t expected that this arduous
service will be completed in season to enable me to communicate the
result to Congress at the present session.

Our relations with the Indian tribes are of a favorable character.
The policy of removing them to a country designed for their permanent
residence west of the Mississippi, and without the limits of the
organized States and Territories, is better appreciated by them than it
was a few years ago, while education is now attended to and the habits
of civilized life are gaining ground among them.

Serious difficulties of long standing continue to distract the several
parties into which the Cherokees are unhappily divided. The efforts of
the Government to adjust the difficulties between them have heretofore
proved unsuccessful, and there remains no probability that this
desirable object can be accomplished without the aid of further
legislation by Congress. I will at an early period of your session
present the subject for your consideration, accompanied with an
exposition of the complaints and claims of the several parties into
which the nation is divided, with a view to the adoption of such
measures by Congress as may enable the Executive to do justice to them,
respectively, and to put an end, if possible, to the dissensions which
have long prevailed and still prevail among them.

I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Navy for the present
condition of that branch of the national defense and for grave
suggestions having for their object the increase of its efficiency and a
greater economy in its management. During the past year the officers and
men have performed their duty in a satisfactory manner. The orders which
have been given have been executed with promptness and fidelity. A
larger force than has often formed one squadron under our flag was
readily concentrated in the Gulf of Mexico, and apparently without
unusual effort. It is especially to be observed that notwithstanding the
union of so considerable a force, no act was committed that even the
jealousy of an irritated power could construe as an act of aggression,
and that the commander of the squadron and his officers, in strict
conformity with their instructions, holding themselves ever ready
for the most active duty, have achieved the still purer glory of
contributing to the preservation of peace. It is believed that at all
our foreign stations the honor of our flag has been maintained and that
generally our ship