id for army recruits, is beginning
to affect injuriously the naval service, and will, if not corrected, be
likely to impair its efficiency by detaching seamen from their proper
vocation and inducing them to enter the Army. I therefore respectfully
suggest that Congress might aid both the army and naval services by
a definite provision on this subject which would at the same time be
equitable to the communities more especially interested.

I commend to your consideration the suggestions of the Secretary of the
Navy in regard to the policy of fostering and training seamen and also
the education of officers and engineers for the naval service. The Naval
Academy is rendering signal service in preparing midshipmen for the highly
responsible duties which in after life they will be required to perform.
In order that the country should not be deprived of the proper quota of
educated officers, for which legal provision has been made at the
naval school, the vacancies caused by the neglect or omission to make
nominations from the States in insurrection have been filled by the
Secretary of the Navy. The school is now more full and complete than
at any former period, and in every respect entitled to the favorable
consideration of Congress.

During the past fiscal year the financial condition of the Post-Office
Department has been one of increasing prosperity, and I am gratified in
being able to state that the actual postal revenue has nearly equaled the
entire expenditures, the latter amounting to $11,314,206.84 and the former
to $11,163,789.59, leaving a deficiency of but $150,417.25. In 1860,
the year immediately preceding the rebellion, the deficiency amounted to
$5,656,705.49, the postal receipts of that year being $2,645,722.19
less that those of 1863. The decrease since 1860 in the annual amount of
transportation has been only about twenty-five per cent, but the annual
expenditure on account of the same has been reduced thirty-five per cent.
It is manifest, therefore, that the Post-Office Department may become
self-sustaining in a few years, even with the restoration of the whole
service.

The international conference of postal delegates from the principal
countries of Europe and America, which was called at the suggestion of the
Postmaster-General, met at Paris on the 11th of May last and concluded
its deliberations on the 8th of June. The principles established by
the conference as best adapted to facilitate postal interc