On surveys of the peninsula of Florida, to ascertain the practicability
of a canal to connect the waters of the Atlantic with the Gulf of Mexico
across that peninsula; and also of the country between the bays of
Mobile and of Pensacola, with the view of connecting them together by a
canal.
On surveys of a route for a canal to connect the waters of James and
Great Kenhawa rivers.
On the survey of the Swash, in Pamlico Sound, and that of Cape Fear,
below the town of Wilmington, in North Carolina.
On the survey of the Muscle Shoals, in the Tennessee River, and for a
route for a contemplated communication between the Hiwassee and Coosa
rivers, in the State of Alabama.
Other reports of surveys upon objects pointed out by the several acts of
Congress of the last and preceding sessions are in the progress of
preparation, and most of them may be completed before the close of this
session. All the officers of both corps of engineers, with several other
persons duly qualified, have been constantly employed upon these
services from the passage of the act of 30th April, 1824, to this time.
Were no other advantage to accrue to the country from their labors than
the fund of topographical knowledge which they have collected and
communicated, that alone would have been a profit to the Union more than
adequate to all the expenditures which have been devoted to the object;
but the appropriations for the repair and continuation of the Cumberland
road, for the construction of various other roads, for the removal of
obstructions from the rivers and harbors, for the erection of
light-houses, beacons, piers, and buoys, and for the completion of
canals undertaken by individual associations, but heeding the assistance
of means and resources more comprehensive than individual enterprise can
command, may be considered rather as treasures laid up from the
contributions of the present age for the benefit of posterity than as
unrequited applications of the accruing revenues of the nation. To such
objects of permanent improvement to the condition of the country, of
real addition to the wealth as well as to the comfort of the people by
whose authority and resources they have been effected, from three to
four millions of the annual income of the nation have, by laws enacted
at the three most recent sessions of Congress, been applied, without
intrenching upon the necessities of the Treasury, without adding a
dollar to the taxes or debts of the community, without suspending even
the steady and regular discharge of the debts contracted in former days,
which within the same three years have been diminished by the amount of
nearly $16,000,000.
The same observations are in a great degree applicable to the
appropriations made for fortifications upon the coasts and harbors of
the United States, for the maintenance of the Military Academy at West
Point, and for the various objects under the superintendence of the
Department of the Navy. The report from the Secretary of the Navy and
those from the subordinate branches of both the military departments
exhibit to Congress in minute detail the present condition of the public
establishments dependent upon them, the execution of the acts of
Congress relating to them, and the views of the officers engaged in the
several branches of the service concerning the improvements which may
tend to their perfection. The fortification of the coasts and the
gradual increase and improvement of the Navy are parts of a great system
of national defense which has been upward of ten years in progress, and
which for a series of years to come will continue to claim the constant
and persevering protection and superintendence of the legislative
authority. Among the measures which have emanated from these principles
the act of the last session of Congress for the gradual improvement of
the Navy holds a conspicuous place. The collection of timber for the
future construction of vessels of war, the preservation and reproduction
of the species of timber peculiarly adapted to that purpose, the
construction of dry docks for the use of the Navy, the erection of a
marine railway for the repair of the public ships, and the improvement
of the navy-yards for the preservation of the public property deposited
in them have all received from the Executive the attention required by
that act, and will continue to receive it, steadily proceeding toward
the execution of all its purposes. The establishment of a naval academy,
furnishing the means of theoretic instruction to the youths who devote
their lives to the service of their country upon the ocean, still
solicits the sanction of the Legislature. Practical seamanship and the
art of navigation may be acquired on the cruises of the squadrons which
from time to time are dispatched to distant seas, but a competent
knowledge even of the art of shipbuilding, the higher mathematics, and
astronomy; the literature which can place our officers on a level of
polished education with the officers of other maritime nations; the
knowledge of the laws, municipal and national, which in their
intercourse with foreign states and their governments are continually
called into operation, and, above all, that acquaintance with the
principles of honor and justice, with the higher obligations of morals
and of general laws, human and divine, which constitutes the great
distinction between the warrior-patriot and the licensed robber and
pirate--these can be systematically taught and eminently acquired only
in a permanent school, stationed upon the shore and provided with the
teachers, the instruments, and the books conversant with and adapted to
the communication of the principles of these respective sciences to the
youthful and inquiring mind.
The report from the Postmaster-General exhibits the condition of that
Department as highly satisfactory for the present and still more
promising for the future. Its receipts for the year ending the 1st of
July last amounted to $1,473,551, and exceeded its expenditures by
upward of $100,000. It can not be an oversanguine estimate to predict
that in less than ten years, of which one-half have elapsed, the
receipts will have been more than doubled. In the meantime a reduced
expenditure upon established routes has kept pace with increased
facilities of public accommodation and additional services have been
obtained at reduced rates of compensation. Within the last year the
transportation of the mail in stages has been greatly augmented. The
number of post-offices has been increased to 7,000, and it may be
anticipated that while the facilities of intercourse between
fellow-citizens in person or by correspondence will soon be carried to
the door of every villager in the Union, a yearly surplus of revenue
will accrue which may be applied as the wisdom of Congress under the
exercise of their constitutional powers may devise for the further
establishment and improvement of the public roads, or by adding still
further to the facilities in the transportation of the mails. Of the
indications of the prosperous condition of our country, none can be more
pleasing than those presented by the multiplying relations of personal
and intimate intercourse between the citizens of the Union dwelling at
the remotest distances from each other.
Among the subjects which have heretofore occupied the earnest solicitude
and attention of Congress is the management and disposal of that portion
of the property of the nation which consists of the public lands. The
acquisition of them, made at the expense of the whole Union, not only in
treasure but in blood, marks a right of property in them equally
extensive. By the report and statements from the General Land Office now
communicated it appears that under the present Government of the United
States a sum little short of $33,000,000 has been paid from the common
Treasury for that portion of this property which has been purchased from
France and Spain, and for the extinction of the aboriginal titles. The
amount of lands acquired is near 260,000,000 acres, of which on the 1st
of January, 1826, about 139,000,000 acres had been surveyed, and little
more than 19,000,000 acres had been sold. The amount paid into the
Treasury by the purchasers of the public lands sold is not yet equal to
the sums paid for the whole, but leaves a small balance to be refunded.
The proceeds of the sales of the lands have long been pledged to the
creditors of the nation, a pledge from which we have reason to hope that
they will in a very few years be redeemed.
The system upon which this great national interest has been managed was
the result of long, anxious, and persevering deliberation. Matured and
modified by the progress of our population and the lessons of
experience, it has been hitherto eminently successful. More than
nine-tenths of the lands still remain the common property of the Union,
the appropriation and disposal of which are sacred trusts in the hands
of Congress. Of the lands sold, a considerable part were conveyed under
extended credits, which in the vicissitudes and fluctuations in the
value of lands and of their produce became oppressively burdensome to
the purchasers. It can never be the interest or the policy of the nation
to wring from its own citizens the reasonable profits of their industry
and enterprise by holding them to the rigorous import of disastrous
engagements. In March, 1821, a debt of $22,000,000, due by purchasers of
the public lands, had accumulated, which they were unable to pay. An act
of Congress of the 2d March, 1821, came to their relief, and has been
succeeded by others, the latest being the act of the 4th of May, 1826,
the indulgent provisions of which expired on the 4th July last. The
effect of these laws has been to reduce the debt from the purchasers to
a remaining balance of about $4,300,000 due, more than three-fifths of
which are for lands within the State of Alabama. I recommend to Congress
the revival and continuance for a further term of the beneficent
accommodations to the public debtors of that statute, and submit to
their consideration, in the same spirit of equity, the remission, under
proper discriminations, of the forfeitures of partial payments on
account of purchases of the public lands, so far as to allow of their
application to other payments.
There are various other subjects of deep interest to the whole Union
which have heretofore been recommended to the consideration of Congress,
as well by my predecessors as, under the impression of the duties
devolving upon me, by myself. Among these are the debt, rather of
justice than gratitude, to the surviving warriors of the Revolutionary
war; the extension of the judicial administration of the Federal
Government to those extensive and important members of the Union which,
having risen into existence since the organization of the present
judiciary establishment, now constitute at least one-third of its
territory, power, and population; the formation of a more effective and
uniform system for the government of the militia, and the amelioration
in some form or modification of the diversified and often oppressive
codes relating to insolvency. Amidst the multiplicity of topics of great
national concernment which may recommend themselves to the calm and
patriotic deliberations of the Legislature, it may suffice to say that
on these and all other measures which may receive their sanction my
hearty cooperation will be given, conformably to the duties enjoined
upon me and under the sense of all the obligations prescribed by the
Constitution.
John Quincy Adams.
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