PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



663 



vice Corps. This service has now become a neces- 

 sity of peace as well as war v under the advancement 

 made by the present able management. 



6. A renewal of the appropriation for compiling 

 the official records of the war, etc. 



The condition of our Navy at this time is a subject 

 of satisfaction. It does not contain, it is true, any 

 of the powerful cruising iron-clads which make so 

 much of the maritime strength of some other na- 

 tions, but neither our continental situation nor our 

 foreign policy requires that we should have a large 

 number of ships of this character, while this situa- 

 tion and the nature of our ports combine to make 

 those of other nations little dangerous to us under 

 any circumstances. 



Our Navy does contain, however, a considerable 

 number of iron-clads of the monitor class, which, 

 though not properly cruisers, are powerful and effec- 

 tive for harbor defense and for operations near our 

 own shores. Of these all the single-turreted ones, 

 fifteen in number, have been substantially rebuilt, 

 their rotten wooden beams replaced with iron, their 

 hulls strengthened, and their engines and machinery 

 thoroughly repaired, so that they are now in the 

 most efficient condition and ready for sea as soon as 

 they can be manned and put in commission. 



The five double-turreted iron-clads belonging to 

 our Navy, by far the most powerful of our ships for 

 fighting purposes, are also in hand undergoing com- 

 plete repairs, and could be ready for sea in periods 

 varying from four to six months. With these com- 

 pleted according to the present design, and our two 

 iron torpedo-boats now ready, our iron-clad fleet 

 will be, for the purposes of defense at home, equal 

 to any force that can readily be brought against it. 



Of our wooden navy also, cruisers of various sizes, 

 to the number of about forty, including those now in 

 commission, are in the Atlantic, and could be ready 

 for duty as fast as men could be enlisted for those 

 not already in commission. Of these, one-third are 

 in effect new ships, and, though some of the remain- 

 der need considerable repairs to their boilers and 

 machinery, they all are, or can readily be made, 

 effective. 



This constitutes a fleet of more than fifty war- 

 ships, of which fifteen are iron-clad, now in hand 

 on the Atlantic coast. The Navy has been brought 

 to this condition by a judicious and practical appli- 

 cation of what could be spared from the current ap- 

 propriations of the last few years, and from that 

 made to meet the possible emergency of two years 

 ago. It has been done quietly, without proclama- 

 tion or display, and though it has necessarily strait- 

 ened the Department in its ordinary expenditure, 

 and, as far as the iron-clads are concerned, has 

 added nothing to the cruising force of the Nayy 2 yet 

 the result is not the less satisfactory, because it is to 

 be found in a great increase of real rather than ap- 

 parent force. The expenses incurred in the main- 

 tenance of an effective naval force in all its branches 

 are necessarily large, but such force is essential to 

 our position, relations, and character, and affects 

 seriously the weight of our principles and policy 

 throughout the whole sphere of national responsi- 

 bilities. 



The estimates for the regular support of this branch 

 of the service for the next year amount to a little 

 less in the aggregate than those made for the cur- 

 rent year; but some additional appropriations are 

 asked for objects not included in tne ordinary main- 

 tenance of the Navy, but believed to be of pressing 

 importance at this time. It would, in my opinion, 

 be wise at once to afford sufficient means for the im- 

 mediate completion of the five double-turreted mon- 

 itors now undergoing repairs, which must otherwise 

 advance slowly, and only as money can be spared 

 from current expenses. Supplemented by these, 

 our Navy, armed with the destructive weapons or 

 modern warfare, manned by our seamen, and in 

 charge of our instructed officers, will present a force 



powerful for the home purposes of a responsible 

 though peaceful nation. 



The report of the Postmaster-General, herewith 

 transmitted, gives a full history of the workings of 

 the Department for the year just past. >It will be 

 observed that the deficiency to be supplied from the 

 General Treasury increased over the amount required 

 for the preceding year. In a country so vast in area 

 as the United States, with large portions sparsely 

 settled, it must be expected that this important ser- 

 vice will be more or less a burden upon the Treasury 

 for many years to come. But there is no branch of 

 the public service which interests the whole people 

 more than that of cheap and rapid transmission of 

 the mails to every inhabited part of our territory. 

 Next to the free school, the post-office is the great 

 educator of the people, and it may well receive the 

 support of the General Government. 



The subsidy of $150,000 per annum given to ves- 

 sels of the United States for carrying the mails be- 

 tween New York and Eio de Janeiro having ceased 

 on the 30th day of September last, we are without 

 direct mail facilities with the South American states. 

 This is greatly to be regretted, and I do not hesitate 

 to recommend the authorization of a renewal of that 

 contract, and also that the service may be increased 

 from monthly to semi-monthly trips. The commer- 

 cial advantages to be gained by a direct line of 

 American steamers to the South American states 

 will far outweigh the expense of the service. 



By act of Congress approved March 3, 1875, almost 

 all matter, whether properly mail-matter or not, may 

 be sent any distance through the mails, in packages 

 not exceeding four pounds in weight, for the sum of 

 sixteen cents per pound. So far as the transmission 

 of real mail-matter goes, this would seem entirely 

 proper. But I suggest that the law be so amended 

 as to exclude from the mails merchandise of all de- 

 scriptions, and limit this transportation to articles 

 enumerated, and which may be classed as mail-mat- 

 ter proper. 



The discovery of gold in the Black Hills, a por- 

 tion of the Sioux reservation, has had the effect to 

 induce a large emigration of miners to that point. 

 Thus far the effort to protect the treaty rights of 

 the Indians to that section has been successful, but 

 the next year will certainly witness a large in'crease 

 of such emigration. The negotiations for the relin- 

 quishment of the gold-fields having failed, it will be 

 necessary for Congress to adopt some measures to 

 relieve the embarrassment growing out of the causes 

 named. The Secretary of the Interior suggests that 

 the supplies now appropriated for the sustenance of 

 that people, being no longer obligatory under the 

 treaty of 1868, but simply a gratuity, may be issued 

 or withheld at his discretion. 



The condition of the Indian Territory, to which I 

 have referred in several of my former annual mes- 

 sages, remains practically unchanged. The Secre- 

 tary of the Interior has taken measures to obtain a 

 full report of the condition of that Territory, and 

 will make it the subject of a special report at an 

 early day. It may then be necessary to make some 

 further recommendation in regard to legislation for 

 the government of that Territory. 



The steady growth and increase of the business 

 of the Patent-Office indicate, in some measure, the 

 progress of the industrial activity of the country. 

 The receipts of the office are in excess of its expen- 

 ditures, and the office generally is in a prosperous 

 and satisfactory condition. 



The report of the General Land-Office shows that 

 there were 2j459,601 acres less disposed of during 

 this than during the last year. More than one-half 

 of this decrease was in lands disposed of under the 

 homestead and timber-culture laws. The cause of 

 this decrease is supposed to be found in the grass- 

 hopper scourge and the droughts which prevailed 

 so extensively in some of the frontier States and 

 Territories during that time as to discourage and 



