Among those who are dependent on Executive discretion I have begun the reduction of what was deemed unnecessary.  The expenses of diplomatic agency have been considerably diminished.  The inspectors of internal revenue who were found to obstruct the accountability of the institution have been discontinued.  Several agencies created by Executive authorities, on salaries fixed by that also, have been suppressed, and should suggest the expediency of regulating that power by law, so as to subject its exercises to legislative inspection and sanction.

Other reformations of the same kind will be pursued with that caution which is requisite in removing useless things, not to injure what is retained.  But the great mass of public offices is established by law, and therefore by law alone can be abolished.  Should the Legislature think it expedient to pass this roll in review and try all its parts by the test of public utility, they may be assured of every aid and light which Executive information can yield.

Considering the general tendency to multiply offices and dependencies and to increase expense to the ultimate term of burthen which the citizen can bear, it behooves us to avail ourselves of every occasion which presents itself for taking off the surcharge, that it never may be seen here that after leaving to labor the smallest portion of its earnings on which it can subsist, Government shall itself consume the whole residue of what it was instituted to guard.

In our care, too, of the public contributions intrusted to our direction it would be prudent to multiply barriers against their dissipation by appropriating specific sums to every specific purpose susceptible of definition; by disallowing all applications of money varying from the appropriation in object or transcending it in amount; by reducing the undefined field of contingencies and thereby circumscribing discretionary powers over money, and by bringing back to a single department all accountabilities for money, where the examinations may be prompt, efficacious, and uniform.

An account of the receipts and expenditures of the last year, as prepared by the Secretary of the Treasury, will, as usual, be laid before you.  The success which has attended the late sales of the public lands shews that with attention they may be made an important source of receipt.  Among the payments those made in discharge of the principal and interest of the national debt will shew that the public faith has been exactly maintained.  To these will be added an estimate of appropriations necessary for the ensuing year.  This last will, of course, be affected by such modifications of the system of expense as you shall think proper to adopt.

A statement has been formed by the Secretary of War, on mature consideration, of all the posts and stations where garrisons will be expedient and of the number of men requisite for each garrison.  The whole amount is considerably short of the present military establishment.  For the surplus no particular use can be pointed out.