ied.

As before stated, specific duties would, in my opinion, afford the
most perfect remedy for this evil; but if you should not concur in
this view, then, as a partial remedy, I beg leave respectfully to
recommend that instead of taking the invoice of the article abroad
as a means of determining its value here, the correctness of which
invoice it is in many cases impossible to verify, the law be so
changed as to require a home valuation or appraisal, to be regulated
in such manner as to give, as far as practicable, uniformity in the
several ports.

There being no mint in California, I am informed that the laborers
in the mines are compelled to dispose of their gold dust at a large
discount. This appears to me to be a heavy and unjust tax upon the
labor of those employed in extracting this precious metal, and I doubt
not you will be disposed at the earliest period possible to relieve
them from it by the establishment of a mint. In the meantime, as an
assayer's office is established there, I would respectfully submit for
your consideration the propriety of authorizing gold bullion which has
been assayed and stamped to be received in payment of Government dues.
I can not conceive that the Treasury would suffer any loss by such
a provision, which will at once raise bullion to its par value, and
thereby save (if I am rightly informed) many millions of dollars to
the laborers which are now paid in brokerage to convert this precious
metal into available funds. This discount upon their hard earnings is
a heavy tax, and every effort should be made by the Government to
relieve them from so great a burden.

More than three-fourths of our population are engaged in the
cultivation of the soil. The commercial, manufacturing, and navigating
interests are all to a great extent dependent on the agricultural.
It is therefore the most important interest of the nation, and has
a just claim to the fostering care and protection of the Government
so far as they can be extended consistently with the provisions of
the Constitution. As this can not be done by the ordinary modes of
legislation, I respectfully recommend the establishment of an
agricultural bureau, to be charged with the duty of giving to this
leading branch of American industry the encouragement which it so well
deserves. In view of the immense mineral resources of our country,
provision should also be made for the employment of a competent
mineralogist and chemist, who shou