should, at as early a period as practicable, provide for the raising
of one or more regiments of mounted men.

For further suggestions on this subject and others connected with our
domestic interests and the defense of our frontier, I refer you to the
reports of the Secretary of the Interior and of the Secretary of War.

I commend also to your favorable consideration the suggestion
contained in the last-mentioned report and in the letter of the
General in Chief relative to the establishment of an asylum for the
relief of disabled and destitute soldiers. This subject appeals so
strongly to your sympathies that it would be superfluous in me to say
anything more than barely to express my cordial approbation of the
proposed object.

The Navy continues to give protection to our commerce and other
national interests in the different quarters of the globe, and, with
the exception of a single steamer on the Northern lakes, the vessels
in commission are distributed in six different squadrons.

The report of the head of that Department will exhibit the services of
these squadrons and of the several vessels employed in each during the
past year. It is a source of gratification that, while they have been
constantly prepared for any hostile emergency, they have everywhere
met with the respect and courtesy due as well to the dignity as to the
peaceful dispositions and just purposes of the nation.

The two brigantines accepted by the Government from a generous citizen
of New York and placed under the command of an officer of the Navy to
proceed to the Arctic Seas in quest of the British commander Sir John