to these incursions equally with our own. The military
force stationed in that country, although forming a large proportion
of the Army, is represented as entirely inadequate to our own
protection and the fulfillment of our treaty stipulations with Mexico.
The principal deficiency is in cavalry, and I recommend that Congress
should, at as early a period as practicable, provide for the raising
of one or more regiments of mounted men.

For further suggestions on this subject and others connected with our
domestic interests and the defense of our frontier, I refer you to the
reports of the Secretary of the Interior and of the Secretary of War.

I commend also to your favorable consideration the suggestion
contained in the last-mentioned report and in the letter of the
General in Chief relative to the establishment of an asylum for the
relief of disabled and destitute soldiers. This subject appeals so
strongly to your sympathies that it would be superfluous in me to say
anything more than barely to express my cordial approbation of the
proposed object.

The Navy continues to give protection to our commerce and other
national interests in the different quarters of the globe, and, with
the exception of a single steamer on the Northern lakes, the vessels
in commission are distributed in six different squadrons.

The report of the head of that Department will exhibit the services of
these squadrons and of the several vessels employed in each during the
past year. It is a source of gratification that, while they have been
constantly prepared for any hostile emergency, they have everywhere
met with the respect and courtesy due as well to the dignity as to the
peaceful dispositions and just purposes of the nation.

The two brigantines accepted by the Government from a generous citizen
of New York and placed under the command of an officer of the Navy to
proceed to the Arctic Seas in quest of the British commander Sir John
Franklin and his companions, in compliance with the act of Congress
approved in May last, had when last heard from penetrated into a high
northern latitude; but the success of this noble and humane enterprise
is yet uncertain.

I invite your attention to the view of our present naval establishment
and resources presented in the report of the Secretary of the Navy,
and the suggestions therein made for its improvement, together with
the naval policy recommended for the security of our Pacific Coast and
the