school of
instruction, corresponding with the Military Academy at West Point, for
the formation of scientific and accomplished officers, is felt with
daily increasing aggravation.

The act of Congress of 26th of May, 1824, authorizing an examination and
survey of the harbor of Charleston, in South Carolina, of St. Marys, in
Georgia, and of the coast of Florida, and for other purposes, has been
executed so far as the appropriation would admit. Those of the 3d of
March last, authorizing the establishment of a navy-yard and depot on
the coast of Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, and authorizing the
building of ten sloops of war, and for other purposes, are in the course
of execution, for the particulars of which and other objects connected
with this Department I refer to the report of the Secretary of the Navy,
herewith communicated.

A report from the Postmaster-General is also submitted, exhibiting the
present flourishing condition of that Department. For the first time for
many years the receipts for the year ending on the 1st of July last
exceeded the expenditures during the same period to the amount of more
than $45,000. Other facts equally creditable to the administration of
this Department are that in two years from the 1st of July, 1823, an
improvement of more than $185,000 in its pecuniary affairs has been
realized; that in the same interval the increase of the transportation
of the mail has exceeded 1,500,000 miles annually, and that 1,040 new
post-offices have been established. It hence appears that under
judicious management the income from this establishment may be relied on
as fully adequate to defray its expenses, and that by the discontinuance
of post-roads altogether unproductive others of more useful character
may be opened, till the circulation of the mail shall keep pace with the
spread of our population, and the comforts of friendly correspondence,
the exchanges of internal traffic, and the lights of the periodical
press shall be distributed to the remotest corners of the Union, at a
charge scarcely perceptible to any individual, and without the cost of a
dollar to the public Treasury.

Upon this first occasion of addressing the Legislature of the Union,
with which I have been honored, in presenting to their view the
execution so far as it has been effected of the measures sanctioned by
them for promoting the internal improvement of our country, I can not
close the communication without recommending t