arrangement of steam-vessels and all passenger ships, still it is believed that the resources of science and mechanical skill in this direction have not been exhausted. No good reason exists for the marked distinction which appears upon our statutes between the laws for protecting life and property at sea, and those for protecting them on land. In most of the States severe penalties are provided to punish conductors of trains, engineers, and others employed in the transportation of persons by railway, or by steamboats on rivers. Why should not the same principle be applied to acts of insubordination, cowardice, or other misconduct on the part of masters and mariners, producing injury or death to passengers on the high seas, beyond the jurisdiction of any of the States, and where such delinquencies can be reached only by the power of Congress? The whole subject is earnestly commended to your consideration.

The report of the Postmaster General, to which you are referred for many interesting details in relation to this important and rapidly extending branch of the public service, shows that the expenditure of the year ending June 30, 1854, including one hundred and thirtythree thousand four hundred and eighty-three dollars of balance due to foreign offices, amounted to eight million seven hundred and ten thousand nine hundred and seven dollars. The gross receipts during the same period amounted to six million nine hundred and fifty-five thousand five hundred and eighty-six dollars: exhibiting an expenditure over income of one million seven hundred and fifty-five thousand three hundred and twenty-one dollars, and a diminution of deficiency, as compared with the last year, of three hundred and sixty-one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six dollars. The increase of the revenue of the department, for the year ending June 30, 1854, over the preceding year, was nine hundred and seventy thousand three hundred and ninety-nine dollars. No proportionate increase, however, can be anticipated for the current year, in consequence of the act of Congress of June 23, 1854, providing for increased compensation to all postmasters. From these statements it is apparent that the Post Office Department, instead of defraying its expenses, according to the design at the time of its creation, is now, and under existing laws must continue to be, to no small extent, a charge upon the general treasury. The cost of mail transportation, during the year ending June 30, 1854, exceeds the cost of the preceding year by four hundred and ninety-five thousand and seventy-four dollars. I again call your attention to the subject of mail transportation by ocean steamers, and commend the suggestions of the Postmaster General to your early attention.

During the last fiscal year eleven million seventy thousand nine hundred and thirty-five acres of the public lands have been surveyed, and eight million one hundred and ninety thousand and seventeen acres brought into market. The number of acres sold is seven million thirty-five thousand seven hundred and thirty-five, and the amount received therefor nine million two hundred and eightyfive thousand five hundred and thirty-three dollars. The aggregate amount of lands sold, located under military scrip and land warrants, selected as swamp lands by States, and by locating under grants for roads, is upwards of twenty-three millions of acres. The

increase of lands sold, over the previous year, is about six millions of acres; and the sales during the first two quarters of the current year present the extraordinary result of five and a half millions sold, exceeding by nearly four millions of acres the sales of the corresponding quarters of the last year.

The commendable policy of the government, in relation to setting apart public domain for those who have served their country in time of war, is illustrated by the fact, that since 1790 no less than thirty millions of acres have been applied to this object.

The suggestions, which I submitted in my annual message of last year, in reference to grants of land in aid of the construction of railways, were less full and explicit than the magnitude of the subject and subsequent developments would seem to render proper and desirable. Of the soundness of the principle then asserted with regard to the limitation of the power of Congress, I entertain no doubt; but in its application it is not enough that the value of lands in a particular locality may be enhanced; that, in fact, a larger amount of money may probably be received, in a given time, for alternate sections, than could have been realized for all the sections, without the impulse and influence of the proposed improvements. A prudent proprietor looks beyond limited sections of his domain, beyond present results, to the ultimate effect which a particular line of policy is likely to produce upon all his possessions and interests. The government, which is trustee, in this matter, for the people of the States, is bound to take the same wise and comprehensive view. Prior to and during the last session of Congress, upwards of thirty millions of acres of land were withdrawn from public sale with a view to applications for grants of this character pending before Congress. A careful review of the whole subject led me to direct that all such orders be abrogated, and the lands restored to market; and instructions were immediately given to that effect. The applications at the last session contemplated the construction of more than five thousand miles of road, and grants to the amount of nearly twenty millions of acres of the public domain. Even admitting the right on the part of Congress to be unquestionable, is it quite clear that the proposed grants would be productive of good, and not evil? The different projects are confined, for the present, to eleven States of this Union, and one Territory. The reasons assigned for the grants, show that it is proposed to put the works speedily in process of construction. When we reflect, that since the commencement of the construction of railways in the United States, stimulated as they have been by the large dividends realized from the earlier works over the great thoroughfares, and between the most important points of commerce and population, encouraged by State legislation, and pressed forward by the amazing energy of private enterprise, only seventeen thousand miles have been completed in all the States in a quarter of a century;-when we see the crippled condition of many works commenced and prosecuted upon what were deemed to be sound principles, and safe calculations;-when we contemplate the enormous absorption of capital withdrawn from the ordinary channels of business, the extravagant rates of interest at this moment paid to continue operations, the bankruptcies not merely in money, but in character

and the inevitable effect upon finances generally;-can it be doubted that the tendency is to run to excess in this matter? Is it wise to augment this excess by encouraging hopes of sudden wealth expected to flow from magnificent schemes dependent upon the action of Congress? Does the spirit which has produced such results need to be stimulated or checked? Is it not the better rule to leave all these works to private enterprise, regulated, and, when expedient, aided, by the co-operation of States? If constructed by private capital, the stimulant and the check go together, and furnish a salutary restraint against speculative schemes and extravagance. But it is manifest that, with the most effective guards, there is danger of going too fast and too far.

We may well pause before. a proposition contemplating a simultaneous movement for the construction of railroads, which, in extent, will equal, exclusive of the great Pacific road and all its branches, nearly one-third of the entire length of such works, now completed, in the United States, and which cannot cost, with equipments, less than one hundred and fifty millions of dollars. The dangers likely to result from combinations of interests of this character, can hardly be over-estimated. But, independently of these considerations, where is the accurate knowledge, the comprehensive intelligence, which shall discriminate between the relative claims of these twenty-eight proposed roads, in eleven States and one Territory? Where will you begin, and where end? If to enable these companies to execute their proposed works, it is necessary that the aid of the general government be primarily given, the policy will present a problem so comprehensive in its bearings, and so important to our political and social well-being, as to claim, in anticipation, the severest analysis. Entertaining these views, I recur with satisfaction to the experience and action of the last session of Congress, as furnishing assurance that the subject will not fail to elicit a careful re-examination and rigid scrutiny.

It was my intention to present, on this occasion, some suggestions regarding internal improvements by the general government, which want of time at the close of the last session prevented my submitting on the return to the House of Representatives, with objections, of the bill entitled "An act making appropriations for the repair, preservation and completion of certain public works heretofore commenced under authority of law;" but the space in this communication already occupied with other matter of immediate public exigency constrains me to reserve that subject for a special message, which will be transmitted to the two houses of Congress at an early day.

The judicial establishment of the United States requires modification, and certain reforms in the manner of conducting the legal business of the government are also much needed; but as I have addressed you upon both of these subjects at length before, I have only to call your attention to the suggestions then made.

My former recommendations in relation to suitable provision for various objects of deep interest to the inhabitants of the District of Columbia, are renewed. Many of these objects partake largely of a national character, and are important, independently of their relation

to the prosperity of the only considerable organized community in the Union, entirely unrepresented in Congress.

I have thus presented suggestions on such subjects as appear to me to be of particular interest or importance, and therefore most worthy of consideration during the short remaining period allotted to the labors of the present Congress.

Our forefathers of the thirteen United Colonies, in acquiring their independence, and in founding this Republic of the United States of America, have devolved upon us, their descendants, the greatest and the most noble trust ever committed to the hands of man, imposing upon all, and especially such as the public will may have invested, for the time being, with political functions, the most sacred obligations. We have to maintain inviolate the great doctrine of the inherent right of popular self-government; to reconcile the largest liberty of the individual citizen, with complete security of the public order; to render cheerful obedience to the laws of the land, to unite in enforcing their execution, and to frown indignantly on all combinations to resist them; to harmonize a sincere and ardent devotion to the institutions of religious faith with the most universal religious toleration; to preserve the rights of all by causing each to respect those of the other; to carry forward every social improvement to the uttermost limit of human perfectibility, by the free action of mind upon mind, not by the obtrusive intervention of misapplied force; to uphold the integrity and guard the limitations of our organic law; to preserve sacred from all touch of usurpation, as the very palladium of our political salvation, the reserved rights and powers of the several States and of the people; to cherish, with loyal fealty and devoted affection, this Union, as the only sure foundation on which the hopes of civil liberty rest; to administer government with vigilant integrity and rigid economy; to cultivate peace and friendship with foreign nations, and to demand and exact equal justice from all, but to do wrong to none; to eschew intermeddling with the national policy and the domestic repose of other governments, and to repel it from our own; never to shrink from war when the rights and the honor of the country call us to arms, but to cultivate in preference the arts of peace, seek enlargement of the rights of neutrality, and elevate and liberalize the intercourse of nations; and by such just and honorable means, and such only, whilst exalting the condition of the Republic, to assure to it the legitimate influence and the benign authority of a great example amongst all the powers of Christendom.

Under the solemnity of these convictions, the blessing of Almighty God is earnestly invoked to attend upon your deliberations, and upon all the counsels and acts of the government, to the end that, with common zeal and common efforts, we may, in humble submission to the Divine will, co-operate for the promotion of the supreme good of these United States. FRANKLIN PIERCE

WASHINGTON, December 4, 1854.

[No. 37.]

ACCOMPANYING CORRESPONDENCE.

Mr. Mason to Mr. Marcy.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, PARIS, October 30, 1854. SIR: An incident of very grave import has transpired. In my No. 36 I communicated the intelligence that the minister of the United States to Spain had been prohibited by alleged orders of the Emperor's government from entering France. That I might without delay ascertain the facts of this extraordinary and unusual proceeding, I sent Mr. Piatt, secretary of this legation, to Dover, to communicate with Mr. Soulé. He left Paris in the evening of the 25th, and on his arrival, finding that Mr. Soulé had left Dover, he proceeded to London, where he had an interview with that gentleman. The order forbidding his entering France was wholly unknown to Mr. Soulé, and he assures me that "neither by deed nor by words, uttered or written, has he afforded the shadow of a pretence for the wanton measure which, in violation of his rights as a citizen of the North American republic, and of his privileges as one of its accredited ministers, has interdicted to him a passage through France on his way back to Madrid."

I lost no time, after the return of Mr. Piatt, to address to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, under date of the 27th instant, a communication, of which I send you a copy. It was sent to the Foreign Office on the 28th, and I have not yet received an answer.

It is impossible not to regard this humiliating indignity as deeply injurious, when it is remembered that Mr. Soulé, acting under your orders, has recently spent more than two weeks in Paris; and while sojourning here, neither he nor I received any intimation that his presence was objected to by the French government.

Seeing no adequate cause to justify an unfriendly feeling towards the United States, I cannot but hope that the French government, finding that they have acted on erroneous information, will at once redress the grievous wrong.

If in this I am disappointed, earnest as I have been since I have represented my country at this court to cultivate the most cordial relations of amity between the two countries, I must consider the incident as of such grave importance, that it is not impossible I shall regard it to be my duty to terminate my mission by demanding my passports.

I will not lose a moment in keeping you advised of the reply to my note, and of the progress of events, in connexion with this most extraordinary affair.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. Y. MASON.