Ulysses S. Grant

The law is inconsistent with a faithful and efficient administration of the Government.

It could not have been the intention of the framers of the Constitution, when providing that appointments made by the President should receive the consent of the Senate, that the latter should have the power to retain in office persons…

There has been no hesitation in changing officials in order to secure an efficient execution of the laws, sometimes, too, when, in a mere party view, undesirable political results were likely to follow; nor any hesitation in sustaining…

On my assuming the responsible duties of Chief Magistrate of the United States it was with the conviction that three things were essential to its peace, prosperity, and fullest development.

In this connection I advise such legislation as will forever preclude the enslavement of the Chinese upon our soil under the name of coolies, and also prevent American vessels from engaging in the transportation of coolies to any country…

As the United States have been the initiators in this new policy, so they should be the most earnest in showing their good faith in making it a success.

It will be the endeavor of the Administration to cultivate such relations with all these nations as to entitle us to their confidence and make it their interest, as well as ours, to establish better commercial relations.

Self-interest, if not self-preservation, therefore dictates caution against disturbing any industrial interest of the country.

While I have a voice in the direction of affairs I shall not consent to imperil this sacred right by conferring it upon fictitious or fraudulent claimants.

The citizen of the United States, whether native or adopted, who discharges his duty to his country, is entitled to its complete protection.

I recommend legislation to protect the rights of citizens of the United States, as well as the dignity and sovereignty of the nation, against such an assumption.

Except, possibly, a few engaged in the trade between the two sections, no citizen of the United States would be benefited by reciprocity.

The advantages of such a treaty would be wholly in favor of the British producer.

A sensitive people, conscious of their power, are more at ease under a great wrong wholly unatoned than under the restraint of a settlement which satisfies neither their ideas of justice nor their grave sense of the grievance they have…

I have always felt that the most intimate relations should be cultivated between the Republic of the United States and all independent nations on this continent.

It has been the endeavor of the Administration to execute the neutrality laws in good faith, no matter how unpleasant the task, made so by the sufferings we have endured from lack of like good faith toward us by other nations.

The United States, in order to put a stop to bloodshed in Cuba, and in the interest of a neighboring people, proposed their good offices to bring the existing contest to a termination.

The principle is maintained, however, that this nation is its own judge when to accord the rights of belligerency, either to a people struggling to free themselves from a government they believe to be oppressive or to independent nations…

Our course should always be in conformity with strict justice and law, international and local.

To lock up the surplus in the Treasury and withhold it from circulation would lead to such a contraction of the currency as to cripple trade and seriously affect the prosperity of the country.

With the funding of the national debt, as here suggested, I feel safe in saying that taxes and the revenue from imports may be reduced safely from sixty to eighty millions per annum at once, and may be still further reduced from year to…

The revenues of the country are greater than the requirements, and may with safety be reduced.

But the burden of interest ought to be reduced as rapidly as can be done without the violation of contract.

Year by year the ability to pay increases in a rapid ratio.

With a less burden of taxation than the citizen has endured for six years past, the entire public debt could be paid in ten years.