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except foreign governments. The building of the foundries would involve also the investment of more capital in furnaces in the mining districts, to supply the iron. A trade so grand, in which nations appear as the sole customers, and which concerns so closely the honor of our flag and the security of our borders and our marine, is worthy of the most serious attention if by any legislative action it can be encouraged. I have long been satisfied that the objects we desire can best be effected by building a great National foundry. I respectfully commend the subject to your investigation, and if the project shall commend itself also to your judgment, I believe that a formal expression of opinion by the Government of Massachusetts in favor of such a work, might encourage the National Congress to authorize it.

Standing for a long time during the past year on the apparent brink of war with powerful naval States of Europe, the rebels even at this moment being restrained, almost against expectation, from launching out of foreign ports their mailed war steamers built expressly to carry destruction to the commerce and the seaports of the North; with all the dangers hourly besetting us, which spring from the unsettled condition of Europe, the French invasion of Mexico, and the sympathy of powerful persons and rulers abroad

with the rebellion at home-I am firmly convinced that ordinary prudence demands of Massachusetts never to rest until her harbors shall be adequately defended.

Arms and Equipments for the Militia.

The 29th chapter of the Resolves of 1863, authorized the Executive Department to contract on behalf of the Commonwealth for the purchase or manufacture of fifteen thousand stand of arms, of such pattern as should be found best adapted for the service; also of arms and equipments for one regiment of cavalry; guns and equipments for five batteries of light artillery; and such other arms and equipments as should from time to time be found necessary for arming the militia in active service. The resolve appropriates $450,000 for those purposes.

The sources of supply, whether by purchase or manufacture, have been made the subject of careful examination and report. The kinds of arms best adapted to the various branches of the service, were, in the light of recent experience, considered and reported on, by competent military men. Wherever different arms of the same general description were offered in competition, they were submitted to the test of critical comparison by a Commission of experts.

All the arms and artillery required were accordingly contracted for, and are in process of construction and delivery. The amount disbursed already in payments is about fifty thousand dollars. The contracts entered into will nearly, or quite, absorb the whole appropriation. Certain articles of equipment have not been passed upon, because improvements in their construction are under consideration by the appropriate officers of the U. S. Army, whose decision it was thought advisable to await, especially as the articles can be procured on short orders when necessary. To complete the duty assigned to the Executive by the Legislature, will require a further appropriation of about $50,000.

In order that no injurious delay shall happen, I have requested the Master of Ordnance, in advance of his regular Annual Report which will be communicated through the Adjutant-General, to report to me in detail, all the particulars necessary to a competent understanding of this portion of the transactions passing through his bureau; and this preliminary report is now ready for the use of any committee of the General Court to which the subject may be intrusted.

Military Academy.

I have the honor to place before the Legislature the Report of the Commissioners appointed under the 73d chapter of the Resolves of the year 1863,"concerning the establishment of a military academy."

The Commission was directed by the resolve to inquire into the expediency of establishing an academy for the instruction of young men in mathematics, civil, military, and practical engineering, and other studies in connection with infantry, artillery and cavalry drill and tactics, and to report a design for such an institution, the mode of establishing the same, the expense thereof, a plan for its support, the number of pupils to be accommodated, their age at entering the institution, the amount of camp duty, the length of the academic course, what provision should be made for the support of the pupils, and the equivalent to be rendered therefore; and whether the Commonwealth has any, and what, property available for the endowment of such an institution.

The eminent character of the Commission, the learning, experience and ability, both civil and military, represented by its members, and the relations which all of them have heretofore borne to education and its various public institutions, I think entitle their

opinions to the most respectful consideration, and

lend influence to the arguments to which their minds have yielded assent.

I believe the establishment under the patronage of the Commonwealth, of such an institution as they recommend, to be wise and expedient, that we cannot safely neglect it, and that we ought not to delay it. I believe its influence upon the public school system, or the popular education, correctly administered, will fully compensate the expenditure it may involve. Invoking the attention of the General Court to the Report itself, I will not assume to display it in advance of your own reading. The advantages of an institution like that contemplated, in its more direct and immediate bearing on the military efficiency of the Commonwealth is not easily overstated. Yet these advantages are to be gained in close and natural connection with large and constant benefits which include not only the elevation of the public schools, but also the scientific professions-the higher industrial pursuits. The education of numbers of young men of Massachusetts, not, however, excluding others who may resort hither to share their studies, in those branches of learning which fit them for mechanicians, engineers, experts in chemistry, physics, and various applications of science to the arts, will, it is not

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