Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1872-12-06

termaster has examined and transmitted
to the accounting officers for settlement
1851 ,727 % Of claims by loyal citizens
Tor quartermaster's stores taken during the
war. Subsistence supplies to the amount
OF $S9,O4S IL have been issued to Indians
: Inc annual average mean strength of the
army was IA, 1O1 white and 2,494 coloreo
soldiers. The total deaths for the wear re,
ported were 1857 white and 81 colored.
Attention is called to the various pro.
| Jects which will be laid before Congress
Tor the cheaper transportation of the pro-
ducts OF the West and South to the Allan
TIC sea board. One route to connect the
Mississippi Valley with the Atlantic, al
charleston, S. c., and Savannah, Ca, by
the way OF the Ohio and Tennessee rivers
and canals and slack water navigation to
the Savannah and Ogeechee rivers, has
been surveyed Second and third new
routes will be proposed for the considera-
ton OF Congress, namely, by an expansion
} OF the KanaWha and James River Canal to
the Ohio, and by the extension of the Ches-
apeake and Ohio Canal But the Presi-
dent is not prepared to recommend Gov
eminent aid until it is shown that such
enterprises are of national interest. He
suggests that commission be appointed
which shall be authorized to take the
whole question of cheap transportation
into consideration. He also suggests the
propriety Of examining and reporting
upon the practicability of opening an al
most continuous line Of navigable water
communication from Maine to the Gulf of
Mexico, as an internal improvement which
would be of inestimable value in case of
a foreign war.
The Report of the Secretary of the Ma
Wy is briefly referred to, and his sugges-
tions recommended to the careful consid-
Grafton of Congress.
| Next IN order comes synopsis of the
dolngs OF the Postoffice Department The
receipts were $21, 915,426 81; the expendi-
lures 1868, 1872 81. The favorable con-
s1deratlon of Congress is asked to the
recommendation of the Postmaster Gener-
al for an increase of service from monthly
to semi-monthly trips on the mail steam
ship route in Brazil, for subsidy in aid
of the establishment an of American line
OF mail steamers between San Francisco,
New Zealand and Australia, for the estab-
lishment of postoffice saving banks, and
for an increase of the salaries of the heads
of bureaus.
The President repeats his former recon-
mendation for abolishing the banking pri-
vilege accorded the national banks; but,
believing that Congress will not adopt his
opinion on the subject, suggests that the
privilege be so modified as to correct it's
glazing and costly abuses. He also recon-
mends the purchase of all the telegraph
lines now in operation, and connecting
| Chis service with the postal service. He
also asks that liberal contracts be author
lied for carrying the mails by the Pacific
| Mail Steamship Company; the United
States and Brazil line; and the California,
New Zealand and Australian line, these
being the only three lines plying between
the United States and foreign ports which
are operated under our flag.
The next paragraph of the message re-
fers to the Report of the Secretary of the
| Treasury, which, it is stated, "will show
an alarming falling off in our carrying
trade for the last ten years, and even for
the past year." The only remedy Indirect
ly suggested for this state of things is,
that Congress shall grant subsidies to the
amount of five millions of dollars year
for five years, to the owners of vessels f1y-
ing the United States flag, and trading
with foreign ports. Congress is asked to
give this matter its serious consideration
Under the head of the Department of Pub
lie Justice, the Ku-Klux and Enforcement
laws are touched upon, and are declared
to have been salutary in their operation
To those Southerners now sentenced to
hard labor at Albany Penitentiary, for al
legged violations of these laws, the hope is
held out that, at some future day, their
cases will be considered.
The affairs of the several bureaus con-
nected with the Department of the Interi-
or are said to be in a satisfactory condi-
ton, and the policy adopted at the begin
ming of the administration in regard to the
Indians declared to have been successful
in reducing the expenses of management
and decreasing the number of Indian for
avs upon white settlers. The. proposition
to settle, by degrees, the Indian tribes
upon the reservation south of Kansas, and
organize there a Territorial form of gov
eminent, is favorably commented on; but
it is deemed necessary, in such event, that
the Indians should be protected against
the encroachments of the whites, and pre-
vented from disposing of their lands until
sufficiently civilized to guard their own
rights.
The message next treats of the sale of
public lands, puts the receipts of the land
Office at $3,219, 100, and gives estimates of
the number of acres, surveyed and unsur-
veyed, remaining unsold.
A brief statement of the workings of the
Patent Office is given. but it contains no
thing of special interest The payments
of pensions amounted to $50, JOG, $40 last
year; an increase of $6,7OS,4 34 over the
year preceding. The whole number of
soldiers enlisted during the war is estima-
the at 1858, 523; the total number of claims
for invalid pensions at 176 900; but the
grand total ofpensioners on the rolls on
the 30th of June, 1872, was 232,229.
The remaining topics discussed are the
Bureau of Education; the Territories the
unsatisfactory condition of affairs in Utah
the District of Columbia, with recommen
dations of an appropriation by Congress
to pay for certain public improvements
the Report of the Commissioner of Agri-
culture; the Centennial Anniversary; and
finally, the Civil Service. The new rules
regulating the tenure of Office, it is intim-
ated, will be enforced, and Congress is
asked to make the system binding by lew
upon future Presidents.
WOne of the mules, the property of
the county, was found dead in Port To-
bacco yesterday morning. Whether it
died of the prevailing epizootic, with
which II is said tn have been recentlv suf-