States:_

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 18th of January last,
relating to British light-house dues, I transmit herewith a report from
the Secretary of State and the documents which accompanied it.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _April 4, 1872_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 14th
of January last, I transmit herewith a report[61] of the Secretary of
State.

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 61: Stating that the report of Richard D. Cutts on the
marketable products of the sea was transmitted with the message of
President Johnson of February 17, 1869.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _April 19, 1872_.

_To the House of Representatives:_

In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 25th
of January last, I have the honor to submit the following, accompanied
by the report of the Attorney-General, to whom the resolution was
referred:

Representations having been made to me that in certain portions of South
Carolina a condition of lawlessness and terror existed, I requested the
then Attorney-General (Akerman) to visit that State, and after personal
examination to report to me the facts in relation to the subject.
On the 16th of October last he addressed me a communication from South
Carolina, in which he stated that in the counties of Spartanburg,
York, Chester, Union, Laurens, Newberry, Fairfield, Lancaster, and
Chesterfield there were combinations for the purpose of preventing the
free political action of citizens who were friendly to the Constitution
and the Government of the United States, and of depriving emancipated
classes of the equal protection of the laws.

"These combinations embrace at least two-thirds of the active white men
of those counties, and have the sympathy and countenance of a majority
of the one-third. They are connected with similar combinations in other
counties and States, and no doubt are part of a grand system of criminal
associations pervading most of the Southern States. The members are
bound to obedience and secrecy by oaths which they are taught to regard
as of higher obligation than the lawful oaths taken before civil
magistrates.

"They are organized and armed. They effect their objects by personal
violence, often extending to murder. They terrify witnesses; they
control juries in the State courts, and sometimes in the courts of
the United States. Systematic perjury is one of the mea