of the country, the statistical and practical
evidences of our growth as a nation, and the uses of the mechanical arts
and the applications of applied science in the administration of the
affairs of Government.

Many nations have voluntarily contributed their exhibits to the United
States to increase the interest in any permanent exhibition Congress may
provide for. For this act of generosity they should receive the thanks
of the people, and I respectfully suggest that a resolution of Congress
to that effect be adopted.

The attention of Congress can not be too earnestly called to the
necessity of throwing some greater safeguard over the method of
choosing and declaring the election of a President. Under the present
system there seems to be no provided remedy for contesting the
election in any one State. The remedy is partially, no doubt, in the
enlightenment of electors. The compulsory support of the free school
and the disfranchisement of all who can not read and write the English
language, after a fixed probation, would meet my hearty approval. I
would not make this apply, however, to those already voters, but I would
to all becoming so after the expiration of the probation fixed upon.
Foreigners coming to this country to become citizens, who are educated
in their own language, should acquire the requisite knowledge of ours
during the necessary residence to obtain naturalization. If they did not
take interest enough in our language to acquire sufficient knowledge of
it to enable them to study the institutions and laws of the country
intelligently, I would not confer upon them the right to make such
laws nor to select those who do.

I append to this message, for convenient reference, a synopsis of
administrative events and of all recommendations to Congress made by me
during the last seven years. Time may show some of these recommendations
not to have been wisely conceived, but I believe the larger part will
do no discredit to the Administration. One of these recommendations
met with the united opposition of one political party in the Senate
and with a strong opposition from the other, namely, the treaty for
the annexation of Santo Domingo to the United States, to which I will
specially refer, maintaining, as I do, that if my views had been
concurred in the country would be in a more prosperous condition to-day,
both politically and financially.

Santo Domingo is fertile, and upon its soil may be grown just those