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rate of increase of these offices is nearly forty, and of the revenue, and of travelled miles, from twenty to twentyfive for one. The increase of revenue, within the last five years, has been nearly equal to the whole revenue of the department in 1812.

The expenditures of the department, during the year which ended on the first of July last, have exceeded the receipts by a sum of about twenty-five thousand dollars. The excess has been occasioned by the increase of mail conveyances and facilities, to the extent of near eight hundred thousand miles. It has been supplied by collections from the Postmasters, of the arrearages of preceding years While the correct principle seems to be, that the income levied by the department should defray all its expenses, it has never been the policy of this Government to raise from this establishment any revenue to be applied to any other purposes. The suggestion of the Postmaster General, that the insurance of the safe transmission of moneys by the mail, might be assumed by the department, for a moderate and competent remuneration, will deserve the consideration of Congress.

A report from the Commissioner of the Public Buildings in this city exhibits the expenditures upon them in the course of the current year. It will be seen that the humane and benevolent intentions of Congress in providing, by the act of 20th May, 1826, for the erection of a Penitentiary in this District, have been accomplished. The authority of farther legislation is now required for the removal to this tenement of the offenders against the laws, sentenced to atone by personal confinement for their crimes, and to provide a code for their employment and government while thus confided.

The commissioners appointed conformably to the act of 2d March, 1827, to provide for the adjustment of claims of persons entitled to indemnification under the first article of the treaty of Ghent, and for the distribution among such claimants of the sum paid by the Government of Great Britain under the convention of 13th November, 1826, closed their labors on the 30th of August last, by awarding the claimants the sum of one million one hundred and ninety-seven thousand four hundred and twenty-two dollars and eighteen cents; leaving a balance of seven thousand five hundred and thirty-seven dollars and eighty-two cents, which was distributed ratably amongst all the claimants to whom awards had been made, according to the directions of the act.

The exhibits appended to the report from the Commissioner of the General Land Office present the actual condition of that common property of the Union. The amount paid into the treasury from the proceeds of lands, during the year 1827, and the first half of 1828, falls

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lation to so late a period. That law, like those of the preceding enumerations, directed that the census should be taken by the Marshals of the several Districts and Territories, under instructions from the Secretary of State. The preparation and transmission to the marshals of those instructions required more time than was then allowed between the passage of the law and the day when the enumeration was to commence. The term of six months, limited for the returns of the marshals, was also found even then too short, and must be more so now, when an additional population of at least three millions must be presented upon the returns. As they are to be made at the short session of Congress, it would, as well as from other considerations, be more convenient to commence the enumeration from an earlier period of the year than the first of August. The most favorable season would be the spring. On a review of the former enumerations, it will be found that the plan for taking every census has contained improvements upon that of its predecessor. The last is still susceptible of much improvement. The third census was the first at which any account was taken of the manufactures of the country. It was repeated at the last enumeration, but the returns in both cases were necessarily very imperfect. They must always be so, resting of course only on the communications voluntarily made by individuals interested in some of the manufacturing establishments. Yet they contained much valuable information, and may, by some supplementary provision of the law, be rendered more effective. The columns of age, commencing from infancy, have hitherto been confined to a few periods, all under the number of forty-five years. Important knowledge would be obtained by extending those columns, in intervals of ten years, to the utmost boundaries of human life. The labor of taking them would be a trifling addition to that already prescribed, and the result would exhibit comparative tables of longevity highly interesting to the country. I deem it my duty farther to observe, that much of the imperfections in the returns of the last and perhaps of preceding enumerations, proceeded from the inadequateness of the compensations allowed to the marshals and their assistants in taking them.

In closing this communication, it only remains for me to assure the Legislature of my continued earnest wish for the adoption of measures recommended by me heretofore, and yet to be acted on by them; and of the cordial concurrence on my part in every constitutional provision which may receive their sanction during the session, tending to the general welfare. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. WASHINGTON, December 2, 1828.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR. DEPARTMENT OF WAR, November 24, 1828.

SIR: I have the honor herewith to transmit, for your information, the annual reports of the officers who superintend the several branches of the public service entrusted to this Department; showing, in detail, the operations of each during the past year, and the state of the funds appropriated and applicable to those services respectively.

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army at two points, have never been realized, for want of means for their proper equipment: and, as they were the cherished favorites of my immediate predecessors, they would not, if for no other reason, haye been disturbed, but to meet the positive emergencies of the Government.

These schools have, from their first establishment, materially lessened the disposable force of the army for ordinary service; and about the time of their formation, or a little anterior to it, and with a view probably to this object, the garrisons of several important posts along our northern and western frontier were wholly withdrawn, and others materially reduced. This subtraction of force from ordinary service was not, however, under the peculiarly favorable circumstances of the country, injuriously felt, until within a late period, when several events have occurred, which, in the opinion of the Department, rendered it proper to restore a portion of these detachments to their former and appropriate duties; and a neglect to do which might have seriously affected the interests, and perhaps endangered the peace, of certain portions of the Union.

In the course of the last year, the Winnebagoes, and other Indian tribes living in the neighborhood of the posts which had been evacuated, and emboldened, probably, by that circumstance, commenced a series of petty but savage warfare on the adjoining white population; and rendered it necessary to march a strong military force into that country, the effect of which was to quell, for a time at least, these disturbances. But, in the course of the past spring and summer, fresh symptoms of discontent and hostility were manifested by the Indians; and the people of Illinois, and more particularly the inhabitants of the Lead Mine district, became again so much alarmed as to suggest the necessity, not only of permanently garrisoning the former military posts of Chicago and Prairie du Chien, but of establishing a new one in the centre of the Winnebago country, for the purpose of watching the movements of the Indians, and to serve as a connecting link between the chains of fortification on the Mississippi and on the lakes.

Within the same period, unpleasant contentions had arisen on our Northeastern frontier, between the citizens of the State of Maine, and the subjects of the adjoining British province, in consequence of conflicting claims of property and jurisdiction; and which threatened, unless promptly repressed by the presence of a military force, to involve the local authorities, at least, of the two countries, in serious collisions.

Besides these inducements for strengthening our inland frontier, another important one was found in the expediency of affording timely and efficient aid to our revenue officers, in defeating the purposes, boldly avowed by high authority, and not yet abandoned, of introducing foreign goods into the United States, either by stratagem or force, without the payment of duties; and this precaution was more particularly necessary along the Niagara frontier, where we had no troops, and where it is notorious that large quantities of foreign goods are now collected with this obvious design.

Such were the reasons for establishing the new, and reoccupying the old military posts, mentioned in the report of the Major General: and, to effect these objects, a reduction of the Military School of Practice at Jefferson barracks became indispensable. This new disposition of our inland force has, it is believed, been universally acceptable to our citizens in the north and northwestern parts of the Union, and, it is hoped, will be approved by Congress.

The numerous fortifications, completed and completing along our maritime frontier, in the progressive execution of our great system of national defence, have imposed on the Department the necessity of withdrawing, also, from the School of Artillery Practice at Fortress Monroe, nearly one half of its force, for the purpose of assisting in the

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completion of the unfinished works, and of garrisoning and preserving those which are completed. The School of Practice is not, however, thereby broken up, but may still proceed with the same efficiency and success, proportionate to its numbers, as heretofore. As little more has been taught at the two schools than the manuale of the artillery and infantry, the same system of instruction may be continued, and with nearly the same advantage, at every post where a regiment or battalion is stationed, and where a competent instructor will always be found. The views of the army and its staff, presented in the various reports herewith submitted, cannot, I apprehend, fail to be satisfactory to Congress and to the nation; whether regarded in reference to its military discipline, its present employments, or its fiscal economy. While a portion of that able arm of the military establishment, the corps of Engineers, is employed in constructing works of military defence, another portion, aided by scientific and enterprising officers, detailed from the line of the army, is cooperating with our citizen engineers, in developing the capacities of the country for internal improvement, and in building up works which belong exclusively to the Department of political economy. The Quartermaster General, at the same time, assisted by other officers and soldiers of the line, is engaged, not merely in military erections and accommodations for the troops, but in the construction of roads and bridges for the citizens at large. And the Ordnance Department, with the force under its control, displays a corresponding energy and skill in the fabrication of arms and other munitions of war, as well for the militia of the States, as for the regular army. Indeed the reports from these three Departments exhibit the army of the United States, not in the light in which standing armies in time of peace have usually been regarded-as drones who are consuming the labor of others—but as a body of military and civil engineers, artificers, and laborers, who probably contribute, more than any other equal number of citizens, not only to the security of the country, but to the advancement of its useful arts.

The Military Academy, it is believed, has conquered all the prejudices which formerly existed against it; and is scattering the fruits of its science, and communicating, by its examples, the lessons of industry and order there taught, not merely to the rest of the army, but the youths of our country generally; and the interchange of the theoretic science of this national school, with the practical skill and judgment of our citizen engineers, which is now going on throughout the United States, will soon furnish every part of the country with the most accomplished professors in every branch of civil engineering. The report of the last Board of Visiters, remarkable for its good sense and practical views, and herewith presented, shows that this institution is still advancing in usefulness; and I beg leave to recommend to the favorable consideration of Congress the many important suggestions which it contains.

The report of the Chief Engineer, including that of the Board of Internal Improvement, will be sure to receive the full and deliberate consideration of the National Legislature; and it would be impossible, by any remarks of mine, to add any thing to the intrinsic interest which this document possesses. Besides its military details, it presents a full view of the extensive operations now in train, under the superintendence of this Department, for the accomplishment of the numerous objects of Internal Improvements to which the recent appropriations of Congress on that subject are applicable. There are, probably, no expenditures of the Government which come so directly home to the interests and feelings of the great body of the people of the United States, or which are viewed with more lively and unqualified satisfaction, than those which relate to Internal Improvement. And may I be permitted to express an opinion, that the liberal appropriations, both specific and general, made to such objects

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and have the sole and exclusive right to the property and government of the territories they occupy, others consider them as mere tenants at will, subject, like the buffalo of the prairies, to be hunted from their country, whenever it may suit our interest or convenience to take possession of it. These views of their rights and disabilities are equally extravagant and unjust; but the misfortune is, that the intermediate line has never been drawn by the Government. Nothing can be more clear, to one who has marked the progress of population and improvement, and is conversant with the principles of human action, than that these Indians will not be permitted to hold the reservations on which they live within the States, by their present tenure, for any considerable period. If, indeed, they were not disturbed in their possessions by us, it would be impossible for them long to subsist, as they have heretofore done, by the chase, as their game is already so much diminished as to render it frequently necessary to furnish them with provisions in order to save them from starvation. In their present destitute and deplorable condition, and which is constantly growing more helpless, it would seem to be not only the right, but the duty of the Government to take them under its paternal care? and to exercise, over their persons and property, the salutary rights and duties of guardianship.

The most prominent feature in the present policy of the Government, as connected with these people, is to be found in the efforts that are making to remove them beyond the limits of the States and organized Territories.

A very extensive tract of country, lying to the west and north of the Arkansas Territory, remarkable for salubrity of climate, fertility of soil, and profusion of game, has lately been set apart for the colonization of the Indians. Liberal pecuniary inducements have been offered by Congress to emigrants, and many have already embraced the offer. But the ultimate success of this project has been greatly endangered, and may yet be defeated, by the operation of another prominent measure of Government, which, although suggested by the most humane motives, comes in direct conflict with the plan of colonization.

The annual appropriation of ten thousand dollars to the purposes of educating Indian children, and teaching them the mechanic arts, has had the effect to draw to almost every Indian reservation, in addition to the agents and interpreters, a considerable number of missionaries and teachers, with their families, who, having acquired, principally by the aid of this fund, very comfortable establishments, are unwilling to be deprived of them by the removal of the Indians; and thus. we have found that, while the agents, specially employed by the Government for this purpose, are engaged in persuading, by profuse distributions of money and presents, the Indians to emigrate another set of Government agents are operating, more secretly, to be sure, but not with less zeal and effect, to prevent such emigration.

These remarks are not intended as a personal reflection on the missionaries and teachers much less on the pious and respectable patrons of these benevolent institutions, who, no doubt, are disposed to lend a ready support to every humane measure which the Government may think proper to adopt in favor of these depressed people; but are rather intended to show the natural and unavoidable tendency of the system itself to counteract the leading policy of the Government.

If the project of colonization be a wise one, and of this, I believe, no one entertains a doubt, why not shape all our laws and treaties to the attainment of that object, and impart to them an efficiency that will be sure to effect it?

Let such of the emigrating Indians as choose it, continue, as heretofore, to devote themselves to the chase, in a country where their toils will be amply rewarded. Let those who are willing to cultivate the arts of civilization be

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formed into a colony, consisting of distinct tribes or communities, but placed contiguous to each other, and connected by general laws which shall reach the whole. Let the lands be apportioned among families and individuals in severalty, to be held by the same tenures by which we hold ours, with, perhaps, some temporary and wholesome restraints on the power of alienation. Assist them in forming and administering a code of laws adapted to a state of civilization. Let the ten thousand dollars appropriation be applied, within the new colony exclusively, to the same objects for which it is now expended, and add to it, from time to time, so much of our other annual contributions as can be thus applied without a violation of public faith.

In regard to such Indians as shall still remain within the States, and refuse to emigrate, let an arrangement be made with the proper authorities of the respective States in which they are situated, for partitioning out to them, in severalty, as much of their respective reservations as shall be amply sufficient for agricultural purposes. Set apart a tract, proportioned in size to the number of Indians, to remain in common, as a refuge and provision for such as may, by improvidence, waste their private property, and subject them all to the municipal laws of the State in which they reside. Let the remainder of the reservation be paid for by those who hold the paramount right, at such prices as shall be deemed, in reference to the uses which Indians are accustomed to make of lands, reasonable; and the proceeds to be applied for the benefit of those of the tribe who emigrate, after their establishment in the colony, or to be divided between those who emigrate and those who remain, as justice may require. It may, perhaps, be fairly doubted whether the ten thousand dollars appropriation (independently of its tendency to prevent emigration) produces under the circumstances in which it is now expended, any useful results. These schools, it is true, impart to a certain number of Indian youths so much information, and so far change their habits, as to inspire them with all the passions and desires, and particularly the passion for accumulating individual wealth, peculiar to a state of civilization; and then these half educated men, are turned loose among their respective tribes, without any honorable means of satisfying the desires and wants which have been thus artificially created. The lands of the tribe being common and unalienable, they have no motive to cultivate and improve them. There is no floating wealth to attract their ambition, and the only and usual means of gratifying their cupidity for money is, by employing the advantages acquired by their education to appropriate to themselves more than their just share of the large contributions annually made by the Government, and in this way, they, with some few honorable exceptions, render, not only themselves, but the very arts they have acquired, obnoxious to the nation at large.

If, however, it should be deemed most expedient to continue to expend a portion of the ten thousand dollars fund on the Indians remaining within the States, the missionaries and teachers should be located on the tracts proposed to be set apart for the common use of each tribe; from whence the information they supply, and the arts they teach, might be advantageously applied by the adjoining Indians to the improvement of their separate property; and where they might also take charge of those Indians who may, by improvidence, have expended their private estates.

It is, in my opinion, worse than useless to impart education and the arts to the Indians, without furnishing them, at the same time, with appropriate subjects on which to employ them.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant, P. B. PORTER.

To the PRESIDENT of the United States.