er this disadvantage, that
European steam vessels employed by our enemies found friendly shelter,
protection, and supplies in West Indian ports, while our naval
operations were necessarily carried on from our own distant shores.
There was then a universal feeling of the want of an advanced naval
outpost between the Atlantic coast and Europe. The duty of obtaining
such an outpost peacefully and lawfully, while neither doing nor
menacing injury to other states, earnestly engaged the attention of the
executive department before the close of the war, and it has not been
lost sight of since that time. A not entirely dissimilar naval want
revealed itself during the same period on the Pacific coast. The
required foothold there was fortunately secured by our late treaty with
the Emperor of Russia, and it now seems imperative that the more obvious
necessities of the Atlantic coast should not be less carefully provided
for. A good and convenient port and harbor, capable of easy defense,
will supply that want. With the possession of such a station by the
United States, neither we nor any other American nation need longer
apprehend injury or offense from any transatlantic enemy. I agree with
our early statesmen that the West Indies naturally gravitate to, and
may be expected ultimately to be absorbed by, the continental States,
including our own. I agree with them also that it is wise to leave the
question of such absorption to this process of natural political
gravitation. The islands of St. Thomas and St. John, which constitute
a part of the group called the Virgin Islands, seemed to offer us
advantages immediately desirable, while their acquisition could be
secured in harmony with the principles to which I have alluded. A treaty
has therefore been concluded with the King of Denmark for the cession of
those islands, and will be submitted to the Senate for consideration.

It will hardly be necessary to call the attention of Congress to the
subject of providing for the payment to Russia of the sum stipulated in
the treaty for the cession of Alaska. Possession having been formally
delivered to our commissioner, the territory remains for the present in
care of a military force, awaiting such civil organization as shall be
directed by Congress.

The annexation of many small German States to Prussia and the
reorganization of that country under a new and liberal constitution have
induced me to renew the effort to obtain a just and prom