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RELATING TO THE

FOREIGN RELATIONS

OF

THE UNITED STATES

TRANSMITTED TO CONGRESS WITH THE ANNUAL MESSAGE
OF THE PRESIDENT,

DECEMBER 5, 1870,

PRECEDED BY

A SYNOPTICAL LIST OF PAPERS AND FOLLOWED BY AN ALPHA-
BETICAL INDEX OF PERSONS AND SUBJECTS.

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295515

MESSAGE

OF THE

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

To the Senate and House of Representatives :

A year of peace and general prosperity to this nation has passed since the last assembling of Congress. We have, through a kind Providence, been blessed with abundant crops, and have been spared from complications and war with foreign nations. In our midst comparative harmony has been restored. It is to be regretted, however, that a free exercise of the elective franchise has, by violence and intimidation, been denied to citizens in exceptional cases in several of the States lately in rebellion, and the verdict of the people has thereby been reversed. The States of Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas have been restored to representation in our national councils. Georgia, the only State now without representation, may confidently be expected to take her place there also at the beginning of the new year; and then, let us hope, will be completed the work of reconstruction. With an acquiescence on the part of the whole people in the national obligation to pay the public debt, created as the price of our Union; the pensions to our disabled soldiers and sailors, and their widows and orphans; and in the changes to the Constitution which have been made necessary by a great rebellion, there is no reason why we should not advance in material prosperity and happiness, as no other nation ever did, after so protracted and devastating

a war.

Soon after the existing war broke out in Europe the protection of the United States minister in Paris was invoked in favor of North Germans domiciled in French territory. Instructions were issued to grant the protection. This has been followed by an extension of American protection to citizens of Saxony, Hesse and Saxe-Coburg, Gotha, Colombia, Portugal, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Chili, Paraguay, and Venezuela, in Paris. The charge was an onerous one, requiring constant and severe labor, as well as the exercise of patience, prudence, and good judgment. It has been performed to the entire satisfaction of this Government, and, as I am officially informed, equally so to the satisfaction of the government of North Germany.

As soon as I learned that a republic had been proclaimed at Paris, and that the people of France had acquiesced in the change, the minister of the United States was directed by telegraph to recognize it, and

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