try and of San Domingo alike invite
the annexation of that Republic.

In view of the difference of opinion upon this subject, I suggest that
no action be taken at the present session beyond the printing and
general dissemination of the report. Before the next session of Congress
the people will have considered the subject and formed an intelligent
opinion concerning it, to which opinion, deliberately made up, it will
be the duty of every department of the Government to give heed; and no
one will more cheerfully conform to it than myself. It is not only the
theory of our Constitution that the will of the people, constitutionally
expressed, is the supreme law, but I have ever believed that "all men
are wiser than any one man;" and if the people, upon a full presentation
of the facts, shall decide that the annexation of the Republic is not
desirable, every department of the Government ought to acquiesce in that
decision.

In again submitting to Congress a subject upon which public sentiment
has been divided, and which has been made the occasion of acrimonious
debates in Congress, as well as of unjust aspersions elsewhere, I may,
I trust, be indulged in a single remark.

No man could hope to perform duties so delicate and responsible as
pertain to the Presidential office without sometimes incurring the
hostility of those who deem their opinions and wishes treated with
insufficient consideration; and he who undertakes to conduct the affairs
of a great government as a faithful public servant, if sustained by the
approval of his own conscience, may rely with confidence upon the candor
and intelligence of a free people whose best interests he has striven to
subserve, and can bear with patience the censure of disappointed men.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _April 5, 1871_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I transmit confidentially, for the information and consideration of the
Senate, a copy of a dispatch of the 25th of February last relative to
the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands, addressed to the Department of
State by Henry A. Pierce, minister resident of the United States at
Honolulu. Although I do not deem it advisable to express any opinion or
to make any recommendation in regard to the subject at this juncture,
the views of the Senate, if it should be deemed proper to express them,
would be very acceptable with reference to any future course which there
might be a disposition to adopt.

U.S. GRANT.