ty of our country is also further evinced by the increased
revenue arising from the sale of public lands, as will appear from the
report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office and the documents
accompanying it, which are herewith transmitted. I beg leave to draw
your attention to this report, and to the propriety of making early
appropriations for the objects which it specifies.

Your attention is again invited to the subjects connected with that
portion of the public interests intrusted to the War Department. Some of
them were referred to in my former message, and they are presented in
detail in the report of the Secretary of War herewith submitted. I refer
you also to the report of that officer for a knowledge of the state of
the Army, fortifications, arsenals, and Indian affairs, all of which it
will be perceived have been guarded with zealous attention and care. It
is worthy of your consideration whether the armaments necessary for the
fortifications on our maritime frontier which are now or shortly will be
completed should not be in readiness sooner than the customary
appropriations will enable the Department to provide them. This
precaution seems to be due to the general system of fortification which
has been sanctioned by Congress, and is recommended by that maxim of
wisdom which tells us in peace to prepare for war.

I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Navy for a highly
satisfactory account of the manner in which the concerns of that
Department have been conducted during the present year. Our position in
relation to the most powerful nations of the earth, and the present
condition of Europe, admonish us to cherish this arm of our national
defense with peculiar care. Separated by wide seas from all those
Governments whose power we might have reason to dread, we have nothing
to apprehend from attempts at conquest. It is chiefly attacks upon our
commerce and harassing inroads upon our coast against which we have to
guard. A naval force adequate to the protection of our commerce, always
afloat, with an accumulation of the means to give it a rapid extension
in case of need, furnishes the power by which all such aggressions may
be prevented or repelled. The attention of the Government has therefore
been recently directed more to preserving the public vessels already
built and providing materials to be placed in depot for future use than
to increasing their number. With the aid of Congress, in a f