display of the defensive and protective force of the Union in that quarter.  It was accordingly exhibited by the immediate and concerted movements of the governors of the State of Illinois and of the Territory of Michigan, and competent levies of militia, under their authority, with a corps of 700 men of United States troops, under the command of General Atkinson, who, at the call of Governor Cass, immediately repaired to the scene of danger from their station at St. Louis.  Their presence dispelled the alarms of our fellow-citizens on those borders, and overawed the hostile purposes of the Indians.  The perpetrators of the murders were surrendered to the authority and operation of our laws, and every appearance of purposed hostility from those Indian tribes has subsided.

Although the present organization of the Army and the administration of its various branches of service are, upon the whole, satisfactory, they are yet susceptible of much improvement in particulars, some of which have been heretofore submitted to the consideration of Congress, and others are now first presented in the report of the Secretary of War.

The expediency of providing for additional numbers of officers in the two corps of engineers will in some degree depend upon the number and extent of the objects of national importance upon which Congress may think it proper that surveys should be made conformably to the act of the 30th of April, 1824.  ’Of the surveys which before the last session of Congress had been made under the authority of that act, reports were made—­

1.  Of the Board of Internal Improvement, on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

2.  On the continuation of the national road from Cumberland to the tide waters within the district of Columbia.

3.  On the continuation of the national road from Canton to Zanesville.

4.  On the location of the national road from Zanesville to Columbus.

5.  On the continuation of the same to the seat of government in Missouri.

6.  On a post-road from Baltimore to Philadelphia.

7.  Of a survey of Kennebec River (in part).

8.  On a national road from Washington to Buffalo.

9.  On the survey of Saugatuck Harbor and River.

10.  On a canal from Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi River.

11.  On surveys at Edgartown, Newburyport, and Hyannis Harbor.

12.  On survey of La Plaisance Bay, in the Territory of Michigan.

And reports are now prepared and will be submitted to Congress—­

On surveys of the peninsula of Florida, to ascertain the practicability of a canal to connect the waters of the Atlantic with the Gulf of Mexico across that peninsula; and also of the country between the bays of Mobile and of Pensacola, with the view of connecting them together by a canal.

On surveys of a route for a canal to connect the waters of James and Great Kenhawa rivers.