nity of their Government, they have never swerved from the respect due to themselves, and from that which they owe to the Government of France. I pray your excellency to receive the assurance of the high consideration with which I have the honor to be your most obedient servant, EDW. LIVINGSTON.

[Mr. Livingston to Mr. Forsyth.]

WASHINGTON, June 29, 1835.

SIR: After having, by my note to the Duke de Broglie, dated the 25th April last, made a final effort to preserve a good understanding between the United States and France, by suggesting such means of accommodation as I thought were consistent with the honor of the one country to offer, and of the other to accept, I determined to avail myself of the leave to return which was given by your despatch, No.-, rather than to remain as I had desired to do in England, waiting the result of my last communication. This step having been approved by the President, I need not here refer to the reasons which induced me to take it. Having received my passports, I left Paris on the 29th of April. At the time of my departure, the note of which a copy has been transmitted to you, asking an explanation of the terms used in M. Serurier's communication to the Department, remained unanswered; but I have reason to believe that the answer, when given, will be satisfactory.

The principal business with which I was charged having thus been brought to a close, I presume that my services can no longer be useful to my country, and I therefore pray that the President will be pleased to accept my resignation of the trust with which I have been honored. I shall terminate it by transmitting to the Department some papers relating to matters of minor importance, which I soon expect to receive: and will add the explanations which may yet be wanting to give a full view of the affairs of the mission up to the time of my leaving France. I have the honor to be, sir,

With perfect respect, your most obedient servant,

The Hon. JOHN FORSYTH,

Secretary of State, &c.

EDW. LIVINGSTON.

[Mr. Forsyth to Mr. Livingston.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, June 30, 1835.

SIR: Your letter of the 29th instant has been laid before the President, and I am directed to reply that the President cannot allow you, who have been so long and usefully employed in the public service, to leave the trust last confided to you, without an expression of his regard and respect-the result of many years of intimate association in peace and war. Although differing on some points of general policy, your singleness of purpose, perfect integrity, and devotion to your coun

try, have been always known to him. In the embarrassing and delicate position you have lately occupied, your conduct, and especially your last official note in closing your correspondence with the French Government, has met his entire approbation; exhibiting, as it does with truth, the anxious desire of the Government and the people of the United States to maintain the most liberal and pacific relations with the nation to which you were accredited, and a sincere effort to remove ill-founded impressions, and to sooth the feelings of national susceptibility, even when they have been unexpectedly excited; while at the same time it discourages with a proper firmness any expectation that the American Government can ever be brought to allow an interference inconsistent with the spirit of its institutions, or make concessions incompatible with its selfrespect. The President is persuaded that he will be sustained in these opinions by the undivided sentiment of the American people, and that you will carry into a retirement which he trusts may be temporary, the consciousness, not only of having performed your duty, but of having realized the anticipations of your fellow-citizens, and secured for yourself and your country the just appreciation of the world.

I am, sir, very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

EDWARD LIVINGSTON, Esq., Washington.

JOHN FORSYTH.

SIR: In conformity with your instructions, and with the usage of this Department, I have the honor to lay before you a statement of its operations during the past season, and reports from the various bureaus, exhibiting, in detail, their respective proceedings, as far as these appear to be sufficiently important for communication in the usual annual statements. The general positions of the army remain the same as at the time of report. Some movements, however, have taken place, which it is proper should be specially brought before you.

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Fourteen companies have been placed under the command of General Clinch, in Florida, with a view to impose a proper restraint upon the Seminole Indians, who have occasionally evinced an unquiet spirit, and to insure the execution of the treaty stipulations providing for the removal of these Indians. As soon as this takes place, these troops will resume their proper positions.

The regiment of dragoons has been usefully employed in penetrating into the Indian country, in exhibiting to the Indians a force well calculated to check or to punish any hostilities they may commit, and in adding to our geographical knowledge of those remote regions. Colonel Kearney, with one detachment, marched through the country between the Des Moines and Mississippi rivers; Colonel Dodge, with another, made an excursion south of the Missouri, towards the Rocky Mountains; and Major Mason, with a third, joined by a detachment of infantry, was employed in duties connected with the assemblage of a body of Indians at the Cross Timbers, near the great western prairie, for the purpose of establishing permanent pacific relations between the remote wandering bands and the United States, and the more agricultural Indians, who have migrated, under the public faith, to that region, or who seem disposed to improve their condition by more settled habits. The duties committed to these troops have been well performed.

The information concerning the discipline and morale of the army is satisfactory. The officers are engaged in a great diversity of duties, growing out of various acts of Congress, many of which have no direct

connexion with their professional avocations. These duties are satisfactorily executed, and the expenditures to which they lead are generally made with fidelity, and accounted for with promptitude.

I beg leave to ask your attention to the report of the Chief Engineer, in relation to the state of the corps under his command. The number of officers in that corps is not sufficient for the performance of the various duties committed to it. The consequence is, that in some instances the public works have been neglected or delayed, and in others they have been prosecuted by those who had not the necessary professional skill and experience. Persons in civil life, possessed of competent scientific knowledge, will not often enter into the temporary service of the Government for such compensation as is provided by law for the engineer officers. The progress of improvement through the country creates a demand for those qualifications which are required in the military and topographical engineer service; and a higher rate of compensation is allowed than it has been the usage of this Department to grant. A gradual and moderate addition to the corps offers the only remedy for this state of things, and I am satisfied that considerations of economy, as well as a due regard to the proper execution of a most important class of public works, call for this arrangement.

The same considerations apply, in a considerable degree, to the topographical corps, and I ask your favorable consideration for the measure recommended by the officer at the head of it. One of the plans suggested will accomplish the object, without any addition to the public expenditures, and will make adequate provision for a branch of service, connected with the defence of the country, and which has also the advantage of furnishing information that may prove highly valuable to every portion of the community.

Agreeably to a provision in an act of the last session of Congress, that part of the Cumberland road between the town of Cumberland and the Ohio river has been surrendered to, and accepted by, the States through which it passes; and arrangements have been made, by the authority of these States, for the collection of such tolls as will keep it in proper repair. The funds appropriated for the completion of this road have been applied to the object, and will be fully adequate to its attainment. The work, with the exception of some of the bridges, and of a few necessary repairs, is nearly finished, and is passable in its whole extent. All accounts concur in representing it as constructed in the most faithful manner. Captain Delafield, who has superintended the operations, and the officers engaged with him, are entitled to commendation for the zeal and professional ability they have displayed.

The United States are exonerated from all future claims on account of this road, while competent provision has been made for its preservation. The progress in the other works of internal improvement is shown in the report of the Chief Engineer. Among these, one of the most remarkable, as well from its great importance as from the unexpected facility with which it has so far been executed, is the removal of the raft over Red river. An immense body of timber, extending one hundred and eleven miles along that stream, had covered a large portion of its surface, and interrupted all communication. This has probably been collecting for ages; and not only was this great natural highway thus shut up by it,

bat a fertile and extensive region along the river was inundated, and the whole country in its vicinity subject to local diseases, having their origin in this submersion.

This work has been in progress, upon the present system, little more than two years, and the whole expenditure, including a sum of twentythree thousand dollars, which was applied in previous experiments that failed, has been about one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars. It is estimated that an additional appropriation of forty thousand seven hundred and thirteen dollars will be required to complete it, which, with the sum of ten thousand dollars now in the treasury, will make for the whole cost one hundred and eighty-five thousand seven hundred and thirteen dollars. The river has been cleared for a distance of eightyeight miles, and there yet remain twenty-three miles of obstructions to remove. This portion, it is expected, will be finished early in the next season, if the necessary appropriations are made in time.

Before the present plan of effecting this work was adopted, there were various projects suggested for its accomplishment; but the most sanguine projector could not have anticipated such a great physical change as is already taking place, within the time and the means that have been devoted to the work. A loose estimate of the land which will be reclaimed and rendered valuable by this improvement, which has been made by Colonel Brookes, formerly Indian agent in Louisiana, and intimately acquainted with the region upon Red river, places it at upwards of a million of acres, and it will form one of the most productive districts in the Union. This operation, as a mere matter of pecuniary value, will return many times the amount expended upon it.

I have brought the subject to your view at this time, not only on account of its intrinsic importance, but from the encouragement it affords to the introduction and prosecution of a system of improvement by which the public lands upon the lower Mississippi and some of its tributaries may be reclaimed from their present condition, and rendered fit for agricultural purposes. Whether the object be attainable within the limits. of a reasonable expense, there are not satisfactory data for determining; but its great results to the country, in health, in power, and in wealth, are obvious.

No appropriations having been made at the last session of Congress for the prosecution of the works upon the fortifications, it has been deemed proper to submit additional estimates for these objects; and as some of the forts first commenced have been completed, estimates have also been approved by you for the commencement of others, which have been recommended by the board of engineers in the continuation of the system of defence devised by them and submitted to Congress. A number of our most important harbors and inlets are yet either wholly undefended, or so partially protected as to render their situation altogether insecure in the event of exposure to hostile attempts. An adherence to the general plan of defence, and a gradual prosecution of the work as the national finances and other considerations may justify, seem to be demanded by a just regard to the circumstances of the country, as well as by the experience which the events of the last war forced upon us.

In addition, however, to these permanent fortifications, there are some of our most extensive roadsteads, in which floating steam batteries ought