Speech Transcript:

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

In taking a general survey of the concerns of our beloved country,
with reference to subjects interesting to the common welfare, the
first sentiment which impresses itself upon the mind is of gratitude
to the Omnipotent Disposer of All Good for the continuance of the
signal blessings of His providence, and especially for that health
which to an unusual extent has prevailed within our borders, and for
that abundance which in the vicissitudes of the seasons has been
scattered with profusion over our land. Nor ought we less to ascribe
to Him the glory that we are permitted to enjoy the bounties of His
hand in peace and tranquillity -- in peace with all the other nations
of the earth, in tranquillity among our selves. There has, indeed,
rarely been a period in the history of civilized man in which the
general condition of the Christian nations has been marked so
extensively by peace and prosperity.

Europe, with a few partial and unhappy exceptions, has enjoyed 10
years of peace, during which all her Governments, what ever the
theory of their constitutions may have been, are successively taught
to feel that the end of their institution is the happiness of the
people, and that the exercise of power among men can be justified
only by the blessings it confers upon those over whom it is
extended.

During the same period our intercourse with all those nations has
been pacific and friendly; it so continues. Since the close of your
last session no material variation has occurred in our relations with
any one of them. In the commercial and navigation system of Great
Britain important changes of municipal regulation have recently been
sanctioned by acts of Parliament, the effect of which upon the
interests of other nations, and particularly upon ours, has not yet
been fully developed. In the recent renewal of the diplomatic
missions on both sides between the two Governments assurances have
been given and received of the continuance and increase of the mutual
confidence and cordiality by which the adjustment of many points of
difference had already been effected, and which affords the surest
pledge for the ultimate satisfactory adjustment of those which still
remain open or may hereafter arise.

The policy of the United States in their commercial intercourse with
other nations has always been of the most liberal character. In the
mutual exchange of their respective productions they have abstained
altogether from prohibitions; they have interdicted themselves the
power of laying taxes upon exports, and when ever they have favored
their own shipping by special preferences or exclusive privileges in
their own ports it has been only with a view to countervail similar
favors and exclusions granted by the nations with whom we have been
engaged in traffic to their own people or shipping, and to the
disadvantage of ours. Immediately after the close of the last war a
proposal was fairly made by the act of Congress of 1815-03-03, to all
the maritime nations to lay aside the system of retaliating
restrictions and exclusions, and to place the shipping of both
parties to the common trade on a footing of equality in respect to
the duties of tonnage and impost. This offer was partially and
successively accepted by Great Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, the
Hanseatic cities, Prussia, Sardinia, the Duke of Oldenburg, and
Russia. It was also adopted, under certain modifications, in our late
commercial convention with France, and by the act of Congress of
1824-01-08, it has received a new confirmation with all the nations
who had acceded to it, and has been offered again to all those who
are or may here after be willing to abide in reciprocity by it. But
all these regulations, whether established by treaty or by municipal
enactments, are still subject to one important restriction.

The removal of discriminating duties of tonnage and of impost is
limited to articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture of the
country to which the vessel belongs or to such articles as are most
usually first shipped from her ports. It will deserve the serious
consideration of Congress whether even this remnant of restriction
may not be safely abandoned, and whether the general tender of equal
competition made in the act of 1824-01-08, may not be extended to
include all articles of merchandise not prohibited, of what country
so ever they may be the produce or manufacture. Propositions of this
effect have already been made to us by more than one European
Government, and it is probable that if once established by
legislation or compact with any distinguished maritime state it would
recommend itself by the experience of its advantages to the general
accession of all.

The convention of commerce and navigation between the United States
and France, concluded on 1822-06-24, was, in the understanding and
intent of both parties, as appears upon its face, only a temporary
arrangement of the points of difference between them of the most
immediate and pressing urgency. It was limited in the first instance
to two years from 1822-10-01, but with a proviso that it should
further continue in force 'til the conclusion of a general and
definitive treaty of commerce, unless terminated by a notice, 6
months in advance, of either of the parties to the other. Its
operation so far as it extended has been mutually advantageous, and
it still continues in force by common consent. But it left unadjusted
several objects of great interest to the citizens and subjects of both
countries, and particularly a mass of claims to considerable amount of
citizens of the United States upon the Government of France of
indemnity for property taken or destroyed under circumstances of the
most aggravated and outrageous character. In the long period during
which continual and earnest appeals have been made to the equity and
magnanimity of France in behalf of these claims their justice has not
been, as it could not be, denied.

It was hoped that the accession of a new Sovereign to the throne
would have afforded a favorable opportunity for presenting them to
the consideration of his Government. They have been presented and
urged hither to without effect. The repeated and earnest
representations of our minister at the Court of France remain as yet
even without an answer. Were the demands of nations upon the justice
of each other susceptible of adjudication by the sentence of an
impartial tribunal, those to which I now refer would long since have
been settled and adequate indemnity would have been obtained.

There are large amounts of similar claims upon the Netherlands,
Naples, and Denmark. For those upon Spain prior to 1819 indemnity
was, after many years of patient forbearance, obtained; and those
upon Sweden have been lately compromised by a private settlement, in
which the claimants themselves have acquiesced. The Governments of
Denmark and of Naples have been recently reminded of those yet
existing against them, nor will any of them be forgotten while a hope
may be indulged of obtaining justice by the means within the
constitutional power of the Executive, and without resorting to those
means of self-redress which, as well as the time, circumstances, and
occasion which may require them, are within the exclusive competency
of the Legislature.

It is with great satisfaction that I am enabled to bear witness to
the liberal spirit with which the Republic of Colombia has made
satisfaction for well-established claims of a similar character, and
among the documents now communicated to Congress will be
distinguished a treaty of commerce and navigation with that Republic,
the ratifications of which have been exchanged since the last recess
of the Legislature. The negotiation of similar treaties with all of
the independent South American States has been contemplated and may
yet be accomplished. The basis of them all, as proposed by the United
States, has been laid in two principles -- the one of entire and
unqualified reciprocity, the other the mutual obligation of the
parties to place each other permanently upon the footing of the most
favored nation. These principles are, indeed, indispensable to the
effectual emancipation of the American hemisphere from the thralldom
of colonizing monopolies and exclusions, an event rapidly realizing
in the progress of human affairs, and which the resistance still
opposed in certain parts of Europe to the acknowledgment of the
Southern American Republics as independent States will, it is
believed, contribute more effectually to accomplish. The time has
been, and that not remote, when some of those States might, in their
anxious desire to obtain a nominal recognition, have accepted of a
nominal independence, clogged with burdensome conditions, and
exclusive commercial privileges granted to the nation from which they
have separated to the disadvantage of all others. They are all now
aware that such concessions to any European nation would be
incompatible with that independence which they have declared and
maintained

Among the measures which have been suggested to them by the new
relations with one another, resulting from the recent changes in
their condition, is that of assembling at the Isthmus of Panama a
congress, at which each of them should be represented, to deliberate
upon objects important to the welfare of all. The Republics of
Colombia, of Mexico, and of Central America have already deputed
plenipotentiaries to such a meeting, and they have invited the United
States to be also represented there by their ministers. The invitation
has been accepted, and ministers on the part of the United States will
be commissioned to attend at those deliberations, and to take part in
them so far as may be compatible with that neutrality from which it
is neither our intention nor the desire of the other American States
that we should depart.

The commissioners under the 7th article of the treaty of Ghent have
so nearly completed their arduous labors that, by the report recently
received from the agent on the part of the United States, there is
reason to expect that the commission will be closed at their next
session, appointed for May 22 of the ensuing year.

The other commission, appointed to ascertain the indemnities due for
slaves carried away from the United States after the close of the
late war, have met with some difficulty, which has delayed their
progress in the inquiry. A reference has been made to the British
Government on the subject, which, it may be hoped, will tend to
hasten the decision of the commissioners, or serve as a substitute
for it.

Among the powers specifically granted to Congress by the Constitution
are those of establishing uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies
throughout the United States and of providing for organizing, arming,
and disciplining the militia and for governing such part of them as
may be employed in the services of the United States. The magnitude
and complexity of the interests affected by legislation upon these
subjects may account for the fact that, long and often as both of
them have occupied the attention and animated the debates of
Congress, no systems have yet been devised for fulfilling to the
satisfaction of the community the duties prescribed by these grants
of power.

To conciliate the claim of the individual citizen to the enjoyment of
personal liberty, with the effective obligation of private contracts,
is the difficult problem to be solved by a law of bankruptcy. These
are objects of the deepest interest to society, affecting all that is
precious in the existence of multitudes of persons, many of them in
the classes essentially dependent and helpless, of the age requiring
nurture, and of the sex entitled to protection from the free agency
of the parent and the husband. The organization of the militia is yet
more indispensable to the liberties of the country. It is only by an
effective militia that we can at once enjoy the repose of peace and
bid defiance to foreign aggression; it is by the militia that we are
constituted an armed nation, standing in perpetual panoply of defense
in the presence of all the other nations of the earth. To this end it
would be necessary, if possible, so to shape its organization as to
give it a more united and active energy. There are laws establishing
an uniform militia throughout the United States and for arming and
equipping its whole body. But it is a body of dislocated members,
without the vigor of unity and having little of uniformity but the
name. To infuse into this most important institution the power of
which it is susceptible and to make it available for the defense of
the Union at the shortest notice and at the smallest expense possible
of time, of life, and of treasure are among the benefits to be
expected from the persevering deliberations of Congress.

Among the unequivocal indications of our national prosperity is the
flourishing state of our finances. The revenues of the present year,
from all their principal sources, will exceed the anticipations of
the last. The balance in the Treasury on the first of January last
was a little short of $2,000,000, exclusive of $2,500,000, being the
moiety of the loan of $5,000,000 authorized by the act of 1824-05-26.
The receipts into the Treasury from the first of January to the 30th
of September, exclusive of the other moiety of the same loan, are
estimated at $16,500,000, and it is expected that those of the
current quarter will exceed $5,000,000, forming an aggregate of
receipts of nearly $22,000,000, independent of the loan. The
expenditures of the year will not exceed that sum more than
$2,000,000. By those expenditures nearly $8,000,000 of the principal
of the public debt that have been discharged.

More than $1,500,000 has been devoted to the debt of gratitude to the
warriors of the Revolution; a nearly equal sum to the construction of
fortifications and the acquisition of ordnance and other permanent
preparations of national defense; $500,000 to the gradual increase of
the Navy; an equal sum for purchases of territory from the Indians and
payment of annuities to them; and upward of $1,000,000 for objects of
internal improvement authorized by special acts of the last Congress.
If we add to these $4,000,000 for payment of interest upon the public
debt, there remains a sum of $7,000,000, which have defrayed the
whole expense of the administration of Government in its legislative,
executive, and judiciary departments, including the support of the
military and naval establishments and all the occasional
contingencies of a government coextensive with the Union.

The amount of duties secured on merchandise imported since the
commencement of the year is about $25,500,000, and that which will
accrue during the current quarter is estimated at $5,500,000; from
these $31,000,000, deducting the draw-backs, estimated at less than
$7,000,000, a sum exceeding $24,000,000 will constitute the revenue
of the year, and will exceed the whole expenditures of the year. The
entire amount of the public debt remaining due on the first of
January next will be short of $81,000,000.

By an act of Congress of the 3d of March last a loan of $12,000,000
was authorized at 4.5%, or an exchange of stock to that amount of
4.5% for a stock of 6%, to create a fund for extinguishing an equal
amount of the public debt, bearing an interest of 6%, redeemable in
1826. An account of the measures taken to give effect to this act
will be laid before you by the Secretary of the Treasury. As the
object which it had in view has been but partially accomplished, it
will be for the consideration of Congress whether the power with
which it clothed the Executive should not be renewed at an early day
of the present session, and under what modifications.

The act of Congress of the 3d of March last, directing the Secretary
of the Treasury to subscribe, in the name and for the use of the
United States, for 1,500 shares of the capital stock of the
Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company, has been executed by the
actual subscription for the amount specified; and such other measures
have been adopted by that officer, under the act, as the fulfillment
of its intentions requires. The latest accounts received of this
important undertaking authorize the belief that it is in successful
progress.

The payments into the Treasury from the proceeds of the sales of the
public lands during the present year were estimated at $1,000,000.
The actual receipts of the first two quarters have fallen very little
short of that sum; it is not expected that the second half of the year
will be equally productive, but the income of the year from that
source may now be safely estimated at $1,500,000. The act of Congress
of 1824-05-18, to provide for the extinguishment of the debt due to
the United States by the purchasers of public lands, was limited in
its operation of relief to the purchaser to the 10th of April last.
Its effect at the end of the quarter during which it expired was to
reduce that debt from $10,000,000 to $7,000,000 By the operation of
similar prior laws of relief, from and since that of 1821-03-02, the
debt had been reduced from upward of $22,000,000 to $10,000,000.

It is exceedingly desirable that it should be extinguished
altogether; and to facilitate that consummation I recommend to
Congress the revival for one year more of the act of 1824-05-18, with
such provisional modification as may be necessary to guard the public
interests against fraudulent practices in the resale of the
relinquished land.

The purchasers of public lands are among the most useful of our
fellow citizens, and since the system of sales for cash alone has
been introduced great indulgence has been justly extended to those
who had previously purchased upon credit. The debt which had been
contracted under the credit sales had become unwieldy, and its
extinction was alike advantageous to the purchaser and to the public.
Under the system of sales, matured as it has been by experience, and
adapted to the exigencies of the times, the lands will continue as
they have become, an abundant source of revenue; and when the pledge
of them to the public creditor shall have been redeemed by the entire
discharge of the national debt, the swelling tide of wealth with which
they replenish the common Treasury may be made to reflow in unfailing
streams of improvement from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

The condition of the various branches of the public service resorting
from the Department of War, and their administration during the
current year, will be exhibited in the report of the Secretary of War
and the accompanying documents herewith communicated. The organization
and discipline of the Army are effective and satisfactory. To
counteract the prevalence of desertion among the troops it has been
suggested to withhold from the men a small portion of their monthly
pay until the period of their discharge; and some expedient appears
to be necessary to preserve and maintain among the officers so much
of the art of horsemanship as could scarcely fail to be found wanting
on the possible sudden eruption of a war, which should take us
unprovided with a single corps of cavalry.

The Military Academy at West Point, under the restrictions of a
severe but paternal superintendence, recommends itself more and more
to the patronage of the nation, and the numbers of meritorious
officers which it forms and introduces to the public service
furnishes the means of multiplying the undertakings of the public
improvements to which their acquirements at that institution are
peculiarly adapted. The school of artillery practice established at
Fortress Monroe Hampton, VA is well suited to the same purpose, and
may need the aid of further legislative provision to the same end.
The reports of the various officers at the head of the administrative
branches of the military service, connected with the quartering,
clothing, subsistence, health, and pay of the Army, exhibit the
assiduous vigilance of those officers in the performance of their
respective duties, and the faithful accountability which has pervaded
every part of the system.

Our relations with the numerous tribes of aboriginal natives of this
country, scattered over its extensive surface and so dependent even
for their existence upon our power, have been during the present year
highly interesting. An act of Congress of 1824-05-25, made an
appropriation to defray the expenses of making treaties of trade and
friendship with the Indian tribes beyond the Mississippi. An act of
1825-03-03, authorized treaties to be made with the Indians for their
consent to the making of a road from the frontier of Missouri to that
of New Mexico, and another act of the same date provided for
defraying the expenses of holding treaties with the Sioux,
Chippeways, Menomenees, Sauks, Foxes, etc., for the purpose of
establishing boundaries and promoting peace between said tribes.

The first and last objects of these acts have been accomplished, and
the second is yet in a process of execution. The treaties which since
the last session of Congress have been concluded with the several
tribes will be laid before the Senate for their consideration
conformably to the Constitution. They comprise large and valuable
acquisitions of territory, and they secure an adjustment of
boundaries and give pledges of permanent peace between several tribes
which had been long waging bloody wars against each other.

On the 12th of February last a treaty was signed at the Indian
Springs between commissioners appointed on the part of the United
States and certain chiefs and individuals of the Creek Nation of
Indians, which was received at the seat of Government only a very few
days before the close of the last session of Congress and of the late
Administration. The advice and consent of the Senate was given to it
on the 3d of March, too late for it to receive the ratification of
the then President of the United States; it was ratified on the 7th
of March, under the unsuspecting impression that it had been
negotiated in good faith and in the confidence inspired by the
recommendation of the Senate. The subsequent transactions in relation
to this treaty will form the subject of a separate communication.

The appropriations made by Congress for public works, as well in the
construction of fortifications as for purposes of internal
improvement, so far as they have been expended, have been faithfuly
applied. Their progress has been delayed by the want of suitable
officers for superintending them. An increase of both the corps of
engineers, military and topographical, was recommended by my
predecessor at the last session of Congress. The reasons upon which
that recommendation was founded subsist in all their force and have
acquired additional urgency since that time. The Military Academy at
West Point will furnish from the cadets there officers well qualified
for carrying this measure into effect.

The Board of Engineers for Internal Improvement, appointed for
carrying into execution the act of Congress of 1824-04-30, "to
procure the necessary surveys, plans, and estimates on the subject of
roads and canals", have been actively engaged in that service from the
close of the last session of Congress. They have completed the surveys
necessary for ascertaining the practicability of a canal from the
Chesapeake Bay to the Ohio River, and are preparing a full report on
that subject, which, when completed, will be laid before you. The
same observation is to be made with regard to the two other objects
of national importance upon which the Board have been occupied,
namely, the accomplishment of a national road from this city to New
Orleans, and the practicability of uniting the waters of Lake
Memphramagog with Connecticut River and the improvement of the
navigation of that river. The surveys have been made and are nearly
completed. The report may be expected at an early period during the
present session of Congress.

The acts of Congress of the last session relative to the surveying,
marking, or laying out roads in the Territories of Florida, Arkansas,
and Michigan, from Missouri to Mexico, and for the continuation of the
Cumberland road, are, some of them, fully executed, and others in the
process of execution. Those for completing or commencing
fortifications have been delayed only so far as the Corps of
Engineers has been inadequate to furnish officers for the necessary
superintendence of the works. Under the act confirming the statutes
of Virginia and Maryland incorporating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
Company, three commissioners on the part of the United States have
been appointed for opening books and receiving subscriptions, in
concert with a like number of commissioners appointed on the part of
each of those States. A meeting of the commissioners has been
post-poned, to await the definitive report of the board of
engineers.

The light-houses and monuments for the safety of our commerce and
mariners, the works for the security of Plymouth Beach and for the
preservation of the islands in Boston Harbor, have received the
attention required by the laws relating to those objects
respectively. The continuation of the Cumberland road, the most
important of them all, after surmounting no inconsiderable difficulty
in fixing upon the direction of the road, has commenced under the most
promising of auspices, with the improvements of recent invention in
the mode of construction, and with advantage of a great reduction in
the comparative cost of the work.

The operation of the laws relating to the Revolutionary pensioners
may deserve the renewed consideration of Congress. The act of
1818-03-18, while it made provision for many meritorious and indigent
citizens who had served in the War of Independence, opened a door to
numerous abuses and impositions. To remedy this the act of
1820-05-01, exacted proofs of absolute indigence, which many really
in want were unable and all susceptible of that delicacy which is
allied to many virtues must be deeply reluctant to give. The result
has been that some among the least deserving have been retained, and
some in whom the requisites both of worth and want were combined have
been stricken from the list. As the numbers of these venerable relics
of an age gone by diminish; as the decays of body, mind, and estate
of those that survive must in the common course of nature increase,
should not a more liberal portion of indulgence be dealt out to them?
May not the want in most instances be inferred from the demand when
the service can be proved, and may not the last days of human
infirmity be spared the mortification of purchasing a pittance of
relief only by the exposure of its own necessities? I submit to
Congress the expediency of providing for individual cases of this
description by special enactment, or of revising the act of
1820-05-01, with a view to mitigate the rigor of its exclusions in
favor of persons to whom charity now bestowed can scarcely discharge
the debt of justice.

The portion of the naval force of the Union in actual service has
been chiefly employed on three stations -- the Mediterranean, the
coasts of South America bordering on the Pacific Ocean, and the West
Indies. An occasional cruiser has been sent to range along the
African shores most polluted by the traffic of slaves; one armed
vessel has been stationed on the coast of our eastern boundary, to
cruise along the fishing grounds in Hudsons Bay and on the coast of
Labrador, and the first service of a new frigate has been performed
in restoring to his native soil and domestic enjoyments the veteran
hero whose youthful blood and treasure had freely flowed in the cause
of our country's independence, and whose whole life has been a series
of services and sacrifices to the improvement of his fellow men.

The visit of General Lafayette, alike honorable to himself and to our
country, closed, as it had commenced, with the most affecting
testimonials of devoted attachment on his part, and of unbounded
gratitude of this people to him in return. It will form here-after a
pleasing incident in the annals of our Union, giving to real history
the intense interest of romance and signally marking the
unpurchasable tribute of a great nation's social affections to the
disinterested champion of the liberties of human-kind.

The constant maintenance of a small squadron in the Mediterranean is
a necessary substitute for the humiliating alternative of paying
tribute for the security of our commerce in that sea, and for a
precarious peace, at the mercy of every caprice of four Barbary
States, by whom it was liable to be violated. An additional motive
for keeping a respectable force stationed there at this time is found
in the maritime war raging between the Greeks and the Turks, and in
which the neutral navigation of this Union is always in danger of
outrage and depredation. A few instances have occurred of such
depredations upon our merchant vessels by privateers or pirates
wearing the Grecian flag, but without real authority from the Greek
or any other Government. The heroic struggles of the Greeks
themselves, in which our warmest sympathies as free men and
Christians have been engaged, have continued to be maintained with
vicissitudes of success adverse and favorable.

Similar motives have rendered expedient the keeping of a like force
on the coasts of Peru and Chile on the Pacific. The irregular and
convulsive character of the war upon the shores has been extended to
the conflicts upon the ocean. An active warfare has been kept up for
years with alternate success, though generally to the advantage of
the American patriots. But their naval forces have not always been
under the control of their own Governments. Blockades, unjustifiable
upon any acknowledged principles of international law, have been
proclaimed by officers in command, and though disavowed by the
supreme authorities, the protection of our own commerce against them
has been made cause of complaint and erroneous imputations against
some of the most gallant officers of our Navy. Complaints equally
groundless have been made by the commanders of the Spanish royal
forces in those seas; but the most effective protection to our
commerce has been the flag and the firmness of our own commanding
officers.

The cessation of the war by the complete triumph of the patriot cause
has removed, it is hoped, all cause of dissension with one party and
all vestige of force of the other. But an unsettled coast of many
degrees of latitude forming a part of our own territory and a
flourishing commerce and fishery extending to the islands of the
Pacific and to China still require that the protecting power of the
Union should be displayed under its flag as well upon the ocean as
upon the land.

The objects of the West India Squadron have been to carry into
execution the laws for the suppression of the African slave trade;
for the protection of our commerce against vessels of piratical
character, though bearing commissions from either of the belligerent
parties; for its protection against open and unequivocal pirates.
These objects during the present year have been accomplished more
effectually than at any former period. The African slave trade has
long been excluded from the use of our flag, and if some few citizens
of our country have continued to set the laws of the Union as well as
those of nature and humanity at defiance by persevering in that
abominable traffic, it has been only by sheltering themselves under
the banners of other nations less earnest for the total extinction of
the trade of ours.

The active, persevering, and unremitted energy of Captain Warrington
and of the officers and men under his command on that trying and
perilous service have been crowned with signal success, and are
entitled to the approbation of their country. But experience has
shown that not even a temporary suspension or relaxation from
assiduity can be indulged on that station without reproducing piracy
and murder in all their horrors; nor is it probably that for years to
come our immensely valuable commerce in those seas can navigate in
security without the 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 principle 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 numbers
and force of the ships of which it was composed it could deserve the
name of a navy. Yet it retains nearly the same organization as when
it consisted only of 5 frigates. The rules and regulations by which
it is governed earnestly 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 1824-05-26, authorizing an examination and
survey of the harbor of Charleston, in South Carolina, of St. Marys,
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 authorizing
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 first of
July last exceeded the expenditures during the same period to the
amount of more than $45,000. Other facts equally creditable to the
administration of this Department are that in two years from
1823-07-01, an improvement of more than $185,000 in its pecuniary
affairs has been realized; that in the same interval the increase of
the transportation of the mail has exceeded 1,500,000 miles annually,
and that 1,040 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, 'til 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.

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 can
not 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 what ever 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 men, are among
the most important means of improvement. But moral, political,
intellectual improvement are duties assigned by the Author of Our
Existence to social no less than to individual man.

For the fulfillment 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 powers is a duty as sacred and indispensable as the
usurpation of powers 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- men, 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 a university still bare and barren.

In assuming her station among the civilized nations of the earth 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 Prouse
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 account the lives of those benefactors of man-kind 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 country-men 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 desire 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 country-man 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 north-west 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 on 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 observances. 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
upward of 130 of these light-houses 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 1791-10-25, the first President of the United States
announced to Congress the 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 4,000,000 persons. At the distance of 30 years from that time the
last enumeration, 5 years since completed, presented a population
bordering on 10,000,000. Perhaps of all the evidence of a prosperous
and happy condition of human society the rapidity of the increase of
population is the 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 corresponding 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 upward of 200. The Senate, which consisted of 26 members,
has now 48. But the executive and, still more, the judiciary
departments 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.

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 to this time, to the
unquestionable detriment of the public 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 10 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 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
cumulative 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 this 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 Congress
upon this subject has specified both the end to be obtained and the
means by which it is to be effected, "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 Constitution -- even a limited term of
exclusive right to their discoveries?

On 1799-12-24, it was resolved by Congress that a marble monument
should be erected by the United States in the Capitol at the city of
Washington; that the family of General Washington should be requested
to permit his body to be deposited under it, and that the monument be
so designed as to commemorate the great events of his military and
political life. In reminding Congress of this resolution and that the
monument contemplated by it remains yet without execution, I shall
indulge only the remarks that the works at the Capitol are
approaching to completion; that the consent of the family, desired by
the resolution, was requested and obtained; that a monument has been
recently erected in this city over the remains of another
distinguished patriot of the Revolution, and that a spot has been
reserved within the walls where you are deliberating for the benefit
of this and future ages, in which the mortal remains may be deposited
of him whose spirit hovers over you and listens with delight to every
act of the representatives of his nation which can tend to exalt and
adorn his and their country.

The Constitution under which you are assembled is a charter of
limited powers. After full and solemn deliberation upon all or any of
the objects which, urged by an irresistible sense of my own duty, I
have recommended to your attention should you come to the conclusion
that, however desirable in themselves, the enactment of laws for
effecting them would transcend the powers committed to you by that
venerable instrument which we are all bound to support, let no
consideration induce you to assume the exercise of powers not granted
to you by the people.

But if the power to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases what
so ever over the District of Columbia; if the power to lay and
collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and
provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United
States; if the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and
among the several States and with the Indian tribes, to fix the
standard of weights and measures, to establish post offices and post
roads, to declare war, to raise and support armies, to provide and
maintain a navy, to dispose of and make all needful rules and
regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to
the United States, and to make all laws which shall be necessary and
proper for carrying these powers into execution -- if these powers
and others enumerated in the Constitution may be effectually brought
into action by laws promoting the improvement of agriculture,
commerce, and manufactures, the cultivation and encouragement of the
mechanic and of the elegant arts, the advancement of literature, and
the progress of the sciences, ornamental and profound, to refrain
from exercising them for the benefit of the people themselves would
be to hide in the earth the talent committed to our charge -- would
be treachery to the most sacred of trusts.

The spirit of improvement is abroad upon the earth. It stimulates the
hearts and sharpens the faculties not of our fellow citizens alone,
but of the nations of Europe and of their rulers. While dwelling with
pleasing satisfaction upon the superior excellence of our political
institutions, let us not be unmindful that liberty is power; that the
nation blessed with the largest portion of liberty must in proportion
to its numbers be the most powerful nation upon earth, and that the
tenure of power by man is, in the moral purposes of his Creator, upon
condition that it shall be exercised to ends of beneficence, to
improve the condition of himself and his fellow men.

While foreign nations less blessed with that freedom which is power
than ourselves are advancing with gigantic strides in the career of
public improvement, were we to slumber in indolence or fold up our
arms and proclaim to the world that we are palsied by the will of our
constituents, would it not be to cast away the bounties of Providence
and doom ourselves to perpetual inferiority? In the course of the
year now drawing to its close we have beheld, under the auspices and
at the expense of one State of this Union, a new university unfolding
its portals to the sons of science and holding up the torch of human
improvement to eyes that seek the light. We have seen under the
persevering and enlightened enterprise of another State the waters of
our Western lakes mingle with those of the ocean. If undertakings like
these have been accomplished in the compass of a few years by the
authority of single members of our Confederation, can we, the
representative authorities of the whole Union, fall behind our fellow
servants in the exercise of the trust committed to us for the benefit
of our common sovereign by the accomplishment of works important to
the whole and to which neither the authority nor the resources of any
one State can be adequate?

Finally, fellow citizens, I shall await with cheering hope and
faithful cooperation the result of your deliberations, assured that,
without encroaching upon the powers reserved to the authorities of
the respective States or to the people, you will, with a due sense of
your obligations to your country and of the high responsibilities
weighing upon yourselves, give efficacy to the means committed to you
for the common good. And may He who searches the hearts of the
children of men prosper your exertions to secure the blessings of
peace and promote the highest welfare of your country.