The Reports of Secretaries.
The Navy Report recommends additional to what we have before quoted, the razzing and converting into first class steam-frigates only eight ships-of-the-line, at a cost of $383,000 each, as the others would not pay the expense, being old; that the frigates
Sabine and
Santee to be left as they are, and the remaining six sailing frigates converted into steam sloops-of- war, and finally into store-ships; that new sloops of war should be built to replace those built prior to 1840. The present condition of the active navy is commended.
Screw steamers are favored, and side-wheels, in case of war opposed.
An increase of the Navy is demanded, on the ground that we have now a navigating interest of five million tons, an import and export trade of six or seven million of dollars, and a coasting trade of equal extent and value.
All additions to the navy should employ steam power.
Attention is called to the fact that the
Constitution prohibits individual States from creating a navy of their own.
Estimates are submitted for replacing all the prominent Navy-Yards of the country in a condition of full activity.
The efficiency and discipline of the Naval Academy under
Capt. Blake is approved.
In the
Slave trade twelve vessels have been captured this year by the African Squadron, and more than 3,000 negroes rescued. A strong hint is given that the Slave trade can only finally be suppressed by
England's enforcing her treaty of 1817 with
Spain in reference to
Cuba, or the annexation of
Cuba by the
United States.
The bill introduced by
Jefferson Davis prohibiting the purchase of patented articles for the Army and Navy is opposed as injurious to the service.
The
Secretary recommends that he have power to purchase butter, cheese, flour, and tobacco for the Navy by private purchase and not by advertised contract.
The present state and services of the various squadrons and ships are then formally recorded, compliments being paid to
Commodores Poor,
Porter and
Brent, for prompt action in righting the wrongs of American citizens.
The Japanese Embassy, reports as to the marine corps, surgeons and paymasters, together with brief statistics of the various exporting expeditions, form the balance of the
Secretary's report, which closes with a summary of naval estimates for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1862--total amount $11,513,904.01.
From the report of the
Secretary of the Interior, we learn that of the
Public Lands 12,060,033 acres have been disposed of, 3,977,619 selling for cash, yielding $2,021,425, and $2,665,723 absorbed under railroad grants, and the rest in bounty land warrants and swamp grants.
Over a million of dollars were expended in the payment of pensions during the fiscal year.
The income of the Patent-Office is $8,000 above expenses; 3,896 patents have been issued and 3,612 applications rejected.--The Census will be prepared for the present Congress.
The necessity of revising the laws prohibiting the Slave trade, and especially in providing for the disposal of rescued negroes, is urged.
The
Secretary of the Interior first alludes to the extraordinary development of the internal resources of the country, especially as exhibited in the report of the
Land Offices — During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1860, and the quarter ending the 30th of September last, 16,385,361 acres of public lands have been proclaimed for sale.
During the same period, 9,649,471 acres have been surveyed and prepared for market, and 11,060,053 72 acres have been disposed of in the following manner: 3,977,619 80 acres have been sold for cash, yielding $2,021,425 97; 3,379,140 acres have been absorbed by the location of bounty land warrants; 2,037,770 92 acres approved to States under the swamp grants; and 2,665,623 acres under the railroad grants.
The number of military bounty land warrants outstanding on the 30th of September last was 74,468, and they will require 8,196,580 acres of the public domain to satisfy them.
The
Secretary can find no fault with the existing public land system; for forty years the price of public lands has been $1.25 per acre, which has satisfied the majority.
The homestead system has everywhere failed, the public discussion of this system has greatly retarded emigration.
He knows of no reason why the title to the lands at the
Hot Springs of
Arkansas should be reserved in perpetuity, and therefore recommends that the disposal of the four sections reserved be provided for by appropriate legislation.
As to the grant of land to the
State of Iowa for the improvement of the
Des Moines river, he says: ‘"Having recommended to the Committee of Public Lands of the Senate, in June last, a relinquishment to the
State of all title remaining in the
United States to the 272,572 acres of land erroneously listed and certified under the
Des Moines grant, I have directed a suspension of immediate action under the railroad grants, so far as the two conflicting claims interfere.
The lands along the upper portions of the
Des Moines river, not embraced in any of the certified lists, which have been surveyed for four, five and six years, but withheld from market on account of the claim of the
State, have recently been proclaimed and offered at public sale."’
The progress of the public surveys in the
Territory of Washington has been interrupted on account of the existence of certain land claims under the treaty of June 15, 1846, with
Great Britain. Two tracts--one at
Nisqually, containing by estimate 167,000 acres, and another at
Cowlitz, containing about 3,600 acres--have been claimed under the 4th article of the same treaty, for the
Puget's Sound Agricultural Company.
‘"It is due to the people of
Washington Territory that some decisive action should be taken.
I am not advised that any portion of the tracts claimed are of any public or political importance to the
United States, and I recommend that the
Surveyor General of
Washington Territory, under the supervision of this Department, be authorized by special enactment to decide upon the validity of the claims of the
Puget's Sound Agricultural Co., and, if they are entitled to confirmation, to determine the location and boundaries of the farms and lands that belonged to the company, which should be required, within a given period, to present its claims for final action."’
‘"The colonization system which was tried in
California and
Texas, under the direction of Congress, and from which I at one time hoped for the most favorable results, has proved an entire failure.
It is expensive and radically defective."’
As to a strip of land in dispute between the Cherokees and white squatters, the
Secretary recommends that it be sold, and the proceeds given to the Cherokees.
The
Shawnees, Miamies, and the confederated bands of Kaskaskias, Peorias Weas, and Piankeshaws, belonged to that class of Indians whose lands have been divided among the individual members of the tribe, and are held in severalty.
He recommends that their lands be sold without their consent, and a home purchased for them in the
Osage Reservation or the
Cherokee neutral lands.
Little progress has been made in negotiating with the
Red River Indians.
The whole number of
Pensioners, of all classes, now remaining on the rolls, is 14,584, and the sum required to pay their pensions is $1,001,018.95. During the past year the amount thus expended was $1,103,562.03.
The income of the
Patent Office for the three quarters ending September 30, 1860, was $197,648.40, and its expenditure, $189,672.23, showing a surplus of $7,976.17. During this period, five thousand six hundred and thirty-eight applications for patents have been received, and eight hundred and forty-one caveats filed.
Three thousand six hundred and twelve applications have been rejected, and three thousand eight hundred and ninety-six patents issued, including re-issues, additional improvements and designs.
In addition to this there have been forty-nine applications for extensions, and twenty-eight patents have been extended for a period of seven years from the expiration of their first term.
For the completion of the Eighth Census, the sum of $437,000, as a deficiency, will be required for the current fiscal year, and a further appropriation of $190,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1862, which, with the appropriation heretofore made for this service, will make the entire cost of the present enumeration about $1,642,000, of which sum about $1,303.000 will be paid to the Marshals and their assistants, in accordance with the rates established by the law of 1850, for their services in this connection.
The sum demanded for the execution of the Eighth Census exceeds the cost of the Seventh in the sum of $245,000--an excess rendered necessary by the increase of our population and its diffusion over the vast plains of the interior.
‘"In this, my last annual report, I feel it to be my duty to suggest the propriety and importance of establishing a Bureau of Statistics."’
Under the head of
Judiciary, we find that the slaves taken from slave vessels to
Key West will cost, for one year, $89,000. The contract with the Colonization Society, as to the
Erie and Storm King slaves, will require $148,000 to provide a reasonable allowance to meet the necessary expenses arising from the prosecution of persons charged with violating the laws for the suppression of the African slave trade, and also to enable the
Government to pay the amount now due on account of the bounty provided for by the act of March 3, 1819--being $25 for each negro, mulatto or person of color delivered to the United States Marshal, or the agent appointed to receive recaptured Africans — an appropriation of $75,000 will be required at the present session of Congress.
The recommendations made in former reports in regard to legislation for the District of Columbia are now renewed.
The reports of the various Governmental Asylums are referred to. The progress of the wagon roads and boundary surveys is represented as satisfactory.
