[Footnote 104: Relating to a demand upon the British Government for
the surrender of certain fugitive criminals from Florida under the
provisions of the tenth article of the treaty of Washington.]
WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1844_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I transmit herewith a communication from the Secretary of the Navy,
to which I invite the particular attention of Congress. The act
entitled "An act to authorize the President of the United States to
direct transfers of appropriation in the naval service under certain
circumstances" has this day met with my approval, under no expectation
that it can be rendered available to the present wants of the service,
but as containing an exposition of the views of Congress as to the
entire policy of transfers from one head of appropriation to any
other in the naval service and as a guide to the Executive in the
administration of the duties of that Department. The restrictions
laid upon the power to transfer by the latter clauses of the act have
rendered its passage of no avail at the present moment.
It will, however, be perceived by the document accompanying the report
of the Secretary that there has been realized by recent sales of old
iron, copper, and other materials the sum of $116,922.79. These sales
were ordered for the express purpose of enabling the Executive to
complete certain ships now on the stocks, the completion of which is
called for by the economical wants of the service; and the doubt
existing as to the power of the Government to apply this sum to the
objects contemplated proceeds from the fact that the late Secretary of
the Navy directed them to be placed in the Treasury, although in doing
so he had no intention of diverting them from their intended head of
expenditure. The Secretary of the Treasury, however, has brought himself
to the opinion that they could only be entered under the head of
miscellaneous receipts, and therefore can only be withdrawn by authority
of an express act of Congress. I would suggest the propriety of the
passage of such an act without delay.
As intimately associated with the means of public defense, I can not
forbear urging upon you the importance of constructing, upon the
principles which have been brought into use in the construction of the
_Princeton_, several ships of war of a larger class, better fitted than
that ship to the heavy armament which should be placed on board of them.
The success which has so eminently crowned this first experiment should
encourage Congress to lose no time in availing the country of all the
important benefits so obviously destined to flow from it. Other nations
will speedily give their attention to the subject, and it would be
criminal in the United States, the first to apply to practical purposes
the great power which has been brought into use, to permit others to
avail themselves of our improvements while we stood listlessly and
supinely by. In the number of steam vessels of war we are greatly
surpassed by other nations, and yet to Americans is the world indebted
for that great discovery of the means of successfully applying steam
power which has in the last quarter century so materially changed the
condition of the world. We have now taken another and even bolder step,
the results of which upon the affairs of nations remain still to be
determined, and I can not but flatter myself that it will be followed
up without loss of time to the full extent of the public demands. The
Secretary of the Navy will be instructed to lay before you suitable
estimates of the cost of constructing so many ships of such size and
dimensions as you may think proper to order to be built.
The application of steam power to ships of war no longer confines us to
the seaboard in their construction. The urgent demands of the service
for the Gulf of Mexico and the substitution of iron for wood in the
construction of ships plainly point to the establishment of a navy-yard
at some suitable place on the Mississippi. The coal fields and iron
mines of the extensive region watered by that noble river recommend such
an establishment, while high considerations of public policy would lead
to the same conclusion.
One of the complaints of the Western States against the actual operation
of our system of government is that while large and increasing
expenditures of public money are made on the Atlantic frontier the
expenditures in the interior are comparatively small. The time has now
arrived when this cause of complaint may be in a great measure removed
by adopting the legitimate and necessary policy which I have indicated,
thereby throwing around the States another bond of union.
I could not forego the favorable opportunity which has presented itself,
growing out of the communication from the Secretary of the Navy, to urge
upon you the foregoing recommendations.