At the March term Congress by joint resolution authorized the Executive to order elections in the States of Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas, to submit to them the constitutions which each had previously, in convention, framed, and submit the constitutions, either entire or in separate parts, to be voted upon, at the discretion of the Executive.  Under this authority elections were called.  In Virginia the election took place on the 6th of July, 1869.  The governor and lieutenant-governor elected have been installed.  The legislature met and did all required by this resolution and by all the reconstruction acts of Congress, and abstained from all doubtful authority.  I recommend that her Senators and Representatives be promptly admitted to their seats, and that the State be fully restored to its place in the family of States.  Elections were called in Mississippi and Texas, to commence on the 30th of November, 1869, and to last two days in Mississippi and four days in Texas.  The elections have taken place, but the result is not known.  It is to be hoped that the acts of the legislatures of these States, when they meet, will be such as to receive your approval, and thus close the work of reconstruction.

Among the evils growing out of the rebellion, and not yet referred to, is that of an irredeemable currency.  It is an evil which I hope will receive your most earnest attention.  It is a duty, and one of the highest duties, of Government to secure to the citizen a medium of exchange of fixed, unvarying value.  This implies a return to a specie basis, and no substitute for it can be devised.  It should be commenced now and reached at the earliest practicable moment consistent with a fair regard to the interests of the debtor class.  Immediate resumption, if practicable, would not be desirable.  It would compel the debtor class to pay, beyond their contracts, the premium on gold at the date of their purchase and would bring bankruptcy and ruin to thousands.  Fluctuation, however, in the paper value of the measure of all values (gold) is detrimental to the interests of trade.  It makes the man of business an involuntary gambler, for in all sales where future payment is to be made both parties speculate as to what will be the value of the currency to be paid and received.  I earnestly recommend to you, then, such legislation as will insure a gradual return to specie payments and put an immediate stop to fluctuations in the value of currency.

The methods to secure the former of these results are as numerous as are the speculators on political economy.  To secure the latter I see but one way, and that is to authorize the Treasury to redeem its own paper, at a fixed price, whenever presented, and to withhold from circulation all currency so redeemed until sold again for gold.