been kept up for years, with alternate success, though generally to the advantage of the American patriots. But their naval forces have not always been under the control of their own governments. Blockades, unjustifiable upon any acknowledged principles of international law, have been proclaimed by officers in command; and though disavowed by the supreme authorities, the protection of our own commerce against them has been made ground of complaint and of erroneous imputation upon some of the most gallant officers of our navy. Complaints equally groundless have been made by the commanders of the Spanish royal forces in those seas; but the most effective protection to our commerce has been the flag and the firmness of our own commanding officers. The cessation of the war by the complete triumph of the patriot cause, has removed, it is hoped, all cause of dissension with one party, and all vestige of force of the other. But an unsettled coast of many degrees of latitude, forming a part of our own territory, and a flourishing commerce and fishery, extending to the islands of the Pacific and to China, still require that the protecting power of the Union should be displayed under its flag as well upon the ocean as upon the land.

The objects of the West India squadron have been, to carry into execution the laws for the suppression of the African slave trade; for the protection of our commerce against vessels of piratical character, though bearing commissions from either of the belligerent parties; for the protection against open and unequivocal pirates. These objects during the present

effectually than at any former period. The African slave trade has long been excluded from the use of our flag; and if some few citizens of our country have continued to set the laws of the Union, as well as those of nature and humanity, at defiance, by persevering in that abominable traffic, it has been only by sheltering themselves under the banners of other nations, less earnest for the total extinction of the trade than ours. The irregular privateers have, within the last year, been in a great measure banished from those seas; and the pirates for months past appear to have been almost entirely swept away from the borders and the shores of the two Spanish islands in those regions. The active, persevering, and unremitted energy, of captain Warrington, and of the officers and men under his command, on that trying and perilous service, have been crowned with signal success, and are entitled to the approbation of their country. But experience has shown, that not even a temporary suspension or relaxation from assiduity can be indulged on that station, without reproducing piracy and murder in all their horrors; nor is it probable that for years to come our immensely valuable commerce in those seas can navigate in security, without the steady continuance of an armed force devoted to its protection.

It were indeed a vain and dangerous illusion to believe that in the present or probable condition of human society, a commerce so extensive and so rich as ours could exist, and be pursued in safety, without the continual support of a military marine; the only arm by which the power of this confederacy can be estimated or felt by foreign nations, and the only standing military force which can never be dangerous to our own liberties at home. A permanent naval peace establishment, therefore, adapted to our present condition, and adaptable to that gigantic growth with which the nation is advancing in its career, is among the subjects which have already occupied the foresight of the last congress, and which will deserve your serious deliberations. Our navy, commenced at an early period of our present political organization, upon a scale commensurate with the incipient energies, the scanty resources, and the comparative indigence of our infancy, was even then found adequate to cope with all the powers of Barbary, save the first, and with one of the principal maritime powers of Europe. At a period of further advancement, but with little accession of strength, it not only sustained with honour the most unequal of conflicts, but covered itself and country with unfading glory. But it is only since the close of the late war, that by the number and force of ships of which it was composed, it could deserve the name of a navy. Yet it retains nearly the same organization as when it consisted only of five frigates. The rules and regulations by which it is governed, urgently call for revision, and the want of a naval school of instruction corresponding with the military academy at West Point, for the formation of scientific and accomplished officers, is felt with daily increasing aggravation.

The act of congress of 26th May, 1824, authorising an examination and survey of the harbour

of Charleston, in South Carolina, of St. Mary's, in Georgia, and of the coast of Florida, and for other purposes, has been executed so far as the appropriation would permit. Those of the 3rd of March last, authorising the establishment of a Navy Yard and dépôt on the coast of Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, and authorising the building of ten sloops of war, and for other purposes, are in the course of execution; for the particulars of which, and other objects connected with this department, I refer to the report of the secretary of the Navy, here herewith communicated.

A report from the postmaster general is also submitted, exhibiting the present flourishing condition of that department. For the first time for many years, the receipts for the year ending the 1st July last, exceeded the expenditures during the same period, to the amount of more than 45,000 dollars. Other facts equally creditable to the administration of the department, are, that in two years, from the 1st of July, 1823, an improvement of more than 185,000 dollars in its pecuniary affairs has been realized; that in the same interval the increase of the transportation of the mail has exceeded one million five hundred thousand miles, annually: and that one thousand and forty new post-offices have been established. It hence appears, that under judicious management, the income from this establishment may be relied on as fully adequate to defray its expenses; and that by the discontinuance of post roads, altogether unproductive, others of more useful character may be opened, till the circulation of the mail shall keep pace with the spread of our population, and the comforts of friendly correspondence, the exchanges of internal traffic, and the lights of the periodical press, shall be distributed to the remotest corners of the Union, at a charge scarcely perceptible to any individual, and without the cost of a dollar to the public treasury.

Upon the first occasion of addressing the legislature of the Union, with which I have been honoured, in presenting to their view the execution, so far as it has been effected, of the measures sanctioned by them, for promoting the internal improvement of our country, I cannot close the communication without recommending to their calm and persevering consideration, the general principle in a more enlarged extent. The great object of the institution of civil government is the improvement of the condition of those who are parties to the social compact; and no government, in whatever form constituted, can accomplish the lawful ends of its institution, but in proportion as it improves the condition of those over whom it is established. Roads and canals, by multiplying and facilitating the communications and intercourse between distant regions, and multitudes of men, are among the most important means of improvement. But moral, political, intellectual improvement, are duties assigned by the Author of our existence, to social, no less than to individual, man. For the fulfilment of those duties governments are invested with power, and to the attainment of the end, the progressive improvement of the condition of the governed, the exercise of delegated power is a duty as sacred and indispensable as the usurpation of power not granted is criminal and odious. Almost

the first, perhaps the very first, instrument for the improvement of the condition of men is knowledge; and to the acquisition of much of the knowledge adapted to the wants, the comforts, and enjoyments of human life, public institutions and seminaries of learning are essential. So convinced of this was the first of my predeces sors in this office, now first in the memory, as, living, he was first in the hearts of our country, that once and again in his addresses to the congresses with whom he cooperated in the public service, he earnestly recommended the establishment of seminaries of learning, to prepare for all the emergencies of peace and war-a national university and a military academy. With respect to the latter, had he lived to the present day, in turning his eyes to the institution at West Point, he would have enjoyed the gratification of his most earnest wishes. But, in surveying the city which has been honoured with his name, he would have seen the spot of earth which he had destined and bequeathed to the use and benefit of his country, as the site for an university, still bare and barren.

In assuming her station among the civilized nations of the earth, it would seem that our country had contracted the engagement to contribute her share of mind, of labour, and of expense, to the improvement of those parts of knowledge which lie beyond the reach of individual acquisition; and particularly to geographical and astronomical science. Looking back to the history only of the half cen tury since the declaration of our independence, and observing the generous emulation with which the governments of France, Great Britain, and Russia, have devoted the genius, the intelligence, the treasures of their respective nations, to the common improvement of the species in these branches of science, is it not incumbent upon us to inquire whether we are not bound by obligations of a high and honourable character, to contribute our portion of energy and exertion to the common stock. The voyages of discovery, prosecuted in the course of that time, at the expense of those nations, have not only redounded to their glory, but to the improvement of human knowledge. We have been partakers of that improvement, and owe for it a sacred debt, not only of gratitude, but of equal or proportional exertion in the same common cause. Of the cost of these undertakings, if the mere expenditure of outfit, equipment, and completion of the expeditions, were to be considered the only charges, it would be unworthy of a great and generous nation to take a second thought. One hundred expeditions of circumnavigation, like those of Cook and La Perouse, would not burthen the exchequer of the nation fitting them out, so much as the ways and means of defraying a single campaign in war. But if we take into the account the lives of those benefactors of mankind, of which their services in the cause of their species were the purchase, how shall the cost of those heroic enterprises be estimated? And what compensation can be made to them, or to their countries for them? Is it not by bearing them in affectionate remembrance? Is it not still more by imitating their example? By enabling countrymen of our own to pursue the same career, and to hazard their lives in the same cause?

In inviting the attention of congress to the subject of internal improvements upon a view thus enlarged, it is not my design to recommend the equipment of an expedition for circumnavigating the globe for the purpose of scientific research and inquiry. We have objects of useful investigation nearer home, and to which our cares may be more beneficially applied. The interior of our own territories has yet been very imperfectly explored. Our coasts along many degrees of latitude upon the shores of the Pacific Ocean, though much frequented by our spirited commercial navigators, have been barely visited by our public ships. The River of the West, first fully discovered and navigated by a countryman of our own, still bears the name of the ship in which he ascended its waters, and claims the protection of our armed national flag at its mouth. With the establishment of a military post there, or at some other point on that coast, recommended by my predecessor, and already matured in the deliberations of the last congress, I would suggest the expediency of connecting the equipment of a public ship for the exploration of the whole North-west coast of this continent.

The establishment of an uniform standard of weights and measures was one of the specific objects contemplated in the formation of our constitution, and to fix that standard was one of the powers delegated by express terms, in that instrument to congress. The governments of Great Britain and France have scarcely ceased to be occupied with inquiries and speculations on the same subject, since the existence of our constitution, and with them it has expanded into profound, laborious and expensive researches into the figure of the earth, and the comparative length of the pendulum vibrating seconds, in various latitudes from the equator to the pole. The researches have resulted in the composition and publication of several works highly interesting to the cause of science. The experiments are yet in the process of performance. Some of them have recently been made on our own shores, within the walls of one of our own colleges, and partly by one of our own fellow citizens. It would be honourable to our country if the sequel of the same experiment should be countenanced by the patronage of our government as they have hitherto been by those of France and Britain.

Connected with the establishment of an university, or separate from it, might be undertaken the erection of an astronomical observatory, with provision for the support of an astronomer, to be in constant attendance and observation upon the phenomena of the heavens; and for the periodical publication of his observations. It is with no feeling of pride, as an American, that the remark may be made, that on the comparatively small territorial surface of Europe, there are existing upwards of onehundred-and-thirty of these lighthouses of the skies; while throughout the whole American hemisphere there is not one. If we reflect a moment upon the discoveries, which in the last four centuries have been made in the physical constitution of the universe, by means of these buildings, and of observers stationed in them, shall we doubt of their usefulness to every nation? And while

scarcely a year passes over our heads without bringing some new astronomical discovery to light, which we must fain receive at second hand from Europe, are we not cutting ourselves off from the means of returning light for light, while we have neither observatory or observer upon our half of the globe, and the earth revolves in perpetual darkness to our unsearching eyes?

When, on the 25th of October, 1791, the first president of the United States announced to congress the result of the first enumeration of the inhabitants of this Union, he informed them that the population of the United States bordered on four millions of persons. At the distance of thirty years from that time, the last enumeration, five years since completed, presented a population bordering upon ten millions. Perhaps, of all the evidences of a prosperous and happy condition of human society the rapidity of the increase of population is the most unequivocal. But the demonstration of our prosperity rests not alone upon this indication. Our commerce, our wealth, and the extent of our territories, have increased in corresponding proportions; and the number of independent communities associated in our federal Union, has, since that time, nearly doubled. The legislative representation of the states and people, in the two houses of congress, has grown with the growth of their constituent bodies. The House, which then consisted of 65 members, now numbers upwards of two hundred. The senate, which consisted of 26 members, has now 48. But the executive, and still more the judiciary department, are yet in a great