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The report of the Secretary of the Interior, herewith attached, gives much interesting statistical information, which I abstain from giving an abstract of, but refer you to the report itself.

The act of Congress providing the oath which pensioners must subscribe to before drawing their pensions cuts off from this bounty a few survivors of the war of 1812 residing in the Southern States. I recommend the restoration of this bounty to all such. The number of persons whose names would thus be restored to the list of pensioners is not large. They are all old persons who could have taken no part in the rebellion, and the services for which they were awarded pensions were in defense of the whole country.

The report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, herewith, contains suggestions of much interest to the general public, and refers to the approaching Centennial and the part his Department is ready to take in it. I feel that the nation at large is interested in having this Exposi tion a success, and commend to Congress such action as will secure a greater general interest in it. Already many foreign nations have signified their intention to be represented at it, and it may be expected. that every civilized nation will be represented.

The rules adopted to improve the civil service of the Government have been adhered to as closely as has been practicable with the opposition with which they meet. The effect, I believe, has been beneficial on the whole, and has tended to the elevation of the service. But it is impracticable to maintain them without direct and positive support of Congress. Generally the support which this reform receives is from those who give it their support only to find fault when the rules are apparently departed from. Removals from office without preferring charges against parties removed are frequently cited as departures from the rules adopted, and the retention of those against whom charges are made by irresponsible persons and without good grounds, is also often condemned as a violation of them. Under these circumstances, therefore, I announce that if Congress adjourns without positive legislation on the subject of "civil-service reform," I will regard such action as a disapproval of the system, and will abandon it, except so far as to require examinations for certain appointees, to determine their fituess. Competitive examinations will be abandoned.

The gentlemen who have given their services without compensation, as members of the board to devise rules and regulations for the government of the civil service of the country, have shown much zeal and earnestness in their work, and to them, as well as to myself, it will be a source of mortification if it is to be thrown away. But I repeat that it is impossible to carry this system to a successful issue without general approval and assistance, and positive law to support it.

I have stated that three elements of prosperity to the nation, capital, labor, skilled and unskilled, and products of the soil, still remain with

us. To direct the employment of these is a problem deserving the most serious attention of Congress. If employment can be given to all the labor offering itself, prosperity necessarily follows. I have expressed the opinion, and repeat it, that the first requisite to the accomplishment of this end is the substitution of a sound currency in place of one of a fluctuating value. This secured, there are many interests that might be fostered, to the great profit of both labor and capital. How to induce capital to employ labor is the question. The subject of cheap transportation has occupied the attention of Congress. Much new light on this question will without doubt be given by the committee appointed by the last Congress to investigate and report upon this subject.

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A revival of ship-building, and particularly of iron steamship-building, is of vast importance to our national prosperity. The United States is now paying over $100,000,000 per annum for freights and passage on foreign ships-to be carried abroad and expended in the employment and support of other peoples-beyond a fair percentage of what should go to foreign vessels, estimating on the tonnage and travel of each respectively. It is to be regretted that this disparity in the carrying-trade exists, and to correct it I would be willing to see a great departure from the usual course of Government in supporting what might usually be termed pri vate enterprise. I would not suggest as a remedy direct subsidy to American steamship-lines, but I would suggest the direct offer of ample compensation for carrying the mails between Atlantic seaboard cities and the Continent on American-owned and American-built steamers and would extend this liberality to vessels carrying the mails to South American states and to Central America and Mexico, and would pursue the same policy from our Pacific sea-ports to foreign sea-ports on the Pacific. It might be demanded that vessels built for this service should come up to a standard fixed by legislation, in tonnage, speed, and all other qualities, looking to the possibility of Government requiring them at some time for war purposes. The right also of taking possession of them in such emergency should be guarded.

I offer these suggestions, believing them worthy of consideration, in all seriousness, affecting all sections and all interests alike. If anything better can be done to direct the country into a course of general prosperity, no one will be more ready than I to second the plan.

Fowarded herewith will be found the report of the commissioners appointed under an act of Congress approved June 20, 1874, to wind up the affairs of the District government. It will be seen from the report that the net debt of the District of Columbia, less securities on hand and available, is:

Bonded debt issued prior to July 1, 1874.... 3.65 bonds, act of Congress June 20, 1874 Certificates of the board of audit....

$8, 883, 940 43

2,088, 168 73 4,770,558 45

15,742, 667 61

Less special-improvement assessments (chargeable to private property) in excess of any demand against such assessments....

Less Chesapeake and Ohio Canal bonds.....

And Washington and Alexandria Railroad bonds.......

In the hands of the commissioners of the sinking-fund
Leaving actual debt less said assets.

$1, 614, 054 37
75,000 00
59, 000 00

$1,748,054 37

13, 994, 613 24

In addition to this there are claims preferred against the government of the District, amounting, in the estimated aggregate reported by the board of audit, to $3,147,787.48, of which the greater part will probably be rejected. This sum can with no more propriety be included in the debt account of the District government than can the thousands of claims against the General Government be included as a portion of the national debt. But the aggregate sum thus stated includes something more than the funded debt chargeable exclusively to the District of Columbia. The act of Congress of June 20, 1874, contemplates an ap portionment between the United States Government and the District of Columbia, in respect of the payment of the principal and interest of the 3.65 bonds. Therefore, in computing with precision the bonded debt of the District, the aggregate sums above stated as respects 3.65 bonds now issued, the outstanding certificates of the board of audit, and the unadjusted claims pending before that board should be reduced to the extent of the amount to be apportioned to the United States Government in the manner indicated in the act of Congress of June 20, 1874.

I especially invite your attention to the recommendations of the commissioners of the sinking fund relative to the ambiguity of the act of June 20, 1874; the interest on the District bonds, and the consolidation of the indebtedness of the District.

I feel much indebted to the gentlemen who consented to leave their private affairs and come from a distance to attend to the business of this District, and for the able and satisfactory manner in which it has been conducted. I am sure their services will be equally appreciated by the entire country.

It will be seen from the accompanying full report of the Board of Health that the sanitary condition of the District is very satisfactory. In my opinion the District of Columbia should be regarded as the grounds of the National Capital, in which the entire people are interested. I do not allude to this to urge generous appropriations to the District, but to draw the attention of Congress, in framing a law for the government of the District, to the magnificent scale on which the city was planned by the founders of the Government; the manner in which, for ornamental purposes, the reservations, streets, and avenues were laid out; and the proportion of the property actually possessed by the General Government. I think the proportion of the expenses of the government and improvements to be borne by the General Government,

the cities of Washington and Georgetown and the county, should be carefully and equitably defined.

In accordance with section 3, act approved June 23, 1874, I appointed a board to make a survey of the mouth of the Mississippi River with a view to determine the best method of obtaining and maintaining a depth of water sufficient for the purposes of commerce, &c.; and in accordance with an act entitled "An act to provide for the appointment of a commission of engineers to investigate and report a permanent plan for the reclamation of the alluvial basin of the Mississippi River subject to inundation,” I appointed a commission of engineers. Neither board has yet completed its labors. When their reports are received they will be forwarded to Congress without delay.

EXECUTIVE MANSION.

December 7, 1874.

U. S. GRANT.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, pursuant to the second section of the act of Congress approved the 23d of March last, entitled "An act to authorize the President to accept for citizens of the United States the jurisdiction of certain tribunals in the Ottoman dominions and Egypt, established or to be established under the authority of the Sublime Porte and of the government of Egypt," the President is authorized, for the benefit of American citizens residing in the Turkish dominions, to accept the recent law of the Ottoman Porte ceding the right of foreigners possess ing immovable property in said- dominions;

And whereas, pursuant to the authority thus in me vested, I have authorized George H. Boker, accredited as minister resident of the United States to the Ottoman Porte, to sign, on behalf of this Government, the protocol accepting the law aforesaid of the said Ottoman Porte, which protocol and law are, word for word, as follows:

[Translation.]

The United States of America and His Majesty the Sultan being desirous to establish by a special act the agreement entered upon between them regarding the admission of American citizens to the right of holding real estate granted to foreigners by the law promulgated on the 7th of Sepher, 1284, (January 18th, 1867,) have authorized : The President of the United States of America, George H. Boker, minister-resident of the United States of America near the Sublime Porte, and

His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, His Excellency A. Aarifi Pasha, his minister of foreign affairs, to sign the Protocol which follows:

Protocol.

The law granting foreigners the right of holding real estate does not interfere with the immunities specified by the treaties, and which will continue to protect the person and the movable property of foreigners who may become owners of real estate.

As the exercise of this right of possessing real property may induce foreigners to establish themselves in larger numbers in the Ottoman Empire, the imperial government thinks it proper to anticipate and to prevent the difficulties to which the application of this law may give rise in certain localities. Such is the object of the arrangements which follow.

The domicile of any person residing upon the Ottoman soil being inviolable, and as no one can enter it without the consent of the owner, except by virtue of orders emanating from competent authority, and with the assistance of the magistrate or functionary invested with the necessary powers, the residence of foreigners is inviolable on the same principle, in conformity with the treaties, and the agents of the public force cannot enter it without the assistance of the consul or of the delegate of the consul of the power on which the foreigner depends.

By residence we understand the house of inhabitation and its dependencies: that is to ay, the out-houses, courts, gardens, and neighboring inclosures, to the exclusion of all other parts of the property.

In the localities distant by less than nine hours' journey from the consular residence, the agents of the public force cannot enter the residence of a foreigner without the assistance of a consul, as was before said.

On his part the consul is bound to give his immediate assistance to the local authority, so as not to let six hours elapse between the moment which he may be informed and the moment of his departure, or the departure of his delegate, so that the action of the authorities may never be suspended more than twenty-four hours.

In the localities distant by nine hours or more than nine hours of travel from the residence of the consular agent, the agents of the public force may, on the request of the local authority, and with the assistance of three members of the council of the elders of the commune, enter into the residence of a foreigner, without being assisted by the consular agent, but only in case of urgency, and for the search and the proof of the crime of murder, of attempt at murder, of incendiarism, of armed robbery either with infraction or by night in an inhabited house, of armed rebellion, and of the fabrication of counterfeit money; and this entry may be made whether the crime was committed by a foreigner or by an Ottoman subject, and whether it took place in the residence of a foreigner or not in his residence, or any other place.

These regulations are not applicable but to the parts of the real estate which constitute the residence, as it has been heretofore defined.

Beyond the residence, the action of the police shall be exercised freely and without reserve; but in case a person charged with crime or offense should be arrested, and the accused shall be a foreigner, the immunities attached to his person shall be observed in respect to him.

The functionary or the officer charged with the accomplishment of a domiciliary visit, in the exceptional circumstances determined before, and the members of the conncil of elders who shall assist him, will be obliged to make out a procès-verbal of the domiciliary visit, and to communicate it immediately to the superior authority under whose jurisdiction they are, and the latter shall transmit it to the nearest consular agent, without delay.

A special regulation will be promulgated by the Sublime Porte, to determine the mode of action of the local police in the several cases provided heretofore.

In localities more distant than nine hours' travel from the residence of the consular agent, in which the law of the judicial organization of the ralayet may be in force, foreigners shall be tried without the assistance of the consular delegate by the council of elders fulfilling the function of justices of the peace, and by the tribunal of the canton, as well for actions not exceeding one thousand piasters as for offenses entailing a fine of five hundred piasters only at the maximum.

Foreigners shall have, in any case, the right of appeal to the tribunal of the arrondissement against the judgments issued as above stated, and the appeal shall be followed and judged with the assistance of the consul, in conformity with the treaties. The appeal shall always suspend the execution of a sentence.

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