regular armed force has been reduced and its constitution revised and
perfected; the accountability for the expenditure of public moneys has
been made more effective; the Floridas have been peaceably acquired,
and our boundary has been extended to the Pacific Ocean; the
independence of the southern nations of this hemisphere has been
recognized, and recommended by example and by counsel to the potentates
of Europe; progress has been made in the defense of the country by
fortifications and the increase of the Navy, toward the effectual
suppression of the African traffic in slaves; in alluring the
aboriginal hunters of our land to the cultivation of the soil and of
the mind, in exploring the interior regions of the Union, and in
preparing by scientific researches and surveys for the further
application of our national resources to the internal improvement of
our country.

In this brief outline of the promise and performance of my immediate
predecessor the line of duty for his successor is clearly delineated.
To pursue to their consummation those purposes of improvement in our
common condition instituted or recommended by him will embrace the
whole sphere of my obligations. To the topic of internal improvement,
emphatically urged by him at his inauguration, I recur with peculiar
satisfaction. It is that from which I am convinced that the unborn
millions of our posterity who are in future ages to people this
continent will derive their most fervent gratitude to the founders of
the Union; that in which the beneficent action of its Government will
be most deeply felt and acknowledged. The magnificence and splendor of
their public works are among the imperishable glories of the ancient
republics. The roads and aqueducts of Rome have been the admiration of
all after ages, and have survived thousands of years after all her
conquests have been swallowed up in despotism or become the spoil of