WASHINGTON, _February 4, 1845_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 5th December,
I herewith transmit copies of the proceedings in the case of the
inquiry into the official conduct of Silas Reed, principal surveyor
of Missouri and Illinois, together with all the complaints against
him and all the evidence taken in relation thereto. I did not consider
the irregularities into which the surveyor-general had fallen as of
sufficient magnitude to induce his dismissal from office at the time
that the papers reached me, having become convinced, upon inquiry of the
Commissioner of the General Land Office, of the ability, efficiency,
and fidelity of the surveyor-general in all things appertaining to his
office; but since the passage of the resolution by the Senate I regarded
the matter as so augmented in importance as to induce me to refer the
subject to the Commissioner of the General Land Office for a minute and
thorough examination. A copy of the report which he has made, and also
the defense of Dr. Reed, accompanies the papers. It has seemed to me
that the facts set forth by the report exhibit certain irregularities
which are properly reprehensible, but from which neither the
surveyor-general, in a pecuniary point of view, derived profit nor
the Government sustained loss, and which the reproof contained in the
Commissioner's report will in all future cases restrain; while the
high testimony borne by the Commissioner to the generally excellent
deportment in office of the surveyor-general has seemed to me to mark
the case more as one meriting disapproval and correction in future than
the severe punishment of dismissal.