execution.

I recommend to your favorable consideration the proposition to add to
each of our foreign squadrons an efficient sea steamer, and, as
especially demanding attention, the establishment at Pensacola of the
necessary means of repairing and refitting the vessels of the Navy
employed in the Gulf of Mexico.

There are other suggestions in the report which deserve and I doubt not
will receive your consideration.

The progress and condition of the mail service for the past year are
fully presented in the report of the Postmaster-General. The revenue for
the year ending on the 30th of June last amounted to $3,487,199, which
is $802,642.45 less than that of the preceding year. The payments for
that Department during the same time amounted to $4,084,297.22. Of this
sum $597,097.80 have been drawn from the Treasury. The disbursements for
the year were $236,434.77 less than those of the preceding year. While
the disbursements have been thus diminished, the mail facilities have
been enlarged by new mail routes of 5,739 miles, an increase of
transportation of 1,764,145 miles, and the establishment of 418 new
post-offices. Contractors, postmasters, and others engaged in this
branch of the service have performed their duties with energy and
faithfulness deserving commendation. For many interesting details
connected with the operations of this establishment you are referred to
the report of the Postmaster-General, and his suggestions for improving
its revenues are recommended to your favorable consideration. I repeat
the opinion expressed in my last annual message that the business of
this Department should be so regulated chat the revenues derived from it
should be made to equal the expenditures, and it is believed that this
may be done by proper modifications of the present laws, as suggested in
the report of the Postmaster-General, without changing the present rates
of postage.

With full reliance upon the wisdom and patriotism of your deliberations,
it, will be my duty, as it will be my anxious desire, to cooperate with
you in every constitutional effort to promote the welfare and maintain
the honor of our common country.

JAMES K. POLK.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

WASHINGTON, _December 14, 1846_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit to the Senate, for their consideration and advice with regard
to its ratification, a convention for the mutual surrender of criminals
between the United States and t