The cost of building iron vessels, the only ones that can compete with
foreign ships in the carrying trade, is so much greater in the United
States than in foreign countries that without some assistance from the
Government they can not be successfully built here. There will be
several propositions laid before Congress in the course of the present
session looking to a remedy for this evil. Even if it should be at some
cost to the National Treasury, I hope such encouragement will be given
as will secure American shipping on the high seas and American
shipbuilding at home.
The condition of the archives at the Department of State calls for the
early action of Congress. The building now rented by that Department
is a frail structure, at an inconvenient distance from the Executive
Mansion and from the other Departments, is ill adapted to the purpose
for which it is used, has not capacity to accommodate the archives, and
is not fireproof. Its remote situation, its slender construction, and
the absence of a supply of water in the neighborhood leave but little
hope of safety for either the building or its contents in case of the
accident of a fire. Its destruction would involve the loss of the
rolls containing the original acts and resolutions of Congress, of the
historic records of the Revolution and of the Confederation, of the
whole series of diplomatic and consular archives since the adoption of
the Constitution, and of the many other valuable records and papers
left with that Department when it was the principal depository of the
governmental archives.
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