ore the Senate for their advice and consent to its
ratification are, that having been received in the spring of the year
1817, during the recess of the Senate, in the interval between the time
when the Department of State was vacated by its late Secretary and the
entrance of his successor upon the duties of the office, and when a
change also occurred of the chief clerk of the Department, it was not
recollected by the officers of the Department that it remained without
the constitutional sanction of the Senate until shortly before the
commencement of the present session. The documents explanatory of the
additional articles are likewise herewith transmitted.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON _January 7, 1822_.

_To the Congress of the United States_:

I transmit a report of the Secretary of the Navy, together with a survey
of the coast of North Carolina, made in pursuance of a resolution of
Congress of the 19th January, 1819.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _January 8, 1822_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

In pursuance of a joint resolution of the two Houses of Congress of the
3d of March, 1821, authorizing the President to cause such number of
astronomical observations to be made by methods which might, in his
judgment, be best adapted to insure a correct determination of the
longitude of the Capitol, in the city of Washington, from Greenwich or
some other known meridian in Europe, and that he cause the data, with
accurate calculations on statements founded thereon, to be laid before
them at their present session, I herewith transmit to Congress the
report made by William Lambert, who was selected by me on the 10th
of April last to perform the service required by that resolution.

As no compensation is authorized by law for the execution of the duties
assigned to Mr. Lambert, it is submitted to the discretion of Congress
to make the necessary provision for an adequate allowance to him and to
the assistant whom he employed to aid him in his observations.

JAMES MONROE.

JANUARY 17, 1822.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I nominate the persons whose names are stated in the inclosed letter
from the Secretary of War for the appointments therein respectively
proposed for them.

The changes in the Army growing out of the act of the 2d of March, 1821,
"to reduce and fix the military peace establishment of the United
States," are exhibited in the Official Register f