Speech Transcript:

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

A revolution of the seasons has nearly been completed since the
representatives of the people and States of this Union were last
assembled at this place to deliberate and to act upon the common
important interests of their constituents. In that interval the never
slumbering eye of a wise and beneficent Providence has continued its
guardian care over the welfare of our beloved country; the blessing
of health has continued generally to prevail throughout the land; the
blessing of peace with our brethren of the human race has been enjoyed
without interruption; internal quiet has left our fellow citizens in
the full enjoyment of all their rights and in the free exercise of
all their faculties, to pursue the impulse of their nature and the
obligation of their duty in the improvement of their own condition;
the productions of the soil, the exchanges of commerce, the vivifying
labors of human industry, have combined to mingle in our cup a portion
of enjoyment as large and liberal as the indulgence of Heaven has
perhaps ever granted to the imperfect state of man upon earth; and as
the purest of human felicity consists in its participation with
others, it is no small addition to the sum of our national happiness
at this time that peace and prosperity prevail to a degree seldom
experienced over the whole habitable globe, presenting, though as yet
with painful exceptions, a foretaste of that blessed period of promise
when the lion shall lie down with the lamb and wars shall be no more.

To preserve, to improve, and to perpetuate the sources and to direct
in their most effective channels the streams which contribute to the
public weal is the purpose for which Government was instituted.
Objects of deep importance to the welfare of the Union are constantly
recurring to demand the attention of the Federal Legislature, and they
call with accumulated interest at the first meeting of the two Houses
after their periodical renovation. To present to their consideration
from time to time subjects in which the interests of the nation are
most deeply involved, and for the regulation of which the legislative
will is alone competent, is a duty prescribed by the Constitution, to
the performance of which the first meeting of the new Congress is a
period eminently appropriate, and which it is now my purpose to
discharge.

Our relations of friendship with the other nations of the earth,
political and commercial, have been preserved unimpaired, and the
opportunities to improve them have been cultivated with anxious and
unremitting attention. A negotiation upon subjects of high and
delicate interest with the Government of Great Britain has terminated
in the adjustment of some of the questions at issue upon satisfactory
terms and the postponement of others for future discussion and
agreement.

The purposes of the convention concluded at St. Petersburg on
1822-07-12, under the mediation of the late Emperor Alexander, have
been carried into effect by a subsequent convention, concluded at
London on 1826-11-13, the ratifications of which were exchanged at
that place on 1827-02-06. A copy of the proclamations issued on
1827-03-19, publishing this convention, is herewith communicated to
Congress. The sum of $1,204,960, therein stipulated to be paid to the
claimants of indemnity under the first article of the treaty of Ghent,
has been duly received, and the commission instituted, comformably to
the act of Congress of 1827-03-02, for the distribution of the
indemnity of the persons entitled to receive it are now in session
and approaching the consummation of their labors. This final disposal
of one of the most painful topics of collision between the United
States and Great Britain not only affords an occasion of gratulation
to ourselves, but has had the happiest effect in promoting a friendly
disposition and in softening asperities upon other objects of
discussion; nor ought it to pass without the tribute of a frank and
cordial acknowledgment of the magnanimity with which an honorable
nation, by the reparation of their own wrongs, achieves a triumph
more glorious than any field of blood can ever bestow.

The conventions of 1815-07-03, and of 1818-10-20, will expire by
their own limitation on 1828-10-20. These have regulated the direct
commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain
upon terms of the most perfect reciprocity; and they effected a
temporary compromise of the respective rights and claims to territory
westward of the Rocky Mountains. These arrangements have been
continued for an indefinite period of time after the expiration of
the above mentioned conventions, leaving each party the liberty of
terminating them by giving twelve months' notice to the other.

The radical principle of all commercial intercourse between
independent nations is the mutual interest of both parties. It is the
vital spirit of trade itself; nor can it be reconciled to the nature
of man or to the primary laws of human society that any traffic
should long be willingly pursued of which all the advantages are on
one side and all the burdens on the other. Treaties of commerce have
been found by experience to be among the most effective instruments
for promoting peace and harmony between nations whose interests,
exclusively considered on either side, are brought into frequent
collisions by competition. In framing such treaties it is the duty of
each party not simply to urge with unyielding pertinacity that which
suits its own interest, but to concede liberally to that which is
adapted to the interest of the other.

To accomplish this, little more is generally required than a simple
observance of the rule of reciprocity, and were it possible for the
states- men of 1 nation by stratagem and management to obtain from
the weakness or ignorance of another an over-reaching treaty, such a
compact would prove an incentive to war rather than a bond of peace.

Our conventions with Great Britain are founded upon the principles of
reciprocity. The commercial intercourse between the two countries is
greater in magnitude and amount than between any two other nations on
the globe. It is for all purposes of benefit or advantage to both as
precious, and in all probability far more extensive, than if the
parties were still constituent parts of one and the same nation.
Treaties between such States, regulating the intercourse of peace
between them and adjusting interests of such transcendent importance
to both, which have been found in a long experience of years mutually
advantageous, should not be lightly cancelled or discontinued. Two
conventions for continuing in force those above mentioned have been
concluded between the plenipotentiaries of the two Governments on
1827-08-06, and will be forthwith laid before the Senate for the
exercise of their constitutional authority concerning them.

In the execution of the treaties of peace of 1782-11 and 1783-09,
between the United States and Great Britain, and which terminated the
war of our independence, a line of boundary was drawn as the
demarcation of territory between the two countries, extending over
nearly 20 degrees of latitude, and ranging over seas, lakes, and
mountains, then very imperfectly explored and scarcely opened to the
geographical knowledge of the age. In the progress of discovery and
settlement by both parties since that time several questions of
boundary between their respective territories have arisen, which have
been found of exceedingly difficult adjustment.

At the close of the last war with Great Britain four of these
questions pressed themselves upon the consideration of the
negotiators of the treaty of Ghent, but without the means of
concluding a definitive arrangement concerning them. They were
referred to three separate commissions consisting, of two
commissioners, one appointed by each party, to examine and decide
upon their respective claims. In the event of a disagreement between
the commissioners, one appointed by each party, to examine and decide
upon their respective claims. In the event of a disagreement between
the commissioners it was provided that they should make reports to
their several Governments, and that the reports should finally be
referred to the decision of a sovereign the common friend of both.

Of these commissions two have already terminated their sessions and
investigations, one by entire and the other by partial agreement. The
commissioners of the 5th article of the treaty of Ghent have finally
disagreed, and made their conflicting reports to their own
Governments. But from these reports a great difficulty has occurred
in making up a question to be decided by the arbitrator. This purpose
has, however, been effected by a 4th convention, concluded at London
by the plenipotentiaries of the two Governments on 1827-09-29. It
will be submitted, together with the others, to the consideration of
the Senate.

While these questions have been pending incidents have occurred of
conflicting pretensions and of dangerous character upon the territory
itself in dispute between the two nations. By a common understanding
between the Governments it was agreed that no exercise of exclusive
jurisdiction by either party while the negotiation was pending should
change the state of the question of right to be definitively settled.
Such collision has, never the less, recently taken place by
occurrences the precise character of which has not yet been
ascertained. A communication from the governor of the State of Maine,
with accompanying documents, and a correspondence between the
Secretary of State and the minister of Great Britain on this subject
are now communicated. Measures have been taken to ascertain the state
of the facts more correctly by the employment of a special agent to
visit the spot where the alleged outrages have occurred, the result
of those inquiries, when received, will be transmitted to Congress.

While so many of the subjects of high interest to the friendly
relations between the two countries have been so far adjusted, it is
a matter of regret that their views respecting the commercial
intercourse between the United States and the British colonial
possessions have not equally approximated to a friendly agreement.

At the commencement of the last session of Congress they were
informed of the sudden and unexpected exclusion by the British
Government of access in vessels of the United States to all their
colonial ports except those immediately bordering upon our own
territories. In the amicable discussions which have succeeded the
adoption of this measure which, as it affected harshly the interests
of the United States, became subject of expostulation on our part,
the principles upon which its justification has been placed have been
of a diversified character. It has been at once ascribed to a mere
recurrence to the old, long established principle of colonial
monopoly and at the same time to a feeling of resentment because the
offers of an act of Parliament opening the colonial ports upon
certain conditions had not been grasped at with sufficient eagerness
by an instantaneous conformity to them.

At a subsequent period it has been intimated that the new exclusion
was in resentment because a prior act of Parliament, of 1822, opening
certain colonial ports, under heavy and burdensome restrictions, to
vessels of the United States, had not been reciprocated by an
admission of British vessels from the colonies, and their cargoes,
without any restriction or discrimination what ever. But be the
motive for the interdiction what it may, the British Government have
manifested no disposition, either by negotiation or by corresponding
legislative enactments, to recede from it, and we have been given
distinctly to understand that neither of the bills which were under
the consideration of Congress at their last session would have been
deemed sufficient in their concessions to have been rewarded by any
relaxation from the British interdict. It is one of the
inconveniences inseparably connected with the attempt to adjust by
reciprocal legislation interests of this nature that neither party
can know what would be satisfactory to the other, and that after
enacting a statute for the avowed and sincere purpose of conciliation
it will generally be found utterly inadequate to the expectation of
the other party, and will terminate in mutual disappointment.

The session of Congress having terminated without any act upon the
subject, a proclamation was issued on 1827-03-17, conformably to the
provisions of the 6th section of the act of 1823-03-01 declaring the
fact that the trade and intercourse authorized by the British act of
Parliament of 1822-06-24, between the United States and the British
enumerated colonial ports had been by the subsequent acts of
Parliament of 1825-07-05, and the order of council of 1826-07-27
prohibited. The effect of this proclamation, by the terms of the act
under which it was issued, has been that each and every provision of
the act concerning navigation of 1818-04-18, and of the act
supplementary thereto of 1820-05-15, revived and is in full force.

Such, then is the present condition of the trade that, useful as it
is to both parties it can, with a single momentary exception, be
carried on directly by the vessels of neither. That exception itself
is found in a proclamation of the governor of the island of St.
Christopher and of the Virgin Islands, inviting for 3 months from
1827-08-28 the importation of the articles of the produce of the
United States which constitute their export portion of this trade in
the vessels of all nations.

That period having already expired, the state of mutual interdiction
has again taken place. The British Government have not only declined
negotiation upon this subject, but by the principle they have assumed
with reference to it have precluded even the means of negotiation. It
becomes not the self respect of the United States either to solicit
gratuitous favors or to accept as the grant of a favor that for which
an ample equivalent is exacted. It remains to be determined by the
respective Governments whether the trade shall be opened by acts of
reciprocal legislation. It is, in the mean time, satisfactory to know
that apart from the inconvenience resulting from a disturbance of the
usual channels of trade no loss has been sustained by the commerce,
the navigation, or the revenue of the United States, and none of
magnitude is to be apprehended from this existing state of mutual
interdict.

With the other maritime and commercial nations of Europe our
intercourse continues with little variation. Since the cessation by
the convention of 1822-06-24, of all discriminating duties upon the
vessels of the United States and of France in either country our
trade with that nation has increased and is increasing. A disposition
on the part of France has been manifested to renew that negotiation,
and in acceding to the proposal we have expressed the wish that it
might be extended to other subjects upon which a good understanding
between the parties would be beneficial to the interests of both.

The origin of the political relations between the United States and
France is coeval with the first years of our independence. The memory
of it is interwoven with that of our arduous struggle for national
existence. Weakened as it has occasionally been since that time, it
can by us never be forgotten, and we should hail with exultation the
moment which should indicate a recollection equally friendly in
spirit on the part of France.

A fresh effort has recently been made by the minister of the United
States residing at Paris to obtain a consideration of the just claims
of citizens of the United States to the reparation of wrongs long
since committed, many of them frankly acknowledged and all of them
entitled upon every principle of justice to a candid examination. The
proposal last made to the French Government has been to refer the
subject which has formed an obstacle to this consideration to the
determination of a sovereign the common friend of both. To this offer
no definitive answer has yet been received, but the gallant and
honorable spirit which has at all times been the pride and glory of
France will not ultimately permit the demands of innocent sufferers
to be extinguished in the mere consciousness of the power to reject
them.

A new treaty of amity, navigation, and commerce has been concluded
with the Kingdom of Sweden, which will be submitted to the Senate for
their advice with regard to its ratification. At a more recent date a
minister plenipotentiary from the Hanseatic Republics of Hamburg,
Lubeck, and Bremen has been received, charged with a special mission
for the negotiation of a treaty of amity and commerce between that
ancient and renowned league and the United States. This negotiation
has accordingly been commenced, and is now in progress, the result of
which will, if successful, be also submitted to the Senate for their
consideration.

Since the accession of the Emperor Nicholas to the imperial throne of
all the Russias the friendly dispositions toward the United States so
constantly manifested by his predecessor have continued unabated, and
have been recently testified by the appointment of a minister
plenipotentiary to reside at this place. From the interest taken by
this Sovereign in behalf of the suffering Greeks and from the spirit
with which others of the great European powers are cooperating with
him the friends of freedom and of humanity may indulge the hope that
they will obtain relief from that most unequal of conflicts which
they have so long and so gallantly sustained; that they will enjoy
the blessing of self government, which by their sufferings in the
cause of liberty they have richly earned, and that their independence
will be secured by those liberal institutions of which their country
furnished the earliest examples in the history of man-kind, and which
have consecrated to immortal remembrance the very soil for which they
are now again profusely pouring forth their blood. The sympathies
which the people and Government of the United States have so warmly
indulged with their cause have been acknowledged by their Government
in a letter of thanks, which I have received from their illustrious
President, a translation of which is now communicated to Congress,
the representatives of that nation to whom this tribute of gratitude
was intended to be paid, and to whom it was justly due.

In the American hemisphere the cause of freedom and independence has
continued to prevail, and if signalized by none of those splendid
triumphs which had crowned with glory some of the preceding years it
has only been from the banishment of all external force against which
the struggle had been maintained. The shout of victory has been
superseded by the expulsion of the enemy over whom it could have been
achieved.

Our friendly wishes and cordial good will, which have constantly
followed the southern nations of America in all the vicissitudes of
their war of independence, are succeeded by a solicitude equally
ardent and cordial that by the wisdom and purity of their
institutions they may secure to themselves the choicest blessings of
social order and the best rewards of virtuous liberty. Disclaiming
alike all right and all intention of interfering in those concerns
which it is the prerogative of their independence to regulate as to
them shall seem fit, we hail with joy every indication of their
prosperity, of their harmony, of their persevering and inflexible
homage to those principles of freedom and of equal rights which are
alone suited to the genius and temper of the American nations.

It has been, therefore, with some concern that we have observed
indications of intestine divisions in some of the Republics of the
south, and appearances of less union with one another than we believe
to be the interest of all. Among the results of this state of things
has been that the treaties concluded at Panama do not appear to have
been ratified by the contracting parties, and that the meeting of the
congress at Tacubaya has been indefinitely postponed. In accepting the
invitations to be represented at this congress, while a manifestation
was intended on the part of the United States of the most friendly
disposition toward the southern Republics by whom it had been
proposed, it was hoped that it would furnish an opportunity for
bringing all the nations of this hemisphere to the common
acknowledgment and adoption of the principles in the regulation of
their internal relations which would have secured a lasting peace and
harmony between them and have promoted the cause of mutual benevolence
throughout the globe. But as obstacles appear to have arisen to the
reassembling of the congress, one of the 2 ministers commissioned on
the part of the United States has returned to the bosom of his
country, while the minister charged with the ordinary mission to
Mexico remains authorized to attend the conferences of the congress
when ever they may be resumed.

A hope was for a short time entertained that a treaty of peace
actually signed between the Government of Buenos Ayres and of Brazil
would supersede all further occasion for those collisions between
belligerent pretensions and neutral rights which are so commonly the
result of maritime war, and which have unfortunately disturbed the
harmony of the relations between the United States and the Brazilian
Governments. At their last session Congress were informed that some
of the naval officers of that Empire had advanced and practiced upon
principles in relation to blockades and to neutral navigation which
we could not sanction, and which our commanders found it necessary to
resist. It appears that they have not been sustained by the Government
of Brazil itself. Some of the vessels captured under the assumed
authority of these erroneous principles have been restored, and we
trust that our just expectations will be realized that adequate
indemnity will be made to all the citizens of the United States who
have suffered by the unwarranted captures which the Brazilian
tribunals themselves have pronounced unlawful.

In the diplomatic discussions at Rio de Janeiro of these wrongs
sustained by citizens of the United States and of others which seemed
as if emanating immediately from that Government itself the charge'
d'affaires of the United States, under an impression that his
representations in behalf of the rights and interests of his
country-men were totally disregarded and useless, deemed it his duty,
without waiting for instructions, to terminate his official functions,
to demand his pass- ports, and return to the United States. This
movement, dictated by an honest zeal for the honor and interests of
his country -- motives which operated exclusively on the mind of the
officer who resorted to it -- has not been disapproved by me.

The Brazilian Government, however, complained of it as a measure for
which no adequate intentional cause had been given by them, and upon
an explicit assurance through their charge' d'affaires residing here
that a successor to the late representative of the United States near
that Government, the appointment of whom they desired, should be
received and treated with the respect due to his character, and that
indemnity should be promptly made for all injuries inflicted on
citizens of the United States or their property contrary to the laws
of nations, a temporary commission as charge' d'affaires to that
country has been issued, which it is hopes will entirely restore the
ordinary diplomatic intercourse between the 2 Governments and the
friendly relations between their respective nations.

Turning from the momentous concerns of our Union in its intercourse
with foreign nations to those of the deepest interest in the
administration of our internal affairs, we find the revenues of the
present year corresponding as nearly as might be expected with the
anticipations of the last, and presenting an aspect still more
favorable in the promise of the next.

The balance in the Treasury on 1827-01-01 was $6,358,686.18. The
receipts from that day to 1827-09-30, as near as the returns of them
yet received can show, amount to $16,886,581.32. The receipts of the
present quarter, estimated at $4,515,000, added to the above form an
aggregate of $21,400,000 of receipts.

The expenditures of the year may perhaps amount to $22,300,000
presenting a small excess over the receipts. But of these
$22,000,000, upward of $6,000,000 have been applied to the discharge
of the principal of the public debt, the whole amount of which,
approaching $74,000,000 on 1827-01-01, will on 1828-01-01 fall short
of $67,500,000. The balance in the Treasury on 1828-01-01 it is
expected will exceed $5,450,000, a sum exceeding that of 1825-01-01,
though falling short of that exhibited on 1827-01-01.

It was foreseen that the revenue of the present year 1827 would not
equal that of the last, which had itself been less than that of the
next preceding year. But the hope has been realized which was
entertained, that these deficiencies would in no wise interrupt the
steady operation of the discharge of the public debt by the annual
$10,000,000 devoted to that object by the act of 1817-03-03.

The amount of duties secured on merchandise imported from the
commencement of the year until 1827-09-30 is $21,226,000, and the
probably amount of that which will be secured during the remainder of
the year is $5,774,000, forming a sum total of $27,000,000. With the
allowances for draw-backs and contingent deficiencies which may
occur, though not specifically foreseen, we may safely estimate the
receipts of the ensuing year at $22,300,000 -- a revenue for the next
equal to the expenditure of the present year.

The deep solicitude felt by our citizens of all classes throughout
the Union for the total discharge of the public debt will apologize
for the earnestness with which I deem it my duty to urge this topic
upon the consideration of Congress -- of recommending to them again
the observance of the strictest economy in the application of the
public funds. The depression upon the receipts of the revenue which
had commenced with the year 1826 continued with increased severity
during the two first quarters of the present year.

The returning tide began to flow with the third quarter, and, so far
as we can judge from experience, may be expected to continue through
the course of the ensuing year. In the mean time an alleviation from
the burden of the public debt will in the three years have been
effected to the amount of nearly $16,000,000, and the charge of
annual interest will have been reduced upward of $1,000,000. But
among the maxims of political economy which the stewards of the
public moneys should never suffer without urgent necessity to be
transcended is that of keeping the expenditures of the year within
the limits of its receipts.

The appropriations of the two last years, including the yearly
$10,000,000 of the sinking fund, have each equaled the promised
revenue of the ensuing year. While we foresee with confidence that
the public coffers will be replenished from the receipts as fast as
they will be drained by the expenditures, equal in amount to those of
the current year, it should not be forgotten that they could ill
suffer the exhaustion of larger disbursements.

The condition of the Army and of all the branches of the public
service under the superintendence of the Secretary of War will be
seen by the report from that officer and the documents with which it
is accompanied.

During the last summer a detachment of the Army has been usefully and
successfully called to perform their appropriate duties. At the moment
when the commissioners appointed for carrying into execution certain
provisions of the treaty of 1825-08-19, with various tribes of the
NorthWestern Indians were about to arrive at the appointed place of
meeting the unprovoked murder of several citizens and other acts of
unequivocal hostility committed by a party of the Winnebago tribe,
one of those associated in the treaty, followed by indications of a
menacing character among other tribes of the same region, rendered
necessary an immediate display of the defensive and protective force
of the Union in that quarter.

It was accordingly exhibited by the immediate and concerted movements
of the governors of the State of Illinois and of the Territory of
Michigan, and competent levies of militia, under their authority,
with a corps of 700 men of United States troops, under the command of
General Atkinson, who, at the call of Governor Cass, immediately
repaired to the scene of danger from their station at St. Louis.
Their presence dispelled the alarms of our fellow citizens on those
disorders, and overawed the hostile purposes of the Indians. The
perpetrators of the murders were surrendered to the authority and
operation of our laws, and every appearance of purposed hostility
from those Indian tribes has subsided.

Although the present organization of the Army and the administration
of its various branches of service are, upon the whole, satisfactory,
they are yet susceptible of much improvement in particulars, some of
which have been heretofore submitted to the consideration of
Congress, and others are now first presented in the report of the
Secretary of War.

The expediency of providing for additional numbers of officers in the
two corps of engineers will in some degree depend upon the number and
extent of the objects of national importance upon which Congress may
think it proper that surveys should be made conformably to the act of
1824-04-30. Of the surveys which before the last session of Congress
had been made under the authority of that act, reports were made --

Of the Board of Internal Improvement, on the Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal.
On the continuation of the national road from Cumberland to the tide
waters within the District of Columbia.
On the continuation of the national road from Canton to Zanesville.
On the location of the national road from Zanesville to Columbus.
On the continuation of the same to the seat of government in
Missouri.
On a post road from Baltimore to Philadelphia.
Of a survey of Kennebec River (in part).
On a national road from Washington to Buffalo.
On the survey of Saugatuck Harbor and River.
On a canal from Lake PontChartrain to the Mississippi River.
On surveys at Edgartown, Newburyport, and Hyannis Harbor.
On survey of La Plaisance Bay, in the Territory of Michigan.
And reports are now prepared and will be submitted to Congress --
On surveys of the peninsula of Florida, to ascertain the
practicability of a canal to connect the waters of the Atlantic with
the Gulf of Mexico across that peninsula; and also of the country
between the bays of Mobile and of Pensacola, with the view of
connecting them together by a canal.
On surveys of a route for a canal to connect the waters of James and
Great Kenhawa rivers.
On the survey of the Swash, in Pamlico Sound, and that of Cape Fear,
below the town of Wilmington, in North Carolina.
On the survey of the Muscle Shoals, in the Tennessee River, and for a
route for a contemplated communication between the Hiwassee and Coosa
rivers, in the State of Alabama.
Other reports of surveys upon objects pointed out by the several acts
of Congress of the last and preceding sessions are in the progress of
preparation, and most of them may be completed before the close of
this session. All the officers of both corps of engineers, with
several other persons duly qualified, have been constantly employed
upon these services from the passage of the act of 1824-04-30, to
this time.
Were no other advantage to accrue to the country from their labors
than the fund of topographical knowledge which they have collected
and communicated, that alone would have been a profit to the Union
more than adequate to all the expenditures which have been devoted to
the object; but the appropriations for the repair and continuation of
the Cumberland road, for the construction of various other roads, for
the removal of obstructions from the rivers and harbors, for the
erection of light houses, beacons, piers, and buoys, and for the
completion of canals undertaken by individual associations, but
needing the assistance of means and resources more comprehensive than
individual enterprise can command, may be considered rather as
treasures laid up from the contributions of the present age for the
benefit of posterity than as unrequited applications of the accruing
revenues of the nation.

To such objects of permanent improvement to the condition of the
country, of real addition to the wealth as well as to the comfort of
the people by whose authority and resources they have been effected,
from $3,000,000 to $4,000,000 of the annual income of the nation
have, by laws enacted at the three most recent sessions of Congress,
been applied, without intrenching upon the necessities of the
Treasury, without adding a dollar to the taxes or debts of the
community, without suspending even the steady and regular discharge
of the debts contracted in former days, which within the same three
years have been diminished by the amount of nearly $16,000,000.

The same observations are in a great degree applicable to the
appropriations made for fortifications upon the coasts and harbors of
the United States, for the maintenance of the Military Academy at West
Point, and for the various objects under the superintendence of the
Department of the Navy. The report from the Secretary of the Navy and
those from the subordinate branches of both the military departments
exhibit to Congress in minute detail the present condition of the
public establishments dependent upon them, the execution of the acts
of Congress relating to them, and the views of the officers engaged
in the several branches of the service concerning the improvements
which may tend to their perfection.

The fortification of the coasts and the gradual increase and
improvement of the Navy are parts of a great system of national
defense which has been upward of 10 years in progress, and which for
a series of years to come will continue to claim the constant and
persevering protection and superintendence of the legislative
authority. Among the measures which have emanated from these
principles the act of the last session of Congress for the gradual
improvement of the Navy holds a conspicuous place. The collection of
timber for the future construction of vessels of war, the
preservation and reproduction of the species of timber peculiarly
adapted to that purpose, the construction of dry docks for the use of
the Navy, the erection of a marine railway for the repair of the
public ships, and the improvement of the navy yards for the
preservation of the public property deposited in them have all
received from the Executive the attention required by that act, and
will continue to receive it, steadily proceeding toward the execution
of all its purposes.

The establishment of a naval academy, furnishing the means of
theoretic instruction to the youths who devote their lives to the
service of their country upon the ocean, still solicits the sanction
of the Legislature. Practical seamanship and the art of navigation
may be acquired on the cruises of the squadrons which from time to
time are dispatched to distant seas, but a competent knowledge even
of the art of ship building, the higher mathematics, and astronomy;
the literature which can place our officers on a level of polished
education with the officers of other maritime nations; the knowledge
of the laws, municipal and national, which in their intercourse with
foreign states and their governments are continually called into
operation, and, above all, that acquaintance with the principles of
honor and justice, with the higher obligations of morals and of
general laws, human and divine, which constitutes the great
distinction between the warrior-patriot and the licensed robber and
pirate -- these can be systematically taught and eminently acquired
only in a permanent school, stationed upon the shore and provided
with the teachers, the instruments, and the books conversant with and
adapted to the communication of the principles of these respective
sciences to the youthful and inquiring mind.

The report from the PostMaster General exhibits the condition of that
Department as highly satisfactory for the present and still more
promising for the future. Its receipts for the year ending 1827-07-01
amounted to $1,473,551, and exceeded its expenditures by upward of
$100,000. It can not be an over sanguine estimate to predict that in
less than 10 years, of which half have elapsed, the receipts will
have been more than doubled.

In the mean time a reduced expenditure upon established routes has
kept pace with increased facilities of public accommodation and
additional services have been obtained at reduced rates of
compensation. Within the last year the transportation of the mail in
stages has been greatly augmented. The number of post offices has
been increased to 7,000, and it may be anticipated that while the
facilities of intercourse between fellow citizens in person or by
correspondence will soon be carried to the door of every villager in
the Union, a yearly surplus of revenue will accrue which may be
applied as the wisdom of Congress under the exercise of their
constitutional powers may devise for the further establishment and
improvement of the public roads, or by adding still further to the
facilities in the transportation of the mails. Of the indications of
the prosperous condition of our country, none can be more pleasing
than those presented by the multiplying relations of personal and
intimate intercourse between the citizens of the Union dwelling at
the remotest distances from each other.

Among the subjects which have heretofore occupied the earnest
solicitude and attention of Congress is the management and disposal
of that portion of the property of the nation which consists of the
public lands. The acquisition of them, made at the expense of the
whole Union, not only in treasury but in blood, marks a right of
property in them equally extensive. By the report and statements from
the General Land Office now communicated it appears that under the
present Government of the United States a sum little short of
$33,000,000 has been paid from the common Treasury for that portion
of this property which has been purchased from France and Spain, and
for the extinction of the aboriginal titles. The amount of lands
acquired is near 260,000,000 acres, of which on 1826-01-01, about
139,000,000 acres had been surveyed, and little more than 19,000,000
acres had been sold. The amount paid into the Treasury by the
purchasers of the public lands sold is not yet equal to the sums paid
for the whole, but leaves a small balance to be refunded. The proceeds
of the sales of the lands have long been pledged to the creditors of
the nation, a pledge from which we have reason to hope that they will
in a very few years be redeemed.

The system upon which this great national interest has been managed
was the result of long, anxious, and persevering deliberation.
Matured and modified by the progress of our population and the
lessons of experience, it has been hitherto eminently successful.
More than 9/10 of the lands still remain the common property of the
Union, the appropriation and disposal of which are sacred trusts in
the hands of Congress.

Of the lands sold, a considerable part were conveyed under extended
credits, which in the vicissitudes and fluctuations in the value of
lands and of their produce became oppressively burdensome to the
purchasers. It can never be the interest or the policy of the nation
to wring from its own citizens the reasonable profits of their
industry and enterprise by holding them to the rigorous import of
disastrous engagements. In 1821-03, a debt of $22,000,000, due by
purchasers of the public lands, had accumulated, which they were
unable to pay. An act of Congress of 1821-03-02, came to their
relief, and has been succeeded by others, the latest being the act of
1826-05-04, the indulgent provisions of which expired on 1827-07-04.
The effect of these laws has been to reduce the debt from the
purchasers to a remaining balance of about $4,300,000 due, more than
3/5 of which are for lands within the State of Alabama. I recommend
to Congress the revival and continuance for a further term of the
beneficent accommodations to the public debtors of that statute, and
submit to their consideration, in the same spirit of equity, the
remission, under proper discriminations, of the forfeitures of
partial payments on account of purchases of the public lands, so far
as to allow of their application to other payments.

There are various other subjects of deep interest to the whole Union
which have heretofore been recommended to the consideration of
Congress, as well by my predecessors as, under the impression of the
duties devolving upon me, by myself. Among these are the debt, rather
of justice than gratitude, to the surviving warriors of the
Revolutionary war; the extension of the judicial administration of
the Federal Government to those extensive since the organization of
the present judiciary establishment, now constitute at least 1/3 of
its territory, power, and population; the formation of a more
effective and uniform system for the government of the militia, and
the amelioration in some form or modification of the diversified and
often oppressive codes relating to insolvency. Amidst the
multiplicity of topics of great national concernment which may
recommend themselves to the calm and patriotic deliberations of the
Legislature, it may suffice to say that on these and all other
measures which may receive their sanction my hearty cooperation will
be given, conformably to the duties enjoined upon me and under the
sense of all the obligations prescribed by the Constitution.