ld be given
in an effective way. I therefore commend to your favorable consideration
the two bills proposed by the committee and referred to in this message.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 25, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In reply to a Senate resolution of the 24th instant, requesting to
be furnished with a report, written by Captain Selfridge, upon the
resources and condition of things in the Dominican Republic, I have
to state that no such report has been received.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _March 25, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 15th ultimo, I transmit
a report, with accompanying paper,[17] from the Secretary of the Navy,
to whom the resolution was referred.

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 17: Statement of the number and character of the ironclad
vessels of the Navy, their cost, by whom designed, who recommended their
construction, and their condition.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 29, 1870_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

In reply to your resolution of December 20, 1869, asking "whether any
citizens of the United States are imprisoned or detained in military
custody by officers of the Army of the United States, and, if any, to
furnish their names, date of arrest, the offenses charged, together
with a statement of what measures have been taken for the trial and
punishment of the offenders," I transmit herewith the report of the
Secretary of War, to whom the resolution was referred.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 30, 1870_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

It is unusual to notify the two Houses of Congress by message of
the promulgation, by proclamation of the Secretary of State, of the
ratification of a constitutional amendment. In view, however, of the
vast importance of the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution, this day
declared a part of that revered instrument, I deem a departure from the
usual custom justifiable. A measure which makes at once 4,000,000 people
voters who were heretofore declared by the highest tribunal in the land
not citizens of the United States, nor eligible to become so (with the
assertion that "at the time of the Declaration of Independence the
opinion was fixed and universal in the civilized portion of the white
race, regarded as an axiom in morals as well as in politics, that black
men had no rights which the white man was bound to resp