and distributed these various duties of the department is every day manifesting itself by the efficiency, economy, and promptness with which the heads of these bureaux discharge their respective offices. I refer you to the accompanying documents, being the reports of the Commanding-General of the army, and of the officers at the head of the bureaux, for all details relating to the civil and military service of the department. The military establishment of The United States has been organized for times of peace, with an eye to the closest economy in the public expenditure, without sacrificing the efficiency of the troops; but chiefly with the object of preserving and keeping up that military knowledge and discipline, without which a nation is never prepared to assert her own dignity, nor even to defend her soil from invasion, except at great and unnecessary loss. Organization and discipline have always been the means of military power. In modern times, wealth, population, and skill in the mechanic arts, are necessary to enable a nation to sustain a serious and protracted contest with any of the great Powers of the world. We are deficient in none of these elements. If our power is properly developed and directed, we shall be found fully able to cope with any nation. We have every materiel of war, except sulphur, in great abundance within our own territory, and the enterprise and well-established mechanical skill among our own citizens to construct its most formidable implements. A war, therefore, should our honour or safety demand it, would be a self-sustaining measure with us, bringing out the many natural resources of the country, keeping all the internal channels of trade in full activity, and creating a constant demand for every product of our domestic manufactures. The regular force, consisting of 8 regiments of infantry, 4 of artillery, and 2 of dragoons, is under the command of the MajorGeneral of the army. Its disposition, condition, and movements will be found in his report. If information more in detail should be required, it will be furnished by a reference to the registers and reports of the Adjutant-General. I have had Fort Kent, in the Madawaska settlement (our recent acquisition on the north-eastern frontier) occupied, so as to give the countenance and fostering protection of our Government to its inbabitants, many of whom have not yet realized their being citizens of the Republic. A road leading directly from Bangor to that fort, agreeably to a recent survey, which greatly diminishes the distance, is important and necessary as a military work, and should be constructed with a view also to great economy in public transportation. The expediency of the work, and the necessity of further attention by this department to our north-eastern frontier, are not likely to be superseded by the final adjustment and demarcation of the Treaty line, when we reflect that a contiguous foreign nation must unavoidably, for a portion of the year, make the circuit of that boundary in conducting the military intercourse between her different provinces. I have had a military post established at Copper Harbour, on the extremity of the peninsula which juts out far into Lake Superior from the middle of its southern shore. Besides giving protection to the Indians and miners, and preserving order in a new settlement of such a mixed population, it forms one point in the new cordon, which the general extension of our settlements, and the enlargement of our territories by Indian Treaties, are about rendering necessary to be established in accordance with the policy which has heretofore been adopted on our north-western frontier. With 2 intermediate posts between St. Peter's, the head of navigation on the Mississippi river and Copper Harbour, this new cordon will be complete. The Fur Company's post at La Pointe, near Fond du Lac, should be one; and the Portage, on the water communication between Lake Superior, near Fond du Lac, and St. Peter's, the other. With a view to the policy to which I now advert, and to preserve the military posts already established upon our late frontier, it is proper I should recommend the appropriation of funds to renew the buildings of Fort Gratiot, commanding the straits between Lake Huron and Lake St. Clair, and of Fort Brady, at the Falls of St. Mary, upon the outlet of Lake Superior, originally constructed in haste, and of slight and perishable materials. The usual liberal allowance for constructing military roads in the territories can nowhere be more judiciously granted than for the country south of Lake Superior. When such communications shall be well opened, and a canal at the Falls of St. Mary (a work much urged upon us by national considerations) shall be constructed, this frontier would be capable of receiving supplies, and be well secured, in a military point of view, besides the enhancement which would thereby be given to the value of the public lands, and the encouragement for their occupation by a mining and other population, possessing the skill and the capital to explore, develop, and bring into market the mineral treasures of the country. The remounting of the 2nd Regiment of Dragoons will enlarge the very best force for military service in the prairies, an indispensable duty now devolving on the Government. As long as a foreign territory makes so marked an encroachment into the natural boundary of our south-western frontier, Fort Jesup, or a post in the rear of it upon the Sabine, must remain one of the most important military positions on any of our frontiers. In addition to the propriety of having a large force stationed there, it was increased by the necessary detention of the rifle regiment, preparatory to its being reconverted into the 2nd Regiment of Dragoons, whose proper station is in the Indian country. Without destroying the military departments as established by a General Order of the 12th day of July, 1842, and at the same time preserving the command and the control of the Major-General commanding in chief, over the forces of the line, I have reinstated the 2 geographical divisions of the army. In making this reinstatement, I have reserved, as convenient for military purposes, from the command of the generals of geographical divisions, the fourth department, commanded by Brevet Brigadier-General Brady, and the ninth, at present commanded in Florida by Brevet Brigadier-General Worth. The termination of the Florida war, and the tranquillity which prevails there under the viligant eye of the officer in commaud, have led to the withdrawal of most of the troops from that territory. They have generally returned to their former posts and garrisons. I feel assured that the instructions, which issued in conformity to your suggestions, from this department, on the 18th day of October last, to the general commanding in Florida, will, without injurious delay, hasten the gradual and humane removal of the few Seminoles remaining in that country, so as to secure its people from every apprehension of a change in that pacific disposition by which those Indians appear to have been governed since the termination of the war. Efficiency and military spirit are much improved by keeping troops in mass. Central depôts on healthy sites, whether forts or not, so that they are readily accessible from all points where the service of the regiment might be required, are the best locations for the barracks of troops. In several of the sea-coast fortifications, the plan of defence has excluded, as barracks and quarters for the garrison, separate and exposed buildings; but providing, instead thereof, and in the body of the rampart, bomb-proof accommodations, designed to avail for the comfort, health, and safety of the troops, as well as for the proper defence of the works, under all the circumstances of actual warfare and of sieges. Proper and well-designed as the casemates no doubt are for these objects, I have nevertheless formed the opinion, from my limited personal observation, that it is advisable, in time of peace, to afford the assembled troops and the hospitals barrack establishments, on airy and spacious sites, separate from the forts. With this impression upon my mind, an impression which seems to prevail throughout the army, I would be remiss in my duty did I not express the hope that Congress may authorize and appropriate funds for the erection of barracks at the necessary points on the seaboard; care being taken that, by their location and construction, they shall not interfere with the proper purpose and action of the fortifications. Connected with the subject of barracks and accommodations for the soldiers, I cannot omit the opportunity to recommend to Congress to authorize the substitution of the single iron for the double wooden bedstead, and the erection of buildings for religious worship and schools at all our permanent fortifications. The first would add to the comfort, health, and cleanliness of the soldier; and the two latter would certainly elevate his moral condition, an object to which the National Legislature has so far benevolently and effectually attended, as to give to the rank and file of the army an elevation of character not to be found in the military service of other countries. Of the horse, or light field-artillery, we have now 4 companies well drilled and expert in their exercises, and yet defective in organization. To make those companies fully efficient, and to enable them to receive all the instruction which so valuable an arm of the military service demands, and to afford the full and proper example to other portions of the army, it is necessary that legal authority should be given for the enlistment of a few additional meu to each of these companies. The increase would be valuable, and the expense inconsiderable. It would obviate, too, the necessity of resorting to an expedient adopted in General Orders of the 17th of October last, by the Commanding-General of the army, from his very proper and earnest desire to extend the peculiar instruction now imparted to those light companies of artillery by periodical changes in their regiments, and to have the number of men necessary at each school of exercise to manœuvre with a full, instead of a partial battery. The horseartillery is generally injudiciously stationed when in forts, for it is emphatically an arm for open field service. Superiority in horseartillery in the French revolutionary wars generally secured the victory. It is therefore an arm which cannot with impunity be neglected. It should be stationed in time of peace in the interior, or in the Western States, where forage and horses are cheap, and where it would probably also serve to more advantage, as a model for forming spirited uniformed volunteer companies, that portion of the militia the most efficient, and the more to be encouraged. I visited the Military Academy at West Point during the examination, and must unite my commendations of this valuable institution to the many which have been so repeatedly bestowed upon it by all my predecessors. Its great prototype, the celebrated Polytechnique, the creation of that great and bold convention, which, with all its faults, showed that liberty in its very excesses still paid homage to mind and science; this school, so identified with the glory of France, and so instrumental in the diffusion of modern science, has been twice disbanded on account of its republican tendency; while ardent but zealous lovers of freedom in our own country attack the strongest, if not the only, democratic element of our military system with, I apprehend, a mistaken and groundless charge of aristocratic tendency. The register of appointments of cadets affords ample testimony of the impartiality which follows the practice adopted by the department in the nominations to the Academy, and that a great portion of the selections are made from those conditions in our society the least likely to imbibe principles, in the course of a valuable education, at variance with the free republican institutions of the country. Neither should it be overlooked that the knowledge and science acquired at the Academy are equally and fairly diffused; and in very many and highly-important instances, the graduates, whether they continue in the army, or are restored to private life, are engaged in the execution of civil and commercial works throughout the country. Whilst, in my opinion, neither good sense nor sound policy can sustain a proposition to cut off the very principle of vitality from a military establishment, yet it must be admitted that the average supply of new members to an army must be made to depend upon its size; and it certainly should not be allowed much to exceed the annual number of casualties, causing vacancies in the service; otherwise, the lower grade, if left open to it, would, at times, become so encumbered with numbers as to close the avenue for future accessions and promotions. The tables of the Adjutant-General's office show that the average number of vacancies, from all casualties in the army, is about 30; which, therefore, should be the limit of annual promotions from the academy, or of new appointments in the army. The vacancies are usually anticipated, by attaching the graduates of the Academy to the army as brevet 2nd lieutenants. It is objected that the many graduates thus carried into the army by brevet commissions, have been so great as to swell that class of young officers, not very justly designated as "supernumerary," to a number unnecessary and burdensome upon the Government. This would be true, if all the officers belonging to regiments and companies were actually present and performing regimental duty; but the records of the Adjutant-General's office show that one officer is necessarily absent from each company, to perform duty in the general staff, at the Military Academy, in the general recruiting service, &c., including also those on leave of absence, and a very few occasionally engaged on some special duty. When regard is paid to the officers thus drawn off, it will be found there is no redundancy; and the technical military term "supernumerary" is unjustly applied in our service, where all are attached, and actually engaged upon public duty. The number of this class of officers depends upon casualties, and of course so vibrates as, at times, to have required appointments directly from civil life. So long, therefore, as those brevet 2nd lieutenants are actually necessary, and engaged in public service, and whilst it may be deemed the policy of the country to secure and preserve an amount of military |