le that
Department to conduct them to a successful issue.

Having had an opportunity of personally inspecting a portion of the
troops during the last summer, it gives me pleasure to bear testimony to
the success of the effort to improve their discipline by keeping them
together in as large bodies as the nature of our service will permit.
I recommend, therefore, that commodious and permanent barracks be
constructed at the several posts designated by the Secretary of War.
Notwithstanding the high state of their discipline and excellent police,
the evils resulting to the service from the deficiency of company
officers were very apparent, and I recommend that the staff officers be
permanently separated from the line.

The Navy has been usefully and honorably employed in protecting the
rights and property of our citizens wherever the condition of affairs
seemed to require its presence. With the exception of one instance,
where an outrage, accompanied by murder, was committed on a vessel of
the United States while engaged in a lawful commerce, nothing is known
to have occurred to impede or molest the enterprise of our citizens on
that element, where it is so signally displayed. On learning this daring
act of piracy, Commodore Reed proceeded immediately to the spot, and
receiving no satisfaction, either in the surrender of the murderers or
the restoration of the plundered property, inflicted severe and merited
chastisement on the barbarians.

It will be seen by the report of the Secretary of the Navy respecting
the disposition of our ships of war that it has been deemed necessary to
station a competent force on the coast of Africa to prevent a fraudulent
use of our flag by foreigners.

Recent experience has shown that the provisions in our existing laws
which relate to the sale and transfer of American vessels while abroad
are extremely defective. Advantage has been taken of these defects
to give to vessels wholly belonging to foreigners and navigating the
ocean an apparent American ownership. This character has been so well
simulated as to afford them comparative security in prosecuting the
slave trade--a traffic emphatically denounced in our statutes, regarded
with abhorrence by our citizens, and of which the effectual suppression
is nowhere more sincerely desired than in the United States. These
circumstances make it proper to recommend to your early attention a
careful revision of these laws, so that without impeding t