of Representatives:_

A year of peace and general prosperity to this nation has passed since
the last assembling of Congress. We have, through a kind Providence,
been blessed with abundant crops, and have been spared from
complications and war with foreign nations. In our midst comparative
harmony has been restored. It is to be regretted, however, that a free
exercise of the elective franchise has by violence and intimidation been
denied to citizens in exceptional cases in several of the States lately
in rebellion, and the verdict of the people has thereby been reversed.
The States of Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas have been restored to
representation in our national councils. Georgia, the only State now
without representation, may confidently be expected to take her place
there also at the beginning of the new year, and then, let us hope, will
be completed the work of reconstruction. With an acquiescence on the
part of the whole people in the national obligation to pay the public
debt created as the price of our Union, the pensions to our disabled
soldiers and sailors and their widows and orphans, and in the changes to
the Constitution which have been made necessary by a great rebellion,
there is no reason why we should not advance in material prosperity and
happiness as no other nation ever did after so protracted and
devastating a war.

Soon after the existing war broke out in Europe the protection of the
United States minister in Paris was invoked in favor of North Germans
domiciled in French territory. Instructions were issued to grant
the protection. This has been followed by an extension of American
protection to citizens of Saxony, Hesse and Saxe-Coburg, Gotha,
Colombia, Portugal, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Chile,
Paraguay, and Venezuela in Paris. The charge was an onerous one,
requiring constant and severe labor, as well as the exercise of
patience, prudence, and good judgment. It has been performed to the
entire satisfaction of this Government, and, as I am officially
informed, equally so to the satisfaction of the Government of North
Germany.

As soon as I learned that a republic had been proclaimed at Paris and
that the people of France had acquiesced in the change, the minister
of the United States was directed by telegraph to recognize it and to
tender my congratulations and those of the people of the United States.
The reestablishment in France of a system of government disconnected