Part 20

I transmit a communication, under date of the 8th instant, addressed to me by the Secretary of the Navy, covering a report of Professor Simon Newcomb, United States Navy, on the subject of recent improvements in astronomical observatories, instruments, and methods of observations, as noted during his visit to the principal observatories of Europe in the year 1883, made in pursuance of orders of the Navy Department.

The request of the Secretary is commended to the consideration of Congress.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, February 12, 1884_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I transmit herewith, for the consideration of the Senate in connection with the commercial convention of January 20, 1883, between the United States and Mexico, now pending before the Senate, a protocol of an agreement, signed on the 11th instant by the Secretary of State and the representative of Mexico at this capital, explaining and correcting an error of translation found in the Spanish text of said convention.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 12, 1884_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

I transmit herewith a communication of the 8th ultimo from the Secretary of the Interior, and the accompanying papers, relating to the establishment of the boundary line between the United States and the State of Texas.

The matter is presented for the consideration of the Congress.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 13, 1884_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of February 6, 1884, directing "that the President be requested, if in his judgment not incompatible with the public interests, to communicate to the Senate the record of the proceedings, testimony, and findings of the court of inquiry in relation to the events connected with the loss of the steamer _Proteus_ in the Arctic Ocean," I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of the record, etc., called for in said resolution, together with the letter of the Secretary of War, dated the 12th instant, submitting the same to me.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, February 13, 1884_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

In reply to the resolution of the Senate of the 11th instant, I have the honor to inclose a communication[16] from the Secretary of State.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

[Footnote 16: Relating to the demand of Mexico for the extradition of Alexander Trimble.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 18, 1884_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

I transmit herewith the report of a board of Army and Navy officers appointed by me in accordance with the act of Congress approved March 3, 1883, "for the purpose of examining and reporting to Congress which of the navy-yards or arsenals owned by the Government has the best location and is best adapted for the establishment of a Government foundry, or what other method, if any, should be adopted for the manufacture of heavy ordnance adapted to modern warfare, for the use of the Army and Navy of the United States, the cost of all buildings, tools, and implements necessary to be used in the manufacture thereof, including the cost of a steam hammer or apparatus of sufficient size for the manufacture of the heaviest guns."

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 21, 1884_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State of the 21st instant, whereby your honorable body, and through you the people of the United States, may become apprised of the generous contribution made by Her Britannic Majesty's Government toward the efforts for the relief of Lieutenant Greely's arctic exploring party by presenting to the United States the arctic steamship _Alert_.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, _Washington, February 21, 1884_.

The PRESIDENT:

In the search for vessels suitable for the expedition now preparing to relieve Lieutenant Greely and his party, attention was early directed to the _Alert_, which is the property of the British Government, and was the advance ship of the expedition under Sir George Nares. It was desirable to secure this vessel, as she is peculiarly fitted for the intended service, and as the inspecting officers recommended her Mr. Lowell was therefore instructed to ask whether she could be spared for the service.

Information of the wish of this Government having previously and informally reached the British admiralty, a private intimation was conveyed to the United States minister to the effect that the British Government had not forgotten the very considerate conduct of this Government on the occasion of the recovery of the _Resolute_, and that should any suggestion be made that the vessel would be of use to the expedition she would be presented. The _Resolute_, a vessel, as the President remembers, formerly belonging to Her Majesty's navy, having been abandoned in the arctic region, was discovered and brought to the United States by American seamen, and thereupon was purchased by this Government of her sailors, repaired, and returned to Great Britain. On her arrival in England the vessel was received by the Queen in person, and the officers of the United States Navy who took the ship thither were treated with every official and personal courtesy.

The Government of Her Majesty has now given the _Alert_ to the United States unconditionally, with her anchors, chains, and such of her equipment as can be utilized.

Recognizing this graceful and opportune act of courtesy on the part of Her Majesty's Government, the undersigned to-day instructed Mr. Lowell as follows, by telegraph:

"Her Majesty's Government having presented to the Government of the United States the ship _Alert_ to aid in the relief of Lieutenant Greely and his party, you will inform the secretary of state for foreign affairs that the spirit which prompts this act of generosity, and this evidence of sympathy with the object in view, receives the highest appreciation of the President, as it will that of the people of the United States. The President sends his cordial thanks for the opportune gift of this vessel, which he accepts in the name of the United States, and which will be used in the humane enterprise for which it is so peculiarly adapted."

Respectfully submitted.

FREDK. T. FRELINGHUYSEN.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 21, 1884_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

I transmit herewith, for the consideration of Congress, a letter from the Secretary of War, dated the 19th instant, submitting a letter from the Chief Signal Officer of the Army, dated the 2d instant, and its accompanying plan of a proposed meteorological observatory at Fort Myer, Va., together with an estimate of the cost of the same in the sum of $4,000 and a statement giving various reasons why the said observatory should be established.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 25, 1884_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

In answer to so much of the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 17th ultimo as calls for the correspondence with the Mexican Government respecting the payment of claims specified in the fifth section of the act of Congress approved June 17, 1878, I transmit herewith the report of the Secretary of State and its accompanying papers.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 29, 1884_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

In compliance with the act of Congress approved January 16, 1883, entitled "An act to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States," the Civil Service Commission has made to the President its first annual report.

That report is herewith transmitted, together with communications from the heads of the several Executive Departments of the Government respecting the practical workings of the law under which the Commission has been acting.

Upon the good results which that law has already accomplished I congratulate Congress and the people, and I avow my conviction that it will henceforth prove to be of still more signal benefit to the public service.

I heartily commend the zeal and fidelity of the Commissioners and their suggestion for further legislation, and I advise the making of such an appropriation as shall be adequate for their needs.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, February 29, 1884_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

I transmit herewith, for the consideration of Congress, a report of the Secretary of State, accompanying a report made by the commission lately designated by me to examine and report upon the asserted unhealthfulness of the swine products of this country. The views and conclusions of the commission deserve the most careful consideration of Congress, to the end that if any path be legitimately open for removing the prohibition which closes important foreign markets to those products it may be followed and appropriate legislation devised.

I earnestly recommend that Congress provide for reimbursing the expenses incurred by the commissioners in this praiseworthy service, and I should be glad also if some remunerative recognition of their public-spirited action in accepting the onerous and responsible duties imposed on them were to suggest itself to Congress. At all events, in view of the conflicting theories touching the origin and propagation of trichiniasis and the means of isolating and extirpating it among domestic swine, and considering the important bearing which precise knowledge on these points would have on the commercial aspects of the matter, I recommend provision for special research in this direction.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, March 5, 1884_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

In further response to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 15th January last, calling for copies of correspondence on file in the Department of State in relation to the reported arrest at Lodz, in Russia, of Reinhardt Wagner, a citizen of the United States, I transmit, in addition to the papers sent you on the 7th ultimo, a copy of a dispatch subsequently received.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, March 6, 1884_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States:_

I transmit herewith to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary of State, in response to a resolution of that body of the 5th ultimo, calling for correspondence concerning the representations made to this Government in relation to the existing tariff discrimination against the works of foreign artists.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, March 10, 1884_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

I transmit herewith the following documents, received from the Secretary of State, relative to the resolution of the House of Representatives upon the death of Mr. Edward Lasker.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, March 11, 1884_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I submit herewith, for the consideration of the Senate with a view to obtaining its advice and consent thereto, a draft of a proclamation whereby the United States accede and adhere to an international convention for the protection of industrial property, signed at Paris March 20, 1883, and in explanation of the purport of that convention and the proposed mode of effecting the adhesion of the United States thereto I subjoin a report of the Secretary of State.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 14, 1884_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

I transmit herewith, for the consideration of Congress, a communication from the Secretary of War of the 12th instant, and accompanying papers, requesting an appropriation of $230,869.44 for the erection at the Presidio of San Francisco of additional buildings at headquarters Military Division of the Pacific, rendered necessary in consequence of the proposed increase of the garrison by removal of troops from points in San Francisco Harbor.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 18, 1884_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

I transmit herewith, for the consideration of Congress, a communication from the Secretaries of War and the Navy, concerning the expediency of offering rewards for the rescue of Lieutenant Greely and party by the independent efforts of private vessels, in addition to sending the three ships constituting the national relief expedition.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, March 18, 1884_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 15th of January last, respecting the discovery of phosphates upon the coast of Brazil by a citizen of the United States, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State upon the subject, together with the accompanying papers.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 20, 1884_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

In accordance with the provisions of the act making appropriations for the diplomatic and consular service for the year ending June 30, 1883, I transmit herewith a communication from the Secretary of State in relation to the consular service.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 20, 1884_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

I transmit herewith a communication from the Secretary of War of the 18th instant, submitting a letter from Colonel A.F. Rockwell, United States Army, in charge of public buildings and grounds, embodying an estimate in the sum of $30,000 for a pedestal for the statue of General James A. Garfield, to be erected in the city of Washington by the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, together with a letter upon the subject from General Anson G. McCook, on behalf of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, the object in view being the procurement of an appropriation by Congress of the amount of the accompanying estimate.

I commend the subject to the favorable consideration of Congress.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 26, 1884_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

In my annual message I impressed upon Congress the necessity of continued progress in the reconstruction of the Navy. The recommendations in this direction of the Secretary of the Navy and of the Naval Advisory Board were submitted by me unaccompanied by specific expressions of approval. I now deem it my duty to advise that appropriations be made at the present session toward designing and commencing the construction of at least the three additional steel cruisers and the four gunboats thus recommended, the cost of which, including their armament, will not exceed $4,283,000, of which sum one-half should be appropriated for the next fiscal year.

The _Chicago, Boston, Atlanta,_ and _Dolphin_ have been designed and are being built with care and skill, and there is every reason to believe that they will prove creditable and serviceable modern cruisers. Technical questions concerning the details of these or of additional vessels can not wisely be settled except by experts, and the Naval Advisory Board, organized by direction of Congress under the act of August 5, 1882, and consisting of three line officers, a naval constructor, and a naval engineer, selected "with reference only to character, experience, knowledge, and skill," and a naval architect and a marine engineer from civil life "of established reputation and standing as experts in naval or marine construction," is an appropriate authority to decide finally all such questions. I am unwilling to see the gradual reconstruction of our naval cruisers, now happily begun in conformity with modern requirements, delayed one full year for any unsubstantial reason.

Whatever conditions Congress may see fit to impose in order to secure judicious designs and honest and economical construction will be acceptable to me, but to relinquish or postpone the policy already deliberately declared will be, in my judgment, an act of national imprudence.

Appropriations should also be made without delay for finishing the four double-turreted monitors, the _Puritan, Amphitrite, Terror,_ and _Monadnock_, and for procuring their armament and that of the _Miantonomoh_. Their hulls are built, and their machinery is under contract and approaching completion, except that of the _Monadnock_, on the Pacific coast. This should also be built, and the armor and heavy guns of all should be procured at the earliest practicable moment.

The total amount appropriated up to this time for the four vessels is $3,546,941.41. A sum not exceeding $3,838,769.62, including $866,725 for four powerful rifled cannon and for the remainder of the ordnance outfit, will complete and equip them for service. Of the sum required, only two millions need be appropriated for the next fiscal year. It is not expected that one of the monitors will be a match for the heaviest broadside ironclads which certain other Governments have constructed at a cost of four or five millions each, but they will be armored vessels of an approved and useful type, presenting limited surfaces for the shot of an enemy, and possessed of such seagoing capacity and offensive power as fully to answer our immediate necessities. Their completion having been determined upon in the recent legislation of Congress, no time should be lost in accomplishing the necessary object.

The Gun Foundry Board, appointed by direction of Congress, consisting of three army and three navy officers, has submitted its report, duly transmitted on the 20th day of February, 1884, recommending that the Government should promote the production at private steel works of the required material for heavy cannon, and that two Government factories, one for the Army and one for the Navy, should be established for the fabrication of guns from such material. An early consideration of the report is recommended, together with such action as will enable the Government to construct its ordnance upon its own territory and so to provide the armaments demanded by considerations which concern the national safety and honor.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _April 1, 1884_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

In response to a resolution of the House of Representatives of January 15, 1884, requesting the President to forward to the House information, including reports from consuls and others, concerning the undervaluation, false classification, and other irregular practices in the importation of foreign merchandise, and to recommend what legislation, if any, is needed to prevent such frauds on the revenue, I have the honor to transmit herewith a letter of the Secretary of the Treasury of the 28th ultimo, inclosing a draft of a bill on the subject, together with copies of reports taken from the files of the Treasury Department concerning the information desired.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, April 1, 1884_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State and accompanying papers, furnished in response to a resolution of the House of Representatives of January 16, 1884, calling for information as to the payments made by Spain in accordance with the terms of its treaty with the United States concluded February 17, 1834.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _April 2, 1884_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

I transmit to Congress a communication from the Secretary of War, embodying the views of the president of the Mississippi River Commission upon a report from Major Stickney, of the Engineer Corps, in relation to the protection of existing levees from destruction by the floods in the lower part of the Mississippi River. It appears that there is an urgent need of an appropriation of $100,000 to be used for this purpose, and that an enormous destruction of property may be thereby averted. I recommend an immediate appropriation of the sum required for the purpose, to be expended under the direction of the Mississippi River Commission.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _April 2, 1884_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

In response to the resolution of the House of Representatives of 5th of February last, respecting the arrest and imprisonment of certain American citizens by the authorities of Colombia, at Aspinwall, I transmit a report of the Secretary of State.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _April 11, 1884_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

The condition of our seacoast defenses and their armament has been brought to the attention of Congress in my annual messages, and I now submit a special estimate of the Chief of Ordnance, United States Army, transmitted by the Secretary of War, for a permanent annual appropriation of $1,500,000 to provide the necessary armament for our fortifications.

This estimate is founded upon the report of the Gun Foundry Board recently transmitted, to which I have heretofore invited the early attention of Congress.

In presenting this estimate I do not think it necessary to enumerate the considerations which make it of the highest importance that there should be no unnecessary delay in entering upon the work, which must be commensurate with the public interests to be guarded, and which will take much time.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _April 14, 1884_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

I transmit herewith, for the consideration of Congress, a communication from the Secretary of War of the 5th instant, submitting copies of certain papers, consisting of a letter, dated February 16 last, from Mr. Haughwout Howe, of New York City, presenting a proposition for the sale to the Government for the sum of $5,500 of certain hospital and other records pertaining to an association founded in New York City in April, 1862, for the purpose of extending relief to soldiers of the late war; a report of an examination made of these records by a representative of the War Department, and a report of the Adjutant-General stating that the records would prove of great value to the Department in the settlement of claims of deserving soldiers, as well as in detecting fraudulent claims, as the books, etc., contain information not now of record in the War Department.

The Secretary of War, it will be observed, recommends that an appropriation be made by Congress of the necessary sum for the purchase of the records referred to.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, April 14, 1884_.

_To the Senate of the United States of America:_

I transmit herewith to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a convention concluded between the United States of America and France and the twenty-four other powers named in said convention for the protection of submarine cables, concluded at Paris on the 14th day of March, A.D. 1884. I also inclose, for the information of the Senate, a copy of Mr. Morton's dispatch No. 518, of the 18th ultimo, in relation to the subject.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

WASHINGTON, _April 14, 1884_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a convention concerning trade-marks and trade-labels between the United States and Belgium, signed on the 7th instant.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, April 18, 1884_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

I transmit herewith a communication from the Secretary of State of the 16th instant, relative to the approaching visit of a special embassy from Siam to the United States, and recommend that the appropriation asked by the Secretary of State to suitably defray the expenses of such embassy while in this country be made.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, April 18, 1884_.

_To the House of Representatives:_