e expediency of providing for
individual cases of this description by special enactment, or of
revising the act of the 1st of May, 1820, with a view to mitigate the
rigor of its exclusions in favor of persons to whom charity now bestowed
can scarcely discharge the debt of justice.

The portion of the naval force of the Union in actual service has been
chiefly employed on three stations--the Mediterranean, the coasts of
South America bordering on the Pacific Ocean, and the West Indies. An
occasional cruiser has been sent to range along the African shores most
polluted by the traffic of slaves; one armed vessel has been stationed
on the coast of our eastern boundary, to cruise along the fishing
grounds in Hudsons Bay and on the coast of Labrador, and the first
service of a new frigate has been performed in restoring to his native
soil and domestic enjoyments the veteran hero whose youthful blood and
treasure had freely flowed in the cause of our country's independence,
and whose whole life has been a series of services and sacrifices to the
improvement of his fellow-men. The visit of General Lafayette, alike
honorable to himself and to our country, closed, as it had commenced,
with the most affecting testimonials of devoted attachment on his part,
and of unbounded gratitude of this people to him in return. It will form
hereafter a pleasing incident in the annals of our Union, giving to real
history the intense interest of romance and signally marking the
unpurchasable tribute of a great nation's social affections to the
disinterested champion of the liberties of human-kind.

The constant maintenance of a small squadron in the Mediterranean is a
necessary substitute for the humiliating alternative of paying tribute
for the security of our commerce in that sea, and for a precarious
peace, at the mercy of every caprice of four Barbary States, by whom it
was liable to be violated. An additional motive for keeping a
respectable force stationed there at this time is found in the maritime
war raging between the Greeks and the Turks, and in which the neutral
navigation of this Union is always in danger of outrage and depredation.
A few instances have occurred of such depredations upon our merchant
vessels by privateers or pirates wearing the Grecian flag, but without
real authority from the Greek or any other Government. The heroic
struggles of the Greeks themselves, in which our warmest sympathies as
freemen and Christians have