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CONGRESS. (PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



Office Department to contract for carrying our foreign 

 mails under the additional authority given by the last 

 Congress. The amount limited was inadequate to 

 pay all within the purview of the law the full rate of 

 fiftv cents per mile, and it would have been unjust 

 and unwise to have given it to some and denied it to 

 others. Nor could contracts have been let under the 

 law to all at a rate to have brought the aggregate 

 within the appropriation, without such practical pre- 

 arrangement of terms as would have violated it. 



The rate of sea and inland postage, which was prof- 

 fered under another statute, clearly appears to be a 

 fair compensation for the desired service, being three 

 times the price necessary to secure transportation by 

 other vessels upon any route, and much beyond the 

 charges made to private persons for services not less 

 burdensome. 



Some of the steamship companies, upon the refusal 

 of the Postmaster-General to attempt, by the means 

 provided, the distribution of the sum appropriated as 

 an extra compensation, withdrew the services of their 

 vessels and thereby occasioned slight inconvenience, 

 though no considerable injury, the mails having been 

 dispatched by other means. 



Whatever may be thought of the policy of subsidiz- 

 ing any line of public conveyance or travel, I am sat- 

 isfied that it should not be done under cover of an 

 expenditure incident to the administration of a de- 

 partment, nor should there be any uncertainty as to 

 the recipients of the subsidy, or any discretion left 

 to an executive officer as to its distribution. If such 

 gifts of the public money are to be .made for the pur- 

 pose of aiding any enterprise, in the supposed inter- 

 est of the public. I can not but think that the amount 

 to be paid, and the beneficiary, might better be deter- 

 mined by Congress than in any other way. 



The international congress of delegates from the 

 Postal- Union countries convened at Lisbon, in Portu- 

 gal, in February last, and after a session of some 

 weeks the delegates signed a convention amendatory 

 of the present Postal-Union Convention in some par- 

 ticulars designed to advance its purposes. This ad- 

 ditional act has had my approval, and will be laid be- 

 fore you with the departmental report. 



I approve the recommendation of the Postmaster- 

 General that another assistant be provided for his 

 department. I invite your consideration to the sev- 

 eral other recommendations contained in his report. 



The report of the Attorney-General contains a his- 

 tory of the conduct of the Department of Justice dur- 

 ing the last year, and a number of valuable sugges- 

 tions as to needed legislation ; and I invite your careful 

 attention to the same. 



The condition of business in the courts of the United 

 States is such that there seems to be an imperative ne- 

 cessity for remedial legislation on the subiect. Some 

 of these courts are so overburdened with pending 

 causes that the delays in determining litigation amount 

 often to a denial of justice. Among the plans sug- 

 gested for relief is one submitted by the Attorney- 

 General. Its main features are : The transfer of all 

 the original jurisdiction of the circuit courts to the 

 district courts, and an increase of judges for the latter 

 where necessary ; an addition of judges to the circuit 

 courts, and constituting them exclusively courts of 

 appeal, and reasonably limiting appeals thereto ; fur- 

 ther restrictions of the right to remove causes from 

 the State to Federal courts ; permitting appeals to 

 the Supreme Court from the courts of the District of 

 Columbia and the Territories only in the same cases 

 as they are allowed from State courts, and guarding 

 against an unnecessary number of appeals from the 

 circuit courts. 



I approve the plan thus outlined, and recommend 

 the legislation necessary for its application to our ju- 

 dicial system. 



The present mode of compensating United States 

 marshals and district attoruevs should, in my opin- 

 ion, be changed. They are allowed to charge against 

 the Government certain fees for services, their income 



being measured by the amount of such foes within a 

 fixed limit as to their annual aggregate. This is a di- 

 rect inducement for them to make their fees in crimi- 

 nal cases as large as possible in an effort to reach the 

 maximum sum permitted. As an entirely natural 

 consequence, unscrupulous marshals are found en- 

 couraging frivolous prosecutions, arresting people on 

 petty charges of crime, and transporting them to dis- 

 tant places for examination and trial, for the purpose 

 of earning mileage and other fees ; and district attor- 

 neys uselessly attend criminal examinations far from 

 their places of residence, for the express purpose of 

 swelling their accounts against the Government. The 

 actual expenses incurred in these transactions are also 

 charged against the Government. 



Thus the rights and freedom of our citizens are out- 

 raged, and public expenditures increased, for the pur- 

 pose of furnishing public officers pretexts for increas- 

 ing the measure of their compensation. 



I think marshals and district attorneys should be 

 paid salaries, adjusted by a rule which will make 

 them commensurate with services fairly rendered. 



In connection with this subject 1 desire to suggest 

 the advisability, if it be found not obnoxious to con- 

 stitutional objection, of investing United States com- 

 missioners with the power to try and determine cer- 

 tain violations of law within the grade of misdemean- 

 ors. Such trials might be made to depend upon the 

 option of the accused. The multiplication of small 

 and technical offenses, especially under the provisions 

 of our internal-revenue law, render some change in 

 our present system very desirable, in the interests of 

 humanity as well as economy. 



The district courts are now crowded with petty 

 prosecutions, involving a punishment, in cases of con- 

 viction, of onlv a slight fine, while the parties accused 

 are harassed by an enforced attendance upon courts 

 held hundreds of miles from their homes. If poor and 

 friendless they are obliged to remain in jail during 

 months, perhaps, that elapse before a session of the 

 court is held, and are finally brought to trial sur- 

 rounded by strangers and with but little real oppor- 

 tunity for defense. In the mean time frequently the 

 marshal has charged against the Government his fees 

 for an arrest, the transportation of the accused and the 

 expense of the same, and for summoning witnesses be- 

 fore a commissioner, a grand jury, and. a court ; the 

 witnesses have been paid from the public funds large 

 fees and traveling expenses, and the commissioner and 

 district attorney nave also made their charges against 

 the Government. 



This abuse in the administiation of our criminal law 

 should be remedied ; and if the plan above suggested 

 is not practicable, some other should be devised. 



The report of the Secretary of the Interior, contain- 

 ing an account of the operations of this important de- 

 partment and much interesting information, will be 

 submitted for your consideration. 



The most intricate and difficult subject in charge of 

 this department is the treatment and management of 

 the Indians. I am satisfied that some progress may 

 be noted in their condition as a result of a prudent ad- 

 ministration of the present laws and regulations for 

 their control. 



But it is submitted that there is lack of a fixed pur- 

 pose or policy on this subject, which should be sup- 

 plied. It is useless to dilate upon the wrongs of the 

 Indians, and as useless to indulge in the heartless be- 

 lief that because their wrongs are revenged in their 

 own atrocious manner therefore they should be exter- 

 minated. 



They are within the care of our Government, and 

 their rights are. or should be, protected from invasion 

 by the most solemn obligations. They are properly 

 enough called the wards of the Government ; and it 

 should be borne in mind that this guardianship in- 

 volves, on our part, efforts for the improvement of 

 their condition and the enforcement of their rights. 

 There seems to be general concurrence in the propo- 

 sition that the ultimate object of their treatment 



