crowded, accommodations and a safe depository for a portion of its records
in the completed east wing of the building designed for the State, War, and
Navy Departments. The construction of the north wing of the building, a
part of the structure intended for the use of the War Department, is being
carried forward with all possible dispatch, and the work should receive
from Congress such liberal appropriations as will secure its speedy
completion.
The report of the Secretary of the Navy shows continued improvement in that
branch of the service during the last fiscal year. Extensive repairs have
been made upon vessels, and two new ships have been completed and made
ready for sea.
The total expenditures of the year ended June 30, 1879, including specific
appropriations not estimated for by the Department, were $13,555,710.09.
The expenses chargeable to the year, after deducting the amount of these
specific appropriations, were $13,343,317.79; but this is subject to a
reduction of $283,725.99, that amount having been drawn upon warrants, but
not paid out during the year. The amount of appropriations applicable to
the last fiscal year was $14,538,646.17. There was, therefore, a balance of
$1,479,054.37 remaining unexpended and to the credit of the Department on
June 30, 1879. The estimates for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1881, are
$14,864,147.95, which exceeds the appropriations for the present fiscal
year $361,897.28. The reason for this increase is explained in the
Secretary's report. The appropriations available for the present fiscal
year are $14,502,250.67, which will, in the opinion of the Secretary,
answer all the ordinary demands of the service. The amount drawn from the
Treasury from July 1 to November 1, 1879 was $5,770,404.12, of which
$1,095,440.33 has been refunded, leaving as the expenditure for that period
$4,674,963.79. If the expenditures of the remaining two-thirds of the year
do not exceed the proportion for these four months, there will remain
unexpended at the end of the year $477,359.30 of the current
appropriations. The report of the Secretary shows the gratifying fact that
among all the disbursing officers of the Pay Corps of the Navy there is not
one who is a defaulter to the extent of a single dollar. I unite with him
in recommending the removal of the observatory to a more healthful
location. That institution reflects credit upon the nation, and has
obtained the approbation of scientific men in all parts of the world. Its
removal from its present location would not only be conducive to the health
of its officers and professors, but would greatly increase its usefulness.
The appropriation for judicial expenses, which has heretofore been made for
the Department of Justice in gross, was subdivided at the last session of
Congress, and no appropriation whatever was made for the payment of the
fees of marshals and their deputies, either in the service of process or
for the discharge of other duties; and since June 30 these officers have
continued the performance of their duties without compensation from the
Government, taking upon themselves the necessary incidental outlays, as
well as rendering their own services. In only a few unavoidable instances
has the proper execution of the process of the United States failed by
reason of the absence of the requisite appropriation. This course of
official conduct on the part of these officers, highly creditable to their
fidelity, was advised by the Attorney-General, who informed them, however,
that they would necessarily have to rely for their compensation upon the
prospect of future legislation by Congress. I therefore especially
recommend that immediate appropriation be made by Congress for this
purpose.
The act making the principal appropriation for the Department of Justice at
previous sessions has uniformly contained the following clause: And for
defraying the expenses which my be incurred in the enforcement of the act
approved February 28, 1871, entitled "An act to amend an act approved May
31, 1870, entitled 'An act to enforce the rights of citizens of the United
States to vote in the several States of this Union, and for other
purposes,'" or any acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto. No
appropriation was made for this purpose for the current year. As no general
election for Members of Congress occurred, the omission was a matter of
little practical importance. Such election will, however, take place during
the ensuing year, and the appropriation made for the pay of marshals and
deputies should be sufficient to embrace compensation for the services they
may be required to perform at such elections.
The business of the Supreme Court is at present largely in arrears. It can
not be expected that more causes can be decided than are now disposed of in
its annual session, or that by any assiduity the distinguished magistrates
who compose the court can accomplish more than is now done. In the courts
of many of the circuits also the business has increased to such an extent
that the delay of justice will call the attention of Congress to an
appropriate remedy. It is believed that all is done in each circuit which
can fairly be expected from its judicial force. The evils arising from
delay are less heavily felt by the United States than by private suitors,
as its causes are advanced by the courts when it is seen that they involve
the discussion of questions of a public character.
The remedy suggested by the Attorney-General is the appointment of
additional circuit judges and the creation of an intermediate court of
errors and appeals, which shall relieve the Supreme Court of a part of its
jurisdiction, while a larger force is also obtained for the performance of
circuit duties.
I commend this suggestion to the consideration of Congress. It would seem
to afford a complete remedy, and would involve, if ten additional circuit
judges are appointed, an expenditure, at the present rate of salaries, of
not more than $60,000 a year, which would certainly be small in comparison
with the objects to be attained.
The report of the Postmaster-General bears testimony to the general revival
of business throughout the country. The receipts of the Post-Office
Department for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1879, were $30,041,982.86,
being $764,465.91 more than the revenues of the preceding year. The amount
realized from the sale of postage stamps, stamped envelopes, and postal
cards was $764,465.91 more than in the preceding year, and $2,387,559.23
more than in 1877. The expenditures of the Department were $33,449,899.45,
of which the sum of $376,461.63 was paid on liabilities incurred in
preceding years.
The expenditures during the year were $801,209.77 less than in the
preceding year. This reduction is to be attributed mainly to the operation
of the law passed June 17, 1878, changing the compensation of postmasters
from a commission on the value of stamps sold to a commission on stamps
canceled.
The amount drawn from the Treasury on appropriations, in addition to the
revenues of the Department, was $3,031,454.96, being $2,276,197.86 less
than in the preceding year.
The expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1881, are estimated at
$39,920,900 and the receipts from all sources at $32,210,000, leaving a
deficiency to be appropriated for out of the Treasury of $7,710,900.
The relations of the Department with railroad companies have been
harmonized, notwithstanding the general reduction by Congress of their
compensation by the appropriation for special facilities, and the railway
post-office lines have been greatly extended, especially in the Southern
States. The interests of the Railway Mail Service and of the public would
be greatly promoted and the expenditures could be more readily controlled
by the classification of the employees of the Railway Mail Service as
recommended by the Postmaster-General, the appropriation for salaries, with
respect to which the maximum limit is already fixed by law, to be made in
gross.
The Postmaster-General recommends an amendment of the law regulating the
increase of compensation for increased service and increased speed on star
routes, so as to enable him to advertise for proposals for such increased
service and speed. He also suggests the advantages to accrue to the
commerce of the country from the enactment of a general law authorizing
contracts with American-built steamers, carrying the American flag, for
transporting the mail between ports of the United States and ports of the
West Indies and South America, at a fixed maximum price per mile, the
amount to be expended being regulated by annual appropriations, in like
manner with the amount paid for the domestic star service.
The arrangement made by the Postmaster-General and the Secretary of the
Treasury for the collection of duty upon books received in the mail from
foreign countries has proved so satisfactory in its practical operation
that the recommendation is now made that Congress shall extend the
provisions of the act of March 3, 1879, under which this arrangement was
made, so as to apply to all other dutiable articles received in the mails
from foreign countries.
The reports of the Secretary of the Interior and of the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, setting forth the present state of our relations with the
Indian tribes on our territory, the measures taken to advance their
civilization and prosperity, and the progress already achieved by them,
will be found of more than ordinary interest. The general conduct of our
Indian population has been so satisfactory that the occurrence of two
disturbances, which resulted in bloodshed and destruction of property, is
all the more to be lamented.
The history of the outbreak on the White River Ute Reservation, in western
Colorado, has become so familiar by elaborate reports in the public press
that its remarkable incidents need not be stated here in detail. It is
expected that the settlement of this difficulty will lead to such
arrangements as will prevent further hostile contact between the Indians
and the border settlements in western Colorado.
The other disturbance occurred at the Mescalero Agency, in New Mexico,
where Victoria, at the head of a small band of marauders, after committing
many atrocities, being vigorously chased by a military force, made his way
across the Mexican border and is now on foreign soil.
While these occurrences, in which a comparatively small number of Indians
were engaged, are most deplorable, a vast majority of our Indian population
have fully justified the expectations of those who believe that by humane
and peaceful influences the Indian can be led to abandon the habits of
savage life and to develop a capacity for useful and civilized occupations.
What they have already accomplished in the pursuit of agricultural and
mechanical work, the remarkable success which has attended the experiment
of employing as freighters a class of Indians hitherto counted among the
wildest and most intractable, and the general and urgent desire expressed
by them for the education of their children may be taken as sufficient
proof that they will be found capable of accomplishing much more if they
continue to be wisely and fairly guided. The "Indian policy" sketched in
the report of the Secretary of the Interior, the object of which is to make
liberal provision for the education of Indian youth, to settle the Indians
upon farm lots in severalty, to give them title in fee to their farms,
inalienable for a certain number of years, and when their wants are thus
provided for to dispose by sale of the lands on their reservations not
occupied and used by them, a fund to be formed out of the proceeds for the
benefit of the Indians, which will gradually relieve the Government of the
expenses now provided for by annual appropriations, must commend itself as
just and beneficial to the Indians, and as also calculated to remove those
obstructions which the existence of large reservations presents to the
settlement and development of the country. I therefore earnestly recommend
the enactment of a law enabling the Government to give Indians a title in
fee, inalienable for twenty-five years, to the farm lands assigned to them
by allotment. I also repeat the recommendation made in my first annual
message, that a law be passed admitting Indians who can give satisfactory
proof of having by their own labor supported their families for a number of
years, and who are willing to detach themselves from their tribal
relations, to the benefit of the homestead act, and to grant them patents
containing the same provision of inalienability for a certain period.
The experiment of sending a number of Indian children of both sexes to the
Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, in Virginia, to receive an
elementary English education and practical instruction in farming and other
useful industries, has led to results so promising that it was thought
expedient to turn over the cavalry barracks at Carlisle, in Pennsylvania,
to the Interior Department for the establishment of an Indian school on a
larger scale. This school has now 158 pupils, selected from various tribes,
and is in full operation. Arrangements are also made for the education of a
number of Indian boys and girls belonging to tribes on the Pacific Slope in
a similar manner, at Forest Grove, in Oregon. These institutions will
commend themselves to the liberality of Congress and to the philanthropic
munificence of the American people.
Last spring information was received of the organization of an extensive
movement in the Western States, the object of which was the occupation by
unauthorized persons of certain lands in the Indian Territory ceded by the
Cherokees to the Government for the purpose of settlement by other Indian
tribes.
On the 26th of April I issued a proclamation warning all persons against
participation in such an attempt, and by the cooperation of a military
force the invasion was promptly checked. It is my purpose to protect the
rights of the Indian inhabitants of that Territory to the full extent of
the executive power; but it would be unwise to ignore the fact that a
territory so large and so fertile, with a population so sparse and with so
great a wealth of unused resources, will be found more exposed to the
repetition of such attempts as happened this year when the surrounding
States are more densely settled and the westward movement of our population
looks still more eagerly for fresh lands to occupy. Under such
circumstances the difficulty of maintaining the Indian Territory in its
present state will greatly increase, and the Indian tribes inhabiting it
would do well to prepare for such a contingency. I therefore fully approve
of the advice given to them by the Secretary of the Interior on a recent
occasion, to divide among themselves in severalty as large a quantity of
their lands as they can cultivate; to acquire individual title in fee
instead of their present tribal ownership in common, and to consider in
what manner the balance of their lands may be disposed of by the Government
for their benefit. By adopting such a policy they would more certainly
secure for themselves the value of their possessions, and at the same time
promote their progress in civilization and prosperity, than by endeavoring
to perpetuate the present state of things in the Territory.
The question whether a change in the control of the Indian service should
be made was in the Forty-fifth Congress referred to a joint committee of
both Houses for inquiry and report. In my last annual message I expressed
the hope that the decision of that question, then in prospect, would
"arrest further agitation of this subject, such agitation being apt to
produce a disturbing effect upon the service as well as on the Indians
themselves." Since then, the committee having reported, the question has
been decided in the negative by a vote in the House of Representatives.
For the reasons here stated, and in view of the fact that further
uncertainty on this point will be calculated to obstruct other much-needed
legislation, to weaken the discipline of the service, and to unsettle
salutary measures now in progress for the government and improvement of the
Indians, I respectfully recommend that the decision arrived at by Congress
at its last session be permitted to stand.
The efforts made by the Department of the Interior to arrest the
depredations on the timber lands of the United States have been continued,
and have met with considerable success. A large number of cases of trespass
have been prosecuted in the courts of the United States; others have been
settled, the trespassers offering to make payment to the Government for the
value of the timber taken by them. The proceeds of these prosecutions and
settlements turned into the Treasury far exceed in amount the sums
appropriated by Congress for this purpose. A more important result,
however, consists in the fact that the destruction of our public forests by
depredation, although such cases still occur, has been greatly reduced in
extent, and it is probable that if the present policy is vigorously pursued
and sufficient provision to that end is made by Congress such trespasses,
at least those on a large scale, can be entirely suppressed, except in the
Territories, where timber for the daily requirements of the population can
not, under the present state of the law, be otherwise obtained. I therefore
earnestly invite the attention of Congress to the recommendation made by
the Secretary of the Interior, that a law be enacted enabling the
Government to sell timber from the public lands without conveying the fee,
where such lands are principally valuable for the timber thereon, such
sales to be so regulated as to conform to domestic wants and business
requirements, while at the same time guarding against a sweeping
destruction of the forests. The enactment of such a law appears to become a
more pressing necessity every day.
My recommendations in former messages are renewed in favor of enlarging the
facilities of the Department of Agriculture. Agriculture is the leading
interest and the permanent industry of our people. It is to the abundance
of agricultural production, as compared with our home consumption, and the
largely increased and highly profitable market abroad which we have enjoyed
in recent years, that we are mainly indebted for our present prosperity as
a people. We must look for its continued maintenance to the same
substantial resource. There is no branch of industry in which labor,
directed by scientific knowledge, yields such increased production in
comparison with unskilled labor, and no branch of the public service to
which the encouragement of liberal appropriations can be more appropriately
extended. The omission to render such aid is not a wise economy, but, on
the contrary, undoubtedly results in losses of immense sums annually that
might be saved through well-directed efforts by the Government to promote
this vital interest.
The results already accomplished with the very limited means heretofore
placed at the command of the Department of Agriculture is an earnest of
what may be expected with increased appropriations for the several purposes
indicated in the report of the Commissioner, with a view to placing the
Department upon a footing which will enable it to prosecute more
effectively the objects for which it is established.
Appropriations are needed for a more complete laboratory, for the
establishment of a veterinary division and a division of forestry, and for
an increase of force.
The requirements for these and other purposes, indicated in the report of
the Commissioner under the head of the immediate necessities of the
Department, will not involve any expenditure of money that the country can
not with propriety now undertake in the interests of agriculture.
It is gratifying to learn from the Bureau of Education the extent to which
educational privileges throughout the United States have been advanced
during the year. No more fundamental responsibility rests upon Congress
than that of devising appropriate measures of financial aid to education,
supplemental to local action in the States and Territories and in the
District of Columbia. The wise forethought of the founders of our
Government has not only furnished the basis for the support of the
common-school systems of the newer States, but laid the foundations for the
maintenance of their universities and colleges of agriculture and the
mechanic arts. Measures in accordance with this traditional policy, for the
further benefit of all these interests and the extension of the same
advantages to every portion of the country, it is hoped will receive your
favorable consideration.
To preserve and perpetuate the national literature should be among the
foremost cares of the National Legislature. The library gathered at the
Capitol still remains unprovided with any suitable accommodations for its
rapidly increasing stores. The magnitude and importance of the collection,
increased as it is by the deposits made under the law of copyright, by
domestic and foreign exchanges, and by the scientific library of the
Smithsonian Institution, call for building accommodations which shall be at
once adequate and fireproof. The location of such a public building, which
should provide for the pressing necessities of the present and for the vast
increase of the nation's books in the future, is a matter which addresses
itself to the discretion of Congress. It is earnestly recommended as a
measure which should unite all suffrages and which should no longer be
delayed.
The joint commission created by the act of Congress of August 2, 1876, for
the purpose of supervising and directing the completion of the Washington
National Monument, of which commission the President is a member, has given
careful attention to this subject, and already the strengthening of the
foundation has so far progressed as to insure the entire success of this
part of the work. A massive layer of masonry has been introduced below the
original foundation, widening the base, increasing the stability of the
structure, and rendering it possible to carry the shaft to completion. It
is earnestly recommended that such further appropriations be made for the
continued prosecution of the work as may be necessary for the completion of
this national monument at an early day.
In former messages, impressed with the importance of the subject, I have
taken occasion to commend to Congress the adoption of a generous policy
toward the District of Columbia. The report of the Commissioners of the
District, herewith transmitted, contains suggestions and recommendations,
to all of which I earnestly invite your careful attention. I ask your early
and favorable consideration of the views which they express as to the
urgent need of legislation for the reclamation of the marshes of the
Potomac and its Eastern Branch within the limits of the city, and for the
repair of the streets of the capital, heretofore laid with wooden blocks
and now by decay rendered almost impassable and a source of imminent danger
to the health of its citizens. The means at the disposal of the
Commissioners are wholly inadequate for the accomplishment of these
important works, and should be supplemented by timely appropriations from
the Federal Treasury.
The filling of the flats in front of the city will add to the adjacent
lands and parks now owned by the United States a large and valuable domain,
sufficient, it is thought, to reimburse its entire cost, and will also, as
an incidental result, secure the permanent improvement of the river for the
purposes of navigation.
The Constitution having invested Congress with supreme and exclusive
jurisdiction over the District of Columbia, its citizens must of necessity
look to Congress alone for all needful legislation affecting their
interests; and as the territory of this District is the common property of
the people of the United States, who equally with its resident citizens are
interested in the prosperity of their capital, I can not doubt that you
will be amply sustained by the general voice of the country in any measures
you may adopt for this purpose.