a valuable body of officers. It is not alone in the improvement,
discipline, and operation of the troops that these officers are
employed. They are also extensively engaged in the administrative and
fiscal concerns of the various matters confided to the War Department;
in the execution of the staff duties usually appertaining to military
organization; in the removal of the Indians and in the disbursement of
the various expenditures growing out of our Indian relations; in the
formation of roads and in the improvement of harbors and rivers; in
the construction of fortifications, in the fabrication of much of the
_materiel_ required for the public defense, and in the preservation,
distribution, and accountability of the whole, and in other
miscellaneous duties not admitting of classification.

These diversified functions embrace very heavy expenditures of public
money, and require fidelity, science, and business habits in their
execution, and a system which shall secure these qualifications is
demanded by the public interest. That this object has been in a great
measure obtained by the Military Academy is shewn by the state of the
service and by the prompt accountability which has generally followed
the necessary advances. Like all other political systems, the present
mode of military education no doubt has its imperfections, both of
principle and practice; but I trust these can be improved by rigid
inspections and by legislative scrutiny without destroying the
institution itself.

Occurrences to which we as well as all other nations are liable, both
in our internal and external relations, point to the necessity of an
efficient organization of the militia. I am again induced by the
importance of the subject to bring it to your attention. To suppress
domestic violence and to repel foreign invasion, should these calamities
overtake us, we must rely in the first instance upon the great body of
the community whose will has instituted and whose power must support
the Government. A large standing military force is not consonant to the
spirit of our institutions nor to the feelings of our countrymen, and
the lessons of former days and those also of our own times shew the
danger as well as the enormous expense of these permanent and extensive
military organizations. That just medium which avoids an inadequate
preparation on one hand and the danger and expense of a large force on
the other is what our constituents have a right to