the Civil Service Commission, together with
communications from the heads of the several Executive Departments of
the Government respecting the practical workings of the law under which
the Commission had been acting. The good results therein foreshadowed
have been more than realized.

The system has fully answered the expectations of its friends in
securing competent and faithful public servants and in protecting the
appointing officers of the Government from the pressure of personal
importunity and from the labor of examining the claims and pretensions
of rival candidates for public employment.

The law has had the unqualified support of the President and of the
heads of the several Departments, and the members of the Commission have
performed their duties with zeal and fidelity. Their report will shortly
be submitted, and will be accompanied by such recommendations for
enlarging the scope of the existing statute as shall commend themselves
to the Executive and the Commissioners charged with its administration.

In view of the general and persistent demand throughout the commercial
community for a national bankrupt law, I hope that the differences of
sentiment which have hitherto prevented its enactment may not outlast
the present session.

The pestilence which for the past two years has been raging in the
countries of the East recently made its appearance in European ports
with which we are in constant communication.

The then Secretary of the Treasury, in pursuance of a proclamation of
the President,[24] issued certain regulations restricting and for a
time prohibiting the importation of rags and the admission of baggage
of immigrants and of travelers arriving from infected quarters. Lest
this course may have been without strict warrant of law, I approve the
recommendation of the present Secretary that the Congress take action
in the premises, and I also recommend the immediate adoption of such
measures as will be likely to ward off the dreaded epidemic and to
mitigate its severity in case it shall unhappily extend to our shores.

The annual report of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia
reviews the operations of the several departments of its municipal
government. I ask your careful consideration of its suggestions in
respect to legislation, especially commending such as relate to a
revision of the civil and criminal code, the performance of labor by
persons sentenced to imprisonment in the jail, th