CONGRESS. (TiiK PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



any degree bo forecast or foretold by him. His esti- 

 mates must be based ii|'ii existing laws and upon 



U continuance of existing business conditions, except 



so tar as these conditions may In- all'eeted by causes 

 other than new legislation. 



The estimated receipts for tho fiscal year ending 

 June . "i>. l^'.u, aiv $490,1 21, 865.88, and the estimated 

 appropriations $457,261,335.33, leaving an estimated 

 surplus of receipts over expenditures of 982,860^)80.06, 

 This does not include any payment to the sinking 

 fund. In the recommendation of the Secretary Unit 

 the sinking-fund law be repealed 1 concur. The re- 

 demption of bonds since the passage of the law to 

 June ;',0, 1892, has already exceeded the requirements 

 by tho sum of $990,510,681.49. The retirement of 

 bonds in the future before maturity should be a mat- 

 ter of convenience, not of compulsion. We should 

 not collect revenue for that purpose, but only use any 

 casual surplus. To the balance of $32,860.030.05 of 

 receipts over expenditures for the year 1894 should be 

 added tho estimated surplus at the beginning of the 

 year, $20.992,377.03; and from this aggregate there 

 must be deducted, as stated by the Secretary, about 

 $44,000,000 of estimated unexpended appropriations. 



The public confidence in me purpose and ability 

 of the Government to maintain the parity of all of 

 our money issues, whether coin or paper, must re- 

 main unshaken. The demand for gold in Europe 

 and the consequent calls upon us are in a consider- 

 able degree the result of the efforts of some of the Eu- 

 ropean governments to increase their gold reserves, and 

 these efforts should be met by appropriate legislation 

 on our part. The conditions that have created this 

 drain or the Treasury gold arc in an important degree 

 political, and not commercial. In view of the fact that 

 a general revision of our revenue laws in the near fu- 

 ture seems to be probable, it would be better that any 

 changes should be a part of that revision rather than 

 of a temporary nature. 



During the last fiscal year the Secretary purchased, 

 under the act of July 14, 1890, 54,355,748 ounces of 

 silver, and issued in payment therefor $51,106,608 in 

 notes. The total purchases since the passage of the 

 act have been 120,479,981 ounces, and the aggregate 

 of notes issued $116,783,590. The average price paid 

 for silver during the year was 94 cents per ounce, the 

 highest price being $1.02|, July 1, 1891, and the low- 

 est 83 cents, March 21, 1892. In view of the fact that 

 the monetary conference is now sitting and that no 

 conclusion has yet been reached, I withhold any 

 recommendation as to legislation upon this subject. 



The report of the Secretary of War brings again to 

 the attention of Congress some important suggestions 

 as to the reorganization of the infantry and artillery 

 arms of the service, which his predecessors have be- 

 fore urgently presented. Our army is small, but its 

 organization should all the more be put upon the 

 most approved modern basis. The conditions upon 

 what we have called the "frontier" have heretofore 

 required the maintenance of many small posts, but 

 now the policy of concentration is ooviously the right 

 one. The new posts should have the proper strategic 

 relations to the only li frontiers " we now have, those 

 of the seacoast and of our northern and part of our 

 southern boundary. I do not think that any ques- 

 tion of advantage to localities or to States should de- 

 termine the location of the new posts. The reorgani- 

 zation and enlargement of the Bureau of Mintary 

 Information which the Secretary has effected is a 

 work the usefulness of which will become every year 

 more apparent. The work of building heavy guns 

 and the construction of coast defenses has bee'n well 

 begun, and should be carried on without check. 



The report of the Attorney-General is by law sub- 

 mitted directly to Congress, but 1 can not refrain 

 from saying that he has conducted the increasing 

 work of the Department of Justice with great pro- 

 fessional skill. He has in several directions secured 

 from the courts decisions giving increased protection 

 to the officers of the United States, and bringing some 

 classes of crime that escaped local cognizance and 



punishment into the tribunals of the United State*, 

 where they could he tried with impartiality. 

 The numerous applications for Kxe.eutive, clemency 



resented in bchalt of persons convicted in Tinted 

 talcs courts and given penitentiary scntcncth have 

 called my attention to a fact referred to by the Attor- 

 neral in his report, namely, that a time allow- 

 ance for good behavior for such prisoners in pre- 

 scribed by the Federal statutes only where the State 

 in which the penitentiary is located has made no 

 such provision. Prisoners are given the benefit of 

 the provisions of the State law regulating the peni- 

 tentiary to which they may be sent These arc 

 various, some perhaps too liberal and some perhaps 

 too illiberal. The result is that a sentence for five 

 years means one thing if the prisoner is sent to out- 

 State for confinement, and quite a different thing if 

 he is sent to another. I recommend that a uniform 

 credit for good behavior be prescribed by Congress. 



I have oefore expressed my concurrence in the 

 recommendation of the Attorney-General that de- 

 grees of murder should be recognized in the Federal 

 statutes, as they are, I believe, in all the States. 

 These grades are founded on correct distinctions in 

 crime. The recognition of them would enable the 

 courts to exercise some discretion in apportioning 

 punishment, and would greatly relieve the Executive 

 of what is coming to be a very heavy burden the 

 examination of these cases on application for commu- 

 tation. 



The aggregate of claims pending against the Gov- 

 ernment in the Court of Claims is enormous. Claims 

 to the amount of nearly $400,000,000 for the taking 

 of or injury to the property of persons claiming to be 

 loyal during the war are 'now before that court for 

 examination. When to these are added the Indian 

 depredation claims and the French spoliation claims, 

 an aggregate is reached that is indeed startling. In 

 the defense of all these cases the Government is at 

 great disadvantage. The claimants have preserved 

 their evidence, whereas the agents of the Government 

 are sent into the field to rummage for what they can 

 find. This difficulty is peculiarly great where the 

 fact to be established is the disloyalty of the claimant 

 during the war. If this great threat against our rev- 

 enues is to have no other check, certainly Congress 

 should supply the Department of Justice with appro-, 

 priations sufficiently liberal to secure the best legal 

 talent in the defense of these claims and to pursue its 

 vague search for evidence effectively. 



The report of the Postmaster-General shows a most 

 gratifying increase and a most efficient and progres- 

 sive management of the great business of that de- 

 partment. The remarkable increase in revenues, in 

 the number of post-offices, and in the miles of mail 

 carriage furnishes further evidence of the high state 

 of prosperity which our people are enjoying. New 

 offices mean new hamlets and towns; new routes 

 mean the extension of our border settlements, and 

 increased revenues mean an active commerce. The 

 Postmaster-General reviews the whole period of his 

 administration of the office and brings some of his 

 statistics down to the month of November last. The 

 postal revenues have increased during the last year 

 nearly $5,000,000. The deficit for the year ending 

 June 30, 1892, is $848,341 less than the deficiency of 

 the preceding year. The deficiency of the present 

 fiscal year, it is estimated, will be reduced to $1,552,- 

 423, which will not only be extinguished during the 

 next fiscal year, but a surplus of nearly $1,000,000 

 should then be shown. In these calculations the 

 payments to be made under the contracts for ocean 

 mail service have not been included. 



There have been added 1,590 new majl routes dur- 

 ing the year, with a mileage of 8,563 miles ; and the 

 total number of new miles of mail trips added during 

 the vear is nearly 17,000,000. The number of miles of 

 mail journeys added during the last four years is about 

 76,000,000, this addition being 21,000,000 miles more 

 than were in operation in the whole country in 1861. 

 The number of post-offices has been increased by 



