutist schemes in Europe as well as in America.
It has also exercised a permanent influence on this continent. It was at
once invoked in consequence of the supposed peril of Cuba on the side of
Europe; it was applied to a similar danger threatening Yucatan; it was
embodied in the treaty of the United States and Great Britain as to
Central America; it produced the successful opposition of the United
States to the attempt of Great Britain to exercise dominion in Nicaragua
under the cover of the Mosquito Indians; and it operated in like manner
to prevent the establishment of a European dynasty in Mexico.
The United States stand solemnly committed by repeated declarations and
repeated acts to this doctrine, and its application to the affairs of
this continent. In his message to the two Houses of Congress at the
commencement of the present session the President, following the
teachings of all our history, said that the existing "dependencies are
no longer regarded as subject to transfer from one European power to
another. When the present relation of colonies ceases, they are to
become independent powers, exercising the right of choice and of
self-control in the determination of their future condition and
relations with other powers."
This policy is not a policy of aggression; but it opposes the creation
of European dominion on American soil, or its transfer to other European
powers, and it looks hopefully to the time when, by the voluntary
departure of European Governments from this continent and the adjacent
islands, America shall be wholly American.
It does not contemplate forcible intervention in any legitimate contest,
but it protests against permitting such a contest to result in the
increase of European power or influence; and it ever impels this
Government, as in the late contest between the South American Republics
and Spain, to interpose its good offices to secure an honorable peace.
The congress of Panama was planned by Bolivar to secure the union of
Spanish America against Spain. It had originally military as well as
political purposes. In the military objects the United States could take
no part; and, indeed, the necessity for such objects ceased when the
full effects of Mr. Monroe's declarations were felt. But the pacific
objects of the congress--the establishment of close and cordial
relations of amity, the creation of commercial intercourse, of
interchange of political thought, and of habits of good understanding
between the new Republics and the United States and their respective
citizens--might perhaps have been attained had the Administration of
that day received the united support of the country. Unhappily, they
were lost; the new States were removed from the sympathetic and
protecting influence of our example, and their commerce, which we might
then have secured, passed into other hands, unfriendly to the United
States.
In looking back upon the Panama congress from this length of time it is
easy to understand why the earnest and patriotic men who endeavored to
crystallize an American system for this continent failed.
Mr. Clay and Mr. Adams were far-sighted statesmen, but, unfortunately,
they struck against the rock of African slavery. One of the questions
proposed for discussion in the conference was "the consideration of
the means to be adopted for the entire abolition of the African slave
trade," to which proposition the committee of the United States Senate
of that day replied: "The United States have not certainly the right,
and ought never to feel the inclination, to dictate to others who may
differ with them upon this subject; nor do the committee see the
expediency of insulting other states with whom we are maintaining
relations of perfect amity by ascending the moral chair and proclaiming
from thence mere abstract principles, of the rectitude of which each
nation enjoys the perfect right of deciding for itself." The same
committee also alluded to the possibility that the condition of the
islands of Cuba and Porto Rico, still the possessions of Spain and
still slaveholding, might be made the subject of discussion and of
contemplated action by the Panama congress. "If ever the United States,"
they said, "permit themselves to be associated with these nations in any
general congress assembled for the discussion of common plans in any way
affecting European interests, they will by such act not only deprive
themselves of the ability they now possess of rendering useful
assistance to the other American States, but also produce other effects
prejudicial to their own interests."
Thus the necessity at that day of preserving the great interest of the
Southern States in African slavery, and of preventing a change in the
character of labor in the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico, lost to the
United States the opportunity of giving a permanent direction to the
political and commercial connections of the newly enfranchised Spanish
American States, and their trade passed into hands unfriendly to the
United States, and has remained there ever since.
Events subsequent to that date have tended to place us in a position to
retrieve our mistakes, among which events may be particularly named the
suppression of the rebellion, the manifestation of our undeveloped and
unexpected military power, the retirement of the French from Mexico, and
the abolition of slavery in the United States.
There is good reason to believe that the latter fact has had an
important influence in our favor in Spanish America. It has caused us
to be regarded there with more sympathetic as well as more respectful
consideration. It has relieved those Republics from the fear of
filibusterism which had been formerly incited against Central America
and Mexico in the interest of slave extension, and it has produced
an impression of the stability of our institutions and of our public
strength sufficient to dissipate the fears of our friends or the hopes
of those who wish us ill.
Thus there exists in the Spanish American Republics confidence toward
the United States. On our side they find a feeling of cordial amity and
friendship, and a desire to cultivate and develop our common interests
on this continent. With some of these States our relations are more
intimate than with others, either by reason of closer similarity of
constitutional forms, of greater commercial intercourse, of proximity in
fact, or of the construction or contemplated construction of lines of
transit for our trade and commerce between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
With several of them we have peculiar treaty relations. The treaty of
1846 between the United States and New Granada contains stipulations
of guaranty for the neutrality of that part of the Isthmus within the
present territory of Colombia, and for the protection of the rights
of sovereignty and property therein belonging to Colombia. Similar
stipulations appear in the treaty of 1867 with Nicaragua, and of July,
1864, with Honduras. Those treaties (like the treaty of alliance made
with France in 1778 by Dr. Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee)
constitute _pro tanto_ a true protective alliance between the United
States and each of those Republics. Provisions of like effect appear
in the treaty of April 19, 1850, between Great Britain and the United
States.
Brazil, with her imperial semblance and constitutional reality, has
always held relations of amity with us, which have been fortified by
the opening of her great rivers to commerce. It needs only that, in
emulation of Russia and the United States, she should emancipate her
slaves to place her in more complete sympathy with the rest of America.
It will not be presumptuous, after the foregoing sketch, to say, with
entire consideration for the sovereignty and national pride of the
Spanish American Republics, that the United States, by the priority
of their independence, by the stability of their institutions, by the
regard of their people for the forms of law, by their resources as a
government, by their naval power, by their commercial enterprise, by the
attractions which they offer to European immigration, by the prodigious
internal development of their resources and wealth, and by the
intellectual life of their population, occupy of necessity a prominent
position on this continent, which they neither can nor should abdicate,
which entitles them to a leading voice, and which imposes upon them
duties of right and of honor regarding American questions, whether those
questions affect emancipated colonies or colonies still subject to
European dominion.
The public questions which existed as to all European colonies prior to
and during the revolutions in the continental colonies of Spain and
Portugal still exist with reference to the European colonies which
remain; and they now return upon us in full force, as we watch events in
Cuba and Porto Rico.
Whatever may be the result of the pending contest in Cuba, it appears
to be the belief of some of the leading statesmen of Spain that the
relations which now exist between the island and the mother country can
not be long continued. It is understood that the resources for carrying
on the struggle have been supplied mainly from Cuba, by the aid of that
portion of the population which does not desire to see its political
destinies intrusted to the persons who direct the movements of the
insurgents; but it does not follow that its political relations with
Spain are to remain unchanged, or that even the party which is now
dominant in the island will wish to forever continue colonists.
These facts give reason to think that when the contest shall close,
Cuba, with her resources strained, but unexhausted (whatever may be
her political relations), will resume and continue her old commercial
relations with the United States; and it is not impossible that at some
day, not far distant when measured by the course of history, she will be
called upon to elect her position in the family of nations.
Although the resolution of the Senate does not in terms apply to the
islands of the Antilles, it is impossible to answer it without speaking
of them. They outlie the southern coast of the United States and guard
the approaches to the ports of Mexico, Venezuela, and the Isthmus, by
which we reach from the east the western coasts of Mexico and of the
Spanish States. The people of the Spanish islands speak the language
and share the traditions, customs, ideas, and religion of the Spanish
American States of the continent, and will probably, like them, become
at some time independent of the mother country. It would, therefore,
be unwise, while shaping a commercial policy for the continent, to
disregard the islands which lie so much nearer to our seaports.
With the Spanish islands of Cuba and Porto Rico we maintain, in spite of
their adverse legislation, a large commerce by reason of our necessities
and of their proximity. In the year ending June 30, 1869, we imported
from them merchandise valued at $65,609,274. During the same time we
sent them goods to the value only of $15,313,919.
The prohibitory duties forced upon them by the policy of Spain
shut out much that we might supply. Their tropical productions, for
instance, are too valuable to allow their lands to be given up to the
growth of breadstuffs; yet, instead of taking these articles from the
superabundant fields of their nearest neighbors, they are forced to
go to the distant plains of Spain. It will be for the interest of the
United States to shape its general policy so that this relation of
imports and exports shall be altered in Cuba when peace is restored
and its political condition is satisfactorily established.
With none of the other Spanish American States in North and South
America are our commercial relations what they should be. Our total
imports in the year ending June 30, 1869, from these countries were less
than $25,000,000 (or not one-half the amount from Cuba alone), and our
exports for the same time to them were only $17,850,313; and yet these
countries have an aggregate population nearly or quite as great as that
of the United States; they have republican forms of government, and they
profess to be, and probably really are, in political sympathy with us.
This Department is not able to give with entire accuracy the imports
and exports of Great Britain with the same countries during the
corresponding period. It is believed, however, the following figures
will be found to be not far from correct: Imports to Great Britain,
$42,820,942; exports from Great Britain, $40,682,102.
It thus appears that notwithstanding the greater distance which
the commerce has to travel in coming to and from Great Britain,
notwithstanding the political sympathy which ought naturally to exist
between republics, notwithstanding the American idea which has been
so prominently and so constantly put forward by the Government of the
United States, notwithstanding the acknowledged skill of American
manufacturers, notwithstanding the ready markets which the great cities
of the United States afford for the consumption of tropical productions,
the inhabitants of the Spanish American continent consume of the
products of Great Britain more than twice the quantity they take of
the products of the United States, and that they sell to us only
three-fifths of the amount they sell to Great Britain.
The Secretary of State appends to this report the tables on which these
statements are founded. That their commerce with the United States is
not large may be partially explained by the fact that these States have
been subject to many successive revolutions since the failure of the
congress of Panama. These revolutions not only exhaust their resources
and burden them with debt, but they check emigration, prevent the flow
of foreign capital into the country, and stop the enterprise which needs
a stable government for its development.
These suggestions are, however, applicable to the British commerce as
well as to our own, and they do not explain why we, with the natural
advantages in our favor, fall so far behind. The Isthmus of Panama is
the common point where the commerce of the western coasts of Mexico and
South America meets. When it arrives there, why should it seek Liverpool
and London rather than New York?
The political causes which have operated to divert this commerce from us
the Secretary of State has endeavored to explain. A favorable time has
now come for removing them--for laying the foundation of an American
policy which shall bind in closer union the American Republics. Let
them understand that the United States do not covet their territories;
that our only desire is to see them peaceful, with free and stable
governments, increasing in wealth and population, and developing in the
lines in which their own traditions, customs, habits, laws, and modes
of thought will naturally take them. Let them feel that, as in 1826,
so now, this Government is ready to aid them to the full extent of its
constitutional power in any steps which they may take for their better
protection against anarchy. Let them be convinced that the United States
is prepared, in good faith and without ulterior purposes, to join them
in the development of a peaceful American commercial policy that may in
time include this continent and the West Indian Islands. Let this be
comprehended, and there will be no political reason why we may not
"secure to the United States that proportionate share of the trade of
this continent to which their close relations of geographical contiguity
and political friendship with all the States of America justly entitle
them."
It may not be enough to remove the political obstacles only. The
financial policy which the war made necessary may have operated
injuriously upon our commerce with these States. The resolution of the
Senate calls, on these points, for detailed information which is not
within the control of the Secretary of State, and for recommendations
for the future which he is not prepared to give without that
information. To fully answer the Senate's call, it would probably be
necessary to employ some competent agent, familiar with the Spanish
American States, to collate and arrange the information asked for.
For this there is no appropriation by Congress.
Respectfully submitted.
HAMILTON FISH.
_Commerce of the United States with the countries on this continent and
adjacent islands for the year ended June 30, 1860_.
[Compiled from the Annual Report on Commerce and Navigation.]
Countries. Imports. Exports. Reexports. Total Total
exports. commerce.
_______________________________________________________________________
Dominion of
Canada $3,353,010 $18,188,613 $2,858,782 $21,047,395 $51,400,405
All other
British
possessions
in North
America 1,737,304 2,703,173 446,664 3,149,837 4,887,141
British West
Indies 6,682,391 9,142,344 101,760 9,244,104 15,926,495
==========================================================
Total 38,772,705 30,034,130 3,407,206 33,441,336 72,214,041
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cuba 58,201,374 12,643,955 7,064,787 19,708,742 77,910,116
Porto Rico 7,407,900 2,669,964 114,037 2,784,001 10,191,901
==========================================================
Total 65,609,274 15,313,919 7,178,824 22,492,743 88,102,017
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
French
possessions
in America 696,952 1,174,056 45,514 1,219,570 1,916,522
Danish West
Indies 638,550 1,500,000 39,121 1,539,121 2,177,671
Dutch West
Indies and
Guiana 999,099 926,051 29,595 955,646 1,954,745
Hayti and
San Domingo 729,632 1,349,438 129,462 1,478,900 2,208,532
Sandwich
Islands 1,298,065 700,962 86,665 787,627 2,085,712
==========================================================
Total 4,362,318 5,650,507 330,357 5,980,864 10,343,182
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mexico 7,232,006 3,836,699 1,047,408 4,884,107 12,116,113
Central
American
States 733,296 1,324,336 52,146 1,376,482 2,109,778
Colombia 5,291,706 4,900,075 180,267 5,080,342 10,372,048
Peru 1,386,310 1,556,434 116,911 1,673,445 3,059,755
Chile 1,186,982 1,969,580 115,905 2,085,485 3,272,467
Argentine
Republic 5,162,966 2,235,089 272,425 2,507,514 7,670,480
Uruguay 1,472,608 835,112 58,270 894,382 2,366,990
Brazil 24,912,450 5,910,565 158,514 6,069,079 30,981,529
Venezuela 2,431,760 1,191,888 29,176 1,221,064 3,652,824
==========================================================
Total 49,810,084 23,760,878 2,031,022 25,791,900 75,601,984
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Grand
total 158,554,381 74,759,434 12,947,409 87,706,843 246,261,224
==========================================================
Total
commerce
of
United
States 437,314,255 413,954,615 25,173,414 439,128,029 876,442,284
_______________________________________________________________________
_Imports and exports of Great Britain with Spanish America and some
of the West India Islands for parts of the years 1868 and 1869_.
Year. Imports. Exports.
==================================================================
Cuba and Porto Rico 1869 £3,228,292 £1,374,242
French possessions in America 1868 4,252 3,002
Danish West Indies 1868 295,102 9,211
Dutch West Indies and Guiana 1868 148,882 4,444
Hayti and San Domingo 1868 220,806 6,043
Sandwich Islands 1868 33,336 917
Mexico 1868 350,664 92,077
Central American States 1868 939,827 173,611
Colombia 1869 971,396 2,500,039
Peru 1869 2,734,784 1,180,931
Chile 1869 3,211,174 1,596,905
Argentine Republic 1869 1,034,445 1,841,953
Uruguay 1869 535,015 1,009,425
Brazil 1869 7,754,526 5,477,439
Venezuela 1868 69,997 10,452
==================================================================
WASHINGTON, _July 14, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit, for the consideration of the Senate with a view to
ratification, a convention between the United States and His Majesty the
King of Sweden and Norway, relative to the citizenship of natives of the
one country who may emigrate to the other. A protocol on the subject is
also herewith transmitted.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _July 14, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit, for consideration with a view to its ratification, a
convention between the United States and the Republic of Salvador for
the surrender of fugitive criminals, signed at San Salvador on the 23d
day of May last.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, D.C., _July 15, 1870_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_
Your attention is respectfully called to the necessity of passing an
Indian appropriation bill before the members of Congress separate.
Without such appropriation Indian hostilities are sure to ensue, and
with them suffering, loss of life, and expenditures vast as compared
with the amount asked for.
The latest intelligence from Europe indicates the imminence of a
war between France and North Germany. In view of this a sound policy
indicates the importance of some legislation tending to enlarge the
commercial marine of this country. The vessels of this country at the
present time are insufficient to meet the demand which the existence of
a war in Europe will impose upon the commerce of the United States, and
I submit to the consideration of Congress that the interests of the
country will be advanced by the opportunity afforded to our citizens to
purchase vessels of foreign construction for the foreign trade of the
country. An act to this effect may be limited in its duration to meet
the immediate exigency.
The foreign-mail service of the United States is in a large degree
dependent upon the Bremen and Hamburg lines of steamers. The Post-Office
Department has entered into contracts in writing with the two companies
above named, and with the Williams and Guion lines, respectively, for a
regular and continuous service of two years. The only arrangement that
could be made with the Inman and Cunard lines is temporary, and may be
broken off at any time.
The North German lines are first class in point of speed and equipment,
their steamers usually making the trip across the Atlantic in from
twenty-four to thirty-six hours in advance of the Williams and Guion
lines.
Should the North German steamers be blockaded or impeded by France, our
postal intercourse with foreign nations will be greatly embarrassed
unless Congress shall interpose for its relief.
I suggest to Congress the propriety of further postponing the time for
adjournment, with the view of considering the questions herein
communicated.
U.S. GRANT.
WASHINGTON, _July 15, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
In answer to their resolution of the 9th instant, I transmit a report[28]
from the Secretary of State and the papers which accompanied it.
U.S. GRANT.
[Footnote 28: Relating to the importation of Chinese coolies into the
United States.]
VETO MESSAGES.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., January 11, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I return herewith without my approval Senate bill No. 273, entitled
"An act for the relief of Rollin White," for the reasons set forth in
the accompanying communication, dated December n, 1869, from the Chief
of Ordnance.
U.S. GRANT.
ORDNANCE OFFICE, WAR DEPARTMENT, _Washington, December 11, 1869_.
Hon. W.W. BELKNAP,
_Secretary of War_.
SIR: In the year 1855 Rollin White obtained letters patent for
improvements in repeating pistols, in (among other things) extending the
chambers of the rotating cylinder through to the rear, so as to enable
the chambers to be charged at the rear by hand or by a self-acting
charger.
Some time afterwards, and prior to the breaking out of the rebellion,
he assigned this patent to Smith & Wesson, of Springfield, Mass., for
the sum of $500 in cash and their obligation to pay him 25 cents royalty
on each pistol manufactured under the patent, binding himself to apply
for and to use his influence to procure a renewal of the patent. He
afterwards surrendered this original patent and obtained a reissue
in three divisions. Two years before the expiration of the latter he
applied to the Commissioner of Patents for an extension, upon the
ground of insufficiency of compensation. The Commissioner rejected the
application for an extension, without assigning any reason, and the
patents expired by limitation on the 3d of April, 1869, and the
invention became public property.
On the 9th of April, 1869, a bill authorizing the Commissioner of
Patents to reconsider the application of Rollin White for extension of
his patents was introduced in the Senate and passed without debate. It
passed the House without debate on the 10th of April, but failed to
receive the signature of the Vice-President before Congress adjourned.
It is understood that it has now been signed by that officer, and only
awaits the approval of the President to become a law.
Unless the ends of justice require the extension of this patent, it
should not be renewed. So far as I have been able to ascertain, justice
to the Government and to the public forbids this patent from being
renewed.
The validity of the patent has been questioned for many years, and it is
understood that it was only affirmed by the Supreme Court by a tie vote,
four of the justices voting affirmatively and an equal number
negatively.
Its renewal is urged by Rollin White upon the ground that he has not
been sufficiently compensated for his invention. Rollin White has
received nearly $71,000 as royalty. Smith & Wesson, for the years 1862,
1863, 1864, 1865, 1866, 1867, and 1868, returned incomes amounting in
the aggregate to about $1,000,000. This was derived chiefly from the
manufacture of firearms under Rollin White's patent, that firm holding
the exclusive right to manufacture under it and being engaged almost
exclusively in their manufacture.
It is believed that the Government suffered inconvenience and
embarrassment enough during the war in consequence of the inability of
manufacturers to use this patent, and that its further extension will
operate prejudicially to its interest by compelling it to pay to parties
already well paid a large royalty for altering its revolvers to use
metallic cartridges.
For these reasons I respectfully request that you will call the
attention of the President of the United States to this subject before
he acts upon the bill which is now before him.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
A.B. DYER,
_Brevet Major-General, Chief of Ordnance_.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _July 14, 1870_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I herewith return without my approval Senate bill No. 476, "An act to
fix the status of certain Federal soldiers enlisting in the Union Army
from the States of Alabama and Florida," for the reasons embodied in the
following facts, which have been obtained from the office of the Second
Comptroller:
The First Regiment of Florida Cavalry, composed of six companies, was
organized from December, 1862, to August, 1864, to serve three years.
It was mustered out of service November 17, 1865, by reason of general
order from the War Department discharging all cavalry organizations east
of the Mississippi.
The men of this regiment enlisting prior to July 18, 1864, received $25
advance bounty at muster-in, and the discharged soldiers and heirs of
those deceased have been paid the same bounty under act of July 22,
1861, joint resolution of January 13, 1864, an act of July 28, 1866,
as men enlisted at the same time in other volunteer organizations.
The Second Regiment of Florida Cavalry, composed of seven companies, was
organized from December, 1863, to June, 1864, to serve three years. It
was mustered out November 29, 1865, by reason of the order discharging
cavalry organizations east of the Mississippi. Most of the men received
the $25 advance bounty at muster-in, and the discharged men and heirs of
deceased men have received bounty under the several acts of Congress
cited above, subject to the same conditions which apply to men who
enlisted at the same time in other volunteer organizations.
The First Alabama Cavalry was originally organized as a one-year
regiment from December, 1862, to September, 1863, and two companies
of three-years men (Companies I and K) were added to complete its
organization. These companies were formerly Companies D and E of the
First Middle Tennessee Cavalry. Prior to the expiration of the term
of the one-year men, the Adjutant-General of the Army, of date May 15,
1863, authorized General Dodge to fill up this command, and in accordance
therewith the places of the companies discharged by reason of expiration
of term were filled by companies of men enlisted for three years. The
original companies, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and L, were organized from
December, 1862, to September 25, 1863, and were discharged by companies
from December 22, 1863, to September 28, 1864, in order as the term (one
year) of each company expired. Companies I and K, mustered in August,
1862, to serve three years, were discharged in July, 1865, by reason
of expiration of term of service. As reorganized under the order above
mentioned, the regiment consisted of Companies A, B, C, D, E, and G,
organized from February 5, 1864, to October, 1864, to serve three years;
Companies F, L, and M, organized from December 28, 1863, to October 31,
1864, to serve one and three years; Company H, organized in March and
April, 1865, to serve three years, and Companies I and K, of the old
organization described above. The men of the First Alabama Cavalry who
enlisted for three years have been paid bounty under the several acts
of Congress upon the same principles which apply to other three-years
volunteers. The one-year men enlisted prior to July 18, 1864, received
no bounty, but $100 bounty has been paid the proper heirs of the
one-year men of this organization who died in the service, in accordance
with the act of July 22, 1861, under which the regiment was originally
organized.
Some of the men of these organizations were erroneously paid by the Pay
Department at the time of their muster out of service, they having been
paid but $100, when they should have been allowed $300 under the joint
resolution of January 13, 1864. The balance of bounty due these men is
being paid by the proper accounting officers. It will be seen by
comparing the above statement with the act under consideration that the
effect of the act will be to give the one-year men of the First Alabama
Cavalry, nearly all of whom enlisted in 1862 and 1863, a bounty of $100
each, or a proportionate part, according to the time served. It would
give each man of Companies I and K of the First Alabama Cavalry $100
more bounty. The bounty of the other three-years men of the First
Alabama Cavalry, First Florida Cavalry, and Second Florida Cavalry, who
enlisted prior to December 25, 1863, and from April 1, 1864, to July 17,
1864, inclusive, and who were discharged by reason of orders from the
War Department, will not be affected.
The men enlisting in these organizations under joint resolution of
January 13, 1864, receive under existing laws $100 more bounty than they
would be entitled to receive if the act under consideration becomes a
law.
In case of deceased men the working of the act is still more perplexing,
as the prescribed order of inheritance under the act of July 4, 1864, is
entirely different from that under all other acts.
A large proportion of the claims in case of the deceased men have been
settled, and the bounties have been paid fathers, mothers, brothers,
and sisters, the proper heirs under existing laws, which under this act
would go only to the widow, children, and widowed mother. Bounty has
also been paid to parents under act of July 28, 1866, which this act
would require to be paid to the widow, although she may have remarried.
Under the act of July 28, 1866, children of age are not entitled, but
this act makes them joint heirs with the minor children.
In case of the deceased one-year men, and the three-years men enlisted
under joint resolution of January 13, 1864, the effect of this act would
only be to change the prescribed order of inheritance.
In case of the three-years men enlisted under act of July 22, 1861, the
order of inheritance is changed by this act, and the heirs entitled
(widow, children, and widowed mother) will receive $100 more bounty than
they are now entitled to receive.
It may be well to state that November 14, 1864, the War Department gave
authority to enlist men who had deserted from the rebel army as recruits
for the First Alabama Cavalry, with the distinct understanding that they
were to receive no bounty. Such recruits have not been paid bounty, and
it may be a question whether the act under consideration would entitle
them to any.
U.S. GRANT.
PROCLAMATIONS.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas, pursuant to the first section of the act of Congress approved
the 11th day of June, 1864, entitled "An act to provide for the
execution of treaties between the United States and foreign nations
respecting consular jurisdiction over the crews of vessels of such
foreign nations in the waters and ports of the United States," it is
provided that before that act shall take effect as to the ships and
vessels of any particular nation having such treaty with the United
States the President of the United States shall have been satisfied that
similar provisions have been made for the execution of such treaty by
the other contracting party, and shall have issued his proclamation to
that effect, declaring that act to be in force as to such nation; and
Whereas due inquiry having been made and satisfactory answers having
been received that similar provisions are in force in France, Prussia
and the other States of the North German Union, and Italy:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the
United States of America, do hereby proclaim the same accordingly.
Done at the city of Washington, this 10th day of February, A.D. 1870,
and of the Independence of the United States of America the
ninety-fourth.
[SEAL.]
U.S. GRANT.
By the President:
HAMILTON FISH,
_Secretary of State_.
ULYSSES S. GRANT, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
_To all whom it may concern:_
An exequatur, bearing date the 17th day of June, 1865, having been
issued to Joaquin de Palma, recognizing him as vice-consul of Portugal
at Savannah, Ga., and declaring him free to exercise and enjoy such
functions, powers, and privileges as are allowed to vice-consuls by the
law of nations or by the laws of the United States and existing treaty
stipulations between the Government of Portugal and the United States;
but for satisfactory reasons it is deemed advisable that the said
Joaquin de Palma should no longer be permitted to continue in the
exercise of said functions, powers, and privileges:
These are therefore to declare that I no longer recognize the said
Joaquin de Palma as vice-consul of Portugal at Savannah, Ga., and will
not permit him to exercise or enjoy any of the functions, powers, or
privileges allowed to a consular officer of that nation; and that I do
hereby wholly revoke and annul the said exequatur heretofore given, and
do declare the same to be absolutely null and void from this day
forward.
In testimony whereof I have caused these letters to be made patent and
the seal of the United States of America to be hereunto affixed.
[SEAL.]
Given under my hand, at Washington, this 12th day of May, A.D. 1870, and
of the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-fourth.
U.S. GRANT.
By the President:
HAMILTON FISH,
_Secretary of State_.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas it has come to my knowledge that sundry illegal military
enterprises and expeditions are being set on foot within the territory
and jurisdiction of the United States with a view to carry on the same
from such territory and jurisdiction against the people and district of
the Dominion of Canada, within the dominions of Her Majesty the Queen of
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with whom the United
States are at peace:
Now, therefore, I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States, do
hereby admonish all good citizens of the United States and all persons
within the territory and jurisdiction of the United States against
aiding, countenancing, abetting, or taking part in such unlawful
proceedings; and I do hereby warn all persons that by committing such
illegal acts they will forfeit all right to the protection of the
Government or to its interference in their behalf to rescue them from
the consequences of their own acts; and I do hereby enjoin all officers
in the service of the United States to employ all their lawful authority
and power to prevent and defeat the aforesaid unlawful proceedings and
to arrest and bring to justice all persons who may be engaged therein.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 24th day of May, A.D. 1870, and of
the Independence of the United States the ninety-fourth.
U.S. GRANT.
By the President:
HAMILTON FISH,
_Secretary of State_.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas a state of war unhappily exists between France on the one side
and the North German Confederation and its allies on the other side; and
Whereas the United States are on terms of friendship and amity with all
the contending powers and with the persons inhabiting their several
dominions; and
Whereas great numbers of the citizens of the United States reside within
the territories or dominions of each of the said belligerents and carry
on commerce, trade, or other business or pursuits therein, protected by
the faith of treaties; and
Whereas great numbers of the subjects or citizens of each of the said
belligerents reside within the territory or jurisdiction of the United
States and carry on commerce, trade, or other business or pursuits
therein; and
Whereas the laws of the United States, without interfering with the free
expression of opinion and sympathy, or with the open manufacture or sale
of arms or munitions of war, nevertheless impose upon all persons who
may be within their territory and jurisdiction the duty of an impartial
neutrality during the existence of the contest:
Now, therefore, I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States,
in order to preserve the neutrality of the United States and of their
citizens and of persons within their territory and jurisdiction, and to
enforce their laws, and in order that all persons, being warned of the
general tenor of the laws and treaties of the United States in this
behalf and of the law of nations, may thus be prevented from an
unintentional violation of the same, do hereby declare and proclaim that
by the act passed on the 20th day of April, A.D. 1818, commonly known as
the "neutrality law," the following acts are forbidden to be done, under
severe penalties, within the territory and jurisdiction of the United
States, to wit:
1. Accepting and exercising a commission to serve either of the said
belligerents, by land or by sea, against the other belligerent.
2. Enlisting or entering into the service of either of the said
belligerents as a soldier or as a marine or seaman on board of any
vessel of war, letter of marque, or privateer.
3. Hiring or retaining another person to enlist or enter himself in the
service of either of the said belligerents as a soldier or as a marine
or seaman on board of any vessel of war, letter of marque, or privateer.
4. Hiring another person to go beyond the limits or jurisdiction of the
United States with intent to be enlisted as aforesaid.
5. Hiring another person to go beyond the limits of the United States
with intent to be entered into service as aforesaid.
6. Retaining another person to go beyond the limits of the United States
with intent to be enlisted as aforesaid.
7. Retaining another person to go beyond the limits of the United States
with intent to be entered into service as aforesaid. (But the said act
is not to be construed to extend to a citizen or subject of either
belligerent who, being transiently within the United States, shall, on
board of any vessel of war which at the time of its arrival within the
United States was fitted and equipped as such vessel of war, enlist or
enter himself, or hire or retain another subject or citizen of the same
belligerent who is transiently within the United States to enlist or
enter himself, to serve such belligerent on board such vessel of war,
if the United States shall then be at peace with such belligerent.)
8. Fitting out and arming, or attempting to fit out and arm, or
procuring to be fitted out and armed, or knowingly being concerned in
the furnishing, fitting out, or arming of any ship or vessel with intent
that such ship or vessel shall be employed in the service of either of
the said belligerents.
9. Issuing or delivering a commission within the territory or
jurisdiction of the United States for any ship or vessel to the intent
that she may be employed as aforesaid.
10. Increasing or augmenting, or procuring to be increased or augmented,
or knowingly being concerned in increasing or augmenting, the force of
any ship of war, cruiser, or other armed vessel which at the time of her
arrival within the United States was a ship of war, cruiser, or armed
vessel in the service of either of the said belligerents, or belonging
to the subjects or citizens of either, by adding to the number of guns
of such vessel, or by changing those on board of her for guns of a
larger caliber, or by the addition thereto of any equipment solely
applicable to war.
11. Beginning or setting on foot or providing or preparing the means
for any military expedition or enterprise to be carried on from the
territory or jurisdiction of the United States against the territories
or dominions of either of the said belligerents.
And I do further declare and proclaim that by the nineteenth article of
the treaty of amity and commerce which was concluded between His Majesty
the King of Prussia and the United States of America on the 11th day of
July, A.D. 1799, which article was revived by the treaty of May 1, A.D.
1828, between the same parties, and is still in force, it was agreed
that "the vessels of war, public and private, of both parties shall
carry freely, wheresoever they please, the vessels and effects taken
from their enemies, without being obliged to pay any duties, charges, or
fees to officers of admiralty, of the customs, or any others; nor shall
such prizes be arrested, searched, or put under legal process when they
come to and enter the ports of the other party, but may freely be
carried out again at any time by their captors to the places expressed
in their commissions, which the commanding officer of such vessel shall
be obliged to show."
And I do further declare and proclaim that it has been officially
communicated to the Government of the United States by the envoy
extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the North German
Confederation at Washington that private property on the high seas will
be exempted from seizure by the ships of His Majesty the King of
Prussia, without regard to reciprocity.
And I do further declare and proclaim that it has been officially
communicated to the Government of the United States by the envoy
extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of His Majesty the Emperor of
the French at Washington that orders have been given that in the conduct
of the war the commanders of the French forces on land and on the seas
shall scrupulously observe toward neutral powers the rules of
international law and that they shall strictly adhere to the principles
set forth in the declaration of the congress of Paris of the 16th of
April, 1856; that is to say:
First. That privateering is and remains abolished.
Second. That the neutral flag covers enemy's goods, with the exception
of contraband of war.
Third. That neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, are
not liable to capture under the enemy's flag.
Fourth. That blockades, in order to be binding, must be effective--that
is to say, maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to
the coast of the enemy; and that, although the United States have not
adhered to the declaration of 1856, the vessels of His Majesty will not
seize enemy's property found on board of a vessel of the United States,
provided that property is not contraband of war.
And I do further declare and proclaim that the statutes of the United
States and the law of nations alike require that no person within the
territory and jurisdiction of the United States shall take part,
directly or indirectly, in the said war, but shall remain at peace with
each of the said belligerents and shall maintain a strict and impartial
neutrality, and that whatever privileges shall be accorded to one
belligerent within the ports of the United States shall be in like
manner accorded to the other.
And I do hereby enjoin all the good citizens of the United States and
all persons residing or being within the territory or jurisdiction of
the United States to observe the laws thereof and to commit no act
contrary to the provisions of the said statutes or in violation of the
law of nations in that behalf.
And I do hereby warn all citizens of the United States and all persons
residing or being within their territory or jurisdiction that while the
free and full expression of sympathies in public and private is not
restricted by the laws of the United States, military forces in aid of
either belligerent can not lawfully be originated or organized within
their jurisdiction; and that while all persons may lawfully and without
restriction, by reason of the aforesaid state of war, manufacture and
sell within the United States arms and munitions of war and other
articles ordinarily known as "contraband of war," yet they can not carry
such articles upon the high seas for the use or service of either
belligerent, nor can they transport soldiers and officers of either,
or attempt to break any blockade which may be lawfully established and
maintained during the war, without incurring the risk of hostile capture
and the penalties denounced by the law of nations in that behalf.
And I do hereby give notice that all citizens of the United States
and others who may claim the protection of this Government who may
misconduct themselves in the premises will do so at their peril, and
that they can in no wise obtain any protection from the Government of
the United States against the consequences of their misconduct.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal
of the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 22d day of August, A.D. 1870, and
of the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-fifth.
U.S. GRANT.
By the President:
HAMILTON FISH,
_Secretary of State_.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas on the 22d day of August, 1870, my proclamation was issued
enjoining neutrality in the present war between France and the North
German Confederation and its allies, and declaring, so far as then
seemed to be necessary, the respective rights and obligations of the
belligerent parties and of the citizens of the United States; and
Whereas subsequent information gives reason to apprehend that armed
cruisers of the belligerents may be tempted to abuse the hospitality
accorded to them in the ports, harbors, roadsteads, and other waters of
the United States, by making such waters subservient to the purposes of
war:
Now, therefore, I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States of
America, do hereby proclaim and declare that any frequenting and use of
the waters within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States by
the armed vessels of either belligerent, whether public ships or
privateers, for the purpose of preparing for hostile operations or as
posts of observation upon the ships of war or privateers or merchant
vessels of the other belligerent lying within or being about to enter
the jurisdiction of the United States, must be regarded as unfriendly
and offensive and in violation of that neutrality which it is the
determination of this Government to observe; and to the end that the
hazard and inconvenience of such apprehended practices may be avoided, I
further proclaim and declare that from and after the 12th day of October
instant, and during the continuance of the present hostilities between
France and the North German Confederation and its allies, no ship of war
or privateer of either belligerent shall be permitted to make use of any
port, harbor, roadstead, or other waters within the jurisdiction of the
United States as a station or place of resort for any warlike purpose or
for the purpose of obtaining any facilities of warlike equipment; and
no ship of war or privateer of either belligerent shall be permitted to
sail out of or leave any port, harbor, roadstead, or waters subject to
the jurisdiction of the United States from which a vessel of the other
belligerent (whether the same shall be a ship of war, a privateer, or a
merchant ship) shall have previously departed until after the expiration
of at least twenty-four hours from the departure of such last-mentioned
vessel beyond the jurisdiction of the United States. If any ship
of war or privateer of either belligerent shall, after the time this
notification takes effect, enter any port, harbor, roadstead, or waters
of the United States, such vessel shall be required to depart and to
put to sea within twenty-four hours after her entrance into such port,
harbor, roadstead, or waters, except in case of stress of weather or of
her requiring provisions or things necessary for the subsistence of her
crew or for repairs, in either of which cases the authorities of the
port or of the nearest port (as the case may be) shall require her to
put to sea as soon as possible after the expiration of such period of
twenty-four hours, without permitting her to take in supplies beyond
what may be necessary for her immediate use; and no such vessel which
may have been permitted to remain within the waters of the United States
for the purpose of repair shall continue within such port, harbor,
roadstead, or waters for a longer period than twenty-four hours after
her necessary repairs shall have been completed, unless within such
twenty-four hours a vessel, whether ship of war, privateer, or merchant
ship, of the other belligerent shall have departed therefrom, in which
case the time limited for the departure of such ship of war or privateer
shall be extended so far as may be necessary to secure an interval of
not less than twenty-four hours between such departure and that of any
ship of war, privateer, or merchant ship of the other belligerent which
may have previously quit the same port, harbor, roadstead, or waters.
No ship of war or privateer of either belligerent shall be detained in
any port, harbor, roadstead, or waters of the United States more than
twenty-four hours by reason of the successive departures from such
port, harbor, roadstead, or waters of more than one vessel of the other
belligerent. But if there be several vessels of each or either of the
two belligerents in the same port, harbor, roadstead, or waters, the
order of their departure therefrom shall be so arranged as to afford
the opportunity of leaving alternately to the vessels of the respective
belligerents and to cause the least detention consistent with the
objects of this proclamation. No ship of war or privateer of either
belligerent shall be permitted, while in any port, harbor, roadstead,
or waters within the jurisdiction of the United States, to take in any
supplies except provisions and such other things as may be requisite
for the subsistence of her crew, and except so much coal only as may be
sufficient to carry such vessel, if without sail power, to the nearest
European port of her own country, or, in case the vessel is rigged to go
under sail and may also be propelled by steam power, then with half the
quantity of coal which she would be entitled to receive if dependent
upon steam alone; and no coal shall be again supplied to any such ship
of war or privateer in the same or any other port, harbor, roadstead, or
waters of the United States, without special permission, until after the
expiration of three months from the time when such coal may have been
last supplied to her within the waters of the United States, unless such
ship of war or privateer shall, since last thus supplied, have entered a
European port of the Government to which she belongs.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal
of the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 8th day of October, A.D. 1870, and
of the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-fifth.
U.S. GRANT.
By the President:
HAMILTON FISH,
_Secretary of State_.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas divers evil-disposed persons have at sundry times within the
territory or jurisdiction of the United States begun or set on foot, or
provided or prepared the means for, military expeditions or enterprises
to be carried on thence against the territories or dominions of powers
with whom the United States are at peace, by organizing bodies
pretending to have powers of government over portions of the territories
or dominions of powers with whom the United States are at peace, or, by
being or assuming to be members of such bodies, by levying or collecting
money for the purpose or for the alleged purpose of using the same in
carrying on military enterprises against such territories or dominions
by enlisting and organizing armed forces to be used against such powers,
and by fitting out, equipping, and arming vessels to transport such
organized armed forces to be employed in hostilities against such
powers; and
Whereas it is alleged and there is reason to apprehend that such
evil-disposed persons have also at sundry times within the territory and
jurisdiction of the United States violated the laws thereof by accepting
and exercising commissions to serve by land or by sea against powers
with whom the United States are at peace by enlisting themselves or
other persons to carry on war against such powers by fitting out and
arming vessels with intent that the same shall be employed to cruise or
commit hostilities against such powers, or by delivering commissions
within the territory or jurisdiction of the United States for such
vessels to the intent that they might be employed as aforesaid; and
Whereas such acts are in violation of the laws of the United States in
such case made and provided, and are done in disregard of the duties and
obligations which all persons residing or being within the territory or
jurisdiction of the United States owe thereto, and are condemned by all
right-minded and law-abiding citizens:
Now, therefore, I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States of
America, do hereby declare and proclaim that all persons hereafter found
within the territory or jurisdiction of the United States committing any
of the aforerecited violations of law or any similar violations of the
sovereignty of the United States for which punishment is provided by
law will be rigorously prosecuted therefor, and, upon conviction and
sentence to punishment, will not be entitled to expect or receive the
clemency of the Executive to save them from the consequences of their
guilt; and I enjoin upon every officer of this Government, civil or
military or naval, to use all efforts in his power to arrest for trial
and punishment every such offender against the laws providing for the
performance of our sacred obligations to friendly powers.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 12th day of October, A.D. 1870, and
of the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-fifth.
U.S. GRANT.
By the President:
HAMILTON FISH,
_Secretary of State_.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas it behooves a people sensible of their dependence on the
Almighty publicly and collectively to acknowledge their gratitude for
his favors and mercies and humbly to beseech for their continuance; and
Whereas the people of the United States during the year now about to end
have special cause to be thankful for general prosperity, abundant
harvests, exemption from pestilence, foreign war, and civil strife:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the
United States, concurring in any similar recommendations from chief
magistrates of States, do hereby recommend to all citizens to meet in
their respective places of worship on Thursday, the 24th day of November
next, there to give thanks for the bounty of God during the year about
to close and to supplicate for its continuance hereafter.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 21st day of October, A.D. 1870, and
of the Independence of the United States the ninety-fifth.
U.S. GRANT.
By the President:
HAMILTON FISH,
_Secretary of State_.
EXECUTIVE ORDERS.
GENERAL ORDERS, No. 83.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
_Washington, December 24, 1869_.
Brevet Major-General A.H. Terry, in addition to his duties as commander
of the Department of the South, is, by order of the President of the
United States, appointed to exercise the duties of commanding general of
the District of Georgia, as defined by the act of Congress approved
December 22, 1869.
By command of General Sherman:
E.D. TOWNSEND,
_Adjutant-General_.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., December 24, 1869_.
The painful duty devolves upon the President of announcing to the people
of the United States the death of one of her most distinguished citizens
and faithful public servants, the Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, which occurred
in this city at an early hour this morning.
He was distinguished in the councils of the nation during the entire
period of its recent struggle for national existence--first as
Attorney-General, then as Secretary of War: He was unceasing in his
labors, earnest and fearless in the assumption of responsibilities
necessary to his country's success, respected by all good men, and
feared by wrongdoers. In his death the bar, the bench, and the nation
sustain a great loss, which will be mourned by all.
As a mark of respect to his memory it is ordered that the Executive
Mansion and the several Departments at Washington be draped in mourning,
and that all business be suspended on the day of the funeral.
U.S. GRANT.
GENERAL ORDERS, No. 1.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
_Washington, January 4, 1870_.
By direction of the President of the United States, so much of General
Orders, No. 103, dated Headquarters Third Military District (Department
of Georgia, Florida, and Alabama), Atlanta, Ga., July 22, 1868, and
so much of General Orders, No. 55, dated Headquarters of the Army,
Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, July 28, 1868, as refers to the
State of Georgia is hereby countermanded. Brevet Major-General Terry
will until further orders exercise within that State the powers of the
commander of a military district, as provided by the act of March 2,
1867, and the acts supplementary thereto, under his assignment by
General Orders, No. 83, dated Headquarters of the Army,
Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, December 24, 1869.
By command of General Sherman:
E.D. TOWNSEND,
_Adjutant-General_.
GENERAL ORDERS, No. 11.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
_Washington, January 29, 1870_.
I. The Senators and Representatives from the State of Virginia having
been admitted to their respective Houses of Congress, the command known
as the First Military District has ceased to exist.
II. By direction of the President, the States of Maryland, Virginia,
West Virginia, and North Carolina will compose the Department of
Virginia, under the command of Brevet Major-General E.R.S. Canby,
headquarters at Richmond, Va., and will form a part of the Military
Division of the Atlantic.
III. Commanding officers of all posts and detachments now serving in the
limits of the new department will report to General Canby for
instructions. The companies of the Eighth Infantry now serving in the
State of North Carolina will be relieved as early as possible, and
report to Brevet Major-General A.H. Terry, commanding Department of the
South, for orders.
By command of General Sherman:
E.D. TOWNSEND,
_Adjutant-General_.
GENERAL ORDERS, No. 25.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
_Washington, February 26, 1870_.
I. The Senators and Representatives from the State of Mississippi having
been admitted to their respective Houses of Congress, the command known
as the Fourth Military District has ceased to exist.
II. By direction of the President, the State of Mississippi is attached
to the Department of the Cumberland, and the officers and troops within
the late Fourth Military District will accordingly report to Brevet
Major-General Cooke, commanding the department.
III. The general commanding the late Fourth Military District will
complete the records of that district as soon as practicable and send
them to the Adjutant-General of the Army, except such military records
as should properly be retained at the headquarters of the department,
which he will send there.
By command of General Sherman:
E.D. TOWNSEND,
_Adjutant-General_.
GENERAL ORDERS, No. 35.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
_Washington, March 31, 1870_.
I. By order of the President of the United States, the State of
Texas having been admitted to representation in Congress, the command
heretofore known as the Fifth Military District will cease to exist, and
will hereafter constitute a separate military department, headquarters
Austin, Tex., Brevet Major-General J.J. Reynolds commanding.