The length of post-roads in 1827 was 105,336 miles; in 1837, 141,242
miles; in 1847, 153,818 miles, and in the year 1857 there are 242,601
miles of post-road, including 22,530 miles of railroad on which the mails
are transported.

The expenditures of the Department for the fiscal year ending on the
30th June, 1857, as adjusted by the Auditor, amounted to $11,507,670.
To defray these expenditures there was to the credit of the Department
on the 1st July, 1856, the sum of $789,599; the gross revenue of the
year, including the annual allowances for the transportation of free
mail matter, produced $8,053,951, and the remainder was supplied by
the appropriation from the Treasury of $2,250,000 granted by the act of
Congress approved August 18, 1856, and by the appropriation of $666,883
made by the act of March 3, 1857, leaving $252,763 to be carried to the
credit of the Department in the accounts of the current year. I commend
to your consideration the report of the Department in relation to the
establishment of the overland mail route from the Mississippi River to
San Francisco, Cal. The route was selected with my full concurrence, as
the one, in my judgment, best calculated to attain the important objects
contemplated by Congress.

The late disastrous monetary revulsion may have one good effect should
it cause both the Government and the people to return to the practice of
a wise and judicious economy both in public and private expenditures.

An overflowing Treasury has led to habits of prodigality and
extravagance in our legislation. It has induced Congress to make large
appropriations to objects for which they never would have provided had
it been necessary to raise the amount of revenue required to meet them
by increased taxation or by loans. We are now compelled to pause in our
career and to scrutinize our expenditures with the utmost vigilance;
and in performing this duty I pledge my cooperation to the extent of
my constitutional competency.

It ought to be observed at the same time that true public economy does
not consist in withholding the means necessary to accomplish important
national objects intrusted to us by the Constitution, and especially
such as may be necessary for the common defense. In the present crisis
of the country it is our duty to confine our appropriations to objects
of this character, unless in cases where justice to individuals may
demand a different course. In all cases care ought to be t