The annual report of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia reviews the operations of the several departments of its municipal government. I ask your careful consideration of its suggestions in respect to legislation, especially commending such as relate to a revision of the civil and criminal code, the performance of labor by persons sentenced to imprisonment in the jail, the construction and occupation of wharves along the river front, and the erection of a suitable building for District offices. I recommend that in recognition of the eminent services of Ulysses S. Grant, late General of the armies of the United States and twice President of this nation, the Congress confer upon him a suitable pension. Certain of the measures that seem to me necessary and expedient I have now, in obedience to the Constitution, recommended for your adoption. As respects others of no less importance I shall content myself with renewing the recommendations already made to the Congress, without restating the grounds upon which such recommendations were based. The preservation of forests on the public domain, the granting of Government aid for popular education, the amendment of the Federal Constitution so as to make effective the disapproval by the President of particular items in appropriation bills, the enactment of statutes in regard to the filling of vacancies in the Presidential office, and the determining of vexed questions respecting Presidential inability are measures which may justly receive your serious consideration. As the time draws nigh when I am to retire from the public service, I can not refrain from expressing to the members of the National Legislature with whom I have been brought into personal and official intercourse my sincere appreciation of their unfailing courtesy and of their harmonious cooperation with the Executive in so many measures calculated to promote the best interests of the nation. And to my fellow citizens generally I acknowledge a deep sense of obligation for the support which they have accorded me in my administration of the executive department of this Government. CHESTER A. ARTHUR. [Footnote 20: See pp. 224-225.] [Footnote 21: See p. 204.] [Footnote 22: See pp. 209-210.] [Footnote 23: See pp. 205-206.] [Footnote 24: See p. 225.] SPECIAL MESSAGES. EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, December 3, 1884_. _To the Senate of the United States:_ I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a convention for regulating the right of succession to and acquisition of property, etc., concluded between the United States and Belgium on the 4th ultimo. CHESTER A. ARTHUR. EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, December 3, 1884_. _To the Senate of the United States:_