The bringing of great masses of thoughtful and free people under a single government must tend to make governments what alone they should be—­the representatives of the will and the organization of the power of the people.

The adoption in Europe of the American system of union under the control and direction of a free people, educated to self-restraint, can not fail to extend popular institutions and to enlarge the peaceful influence of American ideas.

The relations of the United States with Germany are intimate and cordial.  The commercial intercourse between the two countries is extensive and is increasing from year to year; and the large number of citizens and residents in the United States of German extraction and the continued flow of emigration thence to this country have produced an intimacy of personal and political intercourse approaching, if not equal to, that with the country from which the founders of our Government derived their origin.

The extent of these interests and the greatness of the German Union seem to require that in the classification of the representatives of this Government to foreign powers there should no longer be an apparent undervaluation of the importance of the German mission, such as is made in the difference between the compensation allowed by law to the minister to Germany and those to Great Britain and France.  There would seem to be a great propriety in placing the representative of this Government at Berlin on the same footing with that of its representatives at London and Paris.  The union of the several States of Germany under one Government and the increasing commercial and personal intercourse between the two countries will also add to the labors and the responsibilities of the legation.

I therefore recommend that the salaries of the minister and of the secretary of legation at Berlin be respectively increased to the same amounts as are allowed to those at London and Paris.

U.S.  GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 7, 1871.

To the Senate of the United States:

In answer to that part of your resolution of the 4th of January last requesting copies of “instructions to the commander of our naval squadron in the waters of the island [of San Domingo] since the commencement of the late negotiations, with the reports and correspondence of such commander,” I herewith transmit a report, with accompanying papers, received from the Secretary of the Navy.

U.S.  GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 8, 1871.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith an extract of a paper addressed to the President, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs by the committee of Friends on Indian affairs having charge of the northern superintendency, in relation to a desire of certain Indian tribes to sell a portion of the lands owned by them, with a view of locating on other lands that they may be able to purchase, together with the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs thereon and a letter of the Secretary of the Interior Department approving the report of the Commissioner.