The act of Congress of March 2d, 1821, to reduce and fix the military establishment, remaining unexecuted as it regards the command of one of the regiments of artillery, can not now be deemed a guide to the Executive in making the proper appointment.  An explanatory act, designating the class of officers out of which the grade is to be filled—­whether from the military list as existing prior to the act of 1821 or from it as it has been fixed by that act—­would remove this difficulty.  It is also important that the laws regulating the pay and emoluments of officers generally should be more specific than they now are.  Those, for example, in relation to the Pay Master and Surgeon General assign to them an annual salary of $2.500, but are silent as to allowances which in certain exigencies of the service may be deemed indispensable to the discharge of their duties.  This circumstance has been the authority for extending to them various allowances at different times under former Administrations, but no uniform rule has been observed on the subject.  Similar inconveniences exist in other cases, in which the construction put upon the laws by the public accountants may operate unequally, produce confusion, and expose officers to the odium of claiming what is not their due.

I recommend to your fostering care, as one of our safest means of national defense, the Military Academy.  This institution has already exercised the happiest influence upon the moral and intellectual character of our Army; and such of the graduates as from various causes may not pursue the profession of arms will be scarcely less useful as citizens.  Their knowledge of the military art will be advantageously employed in the militia service, and in a measure secure to that class of troops the advantages which in this respect belong to standing armies.

I would also suggest a review of the pension law, for the purpose of extending its benefits to every Revolutionary soldier who aided in establishing our liberties, and who is unable to maintain himself in comfort.  These relics of the War of Independence have strong claims upon their country’s gratitude and bounty.  The law is defective in not embracing within its provisions all those who were during the last war disabled from supporting themselves by manual labor.  Such an amendment would add but little to the amount of pensions, and is called for by the sympathies of the people as well as by considerations of sound policy.

It will be perceived that a large addition to the list of pensioners has been occasioned by an order of the late Administration, departing materially from the rules which had previously prevailed.  Considering it an act of legislation, I suspended its operation as soon as I was informed that it had commenced.  Before this period, however, applications under the new regulation had been preferred to the number of 154, of which, on March 27, the date of its revocation, 87 were admitted.  For the amount there was neither estimate nor appropriation; and besides this deficiency, the regular allowances, according to the rules which have heretofore governed the Department, exceed the estimate of its late Secretary by about $50,000, for which an appropriation is asked.