180 



CONGRESS. (THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



on the one hand, give the local school authorities 

 opportunity to make the best use of the first year's 

 allowance, and on the other deliver them from the 

 temptation to unduly postpone the assumption of the 

 whole burden themselves. 



The colored people did not intrude themselves upon 

 us ; they were brought here hi chains and held in the 

 communities where they are now chiefly found by a 

 cruel slave code. Happily for both races, they are now 

 free. They have, from a standpoint of ignorance 

 and poverty, which was our shame, not theirs, made 

 remarkable advances in education and in the acqui- 

 sition of property. They have, as a people, shown 

 themselves to be friendly and faithful toward the 

 white race, under temptations of tremendous strength. 

 They have their representatives in the national ceme- 

 teries where a grateful Government has gathered the 

 ashes of those who died in its defense. They have 

 furnished to pur regular array regiments that have 

 won high praise from their commanding officers for 

 courage and soldierly qualities, and for fidelity to the 

 enlistment oath. In civil life they are now the toilers 

 of their communities, making their full contribution 

 to the widening streams of prosperity which these 

 communities are receiving. Their sudden withdraw- 

 al would stop production and bring disorder into the 

 household as well as the shop. Generally they do not 

 desire to quit their homes, and their employers re- 

 sent the interference of the emigration agents who 

 seek to stimulate such a desire. 



But notwithstanding all this, in many parts of our 

 country where the colored population is large the 

 people of that race are, by various devices, deprived 

 of any effective exercise of their political rights and of 

 many of their civil rights. The wrong docs not ex- 

 pend itself upon those whose votes are suppressed. 

 Every constituency in the Union is wronged. 



It has been the nope of every patriot that a sense of 

 justice and of respect for the law would work a grad- 

 ual cure of these flagrant evils. Surely, no one sup- 

 poses that the present can be accepted as a permanent 

 condition. If it is said that these communities must 

 work out this problem for themselves, we have a 

 right to ask whether they are at work upon it. Do 

 they suggest any solution? When and. under what 

 conditions is the black man to have a free ballot ? 

 When is he, in fact, to have those full civil rights 

 which have^so long been his in law ? When is that 

 equality of influence which our form of government 

 was intended to secure to the electors to be restored ? 

 This generation should courageously face these grave 

 questions, and not leave them as a heritage of woe to 

 the next. The consultation should proceed with 

 candor, calmness, and great patience ; upon the lines 

 of justice arid humanity, not of prejudice and cruelty. 

 No Question in our country can ne at rest except upon 

 the nrm basis of justice and of the law. 



I earnestly invoke the attention of Congress to the 

 consideration of such measures within its well-defined 

 constitutional powers as will secure to all our people 

 ft free exercise of the right of suffrage and every other 

 civil right under the Constitution and laws of the 

 United States. No evil, however deplorable, can jus- 

 tify the assumption, either on the part of the Execu- 

 tive or of Congress, of powers not granted ; but both 

 will be highly blameable if all the powers granted are 

 not wisely but firmly used to correct these evils. The 

 power to take the whole direction and control of the 

 election of members of the House of Ecpresentatives 

 is clearly given to the General Government. A par- 

 tial and qualified supervision of these elections is now 

 provided for by law, and in my opinion this law may 

 be so strengthened and extended as to secure, on the 

 whole, better results than can be attained bv a law 

 taking all the processes of such election into "Federal 

 control. The colored rcan should be protected in 

 nil of his relations to the Federal Government, whether 

 as litigant, juror, or witness in our courts, as an 

 elector for members of Congress, or as a peaceful trav- 

 eler upon our interstate railways. 



There is nothing more justly humiliating to the na- 



tional pride, and nothing more hurtful to the national" 

 prosperity, than the inferiority of our merchant ma- 

 rine compared with that of other nations whose general 

 resources, wealth, and sea-coast lines do not supx r est 

 any reason for their supremacy on the sea. It was not 

 always so, and our people are agreed, I think, that it 

 shall not continue to be so. It is not possible in this 

 communication to discuss the causes of the decay of 

 our shipping interests, or the differing methods' by 

 which it is proposed to restore them. The statement 

 of a few well-authenticated facts and some general 

 suggestions as to legislation is all that is practicable. 

 That the great steamship lines sailing under the flairs 

 of England, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy, and 

 engaged in foreign commerce, were promotetl, and 

 have since been 'and now are liberally aided, by 

 grants of public money, in one form or another, is 

 generally known. That the American lines of steam- 

 ships haVe been abandoned by us to an unequal con- 

 test with the aided lines of other nations until they 

 have -been withdrawn, or, in the few cases where they 

 are still maintained, are subject to serious disadvan- 

 tages, is matter of common knowledge. 



The present situation is such that travelers and 

 merchandise find Liverpool often a necessary inter- 

 mediate port between New York and some of the 

 South American capitals. The fact that some of the 

 delegates from South American states to the confer- 

 ence of American nations now in session at Washing- 

 ton reached our shores by icversing that line of travel 

 is very conclusive of the need of such a conference, 

 and very suggestive as to the first and most necessary 

 step in the direction of fuller and more beneficial in- 

 tercourse with nations that aro now our neighbors 

 upon the lines of latitude, but not upon the lines of 

 e^ablished commercial intercourse. 



I recommend that such appropriations be made for 

 ocean mail service in American steamships between 

 our ports and those of Central and South America, 

 China, Japan, and the important islands in both of the 

 great oceans as will be lioerally remunerative for the 

 service rendered, and as will encourage the establish- 

 ment and in some fair degree equalize the chances of 

 American steamship lines in the competitions which 

 they must meet. That the American states lying 

 south of us will cordially co-operate in establishing 

 and maintaining such lines of steamships to their 

 principal ports I do not doubt. 



We should also make provision for a naval reserve 

 to consist of such merchant ships, of American con- 

 , struction and of a specified tonnage and speed, as the 

 owners will consent to place at the use of the Govern- 

 ment, in case of need, as armed cruisers. England 

 has adopted this policy, and as a result can now,\ipon 

 necessity, at once place upon her naval list some of 

 the fastest steamships in the world. A proper su- 

 pervision of the construction of such vessels would 

 make their conversion into effective ships of war very 

 easy. 



I am an advocate of economy in our national expen- 

 ditures, but it is a misuse of terms to make this word 

 describe a policy that withholds^ an expenditure for 

 the purpose of extending our foreign cormncm . Tin 

 enlargement and improvement of our merchant ma- 

 rine, the development of a sufficient body of trained 

 American seamen, the promotion of rapid and regular 

 mail communication between the ports of other coun- 

 tries and our own, and the adaptation of lar^ 

 swift American merchant steamships to naval UM-S, 

 in time of war, are public purposes of the highest con- 

 cern. The enlarged participation of our people ii 

 the carrying trade, the new and increased markets 

 that will' be opened for the products of our farms and 

 factories, and the fuller and better employment of our 

 mechanics, which will result from a liberal promotior 

 of our foreign commerce, insure the widcM 

 diffusion of benefit to all the States and to all < 

 people. Everything is most propitious for the pres- 

 ent inauguration of a liberal and progressive pomr 

 upon this subject, and we should enter upon it vntt 

 promptness and decision. 



