ne 30, 1883,
amounted to $134,178,756.96, all of which was applied to the
reduction of the public debt. It was estimated that the surplus
revenue for the then fiscal year would be $85,000,000, and for the
next fiscal year $60,000,000. The President called the attention
of Congress to the revenue act of July, 1883, which had reduced
the receipts of the government fifty or sixty million dollars.
While he had no doubt that still further reductions might be wisely
made, he did not advise at that session a large diminution of the
national revenues. The whole tenor of the message was conservative
and hopeful.

During this session, upon representations made to me and after full
reflection, I felt compelled, by a sense of public duty, to institute
an inquiry into events connected with recent elections held in the
States of Virginia and Mississippi. I did so with extreme reluctance,
for I did not care to assume the labor of such an investigation.
On the 23rd of January, 1884, I introduced a preamble setting out
in detail the general charges made as to events currently reported
in the public press prior to the election in November, 1883, in
Danville, Virginia, and Copiah county, Mississippi, with the
following resolution:

"_Resolved_, That the committee on privileges and elections be,
and is hereby, instructed to inquire into all the circumstances of,
and connected with, the said alleged events, and into the condition
of the constitutional rights and securities before named of the
people of Virginia and Mississippi, and that it report, by bill or
otherwise, as soon as may be; and that it have the power to send
for persons and papers, and to sit during the sittings of the
Senate, and that it may employ a stenographer or stenographers."

On the 29th of January I called up the resolution, and made the
following remarks explaining why I introduced the resolution and
requested an investigation:

"Since the beginning of the present session, I have felt that the
recent events in the States of Virginia and Mississippi were of
such importance as to demand a full and impartial investigation of
the causes which led to them, of the real facts involved, and of
the proper constitutional remedy to prevent their recurrence, and,
if necessary, to further secure to all American citizens freedom
of speech in the open assertion of their political opinions and in
the peaceful exercise of their right to vote.

"Now that sufficient time ha