Combining with a system of fortifications upon
the shores themselves, commenced about the same time under the auspices
of my immediate predecessor, and hitherto systematically pursued, it has
placed in our possession the most effective sinews of war and has left
us at once an example and a lesson from which our own duties may be
inferred. The gradual increase of the Navy was the principle of which
the act of 29th April, 1816, was the first development. It was the
introduction of a system to act upon the character and history of our
country for an indefinite series of ages. It was a declaration of that
Congress to their constituents and to posterity that it was the destiny
and the duty of these confederated States to become in regular process
of time and by no petty advances a great naval power. That which they
proposed to accomplish in eight years is rather to be considered as the
measure of their means than the limitation of their design. They looked
forward for a term of years sufficient for the accomplishment of a
definite portion of their purpose, and they left to their successors to
fill up the canvas of which they had traced the large and prophetic
outline.
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