steady continuance of an armed force devoted to its protection. It were, indeed, a vain and dangerous illusion to believe, that in the present or probable condition of human society, a commerce so extensive and so rich as ours, could exist and be pursued in safety, without the continual support of a military marine; the only arm by which the power of this confederacy can be estimated or felt by foreign nations, and the only standing military force which can never be dangerous to our own liberties at home. A permanent naval peace establishment, therefore, adapted to our present condition, and adaptable to that gigantic growth with which the nation is advancing in its career, is among the subjects which have already occupied the foresight of the last congress, and which will deserve your serious deliberations. Our navy commenced at an early period of our present political organization, upon a scale commensurate with the incipient energies, the scanty resources, and the comparative indigence of our infancy, was even then found adequate to cope with all the powers of Barbary, save the first, and with one of the principal maritime powers of Europe. At a period of further advancement, but with little accession of strength, it not only sustained with honor the most unequal of conflicts, but covered itself and our country with unfading glory. But it is only since the close of the late war, that by the number and force of the ships of which it is composed, it could deserve the name of a navy. Yet it retains nearly the same organization as when it consisted only of five frigates. The rules and regu lations by which it is governed, urgently call for revision, and the want of a naval school of instruction, corresponding with the military academy at West Point, for the formation of scientific and accomplished officers, is felt with daily increasing aggravation. The act of congress of 26th May, 1824, authorising an examination and survey of the harbor of Charleston, in South Carolina, of St. Mary's, in Georgia, and of the coast of Florida, and for other purposes, has been executed so far as the appropriation would admit. Those of the 3d of March last, authorizing the establishment of a navy yard and depot on the coast of Florida, in the gulf of Mexico, and authorising the building of ten sloops of war, and for other purposes, are in the course of execution; for the particulars of which, and other objects connected with this department, I refer to the report of the secretary of the navy, herewith communicated. A report from the postmaster general is also submitted, exhibiting the present flourishing condition of that department. For the first time, for many years, the receipts for the year ending on the 1st of July last, exceeded the expenditures during the same period, to the amount of more than fortyfive thousand dollars. Other facts, equally creditable to the administration of the department are, that in two years from the first of July, 1823, an improvement of more than one hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars in its pecuniary affairs has been realized; that in the same interval the increase of the transportation of the mail has exceeded one million five hundred thousand miles, annually; and that one thousand and forty new post offices have been established. It hence appears, that under judicious management, the income from this establishment may be relied on as fully adequate to defray its expenses; and that, by the discontinuance of post-roads, altogether unproductive, others of more useful character may be opened, till the circulation of the mail shall keep pace with the spread of our population; and the comforts of friendly correspondence, the exchanges of internal traffic, and the lights of the periodical press, shall be distributed to the remotest corners of the union, at a charge scarcely perceptible to any individual, and without the cost of a dollar to the public treasury. moral, political, intellectual improvement, are duties assigned by the author of our existence, to social, no less than to individual man. For the fulfilment of those duties, governments are invested with power, and to the attainment of the end, the progressive improvement of the condition of the governed, the exercise of delegated power is a duty as sacred and indispensable as the usurpation of power not granted is criminal and odious. Among the first, perhaps the very first instrument for the improvement of the condition of men, is knowledge; and to the acquisition of much of the knowledge adapted to the wants, the comforts and enjoyments of human life, public institutions and seminaries of learning are essential. So convinced of this was the first of my predecessors in this office, now first in the memory, as, living, he was first in the hearts of our country, that once and again in his addresses to the congresses, with whom he cooperated in the public service, he earnestly recommended the establishment of seminaries of learning, to prepare for all the emergencies of peace and war-a national university, and a military academy. With respect to the latter, had he lived to the present day, in turning his eyes to the institution at West Point, he would have enjoyed the gratification of his most earnest wishes. But, in surveying the city which has been honored with his name, he would have seen the spot of earth which he had destined and bequeathed to the use and benefit of his country, as the site for an university, still bare and barren. Upon this first occasion of addressing the legislature of the union, with which I have been honored in presenting to their view the execution, so far as it has been effected, of the measures sanctioned by them, for promoting the internal improvement of our country, I cannot close the communication without recommending to their calm and persevering consideration the general principle in a more enlarged extent. The great object of the institution of civil government is, the improvement of the condition of those who are parties to the social compact; and no government, in whatever form constituted, can accomplish the lawful ends of its institution, but in proportion as it improves the condition of those over whom it is established. Roads and canals, by multiplying and facilitating the communications and intercourse between distant regions, and multitudes of In assuming her station among men, are among the most import- the civilised nations of the earth, ant means of improvement. But it would seem that our country had contracted the engagement to contribute her share of mind, of labor, and of expense, to the improvement of those parts of knowledge which lie beyond the reach of individual acquisition; and particularly to geographical and astronomical science. Looking back to the history only of the half century since the declaration of our independence, and observing the generous emulation with which the governments of France, Great Britain, and Russia, have devoted the genius, the intelligence, the treasures of their respective nations, to the common improvement of the species in these branches of science, is it not incumbent upon us to inquire, whether we are not bound by obligations of a high and honorable character, to contribute our portion of energy and exertion, to the common stock? The voyages of discovery, prosecuted in the course of that time, at the expense of those nations, have not only redounded to their glory, but to the improvement of human knowledge. We have been partakers of that improvement, and owe for it a sacred debt, not only of gratitude, but of equal or proportional exertion in the same common cause. Of the cost of these undertakings, if the mere expenditures of outfit, equipment, and completion of the expeditions, were to be considered the only charges, it would be unworthy of a great and generous nation to take a second thought. One hundred expeditions of circumnavigation, like those of Cook and La Perouse, would not burden the exchequer of the nation fitting them out, so much as the ways and means of defraying a single campaign in war. But if we take into the account the lives of those be nefactors of mankind, of which their services in the cause of their species were the purchase, how shall the cost of those heroic enterprises be estimated? And what compensation can be made to them, or to their countries for them? Is it not by bearing them in affectionate remembrance? Is it not still more, by imitating their example? by enabling countrymen of our own to pursue the same career, and to hazard their lives in the same cause? In inviting the attention of congress to the subject of internal improvements, upon a view thus enlarged, it is not my design to recommend the equipment of an expedition for circumnavigating the globe for purposes of scientific research and inquiry. We have objects of useful investigation nearer home, and to which our cares may be more beneficially applied. The interior of our own territories has yet been very imperfectly explored. Our coasts, along many degrees of latitude upon the shores of the Pacific ocean, though much frequented by our spirited commercial navigators, have been barely visited by our public ships. The River of the West, first fully discovered and navigated by a countrymen of our own, still bears the name of the ship in which he ascended its waters, and claims the protection of our armed national flag at its mouth. With the establishment of a military post there, or at some other point of that coast, recommended by my predecessor, and already matured, in the deliberations of the last congress, I would suggest the expediency of connecting the equipment of a public ship for the exploration of the whole northwest coast of this continent. The establishment of an uniform standard of weights and measures was one of the specific objects contemplated in the formation of our constitution, and to fix that standard was one of the powers delegated by express terms, in that instrument to congress. The governments of Great Britain and France have scarcely ceased to be occupied with inquiries and speculations on the same subject, since the existence of our constitution; and with them it has expanded into profound, laborious, and expensive researches into the figure of the earth, and the comparative length of the pendulum vibrating seconds in various latitudes from the equator to the pole. These researches have resulted in the composition and publication of several works highly interesting to the cause of science. The experiments are yet in the process of performance. Some of them have recently been made on our own shores, within the walls of one of our own colleges, and partly by one of our own fellow-citizens. It would be honorable to our country, if the sequel of the same experiments should be countenanced by the patronage of our government, as they have hitherto been by those of France and Britain. Connected with the establishment of an university, or separate from it, might be undertaken the erection of an astronomical observatory, with provision for the support of an astronomer, to be in constant attendance of observation upon the phenomena of the heavens; and for the periodical publication of his observations. It is with no feeling of pride, as an American, that the remark may be made, that on the comparatively small territorial surface of Europe, there are existing upwards of one hundred and thirty of these lighthouses of the skies; while throughout the whole American hemisphere there is not one. If we reflect a moment upon the discoveries, which, in the last four centuries, have been made in the physical constitution of the universe, by the means of these buildings, and of observers stationed in them, shall we doubt of their usefulness to every nation ? And while scarcely a year passes over our heads without bringing some new astronomical discovery to light, which we must fain receive at second-hand from Europe, are we not cutting ourselves off from the means of returning light for light, while we have neither observatory nor observer upon our half of the globe, and the earth revolves in perpetual darkness to our unsearching eyes? When, on the 25th of October, 1791, the first president of the United States announced to congress the first result of the first enumeration of the inhabitants of this union, he informed them that the returns gave the pleasing assurance that the population of the United States bordered on four millions of persons. At the distance of 30 years, from that time, the last enumeration, five years since completed, presented a population bordering upon ten millions. Perhaps, of all the evidences of a prosperous and happy condition of human society, the rapidity of the increase of population is most unequivocal. But the demonstration of our prosperity rests not alone upon this indication. Our commerce, our wealth, and the extent of our territories, have increased in corre sponding proportions; and the number of independent communities associated in our federal union, has, since that time, nearly doubled. The legislative representation of the states and people, in the two houses of congress, has grown with the growth of their constituent bodies. The house, which then consisted of 65 members, now numbers upwards of two hundred. The senate, which consisted of twentysix members, has now forty-eight. But the executive, and still more the judiciary department, are yet, in a great measure, confined to their primitive organization, and are now not adequate to the urgent wants of a still growing community. present maturity. Nine years have elapsed since a predecessor in this office, now not the last, the citizen, who, perhaps, of all others throughout the union, contributed most to the formation and establishment of our constitution, in his valedictory address to congress, immediately preceding his retirement from public life, urgently recommended the revision of the judiciary, and the establishment of an additional executive department. The exigencies of the public service, and its unavoidable deficiencies, as now in exercise, have added yearly cu- mulative weight to the considerations presented by him as persuasive to the measure; and in recommending it to your deliberations, I am happy to have the influence of his high authority, in aid of the undoubting convictions of my own experience. The laws relating to the administration of the patent office are deserving of much consideration, and, perhaps, susceptible of some improvement. The grant of power to regulate the action of con The naval armaments, which, at an early period, forced themselves upon the necessities of the union, soon led to the establishment of a department of the navy. But the departments of foreign affairs, and of the interior, which, early after the formation of the government had been united in one, continue so united at this time, to the unquestionable detriment of the pub-gress on this subject has specified lic service. The multiplication of our relations with the nations and governments of the old world, has kept pace with that of our population and commerce, while within the last ten years a new family of nations, in our own hemisphere, has arisen among the inhabitants of the earth, with whom our intercourse, commercial and political, would of itself furnish occupation to an active and industrious department. The constitution of the judiciary, experimental and imperfect as it was, even in the infancy of our existing government, is yet more inadequate to the administration of national justice at our both the end to be attained, and the means by which it is to be ef fected. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing, for limited times, to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. If an honest pride might be indulged in the reflection, that on the records of that office are already found inventions the usefulness of which has scarcely been transcended in the annals of human ingenuity, would not its exultation be allayed by the inquiry, whether the laws have effectively insured to the inventors the reward destined to them by the con |