I communicate to the Senate a report, with the documents accompanying it, from the Secretary of State, in answer to a resolution of that body of the 25th of January, 1844.

Relating to the production, growth, and trade in tobacco.

To the House of Representatives of the United States: I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary of State, with documents, containing the information requested by their resolution of the 26th ultimo.

In the deepest grief the President of the United States has instructed the undersigned to announce to the Army that from the accidental explosion of a gun yesterday on board the United States steamship Princeton the country and its…

The loss which the Government and the country have sustained by this deplorable event is heightened by the death at the same time and by the same cause of several distinguished persons and valuable citizens.

I will also add that it in no measure detracts from the value of the improvement contemplated in the construction of the Princeton or from the merits of her brave and distinguished commander and projector.

I have to perform the melancholy duty of announcing to the two Houses of Congress the death of the Hon. Abel P. Upshur, late Secretary of State, and the Hon. Thomas W. Gilmer, late Secretary of the Navy.

It affords me much satisfaction to say that it was produced by no carelessness or inattention on the part of the officers and crew of the Princeton, but must be set down as one of those casualties which to a greater or less degree attend…

I shall be permitted to express my great grief at an occurrence which has thus suddenly stricken from my side two gentlemen upon whose advice I so confidently relied in the discharge of my arduous task of administering the office of the…

I could not forego the favorable opportunity which has presented itself, growing out of the communication from the Secretary of the Navy, to urge upon you the foregoing recommendations.

The restrictions laid upon the power to transfer by the latter clauses of the act have rendered its passage of no avail at the present moment.

The urgent demands of the service for the Gulf of Mexico and the substitution of iron for wood in the construction of ships plainly point to the establishment of a navy-yard at some suitable place on the Mississippi.

I would suggest the propriety of the passage of such an act without delay.

It would be criminal in the United States, the first to apply to practical purposes the great power which has been brought into use, to permit others to avail themselves of our improvements while we stood listlessly and supinely by.

The Secretary of the Navy will be instructed to lay before you suitable estimates of the cost of constructing so many ships of such size and dimensions as you may think proper to order to be built.

The act entitled 'An act to authorize the President of the United States to direct transfers of appropriation in the naval service under certain circumstances' has this day met with my approval.

I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives, in answer to their resolution of the 16th instant, a report from the Secretary of State, with the correspondence therein referred to.

Relating to slaves committing crimes and escaping from the United States to the British dominions since the ratification of the treaty of 1842, and the refusal of the British authorities to give them up, and to the construction which the…