restore the mail facilities that have been withdrawn,
and to extend them more widely, as the growing settlements of the
country may require.

To a measure so important to the Government and so just to our
constituents, who ask no exclusive privileges for themselves and are not
willing to concede them to others, I earnestly recommend the serious
attention of Congress.

The importance of the Post-Office Department and the magnitude to which
it has grown, both in its revenues and in its operations, seem to demand
its reorganization by law. The whole of its receipts and disbursements
have hitherto been left entirely to Executive control and individual
discretion. The principle is as sound in relation to this as to any
other Department of the Government, that as little discretion should be
confided to the executive officer who controls it as is compatible with
its efficiency. It is therefore earnestly recommended that it be
organized with an auditor and treasurer of its own, appointed by the
President and Senate, who shall be branches of the Treasury Department.

Your attention is again respectfully invited to the defect which exists
in the judicial system of the United States. Nothing can be more
desirable than the uniform operation of the Federal judiciary throughout
the several States, all of which, standing on the same footing as
members of the Union, have equal rights to the advantages and benefits
resulting from its laws. This object is not attained by the judicial
acts now in force, because they leave one-fourth of the States without
circuit courts.

It is undoubtedly the duty of Congress to place all the States on the
same footing in this respect, either by the creation of an additional
number of associate judges or by an enlargement of the circuits assigned
to those already appointed so as to include the new States. Whatever may
be the difficulty in a proper organization of the judicial system so as
to secure its efficiency and uniformity in all parts of the Union and at
the same time to avoid such an increase of judges as would encumber the
supreme appellate tribunal, it should not be allowed to weigh against
the great injustice which the present operation of the system produces.

I trust that I may be also pardoned for renewing the recommendation
I have so often submitted to your attention in regard to the mode of
electing the President and Vice-President of the United States. All the
reflection I have been a