I invite your early attention
to that part of the report of the Secretary of War which relates
to this subject, and recommend an appropriation sufficiently liberal
to accelerate the armament of the fortifications agreeably to the
proposition submitted by him, and to place our whole Atlantic seaboard
in a complete state of defense. A just regard to the permanent interests
of the country evidently requires this measure, but there are also other
reasons which at the present juncture give it peculiar force and make
it my duty to call to the subject your special consideration.
The present system of military education has been in operation
sufficiently long to test its usefulness, and it has given to the
Army a valuable body of officers. It is not alone in the improvement,
discipline, and operation of the troops that these officers are
employed. They are also extensively engaged in the administrative and
fiscal concerns of the various matters confided to the War Department;
in the execution of the staff duties usually appertaining to military
organization; in the removal of the Indians and in the disbursement of
the various expenditures growing out of our Indian relations; in the
formation of roads and in the improvement of harbors and rivers; in
the construction of fortifications, in the fabrication of much of the
_materiel_ required for the public defense, and in the preservation,
distribution, and accountability of the whole, and in other
miscellaneous duties not admitting of classification.
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