Speech Transcript:

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

The brief space which has elapsed since the close of your last
session has been marked by no extraordinary political event. The
quadrennial election of Chief Magistrate has passed off with less
than the usual excitement. However individuals and parties may have
been disappointed in the result, it is, nevertheless, a subject of
national congratulation that the choice has been effected by the
independent suffrages of a free people, undisturbed by those
influences which in other countries have too often affected the
purity of popular elections.

Our grateful thanks are due to an all-merciful Providence, not only
for staying the pestilence which in different forms has desolated
some of our cities, but for crowning the labors of the husbandman
with an abundant harvest and the nation generally with the blessings
of peace and prosperity.

Within a few weeks the public mind has been deeply affected by the
death of Daniel Webster, filling at his decease the office of
Secretary of State. His associates in the executive government have
sincerely sympathized with his family and the public generally on
this mournful occasion. His commanding talents, his great political
and professional eminence, his well-tried patriotism, and his long
and faithful services in the most important public trusts have caused
his death to be lamented throughout the country and have earned for
him a lasting place in our history. In the course of the last summer
considerable anxiety was caused for a short time by an official
intimation from the Government of Great Britain that orders had been
given for the protection of the fisheries upon the coasts of the
British provinces in North America against the alleged encroachments
of the fishing vessels of the United States and France. The shortness
of this notice and the season of the year seemed to make it a matter
of urgent importance. It was at first apprehended that an increased
naval force had been ordered to the fishing grounds to carry into
effect the British interpretation of those provisions in the
convention of 1818 in reference to the true intent of which the two
Governments differ. It was soon discovered that such was not the
design of Great Britain, and satisfactory explanations of the real
objects of the measure have been given both here and in London.

The unadjusted difference, however, between the two Governments as to
the interpretation of the first article of the convention of 1818 is
still a matter of importance. American fishing vessels, within nine
or ten years, have been excluded from waters to which they had free
access for twenty-five years after the negotiation of the treaty. In
1845 this exclusion was relaxed so far as concerns the Bay of Fundy,
but the just and liberal intention of the home Government, in
compliance with what we think the true construction of the
convention, to open all the other outer bays to our fishermen was
abandoned in consequence of the opposition of the colonies.
Notwithstanding this, the United States have, since the Bay of Fundy
was reopened to our fishermen in 1845, pursued the most liberal
course toward the colonial fishing interests. By the revenue law of
1846 the duties on colonial fish entering our ports were very greatly
reduced, and by the warehousing act it is allowed to be entered in
bond without payment of duty. In this way colonial fish has acquired
the monopoly of the export trade in our market and is entering to
some extent into the home consumption. These facts were among those
which increased the sensibility of our fishing interest at the
movement in question. These circumstances and the incidents above
alluded to have led me to think the moment favorable for a
reconsideration of the entire subject of the fisheries on the coasts
of the British Provinces, with a view to place them upon a more
liberal footing of reciprocal privilege. A willingness to meet us in
some arrangement of this kind is understood to exist on the part of
Great Britain, with a desire on her part to include in one
comprehensive settlement as well this subject as the commercial
intercourse between the United States and the British Provinces. I
have thought that, whatever arrangements may be made on these two
subjects, it is expedient that they should be embraced in separate
conventions. The illness and death of the late Secretary of State
prevented the commencement of the contemplated negotiation. Pains
have been taken to collect the information required for the details
of such an arrangement. The subject is attended with considerable
difficulty. If it is found practicable to come to an agreement
mutually acceptable to the two parties, conventions may be concluded
in the course of the present winter. The control of Congress over all
the provisions of such an arrangement affecting the revenue will of
course be reserved.

The affairs of Cuba formed a prominent topic in my last annual
message. They remain in an uneasy condition, and a feeling of alarm
and irritation on the part of the Cuban authorities appears to exist.
This feeling has interfered with the regular commercial intercourse
between the United States and the island and led to some acts of
which we have a fight to complain. But the Captain-General of Cuba is
clothed with no power to treat with foreign governments, nor is he in
any degree under the control of the Spanish minister at Washington.
Any communication which he may hold with an agent of a foreign power
is informal and matter of courtesy. Anxious to put an end to the
existing inconveniences (which seemed to rest on a misconception), I
directed the newly appointed minister to Mexico to visit Havana on
his way to Vera Cruz. He was respectfully received by the
Captain-General, who conferred with him freely on the recent
occurrences, but no permanent arrangement was effected.

In the meantime the refusal of the Captain-Generalto allow passengers
and the mail to be landed in certain cases, for a reason which does
not furnish, in the opinion of this Government, even a good
presumptive ground for such prohibition, has been made the subject of
a serious remonstrance at Madrid, and I have no reason to doubt that
due respect will be paid by the Government of Her Catholic Majesty to
the representations which our minister has been instructed to make on
the subject.

It is but justice to the Captain-General to add that his conduct
toward the steamers employed to carry the mails of the United States
to Havana has, with the exceptions above alluded to, been marked with
kindness and liberality, and indicates no general purpose of
interfering with the commercial correspondence and intercourse
between the island and this country.

Early in the present year official notes were received from the
ministers of France and England inviting the Government of the United
States to become a party with Great Britain and France to a tripartite
convention, in virtue of which the three powers should severally and
collectively disclaim now and for the future all intention to obtain
possession of the island of Cuba, and should bind themselves to
discountenance all attempts to that effect on the part of any power
or individual whatever. This invitation has been respectfully
declined, for reasons which it would occupy too much space in this
communication to state in detail, but which led me to think that the
proposed measure would be of doubtful constitutionality, impolitic,
and unavailing. I have, however, in common with several of my
predecessors, directed the ministers of France and England to be
assured that the United States entertain no designs against Cuba, but
that, on the contrary, I should regard its incorporation into the
Union at the present time as fraught with serious peril.

Were this island comparatively destitute of inhabitants or occupied
by a kindred race, I should regard it, if voluntarily ceded by Spain,
as a most desirable acquisition. But under existing circumstances I
should look upon its incorporation into our Union as a very hazardous
measure. It would bring into the Confederacy a population of a
different national stock, speaking a different language, and not
likely to harmonize with the other members. It would probably affect
in a prejudicial manner the industrial interests of the South, and it
might revive those conflicts of opinion between the different sections
of the country which lately shook the Union to its center, and which
have been so happily compromised.

The rejection by the Mexican Congress of the convention which had
been concluded between that Republic and the United States for the
protection of a transit way across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and of
the interests of those citizens of the United States who had become
proprietors of the rights which Mexico had conferred on one of her
own citizens in regard to that transit has thrown a serious obstacle
in the way of the attainment of a very desirable national object. I
am still willing to hope that the differences on the subject which
exist, or may hereafter arise, between the Governments will be
amicably adjusted. This subject, however, has already engaged the
attention of the Senate of the United States, and requires no further
comment in this communication.

The settlement of the question respecting the port of San Juan de
Nicaragua and of the controversy between the Republics of Costa Rica
and Nicaragua in regard to their boundaries was considered
indispensable to the commencement of the ship canal between the two
oceans, which was the subject of the convention between the United
States and Great Britain of the 19th of April, 1850. Accordingly, a
proposition for the same purposes, addressed to the two Governments
in that quarter and to the Mosquito Indians, was agreed to in April
last by the Secretary of State and the minister of Her Britannic
Majesty. Besides the wish to aid in reconciling the differences of
the two Republics, I engaged in the negotiation from a desire to
place the great work of a ship canal between the two oceans under one
jurisdiction and to establish the important port of San Juan de
Nicaragua under the government of a civilized power. The proposition
in question was assented to by Costs Rica and the Mosquito Indians.
It has not proved equally acceptable to Nicaragua, but it is to be
hoped that the further negotiations on the subject which are in train
will be carried on in that spirit of conciliation and compromise which
ought always to prevail on such occasions, and that they will lead to
a satisfactory result.

I have the satisfaction to inform you that the executive government
of Venezuela has acknowledged some claims of citizens of the United
States which have for many years past been urged by our charge
d'affaires at Caracas. It is hoped that the same sense of justice
will actuate the Congress of that Republic in providing the means for
their payment.

The recent revolution in Buenos Ayres and the Confederated States
having opened the prospect of an improved state of things in that
quarter, the Governments of Great Britain and France determined to
negotiate with the chief of the new confederacy for the free access
of their commerce to the extensive countries watered by the
tributaries of the La Plata; and they gave a friendly notice of this
purpose to the United States, that we might, if we thought proper,
pursue the same course. In compliance with this invitation, our
minister at Rio Janeiro and our charge d'affaires at Buenos Ayres
have been fully authorized to conclude treaties with the newly
organized confederation or the States composing it. The delays which
have taken place in the formation of the new government have as yet
prevented the execution of those instructions, but there is every
reason to hope that these vast countries will be eventually opened to
our commerce.

A treaty of commerce has been concluded between the United States and
the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, which will be laid before the
Senate. Should this convention go into operation, it will open to the
commercial enterprise of our citizens a country of great extent and
unsurpassed in natural resources, but from which foreign nations have
hitherto been almost wholly excluded.

The correspondence of the late Secretary of State with the Peruvian
charge d'affaires relative to the Lobos Islands was communicated to
Congress toward the close of the last session. Since that time, on
further investigation of the subject, the doubts which had been
entertained of the title of Peru to those islands have been removed,
and I have deemed it just that the temporary wrong which had been
unintentionally done her from want of information should be repaired
by an unreserved acknowledgment of her sovereignty.

I have the satisfaction to inform you that the course pursued by Peru
has been creditable to the liberality of her Government. Before it was
known by her that her title would be acknowledged at Washington, her
minister of foreign affairs had authorized our charge d'affaires at
Lima to announce to the American vessels which had gone to the Lobos
for guano that the Peruvian Government was willing to freight them on
its own account. This intention has been carried into effect by the
Peruvian minister here by an arrangement which is believed to be
advantageous to the parties in interest.

Our settlements on the shores of the Pacific have already given a
great extension, and in some respects a new direction, to our
commerce in that ocean. A direct and rapidly increasing intercourse
has sprung up with eastern Asia. The waters of the Northern Pacific,
even into the Arctic Sea, have of late years been frequented by our
whalemen. The application of steam to the general purposes of
navigation is becoming daily more common, and makes it desirable to
obtain fuel and other necessary supplies at convenient points on the
route between Asia and our Pacific shores. Our unfortunate countrymen
who from time to time suffer shipwreck on the coasts of the eastern
seas are entitled to protection. Besides these specific objects, the
general prosperity of our States on the Pacific requires that an
attempt should be made to open the opposite regions of Asia to a
mutually beneficial intercourse. It is obvious that this attempt
could be made by no power to so great advantage as by the United
States, whose constitutional system excludes every idea of distant
colonial dependencies. I have accordingly been led to order an
appropriate naval force to Japan, under the command of a discreet and
intelligent officer of the highest rank known to our service. He is
instructed to endeavor to obtain from the Government of that country
some relaxation of the inhospitable and antisocial system which it
has pursued for about two centuries. He has been directed
particularly to remonstrate in the strongest language against the
cruel treatment to which our shipwrecked mariners have often been
subjected and to insist that they shall be treated with humanity. He
is instructed, however, at the same time, to give that Government the
amplest assurances that the objects of the United States are such, and
such only, as I have indicated, and that the expedition is friendly
and peaceful. Notwithstanding the jealousy with which the Governments
of eastern Asia regard all overtures from foreigners, I am not without
hopes of a beneficial result of the expedition. Should it be crowned
with success, the advantages will not be confined to the United
States, but, as in the case of China, will be equally enjoyed by all
the other maritime powers. I have much satisfaction in stating that
in all the steps preparatory to this expedition the Government of the
United States has been materially aided by the good offices of the
King of the Netherlands, the only European power having any
commercial relations with Japan.

In passing from this survey of our foreign relations, I invite the
attention of Congress to the condition of that Department of the
Government to which this branch of the public business is intrusted.
Our intercourse with foreign powers has of late years greatly
increased, both in consequence of our own growth and the introduction
of many new states into the family of nations. In this way the
Department of State has become overburdened. It has by the recent
establishment of the Department of the Interior been relieved of some
portion of the domestic business. If the residue of the business of
that kind--such as the distribution of Congressional documents, the
keeping, publishing, and distribution of the laws of the United
States, the execution of the copyright law, the subject of reprieves
and pardons, and some other subjects relating to interior
administration--should be transferred from the Department of State,
it would unquestionably be for the benefit of the public service. I
would also suggest that the building appropriated to the State
Department is not fireproof; that there is reason to think there are
defects in its construction, and that the archives of the Government
in charge of the Department, with the precious collections of the
manuscript papers of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, and
Monroe, are exposed to destruction by fire. A similar remark may be
made of the buildings appropriated to the War and Navy Departments.

The condition of the Treasury is exhibited in the annual report from
that Department.

The cash receipts into the Treasury for the fiscal year ending the
30th June last, exclusive of trust funds, were $49,728,386.89, and
the expenditures for the same period, likewise exclusive of trust
funds, were $46,007,896.20, of which $9,455,815.83 was on account of
the principal and interest of the public debt, including the last
installment of the indemnity to Mexico under the treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo, leaving a balance of $14,632,136.37 in the Treasury on the
1st day of July last. Since this latter period further purchases of
the principal of the public debt have been made to the extent of
$2,456,547.49, and the surplus in the Treasury will continue to be
applied to that object whenever the stock can be procured within the
limits as to price authorized by law.

The value of foreign merchandise imported during the last fiscal year
was $207,240,101, and the value of domestic productions exported was
$149,861,911, besides $17,204,026 of foreign merchandise exported,
making the aggregate of the entire exports $167,065,937. Exclusive of
the above, there was exported $42,507,285 in specie, and imported from
foreign ports $5,262,643.

In my first annual message to Congress I called your attention to
what seemed to me some defects in the present tariff, and recommended
such modifications as in my judgment were best adapted to remedy its
evils and promote the prosperity of the country. Nothing has since
occurred to change my views on this important question.

Without repeating the arguments contained in my former message in
favor of discriminating protective duties, I deem it my duty to call
your attention to one or two other considerations affecting this
subject. The first is the effect of large importations of foreign
goods upon our currency. Most of the gold of California, as fast as
it is coined, finds its way directly to Europe in payment for goods
purchased. In the second place, as our manufacturing establishments
are broken down by competition with foreigners, the capital invested
in them is lost, thousands of honest and industrious citizens are
thrown out of employment, and the farmer, to that extent, is deprived
of a home market for the sale of his surplus produce. In the third
place, the destruction of our manufactures leaves the foreigner
without competition in our market, and he consequently raises the
price of the article sent here for sale, as is now seen in the
increased cost of iron imported from England. The prosperity and
wealth of every nation must depend upon its productive industry. The
farmer is stimulated to exertion by finding a ready market for his
surplus products, and benefited by being able to exchange them
without loss of time or expense of transportation for the
manufactures which his comfort or convenience requires. This is
always done to the best advantage where a portion of the community in
which he lives is engaged in other pursuits. But most manufactures
require an amount of capital and a practical skill which can not be
commanded unless they be protected for a time from ruinous
competition from abroad. Hence the necessity of laying those duties
upon imported goods which the Constitution authorizes for revenue in
such a manner as to protect and encourage the labor of our own
citizens. Duties, however, should not be fixed at a rate so high as
to exclude the foreign article, but should be so graduated as to
enable the domestic manufacturer fairly to compete with the foreigner
in our own markets, and by this competition to reduce the price of the
manufactured article to the consumer to the lowest rate at which it
can be produced. This policy would place the mechanic by the side of
the farmer, create a mutual interchange of their respective
commodities, and thus stimulate the industry of the whole country and
render us independent of foreign nations for the supplies required by
the habits or necessities of the people.

Another question, wholly independent of protection, presents itself,
and that is, whether the duties levied should be upon the value of
the article at the place of shipment, or, where it is practicable, a
specific duty, graduated according to quantity, as ascertained by
weight or measure. All our duties are at present ad valorem. A
certain percentage is levied on the price of the goods at the port of
shipment in a foreign country. Most commercial nations have found it
indispensable, for the purpose of preventing fraud and perjury, to
make the duties specific whenever the article is of such a uniform
value in weight or measure as to justify such a duty. Legislation
should never encourage dishonesty or crime. It is impossible that the
revenue officers at the port where the goods are entered and the
duties paid should know with certainty what they cost in the foreign
country. Yet the law requires that they should levy the duty
according to such cost. They are therefore compelled to resort to
very unsatisfactory evidence to ascertain what that cost was. They
take the invoice of the importer, attested by his oath, as the best
evidence of which the nature of the case admits. But everyone must
see that the invoice may be fabricated and the oath by which it is
supported false, by reason of which the dishonest importer pays a
part only of the duties which are paid by the honest one, and thus
indirectly receives from the Treasury of the United States a reward
for his fraud and perjury. The reports of the Secretary of the
Treasury heretofore made on this subject show conclusively that these
frauds have been practiced to a great extent. The tendency is to
destroy that high moral character for which our merchants have long
been distinguished, to defraud the Government of its revenue, to
break down the honest importer by a dishonest competition, and,
finally, to transfer the business of importation to foreign and
irresponsible agents, to the great detriment of our own citizens. I
therefore again most earnestly recommend the adoption of specific
duties wherever it is practicable, or a home valuation, to prevent
these frauds.

I would also again call your attention to the fact that the present
tariff in some cases imposes a higher duty upon the raw material
imported than upon the article manufactured from it, the consequence
of which is that the duty operates to the encouragement of the
foreigner and the discouragement of our own citizens.

For full and detailed information in regard to the general condition
of our Indian affairs, I respectfully refer you to the report of the
Secretary of the Interior and the accompanying documents.

The Senate not having thought proper to ratify the treaties which
have been negotiated with the tribes of Indians in California and
Oregon, our relations with them have been left in a very
unsatisfactory condition.

In other parts of our territory particular districts of country have
been set apart for the exclusive occupation of the Indians, and their
right to the lands within those limits has been acknowledged and
respected. But in California and Oregon there has been no recognition
by the Government of the exclusive right of the Indians to any part of
the country. They are therefore mere tenants at sufferance, and liable
to be driven from place to place at the pleasure of the whites.

The treaties which have been rejected proposed to remedy this evil by
allotting to the different tribes districts of country suitable to
their habits of life and sufficient for their support. This
provision, more than any other, it is believed, led to their
rejection; and as no substitute for it has been adopted by Congress,
it has not been deemed advisable to attempt to enter into new
treaties of a permanent character, although no effort has been spared
by temporary arrangements to preserve friendly relations with them.

If it be the desire of Congress to remove them from the country
altogether, or to assign to them particular districts more remote
from the settlements of the whites, it will be proper to set apart by
law the territory which they are to occupy and to provide the means
necessary for removing them to it. Justice alike to our own citizens
and to the Indians requires the prompt action of Congress on this
subject. The amendments proposed by the Senate to the treaties which
were negotiated with the Sioux Indians of Minnesota have been
submitted to the tribes who were parties to them, and have received
their assent. A large tract of valuable territory has thus been
opened for settlement and cultivation, and all danger of collision
with these powerful and warlike bands has been happily removed.

The removal of the remnant of the tribe of Seminole Indians from
Florida has long been a cherished object of the Government, and it is
one to which my attention has been steadily directed. Admonished by
past experience of the difficulty and cost of the attempt to remove
them by military force, resort has been had to conciliatory measures.
By the invitation of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, several of
the principal chiefs recently visited Washington, and whilst here
acknowledged in writing the obligation of their tribe to remove with
the least possible delay. Late advices from the special agent of the
Government represent that they adhere to their promise, and that a
council of their people has been called to make their preliminary
arrangements. A general emigration may therefore be confidently
expected at an early day.

The report from the General Land Office shows increased activity in
its operations. The survey of the northern boundary of Iowa has been
completed with unexampled dispatch. Within the last year 9,522,953
acres of public land have been surveyed and 8,032,463 acres brought
into market.

Acres In the last fiscal year there were sold 1,553,071 Located with
bounty-land warrants 3,201,314 Located with other certificates
115,682 Making a total of 4,870,067

In addition there were--Reported under swamp-land grants 5,219,188
For internal improvements, railroads, etc 3,025,920 Making an
aggregate of 13,115,175 Being an increase of the amount sold and
located under land warrants of 569,220 acres over the previous year.
The whole amount thus sold, located under land warrants, reported
under swamp-land grants, and selected for internal improvements
exceeds that of the previous year by 3,342,372 acres; and the sales
would without doubt have been much larger but for the extensive
reservations for railroads in Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama.

Acres For the quarter ending 30th September, 1852, there were sold
243,255 Located with bounty-land warrants 1,387,116 Located with
other certificates 15,649 Reported under swamp-land grants 2,485,233
Making an aggregate for the quarter of 4,131,253

Much the larger portion of the labor of arranging and classifying the
returns of the last census has been finished, and it will now devolve
upon Congress to make the necessary provision for the publication of
the results in such form as shall be deemed best. The apportionment
of representation on the basis of the new census has been made by the
Secretary of the Interior in conformity with the provisions of law
relating to that subject, and the recent elections have been made in
accordance with it.

I commend to your favorable regard the suggestion contained in the
report of the Secretary of the Interior that provision be made by law
for the publication and distribution, periodically, of an analytical
digest of all the patents which have been or may hereafter be granted
for useful inventions and discoveries, with such descriptions and
illustrations as may be necessary to present an intelligible view of
their nature and operation. The cost of such publication could easily
be defrayed out of the patent fund, and I am persuaded that it could
be applied to no object more acceptable to inventors and beneficial
to the public at large.

An appropriation of $100,000 having been made at the last session for
the purchase of a suitable site and for the erection, furnishing, and
fitting up of an asylum for the insane of the District of Columbia
and of the Army and Navy of the United States, the proper measures
have been adopted to carry this beneficent purpose into effect.

By the latest advices from the Mexican boundary commission it appears
that the survey of the river Gila from its continence with the
Colorado to its supposed intersection with the western line of New
Mexico has been completed. The survey of the Rio Grande has also been
finished from the point agreed on by the commissioners as "the point
where it strikes the southern boundary of New Mexico" to a point 135
miles below Eagle Pass, which is about two-thirds of the distance
along the course of the river to its mouth.

The appropriation which was made at the last session of Congress for
the continuation of the survey is subject to the following proviso:
Provided, That no part of this appropriation shall be used or
expended until it shall be made satisfactorily to appear to the
President of the United States that the southern boundary of New
Mexico is not established by the commissioner and surveyor of the
United States farther north of the town called "Paso" than the same
is laid down in Disturnell's map, which is added to the treaty.

My attention was drawn to this subject by a report from the
Department of the Interior, which reviewed all the facts of the case
and submitted for my decision the question whether under existing
circumstances any part of the appropriation could be lawfully used or
expended for the further prosecution of the work. After a careful
consideration of the subject I came to the conclusion that it could
not, and so informed the head of that Department. Orders were
immediately issued by him to the commissioner and surveyor to make no
further requisitions on the Department, as they could not be paid, and
to discontinue all operations on the southern line of New Mexico. But
as the Department had no exact information as to the amount of
provisions and money which remained unexpended in the hands of the
commissioner and surveyor, it was left discretionary with them to
continue the survey down the Rio Grande as far as the means at their
disposal would enable them or at once to disband the commission. A
special messenger has since arrived from the officer in charge of the
survey on the river with information that the funds subject to his
control were exhausted and that the officers and others employed in
the service were destitute alike of the means of prosecuting the work
and of returning to their homes.

The object of the proviso was doubtless to arrest the survey of the
southern and western lines of New Mexico, in regard to which
different opinions have been expressed; for it is hardly to be
supposed that there could be any objection to that part of the line
which extends along the channel of the Rio Grande. But the terms of
the law are so broad as to forbid the use of any part of the money
for the prosecution of the work, or even for the payment to the
officers and agents of the arrearages of pay which are justly due to
them.

I earnestly invite your prompt attention to this subject, and
recommend a modification of the terms of the proviso, so as to enable
the Department to use as much of the appropriation as will be
necessary to discharge the existing obligations of the Government and
to complete the survey of the Rio Grande to its mouth.

It will also be proper to make further provision by law for the
fulfillment of our treaty with Mexico for running and marking the
residue of the boundary line between the two countries.

Permit me to invite your particular attention to the interests of the
District of Columbia, which are confided by the Constitution to your
peculiar care.

Among the measures which seem to me of the greatest importance to its
prosperity are the introduction of a copious supply of water into the
city of Washington and the construction of suitable bridges across
the Potomac to replace those which were destroyed by high water in
the early part of the present year.

At the last session of Congress an appropriation was made to defray
the cost of the surveys necessary for determining the best means of
affording an unfailing supply of good and wholesome water. Some
progress has been made in the survey, and as soon as it is completed
the result will be laid before you.

Further appropriations will also be necessary for grading and paving
the streets and avenues and inclosing and embellishing the public
grounds within the city of Washington.

I commend all these objects, together with the charitable
institutions of the District, to your favorable regard. Every effort
has been made to protect our frontier and that of the adjoining
Mexican States from the incursions of the Indian tribes. Of about
11,000 men of which the Army is composed, nearly 8,000 are employed
in the defense of the newly acquired territory (including Texas) and
of emigrants proceeding thereto. I am gratified to say that these
efforts have been unusually successful. With the exception of some
partial outbreaks in California and Oregon and occasional
depredations on a portion of the Rio Grande, owing, it is believed,
to the disturbed state of that border region, the inroads of the
Indians have been effectually restrained.

Experience has shown, however, that whenever the two races are
brought into contact collisions will inevitably occur. To prevent
these collisions the United States have generally set apart portions
of their territory for the exclusive occupation of the Indian tribes.
A difficulty occurs, however, in the application of this policy to
Texas. By the terms of the compact by which that State was admitted
into the Union she retained the ownership of all the vacant lands
within her limits. The government of that State, it is understood,
has assigned no portion of her territory to the Indians, but as fast
as her settlements advance lays it off into counties and proceeds to
survey and sell it. This policy manifestly tends not only to alarm
and irritate the Indians, but to compel them to resort to plunder for
subsistence. It also deprives this Government of that influence and
control over them without which no durable peace can ever exist
between them and the whites. I trust, therefore, that a due regard
for her own interests, apart from considerations of humanity and
justice, will induce that State to assign a small portion of her vast
domain for the provisional occupancy of the small remnants of tribes
within her borders, subject, of course, to her ownership and eventual
jurisdiction. If she should fail to do this, the fulfillment of our
treaty stipulations with Mexico and our duty to the Indians
themselves will, it is feared, become a subject of serious
embarrassment to the Government. It is hoped, however, that a timely
and just provision by Texas may avert this evil.

No appropriations for fortifications were made at the two last
sessions of Congress. The cause of this omission is probably to be
found in a growing belief that the system of fortifications adopted
in 1816, and heretofore acted on, requires revision.

The subject certainly deserves full and careful investigation, but it
should not be delayed longer than can be avoided. In the meantime
there are certain works which have been commenced, some of them
nearly completed, designed to protect our principal seaports from
Boston to New Orleans and a few other important points. In regard to
the necessity for these works, it is believed that little difference
of opinion exists among military men. I therefore recommend that the
appropriations necessary to prosecute them be made.

I invite your attention to the remarks on this subject and on others
connected with his Department contained in the accompanying report of
the Secretary of War.

Measures have been taken to carry into effect the law of the last
session making provision for the improvement of certain rivers and
harbors, and it is believed that the arrangements made for that
purpose will combine efficiency with economy. Owing chiefly to the
advanced season when the act was passed, little has yet been done in
regard to many of the works beyond making the necessary preparations.
With respect to a few of the improvements, the sums already
appropriated will suffice to complete them; but most of them will
require additional appropriations. I trust that these appropriations
will be made, and that this wise and beneficent policy, so
auspiciously resumed, will be continued. Great care should be taken,
however, to commence no work which is not of sufficient importance to
the commerce of the country to be viewed as national in its character.
But works which have been commenced should not be discontinued until
completed, as otherwise the sums expended will in most cases be
lost.

The report from the Navy Department will inform you of the prosperous
condition of the branch of the public service committed to its charge.
It presents to your consideration many topics and suggestions of which
I ask your approval. It exhibits an unusual degree of activity in the
operations of the Department during the past year. The preparations
for the Japan expedition, to which I have already alluded; the
arrangements made for the exploration and survey of the China Seas,
the Northern Pacific, and Behrings Straits; the incipient measures
taken toward a reconnoissance of the continent of Africa eastward of
Liberia; the preparation for an early examination of the tributaries
of the river La Plata, which a recent decree of the provisional chief
of the Argentine Confederation has opened to navigation--all these
enterprises and the means by which they are proposed to be
accomplished have commanded my full approbation, and I have no doubt
will be productive of most useful results.

Two officers of the Navy were heretofore instructed to explore the
whole extent of the Amazon River from the confines of Peru to its
mouth. The return of one of them has placed in the possession of the
Government an interesting and valuable account of the character and
resources of a country abounding in the materials of commerce, and
which if opened to the industry of the world will prove an
inexhaustible fund of wealth. The report of this exploration will be
communicated to you as soon as it is completed.

Among other subjects offered to your notice by the Secretary of the
Navy, I select for special commendation, in view of its connection
with the interests of the Navy, the plan submitted by him for the
establishment of a permanent corps of seamen and the suggestions he
has presented for the reorganization of the Naval Academy.

In reference to the first of these, I take occasion to say that I
think it will greatly improve the efficiency of the service, and that
I regard it as still more entitled to favor for the salutary influence
it must exert upon the naval discipline, now greatly disturbed by the
increasing spirit of insubordination resulting from our present
system. The plan proposed for the organization of the seamen
furnishes a judicious substitute for the law of September, 1850,
abolishing corporal punishment, and satisfactorily sustains the
policy of that act under conditions well adapted to maintain the
authority of command and the order and security of our ships. It is
believed that any change which proposes permanently to dispense with
this mode of punishment should be preceded by a system of enlistment
which shall supply the Navy with seamen of the most meritorious
class, whose good deportment and pride of character may preclude all
occasion for a resort to penalties of a harsh or degrading nature.
The safety of a ship and her crew is often dependent upon immediate
obedience to a command, and the authority to enforce it must be
equally ready. The arrest of a refractory seaman in such moments not
only deprives the ship of indispensable aid, but imposes a necessity
for double service on others, whose fidelity to their duties may be
relied upon in such an emergency. The exposure to this increased and
arduous labor since the passage of the act of 1850 has already had,
to a most observable and injurious extent, the effect of preventing
the enlistment of the best seamen in the Navy. The plan now suggested
is designed to promote a condition of service in which this objection
will no longer exist. The details of this plan may be established in
great part, if not altogether, by the Executive under the authority
of existing laws, but I have thought it proper, in accordance with
the suggestion of the Secretary of the Navy, to submit it to your
approval.

The establishment of a corps of apprentices for the Navy, or boys to
be enlisted until they become of age, and to be employed under such
regulations as the Navy Department may devise, as proposed in the
report, I cordially approve and commend to your consideration; and I
also concur in the suggestion that this system for the early training
of seamen may be most usefully ingrafted upon the service of our
merchant marine. The other proposition of the report to which I have
referred--the reorganization of the Naval Academy--I recommend to
your attention as a project worthy of your encouragement and support.
The valuable services already rendered by this institution entitle it
to the continuance of your fostering care.

Your attention is respectfully called to the report of the Postmaster
General for the detailed operation of his Department during the last
fiscal year, from which it will be seen that the receipts from
postages for that time were less by $1,431,696 than for the preceding
fiscal year, being a decrease of about 23 per cent.

This diminution is attributable to the reduction in the rates of
postage made by the act of March 3, 1851, which reduction took effect
at the commencement of the last fiscal year.

Although in its operation during the last year the act referred to
has not fulfilled the predictions of its friends by increasing the
correspondence of the country in proportion to the reduction of
postage, I should, nevertheless, question the policy of returning to
higher rates. Experience warrants the expectation that as the
community becomes accustomed to cheap postage correspondence will
increase. It is believed that from this cause and from the rapid
growth of the country in population and business the receipts of the
Department must ultimately exceed its expenses, and that the country
may safely rely upon the continuance of the present cheap rate of
postage.

In former messages I have, among other things, respectfully
recommended to the consideration of Congress the propriety and
necessity of further legislation for the protection and punishment of
foreign consuls residing in the United States; to revive, with certain
modifications, the act of 10th March, 1838, to restrain unlawful
military expeditions against the inhabitants of conterminous states
or territories; for the preservation and protection from mutilation
or theft of the papers, records, and archives of the nation; for
authorizing the surplus revenue to be applied to the payment of the
public debt in advance of the time when it will become due; for the
establishment of land offices for the sale of the public lands in
California and the Territory of Oregon; for the construction of a
road from the Mississippi Valley to the Pacific Ocean; for the
establishment of a bureau of agriculture for the promotion of that
interest, perhaps the most important in the country; for the
prevention of frauds upon the Government in applications for pensions
and bounty lands; for the establishment of a uniform fee bill,
prescribing a specific compensation for every service required of
clerks, district attorneys, and marshals; for authorizing an
additional regiment of mounted men for the defense of our frontiers
against the Indians and for fulfilling our treaty stipulations with
Mexico to defend her citizens against the Indians "with equal
diligence and energy as our own;" for determining the relative rank
between the naval and civil officers in our public ships and between
the officers of the Army and Navy in the various grades of each; for
reorganizing the naval establishment by fixing the number of officers
in each grade, and providing for a retired list upon reduced pay of
those unfit for active duty; for prescribing and regulating
punishments in the Navy; for the appointment of a commission to
revise the public statutes of the United States by arranging them in
order, supplying deficiencies, correcting incongruities, simplifying
their language, and reporting them to Congress for its final action;
and for the establishment of a commission to adjudicate and settle
private claims against the United States. I am not aware, however,
that any of these subjects have been finally acted upon by Congress.
Without repeating the reasons for legislation on these subjects which
have been assigned in former messages, I respectfully recommend them
again to your favorable consideration.

I think it due to the several Executive Departments of this
Government to bear testimony to the efficiency and integrity with
which they are conducted. With all the careful superintendence which
it is possible for the heads of those Departments to exercise, still
the due administration and guardianship of the public money must very
much depend on the vigilance, intelligence, and fidelity of the
subordinate officers and clerks, and especially on those intrusted
with the settlement and adjustment of claims and accounts. I am
gratified to believe that they have generally performed their duties
faithfully and well. They are appointed to guard the approaches to
the public Treasury, and they occupy positions that expose them to
all the temptations and seductions which the cupidity of peculators
and fraudulent claimants can prompt them to employ. It will be but a
wise precaution to protect the Government against that source of
mischief and corruption, as far as it can be done, by the enactment
of all proper legal penalties. The laws in this respect are supposed
to be defective, and I therefore deem it my duty to call your
attention to the subject and to recommend that provision be made by
law for the punishment not only of those who shall accept bribes, but
also of those who shall either promise, give, or offer to give to any
of those officers or clerks a bribe or reward touching or relating to
any matter of their official action or duty.

It has been the uniform policy of this Government, from its
foundation to the present day, to abstain from all interference in
the domestic affairs of other nations. The consequence has been that
while the nations of Europe have been engaged in desolating wars our
country has pursued its peaceful course to unexampled prosperity and
happiness. The wars in which we have been compelled to engage in
defense of the rights and honor of the country have been,
fortunately, of short duration. During the terrific contest of nation
against nation which succeeded the French Revolution we were enabled
by the wisdom and firmness of President Washington to maintain our
neutrality. While other nations were drawn into this wide-sweeping
whirlpool, we sat quiet and unmoved upon our own shores. While the
flower of their numerous armies was wasted by disease or perished by
hundreds of thousands upon the battlefield, the youth of this favored
land were permitted to enjoy the blessings of peace beneath the
paternal roof. While the States of Europe incurred enormous debts,
under the burden of which their subjects still groan, and which must
absorb no small part of the product of the honest industry of those
countries for generations to come, the United States have once been
enabled to exhibit the proud spectacle of a nation free from public
debt, and if permitted to pursue our prosperous way for a few years
longer in peace we may do the same again.

But it is now said by some that this policy must be changed. Europe
is no longer separated from us by a voyage of months, but steam
navigation has brought her within a few days' sail of our shores. We
see more of her movements and take a deeper interest in her
controversies. Although no one proposes that we should join the
fraternity of potentates who have for ages lavished the blood and
treasure of their subjects in maintaining "the balance of power," yet
it is said that we ought to interfere between contending sovereigns
and their subjects for the purpose of overthrowing the monarchies of
Europe and establishing in their place republican institutions. It is
alleged that we have heretofore pursued a different course from a
sense of our weakness, but that now our conscious strength dictates a
change of policy, and that it is consequently our duty to mingle in
these contests and aid those who are struggling for liberty.

This is a most seductive but dangerous appeal to the generous
sympathies of freemen. Enjoying, as we do, the blessings of a free
Government, there is no man who has an American heart that would not
rejoice to see these blessings extended to all other nations. We can
not witness the struggle between the oppressed and his oppressor
anywhere without the deepest sympathy for the former and the most
anxious desire for his triumph. Nevertheless, is it prudent or is it
wise to involve ourselves in these foreign wars? Is it indeed true
that we have heretofore refrained from doing so merely from the
degrading motive of a conscious weakness? For the honor of the
patriots who have gone before us, I can not admit it. Men of the
Revolution, who drew the sword against the oppressions of the mother
country and pledged to Heaven "their lives, their fortunes, and their
sacred honor" to maintain their freedom, could never have been
actuated by so unworthy a motive. They knew no weakness or fear where
right or duty pointed the way, and it is a libel upon their fair fame
for us, while we enjoy the blessings for which they so nobly fought
and bled, to insinuate it. The truth is that the course which they
pursued was dictated by a stern sense of international justice, by a
statesmanlike prudence and a far-seeing wisdom, looking not merely to
the present necessities but to the permanent safety and interest of
the country. They knew that the world is governed less by sympathy
than by reason and force; that it was not possible for this nation to
become a "propagandist" of free principles without arraying against it
the combined powers of Europe, and that the result was more likely to
be the overthrow of republican liberty here than its establishment
there. History has been written in vain for those who can doubt this.
France had no sooner established a republican form of government than
she manifested a desire to force its blessings on all the world. Her
own historian informs us that, hearing of some petty acts of tyranny
in a neighboring principality, "the National Convention declared that
she would afford succor and fraternity to all nations who wished to
recover their liberty, and she gave it in charge to the executive
power to give orders to the generals of the French armies to aid all
citizens who might have been or should be oppressed in the cause of
liberty." Here was the false step which led to her subsequent
misfortunes. She soon found herself involved in war with all the rest
of Europe. In less than ten years her Government was changed from a
republic to an empire, and finally, after shedding rivers of blood,
foreign powers restored her exiled dynasty and exhausted Europe
sought peace and repose in the unquestioned ascendency of monarchical
principles. Let us learn wisdom from her example. Let us remember that
revolutions do not always establish freedom. Our own free institutions
were not the offspring of our Revolution. They existed before. They
were planted in the free charters of self-government under which the
English colonies grew up, and our Revolution only freed us from the
dominion of a foreign power whose government was at variance with
those institutions. But European nations have had no such training
for self-government, and every effort to establish it by bloody
revolutions has been, and must without that preparation continue to
be, a failure. Liberty unregulated by law degenerates into anarchy,
which soon becomes the most horrid of all despotisms. Our policy is
wisely to govern ourselves, and thereby to set such an example of
national justice, prosperity, and true glory as shall teach to all
nations the blessings of self-government and the unparalleled
enterprise and success of a free people.

We live in an age of progress, and ours is emphatically a country of
progress. Within the last half century the number of States in this
Union has nearly doubled, the population has almost quadrupled, and
our boundaries have been extended from the Mississippi to the
Pacific. Our territory is checkered over with railroads and furrowed
with canals. The inventive talent of our country is excited to the
highest pitch, and the numerous applications for patents for valuable
improvements distinguish this age and this people from all others. The
genius of one American has enabled our commerce to move against wind
and tide and that of another has annihilated distance in the
transmission of intelligence. The whole country is full of
enterprise. Our common schools are diffusing intelligence among the
people and our industry is fast accumulating the comforts and
luxuries of life. This is in part owing to our peculiar position, to
our fertile soil and comparatively sparse population; but much of it
is also owing to the popular institutions under which we live, to the
freedom which every man feels to engage in any useful pursuit
according to his taste or inclination, and to the entire confidence
that his person and property will be protected by the laws. But
whatever may be the cause of this unparalleled growth in population,
intelligence, and wealth, one tiring is clear--that the Government
must keep pace with the progress of the people. It must participate
in their spirit of enterprise, and while it exacts obedience to the
laws and restrains all unauthorized invasions of the rights of
neighboring states, it should foster and protect home industry and
lend its powerful strength to the improvement of such means of
intercommunication as are necessary to promote our internal commerce
and strengthen the ties which bind us together as a people.

It is not strange, however much it may be regretted, that such an
exuberance of enterprise should cause some individuals to mistake
change for progress and the invasion of the rights of others for
national prowess and glory. The former are constantly agitating for
some change in the organic law, or urging new and untried theories of
human rights. The latter are ever ready to engage in any wild crusade
against a neighboring people, regardless of the justice of the
enterprise and without looking at the fatal consequences to ourselves
and to the cause of popular government. Such expeditions, however, are
often stimulated by mercenary individuals, who expect to share the
plunder or profit of the enterprise without exposing themselves to
danger, and are led on by some irresponsible foreigner, who abuses
the hospitality of our own Government by seducing the young and
ignorant to join in his scheme of personal ambition or revenge under
the false and delusive pretense of extending the area of freedom.
These reprehensible aggressions but retard the true progress of our
nation and tarnish its fair fame. They should therefore receive the
indignant frowns of every good citizen who sincerely loves his
country and takes a pride in its prosperity and honor. Our
Constitution, though not perfect, is doubtless the best that ever was
formed. Therefore let every proposition to change it be well weighed
and, if found beneficial, cautiously adopted. Every patriot will
rejoice to see its authority so exerted as to advance the prosperity
and honor of the nation, whilst he will watch with jealousy any
attempt to mutilate this charter of our liberties or pervert its
powers to acts of aggression or injustice. Thus shall conservatism
and progress blend their harmonious action in preserving the form and
spirit of the Constitution and at the same time carry forward the
great improvements of the country with a rapidity and energy which
freemen only can display.

In closing this my last annual communication, permit me,
fellow-citizens, to congratulate you on the prosperous condition of
our beloved country. Abroad its relations with all foreign powers are
friendly, its rights are respected, and its high place in the family
of nations cheerfully recognized. At home we enjoy an amount of
happiness, public and private, which has probably never fallen to the
lot of any other people. Besides affording to our own citizens a
degree of prosperity of which on so large a scale I know of no other
instance, our country is annually affording a refuge and a home to
multitudes, altogether without example, from the Old World.

We owe these blessings, under Heaven, to the happy Constitution and
Government which were bequeathed to us by our fathers, and which it
is our sacred duty to transmit in all their integrity to our
children. We must all consider it a great distinction and privilege
to have been chosen by the people to bear a part in the
administration of such a Government. Called by an unexpected
dispensation to its highest trust at a season of embarrassment and
alarm, I entered upon its arduous duties with extreme diffidence. I
claim only to have discharged them to the best of an humble ability,
with a single eye to the public good, and it is with devout gratitude
in retiring from office that I leave the country in a state of peace
and prosperity.