662 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



to Congress, in connection with the estimates for 

 the appropriations for the support of the Army for 

 the current fiscal year, estimates for such other de- 

 ficiencies in the different branches of the public 

 service as require immediate action, and cannot 

 without inconvenience be postponed until the reg- 

 ular session. 



I take this opportunity, also, to invite your atten- 

 tion to the propriety of adopting at your present 

 session the necessary legislation to enable the peo- 

 ple of the United States to participate in the advan- 

 tages of the International Exhibition of agricult- 

 ure, industry, and the fine arts, which is to be held 

 at Paris in 1878, and in which this Government has 

 been invited by the Government of France to take 

 part. This invitation was communicated to the 

 Government in May, 1876, by the Minister of France 

 at this capital, and a copy thereof was submitted to 

 the proper committees of Congress at its last ses- 

 sion, but no action was taken upon the subject. 

 The Department of State has received many letters 

 from various parts of the country, expressing a de- 

 sire to participate in the Exhibition, and numerous 

 applications of a similar nature have also been made 

 at the United States Legation at Paris. The Depart- 

 ment of State has also received official advice of the 

 strong desire on the part of the French Government 

 that the United States should participate in this 

 enterprise, and space has hitherto been, and still is, 

 reserved in the Exhibition buildings, for the use of 

 exhibitors from the United States, to the exclusion 

 of other parties who have been applicants therefor. 



In order that our industries may be property rep- 

 resented at the Exhibition, an appropriation will be 

 needed for the payment of salaries and expenses of 

 commissioners, for the transportation of goods, and 

 for other purposes in connection with the object in 

 view ; and, as May next is the time fixed for the 

 opening or the Exhibition, if our citizens are to 

 share the advantages of this international competi- 

 tion for the trade of other nations, the necessity of 

 immediate action is apparent. To enable the United 

 States to cooperate in the International Exhibition 

 which was held at Vienna in 1873, Congress then 

 passed a joint resolution making an appropriation 

 of $200,000, and authorizing the President to appoint 

 a certain number of practical artisans and scientific 

 men, who should attend the Exhibition and report 

 their proceedings and observations to him. Pro- 

 vision was also made for the appointment of a num- 

 ber of honorary commissioners. I have felt that 

 prompt action by Congress in accepting the invi- 

 tation of the Government of France is of so much 

 interest to the people of this country, and so 

 suitable to the cordial relations between the 

 Governments of the two countries, that the sub- 

 ject might properly be presented for attention at 

 your present session. 



The Government of Sweden and Norway has 

 addressed an official invitation to this Government 

 to take part in the International Prison Congress 

 to be held at Stockholm next year. The problem 

 which the congress proposes to study how to di- 

 minish crime is one in which all civilized nations 

 have an interest in common, and the Congress of 

 Stockholm seems likely to prove the most important 

 convention ever held for the study of this grave 

 question. Under authority of a joint resolution of 

 Congress, approved February 16, 1875, a commission- 

 er was appointed by my predecessor to represent the 

 United States upon that occasion, and the Prison 

 Congress having been, at the earnest desire of the 

 Swedish Government, postponed to 1878, his com- 

 mission was renewed by me. An appropriation of 

 $8,000 was made in the Sundry Civil Appropriations 

 act of 1875 to meet the expenses of the commission- 

 ers. I recommend the reappropriation of that sum 

 for the same purpose, the former appropriation 

 having been covered into the Treasury, and being 

 no longer available for the purpose without further 



action by Congress. The subject is brought to your 

 attention at this time in view of circumstances which 

 render it highly desirable that the commissioner 

 should proceed to the discharge of his important du- 

 ties immediately. 



As the several acts of Congress providing for 

 detailed reports from the different departments of 

 the Government require their submission at the be- 

 ginning of the regular annual session, I defer until 

 that time any further reference to subjects of public 

 interest. B. B. HAYES. 



WASHINGTON, October 15, 1877. 



Message of President HATES, delivered at the 

 commencement of the second session of the 

 Forty-fifth Congress, December 3, 1877. 



FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF EEP- 



BE8ENTATIVE8 I 



With devout gratitude to the bountiful Giver of 

 all good, I congratulate you that, at the beginning 

 of your first regular session, you find our countiy 

 blessed with health and peace and abundant har- 

 vests, and with encouraging prospects of an early 

 return of general prosperity. 



To complete and make permanent the pacifi- 

 cation of the country continues to be, and, until it is 

 fully accomplished, must remain, the most impor- 

 tant of all our national interests. The earnest pur- 

 pose of good citizens generally to unite their efforts 

 in this endeavor is evident. It found decided ex- 

 pression in the resolutions announced in 1876, by 

 the national conventions of the leading political 

 parties of the country. There was a wide-spread 

 apprehension that the momentous results in our 

 progress as a nation, marked by the recent amend- 

 ments to the Constitution, were in imminent jeop- 

 ardy ; that the good understanding which prompted 

 their adoption, in the interests of a loyal devotion 

 to the general welfare, might prove a barren truce, 

 and that the two sections of the country, once en- 

 gaged in civil strife, might be again almost as 

 widely severed and disunited as they were when 

 arrayed in arms against each other. 



The course to be pursued, which in my judgment 

 seemed wisest, in the presence of this emergency, 

 was plainly indicated in my inaugural address. It 

 pointed to the time, which all our people desire to 

 see, when a genuine love of our whole country, and 

 of all that concerns its true welfare, shall supplant 

 the destructive forces of the mutual animosity of 

 races and of sectional hostility. Opinions have 

 differed widely as to the measures best calculated 

 to secure this great end. This was to be expected. 

 The measures adopted by the administration have 

 been subjected to severe and varied criticism. Ary 

 course whatever which might have been entered 

 upon would certainly have encountered distrust and 

 opposition. These measures were, in my judgment, 

 such as were most in harmony with the Constitution 

 and with the genius of our people, and best adapted, 

 under all the circumstances, to attain the end in 

 view. Beneficent results, already apparent, prove 

 that these endeavors are not to oe regarded as a 

 mere experiment, and should sustain and encourage 

 us in our efforts. Already, in the brief period which 

 has elapsed, the immediate effectiveness, no less 

 than the justice of the course pursued, is demon- 

 strated, and 1 have an abiding faith that time will 

 furnish its ample vindication in the minds of the 

 great majority of my fellow-citizens. The discon- 

 tinuance of the use of the Army for the purpose of 

 upholding local governments in two States of the 

 Union was no less a constitutional duty and require- 

 ment, under the circumstances existing at the time, 

 than it was a much-needed measure for the resto- 

 ration of local self-government and the promotion of 

 national harmony. The withdrawal of the troops 



