We should be more prompt and anxious because they are weak and we are strong.

In my judgment we should be liberal to the verge of lavishness in the expenditure of our money to improve their condition, so that they and all others may know that, although, like all nations and all men, we may do wrong, we are willing…

I am deeply sensible that enough of the responsibility for that wrong justly attaches to me to make it my particular duty and earnest desire to do all I can to give to these injured people that measure of redress which is required alike by…

To the Senate of the United States:I transmit herewith to the Senate a letter from the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers, in relation to the recent effort of the Government of the United States to bring about peace between Chile…

I have the honor to submit herewith the report of the Public Lands Commission, embracing the history and a codification of the public-land laws; and I desire earnestly to invite the attention of Congress to this important subject.

I transmit herewith, for the consideration of the Senate, two treaties* signed at Peking on the 17th of November, 1880, by the commissioners plenipotentiary of the United States and China, respectively.

I submit the subject to your favorable consideration and recommend that a suitable appropriation be made to enable this Government to accept the foregoing invitation by appointing one or more delegates to attend the congress in question.

I transmit, for the consideration of the Senate with a view to ratification, a convention between the United States of America and the Empire of Japan, providing for the reimbursement of certain specified expenses which may be incurred by…

In response to the resolution of the Senate of June 21, 1879, I herewith transmit reports.

The accompanying documents, received from the Commissioner of Agriculture, are transmitted to the Senate in reply to the resolution of the 7th instant, relating to contagious diseases of cattle.

To the Senate of the United States:I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a convention for the establishment, on fixed and uniform bases, of the exercise of the right of protection in Morocco, and for…

The most serious obstacle, however, to an improvement of the civil service, and especially to a reform in the method of appointment and removal, has been found to be the practice, under what is known as the spoils system, by which the…

The paramount question still is as to the enjoyment of the fight by every American citizen who has the requisite qualifications to freely cast his vote and to have it honestly counted.

Competitive examinations in aid of impartial appointments and promotions have been conducted for some years past in several of the Executive Departments, and by my direction this system has been adopted in the custom-houses and…

It is the desire of the good people of the whole country that sectionalism as a factor in our politics should disappear.

Continued opposition to the full and free enjoyment of the rights of citizenship conferred upon the colored people by the recent amendments to the Constitution still prevails in several of the late slaveholding States.

The provision of regular steam postal communication by aid from government has been the forerunner of the commercial predominance of Great Britain on all these coasts and seas, a greater share in whose trade is now the desire and the…

The full appreciation of the opportunities which our front on the Pacific Ocean gives to commerce with Japan, China, and the East Indies, with Australia and the island groups which lie along these routes of navigation, should inspire equal…