I look
with confidence to the time, not far distant, when the obvious
advantages of good order and peace will induce an abandonment of all
combinations prohibited by the acts referred to, and when it will be
unnecessary to carry on prosecutions or inflict punishment to protect
citizens from the lawless doings of such combinations.
Applications have been made to me to pardon persons convicted of a
violation of said acts, upon the ground that clemency in such cases
would tend to tranquilize the public mind, and to test the virtue of
that policy I am disposed, as far as my sense of justice will permit,
to give to these applications a favorable consideration; but any
action thereon is not to be construed as indicating any change in
my determination to enforce with vigor such acts so long as the
conspiracies and combinations therein named disturb the peace of
the country.
It is much to be regretted, and is regretted by no one more than myself,
that a necessity has ever existed to execute the "enforcement act." No
one can desire more than I that the necessity of applying it may never
again be demanded.
INTERIOR DEPARTMENT.
The Secretary of the Interior reports satisfactory improvement and
progress in each of the several bureaus under the control of the
Interior Department.
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