our
consideration whether it may not be advisable to authorize by an
adequate appropriation the employment of a suitable number of the
officers of the Corps of Engineers to examine the unexplored ground
during the next season and to report their opinion thereon. It will
likewise be proper to extend their examination to the several routes
through which the waters of the Ohio may be connected by canals with
those of Lake Erie.

As the Cumberland road will require annual repairs, and Congress have
not thought it expedient to recommend to the States an amendment to the
Constitution for the purpose of vesting in the United States a power to
adopt and execute a system of internal improvement, it is also submitted
to your consideration whether it may not be expedient to authorize the
Executive to enter into an arrangement with the several States through
which the road passes to establish tolls, each within its limits, for
the purpose of defraying the expense of future repairs and of providing
also by suitable penalties for its protection against future injuries.

The act of Congress of the 7th of May, 1822, appropriated the sum of
$22,700 for the purpose of erecting two piers as a shelter for vessels
from ice near Cape Henlopen, Delaware Bay. To effect the object of the
act the officers of the Board of Engineers, with Commodore Bainbridge,
were directed to prepare plans and estimates of piers sufficient to
answer the purpose intended by the act. It appears by their report,
which accompanies the documents from the War Department, that the
appropriation is not adequate to the purpose intended; and as the piers
would be of great service both to the navigation of the Delaware Bay and
the protection of vessels on the adjacent parts of the coast, I submit
for the consideration of Congress whether additional and sufficient
appropriation should not be made.

The Board of Engineers were also directed to examine and survey the
entrance of the harbor of the port of Presquille, in Pennsylvania, in
order to make an estimate of the expense of removing the obstructions
to the entrance, with a plan of the best mode of effecting the same,
under the appropriation for that purpose by act of Congress passed 3d
of March last. The report of the Board accompanies the papers from the
War Department, and is submitted for the consideration of Congress.

A strong hope has been long entertained, founded on the heroic struggle
of the Greeks, that they