charges should therefore be repealed, as Congress made the requested appropriation for that and the succeeding year, and it is confidently believed they will evince the same liberality for the ensuing fiscal year. At the last session the , admission of ten pupils from the States to the collegiate branch of the institution was authorized, on the same terms and conditions as those prescribed by law to the residents of this District. This provision was annexed to the appropriating clause granting twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) for the support of the institution and the purchase of books and apparatus. Nine pupils availed themselves of this privilege, thereby entailing an unexpected burden upon the resources of the institution. The directors request, on this account, an allowance of three thousand dollars, ($3,000.) I have submitted an item therefor in the deficiency estimates for the current year. During the last fiscal year three pupils died, eleven were dismissed, and eight admitted. In accordance with the direction of the board of trustees, the president proceeded to Europe, to examine similar schools in Great Britain, Prussia, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy. The result of his investigations is embodied in an able and interesting paper, which accompanies the report of the board. The claims of such an institution are of the most imposing character. I am, nevertheless, of the opinion that when Congress shall have liberally provided for the indigent deaf mutes who reside in this District, or are the children of persons actually in the military or naval service, it will have fully discharged its duty, if not exhausted its constitutional power over the subject. The present buildings are more than sufficient for the ample accommodation of the government pupils. The board of directors, in addition to the school for the primary branches, desire to maintain a preparatory department, where the deaf mutes of the several States may be prepared for admission into the college proper. The studies in the latter will embrace as thorough and comprehensive a course of instruction in ancient and modern languages, and in the literary and scientific branches, as is furnished in the best American colleges. The indigent deaf mutes of the several States, who are competent to profit by these advantages, are to be maintained and instructed at the expense of the general government. It certainly was not the original intention of Congress to provide for the gratuitous instruction of these afflicted persons. If unable to incur the expenses of an education, they should appeal to individual munificence, or to that of the States in which they reside. The support of paupers is an appropriate subject of State legislation, and has never been regarded as falling within the province, or constituting a duty, of the general government. The arguments advanced to justify Congress in furnishing educational privileges for the indigent deaf mutes of a State would equally require a similar provision for the blind or lame, or those who, without natural infirmities, desire collegiate instruction, but are excluded by their poverty from obtaining it. Should these views be regarded as erroneous, however, and Congress deem it their constitutional duty to establish and maintain a national deaf mute college, the United States should control it, and be vested with a title to the grounds purchased by their means for its uses. The erection of buildings required for the accommodation of all the students who may desire instruction and mainten the Pacific coast A map was subsequently filed showing the location of the road from Springfield, Missouri, to the western boundary of that State. Upon the basis of this map the Commissioner of the General Land Office was directed to withdraw the lands. The 18th section of this act authorizes the Southern Pacific railroad, a company incorporated under the laws of the State of California, to connect with the Atlantic and Pacific railroad near the boundary line of California, and gives it a similar grant of lands. The latter company filed an acceptance of the terms and conditions of said act, and a map showing the preliminary survey of the road from San Francisco to the Colorado river. The Commissioner of the General Land Office was instructed to withdraw the lands along the line represen ed upon that map. The bridges across the Big Sioux river and the Vermillion, on the line of the wagon road between Sioux City and the mouth of the Big Cheyenne, have been completed. The James river bridge is unfinished. The balance of the appropriation is twelve hundred and fifty dollars ($1,250.) I have declined ordering a resumption of work on the projected road from the mouth of the Big Cheyenne to a point on the Niobrara road, in consequence of the hostile attitude of the Indians. The unexpended appropriation applicable to this road is twelve thousand one hundred and fifty-seven dollars and seventy cents ($12,157 70.) The Superintendent of the wagon road from Virginia City, Montana, to Lewiston, reports that it is impossible to grade and open such a road between those termini, and that a construction of one for a part of the distance would be of very little utility, as there is no local business. His efforts were directed to opening a track for the passage of loaded pack-trains; that being the only method by which goods could be transported from Columbia river to Montana. There remains of the appropriation, unexpended, eight thousand and twenty-five dollars and twenty-four cents ($8,025 24.) The architect in charge of the Capitol extension reports the completion of the portico of the south wing, and reiterates the opinion expressed in his prev ous reports, that the central portico should be extended to correspond with those of the wings. The skylights of the halls of the Senate and House of Representatives are, on account of their great dimensions, peculiarly sensitive to variations in temperature, which occasion frequent fractures. It is proposed to substitute for them others of the same description as those placed in the Supreme Court room. There are serious objections to appropriating the committee rooms in each wing as depositories of public documents. They are needed for the uses for which they were originally designed, and the floors and walls are being injured and defaced. It is desirable that arrangements should be made for storing the documents elsewhere. The chambers occupied by the Supreme Court, law library, and Court of Claims, and the passages between the Senate wing and the rotunda, are warmed with improved heating apparatus; but the rotunda and the old hall of the House of Representatives are cold and often damp in winter, to the prejudice of the health as well as comfort of visitors. It is recommended that they be warmed in the same manner as the other passages. If the Capitol grounds be extended to C streets north and south, as recommended by the architect, the Capitol would occupy about the centre of the enlarged area. It is universally conceded that the present limits are entirely too contracted. Justice to the adjoining proprietors requires that it should at an early day be determined to what extent their property contiguous to those limits. will be needed for public uses. Squares numbered 575, 576, 687, and 688 were appraised in 1860, by authority of Congress, as a preliminary step to their purchase. All permanent improvement of the property was suspended. The Senate subsequently passed a bill providing for the purchase of the squares, but limiting the price thereof to the appraisal of 1860. The value of real estate in that portion of the city has since then greatly enhanced. In view of these facts, the holders of this property have presented a memorial to this department urging that three disinterested appraisers be selected-one by the government, one by the property owners, and the third by these two; that Congress shall at once decide what grounds shall be purchased, and direct their value to be fixed by the appraisers. The propriety of early legislative action is suggested. The work upon the north portico of the Department of the Interior is nearly finished. An estimate has been submitted of the amount necessary for completing it and paving the street. The following statement shows the amount advanced to marshals of the United States for the year ending June 30, 1867; for defraying the expenses of the courts of the United States, including fees of marshals, jurors, and witnesses, maintenance of prisoners, and contingencies of holding the courts: Michigan, eastern district... Michigan, western district Minnesota Mississippi, northern district $36, 411 76 17, 512 79 17,364 00 3,007 00 7,915 25 Mississippi, southern district. Missouri, western district. .Nebraska... Nevada.... New Jersey New York, northern district New York, southern district New York, eastern district.. North Carolina Ohio, norther district Ohio, southern district Pennsylvania, eastern district Rhode Island ... Tennessee, eastern district. Tennessee, western district Texas, castern district... Texas, western district. Virginia... West Virginia. Wisconsin Arizona Dakota.. Colorado Montana 37,000 00 13, 289 68 14, 168 48 18, 863 00 5, 861 00 28,989 77 102,600 00 57, 000 00 21,589 00 6,000 00 42,340 00 40,838 00 3,222 00 33, 905 00 27,060 00 8,230 00 21,877 00 8, 221 86 2,616 00 16, 195 00 20, 335 00 11,844 00 5,723 00 6, 125 00 8,081 79 9,653 02 10,000 00 5,632 00 9,564 95 10,278 00 The amount paid to district attorneys, their assistants and substitutes, for the same period, was one hundred and forty-six thousand nine hundred and forty-five dollars and twenty-nine cents, ($146,945 29;) to United States commissioners, fifty thousand six hundred and forty-three dollars and fifty-five cents. ($50,613 55;) to clerks of the courts of the United States, seventy thou sand eight hundred and ninety-five dollars and twenty-five cents, ($70,895 25;) and for miscellaneous expenditures one hundred and fifty-seven thousand, eight hundred and thirty-seven dollars and sixty-seven cents ($157,837 67.) Of this sum, sixty-six thousand and ninety-two dollars and ninety-seven cents, ($66,092 97) were paid for rent of buildings for the accommodation of the courts and their officers. By an act of Congress approved May 12, 1864, the Secretary of the Interior was authorized to designate some suitable prison or penitentiary, and to contract with the authorities thereof for the confinement of persons convicted of crime, the punishment whereof is imprisonment, and sentenced by the courts of the United States in a district or territory where, at the time of such conviction, there should be no suitable prison or penitentiary. Under the authority so conferred my predecessor made contracts with the House of Correction at Detroit, and the Iowa State penitentiary, for the subsistence and employment of all convicts sentenced by the courts of the United States for the several Territories to imprisonment at hard labor. The former institution receives under the contract only such whose term of sentence was two or more years. Prisoners have been sent to these prisons from the Territories of Colorado, Nebraska and Montana. The act further provides that if in the opinion of the Secretary of the Interior the expense of transportation will exceed that of maintaining the convicts in jail in the Territory during the period of their sentence, it shall be lawful so to confine them. None have been sent from any of the other Territories, as, in the opinion of my predecessors, in which I concur, the expense of their transportation would far exceed the cost of maintaining them in jails in the Territories. An act entitled "An act setting aside certain proceeds from internal revenue for the erection of penitentiaries in the Territories of Nebraska, Washington, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, and Dakota," approved January 22, 1867, appropriated the net proceeds of the internal revenue of said Territories for the fiscal year ending the 30th of June, 1866, and the two succeeding years, for the purpose of erecting, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, penitentiary buildings in said Territories, at such place therein as had been or might be designated by the legislatures thereof and approved by him. The amount to be expended therefor was not to exceed twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) in Washington Territory, nor forty thousand dollars ($40,000) in either of the other Territories. The attention of the governors of these Territories was invited to the subject, and they were requested, when the territorial legislatures had passed an act designating the place for the erection of such penitentiaries, to transmit a duly certified copy thereof to this department. Advices have been received only from Washington and Montana. The ninth section of an act to enable the people of Nebraska to form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of said State into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, approved April 19, 1864, (Statutes at Large, volume 13, page 47,) provides that fifty entire sections of land, to be selected and located by direction of the legislature thereof, on or before the first day of January, 1868, should be, and they were thereby, granted |