The report of the Commissioner of Agriculture gives the operations of his Department for the year.  As agriculture is the groundwork of our prosperity, too much importance can not be attached to the labors of this Department.  It is in the hands of an able head, with able assistants, all zealously devoted to introducing into the agricultural productions of the nation all useful products adapted to any of the various climates and soils of our vast territory, and to giving all useful information as to the method of cultivation, the plants, cereals, and other products adapted to particular localities.  Quietly but surely the Agricultural Bureau is working a great national good, and if liberally supported the more widely its influence will be extended and the less dependent we shall be upon the products of foreign countries.

The subject of compensation to the heads of bureaus and officials holding positions of responsibility, and requiring ability and character to fill properly, is one to which your attention is invited.  But few of the officials receive a compensation equal to the respectable support of a family, while their duties are such as to involve millions of interest.  In private life services demand compensation equal to the services rendered; a wise economy would dictate the same rule in the Government service.

I have not given the estimates for the support of Government for the ensuing year, nor the comparative statement between the expenditures for the year just passed and the one just preceding, because all these figures are contained in the accompanying reports or in those presented directly to Congress.  These estimates have my approval.

More than six years having elapsed since the last hostile gun was fired between the armies then arrayed against each other—­one for the perpetuation, the other for the destruction, of the Union—­it may well be considered whether it is not now time that the disabilities imposed by the fourteenth amendment should be removed.  That amendment does not exclude the ballot, but only imposes the disability to hold offices upon certain classes.  When the purity of the ballot is secure, majorities are sure to elect officers reflecting the views of the majority.  I do not see the advantage or propriety of excluding men from office merely because they were before the rebellion of standing and character sufficient to be elected to positions requiring them to take oaths to support the Constitution, and admitting to eligibility those entertaining precisely the same views, but of less standing in their communities.  It may be said that the former violated an oath, while the latter did not; the latter did not have it in their power to do so.  If they had taken this oath, it can not be doubted they would have broken it as did the former class.  If there are any great criminals, distinguished above all others for the part they took in opposition to the Government, they might, in the judgment of Congress, be excluded from such an amnesty.