public schools of this District, as exhibited in the report of the
Commissioners. While the number of pupils is rapidly increasing, no
adequate provision exists for a corresponding increase of school
accommodation, and the Commissioners are without the means to meet this
urgent need. A number of the buildings now used for school purposes are
rented, and are in important particulars unsuited for the purpose. The
cause of popular education in the District of Columbia is surely entitled
to the same consideration at the hands of the National Government as in the
several States and Territories, to which munificent grants of the public
lands have been made for the endowment of schools and universities.
***
State of the Union Address
Rutherford B. Hayes
December 6, 1880
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
I congratulate you on the continued and increasing prosperity of our
country. By the favor of Divine Providence we have been blessed during the
past year with health, with abundant harvests, with profitable employment
for all our people, and with contentment at home, and with peace and
friendship with other nations. The occurrence of the twenty-fourth election
of Chief Magistrate has afforded another opportunity to the people of the
United States to exhibit to the world a significant example of the peaceful
and safe transmission of the power and authority of government from the
public servants whose terms of office are about to expire to their newly
chosen successors. This example can not fail to impress profoundly
thoughtful people of other countries with the advantages which republican
institutions afford. The immediate, general, and cheerful acquiescence of
all good citizens in the result of the election gives gratifying assurance
to our country and to its friends throughout the world that a government
based on the free consent of an intelligent and patriotic people possesses
elements of strength, stability, and permanency not found in any other form
of government.
Continued opposition to the full and free enjoyment of the rights of
citizenship conferred upon the colored people by the recent amendments to
the Constitution still prevails in several of the late slaveholding States.
It has, perhaps, not been manifested in the recent election to any large
extent in acts of violence or intimidation. It has, however, by fraudulent
practices in connection with the ballots, with the regulations as to the
places and manner of voting, and with counting, returning, and canvassing
the votes cast, been successful in defeating the exercise of the right
preservative of all rights--the right of suffrage--which the Constitution
expressly confers upon our enfranchised citizens.
It is the desire of the good people of the whole country that sectionalism
as a factor in our politics should disappear. They prefer that no section
of the country should be united in solid opposition to any other section.
The disposition to refuse a prompt and hearty obedience to the equal-rights
amendments to the Constitution is all that now stands in the way of a
complete obliteration of sectional lines in our political contests. As long
as either of these amendments is flagrantly violated or disregarded, it is
safe to assume that the people who placed them in the Constitution, as
embodying the legitimate results of the war for the Union, and who believe
them to be wise and necessary, will continue to act together and to insist
that they shall be obeyed. The paramount question still is as to the
enjoyment of the fight by every American citizen who has the requisite
qualifications to freely cast his vote and to have it honestly counted.
With this question rightly settled, the country will be relieved of the
contentions of the past; bygones will indeed be bygones, and political and
party issues, with respect to economy and efficiency of administration,
internal improvements, the tariff, domestic taxation, education, finance,
and other important subjects, will then receive their full share of
attention; but resistance to and nullification of the results of the war
will unite together in resolute purpose for their support all who maintain
the authority of the Government and the perpetuity of the Union, and who
adequately appreciate the value of the victory achieved. This determination
proceeds from no hostile sentiment or feeling to any part of the people of
our country or to any of their interests. The inviolability of the
amendments rests upon the fundamental principle of our Government. They are
the solemn expression of the will of the people of the United States.
The sentiment that the constitutional rights of all our citizens must be
maintained does not grow weaker. It will continue to control the Government
of the country. Happily, the history of the late election shows that in
many parts of the country where opposition to the fifteenth amendment has
heretofore prevailed it is diminishing, and is likely to cease altogether
if firm and well-considered action is taken by Congress. I trust the House
of Representatives and the Senate, which have the right to judge of the
elections, returns, and qualifications of their own members, will see to it
that every case of violation of the letter or spirit of the fifteenth
amendment is thoroughly investigated, and that no benefit from such
violation shall accrue to any person or party. It will be the duty of the
Executive, with sufficient appropriations for the purpose, to prosecute
unsparingly all who have been engaged in depriving citizens of the rights
guaranteed to them by the Constitution.
It is not, however, to be forgotten that the best and surest guaranty of
the primary rights of citizenship is to be found in that capacity for
self-protection which can belong only to a people whose right to universal
suffrage is supported by universal education. The means at the command of
the local and State authorities are in many cases wholly inadequate to
furnish free instruction to all who need it. This is especially true where
before emancipation the education of the people was neglected or prevented,
in the interest of slavery. Firmly convinced that the subject of popular
education deserves the earnest attention of the people of the whole
country, with a view to wise and comprehensive action by the Government of
the United States, I respectfully recommend that Congress, by suitable
legislation and with proper safeguards, supplement the local educational
funds in the several States where the grave duties and responsibilities of
citizenship have been devolved on uneducated people by devoting to the
purpose grants of the public lands and, if necessary, by appropriations
from the Treasury of the United States. Whatever Government can fairly do
to promote free popular education ought to be done. Wherever general
education is found, peace, virtue, and social order prevail and civil and
religious liberty are secure.
In my former annual messages I have asked the attention of Congress to the
urgent necessity of a reformation of the civil-service system of the
Government. My views concerning the dangers of patronage, or appointments
for personal or partisan considerations, have been strengthened by my
observation and experience in the Executive office, and I believe these
dangers threaten the stability of the Government. Abuses so serious in
their nature can not be permanently tolerated. They tend to become more
alarming with the enlargement of administrative service, as the growth of
the country in population increases the number of officers and placemen
employed.
The reasons are imperative for the adoption of fixed rules for the
regulation of appointments, promotions, and removals, establishing a
uniform method having exclusively in view in every instance the attainment
of the best qualifications for the position in question. Such a method
alone is consistent with the equal rights of all citizens and the most
economical and efficient administration of the public business.
Competitive examinations in aid of impartial appointments and promotions
have been conducted for some years past in several of the Executive
Departments, and by my direction this system has been adopted in the
custom-houses and post-offices of the larger cities of the country. In the
city of New York over 2,000 positions in the civil service have been
subject in their appointments and tenure of place to the operation of
published rules for this purpose during the past two years. The results of
these practical trials have been very satisfactory, and have confirmed my
opinion in favor of this system of selection. All are subjected to the same
tests, and the result is free from prejudice by personal favor or partisan
influence. It secures for the position applied for the best qualifications
attainable among the competing applicants. It is an effectual protection
from the pressure of importunity, which under any other course pursued
largely exacts the time and attention of appointing officers, to their
great detriment in the discharge of other official duties preventing the
abuse of the service for the mere furtherance of private or party purposes,
and leaving the employee of the Government, freed from the obligations
imposed by patronage, to depend solely upon merit for retention and
advancement, and with this constant incentive to exertion and improvement.
These invaluable results have been attained in a high degree in the offices
where the rules for appointment by competitive examination have been
applied.
A method which has so approved itself by experimental tests at points where
such tests may be fairly considered conclusive should be extended to all
subordinate positions under the Government. I believe that a strong and
growing public sentiment demands immediate measures for securing and
enforcing the highest possible efficiency in the civil service and its
protection from recognized abuses, and that the experience referred to has
demonstrated the feasibility of such measures.
The examinations in the custom-houses and post-offices have been held under
many embarrassments and without provision for compensation for the extra
labor performed by the officers who have conducted them, and whose
commendable interest in the improvement of the public service has induced
this devotion of time and labor without pecuniary reward. A continuance of
these labors gratuitously ought not to be expected, and without an
appropriation by Congress for compensation it is not practicable to extend
the system of examinations generally throughout the civil service. It is
also highly important that all such examinations should be conducted upon a
uniform system and under general supervision. Section 1753 of the Revised
Statutes authorizes the President to prescribe the regulations for
admission to the civil service of the United States, and for this purpose
to employ suitable persons to conduct the requisite inquiries with
reference to "the fitness of each candidate, in respect to age, health,
character, knowledge, and ability for the branch of service into which he
seeks to enter;" but the law is practically inoperative for want of the
requisite appropriation.
I therefore recommend an appropriation of $25,000 per annum to meet the
expenses of a commission, to be appointed by the President in accordance
with the terms of this section, whose duty it shall be to devise a just,
uniform, and efficient system of competitive examinations and to supervise
the application of the same throughout the entire civil service of the
Government. I am persuaded that the facilities which such a commission will
afford for testing the fitness of those who apply for office will not only
be as welcome a relief to members of Congress as it will be to the
President and heads of Departments, but that it will also greatly tend to
remove the causes of embarrassment which now inevitably and constantly
attend the conflicting claims of patronage between the legislative and
executive departments. The most effectual check upon the pernicious
competition of influence and official favoritism in the bestowal of office
will be the substitution of an open competition of merit between the
applicants, in which everyone can make his own record with the assurance
that his success will depend upon this alone.
I also recommend such legislation as, while leaving every officer as free
as any other citizen to express his political opinions and to use his means
for their advancement, shall also enable him to feel as safe as any private
citizen in refusing all demands upon his salary for political purposes. A
law which should thus guarantee true liberty and justice to all who are
engaged in the public service, and likewise contain stringent provisions
against the use of official authority to coerce the political action of
private citizens or of official subordinates, is greatly to be desired.
The most serious obstacle, however, to an improvement of the civil service,
and especially to a reform in the method of appointment and removal, has
been found to be the practice, under what is known as the spoils system, by
which the appointing power has been so largely encroached upon by members
of Congress. The first step in the reform of the civil service must be a
complete divorce between Congress and the Executive in the matter of
appointments. The corrupting doctrine that "to the victors belong the
spoils" is inseparable from Congressional patronage as the established rule
and practice of parties in power. It comes to be understood by applicants
for office and by the people generally that Representatives and Senators
are entitled to disburse the patronage of their respective districts and
States. It is not necessary to recite at length the evils resulting from
this invasion of the Executive functions. The true principles of Government
on the subject of appointments to office, as stated in the national
conventions of the leading parties of the country, have again and again
been approved by the American people, and have not been called in question
in any quarter. These authentic expressions of public opinion upon this
all-important subject are the statement of principles that belong to the
constitutional structure of the Government. Under the Constitution the
President and heads of Departments are to make nominations for office. The
Senate is to advise and consent to appointments, and the House of
Representatives is to accuse and prosecute faithless officers. The best
interest of the public service demands that these distinctions be
respected; that Senators and Representatives, who may be judges and
accusers, should not dictate appointments to office. To this end the
cooperation of the legislative department of the Government is required
alike by the necessities of the case and by public opinion. Members of
Congress will not be relieved from the demands made upon them with
reference to appointments to office until by legislative enactment the
pernicious practice is condemned and forbidden.
It is therefore recommended that an act be passed defining the relations of
members of Congress with respect to appointment to office by the President;
and I also recommend that the provisions of section 1767 and of the
sections following of the Revised Statutes, comprising the tenure-of-office
act of March 2, 1867, be repealed.
Believing that to reform the system and methods of the civil service in our
country is one of the highest and most imperative duties of statesmanship,
and that it can be permanently done only by the cooperation of the
legislative and executive departments of the Government, I again commend
the whole subject to your considerate attention.
It is the recognized duty and purpose of the people of the United States to
suppress polygamy where it now exists in our Territories and to prevent its
extension. Faithful and zealous efforts have been made by the United States
authorities in Utah to enforce the laws against it. Experience has shown
that the legislation upon this subject, to be effective, requires extensive
modification and amendment. The longer action is delayed the more difficult
it will be to accomplish what is desired. Prompt and decided measures are
necessary. The Mormon sectarian organization which upholds polygamy has the
whole power of making and executing the local legislation of the Territory.
By its control of the grand and petit juries it possesses large influence
over the administration of justice. Exercising, as the heads of this sect
do, the local political power of the Territory, they are able to make
effective their hostility to the law of Congress on the subject of
polygamy, and, in fact, do prevent its enforcement. Polygamy will not be
abolished if the enforcement of the law depends on those who practice and
uphold the crime. It can only be suppressed by taking away the political
power of the sect which encourages and sustains it.
The power of Congress to enact suitable laws to protect the Territories is
ample. It is not a case for halfway measures. The political power of the
Mormon sect is increasing. It controls now one of our wealthiest and most
populous Territories. It is extending steadily into other Territories.
Wherever it goes it establishes polygamy and sectarian political power. The
sanctity of marriage and the family relation are the corner stone of our
American society and civilization. Religious liberty and the separation of
church and state are among the elementary ideas of free institutions. To
reestablish the interests and principles which polygamy and Mormonism have
imperiled, and to fully reopen to intelligent and virtuous immigrants of
all creeds that part of our domain which has been in a great degree closed
to general immigration by intolerant and immoral institutions, it is
recommended that the government of the Territory of Utah be reorganized.
I recommend that Congress provide for the government of Utah by a governor
and judges, or commissioners, appointed by the President and confirmed by
the Senate--a government analogous to the provisional government
established for the territory northwest of the Ohio by the ordinance of
1787. If, however, it is deemed best to continue the existing form of local
government, I recommend that the right to vote, hold office, and sit on
juries in the Territory of Utah be confined to those who neither practice
nor uphold polygamy. If thorough measures are adopted, it is believed that
within a few years the evils which now afflict Utah will be eradicated, and
that this Territory will in good time become one of the most prosperous and
attractive of the new States of the Union.
Our relations with all foreign countries have been those of undisturbed
peace, and have presented no occasion for concern as to their continued
maintenance.
My anticipation of an early reply from the British Government to the demand
of indemnity to our fishermen for the injuries suffered by that industry at
Fortune Bay in January, 1878, which I expressed in my last annual message,
was disappointed. This answer was received only in the latter part of April
in the present year, and when received exhibited a failure of accord
between the two Governments as to the measure of the inshore fishing
privilege secured to our fishermen by the treaty of Washington of so
serious a character that I made it the subject of a communication to
Congress, in which I recommended the adoption of the measures which seemed
to me proper to be taken by this Government in maintenance of the rights
accorded to our fishermen under the treaty and toward securing an indemnity
for the injury these interests had suffered. A bill to carry out these
recommendations was under consideration by the House of Representatives at
the time of the adjournment of Congress in June last.
Within a few weeks I have received a communication from Her Majesty's
Government renewing the consideration of the subject, both of the indemnity
for the injuries at Fortune Bay and of the interpretation of the treaty in
which the previous correspondence had shown the two Governments to be at
variance. Upon both these topics the disposition toward a friendly
agreement is manifested by a recognition of our right to an indemnity for
the transaction at Fortune Bay, leaving the measure of such indemnity to
further conference, and by an assent to the view of this Government,
presented in the previous correspondence, that the regulation of
conflicting interests of the shore fishery of the provincial seacoasts and
the vessel fishery of our fishermen should be made the subject of
conference and concurrent arrangement between the two Governments.
I sincerely hope that the basis may be found for a speedy adjustment of the
very serious divergence of views in the interpretation of the fishery
clauses of the treaty of Washington, which, as the correspondence between
the two Governments stood at the close of the last session of Congress,
seemed to be irreconcilable.
In the important exhibition of arts and industries which was held last year
at Sydney, New South Wales, as well as in that now in progress at
Melbourne, the United States have been efficiently and honorably
represented. The exhibitors from this country at the former place received
a large number of awards in some of the most considerable departments, and
the participation of the United States was recognized by a special mark of
distinction. In the exhibition at Melbourne the share taken by our country
is no less notable, and an equal degree of success is confidently
expected.
The state of peace and tranquillity now enjoyed by all the nations of the
continent of Europe has its favorable influence upon our diplomatic and
commercial relations with them. We have concluded and ratified a convention
with the French Republic for the settlement of claims of the citizens of
either country against the other. Under this convention a commission,
presided over by a distinguished publicist, appointed in pursuance of the
request of both nations by His Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, has been
organized and has begun its sessions in this city. A congress to consider
means for the protection of industrial property has recently been in
session in Paris, to which I have appointed the ministers of the United
States in France and in Belgium as delegates. The International Commission
upon Weights and Measures also continues its work in Paris. I invite your
attention to the necessity of an appropriation to be made in time to enable
this Government to comply with its obligations under the metrical
convention.
Our friendly relations with the German Empire continue without
interruption. At the recent International Exhibition of Fish and Fisheries
at Berlin the participation of the United States, notwithstanding the haste
with which the commission was forced to make its preparations, was
extremely successful and meritorious, winning for private exhibitors
numerous awards of a high class and for the country at large the principal
prize of honor offered by His Majesty the Emperor. The results of this
great success can not but be advantageous to this important and growing
industry. There have been some questions raised between the two Governments
as to the proper effect and interpretation of our treaties of
naturalization, but recent dispatches from our minister at Berlin show that
favorable progress is making toward an understanding in accordance with the
views of this Government, which makes and admits no distinction whatever
between the rights of a native and a naturalized citizen of the United
States. In practice the complaints of molestation suffered by naturalized
citizens abroad have never been fewer than at present.