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PART I.

POLITICAL MANUAL FOR 1869.

XXXVII.

MEMBERS OF THE CABINET OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON,

AND OF THE FORTIETH CONGRESS, THIRD SESSION.

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Patterson.

Vermont-George F. Edmunds, Justin S. Morrill.
Massachusetts-Charles Sumner, Henry Wilson.
Rhode Island-William Sprague, Henry B. An-
thony.

Connecticut-James Dixon, Orris S. Ferry.
New York-Edwin D. Morgan, Roscoe Conkling.
New Jersey-Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, Alex-
ander G. Cattell.

Pennsylvania-Charles R. Buckalew, Simon
Cameron.

Delaware-James A. Bayard, Willard Saulsbury. Maryland-William Pinckney Whyte, George Vickers.

North Carolina-John C. Abbott, John Pool. South Carolina-Thomas J. Robertson, Frederick A. Sawyer.

Alabama-Willard Warner, George E. Spencer. Louisiana-John S. Harris, William P. Kellogg. Ohio-Benjamin F. Wade, John Sherman. Kentucky-Thomas C. McCreery, Garrett Davis. Tennessee-David T. Patterson, Joseph S. Fowler. Indiana-Thomas A. Hendricks, Oliver P. Mor

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House of Representatives.
SCHUYLER COLFAX, of Indiana, Speaker.
Edward McPherson, of Pennsylvania, Clerk.
Maine-John Lynch, Sidney Perham, James G.
Blaine, John A, Peters, Frederick A. Pike.
New Hampshire-Jacob H. Ela, Aaron F. Ste-
vens, Jacob Benton.

Vermont Frederick E. Woodbridge, Luke P.
Poland, Worthington C. Smith.
Massachusetts-Thomas D. Eliot, Oakes Ames,
Ginery Twichell, Samuel Hooper, Benjamin
F. Butler, Nathaniel P. Banks, George S.
Boutwell, John D. Baldwin, William B. Wash-
burn, Henry L. Dawes.

Rhode Island-Thomas A. Jenckes, Nathan F.
Dixon.

Connecticut-Richard D. Hubbard, Julius Hotchkiss, Henry H. Starkweather, William H. Barnum.

New York-Stephen Taber, Demas Barnes, William E. Robinson, John Fox, John Morrissey, Thomas E. Stewart, John W. Chanler, James Brooks, Fernando Wood, William H. Robertson, Charles H. Van Wyck, John H. Ketcham, Thomas Cornell, John V. L. Pruyn, John A. Griswold, Orange Ferriss, Calvin T. Hulburd, James M. Marvin, William C. Fields, Addison H. Laflin, Alexander H. Bailey, John C. Churchill, Dennis McCarthy, Theodore M. Pomeroy, William H. Kelsey, William S. Lincoln, Hamilton Ward, Lewis Selye, Burt Van Horn, James M. Humphrey, Henry Van Aernam.

New Jersey-William Moore, Charles Haight, Charles Sitgreaves, John Hill, George A. Hal

sey.

Pennsylvania-Samuel J. Randall, Charles O'-
Neill, Leonard Myers, William D. Kelley, Ca-
leb N. Taylor, Benjamin M. Boyer, John M.
Broomall, J. Lawrence Getz, O. J. Dickey,*
Henry L. Cake, Daniel M. Van Auken, George
W. Woodward, Ulysses Mercur, George F.
Miller, Adam J. Glossbrenner, William H.
Koontz, Daniel J. Morrell, Stephen F. Wilson,
Glenni W. Scofield, S. Newton Pettis,† John
Covode, James K. Moorhead, Thomas Wil-
liams, George V. Lawrence.
Delaware-John A. Nicholson.

Maryland-Hiram McCullough, Stevenson Archer, Charles E. Phelps, Francis Thomas, Frederick Stone.

North Carolina-John R. French, David Heaton, Oliver H Dockery, John T. Deweese, Israel G. Lash, Nathaniel Boyden, Alexander H. Jones.

South Carolina-B. F. Whittemore, C. C. Bowen, Simeon Corley, James H. Goss. Georgia-J. W. Clift, Nelson Tift, W. P. Ed-| wards, Samuel F. Gove, C. H. Prince, (vacancy,) P. M. B. Young. Alabama-Francis W. Kellogg, Charles W. Buckley, Benjamin W. Norris, Charles W: Pierce, John B. Callis, Thomas Haughey. Louisiana―J. Hale Sypher, (vacancy,) Joseph P. Newsham, Michel Vidal, W. Jasper Black- | burn. Ohio-Benjamin Eggleston, Samuel F. Cary, Robert C. Schenck, William Lawrence, William Mungen, Reader W. Clarke, Samuel Shellabarger, John Beatty, Ralph P. Buckland, James M. Ashley, John T. Wilson, Philadelph Van Trump, Columbus Delano, Martin Welker, Tobias A. Plants, John A. Bingham, Ephraim R. Eckley, Rufus P. Spalding, James A. Gar

field.

Kentucky-Lawrence S. Trimble, (vacancy,) J. S. Golladay, J. Proctor Knott, Asa P. Grover, * In place of Thaddeus Stevens, deceased.

Thomas L. Jones, James B. Beck, George M. Adams, Samuel McKee. Tennessee-Roderick R. Butler, Horace Maynard, William B. Stokes, James Mullins, John Trimble, Samuel M. Arnell, Isaac R. Hawkins, David A. Nunn.

Indiana-William E. Niblack, Michael C. Kerr,
Morton C. Hunter, William S. Holman, George
W. Julian, John Coburn, Henry D. Washburn,
Godlove S. Orth, Schuyler Colfax, William
Williams, John P. C. Shanks.

Illinois-Norman B. Judd, John F. Farnswortn,
Ellihu B. Washburne, Abner C. Harding, Ebon
C. Ingersoll, Burton C. Cook, Henry P. H.
Bromwell, Shelby M. Cullom, Lewis W. Ross,
Albert G. Burr, Samuel S. Marshall, Jehu Ba-
ker, Green B. Raum, John A. Logan.
Missouri-William A. Pile, Carman A. Newcomb,
James R. McCormick, Joseph J. Gravely, John
H. Stover,* Robert T. Van Horn, Benjamin
F. Loan, John F. Benjamin, George W. An-
derson.

Arkansas-Logan H. Roots, James T. Elliott,
Thomas Boles.

Michigan-Fernando C. Beaman, Charles Upson,
Austin Blair, Thomas W. Ferry, Rowland E.
Trowbridge, John F. Driggs.
Florida-Charles M. Hamilton.
Iowa-James F. Wilson, Hiram Price, Willian.
B. Allison, William Loughridge, Grenville
M. Dodge, Asahel W. Hubbard.
Wisconsin-Halbert E. Paine, Benjamin F. Hop-
kins, Amasa Cobb, Charles A. Eldridge, Phile-
tus Sawyer, Cadwalader C. Washburn.
California-Samuel B. Axtell, William Higby,
James A. Johnson.

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Minnesota-William Windom, Ignatius Donnelly.

Oregon-Rufus Mallory.
Kansas-Sidney Clarke.

West Virginia-Chester D. Hubbard, Bethuel
M. Kitchen, Daniel Polsley.
Nevada-Delos R. Ashley.
Nebraska-John Taffe.

*In place of Joseph W. McClurg, resigned.

† In place of Darwin A. Finney, deceased.

XXXVIII.

PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S LAST ANNUAL MESSAGE,

DECEMBER 7, 1868.

The following extracts relate to reconstruction | ganized condition under the various laws which and other controverted subjects: have been passed upon the subject of recon

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate

and House of Representatives: Upon the reassembling of Congress, it again becomes my duty to call your attention to the state of the Union, and to its continued disor

struction.

It may be safely assumed, as an axiom in the government of States, that the greatest wrongs inflicted upon a people are caused by unjust and arbitrary legislation, or by the unrelenting decrees of despotic rulers, and that

the timely revocation of injurious and oppress- Ition as near completion as was within the scope ive measures is the greatest good that can be of its authority, and the nation was encouraged conferred upon a nation. The legislator or by the prospect of an early and satisfactory adruler who has the wisdom and magnanimity to justment of all its difficulties. Congress, however, retrace his steps, when convinced of error, intervened, and, refusing to perfect the work so will sooner or later be rewarded with the nearly consummated, declined to admit members respect and gratitude of an intelligent and from the unrepresented States, adopted a series patriotic people. of measures which arrested the progress of res. toration, frustrated all that had been so successfully accomplished, and after three years of agitation and strife has left the country further. from the attainment of union and fraternal feeling than at the inception of the congressional plan of reconstruction. It needs argument to show that legislation which has produced such baneful consequences should be abrogated, or else made to conform to the genuine principles of republican government

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Our own history, although embracing a period less than a century, affords abundant proof that most, if not all, of our domestic troubles are directly traceable to violations of the organic law and excessive legislation. The most striking illustrations of this fact are furnished by the enactments of the past three years upon the question of reconstruction. After a fair trial they have substantially failed and proved pernicious in their results, and there seems to be no good reason why they should remain longer upon Under the influence of party passion and serthe statute-book. States to which the Constitu- tional prejudice, other acts have been passed not tion guaranties a republican form of government warranted by the Constitution. Congress has have been reduced to military dependencies, in already been made familiar with my views res each of which the people have been made sub-pecting the "tenure-of-office bill." Experience ject to the arbitrary will of the commanding has proved that its repeal is demanded by the general. Although the Constitution requires best interests of the country, and that while it that each State shall be represented in Congress, remains in force the President cannot enjoin Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas are yet ex- that rigid accountability of public officers so cluded from the two Houses, and, contrary to essential to an honest and efficient execution of the express provisions of that instrument, were the laws. Its revocation would enable the denied participation in the recent election for executive department to exercise the power of a President and Vice President of the United appointment and removal in accordance with States. The attempt to place the white popula- the original design of the Federal Constitution. tion under the domination of persons of color The act of March 2, 1867, making appropriin the South has impaired, if not destroyed, the ations for the support of the army for the year kindly relations that had previously existed be- ending June 30, 1868, and for other purposes, tween them; and mutual distrust has engendered contains provisions which interfere with the a feeling of animosity which, leading in some President's constitutional functions as Cominstances to collision and bloodshed, has pre-mander-in-Chief of the Army, and deny to vented that co-operation between the two races States of the Union the right to protect themso essential to the success of industrial enter-selves by means of their own militia. These prises in the Southern States. Nor have the inhabitants of those States alone suffered from the disturbed condition of affairs growing out of these congressional enactments. The entire Union has been agitated by grave apprehensions of troubles which might again involve the peace of the nation; its interests have been injuriously affected by the derangement of business and labor, and the consequent want of prosperity throughout that portion of the country.

The Federal Constitution-the magna charta of American rights, under whose wise and salutary provisions we have successfully conducted all our domestic and foreign affairs, sustained ourselves in peace and in war, and become a great nation among the Powers of the earth-must assuredly be now adequate to the settlement of questions growing out of the civil war waged alone for its vindication. This great fact is made most manifest by the condition of the country when Congress assembled in the month of December, 1865. Civil strife had ceased; the spirit of rebellion had spent its entire force; in the Southern States the people had warmed into national life, and throughout the whole country a healthy reaction in public sentiment had taken place. By the application of the simple yet effective provisions of the Constitution the executive department, with the voluntary aid of the States, had brought the work of restora

provisions should be at once annulled; for while the first might, in times of great emergency, seriously embarrass the Executive in efforts to employ and direct the common strength of the nation for its protection and preservation, the other is contrary to the express declaration of the Constitution, that, "a well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.'

It is believed that the repeal of all such laws would be accepted by the American people as at least a partial return to the fundamental principles of the Government, and an indication that hereafter the Constitution is to be made the nation's safe and unerring guide. They can be productive of no permanent benefit to the country, and should not be permitted to stand as so many monuments of the deficient wisdom which has characterized our recent legislation.

The condition of our finances demands the early and earnest consideration of Congress Compared with the growth of our population, the public expenditures have reached an amount. unprecedented in our history.

The population of the United States in 1790 was nearly four millions of people. Increasing each decade about thirty-three per cent., it reached in 1860 thirty-one millions-an increase of seven hundred per cent. on the population in

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1/90. In 1869 it is estimated that it will reach | $372,000,000, estimated as necessary for the fiscal thirty-eight millions, or an increase of eight year ending the 30th of June, 1869, we obtain a hundred and sixty-eight per cent. in seventynine years.

The annual expenditures of the Federal Government in 1791 were $4,200,000; in 1820, $18,200,000; in 1830, $41,000,000; in 1860, $63,000,000; in 1865, nearly $1,300,000,000; and in 1869 it is estimated by the Secretary of the Treasury, in his last annual report, that they will be $372,000,000.

total expenditure of $1,600,000,000 during the four years immediately succeeding the war, or nearly as much as was expended during the seventy-two years that preceded the rebellion, and embraced the extraordinary expenditures already named.

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These startling facts clearly illustrate the necessity of retrenchment in all branches of the public service. Abuses which were tolerated during By comparing the public disbursements of the war for the preservation of the nation will 1869, as estimated, with those of 1791, it will be not be endured by the people, now that profound seen that the increase of expenditure since the peace prevails. The receipts from internal revbeginning of the Government has been eight enues and customs have during the past three thousand six hundred and eighteen per cent., years gradually diminished, and the continuance while the increase of the population for the same of useless and extravagant expenditures will period was only eighteen hundred and sixty-involve us in natioual bankruptcy, or else make eight per cent. Again: the expenses of the Gov- inevitable an increase of taxes, already too ernment in 1860, the year of peace immediately onerous, and in many respects obnoxious on preceding the war, were only $63,000,000; while account of their inquisitorial character. One in 1869, the year of peace three years after the hundred millions annually are expended for the war, it is estimated they will be $372,000,000-military force, a large portion of which is eman increase of four hundred and eighty-nine per cent., while the increase of population was only twenty-one per cent. for the same period.

These statistics further show, that in 1791 the annual national expenses, compared with the population, were little more than $1 per capita, and in 1860 but $2 per capita; while in 1869 they will reach the extravagant sum of $9 78 per capita.

It will be observed that all of these statements refer to and exhibit the disbursements of peace periods. It may, therefore, be of interest to compare the expenditures of the three war periods-the war with Great Britain, the Mexican war, and the war of the rebellion.

ployed in the execution of laws both unnecessary and unconstitutional; $150,000,000 are required each year to pay the interest on the public debt; an army of tax-gatherers impoverishes the nation; and public agents, placed by Congress beyond the control of the Executive, divert from their legitimate purposes large sums of money which they collect from the people in the name of the Government. Judicious legislation and prudent economy can alone remedy defects and avert evils which, if suffered to exist, cannot fail to diminish confidence in the public councils, and weaken the attachment and respect of the people toward their political institutions. Without proper care the small balance which it is In 1814 the annual expenses incident to the estimated will remain in the Treasury at the war of 1812 reached their highest amount-close of the present fiscal year will not be realabout thirty-one millions; while our populationized, and additional millions be added to a debt slightly exceeded eight millions, showing an which is now enumerated by billions. expenditure of only $3 80 per capita. In 1847 It is shown by the able and comprehensive the expenditures growing out of the war with report of the Secretary of the Treasury that the Mexico reached $55,000,000, and the population receipts for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1868, about twenty-one millions, giving only $2 60 were $405,638,083, and that the expenditures for per capita for the war expenses of that year. In the same period were $377,340,284, leaving in 1865 the expenditures called for by the rebellion the Treasury a surplus of $28,297,793. It is estireached the vast amount of $1,290,000,000, mated that the receipts during the present fiscal which, compared with a population of thirty-year ending June 30, 1869, will be $341,392,868, four millions, gives $38 20 per capita.

From the 4th day of March, 1789, to the 30th of June, 1861, the entire expenditures of the Government were $1,700,000,000. During that period we were engaged in wars with Great Britain and Mexico, and were involved in hostilities with powerful Indian tribes; Louisiana was| purchased from France at a cost of $15,000,000; Florida was ceded to us by Spain for $5,000,000; California was acquired from Mexico for $15,000,000; and the Territory of New Mexico was obtained from Texas for the sum of $10,000,000. Early in 1861 the war of the rebellion commenced; and from the 1st of July of that year to the 30th of June, 1865, the public expenditures reached the enormous aggregate of $3,300,000,000. Three years of peace have intervened, and during that time the disbursements of the Government have successively been $520,000,000, $346,000,000, and $393,000,000. Adding to these amounts

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and the expenditures $336,152,470, showing a small balance of $5,240,398 in favor of the Government. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1870, it is estimated that the receipts will amount to $327,000,000, and the expenditures to $303,000,000, leaving an estimated surplus of $24,000,000.

It becomes proper, in this connection, to make a brief reference to our public indebtedness, which has accumulated with such alarming rapidity and assumed such colossal proportions.

In 1789, when the Government commenced operations under the Federal Constitution, it was burdened with an indebtedness of $75,000,000 created during the war of the Revolution. This amount had been reduced to $45,000,000 when, in 1812, war was declared against Great Britain. The three years' struggle that followed largely increased the national obligations, and in 1816 they had attained the sum of $127,000,000. Wise

and merely exchanged slave-owners for new taskmasters in the shape of bond-holders and taxgatherers. Besides, permanent debts pertain to monarchical governments, and tending to monopolies, perpetuities, and class legislation, are totally irreconcilable with free institutions. Introduced into our republican system, they would gradually but surely sap its foundations, eventually subvert our governmental fabric, and erect upon its ruins a moneyed aristocracy. It is our sacred duty to transmit unimpaired to our posterity the blessings of liberty which were bequeathed to us by the founders of the Republic, and by our example teach those who are to follow us carefully to avoid the dangers which threaten a free and independent people.

and economical legislation, however, enabled | have suffered themselves to become enslaved, the Government to pay the entire amount within a period of twenty years, and the extinguishment of the national debt filled the land with rejoicing, and was one of the great events of President Jackson's administration. After its redemption a large fund remained in the Treasury, which was deposited for safe-keeping with the several States, on condition that it should be returned when required by the public wants. In 1849-the year after the termination of an expensive war with Mexico-we found ourselves involved in a debt of $64,000,000; and this was the amount owed by the Government in 1860, just prior to the outbreak of the rebellion. In the spring of 1861 our civil war commenced. Each year of its continuance made an enormous addition to the debt; and when, in the spring of 1865, the nation successfully emerged from the conflict, the obligations of the Government had reached the immense sum of $2,873,992,909. The Secretary of the Treasury shows that on the 1st day of November, 1867, this amount had been reduced to $2,491,504,450; but at the same time his report exhibits an increase during the past year of $35,625,102; for the debt on the 1st day of November last is stated to have been $2,527,129,552. It is estimated by the Secretary that the returns for the past month will add to our liabilities the further sum of $11,000,000-making a total increase during thirteen months of $46,500,000.

In my message to Congress of December 4, 1865, it was suggested that a policy should be devised, which, without being oppressive to the people, would at once begin to effect a reduction of the debt, and if persisted in discharge it fully within a definite number of years. The Secretary of the Treasury forcibly recommends legislation of this character, and justly urges that the longer it is deferred the more difficult must become its accomplishment. We should follow the wise precedents established in 1789 and 1816, and without further delay make provision for the payment of our obligations at as early a period as may be practicable. The fruits of their labor should be enjoyed by our citizens, rather than used to build up and sustain moneyed monopolies in our own and other lands. Our foreign. debt is already computed by the Secretary of the Treasury at $850,000,000; citizens of foreign countries receive interest upon a large portion of our securities, and American tax-payers are made to contribute large sums for their support. The idea that such a debt is to become permanent should be at all times discarded, as involving taxation too heavy to be borne and payment once in every sixteen years at the present rate of interest of an amount equal to the original sum. This vast debt, This vast debt, if permitted to become permanent and increasing, must eventually be gathered into the hands of a few, and enable them to exert a dangerous and controlling power in the affairs of the Government. The borrowers would become servants to the lenders -the lenders the masters of the people. We now pride ourselves upon having given freedom to four millions of the colored race; it will then be our shame that forty million people, by their own toleration of usurpation and profligacy,

Various plans have been proposed for the payment of the public debt. However they may have varied as to the time and mode in which it should be redeemed, there seems to be a general concurrence as to the propriety and justness of a reduction in the present rate of interest. The Secretary of the Treasury, in his report, recommends five per cent.; Congress, in a bill passed prior to adjournment, on the 27th of July last, agreed upon four and four and a half per cent.; while by many three per cent. has been held to be an amply sufficient return for the investment. The general impression as to the exorbitancy of the existing rate of interest has led to an inquiry in the public mind respecting the consideration which the Government has actually received for its bonds, and the conclusion is becoming prevalent that the amount which it obtained was in real money three or four hundred per cent. less than the obligations which it issued in return. It cannot be denied that we are paying an extravagant percentage for the use of the money borrowed, which was paper currency, greatly depreciated below the value of coin. This fact is made apparent, when we consider that bondholders receive from the Treasury, upon each dollar they own in Government securities, six per cent. in gold, which is nearly or quite equal to nine per cent. in currency; that the bonds are then converted into capital for the national banks, upon which those institutions issue their circulation, bearing six per cent. interest; and that they are exempt from taxation by the Government and the States, and thereby enhanced two per cent. in the hands of the holders have thus an aggregate of seventeen per cent. which may be received upon each dollar by the owners of Government securities.

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A system that produces such results is justly regarded as favoring a few at the expense of the many, and has led to the further inquiry, whether our bondholders, in view of the large profits which they have enjoyed, would themselves be averse to a settlement of our indebtedness upon a plan which would yield them a fair remuneration, and at the same time be just to the tax-payers of the nation. Our national credit should be sacredly observed; but in making provision for our creditors we should not forget what is due to the masses of the people. It may be assumed that the holders of our securities have already received upon their bonds a larger amount than their original investment,

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