t and competency shall be
recognized instead of party subserviency or the surrender of honest
political belief.

In the administration of a government pledged to do equal and exact
justice to all men there should be no pretext for anxiety touching the
protection of the freedmen in their rights or their security in the
enjoyment of their privileges under the Constitution and its amendments.
All discussion as to their fitness for the place accorded to them as
American citizens is idle and unprofitable except as it suggests the
necessity for their improvement. The fact that they are citizens
entitles them to all the rights due to that relation and charges them
with all its duties, obligations, and responsibilities.

These topics and the constant and ever-varying wants of an active
and enterprising population may well receive the attention and the
patriotic endeavor of all who make and execute the Federal law.
Our duties are practical and call for industrious application, an
intelligent perception of the claims of public office, and, above all,
a firm determination, by united action, to secure to all the people
of the land the full benefits of the best form of government ever
vouchsafed to man. And let us not trust to human effort alone, but humbly
acknowledging the power and goodness of Almighty God, who presides over
the destiny of nations, and who has at all times been revealed in our
country's history, let us invoke His aid and His blessing upon our
labors.

MARCH 4, 1885.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 13, 1885_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

For the purpose of their reexamination I withdraw certain treaties and
conventions now pending in the Senate which were communicated to that
body by my predecessor in office, and I therefore request the return
to me of the commercial convention between the United States and the
Dominican Republic which was transmitted to the Senate December 9, 1884;
of the commercial treaty between the United States and Spain which
was transmitted to the Senate December 10, 1884, together with the
supplementary articles thereto of March 2, 1885; and of the treaty
between the United States and Nicaragua for the construction of an
interoceanic canal which was transmitted to the Senate December 10,
1884.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, April 2, 1885_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

For the purpose of its reconsideration