of
aliens upon the Government of the United States within a reasonable
limitation, and of such as may hereafter arise. While by existing
provisions of law the Court of Claims may in certain cases be resorted
to by an alien claimant, the absence of any general provisions governing
all such cases and the want of a tribunal skilled in the disposition of
such cases upon recognized fixed and settled principles, either provides
no remedy in many deserving cases or compels a consideration of such
claims by Congress or the executive department of the Government.

It is believed that other governments are in advance of the United
States upon this question, and that the practice now adopted is entirely
unsatisfactory.

Congress, by an act approved the 3d day of March, 1875, authorized the
inhabitants of the Territory of Colorado to form a State government,
with the name of the State of Colorado, and therein provided for the
admission of said State, when formed, into the Union upon an equal
footing with the original States.

A constitution having been adopted and ratified by the people of that
State, and the acting governor having certified to me the facts as
provided by said act, together with a copy of such constitution and
ordinances as provided for in the said act, and the provisions of
the said act of Congress having been duly complied with, I issued
a proclamation[117] upon the 1st of August, 1876, a copy of which is
hereto annexed.

The report of the Secretary of War shows that the Army has been actively
employed during the year in subduing, at the request of the Indian
Bureau, certain wild bands of the Sioux Indian Nation and in preserving
the peace at the South during the election. The commission constituted
under the act of July 24, 1876, to consider and report on the "whole
subject of the reform and reorganization of the Army" met in August
last, and has collected a large mass of statistics and opinions bearing
on the subject before it. These are now under consideration, and their
report is progressing. I am advised, though, by the president of the
commission that it will be impracticable to comply with the clause of
the act requiring the report to be presented, through me, to Congress
on the first day of this session, as there has not yet been time for
that mature deliberation which the importance of the subject demands.
Therefore I ask that the time of making the report be extended to the
29th day of January, 187