only to observe that it is yet found
adequate to all the purposes for which a permanent armed force in time
of peace can be heeded or useful. It may be proper to add that, from a
difference of opinion between the late President of the United States
and the Senate with regard to the construction of the act of Congress of
2d March, 1821, to reduce and fix the military peace establishment of
the United States, it remains hitherto so far without execution that no
colonel has been appointed to command one of the regiments of artillery.
A supplementary or explanatory act of the Legislature appears to be the
only expedient practicable for removing the difficulty of this
appointment.

In a period of profound peace the conduct of the mere military
establishment forms but a very inconsiderable portion of the duties
devolving upon the administration of the Department of War. It will be
seen by the returns from the subordinate departments of the Army that
every branch of the service is marked with order, regularity, and
discipline; that from the commanding general through all the gradations
of superintendence the officers feel themselves to have been citizens
before they were soldiers, and that the glory of a republican army must
consist in the spirit of freedom, by which it is animated, and of
patriotism, by which it is impelled. It may be confidently stated that
the moral character of the Army is in a state of continual improvement,
and that all the arrangements for the disposal of its parts have a
constant reference to that end.

But to the War Department are attributed other duties, having, indeed,
relation to a future possible condition of war, but being purely
defensive, and in their tendency contributing rather to the security and
permanency of peace--the erection of the fortifications provided for by
Congress, and adapted to secure our shores from hostile invasion; the
distribution of the fund of public gratitude and justice to the
pensioners of the Revolutionary war; the maintenance of our relations of
peace and of protection with the Indian tribes, and the internal
improvements and surveys for the location of roads and canals, which
during the last three sessions of Congress have engaged so much of their
attention, and may engross so large a share of their future benefactions
to our country.

By the act of the 30th of April, 1824, suggested and approved by my
predecessor, the sum of $30,000 was appropriated for the pur