The people of St. Domingo have already, so far as their action can go, ratified the treaty, and I express the earnest wish that you will not permit it to expire by limitation.  I also entertain the sincere hope that your action may be favorable to the ratification of the treaty.

U.S.  GRANT.

WASHINGTON, March 15, 1870.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, in answer to a resolution of the Senate of the 3d instant, asking to be informed what States have ratified the amendment known as the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, so far as official notice thereof has been transmitted to the Department of State, and that information from time to time may be communicated to that body, as soon as practicable, of such ratification hereafter by any State.

U.S.  GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, D.C., March 23, 1870.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

In the Executive message of December 6, 1869, to Congress the importance of taking steps to revive our drooping merchant marine was urged, and a special message promised at a future day during the present session, recommending more specifically plans to accomplish this result.  Now that the committee of the House of Representatives intrusted with the labor of ascertaining “the cause of the decline of American commerce” has completed its work and submitted its report to the legislative branch of the Government, I deem this a fitting time to execute that promise.

The very able, calm, and exhaustive report of the committee points out the grave wrongs which have produced the decline in our commerce.  It is a national humiliation that we are now compelled to pay from twenty to thirty million dollars annually (exclusive of passage money, which we should share with vessels of other nations) to foreigners for doing the work which should be done by American vessels, American built, American owned, and American manned.  This is a direct drain upon the resources of the country of just so much money, equal to casting it into the sea, so far as this nation is concerned.

A nation of the vast and ever-increasing interior resources of the United States, extending, as it does, from one to the other of the great oceans of the world, with an industrious, intelligent, energetic population, must one day possess its full share of the commerce of these oceans, no matter what the cost.  Delay will only increase this cost and enhance the difficulty of attaining the result.

I therefore put in an earnest plea for early action in this matter, in a way to secure the desired increase of American commerce.  The advanced period of the year and the fact that no contracts for shipbuilding will probably be entered into until this question is settled by Congress, and the further fact that if there should be much delay all large vessels contracted for this year will fail of completion before winter sets in, and will therefore be carried over for another year, induces me to request your early consideration of this subject.