CONGRESS. (PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



225 





date in the year 1885. There has been considerable 

 improvement made in the prompt determination of 

 applications and a consequent relief to expectant in- 

 ventors. 



A number of suggestions and recommendations are 

 contained in the report of the Commissioner of Pat- 

 ents which are well entitled to the consideration of 

 Congress. 



In the Territory of Utah the law of the United 

 States passed for the suppression of polygamy has 

 been energetically and faithfully executed during the 

 past year, with measurably good results. A number 

 of convictions have been secured for unlawful co- 

 habitation, and in some cases pleas of guilty have 

 been entered and a slight punishment imposed upon 

 a promise by the accused that they would not again 

 offend against the law, nor advise, counsel, aid, or 

 abet, in any way, its violation by others. 



The Utah Commissioners express the opinion, 

 based upon such information as they are able to ob- 

 tain, that but few polygamous marriages have taken 

 place in the Territory during the last year. They 

 further report that while there can not be found upon 

 the registration lists of voters the name of a man act- 

 ually guilty of polygamy, and while none of that class 

 are holding office, yet at the last election in the Terri- 

 tory all the officers elected except in one county were 

 men who, though not actually living in the practice 

 of polygamy, subscribe to the doctrine of polygamous 

 marriages as a divine revelation and a law unto all 

 higher and more binding upon the conscience than 

 any human law, local or national. Thus is the 

 strange spectacle presented of a community protected 

 by a republican form of government, to which they 

 owe allegiance, sustaining by their suffrages a princi- 

 ple and a belief which sets at naught that obligation 

 of absolute obedience to the law of the land which 

 lies at the foundation of republican institutions. 



The strength, the perpetuity, and the destiny of 

 the nation rest upon our homes, established by the 

 law of God, guarded by parental care, regulated by 

 parental authority, and sanctified by parental love. 



These are not the homes of polygamy. 



The mothers of our land, who rule the nation as 

 they mold the characters and guide the actions of 

 their sons, live according to God's holy ordinances, 

 and each, secure and happy in the exclusive love of 

 the father of her children, sheds the warm light of 

 true womanhood, unperverted and unpolluted, upon 

 all within her pure and wholesome family circle. 



These are not the cheerless, crushed, and unwoman- 

 ly mothers of polygamy. 



The fathers of our families are the best citizens of 

 the republic. Wife and children are the sources of 

 patriotism, and conjugal and parental affection beget 

 devotion to the country. The man who, undefiled 

 with plural marriage, is surrounded in his single 

 home with his wife and children, has a stake in the 

 country which inspires him with respect for its laws 

 and courage for its defense. 



These are not the fathers of polygamous families. 



There is no feature of this practice, or the system 

 which sanctions it, which is not opposed to all that 

 is of value in our institutions. 



There should be no relaxation in the firm but just 

 execution of the law now in operation, and I should 

 be glad to approve such further discreet legislation as 

 will rid the country of this blot upon its fair fame. 



Since the people upholding polygamy in our Ter- 

 ritories are re-enforced by immigration from other 

 lands, I recommend that a law be passed to prevent 

 the importation of Mormons into the country. 



The agricultural interest of the country demands 

 just recognition and liberal encouragement. It sus- 

 tains with certainty and unfailing strength our nation's 

 prosperity by the products of its steady toil, and bears 

 its full share of the burden of taxation without com- 

 plaint. Our agriculturists have but slight personal 

 representation in the councils of the nation, and are 

 generally content with the humbler duties of citlzen- 



VOL. xxvi. 15 A 



ship and willing to trust to the bounty of Nature for 

 a reward of their labor. But the magnitude and value 

 of this industry is appreciated when the statement is 

 made that of our total annual exports more than three 

 fourths are the products of agriculture, and of our 

 total population nearly one half are exclusively en- 

 gaged in that occupation. 



The Department of Agriculture was created for the 

 purpose or acquiring and diffusing among the people 

 useful information respecting the subjects it has in 

 charge, and aiding in the cause of intelligent and 

 progressive farming by the collection of statistics, by 

 testing the value and usefulness of new seeds and 

 plants, and distributing such as are found desirable 

 among agriculturists. This and other powers and 

 duties with which this department is invested are of 

 the utmost importance, and if wisely exercised must 

 be of great benefit to the country. The aim of our 

 beneficent Government is the improvement of the peo- 

 ple in every station and the amelioration of their con- 

 dition. Surely our agriculturists should not be neg- 

 lected. The instrumentality established in aid of the 

 farmers of the land should not only be well equipped 

 for the accomplishment of its purpose, but those for 

 whose benefit it has been adopted should be en- 

 couraged to avail themselves fully of its advantages. 



The^ prohibition of the importation into several 

 countries of certain of our animals and their prod- 

 ucts, based upon the suspicion that health is en- 

 dangered in their use and consumption, suggests the 

 importance of such precautions for the protection of 

 our stock of all kinds against disease as will disarm 

 suspicion of danger and cause the removal of such an 

 injurious prohibition. 



If the laws now in operation arc insufficient to ac- 

 complish this protection, I recommend their amend- 

 ment to meet the necessities of the situation, and 1 

 commend to the consideration of Congress the sug- 

 gestions contained in the report of the Commissioner 

 of Agriculture calculated to increase the value and 

 efficiency of this department. 



^The report_of the Civil-Service Commission, which 

 will be submitted, contains an account of the manner 

 in which the civil-service law has been executed dur- 

 ing the last year, and much valuable information on 

 this important subject. 



I am inclined to think that there is no sentiment 

 more general in the minds of the people of our coun- 

 try than a conviction of the correctness of the prin- 

 ciple upon which the law enforcing civil-service re- 

 form is based. In its present condition the law regu- 

 lates only a part of the subordinate public positions 

 throughout the country. It applies the test of fitness 

 to applicants for these places by means of a competi- 

 tive examination, and gives large discretion to the 

 commissioners as to the character of the examination 

 and many other matters connected with its., execution. 

 Thus the rules and regulations adopted by the com- 

 mission have much to do with the practical useful- 

 ness of the statute and with the results of its appli- 

 cation. 



The people may well trust the commission to exe- 

 cute the law with perfect fairness and with as little 

 irritation as is possible. But of course no relaxation 

 of the principle which underlies it and no weakening 

 of the safeguards which surround it can be expected. 

 Experience in its administration will probably sug- 

 gest amendment of the methods of its execution, but 

 I venture to hope that we shall never again be re- 

 mitted to the system which distributes public posi- 

 tions purely as rewards for partisan service. Doubts 

 may well be entertained whether our Government 

 could survive the strain of a continuance of this sys- 

 tem, which upon every change of administration in- 

 spires an immense army of claimants for office to lay 

 siege to the patronage of Government, engrossing the 

 time of public officers with their importunities, spread- 

 ing abroad the contagion of their disappointment, and 

 filling the air with the tumult of their discontent. 



The allurements of an immense number of offices 



