fortune of teaching them the arts of civilization, and the doctrines of Christianity, we have unexpectedly found them forming in the midst of ourselves communities claiming to be independent of ours, and rivals of sovereignty within the territories of the members of our Union. This state of things requires that a remedy should be provided, a remedy which, while it shall do justice to those unfortunate children of nature, may secure to the members of our confederation their rights of sovereignty and of soil. As the outline of a project to that effect, the views presented in the report of the secretary of war are recommended to the consideration of Congress.

The report from the engineer department presents a comprehensive view of the progress which has been made in the great systems promotive of the public interests, commenced and organized under the authority of Congress, and the effects of which have already contributed to the security, as they will hereafter largely contribute to the honor and dignity of the nation.

The first of these great systems is that of fortifications, commenced immediately after the close of our last war, under the salutary experience which the events of that war had impressed upon our countrymen of its necessity. Introduced under the auspices of my immediate predecessor, it has been continued with the persevering and liberal encouragement of the legislature; and combined with corresponding exertions for the gradual increase and improvement of the navy, prepares for our extensive country a condition of defence adapted to any critical emergency which the varying course of events may bring forth. Our advances in these concerted systems have for the last ten years been steady and progressive; and in a few years more will be so completed as to leave no cause for apprehension that our seacoast will ever again offer a theatre of hostile invasion.

The next of those cardinal measures of policy is the preliminary to great and lasting works of public improvement, in the surveys of roads, examinations for the course of canals, and labors for the removal of the obstructions of rivers and harbors, first commenced by the act of Congress of 30th April, 1824.

The report exhibits in one table the funds appropriated at the last and preceding sessions of Congress, for all these fortifications, surveys, and works of public improvement; the manner in which these funds have been applied, the amount expended upon the several works under construction, and the further sums which may be necessary to complete them. In a second, the works projected by the board of engineers, which have not been commenced, and the estimate of their cost.

In a third, the report of the annual board of visiters at the military academy at West Point. For thirteen fortifications erecting on various points of our Atlantic coast, from Rhode Island to Louisiana, the aggregate expenditure of the year has fallen little short of one million of dollars.

For the preparation of five additional reports of reconnaissances and surveys since the last session of Congress, for the civil constructions upon thirty-seven different public works commenced, eight others for which specific appropriations have been made by acts of Congress, and twenty other incipient surveys under the authority given by the act of the 30th April, 1824, about one million more of dollars have been drawn from the treasury.

To these two millions are to be added: the appropriation of two hundred and fifty thousand to commence the erection of a breakwater near the mouth of the Delaware river; the subscriptions to the Delaware and Chesa

peake, the Louisville and Portland, the Dismal Swamp, and the Chesapeake and Ohio canals; the large donations of lands to the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Alabama, for objects of improvements within those states, and the sums appropriated for lighthouses, buoys, and piers, on the coast; and a full view will be taken of the munificence of the nation in the application of its resources to the improvement of its own condition. Of these great national undertakings, the academy at West Point is among the most important in itself, and the most comprehensive in its consequences. In that institution, a part of the revenue of the nation is applied to defray the expense of educating a competent portion of her youth, chiefly to the knowledge and the duties of military life. It is the living armory of the nation. While the other works of improvement enumerated in the reports now presented to the attention of Congress are destined to ameliorate the face of nature; to multiply the facilities of communication between the different parts of the Union; to assist the labors, increase the comforts, and enhance the enjoyments of individuals—the instruction acquired at West Point enlarges the dominion and expands the capacities of the mind. Its beneficial results are already experienced in the composition of the army, and their influence is felt in the intellectual progress of society. The institution is susceptible still of great improvement from benefactions proposed by several successive boards of visiters, to whose earnest and repeated recommendations I cheerfully add my own.

With the usual annual reports of the secretary of the navy, and the board of commissioners, will be exhibited to the view of Congress the execution of the laws relating to that department of the public service. The repression of piracy in the West Indian and Grecian seas has been effectually maintained, with scarcely any exception. During the war between the governments of Buenos Ayres and Brazil, frequent collisions between belligerent acts of power and the rights of neutral commerce occurred. Licentious blockades, irregularly enlisted or impressed seamen, and the property of honest commerce seized with violence, and even plundered under legal pretences, are disorders never separable from the conflicts of war upon the ocean. With a portion of them, the correspondence of our commanders on the eastern aspect of the South American coasts, and among the islands of Greece, discover how far we have been involved. In these, the honor of our country and rights of our citizens have been asserted and vindicated. The appearance of new squadrons in the Mediterranean, and the blockade of the Dardanelles, indicate the danger of other obstacles to the freedom of commerce and the necessity of keeping our naval force in those seas. To the suggestions repeated in the report of the secretary of the navy, and tending to the permanent improvement of this institution, I invite the favorable consideration of Congress.

A resolution of the house of representatives, requesting that one of our small public vessels should be sent to the Pacific ocean, and South sea, to examine the coasts, islands, harbors, shoals, and reefs, in those seas, and to ascertain their true situation and description, has been put in a train of execution. The vessel is nearly ready to depart; the successful accomplishment of the expedition may be greatly facilitated by suitable legislative provisions; and particularly by an appropriation to defray its necessary expense. The addition of a second, and perhaps a third vessel, with a slight aggravation of the cost, would contribute much to the safety of the citizens embarked on this undertaking, the results of which may be of the deepest interest to our country.

With the report of the secretary of the navy will be submitted, in conformity to the act of Congress of 3d March, 1827, for the gradual improvement of the navy of the United States, statements of the expenditures under that act, and of the measures taken for carrying the same into effect. Every section of that statute contains a distinct provision, looking to the great obUnder its saluject of the whole, the gradual improvement of the navy.

of

tary sanction, stores of ship-timber have been procured, and are in process seasoning and preservation for the future uses of the navy. Arrangements have been made for the preservation of the live oak timber growing on the lands of the United States, and for its reproduction, to supply at future and distant days, the waste of that most valuable material for ship-building, by the great consumption of it yearly for the commercial, as well as for the military marine of our country. The construction of the two dry docks at Charleston and at Norfolk, is making satisfactory progress toward a duraThe examinations and inquiries to ascertain the pracble establishment. ticability and expediency of a marine railway at Pensacola, though not yet accomplished, have been postponed, but to be more effectually made. The navy-yards of the United States have been examined, and plans for their improvement, and the preservation of the public property therein, at Portsmouth, Charleston, Philadelphia, Washington, and Gosport, and to which sanction; my two others are to be added, have been prepared, and received and no other portion of my public duties has been performed with a more intimate conviction of its importance to the future welfare and security of the Union.

With the report from the postmaster-general is exhibited a comparative view of the gradual increase of that establishment, from five to five years, since 1792, till this time, in the number of postoffices, which has grown from less than two hundred to nearly eight thousand; in the revenue yielded by them, which, from sixty-seven thousand dollars, has swollen to upward of one million five hundred thousand dollars, and in the number of miles of postroads, which, from five thousand six hundred and forty-two, have multiplied to one hundred and fourteen thousand five hundred and thirty-six. While, in the same period of time, the population of the Union has about thrice doubled, the rate of increase of these offices is nearly forty, and of the revenue and of travelled miles, from twenty to twenty-five for one. increase of revenue within the last five years has been nearly equal to the whole revenue of the department in 1812.

The

The expenditures of the department during the year which ended on the first of July last, have exceeded the receipts by a sum of about twenty-five thousand dollars. The excess has been occasioned by the increase of mail and facilities to the extent of near eight hundred thousand conveyances miles. It has been supplied by collections from the postmasters of the arrearages of the preceding years. While the correct principle seems to be, that the income levied by the department should defray all its expenses, it has never been the policy of this government to raise from this establishment any revenue to be applied to any other purposes. The suggestion of the postmaster-general, that the insurance of the safe transmission of moneys by the mail might be assumed by the department, for a moderate and competent remuneration, will deserve the consideration of Congress.

A report from the commissioner of the public buildings in this city exhibits the expenditures upon them in the course of the current year. It will be seen that the humane and benevolent intentions of Congress in providing, by the act of the 20th of May, 1826, for the erection of a peni

*entiary in this district have been accomplished. The authority of further legislation is now required for the removal to this tenement of the offenders against the laws, sentenced to atone by personal confinement for their crimes, and to provide a code for their employment and government while thus confined.

The commissioners appointed conformably to the act of 2d March, 1827, to provide for the adjustment of claims of persons entitled to indemnification under the first article of the treaty of Ghent, and for the distribution among such claimants of the sum paid by the government of Great Britain, under the convention of 13th November, 1826, closed their labors on the 30th August last, by awarding to the claimants the sum of one million one hundred and ninety-seven thousand four hundred and twenty-two dollars and eighteen cents; leaving a balance of seven thousand five hundred and thirtyseven dollars and eighty-two cents, which was distributed ratedly among all the claimants to whom awards had been made, according to the directions of the act.

The exhibits appended to the report from the commissioner of the general land office, present the actual condition of that common property of the Union. The amount paid into the treasury, from the proceeds of lands, during the year 1827, and the first half of 1828, falls little short of two millions of dollars. The propriety of further extending the time for the extinguishment of the debt due to the United States by the purchasers of the public lands, limited by the act of 21st March last to the 4th of July next, will claim the consideration of Congress, to whose vigilance and careful attention, the regulation, disposal, and preservation of this great national inheritance, has by the people of the United States been intrusted.

Among the important subjects to which the attention of the present Congress had already been invited, and which may occupy their further and deliberate discussion, will be the provision to be made for taking the fifth census, or enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States. The constitution of the United States requires that this enumeration should be made within every term of ten years, and the date from which the last enumeration commenced was the first Monday of August, of the year 1820. The laws under which the former enumerations were taken were enacted at the session of Congress immediately preceding the operation. But considerable inconveniences were experienced from the delay of legislation to so late a period. That law, like those of the preceding enumerations, directed that the census should be taken by the marshals of the several districts and territories, under instructions from the secretary of state. The preparation and transmission to the marshals of those instructions, required more time than was then allowed between the passage of the law and the day when the enumeration was to commence. The term of six months, limited for the returns of the marshals, was also found even then too short, and must be more so now, when an additional population of at least three millions must be presented upon the returns. As they are to be made at the short session of Congress, it would, as well as from other considerations, be more convenient to commence the enumeration at an earlier period of the year than the first of August. The most favorable season would be the spring. On a review of the former enumerations, it will be found that the plan for taking every census has contained improvements upon that of its predecessor. The last is still susceptible of much improvement. The third census was the first at which any account was taken of the manufactures of the country. It was

repeated at the last enumeration, but the returns in both cases were necessarily very imperfect.

They must always be so, resting of course only on the communications voluntarily made by individuals interested in some of the manufacturing establishments. Yet they contained much valuable information, and may by some supplementary provision of the law be rendered more effective. The columns of age, commencing from infancy, have hitherto been confined to a few periods, all under the number of forty-five years. Important knowledge would be obtained by extending those columns, in intervals of ten years, to the utmost boundaries of human life. The labor of taking them would be a trifling addition to that already prescribed, and the result would exhibit comparative tables of longevity highly interesting to the country. I deem it my duty further to observe, that much of the imperfections in the returns of the last, and perhaps of preceding enumerations, proceeded from the inadequateness of the compensation allowed to the marshals and their assistants in taking them.

In closing this communication, it only remains for me to assure the legis lature of my continued earnest wish for the adoption of measures recommended by me heretofore, and yet to be acted on by them, and of the cordial concurrence on my part in every constitutional provision which may receive their sanction during the session, tending to the general welfare.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

FEBRUARY 16, 1826.

To the Senate of the United States :

IN answer to the two resolutions of the Senate of the 15th instant, marked (executive), and which I have received, I state, respectfully, that all the communications from me to the senate, relating to the congress at Panama, have been made, like all other communications upon executive business, in confidence, and most of them in compliance with a resolution of the senate requesting them confidentially. Believing that the established usage of free confidential communications between the executive and the senate ought, for the public interest, to be preserved unimpaired, I deem it my indispensable duty to leave to the senate itself the decision of a question involving a departure, hitherto, so far as I am informed, without example, from that usage, and upon the motives for which, not being informed of them, I do not feel myself competent to decide.