Chapter XVII: Section 1: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not (14)

I transmit to the Senate, for consideration with a view to ratification, a convention between the United States of America and the Ottoman Empire, relative to the naturalization of citizens and subjects of the two countries, signed by their respective plenipotentiaries at Constantinople on the 11th of August last. A copy of the correspondence which accompanied the convention on the subject is herewith transmitted.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _December 8, 1874_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith a report, dated the 8th instant, with accompanying papers,[88] from the Secretary of State, in compliance with the requirements of section 208 of the Revised Statutes of the United States.

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 88: Report of fees collected, etc., by consular officers of the United States for 1873, list of consular officers, and tariff of consular fees prescribed by the President September 1, 1874.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _December 22, 1874_.

The SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

I have the honor to transmit herewith, for the information of Congress, a memorial[89] forwarded to me by a convention of colored citizens assembled in the city of Montgomery, Ala., on the 2d of this month.

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 89: Asking all the rights of citizenship.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 5, 1875_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 21st December last, requesting the return of its resolution of the 17th of the same month, advising and consenting to the appointment of J.C.S. Colby to be consul of the United States at Chin-Kiang, I have the honor to state that Mr. Colby's commission was signed on the 17th day of December, and upon inquiry at the Department of State it was found that it had been forwarded to him by mail before the receipt of the resolution of recall.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 12, 1875_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

In accordance with the requirements of the joint resolution approved March 25, 1874, authorizing an inquiry into and report upon the causes of epidemic cholera, I have the honor to transmit herewith reports upon the subject from the Secretaries of the Treasury and War Departments.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 13, 1875_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I have the honor to make the following answer to a Senate resolution of the 8th instant, asking for information as to any interference by any military officer or any part of the Army of the United States with the organization or proceedings of the general assembly of the State of Louisiana, or either branch thereof; and also inquiring in regard to the existence of armed organizations in that State hostile to the government thereof and intent on overturning such government by force.

To say that lawlessness, turbulence, and bloodshed have characterized the political affairs of that State since its reorganization under the reconstruction acts is only to repeat what has become well known as a part of its unhappy history; but it may be proper here to refer to the election of 1868, by which the Republican vote of the State, through fraud and violence, was reduced to a few thousands, and the bloody riots of 1866 and 1868, to show that the disorders there are not due to any recent causes or to any late action of the Federal authorities.

Preparatory to the election of 1872 a shameful and undisguised conspiracy was formed to carry that election against the Republicans, without regard to law or right, and to that end the most glaring frauds and forgeries were committed in the returns, after many colored citizens had been denied registration and others deterred by fear from casting their ballots.

When the time came for a final canvass of the votes, in view of the foregoing facts William P. Kellogg, the Republican candidate for governor, brought suit upon the equity side of the United States circuit court for Louisiana, and against Warmoth and others, who had obtained possession of the returns of the election, representing that several thousand voters of the State had been deprived of the elective franchise on account of their color, and praying that steps might be taken to have said votes counted and for general relief. To enable the court to inquire as to the truth of these allegations, a temporary restraining order was issued against the defendants, which was at once wholly disregarded and treated with contempt by those to whom it was directed. These proceedings have been widely denounced as an unwarrantable interference by the Federal judiciary with the election of State officers; but it is to be remembered that by the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States the political equality of colored citizens is secured, and under the second section of that amendment, providing that Congress shall have power to enforce its provisions by appropriate legislation, an act was passed on the 31st of May, 1870, and amended in 1871, the object of which was to prevent the denial or abridgment of suffrage to citizens on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude; and it has been held by all the Federal judges before whom the question has arisen, including Justice Strong, of the Supreme Court, that the protection afforded by this amendment and these acts extends to State as well as other elections. That it is the duty of the Federal courts to enforce the provisions of the Constitution of the United States and the laws passed in pursuance thereof is too clear for controversy.