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. To the Senate of the United States: U. S. GRANT. WASHINGTON, March 10, 1870. 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. To the Senate of the United States: WASHINGTON, March 10, 1870. I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 28th ultimo, a report * from the Secretary of State, with accompanying docu ments. U. S. GRANT. To the Senate of the United States: EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, D. C., March 14, 1870. 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. To the Senate of the United States: EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, D. C., March 14, 1870. 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 * Relating to legislation necessary to insure the administration of justice and the protection of American interests in China and Japan. 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. To the Senate of the United States: WASHINGTON, March 15, 1870. 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. It The very able, calm, and exhaustive report of the committee points out the grave wrongs which have produced the decline in our commerce. 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. To the Senate of the United States: WASHINGTON, March 25, 1870. In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 15th ultimo, I transmit a report, with accompanying paper,* from the Secretary of the Navy, to whom the resolution was referred. U. S. GRANT. 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. GRAN 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 *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. 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 |