For further views on these and other matters connected with the duties of the home department, I refer you to the report of the secretary of the interior.

I recommend early appropriations for continuing the river and harbor improvements which have been already begun, and also for the construction of those for which estimates have been made, as well as for examinations and estimates preparatory to the commencement of such others as the wants of the country, and especially the advance of our population over new districts and the extension of commerce, may render necessary. An estimate of the amount which can be advantageously expended within the next fiscal year under the direction of the bureau of topographical engineers accompanies the report of the secretary of war, to which I respectfully invite the attention of Congress.

The cession of territory made by the late treaty with Mexico has greatly extended our exposed frontier, and rendered its defence more difficult. That treaty has also brought us under obligations to Mexico, to comply with which a military force is requisite. But our military establishment is not materially changed, as to its efficiency, from the condition in which it stood before the commencement of the Mexican war. Some addition to it will therefore be necessary; and I recommend to the favorable consideration of Congress an increase of the several corps of the army at our distant western posts, as proposed in the accompanying report of the secretary of war.

Great embarrassment has resulted from the effect upon rank, in the army, heretofore given to brevet and staff commissions. The views of the secretary of war on this subject are deemed important, and, if carried into effect, will, it is believed, promote the harmony of the service. The plan proposed for retiring disabled officers, and providing an asylum for such of the rank and file as from age, wounds, and other infirmities occasioned by service, have become unfit to perform their respective duties, is recommended as a means of increasing the efficiency of the army, and as an act of justice due from a grateful country to the faithful soldier.

The accompanying report of the secretary of the navy presents a full and satisfactory account of the condition and operations of the naval service during the past year. Our citizens engaged in the legitimate pursuits of commerce have enjoyed its benefits. Wherever our national vessels have gone they have been received with respect, our officers have been treated with kindness and courtesy, and they have on all occasions pursued a course of strict neutrality, in accordance with the policy of our government. The naval force at present in commission is as large as is admissible, with the number of men authorized by Congress to be employed.

I invite your attention to the recommendation of the secretary of the navy on the subject of a re-organization of the navy, in its various grades of officers, and the establishing of a retired list for such of the officers as are disqualified for active and effective service. Should Congress adopt some such measure as is recommended, it will greatly increase the efficiency of the navy, and reduce its expenditures.

I also ask your attention to the views expressed by him in reference to the employment of war-steamers, and in regard to the contracts for the transportation of the United States mails and the operation of the system upon the prosperity of the navy.

By an act of Congress passed August 14, 1848, provision was made. for extending postoffice and mail accommodations to California and Ore

gon. Exertions have been made to execute that law; but the limited provisions of the act, the inadequacy of the means it authorizes, the ill adaptation of our postoffice laws to the situation of that country, and the measure of compensation for services allowed by those laws, compared with the prices of labors and rents in California, render those exertions, in a great degree, ineffectual. More particular and efficient provision by law is required on this subject.

The act of 1845, reducing postage, has now, by its operation during four years, produced results fully showing that the income from such reduced postage is sufficient to sustain the whole expense of the service of the postoffice department, not including the cost of transportation in mail steamers on the lines from New York to Chagres, and from Panama to Astoria, which have not been considered by Congress as properly belonging to the mail service.

It is submitted to the wisdom of Congress whether a further reduction of postage should not now be made, more particularly on the letter correspondence. This should be relieved from the unjust burden of transporting and delivering the franked matter of Congress, for which public service provisions should be made from the treasury. I confidently believe that a change may safely be made, reducing all single-letter postage to the uniform rate of five cents, regardless of distance, without thereby imposing any greater tax on the treasury than would constitute a very moderate compensation for this public service; and I therefore respectfully recommend such a reduction. Should Congress prefer to abolish the franking privilege entirely, it seems probable that no demand on the treasury would result from the proposed reduction of postage. Whether any further diminution should now be made, or the result of the reduction to five cents, which I have recommended, should be first tested, is submitted to your decision.

Since the commencement of the last session of Congress, a postal treaty with Great Britain has been received and ratified, and such regulations have been formed by the postoffice departments to the two countries, in pursuance of that treaty, as to carry its provisions into full operation. The attempts to extend this same arrangement, through England, to France, has not been equally successful; but the purpose has not been abandoned. For a particular statement of the condition of the postoffice department, and other matters connected with that branch of the public service, I refer you to the report of the postmaster-general.

By the act of the 3d of March, 1849, a board was constituted to make arrangements for taking the seventh census, composed of the secretary of state, the attorney-general, and the postmaster-general; and it was made the duty of this board" to prepare, and cause to be printed, such forms and schedules as might be necessary for the full enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States: and also proper forms and schedules for collecting, in statistical tables, under proper heads, such information as to mines, agriculture, commerce, manufactures, education, and other topics, as would exhibit a full view of the pursuits, industry, education, and resources of the country." The duties enjoined upon the census board thus established having been performed, it now rests with Congress to enact a law for carrying into effect the provision of the constitution which requires an actual enumeration of the people of the United States within the ensuing year.

Among the duties assigned by the constitution to the general government is one of local and limited application, but not on that account the

less obligatory; I allude to the trust committed to Congress as the exclusive legislator and sole guardian of the interests of the District of Columbia. I beg to commend these interests to your kind attention. As the national metropolis, the city of Washington must be an object of general interest; and founded, as it was, under the auspices of him whose immortal name it bears, its claims to the fostering care of Congress present themselves with additional strength. Whatever can contribute to its prosperity must enlist the feelings of its constitutional guardians, and command their favorable consideration.

Our government is one of limited powers, and its successful administration eminently depends on the confinement of each of its co-ordinate branches within its own appropriate sphere. The first section of the constitution ordains that "all legislative powers therein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives." The executive has authority to recommend (not to dictate) measures to Congress. Having performed that duty, the executive department of the government can not rightfully control the decision of Congress on any subject of legislation, until that decision shall have been officially submitted to the president for approval. The check provided by the constitution in the clause conferring the qualified veto will never be exercised by me, except in the cases contemplated by the fathers of the republic. I view it as an extreme measure, to be resorted to only in extraordinary cases-as where it may become necessary to defend the executive against the encroachments of the legislative power, or to prevent hasty and inconsiderate or unconstitutional legislation. By cautiously confining this remedy within the sphere prescribed to it in the cotemporaneous expositions of the framers of the constitution, the will of the people, legitimately expressed on all subjects of legislation, through their constitutional organs, the senators and representatives of the United States, will have its full effect. As indispensable to the preservation of our system of self-government, the independence of the representatives of the states and the people is guarantied by the constitution; and they owe no responsibility to any human power but their constituents. By holding the representative responsible only to the people, and exempting him from all other influences, we elevate the character of the constituent, and quicken his sense of responsibility to his country. It is under these circumstances only that the elector can feel that, in the choice of a lawmaker, he is himself truly a component part of the sovereign power of the nation. With equal care we should study to defend the rights of the executive and judicial departments. Our government can only be preserved in its purity by the suppression and entire elimination of every claim or tendency of one co-ordinate branch to encroachment upon another. With the strict observance of this rule and the other injunctions of the constitution; with a sedulous inculcation of that respect and love for the Union of the states which our fathers cherished and enjoined upon their children; and with the aid of that overruling Providence which has so long and so kindly guarded our liberties and institutions, we may reasonably expect to transmit them, with their innumerable blessings, to the remotest posterity.

But attachment to the Union of the states should be habitually fostered in every American heart. For more than half a century, during which kingdoms and empires have fallen, this Union has stood unshaken. The patriots who formed it have long since descended to the grave; yet still

it remains, the proudest monument to their memory, and the object of affection and admiration with every one worthy to bear the American name. In my judgment, its dissolution would be the greatest of calamities; and to avert that should be the study of every American. Upon its preservation must depend our own happiness and that of countless generations to come. Whatever dangers may threaten it, I shall stand by it and maintain it in its integrity to the full extent of the obligations imposed and the power conferred upon me by the constitution.

CUBA PROCLAMATION.

AUGUST 11, 1849.

THERE is reason to believe that an armed expedition is about to be fitted out in the United States, with an intention to invade the island of Cuba, or some of the provinces of Mexico. The best information which the executive has been able to obtain, points to the island of Cuba as the object of this expedition. It is the duty of this government to observe the faith of treaties, and to prevent any aggression by our citizens upon the territories of friendly nations. I have, therefore, thought it necessary and proper to issue this proclamation, to warn all citizens of the United States, who shall connect themselves with an enterprise so grossly in violation of our laws and our treaty obligations, that they will thereby subject themselves to the heavy penalties denounced against them by our acts of Congress, and will forfeit their claim to the protection of their country. No such persons must expect the interference of this government, in any form, on their behalf, no matter to what extremities they may be reduced in consequence of their conduct. An enterprise to invade the territories of a friendly nation, set on foot and prosecuted within the limits of the United States, is, in the highest degree, criminal, as tending to endanger the peace and compromit the honor of this nation; and, therefore, I exhort all good citizens, as they regard our national reputation, as they respect their own laws and the laws of nations, as they value the blessings of peace and the welfare of their country, to discountenance and prevent, by all lawful means, any such enterprise; and I call upon every officer of this government, civil or military, to use all efforts in his power to arrest, for trial and punishment, every such offender against the laws providing for the performance of our sacred obligations to friendly powers. Given under my hand the 11th day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, and the seventy-fourth of the independence of the United States.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

JANUARY 4, 1850.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

I HEREWITH Submit to you copies of a correspondence with the lady of Sir John Franklin, relative to the well-known expedition under his command, to the arctic regions, for the discovery of a northwest passage. On the receipt of her first letter, imploring the aid of the American government in a search for the missing ships engaged in an enterprise which interested all civilized nations, I anxiously sought the means of affording that assistance, but was prevented from accomplishing the object I had in view in consequence of the want of vessels suitable to encounter the perils of a proper exploration, the lateness of the season, and the want of an appropriation by Congress to enable me to furnish and equip an efficient squadron for that object. All that I could do, in compliance with a request which I was deeply anxious to gratify, was to cause the advertisement of reward, promulged by the British government, and the best information I could obtain as to the means of finding the vessels under the command of Sir John Franklin, to be widely circulated among our whalers and seafaring men, whose spirit of enterprise might lead them to the inhospitable regions where that heroic officer and his brave followers, who periled their lives in the cause of science and for the benefit of the world, were supposed to be imprisoned among the icebergs or wrecked upon a desert shore.

Congress being now in session, the propriety and expediency of an appropriation for fitting out an expedition to proceed in search of the missing ships, with their officers and crews, are respectfully sudmitted to your consideration.

CALIFORNIA AND NEW MEXICO MESSAGE.

JANUARY 21, 1850.

To the House of Representatives of the United States :—

I TRANSMIT to the house of representatives, in answer to a resolution of that body passed on the 31st of December last, the accompanying reports of heads of departments, which contain all the official information in the possession of the executive asked for by the resolution.

On coming into office, I found the military commandant of the department of California exercising the functions of civil governor in that territory; and left, as I was, to act under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, without the aid of any legislative provision establishing a government in that territory, I thought it best not to disturb that arrangement, made under my predecessor, until Congress should take some action on that subject. I therefore did not interfere with the powers of the military commandant, who continued to exercise the functions of civil governor as before; but 1 made no such appointment, conferred no such authority, and have allowed no increased compensation to the commandant for his services.

With a view to the faithful execution of the treaty, so far as lay in the