In compliance with the provisions of the act of March 3, 1873,
it was at once paid into the Treasury, and used to redeem, so far as it
might, the public debt of the United States; and the amount so redeemed
was invested in a 5 per cent registered bond of the United States for
$15,500,000, which is now held by the Secretary of State, subject to the
future disposition of Congress.
I renew my recommendation, made at the opening of the last session of
Congress, that a commission be created for the purpose of auditing and
determining the amounts of the several "direct losses growing out of
the destruction of vessels and their cargoes" by the _Alabama_, the
_Florida_, or the _Shenandoah_ after leaving Melbourne, for which
the sufferers have received no equivalent or compensation, and of
ascertaining the names of the persons entitled to receive compensation
for the same, making the computations upon the basis indicated by the
tribunal of arbitration at Geneva; and that payment of such losses be
authorized to an extent not to exceed the awards of the tribunal at
Geneva.
By an act approved on the 14th day of February last Congress made
provision for completing, jointly with an officer or commissioner
to be named by Her Britannic Majesty, the determination of so much
of the boundary line between the territory of the United States
and the possessions of Great Britain as was left uncompleted by the
commissioners appointed under the act of Congress of August 11, 1856.
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