entatives, copies of correspondence with the Department of State
relating to an invitation extended by the French Republic to this
Government to send one or more delegates to represent it at an
international congress of electricians to be held at Paris on the 15th
day of September, 1881. It appears from the same correspondence that
an international exhibition of electricity is to be held at the palace
of the Champs Elysees, in Paris, from August 15, 1881, to the 15th
of November following, and it is therefore suggested by the French
authorities that it might be well to invest the delegates selected to
take part in the international congress with the additional character
of commissioners to the international exhibition of electricity.

In view of the important scientific, industrial, and commercial
interests designed to be promoted by the proposed international
congress of electricians and exhibition of electricity, I submit the
subject to your favorable consideration and recommend that a suitable
appropriation be made to enable this Government to accept the
foregoing invitation by appointing one or more delegates to attend the
congress in question.

R.B. HAYES.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, January 18, 1881_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I have the honor to submit herewith the report of the Public
Lands Commission, embracing the history and a codification of the
public-land laws; and I desire earnestly to invite the attention of
Congress to this important subject.

R.B. HAYES.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, January 20, 1881_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit herewith to the Senate a letter from the Secretary of
State, with accompanying papers, in relation to the recent effort of
the Government of the United States to bring about peace between Chile
and Peru and, Bolivia.

R.B. HAYES.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 1, 1881_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

In compliance with the request of a large number of intelligent
and benevolent citizens, and believing that it was warranted by the
extraordinary circumstances of the case, on the 18th day of December,
1880, I appointed a commission consisting of George Crook and Nelson
A. Miles, brigadier-generals in the Army; William Stickney, of
the District of Columbia, and Walter Allen, of Massachusetts,
and requested them to confer with the Ponca Indians in the Indian
Territory, and, if in thei