ject, and on others connected with this 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 harbours, 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 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 additional 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 ex

ploration and survey of the China Seas, the Northern Pacific, and Behring's Straits; the incipient

measures taken towards a reconnoissance of the continent of Africa eastward of Liberia; the preparation of 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 interest 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 re-organization of the Naval Academy.

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 seaman furnishes a judicious substitute for the law of September, 1850, abolishing a 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 of 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 labour, 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 engrafted upon the service of our merchant marine.

The other proposition of the report to which I have referred— the re-organization 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.

Miscellaneous. "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 the 10th of March, 1838, to restrain unlawful military expeditions against the inhabitants of contemporaneous States of 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 defence 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 re-organizing 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 favourable consideration.

The Policy of the Government. The State of Europe. "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 defence of the rights and honour 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 battle-field, the youth of this favoured 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.

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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 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 hitherto 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 cannot witness the struggle between the oppressed and the 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 honour of the patriots who have gone before us I cannot 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 honour' 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.

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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 neighbouring princi pality, The National Convention declared that she would afford

succour 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 ascendancy 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 unpa

ralleled enterprise and success of a free people.

The Progress of the Union."We live in an age of progress, and ours is emphatically a country of progress. Within the last halfcentury, 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 chequered 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.

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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, what

ever may be the cause of this unparalleled growth in population, intelligence, and wealth, one thing is clear, that the Government must keep pace with the progress of the people. It must participate in the spirit of enterprise; and, while it