670 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



justice. Special attention is asked by the Commis- 

 sioners of the District in their report, which is here- 

 with transmitted, to the importance of a permanent 

 adjustment by Congress of the financial relations be- 

 tween the United States and the District, involving 

 the regular annual contribution by the United States 

 of its just proportion of the expenses of the District 

 government and of the outlay for all needed public 

 improvements, and such measure of relief from the 

 burden of taxation now resting upon the people of 

 the District as in the wisdom ot Congress may be 

 deemed just. 



The report of the Commissioners shows that the 

 affairs of the District are in a condition as satisfac- 

 tory as could be expected in view of the heavy bur- 

 den of debt resting upon it, and its very limited 

 means for necessary expenses. 



The debt of the District is aa follows : 



Old funded debt.... $8,879,69196 



8.65 bonds, guaranteed by the United States.. 18,743,260 00 



Total bonded debt $22,122,941 96 



To which should be added certain outstanding 

 claims, as explained in the report of the Com- 

 missioners 1,187,204 52 



Making the total debt of the District $28,810,146 48 



The Commissioners also ask attention to the im- 

 portance of the improvement of the Potomac Biver 

 and the reclamation of the marshes bordering the 

 city of Washington and their views upon this sub- 

 ject are concurred in by the members of the Board 

 of Health, whose report is also herewith transmitted. 

 Both the commercial and sanitary interests of the 

 District will be greatly promoted, 1 doubt not, by 

 this improvement. 



Your attention is invited to the suggestion of the 

 Commissioners and of the Board of Health for the or- 

 ganization of aboard of charities, to have supervision 

 and control of the disbursement of all moneys for 

 charitable purposes from the District treasury. I de- 

 sire also to ask your especial attention to the need 

 of adding to the efficiency of the public schools of 

 the District by supplemental aid from the National 

 Treasury. This is especially just, since so large a 

 number of those attending these schools are chil- 

 dren of employes of the government. I earnestly 

 commend to your care the interests of the people of 

 the District, who are so intimately associated with 

 the government establishments, and to whose enter- 

 prise the good order and attractiveness of the capi- 

 tal are largely due ; and I ask your attention to the 

 request of the Commissioners for legislation in be- 

 half of the interests intrusted to their care. The ap- 

 propriations asked, for the care of the reservations 

 belonging to the government within the citv, by the 

 Commissioner of Public Buildings and Grounds, 

 are also commended to your favorable consider- 

 ation. 



The report of the joint commission created by 

 the act approved August 2, 1876, entitled "An act 

 providing for the completion of the Washington 

 Monument," is also herewith transmitted, with ac- 

 companying documents. The board of engineer offi- 

 cers detailed to examine the monument, in com- 

 pliance with the second section of the act, have re- 

 ported that the foundation is insufficient. No au- 

 thority exists for making the expenditure necessary 

 to secure its stability. I therefore recommend that 

 the commission be authorized to expend such por- 

 tion of the sum appropriated by the act as may be 

 necessary for the purpose. The present unfinished 

 condition of the monument, begun so long ago, is a 



reproach to the nation. It cannot be doubted that 

 the patriotic sense of the country will warmly re- 

 spond to such prompt provision as may be made for 

 its completion at an early day, and 1 urge upon Con- 

 gress the propriety and necessity of immediate leg- 

 islation for this purpose. 



The wisdom of legislation upon the part of Con- 

 gress in aid of the States, for the education of the 

 whole people in those branches of study which are 

 taught in the common schools of the country, is no 

 longer a question. The intelligent judgment of the 

 country goes still further, regarding it as also both 

 constitutional and expedient tor the General Govern- 

 ment to extend to technical and higher education 

 such aid as is deemed essential to the general wel- 

 fare and to our due prominence among the enlight- 

 ened and cultured nations of the world. The ulti- 

 mate settlement of all questions of the future, wheth- 

 er of administration or finance, or of true nationality 

 of sentiment, depends upon the virtue and intelli- 

 gence of the people. It is vain to hope for the success 

 of a free government without the means of insuring 

 the intelligence of those who are the source of pow- 

 er. No less than one-seventh of the entire voting 

 population of our country are yet unable to read and 

 write. 



It is encouraging to observe, in connection with 

 the growth of fraternal feeling in those States in 

 which slavery formerly existed, evidences of in- 

 creasing interest in universal education, and I shall 

 be glad to give my approval to any appropriate meas- 

 ures which maybe enacted by Congress for the pur- 

 pose of supplementing with national aid the local 

 systems of education in those States and in all 

 the States; and, having already invited your atten- 

 tion to the needs of the District of Columbia with 

 respect to its public-school system, I here add that 

 I believe it desirable, not so much with reference to 

 the local wants of the District, but to the great and 

 lasting benefit of the entire country, that this sys- 

 tem should be crowned with a university in all re- 

 spects in keeping with the national capital, and 

 thereby realize the cherished hopes of Washington 

 on this subject. 



I also earnestly commend the request of the Ke- 

 geuts of the Smithsonian Institution tl>at an ade- 

 quate appropriation be made for the establishment 

 and conduct of a national museum under their su- 

 pervision'. 



The question of providing for the preservation 

 and growth of the Library of Congress is also one 

 of national importance. As the depository of all 

 copyright publications and records, this library hns 

 outgrown the provisions for its accommodation ; and 

 the erection, on such site as the judgment of Con- 

 gress may approve, of a fire-proof library building, 

 to preserve the treasures and enlarge the usefulness 

 of this valuable collection, is recommended. I rec- 

 ommend, also, such legislation as will render avail- 

 able and efficient for the purposes of instruction, 

 BO far as is consistent with the public service, the 

 cabinets or museums of invention, of surgery, of ed- 

 ucation, and of agriculture, and other collections, 

 the property of the National Government. 



The capital of the nation should be something 

 more than a mere political centre. Vie should avail 

 ourselves of all the opportunities which Providence 

 has here placed at our command to promote the 

 general intelligence of the people and increase the 

 conditions most favorable to the success and per- 

 petuity of our institutions. 



R. B. HAYES. 



WASHINGTON, D. C., Dtcember 8,1877. 



