Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Ulysses S. Grant, vol. 6, p.3995

I would respectfully call your attention to the recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior for uniting the duties of supervising the education of freedmen with the other duties devolving upon the Commissioner of Education.

If it is the desire of Congress to make the census which must be taken during the year 1870 more complete and perfect than heretofore, I would suggest early action upon any plan that may be agreed upon.  As Congress at the last session appointed a committee to take into consideration such measures as might be deemed proper in reference to the census and report a plan, I desist from saying more.

I recommend to your favorable consideration the claims of the Agricultural Bureau for liberal appropriations.  In a country so diversified in climate and soil as ours, and with a population so largely dependent upon agriculture, the benefits that can be conferred by properly fostering this Bureau are incalculable.

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

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State of the Union Address
Ulysses S. Grant
December 5, 1870

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

A year of peace and general prosperity to this nation has passed since the last assembling of Congress.  We have, through a kind Providence, been blessed with abundant crops, and have been spared from complications and war with foreign nations.  In our midst comparative harmony has been restored.  It is to be regretted, however, that a free exercise of the elective franchise has by violence and intimidation been denied to citizens in exceptional cases in several of the States lately in rebellion, and the verdict of the people has thereby been reversed.  The States of Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas have been restored to representation in our national councils.  Georgia, the only State now