Speech Transcript:

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

The assemblage of the representatives of our Union in both Houses of
the Congress at this time occurs under circumstances calling for the
renewed homage of our grateful acknowledgments to the Giver of All
Good. With the exceptions incidental to the most felicitous condition
of human existence, we continue to be highly favored in all the
elements which contribute to individual comfort and to national
prosperity. In the survey of our extensive country we have generally
to observe abodes of health and regions of plenty. In our civil and
political relations we have peace without and tranquillity within our
borders. We are, as a people, increasing with unabated rapidity in
population, wealth, and national resources, and whatever differences
of opinion exist among us with regard to the mode and the means by
which we shall turn the beneficence of Heaven to the improvement of
our own condition, there is yet a spirit animating us all which will
not suffer the bounties of Providence to be showered upon us in vain,
but will receive them with grateful hearts, and apply them with
unwearied hands to the advancement of the general good.

Of the subjects recommended to Congress at their last session, some
were then definitively acted upon. Others, left unfinished, but
partly matured, will recur to your attention without needing a
renewal of notice from me. The purpose of this communication will be
to present to your view the general aspect of our public affairs at
this moment and the measures which have been taken to carry into
effect the intentions of the Legislature as signified by the laws
then and heretofore enacted.

In our intercourse with the other nations of the earth we have still
the happiness of enjoying peace and a general good understanding,
qualified, however, in several important instances by collisions of
interest and by unsatisfied claims of justice, to the settlement of
which the constitutional interposition of the legislative authority
may become ultimately indispensable.

By the decease of the Emperor Alexander of Russia, which occurred
contemporaneously with the commencement of the last session of
Congress, the United States have been deprived of a long tried,
steady, and faithful friend. Born to the inheritance of absolute
power and trained in the school of adversity, from which no power on
earth, however absolute, is exempt, that monarch from his youth had
been taught to feel the force and value of public opinion and to be
sensible that the interests of his own Government would best be
promoted by a frank and friendly intercourse with this Republic, as
those of his people would be advanced by a liberal intercourse with
our country. A candid and confidential interchange of sentiments
between him and the Government of the US upon the affairs of Southern
America took place at a period not long preceding his demise, and
contributed to fix that course of policy which left to the other
Governments of Europe no alternative but that of sooner or later
recognizing the independence of our southern neighbors, of which the
example had by the United States already been set.

The ordinary diplomatic communications between his successor, the
Emperor Nicholas, and the United States have suffered some
interruption by the illness, departure, and subsequent decease of his
minister residing here, who enjoyed, as he merited, the entire
confidence of his new sovereign, as he had eminently responded to
that of his predecessor. But we have had the most satisfactory
assurances that the sentiments of the reigning Emperor toward the
United States are altogether conformable to those which had so long
and constantly animated his imperial brother, and we have reason to
hope that they will serve to cement that harmony and good
understanding between the two nations which, founded in congenial
interests, can not but result in the advancement of the welfare and
prosperity of both.

Our relations of commerce and navigation with France are, by the
operation of the convention of 1822-06-24, with that nation, in a
state of gradual and progressive improvement. Convinced by all our
experience, no less than by the principles of fair and liberal
reciprocity which the United States have constantly tendered to all
the nations of the earth as the rule of commercial intercourse which
they would universally prefer, that fair and equal competition is
most conducive to the interests of both parties, the United States in
the negotiation of that convention earnestly contended for a mutual
renunciation of discriminating duties and charges in the ports of the
two countries. Unable to obtain the immediate recognition of this
principle in its full extent, after reducing the duties of
discrimination so far as was found attainable it was agreed that at
the expiration of two years from 1822-10-01, when the convention was
to go into effect, unless a notice of 6 months on either side should
be given to the other that the convention itself must terminate,
those duties should be reduced 1/4, and that this reducation should
be yearly repeated, until all discrimination should cease, while the
convention itself should continue in force. By the effect of this
stipulation 3/4 of the discriminating duties which had been levied by
each party upon the vessels of the other in its ports have already
been removed; and on the first of next October, should the convention
be still in force, the remaining 1/4 will be discontinued. French
vessels laden with French produce will be received in our ports on
the same terms as our own, and ours in return will enjoy the same
advantages in the ports of France.

By these approximations to an equality of duties and of charges not
only has the commerce between the two countries prospered, but
friendly dispositions have been on both sides encouraged and
promoted. They will continue to be cherished and cultivated on the
part of the United States. It would have been gratifying to have had
it in my power to add that the claims upon the justice of the French
Government, involving the property and the comfortable subsistence of
many of our fellow citizens, and which have been so long and so
earnestly urged, were in a more promising train of adjustment than at
your last meeting; but their condition remains unaltered.

With the Government of the Netherlands the mutual abandonment of
discriminating duties had been regulated by legislative acts on both
sides. The act of Congress of 1818-04-20, abolished all
discriminating duties of impost and tonnage upon the vessels and
produce of the Netherlands in the ports of the United States upon the
assurance given by the Government of the Netherlands that all such
duties operating against the shipping and commerce of the United
States in that Kingdom had been abolished. These reciprocal
regulations had continued in force several years when the
discriminating principle was resumed by the Netherlands in a new and
indirect form by a bounty of 10% in the shape of a return of duties
to their national vessels, and in which those of the United States
are not permitted to participate. By the act of Congress of
1824-01-07, all discriminating duties in the United States were again
suspended, so far as related to the vessels and produce of the
Netherlands, so long as the reciprocal exemption should be extended
to the vessels and produce of the United States in the Netherlands.
But the same act provides that in the event of a restoration of
discriminating duties to operate against the shipping and commerce of
the United States in any of the foreign countries referred to therein
the suspension of discriminating duties in favor of the navigation of
such foreign country should cease and all the provisions of the acts
imposing discriminating foreign tonnage and impost duties in the
United States should revive and be in full force with regard to that
nation.

In the correspondence with the Government of the Netherlands upon
this subject they have contended that the favor shown to their own
shipping by this bounty upon their tonnage is not to be considered a
discriminating duty; but it can not be denied that it produces all
the same effects. Had the mutual abolition been stipulated by treaty,
such a bounty upon the national vessels could scarcely have been
granted consistent with good faith. Yet as the act of Congress of
1824-01-07 has not expressly authorized the Executive authority to
determine what shall be considered as a revival of discriminating
duties by a foreign government to the disadvantage of the United
States, and as the retaliatory measure on our part, however just and
necessary, may tend rather to that conflict of legislation which we
deprecate than to that concert to which we invite all commercial
nations, as most conducive to their interest and our own, I have
thought it more consistent with the spirit of our institutions to
refer to the subject again to the paramount authority of the
Legislature to decide what measure the emergency may require than
abruptly by proclamation to carry into effect the minatory provisions
of the act of 1824.

During the last session of Congress treaties of amity, navigation,
and commerce were negotiated and signed at this place with the
Government of Denmark, in Europe, and with the Federation of Central
America, in this hemisphere. These treaties then received the
constitutional sanction of the Senate, by the advice and consent to
their ratification. They were accordingly ratified on the part of the
US, and during the recess of Congress have been also ratified by the
other respective contracting parties. The ratifications have been
exchanged, and they have been published by proclamations, copies of
which are herewith communicated to Congress.

These treaties have established between the contracting parties the
principles of equality and reciprocity in their broadest and most
liberal extent, each party admitting the vessels of the other into
its ports, laden with cargoes the produce or manufacture of any
quarter of the globe, upon the payment of the same duties of tonnage
and impost that are chargeable upon their own. They have further
stipulated that the parties shall hereafter grant no favor of
navigation or commerce to any other nation which shall not upon the
same terms be granted to each other, and that neither party will
impose upon articles of merchandise the produce or manufacture of the
other any other or higher duties than upon the like articles being the
produce or manufacture of any other country. To these principles there
is in the convention with Denmark an exception with regard to the
colonies of that Kingdom in the arctic seas, but none with regard to
her colonies in the West Indies.

In the course of the last summer the term to which our last
commercial treaty with Sweden was limited has expired. A continuation
of it is in the contemplation of the Swedish Government, and is
believed to be desirable on the part of the United States. It has
been proposed by the King of Sweden that pending the negotiation of
renewal the expired treaty should be mutually considered as still in
force, a measure which will require the sanction of Congress to be
carried into effect on our part, and which I therefore recommend to
your consideration.

With Prussia, Spain, Portugal, and, in general, all the European
powers between whom and the United States relations of friendly
intercourse have existed their condition has not materially varied
since the last session of Congress. I regret not to be able to say
the same of our commercial intercourse with the colonial possessions
of Great Britain in America. Negotiations of the highest importance
to our common interests have been for several years in discussion
between the two Governments, and on the part of the United States
have been invariably pursued in the spirit of candor and
conciliation. Interests of great magnitude and delicacy had been
adjusted by the conventions of 1815 and 1818, while that of 1822,
mediated by the late Emperor Alexander, had promised a satisfactory
compromise of claims which the Government of the US, in justice to
the rights of a numerous class of their citizens, was bound to
sustain.

But with regard to the commercial intercourse between the United
States and the British colonies in America, it has been hitherto
found impracticable to bring the parties to an understanding
satisfactory to both. The relative geographical position and the
respective products of nature cultivated by human industry had
constituted the elements of a commercial intercourse between the
United States and British America, insular and continental, important
to the inhabitants of both countries; but it had been interdicted by
Great Britain upon a principle heretofore practiced upon by the
colonizing nations of Europe, of holding the trade of their colonies
each in exclusive monopoly to herself.

After the termination of the late war this interdiction had been
revived, and the British Government declined including this portion
of our intercourse with her possessions in the negotiation of the
convention of 1815. The trade was then carried on exclusively in
British vessels 'til the act of Congress, concerning navigation, of
1818 and the supplemental act of 1820 met the interdict by a
corresponding measure on the part of the United States. These
measures, not of retaliation, but of necessary self defense, were
soon succeeded by an act of Parliament opening certain colonial ports
to the vessels of the United States coming directly from them, and to
the importation from them of certain articles of our produce burdened
with heavy duties, and excluding some of the most valuable articles of
our exports. The United States opened their ports to British vessels
from the colonies upon terms as exactly corresponding with those of
the act of Parliament as in the relative position of the parties
could be made, and a negotiation was commenced by mutual consent,
with the hope on our part that a reciprocal spirit of accommodation
and a common sentiment of the importance of the trade to the
interests of the inhabitants of the two countries between whom it
must be carried on would ultimately bring the parties to a compromise
with which both might be satisfied. With this view the Government of
the United States had determined to sacrifice something of that
entire reciprocity which in all commercial arrangements with foreign
powers they are entitled to demand, and to acquiesce in some
inequalities disadvantageous to ourselves rather than to forego the
benefit of a final and permanent adjustment of this interest to the
satisfaction of Great Britain herself. The negotiation, repeatedly
suspended by accidental circumstances, was, however, by mutual
agreement and express assent, considered as pending and to be
speedily resumed.

In the mean time another act of Parliament, so doubtful and ambiguous
in its import as to have been misunderstood by the officers in the
colonies who were to carry it into execution, opens again certain
colonial ports upon new conditions and terms, with a threat to close
them against any nation which may not accept those terms as
prescribed by the British Government. This act, passed 1825-07, not
communicated to the Government of the US, not understood by the
British officers of the customs in the colonies where it was to be
enforced, was never the less submitted to the consideration of
Congress at their last session. With the knowledge that a negotiation
upon the subject had long been in progress and pledges given of its
resumption at an early day, it was deemed expedient to await the
result of that negotiation rather than to subscribe implicitly to
terms the import of which was not clear and which the British
authorities themselves in this hemisphere were not prepared to
explain.

Immediately after the close of the last session of Congress one of
our most distinguished citizens was dispatched as envoy extraordinary
and minister plenipotentiary to Great Britain, furnished with
instructions which we could not doubt would lead to a conclusion of
this long controverted interest upon terms acceptable to Great
Britain. Upon his arrival, and before he had delivered his letters of
credence, he was bet by an order of the British council excluding from
and after the first of December now current the vessels of the United
States from all the colonial British ports excepting those
immediately bordering on our territories. In answer to his
expostulations upon a measure thus unexpected he is informed that
according to the ancient maxims of policy of European nations having
colonies their trade is an exclusive possession of the mother
country; that all participation in it by other nations is a boon or
favor not forming a subject of negotiation, but to be regulated by
the legislative acts of the power owning the colony; that the British
Government therefore declines negotiating concerning it, and that as
the US did not forthwith accept purely and simply the terms offered
by the act of Parliament of 1825-07, Great Britain would not now
admit the vessels of the United States even upon the terms on which
she has opened them to the navigation of other nations.

We have been accustomed to consider the trade which we have enjoyed
with the British colonies rather as an interchange of mutual benefits
than as a mere favor received; that under every circumstance we have
given an ample equivalent. We have seen every other nation holding
colonies negotiate with other nations and grant them freely admission
to the colonies by treaty, and so far are the other colonizing nations
of Europe now from refusing to negotiate for trade with their colonies
that we ourselves have secured access to the colonies of more than one
of them by treaty. The refusal, however, of Great Britain to negotiate
leaves to the United States no other alternative than that of
regulating or interdicting altogether the trade on their part,
according as either measure may effect the interests of our own
country, and with that exclusive object I would recommend the whole
subject to your calm and candid deliberations.

It is hoped that our unavailing exertions to accomplish a cordial
good understanding on this interest will not have an unpropitious
effect upon the other great topics of discussion between the two
Governments. Our north-eastern and north-western boundaries are still
unadjusted. The commissioners under the 7th article of the treaty of
Ghent have nearly come to the close of their labors; nor can we
renounce the expectation, enfeebled as it is, that they may agree
upon their report to the satisfaction or acquiescence of both
parties. The commission for liquidating the claims for indemnity for
slaves carried away after the close of the war has been sitting, with
doubtful prospects of success. Propositions of compromise have,
however, passed between the two Governments, the result of which we
flatter ourselves may yet prove unsatisfactory. Our own dispositions
and purposes toward Great Britain are all friendly and conciliatory;
nor can we abandon but with strong reluctance the belief that they
will ultimately meet a return, not of favors, which we neither as nor
desire, but of equal reciprocity and good will.

With the American Governments of this hemisphere we continue to
maintain an intercourse altogether friendly, and between their
nations and ours that commercial interchange of which mutual benefit
is the source of mutual comfort and harmony the result is in a
continual state of improvement. The war between Spain and them since
the total expulsion of the Spanish military force from their
continental territories has been little more than nominal, and their
internal tranquillity, though occasionally menaced by the agitations
which civil wars never fail to leave behind them, has not been
affected by any serious calamity.

The congress of ministers from several of those nations which
assembled at Panama, after a short session there, adjourned to meet
again at a more favorable season in the neighborhood of Mexico. The
decease of one of our ministers on his way to the Isthmus, and the
impediments of the season, which delayed the departure of the other,
deprived United States of the advantage of being represented at the
first meeting of the congress. There is, however, no reason to
believe that any transactions of the congress were of a nature to
affect injuriously the interests of the United States or to require
the interposition of our ministers had they been present. Their
absence has, indeed, deprived United States of the opportunity of
possessing precise and authentic information of the treaties which
were concluded at Panama; and the whole result has confirmed me in
the conviction of the expediency to the United States of being
represented at the congress. The surviving member of the mission,
appointed during your last session, has accordingly proceeded to his
destination, and a successor to his distinguished and lamented
associate will be nominated to the Senate. A treaty of amity,
navigation, and commerce has in the course of the last summer been
concluded by our minister plenipotentiary at Mexico with the united
states of that Confederacy, which will also be laid before the Senate
for their advice with regard to its ratification.

In adverting to the present condition of our fiscal concerns and to
the prospects of our revenue the first remark that calls our
attention is that they are less exuberantly prosperous than they were
at the corresponding period of the last year. The severe shock so
extensively sustained by the commercial and manufacturing interests
in Great Britain has not been without a perceptible recoil upon
ourselves. A reduced importation from abroad is necessarily succeeded
by a reduced return to the Treasury at home. The net revenue of the
present year will not equal that of the last, and the receipts of
that which is to come will fall short of those in the current year.
The diminution, however, is in part attributable to the flourishing
condition of some of our domestic manufactures, and so far is
compensated by an equivalent more profitable to the nation.

It is also highly gratifying to perceive that the deficiency in the
revenue, while it scarcely exceeds the anticipations of the last
year's estimate from the Treasury, has not interrupted the
application of more than $11M during the present year to the
discharge of the principal and interest of the debt, nor the
reduction of upward of $7,000,000 of the capital of the debt itself.
The balance in the Treasury on the first of January last was
$5,201,650.43; the receipts from that time to the 30th of September
last were $19,585,932.50; the receipts of the current quarter,
estimated at $6,000,000, yield, with the sums already received, a
revenue of about $25,500,000 for the year; the expenditures for the
first 3 quarters of the year have amounted to $18,714,226.66; the
expenditures of the current quarter are expected, including the
$2,000,000 of the principal of the debt to be paid, to balance the
receipts; so that the expense of the year, amounting to upward of
$1,000,000 less than its income, will leave a proportionally
increased balance in the Treasury on 1827-01-01, over that of the
first of January last; instead of $5,200,000 there will be
$6,400,000.

The amount of duties secured on merchandise imported from the
commence of the year 'til September 30 is estimated at $21,250,000,
and the amount that will probably accrue during the present quarter
is estimated at $4,250,000, making for the whole year $25,500,000,
from which the draw-backs being deducted will leave a clear revenue
from the customs receivable in the year 1827 of about $20,400,000,
which, with the sums to be received from the proceeds of public
lands, the bank dividends, and other incidental receipts, will form
an aggregate of about $23,000,000, a sum falling short of the whole
expenses of the present year little more than the portion of those
expenditures applied to the discharge of the public debt beyond the
annual appropriation of $10,000,000 by the act of 1817-03-03. At the
passage of that act the public debt amounted to $123,500,000. On the
first of January next it will be short of $74,000,000. In the lapse
of these 10 years $50,000,000 of public debt, with the annual charge
of upward of $3,000,000 of interest upon them, have been
extinguished. At the passage of tat act, of the annual appropriation
of $10,000,000, $7,000,000 were absorbed in the payment of interest,
and not more than $3,000,000 went to reduce the capital of the debt.
Of the same $10,000,000, at this time scarcely $4,000,000 are
applicable to the interest and upward of $6,000,000 are effective in
melting down the capital.

Yet our experience has proved that a revenue consisting so largely of
imposts and tonnage ebbs and flows to an extraordinary extent, with
all the fluctuations incident to the general commerce of the world.
It is within our recollection that even in the compass of the same
last 10 years the receipts of the Treasury were not adequate to the
expenditures of the year, and that in two successive years it was
found necessary to resort to loans to meet the engagements of the
nation. The returning tides of the succeeding years replenished the
public coffers until they have again begun to feel the vicissitude of
a decline. To produce these alternations of fullness and exhaustion
the relative operation of abundant or unfruitful seasons, the
regulations of foreign governments, political revolutions, the
prosperous or decaying condition of manufactures, commercial
speculations, and many other causes, not always to be traced,
variously combine.

We have found the alternate swells and diminutions embracing periods
of from two to three years. The last period of depression to United
States was from 1819 to 1822. The corresponding revival was from 1823
to the commencement of the present year. Still, we have no cause to
apprehend a depression comparable to that of the former period, or
even to anticipate a deficiency which will intrench upon the ability
to apply the annual $10M to the reduction of the debt. It is well for
us, however, to be admonished of the necessity of abiding by the
maxims of the most vigilant economy, and of resorting to all
honorable and useful expedients for pursuing with steady and
inflexible perseverance the total discharge of the debt.

Besides the $7,000,000 of the loans of 1813 which will have been
discharged in the course of the present year, there are $9,000,000
which by the terms of the contracts would have been and are now
redeemable. $13,000,000 more of the loan of 1814 will become
redeemable from and after the expiration of the present month, and
$9,000,000 other from and after the close of the ensuing year. They
constitute a mass of $31,000,000, all bearing an interest of 6%, more
than $20,000,000 of which will be immediately redeemable, and the rest
within little more than a year. Leaving of this amount $15,000,000 to
continue at the interest of 6%, but to be paid off as far as shall be
found practicable in the years 1827 and 1828, there is scarcely a
doubt that the remaining $16,000,000 might within a few months be
discharged by a loan at not exceeding 5%, redeemable in the years
1829 and 1830. By this operation a sum of nearly $500,000 may be
saved to the nation, and the discharge of the whole $31,000,000
within the 4 years may be greatly facilitated if not wholly
accomplished.

By an act of Congress of 1835-03-03, a loan for the purpose now
referred to, or a subscription to stock, was authorized, at an
interest not exceeding 4.5%. But at that time so large a portion of
the floating capital of the country was absorbed in commercial
speculations and so little was left for investment in the stocks that
the measure was but partially successful. At the last session of
Congress the condition of the funds was still unpropitious to the
measure; but the change so soon afterwards occurred that, had the
authority existed to redeem the $9M now redeemable by an exchange of
stocks or a loan at 5%, it is morally certain that it might have been
effected, and with it a yearly saving of $90,000.

With regard to the collection of the revenue of imposts, certain
occurrences have within the last year been disclosed in one or two of
our principal ports, which engaged the attention of Congress at their
last session and may hereafter require further consideration. Until
within a very few years the execution of the laws for raising the
revenue, like that of all our other laws, has been insured more by
the moral sense of the community than by the rigors of a jealous
precaution or by penal sanction. Confiding in the exemplary
punctuality and unsullied integrity of our importing merchants, a
gradual relaxation from the provisions of the collection laws, a
close adherence to which have caused inconvenience and expense to
them, had long become habitual, and indulgences had been extended
universally because they had never been abused. It may be worthy of
your serious consideration whether some further legislative provision
may not be necessary to come in aid of this state of unguarded
security.

From the reports herewith communicated of the Secretaries of War and
of the Navy, with the subsidiary documents annexed to them, will be
discovered the present condition and administration of our military
establishment on the land and on the sea. The organization of the
Army having undergone no change since its reduction to the present
peace establishment in 1821, it remains only to observe that it is
yet found adequate to all the purposes for which a permanent armed
force in time of peace can be needed or useful. It may be proper to
add that, from a difference of opinion between the late President of
the United States and the Senate with regard to the construction of
the act of Congress of 1821-03-02, to reduce and fix the military
peace establishment of the US, it remains hitherto so far without
execution that no colonel has been appointed to command one of the
regiments of artillery. A supplementary or explanatory act of the
Legislature appears to be the only expedient practicable for removing
the difficulty of this appointment.

In a period of profound peace the conduct of the mere military
establishment forms but a very inconsiderable portion of the duties
devolving upon the administration of the Department of War. It will
be seen by the returns from the subordinate departments of the Army
that every branch of the service is marked with order, regularity,
and discipline; that from the commanding general through all the
gradations of superintendence the officers feel themselves to have
been citizens before they were soldiers, and that the glory of a
republican army must consist in the spirit of freedom, by which it is
animated, and of patriotism, by which it is impelled. It may be
confidently stated that the moral character of the Army is in a state
of continual improvement, and that all the arrangements for the
disposal of its parts have a constant reference to that end.

But to the War Department are attributed other duties, having,
indeed, relation to a future possible condition of war, but being
purely defensive, and in their tendency contributing rather to the
security and permanency of peace -- the erection of the
fortifications provided for by Congress, and adapted to secure our
shores from hostile invasion; the distribution of the fund of public
gratitude and justice to the pensioners of the Revolutionary war; the
maintenance of our relations of peace and protection with the Indian
tribes, and the internal improvements and surveys for the location of
roads and canals, which during the last 3 sessions of Congress have
engaged so much of their attention, and may engross so large a share
of their future benefactions to our country.

By the act of 1824-04-30, suggested and approved by my predecessor,
the sum of $30K was appropriated for the purpose of causing to be
made the necessary surveys, plans, and estimates of the routes of
such roads and canals as the President of the United States might
deem of national importance in a commercial or military point of
view, or necessary for the transportation of the public mail. The
surveys, plans, and estimates for each, when completed, will be laid
before Congress.

In execution of this act a board of engineers was immediately
instituted, and have been since most assiduously and constantly
occupied in carrying it into effect. The first object to which their
labors were directed, by order of the late President, was the
examination of the country between the tide waters of the Potomac,
the Ohio, and Lake Erie, to ascertain the practicability of a
communication between them, to designate the most suitable route for
the same, and to form plans and estimates in detail of the expense of
execution.

On 1825-02-03, they made their first report, which was immediately
communicated to Congress, and in which they declared that having
maturely considered the circumstances observed by them personally,
and carefully studied the results of such of the preliminary surveys
as were then completed, they were decidedly of opinion that the
communication was practicable.

At the last session of Congress, before the board of engineers were
enabled to make up their second report containing a general plan and
preparatory estimate for the work, the Committee of the House of
Representatives upon Roads and Canals closed the session with a
report expressing the hope that the plan and estimate of the board of
engineers might at this time be prepared, and that the subject be
referred to the early and favorable consideration of Congress at
their present session. That expected report of the board of engineers
is prepared, and will forthwith be laid before you.

Under the resolution of Congress authorizing the Secretary of War to
have prepared a complete system of cavalry tactics, and a system of
exercise and instruction of field artillery, for the use of the
militia of the US, to be reported to Congress at the present session,
a board of distinguished officers of the Army and of the militia has
been convened, whose report will be submitted to you with that of the
Secretary of War. The occasion was thought favorable for consulting
the same board, aided by the results of a correspondence with the
governors of the several States and Territories and other citizens of
intelligence and experience, upon the acknowledged defective condition
of our militia system, and of the improvements of which it is
susceptible. The report of the board upon this subject is also
submitted for your consideration.

In the estimates of appropriations for the ensuing year upward of $5M
will be submitted for the expenditures to be paid from the Department
of War. Less than 2/5 of this will be applicable to the maintenance
and support of the Army. $1,500,000, in the form of pensions, goes as
a scarcely adequate tribute to the services and sacrifices of a former
age, and a more than equal sum invested in fortifications, or for the
preparations of internal improvement, provides for the quiet, the
comfort, and happier existence of the ages to come. The
appropriations to indemnify those unfortunate remnants of another
race unable alike to share in the enjoyments and to exist in the
presence of civilization, though swelling in recent years to a
magnitude burdensome to the Treasury, are generally not without their
equivalents in profitable value, or serve to discharge the Union from
engagements more burdensome than debt.

In like manner the estimate of appropriations for the Navy Department
will present an aggregate sum of upward of $3,000,000M. About half of
these, however, covers the current expenditures of the Navy in actual
service, and half constitutes a fund of national property, the pledge
of our future glory and defense. It was scarcely one short year after
the close of the late war, and when the burden of its expenses and
charges was weighing heaviest upon the country, that Congress, by the
act of 1816-04-29, appropriated $1,000,000 annually for 8 years to the
*gradual increase of the Navy*. At a subsequent period this annual
appropriation was reduced to $0,500,000 for 6 years, of which the
present year is the last. A yet more recent appropriation the last
two years, for building 10 sloops of war, has nearly restored the
original appropriation of 1816 of $1,000,000 for every year.

The result is before United States all. We have 12 line-of-battle
ships, 20 frigates, and sloops of war in proportion, which, with a
few months preparation, may present a line of floating fortifications
along the whole range of our coast ready to meet any invader who might
attempt to set foot upon our shores. Combining with a system of
fortifications upon the shores themselves, commenced about the same
time under the auspices of my immediate predecessor, and hitherto
systematically pursued, it has placed in our possession the most
effective sinews of war and has left us at once an example and a
lesson from which our own duties may be inferred.

The gradual increase of the Navy was the principle of which the act
of 1816-04-29, was the first development. It was the introduction of
a system to act upon the character and history of our country for an
indefinite series of ages. It was a declaration of that Congress to
their constituents and to posterity that it was the destiny and the
duty of these confederated States to become in regular process of
time and by no petty advances a great naval power. That which they
proposed to accomplish in 8 years is rather to be considered as the
measure of their means that the limitation of their design. They
looked forward for a term of years sufficient for the accomplishment
of a definite portion of their purpose, and they left to their
successors to fill up the canvas of which they had traced the large
and prophetic outline. The ships of the line and frigates which they
had in contemplation will be shortly completed. The time which they
had allotted for the accomplishment of the work has more than
elapsed. It remains for your consideration how their successors may
contribute their portion of toil and of treasure for the benefit of
the succeeding age in the gradual increase of our Navy.

There is perhaps no part of the exercise of the constitutional powers
of the Federal Government which has given more general satisfaction to
the people of the Union than this. The system has not been thus
vigorously introduced and hitherto sustained to be now departed from
or abandoned. In continuing to provide for the gradual increase of
the Navy it may not be necessary or expedient to add for the present
any more to the number of our ships; but should you deem it advisable
to continue the yearly appropriation of $0.5M to the same objects, it
may be profitably expended in a providing a supply of timber to be
seasoned and other materials for future use in the construction of
docks or in laying the foundations of a school for naval education,
as to the wisdom of Congress either of those measures may appear to
claim the preference.

Of the small portions of this Navy engaged in actual service during
the peace, squadrons have continued to be maintained in the Pacific
Ocean, in the West India seas, and in the Mediterranean, to which has
been added a small armament to cruise on the eastern coast of South
America. In all they have afforded protection to our commerce, have
contributed to make our country advantageously known to foreign
nations, have honorably employed multitudes of our sea men in the
service of their country, and have inured numbers of youths of the
rising generation to lives of manly hardihood and of nautical
experience and skill.

The piracies with which the West India seas were for several years
infested have been totally suppressed, but in the Mediterranean they
have increased in a manner afflictive to other nations, and but for
the continued presence of our squadron would probably have been
distressing to our own.

The war which has unfortunately broken out between the Republic of
Buenos Ayres and the Brazilian Government has given rise to very
great irregularities among the naval officers of the latter, by whom
principles in relation to blockades and to neutral navigation have
been brought forward to which we can not subscribe and which our own
commanders have found it necessary to resist. From the friendly
disposition toward the United States constantly manifested by the
Emperor of Brazil, and the very useful and friendly commercial
intercourse between the United States and his dominions, we have
reason to believe that the just reparation demanded for the injuries
sustained by several of our citizens from some of his officers will
not be withheld. Abstracts from the recent dispatches of the
commanders of our several squadrons are communicated with the report
of the Secretary of the Navy to Congress.

A report from the PostMaster General is likewise communicated,
presenting in a highly satisfactory manner the result of a vigorous,
efficient, and economical administration of that Department. The
revenue of the office, even of the year including the latter half of
1824 and the first half of 1825, had exceeded its expenditures by a
sum of more than $45,000. That of the succeeding year has been still
more productive. The increase of the receipts in the year preceding
the first of July last over that of the year before exceeds $136,000,
and the excess of the receipts over the expenditures of the year has
swollen from $45,000 to yearly $80,000.

During the same period contracts for additional transportation of the
mail in stages for about 260,000 miles have been made, and for 70,000
miles annually on horse back. 714 new post offices have been
established within the year, and the increase of revenue within the
last 3 years, as well as the augmentation of the transportation by
mail, is more than equal to the whole amount of receipts and of mail
conveyance at the commencement of the present century, when the seat
of the General Government was removed to this place. When we reflect
that the objects effected by the transportation of the mail are among
the choicest comforts and enjoyments of social life, it is pleasing to
observe that the dissemination of them to every corner of our country
has out- stripped in their increase even the rapid march of our
population.

By the treaties with France and Spain, respectively ceding Louisiana
and the Floridas to the United States, provision was made for the
security of land titles derived from the Governments of those
nations. Some progress has been made under the authority of various
acts of Congress in the ascertainment and establishment of those
titles, but claims to a very large extent remain unadjusted. The
public faith no less than the just rights of individuals and the
interest of the community itself appears to require further provision
for the speedy settlement of those claims, which I therefore recommend
to the care and attention of the Legislature.

In conformity with the provisions of the act of 1825-05-20, to
provide for erecting a penitentiary in the District of Columbia, and
for other purposes, 3 commissioners were appointed to select a site
for the erection of a penitentiary for the District, and also a site
in the county of Alexandria for a county jail, both of which objects
have been effected. The building of the penitentiary has been
commenced, and is in such a degree of forwardness as to promise that
it will be completed before the meeting of the next Congress. This
consideration points to the expediency of maturing at the present
session a system for the regulation and government of the
penitentiary, and of defining a system for the regulation and
government of the penitentiary, and of defining the class of offenses
which shall be punishable by confinement in this edifice.

In closing this communication I trust that it will not be deemed
inappropriate to the occasion and purposes upon which we are here
assembled to indulge a momentary retrospect, combining in a single
glance the period of our origin as a national confederation with that
of our present existence, at the precise interval of half a century
from each other. Since your last meeting at this place the 50th
anniversary of the day when our independence was declared has been
celebrated throughout our land, and on that day, while every heart
was bounding with joy and every voice was tuned to gratulation, amid
the blessings of freedom and independence which the sires of a former
age had handed down to their children, two of the principal actors in
that solemn scene -- the hand that penned the ever memorable
Declaration and the voice that sustained it in debate -- were by one
summons, at the distance of 700 miles from each other, called before
the Judge of All to account for their deeds done upon earth. They
departed cheered by the benedictions of their country, to whom they
left the inheritance of their fame and the memory of their bright
example.

If we turn our thoughts to the condition of their country, in the
contrast of the first and last day of that half century, how
resplendent and sublime is the transition from gloom to glory! Then,
glancing through the same lapse of time, in the condition of the
individuals we see the first day marked with the fullness and vigor
of youth, in the pledge of their lives, their fortunes, and their
sacred honor to the cause of freedom and of man-kind; and on the
last, extended on the bed of death, with but sense and sensibility
left to breathe a last aspiration to Heaven of blessing upon their
country, may we not humbly hope that to them too it was a pledge of
transition from gloom to glory, and that while their mortal vestments
were sinking into the clod of the valley their emancipated spirits
were ascending to the bosom of their God!