Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States

Sold for lege or or for

ng the undred

-. Surmeans

amply = home subject ic land

if the ements actual

ends to s right period

7 were

as an

n that

e is no tion of -being emarkest the cure a r who

ids in ervice

These

They

land

The ons of

e con

jects, r the inder

States

al col

Sep

con

quivahun

dred and thirty-six thousand two hundred and fifty-seven and three one-hundredths acres for railways, canals, and wagon roads. estimated that an additional quantity of one hundred and sevent million seven hundred and thirty-five thousand five hundred and t three acres is still due under grants for like uses. The policy o aiding the States in building works of internal improvement was urated more than forty years since in the grants to Indiana and Il to aid those States in opening canals to connect the waters of th bash with those of Lake Erie, and the waters of the Illinois with of Lake Michigan. It was followed, with some modifications, grant to Illinois of alternate sections of public land within certain of the Illinois Central Railway. Fourteen States and sundry co tions have received similar subsidies in connection with railway pleted or in process of construction. As the reserved sections are at the double minimum, the sale of them at the enhanced price has in many instances, indemnified the Treasury for the granted lands. construction of some of these thoroughfares has undoubtedly g vigorous impulse to the development of our resources and the ment of the more distant portions of the country. It may, howe well insisted that much of our legislation in this regard has characterized by indiscriminate and profuse liberality. The 1 States should not loan their credit in aid of any enterprise unde by States or corporations, nor grant lands in any instance, unle projected work is of acknowledged national importance. I am st inclined to the opinion that it is inexpedient and unnecessary to subsidies of either description; but should Congress determine wise, I earnestly recommend that the rights of settlers and of the be more effectually secured and protected by appropriate legislat

During the year ending September 30, 1870, there were filed Patent Office nineteen thousand four hundred and eleven applic for patents, three thousand three hundred and seventy-four ca and one hundred and sixty applications for the extension of p Thirteen thousand six hundred and twenty-two patents, includin sues and designs, were issued; one thousand and ten extended; a thousand and eighty-nine allowed, but not issued, by reason non-payment of the final fees. The receipts of the office duri fiscal year were one hundred and thirty-six thousand three h and four dollars and twenty-nine cents in excess of its expenditu

The work of the Census Bureau has been energetically prose The preliminary report, containing much information of special and interest, will be ready for delivery during the present s The remaining volumes will be completed with all the dispatch e ent with perfect accuracy in arranging ard classifying the r We shall thus, at no distant day, be furnished with an authentic of our condition and resources. It will, I doubt not, attest the gi prosperity of the country although, during the decade which ha

closed, it was so severely tried by the great war waged to maintain its integrity, and to secure and perpetuate our free institutions.

During the last fiscal year the sum paid to pensioners, including the cost of disbursement, was twenty-seven million seven hundred and eighty thousand eight hundred and eleven dollars and eleven cents, and one thousand seven hundred and fifty-eight bounty land warrants were issued. At its close one hundred and ninety-eight thousand six hundred and eighty-six names were on the pension rolls.

The labors of the Pension Office have been directed to the severe scrutiny of the evidence submitted in favor of new claims, and to the discovery of fictitious claims which have been heretofore allowed. The appropriation for the employment of special agents for the investigation of frauds has been judiciously used, and the results obtained have been of unquestionable benefit to the service.

The subjects of education and agriculture are of great interest to the success of our republican institutions, happiness, and grandeur as a nation. In the interest of one a Bureau has been established in the Interior Department-the Bureau of Education; and in the interest of the other, a separate Department, that of Agriculture. I believe great general good is to flow from the operations of both these Bureaus if properly fostered. I cannot commend to your careful consideration too highly the reports of the Commissioners of Education and of Agriculture, nor urge too strongly such liberal legislation as to secure their efficiency. In conclusion, I would sum up the policy of the administration to be a thorough enforcement of every law; a faithful collection of every tax provided for; economy in the disbursement of the same; a prompt payment of every debt of the nation; a reduction of taxes as rapidly as the requirements of the country will admit; reductions of taxation. and tariff, to be so arranged as to afford the greatest relief to the greatest number; honest and fair dealings with all other peoples, to the end that war, with all its blighting consequences, may be avoided, but without surrendering any right or obligation due to us; a reform in the treatment of Indians, and in the whole civil service of the country; and, finally, in securing a pure, untrammeled ballot, where every man enti tled to cast a vote may do so, just once, at each election, without fear of molestation or proscription on account of his political faith, nativity, or color.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 5, 1870.

U. S. GRANT.

ding the red and

ents, and

nts were hundred

e severe

d to the

d. The

tigation ve been

t to the

ur as a

d in the
erest of