do with them, as the Dominion authorities will not suffer them to be sent back without a second payment of the tax. An effort will be made to reach an understanding that will remove this difficulty. * Judged by modern standards, we are practically without coast defenses. Many of the structures we have would enhance rather than diminish the perils of their garrisons if subjected to the fire of improved guns; and very few are so located as to give full effect to the greater range of such guns as we are now making for coast-defense uses. This general subject has had consideration in Congress for some years, and the appropriation for the construction of large rifled guns, made one year ago, was, I am sure, the expression of a purpose to provide suitable works in which these guns might be mounted. An appropriation now made for that purpose would not advance the completion of the works beyond our ability to supply them with fairly effective guns. The securing of our coast cities against foreign attack should not rest altogether in the friendly disposition of other nations. There should be a second line wholly in our own keeping. I very urgently recommend an appropriation at this session for the construction of such works in our most exposed harbors. * The improvement of our important rivers and harbors should be promoted by the necessary appropriations. Care should be taken that the Government is not committed to the prosecution of works not of public and general advantage, and that the relative usefulness of works of that class is not overlooked. So far as this work can ever be said to be completed, I do not doubt that the end would be sooner and more economically reached if fewer separate works were undertaken at the same time, and those selected for their greater general interest were more rapidly pushed to completion. A work once considerably begun should not be subjected to the risks and deterioration which interrupted or insufficient appropriations necessarily occasion.* Evenis, which have been brought to my attention, happening in other parts of the country, have also suggested the propriety of extending, by legislation, fuller protection to those who may be called as witnesses in the courts of the United States. * The necessity of providing some more speedy method for disposing of the cases which now come for final adjudication to the Supreme Court becomes every year more apparent and urgent. The plan of providing some intermediate courts, having final appellate jurisdiction of certain classes of questions and cases, has, I think, received a more general approval from the bench and bar of the country than any other. Without attempting to discuss details, I recommend that provision be made for the establishment of such courts. The salaries of the judges of the district courts in many of the districts are, in my judgment, inadequate. I recommend that all such salaries now below five thousand dollars per annum be increased to that amount. It is quite true that the amount of labor performed by these judges is very unequal, but as they can not properly engage in other pursuits to supplement their incomes, the salary should be such in all cases as to provide an independent and comfortable support. Earnest attention should be given by Congress to a consideration of the question how far the restraint of those combinations of capital commonly called "trusts" is matter of Federal jurisdiction. When organized, as they often are, to crush out all healthy competition and to monopolize the production or sale of an article of commerce and general necessity, they are dangerous conspiracies against the public good, and should be made the subject of prohibitory and even penal legislation. The subject of an international copyright has been frequently commended to the attention of Congress by my predecessors. The enactment of such a law would be eminently wise and just. Our naturalization laws should be so revised as to make the inquiry into the moral character and good disposition towards our Government of the persons applying for citizenship more thorough. This can only be done by taking fuller control of the examination, by fixing the times for hearing such applications, and by requiring the presence of some one who shall represent the Government in the inquiry. Those who are the avowed enemies of social order, or who come to our shores to swell the injurious influence and to extend the evil practices of any association that defies our laws, should not only be denied citizenship, but a domicile. The enactment of a national bankrupt law of a character to be a permanent part of our general legislation is desirable. It should be simple in its methods and inexpensive in its administration. * The unsatisfactory condition of the law relating to the transmission through the mails of lottery advertisements and remittances is clearly stated by the Postmaster General, and his suggestion as to amendments should have your favorable consideration. * In general, satisfactory progress has been made in the construction of the new ships of war authorized by Congress. The first vessel of the new Navy, the Dolphin, was subjected to very severe trial tests and to very much adverse criticism. But it is gratifying to be able to state that a cruise around the world, from which she has recently returned, has demonstrated that she is a first-class vessel of her rate. The report of the Secretary shows that while the effective force of the Navy is rapidly increasing, by reason of the improved build and armament of the new ships, the number of our ships fit for sea duty grows very slowly. We had, on the 4th of March last, thirty-seven serviceable ships, and though four have since been added to the list, the total has not been increased, because in the mean time four have been lost or condemned. Twenty-six additional vessels have been authorized and appropriated for, but it is probable that when they are completed our list will only be increased to forty-two, a gain of five. The old wooden ships are disappearing almost as fast as the new vessels are added. Substantial progress has been made in the education of the children of school age and in the allotment of lands to adult Indians. It is to be regretted that the policy of breaking up the tribal relation and of dealing with the Indian as an individual did not appear earlier in our legislation. Large reservations, held in common, and the maintenance of the authority of the chiefs and head-men, have deprived the individual of every incentive to the exercise of thrift, and the annuity has contributed an affirmative impulse towards a state of confirmed pauperism. School attendance should be promoted by every moral agency, and those failing, should be compelled. The national schools for Indians have been very successful, and should be multiplied, and, as far as possible, should be so organized and conducted as to facilitate the transfer of the schools to the States or Territories in which they are located, when the Indians in a neighborhood have accepted citizenship, and have become otherwise fitted for such a transfer. This condition of things will be attained slowly, but it will be hastened by keeping it in mind. And in the mean time that co-operation between the Government and the mission schools, which has wrought much good, should be cordially and impartially maintained. * This agreement [with the Sioux Indians of Dakota] releases to the United States about nine million acres of land. * * In the administration of the land laws the policy of facilitating, in every proper way, the adjustment of the honest claims of individual settlers upon the public lands has been pursued. The number of pending cases had, during the preceding administration, been greatly increased under the operation of orders for a time suspending final action in a large part of the cases originating in the West and Northwest, and by the subsequent use of unusual methods of examination. Only those who are familiar with the conditions under which our agricultural lands have been settled can appreciate the serious and often fatal consequences to the settler of a policy that puts his title under suspicion, or delays the issuance of his patent. While care is taken to prevent and to expose fraud, it should not be imputed without reason. The manifest purpose of the homestead and pre-emption laws was to promote the settlement of the public domain by persons having a bonafide intent to make a home upon the selected lands. Where this intent is well established and the requirements of the law have been substantially complied with, the claimant is entitled to a prompt and friendly consideration of his case. But where there is reason to believe that the claimant is the mere agent of another, who is seeking to evade a law intended to promote small holdings, and to secure by fraudulent methods large tracts of timber and other lands, both principal and agent should not only be thwarted in their fraudulent purpose, but should be made to feel the full penalties of our criminal statutes. The laws should be so administered as not to confound these two classes, and to visit penalties only upon the latter. * The law now provides a pension for every soldier and sailor who was mustered into the service of the United States during the civil war and is now suffering from wounds or disease having an origin in the service and in the line of duty. Two of the three necessary facts, viz, muster and disability, are usually susceptible of easy proof; but the third, origin in the service, is often difficult, and in many deserving cases impossible to establish. That very many of those who endured the hardships of our most bloody and arduous cam. paigns are now disabled from diseases that had a real but not traceable origin in the service, I do not doubt. Besides these there is another class composed of men many of whom served an enlistment of three full years, and of re-enlisted veterans who added a fourth year of service, who escaped the casualties of battle and the assaults of disease, who were always ready for any detail, who were in every battle line of their command, and were mustered out in sound health, and have, since the close of the war, while fighting with the same indomitable and independent spirit the contests of civil life, been overcome by disease or casualty. I am not unaware that the pension-roll already involves a very large annual expenditure, neither am I deterred by that fact from recommending that Congress grant a pension to such honorably discharged soldiers and sailors of the civil war as having rendered substantial service during the war are now dependent upon their own labor for a maintenance, and by disease or casualty are incapacitated from earning it. Many of the men who would be included in this form of relief are now dependent upon public aid, and it does not, in my judgment, consist with the national honor that they shall continue to subsist upon the local relief given indiscriminately to paupers instead of upon the special and generous provision of the nation they served so gallantly and unselfishly. Our people will, I am sure, very generally approve such legislation. And I am equally sure that the survivors of the Union Army and Navy will feel a grateful sense of relief when this worthy and suffering class of their comrades is fairly of the statute and of the rules and regulations | proportionally. It can not be denied, however, adopted in aid of it. that the labor connected with this necessary work is increased, often to the point of actual distress, by the sudden and excessive demands that are made upon an incoming administration for removals and appointments. But, on the other hand, it is not true that incumbency is a conclusive argument for a continuance in office. Impartiality, moderation, fidelity to public duty. and a good attainment in the discharge of it, must be added before the argument is complete. When those holding administrative offices so Heretofore the book of eligibles has been closed to every one, except as certifications were made upon the requisition of the appointingofficers. This secrecy was the source of much suspicion, and of many charges of favoritism in the administration of the law. What is secret is always suspected; what is open can be judged. The Commission, with the full approval of all its members, has now opened the list of eligibles to the public. The eligible lists for the classified post-offices and custom-houses are now pub-conduct themselves as to convince just political licly posted in the respective offices, as are also the certifications for appointments. The purpose of the civil-service law was absolutely to exclude any other consideration in connection with appointments under it than that of merit as tested by the examinations. The business proceeds upon the theory that both the examiningboards and the appointing officers are absolutely ignorant as to the political views and associations of all persons on the civil-service lists. It is not too much to say, however, that some recent Congressional investigations have somewhat shaken public confidence in the impartiality of the selections for appointment. opponents that no party consideration or bias affects in any way the discharge of their public duties, we can more easily stay the demand for removals. I am satisfied that both in and out of the classified service great benefit would accrue from the adoption of some system by which the officer would receive the distinction and benefit that, in all private employments, comes from exceptional faithfulness and efficiency in the performance of duty. this rating to be regarded as a test of merit in making promotions. I have suggested to the heads of the Executive Departments that they consider whether a record might not be kept in each Bureau of all those The reform of the civil service will make no elements that are covered by the terms "faithfulsafe or satisfactory advance until the present ness" and "efficiency," and a rating made showlaw and its equal administration are well estab-ing the relative merits of the clerks of each class, lished in the confidence of the people. It will be my pleasure, as it is my duty, to see that the law is executed with firmness and impartiality. I have also suggested to the Postmaster-GenIf some of its provisions have been fraudulently eral that he adopt some plan by which he can, evaded by appointing-officers, our resentment upon the basis of the reports to the Department should not suggest the repeal of the law, but re- and of frequent inspections, indicate the relative form in its administration. We should have merit of postmasters of each class. They will be one view of the matter, and hold it with a sin-appropriately indicated in the official register and cerity that is not affected by the consideration that the party to which we belong is for the time in power. in the report of the Department. That a great stimulus would thus be given to the whole service I do not doubt, and such a record would be the best defense against inconsiderate removals from office. My predecessor, on the 4th day of January, 1889, by an executive order to take effect March 15, brought the Railway Mail Service under the The interest of the General Government in operation of the civil-service law. Provision the education of the people found an early exwas made that the order should take effect pression, not only in the thoughtful and somesooner in any State where an eligible list was times warning utterances of our ablest statesmen, sooner obtained. On the 11th day of March, but in liberal appropriations from the common Mr. Lyman, then the only member of the Com-resources for the support of education in the new mission, reported to me in writing that it would States. No one will deny that it is of the grav not be possible to have the list of eligibles ready est national concern that those who hold the ulbefore May 1, and requested that the taking timate control of all public affairs should have the effect of the order be postponed until that time, necessary intelligence wisely to direct and dewhich was done, subject to the same provision termine them. National aid to education has contained in the original order as to States in heretofore taken the form of land grants, and in which an eligible list was sooner obtained. that form the constitutional power of Congress to promote the education of the people is not seriously questioned. I do not think it can be successfully questioned when the form is changed to that of a direct grant of money from the public treasury. As a result of the revision of the rules, of the new classification, and of the inclusion of the Railway Mail Service, the work of the Commission has been greatly increased, and the present clerical force is found to be inadequate. I recommend that the additional clerks asked by the Commission be appropriated for. The duty of appointment is devolved by the Constitution or by the law, and the appointingofficers are properly held to a high responsibility in its exercise. The growth of the country and the consequent increase of the civil list have magnified this function of the Executive dis Such aid should be, as it always has been, suggested by some exceptional conditions. The sudden emancipation of the slaves of the South, the bestowal of the suffrage, which soon followed, and the impairment of the ability of the States where these new citizens were chiefly found to adequately provide educational facilities, presented not only exceptional but unex ampled conditions. That the situation has been much ameliorated there is no doubt. The ability and interest of the States have happily increased. But a great work remains to be done, and I think the General Government should lend its aid. As the suggestion of a national grant in aid of education grows chiefly out of the condition and needs of the emancipated slave and his descendants, the relief should, as far as possible, while necessarily proceeding upon some general lines, be applied to the needs that suggested it. It is essential, if much good is to be accomplished, that the sympathy and active interest of the people of the States should be enlisted, and that the methods adopted should be such as to stimulate and not to supplant local taxation for school purposes. As one Congress can not bind a succeeding one in such a case, and as the effort must, in some degree, be experimental, I recommend that any appropriation made for this purpose be so limited in annual amount and as to the time over which it is to extend as will, on the one hand, give the local school authorities opportunity to make the best use of the first year's allowance, and on the other deliver them from the temptation to unduly postpone the assumption of the whole burden themselves. | accepted as a permanent condition. If it is said that these communities must work out this prob lem for themselves, we have a right to ask whether they are at work upon it. Do they suggest any solution? When and under what conditions is the black man to have a free ballot? When is he in fact to have those full civil rights which have so long been his in law? When is that equality of influence which our form of government was intended to secure to the electors to be restored? This generation should courageously face these grave questions, and not leave them as a heritage of woe to the next. The consultation should proceed with candor, calmness, and great patience; upon the lines of justice and humanity, not of prejudice and cruelty. No question in our country can be at rest except upon the firm base of justice and of the law. I earnestly invoke the attention of Congress to the consideration of such measures within its well-defined constitutional powers as will secure to all our people a free exercise of the right of suffrage and every other civil right under the Constitution and laws of the United States. No evil, however deplorable, can justify the assumption, either on the part of the Executive or of Congress, of powers not granted; but both will be highly blamable if all the powers granted are The colored people did not intrude themselves not wisely but firmly used to correct these evils. upon us; they were brought here in chains, and The power to take the whole direction and conheld in the communities where they are now trol of the election of members of the House of chiefly found, by a cruel slave code. Happily Representatives is clearly given to the General for both races, they are now free. They have, Government. A partial and qualified superfrom a stand-point of ignorance and poverty, vision of these elections is now provided for by which was our shame, not theirs, made remark-law, and in my opinion this law may be so able advances in education and in the acquisition of property. They have, as a people, shown themselves to be friendly and faithful towards the white race, under temptations of tremendous strength. They have their representatives in the national cemeteries where a grateful Gov. ernment has gathered the ashes of those who died in its defense. They have furnished to our regular Army regiments that have won high praise from their commanding officers for courage and soldierly qualities, and for fidelity to the enlistment oath. In civil life they are now the toilers of their communities, making their full contribution to the widening streams of prosperity which these communities are receiving. Their sudden withdrawal would stop production and bring disorder into the household as well as the shop. Generally they do not desire to quit their homes, and their employers resent the interference of the emigration agents who seek to stimulate such a desire. But, notwithstanding all this, in many parts of our country where the colored population is large the people of that race are, by various devices, deprived of any effective exercise of their political rights, and of many of their civil rights. The wrong does not expend itself upon those whose votes are suppressed. Every constituency in the Union is wronged. It has been the hope of every patriot that a sense of justice and of respect for the law would work a gradual cure of these flagrant evils. Surely, no one supposes that the present can be strengthened and extended as to secure, on the whole, better results than can be attained by a law taking all the processes of such election into Federal control. The colored man should be protected in all of his relations to the Federal Government, whether as litigant, juror, or witness in our courts, as an elector for members of Congress, or as a peaceful traveler upon our interstate railways. There is nothing more justly humiliating to the national pride, and nothing more hurtful to the national prosperity, than the inferiority of our merchant marine compared with that of other nations whose general resources, wealth, and sea-coast lines do not suggest any reason for their supremacy on the sea. It was not always so, and our people are agreed, I think, that it shall not continue to be so. It is not possible in this communication to discuss the causes of the decay of our shipping interests or the differing methods by which it is proposed to restore them. The statement of a few well-authenticated facts and some general suggestions as to legislation is all that is practicable. That the great steamship lines sailing under the flags of England, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy, and engaged in foreign commerce, were promoted, and have since been and now are liberally aided, by grants of public money, in one form or another, is generally known. That the American lines of steamships have been abandoned by us to an unequal contest with the aided lines of other nations until they have been withdrawn, or, in the few cases where they are still maintained, are subject to serious disadvantages, is matter of common knowledge. The present situation is such that travelers and merchandise find Liverpool often a necessary intermediate port between New York and some of the South American capitals. The fact that some of the delegates from South American States to the Conference of American Nations, now in session at Washington, reached our shores by reversing that line of travel, is very conclusive of the need of such a conference, and very suggestive as to the first and most necessary step in the direction of fuller and more beneficial intercourse with nations that are now our neighbors upon the lines of latitude, but not upon the lines of established commercial intercourse. I recommend that such appropriations be made for ocean-mail service, in American steam-ships, between our ports and those of Central and South America, China, Japan, and the important islands in both of the great oceans, as will be liberally remunerative for the service rendered, and as will encourage the establishment and in some fair degree equalize the chances of American steamship lines in the competitions which they must meet. That the American states lying south of us will cordially co-operate in establishing and maintaining such lines of steam-ships to their principal ports I do not doubt. We should also make provision for a naval reserve to consist of such merchant ships, of American construction and of a specified tonnage and speed, as the owners will consent to place at the use of the Government, in case of need, as armed cruisers. England has adopted this policy, and as a result can now, upon necessity, at once place upon her naval list some of the fastest steam-ships in the world. A proper supervision of the construction of such vessels would make their conversion into effective ships of war very easy. I am an advocate of economy in our national expenditures, but it is a misuse of terms to make this word describe a policy that withholds an expenditure for the purpose of extending our foreign commerce. The enlargement and improvement of our merchant marine, the development of a sufficient body of trained American seamen, the promotion of rapid and regular mail communication between the ports of other countries and our own, and the adaptation of large and swift American merchant steam-ships to naval uses, in time of war, are public purposes of the highest concern. The enlarged participation of our people in the carrying trade, the new and increased markets that will be opened for the products of our farms and factories, and the fuller and better employment of our mechanics, which will result from a liberal promotion of our foreign commerce, insure the widest possible diffusion of benefit to all the States and to all our people. Everything is most propitious for the present inauguration of a liberal and progressive policy upon this subject, and we should enter upon it with promptness and decision. * BENJ. HARRISON. XVI. PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION, FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION. Fifty-first Congress, First Session. IN SENATE. Woman Suffrage. 1889, December 4-By Mr. BLAIR: "SEC. I. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. "SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power, by appropriate legislation, to enforce the provisions of this article." Prohibitory Amendment. 1889, December 4-By Mr. BLAIR: "SEC. 1. The manufacture, importation, exportation, transportation, and sale of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage shall be, and hereby is, forever prohibited in the United States and in every place subject to their jurisdiction. "SEC. 2. Congress shall enforce this article by all needful legislation." On Bigamy and Polygamy. 1889, December 4-By Mr. Dolph: Congress shall have power to legislate upon the subjects of marriage and divorce by general laws applicable alike to all the States and Terriexist or be permitted within the United States or tories, and neither bigamy nor polygamy shall any place subject to their jurisdiction." Term of Office of President and Vice- 1889, December 4-By Mr. GIBSON: That the first clause of section one, article eleven, be altered and amended, so that said clause will read and shall be as follows: "SECTION 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office for the term of four years, and shall be ineligible for the suc ceeding four years after the expiration of the time for which he shall have been elected, and, together with the Vice-President chosen for the same term, shall be elected as follows." |