MESSAGE. To the Congress of the United States: The constitutional duty which requires the President from time to time to give to the Congress information of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient, is fittingly entered upon by commending to the Congress a careful examination of the detailed statements and well-supported recommendations contained in the reports of the heads of Departments, who are chiefly charged with the executive work of the Government. In an effort to abridge this communication as much as is consistent with its purpose, I shall supplement a brief reference to the contents of these departmental reports by the mention of such executive business and incidents as are not embraced therein, and by such recommendations as appear to be at this particular time appropriate. While our foreign relations have not at all times during the past year been entirely free from perplexity, no embarrassing situation remains that will not yield to the spirit of fairness and love of justice, which, joined with consistent firmness, characterize a truly American foreign policy. My predecessor having accepted the office of arbitrator of the long-standing missions boundary dispute, tendered to the President by the Argentine Republic and Brazil, it has been my agreeable duty to receive the special envoys commissioned by those states to lay before me evidence and arguments in behalf of their respective Governments. The outbreak of domestic hostilities in the Republic of Brazil found the United States alert to watch the interests of our citizens in that country, with which we carry on important commerce. Several vessels of our new Navy are now, and for some time have been, stationed at Rio de Janeiro. The struggle being between the established government, which controls the machinery of adminis |