PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



641 



culture and forestry. Its standing committee 

 consists of twenty-five members, of whom each 

 of three sections elects five, and the ministers 

 ten. 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. Annual Message 

 of President HAYES, at the third Session of the 

 Forty-sixth Congress, commencing December 6, 

 1880. 



FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF 

 REPRESENTATIVES : I congratulate you on the con- 

 tinued and increasing prosperity of our country. By 

 the favor of Divine Providence we have been blessed, 

 during the past year, with health, with abundant 

 harvests, with profitable employment for all our 

 people, with contentment at home, and with peace 

 and friendship with other nations. The occurrence 

 of the twenty-fourth election of Chief Magistrate has 

 afforded another opportunity to the people of the 

 United States to exhibit to the world a significant 

 example of the peaceful and safe transmission of the 

 power and authority of Government from the pub- 

 lic servants whose terms of office are about to ex- 

 pire, to their newly-chosen successors. This exam- 

 ple can not fail to impress profoundly thoughtful 

 people of other countries with the advantages which 

 Republican institutions afford. The immediate, gen- 

 eral, and cheerful acquiescence of all good citizens 

 in the result of the election gives gratifying assurance 

 to our country, and to its friends throughout the world, 

 that a government based on the free consent of an 

 intelligent and patriotic people possesses elements of 

 strength, stability, and permanency not found in any 

 other form of government. 



Continued opposition to the full and free enjoyment 

 of the rights of citizenship conferred upon the colored 

 people by the recent amendments to the Constitution 

 still prevails in several of the late slave-holding States. 

 It has, perhaps, not been manifested in the recent elec- 

 tion to any large extent in acts of violence or intimi- 

 dation. It has, however, by fraudulent practices in 

 connection with the ballots, with the regulations as to 

 the places and manner of voting, and with counting, 

 returning, and canvassing the votes cast, been suc- 

 cessful in defeating the exercise of the right preserva- 

 tive of all rights the right of suffrage which the 

 Constitution expressly confers upon our enfranchised 

 citizens. 



It is the desire of the good people of the whole coun- 

 try that sectionalism as a factor in our politics should 

 disappear. They prefer that no section of the country 

 should be united in solid opposition to any other sec- 

 tion. The disposition to refuse a prompt and hearty 

 obedience to the equal-rights amendments to the Con- 

 stitution is all that now stands in the way of a com- 

 plete obliteration of sectional lines in our political 

 contests. As long as either of these amendments is 

 flagrantly violated or disregarded, it is safe to assume 

 that the people who placed them in the Constitution, 

 as embodying the legitimate results of the war for the 

 Union, and who believe them to be wise and neces- 

 sary, will continue to act together, and to insist that 

 they shall be obeyed. The paramount question still 

 is as to the enjoyment of the right by every American 

 citizen who has the requisite qualifications to freely 

 cast his vote and to have it honestly counted. With 

 this question rightly settled, the country will be re- 

 lieved of the contentions of the past ; byg ne . s will 

 indeed be bygones; and political and party issues, 

 with respect to economy and efficiency of administra- 



sistance to and nullification of the results of the war 

 will unite together in resolute purpose for their sup- 

 port all who maintain the authority of the Govern- 

 ment and the perpetuity of the Union, and who ade- 

 quately appreciate the value of the victory achieved. 

 This determination proceeds from no hostile sentiment 

 or feeling to any part of the people of our country or 

 VOL. xx. il A 



to any of their interests. The inviolability of the 

 amendments rests upon the fundamental principle of 

 our Government. They are the solemn expreM&Q of 



the will of the people of the United States. 



The sentiment that the constitutional rights of all 

 our citizens must be maintained <Ucs notgMw weaker. 

 It will continue to control the government of the coun- 

 try. Happily, the history of the late election shows 

 that in many parts of the country where opposition to 

 the Fifteenth Amendment has heretofore prevailed, it 

 is diminishing, and is likely to cease altogether, if firm 

 and well-considered action is taken by C< MIL/I,.-.. I 

 trust the House of Representatives and the Seiuitc, 

 which have the right to .]udge of the elections, returns, 

 and qualifications of their own members, will see to it 

 that every case of violation of the letter or spirit of 

 the Fifteenth Amendment is thoroughly investigated, 

 and that no benefit from such violation shall accrue to 

 any person or party. It will be the duty of the Ex- 

 ecutive, with sufficient appropriations for the purpose, 

 to prosecute unsparingly all who have been engaged 

 in depriving citizens of the rights guaranteed to them 

 by the Constitution. 



It is not, however, to be forgotten that the best and 

 surest guarantee for the primary rights of citizenship 

 is to be found in that capacity for self-protection which 

 can belong only to a people whose right to universal 

 suffrage is supported by universal education. The 

 means at the command of the local and State authori- 

 ties are, in many cases, wholly inadequate to furnish 

 free instruction to all who need it. This is especially 

 true where, before emancipation, the education of the 

 people was neglected or prevented, in the interest of 

 slavery. Firmly convinced that the subject of popu- 

 lar education deserves the earnest attention of the 

 people of the whole country, with a view to wise and 

 comprehensive action by the Government of the Unit- 

 ed States, I respectfully recommend that Congress, by 

 suitable legislation and with proper safeguards, sup- 

 plement the local educational funds in the several 

 States where the grave duties and responsibilities of 

 citizenship have been devolved on uneducated people, 

 by devoting to the purpose grants of the public lands, 

 and, if necessary, bytippropriations from the Treasury 

 of the United States. Whatever Government can 

 fairly do to promote free popular education ought to 

 be done. WTierever general education is found, peace, 

 virtue, and social order prevail, and civil and religious 

 liberty are secure. 



In my former annual messages I have asked the at- 

 tention of Congress to the urgent necessity of a reforma- 

 tion of the Civil-Service system of the Government. My 

 views concerning the dangers of patronage, or appoint- 

 ments for personal or partisan considerations, have been 

 strengthened by my observation and experience in the 

 Executive office, and I believe these dangers threaten 

 the stability of the Government. Abuses so serious in 

 their nature can not be permanently tolerated. They 

 tend to become more alarming with the enlargement 

 of administrative service, as the growth of the country 

 in population increases the number of officers and 

 placemen employed. 



The reasons are imperative for the adoption of fixed 

 rules for the regulation of appointments, promotions, 

 and removals, establishing a uniform method, having 

 exclusively in view, in every instance, the attainment 

 of the best qualifications for the position in question. 

 Such a method alone is consistent with the equal rights 

 of all citizens, and the most economical and efficient 

 administration of the public business. 



Competitive examinations, in aid of impartial ap- 

 pointments and promotions, have been conducted for 

 some years past in several of the Executive depart- 

 ments, and by my direction this system has been 

 adopted in the custom-houses and post-offices of the 

 larger cities of the country. In the city of New York 

 over two thousand positions in the Civil Service have 

 been subject, in their appointments and tenure of place, 

 to the operation of published rules for this purpose, 

 during the past two years. The results of these prac- 

 tical trials have been very satisfactory, and have con- 



