The report from the Engineer Department presents a comprehensive view of
the progress which has been made in the great systems promotive of the
public interest, commenced and organized under authority of Congress,
and the effects of which have already contributed to the security, as
they will hereafter largely contribute to the honor and dignity, of the
nation.
The first of these great systems is that of fortifications, commenced
immediately after the close of our last war, under the salutary
experience which the events of that war had impressed upon our
countrymen of its necessity. Introduced under the auspices of my
immediate predecessor, it has been continued with the persevering and
liberal encouragement of the Legislature, and, combined with
corresponding exertions for the gradual increase and improvement of the
Navy, prepares for our extensive country a condition of defense adapted
to any critical emergency which the varying course of events may bring
forth. Our advances in these concerted systems have for the last ten
years been steady and progressive, and in a few years more will be so
completed as to leave no cause for apprehension that our seacoast will
ever again offer a theater of hostile invasion.
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