considerations.

I respectfully recommend to Congress that in any legislation providing
for a silver coinage and imparting to it the quality of legal tender
there be impressed upon the measure a firm provision exempting the
public debt heretofore issued and now outstanding from payment, either
of principal or interest, in any coinage of less commercial value than
the present gold coinage of the country.

The organization of the civil service of the country has for a number
of years attracted more and more of the public attention. So general
has become the opinion that the methods of admission to it and
the conditions of remaining in it are unsound that both the great
political parties have agreed in the most explicit declarations of the
necessity of reform and in the most emphatic demands for it. I have
fully believed these declarations and demands to be the expression of
a sincere conviction of the intelligent masses of the people upon the
subject, and that they should be recognized and followed by earnest
and prompt action on the part of the legislative and executive
departments of the Government, in pursuance of the purpose indicated.

Before my accession to office I endeavored to have my own views
distinctly understood, and upon my inauguration my accord with
the public opinion was stated in terms believed to be plain and
unambiguous. My experience in the executive duties has strongly
confirmed the belief in the great advantage the country would find in
observing strictly the plan of the Constitution, which imposes upon
the Executive the sole duty and responsibility of the selection of
those Federal officers who by law are appointed, not elected, and
which in like manner assigns to the Senate the complete right to