companied
by a communication and other documents from the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs.

M. VAN BUREN.

[Footnote 81: Relating to purchases of Indian lands since the
establishment of the Federal Government.]

JULY 25, 1840.

The President of the United States, in pursuance of a resolution of
the Senate of the 20th instant, herewith transmits to the honorable
Secretary of the Senate a copy of the report of Captain M.C. Perry
in relation to the light-houses of England and France.

M. VAN BUREN.

EXECUTIVE ORDER.

WASHINGTON CITY, _March 31, 1840_.

The President of the United States, finding that different rules prevail
at different places as well in respect to the hours of labor by persons
employed on the public works under the immediate authority of himself
and the Departments as also in relation to the different classes of
workmen, and believing that much inconvenience and dissatisfaction would
be removed by adopting a uniform course, hereby directs that all such
persons, whether laborers or mechanics, be required to work only the
number of hours prescribed by the ten-hour system.

M. VAN BUREN.

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON, _December 5, 1840_.

_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives_:

Our devout gratitude is due to the Supreme Being for having graciously
continued to our beloved country through the vicissitudes of another
year the invaluable blessings of health, plenty, and peace. Seldom
has this favored land been so generally exempted from the ravages of
disease or the labor of the husbandman more amply rewarded, and never
before have our relations with other countries been placed on a more
favorable basis than that which they so happily occupy at this critical
conjuncture in the affairs of the world. A rigid and persevering
abstinence from all interference with the domestic and political
relations of other States, alike due to the genius and distinctive
character of our Government and to the principles by which it is
directed; a faithful observance in the management of our foreign
relations of the practice of speaking plainly, dealing justly, and
requiring truth and justice in return as the best conservatives of
the peace of nations; a strict impartiality in our manifestations of
friendship in the commercial privileges we concede and those we require
from others--these, accompanied by a disposition as prompt to maintain
in every emergency our own