The duty suggested on tea and coffee and the
graduation and reduction of the price of the public lands would secure
an additional annual revenue to the Treasury of not less than
$3,000,000, and would thereby prevent the necessity of incurring a
public debt annually to that amount, the interest on which must be paid
semiannually, and ultimately the debt itself by a tax on the people.

It is a sound policy and one which has long been approved by the
Government and people of the United States never to resort to loans
unless in cases of great public emergency, and then only for the
smallest amount which the public necessities will permit.

The increased revenues which the measures now recommended would produce
would, moreover, enable the Government to negotiate a loan for any
additional sum which may be found to be needed with more facility and at
cheaper rates than can be done without them.

Under the injunction of the Constitution which makes it my duty "from
time to time to give to Congress information of the state of the Union
and to recommend to their consideration such measures" as shall be
judged "necessary and expedient," I respectfully and earnestly invite
the action of Congress on the measures herein presented for their
consideration. The public good, as well as a sense of my responsibility
to our common constituents, in my judgment imperiously demands that I
should present them for your enlightened consideration and invoke
favorable action upon them before the close of your present session.

JAMES K. POLK.

WASHINGTON, _February 13, 1847_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I nominate the officers named in the accompanying communication for
regular promotion in the Army of the United States, as proposed by the
Secretary of War.

JAMES K. POLK.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

_Washington, February 13, 1847_.

The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

SIR: I have the honor respectfully to propose for your approbation the
following-named captains[10] for promotion to the rank of major in the
existing regiments of the Army, in conformity with the third section of
the act approved February 11, 1847, which authorizes one additional
major to each of the regiments of dragoons, artillery, infantry, and
riflemen.

The promotions are all regular with one exception, that of Captain
Washington Seawell, of the Seventh Infantry, instead of Captain Edgar
Hawkins, of the same regiment, who stands at the head of the lis