_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
17th of December, requesting the President to communicate to the House
a statement of the amount expended for the current expenses of the
Ordnance Department during the years 1817, 1818, 1819, 1820, and 1821,
and as much as can be shewn for the year 1822, with the items for which
the money was expended, the place where and the persons to whom paid,
what quantity of timber has been procured for gun carriages and
caissons, its cost annually, and where deposited; the quantity of
ordnance of every kind that has been procured during those years or
paid for, and the whole amount of arms of every description now
belonging to the United States; the sum expended in the purchase of
sites for arsenals since the peace, the cost of the buildings erected
thereon, and whether all those arsenals are necessary for the service of
the United States, I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with
the documents mentioned therein, which contains the information desired.