CONGRESS. (PBESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



153 



CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. The 



second session of the Forty-ninth Congress 

 convened Dec. 6, 1886, and President Cleve- 

 land sent in his second annual message, as fol- 

 lows: 



To the Congress of the United States : 



In discharge of a constitutional duty, and following 

 a well-established precedent in the Executive office, 1 

 herewith transmit to the Congress at its reassembling, 

 certain information concerning the state of the Union, 

 together with such recommendations for legislative 

 consideration as appear necessary and expedient. 



Our Government has consistently maintained its 

 relations of friendship toward all other powers, and 

 of neighborly interest toward those whose possessions 

 are contiguous to our own. Few questions have arisen 

 during the past year with other governments, and 

 none of those are" beyond the reach of settlement in 

 friendly counsel. 



We are as yet without provision for the settlement 

 of claims of citizens of the United States against 

 Chili for injuries during the late war with Peru and 

 Bolivia. The mixed commissions, organized under 

 claims conventions, concluded by the Chilian Govern- 

 ment with certain European states, have developed 

 an amount of friction which we trust can be avoided 

 in the convention which our representative at Santi- 

 ago is authorized to negotiate. 



The cruel treatment of inoffensive Chinese has, I 

 regret to say. been repeated in some of the far Western 

 States and Territories, and acts of violence against 

 those people, beyond the power of the local consti- 

 tuted authorities to prevent, and difficult to punish, 

 are reported even in distant Alaska. Much of this 

 violence can be traced to race prejudice and competi- 

 tion of labor, which can not, however, justify the op- 

 pression of strangers whose safety is guaranteed by 

 our treaty with China equally witn the most favored 

 nations. , 



In opening our vast domain to alien elements, the 

 purpose of our lawgivers was to invite assimilation, 

 and not to provide an arena for endless antagonisms. 

 The paramount duty of maintaining public order and 

 defending the interests of our own people may re- 

 quire the adoption of measures of restriction, but they 

 should not tolerate the oppression of individuals of a 

 special race. I am not without assurance that the 

 Government of China, whose friendly disposition to- 

 ward us 1 am most happy to recognize, will meet us 

 half-way in devising a comprehensive remedy, by 

 which an effective limitation of Chinese emigration, 

 joined to protection of those Chinese subjects who re- 

 main in this country, may be secured. 



Legislation is needed to execute the provisions of 

 our Chinese convention of 1880 touching the opium- 

 traffic. 



While the good-will of the Colombian Government 

 toward our country is manifest, the situation of Ameri- 

 can interests on the Isthmus of Panama has at times 

 excited concern, and invited friendly action looking 

 to the performance ot the engagements of the two 

 nations concerning the territory embraced in the in- 

 teroceanic transit. With the subsidence of the Isth- 

 mian disturbances, and the erection of the State of 

 Panama into a Federal district under the direct gov- 

 ernment of the constitutional administration of Bo- 

 g"t;i, a new order of things has been inaugurated 

 which, although a-i yet somewhat experimental and 

 afford in.: - r arbitrary exercise of power by the 



delegates of the national authority, promises much 

 improvement 



The sympathy between the people of the United 

 States and France, born during our colonial struggle 

 foriml. and continuing to-dav, has received 



a fresh impulse in the successful completion and ded- 

 ication of the oilossal statue of " Liberty Enlighten- 

 ing the World" in New York Harbor the gift of 

 Frenchmen to Americans. 



A convention between the United States and cer- 

 tain other powers for the protection of submarine ca- 

 bles was signed at Paris on March 14, 1884, and has 

 been duly ratified and proclaimed by this Govern- 

 ment. By agreement between the high contracting 

 parties this convention is to go into effect on the 1st 

 of January next, but the legislation required for its 

 execution in the United States has not yet been 

 adopted. I earnestly recommend its enactment. 



Cases have continued to occur in Germany giving 

 'rise to much correspondence in relation to the privi- 

 lege of sojourn of our naturalized citizens of German 

 origin revisiting the land of their birth, yet I am hap- 

 py to state that our relations with that country have 

 lost none of their accustomed cordiality. 



The claims for interest upon the amount of tonnage 

 dues illegally exacted from certain German steamship 

 lines were favorably reported in both houses of Con- 

 gress at the last session, and I trust will receive final 

 and favorable action at an early day. 



The recommendations contained in my last annual 

 message in relation to a mode of settlement of the fish- 

 ery rights in the waters of British North America 

 so long a subject of anxious difference between the 

 United States and Great Britain was met by an ad- 

 verse vote of the Senate on April 13th last ; and there- 

 upon negotiations were instituted to obtain an agree- 

 ment with Her Britannic Majesty's Government for 

 the promulgation of such joint interpretation and 

 definition ot the article of the Convention of 1818, re- 

 lating to the territorial waters and inshore fisheries of 

 the British provinces, as should secure the Canadian 

 rights from encroachment by United States fishermen, 

 and, at the same time, insure the enjoyment by the 

 latter of the privileges guranteed to them by such 

 convention. 



The questions involved are of long standing, of 

 grave consequence, and from time to time, for nearly 

 three quarters of a century, have given rise to earnest 

 international discussions, not unaccompaied by irrita- 

 tion. 



Temporary arrangements by treaties have served 

 to allay friction which, however, has revived as each 

 treaty was terminated. The last arrangement, under 

 the treaty of 1871, was abrogated after "due notice by 

 the United States on June 30, 1885, but I was ena- 

 bled to obtain for our fishermen for the remainder of 

 that season enjoyment of the full privileges accorded 

 by the terminated treaty. 



The Joint High Commission by whom the treaty 

 had been negotiated although invested with plenary 

 power to make a permanent settlement were con- 

 tent with a temporary arrangement, after the termi- 

 nation of which the question was relegated to the 

 stipulations of the Treaty of 1818, as to the first article 

 of which no construction satisfactory to both countries 

 has ever been agreed upon. 



The progress of civilization and growth of popula- 

 tion in the British provinces to which the fisheries in 

 question are contiguous, and the expansion of com- 

 mercial intercourse between them and the United 

 States, present to-day a condition of affairs scarcely 

 realizable at the date of the negotiations of 1818. 



New and vast interests have been brought into ex- 

 istence ; modes of intercourse between the respective 

 countries have been invented and multiplied : the 

 methods of conducting the fisheries have been wholly 

 changed ; and all this is necessarily entitled to can- 

 did and careful consideration in the adjustment of 

 the terms and conditions of intercourse and com- 

 merce between the United States and their neighbors 

 along a frontier of over 8,500 miles. 



This propinquity, community of language and oc- 

 cupation, and similarity of political and social institu- 

 tions indicate the practicability and obvious wisdom 

 of maintaining mutually beneficial and friendly rela- 

 tions. 



While I am unfeignedly desirous that such relations 

 should exist between us and the inhabitants of Canada, 

 yet the action of their officials during the past season 





