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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
Thus a delay in the appointment of Justice of the Peace, or a county Judge, may retard or defeat the transaction of some matter of great importance to private rights, and essential to the ends of public justice. Yet if the Secretary of State were deeply engaged with the more im- portant concern of im·estigating, ancl discussing some delicate question of foreign policy, iTIYolving our national rights and dignity, it is hardly to be supposed that he would abandon it even temporarily, for the trans- action of duties of comparatively so much less consequence. But by the organization of a new department, and assignin~ the inappropriate duties of the State Department to a new head, every operation of the government would be made to move in its proper sphere, and the most ample security would be afforded, that the management of all its rela- tions, foreign and domestic, would be attended with punctuality, efficacy and a due regard to the interests of the country. I have therefore no hesitancy in recommending to Congress the organization of a new Department of Government, to be c-alled the Ii ome Department, to which shall be assigned the superintendance of all the duties which may be considered as inappropriate to the State Department, together with the management of other important objects, to which I beg leave to direct the attention of Congress. In the progress of the affairs of a young and interesting nation, like this, where most of the elements of its prosperity and future greatness, are yet remaining in the germ, new matters deeply interwoven with its welfare, will be continually arising to demand the fostering care and protection of its government. Among others the peculiar topography of the country connected, with its extraordinary capabilities of produc- ing in the greatest abundance the richest staples of the world, show the necessity of devising and establishing such a system of internal im- provement as will relieve by artificial means, the only wants which a bountiful nature has left us; and that one so essential to the prosperity of the people, and to a full development of the vast resources of the nation, will eventually be established there can exist no doubt. To carry out such a system with advantage to the country, would require the constant reflection and supervision of one whose intelligence and practical experience would enable him, bv comprehending in all its details, to bring it successfully into operation. It is evident that this could not be accomplished by the State Department, with its pres~nt extended and still accumulating business; and it would be equally in- appropriate and prove unsuccessful to assign it to either of the other Departments of government. It would seem therefore to be peculiarly appropriate to a domestic department of this kind, that there should, at the proper period be a Bureau attached, the exclusfre dutie» of which would be to superintend and give directions to all works of public improvement, to devise plans 'for their execution, make estimates· of their expenses and in its official reports to suggest such alterations and amendments from time to time, in the laws relating to them, as experience would dictate to be necessary. But amon~ the various reasons which have suggested to me the propriety and necessity of organizing this additional department, none have been presented With as much force as that which relates to the establishment of a Bureau attached to it, for the regulation and super- vision of a system of education suited to the condition and policy of the
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