protection and extension of our commerce with eastern Asia. Our
facilities for a larger participation in the trade of the East, by
means of our recent settlements on the shores of the Pacific, are too
obvious to be overlooked or disregarded.

The questions in relation to rank in the Army and Navy and relative
rank between officers of the two branches of the service, presented to
the Executive by certain resolutions of the House of Representatives
at the last session of Congress, have been submitted to a board of
officers in each branch of the service, and their report may be
expected at an early day.

I also earnestly recommend the enactment of a law authorizing officers
of the Army and Navy to be retired from the service when incompetent
for its vigorous and active duties, taking care to make suitable
provision for those who have faithfully served their country and
awarding distinctions by retaining in appropriate commands those who
have been particularly conspicuous for gallantry and good conduct.
While the obligation of the country to maintain and honor those who,
to the exclusion of other pursuits, have devoted themselves to its
arduous service is acknowledged, this obligation should not be
permitted to interfere with the efficiency of the service itself.

I am gratified in being able to state that the estimates of
expenditure for the Navy in the ensuing year are less by more than
$1,000,000 than those of the present, excepting the appropriation
which may become necessary for the construction of a dock on the coast
of the Pacific, propositions for which are now being considered and on
which a special report may be expected early in your present session.

There is an evident justness in the suggestion of the same report that
appropriations for the naval service proper should be separated from
those for fixed and permanent objects, such as building docks and
navy-yards and the fixtures attached, and from the extraordinary
objects under the care of the Department which, however important,
are not essentially naval.

A revision of the code for the government of the Navy seems to require
the immediate consideration of Congress. Its system of crimes and
punishments had undergone no change for half a century until the last
session, though its defects have been often and ably pointed out;
and the abolition of a particular species of corporal punishment,
which then took place, without providing any substitute, has left