thin the last four years eight important treaties have been negotiated
with different Indian tribes, and at a cost of $1,842,000; Indian lands
to the amount of more than 18,500,000 acres have been ceded to the
United States, and provision has been made for settling in the country
west of the Mississippi the tribes which occupied this large extent of
the public domain. The title to all the Indian lands within the several
States of our Union, with the exception of a few small reservations, is
now extinguished, and a vast region opened for settlement and
cultivation.

The accompanying report of the Secretary of the Navy gives a
satisfactory exhibit of the operations and condition of that branch of
the public service.

A number of small vessels, suitable for entering the mouths of rivers,
were judiciously purchased during the war, and gave great efficiency to
the squadron in the Gulf of Mexico. On the return of peace, when no
longer valuable for naval purposes, and liable to constant
deterioration, they were sold and the money placed in the Treasury.

The number of men in the naval service authorized by law during the war
has been reduced by discharges below the maximum fixed for the peace
establishment. Adequate squadrons are maintained in the several quarters
of the globe where experience has shown their services may be most
usefully employed, and the naval service was never in a condition of
higher discipline or greater efficiency.

I invite attention to the recommendation of the Secretary of the Navy
on the subject of the Marine Corps. The reduction of the Corps at the
end of the war required that four officers of each of the three lower
grades should be dropped from the rolls. A board of officers made the
selection, and those designated were necessarily dismissed, but without
any alleged fault. I concur in opinion with the Secretary that the
service would be improved by reducing the number of landsmen and
increasing the marines. Such a measure would justify an increase of
the number of officers to the extent of the reduction by dismissal,
and still the Corps would have fewer officers than a corresponding
number of men in the Army.

The contracts for the transportation of the mail in steamships,
convertible into war steamers, promise to realize all the benefits to
our commerce and to the Navy which were anticipated. The first steamer
thus secured to the Government was launched in January, 1847. There are
now seven