scale.
The work at Fort Washington, on this river, will be completed early in
the next spring, and that on the Pea Patch, in the Delaware, in the
course of the next season. Fort Diamond, at the Narrows, in the harbor
of New York, will be finished this year. The works at Boston, New York,
Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, and Niagara have been in part repaired,
and the coast of North Carolina, extending south to Cape Fear, has been
examined, as have likewise other parts of the coast eastward of Boston.
Great exertions have been made to push forward these works with the
utmost dispatch possible; but when their extent is considered, with the
important purposes for which they are intended--the defense of the whole
coast, and, in consequence, of the whole interior--and that they are to
last for ages, it will be manifest that a well-digested plan, founded on
military principles, connecting the whole together, combining security
with economy, could not be prepared without repeated examinations
of the most exposed and difficult parts, and that it would also take
considerable time to collect the materials at the several points where
they would be required. From all the light that has been shed on this
subject I am satisfied that every favorable anticipation which has
been formed of this great undertaking will be verified, and that when
completed it will afford very great if not complete protection to our
Atlantic frontier in the event of another war--a protection sufficient
to counterbalance in a single campaign with an enemy powerful at sea the
expense of all these works, without taking into the estimate the saving
of the lives of so many of our citizens, the protection of our towns
and other property, or the tendency of such works to prevent war.

Our military positions have been maintained at Belle Point, on the
Arkansas, at Council Bluffs, on the Missouri, at St. Peters, on the
Mississippi, and at Green Bay, on the upper Lakes. Commodious barracks
have already been erected at most of these posts, with such works as
were necessary for their defense. Progress has also been made in opening
communications between them and in raising supplies at each for the
support of the troops by their own labor, particularly those most
remote.

With the Indians peace has been preserved and a progress made in
carrying into effect the act of Congress making an appropriation for
their civilization, with the prospect of favorable results. As conn