Chile have become especially friendly and cordial. Spain and the
Republics of Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador have expressed their
willingness to accept the mediation of the United States for
terminating the war upon the South Pacific coast. Chile has not finally
declared upon the question. In the meantime the conflict has
practically exhausted itself, since no belligerent or hostile movement
has been made by either party during the last two years, and there are
no indications of a present purpose to resume hostilities on either
side. Great Britain and France have cordially seconded our proposition
of mediation, and I do not forego the hope that it may soon be accepted
by all the belligerents and lead to a secure establishment of peace and
friendly relations between the Spanish American Republics of the
Pacific and Spain--a result which would be attended with common
benefits to the belligerents and much advantage to all commercial
nations. I communicate, for the consideration of Congress, a
correspondence which shows that the Bolivian Republic has established
the extremely liberal principle of receiving into its citizenship any
citizen of the United States, or of any other of the American
Republics, upon the simple condition of voluntary registry.
The correspondence herewith submitted will be found painfully replete
with accounts of the ruin and wretchedness produced by recent
earthquakes, of unparalleled severity, in the Republics of Peru,
Ecuador, and Bolivia. The diplomatic agents and naval officers of the
United States who were present in those countries at the time of those
disasters furnished all the relief in their power to the sufferers, and
were promptly rewarded with grateful and touching acknowledgments by
the Congress of Peru. An appeal to the charity of our fellow-citizens
has been answered by much liberality. In this connection I submit an
appeal which has been made by the Swiss Republic, whose Government and
institutions are kindred to our own, in behalf of its inhabitants, who
are suffering extreme destitution, produced by recent devastating
inundations.
Our relations with Mexico during the year have been marked by an
increasing growth of mutual confidence. The Mexican Government has not
yet acted upon the three treaties celebrated here last summer for
establishing the rights of naturalized citizens upon a liberal and just
basis, for regulating consular powers, and for the adjustment of mutual
claims.
All commercial nations, as well as all friends of republican
institutions, have occasion to regret the frequent local disturbances
which occur in some of the constituent States of Colombia. Nothing has
occurred, however, to affect the harmony and cordial friendship which
have for several years existed between that youthful and vigorous
Republic and our own.
Negotiations are pending with a view to the survey and construction of
a ship canal across the Isthmus of Darien, under the auspices of the
United States. I hope to be able to submit the results of that
negotiation to the Senate during its present session.
The very liberal treaty which was entered into last year by the United
States and Nicaragua has been ratified by the latter Republic.
Costa Rica, with the earnestness of a sincerely friendly neighbor,
solicits a reciprocity of trade, which I commend to the consideration
of Congress.
The convention created by treaty between the United States and
Venezuela in July, 1865, for the mutual adjustment of claims, has been
held, and its decisions have been received at the Department of State.
The heretofore-recognized Government of the United States of Venezuela
has been subverted. A provisional government having been instituted
under circumstances which promise durability, it has been formally
recognized.
I have been reluctantly obliged to ask explanation and satisfaction for
national injuries committed by the President of Hayti. The political
and social condition of the Republics of Hayti and St. Domingo is very
unsatisfactory and painful. The abolition of slavery, which has been
carried into effect throughout the island of St. Domingo and the entire
West Indies, except the Spanish islands of Cuba and Porto Rico, has
been followed by a profound popular conviction of the rightfulness of
republican institutions and an intense desire to secure them. The
attempt, however, to establish republics there encounters many
obstacles, most of which may be supposed to result from long-indulged
habits of colonial supineness and dependence upon European monarchical
powers. While the United States have on all occasions professed a
decided unwillingness that any part of this continent or of its
adjacent islands shall be made a theater for a new establishment of
monarchical power, too little has been done by us, on the other hand,
to attach the communities by which we are surrounded to our own
country, or to lend even a moral support to the efforts they are so
resolutely and so constantly making to secure republican institutions
for themselves. It is indeed a question of grave consideration whether
our recent and present example is not calculated to check the growth
and expansion of free principles, and make those communities distrust,
if not dread, a government which at will consigns to military
domination States that are integral parts of our Federal Union, and,
while ready to resist any attempts by other nations to extend to this
hemisphere the monarchical institutions of Europe, assumes to establish
over a large portion of its people a rule more absolute, harsh, and
tyrannical than any known to civilized powers.
The acquisition of Alaska was made with the view of extending national
jurisdiction and republican principles in the American hemisphere.
Believing that a further step could be taken in the same direction, I
last year entered into a treaty with the King of Denmark for the
purchase of the islands of St. Thomas and St. John, on the best terms
then attainable, and with the express consent of the people of those
islands. This treaty still remains under consideration in the Senate. A
new convention has been entered into with Denmark, enlarging the time
fixed for final ratification of the original treaty.
Comprehensive national policy would seem to sanction the acquisition
and incorporation into our Federal Union of the several adjacent
continental and insular communities as speedily as it can be done
peacefully, lawfully, and without any violation of national justice,
faith, or honor. Foreign possession or control of those communities has
hitherto hindered the growth and impaired the influence of the United
States. Chronic revolution and anarchy there would be equally
injurious. Each one of them, when firmly established as an independent
republic, or when incorporated into the United States, would be a new
source of strength and power. Conforming my Administration to these
principles, I have or no occasion lent support or toleration to
unlawful expeditions set on foot upon the plea of republican
propagandism or of national extension or aggrandizement. The necessity,
however, of repressing such unlawful movements clearly indicates the
duty which rests upon us of adapting our legislative action to the new
circumstances of a decline of European monarchical power and influence
and the increase of American republican ideas, interests, and
sympathies.
It can not be long before it will become necessary for this Government
to lend some effective aid to the solution of the political and social
problems which are continually kept before the world by the two
Republics of the island of St. Domingo, and which are now disclosing
themselves more distinctly than heretofore in the island of Cuba. The
subject is commended to your consideration with all the more
earnestness because I am satisfied that the time has arrived when even
so direct a proceeding as a proposition for an annexation of the two
Republics of the island of St. Domingo would not only receive the
consent of the people interested, but would also give satisfaction to
all other foreign nations.
I am aware that upon the question of further extending our possessions
it is apprehended by some that our political system can not
successfully be applied to an area more extended than our continent;
but the conviction is rapidly gaining ground in the American mind that
with the increased facilities for intercommunication between all
portions of the earth the principles of free government, as embraced in
our Constitution, if faithfully maintained and carried out, would prove
of sufficient strength and breadth to comprehend within their sphere
and influence the civilized nations of the world.
The attention of the Senate and of Congress is again respectfully
invited to the treaty for the establishment of commercial reciprocity
with the Hawaiian Kingdom entered into last year, and already ratified
by that Government. The attitude of the United States toward these
islands is not very different from that in which they stand toward the
West Indies. It is known and felt by the Hawaiian Government and people
that their Government and institutions are feeble and precarious; that
the United States, being so near a neighbor, would be unwilling to see
the islands pass under foreign control. Their prosperity is continually
disturbed by expectations and alarms of unfriendly political
proceedings, as well from the United States as from other foreign
powers. A reciprocity treaty, while it could not materially diminish
the revenues of the United States, would be a guaranty of the good will
and forbearance of all nations until the people of the islands shall of
themselves, at no distant day, voluntarily apply for admission into the
Union.
The Emperor of Russia has acceded to the treaty negotiated here in
January last for the security of trade-marks in the interest of
manufacturers and commerce. I have invited his attention to the
importance of establishing, now while it seems easy and practicable, a
fair and equal regulation of the vast fisheries belonging to the two
nations in the waters of the North Pacific Ocean.
The two treaties between the United States and Italy for the regulation
of consular powers and the extradition of criminals, negotiated and
ratified here during the last session of Congress, have been accepted
and confirmed by the Italian Government. A liberal consular convention
which has been negotiated with Belgium will be submitted to the Senate.
The very important treaties which were negotiated between the United
States and North Germany and Bavaria for the regulation of the rights
of naturalized citizens have been duly ratified and exchanged, and
similar treaties have been entered into with the Kingdoms of Belgium
and Wurtemberg and with the Grand Duchies of Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt.
I hope soon to be able to submit equally satisfactory conventions of
the same character now in the course of negotiation with the respective
Governments of Spain, Italy, and the Ottoman Empire.
Examination of claims against the United States by the Hudsons Bay
Company and the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, on account of certain
possessory rights in the State of Oregon and Territory of Washington,
alleged by those companies in virtue of provisions of the treaty
between the United States and Great Britain of June 15, 1846, has been
diligently prosecuted, under the direction of the joint international
commission to which they were submitted for adjudication by treaty
between the two Governments of July 1, 1863, and will, it is expected,
be concluded at an early day.
No practical regulation concerning colonial trade and the fisheries can
be accomplished by treaty between the United States and Great Britain
until Congress shall have expressed their judgment concerning the
principles involved. Three other questions, however, between the United
States and Great Britain remain open for adjustment. These are the
mutual rights of naturalized citizens, the boundary question involving
the title to the island of San Juan, on the Pacific coast, and mutual
claims arising since the year 1853 of the citizens and subjects of the
two countries for injuries and depredations committed under the
authority of their respective Governments. Negotiations upon these
subjects are pending, and I am not without hope of being able to lay
before the Senate, for its consideration during the present session,
protocols calculated to bring to an end these justly exciting and
long-existing controversies.
We are not advised of the action of the Chinese Government upon the
liberal and auspicious treaty which was recently celebrated with its
plenipotentiaries at this capital.
Japan remains a theater of civil war, marked by religious incidents and
political severities peculiar to that long-isolated Empire. The
Executive has hitherto maintained strict neutrality among the
belligerents, and acknowledges with pleasure that it has been frankly
and fully sustained in that course by the enlightened concurrence and
cooperation of the other treaty powers, namely Great Britain, France,
the Netherlands, North Germany, and Italy.
Spain having recently undergone a revolution marked by extraordinary
unanimity and preservation of order, the provisional government
established at Madrid has been recognized, and the friendly intercourse
which has so long happily existed between the two countries remains
unchanged.
I renew the recommendation contained in my communication to Congress
dated the 18th July last--a copy of which accompanies this message that
the judgment of the people should be taken on the propriety of so
amending the Federal Constitution that it shall provide--
First. For an election of President and Vice-President by a direct vote
of the people, instead of through the agency of electors, and making
them ineligible for reelection to a second term.
Second. For a distinct designation of the person who shall discharge
the duties of President in the event of a vacancy in that office by the
death, resignation, or removal of both the President and
Vice-President.
Third. For the election of Senators of the United States directly by
the people of the several States, instead of by the legislatures; and
Fourth. For the limitation to a period of years of the terms of Federal
judges.
Profoundly impressed with the propriety of making these important
modifications in the Constitution, I respectfully submit them for the
early and mature consideration of Congress. We should, as far as
possible, remove all pretext for violations of the organic law, by
remedying such imperfections as time and experience may develop, ever
remembering that "the constitution which at any time exists until
changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people is
sacredly obligatory upon all."
In the performance of a duty imposed upon me by the Constitution, I
have thus communicated to Congress information of the state of the
Union and recommended for their consideration such measures as have
seemed to me necessary and expedient. If carried into effect, they will
hasten the accomplishment of the great and beneficent purposes for
which the Constitution was ordained, and which it comprehensively
states were "to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure
domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and
our posterity." In Congress are vested all legislative powers, and upon
them devolves the responsibility as well for framing unwise and
excessive laws as for neglecting to devise and adopt measures
absolutely demanded by the wants of the country. Let us earnestly hope
that before the expiration of our respective terms of service, now
rapidly drawing to a close, an all-wise Providence will so guide our
counsels as to strengthen and preserve the Federal Unions, inspire
reverence for the Constitution, restore prosperity and happiness to our
whole people, and promote "on earth peace, good will toward men."
End of Project Gutenberg's State of the Union Addresses, by Andrew Johnson