As Colonel Gadsden held the office of Inspector-General, and as such was acknowledged by all to belong to the staff of the Army, it is not perceived on what ground his appointment can be objected to.

In executing this law I had no personal object to accomplish or feeling to gratify--no one to retain, no one to remove.

To discriminate between men of acknowledged merit, especially in a way to affect so sensibly and materially their feelings and interests, for many of whom I have personal consideration and regard, has been a most painful duty; yet I am conscious that I have discharged it with the utmost impartiality.

Having already suggested my impression that in filling offices newly created, to which on no principle whatever anyone could have a claim of right, Congress could not under the Constitution restrain the free selection of the President from the whole body of his fellow-citizens, I shall only further remark that if that impression is well founded all objection to these appointments must cease.

We see, on the contrary, that every corps of the Army and staff was to be reorganized, and most of them reduced in officers and men, and that in arranging the officers from the old to the new corps full power was granted to the President to take them from any and every corps of the former establishment and place them in the latter.

Having cause to infer that the reasons which led to the construction which I gave to the act of the last session entitled 'An act to reduce and fix the peace establishment of the United States' have not been well understood, I consider it my duty to explain more fully the view which I took of that act and of the principles on which I executed the very difficult and important duty enjoined on me by it.

In executing this very delicate and important trust I acted with the utmost precaution.

It is on the authority of these examples, supported by the construction which I gave to the law, that I have acted in the discharge of this high trust.

I am aware that many officers of great merit, having the strongest claims on their country, have been reduced and others dismissed, but under the law that result was inevitable.

I transmit to Congress the translation of two letters from the minister of France to the Secretary of State, relating to the claim of the heirs of Caron de Beaumarchais upon this Government, with the documents therewith inclosed, recommending them to the favorable consideration of Congress.

It is known also that the seizure of no part of our Union could affect so deeply and vitally the immediate interests of so many States and of so many of our fellow-citizens, comprising all that extensive territory and numerous population which are connected with and dependent on the Mississippi, as the seizure of that city.

I hereby withdraw all the nominations on which the Senate has not decided until I can make a more full communication and explanation of that view and of the principles on which I have acted in the discharge of that very delicate and important duty.

Whether the acquisition of Florida may be considered as affording an inducement to make any change in the position or strength of these works is a circumstance which also merits attention.

Having executed the act entitled 'An act to reduce and fix the military peace establishment of the United States' on great consideration and according to my best judgment

It is to mitigate these evils in future wars, and even for the higher purpose of preventing war itself, that the decision was formed to make the coast, so far as it might be practicable, impregnable.

Should another war occur before it is completed, the experience of the last marks in characters too strong to be mistaken its inevitable consequences; and should such war occur and find us unprepared for it, what will be our justification to the enlightened body whom we represent for not having completed these defenses?

I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, together with the annual return of the militia of the United States, and an exhibit of the arms, accouterments, and ammunition of the several States and Territories of the United States, prepared in conformity with the militia laws on that subject.

As soon as the movement assumed such a steady and consistent form as to make the success of the Provinces probable, the rights to which they were entitled by the law of nations as equal parties to a civil war were extended to them.