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deprived the country of some valuable lives, and, among others, of Brigadier General Leavenworth Impelled by his anxiety to forward the views of the government, he exposed himself, while yet weak, to the hardships of a border campaign, and sunk under the malady which these. induced. His high personal character, his services during the late war, and his exemplary official conduct since, are too well known to you to require from nie any thing more than this brief allusion to his worth and fate.

Among the accompanying documents will be found a full statement of the proceedings of Colonel Dodge, and of the satisfactory result of his expedition.

The report of the Chief Engineer contains a summary of the various objects entrusted to his supervision, and of their progress and condition. It will be seen that the Cumberland road, east of Wheeling, will be soon completed, in the manner required by an act of last session, and for the amount allowed by law. No further appropriations will be asked for. As much progress has been made in the other works, as the advanced state of the season, when the appropriations were made, would permit.

I beg leave to ask your particular attention to that part of the report of the Chief Engineer which recommends an addition to the number of officers of his corps. I believe the public service requires this measure. New duties have recently been imposed upon the engineer corps, by express acts of Congress; while, in other cases, it has been found necessary, by Executive regulation, to require from the officers services not originally contemplated in the organization of the department. The erection of fortifications, the construction of roads, the establishment of fixed points, by astronomical observations, in boundary lines, and the improvement of harbors and rivers, are among the objects committed to the engineer officers. And I feel bound to report to you, that, as far as my observation or information has extended, their duties have been performed in the most satisfactory and exemplary manner In scientific acquirements, and in their practical application, these officers are deserving of high commendation, and it is very desirable that their numbers should be so far augmented as to ensure their personal attention to all the objects within the control of the Engineer Department. This cannot now be done; and the public service suffers in consequence of it. Similar reasons call for a re-orginization of the topographical corps, and the officer at the head of it has submitted a projet for this purpose, which, while it will render that corps more efficient, will not increase the public expense I ask for it your favorable consideration, The duties connected with this branch of the service require peculiar attainments and great practical experience. They can best be performed by officers devoting their whole time and attention to the subject. A system of detail, requiring periodical changes, however proper it may be, with relation to a just routine of military duties, so long as temporary assistants are seflected from, and continued in, the line of the army, it is still not calcula ted to ensure the best execution of the functions appropriately belonging to the topographical engineers. The remedy would be, to remodel the corps, and permanently to attach to it as many officers as may be necessary. And, by consolidating with it the civil engineers, the general opeations would be simplified, and the duties of the corps might embrace

all the objects connected with surveys for civil or military purposes. there is in this corps a fund of experience and information which cannot but be useful to the country.

It will be seen, by adverting to the report of the officer in charge of the topographical bureau, that difficulties have occurred in the execution of the joint resolution of Congress, passed at the last session, and providing for the construction of a rail road through the public grounds at Harper's Ferry. Some modification will be necessary before the object of Congress, and of the Company, can be attained, and this may pbably be effected by requiring the latter to pay the value of any improvements injured by the road, or by giving authority to replace them in other positious, should they be deemed of sufficient importance to require being] paid for or removed.

The present condition of the work at the Delaware breakwater is shown in the report of the Quartermaster General, and in that of the commission lately instituted by your orders to examine it. It has been known for some time that gradual depositions were making in the vi cinity of this work, by which the depth of water was somewhat reduced. But, until this season, the process was so slow and uncertain, that no anxiety was felt with respect to its final effect upon this great national improvement. Recently, however, the accumulation of sand in the artificial harbor has been much more rapid, and indicated the necessity of a thorough examination by scientific persons, in order to ascertain, if possible, the causes of this occurrence, and to check or obviate them. The views of the officers selected for this purpose will be found in their report ;] and, agreeably to your directions, they have been adopted by the departAn estimate for one hundred thousand dollars, to be applied to this work. is among the annual estimates of the department, and if approved by Congress, that sum will be appropriated in the manner pointed out by the report, to the completion of that part of the work already begun, and yet unfinished. In the mean time, by a series of observations, frequently and carefully taken, the probable operation of the tides and currents may be ascertained, and the best remedy to counteract them pointed out.

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The act of March 2, 1829, "to continue the present mode of supplying the army of the United States," expires, by its own limitation, on the 24 of March next. The Subsistence Department, which was continued by this act, has been found highly useful to the army, and beneficial to the public, by the efficiency and economy of its administration. my own knowledge of its officers and operations, as well as from what I have otherwise learned of these, I feel called upon to present this subject particularly to your attention, satisfied that the continuance of the department is demanded by the best interest of the service,

The reports of the Major General, and of the other heads of bureaus, will communicate all the necessary information in relation to subjects respectively committed to them. I am not aware that there is any par ticular matter requiring your special attention. These reports are satisfactory in the views they exhibit of the course of administration, and of the reduced expenditures which are required for the service of the coming year. kesak

At the last session of Congress, so much of the laws as authorizes the

conferring of brevets for ten years' service in one grade was repealed, and the nominations of all officers who had completed that term, prior to the repeal, was confirmed. This change seems to bear with some severity upon those who had served during the greater portion, but not the whole of such term. The existing laws, and the practice under them, held out to all officers, as an inducement to good conduct, the prospect of promotion after ten years' faithful services in one grade. In military life, the hope of professional distinction is essential to a high and honorable discharge of the duties to which its members are devoted. If this is destroyfed or neglected, little more than a mechanical execution of these duties can be expected. In our army this sentiment is as dear, and as much cherished, as in any other, and if not the cause, it is certainly the accompaniment of zealous devotion to the public interest. All the officers, who before the repeal of this law, had entered upon what may be termed their probation, expected, and had a right to expect, that if at its termination they should have complied with the condition, by faithful service, the reward held out would be granted to them. I venture, respectfully, to suggest whether justice does not require such a modification of this law, as to authorize the granting of brevets to every one whose term of ten years had commenced before its repeal, at the end of such term, if the conditions of the law shall be fulfilled. This would ensure the ultimate abolition of the practice which Congress had in view, while it would seem to be giving due weight to claims, founded, if not in right, certainly in strong considerations connected with the services and situation of the officers. This valuable class of the community is exposed to every vicissitude incident to climate and situation, and the pecuniary consideration they receive is barely sufficient to enable them to meet the demands to which they are liable.

Disclosures have been made during the past season, showing the necessity of a thorough investigation into the operation of the laws granting pensions and gratuities for military services. It is ascertained that many frauds have been committed; some in the application for pensions, and others in the continuance of these payments. As these disclosures have been the result of accident, it is impossible to judge to what extent frauds may have been committed; but enough has occurred to satisfy me that some new mode of proceeding is essentially necessary to detect and check these abuses.

In the administration of the laws on this subject, the parties are required to make certain declarations before the judicial tribunals, and the opinions of these tribunals are requested, in order to determine the validity of the application. In the administrative examination of the papers submitted in support of a claim, if the name of the applicant is found upon the recorded muster rolls, and his identity is established by his own declaration, and the proper certificates, the pension is granted as a matter of course. In far the greater number of cases, however, no muster rolls of the corps exist, and frequently where they do exist, they are defective, and a resort to other testimony in the examination of the claim becomes, therefore, necessary. Here a more detailed statement of services is required from the party, combining the various circumstances connected with such duty, best calculated to enable the proper ex-1 amining officers to compare the statement with the records of the office,

and with other facts known to them, and thus to assist in detecting frauds, if any exist. In addition to this, a certificate of two respectable persons, acquainted with the party, is made necessary, stating his age, and the opinion, in the neighborhood where he resides, that he is a soldier of the revolution, and their concurrence therein; and to this must be added) the certificate and opinion of the proper court upon the whole matter. Besides this course of proceeding, which is applicable more particularly to the militia claimants, very few muster rolls of which remain, the testimony of two persons actually acquainted with the services of the applicant is necessary, wherever he served in the regular army, and his name is not to be found on a muster roll, as, in that case, evidence is necessary to rebut the presumption against him.

This system was adopted upon great consideration, and it is difficult to see how the law can be administered if farther requisites are demanded. But experience has shown that the prescribed certificates are sometimes granted without due caution, and that persons desirous of converting the provisions of the law to their own benefit, have been enabled to procure official attestations, and even the seal of the court, under circumstances calculated to weaken, if not to destroy, the public confidence in these safeguards. Seals have likewise been taken from useless attestations, and affixed to others, and direct forgeries have been committed in the preparation of the whole papers. And these proceedings have been resorted to, not only to establish the original claim, by placing the applicant upon the roll, but also to establish his right to each semiannual payment by proving his identity. It is obvious that a system, depending for its correctness upon the conduct of such a variety of persons and officers, not responsible to the general government, and where, frequently, a natural sympathy for the claims of the time and war-worl veterans would lead to much practical relaxation, must be liable to abuse; although, till very recently, the extent to which such abuses may have gone, was not suspected. Some plan is now necessary, by which a re examination may be made-a plan which, while it ensures to the honest and gallant survivors of the revolution all that they expect, and all the country has provided, shall, at the same time, lay open the frauds which have been committed, and prevent their occurrence hereafter.

In the report of the Commissioner of Pensions, his views upon the subject are given, which appear to me practical and judicious; and, as such, I ask for them your favorable recommendation to Congress. An examination at the residence, or in the neighborhood of each person now drawing a pension, into the circumstances of his case, appears to me to present the only effectual means of accomplishing the desired object. Undertaken by proper persons, and conducted with proper discretion, it could scarcely fail to confirm the grants made to honest applicants, and to detect those which have been fraudulently obtained by dishonest ones It appears to me that the expense of such a measure ought not to delay. its immediate adoption. It is impossible even to conjecture the amount of surreptitious claims; it may be far greater than the data now before the office enable us to estimate. And possibly conjecture and recent disclosures may have led to the suspicion that the ramifications of the system have been more extended, and the abuses greater, than a rigid inquiry may confirm. In the one case, the beneficial result would be the

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relief of the Treasury from fraudulent payments, and the punishment of those concerned in them; and, in the other, it would be satisfactory to know that, while the bounty of the government has been justly appropriated, it has not been improperly applied.

The

The provision of law for the establishment of a Pension Office as a branch of this department, expires, by its own limitation, at the end of the present session of Congress. It is essential to a due execution of the duties connected with the system of pensions and gratuities for military services, that this arrangement should be renewed and continued. applicants and grantees are so numerous; the aggregate amount disbursed so great, equaling at least three millions two hundred thousand dollars annually; and the doubtful questions, both of fact and principle, so fre quent and complicated, that, unless a branch of administration, carefully superintended, is devoted exclusively to this service, the public interest must materially suffer.

The Commissioner of Indian Affairs has exhibited, in detail, the transactions in the important branch of the public service confided to his superintendence. It is only necessary that I should advert to the more prominent subjects which have received, or which require, the action of the government.

The commission for the adjustment of unsettled relations with the Indians west of the Mississippi, terminated by the provisions of the act instituting it, in July last. Important benefits have resulted from the labors of the commissioners in the adjustment of difficult questions connected with the Indians of that region, and in the treaty arrangements which have been entered into by them. The country assigned for the permanent residence of the eastern Indians has been so apportioned among them, that little difficulty is anticipated from conflicting claims, or from doubtful boundaries; and, both in quality and extent, there can be no doubt but that the region allotted to them will be amply sufficient for their comfortable subsistence during an indefinite period of time.

An important council has been held at Fort Gibson, by Colonel Dodge, and by Major Armstrong, the superintentent of Indian affairs, with the chiefs of several of the tribes of that quarter, including some of the wandering bands, whose predatory operations have heretofore kept the frontier in alarm. At this council, the situation of the Indians was fully It is to be hoped that discussed, and amicable relations established. the feelings with which they separated will be permanent, and their intercourse hereafter uninterrupted.

The united tribe of Pottawatamies, Ottawas, and Chippewas, possessing the country in the vicinity of Chicago, have conditionally acceded to the alteration proposed in the boundaries of the tract assigned for them west of the Mississippi, by the treaty concluded in 1833. Should their proposition be accepted, an extensive and valuable region will be opened for settlement, and they will be removed to a district, whose climate is suitable to their habits, and whose other advantages cannot fail to offer them strong inducements for moral and physical improvement.

An arrangement has been made with the Miamies, for the cession of a part of their reservation in the State of Indiana. The tracts held by them are far more extensive than they require; and as they appear to be not yet prepared for removal, this relinquishment, without injuring|

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