failure to make provision for this is the worst possible economy. All the statutes of every State, both the annual acts and the revisions, ought to be procured as soon as practicable. At present, the library contains but a small portion of them. The cost of supplying this deficiency would be considerable, say $ It is almost equally important that this library contain every valuable treatise on any legal subject, in its last edition. The expense of purchasing new editions would be far more than compensated by the assistance to be derived from the last investigations of the authors. Every new treatise is virtually a fresh brief on every topic upon which it treats, and its new references furnish a ready way of arriving at the present state of the law. The library of this Department is defective in this particular. It would be expedient to accompany the appropriations for this important purpose with authority to dispose of such old editions as the AttorneyGeneral should think could be spared. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of a complete law-library for the Department of Justice, and I therefore hope that this recommendation may be regarded with favor. The appropriation for the increase of the library for the next year should be $5,000. CIRCUIT AND DISTRICT COURTS OF THE UNITED STATES. Exhibits A, B, and C show the business of the circuit and district courts of the United States in the several judicial districts during the last fiscal year. Exhibit A is a statement of the civil suits to which the United States was a party, showing the number terminated during the year, the amount of judgments in favor of the United States, the amount realized therefrom, and the number of such suits pending at the beginning of the present fiscal year. Exhibit B is a statement of the criminal prosecutions, showing the number terminated, the amount of fines, penalties, and forfeitures, the amount realized therefrom, and the number of such prosecutions pending at the close of the year; and Exhibit C shows the number of civil suits to which the United States was not a party, commenced and terminated during the year, the amount of judgments for plaintiffs and defendants, and the number of such suits pending July 1, 1876. The returns for Exhibit C are not full and complete, as the United States attorneys, who were called upon for the information required for them, in some instances failed to obtain it from the clerks of the courts. APPROPRIATIONS. A general statement of appropriations placed under the Department of Justice for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876: Contingent expenses: Amount appropriated, act March 3, 1875 Amount expended as per exhibit Balance, (see Exhibit D)................. Postage: Amount appropriated, act March 3, 1875 Balance..... Salary of warden of the jail, District of Columbia: Amount appropriated, act March 3, 1875... Amount expended to July 1, 1876 Salaries and expenses of commissioners to codify the laws: Amount appropriated, act March 3, 1875.. Amount expended to July 1, 1876 $15,500 00 15, 112 03 387 97 10,000 00 1,525 00 8,475 00 2,000 00 2, 000 00 3,300 00 3,300 00 Salaries and expenses of Metropolitan police: Amount appropriated, act March 3, 1875..... 205, 270 00 Amount expended to July 1, 1876 205, 270 00 Current expenses, Reform School, District of Columbia : Amount appropriated, act March 3, 1875...... 10,000 00 Amount expended to July 1, 1876 10,000 00 Defending suits and claims for seizure of captured and abandoned For preservation and repairs of the United States court-house in Exhibit E shows the assistants to United States attorneys, and their compensation. Exhibit F is a detailed statement of the expenses of the courts of the United States. I. The amount advanced to marshals for per diems and travel of jurors and witnesses; per diems of marshals and bailiffs; transportation and support of prisoners; territorial penitentiaries under the manage ment of the Attorney-General; expenses of commissioners' courts and incidental expenses, was $2,237,892.13. II. Payments made for services of attorneys, as fees of their offices, the compensation of their assistants, regular and special, commissioned by the Attorney-General, embracing all fees for legal services that were paid, were $297,811.85. III. The emoluments of clerks of the courts, paid by the Treasury on stated accounts, were $92,346.03. IV. The per diems and fees of United States commissioners were $67,931.49. V. The sum paid for leases of court-rooms where the Goverument owns no buildings, being rooms for juries, witnesses, judges' chambers, and temporary jails, was $52,137.90. VI. Miscellaneous expenses that cannot be properly classed under previous heads of this statement, such as expenses of United States jail in this District, &c., were $91,588.97. Exhibit G is the report of the warden of the United States jail in this District for the year ending October 31, 1876. The efficiency of the warden's management of this institution is creditable, and I am disposed to add my recommendation to the changes he proposes for the reformation of criminals. Exhibit H is a statement of the receipt and distribution of books by this Department. Exhibit I is the architect's report relative to the court-house in this city. METROPOLITAN POLICE. I respectfully call attention to the report of the president of the Metropolitan Police board, (Exhibit K,) which shows that the appropriations for the purpose are inadequate to support the present force, and that the present force itself is insufficient. It is stated in this report that the number of policemen, as compared to the population, is much less than is usual in large cities in this country or in Europe. Washington, though its population may not exceed 150,000, occupies a territory equal to Boston with a population of more than twice that number, and requires a larger number of patrolmen in proportion to its population than any of the large cities of the country. Another proposition presented by the president of the board is, that the congressional-police station in the Capitol should be made a part of the police force of the city, and controlled by the same head. I commend this report to the consideration of Congress. Exhibit L contains the estimates of appropriations required by the Reform School of the District of Columbia. This institution is a substantial charity, creditable to the Government which sustains it. It furnishes a home and a school for boys who might otherwise grow up in ignorance and vice, and perhaps in crime. It differs from other institutions of the kind in this, that it has no walls for confinement of the inmates, and relies chiefly upon the voluntary principle. The boys, conscious that they are among friends, and that they are in a way to improve their own character and condition, re in nearly every instance content to remain. They are well fed and clothed and well taught, and it is a most encouraging circumstance that they are aware of it, and choose to remain rather than depart. But the institution needs some addition during the present year to its annual appropriations, as shown by the report of the trustees to the Department of Justice, herewith submitted. The recommendation by the board of appropriations for the purchase of additional land for building work-shops and purchasing engines and machinery, and for providing an additional family building, are worthy of the careful consideration of Congress. The total of the items called for by the board of trustees, including salaries, is $53,000. These appropriations would add greatly to the usefulness of the institution, and would place it on a footing to require but small appropriations hereafter for many years. I bespeak for the board of trustees a careful reading of their report and a visit to the institution by the appropriate committee. The appropriations prayed for, though considerable, can be recommended on grounds of the most enlightened economy. It is obvious that the practice of confining inexperienced youths, who have yielded to temptation for the first time, with old and hardened criminals, is demoralizing and cruel. It makes the jail and the peni tentiary schools of crime. The only escape from this absurdity is to be found in the modern schools of reform; and I can think of nothing more appropriate than that the national legislature should sustain such an institution on a liberal scale at or near the capital. To it might be intrusted the young convicts of the United States courts, whether from the District of Columbia or from the different States. INSTRUCTIONS TO MARSHALS AND DISTRICT ATTORNEYS. The state of the country, in anticipation of the recent presidential election, has thrown upon the National Government unusual responsi bility. Evidence which could not be discredited came to the President and to the Department of Justice, showing that intimidation and violence prevailed in several States to such an extent as to prevent freedom of opinion; and that in South Carolina unlawful military companies, known as "rifle clubs," were organized, and that by riding through the country armed, doing violence to peaceable people, and menacing the good citizens who differed with them in political opinion, they broke up or prevented assemblages for political discussion. In view of the actual and prospective danger of lawless violence before and at the election, and in pursuance of the statute which requires the Attorney-General "to exercise general supervision and direction over the attorneys and marshals of all the districts in the United States as to the manner of discharging their respective duties," I communicated to the marshals in those districts which appeared to be in special danger from intimidation or fraud, instructions, of which Exhibit M is a copy, and to the United States attorneys in said districts instructions, of which Exhibit N is a copy. I am satisfied that the United States marshals and attorneys, acting in concert with the supervisors of elections, under these instructions, in New York, in Philadelphia, in Baltimore, in St. Louis, in Chicago, in New Orleans, and in several of the Southern States, contributed materially to the preservation of the peace, and to the securing to the citizens freedom in the exercise of the right of suffrage. The interest which the United States have in the purity of the ballot for Federal officers to be elected by the popular vote, and the acts of Congress intended to guard the ballot for congressional candidates from fraud, justified and required these instructions. Such were the demonstrations of domestic violence in South Carolina a few weeks before the election, so defiant and uncontrollable by civil power, that the governor of that State applied under the Constitution to the President of the United States, stating that he was unable to suppress the domestic violence that existed in the State; that armed organizations contrary to law, known as " rifle clubs," continually roamed over the country, doing violence, and that they were altogether beyond his control, breaking up the peace of the State and terrifying the citi zens. The declaration of the governor, supported by ample evidence from other sources, left the President no option but to comply with his constitutional demand by issuing the appropri te proclamation, and by ordering to that State such military force as seemed to be necessary and was within his control. The troops were not intended to interfere, and did not interfere, with any citizen's right to vote; but, on the contrary, their endeavor was to make it safe for citizens to vote according to their political opinions. There is no authentic evidence that any man has been deprived of his right to vote, or of his freedom of opinion, by the presence of the small military force in South Carolina. To have refused |