Another question, wholly independent of protection, presents itself, and that is, whether the duties levied should be upon the value of the article at the place of shipment, or, where it is practicable, a specific duty, graduated according to quantity, as ascertained by weight or measure.  All our duties are at present ad valorem.  A certain percentage is levied on the price of the goods at the port of shipment in a foreign country.  Most commercial nations have found it indispensable, for the purpose of preventing fraud and perjury, to make the duties specific whenever the article is of such a uniform value in weight or measure as to justify such a duty.  Legislation should never encourage dishonesty or crime.  It is impossible that the revenue officers at the port where the goods are entered and the duties paid should know with certainty what they cost in the foreign country.  Yet the law requires that they should levy the duty according to such cost.  They are therefore compelled to resort to very unsatisfactory evidence to ascertain what that cost was.  They take the invoice of the importer, attested by his oath, as the best evidence of which the nature of the case admits.  But everyone must see that the invoice may be fabricated and the oath by which it is supported false, by reason of which the dishonest importer pays a part only of the duties which are paid by the honest one, and thus indirectly receives from the Treasury of the United States a reward for his fraud and perjury.  The reports of the Secretary of the Treasury heretofore made on this subject show conclusively that these frauds have been practiced to a great extent.  The tendency is to destroy that high moral character for which our merchants have long been distinguished, to defraud the Government of its revenue, to break down the honest importer by a dishonest competition, and, finally, to transfer the business of importation to foreign and irresponsible agents, to the great detriment of our own citizens.  I therefore again most earnestly recommend the adoption of specific duties wherever it is practicable, or a home valuation, to prevent these frauds.

I would also again call your attention to the fact that the present tariff in some cases imposes a higher duty upon the raw material imported than upon the article manufactured from it, the consequence of which is that the duty operates to the encouragement of the foreigner and the discouragement of our own citizens.

For full and detailed information in regard to the general condition of our Indian affairs, I respectfully refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Interior and the accompanying documents.

The Senate not having thought proper to ratify the treaties which have been negotiated with the tribes of Indians in California and Oregon, our relations with them have been left in a very unsatisfactory condition.

In other parts of our territory particular districts of country have been set apart for the exclusive occupation of the Indians, and their right to the lands within those limits has been acknowledged and respected.  But in California and Oregon there has been no recognition by the Government of the exclusive right of the Indians to any part of the country.  They are therefore mere tenants at sufferance, and liable to be driven from place to place at the pleasure of the whites.