The scale on which the Military Academy at West Point was originally established is become too limited to furnish the number of well-instructed subjects in the different branches of artillery and engineering which the public service calls…

These decrees and orders, taken together, want little of amounting to a declaration that every neutral vessel found on the high seas, whatsoever be her cargo and whatsoever foreign port be that of her departure or destination, shall be…

they prove more and more the expediency of retaining our vessels, our seamen, and property within our own harbors until the dangers to which they are exposed can be removed or lessened.

The instrument is now submitted to the Senate, with a request of their advice and consent as to its ratification.

It is by no means proposed that these works should be conducted on account of the United States.

Until this question can be decided under legislative authority, measures have been taken according to law to prevent any change in the state of things and to keep the grounds clear of intruders.

The title to these grounds appears to have been retained in the former sovereigns of the Province of Louisiana as public fiduciaries and for the purposes of the Province.

This having been lately claimed by a private individual, the city opposed the claim on a supposed legal title in itself.

It is understood to have been a shoal or elevation of the bottom of the river adjacent to the bank of the suburbs of St. Mary, produced by the successive depositions of mud during the annual inundations of the river.

It has been adjudged that the legal title was not in the city.

The great volume of the documents and the time necessary for the investigation will explain to the Senate the causes of the delay which has intervened.

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of February 26, I now lay before them such memorials and petitions for the district of Detroit, and such other information as is in my possession, in relation to the conduct of William Hull…

Although nothing forbids the general matter of these letters from being spoken of without reserve, yet as the publication of papers of this description would restrain injuriously the freedom of our foreign correspondence, they are…

The dangers to our country arising from the contests of other nations and the urgency of making preparation for whatever events might affect our relations with them have been intimated in preceding messages to Congress.

I recommend also to the attention of Congress the term at which the act of April 18, 1806, concerning the militia, will expire, and the effect of that expiration.

To secure ourselves by due precautions an augmentation of our military force, as well regular as of volunteer militia, seems to be expedient.

If an increase of force be now approved, I submit to their consideration the outlines of a plan proposed in the inclosed letter from the Secretary of War.

The precise extent of that augmentation can not as yet be satisfactorily suggested, but that no time may be lost, and especially at a season deemed favorable to the object, I submit to the wisdom of the Legislature whether they will…