The whole north west appeals to you for relief, and I trust their appeal will receive due consideration at your hands.

The same is in a measure true in regard to some of the harbors and inlets on the sea coast.

The unobstructed navigation of our large rivers is of equal importance. Our settlements are now extending to the sources of the great rivers which empty into and form a part of the Mississippi, and the value of the public lands in those regions would be greatly enhanced by freeing the navigation of those waters from obstructions. In view, therefore, of this great interest, I deem it my duty again to urge upon Congress to make such appropriations for these improvements as they may deem necessary.

The surveys of the delta of the Mississippi, with a view to the prevention of the overflows that have proved so disastrous to that region of country, have been nearly completed, and the reports thereof are now. in course of preparation, and will shortly be laid before you.

The protection of our south-western frontier, and of the adjacent Mexican States, against the Indian tribes within our border, has claimed my earnest and constant attention. Congress having failed, at the last session, to adopt my recommendation that an additional regiment of mounted men specially adapted to that service should be raised, all that remained to be done was to make the best use of the means at my disposal. Accordingly, all the troops adapted to that service that could properly be spared from other quarters have been concentrated on that frontier, and officers of high reputation selected to command them. A new arrangement of the military posts has also been made, whereby the troops are brought nearer to the Mexican frontier and to the tribes they are intended to overawe.

Sufficient time has not yet elapsed to realize all the benefits that are expected to result from these arrangements, but I have every reason to hope that they will effectually check their marauding expeditions. The nature of the country, which furnishes little for the support of an army, and abounds in places of refuge and concealment, is remarkably well adapted to this predatory warfare; and we can scarcely hope that any military force, combined with the greatest vigilance, can entirely suppress it.

By the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo we are bound to protect the territory of Mexico against the incursions of the savage tribes within our border, "with equal diligence and energy," as if the same were made within our territory or against our citizens. I have endeavored to comply, as far as possible, with this provision of the treaty. Orders have been given to the officers cammanding on that frontier to consider the Mexican territory and its inhabitants as equally with our own entitled to their protection; and to make all their plans and arrangements with a view to the attainment of this object. Instructions have also been given to the Indian commissioners and agents among these tribes, in all treaties, to make the clauses designed for the protection of our own citizens apply also to those of Mexico. I have no reason to doubt that these instructions have been fully carried into effect. Nevertheless, it is probable that in spite of all our ef forts, some of the neighboring States of Mexico may have suffered, as our own have, from depredations by the Indians.

To the difficulties of defending our own territory, as above mentioned, are superadded, in defending that of Mexico, those that arise from its remoteness, from the fact that we have no right to station our troops within her limits, and that there is no efficient military force on the Mexican side

to cooperate with our own. So long as this shall continue to be the case, the number and activity of our troops will rather increase than diminish the evil, as the Indians will naturally turn towards that country where they encounter the least resistance. Yet these troops are necessary to subdue them, and to compel them to make and observe treaties. Until this shall have been done, neither country will enjoy any security from their attacks. The Indians in California, who had previously appeared of a peaceable character, and disposed to cultivate the friendship of the whites, have recently committed several acts of hostility. As a large portion of the reinforcements sent to the Mexican frontier were drawn from the Pacific, the military force now stationed there is considered entirely inadequate to its defence. It cannot be increased, however, without an increase of the army; and I again recommend that measure as indispensable to the protection of the frontier.

I invite your attention to the suggestions on this subject, and on others connected with his department, in the report of the Secretary of War.

The appropriations for the support of the army, during the current fiscal year ending 30th June next, were reduced far below the estimate submitted by the department. The consequence of this reduction is a considerable deficiency, to which I invite your early attention.

The expenditures of that department, for the year ending 30th June last, were $9,060,268.58. The estimates for the year commencing 1st July next, and ending June 30, 1853, are $7,898,775.83; showing a reduction of $1,161,492.75.

The board of commissioners, to whom the management of the affairs of the military asylum, created by the act of 3d March last, was entrusted, have selected a site for the establishment of an asylum in the vicinity of this city, which has been approved by me, subject to the production of a satisfactory title.

The report of the Secretary of the Navy will exhibit the condition of the public service under the supervision of that Department. Our naval force afloat during the present year, has been actively and usefully employed in giving protection to our widely-extended and increasing commerce and interests in the various quarters of the globe, and our flag has everywhere afforded the security and received the respect inspired by the justice and liberality of our intercourse, and the dignity and power of the nation.

The expedition commanded by Lieut. De Haven, despatched in search of the British commander, Sir John Franklin, and his companions in the Arctic Seas, returned to New York in the month of October, after having undergone great peril and suffering from an unknown and dangerous navigation and the rigours of a northern climate, without any satisfactory information of the objects of their search, but with new contributions to science and navigation from the unfrequented polar regions. The officers and men of the expedition having been all volunteers for this service, and having se conducted it as to meet the entire approbation of the Government, it is suggested, as an act of grace and generosity, that the same allowances of extra pay and emoluments be extended to them that were made to the officers and men of like rating in the late exploring expedition to the South Seas.

I earnestly recommend to your attention the necessity of reorganizing the naval establishment, apportioning and fixing the number of officers in each grade, providing some mode of promotion to the higher grades of the

navy, having reference to merit and capacity, rather than seniority or date of entry into the service, and for retiring from the effective list upon reduced pay those who may be incompetent to the performance of active duty. As a measure of economy, as well as of efficiency in this arm of the service, the provision last mentioned is eminently worthy of your consideration.

The determination of the questions of relative rank between the sea officers and civil officers of the navy, and between officers of the army and navy, in the various grades of each, will also merit your attention. The failure to provide any substitute, when corporal punishment was abolished for offences in the navy, has occasioned the convening of numerous courtsmartial upon the arrival of vessels in port, and it is believed to have had an injurious effect upon the discipline and efficiency of the service. To moderate punishment from one grade to another is among the humane reforms of the age; but to abolish one of severity, which applied so generally to of fences on ship-board, and provide nothing in its stead, is to suppose a progress of improvement in every individual among seamen which is not assumed by the legislature in respect to any other class of men. It is hoped that Congress, in the ample opportunity afforded by the present session, will thoroughly investigate this important subject, and establish such modes of determining guilt, and such gradations of punishment, as are consistent with humanity and the personal rights of individuals, and at the same time snall insure the most energetic and efficient performance of duty and the suppression of crime in our ships of war.

The stone dock in the navy yard at New York, which was ten years in process of construction, has been so far finished as to be surrendered up to the authorities of the yard. The dry dock at Philadelphia is reported as completed, and is expected soon to be tested and delivered over to the agents of the Government. That at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is also nearly ready for delivery: and a contract has been concluded, agreeably to the act of Congress at its last session, for a floating sectional dock on the bay of San Francisco. I invite your attention to the recommendation of the Department touching the establishment of a navy yard in conjunction with this dock on the Pacific. Such a station is highly necessary to the convenience and effectiveness of our fleet in that ocean, which must be expected to increase with the growth of commerce and the rapid extension of our whale fisheries over its waters.

The Naval Academy at Annapolis, under a revised and improved system of regulations, now affords opportunities of education and instruction to the pupils quite equal, it is believed, for professional improvement, to those enjoyed by the cadets in the Military Academy. A large class of acting midshipmen was received at the commencement of the last academic term, and a practice-ship has been attached to the institution, to afford the amplest means for regular instruction in seamanship, as well as for cruises during the vacations of three or four months in each year.

The advantages of science in nautical affairs have rarely been more strikingly illustrated, than in the fact stated in the report of the Navy Department, that, by means of the wind and current charts, projected and prepared by Lieutenant Maury, the, Superintendent of the Naval Observatory, the passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific ports of our country has been shortened by about forty days.

The estimates for the support of the navy and marine corps, the ensuing

fiscal year, will be found to be $5,856,472.19, the estimates for the current year being $5,900,621.

The estimates for special objects under the control of this department, amount to $2,684,220.89, against $2,210,980 for the present year, the ncrease being occasioned by the additional mail service on the Pacific coast, and the construction of the dock in California, authorized at the last session of Congress, and some slight additions under the head of improvements and repairs in navy yards, buildings, and machinery.

I deem it of much importance to a just economy, and a correct understanding of naval expenditures, that there should be an entire separation of the appropriations for the support of the naval service proper from those for permanent improvements at navy yards and stations, and from ocean steam-mail service, and other special objects assigned to the supervision of this Department.

The report of the Postmaster-General, herewith communicated, presents an interesting view of the progress, operations, and condition of his Department.

At the close of the last fiscal year, the length of mail routes within the United States was 196,290 miles; the annual transportation thereon 53,272,252 miles; and the annual cost of such transportation $3,421,754.

The length of the foreign mail routes is estimated at 18,349 miles, and the annual transportation thereon at 615,206 miles. The annual cost of this service is $1,472,187, of which $448,937 is paid by the Post-Office Department, and $1,023,250 are paid through the Navy Department.

The annual transportation within the United States (excluding the service in California and Oregon, which is now, for the first time, reported and embraced in the tabular statements of the Department) exceeds that of the preceding year 6,162,855 miles, at an increased cost of $547,110.

The whole number of post-offices in the United States on the 30th day of June last was 19,796. There were 1,698 post-offices established, and 256 discontinued, during the year.

The gross revenues of the Department for the fiscal year, including the appropriations for the franked matter of Congress, of the Departments, and officers of Government, and excluding the foreign postages, collected for, and payable to the British post-office, amounted to $6,727,866.78.

The expenditures for the same period (excluding $20,599.49, paid under an award of the Auditor, in pursuance of a resolution of the last Congress, for mail service on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in 1832 and 1833, and the amount paid to the British post-office for foreign postages collected for and payable to that office) amounted to $6,024,566.79; leaving a balance of revenue over the proper expenditures of the year of $703,299.99.

The receipts for postages during the year (excluding the foreign postages collected for and payable to the British post-office) amounted to $6,345,747.21, being an increase of $997,610.79, or 18,65% per cent. over the like receipts for the preceding year.

The reduction of postage under the act of March last, did not take ef fect until the commencement of the present fiscal year. The accounts for the first quarter, under the operation of the reduced rates, will not be settled before January next; and no reliable estimate of the receipts for the present year can yet be made. It is believed, however, that they will fall far short of those of the last year. The surplus of the revenues now on hand is, however, so large, that no further appropriation from the Treasury,

in aid of the revenues of the Department, is required for the current fiscal year; but an additional appropriation for the year ending June 30, 1853, will probably be found necessary when the receipts of the first two quarters of the fiscal year are fully ascertained.

In his last annual report, the Postmaster-General recommended a reduction of postage to rates which he deemed as low as could be prudently adopted, unless Congress was prepared to appropriate from the Treasury, for the support of the Department, a sum more than equivalent to the mail services performed by it for the Government. The recommendations of the Postmaster-General, in respect to the letter postage, except on letters from and to California and Oregon, were substantially adopted by the last Congress. He now recommends adherence to the present letter rates, and advises against a further reduction until justified by the revenue of the Department.

He also recommends that the rates of postage on printed matter be so revised as to render them more simple and more uniform in their operation upon all classes of printed matter. I submit the recommendations of the report to your favorable consideration.

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The public statutes of the United States have now been accumulating for more than sixty years, and, interspersed with private acts, are scattered through numerous volumes; and, from the cost of the whole, have become almost inaccessible to the great mass of the community. They also exhibit much of the incongruity and imperfection of hasty legislation. As it seems to be generally conceded that there is no common law" of the United States to supply the defects of their legislation, it is most important that that legislation should be as perfect as possible, defining every power intended to be conferred, every crime inten led to be made punishable, and prescribing the punishment to be inflicted. In addition to some particular cases spoken of more at length, the whole criminal code is now lamentably defective. Some offences are imperfectly described, and others are entirely omitted, so that flagrant crimes may be committed with impunity. The scale of punishment is not in all cases graduated according to the degree and nature of the offence, and is often rendered more unequal by the different modes of imprisonment, or penitentiary confinement, in the different States.

Many laws of a permanent character have been introduced into appropriation bills, and it is often difficult to determine whether the particular clause expires with the temporary act of which it is a part, or continues in force. It has also frequently happened that enactments and provisions of law have been introduced into bills with the title or general subject of which they have little or no connexion or relation. In this mode of legislation so many enactments have been heaped upon each other, and often with but little consideration, that, in many instances, it is difficult to search out and determine what is the law.

The Government of the United States is emphatically a government of written laws. The statutes should, therefore, as far as practicable, not only be made accessible to all, but be expressed in language so plain and simple as to be understood by all, and arranged in such method as to give perspicuity to every subject. Many of the States have revised their public acts with great and manifest benefit; and I recommend that provision be made by law for the appointment of a commission to revise the public statutes of the United States, arranging them in order, supplying deficiencies, correcting in