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.

WASHINGTON, April 11, 1871.

To the House of Representatives:

I transmit to the House of Representatives, in answer to their resolution of March 31, 1871, a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying documents.[45]

U.S.  GRANT.

[Footnote 45:  Dispatches from the United States minister at Florence relative to the occupation of Rome by the King of Italy.]

[The following messages were sent to the special session of the Senate convened by proclamation (see pp. 133-134) of April 20, 1871.]