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 23, 1870. hundred and twenty thousand souls, and yet possessing one of the richest territories under the sun, capable of supporting a population of ten million of people in luxury. The people of San Domingo are not capable of maintaining themselves in their present condition, and must look for outside support. They yearn for the protection of our free institutions and laws, our progress, and civilization. Shall we refuse them? I have information, which I believe reliable, that a European power stands ready now to offer $2,000,000 for the possession of Samana bay alone if refused by us. With what grace can we prevent a foreign power from attempting to secure the prize? The acquisition of San Domingo is desirable because of its geographical position. It commands the entrance to the Caribbean sea and the isthmus transit of commerce. It possesses the richest soil, best and most capacious harbors, most salubrious Urging the Ratification of the Treaty with San climate, and the most valuable products of the Domingo. To the Senate of the United States: I transmit to the Senate for consideration, with a view to its ratification, an additional article to the treaty of the 29th of November last for the annexation of the Dominican republic to the United States, stipulating for an extension of the time for exchanging the ratifications thereof, signed in this city on the 14th instant, by the plenipotentiaries of the parties. It was my intention to have also negotiated with the plenipotentiary of San Domingo, amendments to the treaty of annexation to obviate objections which may be urged against the treaty as it is now worded; but, on reflection, I deem it better to submit to the Senate the propriety of their amending the treaty as follows: First, to specify that the obligations of this Government shall not exceed the $1,500,000 stipulated in the treaty; secondly, to determine the manner of appointing the agents to receive and disburse the same; thirdly, to determine the class of creditors who shall take precedence in the settlement of their claims; and, finally, to insert such amendments as may suggest themselves to the minds of Senators to carry out in good faith the conditions of the treaty submitted to the Senate of the United States in January last, according to the spirit and intent of that treaty. From the most reliable information I can obtain the sum specified in the treaty will pay every just claim against the republic of San Domingo, and leave a balance sufficient to carry on a territorial government until such time as new laws for providing a territorial revenue can be enacted and put in force. forest, mine, and soil, of any of the West India islands. Its possession by us will, in a few years, build up a coast wise commerce of immense magnitude, which will go far toward restoring to us our lost merchant marine. It will give to us those articles which we consume so largely and do not produce, thus equalizing our exports and imports. In case of foreign war it will give us command of all the islands referred to, and thus prevent an enemy from ever again possessing himself of a rendezvous upon our very coast. At present our coast trade between the States bordering on the Atlantic and those bordering on the Gulf of Mexico is cut in two by the Bahamas and the Antilles. Since we must, as it were, pass through foreign countries to get by sea from Georgia to the west coast of Florida, San Domingo, with a stable government, under which her immense resources can be developed, will give remunerative wages to tens of thousands of laborers not now upon the island. This labor will take advantage of every available means of transportation to abandon the adjacent islands and seek the blessings of freedom and its sequence, each inhabitant receiving the reward of his own labor. Porto Rico and Cuba will have to abolish slavery as a measure of self-preservation to retain their laborers. San Domingo will become a large consumer of the products of northern farms and manufactories. The cheap rate at which her citizens can be furnished with food, tools, and machinery, will make it necessary that the contiguous islands should have the same advantages in order to compete in the production of sugar, coffee, tobacco, tropical fruits, &c. This will open to us a still wider market for our products. The production of our own supply of these articles will cut off more than $100,000,000 of our annual imports, besides largely increasing our exports. With such a picture it is easy to see how our large debt abroad is ultimately to be extinguished.. With a balance of trade against us, including: interest on bonds held by foreigners, and money spent by our citizens traveling in foreign lands equal to the entire yield of the precious metals in this country, it is not so easy to see how this result is to be otherwise accomplished. I feel an unusual anxiety for the ratification of this treaty, because I believe it will redound greatly to the glory of the two countries interested, to civilization, and to the extirpation of the institution of slavery. The doctrine promulgated by President Monroe has been adhered to by all political parties, and I now deem it proper to assert the equally important principle, that hereafter no territory on this continent shall be regarded as subject to transfer to a European Power. The government of San Domingo has voluntarily sought this annexation. It is a The acquisition of San Domingo is an adherweak power, numbering probably less than one ence to the Monroe doctrine. It is a measure of national protection; it is asserting our just claim to a controlling influence over the great commercial traffic soon to flow from east to west by way of the Isthmus of Darien; it is to build up our merchant marine; it is to furnish new markets for the products of our farms, shops, and manufactories; it is to make slavery insupportable in Cuba and Porto Rico at once, and ultimately so in Brazil; it is to settle the unhappy condition of Cuba and end an exterminating conflict; it is to provide honest means of paying our honest debts without overtaxing the people; it is to furnish our citizens with the necessaries of every-day life at cheaper rates than ever before, and it is, in fine, a rapid stride toward that greatness which the intelligence, industry, and enterprise of the citizens of the United States entitle this country to assume among nations. U.S. GRANT. EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 31, 1870. Respecting Cuban Affairs. To the Senate and House of Representatives: In my annual message to Congress at the beginning of its present session I referred to the contest which had then for more than a year existed in the island of Cuba, between a portion of its inhabitants and the government of Spain, and to the feelings and sympathies of the people and Government of the United States for the people of Cuba, as for all people struggling for liberty and self-government, and said "that the contest has at no time assumed the conditions which amount to war in the sense of international law, or which would show the existence of a de facto political organization of the insurgents sufficient to justify a recognition of belligerency.' During the six months which have passed since the date of that message the condition of the insurgents has not improved, and the insurrection itself, though not subdued, exhibits no signs of advance, but seems to be confined to an irregular system of hostilities, carried on by small and illy-armed bands of men roaming without concentration through the woods and the sparselypopulated regions of the island, attacking from ambush convoys and small bands of troops, burning plantations, and the estates of those not sympathizing with their cause. But, if the insurrection has not gained ground, it is equally true that Spain has not suppressed it, Climate, disease, and the occasional bullet have worked destruction among the soldiers of Spain, and although the Spanish authorities have possession of every seaport and every town on the island, they have not been able to subdue the hostile feeling which has driven a considerable number of the native inhabitants of the island to armed resistance against Spain, and still leads them to endure the dangers and privations of a roaming life of guerrilla warfare. Boet, on the part of Spain, have each startled humanity and aroused the indignation of the civilized world by the execution, each, of a score of prisoners at a time, while General Quesada, the Cuban chief, coolly, and with apparent unconsciousness of aught else than a proper act, has admitted the slaughter by his own deliberate arder, in one day, of upward of six hundred and fifty prisoners of war. A summary trial, with few if any escapes from conviction, followed by immediate execution, is the fate of those arrested on either side on suspicion of infidelity to the cause of the party making the arrest. Whatever may be the sympathies of the people or of the Government of the United States for the cause or objects for which a part of the people of Cuba are understood to have put themselves in armed resistance to the Government of Spain, there can be no just sympathy in a conflict carried on by both parties alike in such barbarous violation of the rules of civilized nations, and with such continued outrage upon the plainest principles of humanity. We cannot discriminate, in our censure of their mode of conducting their contest, between the Spaniards and the Cubans. Each commit the same atrocities and outrage alike the established rules of war. The properties of many of our citizens have been destroyed or embargoed, the lives of several have been sacrificed, and the liberty of others has been restrained. In every case that has come to the knowledge of the Government an early and earnest demand for reparation and indemnity has been made; and most emphatic remonstrance has been presented against the manner in which the strife is conducted, and against the reckless disregard of human life, the wanton destruction of material wealth, and the cruel disregard of the established rules of civilized warfare. I have, since the beginning of the present session of Congress, communicated to the House of Representatives, upon their request, an account of the steps which I had taken in the hope of bringing this sad conflict to an end, and of securing to the people of Cuba the blessings and the right of independent self-government. The efforts thus made failed, but not without an assurance from Spain that the good offices of this Government might still avail for the objects to which they had been addressed. During the whole contest the remarkable exhibition has been made of large numbers of Cubans escaping from the island and avoiding the risks of war, congregating in this country, at a safe distance from the scene of danger, and endeavoring to make war from our shores, to urge our people into the fight which they avoid, and to embroil this Government in complications and possible hostilities with Spain. It can scarce be doubted that this last result is the real object of these parties, although carefully covered under the deceptive and apparently plausible demand for a mere recognition of belligerency. On either side the contest has been conducted and is still carried on with a lamentable disregard of human life and of the usages and practices which modern civilization has prescribed in It is stated, on what I have reason to regard mitigation of the necessary horrors of war, The as good authority, that Cuban bonds have been torch of Spaniard and Cuban is alike busy in car- prepared, to a large amount, whose payment is rying devastation over fertile regions; murderous made dependent upon the recognition by the and revengeful decrees are issued and executed United States of either Cuban belligerency or by both parties. Count Valmaseda and Colonel | independence. The object of making their value thus contingent upon the action of this Govern- | struggle, by saying: "As soon as the movement ment is a subject for serious reflection. assumed such a steady and constant form as to make the success of the provinces probable, the rights to which they were entitled by the laws of nations, as equal parties to a civil war, were extended to them." In determining the course to be adopted on the demand thus made for a recognition of belligerency, the liberal and peaceful principles adopted by the Father of his Country and the eminent statesmen of his day, and followed by succeeding The strict adherence to this rule of public chief magistrates and the men of their day, may policy has been one of the highest honors of furnish a safe guide to those of us now charged American statesmanship, and has secured to this with the direction and control of the public safety. Government the confidence of the feeble powers From 1789 to 1815 the dominant thought of on this continent, which induces them to rely our statesmen was to keep the United States out upon its friendship and absence of designs of of the wars which were devastating Europe. conquest, and to look to the United States for The discussion of measures of neutrality begins example and moral protection. It has given to with the State papers of Mr. Jefferson, when this Government a position of prominence and Secretary of State. He shows that they are of influence which it should not abdicate, but measures of national right as well as of national which imposes upon it the most delicate duties duty; that misguided individual citizens cannot of right and of honor regarding American quesbe tolerated in making war according to their tions, whether those questions affect emancipated own caprice, passions, interests, or foreign sym-colonies or colonies still subject to European dopathies; that the agents of foreign governments, minion. recognized or unrecognized, cannot be permitted to abuse our hospitality by usurping the functions of enlisting or equipping military or naval forces within our territory. Washington inaugurated the policy of neutrality and of absolute abstinence from all foreign entangling alliances, which resulted, in 1794, in the first municipal enactment for the observance of neutrality. The question of belligerency is one of fact, not to be decided by sympathy for or prejudice against either party. The relations between the parent State and the insurgents must amount, in fact, to war in the sense of international law. Fighting, though fierce and protracted, does not alone constitute war; there must be military forces acting in accordance with the rules and customs of war, flags of truce, cartels, exchange The duty of opposition to fillibustering has been of prisoners, &c., &c.; and to justify a recognition admitted by every President. Washington en- of belligerency there must be, above all, a de countered the efforts of Genet and the French facto political organization of the insurgents revolutionists; John Adams the projects of Mi-sufficient in character and resources to constitute randa; Jefferson the schemes of Aaron Burr; Madison and subsequent Presidents had to deal with the question of foreign enlistment or equipment in the United States, and since the days of John Quincy Adams it has been one of the constant cares of government in the United States to prevent piratical expeditions against the feeble Spanish-American republics from leaving our shores. In no country are men wanting for any enterprise that holds out promise of adventure or of gain. In the early days of our national existence the whole continent of America (outside of the limits of the United States) and all its islands, were in colonial dependence upon European powers. The revolutions which, from 1810, spread almost simultaneously through all the Spanish-American continental colonies, resulted in the establishment of new States, like ourselves, of European origin, and interested in excluding European politics and the questions of dynasty and of balances of power from further influence in the New World. The American policy of neutrality, important before, became doubly so from the fact that it became applicable to the new republics as well as to the mother country. It then devolved upon us to determine the great international question, at what time and under what circumstances to recognize a new power as entitled to a place among the family of nations, as well as the preliminary question of the attitude to be observed by this Government toward the insurrectionary party pending the contest. Mr. Monroe concisely expressed the rule which has controlled the action of this Government with reference to revolting colonies, pending their it, if left to itself, a State among nations capable of discharging the duties of a State, and of meeting the just responsibilities it may incur as such toward other powers in the discharge of its national duties. Applying the best information which I have been enabled to gather, whether from official or unofficial sources, including the very exaggerated statements which each party gives to all that may prejudice the opposite or give credit to its own side of the question, I am unable to see in the present condition of the contest in Cuba those elements which are requisite to constitute war in the sense of international law. The insurgents hold no town or city; have no established seat of government; they have no prize courts; no organization for the receiving or collecting of revenue; no seaport to which a prize may be carried, or through which access can be had by a foreign power to the limited interior territory and mountain fastnesses which they occupy. The existence of a legislature representing any popular constituency is more than doubtful. In the uncertainty that hangs around the entire insurrection, there is no palpable evidence of an election of any delegated authority, or of any government outside the limits of the camps occupied from day to day by the roving companies of insurgent troops. There is no commerce, no trade, either internal or foreign, no manufactures. The late commander-in-chief of the insurgents, having recently come to the United States, publicly declared that "all commercial intercourse or trade with the exterior world has been utterly cut off," and he further added, "to-day we have not ten thousand arms in Cuba.” It is a well-established principle of public law that a recognition by a foreign State of belligerent rights to insurgents under circumstances such as now exist in Cuba, if not justified by necessity, is a gratuitous demonstration of moral support to the rebellion. Such necessity may yet hereafter arrive; but it has not yet arrived, nor is its probability clearly to be seen. If it be war between Spain and Cuba, and be so recognized, it is our duty to provide for the consequences which may ensue in the embarrassment to our commerce and the interference with our revenue. If belligerency be recognized, the commercial marine of the United States becomes liable to search and to seizure by the commissioned cruisers of both parties. They become subject to the adjudication of prize courts. Our large coast wise trade between the Atlantic and the Gulf States, and between both and the Isthmus of Panama and the States of South America, (engaging the larger parts of our commercial marine,) passes, of necessity, almost in sight of the Island of Cuba. Under the treaty with Spain of 1795, as well as by the law of nations, our vessels will be liable to visit on the high seas. In case of belligerency, the carrying of contraband, which now is lawful, becomes liable to the risks of seizure and condemnation. The parent government becomes relieved from responsibility for acts done in the insurgent territory, and acquires the right to exercise against neutral commerce all the powers of a party to a maritime war. To what consequences the exercise of those powers may lead is a question which I desire to commend to the serious consideration of Congress. In view of the gravity of this question, I have deemed it my duty to invite the attention of the war-making power of the country to all the relations and bearings of the question in connection with the declaration of neutrality and granting of belligerent rights. There is not a de facto government in the Island of Cuba sufficient to execute law and maintain just relations with other nations. Spain has not been able to suppress the opposition to Spanish rule on the island, nor to award speedy justice to other nations, or citizens of other nations, when their rights have been invaded. The question of belligerency, however, which is to be decided upon definite principles and according to ascertained facts, is entirely different from and unconnected with the other questions of the manner in which the strife is carried on on both sides and the treatment of our citizens entitled to our protection. The questions concern our own dignity and responsibility, and they have been made, as I have said, the subjects of repeated communications with Spain, and of protests and demands for redress on our part. It is hoped that these will not be disregarded; but should they be, these questions will be made the subject of a further communication to Congress. U. S. GRANT. EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 13, 1870. PROCLAMATION President Grant's Proclamation against the Fenian Invasion of Canada, issued May 24, 1870. Whereas it has come to my knowledge that sundry illegal military enterprises and expeditions are being set on foot within the territory and jurisdiction of the United States, with a view to carry on the same from such territory or jurisdiction against the people and district of the Dominion of Canada, within the dominions of her majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with whom the United States are at peace: Now, therefore, I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States, do hereby admonish all good citizens of the United States, and all persons within the territory and jurisdiction of the United States, against aiding, countenancing, abetting, or taking part in such unlawful proceedings; and I do hereby warn all persons that, by committing such illegal acts, they will forfeit all right to the protection of this Government, or to its interference in their behalf to rescue them from the consequences of their own acts; and I do hereby enjoin all officers in the service of the United States to employ all their lawful authority and power to prevent and defeat the aforesaid unlawful proceedings, and to arrest and bring to justice all persons who may be engaged therein. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to There are serious complications growing out of the seizure of American vessels upon the high seas, executing American citizens without proper trial, and confiscating or embargoing the prop-be affixed. erty of American citizens. Solemn protests have been made against every infraction of the rights either of individual citizens of the United States or the rights of our flag upon the high seas, and all proper steps have been taken and are being pressed for the proper reparation of every indignity complained of." Done at the city of Washington, this 24th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1870, and [SEAL.] of the independence of the United States the ninety-fourth. U. S. GRANT. By the President: HAMILTON FISH, Secretary of State. LIII. XVTH AMENDMENT, VOTES ON RATIFICATION, PROCLAMATION OF RATIFICATION, BILLS ENFORCING AND VOTES THEREON. Special Message of President Grant on Ratifica- | portant now, with a population of forty millions, tion of the XVth Amendment. 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 XVth 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 four millions of 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 a matter of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of the 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. 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 every where 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. EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 30, 1870. Certificate of Mr. Secretary Fish respecting the HAMILTON FISH, SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE UNITED STATES. To all to whom these presents may come, greeting: 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 part of the Constitution, namely: ARTICLE XV. SECTION 1. 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 race, color, or previous condition of servitude. SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. And, further, that it appears, from official documents on file in this department, that the amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed as aforesaid, has been ratified by the repeat that the adoption of the XVth Amend- legislatures of the States of North Carolina, West ment to the Constitution completes the greatest Virginia, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Maine, Louiscivil change and constitutes the most important iana, Michigan, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, event that has occurred since the nation came Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, into life. The change will be beneficial in pro- New York, New Hampshire, Nevada, Vermont, portion to the heed that is given to the urgent Virginia, Alabama, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, recommendations of Washington. If these re- Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Necommendations were important then, with a popu-braska, and Texas; in all, twenty-nine States. lation of but a few millions, how much more im- And, further, that the States whose legislatures 545 35, |