ed States with Europe by
an Atlantic telegraph, and a similar project to extend the telegraph from
San Francisco to connect by a Pacific telegraph with the line which is
being extended across the Russian Empire.

The Territories of the United States, with unimportant exceptions, have
remained undisturbed by the civil war; and they are exhibiting such
evidence of prosperity as justifies an expectation that some of them will
soon be in a condition to be organized as States and be constitutionally
admitted into the Federal Union.

The immense mineral resources of some of those Territories ought to be
developed as rapidly as possible. Every step in that direction would have
a tendency to improve the revenues of the government and diminish the
burdens of the people. It is worthy of your serious consideration whether
some extraordinary measures to promote that end cannot be adopted. The
means which suggests itself as most likely to be effective is a scientific
exploration of the mineral regions in those Territories with a view to the
publication of its results at home and in foreign countries--results which
cannot fail to be auspicious.

The condition of the finances win claim your most diligent consideration.
The vast expenditures incident to the military and naval operations
required for the suppression of the rebellion have hitherto been met with
a promptitude and certainty unusual in similar circumstances, and the
public credit has been fully maintained. The continuance of the war,
however, and the increased disbursements made necessary by the augmented
forces now in the field demand your best reflections as to the best modes
of providing the necessary revenue without injury to business and with the
least possible burdens upon labor.

The suspension of specie payments by the banks soon after the commencement
of your last session made large issues of United States notes unavoidable.
In no other way could the payment of troops and the satisfaction of other
just demands be so economically or so well provided for. The judicious
legislation of Congress, securing the receivability of these notes for
loans and internal duties and making them a legal tender for other debts,
has made them an universal currency, and has satisfied, partially at
least, and for the time, the long-felt want of an uniform circulating
medium, saving thereby to the people immense sums in discounts and
exchanges.

A return to specie payments, however,