I desire respectfully to call the attention of Congress to the inadequate salaries of a number of the most important offices of the Government.  In this message I will not enumerate them, but will specify only the justices of the Supreme Court.  No change has been made in their salaries for fifteen years.  Within that time the labors of the court have largely increased and the expenses of living have at least doubled.  During the same time Congress has twice found it necessary to increase largely the compensation of its own members, and the duty which it owes to another department of the Government deserves, and will undoubtedly receive, its due consideration.

There are many subjects not alluded to in this message which might with propriety be introduced, but I abstain, believing that your patriotism and statesmanship will suggest the topics and the legislation most conducive to the interests of the whole people.  On my part I promise a rigid adherence to the laws and their strict enforcement.

U.S.  GRANT.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

WASHINGTON, December 6, 1869.

To the Senate of the United States: 

I submit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, an additional article to the convention of the 24th of October, 1867, between the United States of America and His Majesty the King of Denmark.

U.S.  GRANT.

WASHINGTON, December 6, 1869

To the Senate of the United States: 

I submit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a convention between the United States and His Hawaiian Majesty, signed in this city on the 8th day of May last, providing for the extension of the term for the exchange of the ratifications of the convention for commercial reciprocity between the same parties, signed on the 21st day of May, 1867.

U.S.  GRANT.

WASHINGTON, December 6, 1869.

To the Senate of the United States: 

I submit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a protocol, signed in this city on the 23d of October last, to the convention upon the subject of claims between the United States and the Mexican Republic, signed the 4th of July, 1868.

U.S.  GRANT.

WASHINGTON, December 7, 1869.

To the Senate of the United States: 

I transmit, for the consideration of the Senate, the accompanying copy of a correspondence between the Secretary of State and the minister of the United States at Berlin, in relation to the exchange of the ratifications of the naturalization convention dated July 27, 1868, between the United States and the Government of Wurtemberg, which was not effected within the time named in the convention.

U.S.  GRANT.

WASHINGTON, December 7, 1869.