The commissioners appointed, pursuant to the joint resolution of Congress of the 7th of May last, to inquire into depredations on the Texan frontier have diligently made investigations in that quarter.  Their report upon the subject will be communicated to you.  Their researches were necessarily incomplete, partly on account of the limited appropriation made by Congress.  Mexico, on the part of that Government, has appointed a similar commission to investigate these outrages.  It is not announced officially, but the press of that country states that the fullest investigation is desired, and that the cooperation of all parties concerned is invited to secure that end.  I therefore recommend that a special appropriation be made at the earliest day practicable, to enable the commissioners on the part of the United States to return to their labors without delay.

It is with regret that I have again to announce a continuance of the disturbed condition of the island of Cuba.  No advance toward the pacification of the discontented part of the population has been made.  While the insurrection has gained no advantages and exhibits no more of the elements of power or of the prospects of ultimate success than were exhibited a year ago, Spain, on the other hand, has not succeeded in its repression, and the parties stand apparently in the same relative attitude which they have occupied for a long time past.

This contest has lasted now for more than four years.  Were its scene at a distance from our neighborhood, we might be indifferent to its result, although humanity could not be unmoved by many of its incidents wherever they might occur.  It is, however, at our door.

I can not doubt that the continued maintenance of slavery in Cuba is among the strongest inducements to the continuance of this strife.  A terrible wrong is the natural cause of a terrible evil.  The abolition of slavery and the introduction of other reforms in the administration of government in Cuba could not fail to advance the restoration of peace and order.  It is greatly to be hoped that the present liberal Government of Spain will voluntarily adopt this view.

The law of emancipation, which was passed more than two years since, has remained unexecuted in the absence of regulations for its enforcement.  It was but a feeble step toward emancipation, but it was the recognition of right, and was hailed as such, and exhibited Spain in harmony with sentiments of humanity and of justice and in sympathy with the other powers of the Christian and civilized world.

Within the past few weeks the regulations for carrying out the law of emancipation have been announced, giving evidence of the sincerity of intention of the present Government to carry into effect the law of 1870.  I have not failed to urge the consideration of the wisdom, the policy, and the justice of a more effective system for the abolition of the great evil which oppresses a race and continues a bloody and destructive contest close to our border, as well as the expediency and the justice of conceding reforms of which the propriety is not questioned.