HINGTON, _March 15, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, in answer to a
resolution of the Senate of the 3d instant, asking to be informed what
States have ratified the amendment known as the fifteenth amendment to
the Constitution of the United States, so far as official notice thereof
has been transmitted to the Department of State, and that information
from time to time may be communicated to that body, as soon as
practicable, of such ratification hereafter by any State.

U.S. GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., March 23, 1870_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

In the Executive message of December 6, 1869, to Congress the importance
of taking steps to revive our drooping merchant marine was urged, and
a special message promised at a future day during the present session,
recommending more specifically plans to accomplish this result. Now that
the committee of the House of Representatives intrusted with the labor
of ascertaining "the cause of the decline of American commerce" has
completed its work and submitted its report to the legislative branch of
the Government, I deem this a fitting time to execute that promise.

The very able, calm, and exhaustive report of the committee points out
the grave wrongs which have produced the decline in our commerce. It is
a national humiliation that we are now compelled to pay from twenty to
thirty million dollars annually (exclusive of passage money, which we
should share with vessels of other nations) to foreigners for doing the
work which should be done by American vessels, American built, American
owned, and American manned. This is a direct drain upon the resources of
the country of just so much money, equal to casting it into the sea, so
far as this nation is concerned.

A nation of the vast and ever-increasing interior resources of the
United States, extending, as it does, from one to the other of the
great oceans of the world, with an industrious, intelligent, energetic
population, must one day possess its full share of the commerce of these
oceans, no matter what the cost. Delay will only increase this cost and
enhance the difficulty of attaining the result.

I therefore put in an earnest plea for early action in this matter, in
a way to secure the desired increase of American commerce. The advanced
period of the year and the fact that no contracts for shipbuilding will
probab