our treaty stipulations with Mexico to defend
her citizens against the Indians "with equal diligence and energy as our
own;" for determining the relative rank between the naval and civil
officers in our public ships and between the officers of the Army
and Navy in the various grades of each; for reorganizing the naval
establishment by fixing the number of officers in each grade, and
providing for a retired list upon reduced pay of those unfit for active
duty; for prescribing and regulating punishments in the Navy; for the
appointment of a commission to revise the public statutes of the United
States by arranging them in order, supplying deficiencies, correcting
incongruities, simplifying their language, and reporting them to
Congress for its final action; and for the establishment of a commission
to adjudicate and settle private claims against the United States. I am
not aware, however, that any of these subjects have been finally acted
upon by Congress. Without repeating the reasons for legislation on these
subjects which have been assigned in former messages, I respectfully
recommend them again to your favorable consideration.

I think it due to the several Executive Departments of this Government
to bear testimony to the efficiency and integrity with which they are
conducted. With all the careful superintendence which it is possible for
the heads of those Departments to exercise, still the due administration
and guardianship of the public money must very much depend on the
vigilance, intelligence, and fidelity of the subordinate officers and
clerks, and especially on those intrusted with the settlement and
adjustment of claims and accounts. I am gratified to believe that they
have generally performed their duties faithfully and well. They are
appointed to guard the approaches to the public Treasury, and they
occupy positions that expose them to all the temptations and seductions
which the cupidity of peculators and fraudulent claimants can prompt
them to employ. It will be but a wise precaution to protect the
Government against that source of mischief and corruption, as far as it
can be done, by the enactment of all proper legal penalties. The laws
in this respect are supposed to be defective, and I therefore deem it
my duty to call your attention to the subject and to recommend that
provision be made by law for the punishment not only of those who shall
accept bribes, but also of those who shall either promise, give,