about 260,000 miles
have been made, and for 70,000 miles annually on horseback. Seven
hundred and fourteen new post-offices have been established within the
year, and the increase of revenue within the last three years, as well
as the augmentation of the transportation by mail, is more than equal to
the whole amount of receipts and of mail conveyance at the commencement
of the present century, when the seat of the General Government was
removed to this place. When we reflect that the objects effected by the
transportation of the mail are among the choicest comforts and
enjoyments of social life, it is pleasing to observe that the
dissemination of them to every corner of our country has outstripped in
their increase even the rapid march of our population.

By the treaties with France and Spain, respectively ceding Louisiana and
the Floridas to the United States, provision was made for the security
of land titles derived from the Governments of those nations. Some
progress has been made under the authority of various acts of Congress
in the ascertainment and establishment of those titles, but claims to a
very large extent remain unadjusted. The public faith no less than the
just rights of individuals and the interest of the community itself
appears to require further provision for the speedy settlement of those
claims, which I therefore recommend to the care and attention of the
Legislature.

In conformity with the provisions of the act of 20th May last, to
provide for erecting a penitentiary in the district of Columbia, and for
other purposes, three commissioners were appointed to select a site for
the erection of a penitentiary for the district, and also a site in the
county of Alexandria for a county jail, both of which objects have been
effected. The building of the penitentiary has been commenced, and is in
such a degree of forwardness as to promise that it will be completed
before the meeting of the next Congress. This consideration points to
the expediency of maturing at the present session a system for the
regulation and government of the penitentiary, and of defining the class
of offenses which shall be punishable by confinement in this edifice.

In closing this communication I trust that it will not be deemed
inappropriate to the occasion and purposes upon which we are here
assembled to indulge a momentary retrospect, combining in a single
glance the period of our origin as a national confederation with that o