disturbed and revolutionary condition. It is my settled conviction, that without such a power we do not afford that protection to those engaged in the commerce of the country which they have a right to demand.

I again recommend to Congress the passage of a law, in pursuance of the provisions of the Constitution, appointing a day certain previous to the 4th March in each year of an odd number, for the election of representatives throughout all the States. A similar power has already been exercised, with general approbation, in the appointment of the same day throughout the Union for holding the election of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States. My attention was earnestly directed to this subject from the fact that the Thirty-fifth Congress terminated on the 3d March, 1859, without making the necessary appropriation for the service of the Post Office Department. I was then forced to consider the best remedy for this omission, and an immediate call of the present Congress was the natural resort. Upon inquiry, however, I ascertained that fifteen out of the thirtythree States composing the Confederacy were without representatives, and that consequently these fifteen States would be disfranchised by such a call. These fifteen States will be in the same condition on the 4th March next. Ten of them cannot elect representatives, according to existing State laws, until different periods, extending from the beginning of August next until the months of October and November. In my last message I gave warning that in a time of sudden and alarming danger the salvation of our institutions might depend upon the power of the President immediately to assemble a full Congress to meet the emergency.

It is now quite evident that the financial necessities of the government will require a modification of the tariff during your present session for the purpose of increasing the revenue. In this aspect, I desire to reiterate the recommendation contained in my last two annual messages in favor of imposing specific, instead of ad valorem, duties on all imported articles to which these can be properly applied. From long observation and experience, I am convinced that specific duties are necessary, both to protect the revenue and to secure to our manufacturing interests that amount of incidental encouragement which unavoidably results from a revenue tariff.

As an abstract proposition, it may be admitted that ad valorem duties would in theory be the most just and equal. But if the experience of this and of all other commercial nations has demonstrated that such duties cannot be assessed and collected without great frauds upon the revenue, then it is the part of wisdom to resort to specific duties. Indeed, from the very nature of an ad valorem duty, this must be the result. Under it the inevitable consequence is, that foreign goods will be entered at less than their true value. The Treasury will, therefore, lose the duty on the difference between their real and fictitious value, and to this extent we are defrauded.

The temptations which ad valorem duties present to a dishonest importer are irresistible. His object is to pass his goods through the custom-house at the very lowest valuation necessary to save them from confiscation. In this he too often succeeds, in spite of the vigilance

of the revenue officers. Hence the resort to false invoices, one for the purchaser and another for the custom-house, and to other expedients to defraud the government. The honest importer produces his invoice to the collector, stating the actual price at which he purchased the articles abroad. Not so the dishonest importer, and the agent of the foreign manufacturer. And here it may be observed that a very large proportion of the manufactures imported from abroad are consigned for sale to commission merchants, who are mere agents employed by the manufacturers. In such cases no actual sale has been made to fix their value. The foreign manufacturer, if he be dishonest, prepares an invoice of the goods, not at their actual value, but at the very lowest rate necessary to escape detection. In this manner the dishonest importer and the foreign manufacturer enjoy a decided advantage over the honest merchant. They are thus enabled to undersell the fair trader, and drive him from the market. In fact, the operation of this system has already driven from the pursuits of honorable commerce many of that class of regular and conscientious merchants whose character throughout the world is the pride of our country.

The remedy for these evils is to be found in specific duties, so far as this may be practicable. They dispense with any inquiry at the custom-house into the actual cost or value of the article, and it pays the precise amount of duty previously fixed by law. They present no temptations to the appraisers of foreign goods, who receive but small salaries, and might, by undervaluation in a few cases, render themselves independent.

Besides, specific duties best conform to the requisition in the Constitution, that "no preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over those of another." Under our ad valorem system such preferences are to some extent inevitable, and complaints have often been made that the spirit of this provision has been violated by a lower appraisement of the same articles at one port than at another.

An impression strangely enough prevails, to some extent, that specific duties are necessarily protective duties. Nothing can be more fallacious. Great Britain glories in free trade, and yet her whole revenue from imports is at the present moment collected under a system of specific duties. It is a striking fact in this connection, that in the commercial treaty of January 23, 1860, between France and England, one of the articles provides that the ad valorem duties which it imposes shall be converted into specific duties within six months from its date, and these are to be ascertained by making an average of the prices for six months previous to that time. The reverse of the propositions would be nearer to the truth, because a much larger amount of revenue would be collected by merely converting the ad valorem duties of a tariff into equivalent specific duties. To this extent the revenue would be increased, and in the same proportion the specific duty might be diminished.

Specific duties would secure to the American manufacturer the incidental protection to which he is fairly entitled under a revenue tariff, and to this surely no person would object. The framers of the existing tariff have gone further, and in a liberal spirit have discriminated

in favor of large and useful branches of our manufactures, not by raising the rate of duty upon the importation of similar articles from abroad, but, what is the same in effect, by admitting articles free of duty which enter into the composition of their fabrics.

Under the present system, it has been often truly remarked that this incidental protection decreases when the manufacturer needs it most and increases when he needs it least, and constitutes a sliding scale which always operates against him. The revenues of the country are subject to similar fluctuations. Instead of approaching a steady standard, as would be the case under a system of specific duties, they sink and rise with the sinking and rising prices of articles in foreign countries. It would not be difficult for Congress to arrange a system of specific duties which would afford additional stability both to our revenue and our manufactures, and without injury or injustice to any interest of the country. This might be accomplished by ascertaining the average value of any given article for a series of years at the place of exportation, and by simply converting the rate of ad valorem duty upon it, which might be deemed necessary for revenue purposes, into the form of a specific duty. Such an arrangement could not injure the consumer. If he should pay a greater amount of duty one year, this would be counterbalanced by a lesser amount the next, and in the end the aggregate would be the same.

I desire to call your immediate attention to the present condition of the Treasury, so ably and clearly presented by the Secretary, in his report to Congress; and to recommend that measures be promptly adopted, to enable it to discharge its pressing obligations. The other recommendations of the report are well worthy of your favorable consideration.

I herewith transmit to Congress the reports of the Secretaries of War, of the Navy, of the Interior, and of the Postmaster General. The recommendations and suggestion which they contain are highly valuable, and deserve your careful attention.

The report of the Postmaster General details the circumstances under which Cornelius Vanderbilt, on my request, agreed, in the month of July last, to carry the ocean mails between our Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Had he not thus acted, this important intercommunication must have been suspended, at least for a season. The Postmaster General had no power to make him any other compensation than the postages on the mail matter, which he might carry. It was known at the time that these postages would fall far short of an adequate compensation, as well as of the sum which the same service had previously cost the government. Mr. Vanderbilt, in a commendable spirit, was willing to rely upon the justice of Congress to make up the deficiency; and I, therefore, recommend that an appropriation may be granted for this purpose.

I should do great injustice to the Attorney General, were I to omit the mention of his distinguished services in the measures adopted and prosecuted by him for the defense of the government against numerous and unfounded claims to land in California, purporting to have been made by the Mexican government previous to the treaty of cession. The successful opposition to these claims has saved the United States

public property, worth many millions of dollars, and to individuals holding title under them to at least an equal amount.

It has been represented to me, from sources which I deem reliable, that the inhabitants in several portions of Kansas have been reduced nearly to a state of starvation, on account of the almost total failure of their crops, whilst the harvests in every other portion of the country have been abundant. The prospect before them for the approaching winter is well calculated to enlist the sympathies of every heart. The destitution appears to be so general that it cannot be relieved by private contributions, and they are in such indigent circumstances as to be unable to purchase the necessaries of life for themselves. I refer the subject to Congress. If any constitutional measure for their relief can devised, I would recommend its adoption.

I cordially commend to your favorable regard the interests of the people of this District. They are eminently entitled to your consideration, especially since, unlike the people of the States, they can appeal to no government except that of the Union.

WASHINGTON CITY, December 3, 1860.

The message was read.

JAMES BUCHANAN.

On motion by Mr. Clingman, that the usual number of the message and the accompanying documents be printed,

After debate,

On the question to agree to the motion,

It was determined in the affirmative; and
On motion by Mr. Hale,

The Senate adjourned.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1860.

The honorable George E. Pugh, from the State of Ohio, and the honorable John Slidell, from the State of Louisiana, attended.

The Vice-President laid before the Senate the annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the state of the finances; which was read.

On motion by Mr. Hale,

Ordered, That it lie on the table and be printed.

Mr. Hale submitted the following motion for consideration: Ordered, That the same number of the eleventh volume of the Pacific railroad report, containing the maps and charts of the surveys for a road from the Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean, as of the preceding volumes, be published for the use of the Senate.

Mr. Green submitted the following resolution for consideration: Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to inquire into the propriety of providing by law for establishing an armed police force at all necessary points along the line separating the slaveholding from the non-slaveholding States, for the purpose of maintaining the general peace between the States, of preventing the invasion of States by citizens of another, and also for the efficient execution of the fugitive slave laws.

Mr. Latham presented the credentials of the honorable Edward D. Baker, elected a senator by the legislature of the State of Oregon for the term of six years, commencing on the fourth of March, eighteen hundred and fifty-nine.

The credentials were read; and the oath prescribed by law was administered to Mr. Baker, and he took his seat in the Senate.

A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. Forney, its Clerk.

Mr. President: The House of Representatives has passed a bill (H. R. 24) to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain, in which it requests the concurrence of the Senate.

The House of Representatives having ordered the printing of the annual message of the President of the United States, with the accompanying documents, I am directed to notify the Senate thereof.

The Vice-President laid before the Senate a report of the Secretary of State, communicating, in obedience to law, the annual statement of the contingent expenses of that department; which was read. Ordered, That it lie on the table.

A motion was made by Mr. Hale to reconsider the vote ordering the printing of the usual number of the annual message of the President of the United States; and

After debate,

Mr. Hale having withdrawn his motion,

On motion by Mr. Hamlin,

The Senate adjourned.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1860.

The honorable Judah P. Benjamin, from the State of Louisiana, attended.

Mr. Latham presented a report of a committee of the Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco, California, in favor of the transmission of the entire mail between the eastern States and California daily through the territory of the United States.

Ordered, That it lie on the table.

On motion by Mr. Hale,

Ordered, That when the Senate adjourn, it be to Monday next. Mr. Powell submitted the following resolution for consideration: Resolved, That so much of the President's message as relates to the present agitated and distracted condition of the country, and the grievances between the slaveholding and the non-slaveholding States, be referred to a special committee of thirteen members; and that said committee be instructed to inquire whether any additional legislation, within the sphere of federal authority and duty, be necessary for the protection and security of property in the States and Territories of the United States; and if so, that they report by bill. And that said committee be also instructed to consider and report upon the expediency of proposing such an amendment or amendments to the Constitution of