rred in the late war having
already been discharged, and considerable progress having also been made
in the completion of this system of defense and in the construction of
other works of great extent and utility, by the revenue derived from
these sources and from the sale of the public lands. I may add also
that a very generous provision has been made from the same sources for
the surviving officers and soldiers of our Revolutionary army. These
important facts show that this system has been so far executed, and may
be completed without any real inconvenience to the public. Were it,
however, otherwise, I have full confidence that any burthens which
might be found necessary for the completion of this system in both
its branches within the term contemplated, or much sooner should any
emergency require it, would be called for rather than complained of
by our fellow-citizens.

From these views, applicable to the very important subject of our
defenses generally as well as to the work at Dauphine Island, I think
it my duty to recommend to Congress an appropriation for the latter.
I considered the withholding it at the last session as the expression
only of a doubt by Congress of the propriety of the position, and not
as a definitive opinion. Supposing that that question would be decided
at the present session, I caused the position and such parts of the
coast as are particularly connected with it to be reexamined, that all
the light on which the decision as to the appropriation could depend
might be fully before you. In the first survey, the report of which
was that on which the works intended for the defense of New Orleans,
the Mississippi, the bay of Mobile, and all the country dependent on
those waters were sanctioned by the Executive, the commissioners were
industriously engaged about six months. I should have communicated that
very able and interesting document then but from a doubt how far the
interest of our country would justify its publication, a circumstance
which I now mention that the attention of Congress may be drawn to it.

JAMES MONROE.

MARCH 26, 1822.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

Having executed the act entitled "An act to reduce and fix the military
peace establishment of the United States" on great consideration and
according to my best judgment, and inferring from the rejection of
the nomination of Colonel Towson and Colonel Gadsden, officers of very
distinguished merit, that the view