of commerce, with greater depth of channels, greater security in naviga tion, and the saving of time, adds millions to the wealth of the country and increases the resources of the Government.

The bridge across the Mississippi River at Rock Island has been completed, and the proper site has been determined upon for the bridge at La Crosse.

The able and exhaustive report made by the commission appointed to investigate the Sutro Tunnel has been transmitted to Congress.

The observations and reports of the Signal Office have been continued. Stations have been maintained at each of the principal lake, seaport, and river cities. Ten additional stations have been established in the United States, and arrangements have been made for an exchange of reports with Canada, and a similar exchange of observations is contemplated with the West India Islands.

The favorable attention of Congress is invited to the following recommendations of the Secretary of War:

A discontinuance of the appointment of extra lieutenants to serve as adjutants and quartermasters; the adoption of a code providing specific penalties for well-defined offenses, so that the inequality of sentences adjudged by courts-martial may be adjusted; the consolidation of accounts under which expenditures are made, as a measure of economy; a re-appropriation of the money for the construction of a depot at San Antonio, the title to the site being now perfected; a special act placing the cemetery at the city of Mexico on the same basis as other national cemeteries; authority to purchase sites for military posts in Texas; the appointment of commissary sergeants from non-commissioned officers, as a measure for securing the better care and protection of supplies; an appropriation for the publication of the catalogue and tables of the anatomical section of the Army Medical Museum; a re-appropriation of the amount for the manufacture of breech-loading arms, should the selection be so delayed by the board of officers as to leave the former appropriation unexpended at the close of the fiscal year; the sale of such arsenals east of the Mississippi as can be spared, and the proceeds applied to the establishment of one large arsenal of construction and repair upon the Atlantic coast, and the purchase of a suitable site for a proving and experimental ground for heavy ordnance; the abrogation of laws which deprive inventors in the United States service from deriving any benefit from their inventions; the repeal of the law prohibiting promotions in the staff-corps; a continuance of the work upon coast defenses; the repeal of the seventh section of the act of July 13, 1866, taking from engineer soldiers the per diem granted to other troops; a limitation of time for presentation of old war claims for subsistence. supplies under act of July 4, 1864; and a modification in the mode of the selection of cadets for the Military Academy, in order to enhance the usefulness of the Academy, which is impaired by reason of the large amount of time necessarily expended in giving new cadets a thorough

knowledge of the more elementary branches of learning, which they should acquire before entering the Academy. Also an appropriation for philosophical apparatus and an increase in the numbers and pay of the Military Academy band.

The attention of Congress will be called during its present session to various enterprises for the more certain and cheaper transportation of the constantly increasing surplus of Western and Southern products to the Atlantic sea-board. The subject is one that will force itself upon the legislative branch of the Government sooner or later, and I suggest, therefore, that immediate steps be taken to gain all available information to insure equable and just legislation.

One route to connect the Mississippi Valley with the Atlantic, at Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, by water, by the way of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers, and canals and slack-water navigation to the Savannah and Ocmulgee Rivers, has been surveyed, and report made by an accomplished engineer officer of the Army. Second and third, new routes will be proposed for the consideration of Congress, namely, by an extension of the Kanawha and James River Canal to the Ohio, and by extension of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

I am not prepared to recommend Government aid to these or other enterprises until it is clearly shown that they are not only of national interest, but that when completed they will be of a value commensurate with their cost.

That production increases more rapidly than the means of transportation in our country has been demonstrated by past experience. That the unprecedented growth in population and products of the whole country will require additional facilities, and cheaper ones for the more bulky articles of commerce to reach tide-water and a market will be demanded in the near future, is equally demonstrable. I would therefore suggest either a committee or a commission to be authorized to consider this whole question, and to report to Congress at some future day for its better guidance in legislating on this important subject.

The railroads of the country have been rapidly extended during the last few years to meet the growing demands of producers, and reflect much credit upon the capitalists and managers engaged in their construction.

In addition to these, a project to facilitate commerce by the building of a ship-canal around Niagara Falls, on the United States side, which has been agitated for many years, will, no doubt, be called to your attention at this session.

Looking to the great future growth of the country, and the increasing demands of commerce, it might be well, while on this subject, not only to have examined and reported upon the various practicable routes for connecting the Mississippi with tide-water on the Atlantic, but the feasibility of an almost continuous land-locked navigation from Maine

to the Gulf of Mexico. Such a route along our coast would be of great value at all times, and of inestimable value in case of a foreign war. Nature has provided the greater part of this route, and the obstacles to overcome are easily within the skill of the engineer.

I have not alluded to this subject with the view of having any further expenditure of public money at this time than may be necessary to procure and place all the necessary information before Congress in an authentic form, to enable it hereafter, if deemed practicable and worthy, to legislate on the subject without delay.

NAVY DEPARTMENT.

The report of the Secretary of the Navy herewith accompanying, explains fully the condition of that branch of the public service, its wants and deficiencies, expenses incurred during the past year, and appropriations for the same. It also gives a complete history-of the services of the Navy for the past year, in addition to its regular service.

It is evident that, unless early steps are taken to preserve our Navy, that in a very few years the United States will be the weakest nation upon the ocean, of all great powers. With an energetic, progressive business people like ours, penetrating and forming business relations. with every part of the known world, a Navy strong enough to command the respect of our flag abroad is necessary for the full protection of their rights.

I recommend careful consideration by Congress of the recommenda tions made by the Secretary of the Navy.

POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT.

The accompanying report of the Postmaster General furnishes a full and satisfactory exhibit of the operations of the Post-Office Department during the year. The ordinary revenues of the Department for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1872, amounted to $21,915,426.37, and the expenditures to $26,658,192.31. Compared with the previous fiscal year the increase of revenue was $1,878,330.95, or 9.37 per cent., and the increase of expenditures $2,268,088.23, or 9.29 per cent. Adding to the ordinary revenues the annual appropriation of $700,000 for free matter, and the amounts paid to the subsidized mail-steamship lines from special appropriations, the deficiency paid out of the general Treasury was $3,317,765.94, an excess of $389,707.28 over the deficiency for the year 1871. Other interesting statistical information relating to our rapidly extending postal service is furnished in this report. The total length of railroad mail-routes on the 30th of June, 1872, was 57,911 miles, 8,077 additional miles of such service having been put into operation during the year. Eight new lines of railway post-offices have been established, with an aggregate length of 2,909 miles. The number of letters exchanged in the mails with foreign countries was 24,362,500, an increase

of 4,066,502, or 20 per cent. over the nuinber in 1871; and the postage thereon amounted to $1,871,257.25. The total weight of the mails exchanged with European countries exceeded $20 tons. The cost of the United States transatlantic mail-steamship service was $220,301.70. The total cost of the United States ocean-steamship service, including the amounts paid to the subsidized lines of mail steamers, was $1,027,020.97.

The following are the only steamship lines now receiving subsidies for mail service under special acts of Congress: The Pacific Mail Steamship Company receive $500,000 per annum for conveying a monthly mail between San Francisco, Japan, and China, which will be increased to $1,000,000 per annum for a semi-monthly mail on and after October 1, 1873; the United States and Brazil Mail Steamship Company receive $150,000 per annum for conveying a monthly mail between New York and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and the California, Oregon, and Mexico Steamship Company receive $75,000 per annum for conveying a monthly mail between San Francisco and Honolulu, (Hawaiian Islands,) making the total amount of mail-steamship subsidies, at present, $725,000 per an

num.

Our postal communications with all parts of the civilized world have · been placed upon a most advantageous footing by the improved postal conventions and arrangements recently concluded with the leading commercial countries of Europe and America, and the gratifying statement is made that with the conclusion of a satisfactory convention with France, the details of which have been definitely agreed to by the head of the French postal department, subject to the approval of the minister of finance, little remains to be accomplished by treaty for some time to come, with respect either to reduction of rates or improved facilities of postal intercourse.

Your favorable consideration is respectfully invited to the recommendations made by the Postmaster-General for an increase of service from monthly to semi-monthly trips on the mail-steamship route to Brazil; for a subsidy in aid of the establishment of an American line of mail steamers between San Francisco, New Zealand, and Australia; for the establishment of post-office savings banks; and for the increase of the salaries of the heads of bureaus. I have heretofore recommended the abolition of the franking privilege, and see no reason now for changing my views on that subject. It not having been favorably regarded by Congress, however, I now suggest a modification of that privilege to correct its glaring and costly abuses. I would recommend also the appointment of a committee or commission to take into consideration the best method (equitable to private corporations who have invested their time and capital in the establishment of telegraph-lines) of acquiring the title to all telegraph-lines now in operation, and of connecting this service with the postal service of the nation. It is not probable that this subject could receive the proper consideration during the limits of

a short session of Congress, but it may be initiated, so that future action may be fair to the Government and to private parties concerned.

There are but three lines of ocean steamers, namely, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, between San Francisco, China, and Japan, with provision made for semi-monthly service after October 1, 1873; the United States and Brazil line, monthly; and the California, New Zealand, and Australian line, monthly, plying between the United States and foreign ports, and owned and operated under our flag. I earnestly recommend that such liberal contracts for carrying the mails be authorized with these lines as will insure their continuance.

If the expediency of extending the aid of Government to lines of steamers which hitherto have not received it, should be deemed worthy of the consideration of Congress, political and commercial objects make it advisable to bestow such aid on a line under our flag between Panama and the Western South American ports. By this means much trade, now diverted to other countries, might be brought to us, to the mutual advantage of this country and those lying in that quarter of the continent of America.

The report of the Secretary of the Treasury will show an alarming falling off in our carrying-trade for the last ten or twelve years, and even for the past year. I do not believe that public treasure can be better expended in the interest of the whole people than in tyring to recover this trade. An expenditure of $5,000,000 per annum for the next five years, if it would restore to us our proportion of the carryingtrade of the world, would be profitably expended.

The price of labor in Europe has so much enhanced within the last few years that the cost of building and operating ocean-steamers in the United States is not so much greater than in Europe, and I believe the time has arrived for Congress to take this subject into serious consideration.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.

Detailed statements of the disbursements through the Department of Justice will be furnished by the report of the Attorney-General, and though these have been somewhat increased by the recent acts of Congress "to enforce the rights of citizens of the United States to vote in the several States of the Union," and "to enforce the provisions of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States," and the amendments thereto, I cannot question the necessity and salutary effect of those enactments. Reckless and lawless men, I regret to say, have associated themselves together, in some localities, to deprive other citizens of those rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution of the United States, and to that end have committed deeds of blood and violence; but the prosecution and punishment of many of these persons have tended greatly to the repression of such disorders. I do not doubt that a great majority of the people in all parts of the country favor the full enjoymont by all classes of persons of those rights to which they