Such aid should be, as it always has been, suggested by some exceptional conditions.

We should not collect revenue for the purpose of anticipating our bonds beyond the requirements of the sinking fund.

Special Customs Rule No. 1 is hereby amended by adding to the places excepted from examination at the port of New York the following:Office of the General Appraiser: Chief clerk and law clerk.

The existence of a surplus in the Treasury is no answer to these objections.

The loyal States should not be paid the large sums of money promised them by this bill because they were loyal and other States were not.

I regard the cause of civil service reform as so firmly established and its value so fully demonstrated.

It will hardly do to say that the States and Territories who are the recipients of these large gifts may be trusted to do justice to its citizens.

I believe that this appropriation of the public funds is not within the constitutional power of the Congress.

I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of State, in further response to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 22d (21st) of December last, touching affairs in Madagascar.

A government is not only kind, but performs its highest duty when it restores to the citizen taxes unlawfully collected.

The direct tax levied in 1861 is not even suspected of invalidity.

It is cause for congratulation that watchfulness and care and fidelity to its purposes are all that are necessary to insure to the Government and our people all the benefits which its inauguration promised.

Any other theory cheapens and in a measure discredits a process which more than any other is a manifestation of sovereign authority.

I have the honor to transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State, concerning the expenses of the representation of the United States at the Brussels Exhibition of 1888.

Although the present convention fully explains the reasons for its negotiation, it may not be improper here to add that Article VII of the convention of July 29, 1882, stipulated that the said convention should continue in force until the…

As there was no further provision extending the said treaty of July 29, 1882, beyond that date, it expired by limitation.

I transmit herewith, in response to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 21st of December last, a report of the Secretary of State and accompanying documents, touching affairs in Madagascar.

I herewith transmit, for the consideration of the Senate with a view to its ratification, a convention signed at Washington.