684 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



law, and their requirements, as shown by years of 

 experience ; and also with the purpose on the part 

 of the bureau officers to provide for all contingen- 

 cies that may arise during the time for which the 

 estimates are made. Exclusive of engineer esti- 

 mates (presented in accordance with acts of Con- 

 gress calling for surveys and estimates for improve- 

 ments at various localities), the estimates now pre- 

 sented are about six millions in excess of the appro- 

 priations for tlie years 1874-' 15 and 1875-'76. This 

 increase is asked in order to provide for the increased 

 cavalry force (should their services be necessary), to 

 prosecute, economically, work upon important public 

 buildings, to provide for armament of fortifications 

 and manufacture of small-arms, and to replenish the 

 working stock in the supply departments. The ap- 

 propriations for these last named have for the past 

 few years been so limited that the accumulations in 

 store will be entirely exhausted during the present 

 year, and it will be necessary to at once begin to re- 

 plenish them. 



I invite your special attention to the following 

 recommendations of the Secretary of "War: 



1. That the claims under the act of July 4, 1864, 

 for supplies taken by the Army during the war be 

 removed from the offices of the Quartermaster and 

 Commissary Generals and transferred to the South- 

 ern Claims Commission. These claims are of pre- 

 cisely similar nature to those now before the South- 

 ern Claims Commission, and the War Department 

 bureaus have not the clerical force for their exami- 

 nation nor proper machinery for investigating the 

 loyalty of the claimants. 



2. That Congress sanction the scheme of an annu- 

 ity-fund for the benefit of the families of deceased 

 officers; and that it also provide for the permanent 

 organization of the Signal Service ; both of which 

 were recommended in my last annual message. 



3. That the manufacturing operations of the Ord- 

 nance Department be concentrated at three arsenals 

 and an armory, and that the remaining arsenals be 

 sold, and the proceeds applied to this object by the 

 Ordnance Department. 



The appropriations for river and harbor improve- 

 ments for the current year were $5,015,000. With 

 my approval, the Secretary of War directed that of 

 this amount $2,000,000 should be expended, and no 

 new work should be begun and none prosecuted 

 which were not of national importance. Subse- 

 quently this amount was increased to $2,237,600, and 

 the works are now progressing on this basis. 



The improvement of the South Pass of the Missis- 

 sippi River, under James B. Eads and his associ- 

 ates, is progressing favorably. At the present time 

 there is a channel of twenty and three-tenths (20.3) 

 feet in depth between the jetties at the mouth of 

 the pass, and eighteen and' one-half (18*) feet at 

 the head of the pass. Neither channel, however, 

 has the width required before payments can be 

 made by the United States. A commission of en- 

 gineer officers is now examining these works, and 

 their reports will be presented as soon as received. 



The report of the Secretary of the Navy shows 

 that branch of the service to be in condition as ef- 

 fective as it is possible to keep it within the means 

 and authority given the Department. It is, of course, 

 not possible to rival the costly and progressive es- 

 tablishments of srreat European powers with the old 

 material of our Navy, to which no increase has been 

 authorized since the war, except the eight small 

 cruisers built to supply the place of others which had 

 gone to decay. Yet the most has been done that 

 was possible with the means at command ; and by 

 substantially rebuilding some of our old ships with 

 durable material, and completely repairing and re- 

 fitting our monitor fleet, the Navy has been gradu- 

 ally so brought up that, though it'does not maintain 

 its relative position among the progressive navies ot 

 the world 2 it is now in a condition more powerful 

 and effective than it ever has been in time of peace. 



The complete repairs of our five heavy iron-elads 

 are only delayed on account of the inadequacy ol 

 the appropriations made last year for the working 

 bureaus of the Department, which were actually 

 less in amount than those made before the war, not- 

 withstanding the greatly enhanced price of labor 

 and materials, and the increase in the cost of the 

 naval service, growing out of the universal use and 

 great expense of steam-machinery. The money 

 necessary for these repairs should be provided at 

 once, that they may be completed without further 

 unnecessary delay and expense. 



When this is done, all the strength that there is 

 in our Navy will be developed and useful to its full 

 capacity, and it will be powerful for puposes of de- 

 fense, and also for offensive action, should the ne- 

 cessity for that arise withia a reasonable distance 

 from our shores. 



The fact that our Navy is not more modern and 

 powerful than it is, has been made a cause of com- 

 plaint against the Secretary of the Navy, by persons 

 who at the same time criticise and complain of his 

 endeavors to bring the Navy that we have to itc 

 best and most efficient condition: but the good 

 sense of the country will understand that it is really 

 due to his practical action that we have at this time 

 any effective naval force at command. 



The report of the Postmaster-Gei.oral shows the 

 excess of expenditures (excluding expenditures on 

 account of previous years) over receipts for the fis- 

 cal year ended June 30, 1876, to be $4,151,988.66. 



Estimated expenditures for the fiscal year ending 

 June 30, 1878, are $36,723,432.43. 



Estimated revenue for the same period is $30,645,- 

 165, leaving estimated excess of expenditure, to be 

 appropriated as a deficiency, of $6,078,267.43. 



The Postmaster-General, like his predecessor, is 

 convinced that a change in the basis of adjusting 

 the salaries of postmasters of the fourth class is neces- 

 sary for the good of the service, as well as for the 

 interests of the Government, and urgently recom- 

 mends that the compensation of the class of post- 

 masters above mentioned be based upon the busi- 

 ness of their respective offices, as ascertained from 

 the sworn returns to the Auditor of stamps canceled. 



A few postmasters in the Southern States have 

 expressed great apprehension of their personal 

 safety on account of their connection with the postal 

 service, and have specially requested that their re- 

 ports of apprehended danaer should not be made 

 public lest it should result in the loss of their lives. 

 But no positive testimony of interference has been 

 submitted, except in the case of a mail-messenger 

 at Spsirtanburg, in South Carolina, who reported 

 that he had been violently driven away while in 

 charge of the mails, on account of his political affili- 

 ations. An assistant superintendent of the railway 

 mail service investigated this c:ise, and reported that 

 the messenger had disappeared from his post, leav- 

 ing his work to be performed by a substitute. The 

 Postmaster-General thinks this case is sufficiently 

 suggestive to justify him in recommending that a 

 more severe punishment should be provided for the 

 offense of assaulting any person in charge of the 

 mails, or of retarding or otherwise obstructing them 

 by threats of personal injury. 



" A very gratifying result is presented in the fact 

 that the deficiency of this Department during the 

 last fiscal year was reduced to 14,081,790.18, as 

 against $6,169,938.88 of the preceding year. The 

 difference can be traced to the large increase in its 

 ordinary receipts (which greatly exceed the estimates 

 therefor] 1 and a slight decrease in its expenditures." 



The ordinary receipts of the Post-Office Depart- 

 ment for the past seven fiscal years have increased 

 at an average of over eight per cent, per annum, 

 while the increase of expenditures for the same pe- 

 riod has been but about 5.50 per cent, per annum, 

 and the decrease of deficiency in the revenues has 

 been at the rate of nearly two per cent, per annum 





