8,000. The great difficulty with which the detection of these
frauds has been attended, in consequence of the abstraction of books and
papers by the retiring officers, and the facility with which similar
frauds in the public service may be perpetrated render the necessity of
new legal enactments in the respects above referred to quite obvious.
For other material modifications of the revenue laws which seem to me
desirable, I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury.
That report and the tables which accompany it furnish ample proofs of
the solid foundation on which the financial security of the country
rests and of the salutary influence of the independent-treasury system
upon commerce and all monetary operations.

The experience of the last year furnishes additional reasons, I regret
to say, of a painful character, for the recommendation heretofore made
to provide for increasing the military force employed in the Territory
inhabited by the Indians. The settlers on the frontier have suffered
much from the incursions of predatory bands, and large parties of
emigrants to our Pacific possessions have been massacred with impunity.
The recurrence of such scenes can only be prevented by teaching these
wild tribes the power of and their responsibility to the United States.
From the garrisons of our frontier posts it is only possible to detach
troops in small bodies; and though these have on all occasions displayed
a gallantry and a stern devotion to duty which on a larger field would
have commanded universal admiration, they have usually suffered severely
in these conflicts with superior numbers, and have sometimes been
entirely sacrificed. All the disposable force of the Army is already
employed on this service, and is known to be wholly inadequate to the
protection which should be afforded. The public mind of the country has
been recently shocked by savage atrocities committed upon defenseless
emigrants and border settlements, and hardly less by the unnecessary
destruction of valuable lives where inadequate detachments of troops
have undertaken to furnish the needed aid. Without increase of the
military force these scenes will be repeated, it is to be feared, on
a larger scale and with more disastrous consequences. Congress, I am
sure, will perceive that the plainest duties and responsibilities of
Government are involved in this question, and I doubt not that prompt
action may be confidently anticipated when de