a
few months be discharged by a loan at not exceeding 5 per cent,
redeemable in the years 1829 and 1830. By this operation a sum of nearly
half a million of dollars may be saved to the nation, and the discharge
of the whole thirty-one millions within the four years may be greatly
facilitated if not wholly accomplished.

By an act of Congress of 3d March, 1835, a loan for the purpose now
referred to, or a subscription to stock, was authorized, at an interest
not exceeding 4-1/2 per cent. But at that time so large a portion of the
floating capital of the country was absorbed in commercial speculations
and so little was left for investment in the stocks that the measure was
but partially successful. At the last session of Congress the condition
of the funds was still unpropitious to the measure; but the change so
soon afterwards occurred that, had the authority existed to redeem the
nine millions now redeemable by an exchange of stocks or a loan at 5 per
cent, it is morally certain that it might have been effected, and with
it a yearly saving of $90,000.

With regard to the collection of the revenue of imposts, certain
occurrences have within the last year been disclosed in one or two of
our principal ports, which engaged the attention of Congress at their
last session and may hereafter require further consideration. Until
within a very few years the execution of the laws for raising the
revenue, like that of all our other laws, has been insured more by the
moral sense of the community than by the rigors of a jealous precaution
or by penal sanctions. Confiding in the exemplary punctuality and
unsullied integrity of our importing merchants, a gradual relaxation
from the provisions of the collection laws, a close adherence to which
would have caused inconvenience and expense to them, had long become
habitual, and indulgences had been extended universally because they had
never been abused. It may be worthy of your serious consideration
whether some further legislative provision may not be necessary to come
in aid of this state of unguarded security.

From the reports herewith communicated of the Secretaries of War and of
the Navy, with the subsidiary documents annexed to them, will be
discovered the present condition and administration of our military
establishment on the land and on the sea. The organization of the Army
having undergone no change since its reduction to the present peace
establishment in 1821, it remains