The act to provide for the resumption of specie payments authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to issue bonds of either of the descriptions named in the act of Congress approved July 14, 1870, entitled “An act to authorize the refunding of the national debt,” for not less than par in gold.  With the present value of the 4-1/2 per cent bonds in the markets of the world, they could be exchanged at par for gold, thus strengthening the Treasury to meet final resumption and to keep the excess of coin over demand, pending its permanent use as a circulating medium, at home.  All that would be further required would be to reduce the volume of legal-tender notes in circulation.  To accomplish this I would suggest an act authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to issue 4 per cent bonds, with forty years to run before maturity, to be exchanged for legal-tender notes whenever presented in sums of $50 or any multiple thereof, the whole amount of such bonds, however, not to exceed $150,000,000.  To increase the home demand for such bonds I would recommend that they be available for deposit in the United States Treasury for banking purposes under the various provisions of law relating to national banks.

I would suggest further that national banks be required to retain a certain percentage of the coin interest received by them from the bonds deposited with the Treasury to secure their circulation.

I would also recommend the repeal of the third section of the joint resolution “for the issue of silver coin,” approved July 22, 1876, limiting the subsidiary coin and fractional currency to $50,000,000.

I am satisfied that if Congress will enact some such law as will accomplish the end suggested they will give a relief to the country instant in its effects, and for which they will receive the gratitude of the whole people.

U.S.  GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 9, 1877.

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

The accompanying memorial is transmitted to Congress at the request of a committee, composed of many distinguished citizens of New York, recently appointed to cooperate with a generous body of French citizens who design to erect in the harbor of New York a colossal statue of “Liberty Enlightening the World.”  Very little is asked of us to do, and I hope that the wishes of the memorialists may receive your very favorable consideration.

U.S.  GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 9, 1877.

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

I transmit herewith the catalogues and report of the board on behalf of the Executive Departments at the International Exhibition of 1876, with their accompanying illustrations.

The labors performed by the members of the board, as evinced by the voluminous mass of information found in the various papers from the officers charged with their preparation, have been in the highest degree commendable, and believing that the publication of these papers will form an interesting memorial of the greatest of international exhibitions and of the centennial anniversary of the independence of our country, I recommend that they be printed in a suitable form for distribution and preservation.