the
country, and liberal appropriations are recommended in this behalf.
The reports of the Adjutant-General of the Army and the Chief of
Ordnance touching this subject fully set forth its importance.

The report of the officer in charge of education in the Army shows
that there are 78 schools now in operation in the Army, with an
aggregate attendance of 2,305 enlisted men and children. The Secretary
recommends the enlistment of 150 schoolmasters, with the rank and
pay of commissary-sergeants. An appropriation is needed to supply the
judge-advocates of the Army with suitable libraries, and the Secretary
recommends that the Corps of Judge-Advocates be placed upon the same
footing as to promotion with the other staff corps of the Army. Under
existing laws the Bureau of Military Justice consists of one officer
(the Judge-Advocate-General), and the Corps of Judge-Advocates of
eight officers of equal rank (majors), with a provision that the
limit of the corps shall remain at four when reduced by casualty
or resignation to that number. The consolidation of the Bureau of
Military Justice and the Corps of Judge-Advocates upon the same
basis with the other staff corps of the Army would remove an unjust
discrimination against deserving officers and subserve the best
interests of the service.

Especial attention is asked to the report of the Chief of Engineers
upon the condition of our national defenses. From a personal
inspection of many of the fortifications referred to, the Secretary
is able to emphasize the recommendations made and to state that their
incomplete and defenseless condition is discreditable to the country.
While other nations have been increasing their means for carrying on
offensive warfare and attacking maritime cities, we have been dormant
in preparation for defense. Nothing of importance has been done toward
strengthening and finishing our casemated works since our late civil
war, during which the great guns of modern warfare and the heavy armor
of modern fortifications and ships came into use among the nations;
and our earthworks, left by a sudden failure of appropriations some
years since in all stages of incompletion, are now being rapidly
destroyed by the elements.

The two great rivers of the North American continent, the Mississippi
and the Columbia, have their navigable waters wholly within the limits
of the United States, and are of vast importance to our internal and
foreign commerce. The permanen