Rutherford B. Hayes: “In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed”

To the Senate of the United States:I transmit herewith to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification in due course, a convention supplementary to the consular convention of May 8, 1878, between the United States of…

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 imperative necessity for prompt action and the pressure of public duties in this closing week of my term of office compel me to refrain from any attempt to make a full and satisfactory presentation of the objections to the bill.

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…