and contemplated by the
Constitution and required by the spirit and safety of free government.
The present organization of our militia is universally regarded as less
efficient than it ought to be made, and no organization can be better
calculated to give to it its due force than a classification which will
assign the foremost place in the defense of the country to that portion
of its citizens whose activity and animation best enable them to rally
to its standard. Besides the consideration that a time of peace is the
time when the change can be made with most convenience and equity, it
will now be aided by the experience of a recent war in which the militia
bore so interesting a part.

Congress will call to mind that no adequate provision has yet been made
for the uniformity of weights and measures also contemplated by the
Constitution. The great utility of a standard fixed in its nature and
founded on the easy rule of decimal proportions is sufficiently obvious.
It led the Government at an early stage to preparatory steps for
introducing it, and a completion of the work will be a just title to
the public gratitude.

The importance which I have attached to the establishment of a
university within this District on a scale and for objects worthy of
the American nation induces me to renew my recommendation of it to the
favorable consideration of Congress. And I particularly invite again
their attention to the expediency of exercising their existing powers,
and, where necessary, of resorting to the prescribed mode of enlarging
them, in order to effectuate a comprehensive system of roads and canals,
such as will have the effect of drawing more closely together every
part of our country by promoting intercourse and improvements and by
increasing the share of every part in the common stock of national
prosperity.

Occurrences having taken place which shew that the statutory provisions
for the dispensation of criminal justice are deficient in relation both
to places and to persons under the exclusive cognizance of the national
authority, an amendment of the law embracing such cases will merit the
earliest attention of the Legislature. It will be a seasonable occasion
also for inquiring how far legislative interposition maybe further
requisite in providing penalties for offenses designated in the
Constitution or in the statutes, and to which either no penalties are
annexed or none with sufficient certainty. And I submit to t