Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

During the last fiscal year 23,196 names were added to the pension rolls and 4,876 dropped therefrom, leaving at its close 187,963. The amount paid to pensioners, including the compensation of disbursing agents, was $28,422,884, an increase of $4,411,902 on that of the previous year. The munificence of Congress has been conspicuously manifested in its legislation for the soldiers and sailors who suffered in the recent struggle to maintain "that unity of government which makes us one people." The additions to the pension rolls of each successive year since the conclusion of hostilities result in a great degree from the repeated amendments of the act of the 14th of July, 1862, which extended its provisions to cases not falling within its original scope. The large outlay which is thus occasioned is further increased by the more liberal allowance bestowed since that date upon those who in the line of duty were wholly or permanently disabled. Public opinion has given an emphatic sanction to these measures of Congress, and it will be conceded that no part of our public burden is more cheerfully borne than that which is imposed by this branch of the service. It necessitates for the next fiscal year, in addition to the amount justly chargeable to the naval pension fund, an appropriation of $30,000,000.

During the year ending the 30th of September, 1869, the Patent Office issued 13,762 patents, and its receipts were $686,389, being $213,926 more than the expenditures.

I would respectfully call your attention to the recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior for uniting the duties of supervising the education of freedmen with the other duties devolving upon the Commissioner of Education.

If it is the desire of Congress to make the census which must be taken during the year 1870 more complete and perfect than heretofore, I would suggest early action upon any plan that may be agreed upon. As Congress at the last session appointed a committee to take into consideration such measures as might be deemed proper in reference to the census and report a plan, I desist from saying more.

I recommend to your favorable consideration the claims of the Agricultural Bureau for liberal appropriations. In a country so diversified in climate and soil as ours, and with a population so largely dependent upon agriculture, the benefits that can be conferred by properly fostering this Bureau are incalculable.

I desire respectfully to call the attention of Congress to the inadequate salaries of a number of the most important offices of the Government. In this message I will not enumerate them, but will specify only the justices of the Supreme Court. No change has been made in their salaries for fifteen years. Within that time the labors of the court have largely increased and the expenses of living have at least doubled. During the same time Congress has twice found it necessary to increase largely the compensation of its own members, and the duty which it owes to another department of the Government deserves, and will undoubtedly receive, its due consideration.

There are many subjects not alluded to in this message which might with propriety be introduced, but I abstain, believing that your patriotism and statesmanship will suggest the topics and the legislation most conducive to the interests of the whole people. On my part I promise a rigid adherence to the laws and their strict enforcement.

U.S. GRANT.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

WASHINGTON, _December 6, 1869_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I submit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, an additional article to the convention of the 24th of October, 1867, between the United States of America and His Majesty the King of Denmark.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _December 6, 1869_

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I submit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a convention between the United States and His Hawaiian Majesty, signed in this city on the 8th day of May last, providing for the extension of the term for the exchange of the ratifications of the convention for commercial reciprocity between the same parties, signed on the 21st day of May, 1867.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _December 6, 1869_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I submit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a protocol, signed in this city on the 23d of October last, to the convention upon the subject of claims between the United States and the Mexican Republic, signed the 4th of July, 1868.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1869_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit, for the consideration of the Senate, the accompanying copy of a correspondence between the Secretary of State and the minister of the United States at Berlin, in relation to the exchange of the ratifications of the naturalization convention dated July 27, 1868, between the United States and the Government of Wurtemberg, which was not effected within the time named in the convention.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1869_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit, for the consideration of the Senate, the accompanying copy of a correspondence between the Secretary of State and the legation of the United States at Brussels, in relation to the exchange of the ratifications of the consular convention with Belgium signed on the 5th of December, 1868, which was not effected within the time named in the convention.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1869_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit to the Senate a copy of a correspondence, a list of which is hereto annexed, between the Secretary of State and the minister resident of the United States at Constantinople, and invite its consideration of the question as to the correct meaning of the fourth article of the treaty of 1830 between the United States and Turkey.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, D.C., _December 9, 1869_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 6th instant, requesting reports of the military commander of the district of which Georgia is a part in regard to the political and civil condition of that State, the accompanying papers are submitted.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _December 9, 1869_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, in answer to a resolution of the House of Representatives of yesterday, asking to be informed what legislatures have ratified the proposed fifteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _December 15, 1869_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

I transmit a further report from the Secretary of State in answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 9th instant, making known that official notice has been received at the Department of State of the ratification by the legislature of the State of Alabama of the amendment to the Constitution recently proposed by Congress as Article XV.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _December 15, 1869_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 13th instant, requesting a copy of official correspondence on the subject of Cuba, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, to whom the resolution was referred.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., December 15, 1869_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

In answer to the resolution of December 9, 1869, requesting a copy of the charges, testimony, findings, and sentence in the trial by court-martial of Passed Assistant Surgeon Charles L. Green, United States Navy, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of the Navy, to whom the resolution was referred.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., December 20, 1869_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I hereby request the return of such part of my message of December 9, in response to Senate resolution of December 6, requesting the reports of the military commander of the district of which Georgia is a part, to wit, an anonymous letter purporting to be from "a Georgia woman." By accident the paper got with those called for by the resolution, instead of in the wastebasket, where it was intended it should go.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _December 20, 1869_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I transmit to the Senate, in relation to their resolution of the 8th instant, a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying documents.[6]

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 6: Relating to the revolution in Cuba and the political and civil condition of that island.]

WASHINGTON, _December 22, 1869_.

_To the Senate:_

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 20th instant, in relation to correspondence between the United States and Great Britain concerning questions pending between the two countries since the rejection of the claims convention by the Senate, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State upon the subject and the papers by which it was accompanied.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _December 22, 1869_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 8th instant, a report[7] from the Secretary of State.

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 7: Stating that neither correspondence nor negotiation upon the subject of trade and commerce between the United States and Canada had been entered into.]

WASHINGTON, _January 10, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit to the Senate, for consideration with a view to its ratification, a convention between the United States and the Dominican Republic for a lease to the former of the bay and peninsula of Samana.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _January 10, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I transmit to the Senate, for consideration with a view to its ratification, a treaty for the annexation of the Dominican Republic to the United States, signed by the plenipotentiaries of the parties on the 29th of November last.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., January 10, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

In response to the resolution of the Senate of December 9, 1869, requesting the information in possession of the President or any of the Departments relating to the action which has been had in the District of Virginia under the act "authorizing the submission of the constitutions of Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas to a vote of the people, and authorizing the election of State officers provided by the said constitutions, and Members of Congress," approved April 10, 1869, I have the honor to transmit herewith the reports of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, and the Attorney-General, to whom, severally, the resolution was referred.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., January 21, 1870_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

In answer to the resolution passed by the House of Representatives on the 17th instant, requesting to be informed "under what act of Congress or by other authority appropriations for the Navy are diverted to the survey of the Isthmus of Darien," I transmit a report by the Secretary of the Navy, to whom the resolution was referred.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., January 29, 1870_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

I herewith transmit to Congress a report, dated 29th instant, with the accompanying papers,[8] received from the Secretary of State, in compliance with the requirements of the eighteenth section of the act entitled "An act to regulate the diplomatic and consular systems of the United States," approved August 18, 1856.

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 8: Report of fees collected, etc., by consular officers of the United States for 1868, and tariff of consular fees.]

WASHINGTON, _February 1, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I transmit to the Senate, in compliance with its resolution of the 31st ultimo, a report from the Secretary of State, communicating information in relation to the action of the legislature of the State of Mississippi on the proposed fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _February 2, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 8th ultimo, I transmit a report[9] from the Secretary of State and the papers which accompanied it.

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 9: Relating to the insurrection in the Red River settlement, in British North America.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 4, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I herewith lay before the Senate, for the consideration and action of that body in connection with a treaty of December 4, 1868, with the Seneca Nation of Indians, now pending, amendments to said treaty proposed at a council of said Indians held at their council house on the Catteraugus Reservation, in New York, on the 26th ultimo.

A letter of the Secretary of the Interior, of the 3d instant, accompanies the papers.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 4, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

For the reasons stated in the accompanying communication from the Secretary of the Interior, I respectfully request to withdraw the treaties hereinafter mentioned, which are now pending before the Senate:

First. Treaty concluded with the Great and Little Osages May 27, 1868.

Second. Treaty concluded with the Sacs and Foxes of the Missouri and Iowa tribes of Indians February 11, 1869.

Third. Treaty concluded with the Otoc and Missouria Indians February 13, 1869.

Fourth. Treaty concluded with the Kansas or Kaw Indians March 13, 1869.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _February 8, 1870_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 3d instant, calling for the number of copies of the tributes of the nations to Abraham Lincoln now in possession of the Department of State, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the paper which accompanied it.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _February 11, 1870_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives requesting me to furnish any information which may have been received by the Government in relation to the recent assault upon and reported murder of one or more American citizens in Cuba, I communicate a report from the Secretary of State, with the papers accompanying it.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON CITY, _February 11, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

The papers in the case of Commander Jonathan Young, of the United States Navy, show--

That when the naval promotions were made in 1866 the name of Commander Jonathan Young was not included among them, and he was passed over, while Commander George W. Young was not passed over; that among other testimonials is one from Vice-Admiral D.D. Porter stating that "Commander Jonathan Young was passed over by mistake; that he was recommended for promotion, while Commander George W. Young was not recommended for promotion, and by some singular mistake the latter was promoted, while the former was passed over."

That eminent officers, formerly _junior_ to Commander Young, but promoted over his head, desire his restoration to his former position, because they consider such restoration due to his character, ability, and services.

In view, therefore, of these facts, and of the general good standing of Commander Jonathan Young, and of his gallant and efficient services during the war, and to remedy so far as is now possible what is believed to have been a clerical error of the Department, which has worked to his injury, the Department now recommends that he be restored to his original standing upon the navy list.

For these reasons I nominate Commander Jonathan Young to be restored to his original position, to take rank from the 25th July, 1866, and next after Commander William T. Truxtun.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, D.C., _February 11, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

In reply to the resolution of the Senate of the 4th instant, requesting information in regard to the proceedings had in the State of Georgia in pursuance of the recent act of Congress entitled "An act to promote the reconstruction of the State of Georgia," and in relation to the organization of the legislature of that State since the passage of that act, I herewith transmit the report of the Secretary of War, to whom the resolution was referred.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _February 15, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

In reply to a resolution of the Senate of the 9th instant, in relation to the Central Branch, Union Pacific Railroad Company, I transmit a copy of a letter addressed to me on the 27th ultimo by the Secretary of the Interior. It contains all the information in my possession touching the action of any of the Departments on the claim of that company to continue and extend its road and to receive in aid of the construction thereof lands and bonds from the United States.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _February 16, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

In response to the resolution of the Senate of the 8th instant, asking "how much of the appropriations heretofore made, amounting to $100,000, to provide for the defense of certain suits now pending in the Court of Claims, known as the cotton cases, has been expended, and to whom the same has been paid; for what services rendered, and the amount paid to each of said persons; and also the number of clerks in the Treasury Department, and other persons, with their names, engaged or occupied in the defense of said suits," I herewith transmit the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, to whom the resolution was referred.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _February 16, 1870_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 10th instant, I transmit a report[10] from the Secretary of State, with accompanying documents.

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 10: Relating to the payment in currency, instead of coin, of the semiannual installments of interest due to the United States under the convention with Spain concluded February 17, 1834, and opinion of the Attorney-General relative thereto.]

WASHINGTON, _February 17, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 24th ultimo, the report from the Secretary of State, with accompaniments.[11]

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 11: Lists of officers commissioned by the Department of State, their compensation, etc.]

WASHINGTON, _February 18, 1870_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

I transmit to the House of Representatives, in further answer to their resolution requesting information in relation to the recent assault upon and reported murder of one or more American citizens in Cuba, a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _February 19, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

In reply to the resolution of the Senate of the 11th instant, requesting "any information which may have been received by the Government of the recently reported engagement of Colonel Baker with the Indians,[86] with copies of all orders which led to the same," I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, to whom the resolution was referred.

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 12: Piegan in Montana.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., February 21, 1870_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

I transmit to the House of Representatives, in answer to their resolution of the 7th instant, a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying documents.[13]

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 13: Correspondence relative to affairs connected with Cuba and to the struggle for independence in that island.]

WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 14th instant, a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying documents.[14]

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 14: Correspondence of the United States minister to Japan relative to American interests in that country.]

WASHINGTON, _February 24, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 21st instant, directing the Secretary of State to furnish the Senate with copies of all correspondence relating to the imprisonment of Mr. Davis Hatch by the Dominican Government, I transmit a report of the Secretary of State upon the subject.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _February 28, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 19th instant, requesting to be informed "if any officer of the Government has, contrary to the treaty of July 19, 1866, with the Cherokee Nation, enforced or sought to enforce the payment of taxes by Cherokees on products manufactured in the Cherokee Nation and sold within the Indian Territory," I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, to whom the resolution was referred.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _February 28, 1870_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 15th instant, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State upon the subject,[15] and the papers by which it was accompanied.

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 15: Imprisonment of American citizens in Great Britain for political offenses.]

WASHINGTON, _March 1, 1870_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

I transmit to Congress a communication from the Secretary of State, with the accompanying documents, relative to the claims of citizens of the United States on the Government of Venezuela which were adjusted by the commission provided for by the convention with that Republic of April 25, 1866.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., March 3, 1870_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

I transmit herewith, in response to the resolution of the House asking for information in relation to the repairs of Spanish war vessels at the docks of the United States, the report of the Secretary of the Navy, to whom the resolution was referred.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., March 8, 1870_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

Herewith I have the honor to transmit a communication from the Secretary of the Interior, relative to the obligation of Congress to make the necessary appropriations to carry out the Indian treaties made by what is known as the Peace Commission of 1867.

The history of those treaties and the consequences of noncompliance with them by the Government are so clearly set forth in this statement that I deem it better to communicate it in full than to ask the necessary appropriation in a shorter statement of the reasons for it. I earnestly desire that if an Indian war becomes inevitable the Government of the United States at least should not be responsible for it. Pains will be taken, and force used if necessary, to prevent the departure of the expeditions referred to by the Secretary of the Interior.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _March 10, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 4th instant, in relation to the "Transcontinental, Memphis, El Paso and Pacific Railroad Company," I transmit reports from the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Interior, with accompanying papers.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _March 10, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 28th ultimo, a report[90] from the Secretary of State, with accompanying documents.

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 16: Relating to legislation necessary to insure the administration of justice and the protection of American interests in China and Japan.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., March 14, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

In reply to your resolution of the 14th of February, requesting to be informed whether I desire that any of the Indian treaties now pending before you be considered confidentially, I have to inform you that there are none of them which I object to having discussed in open session.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., March 14, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I would respectfully call your attention to a treaty now before you for the acquisition of the Republic of St. Domingo, entered into between the agents of the two Governments on the 29th of November, 1869, and by its terms to be finally acted upon by the people of St. Domingo and the Senate of the United States within four months from the date of signing the treaty. The time for action expires on the 29th instant, a fact to which I desire expressly to call your attention. I would also direct your notice to the fact that the Government of St. Domingo has no agent in the United States who is authorized to extend the time for further deliberation upon its merits.

The people of St. Domingo have already, so far as their action can go, ratified the treaty, and I express the earnest wish that you will not permit it to expire by limitation. I also entertain the sincere hope that your action may be favorable to the ratification of the treaty.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _March 15, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, in answer to a resolution of the Senate of the 3d instant, asking to be informed what States have ratified the amendment known as the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, so far as official notice thereof has been transmitted to the Department of State, and that information from time to time may be communicated to that body, as soon as practicable, of such ratification hereafter by any State.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., March 23, 1870_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

In the Executive message of December 6, 1869, to Congress the importance of taking steps to revive our drooping merchant marine was urged, and a special message promised at a future day during the present session, recommending more specifically plans to accomplish this result. Now that the committee of the House of Representatives intrusted with the labor of ascertaining "the cause of the decline of American commerce" has completed its work and submitted its report to the legislative branch of the Government, I deem this a fitting time to execute that promise.

The very able, calm, and exhaustive report of the committee points out the grave wrongs which have produced the decline in our commerce. It is a national humiliation that we are now compelled to pay from twenty to thirty million dollars annually (exclusive of passage money, which we should share with vessels of other nations) to foreigners for doing the work which should be done by American vessels, American built, American owned, and American manned. This is a direct drain upon the resources of the country of just so much money, equal to casting it into the sea, so far as this nation is concerned.

A nation of the vast and ever-increasing interior resources of the United States, extending, as it does, from one to the other of the great oceans of the world, with an industrious, intelligent, energetic population, must one day possess its full share of the commerce of these oceans, no matter what the cost. Delay will only increase this cost and enhance the difficulty of attaining the result.

I therefore put in an earnest plea for early action in this matter, in a way to secure the desired increase of American commerce. The advanced period of the year and the fact that no contracts for shipbuilding will probably be entered into until this question is settled by Congress, and the further fact that if there should be much delay all large vessels contracted for this year will fail of completion before winter sets in, and will therefore be carried over for another year, induces me to request your early consideration of this subject.

I regard it of such grave importance, affecting every interest of the country to so great an extent, that any method which will gain the end will secure a rich national blessing. Building ships and navigating them utilizes vast capital at home; it employs thousands of workmen in their construction and manning; it creates a home market for the products of the farm and the shop; it diminishes the balance of trade against us precisely to the extent of freights and passage money paid to American vessels, and gives us a supremacy upon the seas of inestimable value in case of foreign war.

Our Navy at the commencement of the late war consisted of less than 100 vessels, of about 150,000 tons and a force of about 8,000 men. We drew from the merchant marine, which had cost the Government nothing, but which had been a source of national wealth, 600 vessels, exceeding 1,000,000 tons, and about 70,000 men, to aid in the suppression of the rebellion.

This statement demonstrates the value of the merchant marine as a means of national defense in time of need.

The Committee on the Causes of the Reduction of American Tonnage, after tracing the causes of its decline, submit two bills, which, if adopted, they believe will restore to the nation its maritime power. Their report shows with great minuteness the actual and comparative American tonnage at the time of its greatest prosperity; the actual and comparative decline since, together with the causes; and exhibits all other statistics of material interest in reference to the subject. As the report is before Congress, I will not recapitulate any of its statistics, but refer only to the methods recommended by the committee to give back to us our lost commerce.

As a general rule, when it can be adopted, I believe a direct money subsidy is less liable to abuse than an indirect aid given to the same enterprise. In this case, however, my opinion is that subsidies, while they may be given to specified lines of steamers or other vessels, should not be exclusively adopted, but, in addition to subsidizing very desirable lines of ocean traffic, a general assistance should be given in an effective way. I therefore commend to your favorable consideration the two bills proposed by the committee and referred to in this message.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 25, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In reply to a Senate resolution of the 24th instant, requesting to be furnished with a report, written by Captain Selfridge, upon the resources and condition of things in the Dominican Republic, I have to state that no such report has been received.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _March 25, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 15th ultimo, I transmit a report, with accompanying paper,[17] from the Secretary of the Navy, to whom the resolution was referred.

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 17: Statement of the number and character of the ironclad vessels of the Navy, their cost, by whom designed, who recommended their construction, and their condition.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 29, 1870_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

In reply to your resolution of December 20, 1869, asking "whether any citizens of the United States are imprisoned or detained in military custody by officers of the Army of the United States, and, if any, to furnish their names, date of arrest, the offenses charged, together with a statement of what measures have been taken for the trial and punishment of the offenders," I transmit herewith the report of the Secretary of War, to whom the resolution was referred.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 30, 1870_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

It is unusual to notify the two Houses of Congress by message of the promulgation, by proclamation of the Secretary of State, of the ratification of a constitutional amendment. In view, however, of the vast importance of the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution, this day declared a part of that revered instrument, I deem a departure from the usual custom justifiable. A measure which makes at once 4,000,000 people voters who were heretofore declared by the highest tribunal in the land not citizens of the United States, nor eligible to become so (with the assertion that "at the time of the Declaration of Independence the opinion was fixed and universal in the civilized portion of the white race, regarded as an axiom in morals as well as in politics, that black men had no rights which the white man was bound to respect"), is indeed a measure of grander importance than any other one act of the kind from the foundation of our free Government to the present day.

Institutions like ours, in which all power is derived directly from the people, must depend mainly upon their intelligence, patriotism, and industry. I call the attention, therefore, of the newly enfranchised race to the importance of their striving in every honorable manner to make themselves worthy of their new privilege. To the race more favored heretofore by our laws I would say, Withhold no legal privilege of advancement to the new citizen. The framers of our Constitution firmly believed that a republican government could not endure without intelligence and education generally diffused among the people. The Father of his Country, in his Farewell Address, uses this language:

Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.

In his first annual message to Congress the same views are forcibly presented, and are again urged in his eighth message.

I repeat that the adoption of the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution completes the greatest civil change and constitutes the most important event that has occurred since the nation came into life. The change will be beneficial in proportion to the heed that is given to the urgent recommendations of Washington. If these recommendations were important then, with a population of but a few millions, how much more important now, with a population of 40,000,000, and increasing in a rapid ratio. I would therefore call upon Congress to take all the means within their constitutional powers to promote and encourage popular education throughout the country, and upon the people everywhere to see to it that all who possess and exercise political rights shall have the opportunity to acquire the knowledge which will make their share in the Government a blessing and not a danger. By such means only can the benefits contemplated by this amendment to the Constitution be secured.

U.S. GRANT.

HAMILTON FISH, SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

_To all to whom these presents may come, greeting:_

Know ye that the Congress of the United States, on or about the 27th day of February, in the year 1869, passed a resolution in the words and figures following, to wit:

A RESOLUTION proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

_Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled_ (_two-thirds of both Houses concurring_), That the following article be proposed to the legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said legislatures, shall be valid as a part of the Constitution, viz;

ARTICLE XV.