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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 apppropriations. 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.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, December 6, 1869.

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.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, December 6, 1869.

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.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, December 6, 1869.

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

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, December 7, 1869.

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.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, December 7, 1869.

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.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, December 7, 1869.

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.

To the House of Representatives:

WASHINGTON, December 9, 1869.

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.

To the House of Representatives:

WASHINGTON, December 15, 1869.

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.

To the House of Representatives:

WASHINGTON, December 15, 1869

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.*

U. S. GRANT.

To the Senate:

WASHINGTON, December 22, 1869.

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.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, December 22, 1869.

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

U. S. GRANT.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, January 10, 1870.

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.

*Relating to the revolution in Cuba and the political and civil condition of that island. +Stating that neither correspondence nor negotiation upon the subject of trade and commerce between the United States and Canada had been entered into.

To the Senate of the United States:

WASHINGTON, January 10. 1870.

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.

To the House of Representatives:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, D. C., January 21, 1870.

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,* 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.

* Report of fees collected, etc., by consular officers of the United States for 1868, and tariff of con

sular fees

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