of the United States, while about five-sixths of
the annual cost of their maintenance is defrayed by the States.

The report of the Attorney-General is under the law submitted directly
to Congress, but as the Department of Justice is one of the Executive
Departments some reference to the work done is appropriate here.

A vigorous and in the main an effective effort has been made to bring to
trial and punishment all violators of the law, but at the same time care
has been taken that frivolous and technical offenses should not be used
to swell the fees of officers or to harass well-disposed citizens.
Especial attention is called to the facts connected with the prosecution
of violations of the election laws and of offenses against United States
officers. The number of convictions secured, very many of them upon
pleas of guilty, will, it is hoped, have a salutary restraining
influence. There have been several cases where postmasters appointed by
me have been subjected to violent interference in the discharge of their
official duties and to persecutions and personal violence of the most
extreme character. Some of these cases have been dealt with through the
Department of Justice, and in some cases the post-offices have been
abolished or suspended. I have directed the Postmaster-General to pursue
this course in all cases where other efforts failed to secure for any
postmaster not himself in fault an opportunity peacefully to exercise
the duties of his office. But such action will not supplant the efforts
of the Department of Justice to bring the particular offenders to
punishment.

The vacation by judicial decrees of fraudulent certificates of
naturalization, upon bills in equity filed by the Attorney-General
in the circuit court of the United States, is a new application of a
familiar equity jurisdiction. Nearly one hundred such decrees have been
taken during the year, the evidence disclosing that a very large number
of fraudulent certificates of naturalization have been issued. And in
this connection I beg to renew my recommendation that the laws be so
amended as to require a more full and searching inquiry into all the
facts necessary to naturalization before any certificates are granted.
It certainly is not too much to require that an application for American
citizenship shall be heard with as much care and recorded with as much
formality as are given to cases involving the pettiest property right.

At the last session