rcumstance that, both as between
the different Indian tribes and as between the Indians and the whites,
the past year has been one of unbroken peace.

In this circumstance the President is glad to find justification for the
policy of the Government in its dealing with the Indian question and
confirmation of the views which were fully expressed in his first
communication to the Forty-seventh Congress.

The Secretary urges anew the enactment of a statute for the punishment
of crimes committed on the Indian reservations, and recommends the
passage of the bill now pending in the House of Representatives for the
purchase of a tract of 18,000 square miles from the Sioux Reservation.
Both these measures are worthy of approval.

I concur with him also in advising the repeal of the preemption law, the
enactment of statutes resolving the present legal complications touching
lapsed grants to railroad companies, and the funding of the debt of the
several Pacific railroads under such guaranty as shall effectually
secure its ultimate payment.

The report of the Utah Commission will be read with interest.

It discloses the results of recent legislation looking to the prevention
and punishment of polygamy in that Territory. I still believe that if
that abominable practice can be suppressed by law it can only be by the
most radical legislation consistent with the restraints of the
Constitution.

I again recommend, therefore, that Congress assume absolute political
control of the Territory of Utah and provide for the appointment of
commissioners with such governmental powers as in its judgment may
justly and wisely be put into their hands.

In the course of this communication reference has more than once been
made to the policy of this Government as regards the extension of our
foreign trade. It seems proper to declare the general principles that
should, in my opinion, underlie our national efforts in this direction.

The main conditions of the problem may be thus stated:

We are a people apt in mechanical pursuits and fertile in invention.
We cover a vast extent of territory rich in agricultural products and
in nearly all the raw materials necessary for successful manufacture.
We have a system of productive establishments more than sufficient to
supply our own demands. The wages of labor are nowhere else so great.
The scale of living of our artisan classes is such as tends to secure
their personal comfort and the development o