pecific objects, the general prosperity of our States on
the Pacific requires that an attempt should be made to open the opposite
regions of Asia to a mutually beneficial intercourse. It is obvious that
this attempt could be made by no power to so great advantage as by
the United States, whose constitutional system excludes every idea of
distant colonial dependencies. I have accordingly been led to order an
appropriate naval force to Japan, under the command of a discreet and
intelligent officer of the highest rank known to our service. He is
instructed to endeavor to obtain from the Government of that country
some relaxation of the inhospitable and antisocial system which it has
pursued for about two centuries. He has been directed particularly to
remonstrate in the strongest language against the cruel treatment to
which our shipwrecked mariners have often been subjected and to insist
that they shall be treated with humanity. He is instructed, however,
at the same time, to give that Government the amplest assurances that
the objects of the United States are such, and such only, as I have
indicated, and that the expedition is friendly and peaceful.
Notwithstanding the jealousy with which the Governments of eastern
Asia regard all overtures from foreigners, I am not without hopes of a
beneficial result of the expedition. Should it be crowned with success,
the advantages will not be confined to the United States, but, as in the
case of China, will be equally enjoyed by all the other maritime powers.
I have much satisfaction in stating that in all the steps preparatory to
this expedition the Government of the United States has been materially
aided by the good offices of the King of the Netherlands, the only
European power having any commercial relations with Japan.

In passing from this survey of our foreign relations, I invite the
attention of Congress to the condition of that Department of the
Government to which this branch of the public business is intrusted. Our
intercourse with foreign powers has of late years greatly increased,
both in consequence of our own growth and the introduction of many new
states into the family of nations. In this way the Department of State
has become overburdened. It has by the recent establishment of the
Department of the Interior been relieved of some portion of the domestic
business. If the residue of the business of that kind--such as the
distribution of Congressional documents, the k