dation of the public. It is one of the most important duties
of the General Government to provide and maintain for the use of the
people of the States the best practicable mail establishment. To arrive
at that end it is indispensable that the Post-Office Department shall
be enabled to control the hours at which the mails shall be carried
over railroads, as it now does over all other roads. Should serious
inconveniences arise from the inadequacy of the compensation now
provided by law, or from unreasonable demands by any of the railroad
companies, the subject is of such general importance as to require
the prompt attention of Congress.

In relation to steamboat lines, the most efficient remedy is obvious
and has been suggested by the Postmaster-General. The War and Navy
Departments already employ steamboats in their service; and although
it is by no means desirable that the Government should undertake the
transportation of passengers or freight as a business, there can be no
reasonable objection to running boats, temporarily, whenever it may be
necessary to put down attempts at extortion, to be discontinued as soon
as reasonable contracts can be obtained.

The suggestions of the Postmaster-General relative to the inadequacy
of the legal allowance to witnesses in cases of prosecutions for mail
depredations merit your serious consideration. The safety of the mails
requires that such prosecutions shall be efficient, and justice to the
citizen whose time is required to be given to the public demands not
only that his expenses shall be paid, but that he shall receive a
reasonable compensation.

The reports from the War, Navy, and Post-Office Departments will
accompany this communication, and one from the Treasury Department
will be presented to Congress in a few days.

For various details in respect to the matters in charge of these
Departments I would refer you to those important documents, satisfied
that you will find in them many valuable suggestions which will be found
well deserving the attention of the Legislature.

From a report made in December of last year by the Secretary of State
to the Senate, showing the trial docket of each of the circuit courts
and the number of miles each judge has to travel in the performance of
his duties, a great inequality appears in the amount of labor assigned
to each judge. The number of terms to be held in each of the courts
composing the ninth circuit, the distances between the p