June 30, 1888, and for the current year also, by the purchase of bonds.
After complying with this law as positively required, and bonds sufficient
for that purpose had been bought at a premium, it was not deemed prudent to
further expend the surplus in such purchases until the authority to do so
should be more explicit. A resolution, however, having been passed by both
Houses of Congress removing all doubt as to Executive authority, daily
purchases of bonds were commenced on the 23d day of April, 1888, and have
continued until the present time. By this plan bonds of the Government not
yet due have been purchased up to and including the 30th day of November,
1888, amounting to $94,700,400, the premium paid thereon amounting to
$17,508,613.08.
The premium added to the principal of these bonds represents an investment
yielding about 2 per cent interest for the time they still had to run, and
the saving to the Government represented by the difference between the
amount of interest at 2 per cent upon the sum paid for principal and
premium and what it would have paid for interest at the rate specified in
the bonds if they had run to their maturity is about $27,165,000.
At first sight this would seem to be a profitable and sensible transaction
on the part of the Government, but, as suggested by the Secretary of the
Treasury, the surplus thus expended for the purchase of bonds was money
drawn from the people in excess of any actual need of the Government and
was so expended rather than allow it to remain idle in the Treasury. If
this surplus, under the operation of just and equitable laws, had been left
in the hands of the people, it would have been worth in their business at
least 6 per cent per annum. Deducting from the amount of interest upon the
principal and premium of these bonds for the time they had to run at the
rate of 6 per cent the saving of 2 per cent made for the people by the
purchase of such bonds, the loss will appear to be $55,760,000.
This calculation would seem to demonstrate that if excessive and
unnecessary taxation is continued and the Government is forced to pursue
this policy of purchasing its own bonds at the premiums which it will be
necessary to pay, the loss to the people will be hundreds of millions of
dollars.
Since the purchase of bonds was undertaken as mentioned nearly all that
have been offered were at last accepted. It has been made quite apparent
that the Government was in danger of being subjected to combinations to
raise their price, as appears by the instance cited by the Secretary of the
offering of bonds of the par value of only $326,000 so often that the
aggregate of the sums demanded for their purchase amounted to more than $
19,700,000.
Notwithstanding the large sums paid out in the purchase of bonds, the
surplus in the Treasury on the 30th day of November, 1888, was
$52,234,610.01, after deducting about $20,000,000 just drawn out for the
payment of pensions.
At the close of the fiscal year ended June 30, 1887, there had been coined
under the compulsory silver-coinage act $266,988,280 in silver dollars,
$55,504,310 of which were in the hands of the people.
On the 30th day of June, 1888, there had been coined $299,708,790; and of
this $55,829,303 was in circulation in coin, and $200,387,376 in silver
certificates, for the redemption of which silver dollars to that amount
were held by the Government.
On the 30th day of November, 1888, $312,570,990 had been coined,
$60,970,990 of the silver dollars were actually in circulation, and
$237,418,346 in certificates.
The Secretary recommends the suspension of the further coinage of silver,
and in such recommendation I earnestly concur.
For further valuable information and timely recommendations I ask the
careful attention of the Congress to the Secretary's report.
The Secretary of War reports that the Army at the date of the last
consolidated returns consisted of 2,189 officers and 24,549 enlisted men.
The actual expenditures of the War Department for the fiscal year ended
June 30, 1888, amounted to $41,165,107.07, of which sum $9,158,516.63 was
expended for public works, including river and harbor improvements.
"The Board of Ordnance and Fortifications" provided for under the act
approved September 22 last was convened October 30, 1888, and plans and
specifications for procuring forgings for 8, 10, and 12 inch guns, under
provisions of section 4, and also for procuring 12-inch breech-loading
mortars, cast iron, hooped with steel, under the provisions of section 5 of
the said act, were submitted to the Secretary of War for reference to the
board, by the Ordnance Department, on the same date.
These plans and specifications having been promptly approved by the board
and the Secretary of War, the necessary authority to publish advertisements
inviting proposals in the newspapers throughout the country was granted by
the Secretary on November 12, and on November 13 the advertisements were
sent out to the different newspapers designated. The bids for the steel
forgings are to be opened on December 20, 1888, and for the mortars on
December 15, 1888.
A board of ordnance officers was convened at the Watervliet Arsenal on
October 4, 1888, to prepare the necessary plans and specifications for the
establishment of an army gun factory at that point. The preliminary report
of this board, with estimates for shop buildings and officers' quarters,
was approved by the Board of Ordnance and Fortifications November 6 and 8.
The specifications and form of advertisement and instructions to bidders
have been prepared, and advertisements inviting proposals for the
excavations for the shop building and for erecting the two sets of
officers' quarters have been published. The detailed drawings and
specifications for the gun-factory building are well in hand, and will be
finished within three or four months, when bids will be invited for the
erection of the building. The list of machines, etc., is made out, and it
is expected that the plans for the large lathes, etc., will be completed
within about four months, and after approval by the Board of Ordnance and
Fortifications bids for furnishing the same will be invited. The machines
and other fixtures will be completed as soon as the shop is in readiness to
receive them, probably about July, 1890.
Under the provisions of the Army bill for the procurement of pneumatic
dynamite guns, the necessary specifications are now being prepared, and
advertisements for proposals will issue early in December. The guns will
probably be of 15 inches caliber and fire a projectile that will carry a
charge each of about 500 pounds of explosive gelatine with full-caliber
projectiles. The guns will probably be delivered in from six to ten months
from the date of the contract, so that all the guns of this class that can
be procured under the provisions of the law will be purchased during the
year 1889.
I earnestly request that the recommendations contained in the Secretary's
report, all of which are, in my opinion, calculated to increase the
usefulness and discipline of the Army, may receive the consideration of the
Congress. Among these the proposal that there should be provided a plan for
the examination of officers to test their fitness for promotion is of the
utmost importance. This reform has been before recommended in the reports
of the Secretary, and its expediency is so fully demonstrated by the
argument he presents in its favor that its adoption should no longer be
neglected.
The death of General Sheridan in August last was a national affliction. The
Army then lost the grandest of its chiefs. The country lost a brave and
experienced soldier, a wise and discreet counselor, and a modest and
sensible man. Those who in any manner came within the range of his personal
association will never fail to pay deserved and willing homage to his
greatness and the glory of his career, but they will cherish with more
tender sensibility the loving memory of his simple, generous, and
considerate nature.
The Apache Indians, whose removal from their reservation in Arizona
followed the capture of those of their number who engaged in a bloody
and murderous raid during a part of the years 1885 and 1886, are now held
as prisoners of war at Mount Vernon Barracks, in the State of Alabama. They
numbered on the 31st day of October, the date of the last report, 83 men,
170 women, 70 boys, and 59 girls; in all, 382 persons. The commanding
officer states that they are in good health and contented, and that they
are kept employed as fully as is possible in the circumstances. The
children, as they arrive at a suitable age, are sent to the Indian schools
at Carlisle and Hampton.
Last summer some charitable and kind people asked permission to send two
teachers to these Indians for the purpose of instructing the adults as well
as such children as should be found there. Such permission was readily
granted, accommodations were provided for the teachers, and some portions
of the buildings at the barracks were made available for school purposes.
The good work contemplated has been commenced, and the teachers engaged are
paid by the ladies with whom the plan originated.
I am not at all in sympathy with those benevolent but injudicious people
who are constantly insisting that these Indians should be returned to their
reservation. Their removal was an absolute necessity if the lives and
property of citizens upon the frontier are to be at all regarded by the
Government. Their continued restraint at a distance from the scene of their
repeated and cruel murders and outrages is still necessary. It is a
mistaken philanthropy, every way injurious, which prompts the desire to see
these savages returned to their old haunts. They are in their present
location as the result of the best judgment of those having official
responsibility in the matter, and who are by no means lacking in kind
consideration for the Indians. A number of these prisoners have forfeited
their lives to outraged law and humanity. Experience has proved that they
are dangerous and can not be trusted. This is true not only of those who on
the warpath have heretofore actually been guilty of atrocious murder, but
of their kindred and friends, who, while they remained upon their
reservation, furnished aid and comfort to those absent with bloody intent.
These prisoners should be treated kindly and kept in restraint far from the
locality of their former reservation; they should be subjected to efforts
calculated to lead to their improvement and the softening of their savage
and cruel instincts, but their return to their old home should be
persistently resisted.
The Secretary in his report gives a graphic history of these Indians, and
recites with painful vividness their bloody deeds and the unhappy failure
of the Government to manage them by peaceful means. It will be amazing if a
perusal of this history will allow the survival of a desire for the return
of these prisoners to their reservation upon sentimental or any other
grounds.
The report of the Secretary of the Navy demonstrates very intelligent
management in that important Department, and discloses the most
satisfactory progress in the work of reconstructing the Navy made during
the past year. Of the ships in course of construction five, viz, the
Charleston, Baltimore, Yorktown, Vesuvius, and the Petrel, have in that
time been launched and are rapidly approaching completion; and in addition
to the above, the Philadelphia, the San Francisco, the Newark, the
Bennington, the Concord, and the Herreshoff torpedo boat are all under
contract for delivery to the Department during the next year. The progress
already made and being made gives good ground for the expectation that
these eleven vessels will be incorporated as part of the American Navy
within the next twelve months.
The report shows that notwithstanding the large expenditures for new
construction and the additional labor they involve the total ordinary or
current expenditures of the Department for the three years ending June 30,
1888, are less by more than 20 per cent than such expenditures for the
three years ending June 30, 1884.
The various steps which have been taken to improve the business methods of
the Department are reviewed by the Secretary. The purchasing of supplies
has been consolidated and placed under a responsible bureau head. This has
resulted in the curtailment of open purchases, which in the years 1884 and
1885 amounted to over 50 per cent of all the purchases of the Department,
to less than 11 per cent; so that at the present time about 90 per cent of
the total departmental purchases are made by contract and after
competition. As the expenditures on this account exceed an average of
$2,000,000 annually, it is evident that an important improvement in the
system has been inaugurated and substantial economies introduced.
The report of the Postmaster-General shows a marked increase of business in
every branch of the postal service.
The number of post-offices on July 1, 1888, was 57,376, an increase of
6,124 in three years and of 2,219 for the last fiscal year. The
latter-mentioned increase is classified as follows:
New England States -
Middle States - 181
Southern States and Indian Territory (41) - 1,406
The States and Territories of the Pacific Coast - 190
The ten States and Territories of the West and Northwest - 435
District of Columbia - 2
***
State of the Union Address
Grover Cleveland
December 4, 1893
To the Congress of the United States:
The constitutional duty which requires the President from time to time
to give to the Congress information of the state of the Union and
recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge
necessary and expedient is fittingly entered upon by commending to the
Congress a careful examination of the detailed statements and
well-supported recommendations contained in the reports of the heads of
Departments, who are chiefly charged with the executive work of the
Government. In an effort to abridge this communication as much as is
consistent with its purpose I shall supplement a brief reference to the
contents of these departmental reports by the mention of such executive
business and incidents as are not embraced therein and by such
recommendations as appear to be at this particular time appropriate.
While our foreign relations have not at all times during the past year
been entirely free from perplexity, no embarrassing situation remains
that will not yield to the spirit of fairness and love of justice
which, joined with consistent firmness, characterize a truly American
foreign policy.
My predecessor having accepted the office of arbitrator of the
long-standing Missions boundary dispute, tendered to the President by
the Argentine Republic and Brazil, it has been my agreeable duty to
receive the special envoys commissioned by those States to lay before
me evidence and arguments in behalf of their respective Governments.
The outbreak of domestic hostilities in the Republic of Brazil found
the United States alert to watch the interests of our citizens in that
country, with which we carry on important commerce. Several vessels of
our new Navy are now and for some time have been stationed at Rio de
Janeiro. The struggle being between the established Government, which
controls the machinery of administration, and with which we maintain
friendly relations, and certain officers of the navy employing the
vessels of their command in an attack upon the national capital and
chief seaport, and lacking as it does the elements of divided
administration, I have failed to see that the insurgents can reasonably
claim recognition as belligerents.
Thus far the position of our Government has been that of an attentive
but impartial observer of the unfortunate conflict. Emphasizing our
fixed policy of impartial neutrality in such a condition of affairs as
now exists, I deemed it necessary to disavow in a manner not to be
misunderstood the unauthorized action of our late naval commander in
those waters in saluting the revolted Brazilian admiral, being
indisposed to countenance an act calculated to give gratuitous sanction
to the local insurrection.
The convention between our Government and Chile having for its object
the settlement and adjustment of the demand of the two countries
against each other has been made effective by he organization of the
claims commission provided for. The two Governments failing to agree
upon the third member of the commission, the good offices of the
President of the Swiss Republic were invoked, as provided in the
treaty, and the selection of the Swiss representative in this country
to complete the organization was gratifying alike to the United States
and Chile.
The vexatious question of so-called legation asylum for offenders
against the state and its laws was presented anew in Chile by the
unauthorized action of the late United States minister in receiving
into his official residence two persons who had just failed in an
attempt at revolution and against whom criminal charges were pending
growing out of a former abortive disturbance. The doctrine of asylum as
applied to this case is not sanctioned by the best precedents, and when
allowed tends to encourage sedition and strife. Under no circumstances
can the representatives of this Government be permitted, under the
ill-defined fiction of extraterritoriality, to interrupt the
administration of criminal justice in the countries to which they are
accredited. A temperate demand having been made by the Chilean
Government for the correction of this conduct in the instance
mentioned, the minister was instructed no longer to harbor the
offenders.
The legislation of last year known as the Geary law, requiring the
registration of all Chinese laborers entitled to residence in the
United States and the deportation of all not complying with the
provisions of the act within the time prescribed, met with much
opposition from Chinamen in this country. Acting upon the advice of
eminent counsel that the law was unconstitutional, the great mass of
Chinese laborers, pending judicial inquiry as to its validity, in good
faith declined to apply for the certificates required by its
provisions. A test case upon proceeding by habeas corpus was brought
before the Supreme Court, and on May 15, 1893, a decision was made by
that tribunal sustaining the law.
It is believed that under the recent amendment of the act extending the
time for registration the Chinese laborers thereto entitled who desire
to reside in this country will now avail themselves of the renewed
privilege thus afforded of establishing by lawful procedure their right
to remain, and that thereby the necessity of enforced deportation may
to a great degree be avoided.
It has devolved upon the United States minister at Peking, as dean of
the diplomatic body, and in the absence of a representative of Sweden
and Norway, to press upon the Chinese Government reparation for the
recent murder of Swedish missionaries at Sung-pu. This question is of
vital interest to all countries whose citizens engage in missionary
work in the interior.
By Article XII of the general act of Brussels, signed July 2, 1890, for
the suppression of the slave trade and the restriction of certain
injurious commerce in the Independent State of the Kongo and in the
adjacent zone of central Africa, the United States and the other
signatory powers agreed to adopt appropriate means for the punishment
of persons selling arms and ammunition to the natives and for the
confiscation of the inhibited articles. It being the plain duty of this
Government to aid in suppressing the nefarious traffic, impairing as it
does the praiseworthy and civilizing efforts now in progress in that
region, I recommend that an act be passed prohibiting the sale of arms
and intoxicants to natives in the regulated zone by our citizens.
Costa Rica has lately testified its friendliness by surrendering to the
United States, in the absence of a convention of extradition, but upon
duly submitted evidence of criminality, a noted fugitive from justice.
It is trusted that the negotiation of a treaty with that country to
meet recurring cases of this kind will soon be accomplished. In my
opinion treaties for reciprocal extradition should be concluded with
all those countries with which the United States has not already
conventional arrangements of that character.
I have deemed it fitting to express to the Governments of Costa Rica
and Colombia the kindly desire of the United States to see their
pending boundary dispute finally closed by arbitration in conformity
with the spirit of the treaty concluded between them some years ago.
Our relations with the French Republic continue to be intimate and
cordial. I sincerely hope that the extradition treaty with that
country, as amended by the Senate, will soon be operative.
While occasional questions affecting our naturalized citizens returning
to the land of their birth have arisen in our intercourse with Germany,
our relations with that country continue satisfactory.
The questions affecting our relations with Great Britain have been
treated in a spirit of friendliness.
Negotiations are in progress between the two Governments with a view to
such concurrent action as will make the award and regulations agreed
upon by the Bering Sea Tribunal of Arbitration practically effective,
and it is not doubted that Great Britain will cooperate freely with
this country for the accomplishment of that purpose.
The dispute growing out of the discriminating tolls imposed in the
Welland Canal upon cargoes of cereals bound to and from the lake ports
of the United States was adjusted by the substitution of a more
equitable schedule of charges, and my predecessor thereupon suspended
his proclamation imposing discriminating tolls upon British transit
through our canals.
A request for additions to the list of extraditable offenses covered by
the existing treaty between the two countries is under consideration.
During the past year an American citizen employed in a subordinate
commercial position in Hayti, after suffering a protracted imprisonment
on an unfounded charge of smuggling, was finally liberated on judicial
examination. Upon urgent representation to the Haytian Government a
suitable indemnity was paid to the sufferer.
By a law of Hayti a sailing vessel, having discharged her cargo, is
refused clearance until the duties on such cargo have been paid. The
hardship of this measure upon American shipowners, who conduct the bulk
of the carrying trade of that country, has been insisted on with a view
of securing the removal of this cause of complaint.
Upon receiving authentic information of the firing upon an American
mail steamer touching at the port of Amapala because her captain
refused to deliver up a passenger in transit from Nicaragua to
Guatemala upon demand of the military authorities of Honduras, our
minister to that country, under instructions, protested against the
wanton act and demanded satisfaction. The Government of Honduras,
actuated by a sense of justice and in a spirit of the utmost
friendship, promptly disavowed the illegal conduct of its officers and
expressed sincere regret for the occurrence.
It is confidently anticipated that a satisfactory adjustment will soon
be reached of the questions arising out of the seizure and use of
American vessels by insurgents in Honduras and the subsequent denial by
the successful Government of commercial privileges to those vessels on
that account.