present to the same foreign government entirely different and
antagonistic views or statements.

By the act of Congress establishing what is now the Department of State,
then known as the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Secretary is to
"perform and execute such duties as shall from time to time be enjoined
on or intrusted to him by the President of the United States, agreeably
to the Constitution, relative to correspondence, commissions, or
instructions to or with public ministers or consuls from the United
States, or to negotiations with public ministers from foreign states
or princes, or to memorials or other applications from foreign public
ministers or other foreigners, or to such other matters respecting
foreign affairs as the President of the United States shall assign to
the said Department; and furthermore, the said principal officer [the
Secretary of State] shall conduct the business of the said Department
in such manner as the President of the United States shall from time
to time order or instruct."

This law, which remains substantially unchanged, confirms the view that
the whole correspondence of the Government with and from foreign states
is intrusted to the President; that the Secretary of State conducts such
correspondence exclusively under the orders and instructions of the
President, and that no communication or correspondence from foreigners
or from a foreign state can properly be addressed to any branch or
Department of the Government except that to which such correspondence
has been committed by the Constitution and the laws.

I therefore feel it my duty to return the joint resolutions without my
approval to the House of Representatives, in which they originated.

In addition to the reasons already stated for withholding my
constitutional approval from these resolutions is the fact that
no information is furnished as to the terms or purport of the
communications to which acknowledgments are desired; no copy of the
communications accompanies the resolutions, nor is the name even of the
officer or of the body to whom an acknowledgment could be addressed
given; it is not known whether these congratulatory addresses proceed
from the head of the state or from legislative bodies; and as regards
the resolution relating to the Republic of Pretoria, I can not learn
that any state or government of that name exists.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _January 26, 1877_.

_To the Senate of the Unit