selves have principal care of our persons, our pro perty and our reputation; constituting the great field of human concerns, we may well doubt whether our organization is not too complicated, too expensive; whether offices and officers have not been multiplied unnecessarily, and sometimes injuriously to the service they were meant to promote. I will cause to be laid before you an essay towards a statement of those who, under public employment of various kinds, draw money from the treasury, or from our citizens. Time has not permitted a perfect enumeration, the ramifications of office being too multiplied and remote to be completely traced in a first trial.-Among those who are dependent on executive discretion, I have begun the reduction of what was deemed unnecessary. The expences of diplomatic agency have been considerably diminished. The in

spectors of internal revenue, who were found to obstruct the accountability of the institution, have been discontinued.Several agencies, created by executive authority, on salaries fixed by that also, have been suppressed, and should suggest the expediency of regulating that power by law, so as to subject its exercises to legislative inspection and sanction. Other reformations of the same kind will be pursued with that caution which is requisite in removing use less things, not to injure what is retained. But the great mass of public offices is established by law, and therefore by law alone can be abolished Should the legislature think it expedient to pass this roll in review, and to try all its parts by the test of public utility, they may be assured of every aid and light which executive information can yield. Considering the general tendency to multiply offices and dependencies, and to increase expence to the ultimate term of burthen which the citizen can bear, it behoves us to avail ourselves of every occasion which presents itself for taking off the surcharge; that it never may

be seen here that, after leaving to labour the smallest portion of its earnings on which it can subsist, government shall itself consume the residue of what it was instituted to guard.

In our care too of the public contributions entrusted to our direction, it would be prudent to multiply barriers against their dissipation, by appropri. ating specific sums to every specific purpose suscep tible of definition by disallowing all applications of money varying from the appropriation in object or transcending it in amount; by reducing the undefined field of contingencies, and thereby circumscribing discretionary powers over money; and by bringing back to a single department all accounta bilities for money, where the examination may be prompt, efficacious and uniform.

An account of the receipts and expenditures of the last year, as prepared by the secretary of the treasury, will, as usual, be laid before you. The success which has attended the late sales of the public lands shews that, with attention, they may be made an important source of receipt. Among the payments, those made in discharge of the prin cipal and interest of the national debt, will shew that the public faith has been exactly maintained. To these will be added an estimate of appropriations necessary for the ensuing year. This last will of course be affected by such modifications of the system of expence as you shall think proper to adopt.

A statement has been formed by the secretary at war, on mature consideration, of all the posts and stations where garrisons will be expedient, and of the number of men requisite for each garrison. The whole amount is considerably short of the present military establishment. For the surplus no particular use can be pointed out. For defence against invasion, their number is as nothing; nor is it considered needful or safe that a standing army should be

kept up, in time of peace, for that purpose. Uncertain as we must ever be of the particular point in our circumference where an enemy may chuse to invade us, the only force which can be ready at every point, and competent to oppose them, is the body of neighboring citizens, as formed into a militia. On these, collected from the parts most convenient, in numbers proportioned to the invading force, it is best to rely not only to meet the first attack, but if it threatens to be permanent, to maintain the defence until regulars may be engaged to relieve them. These considerations render it important that we should, at every session, continue to amend the defects, which from time to time shew themselves, in the laws for regulating the militia, until they are sufficiently perfect: nor should we now, or at any time, separate, until we can say we have done every thing for the militia, which we could do, were an enemy at our door.

The provision of military stores on hand will be laid before you, that you may judge of the additions still requisite.

With respect to the extent to which our naval preparations should be carried, some difference of opinion may be expected to appear: but just attention to the circumstances of every part of the union will doubtless reconcile all. A small force will probably continue to be wanted, for actual service, in the Mediterranean. Whatever annual sum beyond that you may think proper tó ap propriate to naval preparations, would perhaps be better employed in providing those articles which may be kept without waste or comsumption, and be in readiness when any ex. igence calls them into use.. Progress has been made, as will appear by papers now communicated, in providing materials for seventy-four-gun ships as directed by law.

How far the authority given by the Legislature for procuring and establishing sites for naval purposes, has been perfectly understood and pursued in the execution, admits of some doubt. A statement of the expences already incurred on that subject shall be laid before you. I have in certain cases, suspended or slackened these expenditures, that the Legislature might determine whether so many yards are necessary as have been cómtemplated. The works at this place are among those permitted to go on and five of the seven frigates directed to be laid up, have been brought and laid up here, where, besides the safety of their position, they are under the eye of the Executive administration, as well as of its agents, and where yourselves also will be guided by your own view, in the legislative provisions respecting them, which may from time to time be necessary. They are preserved in such condition, as well the vessels as whatever belongs to them, as to be at all times ready for sea on a short warning. Two others are yet to be laid up, so soon as they shall have received the repairs requisite to put them also into sound condition. As a superintending officer will be necessary at each yard, his duties and emoluments, hitherto fixed by the Executive, will be a more proper subject for legislation, A communication will also be made of our progress in the execution of the law respecting the vessels directed to be sold.

The fortifications of our harbours, more or less advanced, present considerations of great difficulty.'" While some of them are on a scale sufficiently proportioned to the advantages of their position, to the efficacy of their protection, and the importance of the points within it, others are so extensive, will cost so much in their first erection, so must in their maintenance, and require such a force to garrison them, as to make it questionable what is best now to be done.

A statement of those commenced or project

ed, of the expences already incurred, and estimates of their future cost, as far as can be forcseen, shall be laid before you, that you may be enabled to judge whether any alteration is necessary in the laws respecting this subject.

Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are then most thriving, when left most free to individual enterprize. Protection from casual embarrassments, however, may sometimes be seasonably interposed. If in the course of your observations or enquiries, they should appear to need any aid, within the limits of our constitutional powers, your sense of their importance is a sufficient assurance they will occupy your attention. We cannot, indeed, but all feel an anxious solicitude for the difficulties under which our carrying trade will soon be placed. How far it can be relieved, otherwise than by time, is a subject of important consideration.

The judiciary system of the United States, and especially that portion of it recently erected, will of course present itself to the contemplation of Congress; and that they may be able to judge of the proportion which the institution bears to the business it has to perform, I have caused to be procured from the several states, and now lay before Congress, an exact statement of all the causes decided since the first establishment of the courts, and of those which were depending when additional courts and judges were brought in to their aid.

And while on the judiciary organization, it will be worthy your consideration whether the protection of the inestimable institution of juries has been extended to all the cases involving the security of our persons and property. Their impartial selection also being essential to their value, we ought further to consider whether that is sufficiently secured in those states, where they are named by a marshal depending