eretofore wisely
directed to the constant employment of a force sufficient to guard our
commerce, and to the rapid accumulation of the materials which are
necessary to repair our vessels and construct with ease such new ones
as may be required in a state of war.

In accordance with this policy, I recommend to your consideration the
erection of the additional dry dock described by the Secretary of the
Navy, and also the construction of the steam batteries to which he has
referred, for the purpose of testing their efficacy as auxiliaries to
the system of defense now in use.

The report of the Postmaster-General herewith submitted exhibits the
condition and prospects of that Department. From that document it
appears that there was a deficit in the funds of the Department at
the commencement of the present year beyond its available means of
$315,599.98, which on the 1st July last had been reduced to $268,092.74.
It appears also that the revenues for the coming year will exceed the
expenditures about $270,000, which, with the excess of revenue which
will result from the operations of the current half year, may be
expected, independently of any increase in the gross amount of postages,
to supply the entire deficit before the end of 1835. But as this
calculation is based on the gross amount of postages which had accrued
within the period embraced by the times of striking the balances, it is
obvious that without a progressive increase in the amount of postages
the existing retrenchments must be persevered in through the year 1836
that the Department may accumulate a surplus fund sufficient to place
it in a condition of perfect ease.

It will be observed that the revenues of the Post-Office Department,
though they have increased, and their amount is above that of any former
year, have yet fallen short of the estimates more than $100,000. This is
attributed in a great degree to the increase of free letters growing out
of the extension and abuse of the franking privilege. There has been a
gradual increase in the number of executive offices to which it has been
granted, and by an act passed in March, 1833, it was extended to members
of Congress throughout the whole year. It is believed that a revision of
the laws relative to the franking privilege, with some enactments to
enforce more rigidly the restrictions under which it is granted, would
operate beneficially to the country, by enabling the Department at an
earlier period to