re is no branch of the public service which interests the whole
people more than that of cheap and rapid transmission of the mails to
every inhabited part of our territory. Next to the free school, the
post-office is the great educator of the people, and it may well receive
the support of the General Government.

The subsidy of $150,000 per annum given to vessels of the United States
for carrying the mails between New York and Rio de Janeiro having ceased
on the 30th day of September last, we are without direct mail facilities
with the South American States. This is greatly to be regretted, and
I do not hesitate to recommend the authorization of a renewal of that
contract, and also that the service may be increased from monthly to
semi-monthly trips. The commercial advantages to be gained by a direct
line of American steamers to the South American States will far outweigh
the expense of the service.

By act of Congress approved March 3, 1875, almost all matter, whether
properly mail matter or not, may be sent any distance through the mails,
in packages not exceeding 4 pounds in weight, for the sum of 16 cents
per pound. So far as the transmission of real mail matter goes, this
would seem entirely proper; but I suggest that the law be so amended as
to exclude from the mails merchandise of all descriptions, and limit
this transportation to articles enumerated, and which may be classed as
mail matter proper.

The discovery of gold in the Black Hills, a portion of the Sioux
Reservation, has had the effect to induce a large emigration of miners
to that point. Thus far the effort to protect the treaty rights of the
Indians to that section has been successful, but the next year will
certainly witness a large increase of such emigration. The negotiations
for the relinquishment of the gold fields having failed, it will be
necessary for Congress to adopt some measures to relieve the
embarrassment growing out of the causes named. The Secretary of the
Interior suggests that the supplies now appropriated for the sustenance
of that people, being no longer obligatory under the treaty of 1868, but
simply a gratuity, may be issued or withheld at his discretion.

The condition of the Indian Territory, to which I have referred in
several of my former annual messages, remains practically unchanged.
The Secretary of the Interior has taken measures to obtain a full report
of the condition of that Territory, and will make it the subject of