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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of
+the Presidents, by Edited by James D. Richardson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents
+       Section 4 (of 4) of Volume 1: James Madison
+
+Author: Edited by James D. Richardson
+
+Release Date: January 31, 2004 [EBook #10895]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES MADISON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Garcia and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+A COMPILATION OF THE MESSAGES AND PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENTS.
+
+BY JAMES D. RICHARDSON
+
+
+James Madison
+
+March 4, 1809, to March 4, 1817
+
+
+
+
+James Madison
+
+
+James Madison was born in King George County, Va., on the 16th of March,
+1751. He was the son of James Madison, the family being of English
+descent, and among the early settlers of Virginia. Was fitted for
+college by private tutors, and entered Princeton College in 1769,
+graduating in 1771; remained a year at college pursuing his studies.
+After this he returned to Virginia and began the practice of law. In
+1776 was elected a member of the general assembly of Virginia, and in
+1778 was appointed a member of the executive council. In the winter of
+1779-80 was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress, of which body
+he continued an active and prominent member till 1784. The legislature
+of Virginia appointed him in 1786 a delegate to a convention at
+Annapolis, Md., to devise a system of commercial regulations for all the
+States. Upon their recommendation a convention of delegates from all the
+States was held in Philadelphia in May, 1787. This Convention framed the
+Constitution of the United States, and of it Mr. Madison was a leading
+member. He was next a member of the convention of his State which met to
+consider the new Constitution for the United States. Was a member of the
+House of Representatives in the First Congress, taking his seat in
+April, 1789, and continued to be a member of the House during both of
+Washington's terms as President. He married Mrs. Dolly Paine Todd, of
+Philadelphia, in 1794, she being the widow of a Pennsylvania lawyer. Her
+father was a Quaker, and had removed from Virginia to Philadelphia.
+Declined the office of Secretary of State, vacated by Jefferson, in
+1793. He retired from Congress in 1797, and in 1798 accepted a seat in
+the Virginia assembly. In 1801 was appointed by President Jefferson
+Secretary of State, which office he held during the eight years of
+Jefferson's Administration. In 1808 was elected President, and was
+reelected in 1812. On March 4, 1817, he retired from public life, and
+passed the remainder of his days at Montpelier, in Orange County, Va. In
+1829 was chosen a member of the State convention to revise the
+constitution of Virginia, and was also chosen president of an
+agricultural society in his county. He died on the 28th day of June,
+1836, and was buried at his home.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT ELECT.
+
+The President of the Senate communicated the following letter from the
+President elect of the United States:
+
+CITY OF WASHINGTON, _March 2, 1809_.
+
+Hon. JOHN MILLEDGE,
+
+_President pro tempore of the Senate_.
+
+SIR: I beg leave through you to inform the honorable the Senate of the
+United States that I propose to take the oath which the Constitution
+prescribes to the President of the United States before he enters on the
+execution of his office on Saturday, the 4th instant, at 12 o'clock, in
+the Chamber of the House of Representatives.
+
+I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, sir, your most
+obedient and most humble servant,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
+
+
+Unwilling to depart from examples of the most revered authority, I avail
+myself of the occasion now presented to express the profound impression
+made on me by the call of my country to the station to the duties of
+which I am about to pledge myself by the most solemn of sanctions. So
+distinguished a mark of confidence, proceeding from the deliberate and
+tranquil suffrage of a free and virtuous nation, would under any
+circumstances have commanded my gratitude and devotion, as well as
+filled me with an awful sense of the trust to be assumed. Under the
+various circumstances which give peculiar solemnity to the existing
+period, I feel that both the honor and the responsibility allotted to me
+are inexpressibly enhanced.
+
+The present situation of the world is indeed without a parallel, and
+that of our own country full of difficulties. The pressure of these,
+too, is the more severely felt because they have fallen upon us at a
+moment when the national prosperity being at a height not before
+attained, the contrast resulting from the change has been rendered the
+more striking. Under the benign influence of our republican
+institutions, and the maintenance of peace with all nations whilst so
+many of them were engaged in bloody and wasteful wars, the fruits of a
+just policy were enjoyed in an unrivaled growth of our faculties and
+resources. Proofs of this were seen in the improvements of agriculture,
+in the successful enterprises of commerce, in the progress of
+manufactures and useful arts, in the increase of the public revenue and
+the use made of it in reducing the public debt, and in the valuable
+works and establishments everywhere multiplying over the face of our
+land.
+
+It is a precious reflection that the transition from this prosperous
+condition of our country to the scene which has for some time been
+distressing us is not chargeable on any unwarrantable views, nor, as I
+trust, on any involuntary errors in the public councils. Indulging no
+passions which trespass on the rights or the repose of other nations, it
+has been the true glory of the United States to cultivate peace by
+observing justice, and to entitle themselves to the respect of the
+nations at war by fulfilling their neutral obligations with the most
+scrupulous impartiality. If there be candor in the world, the truth of
+these assertions will not be questioned; posterity at least will do
+justice to them.
+
+This unexceptionable course could not avail against the injustice and
+violence of the belligerent powers. In their rage against each other, or
+impelled by more direct motives, principles of retaliation have been
+introduced equally contrary to universal reason and acknowledged law.
+How long their arbitrary edicts will be continued in spite of the
+demonstrations that not even a pretext for them has been given by the
+United States, and of the fair and liberal attempt to induce a
+revocation of them, can not be anticipated. Assuring myself that under
+every vicissitude the determined spirit and united councils of the
+nation will be safeguards to its honor and its essential interests, I
+repair to the post assigned me with no other discouragement than what
+springs from my own inadequacy to its high duties. If I do not sink
+under the weight of this deep conviction it is because I find some
+support in a consciousness of the purposes and a confidence in the
+principles which I bring with me into this arduous service.
+
+To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all nations having
+correspondent dispositions; to maintain sincere neutrality toward
+belligerent nations; to prefer in all cases amicable discussion and
+reasonable accommodation of differences to a decision of them by an
+appeal to arms; to exclude foreign intrigues and foreign partialities,
+so degrading to all countries and so baneful to free ones; to foster a
+spirit of independence too just to invade the rights of others, too
+proud to surrender our own, too liberal to indulge unworthy prejudices
+ourselves and too elevated not to look down upon them in others; to hold
+the union of the States as the basis of their peace and happiness; to
+support the Constitution, which is the cement of the Union, as well in
+its limitations as in its authorities; to respect the rights and
+authorities reserved to the States and to the people as equally
+incorporated with and essential to the success of the general system; to
+avoid the slightest interference with the rights of conscience or the
+functions of religion, so wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction; to
+preserve in their full energy the other salutary provisions in behalf of
+private and personal rights, and of the freedom of the press; to observe
+economy in public expenditures; to liberate the public resources by an
+honorable discharge of the public debts; to keep within the requisite
+limits a standing military force, always remembering that an armed and
+trained militia is the firmest bulwark of republics--that without
+standing armies their liberty can never be in danger, nor with large
+ones safe; to promote by authorized means improvements friendly to
+agriculture, to manufactures, and to external as well as internal
+commerce; to favor in like manner the advancement of science and the
+diffusion of information as the best aliment to true liberty; to carry
+on the benevolent plans which have been so meritoriously applied to the
+conversion of our aboriginal neighbors from the degradation and
+wretchedness of savage life to a participation of the improvements of
+which the human mind and manners are susceptible in a civilized
+state--as far as sentiments and intentions such as these can aid the
+fulfillment of my duty, they will be a resource which can not fail me.
+
+It is my good fortune, moreover, to have the path in which I am to tread
+lighted by examples of illustrious services successfully rendered in the
+most trying difficulties by those who have marched before me. Of those
+of my immediate predecessor it might least become me here to speak. I
+may, however, be pardoned for not suppressing the sympathy with which my
+heart is full in the rich reward he enjoys in the benedictions of a
+beloved country, gratefully bestowed for exalted talents zealously
+devoted through a long career to the advancement of its highest interest
+and happiness.
+
+But the source to which I look for the aids which alone can supply my
+deficiencies is in the well-tried intelligence and virtue of my
+fellow-citizens, and in the counsels of those representing them in the
+other departments associated in the care of the national interests. In
+these my confidence will under every difficulty be best placed, next to
+that which we have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and
+guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of
+nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this
+rising Republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout
+gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent supplications and best
+hopes for the future.
+
+MARCH 4, 1809.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL SESSION MESSAGE.
+
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+On this first occasion of meeting you it affords me much satisfaction to
+be able to communicate the commencement of a favorable change in our
+foreign relations, the critical state of which induced a session of
+Congress at this early period.
+
+In consequence of the provisions of the act interdicting commercial
+intercourse with Great Britain and France, our ministers at London and
+Paris were without delay instructed to let it be understood by the
+French and British Governments that the authority vested in the
+Executive to renew commercial intercourse with their respective nations
+would be exercised in the case specified by that act.
+
+Soon after these instructions were dispatched it was found that the
+British Government, anticipating from early proceedings of Congress at
+their last session the state of our laws, which has had the effect of
+placing the two belligerent powers on a footing of equal restrictions,
+and relying on the conciliatory disposition of the United States, had
+transmitted to their legation here provisional instructions not only to
+offer satisfaction for the attack on the frigate _Chesapeake_, and
+to make known the determination of His Britannic Majesty to send an
+envoy extraordinary with powers to conclude a treaty on all the points
+between the two countries, but, moreover, to signify his willingness in
+the meantime to withdraw his orders in council, in the persuasion that
+the intercourse with Great Britain would be renewed on the part of the
+United States.
+
+These steps of the British Government led to the correspondence and the
+proclamation now laid before you, by virtue of which the commerce
+between the two countries will be renewable after the 10th day of June
+next.
+
+Whilst I take pleasure in doing justice to the councils of His Britannic
+Majesty, which, no longer adhering to the policy which made an
+abandonment by France of her decrees a prerequisite to a revocation of
+the British orders, have substituted the amicable course which has
+issued thus happily, I can not do less than refer to the proposal
+heretofore made on the part of the United States, embracing a like
+restoration of the suspended commerce, as a proof of the spirit of
+accommodation which has at no time been intermitted, and to the result
+which now calls for our congratulations, as corroborating the principles
+by which the public councils have been guided during a period of the
+most trying embarrassments.
+
+The discontinuance of the British orders as they respect the United
+States having been thus arranged, a communication of the event has been
+forwarded in one of our public vessels to our minister plenipotentiary
+at Paris, with instructions to avail himself of the important addition
+thereby made to the considerations which press on the justice of the
+French Government a revocation of its decrees or such a modification of
+them as that they shall cease to violate the neutral commerce of the
+United States.
+
+The revision of our commercial laws proper to adapt them to the
+arrangement which has taken place with Great Britain will doubtless
+engage the early attention of Congress. It will be worthy at the same
+time of their just and provident care to make such further alterations
+in the laws as will more especially protect and foster the several
+branches of manufacture which have been recently instituted or extended
+by the laudable exertions of our citizens.
+
+Under the existing aspect of our affairs I have thought it not
+inconsistent with a just precaution to have the gunboats, with the
+exception of those at New Orleans, placed in a situation incurring no
+expense beyond that requisite for their preservation and conveniency for
+future service, and to have the crews of those at New Orleans reduced to
+the number required for their navigation and safety.
+
+I have thought also that our citizens detached in quotas of militia
+amounting to 100,000 under the act of March, 1808, might not improperly
+be relieved from the state in which they were held for immediate
+service. A discharge of them has been accordingly directed.
+
+The progress made in raising and organizing the additional military
+force, for which provision was made by the act of April, 1808, together
+with the disposition of the troops, will appear by a report which the
+Secretary of War is preparing, and which will be laid before you.
+
+Of the additional frigates required by an act of the last session to be
+fitted for actual service, two are in readiness, one nearly so, and the
+fourth is expected to be ready in the month of July. A report which the
+Secretary of the Navy is preparing on the subject, to be laid before
+Congress, will shew at the same time the progress made in officering and
+manning these ships. It will shew also the degree in which the
+provisions of the act relating to the other public armed ships have been
+carried into execution.
+
+It will rest with the judgment of Congress to decide how far the change
+in our external prospects may authorize any modifications of the laws
+relating to the army and navy establishments.
+
+The works of defense for our seaport towns and harbors have proceeded
+with as much activity as the season of the year and other circumstances
+would admit. It is necessary, however, to state that, the appropriations
+hitherto made being found to be deficient, a further provision will
+claim the early consideration of Congress.
+
+The whole of the 8 per cent stock remaining due by the United States,
+amounting to $5,300,000, had been reimbursed on the last day of the year
+1808; and on the 1st day of April last the sum in the Treasury exceeded
+$9,500,000. This, together with the receipts of the current year on
+account of former revenue bonds, will probably be nearly if not
+altogether sufficient to defray the expenses of the year. But the
+suspension of exports and the consequent decrease of importations during
+the last twelve months will necessarily cause a great diminution in the
+receipts of the year 1810. After that year, should our foreign relations
+be undisturbed, the revenue will again be more than commensurate to all
+the expenditures.
+
+Aware of the inconveniences of a protracted session at the present
+season of the year, I forbear to call the attention of the Legislature
+to any matters not particularly urgent. It remains, therefore, only to
+assure you of the fidelity and alacrity with which I shall cooperate
+for the welfare and happiness of our country, and to pray that it may
+experience a continuance of the divine blessings by which it has been
+so signally favored.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+MAY 23, 1809.
+
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+MAY 26, 1809.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I now lay before Congress the report of the Secretary of War, shewing
+the progress made in carrying into effect the act of April, 1808, for
+raising an additional military force, and the disposition of the troops.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JUNE 4, 1809.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the request of the legislature of Pennsylvania, I
+transmit to Congress a copy of certain of its proceedings, communicated
+for the purpose by the governor of that State.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JUNE 15, 1809.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 13th instant,
+I transmit extracts from letters from Mr. Pinkney to the Secretary of
+State, accompanied by letters and communications to him from the British
+secretary of state for the foreign department, all of which have been
+received here since the last session of Congress.
+
+To these documents are added a communication just made by Mr. Erskine
+to the Secretary of State, and his answer.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JUNE 20, 1809.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 19th instant, I
+transmit such information as has been received respecting exiles from
+Cuba arrived or expected within the United States; also a letter from
+General Turreau connected with that subject.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JUNE 26, 1809.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+The considerations which led to the nomination of a minister
+plenipotentiary to Russia being strengthened by evidence since received
+of the earnest desire of the Emperor to establish a diplomatic
+intercourse between the two countries, and of a disposition in his
+councils favorable to the extension of a commerce mutually advantageous,
+as will be seen by the extracts from letters from General Armstrong and
+Consul Harris herewith confidentially communicated, I nominate John
+Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, to be minister plenipotentiary of the
+United States to the Court of St. Petersburg.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATIONS.
+
+
+[From Annals of Congress, Eleventh Congress, part 2, 2060.]
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas it is provided by the eleventh section of the act of Congress
+entitled "An act to interdict the commercial intercourse between the
+United States and Great Britain and France and their dependencies, and
+for other purposes," that "in case either France or Great Britain shall
+so revoke or modify her edicts as that they shall cease to violate the
+neutral commerce of the United States" the President is authorized to
+declare the same by proclamation, after which the trade suspended by the
+said act and by an act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the
+ports and harbors of the United States and the several acts
+supplementary thereto may be renewed with the nation so doing; and
+
+Whereas the Honorable David Montague Erskine, His Britannic Majesty's
+envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, has, by the order and
+in the name of his Sovereign, declared to this Government that the
+British orders in council of January and November, 1807, will have been
+withdrawn as respects the United States on the 10th day of June next:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United States, do
+hereby proclaim that the orders in council aforesaid will have been
+withdrawn on the said 10th day of June next, after which day the trade
+of the United States with Great Britain, as suspended by the act of
+Congress above mentioned and an act laying an embargo on all ships and
+vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States and the several
+acts supplementary thereto, may be renewed.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Given under my hand and the seal of the United States at Washington,
+the 19th day of April, A.D. 1809, and of the Independence of the United
+States the thirty-third.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  R. SMITH,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+[From Annals of Congress, Eleventh Congress, part 2, 2076.]
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas, in consequence of a communication from His Britannic Majesty's
+envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary declaring that the
+British orders of council of January and November, 1807, would have been
+withdrawn on the 10th day of June last, and by virtue of authority given
+in such event by the eleventh section of the act of Congress entitled
+"An act to interdict the commercial intercourse between the United
+States and Great Britain and France and their dependencies, and for
+other purposes," I, James Madison, President of the United States, did
+issue my proclamation bearing date on the 19th of April last, declaring
+that the orders in council aforesaid would have been so withdrawn on the
+said 10th day of June, after which the trade suspended by certain acts
+of Congress might be renewed; and
+
+Whereas it is now officially made known to me that the said orders in
+council have not been withdrawn agreeably to the communication and
+declaration aforesaid:
+
+I do hereby proclaim the same, and, consequently, that the trade
+renewable on the event of the said orders, being withdrawn, is to be
+considered as under the operation of the several acts by which such
+trade was suspended.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Given under my hand and the seal of the United States at the city of
+Washington, the 9th day of August, A.D. 1809, and of the Independence
+of the said United States the thirty-fourth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  R. SMITH,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+NOVEMBER 29, 1809.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+At the period of our last meeting I had the satisfaction of
+communicating an adjustment with one of the principal belligerent
+nations, highly important in itself, and still more so as presaging a
+more extended accommodation. It is with deep concern I am now to inform
+you that the favorable prospect has been overclouded by a refusal of the
+British Government to abide by the act of its minister plenipotentiary,
+and by its ensuing policy toward the United States as seen through the
+communications of the minister sent to replace him.
+
+Whatever pleas may be urged for a disavowal of engagements formed by
+diplomatic functionaries in cases where by the terms of the engagements
+a mutual ratification is reserved, or where notice at the time may have
+been given of a departure from instructions, or in extraordinary cases
+essentially violating the principles of equity, a disavowal could not
+have been apprehended in a case where no such notice or violation
+existed, where no such ratification was reserved, and more especially
+where, as is now in proof, an engagement to be executed without any such
+ratification was contemplated by the instructions given, and where it
+had with good faith been carried into immediate execution on the part of
+the United States.
+
+These considerations not having restrained the British Government from
+disavowing the arrangement by virtue of which its orders in council were
+to be revoked, and the event authorizing the renewal of commercial
+intercourse having thus not taken place, it necessarily became a
+question of equal urgency and importance whether the act prohibiting
+that intercourse was not to be considered as remaining in legal force.
+This question being, after due deliberation, determined in the
+affirmative, a proclamation to that effect was issued. It could not but
+happen, however, that a return to this state of things from that which
+had followed an execution of the arrangement by the United States would
+involve difficulties. With a view to diminish these as much as possible,
+the instructions from the Secretary of the Treasury now laid before you
+were transmitted to the collectors of the several ports. If in
+permitting British vessels to depart without giving bonds not to proceed
+to their own ports it should appear that the tenor of legal authority
+has not been strictly pursued, it is to be ascribed to the anxious
+desire which was felt that no individuals should be injured by so
+unforeseen an occurrence; and I rely on the regard of Congress for
+the equitable interests of our own citizens to adopt whatever further
+provisions may be found requisite for a general remission of penalties
+involuntarily incurred.
+
+The recall of the disavowed minister having been followed by the
+appointment of a successor, hopes were indulged that the new mission
+would contribute to alleviate the disappointment which had been
+produced, and to remove the causes which had so long embarrassed the
+good understanding of the two nations. It could not be doubted that it
+would at least be charged with conciliatory explanations of the step
+which had been taken and with proposals to be substituted for the
+rejected arrangement. Reasonable and universal as this expectation was,
+it also has not been fulfilled. From the first official disclosures of
+the new minister it was found that he had received no authority to enter
+into explanations relative to either branch of the arrangement disavowed
+nor any authority to substitute proposals as to that branch which
+concerned the British orders in council, and, finally, that his
+proposals with respect to the other branch, the attack on the frigate
+_Chesapeake_, were founded on a presumption repeatedly declared to
+be inadmissible by the United States, that the first step toward
+adjustment was due from them, the proposals at the same time omitting
+even a reference to the officer answerable for the murderous aggression,
+and asserting a claim not less contrary to the British laws and British
+practice than to the principles and obligations of the United States.
+
+The correspondence between the Department of State and this minister
+will show how unessentially the features presented in its commencement
+have been varied in its progress. It will show also that, forgetting the
+respect due to all governments, he did not refrain from imputations on
+this, which required that no further communications should be received
+from him. The necessity of this step will be made known to His Britannic
+Majesty through the minister plenipotentiary of the United States in
+London; and it would indicate a want of the confidence due to a
+Government which so well understands and exacts what becomes foreign
+ministers near it not to infer that the misconduct of its own
+representative will be viewed in the same light in which it has been
+regarded here. The British Government will learn at the same time that
+a ready attention will be given to communications through any channel
+which may be substituted. It will be happy if the change in this respect
+should be accompanied by a favorable revision of the unfriendly policy
+which has been so long pursued toward the United States.
+
+With France, the other belligerent, whose trespasses on our commercial
+rights have long been the subject of our just remonstrances, the posture
+of our relations does not correspond with the measures taken on the part
+of the United States to effect a favorable change. The result of the
+several communications made to her Government, in pursuance of the
+authorities vested by Congress in the Executive, is contained in the
+correspondence of our minister at Paris now laid before you.
+
+By some of the other belligerents, although professing just and amicable
+dispositions, injuries materially affecting our commerce have not been
+duly controlled or repressed. In these cases the interpositions deemed
+proper on our part have not been omitted. But it well deserves the
+consideration of the Legislature how far both the safety and the honor
+of the American flag may be consulted, by adequate provisions against
+that collusive prostitution of it by individuals unworthy of the
+American name which has so much favored the real or pretended suspicions
+under which the honest commerce of their fellow-citizens has suffered.
+
+In relation to the powers on the coast of Barbary, nothing has occurred
+which is not of a nature rather to inspire confidence than distrust as
+to the continuance of the existing amity. With our Indian neighbors, the
+just and benevolent system continued toward them has also preserved
+peace, and is more and more advancing habits favorable to their
+civilization and happiness.
+
+From a statement which will be made by the Secretary of War it will be
+seen that the fortifications on our maritime frontier are in many of the
+ports completed, affording the defense which was contemplated, and that
+a further time will be required to render complete the works in the
+harbor of New York and in some other places. By the enlargement of the
+works and the employment of a greater number of hands at the public
+armories the supply of small arms of an improving quality appears to be
+annually increasing at a rate that, with those made on private contract,
+may be expected to go far toward providing for the public exigency.
+
+The act of Congress providing for the equipment of our vessels of war
+having been fully carried into execution, I refer to the statement of
+the Secretary of the Navy for the information which may be proper on
+that subject. To that statement is added a view of the transfers of
+appropriations authorized by the act of the session preceding the last
+and of the grounds on which the transfers were made.
+
+Whatever may be the course of your deliberations on the subject of our
+military establishments, I should fail in my duty in not recommending
+to your serious attention the importance of giving to our militia, the
+great bulwark of our security and resource of our power, an organization
+the best adapted to eventual situations for which the United States
+ought to be prepared.
+
+The sums which had been previously accumulated in the Treasury, together
+with the receipts during the year ending on the 30th of September last
+(and amounting to more than $9,000,000), have enabled us to fulfill all
+our engagements and to defray the current expenses of Government without
+recurring to any loan. But the insecurity of our commerce and the
+consequent diminution of the public revenue will probably produce a
+deficiency in the receipts of the ensuing year, for which and for other
+details I refer to the statements which will be transmitted from the
+Treasury.
+
+In the state which has been presented of our affairs with the great
+parties to a disastrous and protracted war, carried on in a mode equally
+injurious and unjust to the United States as a neutral nation, the
+wisdom of the National legislature will be again summoned to the
+important decision on the alternatives before them. That these will be
+met in a spirit worthy the councils of a nation conscious both of its
+rectitude and of its rights, and careful as well of its honor as of its
+peace, I have an entire confidence; and that the result will be stamped
+by a unanimity becoming the occasion, and be supported by every portion
+of our citizens with a patriotism enlightened and invigorated by
+experience, ought as little to be doubted.
+
+In the midst of the wrongs and vexations experienced from external
+causes there is much room for congratulation on the prosperity and
+happiness flowing from our situation at home. The blessing of health
+has never been more universal. The fruits of the seasons, though in
+particular articles and districts short of their usual redundancy, are
+more than sufficient for our wants and our comforts. The face of our
+country everywhere presents the evidence of laudable enterprise, of
+extensive capital, and of durable improvement. In a cultivation of the
+materials and the extension of useful manufactures, more especially
+in the general application to household fabrics, we behold a rapid
+diminution of our dependence on foreign supplies. Nor is it unworthy
+of reflection that this revolution in our pursuits and habits is in no
+slight degree a consequence of those impolitic and arbitrary edicts by
+which the contending nations, in endeavoring each of them to obstruct
+our trade with the other, have so far abridged our means of procuring
+the productions and manufactures of which our own are now taking the
+place.
+
+Recollecting always that for every advantage which may contribute to
+distinguish our lot from that to which others are doomed by the unhappy
+spirit of the times we are indebted to that Divine Providence whose
+goodness has been so remarkably extended to this rising nation, it
+becomes us to cherish a devout gratitude, and to implore from the same
+omnipotent source a blessing on the consultations and measures about to
+be undertaken for the welfare of our beloved country.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+DECEMBER 12, 1809.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+According to the request of the House of Representatives expressed in
+their resolution of the 11th instant, I now lay before them a printed
+copy of a paper purporting to be a circular letter from Mr. Jackson to
+the British consuls in the United States, as received in a Gazette at
+the Department of State; and also a printed paper received in a letter
+from our minister in London, purporting to be a copy of a dispatch from
+Mr. Canning to Mr. Erskine of the 23d of January last.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 16, 1809.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+Agreeably to the request in the resolution of the 15th instant, I
+transmit a copy of the correspondence with the governor of Pennsylvania
+in the case of Gideon Olmstead,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 16, 1809.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Agreeably to the request expressed in the resolution of the 13th
+instant, I lay before the House extracts from the correspondence of the
+minister plenipotentiary of the United States at London.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 22, 1809.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate, for their consideration whether they will
+advise and consent to the ratification thereof, a treaty concluded on
+the 30th September last with the Delaware, Potawattamie, Miami, and
+Eel-river Miami Indian tribes northwest of the Ohio; a separate article
+of the same date, with the said tribes, and a convention with the Weea
+tribe, concluded on the 26th October last; the whole being accompanied
+with the explanatory documents,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 3, 1810.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The act authorizing a detachment of 100,000 men from the militia will
+expire on the 30th of March next. Its early revival is recommended, in
+order that timely steps may be taken for arrangements such as the act
+contemplated.
+
+Without interfering with the modifications rendered necessary by the
+defects or the inefficacy of the laws restrictive of commerce and
+navigation, or with the policy of disallowing to foreign armed vessels
+the use of our waters, it falls within my duty to recommend also that,
+in addition to the precautionary measure authorized by that act and to
+the regular troops for completing the legal establishment of which
+enlistments are renewed, every necessary provision may be made for a
+volunteer force of 20,000 men, to be enlisted for a short period and
+held in a state of organization and readiness for actual service at the
+shortest warning.
+
+I submit to the consideration of Congress, moreover, the expediency of
+such a classification and organization of the militia as will best
+insure prompt and successive aids from that source, adequate to
+emergencies which may call for them.
+
+It will rest with them also to determine how far further provision may
+be expedient for putting into actual service, if necessary, any part of
+the naval armament not now employed.
+
+At a period presenting features in the conduct of foreign powers toward
+the United States which impose on them the necessity of precautionary
+measures involving expense, it is a happy consideration that such is the
+solid state of the public credit that reliance may be justly placed on
+any legal provision that may be made for resorting to it in a convenient
+form and to an adequate amount,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 9, 1810.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate, for their consideration whether they will
+advise and consent to the ratification thereof, a treaty concluded on
+the 9th day of December last with the Kickapoo tribe of Indians,
+accompanied by explanations in an extract of a letter from the governor
+of the Indiana Territory,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 15, 1810.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate, for their consideration whether they will
+advise and consent to the ratification thereof, a treaty concluded with
+the Great and Little Osage Indians on the 10th day of November, 1808,
+and the 31st day of August, 1809.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 22, 1810.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate a report of the Secretary of the Treasury,
+complying with their resolution of the 27th of December, on the subject
+of disbursements in the intercourse with the Barbary Powers.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 28, 1810.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I now lay before you copies of the treaties concluded with the Delaware,
+Pottawatamie, Miami, Eel River, and Wea tribes of Indians for the
+extinguishment of their title to the lands therein described, and I
+recommend to the consideration of Congress the making provision by law
+for carrying them into execution.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+MARCH 15, 1810.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+A treaty having been entered into and duly ratified with the Kickapoo
+tribe of Indians for the extinguishment of their title to certain lands
+within the Indiana Territory, involving conditions which require
+legislative provision, I submit copies thereof to both branches for
+consideration.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+MARCH 27, 1810,
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In consequence of your resolution of the 26th instant, an inquiry has
+been made into the correspondence of our minister at the Court of London
+with the Department of State, from which it appears that no official
+communication has been received from him since his receipt of the letter
+of November 23 last from the Secretary of State. A letter of January 4,
+1810, has been received from that minister by Mr. Smith, but being
+stated to be private and unofficial, and involving, moreover, personal
+considerations of a delicate nature, a copy is considered as not within
+the purview of the call of the House.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATIONS.
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas the territory south of the Mississippi Territory and eastward of
+the river Mississippi, and extending to the river Perdido, of which
+possession was not delivered to the United States in pursuance of the
+treaty concluded at Paris on the 30th April, 1803, has at all times, as
+is well known, been considered and claimed by them as being within the
+colony of Louisiana conveyed by the said treaty in the same extent that
+it had in the hands of Spain and that it had when France originally
+possessed it; and
+
+Whereas the acquiescence of the United States in the temporary
+continuance of the said territory under the Spanish authority was not
+the result of any distrust of their title, as has been particularly
+evinced by the general tenor of their laws and by the distinction made
+in the application of those laws between that territory and foreign
+countries, but was occasioned by their conciliatory views and by a
+confidence in the justice of their cause and in the success of candid
+discussion and amicable negotiation with a just and friendly power; and
+
+Whereas a satisfactory adjustment, too long delayed, without the fault
+of the United States, has for some time been entirely suspended by
+events over which they had no control; and
+
+Whereas a crisis has at length arrived subversive of the order of things
+under the Spanish authorities, whereby a failure of the United States
+to take the said territory into its possession may lead to events
+ultimately contravening the views of both parties, whilst in the
+meantime the tranquillity and security of our adjoining territories are
+endangered and new facilities given to violations of our revenue and
+commercial laws and of those prohibiting the introduction of slaves;
+
+Considering, moreover, that under these peculiar and imperative
+circumstances a forbearance on the part of the United States to occupy
+the territory in question, and thereby guard against the confusions and
+contingencies which threaten it, might be construed into a dereliction
+of their title or an insensibility to the importance of the stake;
+considering that in the hands of the United States it will not cease
+to be a subject of fair and friendly negotiation and adjustment;
+considering, finally, that the acts of Congress, though contemplating a
+present possession by a foreign authority, have contemplated also an
+eventual possession of the said territory by the United States, and are
+accordingly so framed as in that case to extend in their operation to
+the same:
+
+Now be it known that I, James Madison, President of the United States of
+America, in pursuance of these weighty and urgent considerations, have
+deemed it right and requisite that possession should be taken of the
+said territory in the name and behalf of the United States. William
+C.C. Claiborne, governor of the Orleans Territory, of which the said
+Territory is to be taken as part, will accordingly proceed to execute
+the same and to exercise over the said Territory the authorities and
+functions legally appertaining to his office; and the good people
+inhabiting the same are invited and enjoined to pay due respect to him
+in that character, to be obedient to the laws, to maintain order, to
+cherish harmony, and in every manner to conduct themselves as peaceable
+citizens, under full assurance that they will be protected in the
+enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion.
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
+hereunto affixed, and signed the same with my hand.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Done at the city of Washington, the 27th day of October, A.D. 1810, and
+in the thirty-fifth year of the Independence of the said United States.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  R. SMITH,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+[From Annals of Congress, Eleventh Congress, third session, 1248.]
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas by the fourth section of the act of Congress passed on the 1st
+day of May, 1810, entitled "An act concerning the commercial intercourse
+between the United States and Great Britain and France and their
+dependencies, and for other purposes," it is provided "that in case
+either Great Britain or France shall before the 3d day of March next
+so revoke or modify her edicts as that they shall cease to violate the
+neutral commerce of the United States, which fact the President of the
+United States shall declare by proclamation, and if the other nation
+shall not within three months thereafter so revoke or modify her edicts
+in like manner, then the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth,
+ninth, tenth, and eighteenth sections of the act entitled 'An act to
+interdict the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great
+Britain and France and their dependencies, and for other purposes,'
+shall from and after the expiration of three months from the date of the
+proclamation aforesaid be revived and have full force and effect so far
+as relates to the dominions, colonies, and dependencies, and to the
+articles the growth, produce, or manufacture of the dominions, colonies,
+and dependencies, of the nation thus refusing or neglecting to revoke or
+modify her edicts in the manner aforesaid. And the restrictions imposed
+by this act shall, from the date of such proclamation cease and be
+discontinued in relation to the nation revoking or modifying her decrees
+in the manner aforesaid;" and
+
+Whereas it has been officially made known to this Government that the
+edicts of France violating the neutral commerce of the United States
+have been so revoked as to cease to have effect on the 1st of the
+present month:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United States, do
+hereby proclaim that the said edicts of France have been so revoked as
+that they ceased on the said 1st day of the present month to violate the
+neutral commerce of the United States, and that from the date of these
+presents all the restrictions imposed by the aforesaid act shall cease
+and be discontinued in relation to France and their dependencies.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
+hereunto affixed, and signed the same with my hand, at the city of
+Washington, this 2d day of November, A.D. 1810, and of the Independence
+of the United States the thirty-fifth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  R. SMITH,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 5, 1810_.
+
+_Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+The embarrassments which have prevailed in our foreign relations, and so
+much employed the deliberations of Congress, make it a primary duty in
+meeting you to communicate whatever may have occurred in that branch of
+our national affairs.
+
+The act of the last session of Congress concerning the commercial
+intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France and
+their dependencies having invited in a new form a termination of their
+edicts against our neutral commerce, copies of the act were immediately
+forwarded to our ministers at London and Paris, with a view that its
+object might be within the early attention of the French and British
+Governments.
+
+By the communication received through our minister at Paris it appeared
+that a knowledge of the act by the French Government was followed by a
+declaration that the Berlin and Milan decrees were revoked, and would
+cease to have effect on the 1st day of November ensuing. These being the
+only known edicts of France within the description of the act, and the
+revocation of them being such that they ceased at that date to violate
+our neutral commerce, the fact, as prescribed by law, was announced by a
+proclamation bearing date the 2d day of November.
+
+It would have well accorded with the conciliatory views indicated by
+this proceeding on the part of France to have extended them to all the
+grounds of just complaint which now remain unadjusted with the United
+States. It was particularly anticipated that, as a further evidence of
+just dispositions toward them, restoration would have been immediately
+made of the property of our citizens seized under a misapplication of
+the principle of reprisals combined with a misconstruction of a law of
+the United States. This expectation has not been fulfilled.
+
+From the British Government no communication on the subject of the act
+has been received. To a communication from our minister at London of a
+revocation by the French Government of its Berlin and Milan decrees it
+was answered that the British system would be relinquished as soon as
+the repeal of the French decrees should have actually taken effect and
+the commerce of neutral nations have been restored to the condition in
+which it stood previously to the promulgation of those decrees. This
+pledge, although it does not necessarily import, does not exclude the
+intention of relinquishing, along with the orders in council, the
+practice of those novel blockades which have a like effect of
+interrupting our neutral commerce, and this further justice to the
+United States is the rather to be looked for, inasmuch as the blockades
+in question, being not more contrary to the established law of nations
+than inconsistent with the rules of blockade formally recognized by
+Great Britain herself, could have no alleged basis other than the plea
+of retaliation alleged as the basis of the orders in council. Under the
+modification of the original orders of November, 1807, into the orders
+of April, 1809, there is, indeed, scarcely a nominal distinction between
+the orders and the blockades. One of those illegitimate blockades,
+bearing date in May, 1806, having been expressly avowed to be still
+unrescinded, and to be in effect comprehended in the orders in council,
+was too distinctly brought within the purview of the act of Congress not
+to be comprehended in the explanation of the requisites to a compliance
+with it. The British Government was accordingly apprised by our minister
+near it that such was the light in which the subject was to be regarded.
+
+On the other important subjects depending between the United States and
+that Government no progress has been made from which an early and
+satisfactory result can be relied on.
+
+In this new posture of our relations with those powers the consideration
+of Congress will be properly turned to a removal of doubts which may
+occur in the exposition and of difficulties in the execution of the act
+above cited.
+
+The commerce of the United States with the north of Europe, heretofore
+much vexed by licentious cruisers, particularly under the Danish flag,
+has latterly been visited with fresh and extensive depredations. The
+measures pursued in behalf of our injured citizens not having obtained
+justice for them, a further and more formal interposition with the
+Danish Government is contemplated. The principles which have been
+maintained by that Government in relation to neutral commerce, and the
+friendly professions of His Danish Majesty toward the United States, are
+valuable pledges in favor of a successful issue.
+
+Among the events growing out of the state of the Spanish Monarchy, our
+attention was imperiously attracted to the change developing itself in
+that portion of West Florida which, though of right appertaining to the
+United States, had remained in the possession of Spain awaiting the
+result of negotiations for its actual delivery to them. The Spanish
+authority was subverted and a situation produced exposing the country to
+ulterior events which might essentially affect the rights and welfare of
+the Union. In such a conjuncture I did not delay the interposition
+required for the occupancy of the territory west of the river Perdido,
+to which the title of the United States extends, and to which the laws
+provided for the Territory of Orleans are applicable. With this view,
+the proclamation of which a copy is laid before you was confided to the
+governor of that Territory to be carried into effect. The legality and
+necessity of the course pursued assure me of the favorable light in
+which it will present itself to the Legislature, and of the promptitude
+with which they will supply whatever provisions may be due to the
+essential rights and equitable interests of the people thus brought into
+the bosom of the American family.
+
+Our amity with the powers of Barbary, with the exception of a recent
+occurrence at Tunis, of which an explanation is just received, appears
+to have been uninterrupted and to have become more firmly established.
+
+With the Indian tribes also the peace and friendship of the United
+States are found to be so eligible that the general disposition to
+preserve both continues to gain strength.
+
+I feel particular satisfaction in remarking that an interior view of our
+country presents us with grateful proofs of its substantial and
+increasing prosperity. To a thriving agriculture and the improvements
+related to it is added a highly interesting extension of useful
+manufactures, the combined product of professional occupations and of
+household industry. Such indeed is the experience of economy as well as
+of policy in these substitutes for supplies heretofore obtained by
+foreign commerce that in a national view the change is justly regarded
+as of itself more than a recompense for those privations and losses
+resulting from foreign injustice which furnished the general impulse
+required for its accomplishment. How far it may be expedient to guard
+the infancy of this improvement in the distribution of labor by
+regulations of the commercial tariff is a subject which can not fail to
+suggest itself to your patriotic reflections.
+
+It will rest with the consideration of Congress also whether a provident
+as well as fair encouragement would not be given to our navigation by
+such regulations as would place it on a level of competition with
+foreign vessels, particularly in transporting the important and bulky
+productions of our own soil. The failure of equality and reciprocity in
+the existing regulations on this subject operates in our ports as a
+premium to foreign competitors, and the inconvenience must increase as
+these may be multiplied under more favorable circumstances by the more
+than countervailing encouragements now given them by the laws of their
+respective countries.
+
+Whilst it is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone
+can be permanently a free people, and whilst it is evident that the
+means of diffusing and improving useful knowledge form so small a
+proportion of the expenditures for national purposes, I can not presume
+it to be unseasonable to invite your attention to the advantages of
+superadding to the means of education provided by the several States a
+seminary of learning instituted by the National Legislature within the
+limits of their exclusive jurisdiction, the expense of which might be
+defrayed or reimbursed out of the vacant grounds which have accrued to
+the nation within those limits.
+
+Such an institution, though local in its legal character, would be
+universal in its beneficial effects. By enlightening the opinions, by
+expanding the patriotism, and by assimilating the principles, the
+sentiments, and the manners of those who might resort to this temple of
+science, to be redistributed in due time through every part of the
+community, sources of jealousy and prejudice would be diminished, the
+features of national character would be multiplied, and greater extent
+given to social harmony. But, above all, a well-constituted seminary in
+the center of the nation is recommended by the consideration that the
+additional instruction emanating from it would contribute not less to
+strengthen the foundations than to adorn the structure of our free and
+happy system of government.
+
+Among the commercial abuses still committed under the American flag, and
+leaving in force my former reference to that subject, it appears that
+American citizens are instrumental in carrying on a traffic in enslaved
+Africans, equally in violation of the laws of humanity and in defiance
+of those of their own country. The same just and benevolent motives
+which produced the interdiction in force against this criminal conduct
+will doubtless be felt by Congress in devising further means of
+suppressing the evil.
+
+In the midst of uncertainties necessarily connected with the great
+interests of the United States, prudence requires a continuance of our
+defensive and precautionary arrangement. The Secretary of War and
+Secretary of the Navy will submit the statements and estimates which may
+aid Congress in their ensuing provisions for the land and naval forces.
+The statements of the latter will include a view of the transfers of
+appropriations in the naval expenditures and the grounds on which they
+were made.
+
+The fortifications for the defense of our maritime frontier have been
+prosecuted according to the plan laid down in 1808. The works, with some
+exceptions, are completed and furnished with ordnance. Those for the
+security of the city of New York, though far advanced toward completion,
+will require a further time and appropriation. This is the case with a
+few others, either not completed or in need of repairs.
+
+The improvements in quality and quantity made in the manufacture of
+cannon and small arms, both at the public armories and private
+factories, warrant additional confidence in the competency of these
+resources for supplying the public exigencies.
+
+These preparations for arming the militia having thus far provided for
+one of the objects contemplated by the power vested in Congress with
+respect to that great bulwark of the public safety, it is for their
+consideration whether further provisions are not requisite for the other
+contemplated objects of organization and discipline. To give to this
+great mass of physical and moral force the efficiency which it merits,
+and is capable of receiving, it is indispensable that they should be
+instructed and practiced in the rules by which they are to be governed.
+Toward an accomplishment of this important work I recommend for the
+consideration of Congress the expediency of instituting a system which
+shall in the first instance call into the field at the public expense
+and for a given time certain portions of the commissioned and
+noncommissioned officers. The instruction and discipline thus acquired
+would gradually diffuse through the entire body of the militia that
+practical knowledge and promptitude for active service which are the
+great ends to be pursued. Experience has left no doubt either of the
+necessity or of the efficacy of competent military skill in those
+portions of an army in fitting it for the final duties which it may have
+to perform.
+
+The Corps of Engineers, with the Military Academy, are entitled to the
+early attention of Congress. The buildings at the seat fixed by law for
+the present Academy are so far in decay as not to afford the necessary
+accommodation. But a revision of the law is recommended, principally
+with a view to a more enlarged cultivation and diffusion of the
+advantages of such institutions, by providing professorships for all the
+necessary branches of military instruction, and by the establishment of
+an additional academy at the seat of Government or elsewhere. The means
+by which war, as well for defense as for offense, are now carried on
+render these schools of the more scientific operations an indispensable
+part of every adequate system. Even among nations whose large standing
+armies and frequent wars afford every other opportunity of instruction
+these establishments are found to be indispensable for the due
+attainment of the branches of military science which require a regular
+course of study and experiment. In a government happily without the
+other opportunities seminaries where the elementary principles of the
+art of war can be taught without actual war, and without the expense of
+extensive and standing armies, have the precious advantage of uniting an
+essential preparation against external danger with a scrupulous regard
+to internal safety. In no other way, probably, can a provision of equal
+efficacy for the public defense be made at so little expense or more
+consistently with the public liberty.
+
+The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th of
+September last (and amounting to more than $8,500,000) have exceeded the
+current expenses of the Government, including the interest on the public
+debt. For the purpose of reimbursing at the end of the year $3,750,000
+of the principal, a loan, as authorized by law, had been negotiated to
+that amount, but has since been reduced to $2,750,000, the reduction
+being permitted by the state of the Treasury, in which there will be a
+balance remaining at the end of the year estimated at $2,000,000. For
+the probable receipts of the next year and other details I refer to
+statements which will be transmitted from the Treasury, and which will
+enable you to judge what further provisions may be necessary for the
+ensuing years.
+
+Reserving for future occasions in the course of the session whatever
+other communications may claim your attention, I close the present by
+expressing my reliance, under the blessing of Divine Providence, on the
+judgment and patriotism which will guide your measures at a period
+particularly calling for united councils and inflexible exertions for
+the welfare of our country, and by assuring you of the fidelity and
+alacrity with which my cooperation will be afforded.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+DECEMBER 12, 1810.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress, and recommend to their early attention, a report
+of the Secretary of State, from which it will be seen that a very
+considerable demand beyond the legal appropriations has been incurred
+for the support of seamen distressed by seizures, in different parts of
+Europe, of the vessels to which they belonged.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 3, 1811_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to Congress, in confidence, a letter of the 2d of December
+from Governor Folch, of West Florida, to the Secretary of State, and
+another of the same date from the same to John McKee.
+
+I communicate in like manner a letter from the British chargé d'affaires
+to the Secretary of State, with the answer of the latter. Although the
+letter can not have been written in consequence of any instruction from
+the British Government founded on the late order for taking possession
+of the portion of West Florida well known to be claimed by the United
+States; although no communication has ever been made by that Government
+to this of any stipulation with Spain contemplating an interposition
+which might so materially affect the United States, and although no call
+can have been made by Spain in the present instance for the fulfillment
+of any such subsisting engagement, yet the spirit and scope of the
+document, with the accredited source from which it proceeds, required
+that it should not be withheld from the consideration of Congress.
+
+Taking into view the tenor of these several communications, the posture
+of things with which they are connected, the intimate relation of the
+country adjoining the United States eastward of the river Perdido to
+their security and tranquillity, and the peculiar interest they
+otherwise have in its destiny, I recommend to the consideration of
+Congress the seasonableness of a declaration that the United States
+could not see without serious inquietude any part of a neighboring
+territory in which they have in different respects so deep and so just a
+concern pass from the hands of Spain into those of any other foreign
+power.
+
+I recommend to their consideration also the expediency of authorizing
+the Executive to take temporary possession of any part or parts of the
+said Territory, in pursuance of arrangements which may be desired by the
+Spanish authorities, and for making provision for the government of the
+same during such possession.
+
+The wisdom of Congress will at the same time determine how far it may be
+expedient to provide for the event of a subversion of the Spanish
+authorities within the Territory in question, and an apprehended
+occupancy thereof by any other foreign power.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 10, 1811.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to Congress, in confidence, the translation of a letter
+from Louis de Onis to the captain general of Caraccas.
+
+The tendency of misrepresentations and suggestions which it may be
+inferred from this specimen enter into more important correspondences of
+the writer to promote in foreign councils at a critical period views
+adverse to the peace and to the best interests of our country renders
+the contents of the letter of sufficient moment to be made known to the
+legislature,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 30, 1811.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress copies of a letter from the Secretary of the
+Treasury, accompanied by copies of the Laws, Treaties, and other
+Documents Relative to the Public Lands, as collected and arranged
+pursuant to the act passed April 27, 1810.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 31, 1811.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress a letter from the chargé d'affaires of the United
+States at Paris to the Secretary of State, and another from the same to
+the French minister of foreign relations; also two letters from the
+agent of the American consul at Bordeaux to the Secretary of State.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 16, 1811.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I now lay before Congress the treaty concluded on the 10th of November,
+1808, on the part of the United States with the Great and Little Osage
+tribes of Indians, with a view to such legal provisions as may be deemed
+proper for fulfilling its stipulations.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+VETO MESSAGES.
+
+
+FEBRUARY 21, 1811.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Having examined and considered the bill entitled "An act incorporating
+the Protestant Episcopal Church in the town of Alexandria, in the
+District of Columbia," I now return the bill to the House of
+Representatives, in which it originated, with the following objections:
+
+_Because_ the bill exceeds the rightful authority to which
+governments are limited by the essential distinction between civil and
+religious functions, and violates in particular the article of the
+Constitution of the United States which declares that "Congress shall
+make no law respecting a religious establishment." The bill enacts into
+and establishes by law sundry rules and proceedings relative purely to
+the organization and polity of the church incorporated, and
+comprehending even the election and removal of the minister of the same,
+so that no change could be made therein by the particular society or by
+the general church of which it is a member, and whose authority it
+recognizes. This particular church, therefore, would so far be a
+religious establishment by law, a legal force and sanction being given
+to certain articles in its constitution and administration. Nor can it
+be considered that the articles thus established are to be taken as the
+descriptive criteria only of the corporate identity of the society,
+inasmuch as this identity must depend on other characteristics, as the
+regulations established are generally unessential and alterable
+according to the principles and canons by which churches of that
+denomination govern themselves, and as the injunctions and prohibitions
+contained in the regulations would be enforced by the penal consequences
+applicable to a violation of them according to the local law.
+
+_Because_ the bill vests in the said incorporated church an
+authority to provide for the support of the poor and the education of
+poor children of the same, an authority which, being altogether
+superfluous if the provision is to be the result of pious charity, would
+be a precedent for giving to religious societies as such a legal agency
+in carrying into effect a public and civil duty.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 28, 1811.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Having examined and considered the bill entitled "An act for the relief
+of Richard Tervin, William Coleman, Edwin Lewis, Samuel Mims, Joseph
+Wilson, and the Baptist Church at Salem Meeting House, in the
+Mississippi Territory," I now return the same to the House of
+Representatives, in which it originated, with the following objection:
+
+_Because_ the bill in reserving a certain parcel of land of the
+United States for the use of said Baptist Church comprises a principle
+and precedent for the appropriation of funds of the United States for
+the use and support of religious societies, contrary to the article of
+the Constitution which declares that "Congress shall make no law
+respecting a religious establishment."
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+[From the National Intelligencer, July 25, 1811]
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas great and weighty matters claiming the consideration of the
+Congress of the United States form an extraordinary occasion for
+convening them, I do by these presents appoint Monday, the 4th day of
+November next, for their meeting at the city of Washington, hereby
+requiring the respective Senators and Representatives then and there to
+assemble in Congress, in order to receive such communications as may
+then be made to them, and to consult and determine on such measures as
+in their wisdom may be deemed meet for the welfare of the United States.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
+hereunto affixed, and signed the same with my hand, Done at the city of
+Washington, the 24th day of July, A.D. 1811, and of the Independence of
+the United States the thirty-sixth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _November 5, 1811_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+In calling you together sooner than a separation from your homes would
+otherwise have been required I yielded to considerations drawn from the
+posture of our foreign affairs, and in fixing the present for the time
+of your meeting regard was had to the probability of further
+developments of the policy of the belligerent powers toward this country
+which might the more unite the national councils in the measures to be
+pursued.
+
+At the close of the last session of Congress it was hoped that the
+successive confirmations of the extinction of the French decrees, so far
+as they violated our neutral commerce, would have induced the Government
+of Great Britain to repeal its orders in council, and thereby authorize
+a removal of the existing obstructions to her commerce with the United
+States.
+
+Instead of this reasonable step toward satisfaction and friendship
+between the two nations, the orders were, at a moment when least to have
+been expected, put into more rigorous execution; and it was communicated
+through the British envoy just arrived that whilst the revocation of the
+edicts of France, as officially made known to the British Government,
+was denied to have taken place, it was an indispensable condition of the
+repeal of the British orders that commerce should be restored to a
+footing that would admit the productions and manufactures of Great
+Britain, when owned by neutrals, into markets shut against them by her
+enemy, the United States being given to understand that in the meantime
+a continuance of their non importation act would lead to measures of
+retaliation.
+
+At a later date it has indeed appeared that a communication to the
+British Government of fresh evidence of the repeal of the French decrees
+against our neutral trade was followed by an intimation that it had been
+transmitted to the British plenipotentiary here in order that it might
+receive full consideration in the depending discussions. This
+communication appears not to have been received; but the transmission of
+it hither, instead of founding on it an actual repeal of the orders or
+assurances that the repeal would ensue, will not permit us to rely on
+any effective change in the British cabinet. To be ready to meet with
+cordiality satisfactory proofs of such a change, and to proceed in the
+meantime in adapting our measures to the views which have been disclosed
+through that minister will best consult our whole duty.
+
+In the unfriendly spirit of those disclosures indemnity and redress for
+other wrongs have continued to be withheld, and our coasts and the
+mouths of our harbors have again witnessed scenes not less derogatory to
+the dearest of our national rights than vexatious to the regular course
+of our trade.
+
+Among the occurrences produced by the conduct of British ships of war
+hovering on our coasts was an encounter between one of them and the
+American frigate commanded by Captain Rodgers, rendered unavoidable on
+the part of the latter by a fire commenced without cause by the former,
+whose commander is therefore alone chargeable with the blood
+unfortunately shed in maintaining the honor of the American flag. The
+proceedings of a court of inquiry requested by Captain Rodgers are
+communicated, together with the correspondence relating to the
+occurrence, between the Secretary of State and His Britannic Majesty's
+envoy. To these are added the several correspondences which have passed
+on the subject of the British orders in council, and to both the
+correspondence relating to the Floridas, in which Congress will be made
+acquainted with the interposition which the Government of Great Britain
+has thought proper to make against the proceeding of the United States.
+
+The justice and fairness which have been evinced on the part of the
+United States toward France, both before and since the revocation of her
+decrees, authorized an expectation that her Government would have
+followed up that measure by all such others as were due to our
+reasonable claims, as well as dictated by its amicable professions. No
+proof, however, is yet given of an intention to repair the other wrongs
+done to the United States, and particularly to restore the great amount
+of American property seized and condemned under edicts which, though not
+affecting our neutral relations, and therefore not entering into
+questions between the United States and other belligerents, were
+nevertheless founded in such unjust principles that the reparation ought
+to have been prompt and ample.
+
+In addition to this and other demands of strict right on that nation,
+the United States have much reason to be dissatisfied with the rigorous
+and unexpected restrictions to which their trade with the French
+dominions has been subjected, and which, if not discontinued, will
+require at least corresponding restrictions on importations from France
+into the United States.
+
+On all those subjects our minister plenipotentiary lately sent to Paris
+has carried with him the necessary instructions, the result of which
+will be communicated to you, and, by ascertaining the ulterior policy of
+the French Government toward the United States, Will enable you to adapt
+to it that of the United States toward France.
+
+Our other foreign relations remain without unfavorable changes. With
+Russia they are on the best footing of friendship. The ports of Sweden
+have afforded proofs of friendly dispositions toward our commerce in the
+councils of that nation also, and the information from our special
+minister to Denmark shews that the mission had been attended with
+valuable effects to our citizens, whose property had been so extensively
+violated and endangered by cruisers under the Danish flag.
+
+Under the ominous indications which commanded attention it became a duty
+to exert the means committed to the executive department in providing
+for the general security. The works of defense on our maritime frontier
+have accordingly been prosecuted with an activity leaving little to be
+added for the completion of the most important ones, and, as
+particularly suited for cooperation in emergencies, a portion of the
+gunboats have in particular harbors been ordered into use. The ships of
+war before in commission, with the addition of a frigate, have been
+chiefly employed as a cruising guard to the rights of our coast, and
+such a disposition has been made of our land forces as was thought to
+promise the services most appropriate and important. In this disposition
+is included a force consisting of regulars and militia, embodied in the
+Indiana Territory and marched toward our northwestern frontier. This
+measure was made requisite by several murders and depredations committed
+by Indians, but more especially by the menacing preparations and aspect
+of a combination of them on the Wabash, under the influence and
+direction of a fanatic of the Shawanese tribe. With these exceptions the
+Indian tribes retain their peaceable dispositions toward us, and their
+usual pursuits.
+
+I must now add that the period is arrived which claims from the
+legislative guardians of the national rights a system of more ample
+provisions for maintaining them. Notwithstanding the scrupulous justice,
+the protracted moderation, and the multiplied efforts on the part of the
+United States to substitute for the accumulating dangers to the peace of
+the two countries all the mutual advantages of reestablished friendship
+and confidence, we have seen that the British cabinet perseveres not
+only in withholding a remedy for other wrongs, so long and so loudly
+calling for it, but in the execution, brought home to the threshold of
+our territory, of measures which under existing circumstances have the
+character as well as the effect of war on our lawful commerce.
+
+With this evidence of hostile inflexibility in trampling on rights which
+no independent nation can relinquish, Congress will feel the duty of
+putting the United States into an armor and an attitude demanded by the
+crisis, and corresponding with the national spirit and expectations.
+
+I recommend, accordingly, that adequate provision be made for filling
+the ranks and prolonging the enlistments of the regular troops; for an
+auxiliary force to be engaged for a more limited term; for the
+acceptance of volunteer corps, whose patriotic ardor may court a
+participation in urgent services; for detachments as they may be wanted
+of other portions of the militia, and for such a preparation of the
+great body as will proportion its usefulness to its intrinsic
+capacities. Nor can the occasion fail to remind you of the importance of
+those military seminaries which in every event will form a valuable and
+frugal part of our military establishment.
+
+The manufacture of cannon and small arms has proceeded with due success,
+and the stock and resources of all the necessary munitions are adequate
+to emergencies. It will not be inexpedient, however, for Congress to
+authorize an enlargement of them.
+
+Your attention will of course be drawn to such provisions on the subject
+of our naval force as may be required for the services to which it may
+be best adapted. I submit to Congress the seasonableness also of an
+authority to augment the stock of such materials as are imperishable in
+their nature, or may not at once be attainable.
+
+In contemplating the scenes which distinguish this momentous epoch, and
+estimating their claims to our attention, it is impossible to overlook
+those developing themselves among the great communities which occupy the
+southern portion of our own hemisphere and extend into our neighborhood.
+An enlarged philanthropy and an enlightened forecast concur in imposing
+on the national councils an obligation to take a deep interest in their
+destinies, to cherish reciprocal sentiments of good will, to regard the
+progress of events, and not to be unprepared for whatever order of
+things may be ultimately established.
+
+Under another aspect of our situation the early attention of Congress
+will be due to the expediency of further guards against evasions and
+infractions of our commercial laws. The practice of smuggling, which is
+odious everywhere, and particularly criminal in free governments, where,
+the laws being made by all for the good of all, a fraud is committed on
+every individual as well as on the state, attains its utmost guilt when
+it blends with a pursuit of ignominious gain a treacherous subserviency,
+in the transgressors, to a foreign policy adverse to that of their own
+country. It is then that the virtuous indignation of the public should
+be enabled to manifest itself through the regular animadversions of the
+most competent laws.
+
+To secure greater respect to our-mercantile flag, and to the honest
+interests which it covers, it is expedient also that it be made
+punishable in our citizens to accept licenses from foreign governments
+for a trade unlawfully interdicted by them to other American citizens,
+or to trade under false colors or papers of any sort.
+
+A prohibition is equally called for against the acceptance by our
+citizens of special licenses to be used in a trade with the United
+States, and against the admission into particular ports of the United
+States of vessels from foreign countries authorized to trade with
+particular ports only.
+
+Although other subjects will press more immediately on your
+deliberations, a portion of them can not but be well bestowed on the
+just and sound policy of securing to our manufactures the success they
+have attained, and are still attaining, in some degree, under the
+impulse of causes not permanent, and to our navigation, the fair extent
+of which is at present abridged by the unequal regulations of foreign
+governments.
+
+Besides the reasonableness of saving our manufactures from sacrifices
+which a change of circumstances might bring on them, the national
+interest requires that, with respect to such articles at least as belong
+to our defense and our primary wants, we should not be left in
+unnecessary dependence on external supplies. And whilst foreign
+governments adhere to the existing discriminations in their ports
+against our navigation, and an equality or lesser discrimination is
+enjoyed by their navigation in our ports, the effect can not be
+mistaken, because it has been seriously felt by our shipping interests;
+and in proportion as this takes place the advantages of an independent
+conveyance of our products to foreign markets and of a growing body of
+mariners trained by their occupations for the service of their country
+in times of danger must be diminished.
+
+The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th of
+September last have exceeded $13,500,000, and have enabled us to defray
+the current expenses, including the interest on the public debt, and to
+reimburse more than $5,000,000 of the principal without recurring to the
+loan authorized by the act of the last session. The temporary loan
+obtained in the latter end of the year 1810 has also been reimbursed,
+and is not included in that amount.
+
+The decrease of revenue arising from the situation of our commerce, and
+the extraordinary expenses which have and may become necessary, must be
+taken into view in making commensurate provisions for the ensuing year;
+and I recommend to your consideration the propriety of insuring a
+sufficiency of annual revenue at least to defray the ordinary expenses
+of Government, and to pay the interest on the public debt, including
+that on new loans which may be authorized.
+
+I can not close this communication without expressing my deep sense of
+the crisis in which you are assembled, my confidence in a wise and
+honorable result to your deliberations, and assurances of the faithful
+zeal with which my cooperating duties will be discharged, invoking at
+the same time the blessing of Heaven on our beloved country and on all
+the means that may be employed in vindicating its rights and advancing
+its welfare.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _November 13, 1811_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to Congress copies of a correspondence between the envoy
+extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Great Britain and the
+Secretary of State relative to the aggression committed by a British
+ship of war on the United States frigate _Chesapeake_, by which it
+will be seen that that subject of difference between the two countries
+is terminated by an offer of reparation, which has been acceded to.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 18, 1811_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress two letters received from Governor Harrison, of
+the Indiana Territory, reporting the particulars and the issue of the
+expedition under his command, of which notice was taken in my
+communication of November 5.
+
+While it is deeply lamented that so many valuable lives have been lost
+in the action which took place on the 7th ultimo, Congress will see with
+satisfaction the dauntless spirit and fortitude victoriously displayed
+by every description of the troops engaged, as well as the collected
+firmness which distinguished their commander on an occasion requiring
+the utmost exertions of valor and discipline.
+
+It may reasonably be expected that the good effects of this critical
+defeat and dispersion of a combination of savages, which appears to have
+been spreading to a greater extent, will be experienced not only in a
+cessation of the murders and depredations committed on our frontier, but
+in the prevention of any hostile incursions otherwise to have been
+apprehended.
+
+The families of those brave and patriotic citizens who have fallen in
+this severe conflict will doubtless engage the favorable attention of
+Congress.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 23, 1811_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to Congress copies of an act of the legislature of New
+York relating to a canal from the Great Lakes to Hudson River. In making
+the communication I consult the respect due to that State, in whose
+behalf the commissioners appointed by the act have placed it in my hands
+for the purpose.
+
+The utility of canal navigation is universally admitted. It is no less
+certain that scarcely any country offers more extensive opportunities
+for that branch of improvements than the United States, and none,
+perhaps, inducements equally persuasive to make the most of them. The
+particular undertaking contemplated by the State of New York, which
+marks an honorable spirit of enterprise and comprises objects of
+national as well as more limited importance, will recall the attention
+of Congress to the signal advantages to be derived to the United States
+from a general system of internal communication and conveyance, and
+suggest to their consideration whatever steps may be proper on their
+part toward its introduction and accomplishment. As some of those
+advantages have an intimate connection with the arrangements and
+exertions for the general security, it is at a period calling for those
+that the merits of such a system will be seen in the strongest lights.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 27, 1811_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress copies of resolutions entered into by the
+legislature of Pennsylvania, which have been transmitted to me with that
+view by the governor of that State, in pursuance of one of the said
+resolutions.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 15, 1812_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress an account of the contingent expenses of the
+Government for the year 1811, incurred on the occasion of taking
+possession of the territory limited eastwardly by the river Perdido,
+and amounting to $3,396.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 16, 1812_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to Congress a letter from the envoy extraordinary and
+minister plenipotentiary of Great Britain to the Secretary of State,
+with the answer of the latter.
+
+The continued evidence afforded in this correspondence of the hostile
+policy of the British Government against our national rights strengthens
+the considerations recommending and urging the preparation of adequate
+means for maintaining them.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+MARCH 3, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+At the request of the convention assembled in the Territory of Orleans
+on the 22d day of November last, I transmit to Congress the proceedings
+of that body in pursuance of the act entitled "An act to enable the
+people of the Territory of Orleans to form a constitution and State
+government, and for the admission of the said State into the Union on an
+equal footing with the original States, and for other purposes."
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+MARCH 9, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress copies of certain documents which remain in the
+Department of State. They prove that at a recent period, whilst the
+United States, notwithstanding the wrongs sustained by them, ceased not
+to observe the laws of peace and neutrality toward Great Britain, and in
+the midst of amicable professions and negotiations on the part of the
+British Government, through its public minister here, a secret agent of
+that Government was employed in certain States, more especially at the
+seat of government in Massachusetts, in fomenting disaffection to the
+constituted authorities of the nation, and in intrigues with the
+disaffected, for the purpose of bringing about resistance to the laws,
+and eventually, in concert with a British force, of destroying the Union
+and forming the eastern part thereof into a political connection with
+Great Britain.
+
+In addition to the effect which the discovery of such a procedure ought
+to have on the public councils, it will not fail to render more dear to
+the hearts of all good citizens that happy union of these States which,
+under Divine Providence, is the guaranty of their liberties, their
+safety, their tranquillity, and their prosperity.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+APRIL 1, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Considering it as expedient, under existing circumstances and prospects,
+that a general embargo be laid on all vessels now in port, or hereafter
+arriving, for the period of sixty days, I recommend the immediate
+passage of a law to that effect.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+APRIL 20, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Among the incidents to the unexampled increase and expanding interests
+of the American nation under the fostering influence of free
+constitutions and just laws has been a corresponding accumulation of
+duties in the several Departments of the Government, and this has been
+necessarily the greater in consequence of the peculiar state of our
+foreign relations and the connection of these with our internal
+administration.
+
+The extensive and multiplied preparations into which the United States
+are at length driven for maintaining their violated rights have caused
+this augmentation of business to press on the Department of War
+particularly, with a weight disproportionate to the powers of any single
+officer, with no other aids than are authorized by existing laws. With a
+view to a more adequate arrangement for the essential objects of that
+Department, I recommend to the early consideration of Congress a
+provision for two subordinate appointments therein, with such
+compensations annexed as may be reasonably expected by citizens duly
+qualified for the important functions which may be properly assigned to
+them.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+MAY 26, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to Congress, for their information, copies and extracts
+from the correspondence of the Secretary of State and the minister
+plenipotentiary of the United States at Paris. These documents will
+place before Congress the actual posture of our relations with France.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _June 1, 1812_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to Congress certain documents, being a continuation of
+those heretofore laid before them on the subject of our affairs with
+Great Britain.
+
+Without going back beyond the renewal in 1803 of the war in which
+Great Britain is engaged, and omitting unrepaired wrongs of inferior
+magnitude, the conduct of her Government presents a series of acts
+hostile to the United States as an independent and neutral nation.
+
+British cruisers have been in the continued practice of violating
+the American flag on the great highway of nations, and of seizing
+and carrying off persons sailing under it, not in the exercise of a
+belligerent right founded on the law of nations against an enemy, but
+of a municipal prerogative over British subjects. British jurisdiction
+is thus extended to neutral vessels in a situation where no laws can
+operate but the law of nations and the laws of the country to which the
+vessels belong, and a self-redress is assumed which, if British subjects
+were wrongfully detained and alone concerned, is that substitution of
+force for a resort to the responsible sovereign which falls within
+the definition of war. Could the seizure of British subjects in such
+cases be regarded as within the exercise of a belligerent right, the
+acknowledged laws of war, which forbid an article of captured property
+to be adjudged without a regular investigation before a competent
+tribunal, would imperiously demand the fairest trial where the sacred
+rights of persons were at issue. In place of such a trial these rights
+are subjected to the will of every petty commander.
+
+The practice, hence, is so far from affecting British subjects alone
+that, under the pretext of searching for these, thousands of American
+citizens, under the safeguard of public law and of their national flag,
+have been torn from their country and from everything dear to them; have
+been dragged on board ships of war of a foreign nation and exposed,
+under the severities of their discipline, to be exiled to the most
+distant and deadly climes, to risk their lives in the battles of their
+oppressors, and to be the melancholy instruments of taking away those of
+their own brethren.
+
+Against this crying enormity, which Great Britain would be so prompt
+to avenge if committed against herself, the United States have in vain
+exhausted remonstrances and expostulations, and that no proof might be
+wanting of their conciliatory dispositions, and no pretext left for a
+continuance of the practice, the British Government was formally assured
+of the readiness of the United States to enter into arrangements such as
+could not be rejected if the recovery of British subjects were the real
+and the sole object. The communication passed without effect.
+
+British cruisers have been in the practice also of violating the rights
+and the peace of our coasts. They hover over and harass our entering and
+departing commerce. To the most insulting pretensions they have added
+the most lawless proceedings in our very harbors, and have wantonly
+spilt American blood within the sanctuary of our territorial
+jurisdiction. The principles and rules enforced by that nation, when
+a neutral nation, against armed vessels of belligerents hovering near
+her coasts and disturbing her commerce are well known. When called on,
+nevertheless, by the United States to punish the greater offenses
+committed by her own vessels, her Government has bestowed on their
+commanders additional marks of honor and confidence.
+
+Under pretended blockades, without the presence of an adequate force and
+sometimes without the practicability of applying one, our commerce has
+been plundered in every sea, the great staples of our country have been
+cut off from their legitimate markets, and a destructive blow aimed
+at our agricultural and maritime interests. In aggravation of these
+predatory measures they have been considered as in force from the dates
+of their notification, a retrospective effect being thus added, as has
+been done in other important cases, to the unlawfulness of the course
+pursued. And to render the outrage the more signal these mock blockades
+have been reiterated and enforced in the face of official communications
+from the British Government declaring as the true definition of a legal
+blockade "that particular ports must be actually invested and previous
+warning given to vessels bound to them not to enter."
+
+Not content with these occasional expedients for laying waste our
+neutral trade, the cabinet of Britain resorted at length to the sweeping
+system of blockades, under the name of orders in council, which has
+been molded and managed as might best suit its political views, its
+commercial jealousies, or the avidity of British cruisers.
+
+To our remonstrances against the complicated and transcendent injustice
+of this innovation the first reply was that the orders were reluctantly
+adopted by Great Britain as a necessary retaliation on decrees of her
+enemy proclaiming a general blockade of the British Isles at a time when
+the naval force of that enemy dared not issue from his own ports. She
+was reminded without effect that her own prior blockades, unsupported by
+an adequate naval force actually applied and continued, were a bar to
+this plea; that executed edicts against millions of our property could
+not be retaliation on edicts confessedly impossible to be executed; that
+retaliation, to be just, should fall on the party setting the guilty
+example, not on an innocent party which was not even chargeable with an
+acquiescence in it.
+
+When deprived of this flimsy veil for a prohibition of our trade with
+her enemy by the repeal of his prohibition of our trade with Great
+Britain, her cabinet, instead of a corresponding repeal or a practical
+discontinuance of its orders, formally avowed a determination to persist
+in them against the United States until the markets of her enemy should
+be laid open to British products, thus asserting an obligation on a
+neutral power to require one belligerent to encourage by its internal
+regulations the trade of another belligerent, contradicting her own
+practice toward all nations, in peace as well as in war, and betraying
+the insincerity of those professions which inculcated a belief that,
+having resorted to her orders with regret, she was anxious to find an
+occasion for putting an end to them.
+
+Abandoning still more all respect for the neutral rights of the United
+States and for its own consistency, the British Government now demands
+as prerequisites to a repeal of its orders as they relate to the United
+States that a formality should be observed in the repeal of the French
+decrees nowise necessary to their termination nor exemplified by British
+usage, and that the French repeal, besides including that portion of the
+decrees which operates within a territorial jurisdiction, as well as
+that which operates on the high seas, against the commerce of the United
+States should not be a single and special repeal in relation to the
+United States, but should be extended to whatever other neutral nations
+unconnected with them may be affected by those decrees. And as an
+additional insult, they are called on for a formal disavowal of
+conditions and pretensions advanced by the French Government for which
+the United States are so far from having made themselves responsible
+that, in official explanations which have been published to the world,
+and in a correspondence of the American minister at London with the
+British minister for foreign affairs such a responsibility was
+explicitly and emphatically disclaimed.
+
+It has become, indeed, sufficiently certain that the commerce of
+the United States is to be sacrificed, not as interfering with the
+belligerent rights of Great Britain; not as supplying the wants of
+her enemies, which she herself supplies; but as interfering with the
+monopoly which she covets for her own commerce and navigation. She
+carries on a war against the lawful commerce of a friend that she may
+the better carry on a commerce with an enemy--a commerce polluted by the
+forgeries and perjuries which are for the most part the only passports
+by which it can succeed.
+
+Anxious to make every experiment short of the last resort of injured
+nations, the United States have withheld from Great Britain, under
+successive modifications, the benefits of a free intercourse with their
+market, the loss of which could not but outweigh the profits accruing
+from her restrictions of our commerce with other nations. And to entitle
+these experiments to the more favorable consideration they were so
+framed as to enable her to place her adversary under the exclusive
+operation of them. To these appeals her Government has been equally
+inflexible, as if willing to make sacrifices of every sort rather than
+yield to the claims of justice or renounce the errors of a false pride.
+Nay, so far were the attempts carried to overcome the attachment
+of the British cabinet to its unjust edicts that it received every
+encouragement within the competency of the executive branch of our
+Government to expect that a repeal of them would be followed by a war
+between the United States and France, unless the French edicts should
+also be repealed. Even this communication, although silencing forever
+the plea of a disposition in the United States to acquiesce in those
+edicts originally the sole plea for them, received no attention.
+
+If no other proof existed of a predetermination of the British
+Government against a repeal of its orders, it might be found in the
+correspondence of the minister plenipotentiary of the United States at
+London and the British secretary for foreign affairs in 1810, on the
+question whether the blockade of May, 1806, was considered as in force
+or as not in force. It had been ascertained that the French Government,
+which urged this blockade as the ground of its Berlin decree, was
+willing in the event of its removal to repeal that decree, which, being
+followed by alternate repeals of the other offensive edicts, might
+abolish the whole system on both sides. This inviting opportunity for
+accomplishing an object so important to the United States, and professed
+so often to be the desire of both the belligerents, was made known
+to the British Government. As that Government admits that an actual
+application of an adequate force is necessary to the existence of a
+legal blockade, and it was notorious that if such a force had ever been
+applied its long discontinuance had annulled the blockade in question,
+there could be no sufficient objection on the part of Great Britain to a
+formal revocation of it, and no imaginable objection to a declaration of
+the fact that the blockade did not exist. The declaration would have
+been consistent with her avowed principles of blockade, and would have
+enabled the United States to demand from France the pledged repeal of
+her decrees, either with success, in which case the way would have
+been opened for a general repeal of the belligerent edicts, or without
+success, in which case the United States would have been justified
+in turning their measures exclusively against France. The British
+Government would, however, neither rescind the blockade nor declare its
+nonexistence, nor permit its nonexistence to be inferred and affirmed
+by the American plenipotentiary. On the contrary, by representing the
+blockade to be comprehended in the orders in council, the United States
+were compelled so to regard it in their subsequent proceedings.
+
+There was a period when a favorable change in the policy of the
+British cabinet was justly considered as established. The minister
+plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty here proposed an adjustment of
+the differences more immediately endangering the harmony of the two
+countries. The proposition was accepted with the promptitude and
+cordiality corresponding with the invariable professions of this
+Government. A foundation appeared to be laid for a sincere and lasting
+reconciliation. The prospect, however, quickly vanished. The whole
+proceeding was disavowed by the British Government without any
+explanations which could at that time repress the belief that the
+disavowal proceeded from a spirit of hostility to the commercial rights
+and prosperity of the United States; and it has since come into proof
+that at the very moment when the public minister was holding the
+language of friendship and inspiring confidence in the sincerity of the
+negotiation with which he was charged a secret agent of his Government
+was employed in intrigues having for their object a subversion of our
+Government and a dismemberment of our happy union.
+
+In reviewing the conduct of Great Britain toward the United States
+our attention is necessarily drawn to the warfare just renewed by the
+savages on one of our extensive frontiers--a warfare which is known to
+spare neither age nor sex and to be distinguished by features peculiarly
+shocking to humanity. It is difficult to account for the activity and
+combinations which have for some time been developing themselves among
+tribes in constant intercourse with British traders and garrisons
+without connecting their hostility with that influence and without
+recollecting the authenticated examples of such interpositions
+heretofore furnished by the officers and agents of that Government.
+
+Such is the spectacle of injuries and indignities which have been heaped
+on our country, and such the crisis which its unexampled forbearance and
+conciliatory efforts have not been able to avert. It might at least
+have been expected that an enlightened nation, if less urged by moral
+obligations or invited by friendly dispositions on the part of the
+United States, would have found in its true interest alone a sufficient
+motive to respect their rights and their tranquillity on the high
+seas; that an enlarged policy would have favored that free and general
+circulation of commerce in which the British nation is at all times
+interested, and which in times of war is the best alleviation of its
+calamities to herself as well as to other belligerents; and more
+especially that the British cabinet would not, for the sake of a
+precarious and surreptitious intercourse with hostile markets, have
+persevered in a course of measures which necessarily put at hazard the
+invaluable market of a great and growing country, disposed to cultivate
+the mutual advantages of an active commerce.
+
+Other counsels have prevailed. Our moderation and conciliation have
+had no other effect than to encourage perseverance and to enlarge
+pretensions. We behold our seafaring citizens still the daily victims of
+lawless violence, committed on the great common and highway of nations,
+even within sight of the country which owes them protection. We behold
+our vessels, freighted with the products of our soil and industry, or
+returning with the honest proceeds of them, wrested from their lawful
+destinations, confiscated by prize courts no longer the organs of public
+law but the instruments of arbitrary edicts, and their unfortunate crews
+dispersed and lost, or forced or inveigled in British ports into British
+fleets, whilst arguments are employed in support of these aggressions
+which have no foundation but in a principle equally supporting a claim
+to regulate our external commerce in all cases whatsoever.
+
+We behold, in fine, on the side of Great Britain a state of war against
+the United States, and on the side of the United States a state of peace
+toward Great Britain.
+
+Whether the United States shall continue passive under these progressive
+usurpations and these accumulating wrongs, or, opposing force to force
+in defense of their national rights, shall commit a just cause into
+the hands of the Almighty Disposer of Events, avoiding all connections
+which might entangle it in the contest or views of other powers,
+and preserving a constant readiness to concur in an honorable
+reestablishment of peace and friendship, is a solemn question which
+the Constitution wisely confides to the legislative department of the
+Government. In recommending it to their early deliberations I am happy
+in the assurance that the decision will be worthy the enlightened and
+patriotic councils of a virtuous, a free, and a powerful nation.
+
+Having presented this view of the relations of the United States with
+Great Britain and of the solemn alternative growing out of them, I
+proceed to remark that the communications last made to Congress on the
+subject of our relations with France will have shewn that since the
+revocation of her decrees, as they violated the neutral rights of the
+United States, her Government has authorized illegal captures by its
+privateers and public ships, and that other outrages have been practiced
+on our vessels and our citizens. It will have been seen also that no
+indemnity had been provided or satisfactorily pledged for the extensive
+spoliations committed under the violent and retrospective orders of the
+French Government against the property of our citizens seized within the
+jurisdiction of France. I abstain at this time from recommending to the
+consideration of Congress definitive measures with respect to that
+nation, in the expectation that the result of unclosed discussions
+between our minister plenipotentiary at Paris and the French Government
+will speedily enable Congress to decide with greater advantage on the
+course due to the rights, the interests, and the honor of our country.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JUNE 30, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+With a view the better to adapt to the public service the volunteer
+force contemplated by the act passed on the 6th day of February, I
+recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency of making the
+requisite provision for the officers thereof being commissioned by the
+authority of the United States.
+
+Considering the distribution of the military forces of the United States
+required by the circumstances of our country, I recommend also to the
+consideration of Congress the expediency of providing for the
+appointment of an additional number of general officers, and of deputies
+in the Adjutant's, Quartermaster's, Inspector's, and Paymaster's
+departments of the Army, and for the employment in cases of emergency of
+additional engineers.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JULY 1, 1812.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+26th of June, I transmit the information contained in the documents
+herewith enclosed.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+_From the Secretary of State to General George Matthews and Colonel
+John M'Kee_.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF STATE, _January 26, 1811_.
+
+The President of the United States having appointed you jointly and
+severally commissioners for carrying into effect certain provisions of
+an act of Congress (a copy of which is inclosed) relative to the portion
+of the Floridas situated to the east of the river Perdido, you will
+repair to that quarter with all possible expedition, concealing from
+general observation the trust committed to you with that discretion
+which the delicacy and importance of the undertaking require.
+
+Should you find Governor Folk or the local authority existing there
+inclined to surrender in an amicable manner the possession of the
+remaining portion or portions of West Florida now held by him in the
+name of the Spanish Monarchy, you are to accept in behalf of the United
+States the abdication of his or of the other existing authority and the
+jurisdiction of the country over which it extends. And should a
+stipulation be insisted on for the redelivery of the country at a future
+period, you may engage for such redelivery to the lawful sovereign.
+
+The debts clearly due from the Spanish Government to the people of the
+Territory surrendered may, if insisted on, be assumed within reasonable
+limits and under specified descriptions to be settled hereafter as a
+claim against Spain in an adjustment of our affairs with her. You may
+also guarantee, in the name of the United States, the confirmation of
+all such titles to land as are clearly sanctioned by Spanish laws, and
+Spanish civil functionaries, where no special reasons may require
+changes, are to be permitted to remain in office with the assurance of a
+continuation of the prevailing laws, with such alterations only as may
+be necessarily required in the new situation of the country.
+
+If it should be required and be found necessary, you may agree to
+advance, as above, a reasonable sum for the transportation of the
+Spanish troops.
+
+These directions are adapted to one of the contingencies specified in
+the act of Congress, namely, the amicable surrender of the possession of
+the Territory by the local ruling authority. But should the arrangement
+contemplated by the statute not be made, and should there be room to
+entertain a suspicion of an existing design in any foreign power to
+occupy the country in question, you are to keep yourselves on the alert,
+and on the first undoubted manifestation of the approach of a force for
+that purpose you will exercise with promptness and vigor the powers with
+which you are invested by the President to preoccupy by force the
+Territory, to the entire exclusion of any armament that may be advancing
+to take the possession of it. In this event you will exercise a sound
+discretion in applying the powers given with respect to debts, titles to
+lands, civil officers, and the continuation of the Spanish laws, taking
+care to commit the Government on no point further than may be necessary;
+and should any Spanish military force remain within the country after
+the occupancy by the troops of the United States, you may in such case
+aid in their removal from the same.
+
+The universal toleration which the laws of the United States assure to
+every religious persuasion will not escape you as an argument for
+quieting the minds of uninformed individuals who may entertain fears on
+that head.
+
+The conduct you are to pursue in regard to East Florida must be
+regulated by the dictates of your own judgments, on a close view and
+accurate knowledge of the precise state of things there, and of the real
+disposition of the Spanish Government always recurring to the present
+instruction as the paramount rule of your proceedings. Should you
+discover an inclination in the governor of East Florida, or in the
+existing local authority, amicably to surrender that province into the
+possession of the United States, you are to accept it on the same terms
+that are prescribed by these instructions in relation to West Florida.
+And in case of the actual appearance of any attempt to take possession
+by a foreign power, you will pursue the same effective measures for the
+occupation of the Territory and for the exclusion of the foreign force
+as you are directed to pursue with respect to the country east of the
+Perdido, forming at this time the extent of Governor Folk's
+jurisdiction.
+
+If you should, under these instructions, obtain possession of Mobile,
+you will lose no time in informing Governor Claiborne thereof, with a
+request that he will without delay take the necessary steps for the
+occupation of the same.
+
+All ordnance and military stores that may be found in the Territory must
+be held as the property of the Spanish Government, to be accounted for
+hereafter to the proper authority, and you will not fail to transmit an
+inventory thereof to this Department.
+
+If in the execution of any part of these instructions you should need
+the aid of a military force, the same will be afforded you upon your
+application to the commanding officer of the troops of the United States
+on that station, or to the commanding officer of the nearest post, in
+virtue of orders which have been issued from the War Department. And in
+case you should, moreover, need naval assistance, you will receive the
+same upon your application to the naval commander in pursuance of orders
+from the Navy Department.
+
+From the Treasury Department will be issued the necessary instructions
+in relation to imposts and duties, and to the slave ships whose arrival
+is apprehended.
+
+The President, relying upon your discretion, authorizes you to draw upon
+the collectors of Orleans and Savannah for such sums as may be necessary
+to defray unavoidable expenses that may be incurred in the execution of
+these instructions, not exceeding in your drafts on New Orleans $8,000
+and in your drafts on Savannah $2,000, without further authority, of
+which expenses you will hereafter exhibit a detailed account duly
+supported by satisfactory vouchers.
+
+POSTSCRIPT.--If Governor Folk should unexpectedly require and
+pertinaciously insist that the stipulation for the redelivery of the
+Territory should also include that portion of the country which is
+situated west of the river Perdido, you are, in yielding to such demand,
+only to use general words that may by implication comprehend that
+portion of country; but at the same time you are expressly to provide
+that such stipulation shall not in any way impair or affect the right or
+title of the United States to the same.
+
+
+
+_The Secretary of State to General Matthews_.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF STATE, _April 4, 1812_.
+
+General MATTHEWS, etc.
+
+SIR: I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 14th of March,
+and have now to communicate to you the sentiments of the President on
+the very interesting subject to which it relates.
+
+I am sorry to have to state that the measures which you appear to have
+adopted for obtaining possession of Amelia Island and other parts of
+Bast Florida are not authorized by the law of the United States or the
+instructions founded on it under which you have acted.
+
+You were authorized by the law, a copy of which was communicated to you,
+and by your instructions, which are strictly conformable to it, to take
+possession of East Florida only in case one of the following contingencies
+should happen: Either that the governor or other existing local
+authority should be disposed to place it amicably in the hands of the
+United States, or that an attempt should be made to, take possession
+of it by a foreign power. Should the first contingency happen it would
+follow that the arrangement, being amicable, would require no force on
+the part of the United States to carry it into effect. It was only in
+case of an attempt to take it by a foreign power that force could be
+necessary, in which event only were you authorized to avail yourself
+of it.
+
+In neither of these contingencies was it the policy of the law or
+purpose of the Executive to wrest the Province forcibly from Spain,
+but only to occupy it with a view to prevent its falling into the
+hands of any foreign power, and to hold that pledge under the existing
+peculiarity of the circumstances of the Spanish Monarchy for a just
+result in an amicable negotiation with Spain.
+
+Had the United States been disposed to proceed otherwise, that intention
+would have been manifested by a change of the law and suitable measures
+to carry it into effect; and as it was in their power to take possession
+whenever they might think that circumstances authorized and required it,
+it would be the more to be regretted if possession should be effected by
+any means irregular in themselves and subjecting the Government of the
+United States to unmerited censure.
+
+The views of the Executive respecting East Florida are further
+illustrated by your instructions as to West Florida. Although the United
+States have thought that they had a good title to the latter Province,
+they did not take possession until after the Spanish authority had been
+subverted by a revolutionary proceeding, and the contingency of the
+country being thrown into foreign hands had forced itself into view. Nor
+did they then, nor have they since, dispossessed the Spanish troops of
+the post which they occupied. If they did not think proper to take
+possession by force of a province to which they thought they were justly
+entitled, it could not be presumed that they should intend to act
+differently in respect to one to which they had not such a claim.
+
+I may add that although due sensibility has been always felt for the
+injuries which were received from the Spanish Government in the last
+war, the present situation of Spain has been a motive for a moderate and
+pacific policy toward her.
+
+In communicating to you these sentiments of the Executive on the
+measures you have lately adopted for taking possession of East Florida,
+I add with pleasure that the utmost confidence is reposed in your
+integrity and zeal to promote the welfare of your country. To that zeal
+the error into which you have fallen is imputed. But in consideration of
+the part which you have taken, which differs so essentially from that
+contemplated and authorized by the Government, and contradicts so
+entirely the principles on which it has uniformly and sincerely acted,
+you will be sensible of the necessity of discontinuing the service in
+which you have been employed.
+
+You will therefore consider your powers as revoked on the receipt of
+this letter. The new duties to be performed will be transferred to the
+governor of Georgia, to whom instructions will be given on all the
+circumstances to which it may be proper at the present juncture to call
+his attention.
+
+I have the honor to be, very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+_The Secretary of State to His Excellency D.B. Mitchell, the
+governor of Georgia_.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF STATE, _April 10, 1812_.
+
+SIR: The President is desirous of availing the public of your services
+in a concern of much delicacy and of high importance to the United
+States. Circumstances with which you are in some degree acquainted, but
+which will be fully explained by the inclosed papers, have made it
+necessary to revoke the powers heretofore committed to General Matthews
+and to commit them to you. The President is persuaded that you will not
+hesitate to undertake a trust so important to the nation, and peculiarly
+to the State of Georgia. He is the more confident in this belief from
+the consideration that these new duties may be discharged without
+interfering, as he presumes, with those of the station which you now
+hold.
+
+By the act of the 15th of January, 1811, you will observe that it was
+not contemplated to take possession of East Florida or any part thereof,
+unless it should be surrendered to the United States amicably by the
+governor or other local authority of the Province, or against an attempt
+to take possession of it by a foreign power, and you will also see that
+General Matthews's instructions, of which a copy is likewise inclosed,
+correspond fully with the law.
+
+By the documents in possession of the Government it appears that neither
+of these contingencies have happened; that instead of an amicable
+surrender by the governor or other local authority the troops of the
+United States have been used to dispossess the Spanish authority by
+force. I forbear to dwell on the details of this transaction because it
+is painful to recite them. By the letter to General Matthews which is
+inclosed, open for your perusal, you will fully comprehend the views of
+the Government respecting the late transaction, and by the law, the
+former instructions to the General, and the late letter now forwarded
+you will be made acquainted with the course of conduct which it is
+expected of you to pursue in future in discharging the duties heretofore
+enjoined on him.
+
+It is the desire of the President that you should turn your attention
+and direct your efforts in the first instance to the restoration of that
+state of things in the Province which existed before the late
+transactions. The Executive considers it proper to restore back to the
+Spanish authorities Amelia Island and such other parts, if any, of East
+Florida as may have thus been taken from them. With this view it will be
+necessary for you to communicate _directly_ with the governor or
+principal officer of Spain in that Province, and to act in harmony with
+him in the attainment of it. It is presumed that the arrangement will be
+easily and amicably made between you. I inclose you an order from the
+Secretary of War to the commander of the troops of the United States to
+evacuate the country when requested so to do by you, and to pay the same
+respect in future to your order in fulfilling the duties enjoined by the
+law that he had been instructed to do to that of General Matthews.
+
+In restoring to the Spanish authorities Amelia Island and such other
+parts of East Florida as may have been taken possession of in the name
+of the United States there is another object to which your particular
+attention will be due. In the measures lately adopted by General
+Matthews to take possession of that Territory it is probable that much
+reliance has been placed by the people who acted in it on the
+countenance and support of the United States. It will be improper to
+expose these people to the resentment of the Spanish authorities. It is
+not to be presumed that those authorities in regaining possession of the
+Territory in this amicable mode from the United States will be disposed
+to indulge any such feeling toward them. You will, however, come to a
+full understanding with the Spanish governor on this subject, and not
+fail to obtain from him the most explicit and satisfactory assurance
+respecting it. Of this assurance you will duly apprise the parties
+interested, and of the confidence which you repose in it. It is hoped
+that on this delicate and very interesting point the Spanish governor
+will avail himself of the opportunity it presents to evince the friendly
+disposition of his Government toward the United States.
+
+There is one other remaining circumstance only to which I wish to call
+your attention, and that relates to General Matthews himself. His
+gallant and meritorious services in our Revolution and patriotic conduct
+since have always been held in high estimation by the Government. His
+errors in this instance are imputed altogether to his zeal to promote
+the welfare of his country; but they are of a nature to impose on the
+Government the necessity of the measures now taken, in giving effect to
+which you will doubtless feel a disposition to consult, as far as may
+be, his personal sensibility.
+
+I have the honor to be, etc.,
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+P.S.--Should you find it impracticable to execute the duties designated
+above in person, the President requests that you will be so good as to
+employ some very respectable character to represent you in it, to whom
+you are authorized to allow a similar compensation. It is hoped,
+however, that you may be able to attend to it in person, for reasons
+which I need not enter into. The expenses to which you may be exposed
+will be promptly paid to your draft on this Department.
+
+
+
+_The Secretary of State to D.B. Mitchell, esq., governor of Georgia_.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF STATE, _May 27, 1812_.
+
+SIR: I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 2d instant from
+St. Marys, where you had arrived in discharge of the trust reposed in
+you by the President, in relation to East Florida.
+
+My letter by Mr. Isaacs has, I presume, substantially answered the most
+important of the queries submitted in your letter, but I will give to
+each a more distinct answer.
+
+By the law of which a copy was forwarded to you it is made the duty of
+the President to prevent the occupation of East Florida by any foreign
+power. It follows that you are authorized to consider the entrance, or
+attempt to enter, especially under existing circumstances, of British
+troops of any description as the case contemplated by the law, and to
+use the proper means to defeat it.
+
+An instruction will be immediately forwarded to the commander of the
+naval force of the United States in the neighborhood of East Florida to
+give you any assistance, in case of emergency, which you may think
+necessary and require.
+
+It is not expected, if you find it proper to withdraw the troops, that
+you should interfere to compel the patriots to surrender the country or
+any part of it to the Spanish authorities. The United States are
+responsible for their own conduct only; not for that of the inhabitants
+of East Florida. Indeed, in consequence of the compromitment of the
+United States to the inhabitants, you have been already instructed not
+to withdraw the troops, unless you find that it may be done consistently
+with their safety, and to report to the Government the result of your
+conferences with the Spanish authorities, with your opinion of their
+views, holding in the meantime the ground occupied.
+
+In the present state of our affairs with Great Britain the course above
+pointed out is the more justifiable and proper.
+
+I have the honor, etc.,
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+JULY 6, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate copies and extracts of documents in the
+archives of the Department of State falling within the purview of their
+resolution of the 4th instant, on the subject of British impressments
+from American vessels. The information, though voluminous, might have
+been enlarged with more time for research and preparation. In some
+instances it might at the same time have been abridged but for the
+difficulty of separating the matter extraneous to the immediate object
+of the resolution.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+
+VETO MESSAGE.
+
+
+APRIL 3, 1812.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Having examined and considered the bill entitled "An act providing for
+the trial of causes pending in the respective district courts of the
+United States, in case of the absence or disability of the judges
+thereof," which bill was presented to me on the 25th of March past, I
+now return the same to the House of Representatives, in which it
+originated, with the following objections:
+
+Because the additional services imposed by the bill on the justices of
+the Supreme Court of the United States are to be performed by them
+rather in the quality of other judges of other courts, namely, judges of
+the district courts, than in the quality of justices of the Supreme
+Court. They are to hold the said district courts, and to do and perform
+all acts relating to the said courts which are by law required of the
+district judges. The bill therefore virtually appoints, for the time,
+the justices of the Supreme Court to other distinct offices to which, if
+compatible with their original offices, they ought to be appointed by
+another than the legislative authority, in pursuance of legislative
+provisions authorizing the appointments.
+
+Because the appeal allowed by law for the decision of the district
+courts to the circuit courts, whilst it corroborates the construction
+which regards a judge of one court as clothed with a new office, by
+being constituted a judge of the other, submits for correction erroneous
+judgments, not to superior or other judges, but to the erring individual
+himself, acting as sole judge in the appellate court.
+
+Because the additional services to be required may, by distances of
+place and by the casualties contemplated by the bill, become
+disproportionate to the strength and health of the justices who are to
+perform them, the additional services being, moreover, entitled to no
+additional compensation, nor the additional expenses incurred to
+reimbursement. In this view the bill appears to be contrary to equity,
+as well as a precedent for modifications and extensions of judicial
+services encroaching on the constitutional tenure of judicial offices.
+
+Because, by referring to the President of the United States questions of
+disability in the district judges and of the unreasonableness of
+delaying the suits or causes pending in the district courts, and leaving
+it with him in such causes to require the justices of the Supreme Court
+to perform additional services, the bill introduces an unsuitable
+relation of members of the judiciary department to a discretionary
+authority of the executive department.
+
+JAMES MADISON
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATIONS.
+
+
+[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 1, p. 448.]
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas information has been received that a number of individuals who
+have deserted from the Army of the United States have become sensible of
+their offense and are desirous of returning to their duty, a full pardon
+is hereby granted and proclaimed to each and all such individuals as
+shall within four months from the date hereof surrender themselves to
+the commanding officer of any military post within the United States or
+the Territories thereof.
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
+affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Done at the city of Washington, the 7th day of February, A.D. 1812, and
+of the Independence of the United States the thirty-sixth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+[From Annals of Congress, Twelfth Congress, part 2, 2223.]
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas the Congress of the United States, by virtue of the constituted
+authority vested in them, have declared by their act bearing date the
+18th day of the present month that war exists between the United Kingdom
+of Great Britain and Ireland and the dependencies thereof and the United
+States of America and their Territories:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United States of
+America, do hereby proclaim the same to all whom it may concern; and I
+do specially enjoin on all persons holding offices, civil or military,
+under the authority of the United States that they be vigilant and
+zealous in discharging the duties respectively incident thereto; and I
+do moreover exhort all the good people of the United States, as they
+love their country, as they value the precious heritage derived from the
+virtue and valor of their fathers, as they feel the wrongs which have
+forced on them the last resort of injured nations, and as they consult
+the best means under the blessing of Divine Providence of abridging its
+calamities, that they exert themselves in preserving order, in promoting
+concord, in maintaining the authority and efficacy of the laws, and in
+supporting and invigorating all the measures which may be adopted by the
+constituted authorities for obtaining a speedy, a just, and an honorable
+peace.
+
+In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
+the United States to be affixed to these presents.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Done at the city of Washington, the 19th day of June, 1812, and of the
+Independence of the United States the thirty-sixth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+[From Annals of Congress, Twelfth Congress, part 2, 2224.]
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas the Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution of the
+two Houses, have signified a request that a day may be recommended to be
+observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity as
+a day of public humiliation and prayer; and
+
+Whereas such a recommendation will enable the several religious
+denominations and societies so disposed to offer at one and the same
+time their common vows and adorations to Almighty God on the solemn
+occasion produced by the war in which He has been pleased to permit
+the injustice of a foreign power to involve these United States:
+
+I do therefore recommend the third Thursday in August next as a
+convenient day to be set apart for the devout purposes of rendering the
+Sovereign of the Universe and the Benefactor of Mankind the public
+homage due to His holy attributes; of acknowledging the transgressions
+which might justly provoke the manifestations of His divine displeasure;
+of seeking His merciful forgiveness and His assistance in the great
+duties of repentance and amendment, and especially of offering fervent
+supplications that in the present season of calamity and war He would
+take the American people under His peculiar care and protection; that He
+would guide their public councils, animate their patriotism, and bestow
+His blessing on their arms; that He would inspire all nations with a
+love of justice and of concord and with a reverence for the unerring
+precept of our holy religion to do to others as they would require that
+others should do to them; and, finally, that, turning the hearts of our
+enemies from the violence and injustice which sway their councils
+against us, He would hasten a restoration of the blessings of peace.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Given at Washington, the 9th day of July, A.D. 1812.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 3, p. 101.]
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas information has been received that a number of individuals who
+have deserted from the Army of the United States have become sensible of
+their offenses and are desirous of returning to their duty, a full
+pardon is hereby granted and proclaimed to each and all such individuals
+as shall within four months from the date hereof surrender themselves to
+the commanding officer of any military post within the United States or
+the Territories thereof.
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
+affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Done at the city of Washington, the 8th day of October, A.D. 1812, and
+of the Independence of the United States the thirty-seventh.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _November 4, 1812_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+On our present meeting it is my first duty to invite your attention to
+the providential favors which our country has experienced in the unusual
+degree of health dispensed to its inhabitants, and in the rich abundance
+with which the earth has rewarded the labors bestowed on it. In the
+successful cultivation of other branches of industry, and in the
+progress of general improvement favorable to the national prosperity,
+there is just occasion also for our mutual congratulations and
+thankfulness.
+
+With these blessings are necessarily mingled the pressures and
+vicissitudes incident to the state of war into which the United States
+have been forced by the perseverance of a foreign power in its system of
+injustice and aggression.
+
+Previous to its declaration it was deemed proper, as a measure of
+precaution and forecast, that a considerable force should be placed in
+the Michigan Territory with a general view to its security, and, in
+the event of war, to such operations in the uppermost Canada as would
+intercept the hostile influence of Great Britain over the savages,
+obtain the command of the lake on which that part of Canada borders,
+and maintain cooperating relations with such forces as might be most
+conveniently employed against other parts. Brigadier-General Hull was
+charged with this provisional service, having under his command a body
+of troops composed of regulars and of volunteers from the State of Ohio.
+Having reached his destination after his knowledge of the war, and
+possessing discretionary authority to act offensively, he passed into
+the neighboring territory of the enemy with a prospect of easy and
+victorious progress. The expedition, nevertheless, terminated
+unfortunately, not only in a retreat to the town and fort of Detroit,
+but in the surrender of both and of the gallant corps commanded by that
+officer. The causes of this painful reverse will be investigated by a
+military tribunal.
+
+A distinguishing feature in the operations which preceded and followed
+this adverse event is the use made by the enemy of the merciless savages
+under their influence. Whilst the benevolent policy of the United States
+invariably recommended peace and promoted civilization among that
+wretched portion of the human race, and was making exertions to dissuade
+them from taking either side in the war, the enemy has not scrupled to
+call to his aid their ruthless ferocity, armed with the horrors of those
+instruments of carnage and torture which are known to spare neither age
+nor sex. In this outrage against the laws of honorable war and against
+the feelings sacred to humanity the British commanders can not resort to
+a plea of retaliation, for it is committed in the face of our example.
+They can not mitigate it by calling it a self-defense against men in
+arms, for it embraces the most shocking butcheries of defenseless
+families. Nor can it be pretended that they are not answerable for the
+atrocities perpetrated, since the savages are employed with a knowledge,
+and even with menaces, that their fury could not be controlled. Such is
+the spectacle which the deputed authorities of a nation boasting its
+religion and morality have not been restrained from presenting to an
+enlightened age.
+
+The misfortune at Detroit was not, however, without a consoling effect.
+It was followed by signal proofs that the national spirit rises
+according to the pressure on it. The loss of an important post and of
+the brave men surrendered with it inspired everywhere new ardor and
+determination. In the States and districts least remote it was no sooner
+known than every citizen was ready to fly with his arms at once to
+protect his brethren against the bloodthirsty savages let loose by the
+enemy on an extensive frontier, and to convert a partial calamity into
+a source of invigorated efforts. This patriotic zeal, which it was
+necessary rather to limit than excite, has embodied an ample force from
+the States of Kentucky and Ohio and from parts of Pennsylvania and
+Virginia. It is placed, with the addition of a few regulars, under
+the command of Brigadier-General Harrison, who possesses the entire
+confidence of his fellow-soldiers, among whom are citizens, some of them
+volunteers in the ranks, not less distinguished by their political
+stations than by their personal merits. The greater portion of this
+force is proceeding on its destination toward the Michigan Territory,
+having succeeded in relieving an important frontier post, and in several
+incidental operations against hostile tribes of savages, rendered
+indispensable by the subserviency into which they had been seduced by
+the enemy--a seduction the more cruel as it could not fail to impose a
+necessity of precautionary severities against those who yielded to it.
+
+At a recent date an attack was made on a post of the enemy near Niagara
+by a detachment of the regular and other forces under the command of
+Major-General Van Rensselaer, of the militia of the State of New York.
+The attack, it appears, was ordered in compliance with the ardor of the
+troops, who executed it with distinguished gallantry, and were for a
+time victorious; but not receiving the expected support, they were
+compelled to yield to reenforcements of British regulars and savages.
+Our loss has been considerable, and is deeply to be lamented. That of
+the enemy, less ascertained, will be the more felt, as it includes among
+the killed the commanding general, who was also the governor of the
+Province, and was sustained by veteran troops from unexperienced
+soldiers, who must daily improve in the duties of the field.
+
+Our expectation of gaining the command of the Lakes by the invasion of
+Canada from Detroit having been disappointed, measures were instantly
+taken to provide on them a naval force superior to that of the enemy.
+From the talents and activity of the officer charged with this object
+everything that can be done may be expected. Should the present season
+not admit of complete success, the progress made will insure for the
+next a naval ascendency where it is essential to our permanent peace
+with and control over the savages.
+
+Among the incidents to the measures of the war I am constrained to
+advert to the refusal of the governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut
+to furnish the required detachments of militia toward the defense of the
+maritime frontier. The refusal was founded on a novel and unfortunate
+exposition of the provisions of the Constitution relating to the
+militia. The correspondences which will be laid before you contain
+the requisite information on the subject. It is obvious that if the
+authority of the United States to call into service and command the
+militia for the public defense can be thus frustrated, even in a state
+of declared war and of course under apprehensions of invasion preceding
+war, they are not one nation for the purpose most of all requiring it,
+and that the public safety may have no other resource than in those
+large and permanent military establishments which are forbidden by the
+principles of our free government, and against the necessity of which
+the militia were meant to be a constitutional bulwark.
+
+On the coasts and on the ocean the war has been as successful as
+circumstances inseparable from its early stages could promise. Our
+public ships and private cruisers, by their activity, and, where there
+was occasion, by their intrepidity, have made the enemy sensible of the
+difference between a reciprocity of captures and the long confinement of
+them to their side. Our trade, with little exception, has safely reached
+our ports, having been much favored in it by the course pursued by a
+squadron of our frigates under the command of Commodore Rodgers, and in
+the instance in which skill and bravery were more particularly tried
+with those of the enemy the American flag had an auspicious triumph.
+The frigate _Constitution_, commanded by Captain Hull, after a close
+and short engagement completely disabled and captured a British frigate,
+gaining for that officer and all on board a praise which can not be too
+liberally bestowed, not merely for the victory actually achieved, but
+for that prompt and cool exertion of commanding talents which, giving to
+courage its highest character, and to the force applied its full effect,
+proved that more could have been done in a contest requiring more.
+
+Anxious to abridge the evils from which a state of war can not be
+exempt, I lost no time after it was declared in conveying to the British
+Government the terms on which its progress might be arrested, without
+awaiting the delays of a formal and final pacification, and our chargé
+d'affaires at London was at the same time authorized to agree to an
+armistice founded upon them. These terms required that the orders in
+council should be repealed as they affected the United States, without a
+revival of blockades violating acknowledged rules, and that there should
+be an immediate discharge of American seamen from British ships, and a
+stop to impressment from American ships, with an understanding that
+an exclusion of the seamen of each nation from the ships of the other
+should be stipulated, and that the armistice should be improved into
+a definitive and comprehensive adjustment of depending controversies.
+Although a repeal of the orders susceptible of explanations meeting the
+views of this Government had taken place before this pacific advance was
+communicated to that of Great Britain, the advance was declined from an
+avowed repugnance to a suspension of the practice of impressments during
+the armistice, and without any intimation that the arrangement proposed
+with respect to seamen would be accepted. Whether the subsequent
+communications from this Government, affording an occasion for
+reconsidering the subject on the part of Great Britain, will be viewed
+in a more favorable light or received in a more accommodating spirit
+remains to be known. It would be unwise to relax our measures in any
+respect on a presumption of such a result.
+
+The documents from the Department of State which relate to this subject
+will give a view also of the propositions for an armistice which have
+been received here, one of them from the authorities at Halifax and in
+Canada, the other from the British Government itself through Admiral
+Warren, and of the grounds on which neither of them could be accepted.
+
+Our affairs with France retain the posture which they held at my last
+communications to you. Notwithstanding the authorized expectations of an
+early as well as favorable issue to the discussions on foot, these have
+been procrastinated to the latest date. The only intervening occurrence
+meriting attention is the promulgation of a French decree purporting to
+be a definitive repeal of the Berlin and Milan decrees. This proceeding,
+although made the ground of the repeal of the British orders in council,
+is rendered by the time and manner of it liable to many objections.
+
+The final communications from our special minister to Denmark afford
+further proofs of the good effects of his mission, and of the amicable
+disposition of the Danish Government. From Russia we have the
+satisfaction to receive assurances of continued friendship, and that it
+will not be affected by the rupture between the United States and Great
+Britain. Sweden also professes sentiments favorable to the subsisting
+harmony.
+
+With the Barbary Powers, excepting that of Algiers, our affairs remain
+on the ordinary footing. The consul-general residing with that Regency
+has suddenly and without cause been banished, together with all the
+American citizens found there. Whether this was the transitory effect of
+capricious despotism or the first act of predetermined hostility is not
+ascertained. Precautions were taken by the consul on the latter
+supposition.
+
+The Indian tribes not under foreign instigations remain at peace, and
+receive the civilizing attentions which have proved so beneficial to
+them.
+
+With a view to that vigorous prosecution of the war to which our
+national faculties are adequate, the attention of Congress will be
+particularly drawn to the insufficiency of existing provisions for
+filling up the military establishment. Such is the happy condition of
+our country, arising from the facility of subsistence and the high wages
+for every species of occupation, that notwithstanding the augmented
+inducements provided at the last session, a partial success only has
+attended the recruiting service. The deficiency has been necessarily
+supplied during the campaign by other than regular troops, with all
+the inconveniences and expense incident to them. The remedy lies in
+establishing more favorably for the private soldier the proportion
+between his recompense and the term of his enlistment, and it is a
+subject which can not too soon or too seriously be taken into
+consideration.
+
+The same insufficiency has been experienced in the provisions for
+volunteers made by an act of the last session. The recompense for the
+service required in this case is still less attractive than in the
+other, and although patriotism alone has sent into the field some
+valuable corps of that description, those alone who can afford the
+sacrifice can be reasonably expected to yield to that impulse.
+
+It will merit consideration also whether as auxiliary to the security
+of our frontiers corps may not be advantageously organized with a
+restriction of their services to particular districts convenient to
+them, and whether the local and occasional services of mariners and
+others in the seaport towns under a similar organization would not be
+a provident addition to the means of their defense.
+
+I recommend a provision for an increase of the general officers of the
+Army, the deficiency of which has been illustrated by the number and
+distance of separate commands which the course of the war and the
+advantage of the service have required.
+
+And I can not press too strongly on the earliest attention of the
+Legislature the importance of the reorganization of the staff
+establishment with a view to render more distinct and definite the
+relations and responsibilities of its several departments. That there
+is room for improvements which will materially promote both economy and
+success in what appertains to the Army and the war is equally inculcated
+by the examples of other countries and by the experience of our own.
+
+A revision of the militia laws for the purpose of rendering them more
+systematic and better adapting them to emergencies of the war is at this
+time particularly desirable.
+
+Of the additional ships authorized to be fitted for service, two will
+be shortly ready to sail, a third is under repair, and delay will be
+avoided in the repair of the residue. Of the appropriations for the
+purchase of materials for shipbuilding, the greater part has been
+applied to that object and the purchase will be continued with the
+balance.
+
+The enterprising spirit which has characterized our naval force and its
+success, both in restraining insults and depredations on our coasts and
+in reprisals on the enemy, will not fail to recommend an enlargement of
+it.
+
+There being reason to believe that the act prohibiting the acceptance
+of British licenses is not a sufficient guard against the use of them,
+for purposes favorable to the interests and views of the enemy, further
+provisions on that subject are highly important. Nor is it less so that
+penal enactments should be provided for cases of corrupt and perfidious
+intercourse with the enemy, not amounting to treason nor yet embraced
+by any statutory provisions.
+
+A considerable number of American vessels which were in England when the
+revocation of the orders in council took place were laden with British
+manufactures under an erroneous impression that the nonimportation act
+would immediately cease to operate, and have arrived in the United
+States. It did not appear proper to exercise on unforeseen cases of such
+magnitude the ordinary powers vested in the Treasury Department to
+mitigate forfeitures without previously affording to Congress an
+opportunity of making on the subject such provision as they may think
+proper. In their decision they will doubtless equally consult what is
+due to equitable considerations and to the public interest.
+
+The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th of
+September last have exceeded $16,500,000, which have been sufficient
+to defray all the demands on the Treasury to that day, including a
+necessary reimbursement of near three millions of the principal of the
+public debt. In these receipts is included a sum of near $5,850,000,
+received on account of the loans authorized by the acts of the last
+session; the whole sum actually obtained on loan amounts to $11,000,000,
+the residue of which, being receivable subsequent to the 30th of
+September last, will, together with the current revenue, enable us to
+defray all the expenses of this year.
+
+The duties on the late unexpected importations of British manufactures
+will render the revenue of the ensuing year more productive than could
+have been anticipated.
+
+The situation of our country, fellow-citizens, is not without its
+difficulties, though it abounds in animating considerations, of which
+the view here presented of our pecuniary resources is an example. With
+more than one nation we have serious and unsettled controversies, and
+with one, powerful in the means and habits of war, we are at war. The
+spirit and strength of the nation are nevertheless equal to the support
+of all its rights, and to carry it through all its trials. They can be
+met in that confidence. Above all, we have the inestimable consolation
+of knowing that the war in which we are actually engaged is a war
+neither of ambition nor of vainglory; that it is waged not in violation
+of the rights of others, but in the maintenance of our own; that it was
+preceded by a patience without example under wrongs accumulating without
+end, and that it was finally not declared until every hope of averting
+it was extinguished by the transfer of the British scepter into new
+hands clinging to former councils, and until declarations were
+reiterated to the last hour, through the British envoy here, that
+the hostile edicts against our commercial rights and our maritime
+independence would not be revoked; nay, that they could not be revoked
+without violating the obligations of Great Britain to other powers, as
+well as to her own interests. To have shrunk under such circumstances
+from manly resistance would have been a degradation blasting our best
+and proudest hopes; it would have struck us from the high rank where the
+virtuous struggles of our fathers had placed us, and have betrayed the
+magnificent legacy which we hold in trust for future generations. It
+would have acknowledged that on the element which forms three-fourths of
+the globe we inhabit, and where all independent nations have equal and
+common rights, the American people were not an independent people,
+but colonists and vassals. It was at this moment and with such an
+alternative that war was chosen. The nation felt the necessity of it,
+and called for it. The appeal was accordingly made, in a just cause,
+to the Just and All-powerful Being who holds in His hand the chain of
+events and the destiny of nations. It remains only that, faithful to
+ourselves, entangled in no connections with the views of other powers,
+and ever ready to accept peace from the hand of justice, we prosecute
+the war with united counsels and with the ample faculties of the nation
+until peace be so obtained and as the only means under the Divine
+blessing of speedily obtaining it.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+NOVEMBER, 12, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+For the further information of Congress relative to the pacific advances
+made on the part of this Government to that of Great Britain, and the
+manner in which they have been met by the latter, I transmit the sequel
+of the communications on that subject received from the late chargé
+d'affaires at London.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+NOVEMBER 17, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress copies of a letter from the consul general of
+the United States to Algiers, stating the circumstances preceding and
+attending his departure from that Regency.
+
+JAMES MADISON
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 11, 1812_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress copies of a letter to the Secretary of the Navy
+from Captain Decatur, of the frigate _United States_, reporting his
+combat and capture of the British frigate _Macedonian_. Too much
+praise can not be bestowed on that officer and his companions on board
+for the consummate skill and conspicuous valor by which this trophy has
+been added to the naval arms of the United States.
+
+I transmit also a letter from Captain Jones, who commanded the sloop
+of war _Wasp_, reporting his capture of the British sloop of war
+_Frolic_, after a close action, in which other brilliant titles will
+be seen to the public admiration and praise.
+
+A nation feeling what it owes to itself and to its citizens could never
+abandon to arbitrary violence on the ocean a class of them which give
+such examples of capacity and courage in defending their rights on that
+element, examples which ought to impress on the enemy, however brave and
+powerful, preference of justice and peace to hostility against a country
+whose prosperous career may be accelerated but can not be prevented by
+the assaults made on it.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 22, 1813.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit, for the information of Congress, copies of a correspondence
+between John Mitchell, agent for American prisoners of war at Halifax,
+and the British admiral commanding at that station.
+
+I transmit, for the like purpose, copies of a letter from Commodore
+Rodgers to the Secretary of the Navy,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 22, 1813.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress a letter, with accompanying documents, from
+Captain Bainbridge, now commanding the United States frigate the
+_Constitution_, reporting his capture and destruction of the
+British frigate the _Java_. The circumstances and the issue of this
+combat afford another example of the professional skill and heroic
+spirit which prevail in our naval service. The signal display of both by
+Captain Bainbridge, his officers and crew, commands the highest praise.
+
+This being a second instance in which the condition of the captured
+ship, by rendering it impossible to get her into port, has barred
+a contemplated reward of successful valor, I recommend to the
+consideration of Congress the equity and propriety of a general
+provision allowing in such cases, both past and future, a fair
+proportion of the value which would accrue to the captors on the
+safe arrival and sale of the prize.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 24, 1813.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress copies of a proclamation of the British
+lieutenant-governor of the island of Bermuda, which has appeared under
+circumstances leaving no doubt of its authenticity. It recites a British
+order in council of the 26th of October last, providing for the supply
+of the British West Indies and other colonial possessions by a trade
+under special licenses, and is accompanied by a circular instruction to
+the colonial governors which confines licensed importations from ports
+of the United States to the ports of the Eastern States exclusively.
+
+The Government of Great Britain had already introduced into her commerce
+during war a system which, at once violating the rights of other nations
+and resting on a mass of forgery and perjury unknown to other times,
+was making an unfortunate progress in undermining those principles
+of morality and religion which are the best foundation of national
+happiness.
+
+The policy now proclaimed to the world introduces into her modes of
+warfare a system equally distinguished by the deformity of its features
+and the depravity of its character, having for its object to dissolve
+the ties of allegiance and the sentiments of loyalty in the adversary
+nation, and to seduce and separate its component parts the one from the
+other.
+
+The general tendency of these demoralizing and disorganizing
+contrivances will be reprobated by the civilized and Christian world,
+and the insulting attempt on the virtue, the honor, the patriotism, and
+the fidelity of our brethren of the Eastern States will not fail to call
+forth all their indignation and resentment, and to attach more and more
+all the States to that happy Union and Constitution against which such
+insidious and malignant artifices are directed.
+
+The better to guard, nevertheless, against the effect of individual
+cupidity and treachery and to turn the corrupt projects of the enemy
+against himself, I recommend to the consideration of Congress the
+expediency of an effectual prohibition of any trade whatever by citizens
+or inhabitants of the United States under special licenses, whether
+relating to persons or ports, and in aid thereof a prohibition of all
+exportations from the United States in foreign bottoms, few of which are
+actually employed, whilst multiplying counterfeits of their flags and
+papers are covering and encouraging the navigation of the enemy.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+MARCH 3, 1813.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Conformably to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+27th of January last, I transmit "rolls of the persons having office or
+employment of a public nature under the United States,"
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+VETO MESSAGE.
+
+
+NOVEMBER 5, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The bill entitled "An act supplementary to the acts heretofore passed on
+the subject of an uniform rule of naturalization," which passed the two
+Houses at the last session of Congress, having appeared to me liable to
+abuse by aliens having no real purpose of effectuating a naturalization,
+and therefore not been signed, and having been presented at an hour
+too near the close of the session to be returned with objections for
+reconsideration, the bill failed to become a law. I also recommend that
+provision be now made in favor of aliens entitled to the contemplated
+benefit, under such regulations as will prevent advantage being taken
+of it for improper purposes.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
+
+
+About to add the solemnity of an oath to the obligations imposed by a
+second call to the station in which my country heretofore placed me,
+I find in the presence of this respectable assembly an opportunity of
+publicly repeating my profound sense of so distinguished a confidence
+and of the responsibility united with it. The impressions on me are
+strengthened by such an evidence that my faithful endeavors to discharge
+my arduous duties have been favorably estimated, and by a consideration
+of the momentous period at which the trust has been renewed. From the
+weight and magnitude now belonging to it I should be compelled to shrink
+if I had less reliance on the support of an enlightened and generous
+people, and felt less deeply a conviction that the war with a powerful
+nation, which forms so prominent a feature in our situation, is stamped
+with that justice which invites the smiles of Heaven on the means of
+conducting it to a successful termination.
+
+May we not cherish this sentiment without presumption when we reflect
+on the characters by which this war is distinguished?
+
+It was not declared on the part of the United States until it had been
+long made on them, in reality though not in name; until arguments and
+expostulations had been exhausted; until a positive declaration had been
+received that the wrongs provoking it would not be discontinued; nor
+until this last appeal could no longer be delayed without breaking down
+the spirit of the nation, destroying all confidence in itself and in its
+political institutions, and either perpetuating a state of disgraceful
+suffering or regaining by more costly sacrifices and more severe
+struggles our lost rank and respect among independent powers.
+
+On the issue of the war are staked our national sovereignty on the
+high seas and the security of an important class of citizens, whose
+occupations give the proper value to those of every other class. Not to
+contend for such a stake is to surrender our equality with other powers
+on the element common to all and to violate the sacred title which every
+member of the society has to its protection. I need not call into view
+the unlawfulness of the practice by which our mariners are forced at the
+will of every cruising officer from their own vessels into foreign
+ones, nor paint the outrages inseparable from it. The proofs are in the
+records of each successive Administration of our Government, and the
+cruel sufferings of that portion of the American people have found their
+way to every bosom not dead to the sympathies of human nature.
+
+As the war was just in its origin and necessary and noble in its
+objects, we can reflect with a proud satisfaction that in carrying it
+on no principle of justice or honor, no usage of civilized nations, no
+precept of courtesy or humanity, have been infringed, The war has been
+waged on our part with scrupulous regard to all these obligations, and
+in a spirit of liberality which was never surpassed.
+
+How little has been the effect of this example on the conduct of the
+enemy!
+
+They have retained as prisoners of war citizens of the United States
+not liable to be so considered under the usages of war.
+
+They have refused to consider as prisoners of war, and threatened to
+punish as traitors and deserters, persons emigrating without restraint
+to the United States, incorporated by naturalization into our political
+family, and fighting under the authority of their adopted country in
+open and honorable war for the maintenance of its rights and safety.
+Such is the avowed purpose of a Government which is in the practice of
+naturalizing by thousands citizens of other countries, and not only of
+permitting but compelling them to fight its battles against their native
+country.
+
+They have not, it is true, taken into their own hands the hatchet and
+the knife, devoted to indiscriminate massacre, but they have let loose
+the savages armed with these cruel instruments; have allured them into
+their service, and carried them to battle by their sides, eager to glut
+their savage thirst with the blood of the vanquished and to finish the
+work of torture and death on maimed and defenseless captives. And, what
+was never before seen, British commanders have extorted victory over the
+unconquerable valor of our troops by presenting to the sympathy of their
+chief captives awaiting massacre from their savage associates. And now
+we find them, in further contempt of the modes of honorable warfare,
+supplying the place of a conquering force by attempts to disorganize our
+political society, to dismember our confederated Republic. Happily, like
+others, these will recoil on the authors; but they mark the degenerate
+counsels from which they emanate, and if they did not belong to a
+series of unexampled inconsistencies might excite the greater wonder as
+proceeding from a Government which founded the very war in which it has
+been so long engaged on a charge against the disorganizing and
+insurrectional policy of its adversary.
+
+To render the justice of the war on our part the more conspicuous, the
+reluctance to commence it was followed by the earliest and strongest
+manifestations of a disposition to arrest its progress. The sword was
+scarcely out of the scabbard before the enemy was apprised of the
+reasonable terms on which it would be resheathed. Still more precise
+advances were repeated, and have been received in a spirit forbidding
+every reliance not placed on the military resources of the nation.
+
+These resources are amply sufficient to bring the war to an honorable
+issue. Our nation is in number more than half that of the British Isles.
+It is composed of a brave, a free, a virtuous, and an intelligent
+people. Our country abounds in the necessaries, the arts, and the
+comforts of life. A general prosperity is visible in the public
+countenance. The means employed by the British cabinet to undermine it
+have recoiled on themselves; have given to our national faculties a more
+rapid development, and, draining or diverting the precious metals from
+British circulation and British vaults, have poured them into those of
+the United States. It is a propitious consideration that an unavoidable
+war should have found this seasonable facility for the contributions
+required to support it. When the public voice called for war, all knew,
+and still know, that without them it could not be carried on through the
+period which it might last, and the patriotism, the good sense, and the
+manly spirit of our fellow-citizens are pledges for the cheerfulness
+with which they will bear each his share of the common burden. To render
+the war short and its success sure, animated and systematic exertions
+alone are necessary, and the success of our arms now may long preserve
+our country from the necessity of another resort to them. Already
+have the gallant exploits of our naval heroes proved to the world
+our inherent capacity to maintain our rights on one element. If the
+reputation of our arms has been thrown under clouds on the other,
+presaging flashes of heroic enterprise assure us that nothing is wanting
+to correspondent triumphs there also but die discipline and habits which
+are in daily progress.
+
+MARCH 4, 1813.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL SESSION MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 25, 1813_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+At an early day after the close of the last session of Congress an offer
+was formally communicated from His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of
+Russia of his mediation, as the common friend of the United States and
+Great Britain, for the purpose of facilitating a peace between them. The
+high character of the Emperor Alexander being a satisfactory pledge for
+the sincerity and impartiality of his offer, it was immediately
+accepted, and as a further proof of the disposition on the part of the
+United States, to meet their adversary in honorable experiments for
+terminating the war it was determined to avoid intermediate delays
+incident to the distance of the parties by a definitive provision for
+the contemplated negotiation. Three of our eminent citizens were
+accordingly commissioned with the requisite powers to conclude a treaty
+of peace with persons clothed with like powers on the part of Great
+Britain. They are authorized also to enter into such conventional
+regulations of the commerce between the two countries as may be mutually
+advantageous. The two envoys who, were in the United States at the time
+of their appointment have proceeded to join their colleague already at
+St. Petersburg.
+
+The envoys have received another commission authorizing them to conclude
+with Russia a treaty of commerce with a view to strengthen the amicable
+relations and improve the beneficial intercourse between the two
+countries.
+
+The issue of this friendly interposition of the Russian Emperor and this
+pacific manifestation on the part of the United States time only can
+decide. That the sentiments of Great Britain toward that Sovereign will
+have produced an acceptance of his offered mediation must be presumed.
+That no adequate motives exist to prefer a continuance of war with the
+United States to the terms on which they are willing to close it is
+certain. The British cabinet also must be sensible that, with respect to
+the important question of impressment, on which the war so essentially
+turns, a search for or seizure of British persons or property on board
+neutral vessels on the high seas is not a belligerent right derived from
+the law of nations, and it is obvious that no visit or search or use of
+force for any purpose on board the vessels of one independent power on
+the high seas can in war or peace be sanctioned by the laws or authority
+of another power. It is equally obvious that, for the purpose of
+preserving to each State its seafaring members, by excluding them from
+the vessels of the other, the mode heretofore proposed by the United
+States and now enacted by them as an article of municipal policy, can
+not for a moment be compared with the mode practiced by Great Britain
+without a conviction of its title to preference, inasmuch as the latter
+leaves the discrimination between the mariners of the two nations to
+officers exposed by unavoidable bias as well as by a defect of evidence
+to a wrong decision, under circumstances precluding for the most part
+the enforcement of controlling penalties, and where a wrong decision,
+besides the irreparable violation of the sacred rights of persons, might
+frustrate the plans and profits of entire voyages; whereas the mode
+assumed by the United States guards with studied fairness and efficacy
+against errors in such cases and avoids the effect of casual errors on
+the safety of navigation and the success of mercantile expeditions.
+
+If the reasonableness of expectations drawn from these considerations
+could guarantee their fulfillment a just peace would not be distant. But
+it becomes the wisdom of the National Legislature to keep in mind the
+true policy, or rather the indispensable obligation, of adapting its
+measures to the supposition that the only course to that happy event is
+in the vigorous employment of the resources of war. And painful as the
+reflection is, this duty is particularly enforced by the spirit and
+manner in which the war continues to be waged by the enemy, who,
+uninfluenced by the unvaried examples of humanity set them, are adding
+to the savage fury of it on one frontier a system of plunder and
+conflagration on the other, equally forbidden by respect for national
+character and by the established rules of civilized warfare.
+
+As an encouragement to persevering and invigorated exertions to bring
+the contest to a happy result, I have the satisfaction of being able to
+appeal to the auspicious progress of our arms both by land and on the
+water.
+
+In continuation of the brilliant achievements of our infant Navy, a
+signal triumph has been gained by Captain Lawrence and his companions in
+the _Hornet_ sloop of war, which destroyed a British sloop of war
+with a celerity so unexampled and with a slaughter of the enemy so
+disproportionate to the loss in the _Hornet_ as to claim for the
+conquerors the highest praise and the full recompense provided by
+Congress in preceding cases. Our public ships of war in general, as well
+as the private armed vessels, have continued also their activity and
+success against the commerce of the enemy, and by their vigilance and
+address have greatly frustrated the efforts of the hostile squadrons
+distributed along our coasts to intercept them in returning into port
+and resuming their cruises.
+
+The augmentation of our naval force, as authorized at the last session
+of Congress, is in progress. On the Lakes our superiority is near at
+hand where it is not already established.
+
+The events of the campaign, so far as they are known to us, furnish
+matter of congratulation, and show that under a wise organization and
+efficient direction the Army is destined to a glory not less brilliant
+than that which already encircles the Navy. The attack and capture of
+York is in that quarter a presage of future and greater victories, while
+on the western frontier the issue of the late siege of Fort Meigs leaves
+us nothing to regret but a single act of inconsiderate valor.
+
+The provisions last made for filling the ranks and enlarging the staff
+of the Army have had the best effects. It will be for the consideration
+of Congress whether other provisions depending on their authority may
+not still further improve the military establishment and the means of
+defense.
+
+The sudden death of the distinguished citizen who represented the United
+States in France, without any special arrangements by him for such a
+contingency, has left us without the expected sequel to his last
+communications, nor has the French Government taken any measures for
+bringing the depending negotiations to a conclusion through its
+representative in the United States. This failure adds to delays before
+so unreasonably spun out. A successor to our deceased minister has been
+appointed and is ready to proceed on his mission. The course which he
+will pursue in fulfilling it is that prescribed by a steady regard to
+the true interests of the United States, which equally avoids an
+abandonment of their just demands and a connection of their fortunes
+with the systems of other powers.
+
+The receipts in the Treasury from the 1st of October to the 31st day of
+March last, including the sums received on account of Treasury notes and
+of the loans authorized by the acts of the last and the preceding
+sessions of Congress, have amounted to $15,412,000. The expenditures
+during the same period amounted to $15,920,000, and left in the Treasury
+on the 1st of April the sum of $1,857,000. The loan of $16,000,000,
+authorized by the act of the 8th of February last, has been contracted
+for. Of that sum more than $1,000,000 had been paid into the Treasury
+prior to the 1st of April, and formed a part of the receipts as above
+stated. The remainder of that loan, amounting to near $15,000,000, with
+the sum of $5,000,000 authorized to be issued in Treasury notes, and the
+estimated receipts from the customs and the sales of public lands,
+amounting to $9,300,000, and making, in the whole, $29,300,000, to
+be received during the last nine months of the present year, will
+be necessary to meet the expenditures already authorized and the
+engagements contracted in relation to the public debt. These engagements
+amount during that period to $10,500,000, which, with near one million
+for the civil, miscellaneous, and diplomatic expenses, both foreign and
+domestic, and $17,800,000 for the military and naval expenditures,
+including the ships of war building and to be built, will leave a sum
+in the Treasury at the end of the present year equal to that on the 1st
+of April last. A part of this sum may be considered as a resource for
+defraying any extraordinary expenses already authorized by law beyond
+the sums above estimated, and a further resource for any emergency may
+be found in the sum of $1,000,000, the loan of which to the United
+States has been authorized by the State of Pennsylvania, but which has
+not yet been brought into effect.
+
+This view of our finances, whilst it shows that due provision has been
+made for the expenses of the current year, shows at the same time, by
+the limited amount of the actual revenue and the dependence on loans,
+the necessity of providing more adequately for the future supplies
+of the Treasury. This can be best done by a well-digested system of
+internal revenue in aid of existing sources, which will have the effect
+both of abridging the amount of necessary loans and, on that account, as
+well as by placing the public credit on a more satisfactory basis, of
+improving the terms on which loans may be obtained. The loan of sixteen
+millions was not contracted for at a less interest than about 7 1/2 per
+cent, and, although other causes may have had an agency, it can not be
+doubted that, with the advantage of a more extended and less precarious
+revenue, a lower rate of interest might have sufficed. A longer
+postponement of this advantage could not fail to have a still greater
+influence on future loans.
+
+In recommending to the National Legislature this resort to additional
+taxes I feel great satisfaction in the assurance that our constituents,
+who have already displayed so much zeal and firmness in the cause of
+their country, will cheerfully give any other proof of their patriotism
+which it calls for. Happily no people, with local and transitory
+exceptions never to be wholly avoided, are more able than the people
+of the United States to spare for the public wants a portion of their
+private means, whether regard be had to the ordinary profits of industry
+or the ordinary price of subsistence in our country compared with those
+in any other. And in no case could stronger reasons be felt for yielding
+the requisite contributions. By rendering the public resources certain
+and commensurate to the public exigencies, the constituted authorities
+will be able to prosecute the war the more rapidly to its proper issue;
+every hostile hope founded on a calculated failure of our resources
+will be cut off, and by adding to the evidence of bravery and skill
+in combats on the ocean and the land, and alacrity in supplying the
+treasure necessary to give them their fullest effect, and demonstrating
+to the world the public energy which our political institutions combine,
+with the personal liberty distinguishing them, the best security will be
+provided against future enterprises on the rights or the peace of the
+nation.
+
+The contest in which the United States are engaged appeals for its
+support to every motive that can animate an uncorrupted and enlightened
+people--to the love of country; to the pride of liberty; to an emulation
+of the glorious founders of their independence by a successful
+vindication of its violated attributes; to the gratitude and sympathy
+which demand security from the most degrading wrongs of a class of
+citizens who have proved themselves so worthy the protection of their
+country by their heroic zeal in its defense; and, finally, to the sacred
+obligation of transmitting entire to future generations that precious
+patrimony of national rights and independence which is held in trust by
+the present from the goodness of Divine Providence.
+
+Being aware of the inconveniences to which a protracted session at this
+season would be liable, I limit the present communication to objects of
+primary importance. In special messages which may ensue regard will be
+had to the same consideration.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+MAY 29, 1813.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+The Swedish Government having repeatedly manifested a desire to
+interchange a public minister with the United States, and having lately
+appointed one with that view, and other considerations concurring to
+render it advisable at this period to make a correspondent appointment,
+I nominate Jonathan Russell, of Rhode Island, to be minister
+plenipotentiary of the United States to Sweden.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _July 6, 1813_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I have received from the committee appointed by the resolution of the
+Senate of the 14th day of June a copy of that resolution, which
+authorizes the committee to confer with the President on the subject of
+the nomination made by him of a minister plenipotentiary to Sweden.
+
+Conceiving it to be my duty to decline the proposed conference with the
+committee, and it being uncertain when it may be convenient to explain
+to the committee, and through them to the Senate, the grounds of my so
+doing, I think it proper to address the explanation directly to the
+Senate. Without entering into a general review of the relations in which
+the Constitution has placed the several departments of the Government to
+each other, it will suffice to remark that the Executive and Senate, in
+the cases of appointments to office and of treaties, are to be
+considered as independent of and coordinate with each other. If they
+agree, the appointments or treaties are made; if the Senate disagree,
+they fail. If the Senate wish information previous to their final
+decision, the practice, keeping in view the constitutional relations of
+the Senate and the Executive, has been either to request the Executive
+to furnish it or to refer the subject to a committee of their body to
+communicate, either formally or informally, with the head of the proper
+department. The appointment of a committee of the Senate to confer
+immediately with the Executive himself appears to lose sight of the
+coordinate relation between the Executive and the Senate which the
+Constitution has established, and which ought therefore to be
+maintained.
+
+The relation between the Senate and House of Representatives, in whom
+legislative power is concurrently vested, is sufficiently analogous to
+illustrate that between the Executive and Senate in making appointments
+and treaties. The two Houses are in like manner independent of and
+coordinate with each other, and the invariable practice of each in
+appointing committees of conference and consultation is to commission
+them to confer not with the coordinate body itself, but with a committee
+of that body; and although both branches of the Legislature may be too
+numerous to hold conveniently a conference with committees, were they to
+be appointed by either to confer with the entire body of the other, it
+may be fairly presumed that if the whole number of either branch were
+not too large for the purpose the objection to such a conference, being
+against the principle as derogating from the coordinate relations of the
+two Houses, would retain all its force.
+
+I add only that I am entirely persuaded of the purity of the intentions
+of the Senate in the course they have pursued on this occasion, and with
+which my view of the subject makes it my duty not to accord, and that
+they will be cheerfully furnished with all the suitable information in
+possession of the Executive in any mode deemed consistent with the
+principles of the Constitution and the settled practice under it.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _July 20, 1813_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+There being sufficient ground to infer that it is the purpose of the
+enemy to combine with the blockade of our ports special licenses to
+neutral vessels or to British vessels in neutral disguises, whereby
+they may draw from our country the precise kind and quantity of
+exports essential to their wants, whilst its general commerce remains
+obstructed, keeping in view also the insidious discrimination between
+the different ports of the United States; and as such a system, if not
+counteracted, will have the effect of diminishing very materially the
+pressure of the war on the enemy, and encouraging a perseverance in it,
+at the same time that it will leave the general commerce of the United
+States under all the pressure the enemy can impose, thus subjecting
+the whole to British regulation in subserviency to British monopoly,
+I recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency of an
+immediate and effectual prohibition of exports limited to a convenient
+day in their next session, and removable in the meantime in the event
+of a cessation of the blockade of our ports.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 4, p. 345.]
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas the Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution of the
+two Houses, have signified a request that a day may be recommended to be
+observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity as
+a day of public humiliation and prayer; and
+
+Whereas in times of public calamity such as that of the war brought on
+the United States by the injustice of a foreign government it is
+especially becoming that the hearts of all should be touched with the
+same and the eyes of all be turned to that Almighty Power in whose hand
+are the welfare and the destiny of nations:
+
+I do therefore issue this my proclamation, recommending to all who shall
+be piously disposed to unite their hearts and voices in addressing at
+one and the same time their vows and adorations to the Great Parent and
+Sovereign of the Universe that they assemble on the second Thursday of
+September next in their respective religious congregations to render Him
+thanks for the many blessings He has bestowed on the people of the
+United States; that He has blessed them with a land capable of yielding
+all the necessaries and requisites of human life, with ample means for
+convenient exchanges with foreign countries; that He has blessed the
+labors employed in its cultivation and improvement; that He is now
+blessing the exertions to extend and establish the arts and manufactures
+which will secure within ourselves supplies too important to remain
+dependent on the precarious policy or the peaceable dispositions of
+other nations, and particularly that He has blessed the United States
+with a political Constitution founded on the will and authority of the
+whole people and guaranteeing to each individual security, not only of
+his person and his property, but of those sacred rights of conscience so
+essential to his present happiness and so dear to his future hopes; that
+with those expressions of devout thankfulness be joined supplications to
+the same Almighty Power that He would look down with compassion on our
+infirmities; that He would pardon our manifold transgressions and
+awaken and strengthen in all the wholesome purposes of repentance and
+amendment; that in this season of trial and calamity He would preside in
+a particular manner over our public councils and inspire all citizens
+with a love of their country and with those fraternal affections and
+that mutual confidence which have so happy a tendency to make us safe
+at home and respected abroad; and that as He was graciously pleased
+heretofore to smile on our struggles against the attempts of the
+Government of the Empire of which these States then made a part to wrest
+from them the rights and privileges to which they were entitled in
+common with every other part and to raise them to the station of an
+independent and sovereign people, so He would now be pleased in like
+manner to bestow His blessing on our arms in resisting the hostile and
+persevering efforts of the same power to degrade us on the ocean, the
+common inheritance of all, from rights and immunities belonging and
+essential to the American people as a coequal member of the great
+community of independent nations; and that, inspiring our enemies
+with moderation, with justice, and with that spirit of reasonable
+accommodation which our country has continued to manifest, we may be
+enabled to beat our swords into plowshares and to enjoy in peace every
+man the fruits of his honest industry and the rewards of his lawful
+enterprise.
+
+If the public homage of a people can ever be worthy the favorable regard
+of the Holy and Omniscient Being to whom it is addressed, it must be
+that in which those who join in it are guided only by their free choice,
+by the impulse of their hearts and the dictates of their consciences;
+and such a spectacle must be interesting to all Christian nations as
+proving that religion, that gift of Heaven for the good of man, freed
+from all coercive edicts, from that unhallowed connection with the
+powers of this world which corrupts religion into an instrument or an
+usurper of the policy of the state, and making no appeal but to reason,
+to the heart, and to the conscience, can spread its benign influence
+everywhere and can attract to the divine altar those freewill offerings
+of humble supplication, thanksgiving, and praise which alone can be
+acceptable to Him whom no hypocrisy can deceive and no forced sacrifices
+propitiate.
+
+Upon these principles and with these views the good people of the United
+States are invited, in conformity with the resolution aforesaid, to
+dedicate the day above named to the religious solemnities therein
+recommended.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Given at Washington, this 23d day of July, A.D. 1813.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+FIFTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1813_.
+
+_Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+In meeting you at the present interesting conjuncture it would have been
+highly satisfactory if I could have communicated a favorable result to
+the mission charged with negotiations for restoring peace. It was a just
+expectation, from the respect due to the distinguished Sovereign who had
+invited them by his offer of mediation, from the readiness with which
+the invitation was accepted on the part of the United States, and from
+the pledge to be found in an act of their Legislature for the liberality
+which their plenipotentiaries would carry into the negotiations, that no
+time would be lost by the British Government in embracing the experiment
+for hastening a stop to the effusion of blood. A prompt and cordial
+acceptance of the mediation on that side was the less to be doubted, as
+it was of a nature not to submit rights or pretensions on either side
+to the decision of an umpire, but to afford merely an opportunity,
+honorable and desirable to both, for discussing and, if possible,
+adjusting them for the interest of both.
+
+The British cabinet, either mistaking our desire of peace for a dread
+of British power or misled by other fallacious calculations, has
+disappointed this reasonable anticipation. No communications from
+our envoys having reached us, no information on the subject has been
+received from that source; but it is known that the mediation was
+declined in the first instance, and there is no evidence,
+notwithstanding the lapse of time, that a change of disposition in the
+British councils has taken place or is to be expected.
+
+Under such circumstances a nation proud of its rights and conscious of
+its strength has no choice but an exertion of the one in support of the
+other.
+
+To this determination the best encouragement is derived from the success
+with which it has pleased the Almighty to bless our arms both on the
+land and on the water.
+
+Whilst proofs have been continued of the enterprise and skill of our
+cruisers, public and private, on the ocean, and a new trophy gained in
+the capture of a British by an American vessel of war, after an action
+giving celebrity to the name of the victorious commander, the great
+inland waters on which the enemy were also to be encountered have
+presented achievements of our naval arms as brilliant in their character
+as they have been important in their consequences.
+
+On Lake Erie, the squadron under command of Captain Perry having met the
+British squadron of superior force, a sanguinary conflict ended in the
+capture of the whole. The conduct of that officer, adroit as it was
+daring, and which was so well seconded by his comrades, justly entitles
+them to the admiration and gratitude of their country, and will fill an
+early page in its naval annals with a victory never surpassed in luster,
+however much it may have been in magnitude.
+
+On Lake Ontario the caution of the British commander, favored by
+contingencies, frustrated the efforts of the American commander to bring
+on a decisive action. Captain Chauncey was able, however, to establish
+an ascendency on that important theater, and to prove by the manner
+in which he effected everything possible that opportunities only were
+wanted for a more shining display of his own talents and the gallantry
+of those under his command.
+
+The success on Lake Erie having opened a passage to the territory of the
+enemy, the officer commanding the Northwestern army transferred the war
+thither, and rapidly pursuing the hostile troops, fleeing with their
+savage associates, forced a general action, which quickly terminated in
+the capture of the British and dispersion of the savage force.
+
+This result is signally honorable to Major General Harrison, by whose
+military talents it was prepared; to Colonel Johnson and his mounted
+volunteers, whose impetuous onset gave a decisive blow to the ranks of
+the enemy, and to the spirit of the volunteer militia, equally brave and
+patriotic, who bore an interesting part in the scene; more especially to
+the chief magistrate of Kentucky, at the head of them, whose heroism
+signalized in the war which established the independence of his country,
+sought at an advanced age a share in hardships and battles for
+maintaining its rights and its safety.
+
+The effect of these successes has been to rescue the inhabitants of
+Michigan from their oppressions, aggravated by gross infractions of
+the capitulation which subjected them to a foreign power; to alienate
+the savages of numerous tribes from the enemy, by whom they were
+disappointed and abandoned, and to relieve an extensive region of
+country from a merciless warfare which desolated its frontiers and
+imposed on its citizens the most harassing services.
+
+In consequence of our naval superiority on Lake Ontario and the
+opportunity afforded by it for concentrating our forces by water,
+operations which had been provisionally planned were set on foot against
+the possessions of the enemy on the St. Lawrence. Such, however, was the
+delay produced in the first instance by adverse weather of unusual
+violence and continuance and such the circumstances attending the final
+movements of the army, that the prospect, at one time so favorable, was
+not realized.
+
+The cruelty of the enemy in enlisting the savages into a war with a
+nation desirous of mutual emulation in mitigating its calamities has not
+been confined to any one quarter. Wherever they could be turned against
+us no exertions to effect it have been spared. On our southwestern
+border the Creek tribes, who, yielding to our persevering endeavors,
+were gradually acquiring more civilized habits, became the unfortunate
+victims of seduction. A war in that quarter has been the consequence,
+infuriated by a bloody fanaticism recently propagated among them. It
+was necessary to crush such a war before it could spread among the
+contiguous tribes and before it could favor enterprises of the enemy
+into that vicinity. With this view a force was called into the service
+of the United States from the States of Georgia and Tennessee, which,
+with the nearest regular troops and other corps from the Mississippi
+Territory, might not only chastise the savages into present peace but
+make a lasting impression on their fears.
+
+The progress of the expedition, as far as is yet known, corresponds with
+the martial zeal with which it was espoused, and the best hopes of a
+satisfactory issue are authorized by the complete success with which a
+well-planned enterprise was executed against a body of hostile savages
+by a detachment of the volunteer militia of Tennessee, under the gallant
+command of General Coffee, and by a still more important victory over a
+larger body of them, gained under the immediate command of Major General
+Jackson, an officer equally distinguished for his patriotism and his
+military talents.
+
+The systematic perseverance of the enemy in courting the aid of the
+savages in all quarters had the natural effect of kindling their
+ordinary propensity to war into a passion, which, even among those
+best disposed toward the United States, was ready, if not employed
+on our side, to be turned against us. A departure from our protracted
+forbearance to accept the services tendered by them has thus been forced
+upon us. But in yielding to it the retaliation has been mitigated as
+much as possible, both in its extent and in its character, stopping far
+short of the example of the enemy, who owe the advantages they have
+occasionally gained in battle chiefly to the number of their savage
+associates, and who have not controlled them either from their usual
+practice of indiscriminate massacre on defenseless inhabitants or from
+scenes of carnage without a parallel on prisoners to the British arms,
+guarded by all the laws of humanity and of honorable war. For these
+enormities the enemy are equally responsible, whether with the power to
+prevent them they want the will or with the knowledge of a want of power
+they still avail themselves of such instruments.
+
+In other respects the enemy are pursuing a course which threatens
+consequences most afflicting to humanity.
+
+A standing law of Great Britain naturalizes, as is well known, all
+aliens complying with conditions limited to a shorter period than
+those required by the United States, and naturalized subjects are
+in war employed by her Government in common with native subjects.
+In a contiguous British Province regulations promulgated since the
+commencement of the war compel citizens of the United States being there
+under certain circumstances to bear arms, whilst of the native emigrants
+from the United States, who compose much of the population of the
+Province, a number have actually borne arms against the United States
+within their limits, some of whom, after having done so, have become
+prisoners of war, and are now in our possession. The British commander
+in that Province, nevertheless, with the sanction, as appears, of his
+Government, thought proper to select from American prisoners of war and
+send to Great Britain for trial as criminals a number of individuals who
+had emigrated from the British dominions long prior to the state of war
+between the two nations, who had incorporated themselves into our
+political society in the modes recognized by the law and the practice of
+Great Britain, and who were made prisoners of war under the banners of
+their adopted country, fighting for its rights and its safety.
+
+The protection due to these citizens requiring an effectual
+interposition in their behalf, a like number of British prisoners of
+war were put into confinement, with a notification that they would
+experience whatever violence might be committed on the American
+prisoners of war sent to Great Britain.
+
+It was hoped that this necessary consequence of the step unadvisedly
+taken on the part of Great Britain would have led her Government to
+reflect on the inconsistencies of its conduct, and that a sympathy with
+the British, if not with the American, sufferers would have arrested the
+cruel career opened by its example.
+
+This was unhappily not the case. In violation both of consistency and of
+humanity, American officers and noncommissioned officers in double the
+number of the British soldiers confined here were ordered into close
+confinement, with formal notice that in the event of a retaliation for
+the death which might be inflicted on the prisoners of war sent to Great
+Britain for trial the officers so confined would be put to death also.
+It was notified at the same time that the commanders of the British
+fleets and armies on our coasts are instructed in the same event to
+proceed with a destructive severity against our towns and their
+inhabitants.
+
+That no doubt might be left with the enemy of our adherence to the
+retaliatory resort imposed on us, a correspondent number of British
+officers, prisoners of war in our hands, were immediately put into close
+confinement to abide the fate of those confined by the enemy, and the
+British Government has been apprised of the determination of this
+Government to retaliate any other proceedings against us contrary to
+the legitimate modes of warfare.
+
+It is as fortunate for the United States that they have it in their
+power to meet the enemy in this deplorable contest as it is honorable
+to them that they do not join in it but under the most imperious
+obligations, and with the humane purpose of effectuating a return to
+the established usages of war.
+
+The views of the French Government on the subjects which have been so
+long committed to negotiation have received no elucidation since the
+close of your late session. The minister plenipotentiary of the United
+States at Paris had not been enabled by proper opportunities to press
+the objects of his mission as prescribed by his instructions.
+
+The militia being always to be regarded as the great bulwark of defense
+and security for free states, and the Constitution having wisely
+committed to the national authority a use of that force as the best
+provision against an unsafe military establishment, as well as a
+resource peculiarly adapted to a country having the extent and the
+exposure of the United States, I recommend to Congress a revision of the
+militia laws for the purpose of securing more effectually the services
+of all detachments called into the employment and placed under the
+Government of the United States.
+
+It will deserve the consideration of Congress also whether among other
+improvements in the militia laws justice does not require a regulation,
+under due precautions, for defraying the expense incident to the first
+assembling as well as the subsequent movements of detachments called
+into the national service.
+
+To give to our vessels of war, public and private, the requisite
+advantage in their cruises, it is of much importance that they should
+have, both for themselves and their prizes, the use of the ports and
+markets of friendly powers. With this view, I recommend to Congress the
+expediency of such legal provisions as may supply the defects or remove
+the doubts of the Executive authority, to allow to the cruisers of other
+powers at war with enemies of the United States such use of the American
+ports as may correspond with the privileges allowed by such powers to
+American cruisers.
+
+During the year ending on the 30th of September last the receipts into
+the Treasury have exceeded $37,500,000, of which near twenty-four
+millions were the produce of loans. After meeting all demands for
+the public service there remained in the Treasury on that day near
+$7,000,000. Under the authority contained in the act of the 2d of August
+last for borrowing $7,500,000, that sum has been obtained on terms more
+favorable to the United States than those of the preceding loan made
+during the present year. Further sums to a considerable amount will be
+necessary to be obtained in the same way during the ensuing year, and
+from the increased capital of the country, from the fidelity with which
+the public engagements have been kept and the public credit maintained,
+it may be expected on good grounds that the necessary pecuniary supplies
+will not be wanting.
+
+The expenses of the current year, from the multiplied operations falling
+within it, have necessarily been extensive; but on a just estimate of
+the campaign in which the mass of them has been incurred the cost will
+not be found disproportionate to the advantages which have been gained.
+The campaign has, indeed, in its latter stages in one quarter been less
+favorable than was expected, but in addition to the importance of our
+naval success the progress of the campaign has been filled with
+incidents highly honorable to the American arms.
+
+The attacks of the enemy on Craney Island, on Fort Meigs, on Sacketts
+Harbor, and on Sandusky have been vigorously and successfully repulsed;
+nor have they in any case succeeded on either frontier excepting when
+directed against the peaceable dwellings of individuals or villages
+unprepared or undefended.
+
+On the other hand, the movements of the American Army have been followed
+by the reduction of York, and of Forts George, Erie, and Maiden; by the
+recovery of Detroit and the extinction of the Indian war in the West,
+and by the occupancy or command of a large portion of Upper Canada.
+Battles have also been fought on the borders of the St. Lawrence, which,
+though not accomplishing their entire objects, reflect honor on the
+discipline and prowess of our soldiery, the best auguries of eventual
+victory. In the same scale are to be placed the late successes in the
+South over one of the most powerful, which had become one of the most
+hostile also, of the Indian tribes.
+
+It would be improper to close this communication without expressing a
+thankfulness in which all ought to unite for the numerous blessings
+with which our beloved country continues to be favored; for the
+abundance which overspreads our land, and the prevailing health of its
+inhabitants; for the preservation of our internal tranquillity, and
+the stability of our free institutions, and, above all, for the light
+of divine truth and the protection of every man's conscience in the
+enjoyment of it. And although among our blessings we can not number an
+exemption from the evils of war, yet these will never be regarded as
+the greatest of evils by the friends of liberty and of the rights of
+nations. Our country has before preferred them to the degraded condition
+which was the alternative when the sword was drawn in the cause which
+gave birth to our national independence, and none who contemplate the
+magnitude and feel the value of that glorious event will shrink from a
+struggle to maintain the high and happy ground on which it placed the
+American people.
+
+With all good citizens the justice and necessity of resisting wrongs
+and usurpations no longer to be borne will sufficiently outweigh the
+privations and sacrifices inseparable from a state of war. But it
+is a reflection, moreover, peculiarly consoling, that, whilst wars
+are generally aggravated by their baneful effects on the internal
+improvements and permanent prosperity of the nations engaged in them,
+such is the favored situation of the United States that the calamities
+of the contest into which they have been compelled to enter are
+mitigated by improvements and advantages of which the contest itself
+is the source.
+
+If the war has increased the interruptions of our commerce, it has at
+the same time cherished and multiplied our manufactures so as to make us
+independent of all other countries for the more essential branches for
+which we ought to be dependent on none, and is even rapidly giving them
+an extent which will create additional staples in our future intercourse
+with foreign markets.
+
+If much treasure has been expended, no inconsiderable portion of it has
+been applied to objects durable in their value and necessary to our
+permanent safety.
+
+If the war has exposed us to increased spoliations on the ocean and to
+predatory incursions on the land, it has developed the national means of
+retaliating the former and of providing protection against the latter,
+demonstrating to all that every blow aimed at our maritime independence
+is an impulse accelerating the growth of our maritime power.
+
+By diffusing through the mass of the nation the elements of military
+discipline and instruction; by augmenting and distributing warlike
+preparations applicable to future use; by evincing the zeal and valor
+with which they will be employed and the cheerfulness with which every
+necessary burden will be borne, a greater respect for our rights and a
+longer duration of our future peace are promised than could be expected
+without these proofs of the national character and resources.
+
+The war has proved moreover that our free Government, like other free
+governments, though slow in its early movements, acquires in its
+progress a force proportioned to its freedom, and that the union of
+these States, the guardian of the freedom and safety of all and of each,
+is strengthened by every occasion that puts it to the test.
+
+In fine, the war, with all its vicissitudes, is illustrating the
+capacity and the destiny of the United States to be a great, a
+flourishing, and a powerful nation, worthy of the friendship which it
+is disposed to cultivate with all others, and authorized by its own
+example to require from all an observance of the laws of justice and
+reciprocity. Beyond these their claims have never extended, and in
+contending for these we behold a subject for our congratulations in the
+daily testimonies of increasing harmony throughout the nation, and may
+humbly repose our trust in the smiles of Heaven on so righteous a cause.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+DECEMBER 9, 1813.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The tendency of our commercial and navigation laws in their present
+state to favor the enemy and thereby prolong the war is more and more
+developed by experience. Supplies of the most essential kinds And their
+way not only to British ports and British armies at a distance, but the
+armies in our neighborhood with which our own are contending derive from
+our ports and outlets a subsistence attainable with difficulty, if at
+all, from other sources. Even the fleets and troops infesting our coasts
+and waters are by like supplies accommodated and encouraged in their
+predatory and incursive warfare.
+
+Abuses having a like tendency take place in our import trade. British
+fabrics and products find their way into our ports under the name and
+from the ports of other countries, and often in British vessels
+disguised as neutrals by false colors and papers.
+
+To these abuses it may be added that illegal importations are openly
+made with advantage to the violators of the law, produced by
+undervaluations or other circumstances involved in the course of the
+judicial proceedings against them.
+
+It is found also that the practice of ransoming is a cover for collusive
+captures and a channel for intelligence advantageous to the enemy.
+
+To remedy as much as possible these evils, I recommend:
+
+That an effectual embargo on exports be immediately enacted.
+
+That all articles known to be derived, either not at all or in any
+immaterial degree only, from the productions of any other country than
+Great Britain, and particularly the extensive articles made of wool and
+cotton materials, and ardent spirits made from the cane, be expressly
+and absolutely prohibited, from whatever port or place or in whatever
+vessels the same may be brought into the United States, and that all
+violations of the nonimportation act be subjected to adequate penalties.
+
+That among the proofs of the neutral and national character of
+foreign vessels it be required that the masters and supercargoes and
+three-fourths at least of the crews be citizens or subjects of the
+country under whose flag the vessels sail.
+
+That all persons concerned in collusive captures by the enemy or in
+ransoming vessels or their cargoes from the enemy be subjected to
+adequate penalties.
+
+To shorten as much as possible the duration of the war it is
+indispensable that the enemy should feel all the pressure that can be
+given to it, and the restraints having that tendency will be borne with
+the greater cheerfulness by all good citizens, as the restraints will
+affect those most who are most ready to sacrifice the interest of their
+country in pursuit of their own.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 6, 1814.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit, for the information of Congress, copies of a letter from the
+British secretary of state for foreign affairs to the Secretary of
+State, with the answer of the latter.
+
+In appreciating the accepted proposal of the Government of Great Britain
+for instituting negotiations for peace Congress will not fail to keep in
+mind that vigorous preparations for carrying on the war can in no
+respect impede the progress to a favorable result, whilst a relaxation
+of such preparations, should the wishes of the United States for a
+speedy restoration of the blessings of peace be disappointed, would
+necessarily have the most injurious consequences.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 26, 1814.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+It has appeared that at the recovery of the Michigan Territory from the
+temporary possession of the enemy the inhabitants thereof were left in
+so destitute and distressed a condition as to require from the public
+stores certain supplies essential to their subsistence, which have been
+prolonged under the same necessity which called for them.
+
+The deplorable situation of the savages thrown by the same event on the
+mercy and humanity of the American commander at Detroit drew from the
+same source the means of saving them from perishing by famine, and in
+other places the appeals made by the wants and sufferings of that
+unhappy description of people have been equally imperious.
+
+The necessity imposed by the conduct of the enemy in relation to the
+savages of admitting their cooperation in some instances with our arms
+has also involved occasional expense in supplying their wants, and it
+is possible that a perseverance of the enemy in their cruel policy may
+render a further expense for the like purpose inevitable.
+
+On these subjects an estimate from the Department of War will be laid
+before Congress, and I recommend a suitable provision for them.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+MARCH 31, 1814.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Taking into view the mutual interests which the United States and
+the foreign nations in amity with them have in a liberal commercial
+intercourse, and the extensive changes favorable thereto which have
+recently taken place; taking into view also the important advantages
+which may otherwise result from adapting the state of our commercial
+laws to the circumstances now existing, I recommend to the consideration
+of Congress the expediency of authorizing, after a certain day,
+exportations, specie excepted, from the United States in vessels of the
+United States and in vessels owned and navigated by the subjects of
+powers at peace with them, and a repeal of so much of our laws as
+prohibits the importation of articles not the property of enemies, but
+produced or manufactured only within their dominions.
+
+I recommend also, as a more effectual safeguard and encouragement to our
+growing manufactures, that the additional duties on imports which are
+to expire at the end of one year after a peace with Great Britain be
+prolonged to the end of two years after that event, and that, in favor
+of our moneyed institutions, the exportation of specie be prohibited
+throughout the same period.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATIONS.
+
+
+[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 6, p. 279.]
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas information has been received that a number of individuals who
+have deserted from the Army of the United States have become sensible of
+their offenses and are desirous of returning to their duty, a full
+pardon is hereby granted and proclaimed to each and all such individuals
+as shall within three months from the date hereof surrender themselves
+to the commanding officer of any military post within the United States
+or the Territories thereof.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
+affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand.
+
+Done at the city of Washington, the 17th day of June, A.D. 1814, and of
+the Independence of the United States the thirty eighth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas it is manifest that the blockade which has been proclaimed by
+the enemy of the whole Atlantic coast of the United States, nearly 2,000
+miles in extent, and abounding in ports, harbors, and navigable inlets,
+can not be carried into effect by any adequate force actually stationed
+for the purpose, and it is rendered a matter of certainty and notoriety
+by the multiplied and daily arrivals and departures of the public and
+private armed vessels of the United States and of other vessels that no
+such adequate force has been so stationed; and
+
+Whereas a blockade thus destitute of the character of a regular and
+legal blockade as defined and recognized by the established law of
+nations, whatever other purposes it may be made to answer, forms no
+lawful prohibition or obstacle to such neutral and friendly vessels
+as may choose to visit and trade with the United States; and
+
+Whereas it accords with the interest and the amicable views of the
+United States to favor and promote as far as may be the free and
+mutually beneficial commercial intercourse of all friendly nations
+disposed to engage therein, and with that view to afford to their
+vessels destined to the United States a more positive and satisfactory
+security against all interruptions, molestations, or vexations whatever
+from the cruisers of the United States:
+
+Now be it known that I, James Madison, President of the United States of
+America, do by this my proclamation strictly order and instruct all the
+public armed vessels of the United States and all private armed vessels
+commissioned as privateers or with letters of marque and reprisal not
+to interrupt, detain, or otherwise molest or vex any vessels whatever
+belonging to neutral powers or the subjects or citizens thereof, which
+vessels shall be actually bound and proceeding to any port or place
+within the jurisdiction of the United States, but, on the contrary, to
+render to all such vessels all the aid and kind offices which they may
+need or require.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Given under my hand and the seal of the United States at the city of
+Washington, the 29th day of June, A.D. 1814, and of the Independence
+of the United States the thirty-eighth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+[From Annals of Congress, Thirteenth Congress, vol. 3, 9.]
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas great and weighty matters claiming the consideration of the
+Congress of the United States form an extraordinary occasion for
+convening them, I do by these presents appoint Monday, the 19th day of
+September next, for their meeting at the city of Washington, hereby
+requiring the respective Senators and Representatives then and there to
+assemble in Congress, in order to receive such communications as may
+then be made to them and to consult and determine on such measures as in
+their wisdom may be deemed meet for the welfare of the United States.
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
+hereunto affixed, and signed the same with my hand,
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Done at the city of Washington, the 8th day of August, A.D. 1814, and of
+the Independence of the United States the thirty-ninth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+[From Nile's Weekly Register, vol. 7, p. 2.]
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas the enemy by a sudden incursion have succeeded in invading the
+capital of the nation, defended at the moment by troops less numerous
+than their own and almost entirely of the militia, during their
+possession of which, though for a single day only, they wantonly
+destroyed the public edifices, having no relation in their structure to
+operations of war nor used at the time for military annoyance, some of
+these edifices being also costly monuments of taste and of the arts, and
+others depositories of the public archives, not only precious to the
+nation as the memorials of its origin and its early transactions, but
+interesting to all nations as contributions to the general stock of
+historical instruction and political science; and
+
+Whereas advantage has been taken of the loss of a fort more immediately
+guarding the neighboring town of Alexandria to place the town within the
+range of a naval force too long and too much in the habit of abusing its
+superiority wherever it can be applied to require as the alternative of
+a general conflagration an undisturbed plunder of private property,
+which has been executed in a manner peculiarly distressing to the
+inhabitants, who had inconsiderately cast themselves upon the justice
+and generosity of the victor; and
+
+Whereas it now appears by a direct communication from the British
+commander on the American station to be his avowed purpose to employ the
+force under his direction "in destroying and laying waste such towns and
+districts upon the coast as may be found assailable," adding to this
+declaration the insulting pretext that it is in retaliation for a wanton
+destruction committed by the army of the United States in Upper Canada,
+when it is notorious that no destruction has been committed, which,
+notwithstanding the multiplied outrages previously committed by the
+enemy was not unauthorized, and promptly shown to be so, and that the
+United States have been as constant in their endeavors to reclaim the
+enemy from such outrages by the contrast of their own example as they
+have been ready to terminate on reasonable conditions the war itself;
+and
+
+Whereas these proceedings and declared purposes, which exhibit a
+deliberate disregard of the principles of humanity and the rules of
+civilized warfare, and which must give to the existing war a character
+of extended devastation and barbarism at the very moment of negotiations
+for peace, invited by the enemy himself, leave no prospect of safety to
+anything within the reach of his predatory and incendiary operations but
+in manful and universal determination to chastise and expel the invader:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United States, do
+issue this my proclamation, exhorting all the good people thereof to
+unite their hearts and hands in giving effect to the ample means
+possessed for that purpose. I enjoin it on all officers, civil and
+military, to exert themselves in executing the duties with which they
+are respectively charged; and more especially I require the officers
+commanding the respective military districts to be vigilant and alert in
+providing for the defense thereof, for the more effectual accomplishment
+of which they are authorized to call to the defense of exposed and
+threatened places portions of the militia most convenient thereto,
+whether they be or be not parts of the quotas detached for the service
+of the United States under requisitions of the General Government.
+
+On an occasion which appeals so forcibly to the proud feelings and
+patriotic devotion of the American people none will forget what they
+owe to themselves, what they owe to their country and the high destinies
+which await it, what to the glory acquired by their fathers in
+establishing the independence which is now to be maintained by their
+sons with the augmented strength and resources with which time and
+Heaven had blessed them.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
+the United States to be affixed to these presents. Done at the city of
+Washington, the 1st day of September, A.D. 1814 and of the Independence
+of the United States the thirty-ninth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _September 17, 1814_.
+
+The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+SIR: The destruction of the Capitol by the enemy having made it
+necessary that other accommodations should be provided for the
+meeting of Congress, chambers for the Senate and for the House of
+Representatives, with other requisite apartments, have been fitted up,
+under the direction of the superintendent of the city, in the public
+building heretofore allotted for the post and other public offices.
+
+With this information, be pleased, sir, to accept assurances of my great
+respect and consideration.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SIXTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _September 20, 1814_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+Notwithstanding the early day which had been fixed for your session of
+the present year, I was induced to call you together still sooner, as
+well that any inadequacy in the existing provisions for the wants of the
+Treasury might be supplied as that no delay might happen in providing
+for the result of the negotiations on foot with Great Britain, whether
+it should require arrangements adapted to a return of peace or further
+and more effective provisions for prosecuting the war.
+
+That result is not yet known. If, on the one hand, the repeal of the
+orders in council and the general pacification in Europe, which withdrew
+the occasion on which impressments from American vessels were practiced,
+suggest expectations that peace and amity may be reestablished, we are
+compelled, on the other hand, by the refusal of the British Government
+to accept the offered mediation of the Emperor of Russia, by the delays
+in giving effect to its own proposal of a direct negotiation, and, above
+all, by the principles and manner in which the war is now avowedly
+carried on to infer that a spirit of hostility is indulged more violent
+than ever against the rights and prosperity of this country.
+
+This increased violence is best explained by the two important
+circumstances that the great contest in Europe for an equilibrium
+guaranteeing all its States against the ambition of any has been closed
+without any check on the overbearing power of Great Britain on the
+ocean, and it has left in her hands disposable armaments, with which,
+forgetting the difficulties of a remote war with a free people, and
+yielding to the intoxication of success, with the example of a great
+victim to it before her eyes, she cherishes hopes of still further
+aggrandizing a power already formidable in its abuses to the
+tranquillity of the civilized and commercial world.
+
+But whatever may have inspired the enemy with these more violent
+purposes, the public councils of a nation more able to maintain than it
+was to acquire its independence, and with a devotion to it rendered more
+ardent by the experience of its blessings, can never deliberate but
+on the means most effectual for defeating the extravagant views or
+unwarrantable passions with which alone the war can now be pursued
+against us.
+
+In the events of the present campaign the enemy, with all his augmented
+means and wanton use of them, has little ground for exultation, unless
+he can feel it in the success of his recent enterprises against this
+metropolis and the neighboring town of Alexandria, from both of which
+his retreats were as precipitate as his attempts were bold and
+fortunate. In his other incursions on our Atlantic frontier his
+progress, often checked and chastised by the martial spirit of the
+neighboring citizens, has had more effect in distressing individuals
+and in dishonoring his arms than in promoting any object of legitimate
+warfare; and in the two instances mentioned, however deeply to be
+regretted on our part, he will find in his transient success, which
+interrupted for a moment only the ordinary public business at the seat
+of Government, no compensation for the loss of character with the world
+by his violations of private property and by his destruction of public
+edifices protected as monuments of the arts by the laws of civilized
+warfare.
+
+On our side we can appeal to a series of achievements which have given
+new luster to the American arms. Besides the brilliant incidents in the
+minor operations of the campaign, the splendid victories gained on the
+Canadian side of the Niagara by the American forces under Major-General
+Brown and Brigadiers Scott and Gaines have gained for these heroes and
+their emulating companions the most unfading laurels, and, having
+triumphantly tested the progressive discipline of the American soldiery,
+have taught the enemy that the longer he protracts his hostile efforts
+the more certain and decisive will be his final discomfiture.
+
+On our southern border victory has continued also to follow the American
+standard. The bold and skillful operations of Major-General Jackson,
+conducting troops drawn from the militia of the States least distant,
+particularly of Tennessee, have subdued the principal tribes of hostile
+savages, and, by establishing a peace with them, preceded by recent and
+exemplary chastisement, has best guarded against the mischief of their
+cooperation with the British enterprises which may be planned against
+that quarter of our country. Important tribes of Indians on our
+northwestern frontier have also acceded to stipulations which bind them
+to the interests of the United States and to consider our enemy as
+theirs also.
+
+In the recent attempt of the enemy on the city of Baltimore, defended by
+militia and volunteers, aided by a small body of regulars and seamen, he
+was received with a spirit which produced a rapid retreat to his ships,
+whilst a concurrent attack by a large fleet was successfully resisted by
+the steady and well-directed fire of the fort and batteries opposed to
+it.
+
+In another recent attack by a powerful force on our troops at
+Plattsburg, of which regulars made a part only, the enemy, after a
+perseverance for many hours, was finally compelled to seek safety in a
+hasty retreat, with our gallant bands pressing upon him.
+
+On the Lakes, so much contested throughout the war, the great exertions
+for the command made on our part have been well repaid. On Lake Ontario
+our squadron is now and has been for some time in a condition to confine
+that of the enemy to his own port, and to favor the operations of our
+land forces on that frontier.
+
+A part of the squadron on Lake Erie has been extended into Lake Huron,
+and has produced the advantage of displaying our command on that lake
+also. One object of the expedition was the reduction of Mackinaw, which
+failed with the loss of a few brave men, among whom was an officer
+justly distinguished for his gallant exploits. The expedition, ably
+conducted by both the land and the naval commanders, was otherwise
+highly valuable in its effects.
+
+On Lake Champlain, where our superiority had for some time been
+undisputed, the British squadron lately came into action with the
+American, commanded by Captain Macdonough. It issued in the capture of
+the whole of the enemy's ships. The best praise for this officer and his
+intrepid comrades is in the likeness of his triumph to the illustrious
+victory which immortalized another officer and established at a critical
+moment our command of another lake.
+
+On the ocean the pride of our naval arms had been amply supported. A
+second frigate has indeed fallen into the hands of the enemy, but the
+loss is hidden in the blaze of heroism with which she was defended.
+Captain Porter, who commanded her, and whose previous career had
+been distinguished by daring enterprise and by fertility of genius,
+maintained a sanguinary contest against two ships, one of them superior
+to his own, and under other severe disadvantages, till humanity tore
+down the colors which valor had nailed to the mast. This officer and his
+brave comrades have added much to the rising glory of the American flag,
+and have merited all the effusions of gratitude which their country is
+ever ready to bestow on the champions of its rights and of its safety.
+
+Two smaller vessels of war have also become prizes to the enemy, but by
+a superiority of force which sufficiently vindicates the reputation
+of their commanders, whilst two others, one commanded by Captain
+Warrington, the other by Captain Blakely, have captured British ships of
+the same class with a gallantry and good conduct which entitle them and
+their companions to a just share in the praise of their country.
+
+In spite of the naval force of the enemy accumulated on our coasts, our
+private cruisers also have not ceased to annoy his commerce and to bring
+their rich prizes into our ports, contributing thus, with other proofs,
+to demonstrate the incompetency and illegality of a blockade the
+proclamation of which is made the pretext for vexing and discouraging
+the commerce of neutral powers with the United States.
+
+To meet the extended and diversified warfare adopted by the enemy, great
+bodies of militia have been taken into service for the public defense,
+and great expenses incurred. That the defense everywhere may be both
+more convenient and more economical, Congress will see the necessity
+of immediate measures for filling the ranks of the Regular Army and of
+enlarging the provision for special corps, mounted and unmounted, to be
+engaged for longer periods of service than are due from the militia. I
+earnestly renew, at the same time, a recommendation of such changes in
+the system of the militia as, by classing and disciplining for the most
+prompt and active service the portions most capable of it, will give to
+that great resource for the public safety all the requisite energy and
+efficiency.
+
+The moneys received into the Treasury during the nine months ending on
+the 30th day of June last amounted to $32,000,000, of which near eleven
+millions were the proceeds of the public revenue and the remainder
+derived from loans. The disbursements for public expenditures during the
+same period exceeded $34,000,000, and left in the Treasury on the 1st
+day of July near $5,000,000. The demands during the remainder of the
+present year already authorized by Congress and the expenses incident to
+an extension of the operations of the war will render it necessary that
+large sums should be provided to meet them.
+
+From this view of the national affairs Congress will be urged to take
+up without delay as well the subject of pecuniary supplies as that of
+military force, and on a scale commensurate with the extent and the
+character which the war has assumed. It is not to be disguised that the
+situation of our country calls for its greatest efforts. Our enemy is
+powerful in men and in money, on the land and on the water. Availing
+himself of fortuitous advantages, he is aiming with his undivided force
+a deadly blow at our growing prosperity, perhaps at our national
+existence. He has avowed his purpose of trampling on the usages of
+civilized warfare, and given earnests of it in the plunder and wanton
+destruction of private property. In his pride of maritime dominion and
+in his thirst of commercial monopoly he strikes with peculiar animosity
+at the progress of our navigation and of our manufactures. His barbarous
+policy has not even spared those monuments of the arts and models of
+taste with which our country had enriched and embellished its infant
+metropolis. From such an adversary hostility in its greatest force and
+in its worst forms may be looked for. The American people will face it
+with the undaunted spirit which in their revolutionary struggle defeated
+his unrighteous projects. His threats and his barbarities, instead of
+dismay, will kindle in every bosom an indignation not to be extinguished
+but in the disaster and expulsion of such cruel invaders. In providing
+the means necessary the National Legislature will not distrust the
+heroic and enlightened patriotism of its constituents. They will
+cheerfully and proudly bear every burden of every kind which the safety
+and honor of the nation demand. We have seen them everywhere paying
+their taxes, direct and indirect, with the greatest promptness and
+alacrity. We see them rushing with enthusiasm to the scenes where danger
+and duty call. In offering their blood they give the surest pledge that
+no other tribute will be withheld.
+
+Having forborne to declare war until to other aggressions had been added
+the capture of nearly a thousand American vessels and the impressment of
+thousands of American seafaring citizens, and until a final declaration
+had been made by the Government of Great Britain that her hostile
+orders against our commerce would not be revoked but on conditions as
+impossible as unjust, whilst it was known that these orders would not
+otherwise cease but with a war which had lasted nearly twenty years, and
+which, according to appearances at that time, might last as many more;
+having manifested on every occasion and in every proper mode a sincere
+desire to arrest the effusion of blood and meet our enemy on the ground
+of justice and reconciliation, our beloved country, in still opposing
+to his persevering hostility all its energies, with an undiminished
+disposition toward peace and friendship on honorable terms, must carry
+with it the good wishes of the impartial world and the best hopes of
+support from an omnipotent and kind Providence.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+SEPTEMBER 26, 1814.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress, for their information, copies of a letter from
+Admiral Cochrane, commanding His Britannic Majesty's naval forces on the
+American station, to the Secretary of State, with his answer, and of a
+reply from Admiral Cochrane.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _October 10, 1814_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress communications just received from the
+plenipotentiaries of the United States charged with negotiating peace
+with Great Britain, showing the conditions on which alone that
+Government is willing to put an end to the war.
+
+The instructions to those plenipotentiaries, disclosing the grounds on
+which they were authorized to negotiate and conclude a treaty of peace,
+will be the subject of another communication.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _October 13, 1814_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I now transmit to Congress copies of the instructions to the
+plenipotentiaries of the United States charged with negotiating a peace
+with Great Britain, as referred to in my message of the 10th instant.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 1,  1814.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit, for the information of Congress, the communications last
+received from the ministers extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the
+United States at Ghent, explaining the course and actual state of their
+negotiations with the plenipotentiaries of Great Britain.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 15, 1815.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I have received from the American commissioners a treaty of peace and
+amity between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America,
+signed by those commissioners and by the commissioners of His Britannic
+Majesty at Ghent on the 24th of December, 1814. The termination of
+hostilities depends upon the time of the ratification of the treaty by
+both parties. I lose no time, therefore, in submitting the treaty to the
+Senate for their advice and approbation.
+
+I transmit also a letter from the American commissioners, which
+accompanied the treaty.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 18, 1815_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress copies of the treaty of peace and amity between
+the United States and His Britannic Majesty, which was signed by the
+commissioners of both parties at Ghent on the 24th of December, 1814,
+and the ratifications of which have been duly exchanged.
+
+While performing this act I congratulate you and our constituents upon
+an event which is highly honorable to the nation, and terminates with
+peculiar felicity a campaign signalized by the most brilliant successes.
+
+The late war, although reluctantly declared by Congress, had become a
+necessary resort to assert the rights and independence of the nation. It
+has been waged with a success which is the natural result of the wisdom
+of the legislative councils, of the patriotism of the people, of the
+public spirit of the militia, and of the valor of the military and naval
+forces of the country. Peace, at all times a blessing, is peculiarly
+welcome, therefore, at a period when the causes for the war have ceased
+to operate, when the Government has demonstrated the efficiency of its
+powers of defense, and when the nation can review its conduct without
+regret and without reproach.
+
+I recommend to your care and beneficence the gallant men whose
+achievements in every department of the military service, on the land
+and on the water, have so essentially contributed to the honor of the
+American name and to the restoration of peace. The feelings of conscious
+patriotism and worth will animate such men under every change of fortune
+and pursuit, but their country performs a duty to itself when it bestows
+those testimonials of approbation and applause which are at once the
+reward and the incentive to great actions.
+
+The reduction of the public expenditures to the demands of a peace
+establishment will doubtless engage the immediate attention of Congress.
+There are, however, important considerations which forbid a sudden and
+general revocation of the measures that have been produced by the war.
+Experience has taught us that neither the pacific dispositions of
+the American people nor the pacific character of their political
+institutions can altogether exempt them from that strife which appears
+beyond the ordinary lot of nations to be incident to the actual period
+of the world, and the same faithful monitor demonstrates that a certain
+degree of preparation for war is not only indispensable to avert
+disasters in the onset, but affords also the best security for the
+continuance of peace. The wisdom of Congress will therefore, I am
+confident, provide for the maintenance of an adequate regular force; for
+the gradual advancement of the naval establishment; for improving all
+the means of harbor defense; for adding discipline to the distinguished
+bravery of the militia, and for cultivating the military art in its
+essential branches, under the liberal patronage of Government.
+
+The resources of our country were at all times competent to the
+attainment of every national object, but they will now be enriched and
+invigorated by the activity which peace will introduce into all the
+scenes of domestic enterprise and labor. The provision that has been
+made for the public creditors during the present session of Congress
+must have a decisive effect in the establishment of the public credit
+both at home and abroad. The reviving interests of commerce will
+claim the legislative attention at the earliest opportunity, and such
+regulations will, I trust, be seasonably devised as shall secure to the
+United States their just proportion of the navigation of the world.
+The most liberal policy toward other nations, if met by corresponding
+dispositions, will in this respect be found the most beneficial policy
+toward ourselves. But there is no subject that can enter with greater
+force and merit into the deliberations of Congress than a consideration
+of the means to preserve and promote the manufactures which have sprung
+into existence and attained an unparalleled maturity throughout the
+United States during the period of the European wars. This source of
+national independence and wealth I anxiously recommend, therefore, to
+the prompt and constant guardianship of Congress.
+
+The termination of the legislative sessions will soon separate you,
+fellow citizens, from each other, and restore you to your constituents.
+I pray you to bear with you the expressions of my sanguine hope that
+the peace which has been just declared will not only be the foundation
+of the most friendly intercourse between the United States and Great
+Britain, but that it will also be productive of happiness and harmony in
+every section of our beloved country. The influence of your precepts and
+example must be everywhere powerful, and while we accord in grateful
+acknowledgments for the protection which Providence has bestowed upon
+us, let us never cease to inculcate obedience to the laws and fidelity
+to the Union as constituting the palladium of the national independence
+and prosperity.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 22, 1815_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress copies of two ratified treaties which were entered
+into on the part of the United States, one on the 22d day of July, 1814,
+with the several tribes of Indians called the Wyandots, Delawares,
+Shawanees, Senakas, and Miamies; the other on the 9th day of August,
+1814, with the Creek Nation of Indians.
+
+It is referred to the consideration of Congress how far legislative
+provisions may be necessary for carrying any part of these stipulations
+into effect.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1815_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Congress will have seen by the communication from the consul-general of
+the United States at Algiers laid before them on the 17th of November,
+1812, the hostile proceedings of the Dey against that functionary. These
+have been followed by acts of more overt and direct warfare against the
+citizens of the United States trading in the Mediterranean, some of whom
+are still detained in captivity, notwithstanding the attempts which have
+been made to ransom them, and are treated with the rigor usual on the
+coast of Barbary.
+
+The considerations which rendered it unnecessary and unimportant to
+commence hostile operations on the part of the United States being now
+terminated by the peace with Great Britain, which opens the prospect of
+an active and valuable trade of their citizens within the range of the
+Algerine cruisers, I recommend to Congress the expediency of an act
+declaring the existence of a state of war between the United States
+and the Dey and Regency of Algiers, and of such provisions as may be
+requisite for a vigorous prosecution of it to a successful issue.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 25, 1815_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Peace having happily taken place between the United States and Great
+Britain, it is desirable to guard against incidents which during periods
+of war in Europe might tend to interrupt it, and it is believed in
+particular that the navigation of American vessels exclusively by
+American seamen, either natives or such as are already naturalized,
+would not only conduce to the attainment of that object, but also to
+increase the number of our seamen, and consequently to render our
+commerce and navigation independent of the service of foreigners who
+might be recalled by their governments under circumstances the most
+inconvenient to the United States. I recommend the subject, therefore,
+to the consideration of Congress, and in deciding upon it I am persuaded
+that they will sufficiently estimate the policy of manifesting to the
+world a desire on all occasions to cultivate harmony with other nations
+by any reasonable accommodations which do not impair the enjoyment
+of any of the essential rights of a free and independent people. The
+example on the part of the American Government will merit and may be
+expected to receive a reciprocal attention from all the friendly powers
+of Europe.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+VETO MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 30, 1815_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+Having bestowed on the bill entitled "An act to incorporate the
+subscribers to the Bank of the United States of America" that full
+consideration which is due to the great importance of the subject, and
+dictated by the respect which I feel for the two Houses of Congress, I
+am constrained by a deep and solemn conviction that the bill ought not
+to become a law to return it to the Senate, in which it originated, with
+my objections to the same.
+
+Waiving the question of the constitutional authority of the Legislature
+to establish an incorporated bank as being precluded in my judgment by
+repeated recognitions under varied circumstances of the validity of such
+an institution in acts of the legislative, executive, and judicial
+branches of the Government, accompanied by indications, in different
+modes, of a concurrence of the general will of the nation, the proposed
+bank does not appear to be calculated to answer the purposes of reviving
+the public credit, of providing a national medium of circulation, and of
+aiding the Treasury by facilitating the indispensable anticipations of
+the revenue and by affording to the public more durable loans.
+
+1. The capital of the bank is to be compounded of specie, of public
+stock, and of Treasury notes convertible into stock, with a certain
+proportion of each of which every subscriber is to furnish himself.
+
+The amount of the stock to be subscribed will not, it is believed, be
+sufficient to produce in favor of the public credit any considerable or
+lasting elevation of the market price, whilst this may be occasionally
+depressed by the bank itself if it should carry into the market the
+allowed proportion of its capital consisting of public stock in order to
+procure specie, which it may find its account in procuring with some
+sacrifice on that part of its capital.
+
+Nor will any adequate advantage arise to the public credit from the
+subscription of Treasury notes. The actual issue of these notes nearly
+equals at present, and will soon exceed, the amount to be subscribed
+to the bank. The direct effect of this operation is simply to convert
+fifteen millions of Treasury notes into fifteen millions of 6 per cent
+stock, with the collateral effect of promoting an additional demand for
+Treasury notes beyond what might otherwise be negotiable.
+
+Public credit might indeed be expected to derive advantage from the
+establishment of a national bank, without regard to the formation of its
+capital, if the full aid and cooperation of the institution were secured
+to the Government during the war and during the period of its fiscal
+embarrassments. But the bank proposed will be free from all legal
+obligation to cooperate with the public measures, and whatever might be
+the patriotic disposition of its directors to contribute to the removal
+of those embarrassments, and to invigorate the prosecution of the war,
+fidelity to the pecuniary and general interest of the institution
+according to their estimate of it might oblige them to decline a
+connection of their operations with those of the National Treasury
+during the continuance of the war and the difficulties incident to it.
+Temporary sacrifices of interest, though overbalanced by the future
+and permanent profits of the charter, not being requirable of right in
+behalf of the public, might not be gratuitously made, and the bank would
+reap the full benefit of the grant, whilst the public would lose the
+equivalent expected from it; for it must be kept in view that the sole
+inducement to such a grant on the part of the public would be the
+prospect of substantial aids to its pecuniary means at the present
+crisis and during the sequel of the war. It is evident that the stock of
+the bank will on the return of peace, if not sooner, rise in the market
+to a value which, if the bank were established in a period of peace,
+would authorize and obtain for the public a bonus to a very large
+amount. In lieu of such a bonus the Government is fairly entitled to and
+ought not to relinquish or risk the needful services of the bank under
+the pressing circumstances of war.
+
+2. The bank as proposed to be constituted can not be relied on during
+the war to provide a circulating medium nor to furnish loans or
+anticipations of the public revenue.
+
+Without a medium the taxes can not be collected, and in the absence of
+specie the medium understood to be the best substitute is that of notes
+issued by a national bank. The proposed bank will commence and conduct
+its operations under an obligation to pay its notes in specie, or be
+subject to the loss of its charter. Without such an obligation the notes
+of the bank, though not exchangeable for specie, yet resting on good
+pledges and performing the uses of specie in the payment of taxes and in
+other public transactions, would, as experience has ascertained, qualify
+the bank to supply at once a circulating medium and pecuniary aids to
+the Government. Under the fetters imposed by the bill it is manifest
+that during the actual state of things, and probably during the war, the
+period particularly requiring such a medium and such a resource for
+loans and advances to the Government, notes for which the bank would be
+compellable to give specie in exchange could not be kept in circulation.
+The most the bank could effect, and the most it could be expected to
+aim at, would be to keep the institution alive by limited and local
+transactions which, with the interest on the public stock in the bank,
+might yield a dividend sufficient for the purpose until a change from
+war to peace should enable it, by a flow of specie into its vaults and
+a removal of the external demand for it, to derive its contemplated
+emoluments from a safe and full extension of its operations.
+
+On the whole, when it is considered that the proposed establishment
+will enjoy a monopoly of the profits of a national bank for a period of
+twenty years; that the monopolized profits will be continually growing
+with the progress of the national population and wealth; that the nation
+will during the same period be dependent on the notes of the bank for
+that species of circulating medium whenever the precious metals may
+be wanted, and at all times for so much thereof as may be an eligible
+substitute for a specie medium, and that the extensive employment of the
+notes in the collection of the augmented taxes will, moreover, enable
+the bank greatly to extend its profitable issues of them without the
+expense of specie capital to support their circulation, it is as
+reasonable as it is requisite that the Government, in return for these
+extraordinary concessions to the bank, should have a greater security
+for attaining the public objects of the institution than is presented in
+the bill, and particularly for every practicable accommodation, both in
+the temporary advances necessary to anticipate the taxes and in those
+more durable loans which are equally necessary to diminish the resort
+to taxes.
+
+In discharging this painful duty of stating objections to a measure
+which has undergone the deliberations and received the sanction of
+the two Houses of the National Legislature I console myself with the
+reflection that if they have not the weight which I attach to them they
+can be constitutionally overruled, and with a confidence that in a
+contrary event the wisdom of Congress will hasten to substitute a more
+commensurate and certain provision for the public exigencies.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATIONS.
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+The two Houses of the National Legislature having by a joint resolution
+expressed their desire that in the present time of public calamity and
+war a day may be recommended to be observed by the people of the United
+States as a day of public humiliation and fasting and of prayer to
+Almighty God for the safety and welfare of these States, His blessing on
+their arms, and a speedy restoration of peace, I have deemed it proper
+by this proclamation to recommend that Thursday, the 12th of January
+next, be set apart as a day on which all may have an opportunity of
+voluntarily offering at the same time in their respective religious
+assemblies their humble adoration to the Great Sovereign of the
+Universe, of confessing their sins and transgressions, and of
+strengthening their vows of repentance and amendment. They will be
+invited by the same solemn occasion to call to mind the distinguished
+favors conferred on the American people in the general health which has
+been enjoyed, in the abundant fruits of the season, in the progress of
+the arts instrumental to their comfort, their prosperity, and their
+security, and in the victories which have so powerfully contributed to
+the defense and protection of our country, a devout thankfulness for all
+which ought to be mingled with their supplications to the Beneficent
+Parent of the Human Race that He would be graciously pleased to pardon
+all their offenses against Him; to support and animate them in the
+discharge of their respective duties; to continue to them the precious
+advantages flowing from political institutions so auspicious to their
+safety against dangers from abroad, to their tranquillity at home, and
+to their liberties, civil and religious; and that He would in a special
+manner preside over the nation in its public councils and constituted
+authorities, giving wisdom to its measures and success to its arms
+in maintaining its rights and in overcoming all hostile designs and
+attempts against it; and, finally, that by inspiring the enemy with
+dispositions favorable to a just and reasonable peace its blessings
+may be speedily and happily restored.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Given at the city of Washington, the 16th day of November, 1814, and of
+the Independence of the United States the thirty-eighth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Among the many evils produced by the wars which with little intermission
+have afflicted Europe and extended their ravages into other quarters
+of the globe for a period exceeding twenty years, the dispersion or a
+considerable portion of the inhabitants of different countries in sorrow
+and in want has not been the least injurious to human happiness nor the
+least severe in the trial of human virtue.
+
+It had been long ascertained that many foreigners, flying from the
+dangers of their own home, and that some citizens, forgetful of their
+duty, had cooperated in forming an establishment on the island of
+Barrataria, near the mouth of the river Mississippi, for the purposes
+of a clandestine and lawless trade. The Government of the United States
+caused the establishment to be broken up and destroyed, and having
+obtained the means of designating the offenders of every description,
+it only remained to answer the demands of justice by inflicting an
+exemplary punishment.
+
+But it has since been represented that the offenders have manifested a
+sincere penitence; that they have abandoned the prosecution of the worse
+cause for the support of the best, and particularly that they have
+exhibited in the defense of New Orleans unequivocal traits of courage
+and fidelity. Offenders who have refused to become the associates of the
+enemy in the war upon the most seducing terms of invitation and who have
+aided to repel his hostile invasion of the territory of the United
+States can no longer be considered as objects of punishment, but as
+objects of a generous forgiveness.
+
+It has therefore been seen with great satisfaction that the general
+assembly of the State of Louisiana earnestly recommend those offenders
+to the benefit of a full pardon.
+
+And in compliance with that recommendation, as well as in consideration
+of all the other extraordinary circumstances of the case, I, James
+Madison, President of the United States of America, do issue this
+proclamation, hereby granting, publishing, and declaring a free and full
+pardon of all offenses committed in violation of any act or acts of the
+Congress of the said United States touching the revenue, trade, and
+navigation thereof or touching the intercourse and commerce of the
+United States with foreign nations at any time before the 8th day of
+January, in the present year 1815, by any person or persons whomsoever
+being inhabitants of New Orleans and the adjacent country or being
+inhabitants of the said island of Barrataria and the places adjacent:
+_Provided_, That every person claiming the benefit of this full
+pardon in order to entitle himself thereto shall produce a certificate
+in writing from the governor of the State of Louisiana stating that such
+person has aided in the defense of New Orleans and the adjacent country
+during the invasion thereof as aforesaid.
+
+And I do hereby further authorize and direct all suits, indictments,
+and prosecutions for fines, penalties, and forfeitures against any
+person or persons who shall be entitled to the benefit of this full
+pardon forthwith to be stayed, discontinued, and released; and all
+civil officers are hereby required, according to the duties of their
+respective stations, to carry this proclamation into immediate and
+faithful execution.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Done at the city of Washington, the 6th day of February, in the year
+1815, and of the Independence of the United States the thirty-ninth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Acting as Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 7, p. 397.]
+
+
+JAMES MADISON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+_To all and singular to whom these presents shall come, greeting_:
+
+Whereas a treaty of peace and amity between the United States of America
+and His Britannic Majesty was signed at Ghent on the 24th day of
+December, 1814, by the plenipotentiaries respectively appointed for that
+purpose; and the said treaty having been, by and with the advice and
+consent of the Senate of the United States, duly accepted, ratified, and
+confirmed on the 17th day of February, 1815, and ratified copies thereof
+having been exchanged agreeably to the tenor of the said treaty, which
+is in the words following, to wit:
+
+[Here follows the treaty.]
+
+Now, therefore, to the end that the said treaty of peace and amity may
+be observed with good faith on the part of the United States, I, James
+Madison, President as aforesaid, have caused the premises to be made
+public; and I do hereby enjoin all persons bearing office, civil or
+military, within the United States and all others citizens or
+inhabitants thereof or being within the same faithfully to observe and
+fulfill the said treaty and every clause and article thereof.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
+affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand.
+
+Done at the city of Washington, this 18th day of February, A.D. 1815,
+and of the Sovereignty and Independence of the United States the
+thirty-ninth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Acting Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States have by a
+joint resolution signified their desire that a day may be recommended to
+be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity
+as a day of thanksgiving and of devout acknowledgments to Almighty God
+for His great goodness manifested in restoring to them the blessing of
+peace.
+
+No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness of
+the Great Disposer of Events and of the Destiny of Nations than the
+people of the United States. His kind providence originally conducted
+them to one of the best portions of the dwelling place allotted for the
+great family of the human race. He protected and cherished them under
+all the difficulties and trials to which they were exposed in their
+early days. Under His fostering care their habits, their sentiments, and
+their pursuits prepared them for a transition in due time to a state of
+independence and self-government. In the arduous struggle by which it
+was attained they were distinguished by multiplied tokens of His benign
+interposition. During the interval which succeeded He reared them into
+the strength and endowed them with the resources which have enabled them
+to assert their national rights and to enhance their national character
+in another arduous conflict, which is now so happily terminated by a
+peace and reconciliation with those who have been our enemies. And to
+the same Divine Author of Every Good and Perfect Gift we are indebted
+for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil,
+which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land.
+
+It is for blessings such as these, and more especially for the
+restoration of the blessing of peace, that I now recommend that the
+second Thursday in April next be set apart as a day on which the people
+of every religious denomination may in their solemn assemblies unite
+their hearts and their voices in a freewill offering to their Heavenly
+Benefactor of their homage of thanksgiving and of their songs of praise.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Given at the city of Washington on the 4th day of March, A.D. 1815, and
+of the Independence of the United States the thirty-ninth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas information has been received that sundry persons citizens of
+the United States or residents within the same, and especially within
+the State of Louisiana, are conspiring together to begin and set on
+foot, provide, and prepare the means for a military expedition or
+enterprise against the dominions of Spain, with which the United States
+are happily at peace; that for this purpose they are collecting arms,
+military stores, provisions, vessels, and other means; are deceiving and
+seducing honest and well-meaning citizens to engage in their unlawful
+enterprises; are organizing, officering, and arming themselves for the
+same contrary to the laws in such cases made and provided:
+
+I have therefore thought fit to issue this my proclamation, warning and
+enjoining all faithful citizens who have been led without due knowledge
+or consideration to participate in the said unlawful enterprises to
+withdraw from the same without delay, and commanding all persons
+whatsoever engaged or concerned in the same to cease all further
+proceedings therein, as they will answer the contrary at their peril.
+And I hereby enjoin and require all officers, civil and military, of the
+United States or of any of the States or Territories, all judges,
+justices, and other officers of the peace, all military officers of the
+Army or Navy of the United States, and officers of the militia, to be
+vigilant, each within his respective department and according to his
+functions, in searching out and bringing to punishment all persons
+engaged or concerned in such enterprises, in seizing and detaining,
+subject to the disposition of the law, all arms, military stores,
+vessels, or other means provided or providing for the same, and, in
+general, in preventing the carrying on such expedition or enterprise by
+all the lawful means within their power. And I require all good and
+faithful citizens and others within the United States to be aiding and
+assisting herein, and especially in the discovery, apprehension, and
+bringing to justice of all such offenders, in preventing the execution
+of their unlawful combinations or designs, and in giving information
+against them to the proper authorities.
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States of
+America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my
+hand.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Done at the city of Washington, the 1st day of September, A.D. 1815, and
+of the Independence of the said United States of America the fortieth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SEVENTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 5, 1815_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+I have the satisfaction on our present meeting of being able to
+communicate to you the successful termination of the war which had been
+commenced against the United States by the Regency of Algiers. The
+squadron in advance on that service, under Commodore Decatur, lost not a
+moment after its arrival in the Mediterranean in seeking the naval force
+of the enemy then cruising in that sea, and succeeded in capturing two
+of his ships, one of them the principal ship, commanded by the Algerine
+admiral. The high character of the American commander was brilliantly
+sustained on the occasion which brought his own ship into close action
+with that of his adversary, as was the accustomed gallantry of all the
+officers and men actually engaged. Having prepared the way by this
+demonstration of American skill and prowess, he hastened to the port of
+Algiers, where peace was promptly yielded to his victorious force. In
+the terms stipulated the rights and honor of the United States were
+particularly consulted by a perpetual relinquishment on the part of
+the Dey of all pretensions to tribute from them. The impressions which
+have thus been made, strengthened as they will have been by subsequent
+transactions with the Regencies of Tunis and of Tripoli by the
+appearance of the larger force which followed under Commodore
+Bainbridge, the chief in command of the expedition, and by the judicious
+precautionary arrangements left by him in that quarter, afford a
+reasonable prospect of future security for the valuable portion of our
+commerce which passes within reach of the Barbary cruisers.
+
+It is another source of satisfaction that the treaty of peace with Great
+Britain has been succeeded by a convention on the subject of commerce
+concluded by the plenipotentiaries of the two countries. In this result
+a disposition is manifested on the part of that nation corresponding
+with the disposition of the United States, which it may be hoped will
+be improved into liberal arrangements on other subjects on which the
+parties have mutual interests, or which might endanger their future
+harmony. Congress will decide on the expediency of promoting such a
+sequel by giving effect to the measure of confining the American
+navigation to American seamen--a measure which, at the same time that it
+might have that conciliatory tendency, would have the further advantage
+of increasing the independence of our navigation and the resources for
+our maritime defense.
+
+In conformity with the articles in the treaty of Ghent relating to the
+Indians, as well as with a view to the tranquillity of our western and
+northwestern frontiers, measures were taken to establish an immediate
+peace with the several tribes who had been engaged in hostilities
+against the United States. Such of them as were invited to Detroit
+acceded readily to a renewal of the former treaties of friendship.
+Of the other tribes who were invited to a station on the Mississippi
+the greater number have also accepted the peace offered to them. The
+residue, consisting of the more distant tribes or parts of tribes,
+remain to be brought over by further explanations, or by such other
+means as may be adapted to the dispositions they may finally disclose.
+
+The Indian tribes within and bordering on the southern frontier, whom a
+cruel war on their part had compelled us to chastise into peace, have
+latterly shown a restlessness which has called for preparatory measures
+for repressing it, and for protecting the commissioners engaged in
+carrying the terms of the peace into execution.
+
+The execution of the act for fixing the military peace establishment has
+been attended with difficulties which even now can only be overcome by
+legislative aid. The selection of officers, the payment and discharge of
+the troops enlisted for the war, the payment of the retained troops and
+their reunion from detached and distant stations, the collection and
+security of the public property in the Quartermaster, Commissary, and
+Ordnance departments, and the constant medical assistance required
+in hospitals and garrisons rendered a complete execution of the
+act impracticable on the 1st of May, the period more immediately
+contemplated. As soon, however, as circumstances would permit, and as
+far as it has been practicable consistently with the public interests,
+the reduction of the Army has been accomplished; but the appropriations
+for its pay and for other branches of the military service having proved
+inadequate, the earliest attention to that subject will be necessary;
+and the expediency of continuing upon the peace establishment the staff
+officers who have hitherto been provisionally retained is also
+recommended to the consideration of Congress.
+
+In the performance of the Executive duty upon this occasion there has
+not been wanting a just sensibility to the merits of the American Army
+during the late war; but the obvious policy and design in fixing an
+efficient military peace establishment did not afford an opportunity to
+distinguish the aged and infirm on account of their past services nor
+the wounded and disabled on account of their present sufferings. The
+extent of the reduction, indeed, unavoidably involved the exclusion
+of many meritorious officers of every rank from the service of their
+country; and so equal as well as so numerous were the claims to
+attention that a decision by the standard of comparative merit could
+seldom be attained. Judged, however, in candor by a general standard of
+positive merit, the Army Register will, it is believed, do honor to the
+establishment, while the case of those officers whose names are not
+included in it devolves with the strongest interest upon the legislative
+authority for such provision as shall be deemed the best calculated to
+give support and solace to the veteran and the invalid, to display the
+beneficence as well as the justice of the Government, and to inspire a
+martial zeal for the public service upon every future emergency.
+
+Although the embarrassments arising from the want of an uniform national
+currency have not been diminished since the adjournment of Congress,
+great satisfaction has been derived in contemplating the revival of the
+public credit and the efficiency of the public resources. The receipts
+into the Treasury from the various branches of revenue during the nine
+months ending on the 30th of September last have been estimated at
+$12,500,000; the issues of Treasury notes of every denomination during
+the same period amounted to the sum of $14,000,000, and there was also
+obtained upon loan during the same period a sum of $9,000,000 of which
+the sum of $6,000,000 was subscribed in cash and the sum of $3,000,000
+in Treasury notes. With these means, added to the sum of $1,500,000,
+being the balance of money in the Treasury on the 1st day of January,
+there has been paid between the 1st of January and the 1st of October on
+account of the appropriations of the preceding and of the present year
+(exclusively of the amount of the Treasury notes subscribed to the loan
+and of the amount redeemed in the payment of duties and taxes) the
+aggregate sum of $33,500,000, leaving a balance then in the Treasury
+estimated at the sum of $3,000,000. Independent, however, of the
+arrearages due for military services and supplies, it is presumed that
+a further sum of $5,000,000, including the interest on the public debt
+payable on the 1st of January next, will be demanded at the Treasury
+to complete the expenditures of the present year, and for which the
+existing ways and means will sufficiently provide.
+
+The national debt, as it was ascertained on the 1st of October last,
+amounted in the whole to the sum of $120,000,000, consisting of
+the unredeemed balance of the debt contracted before the late war
+($39,000,000), the amount of the funded debt contracted in consequence
+of the war ($64,000,000), and the amount of the unfunded and floating
+debt, including the various issues of Treasury notes, $17,000,000, which
+is in a gradual course of payment. There will probably be some addition
+to the public debt upon the liquidation of various claims which are
+depending, and a conciliatory disposition on the part of Congress may
+lead honorably and advantageously to an equitable arrangement of the
+militia expenses incurred by the several States without the previous
+sanction or authority of the Government of the United States; but when
+it is considered that the new as well as the old portion of the debt
+has been contracted in the assertion of the national rights and
+independence, and when it is recollected that the public expenditures,
+not being exclusively bestowed upon subjects of a transient nature, will
+long be visible in the number and equipments of the American Navy, in
+the military works for the defense of our harbors and our frontiers, and
+in the supplies of our arsenals and magazines the amount will bear a
+gratifying comparison with the objects which have been attained, as well
+as with the resources of the country.
+
+The arrangements of the finances with a view to the receipts and
+expenditures of a permanent peace establishment will necessarily enter
+into the deliberations of Congress during the present session. It is
+true that the improved condition of the public revenue will not only
+afford the means of maintaining the faith of the Government with its
+creditors inviolate, and of prosecuting successfully the measures of
+the most liberal policy, but will also justify an immediate alleviation
+of the burdens imposed by the necessities of the war. It is, however,
+essential to every modification of the finances that the benefits of
+an uniform national currency should be restored to the community. The
+absence of the precious metals will, it is believed, be a temporary
+evil, but until they can again be rendered the general medium of
+exchange it devolves on the wisdom of Congress to provide a substitute
+which shall equally engage the confidence and accommodate the wants of
+the citizens throughout the Union. If the operation of the State banks
+can not produce this result, the probable operation of a national bank
+will merit consideration; and if neither of these expedients be deemed
+effectual it may become necessary to ascertain the terms upon which the
+notes of the Government (no longer required as an instrument of credit)
+shall be issued upon motives of general policy as a common medium of
+circulation.
+
+Notwithstanding the security for future repose which the United States
+ought to find in their love of peace and their constant respect for
+the rights of other nations, the character of the times particularly
+inculcates the lesson that, whether to prevent or repel danger, we ought
+not to be unprepared for it. This consideration will sufficiently
+recommend to Congress a liberal provision for the immediate extension
+and gradual completion of the works of defense, both fixed and floating,
+on our maritime frontier, and an adequate provision for guarding our
+inland frontier against dangers to which certain portions of it may
+continue to be exposed.
+
+As an improvement in our military establishment, it will deserve the
+consideration of Congress whether a corps of invalids might not be so
+organized and employed as at once to aid in the support of meritorious
+individuals excluded by age or infirmities from the existing
+establishment, and to procure to the public the benefit of their
+stationary services and of their exemplary discipline. I recommend also
+an enlargement of the Military Academy already established, and the
+establishment of others in other sections of the Union; and I can not
+press too much on the attention of Congress such a classification and
+organization of the militia as will most effectually render it the
+safeguard of a free state. If experience has shewn in the recent
+splendid achievements of militia the value of this resource for the
+public defense, it has shewn also the importance of that skill in the
+use of arms and that familiarity with the essential rules of discipline
+which can not be expected from the regulations now in force. With this
+subject is intimately connected the necessity of accommodating the laws
+in every respect to the great object of enabling the political authority
+of the Union to employ promptly and effectually the physical power of
+the Union in the cases designated by the Constitution.
+
+The signal services which have been rendered by our Navy and the
+capacities it has developed for successful cooperation in the national
+defense will give to that portion of the public force its full value in
+the eyes of Congress, at an epoch which calls for the constant vigilance
+of all governments. To preserve the ships now in a sound state, to
+complete those already contemplated, to provide amply the imperishable
+materials for prompt augmentations, and to improve the existing
+arrangements into more advantageous establishments for the construction,
+the repairs, and the security of vessels of war is dictated by the
+soundest policy.
+
+In adjusting the duties on imports to the object of revenue the
+influence of the tariff on manufactures will necessarily present itself
+for consideration. However wise the theory may be which leaves to the
+sagacity and interest of individuals the application of their industry
+and resources, there are in this as in other cases exceptions to the
+general rule. Besides the condition which the theory itself implies of
+a reciprocal adoption by other nations, experience teaches that so many
+circumstances must concur in introducing and maturing manufacturing
+establishments, especially of the more complicated kinds, that a country
+may remain long without them, although sufficiently advanced and in some
+respects even peculiarly fitted for carrying them on with success. Under
+circumstances giving a powerful impulse to manufacturing industry it has
+made among us a progress and exhibited an efficiency which justify the
+belief that with a protection not more than is due to the enterprising
+citizens whose interests are now at stake it will become at an early day
+not only safe against occasional competitions from abroad, but a source
+of domestic wealth and even of external commerce. In selecting the
+branches more especially entitled to the public patronage a preference
+is obviously claimed by such as will relieve the United States from a
+dependence on foreign supplies, ever subject to casual failures, for
+articles necessary for the public defense or connected with the primary
+wants of individuals. It will be an additional recommendation of
+particular manufactures where the materials for them are extensively
+drawn from our agriculture, and consequently impart and insure to that
+great fund of national prosperity and independence an encouragement
+which can not fail to be rewarded.
+
+Among the means of advancing the public interest the occasion is
+a proper one for recalling the attention of Congress to the great
+importance of establishing throughout our country the roads and canals
+which can best be executed under the national authority. No objects
+within the circle of political economy so richly repay the expense
+bestowed on them; there are none the utility of which is more
+universally ascertained and acknowledged; none that do more honor to the
+governments whose wise and enlarged patriotism duly appreciates them.
+Nor is there any country which presents a field where nature invites
+more the art of man to complete her own work for his accommodation and
+benefit. These considerations are strengthened, moreover, by the
+political effect of these facilities for intercommunication in bringing
+and binding more closely together the various parts of our extended
+confederacy. Whilst the States individually, with a laudable enterprise
+and emulation, avail themselves of their local advantages by new
+roads, by navigable canals, and by improving the streams susceptible
+of navigation, the General Government is the more urged to similar
+undertakings, requiring a national jurisdiction and national means, by
+the prospect of thus systematically completing so inestimable a work;
+and it is a happy reflection that any defect of constitutional authority
+which may be encountered can be supplied in a mode which the
+Constitution itself has providently pointed out.
+
+The present is a favorable season also for bringing again into view the
+establishment of a national seminary of learning within the District of
+Columbia, and with means drawn from the property therein, subject to
+the authority of the General Government. Such an institution claims
+the patronage of Congress as a monument of their solicitude for the
+advancement of knowledge, without which the blessings of liberty can
+not be fully enjoyed or long preserved; as a model instructive in the
+formation of other seminaries; as a nursery of enlightened preceptors,
+and as a central resort of youth and genius from every part of their
+country, diffusing on their return examples of those national feelings,
+those liberal sentiments, and those congenial manners which contribute
+cement to our Union and strength to the great political fabric of which
+that is the foundation.
+
+In closing this communication I ought not to repress a sensibility,
+in which you will unite, to the happy lot of our country and to the
+goodness of a superintending Providence, to which we are indebted for
+it. Whilst other portions of mankind are laboring under the distresses
+of war or struggling with adversity in other forms, the United States
+are in the tranquil enjoyment of prosperous and honorable peace. In
+reviewing the scenes through which it has been attained we can rejoice
+in the proofs given that our political institutions, founded in human
+rights and framed for their preservation, are equal to the severest
+trials of war, as well as adapted to the ordinary periods of repose. As
+fruits of this experience and of the reputation acquired by the American
+arms on the land and on the water, the nation finds itself possessed of
+a growing respect abroad and of a just confidence in itself, which are
+among the best pledges for its peaceful career. Under other aspects of
+our country the strongest features of its flourishing condition are seen
+in a population rapidly increasing on a territory as productive as it is
+extensive; in a general industry and fertile ingenuity which find their
+ample rewards, and in an affluent revenue which admits a reduction of
+the public burdens without withdrawing the means of sustaining the
+public credit, of gradually discharging the public debt, of providing
+for the necessary defensive and precautionary establishments, and of
+patronizing in every authorized mode undertakings conducive to the
+aggregate wealth and individual comfort of our citizens.
+
+It remains for the guardians of the public welfare to persevere in that
+justice and good will toward other nations which invite a return of
+these sentiments toward the United States; to cherish institutions which
+guarantee their safety and their liberties, civil and religious; and to
+combine with a liberal system of foreign commerce an improvement of the
+national advantages and a protection and extension of the independent
+resources of our highly favored and happy country.
+
+In all measures having such objects my faithful cooperation will be
+afforded.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 6, 1815_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate, for their consideration and advice as to a
+ratification, a treaty of peace with the Dey of Algiers concluded on
+the 30th day of June, 1815, with a letter relating to the same from
+the American commissioners to the Secretary of State.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 6, 1815.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate, for their consideration and advice as to a
+ratification, a convention to regulate the commerce between the United
+States and Great Britain, signed by their respective plenipotentiaries
+on the 3d of July last, with letters relating to the same from the
+American plenipotentiaries to the Secretary of State, and also the
+declaration with which it is the intention of the British Government
+to accompany the exchange of the ratification of the convention.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 6, 1815_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate, for their consideration and advice as to a
+ratification, treaties which have been concluded with the following
+Indian tribes, viz: Iaway tribe, Kickapoo tribe, Poutawatamie, Siouxs
+of the Lakes, Piankeshaw tribe, Siouxs of the River St. Peters, Great
+and Little Osage tribes, Yancton tribe, Mahas, Fox tribe, Teeton, Sac
+Nation, Kanzas tribe, Chippewa, Ottawa, Potawatamie, Shawanoe, Wyandot,
+Miami, Delaware, and Seneca.
+
+I communicate also the letters from the commissioners on the part of
+the United States relating to their proceedings on those occasions.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 11, 1815_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit the original of the convention between the United States and
+Great Britain, as signed by their respective plenipotentiaries, on the
+3d day of July last, a copy of which was laid before the Senate on the
+5th instant.
+
+I transmit also a copy of the late treaty of peace with Algiers, as
+certified by one of the commissioners of the United States, an office
+copy of which was laid before the Senate on the 5th instant, the
+original of the treaty not having been received.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 23, 1815.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress copies of a proclamation notifying the convention
+concluded with Great Britain on the 3d day of July last, and that the
+same has been duly ratified; and I recommend to Congress such
+legislative provisions as the convention may call for on the part of the
+United States.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 18, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The accompanying extract from the occurrences at Fort Jackson in August,
+1814, during the negotiation of a treaty with the Indians shows that the
+friendly Creeks, wishing to give to General Jackson, Benjamin Hawkins,
+and others a national mark of their gratitude and regard, conveyed to
+them, respectively, a donation of land, with a request that the grant
+might be duly confirmed by the Government of the United States.
+
+Taking into consideration the peculiar circumstances of the case, the
+expediency of indulging the Indians in wishes which they associated with
+the treaty signed by them, and that the case involves an inviting
+opportunity for bestowing on an officer who has rendered such
+illustrious services to his country a token of its sensibility to them,
+the inducement to which can not be diminished by the delicacy and
+disinterestedness of his proposal to transfer the benefit from himself,
+I recommend to Congress that provision be made for carrying into effect
+the wishes and request of the Indians as expressed by them.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 6, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+It is represented that the lands in the Michigan Territory designated by
+law toward satisfying land bounties promised the soldiers of the late
+army are so covered with swamps and lakes, or otherwise unfit for
+cultivation, that a very inconsiderable proportion can be applied to the
+intended grants. I recommend, therefore, that other lands be designated
+by Congress for the purpose of supplying the deficiency.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+MARCH 5, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 2d instant, they
+are informed that great losses having been sustained by citizens of
+the United States from unjust seizures and confiscations of their
+property by the late Government of Naples, it was deemed expedient
+that indemnification should be claimed by a special mission for that
+purpose. The occasion may be proper, also, for securing the use and
+accommodations of the Neapolitan ports, which may at any time be needed
+by the public ships of the United States, and for obtaining relief for
+the American commerce from the disadvantageous and unequal regulations
+now operating against it in that Kingdom,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+MARCH 9, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress a statement of the militia of the United States
+according to the latest returns received by the Department of War.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+APRIL 11, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+With a view to the more convenient arrangement of the important and
+growing business connected with the grant of exclusive rights to
+inventors and authors, I recommend the establishment of a distinct
+office within the Department of State to be charged therewith, under a
+director with a salary adequate to his services, and with the privilege
+of franking communications by mail from and to the office. I recommend
+also that further restraints be imposed on the issue of patents to
+wrongful claimants, and further guards provided against fraudulent
+exactions of fees by persons possessed of patents.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+APRIL 16, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress copies of a convention concluded between the
+United States and the Cherokee Indians on the 2d day of March last, as
+the same has been duly ratified and proclaimed; and I recommend that
+such provision be made by Congress as the stipulations therein contained
+may require,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+APRIL 17, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+It being presumed that further information may have changed the views
+of the Senate relative to the importance and expediency of a mission to
+Naples for the purpose of negotiating indemnities to our citizens for
+spoliations committed by the Neapolitan Government, I nominate William
+Pinkney, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Russia,
+to be minister plenipotentiary to Naples, specially charged with that
+trust.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATIONS.
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas it has been represented that many uninformed or evil-disposed
+persons have taken possession of or made a settlement on the public
+lands of the United States which have not been previously sold, ceded,
+or leased by the United States, or the claim to which lands by such
+persons has not been previously recognized or confirmed by the United
+States, which possession or settlement is by the act of Congress passed
+on the 3d day of March, 1807, expressly prohibited; and
+
+Whereas the due execution of the said act of Congress, as well as the
+general interest, requires that such illegal practices should be
+promptly repressed:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United States,
+have thought proper to issue my proclamation commanding and strictly
+enjoining all persons who have unlawfully taken possession of or made
+any settlement on the public lands as aforesaid forthwith to remove
+therefrom; and I do hereby further command and enjoin the marshal,
+or officer acting as marshal, in any State or Territory where such
+possession shall have been taken or settlement made to remove, from
+and after the 10th day of March, 1816, all or any of the said unlawful
+occupants; and to effect the said service I do hereby authorize the
+employment of such military force as may become necessary in pursuance
+of the provisions of the act of Congress aforesaid, warning the
+offenders, moreover, that they will be prosecuted in all such other ways
+as the law directs.
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States of
+America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my
+hand.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Done at the city of Washington, the 12th day of December, A.D. 1815, and
+of the Independence of the said United States of America the fortieth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 10, p. 208.]
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas by the act entitled "An act granting bounties in land and extra
+pay to certain Canadian volunteers," passed the 5th March, 1816, it was
+enacted that the locations of the land warrants of the said volunteers
+should "be subject to such regulations as to priority of choice and
+manner of location as the President of the United States shall direct:"
+
+Wherefore I, James Madison, President of the United States, in
+conformity with the provisions of the act before recited, do hereby make
+known that the land warrants of the said Canadian volunteers may be
+located agreeably to the said act at the land offices at Vincennes or
+Jeffersonville, in the Indiana Territory, on the first Monday in June
+next, with the registers of the said land offices; that the warrantees
+may, in person or by their attorneys or other legal representatives, in
+the presence of the register and receiver of the said land district,
+draw lots for the priority of location; and that should any of the
+warrants not appear for location on that day they may be located
+afterwards, according to their priority of presentation, the locations
+in the district of Vincennes to be made at Vincennes and the locations
+in the district of Jeffersonville to be made at Jeffersonville.
+
+Given under my hand the 1st day of May, 1816.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JOSIAH MEIGS,
+    _Commissioner of the General Land Office_.
+
+
+
+
+
+EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+DECEMBER 3, 1816.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+In reviewing the present state of our country, our attention can not be
+withheld from the effect produced by peculiar seasons which have very
+generally impaired the annual gifts of the earth and threatened scarcity
+in particular districts. Such, however, is the variety of soils, of
+climates, and of products within our extensive limits that the aggregate
+resources for subsistence are more than sufficient for the aggregate
+wants. And as far as an economy of consumption, more than usual, may be
+necessary, our thankfulness is due to Providence for what is far more
+than a compensation, in the remarkable health which has distinguished
+the present year.
+
+Amidst the advantages which have succeeded the peace of Europe, and that
+of the United States with Great Britain, in a general invigoration of
+industry among us and in the extension of our commerce, the value of
+which is more and more disclosing itself to commercial nations, it is
+to be regretted that a depression is experienced by particular branches
+of our manufactures and by a portion of our navigation. As the first
+proceeds in an essential degree from an excess of imported merchandise,
+which carries a check in its own tendency, the cause in its present
+extent can not be of very long duration. The evil will not, however,
+be viewed by Congress without a recollection that manufacturing
+establishments, if suffered to sink too low or languish too long,
+may not revive after the causes shall have ceased, and that in the
+vicissitudes of human affairs situations may recur in which a dependence
+on foreign sources for indispensable supplies may be among the most
+serious embarrassments.
+
+The depressed state of our navigation is to be ascribed in a material
+degree to its exclusion from the colonial ports of the nation most
+extensively connected with us in commerce, and from the indirect
+operation of that exclusion.
+
+Previous to the late convention at London between the United States
+and Great Britain the relative state of the navigation laws of the two
+countries, growing out of the treaty of 1794, had given to the British
+navigation a material advantage over the American in the intercourse
+between the American ports and British ports in Europe. The convention
+of London equalized the laws of the two countries relating to those
+ports, leaving the intercourse between our ports and the ports of the
+British colonies subject, as before, to the respective regulations of
+the parties. The British Government enforcing now regulations which
+prohibit a trade between its colonies and the United States in American
+vessels, whilst they permit a trade in British vessels, the American
+navigation loses accordingly, and the loss is augmented by the advantage
+which is given to the British competition over the American in the
+navigation between our ports and British ports in Europe by the
+circuitous voyages enjoyed by the one and not enjoyed by the other.
+
+The reasonableness of the rule of reciprocity applied to one branch of
+the commercial intercourse has been pressed on our part as equally
+applicable to both branches; but it is ascertained that the British
+cabinet declines all negotiation on the subject, with a disavowal,
+however, of any disposition to view in an unfriendly light whatever
+countervailing regulations the United States may oppose to the
+regulations of which they complain. The wisdom of the Legislature will
+decide on the course which, under these circumstances, is prescribed by
+a joint regard to the amicable relations between the two nations and to
+the just interests of the United States.
+
+I have the satisfaction to state, generally, that we remain in amity with
+foreign powers.
+
+An occurrence has indeed taken place in the Gulf of Mexico which, if
+sanctioned by the Spanish Government, may make an exception as to that
+power. According to the report of our naval commander on that station,
+one of our public armed vessels was attacked by an overpowering force
+under a Spanish commander, and the American flag, with the officers and
+crew, insulted in a manner calling for prompt reparation. This has been
+demanded. In the meantime a frigate and a smaller vessel of war have
+been ordered into that Gulf for the protection of our commerce. It would
+be improper to omit that the representative of His Catholic Majesty in
+the United States lost no time in giving the strongest assurances that
+no hostile order could have emanated from his Government, and that it
+will be as ready to do as to expect whatever the nature of the case and
+the friendly relations of the two countries shall be found to require.
+
+The posture of our affairs with Algiers at the present moment is not
+known. The Dey, drawing pretexts from circumstances for which the United
+States were not answerable, addressed a letter to this Government
+declaring the treaty last concluded with him to have been annulled by
+our violation of it, and presenting as the alternative war or a renewal
+of the former treaty, which stipulated, among other things, an annual
+tribute. The answer, with an explicit declaration that the United States
+preferred war to tribute, required his recognition and observance of
+the treaty last made, which abolishes tribute and the slavery of our
+captured citizens. The result of the answer has not been received.
+Should he renew his warfare on our commerce, we rely on the protection
+it will find in our naval force actually in the Mediterranean.
+
+With the other Barbary States our affairs have undergone no change.
+
+The Indian tribes within our limits appear also disposed to remain
+at peace. From several of them purchases of lands have been made
+particularly favorable to the wishes and security of our frontier
+settlements, as well as to the general interests of the nation. In some
+instances the titles, though not supported by due proof, and clashing
+those of one tribe with the claims of another, have been extinguished by
+double purchases, the benevolent policy of the United States preferring
+the augmented expense to the hazard of doing injustice or to the
+enforcement of justice against a feeble and untutored people by means
+involving or threatening an effusion of blood. I am happy to add that
+the tranquillity which has been restored among the tribes themselves, as
+well as between them and our own population, will favor the resumption
+of the work of civilization which had made an encouraging progress among
+some tribes, and that the facility is increasing for extending that
+divided and individual ownership, which exists now in movable property
+only, to the soil itself, and of thus establishing in the culture and
+improvement of it the true foundation for a transit from the habits of
+the savage to the arts and comforts of social life.
+
+As a subject of the highest importance to the national welfare, I
+must again earnestly recommend to the consideration of Congress a
+reorganization of the militia on a plan which will form it into classes
+according to the periods of life more or less adapted to military
+services. An efficient militia is authorized and contemplated by the
+Constitution and required by the spirit and safety of free government.
+The present organization of our militia is universally regarded as less
+efficient than it ought to be made, and no organization can be better
+calculated to give to it its due force than a classification which will
+assign the foremost place in the defense of the country to that portion
+of its citizens whose activity and animation best enable them to rally
+to its standard. Besides the consideration that a time of peace is the
+time when the change can be made with most convenience and equity, it
+will now be aided by the experience of a recent war in which the militia
+bore so interesting a part.
+
+Congress will call to mind that no adequate provision has yet been made
+for the uniformity of weights and measures also contemplated by the
+Constitution. The great utility of a standard fixed in its nature and
+founded on the easy rule of decimal proportions is sufficiently obvious.
+It led the Government at an early stage to preparatory steps for
+introducing it, and a completion of the work will be a just title to
+the public gratitude.
+
+The importance which I have attached to the establishment of a
+university within this District on a scale and for objects worthy of
+the American nation induces me to renew my recommendation of it to the
+favorable consideration of Congress. And I particularly invite again
+their attention to the expediency of exercising their existing powers,
+and, where necessary, of resorting to the prescribed mode of enlarging
+them, in order to effectuate a comprehensive system of roads and canals,
+such as will have the effect of drawing more closely together every
+part of our country by promoting intercourse and improvements and by
+increasing the share of every part in the common stock of national
+prosperity.
+
+Occurrences having taken place which shew that the statutory provisions
+for the dispensation of criminal justice are deficient in relation both
+to places and to persons under the exclusive cognizance of the national
+authority, an amendment of the law embracing such cases will merit the
+earliest attention of the Legislature. It will be a seasonable occasion
+also for inquiring how far legislative interposition maybe further
+requisite in providing penalties for offenses designated in the
+Constitution or in the statutes, and to which either no penalties are
+annexed or none with sufficient certainty. And I submit to the wisdom
+of Congress whether a more enlarged revisal of the criminal code be not
+expedient for the purpose of mitigating in certain cases penalties which
+were adopted into it antecedent to experiment and examples which justify
+and recommend a more lenient policy.
+
+The United States, having been the first to abolish within the extent
+of their authority the transportation of the natives of Africa into
+slavery, by prohibiting the introduction of slaves and by punishing
+their citizens participating in the traffic, can not but be gratified
+at the progress made by concurrent efforts of other nations toward a
+general suppression of so great an evil. They must feel at the same
+time the greater solicitude to give the fullest efficacy to their own
+regulations. With that view, the interposition of Congress appears to
+be required by the violations and evasions which it is suggested are
+chargeable on unworthy citizens who mingle in the slave trade under
+foreign flags and with foreign ports, and by collusive importations of
+slaves into the United States through adjoining ports and territories.
+I present the subject to Congress with a full assurance of their
+disposition to apply all the remedy which can be afforded by an
+amendment of the law. The regulations which were intended to guard
+against abuses of a kindred character in the trade between the several
+States ought also to be rendered more effectual for their humane object.
+
+To these recommendations I add, for the consideration of Congress, the
+expediency of a remodification of the judiciary establishment, and of
+an additional department in the executive branch of the Government.
+
+The first is called for by the accruing business which necessarily
+swells the duties of the Federal courts, and by the great and widening
+space within which justice is to be dispensed by them. The time seems to
+have arrived which claims for members of the Supreme Court a relief from
+itinerary fatigues, incompatible as well with the age which a portion of
+them will always have attained as with the researches and preparations
+which are due to their stations and to the juridical reputation of their
+country. And considerations equally cogent require a more convenient
+organization of the subordinate tribunals, which may be accomplished
+without an objectionable increase of the number or expense of the
+judges.
+
+The extent and variety of executive business also accumulating with
+the progress of our country and its growing population call for an
+additional department, to be charged with duties now overburdening other
+departments and with such as have not been annexed to any department.
+
+The course of experience recommends, as another improvement in the
+executive establishment, that the provision for the station of
+Attorney-General, whose residence at the seat of Government, official
+connections with it, and the management of the public business before
+the judiciary preclude an extensive participation in professional
+emoluments, be made more adequate to his services and his
+relinquishments, and that, with a view to his reasonable accommodation
+and to a proper depository of his official opinions and proceedings,
+there be included in the provision the usual appurtenances to a public
+office.
+
+In directing the legislative attention to the state of the finances it
+is a subject of great gratification to find that even within the short
+period which has elapsed since the return of peace the revenue has far
+exceeded all the current demands upon the Treasury, and that under any
+probable diminution of its future annual products which the vicissitudes
+of commerce may occasion it will afford an ample fund for the effectual
+and early extinguishment of the public debt. It has been estimated that
+during the year 1816 the actual receipts of revenue at the Treasury,
+including the balance at the commencement of the year, and excluding
+the proceeds of loans and Treasury notes, will amount to about the sum
+of $47,000,000; that during the same year the actual payments at the
+Treasury, including the payment of the arrearages of the War Department
+as well as the payment of a considerable excess beyond the annual
+appropriations, will amount to about the sum of $38,000,000, and that
+consequently at the close of the year there will be a surplus in the
+Treasury of about the sum of $9,000,000.
+
+The operations of the Treasury continued to be obstructed by
+difficulties arising from the condition of the national currency, but
+they have nevertheless been effectual to a beneficial extent in the
+reduction of the public debt and the establishment of the public credit.
+The floating debt of Treasury notes and temporary loans will soon be
+entirely discharged. The aggregate of the funded debt, composed of
+debts incurred during the wars of 1776 and 1812, has been estimated
+with reference to the 1st of January next at a sum not exceeding
+$110,000,000. The ordinary annual expenses of the Government for the
+maintenance of all its institutions, civil, military, and naval, have
+been estimated at a sum less than $20,000,000, and the permanent revenue
+to be derived from all the existing sources has been estimated at a sum
+of about $25,000,000,
+
+Upon this general view of the subject it is obvious that there is only
+wanting to the fiscal prosperity of the Government the restoration of an
+uniform medium of exchange. The resources and the faith of the nation,
+displayed in the system which Congress has established, insure respect
+and confidence both at home and abroad. The local accumulations of the
+revenue have already enabled the Treasury to meet the public engagements
+in the local currency of most of the States, and it is expected that the
+same cause will produce the same effect throughout the Union; but for
+the interests of the community at large, as well as for the purposes
+of the Treasury, it is essential that the nation should possess a
+currency of equal value, credit, and use wherever it may circulate.
+The Constitution has intrusted Congress exclusively with the power of
+creating and regulating a currency of that description, and the measures
+which were taken during the last session in execution of the power
+give every promise of success. The Bank of the United States has been
+organized under auspices the most favorable, and can not fail to be an
+important auxiliary to those measures.
+
+For a more enlarged view of the public finances, with a view of the
+measures pursued by the Treasury Department previous to the resignation
+of the late Secretary, I transmit an extract from the last report of
+that officer. Congress will perceive in it ample proofs of the solid
+foundation on which the financial prosperity of the nation rests, and
+will do justice to the distinguished ability and successful exertions
+with which the duties of the Department were executed during a period
+remarkable for its difficulties and its peculiar perplexities.
+
+The period of my retiring from the public service being at little
+distance, I shall find no occasion more proper than the present for
+expressing to my fellow-citizens my deep sense of the continued
+confidence and kind support which I have received from them. My grateful
+recollection of these distinguished marks of their favorable regard can
+never cease, and with the consciousness that, if I have not served my
+country with greater ability, I have served it with a sincere devotion
+will accompany me as a source of unfailing gratification.
+
+Happily, I shall carry with me from the public theater other sources,
+which those who love their country most will best appreciate. I shall
+behold it blessed with tranquillity and prosperity at home and with
+peace and respect abroad. I can indulge the proud reflection that the
+American people have reached in safety and success their fortieth year
+as an independent nation; that for nearly an entire generation they have
+had experience of their present Constitution, the offspring of their
+undisturbed deliberations and of their free choice; that they have found
+it to bear the trials of adverse as well as prosperous circumstances:
+to contain in its combination of the federate and elective principles
+a reconcilement of public strength with individual liberty, of national
+power for the defense of national rights with a security against wars of
+injustice, of ambition, and of vainglory in the fundamental provision
+which subjects all questions of war to the will of the nation itself,
+which is to pay its costs and feel its calamities. Nor is it less a
+peculiar felicity of this Constitution, so dear to us all, that it is
+found to be capable, without losing its vital energies, of expanding
+itself over a spacious territory with the increase and expansion of the
+community for whose benefit it was established.
+
+And may I not be allowed to add to this gratifying spectacle that I
+shall read in the character of the American people, in their devotion
+to true liberty and to the Constitution which is its palladium, sure
+presages that the destined career of my country will exhibit a
+Government pursuing the public good as its sole object, and regulating
+its means by the great principles consecrated in its charter and by
+those moral principles to which they are so well allied; a Government
+which watches over the purity of elections, the freedom of speech and
+of the press, the trial by jury, and the equal interdict against
+encroachments and compacts between religion and the state; which
+maintains inviolably the maxims of public faith, the security of persons
+and property, and encourages in every authorized mode that general
+diffusion of knowledge which guarantees to public liberty its permanency
+and to those who possess the blessing the true enjoyment of it; a
+Government which avoids intrusions on the internal repose of other
+nations, and repels them from its own; which does justice to all nations
+with a readiness equal to the firmness with which it requires justice
+from them; and which, whilst it refines its domestic code from every
+ingredient not congenial with the precepts of an enlightened age and the
+sentiments of a virtuous people, seeks by appeals to reason and by its
+liberal examples to infuse into the law which governs the civilized
+world a spirit which may diminish the frequency or circumscribe the
+calamities of war, and meliorate the social and beneficent relations of
+peace; a Government, in a word, whose conduct within and without may
+bespeak the most noble of all ambitions---that of promoting peace on
+earth and good will to man.
+
+These contemplations, sweetening the remnant of my days, will animate my
+prayers for the happiness of my beloved country, and a perpetuity of the
+institutions under which it is enjoyed.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+DECEMBER 6, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The ninth section of the act passed at the last session of Congress "to
+authorize the payment for property lost, captured, or destroyed by the
+enemy while in the military service of the United States, and for other
+purposes," having received a construction giving to it a scope of great
+and uncertain extent, I thought it proper that proceedings relative to
+claims under that part of the act should be suspended until Congress
+should have an opportunity of defining more precisely the cases
+contemplated by them. With that view I now recommend the subject to
+their consideration. They will have an opportunity at the same time of
+considering how far other provisions of the act may be rendered more
+clear and precise in their import.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 10, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate, for their consideration and advice as to
+a ratification, treaties concluded with the several Indian tribes
+according to the following statement:
+
+A LIST OF INDIAN TRIBES WITH WHOM TREATIES HAVE BEEN MADE SINCE THE LAST
+SESSION OF CONGRESS.
+
+_Weas and Kickapoos tribes of Indians_.--Treaty concluded at Fort
+Harrison between Benjamin Parke and the chiefs and headmen of those
+tribes the 4th June, 1816.
+
+_Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottowotomees_.--Treaty concluded at St. Louis
+between Governors Clarke, Edwards, and Colonel Choteau and the chiefs
+and headmen of those tribes on the 24th August, 1816.
+
+_Winnebago tribes_.--Made by the same persons on part United States
+and the headmen of this tribe at St. Louis 3d June, 1816.
+
+_Sacks of Rock River_.--Made by same at St. Louis 13th May, 1816.
+
+_Siouxs composing three tribes, the Siouxs of the Leaf, the Siouxs of
+the Broad Leaf, and the Siouxs who Shoot on the Pine-tops_.--Made and
+concluded by the same at St. Louis 1st June, 1816.
+
+_Chickasaw tribe_.--Treaty made by General Jackson, David Merrewether,
+esq., and Jesse Franklin, esq., and the headmen of that nation at
+Chickasaw council house 20th September, 1816.
+
+_Cherokee tribe_.--Treaty made by General Jackson, David Merrewether,
+esq., and Jesse Franklin, esq., and the headmen of that nation at Turkey
+Town on the 4th October, 1816.
+
+_Choctaw tribe_.--Treaty made by General John Coffee, John Rhea, and
+John McKee, esquires, and the headmen and warriors of that nation at
+the Choctaw trading house on the 24th of October, 1816.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 13, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+A treaty of commerce between the United States and the King of Sweden
+and Norway having been concluded and signed on the 4th day of September
+last by their plenipotentiaries, I lay the same before the Senate for
+their consideration and advice as to a ratification.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 21, 1816.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 6th instant, I transmit to them the proceedings of the commissioner
+appointed under the act "to authorize the payment for property lost,
+captured, or destroyed by the enemy while in the military service of the
+United States, and for other purposes," as reported by the commissioner
+to the Department of War.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 26, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+It is found that the existing laws have not the efficacy necessary to
+prevent violations of the obligations of the United States as a nation
+at peace toward belligerent parties and other unlawful acts on the high
+seas by armed vessels equipped within the waters of the United States.
+
+With a view to maintain more effectually the respect due to the laws, to
+the character, and to the neutral and pacific relations of the United
+States, I recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency of
+such further legislative provisions as may be requisite for detaining
+vessels actually equipped, or in a course of equipment, with a warlike
+force within the jurisdiction of the United States, or, as the case may
+be, for obtaining from the owners or commanders of such vessels adequate
+securities against the abuse of their armaments, with the exceptions in
+such provisions proper for the cases of merchant vessels furnished with
+the defensive armaments usual on distant and dangerous expeditions, and
+of a private commerce in military stores permitted by our laws, and
+which the law of nations does not require the United States to prohibit.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 25, 1817.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress copies of ratified treaties between the United
+States and the following Indian tribes:
+
+First. The Wea and Kickapoo.
+
+Second. The united tribes of Ottawas, Chippawas, and Potowotomies
+residing on the Illinois and Melwakee rivers and their waters and
+on the southwestern parts of Lake Michigan.
+
+Third. That portion of the Winnebago tribe or nation residing on the
+Ouisconsin River,
+
+Fourth. The Sacs of Rock River and the adjacent country.
+
+Fifth. Eight bands of the Siouxs, composing the three tribes called the
+Siouxs of the Leaf, the Siouxs of the Broad Leaf, and the Siouxs who
+Shoot in the Pine Tops.
+
+Sixth. The Chickasaw tribe of Indians.
+
+Seventh. The Cherokee tribe of Indians.
+
+Eighth. The Chactaw tribe of Indians.
+
+Congress will take into consideration how far legislative provisions may
+be necessary for carrying into effect stipulations contained in the said
+treaties,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 31, 1817.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of His Most
+Christian Majesty having renewed, under special instructions from his
+Government, the claim of the representative of Baron de Beaumarchais for
+1,000,000 livres, which were debited to him in the settlement of his
+accounts with the United States, I lay before Congress copies of the
+memoir on that subject addressed by the said envoy to the Secretary of
+State.
+
+Considering that the sum of which the million of livres in question made
+a part was a gratuitous grant from the French Government to the United
+States, and the declaration of that Government that that part of the
+grant was put into the hands of M. de Beaumarchais as its agent, not as
+the agent of the United States, and was duly accounted for by him to
+the French Government; considering also the concurring opinions of two
+Attorneys-General of the United States that the said debit was not
+legally sustainable in behalf of the United States, I recommend the case
+to the favorable attention of the Legislature, whose authority alone can
+finally decide on it.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 3, 1817.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The Government of Great Britain, induced by the posture of the relations
+with the United States which succeeded the conclusion of the recent
+commercial convention, issued an order on the 17th day of August, 1815,
+discontinuing the discriminating duties payable in British ports on
+American vessels and their cargoes. It was not until the 22d of December
+following that a corresponding discontinuance of discriminating duties
+on British vessels and their cargoes in American ports took effect under
+the authority vested in the Executive by the act of March, 1816. During
+the period between those two dates there was consequently a failure
+of reciprocity or equality in the existing regulations of the two
+countries. I recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency
+of paying to the British Government the amount of the duties remitted
+during the period in question to citizens of the United States, subject
+to a deduction of the amount of whatever discriminating duties may have
+commenced in British ports after the signature of that convention and
+been collected previous to the 17th of August, 1815.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 6, 1817.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+On comparing the fourth section of the act of Congress passed March 31,
+1814, providing for the indemnification of certain claimants of public
+lands in the Mississippi Territory, with the article of agreement and
+cession between the United States and State of Georgia, bearing date
+April 30, 1802, it appears that the engagements entered into with the
+claimants interfere with the rights and interests secured to that State.
+I recommend to Congress that provision be made by law for payments to
+the State of Georgia equal to the amount of Mississippi stock which
+shall be paid into the Treasury until the stipulated sum of $1,250,000
+shall be completed.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+VETO MESSAGE.
+
+
+MARCH 3, 1817.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Having considered the bill this day presented to me entitled "An act
+to set apart and pledge certain funds for internal improvements,"
+and which sets apart and pledges funds "for constructing roads and
+canals, and improving the navigation of water courses, in order to
+facilitate, promote, and give security to internal commerce among
+the several States, and to render more easy and less expensive the
+means and provisions for the common defense," I am constrained by
+the insuperable difficulty I feel in reconciling the bill with the
+Constitution of the United States to return it with that objection
+to the House of Representatives, in which it originated.
+
+The legislative powers vested in Congress are specified and enumerated
+in the eighth section of the first article of the Constitution, and it
+does not appear that the power proposed to be exercised by the bill is
+among the enumerated powers, or that it falls by any just interpretation
+within the power to make laws necessary and proper for carrying into
+execution those or other powers vested by the Constitution in the
+Government of the United States.
+
+"The power to regulate commerce among the several States" can not
+include a power to construct roads and canals, and to improve the
+navigation of water courses in order to facilitate, promote, and secure
+such a commerce without a latitude of construction departing from the
+ordinary import of the terms strengthened by the known inconveniences
+which doubtless led to the grant of this remedial power to Congress.
+
+To refer the power in question to the clause "to provide for the common
+defense and general welfare" would be contrary to the established and
+consistent rules of interpretation, as rendering the special and careful
+enumeration of powers which follow the clause nugatory and improper.
+Such a view of the Constitution would have the effect of giving to
+Congress a general power of legislation instead of the defined and
+limited one hitherto understood to belong to them, the terms "common
+defense and general welfare" embracing every object and act within the
+purview of a legislative trust. It would have the effect of subjecting
+both the Constitution and laws of the several States in all cases not
+specifically exempted to be superseded by laws of Congress, it being
+expressly declared "that the Constitution of the United States and laws
+made in pursuance thereof shall be the supreme law of the land, and
+the judges of every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the
+constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." Such
+a view of the Constitution, finally, would have the effect of excluding
+the judicial authority of the United States from its participation in
+guarding the boundary between the legislative powers of the General and
+the State Governments, inasmuch as questions relating to the general
+welfare, being questions of policy and expediency, are unsusceptible of
+judicial cognizance and decision.
+
+A restriction of the power "to provide for the common defense and
+general welfare" to cases which are to be provided for by the
+expenditure of money would still leave within the legislative power of
+Congress all the great and most important measures of Government, money
+being the ordinary and necessary means of carrying them into execution.
+
+If a general power to construct roads and canals, and to improve the
+navigation of water courses, with the train of powers incident thereto,
+be not possessed by Congress, the assent of the States in the mode
+provided in the bill can not confer the power. The only cases in which
+the consent and cession of particular States can extend the power of
+Congress are those specified and provided for in the Constitution.
+
+I am not unaware of the great importance of roads and canals and the
+improved navigation of water courses, and that a power in the National
+Legislature to provide for them might be exercised with signal advantage
+to the general prosperity. But seeing that such a power is not expressly
+given by the Constitution, and believing that it can not be deduced from
+any part of it without an inadmissible latitude of construction and a
+reliance on insufficient precedents; believing also that the permanent
+success of the Constitution depends on a definite partition of powers
+between the General and the State Governments, and that no adequate
+landmarks would be left by the constructive extension of the powers of
+Congress as proposed in the bill, I have no option but to withhold
+my signature from it, and to cherishing the hope that its beneficial
+objects may be attained by a resort for the necessary powers to the same
+wisdom and virtue in the nation which established the Constitution in
+its actual form and providently marked out in the instrument itself a
+safe and practicable mode of improving it as experience might suggest.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+[From Annals of Congress, Fourteenth Congress, second session, 218.]
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 1, 1817_.
+
+_To the Senators of the United States, respectively_:
+
+SIR: Objects interesting to the United States requiring that the Senate
+should be in session on the 4th of March next to receive such
+communications as may be made to it on the part of the Executive, your
+attendance in the Senate Chamber in this city on that day is accordingly
+requested.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Compilation of the Messages and
+Papers of the Presidents, by Edited by James D. Richardson
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES MADISON ***
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+    "text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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+    "generator">
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Messages and Papers of the
+      Presidents: James Madison, by James D. Richardson.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+    <!--
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of
+the Presidents, by Edited by James D. Richardson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents
+       Section 4 (of 4) of Volume 1: James Madison
+
+Author: Edited by James D. Richardson
+
+Release Date: January 31, 2004 [EBook #10895]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES MADISON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Garcia and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+    <h1>
+      A COMPILATION OF THE MESSAGES AND PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENTS
+    </h1>
+    <center>
+      <b>BY JAMES D. RICHARDSON</b>
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      James Madison
+    </h1>
+    <h3>
+      March 4, 1809, to March 4, 1817
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      James Madison
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      James Madison was born in King George County, Va., on the
+      16th of March, 1751. He was the son of James Madison, the
+      family being of English descent, and among the early settlers
+      of Virginia. Was fitted for college by private tutors, and
+      entered Princeton College in 1769, graduating in 1771;
+      remained a year at college pursuing his studies. After this
+      he returned to Virginia and began the practice of law. In
+      1776 was elected a member of the general assembly of
+      Virginia, and in 1778 was appointed a member of the executive
+      council. In the winter of 1779-80 was chosen a delegate to
+      the Continental Congress, of which body he continued an
+      active and prominent member till 1784. The legislature of
+      Virginia appointed him in 1786 a delegate to a convention at
+      Annapolis, Md., to devise a system of commercial regulations
+      for all the States. Upon their recommendation a convention of
+      delegates from all the States was held in Philadelphia in
+      May, 1787. This Convention framed the Constitution of the
+      United States, and of it Mr. Madison was a leading member. He
+      was next a member of the convention of his State which met to
+      consider the new Constitution for the United States. Was a
+      member of the House of Representatives in the First Congress,
+      taking his seat in April, 1789, and continued to be a member
+      of the House during both of Washington's terms as President.
+      He married Mrs. Dolly Paine Todd, of Philadelphia, in 1794,
+      she being the widow of a Pennsylvania lawyer. Her father was
+      a Quaker, and had removed from Virginia to Philadelphia.
+      Declined the office of Secretary of State, vacated by
+      Jefferson, in 1793. He retired from Congress in 1797, and in
+      1798 accepted a seat in the Virginia assembly. In 1801 was
+      appointed by President Jefferson Secretary of State, which
+      office he held during the eight years of Jefferson's
+      Administration. In 1808 was elected President, and was
+      reelected in 1812. On March 4, 1817, he retired from public
+      life, and passed the remainder of his days at Montpelier, in
+      Orange County, Va. In 1829 was chosen a member of the State
+      convention to revise the constitution of Virginia, and was
+      also chosen president of an agricultural society in his
+      county. He died on the 28th day of June, 1836, and was buried
+      at his home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT ELECT.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The President of the Senate communicated the following letter
+      from the President elect of the United States:
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      CITY OF WASHINGTON, <i>March 2, 1809</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hon. JOHN MILLEDGE,<br>
+       <i>President pro tempore of the Senate</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SIR: I beg leave through you to inform the honorable the
+      Senate of the United States that I propose to take the oath
+      which the Constitution prescribes to the President of the
+      United States before he enters on the execution of his office
+      on Saturday, the 4th instant, at 12 o'clock, in the Chamber
+      of the House of Representatives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, sir, your
+      most obedient and most humble servant,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Unwilling to depart from examples of the most revered
+      authority, I avail myself of the occasion now presented to
+      express the profound impression made on me by the call of my
+      country to the station to the duties of which I am about to
+      pledge myself by the most solemn of sanctions. So
+      distinguished a mark of confidence, proceeding from the
+      deliberate and tranquil suffrage of a free and virtuous
+      nation, would under any circumstances have commanded my
+      gratitude and devotion, as well as filled me with an awful
+      sense of the trust to be assumed. Under the various
+      circumstances which give peculiar solemnity to the existing
+      period, I feel that both the honor and the responsibility
+      allotted to me are inexpressibly enhanced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The present situation of the world is indeed without a
+      parallel, and that of our own country full of difficulties.
+      The pressure of these, too, is the more severely felt because
+      they have fallen upon us at a moment when the national
+      prosperity being at a height not before attained, the
+      contrast resulting from the change has been rendered the more
+      striking. Under the benign influence of our republican
+      institutions, and the maintenance of peace with all nations
+      whilst so many of them were engaged in bloody and wasteful
+      wars, the fruits of a just policy were enjoyed in an
+      unrivaled growth of our faculties and resources. Proofs of
+      this were seen in the improvements of agriculture, in the
+      successful enterprises of commerce, in the progress of
+      manufactures and useful arts, in the increase of the public
+      revenue and the use made of it in reducing the public debt,
+      and in the valuable works and establishments everywhere
+      multiplying over the face of our land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a precious reflection that the transition from this
+      prosperous condition of our country to the scene which has
+      for some time been distressing us is not chargeable on any
+      unwarrantable views, nor, as I trust, on any involuntary
+      errors in the public councils. Indulging no passions which
+      trespass on the rights or the repose of other nations, it has
+      been the true glory of the United States to cultivate peace
+      by observing justice, and to entitle themselves to the
+      respect of the nations at war by fulfilling their neutral
+      obligations with the most scrupulous impartiality. If there
+      be candor in the world, the truth of these assertions will
+      not be questioned; posterity at least will do justice to
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This unexceptionable course could not avail against the
+      injustice and violence of the belligerent powers. In their
+      rage against each other, or impelled by more direct motives,
+      principles of retaliation have been introduced equally
+      contrary to universal reason and acknowledged law. How long
+      their arbitrary edicts will be continued in spite of the
+      demonstrations that not even a pretext for them has been
+      given by the United States, and of the fair and liberal
+      attempt to induce a revocation of them, can not be
+      anticipated. Assuring myself that under every vicissitude the
+      determined spirit and united councils of the nation will be
+      safeguards to its honor and its essential interests, I repair
+      to the post assigned me with no other discouragement than
+      what springs from my own inadequacy to its high duties. If I
+      do not sink under the weight of this deep conviction it is
+      because I find some support in a consciousness of the
+      purposes and a confidence in the principles which I bring
+      with me into this arduous service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all nations
+      having correspondent dispositions; to maintain sincere
+      neutrality toward belligerent nations; to prefer in all cases
+      amicable discussion and reasonable accommodation of
+      differences to a decision of them by an appeal to arms; to
+      exclude foreign intrigues and foreign partialities, so
+      degrading to all countries and so baneful to free ones; to
+      foster a spirit of independence too just to invade the rights
+      of others, too proud to surrender our own, too liberal to
+      indulge unworthy prejudices ourselves and too elevated not to
+      look down upon them in others; to hold the union of the
+      States as the basis of their peace and happiness; to support
+      the Constitution, which is the cement of the Union, as well
+      in its limitations as in its authorities; to respect the
+      rights and authorities reserved to the States and to the
+      people as equally incorporated with and essential to the
+      success of the general system; to avoid the slightest
+      interference with the rights of conscience or the functions
+      of religion, so wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction; to
+      preserve in their full energy the other salutary provisions
+      in behalf of private and personal rights, and of the freedom
+      of the press; to observe economy in public expenditures; to
+      liberate the public resources by an honorable discharge of
+      the public debts; to keep within the requisite limits a
+      standing military force, always remembering that an armed and
+      trained militia is the firmest bulwark of
+      republics&mdash;that without standing armies their liberty
+      can never be in danger, nor with large ones safe; to promote
+      by authorized means improvements friendly to agriculture, to
+      manufactures, and to external as well as internal commerce;
+      to favor in like manner the advancement of science and the
+      diffusion of information as the best aliment to true liberty;
+      to carry on the benevolent plans which have been so
+      meritoriously applied to the conversion of our aboriginal
+      neighbors from the degradation and wretchedness of savage
+      life to a participation of the improvements of which the
+      human mind and manners are susceptible in a civilized
+      state&mdash;as far as sentiments and intentions such as these
+      can aid the fulfillment of my duty, they will be a resource
+      which can not fail me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is my good fortune, moreover, to have the path in which I
+      am to tread lighted by examples of illustrious services
+      successfully rendered in the most trying difficulties by
+      those who have marched before me. Of those of my immediate
+      predecessor it might least become me here to speak. I may,
+      however, be pardoned for not suppressing the sympathy with
+      which my heart is full in the rich reward he enjoys in the
+      benedictions of a beloved country, gratefully bestowed for
+      exalted talents zealously devoted through a long career to
+      the advancement of its highest interest and happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the source to which I look for the aids which alone can
+      supply my deficiencies is in the well-tried intelligence and
+      virtue of my fellow-citizens, and in the counsels of those
+      representing them in the other departments associated in the
+      care of the national interests. In these my confidence will
+      under every difficulty be best placed, next to that which we
+      have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and
+      guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the
+      destiny of nations, whose blessings have been so
+      conspicuously dispensed to this rising Republic, and to whom
+      we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as
+      well as our fervent supplications and best hopes for the
+      future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      MARCH 4, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL SESSION MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of
+      Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this first occasion of meeting you it affords me much
+      satisfaction to be able to communicate the commencement of a
+      favorable change in our foreign relations, the critical state
+      of which induced a session of Congress at this early period.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In consequence of the provisions of the act interdicting
+      commercial intercourse with Great Britain and France, our
+      ministers at London and Paris were without delay instructed
+      to let it be understood by the French and British Governments
+      that the authority vested in the Executive to renew
+      commercial intercourse with their respective nations would be
+      exercised in the case specified by that act.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after these instructions were dispatched it was found
+      that the British Government, anticipating from early
+      proceedings of Congress at their last session the state of
+      our laws, which has had the effect of placing the two
+      belligerent powers on a footing of equal restrictions, and
+      relying on the conciliatory disposition of the United States,
+      had transmitted to their legation here provisional
+      instructions not only to offer satisfaction for the attack on
+      the frigate <i>Chesapeake</i>, and to make known the
+      determination of His Britannic Majesty to send an envoy
+      extraordinary with powers to conclude a treaty on all the
+      points between the two countries, but, moreover, to signify
+      his willingness in the meantime to withdraw his orders in
+      council, in the persuasion that the intercourse with Great
+      Britain would be renewed on the part of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These steps of the British Government led to the
+      correspondence and the proclamation now laid before you, by
+      virtue of which the commerce between the two countries will
+      be renewable after the 10th day of June next.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst I take pleasure in doing justice to the councils of
+      His Britannic Majesty, which, no longer adhering to the
+      policy which made an abandonment by France of her decrees a
+      prerequisite to a revocation of the British orders, have
+      substituted the amicable course which has issued thus
+      happily, I can not do less than refer to the proposal
+      heretofore made on the part of the United States, embracing a
+      like restoration of the suspended commerce, as a proof of the
+      spirit of accommodation which has at no time been
+      intermitted, and to the result which now calls for our
+      congratulations, as corroborating the principles by which the
+      public councils have been guided during a period of the most
+      trying embarrassments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The discontinuance of the British orders as they respect the
+      United States having been thus arranged, a communication of
+      the event has been forwarded in one of our public vessels to
+      our minister plenipotentiary at Paris, with instructions to
+      avail himself of the important addition thereby made to the
+      considerations which press on the justice of the French
+      Government a revocation of its decrees or such a modification
+      of them as that they shall cease to violate the neutral
+      commerce of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The revision of our commercial laws proper to adapt them to
+      the arrangement which has taken place with Great Britain will
+      doubtless engage the early attention of Congress. It will be
+      worthy at the same time of their just and provident care to
+      make such further alterations in the laws as will more
+      especially protect and foster the several branches of
+      manufacture which have been recently instituted or extended
+      by the laudable exertions of our citizens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the existing aspect of our affairs I have thought it
+      not inconsistent with a just precaution to have the gunboats,
+      with the exception of those at New Orleans, placed in a
+      situation incurring no expense beyond that requisite for
+      their preservation and conveniency for future service, and to
+      have the crews of those at New Orleans reduced to the number
+      required for their navigation and safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have thought also that our citizens detached in quotas of
+      militia amounting to 100,000 under the act of March, 1808,
+      might not improperly be relieved from the state in which they
+      were held for immediate service. A discharge of them has been
+      accordingly directed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The progress made in raising and organizing the additional
+      military force, for which provision was made by the act of
+      April, 1808, together with the disposition of the troops,
+      will appear by a report which the Secretary of War is
+      preparing, and which will be laid before you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the additional frigates required by an act of the last
+      session to be fitted for actual service, two are in
+      readiness, one nearly so, and the fourth is expected to be
+      ready in the month of July. A report which the Secretary of
+      the Navy is preparing on the subject, to be laid before
+      Congress, will shew at the same time the progress made in
+      officering and manning these ships. It will shew also the
+      degree in which the provisions of the act relating to the
+      other public armed ships have been carried into execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will rest with the judgment of Congress to decide how far
+      the change in our external prospects may authorize any
+      modifications of the laws relating to the army and navy
+      establishments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The works of defense for our seaport towns and harbors have
+      proceeded with as much activity as the season of the year and
+      other circumstances would admit. It is necessary, however, to
+      state that, the appropriations hitherto made being found to
+      be deficient, a further provision will claim the early
+      consideration of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole of the 8 per cent stock remaining due by the United
+      States, amounting to $5,300,000, had been reimbursed on the
+      last day of the year 1808; and on the 1st day of April last
+      the sum in the Treasury exceeded $9,500,000. This, together
+      with the receipts of the current year on account of former
+      revenue bonds, will probably be nearly if not altogether
+      sufficient to defray the expenses of the year. But the
+      suspension of exports and the consequent decrease of
+      importations during the last twelve months will necessarily
+      cause a great diminution in the receipts of the year 1810.
+      After that year, should our foreign relations be undisturbed,
+      the revenue will again be more than commensurate to all the
+      expenditures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aware of the inconveniences of a protracted session at the
+      present season of the year, I forbear to call the attention
+      of the Legislature to any matters not particularly urgent. It
+      remains, therefore, only to assure you of the fidelity and
+      alacrity with which I shall cooperate for the welfare and
+      happiness of our country, and to pray that it may experience
+      a continuance of the divine blessings by which it has been so
+      signally favored.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      MAY 23, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      MAY 26, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I now lay before Congress the report of the Secretary of War,
+      shewing the progress made in carrying into effect the act of
+      April, 1808, for raising an additional military force, and
+      the disposition of the troops.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JUNE 4, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with the request of the legislature of
+      Pennsylvania, I transmit to Congress a copy of certain of its
+      proceedings, communicated for the purpose by the governor of
+      that State.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JUNE 15, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 13th
+      instant, I transmit extracts from letters from Mr. Pinkney to
+      the Secretary of State, accompanied by letters and
+      communications to him from the British secretary of state for
+      the foreign department, all of which have been received here
+      since the last session of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To these documents are added a communication just made by Mr.
+      Erskine to the Secretary of State, and his answer.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JUNE 20, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 19th
+      instant, I transmit such information as has been received
+      respecting exiles from Cuba arrived or expected within the
+      United States; also a letter from General Turreau connected
+      with that subject.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JUNE 26, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The considerations which led to the nomination of a minister
+      plenipotentiary to Russia being strengthened by evidence
+      since received of the earnest desire of the Emperor to
+      establish a diplomatic intercourse between the two countries,
+      and of a disposition in his councils favorable to the
+      extension of a commerce mutually advantageous, as will be
+      seen by the extracts from letters from General Armstrong and
+      Consul Harris herewith confidentially communicated, I
+      nominate John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, to be minister
+      plenipotentiary of the United States to the Court of St.
+      Petersburg.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PROCLAMATIONS.
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      [From Annals of Congress, Eleventh Congress, part 2, 2060.]
+    </center>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Whereas it is provided by the eleventh section of the act of
+      Congress entitled "An act to interdict the commercial
+      intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and
+      France and their dependencies, and for other purposes," that
+      "in case either France or Great Britain shall so revoke or
+      modify her edicts as that they shall cease to violate the
+      neutral commerce of the United States" the President is
+      authorized to declare the same by proclamation, after which
+      the trade suspended by the said act and by an act laying an
+      embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of
+      the United States and the several acts supplementary thereto
+      may be renewed with the nation so doing; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas the Honorable David Montague Erskine, His Britannic
+      Majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary,
+      has, by the order and in the name of his Sovereign, declared
+      to this Government that the British orders in council of
+      January and November, 1807, will have been withdrawn as
+      respects the United States on the 10th day of June next:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United
+      States, do hereby proclaim that the orders in council
+      aforesaid will have been withdrawn on the said 10th day of
+      June next, after which day the trade of the United States
+      with Great Britain, as suspended by the act of Congress above
+      mentioned and an act laying an embargo on all ships and
+      vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States and the
+      several acts supplementary thereto, may be renewed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Given under my hand and the seal of the United States at
+      Washington, the 19th day of April, A.D. 1809, and of the
+      Independence of the United States the thirty-third.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       By the President:<br>
+       R. SMITH,<br>
+       <i>Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [From Annals of Congress, Eleventh Congress, part 2, 2076.]
+    </center>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Whereas, in consequence of a communication from His Britannic
+      Majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary
+      declaring that the British orders of council of January and
+      November, 1807, would have been withdrawn on the 10th day of
+      June last, and by virtue of authority given in such event by
+      the eleventh section of the act of Congress entitled "An act
+      to interdict the commercial intercourse between the United
+      States and Great Britain and France and their dependencies,
+      and for other purposes," I, James Madison, President of the
+      United States, did issue my proclamation bearing date on the
+      19th of April last, declaring that the orders in council
+      aforesaid would have been so withdrawn on the said 10th day
+      of June, after which the trade suspended by certain acts of
+      Congress might be renewed; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas it is now officially made known to me that the said
+      orders in council have not been withdrawn agreeably to the
+      communication and declaration aforesaid:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I do hereby proclaim the same, and, consequently, that the
+      trade renewable on the event of the said orders, being
+      withdrawn, is to be considered as under the operation of the
+      several acts by which such trade was suspended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Given under my hand and the seal of the United States at the
+      city of Washington, the 9th day of August, A.D. 1809, and of
+      the Independence of the said United States the thirty-fourth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       By the President:<br>
+       R. SMITH,<br>
+       <i>Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      NOVEMBER 29, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of
+      Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the period of our last meeting I had the satisfaction of
+      communicating an adjustment with one of the principal
+      belligerent nations, highly important in itself, and still
+      more so as presaging a more extended accommodation. It is
+      with deep concern I am now to inform you that the favorable
+      prospect has been overclouded by a refusal of the British
+      Government to abide by the act of its minister
+      plenipotentiary, and by its ensuing policy toward the United
+      States as seen through the communications of the minister
+      sent to replace him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever pleas may be urged for a disavowal of engagements
+      formed by diplomatic functionaries in cases where by the
+      terms of the engagements a mutual ratification is reserved,
+      or where notice at the time may have been given of a
+      departure from instructions, or in extraordinary cases
+      essentially violating the principles of equity, a disavowal
+      could not have been apprehended in a case where no such
+      notice or violation existed, where no such ratification was
+      reserved, and more especially where, as is now in proof, an
+      engagement to be executed without any such ratification was
+      contemplated by the instructions given, and where it had with
+      good faith been carried into immediate execution on the part
+      of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These considerations not having restrained the British
+      Government from disavowing the arrangement by virtue of which
+      its orders in council were to be revoked, and the event
+      authorizing the renewal of commercial intercourse having thus
+      not taken place, it necessarily became a question of equal
+      urgency and importance whether the act prohibiting that
+      intercourse was not to be considered as remaining in legal
+      force. This question being, after due deliberation,
+      determined in the affirmative, a proclamation to that effect
+      was issued. It could not but happen, however, that a return
+      to this state of things from that which had followed an
+      execution of the arrangement by the United States would
+      involve difficulties. With a view to diminish these as much
+      as possible, the instructions from the Secretary of the
+      Treasury now laid before you were transmitted to the
+      collectors of the several ports. If in permitting British
+      vessels to depart without giving bonds not to proceed to
+      their own ports it should appear that the tenor of legal
+      authority has not been strictly pursued, it is to be ascribed
+      to the anxious desire which was felt that no individuals
+      should be injured by so unforeseen an occurrence; and I rely
+      on the regard of Congress for the equitable interests of our
+      own citizens to adopt whatever further provisions may be
+      found requisite for a general remission of penalties
+      involuntarily incurred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The recall of the disavowed minister having been followed by
+      the appointment of a successor, hopes were indulged that the
+      new mission would contribute to alleviate the disappointment
+      which had been produced, and to remove the causes which had
+      so long embarrassed the good understanding of the two
+      nations. It could not be doubted that it would at least be
+      charged with conciliatory explanations of the step which had
+      been taken and with proposals to be substituted for the
+      rejected arrangement. Reasonable and universal as this
+      expectation was, it also has not been fulfilled. From the
+      first official disclosures of the new minister it was found
+      that he had received no authority to enter into explanations
+      relative to either branch of the arrangement disavowed nor
+      any authority to substitute proposals as to that branch which
+      concerned the British orders in council, and, finally, that
+      his proposals with respect to the other branch, the attack on
+      the frigate <i>Chesapeake</i>, were founded on a presumption
+      repeatedly declared to be inadmissible by the United States,
+      that the first step toward adjustment was due from them, the
+      proposals at the same time omitting even a reference to the
+      officer answerable for the murderous aggression, and
+      asserting a claim not less contrary to the British laws and
+      British practice than to the principles and obligations of
+      the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The correspondence between the Department of State and this
+      minister will show how unessentially the features presented
+      in its commencement have been varied in its progress. It will
+      show also that, forgetting the respect due to all
+      governments, he did not refrain from imputations on this,
+      which required that no further communications should be
+      received from him. The necessity of this step will be made
+      known to His Britannic Majesty through the minister
+      plenipotentiary of the United States in London; and it would
+      indicate a want of the confidence due to a Government which
+      so well understands and exacts what becomes foreign ministers
+      near it not to infer that the misconduct of its own
+      representative will be viewed in the same light in which it
+      has been regarded here. The British Government will learn at
+      the same time that a ready attention will be given to
+      communications through any channel which may be substituted.
+      It will be happy if the change in this respect should be
+      accompanied by a favorable revision of the unfriendly policy
+      which has been so long pursued toward the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With France, the other belligerent, whose trespasses on our
+      commercial rights have long been the subject of our just
+      remonstrances, the posture of our relations does not
+      correspond with the measures taken on the part of the United
+      States to effect a favorable change. The result of the
+      several communications made to her Government, in pursuance
+      of the authorities vested by Congress in the Executive, is
+      contained in the correspondence of our minister at Paris now
+      laid before you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By some of the other belligerents, although professing just
+      and amicable dispositions, injuries materially affecting our
+      commerce have not been duly controlled or repressed. In these
+      cases the interpositions deemed proper on our part have not
+      been omitted. But it well deserves the consideration of the
+      Legislature how far both the safety and the honor of the
+      American flag may be consulted, by adequate provisions
+      against that collusive prostitution of it by individuals
+      unworthy of the American name which has so much favored the
+      real or pretended suspicions under which the honest commerce
+      of their fellow-citizens has suffered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In relation to the powers on the coast of Barbary, nothing
+      has occurred which is not of a nature rather to inspire
+      confidence than distrust as to the continuance of the
+      existing amity. With our Indian neighbors, the just and
+      benevolent system continued toward them has also preserved
+      peace, and is more and more advancing habits favorable to
+      their civilization and happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From a statement which will be made by the Secretary of War
+      it will be seen that the fortifications on our maritime
+      frontier are in many of the ports completed, affording the
+      defense which was contemplated, and that a further time will
+      be required to render complete the works in the harbor of New
+      York and in some other places. By the enlargement of the
+      works and the employment of a greater number of hands at the
+      public armories the supply of small arms of an improving
+      quality appears to be annually increasing at a rate that,
+      with those made on private contract, may be expected to go
+      far toward providing for the public exigency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The act of Congress providing for the equipment of our
+      vessels of war having been fully carried into execution, I
+      refer to the statement of the Secretary of the Navy for the
+      information which may be proper on that subject. To that
+      statement is added a view of the transfers of appropriations
+      authorized by the act of the session preceding the last and
+      of the grounds on which the transfers were made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whatever may be the course of your deliberations on the
+      subject of our military establishments, I should fail in my
+      duty in not recommending to your serious attention the
+      importance of giving to our militia, the great bulwark of our
+      security and resource of our power, an organization the best
+      adapted to eventual situations for which the United States
+      ought to be prepared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sums which had been previously accumulated in the
+      Treasury, together with the receipts during the year ending
+      on the 30th of September last (and amounting to more than
+      $9,000,000), have enabled us to fulfill all our engagements
+      and to defray the current expenses of Government without
+      recurring to any loan. But the insecurity of our commerce and
+      the consequent diminution of the public revenue will probably
+      produce a deficiency in the receipts of the ensuing year, for
+      which and for other details I refer to the statements which
+      will be transmitted from the Treasury.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the state which has been presented of our affairs with the
+      great parties to a disastrous and protracted war, carried on
+      in a mode equally injurious and unjust to the United States
+      as a neutral nation, the wisdom of the National legislature
+      will be again summoned to the important decision on the
+      alternatives before them. That these will be met in a spirit
+      worthy the councils of a nation conscious both of its
+      rectitude and of its rights, and careful as well of its honor
+      as of its peace, I have an entire confidence; and that the
+      result will be stamped by a unanimity becoming the occasion,
+      and be supported by every portion of our citizens with a
+      patriotism enlightened and invigorated by experience, ought
+      as little to be doubted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the midst of the wrongs and vexations experienced from
+      external causes there is much room for congratulation on the
+      prosperity and happiness flowing from our situation at home.
+      The blessing of health has never been more universal. The
+      fruits of the seasons, though in particular articles and
+      districts short of their usual redundancy, are more than
+      sufficient for our wants and our comforts. The face of our
+      country everywhere presents the evidence of laudable
+      enterprise, of extensive capital, and of durable improvement.
+      In a cultivation of the materials and the extension of useful
+      manufactures, more especially in the general application to
+      household fabrics, we behold a rapid diminution of our
+      dependence on foreign supplies. Nor is it unworthy of
+      reflection that this revolution in our pursuits and habits is
+      in no slight degree a consequence of those impolitic and
+      arbitrary edicts by which the contending nations, in
+      endeavoring each of them to obstruct our trade with the
+      other, have so far abridged our means of procuring the
+      productions and manufactures of which our own are now taking
+      the place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Recollecting always that for every advantage which may
+      contribute to distinguish our lot from that to which others
+      are doomed by the unhappy spirit of the times we are indebted
+      to that Divine Providence whose goodness has been so
+      remarkably extended to this rising nation, it becomes us to
+      cherish a devout gratitude, and to implore from the same
+      omnipotent source a blessing on the consultations and
+      measures about to be undertaken for the welfare of our
+      beloved country.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 12, 1809. &lt;/&gt;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to the request of the House of Representatives
+      expressed in their resolution of the 11th instant, I now lay
+      before them a printed copy of a paper purporting to be a
+      circular letter from Mr. Jackson to the British consuls in
+      the United States, as received in a Gazette at the Department
+      of State; and also a printed paper received in a letter from
+      our minister in London, purporting to be a copy of a dispatch
+      from Mr. Canning to Mr. Erskine of the 23d of January last.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 16, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Agreeably to the request in the resolution of the 15th
+      instant, I transmit a copy of the correspondence with the
+      governor of Pennsylvania in the case of Gideon Olmstead,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 16, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Agreeably to the request expressed in the resolution of the
+      13th instant, I lay before the House extracts from the
+      correspondence of the minister plenipotentiary of the United
+      States at London.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 22, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before the Senate, for their consideration whether they
+      will advise and consent to the ratification thereof, a treaty
+      concluded on the 30th September last with the Delaware,
+      Potawattamie, Miami, and Eel-river Miami Indian tribes
+      northwest of the Ohio; a separate article of the same date,
+      with the said tribes, and a convention with the Weea tribe,
+      concluded on the 26th October last; the whole being
+      accompanied with the explanatory documents,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 3, 1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The act authorizing a detachment of 100,000 men from the
+      militia will expire on the 30th of March next. Its early
+      revival is recommended, in order that timely steps may be
+      taken for arrangements such as the act contemplated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without interfering with the modifications rendered necessary
+      by the defects or the inefficacy of the laws restrictive of
+      commerce and navigation, or with the policy of disallowing to
+      foreign armed vessels the use of our waters, it falls within
+      my duty to recommend also that, in addition to the
+      precautionary measure authorized by that act and to the
+      regular troops for completing the legal establishment of
+      which enlistments are renewed, every necessary provision may
+      be made for a volunteer force of 20,000 men, to be enlisted
+      for a short period and held in a state of organization and
+      readiness for actual service at the shortest warning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I submit to the consideration of Congress, moreover, the
+      expediency of such a classification and organization of the
+      militia as will best insure prompt and successive aids from
+      that source, adequate to emergencies which may call for them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will rest with them also to determine how far further
+      provision may be expedient for putting into actual service,
+      if necessary, any part of the naval armament not now
+      employed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At a period presenting features in the conduct of foreign
+      powers toward the United States which impose on them the
+      necessity of precautionary measures involving expense, it is
+      a happy consideration that such is the solid state of the
+      public credit that reliance may be justly placed on any legal
+      provision that may be made for resorting to it in a
+      convenient form and to an adequate amount,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 9, 1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before the Senate, for their consideration whether they
+      will advise and consent to the ratification thereof, a treaty
+      concluded on the 9th day of December last with the Kickapoo
+      tribe of Indians, accompanied by explanations in an extract
+      of a letter from the governor of the Indiana Territory,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 15, 1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before the Senate, for their consideration whether they
+      will advise and consent to the ratification thereof, a treaty
+      concluded with the Great and Little Osage Indians on the 10th
+      day of November, 1808, and the 31st day of August, 1809.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 22, 1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate a report of the Secretary of the
+      Treasury, complying with their resolution of the 27th of
+      December, on the subject of disbursements in the intercourse
+      with the Barbary Powers.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 28, 1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I now lay before you copies of the treaties concluded with
+      the Delaware, Pottawatamie, Miami, Eel River, and Wea tribes
+      of Indians for the extinguishment of their title to the lands
+      therein described, and I recommend to the consideration of
+      Congress the making provision by law for carrying them into
+      execution.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MARCH 15, 1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A treaty having been entered into and duly ratified with the
+      Kickapoo tribe of Indians for the extinguishment of their
+      title to certain lands within the Indiana Territory,
+      involving conditions which require legislative provision, I
+      submit copies thereof to both branches for consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MARCH 27, 1810,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In consequence of your resolution of the 26th instant, an
+      inquiry has been made into the correspondence of our minister
+      at the Court of London with the Department of State, from
+      which it appears that no official communication has been
+      received from him since his receipt of the letter of November
+      23 last from the Secretary of State. A letter of January 4,
+      1810, has been received from that minister by Mr. Smith, but
+      being stated to be private and unofficial, and involving,
+      moreover, personal considerations of a delicate nature, a
+      copy is considered as not within the purview of the call of
+      the House.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PROCLAMATIONS.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Whereas the territory south of the Mississippi Territory and
+      eastward of the river Mississippi, and extending to the river
+      Perdido, of which possession was not delivered to the United
+      States in pursuance of the treaty concluded at Paris on the
+      30th April, 1803, has at all times, as is well known, been
+      considered and claimed by them as being within the colony of
+      Louisiana conveyed by the said treaty in the same extent that
+      it had in the hands of Spain and that it had when France
+      originally possessed it; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas the acquiescence of the United States in the
+      temporary continuance of the said territory under the Spanish
+      authority was not the result of any distrust of their title,
+      as has been particularly evinced by the general tenor of
+      their laws and by the distinction made in the application of
+      those laws between that territory and foreign countries, but
+      was occasioned by their conciliatory views and by a
+      confidence in the justice of their cause and in the success
+      of candid discussion and amicable negotiation with a just and
+      friendly power; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas a satisfactory adjustment, too long delayed, without
+      the fault of the United States, has for some time been
+      entirely suspended by events over which they had no control;
+      and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas a crisis has at length arrived subversive of the
+      order of things under the Spanish authorities, whereby a
+      failure of the United States to take the said territory into
+      its possession may lead to events ultimately contravening the
+      views of both parties, whilst in the meantime the
+      tranquillity and security of our adjoining territories are
+      endangered and new facilities given to violations of our
+      revenue and commercial laws and of those prohibiting the
+      introduction of slaves;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Considering, moreover, that under these peculiar and
+      imperative circumstances a forbearance on the part of the
+      United States to occupy the territory in question, and
+      thereby guard against the confusions and contingencies which
+      threaten it, might be construed into a dereliction of their
+      title or an insensibility to the importance of the stake;
+      considering that in the hands of the United States it will
+      not cease to be a subject of fair and friendly negotiation
+      and adjustment; considering, finally, that the acts of
+      Congress, though contemplating a present possession by a
+      foreign authority, have contemplated also an eventual
+      possession of the said territory by the United States, and
+      are accordingly so framed as in that case to extend in their
+      operation to the same:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now be it known that I, James Madison, President of the
+      United States of America, in pursuance of these weighty and
+      urgent considerations, have deemed it right and requisite
+      that possession should be taken of the said territory in the
+      name and behalf of the United States. William C.C. Claiborne,
+      governor of the Orleans Territory, of which the said
+      Territory is to be taken as part, will accordingly proceed to
+      execute the same and to exercise over the said Territory the
+      authorities and functions legally appertaining to his office;
+      and the good people inhabiting the same are invited and
+      enjoined to pay due respect to him in that character, to be
+      obedient to the laws, to maintain order, to cherish harmony,
+      and in every manner to conduct themselves as peaceable
+      citizens, under full assurance that they will be protected in
+      the enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United
+      States to be hereunto affixed, and signed the same with my
+      hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Done at the city of Washington, the 27th day of October, A.D.
+      1810, and in the thirty-fifth year of the Independence of the
+      said United States.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       By the President:<br>
+       R. SMITH,<br>
+       <i>Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [From Annals of Congress, Eleventh Congress, third session,
+      1248.]
+    </center>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Whereas by the fourth section of the act of Congress passed
+      on the 1st day of May, 1810, entitled "An act concerning the
+      commercial intercourse between the United States and Great
+      Britain and France and their dependencies, and for other
+      purposes," it is provided "that in case either Great Britain
+      or France shall before the 3d day of March next so revoke or
+      modify her edicts as that they shall cease to violate the
+      neutral commerce of the United States, which fact the
+      President of the United States shall declare by proclamation,
+      and if the other nation shall not within three months
+      thereafter so revoke or modify her edicts in like manner,
+      then the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth,
+      tenth, and eighteenth sections of the act entitled 'An act to
+      interdict the commercial intercourse between the United
+      States and Great Britain and France and their dependencies,
+      and for other purposes,' shall from and after the expiration
+      of three months from the date of the proclamation aforesaid
+      be revived and have full force and effect so far as relates
+      to the dominions, colonies, and dependencies, and to the
+      articles the growth, produce, or manufacture of the
+      dominions, colonies, and dependencies, of the nation thus
+      refusing or neglecting to revoke or modify her edicts in the
+      manner aforesaid. And the restrictions imposed by this act
+      shall, from the date of such proclamation cease and be
+      discontinued in relation to the nation revoking or modifying
+      her decrees in the manner aforesaid;" and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas it has been officially made known to this Government
+      that the edicts of France violating the neutral commerce of
+      the United States have been so revoked as to cease to have
+      effect on the 1st of the present month:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United
+      States, do hereby proclaim that the said edicts of France
+      have been so revoked as that they ceased on the said 1st day
+      of the present month to violate the neutral commerce of the
+      United States, and that from the date of these presents all
+      the restrictions imposed by the aforesaid act shall cease and
+      be discontinued in relation to France and their dependencies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United
+      States to be hereunto affixed, and signed the same with my
+      hand, at the city of Washington, this 2d day of November,
+      A.D. 1810, and of the Independence of the United States the
+      thirty-fifth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       By the President:<br>
+       R. SMITH,<br>
+       <i>Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 5, 1810</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of
+      Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The embarrassments which have prevailed in our foreign
+      relations, and so much employed the deliberations of
+      Congress, make it a primary duty in meeting you to
+      communicate whatever may have occurred in that branch of our
+      national affairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The act of the last session of Congress concerning the
+      commercial intercourse between the United States and Great
+      Britain and France and their dependencies having invited in a
+      new form a termination of their edicts against our neutral
+      commerce, copies of the act were immediately forwarded to our
+      ministers at London and Paris, with a view that its object
+      might be within the early attention of the French and British
+      Governments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the communication received through our minister at Paris
+      it appeared that a knowledge of the act by the French
+      Government was followed by a declaration that the Berlin and
+      Milan decrees were revoked, and would cease to have effect on
+      the 1st day of November ensuing. These being the only known
+      edicts of France within the description of the act, and the
+      revocation of them being such that they ceased at that date
+      to violate our neutral commerce, the fact, as prescribed by
+      law, was announced by a proclamation bearing date the 2d day
+      of November.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would have well accorded with the conciliatory views
+      indicated by this proceeding on the part of France to have
+      extended them to all the grounds of just complaint which now
+      remain unadjusted with the United States. It was particularly
+      anticipated that, as a further evidence of just dispositions
+      toward them, restoration would have been immediately made of
+      the property of our citizens seized under a misapplication of
+      the principle of reprisals combined with a misconstruction of
+      a law of the United States. This expectation has not been
+      fulfilled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the British Government no communication on the subject
+      of the act has been received. To a communication from our
+      minister at London of a revocation by the French Government
+      of its Berlin and Milan decrees it was answered that the
+      British system would be relinquished as soon as the repeal of
+      the French decrees should have actually taken effect and the
+      commerce of neutral nations have been restored to the
+      condition in which it stood previously to the promulgation of
+      those decrees. This pledge, although it does not necessarily
+      import, does not exclude the intention of relinquishing,
+      along with the orders in council, the practice of those novel
+      blockades which have a like effect of interrupting our
+      neutral commerce, and this further justice to the United
+      States is the rather to be looked for, inasmuch as the
+      blockades in question, being not more contrary to the
+      established law of nations than inconsistent with the rules
+      of blockade formally recognized by Great Britain herself,
+      could have no alleged basis other than the plea of
+      retaliation alleged as the basis of the orders in council.
+      Under the modification of the original orders of November,
+      1807, into the orders of April, 1809, there is, indeed,
+      scarcely a nominal distinction between the orders and the
+      blockades. One of those illegitimate blockades, bearing date
+      in May, 1806, having been expressly avowed to be still
+      unrescinded, and to be in effect comprehended in the orders
+      in council, was too distinctly brought within the purview of
+      the act of Congress not to be comprehended in the explanation
+      of the requisites to a compliance with it. The British
+      Government was accordingly apprised by our minister near it
+      that such was the light in which the subject was to be
+      regarded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the other important subjects depending between the United
+      States and that Government no progress has been made from
+      which an early and satisfactory result can be relied on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this new posture of our relations with those powers the
+      consideration of Congress will be properly turned to a
+      removal of doubts which may occur in the exposition and of
+      difficulties in the execution of the act above cited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The commerce of the United States with the north of Europe,
+      heretofore much vexed by licentious cruisers, particularly
+      under the Danish flag, has latterly been visited with fresh
+      and extensive depredations. The measures pursued in behalf of
+      our injured citizens not having obtained justice for them, a
+      further and more formal interposition with the Danish
+      Government is contemplated. The principles which have been
+      maintained by that Government in relation to neutral
+      commerce, and the friendly professions of His Danish Majesty
+      toward the United States, are valuable pledges in favor of a
+      successful issue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the events growing out of the state of the Spanish
+      Monarchy, our attention was imperiously attracted to the
+      change developing itself in that portion of West Florida
+      which, though of right appertaining to the United States, had
+      remained in the possession of Spain awaiting the result of
+      negotiations for its actual delivery to them. The Spanish
+      authority was subverted and a situation produced exposing the
+      country to ulterior events which might essentially affect the
+      rights and welfare of the Union. In such a conjuncture I did
+      not delay the interposition required for the occupancy of the
+      territory west of the river Perdido, to which the title of
+      the United States extends, and to which the laws provided for
+      the Territory of Orleans are applicable. With this view, the
+      proclamation of which a copy is laid before you was confided
+      to the governor of that Territory to be carried into effect.
+      The legality and necessity of the course pursued assure me of
+      the favorable light in which it will present itself to the
+      Legislature, and of the promptitude with which they will
+      supply whatever provisions may be due to the essential rights
+      and equitable interests of the people thus brought into the
+      bosom of the American family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our amity with the powers of Barbary, with the exception of a
+      recent occurrence at Tunis, of which an explanation is just
+      received, appears to have been uninterrupted and to have
+      become more firmly established.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the Indian tribes also the peace and friendship of the
+      United States are found to be so eligible that the general
+      disposition to preserve both continues to gain strength.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I feel particular satisfaction in remarking that an interior
+      view of our country presents us with grateful proofs of its
+      substantial and increasing prosperity. To a thriving
+      agriculture and the improvements related to it is added a
+      highly interesting extension of useful manufactures, the
+      combined product of professional occupations and of household
+      industry. Such indeed is the experience of economy as well as
+      of policy in these substitutes for supplies heretofore
+      obtained by foreign commerce that in a national view the
+      change is justly regarded as of itself more than a recompense
+      for those privations and losses resulting from foreign
+      injustice which furnished the general impulse required for
+      its accomplishment. How far it may be expedient to guard the
+      infancy of this improvement in the distribution of labor by
+      regulations of the commercial tariff is a subject which can
+      not fail to suggest itself to your patriotic reflections.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will rest with the consideration of Congress also whether
+      a provident as well as fair encouragement would not be given
+      to our navigation by such regulations as would place it on a
+      level of competition with foreign vessels, particularly in
+      transporting the important and bulky productions of our own
+      soil. The failure of equality and reciprocity in the existing
+      regulations on this subject operates in our ports as a
+      premium to foreign competitors, and the inconvenience must
+      increase as these may be multiplied under more favorable
+      circumstances by the more than countervailing encouragements
+      now given them by the laws of their respective countries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst it is universally admitted that a well-instructed
+      people alone can be permanently a free people, and whilst it
+      is evident that the means of diffusing and improving useful
+      knowledge form so small a proportion of the expenditures for
+      national purposes, I can not presume it to be unseasonable to
+      invite your attention to the advantages of superadding to the
+      means of education provided by the several States a seminary
+      of learning instituted by the National Legislature within the
+      limits of their exclusive jurisdiction, the expense of which
+      might be defrayed or reimbursed out of the vacant grounds
+      which have accrued to the nation within those limits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such an institution, though local in its legal character,
+      would be universal in its beneficial effects. By enlightening
+      the opinions, by expanding the patriotism, and by
+      assimilating the principles, the sentiments, and the manners
+      of those who might resort to this temple of science, to be
+      redistributed in due time through every part of the
+      community, sources of jealousy and prejudice would be
+      diminished, the features of national character would be
+      multiplied, and greater extent given to social harmony. But,
+      above all, a well-constituted seminary in the center of the
+      nation is recommended by the consideration that the
+      additional instruction emanating from it would contribute not
+      less to strengthen the foundations than to adorn the
+      structure of our free and happy system of government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the commercial abuses still committed under the
+      American flag, and leaving in force my former reference to
+      that subject, it appears that American citizens are
+      instrumental in carrying on a traffic in enslaved Africans,
+      equally in violation of the laws of humanity and in defiance
+      of those of their own country. The same just and benevolent
+      motives which produced the interdiction in force against this
+      criminal conduct will doubtless be felt by Congress in
+      devising further means of suppressing the evil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the midst of uncertainties necessarily connected with the
+      great interests of the United States, prudence requires a
+      continuance of our defensive and precautionary arrangement.
+      The Secretary of War and Secretary of the Navy will submit
+      the statements and estimates which may aid Congress in their
+      ensuing provisions for the land and naval forces. The
+      statements of the latter will include a view of the transfers
+      of appropriations in the naval expenditures and the grounds
+      on which they were made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fortifications for the defense of our maritime frontier
+      have been prosecuted according to the plan laid down in 1808.
+      The works, with some exceptions, are completed and furnished
+      with ordnance. Those for the security of the city of New
+      York, though far advanced toward completion, will require a
+      further time and appropriation. This is the case with a few
+      others, either not completed or in need of repairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The improvements in quality and quantity made in the
+      manufacture of cannon and small arms, both at the public
+      armories and private factories, warrant additional confidence
+      in the competency of these resources for supplying the public
+      exigencies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These preparations for arming the militia having thus far
+      provided for one of the objects contemplated by the power
+      vested in Congress with respect to that great bulwark of the
+      public safety, it is for their consideration whether further
+      provisions are not requisite for the other contemplated
+      objects of organization and discipline. To give to this great
+      mass of physical and moral force the efficiency which it
+      merits, and is capable of receiving, it is indispensable that
+      they should be instructed and practiced in the rules by which
+      they are to be governed. Toward an accomplishment of this
+      important work I recommend for the consideration of Congress
+      the expediency of instituting a system which shall in the
+      first instance call into the field at the public expense and
+      for a given time certain portions of the commissioned and
+      noncommissioned officers. The instruction and discipline thus
+      acquired would gradually diffuse through the entire body of
+      the militia that practical knowledge and promptitude for
+      active service which are the great ends to be pursued.
+      Experience has left no doubt either of the necessity or of
+      the efficacy of competent military skill in those portions of
+      an army in fitting it for the final duties which it may have
+      to perform.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Corps of Engineers, with the Military Academy, are
+      entitled to the early attention of Congress. The buildings at
+      the seat fixed by law for the present Academy are so far in
+      decay as not to afford the necessary accommodation. But a
+      revision of the law is recommended, principally with a view
+      to a more enlarged cultivation and diffusion of the
+      advantages of such institutions, by providing professorships
+      for all the necessary branches of military instruction, and
+      by the establishment of an additional academy at the seat of
+      Government or elsewhere. The means by which war, as well for
+      defense as for offense, are now carried on render these
+      schools of the more scientific operations an indispensable
+      part of every adequate system. Even among nations whose large
+      standing armies and frequent wars afford every other
+      opportunity of instruction these establishments are found to
+      be indispensable for the due attainment of the branches of
+      military science which require a regular course of study and
+      experiment. In a government happily without the other
+      opportunities seminaries where the elementary principles of
+      the art of war can be taught without actual war, and without
+      the expense of extensive and standing armies, have the
+      precious advantage of uniting an essential preparation
+      against external danger with a scrupulous regard to internal
+      safety. In no other way, probably, can a provision of equal
+      efficacy for the public defense be made at so little expense
+      or more consistently with the public liberty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the
+      30th of September last (and amounting to more than
+      $8,500,000) have exceeded the current expenses of the
+      Government, including the interest on the public debt. For
+      the purpose of reimbursing at the end of the year $3,750,000
+      of the principal, a loan, as authorized by law, had been
+      negotiated to that amount, but has since been reduced to
+      $2,750,000, the reduction being permitted by the state of the
+      Treasury, in which there will be a balance remaining at the
+      end of the year estimated at $2,000,000. For the probable
+      receipts of the next year and other details I refer to
+      statements which will be transmitted from the Treasury, and
+      which will enable you to judge what further provisions may be
+      necessary for the ensuing years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Reserving for future occasions in the course of the session
+      whatever other communications may claim your attention, I
+      close the present by expressing my reliance, under the
+      blessing of Divine Providence, on the judgment and patriotism
+      which will guide your measures at a period particularly
+      calling for united councils and inflexible exertions for the
+      welfare of our country, and by assuring you of the fidelity
+      and alacrity with which my cooperation will be afforded.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 12, 1810.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before Congress, and recommend to their early
+      attention, a report of the Secretary of State, from which it
+      will be seen that a very considerable demand beyond the legal
+      appropriations has been incurred for the support of seamen
+      distressed by seizures, in different parts of Europe, of the
+      vessels to which they belonged.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 3, 1811</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate to Congress, in confidence, a letter of the 2d
+      of December from Governor Folch, of West Florida, to the
+      Secretary of State, and another of the same date from the
+      same to John McKee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate in like manner a letter from the British charge
+      d'affaires to the Secretary of State, with the answer of the
+      latter. Although the letter can not have been written in
+      consequence of any instruction from the British Government
+      founded on the late order for taking possession of the
+      portion of West Florida well known to be claimed by the
+      United States; although no communication has ever been made
+      by that Government to this of any stipulation with Spain
+      contemplating an interposition which might so materially
+      affect the United States, and although no call can have been
+      made by Spain in the present instance for the fulfillment of
+      any such subsisting engagement, yet the spirit and scope of
+      the document, with the accredited source from which it
+      proceeds, required that it should not be withheld from the
+      consideration of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Taking into view the tenor of these several communications,
+      the posture of things with which they are connected, the
+      intimate relation of the country adjoining the United States
+      eastward of the river Perdido to their security and
+      tranquillity, and the peculiar interest they otherwise have
+      in its destiny, I recommend to the consideration of Congress
+      the seasonableness of a declaration that the United States
+      could not see without serious inquietude any part of a
+      neighboring territory in which they have in different
+      respects so deep and so just a concern pass from the hands of
+      Spain into those of any other foreign power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I recommend to their consideration also the expediency of
+      authorizing the Executive to take temporary possession of any
+      part or parts of the said Territory, in pursuance of
+      arrangements which may be desired by the Spanish authorities,
+      and for making provision for the government of the same
+      during such possession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wisdom of Congress will at the same time determine how
+      far it may be expedient to provide for the event of a
+      subversion of the Spanish authorities within the Territory in
+      question, and an apprehended occupancy thereof by any other
+      foreign power.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 10, 1811.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate to Congress, in confidence, the translation of
+      a letter from Louis de Onis to the captain general of
+      Caraccas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tendency of misrepresentations and suggestions which it
+      may be inferred from this specimen enter into more important
+      correspondences of the writer to promote in foreign councils
+      at a critical period views adverse to the peace and to the
+      best interests of our country renders the contents of the
+      letter of sufficient moment to be made known to the
+      legislature,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 30, 1811.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to Congress copies of a letter from the Secretary
+      of the Treasury, accompanied by copies of the Laws, Treaties,
+      and other Documents Relative to the Public Lands, as
+      collected and arranged pursuant to the act passed April 27,
+      1810.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 31, 1811.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before Congress a letter from the charge d'affaires of
+      the United States at Paris to the Secretary of State, and
+      another from the same to the French minister of foreign
+      relations; also two letters from the agent of the American
+      consul at Bordeaux to the Secretary of State.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 16, 1811.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I now lay before Congress the treaty concluded on the 10th of
+      November, 1808, on the part of the United States with the
+      Great and Little Osage tribes of Indians, with a view to such
+      legal provisions as may be deemed proper for fulfilling its
+      stipulations.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      VETO MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 21, 1811.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having examined and considered the bill entitled "An act
+      incorporating the Protestant Episcopal Church in the town of
+      Alexandria, in the District of Columbia," I now return the
+      bill to the House of Representatives, in which it originated,
+      with the following objections:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Because</i> the bill exceeds the rightful authority to
+      which governments are limited by the essential distinction
+      between civil and religious functions, and violates in
+      particular the article of the Constitution of the United
+      States which declares that "Congress shall make no law
+      respecting a religious establishment." The bill enacts into
+      and establishes by law sundry rules and proceedings relative
+      purely to the organization and polity of the church
+      incorporated, and comprehending even the election and removal
+      of the minister of the same, so that no change could be made
+      therein by the particular society or by the general church of
+      which it is a member, and whose authority it recognizes. This
+      particular church, therefore, would so far be a religious
+      establishment by law, a legal force and sanction being given
+      to certain articles in its constitution and administration.
+      Nor can it be considered that the articles thus established
+      are to be taken as the descriptive criteria only of the
+      corporate identity of the society, inasmuch as this identity
+      must depend on other characteristics, as the regulations
+      established are generally unessential and alterable according
+      to the principles and canons by which churches of that
+      denomination govern themselves, and as the injunctions and
+      prohibitions contained in the regulations would be enforced
+      by the penal consequences applicable to a violation of them
+      according to the local law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Because</i> the bill vests in the said incorporated church
+      an authority to provide for the support of the poor and the
+      education of poor children of the same, an authority which,
+      being altogether superfluous if the provision is to be the
+      result of pious charity, would be a precedent for giving to
+      religious societies as such a legal agency in carrying into
+      effect a public and civil duty.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 28, 1811.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having examined and considered the bill entitled "An act for
+      the relief of Richard Tervin, William Coleman, Edwin Lewis,
+      Samuel Mims, Joseph Wilson, and the Baptist Church at Salem
+      Meeting House, in the Mississippi Territory," I now return
+      the same to the House of Representatives, in which it
+      originated, with the following objection:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Because</i> the bill in reserving a certain parcel of land
+      of the United States for the use of said Baptist Church
+      comprises a principle and precedent for the appropriation of
+      funds of the United States for the use and support of
+      religious societies, contrary to the article of the
+      Constitution which declares that "Congress shall make no law
+      respecting a religious establishment."
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PROCLAMATION.
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      [From the National Intelligencer, July 25, 1811]
+    </center>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Whereas great and weighty matters claiming the consideration
+      of the Congress of the United States form an extraordinary
+      occasion for convening them, I do by these presents appoint
+      Monday, the 4th day of November next, for their meeting at
+      the city of Washington, hereby requiring the respective
+      Senators and Representatives then and there to assemble in
+      Congress, in order to receive such communications as may then
+      be made to them, and to consult and determine on such
+      measures as in their wisdom may be deemed meet for the
+      welfare of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United
+      States to be hereunto affixed, and signed the same with my
+      hand, Done at the city of Washington, the 24th day of July,
+      A.D. 1811, and of the Independence of the United States the
+      thirty-sixth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       By the President:<br>
+       JAMES MONROE,<br>
+       <i>Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>November 5, 1811</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of
+      Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In calling you together sooner than a separation from your
+      homes would otherwise have been required I yielded to
+      considerations drawn from the posture of our foreign affairs,
+      and in fixing the present for the time of your meeting regard
+      was had to the probability of further developments of the
+      policy of the belligerent powers toward this country which
+      might the more unite the national councils in the measures to
+      be pursued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the close of the last session of Congress it was hoped
+      that the successive confirmations of the extinction of the
+      French decrees, so far as they violated our neutral commerce,
+      would have induced the Government of Great Britain to repeal
+      its orders in council, and thereby authorize a removal of the
+      existing obstructions to her commerce with the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Instead of this reasonable step toward satisfaction and
+      friendship between the two nations, the orders were, at a
+      moment when least to have been expected, put into more
+      rigorous execution; and it was communicated through the
+      British envoy just arrived that whilst the revocation of the
+      edicts of France, as officially made known to the British
+      Government, was denied to have taken place, it was an
+      indispensable condition of the repeal of the British orders
+      that commerce should be restored to a footing that would
+      admit the productions and manufactures of Great Britain, when
+      owned by neutrals, into markets shut against them by her
+      enemy, the United States being given to understand that in
+      the meantime a continuance of their non importation act would
+      lead to measures of retaliation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At a later date it has indeed appeared that a communication
+      to the British Government of fresh evidence of the repeal of
+      the French decrees against our neutral trade was followed by
+      an intimation that it had been transmitted to the British
+      plenipotentiary here in order that it might receive full
+      consideration in the depending discussions. This
+      communication appears not to have been received; but the
+      transmission of it hither, instead of founding on it an
+      actual repeal of the orders or assurances that the repeal
+      would ensue, will not permit us to rely on any effective
+      change in the British cabinet. To be ready to meet with
+      cordiality satisfactory proofs of such a change, and to
+      proceed in the meantime in adapting our measures to the views
+      which have been disclosed through that minister will best
+      consult our whole duty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the unfriendly spirit of those disclosures indemnity and
+      redress for other wrongs have continued to be withheld, and
+      our coasts and the mouths of our harbors have again witnessed
+      scenes not less derogatory to the dearest of our national
+      rights than vexatious to the regular course of our trade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the occurrences produced by the conduct of British
+      ships of war hovering on our coasts was an encounter between
+      one of them and the American frigate commanded by Captain
+      Rodgers, rendered unavoidable on the part of the latter by a
+      fire commenced without cause by the former, whose commander
+      is therefore alone chargeable with the blood unfortunately
+      shed in maintaining the honor of the American flag. The
+      proceedings of a court of inquiry requested by Captain
+      Rodgers are communicated, together with the correspondence
+      relating to the occurrence, between the Secretary of State
+      and His Britannic Majesty's envoy. To these are added the
+      several correspondences which have passed on the subject of
+      the British orders in council, and to both the correspondence
+      relating to the Floridas, in which Congress will be made
+      acquainted with the interposition which the Government of
+      Great Britain has thought proper to make against the
+      proceeding of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The justice and fairness which have been evinced on the part
+      of the United States toward France, both before and since the
+      revocation of her decrees, authorized an expectation that her
+      Government would have followed up that measure by all such
+      others as were due to our reasonable claims, as well as
+      dictated by its amicable professions. No proof, however, is
+      yet given of an intention to repair the other wrongs done to
+      the United States, and particularly to restore the great
+      amount of American property seized and condemned under edicts
+      which, though not affecting our neutral relations, and
+      therefore not entering into questions between the United
+      States and other belligerents, were nevertheless founded in
+      such unjust principles that the reparation ought to have been
+      prompt and ample.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In addition to this and other demands of strict right on that
+      nation, the United States have much reason to be dissatisfied
+      with the rigorous and unexpected restrictions to which their
+      trade with the French dominions has been subjected, and
+      which, if not discontinued, will require at least
+      corresponding restrictions on importations from France into
+      the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On all those subjects our minister plenipotentiary lately
+      sent to Paris has carried with him the necessary
+      instructions, the result of which will be communicated to
+      you, and, by ascertaining the ulterior policy of the French
+      Government toward the United States, Will enable you to adapt
+      to it that of the United States toward France.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our other foreign relations remain without unfavorable
+      changes. With Russia they are on the best footing of
+      friendship. The ports of Sweden have afforded proofs of
+      friendly dispositions toward our commerce in the councils of
+      that nation also, and the information from our special
+      minister to Denmark shews that the mission had been attended
+      with valuable effects to our citizens, whose property had
+      been so extensively violated and endangered by cruisers under
+      the Danish flag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the ominous indications which commanded attention it
+      became a duty to exert the means committed to the executive
+      department in providing for the general security. The works
+      of defense on our maritime frontier have accordingly been
+      prosecuted with an activity leaving little to be added for
+      the completion of the most important ones, and, as
+      particularly suited for cooperation in emergencies, a portion
+      of the gunboats have in particular harbors been ordered into
+      use. The ships of war before in commission, with the addition
+      of a frigate, have been chiefly employed as a cruising guard
+      to the rights of our coast, and such a disposition has been
+      made of our land forces as was thought to promise the
+      services most appropriate and important. In this disposition
+      is included a force consisting of regulars and militia,
+      embodied in the Indiana Territory and marched toward our
+      northwestern frontier. This measure was made requisite by
+      several murders and depredations committed by Indians, but
+      more especially by the menacing preparations and aspect of a
+      combination of them on the Wabash, under the influence and
+      direction of a fanatic of the Shawanese tribe. With these
+      exceptions the Indian tribes retain their peaceable
+      dispositions toward us, and their usual pursuits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I must now add that the period is arrived which claims from
+      the legislative guardians of the national rights a system of
+      more ample provisions for maintaining them. Notwithstanding
+      the scrupulous justice, the protracted moderation, and the
+      multiplied efforts on the part of the United States to
+      substitute for the accumulating dangers to the peace of the
+      two countries all the mutual advantages of reestablished
+      friendship and confidence, we have seen that the British
+      cabinet perseveres not only in withholding a remedy for other
+      wrongs, so long and so loudly calling for it, but in the
+      execution, brought home to the threshold of our territory, of
+      measures which under existing circumstances have the
+      character as well as the effect of war on our lawful
+      commerce.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this evidence of hostile inflexibility in trampling on
+      rights which no independent nation can relinquish, Congress
+      will feel the duty of putting the United States into an armor
+      and an attitude demanded by the crisis, and corresponding
+      with the national spirit and expectations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I recommend, accordingly, that adequate provision be made for
+      filling the ranks and prolonging the enlistments of the
+      regular troops; for an auxiliary force to be engaged for a
+      more limited term; for the acceptance of volunteer corps,
+      whose patriotic ardor may court a participation in urgent
+      services; for detachments as they may be wanted of other
+      portions of the militia, and for such a preparation of the
+      great body as will proportion its usefulness to its intrinsic
+      capacities. Nor can the occasion fail to remind you of the
+      importance of those military seminaries which in every event
+      will form a valuable and frugal part of our military
+      establishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The manufacture of cannon and small arms has proceeded with
+      due success, and the stock and resources of all the necessary
+      munitions are adequate to emergencies. It will not be
+      inexpedient, however, for Congress to authorize an
+      enlargement of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your attention will of course be drawn to such provisions on
+      the subject of our naval force as may be required for the
+      services to which it may be best adapted. I submit to
+      Congress the seasonableness also of an authority to augment
+      the stock of such materials as are imperishable in their
+      nature, or may not at once be attainable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In contemplating the scenes which distinguish this momentous
+      epoch, and estimating their claims to our attention, it is
+      impossible to overlook those developing themselves among the
+      great communities which occupy the southern portion of our
+      own hemisphere and extend into our neighborhood. An enlarged
+      philanthropy and an enlightened forecast concur in imposing
+      on the national councils an obligation to take a deep
+      interest in their destinies, to cherish reciprocal sentiments
+      of good will, to regard the progress of events, and not to be
+      unprepared for whatever order of things may be ultimately
+      established.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under another aspect of our situation the early attention of
+      Congress will be due to the expediency of further guards
+      against evasions and infractions of our commercial laws. The
+      practice of smuggling, which is odious everywhere, and
+      particularly criminal in free governments, where, the laws
+      being made by all for the good of all, a fraud is committed
+      on every individual as well as on the state, attains its
+      utmost guilt when it blends with a pursuit of ignominious
+      gain a treacherous subserviency, in the transgressors, to a
+      foreign policy adverse to that of their own country. It is
+      then that the virtuous indignation of the public should be
+      enabled to manifest itself through the regular animadversions
+      of the most competent laws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To secure greater respect to our-mercantile flag, and to the
+      honest interests which it covers, it is expedient also that
+      it be made punishable in our citizens to accept licenses from
+      foreign governments for a trade unlawfully interdicted by
+      them to other American citizens, or to trade under false
+      colors or papers of any sort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A prohibition is equally called for against the acceptance by
+      our citizens of special licenses to be used in a trade with
+      the United States, and against the admission into particular
+      ports of the United States of vessels from foreign countries
+      authorized to trade with particular ports only.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although other subjects will press more immediately on your
+      deliberations, a portion of them can not but be well bestowed
+      on the just and sound policy of securing to our manufactures
+      the success they have attained, and are still attaining, in
+      some degree, under the impulse of causes not permanent, and
+      to our navigation, the fair extent of which is at present
+      abridged by the unequal regulations of foreign governments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides the reasonableness of saving our manufactures from
+      sacrifices which a change of circumstances might bring on
+      them, the national interest requires that, with respect to
+      such articles at least as belong to our defense and our
+      primary wants, we should not be left in unnecessary
+      dependence on external supplies. And whilst foreign
+      governments adhere to the existing discriminations in their
+      ports against our navigation, and an equality or lesser
+      discrimination is enjoyed by their navigation in our ports,
+      the effect can not be mistaken, because it has been seriously
+      felt by our shipping interests; and in proportion as this
+      takes place the advantages of an independent conveyance of
+      our products to foreign markets and of a growing body of
+      mariners trained by their occupations for the service of
+      their country in times of danger must be diminished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the
+      30th of September last have exceeded $13,500,000, and have
+      enabled us to defray the current expenses, including the
+      interest on the public debt, and to reimburse more than
+      $5,000,000 of the principal without recurring to the loan
+      authorized by the act of the last session. The temporary loan
+      obtained in the latter end of the year 1810 has also been
+      reimbursed, and is not included in that amount.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The decrease of revenue arising from the situation of our
+      commerce, and the extraordinary expenses which have and may
+      become necessary, must be taken into view in making
+      commensurate provisions for the ensuing year; and I recommend
+      to your consideration the propriety of insuring a sufficiency
+      of annual revenue at least to defray the ordinary expenses of
+      Government, and to pay the interest on the public debt,
+      including that on new loans which may be authorized.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I can not close this communication without expressing my deep
+      sense of the crisis in which you are assembled, my confidence
+      in a wise and honorable result to your deliberations, and
+      assurances of the faithful zeal with which my cooperating
+      duties will be discharged, invoking at the same time the
+      blessing of Heaven on our beloved country and on all the
+      means that may be employed in vindicating its rights and
+      advancing its welfare.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>November 13, 1811</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate to Congress copies of a correspondence between
+      the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Great
+      Britain and the Secretary of State relative to the aggression
+      committed by a British ship of war on the United States
+      frigate <i>Chesapeake</i>, by which it will be seen that that
+      subject of difference between the two countries is terminated
+      by an offer of reparation, which has been acceded to.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 18, 1811</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before Congress two letters received from Governor
+      Harrison, of the Indiana Territory, reporting the particulars
+      and the issue of the expedition under his command, of which
+      notice was taken in my communication of November 5.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While it is deeply lamented that so many valuable lives have
+      been lost in the action which took place on the 7th ultimo,
+      Congress will see with satisfaction the dauntless spirit and
+      fortitude victoriously displayed by every description of the
+      troops engaged, as well as the collected firmness which
+      distinguished their commander on an occasion requiring the
+      utmost exertions of valor and discipline.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may reasonably be expected that the good effects of this
+      critical defeat and dispersion of a combination of savages,
+      which appears to have been spreading to a greater extent,
+      will be experienced not only in a cessation of the murders
+      and depredations committed on our frontier, but in the
+      prevention of any hostile incursions otherwise to have been
+      apprehended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The families of those brave and patriotic citizens who have
+      fallen in this severe conflict will doubtless engage the
+      favorable attention of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 23, 1811</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate to Congress copies of an act of the legislature
+      of New York relating to a canal from the Great Lakes to
+      Hudson River. In making the communication I consult the
+      respect due to that State, in whose behalf the commissioners
+      appointed by the act have placed it in my hands for the
+      purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The utility of canal navigation is universally admitted. It
+      is no less certain that scarcely any country offers more
+      extensive opportunities for that branch of improvements than
+      the United States, and none, perhaps, inducements equally
+      persuasive to make the most of them. The particular
+      undertaking contemplated by the State of New York, which
+      marks an honorable spirit of enterprise and comprises objects
+      of national as well as more limited importance, will recall
+      the attention of Congress to the signal advantages to be
+      derived to the United States from a general system of
+      internal communication and conveyance, and suggest to their
+      consideration whatever steps may be proper on their part
+      toward its introduction and accomplishment. As some of those
+      advantages have an intimate connection with the arrangements
+      and exertions for the general security, it is at a period
+      calling for those that the merits of such a system will be
+      seen in the strongest lights.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 27, 1811</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before Congress copies of resolutions entered into by
+      the legislature of Pennsylvania, which have been transmitted
+      to me with that view by the governor of that State, in
+      pursuance of one of the said resolutions.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 15, 1812</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to Congress an account of the contingent expenses
+      of the Government for the year 1811, incurred on the occasion
+      of taking possession of the territory limited eastwardly by
+      the river Perdido, and amounting to $3,396.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 16, 1812</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate to Congress a letter from the envoy
+      extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Great Britain
+      to the Secretary of State, with the answer of the latter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The continued evidence afforded in this correspondence of the
+      hostile policy of the British Government against our national
+      rights strengthens the considerations recommending and urging
+      the preparation of adequate means for maintaining them.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MARCH 3, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the request of the convention assembled in the Territory
+      of Orleans on the 22d day of November last, I transmit to
+      Congress the proceedings of that body in pursuance of the act
+      entitled "An act to enable the people of the Territory of
+      Orleans to form a constitution and State government, and for
+      the admission of the said State into the Union on an equal
+      footing with the original States, and for other purposes."
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MARCH 9, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before Congress copies of certain documents which
+      remain in the Department of State. They prove that at a
+      recent period, whilst the United States, notwithstanding the
+      wrongs sustained by them, ceased not to observe the laws of
+      peace and neutrality toward Great Britain, and in the midst
+      of amicable professions and negotiations on the part of the
+      British Government, through its public minister here, a
+      secret agent of that Government was employed in certain
+      States, more especially at the seat of government in
+      Massachusetts, in fomenting disaffection to the constituted
+      authorities of the nation, and in intrigues with the
+      disaffected, for the purpose of bringing about resistance to
+      the laws, and eventually, in concert with a British force, of
+      destroying the Union and forming the eastern part thereof
+      into a political connection with Great Britain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In addition to the effect which the discovery of such a
+      procedure ought to have on the public councils, it will not
+      fail to render more dear to the hearts of all good citizens
+      that happy union of these States which, under Divine
+      Providence, is the guaranty of their liberties, their safety,
+      their tranquillity, and their prosperity.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      APRIL 1, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Considering it as expedient, under existing circumstances and
+      prospects, that a general embargo be laid on all vessels now
+      in port, or hereafter arriving, for the period of sixty days,
+      I recommend the immediate passage of a law to that effect.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      APRIL 20, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the incidents to the unexampled increase and expanding
+      interests of the American nation under the fostering
+      influence of free constitutions and just laws has been a
+      corresponding accumulation of duties in the several
+      Departments of the Government, and this has been necessarily
+      the greater in consequence of the peculiar state of our
+      foreign relations and the connection of these with our
+      internal administration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The extensive and multiplied preparations into which the
+      United States are at length driven for maintaining their
+      violated rights have caused this augmentation of business to
+      press on the Department of War particularly, with a weight
+      disproportionate to the powers of any single officer, with no
+      other aids than are authorized by existing laws. With a view
+      to a more adequate arrangement for the essential objects of
+      that Department, I recommend to the early consideration of
+      Congress a provision for two subordinate appointments
+      therein, with such compensations annexed as may be reasonably
+      expected by citizens duly qualified for the important
+      functions which may be properly assigned to them.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MAY 26, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate to Congress, for their information, copies and
+      extracts from the correspondence of the Secretary of State
+      and the minister plenipotentiary of the United States at
+      Paris. These documents will place before Congress the actual
+      posture of our relations with France.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>June 1, 1812</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate to Congress certain documents, being a
+      continuation of those heretofore laid before them on the
+      subject of our affairs with Great Britain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without going back beyond the renewal in 1803 of the war in
+      which Great Britain is engaged, and omitting unrepaired
+      wrongs of inferior magnitude, the conduct of her Government
+      presents a series of acts hostile to the United States as an
+      independent and neutral nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      British cruisers have been in the continued practice of
+      violating the American flag on the great highway of nations,
+      and of seizing and carrying off persons sailing under it, not
+      in the exercise of a belligerent right founded on the law of
+      nations against an enemy, but of a municipal prerogative over
+      British subjects. British jurisdiction is thus extended to
+      neutral vessels in a situation where no laws can operate but
+      the law of nations and the laws of the country to which the
+      vessels belong, and a self-redress is assumed which, if
+      British subjects were wrongfully detained and alone
+      concerned, is that substitution of force for a resort to the
+      responsible sovereign which falls within the definition of
+      war. Could the seizure of British subjects in such cases be
+      regarded as within the exercise of a belligerent right, the
+      acknowledged laws of war, which forbid an article of captured
+      property to be adjudged without a regular investigation
+      before a competent tribunal, would imperiously demand the
+      fairest trial where the sacred rights of persons were at
+      issue. In place of such a trial these rights are subjected to
+      the will of every petty commander.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The practice, hence, is so far from affecting British
+      subjects alone that, under the pretext of searching for
+      these, thousands of American citizens, under the safeguard of
+      public law and of their national flag, have been torn from
+      their country and from everything dear to them; have been
+      dragged on board ships of war of a foreign nation and
+      exposed, under the severities of their discipline, to be
+      exiled to the most distant and deadly climes, to risk their
+      lives in the battles of their oppressors, and to be the
+      melancholy instruments of taking away those of their own
+      brethren.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Against this crying enormity, which Great Britain would be so
+      prompt to avenge if committed against herself, the United
+      States have in vain exhausted remonstrances and
+      expostulations, and that no proof might be wanting of their
+      conciliatory dispositions, and no pretext left for a
+      continuance of the practice, the British Government was
+      formally assured of the readiness of the United States to
+      enter into arrangements such as could not be rejected if the
+      recovery of British subjects were the real and the sole
+      object. The communication passed without effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      British cruisers have been in the practice also of violating
+      the rights and the peace of our coasts. They hover over and
+      harass our entering and departing commerce. To the most
+      insulting pretensions they have added the most lawless
+      proceedings in our very harbors, and have wantonly spilt
+      American blood within the sanctuary of our territorial
+      jurisdiction. The principles and rules enforced by that
+      nation, when a neutral nation, against armed vessels of
+      belligerents hovering near her coasts and disturbing her
+      commerce are well known. When called on, nevertheless, by the
+      United States to punish the greater offenses committed by her
+      own vessels, her Government has bestowed on their commanders
+      additional marks of honor and confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under pretended blockades, without the presence of an
+      adequate force and sometimes without the practicability of
+      applying one, our commerce has been plundered in every sea,
+      the great staples of our country have been cut off from their
+      legitimate markets, and a destructive blow aimed at our
+      agricultural and maritime interests. In aggravation of these
+      predatory measures they have been considered as in force from
+      the dates of their notification, a retrospective effect being
+      thus added, as has been done in other important cases, to the
+      unlawfulness of the course pursued. And to render the outrage
+      the more signal these mock blockades have been reiterated and
+      enforced in the face of official communications from the
+      British Government declaring as the true definition of a
+      legal blockade "that particular ports must be actually
+      invested and previous warning given to vessels bound to them
+      not to enter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not content with these occasional expedients for laying waste
+      our neutral trade, the cabinet of Britain resorted at length
+      to the sweeping system of blockades, under the name of orders
+      in council, which has been molded and managed as might best
+      suit its political views, its commercial jealousies, or the
+      avidity of British cruisers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To our remonstrances against the complicated and transcendent
+      injustice of this innovation the first reply was that the
+      orders were reluctantly adopted by Great Britain as a
+      necessary retaliation on decrees of her enemy proclaiming a
+      general blockade of the British Isles at a time when the
+      naval force of that enemy dared not issue from his own ports.
+      She was reminded without effect that her own prior blockades,
+      unsupported by an adequate naval force actually applied and
+      continued, were a bar to this plea; that executed edicts
+      against millions of our property could not be retaliation on
+      edicts confessedly impossible to be executed; that
+      retaliation, to be just, should fall on the party setting the
+      guilty example, not on an innocent party which was not even
+      chargeable with an acquiescence in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When deprived of this flimsy veil for a prohibition of our
+      trade with her enemy by the repeal of his prohibition of our
+      trade with Great Britain, her cabinet, instead of a
+      corresponding repeal or a practical discontinuance of its
+      orders, formally avowed a determination to persist in them
+      against the United States until the markets of her enemy
+      should be laid open to British products, thus asserting an
+      obligation on a neutral power to require one belligerent to
+      encourage by its internal regulations the trade of another
+      belligerent, contradicting her own practice toward all
+      nations, in peace as well as in war, and betraying the
+      insincerity of those professions which inculcated a belief
+      that, having resorted to her orders with regret, she was
+      anxious to find an occasion for putting an end to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Abandoning still more all respect for the neutral rights of
+      the United States and for its own consistency, the British
+      Government now demands as prerequisites to a repeal of its
+      orders as they relate to the United States that a formality
+      should be observed in the repeal of the French decrees nowise
+      necessary to their termination nor exemplified by British
+      usage, and that the French repeal, besides including that
+      portion of the decrees which operates within a territorial
+      jurisdiction, as well as that which operates on the high
+      seas, against the commerce of the United States should not be
+      a single and special repeal in relation to the United States,
+      but should be extended to whatever other neutral nations
+      unconnected with them may be affected by those decrees. And
+      as an additional insult, they are called on for a formal
+      disavowal of conditions and pretensions advanced by the
+      French Government for which the United States are so far from
+      having made themselves responsible that, in official
+      explanations which have been published to the world, and in a
+      correspondence of the American minister at London with the
+      British minister for foreign affairs such a responsibility
+      was explicitly and emphatically disclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has become, indeed, sufficiently certain that the commerce
+      of the United States is to be sacrificed, not as interfering
+      with the belligerent rights of Great Britain; not as
+      supplying the wants of her enemies, which she herself
+      supplies; but as interfering with the monopoly which she
+      covets for her own commerce and navigation. She carries on a
+      war against the lawful commerce of a friend that she may the
+      better carry on a commerce with an enemy&mdash;a commerce
+      polluted by the forgeries and perjuries which are for the
+      most part the only passports by which it can succeed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anxious to make every experiment short of the last resort of
+      injured nations, the United States have withheld from Great
+      Britain, under successive modifications, the benefits of a
+      free intercourse with their market, the loss of which could
+      not but outweigh the profits accruing from her restrictions
+      of our commerce with other nations. And to entitle these
+      experiments to the more favorable consideration they were so
+      framed as to enable her to place her adversary under the
+      exclusive operation of them. To these appeals her Government
+      has been equally inflexible, as if willing to make sacrifices
+      of every sort rather than yield to the claims of justice or
+      renounce the errors of a false pride. Nay, so far were the
+      attempts carried to overcome the attachment of the British
+      cabinet to its unjust edicts that it received every
+      encouragement within the competency of the executive branch
+      of our Government to expect that a repeal of them would be
+      followed by a war between the United States and France,
+      unless the French edicts should also be repealed. Even this
+      communication, although silencing forever the plea of a
+      disposition in the United States to acquiesce in those edicts
+      originally the sole plea for them, received no attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If no other proof existed of a predetermination of the
+      British Government against a repeal of its orders, it might
+      be found in the correspondence of the minister
+      plenipotentiary of the United States at London and the
+      British secretary for foreign affairs in 1810, on the
+      question whether the blockade of May, 1806, was considered as
+      in force or as not in force. It had been ascertained that the
+      French Government, which urged this blockade as the ground of
+      its Berlin decree, was willing in the event of its removal to
+      repeal that decree, which, being followed by alternate
+      repeals of the other offensive edicts, might abolish the
+      whole system on both sides. This inviting opportunity for
+      accomplishing an object so important to the United States,
+      and professed so often to be the desire of both the
+      belligerents, was made known to the British Government. As
+      that Government admits that an actual application of an
+      adequate force is necessary to the existence of a legal
+      blockade, and it was notorious that if such a force had ever
+      been applied its long discontinuance had annulled the
+      blockade in question, there could be no sufficient objection
+      on the part of Great Britain to a formal revocation of it,
+      and no imaginable objection to a declaration of the fact that
+      the blockade did not exist. The declaration would have been
+      consistent with her avowed principles of blockade, and would
+      have enabled the United States to demand from France the
+      pledged repeal of her decrees, either with success, in which
+      case the way would have been opened for a general repeal of
+      the belligerent edicts, or without success, in which case the
+      United States would have been justified in turning their
+      measures exclusively against France. The British Government
+      would, however, neither rescind the blockade nor declare its
+      nonexistence, nor permit its nonexistence to be inferred and
+      affirmed by the American plenipotentiary. On the contrary, by
+      representing the blockade to be comprehended in the orders in
+      council, the United States were compelled so to regard it in
+      their subsequent proceedings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a period when a favorable change in the policy of
+      the British cabinet was justly considered as established. The
+      minister plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty here
+      proposed an adjustment of the differences more immediately
+      endangering the harmony of the two countries. The proposition
+      was accepted with the promptitude and cordiality
+      corresponding with the invariable professions of this
+      Government. A foundation appeared to be laid for a sincere
+      and lasting reconciliation. The prospect, however, quickly
+      vanished. The whole proceeding was disavowed by the British
+      Government without any explanations which could at that time
+      repress the belief that the disavowal proceeded from a spirit
+      of hostility to the commercial rights and prosperity of the
+      United States; and it has since come into proof that at the
+      very moment when the public minister was holding the language
+      of friendship and inspiring confidence in the sincerity of
+      the negotiation with which he was charged a secret agent of
+      his Government was employed in intrigues having for their
+      object a subversion of our Government and a dismemberment of
+      our happy union.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In reviewing the conduct of Great Britain toward the United
+      States our attention is necessarily drawn to the warfare just
+      renewed by the savages on one of our extensive
+      frontiers&mdash;a warfare which is known to spare neither age
+      nor sex and to be distinguished by features peculiarly
+      shocking to humanity. It is difficult to account for the
+      activity and combinations which have for some time been
+      developing themselves among tribes in constant intercourse
+      with British traders and garrisons without connecting their
+      hostility with that influence and without recollecting the
+      authenticated examples of such interpositions heretofore
+      furnished by the officers and agents of that Government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such is the spectacle of injuries and indignities which have
+      been heaped on our country, and such the crisis which its
+      unexampled forbearance and conciliatory efforts have not been
+      able to avert. It might at least have been expected that an
+      enlightened nation, if less urged by moral obligations or
+      invited by friendly dispositions on the part of the United
+      States, would have found in its true interest alone a
+      sufficient motive to respect their rights and their
+      tranquillity on the high seas; that an enlarged policy would
+      have favored that free and general circulation of commerce in
+      which the British nation is at all times interested, and
+      which in times of war is the best alleviation of its
+      calamities to herself as well as to other belligerents; and
+      more especially that the British cabinet would not, for the
+      sake of a precarious and surreptitious intercourse with
+      hostile markets, have persevered in a course of measures
+      which necessarily put at hazard the invaluable market of a
+      great and growing country, disposed to cultivate the mutual
+      advantages of an active commerce.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Other counsels have prevailed. Our moderation and
+      conciliation have had no other effect than to encourage
+      perseverance and to enlarge pretensions. We behold our
+      seafaring citizens still the daily victims of lawless
+      violence, committed on the great common and highway of
+      nations, even within sight of the country which owes them
+      protection. We behold our vessels, freighted with the
+      products of our soil and industry, or returning with the
+      honest proceeds of them, wrested from their lawful
+      destinations, confiscated by prize courts no longer the
+      organs of public law but the instruments of arbitrary edicts,
+      and their unfortunate crews dispersed and lost, or forced or
+      inveigled in British ports into British fleets, whilst
+      arguments are employed in support of these aggressions which
+      have no foundation but in a principle equally supporting a
+      claim to regulate our external commerce in all cases
+      whatsoever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We behold, in fine, on the side of Great Britain a state of
+      war against the United States, and on the side of the United
+      States a state of peace toward Great Britain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether the United States shall continue passive under these
+      progressive usurpations and these accumulating wrongs, or,
+      opposing force to force in defense of their national rights,
+      shall commit a just cause into the hands of the Almighty
+      Disposer of Events, avoiding all connections which might
+      entangle it in the contest or views of other powers, and
+      preserving a constant readiness to concur in an honorable
+      reestablishment of peace and friendship, is a solemn question
+      which the Constitution wisely confides to the legislative
+      department of the Government. In recommending it to their
+      early deliberations I am happy in the assurance that the
+      decision will be worthy the enlightened and patriotic
+      councils of a virtuous, a free, and a powerful nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having presented this view of the relations of the United
+      States with Great Britain and of the solemn alternative
+      growing out of them, I proceed to remark that the
+      communications last made to Congress on the subject of our
+      relations with France will have shewn that since the
+      revocation of her decrees, as they violated the neutral
+      rights of the United States, her Government has authorized
+      illegal captures by its privateers and public ships, and that
+      other outrages have been practiced on our vessels and our
+      citizens. It will have been seen also that no indemnity had
+      been provided or satisfactorily pledged for the extensive
+      spoliations committed under the violent and retrospective
+      orders of the French Government against the property of our
+      citizens seized within the jurisdiction of France. I abstain
+      at this time from recommending to the consideration of
+      Congress definitive measures with respect to that nation, in
+      the expectation that the result of unclosed discussions
+      between our minister plenipotentiary at Paris and the French
+      Government will speedily enable Congress to decide with
+      greater advantage on the course due to the rights, the
+      interests, and the honor of our country.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JUNE 30, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a view the better to adapt to the public service the
+      volunteer force contemplated by the act passed on the 6th day
+      of February, I recommend to the consideration of Congress the
+      expediency of making the requisite provision for the officers
+      thereof being commissioned by the authority of the United
+      States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Considering the distribution of the military forces of the
+      United States required by the circumstances of our country, I
+      recommend also to the consideration of Congress the
+      expediency of providing for the appointment of an additional
+      number of general officers, and of deputies in the
+      Adjutant's, Quartermaster's, Inspector's, and Paymaster's
+      departments of the Army, and for the employment in cases of
+      emergency of additional engineers.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JULY 1, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with the resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 26th of June, I transmit the
+      information contained in the documents herewith enclosed.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      <i>From the Secretary of State to General George Matthews and
+      Colonel John M'Kee</i>.
+    </center>
+    <p class="r">
+      DEPARTMENT OF STATE, <i>January 26, 1811</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The President of the United States having appointed you
+      jointly and severally commissioners for carrying into effect
+      certain provisions of an act of Congress (a copy of which is
+      inclosed) relative to the portion of the Floridas situated to
+      the east of the river Perdido, you will repair to that
+      quarter with all possible expedition, concealing from general
+      observation the trust committed to you with that discretion
+      which the delicacy and importance of the undertaking require.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Should you find Governor Folk or the local authority existing
+      there inclined to surrender in an amicable manner the
+      possession of the remaining portion or portions of West
+      Florida now held by him in the name of the Spanish Monarchy,
+      you are to accept in behalf of the United States the
+      abdication of his or of the other existing authority and the
+      jurisdiction of the country over which it extends. And should
+      a stipulation be insisted on for the redelivery of the
+      country at a future period, you may engage for such
+      redelivery to the lawful sovereign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The debts clearly due from the Spanish Government to the
+      people of the Territory surrendered may, if insisted on, be
+      assumed within reasonable limits and under specified
+      descriptions to be settled hereafter as a claim against Spain
+      in an adjustment of our affairs with her. You may also
+      guarantee, in the name of the United States, the confirmation
+      of all such titles to land as are clearly sanctioned by
+      Spanish laws, and Spanish civil functionaries, where no
+      special reasons may require changes, are to be permitted to
+      remain in office with the assurance of a continuation of the
+      prevailing laws, with such alterations only as may be
+      necessarily required in the new situation of the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If it should be required and be found necessary, you may
+      agree to advance, as above, a reasonable sum for the
+      transportation of the Spanish troops.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These directions are adapted to one of the contingencies
+      specified in the act of Congress, namely, the amicable
+      surrender of the possession of the Territory by the local
+      ruling authority. But should the arrangement contemplated by
+      the statute not be made, and should there be room to
+      entertain a suspicion of an existing design in any foreign
+      power to occupy the country in question, you are to keep
+      yourselves on the alert, and on the first undoubted
+      manifestation of the approach of a force for that purpose you
+      will exercise with promptness and vigor the powers with which
+      you are invested by the President to preoccupy by force the
+      Territory, to the entire exclusion of any armament that may
+      be advancing to take the possession of it. In this event you
+      will exercise a sound discretion in applying the powers given
+      with respect to debts, titles to lands, civil officers, and
+      the continuation of the Spanish laws, taking care to commit
+      the Government on no point further than may be necessary; and
+      should any Spanish military force remain within the country
+      after the occupancy by the troops of the United States, you
+      may in such case aid in their removal from the same.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The universal toleration which the laws of the United States
+      assure to every religious persuasion will not escape you as
+      an argument for quieting the minds of uninformed individuals
+      who may entertain fears on that head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conduct you are to pursue in regard to East Florida must
+      be regulated by the dictates of your own judgments, on a
+      close view and accurate knowledge of the precise state of
+      things there, and of the real disposition of the Spanish
+      Government always recurring to the present instruction as the
+      paramount rule of your proceedings. Should you discover an
+      inclination in the governor of East Florida, or in the
+      existing local authority, amicably to surrender that province
+      into the possession of the United States, you are to accept
+      it on the same terms that are prescribed by these
+      instructions in relation to West Florida. And in case of the
+      actual appearance of any attempt to take possession by a
+      foreign power, you will pursue the same effective measures
+      for the occupation of the Territory and for the exclusion of
+      the foreign force as you are directed to pursue with respect
+      to the country east of the Perdido, forming at this time the
+      extent of Governor Folk's jurisdiction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If you should, under these instructions, obtain possession of
+      Mobile, you will lose no time in informing Governor Claiborne
+      thereof, with a request that he will without delay take the
+      necessary steps for the occupation of the same.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All ordnance and military stores that may be found in the
+      Territory must be held as the property of the Spanish
+      Government, to be accounted for hereafter to the proper
+      authority, and you will not fail to transmit an inventory
+      thereof to this Department.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If in the execution of any part of these instructions you
+      should need the aid of a military force, the same will be
+      afforded you upon your application to the commanding officer
+      of the troops of the United States on that station, or to the
+      commanding officer of the nearest post, in virtue of orders
+      which have been issued from the War Department. And in case
+      you should, moreover, need naval assistance, you will receive
+      the same upon your application to the naval commander in
+      pursuance of orders from the Navy Department.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the Treasury Department will be issued the necessary
+      instructions in relation to imposts and duties, and to the
+      slave ships whose arrival is apprehended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The President, relying upon your discretion, authorizes you
+      to draw upon the collectors of Orleans and Savannah for such
+      sums as may be necessary to defray unavoidable expenses that
+      may be incurred in the execution of these instructions, not
+      exceeding in your drafts on New Orleans $8,000 and in your
+      drafts on Savannah $2,000, without further authority, of
+      which expenses you will hereafter exhibit a detailed account
+      duly supported by satisfactory vouchers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      POSTSCRIPT.&mdash;If Governor Folk should unexpectedly
+      require and pertinaciously insist that the stipulation for
+      the redelivery of the Territory should also include that
+      portion of the country which is situated west of the river
+      Perdido, you are, in yielding to such demand, only to use
+      general words that may by implication comprehend that portion
+      of country; but at the same time you are expressly to provide
+      that such stipulation shall not in any way impair or affect
+      the right or title of the United States to the same.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      <i>The Secretary of State to General Matthews</i>.
+    </center>
+    <p class="r">
+      DEPARTMENT OF STATE, <i>April 4, 1812</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      General MATTHEWS, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SIR: I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 14th
+      of March, and have now to communicate to you the sentiments
+      of the President on the very interesting subject to which it
+      relates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am sorry to have to state that the measures which you
+      appear to have adopted for obtaining possession of Amelia
+      Island and other parts of Bast Florida are not authorized by
+      the law of the United States or the instructions founded on
+      it under which you have acted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You were authorized by the law, a copy of which was
+      communicated to you, and by your instructions, which are
+      strictly conformable to it, to take possession of East
+      Florida only in case one of the following contingencies
+      should happen: Either that the governor or other existing
+      local authority should be disposed to place it amicably in
+      the hands of the United States, or that an attempt should be
+      made to, take possession of it by a foreign power. Should the
+      first contingency happen it would follow that the
+      arrangement, being amicable, would require no force on the
+      part of the United States to carry it into effect. It was
+      only in case of an attempt to take it by a foreign power that
+      force could be necessary, in which event only were you
+      authorized to avail yourself of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In neither of these contingencies was it the policy of the
+      law or purpose of the Executive to wrest the Province
+      forcibly from Spain, but only to occupy it with a view to
+      prevent its falling into the hands of any foreign power, and
+      to hold that pledge under the existing peculiarity of the
+      circumstances of the Spanish Monarchy for a just result in an
+      amicable negotiation with Spain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had the United States been disposed to proceed otherwise,
+      that intention would have been manifested by a change of the
+      law and suitable measures to carry it into effect; and as it
+      was in their power to take possession whenever they might
+      think that circumstances authorized and required it, it would
+      be the more to be regretted if possession should be effected
+      by any means irregular in themselves and subjecting the
+      Government of the United States to unmerited censure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The views of the Executive respecting East Florida are
+      further illustrated by your instructions as to West Florida.
+      Although the United States have thought that they had a good
+      title to the latter Province, they did not take possession
+      until after the Spanish authority had been subverted by a
+      revolutionary proceeding, and the contingency of the country
+      being thrown into foreign hands had forced itself into view.
+      Nor did they then, nor have they since, dispossessed the
+      Spanish troops of the post which they occupied. If they did
+      not think proper to take possession by force of a province to
+      which they thought they were justly entitled, it could not be
+      presumed that they should intend to act differently in
+      respect to one to which they had not such a claim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I may add that although due sensibility has been always felt
+      for the injuries which were received from the Spanish
+      Government in the last war, the present situation of Spain
+      has been a motive for a moderate and pacific policy toward
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In communicating to you these sentiments of the Executive on
+      the measures you have lately adopted for taking possession of
+      East Florida, I add with pleasure that the utmost confidence
+      is reposed in your integrity and zeal to promote the welfare
+      of your country. To that zeal the error into which you have
+      fallen is imputed. But in consideration of the part which you
+      have taken, which differs so essentially from that
+      contemplated and authorized by the Government, and
+      contradicts so entirely the principles on which it has
+      uniformly and sincerely acted, you will be sensible of the
+      necessity of discontinuing the service in which you have been
+      employed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will therefore consider your powers as revoked on the
+      receipt of this letter. The new duties to be performed will
+      be transferred to the governor of Georgia, to whom
+      instructions will be given on all the circumstances to which
+      it may be proper at the present juncture to call his
+      attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have the honor to be, very respectfully, sir, your obedient
+      servant,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      <i>The Secretary of State to His Excellency D.B. Mitchell,
+      the governor of Georgia</i>.
+    </center>
+    <p class="r">
+      DEPARTMENT OF STATE, <i>April 10, 1812</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SIR: The President is desirous of availing the public of your
+      services in a concern of much delicacy and of high importance
+      to the United States. Circumstances with which you are in
+      some degree acquainted, but which will be fully explained by
+      the inclosed papers, have made it necessary to revoke the
+      powers heretofore committed to General Matthews and to commit
+      them to you. The President is persuaded that you will not
+      hesitate to undertake a trust so important to the nation, and
+      peculiarly to the State of Georgia. He is the more confident
+      in this belief from the consideration that these new duties
+      may be discharged without interfering, as he presumes, with
+      those of the station which you now hold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the act of the 15th of January, 1811, you will observe
+      that it was not contemplated to take possession of East
+      Florida or any part thereof, unless it should be surrendered
+      to the United States amicably by the governor or other local
+      authority of the Province, or against an attempt to take
+      possession of it by a foreign power, and you will also see
+      that General Matthews's instructions, of which a copy is
+      likewise inclosed, correspond fully with the law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the documents in possession of the Government it appears
+      that neither of these contingencies have happened; that
+      instead of an amicable surrender by the governor or other
+      local authority the troops of the United States have been
+      used to dispossess the Spanish authority by force. I forbear
+      to dwell on the details of this transaction because it is
+      painful to recite them. By the letter to General Matthews
+      which is inclosed, open for your perusal, you will fully
+      comprehend the views of the Government respecting the late
+      transaction, and by the law, the former instructions to the
+      General, and the late letter now forwarded you will be made
+      acquainted with the course of conduct which it is expected of
+      you to pursue in future in discharging the duties heretofore
+      enjoined on him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is the desire of the President that you should turn your
+      attention and direct your efforts in the first instance to
+      the restoration of that state of things in the Province which
+      existed before the late transactions. The Executive considers
+      it proper to restore back to the Spanish authorities Amelia
+      Island and such other parts, if any, of East Florida as may
+      have thus been taken from them. With this view it will be
+      necessary for you to communicate <i>directly</i> with the
+      governor or principal officer of Spain in that Province, and
+      to act in harmony with him in the attainment of it. It is
+      presumed that the arrangement will be easily and amicably
+      made between you. I inclose you an order from the Secretary
+      of War to the commander of the troops of the United States to
+      evacuate the country when requested so to do by you, and to
+      pay the same respect in future to your order in fulfilling
+      the duties enjoined by the law that he had been instructed to
+      do to that of General Matthews.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In restoring to the Spanish authorities Amelia Island and
+      such other parts of East Florida as may have been taken
+      possession of in the name of the United States there is
+      another object to which your particular attention will be
+      due. In the measures lately adopted by General Matthews to
+      take possession of that Territory it is probable that much
+      reliance has been placed by the people who acted in it on the
+      countenance and support of the United States. It will be
+      improper to expose these people to the resentment of the
+      Spanish authorities. It is not to be presumed that those
+      authorities in regaining possession of the Territory in this
+      amicable mode from the United States will be disposed to
+      indulge any such feeling toward them. You will, however, come
+      to a full understanding with the Spanish governor on this
+      subject, and not fail to obtain from him the most explicit
+      and satisfactory assurance respecting it. Of this assurance
+      you will duly apprise the parties interested, and of the
+      confidence which you repose in it. It is hoped that on this
+      delicate and very interesting point the Spanish governor will
+      avail himself of the opportunity it presents to evince the
+      friendly disposition of his Government toward the United
+      States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is one other remaining circumstance only to which I
+      wish to call your attention, and that relates to General
+      Matthews himself. His gallant and meritorious services in our
+      Revolution and patriotic conduct since have always been held
+      in high estimation by the Government. His errors in this
+      instance are imputed altogether to his zeal to promote the
+      welfare of his country; but they are of a nature to impose on
+      the Government the necessity of the measures now taken, in
+      giving effect to which you will doubtless feel a disposition
+      to consult, as far as may be, his personal sensibility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have the honor to be, etc.,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      P.S.&mdash;Should you find it impracticable to execute the
+      duties designated above in person, the President requests
+      that you will be so good as to employ some very respectable
+      character to represent you in it, to whom you are authorized
+      to allow a similar compensation. It is hoped, however, that
+      you may be able to attend to it in person, for reasons which
+      I need not enter into. The expenses to which you may be
+      exposed will be promptly paid to your draft on this
+      Department.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      <i>The Secretary of State to D.B. Mitchell, esq., governor of
+      Georgia</i>.
+    </center>
+    <p class="r">
+      DEPARTMENT OF STATE, <i>May 27, 1812</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SIR: I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 2d
+      instant from St. Marys, where you had arrived in discharge of
+      the trust reposed in you by the President, in relation to
+      East Florida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My letter by Mr. Isaacs has, I presume, substantially
+      answered the most important of the queries submitted in your
+      letter, but I will give to each a more distinct answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the law of which a copy was forwarded to you it is made
+      the duty of the President to prevent the occupation of East
+      Florida by any foreign power. It follows that you are
+      authorized to consider the entrance, or attempt to enter,
+      especially under existing circumstances, of British troops of
+      any description as the case contemplated by the law, and to
+      use the proper means to defeat it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An instruction will be immediately forwarded to the commander
+      of the naval force of the United States in the neighborhood
+      of East Florida to give you any assistance, in case of
+      emergency, which you may think necessary and require.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not expected, if you find it proper to withdraw the
+      troops, that you should interfere to compel the patriots to
+      surrender the country or any part of it to the Spanish
+      authorities. The United States are responsible for their own
+      conduct only; not for that of the inhabitants of East
+      Florida. Indeed, in consequence of the compromitment of the
+      United States to the inhabitants, you have been already
+      instructed not to withdraw the troops, unless you find that
+      it may be done consistently with their safety, and to report
+      to the Government the result of your conferences with the
+      Spanish authorities, with your opinion of their views,
+      holding in the meantime the ground occupied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the present state of our affairs with Great Britain the
+      course above pointed out is the more justifiable and proper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have the honor, etc.,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JULY 6, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate copies and extracts of documents in
+      the archives of the Department of State falling within the
+      purview of their resolution of the 4th instant, on the
+      subject of British impressments from American vessels. The
+      information, though voluminous, might have been enlarged with
+      more time for research and preparation. In some instances it
+      might at the same time have been abridged but for the
+      difficulty of separating the matter extraneous to the
+      immediate object of the resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      VETO MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      APRIL 3, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having examined and considered the bill entitled "An act
+      providing for the trial of causes pending in the respective
+      district courts of the United States, in case of the absence
+      or disability of the judges thereof," which bill was
+      presented to me on the 25th of March past, I now return the
+      same to the House of Representatives, in which it originated,
+      with the following objections:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Because the additional services imposed by the bill on the
+      justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are to be
+      performed by them rather in the quality of other judges of
+      other courts, namely, judges of the district courts, than in
+      the quality of justices of the Supreme Court. They are to
+      hold the said district courts, and to do and perform all acts
+      relating to the said courts which are by law required of the
+      district judges. The bill therefore virtually appoints, for
+      the time, the justices of the Supreme Court to other distinct
+      offices to which, if compatible with their original offices,
+      they ought to be appointed by another than the legislative
+      authority, in pursuance of legislative provisions authorizing
+      the appointments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Because the appeal allowed by law for the decision of the
+      district courts to the circuit courts, whilst it corroborates
+      the construction which regards a judge of one court as
+      clothed with a new office, by being constituted a judge of
+      the other, submits for correction erroneous judgments, not to
+      superior or other judges, but to the erring individual
+      himself, acting as sole judge in the appellate court.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Because the additional services to be required may, by
+      distances of place and by the casualties contemplated by the
+      bill, become disproportionate to the strength and health of
+      the justices who are to perform them, the additional services
+      being, moreover, entitled to no additional compensation, nor
+      the additional expenses incurred to reimbursement. In this
+      view the bill appears to be contrary to equity, as well as a
+      precedent for modifications and extensions of judicial
+      services encroaching on the constitutional tenure of judicial
+      offices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Because, by referring to the President of the United States
+      questions of disability in the district judges and of the
+      unreasonableness of delaying the suits or causes pending in
+      the district courts, and leaving it with him in such causes
+      to require the justices of the Supreme Court to perform
+      additional services, the bill introduces an unsuitable
+      relation of members of the judiciary department to a
+      discretionary authority of the executive department.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PROCLAMATIONS.
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      [From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 1, p. 448.]
+    </center>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Whereas information has been received that a number of
+      individuals who have deserted from the Army of the United
+      States have become sensible of their offense and are desirous
+      of returning to their duty, a full pardon is hereby granted
+      and proclaimed to each and all such individuals as shall
+      within four months from the date hereof surrender themselves
+      to the commanding officer of any military post within the
+      United States or the Territories thereof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United
+      States to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same
+      with my hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Done at the city of Washington, the 7th day of February, A.D.
+      1812, and of the Independence of the United States the
+      thirty-sixth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       By the President:<br>
+       JAMES MONROE,<br>
+       <i>Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [From Annals of Congress, Twelfth Congress, part 2, 2223.]
+    </center>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Whereas the Congress of the United States, by virtue of the
+      constituted authority vested in them, have declared by their
+      act bearing date the 18th day of the present month that war
+      exists between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
+      Ireland and the dependencies thereof and the United States of
+      America and their Territories:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United
+      States of America, do hereby proclaim the same to all whom it
+      may concern; and I do specially enjoin on all persons holding
+      offices, civil or military, under the authority of the United
+      States that they be vigilant and zealous in discharging the
+      duties respectively incident thereto; and I do moreover
+      exhort all the good people of the United States, as they love
+      their country, as they value the precious heritage derived
+      from the virtue and valor of their fathers, as they feel the
+      wrongs which have forced on them the last resort of injured
+      nations, and as they consult the best means under the
+      blessing of Divine Providence of abridging its calamities,
+      that they exert themselves in preserving order, in promoting
+      concord, in maintaining the authority and efficacy of the
+      laws, and in supporting and invigorating all the measures
+      which may be adopted by the constituted authorities for
+      obtaining a speedy, a just, and an honorable peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused
+      the seal of the United States to be affixed to these
+      presents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Done at the city of Washington, the 19th day of June, 1812,
+      and of the Independence of the United States the
+      thirty-sixth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       By the President:<br>
+       JAMES MONROE,<br>
+       <i>Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [From Annals of Congress, Twelfth Congress, part 2, 2224.]
+    </center>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Whereas the Congress of the United States, by a joint
+      resolution of the two Houses, have signified a request that a
+      day may be recommended to be observed by the people of the
+      United States with religious solemnity as a day of public
+      humiliation and prayer; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas such a recommendation will enable the several
+      religious denominations and societies so disposed to offer at
+      one and the same time their common vows and adorations to
+      Almighty God on the solemn occasion produced by the war in
+      which He has been pleased to permit the injustice of a
+      foreign power to involve these United States:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I do therefore recommend the third Thursday in August next as
+      a convenient day to be set apart for the devout purposes of
+      rendering the Sovereign of the Universe and the Benefactor of
+      Mankind the public homage due to His holy attributes; of
+      acknowledging the transgressions which might justly provoke
+      the manifestations of His divine displeasure; of seeking His
+      merciful forgiveness and His assistance in the great duties
+      of repentance and amendment, and especially of offering
+      fervent supplications that in the present season of calamity
+      and war He would take the American people under His peculiar
+      care and protection; that He would guide their public
+      councils, animate their patriotism, and bestow His blessing
+      on their arms; that He would inspire all nations with a love
+      of justice and of concord and with a reverence for the
+      unerring precept of our holy religion to do to others as they
+      would require that others should do to them; and, finally,
+      that, turning the hearts of our enemies from the violence and
+      injustice which sway their councils against us, He would
+      hasten a restoration of the blessings of peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Given at Washington, the 9th day of July, A.D. 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       By the President:<br>
+       JAMES MONROE,<br>
+       <i>Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 3, p. 101.]
+    </center>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Whereas information has been received that a number of
+      individuals who have deserted from the Army of the United
+      States have become sensible of their offenses and are
+      desirous of returning to their duty, a full pardon is hereby
+      granted and proclaimed to each and all such individuals as
+      shall within four months from the date hereof surrender
+      themselves to the commanding officer of any military post
+      within the United States or the Territories thereof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United
+      States to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same
+      with my hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Done at the city of Washington, the 8th day of October, A.D.
+      1812, and of the Independence of the United States the
+      thirty-seventh.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       By the President:<br>
+       JAMES MONROE,<br>
+       <i>Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>November 4, 1812</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of
+      Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On our present meeting it is my first duty to invite your
+      attention to the providential favors which our country has
+      experienced in the unusual degree of health dispensed to its
+      inhabitants, and in the rich abundance with which the earth
+      has rewarded the labors bestowed on it. In the successful
+      cultivation of other branches of industry, and in the
+      progress of general improvement favorable to the national
+      prosperity, there is just occasion also for our mutual
+      congratulations and thankfulness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With these blessings are necessarily mingled the pressures
+      and vicissitudes incident to the state of war into which the
+      United States have been forced by the perseverance of a
+      foreign power in its system of injustice and aggression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Previous to its declaration it was deemed proper, as a
+      measure of precaution and forecast, that a considerable force
+      should be placed in the Michigan Territory with a general
+      view to its security, and, in the event of war, to such
+      operations in the uppermost Canada as would intercept the
+      hostile influence of Great Britain over the savages, obtain
+      the command of the lake on which that part of Canada borders,
+      and maintain cooperating relations with such forces as might
+      be most conveniently employed against other parts.
+      Brigadier-General Hull was charged with this provisional
+      service, having under his command a body of troops composed
+      of regulars and of volunteers from the State of Ohio. Having
+      reached his destination after his knowledge of the war, and
+      possessing discretionary authority to act offensively, he
+      passed into the neighboring territory of the enemy with a
+      prospect of easy and victorious progress. The expedition,
+      nevertheless, terminated unfortunately, not only in a retreat
+      to the town and fort of Detroit, but in the surrender of both
+      and of the gallant corps commanded by that officer. The
+      causes of this painful reverse will be investigated by a
+      military tribunal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A distinguishing feature in the operations which preceded and
+      followed this adverse event is the use made by the enemy of
+      the merciless savages under their influence. Whilst the
+      benevolent policy of the United States invariably recommended
+      peace and promoted civilization among that wretched portion
+      of the human race, and was making exertions to dissuade them
+      from taking either side in the war, the enemy has not
+      scrupled to call to his aid their ruthless ferocity, armed
+      with the horrors of those instruments of carnage and torture
+      which are known to spare neither age nor sex. In this outrage
+      against the laws of honorable war and against the feelings
+      sacred to humanity the British commanders can not resort to a
+      plea of retaliation, for it is committed in the face of our
+      example. They can not mitigate it by calling it a
+      self-defense against men in arms, for it embraces the most
+      shocking butcheries of defenseless families. Nor can it be
+      pretended that they are not answerable for the atrocities
+      perpetrated, since the savages are employed with a knowledge,
+      and even with menaces, that their fury could not be
+      controlled. Such is the spectacle which the deputed
+      authorities of a nation boasting its religion and morality
+      have not been restrained from presenting to an enlightened
+      age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The misfortune at Detroit was not, however, without a
+      consoling effect. It was followed by signal proofs that the
+      national spirit rises according to the pressure on it. The
+      loss of an important post and of the brave men surrendered
+      with it inspired everywhere new ardor and determination. In
+      the States and districts least remote it was no sooner known
+      than every citizen was ready to fly with his arms at once to
+      protect his brethren against the bloodthirsty savages let
+      loose by the enemy on an extensive frontier, and to convert a
+      partial calamity into a source of invigorated efforts. This
+      patriotic zeal, which it was necessary rather to limit than
+      excite, has embodied an ample force from the States of
+      Kentucky and Ohio and from parts of Pennsylvania and
+      Virginia. It is placed, with the addition of a few regulars,
+      under the command of Brigadier-General Harrison, who
+      possesses the entire confidence of his fellow-soldiers, among
+      whom are citizens, some of them volunteers in the ranks, not
+      less distinguished by their political stations than by their
+      personal merits. The greater portion of this force is
+      proceeding on its destination toward the Michigan Territory,
+      having succeeded in relieving an important frontier post, and
+      in several incidental operations against hostile tribes of
+      savages, rendered indispensable by the subserviency into
+      which they had been seduced by the enemy&mdash;a seduction
+      the more cruel as it could not fail to impose a necessity of
+      precautionary severities against those who yielded to it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At a recent date an attack was made on a post of the enemy
+      near Niagara by a detachment of the regular and other forces
+      under the command of Major-General Van Rensselaer, of the
+      militia of the State of New York. The attack, it appears, was
+      ordered in compliance with the ardor of the troops, who
+      executed it with distinguished gallantry, and were for a time
+      victorious; but not receiving the expected support, they were
+      compelled to yield to reenforcements of British regulars and
+      savages. Our loss has been considerable, and is deeply to be
+      lamented. That of the enemy, less ascertained, will be the
+      more felt, as it includes among the killed the commanding
+      general, who was also the governor of the Province, and was
+      sustained by veteran troops from unexperienced soldiers, who
+      must daily improve in the duties of the field.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our expectation of gaining the command of the Lakes by the
+      invasion of Canada from Detroit having been disappointed,
+      measures were instantly taken to provide on them a naval
+      force superior to that of the enemy. From the talents and
+      activity of the officer charged with this object everything
+      that can be done may be expected. Should the present season
+      not admit of complete success, the progress made will insure
+      for the next a naval ascendency where it is essential to our
+      permanent peace with and control over the savages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the incidents to the measures of the war I am
+      constrained to advert to the refusal of the governors of
+      Massachusetts and Connecticut to furnish the required
+      detachments of militia toward the defense of the maritime
+      frontier. The refusal was founded on a novel and unfortunate
+      exposition of the provisions of the Constitution relating to
+      the militia. The correspondences which will be laid before
+      you contain the requisite information on the subject. It is
+      obvious that if the authority of the United States to call
+      into service and command the militia for the public defense
+      can be thus frustrated, even in a state of declared war and
+      of course under apprehensions of invasion preceding war, they
+      are not one nation for the purpose most of all requiring it,
+      and that the public safety may have no other resource than in
+      those large and permanent military establishments which are
+      forbidden by the principles of our free government, and
+      against the necessity of which the militia were meant to be a
+      constitutional bulwark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the coasts and on the ocean the war has been as successful
+      as circumstances inseparable from its early stages could
+      promise. Our public ships and private cruisers, by their
+      activity, and, where there was occasion, by their
+      intrepidity, have made the enemy sensible of the difference
+      between a reciprocity of captures and the long confinement of
+      them to their side. Our trade, with little exception, has
+      safely reached our ports, having been much favored in it by
+      the course pursued by a squadron of our frigates under the
+      command of Commodore Rodgers, and in the instance in which
+      skill and bravery were more particularly tried with those of
+      the enemy the American flag had an auspicious triumph. The
+      frigate <i>Constitution</i>, commanded by Captain Hull, after
+      a close and short engagement completely disabled and captured
+      a British frigate, gaining for that officer and all on board
+      a praise which can not be too liberally bestowed, not merely
+      for the victory actually achieved, but for that prompt and
+      cool exertion of commanding talents which, giving to courage
+      its highest character, and to the force applied its full
+      effect, proved that more could have been done in a contest
+      requiring more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anxious to abridge the evils from which a state of war can
+      not be exempt, I lost no time after it was declared in
+      conveying to the British Government the terms on which its
+      progress might be arrested, without awaiting the delays of a
+      formal and final pacification, and our charge d'affaires at
+      London was at the same time authorized to agree to an
+      armistice founded upon them. These terms required that the
+      orders in council should be repealed as they affected the
+      United States, without a revival of blockades violating
+      acknowledged rules, and that there should be an immediate
+      discharge of American seamen from British ships, and a stop
+      to impressment from American ships, with an understanding
+      that an exclusion of the seamen of each nation from the ships
+      of the other should be stipulated, and that the armistice
+      should be improved into a definitive and comprehensive
+      adjustment of depending controversies. Although a repeal of
+      the orders susceptible of explanations meeting the views of
+      this Government had taken place before this pacific advance
+      was communicated to that of Great Britain, the advance was
+      declined from an avowed repugnance to a suspension of the
+      practice of impressments during the armistice, and without
+      any intimation that the arrangement proposed with respect to
+      seamen would be accepted. Whether the subsequent
+      communications from this Government, affording an occasion
+      for reconsidering the subject on the part of Great Britain,
+      will be viewed in a more favorable light or received in a
+      more accommodating spirit remains to be known. It would be
+      unwise to relax our measures in any respect on a presumption
+      of such a result.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The documents from the Department of State which relate to
+      this subject will give a view also of the propositions for an
+      armistice which have been received here, one of them from the
+      authorities at Halifax and in Canada, the other from the
+      British Government itself through Admiral Warren, and of the
+      grounds on which neither of them could be accepted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our affairs with France retain the posture which they held at
+      my last communications to you. Notwithstanding the authorized
+      expectations of an early as well as favorable issue to the
+      discussions on foot, these have been procrastinated to the
+      latest date. The only intervening occurrence meriting
+      attention is the promulgation of a French decree purporting
+      to be a definitive repeal of the Berlin and Milan decrees.
+      This proceeding, although made the ground of the repeal of
+      the British orders in council, is rendered by the time and
+      manner of it liable to many objections.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The final communications from our special minister to Denmark
+      afford further proofs of the good effects of his mission, and
+      of the amicable disposition of the Danish Government. From
+      Russia we have the satisfaction to receive assurances of
+      continued friendship, and that it will not be affected by the
+      rupture between the United States and Great Britain. Sweden
+      also professes sentiments favorable to the subsisting
+      harmony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the Barbary Powers, excepting that of Algiers, our
+      affairs remain on the ordinary footing. The consul-general
+      residing with that Regency has suddenly and without cause
+      been banished, together with all the American citizens found
+      there. Whether this was the transitory effect of capricious
+      despotism or the first act of predetermined hostility is not
+      ascertained. Precautions were taken by the consul on the
+      latter supposition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian tribes not under foreign instigations remain at
+      peace, and receive the civilizing attentions which have
+      proved so beneficial to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a view to that vigorous prosecution of the war to which
+      our national faculties are adequate, the attention of
+      Congress will be particularly drawn to the insufficiency of
+      existing provisions for filling up the military
+      establishment. Such is the happy condition of our country,
+      arising from the facility of subsistence and the high wages
+      for every species of occupation, that notwithstanding the
+      augmented inducements provided at the last session, a partial
+      success only has attended the recruiting service. The
+      deficiency has been necessarily supplied during the campaign
+      by other than regular troops, with all the inconveniences and
+      expense incident to them. The remedy lies in establishing
+      more favorably for the private soldier the proportion between
+      his recompense and the term of his enlistment, and it is a
+      subject which can not too soon or too seriously be taken into
+      consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The same insufficiency has been experienced in the provisions
+      for volunteers made by an act of the last session. The
+      recompense for the service required in this case is still
+      less attractive than in the other, and although patriotism
+      alone has sent into the field some valuable corps of that
+      description, those alone who can afford the sacrifice can be
+      reasonably expected to yield to that impulse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will merit consideration also whether as auxiliary to the
+      security of our frontiers corps may not be advantageously
+      organized with a restriction of their services to particular
+      districts convenient to them, and whether the local and
+      occasional services of mariners and others in the seaport
+      towns under a similar organization would not be a provident
+      addition to the means of their defense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I recommend a provision for an increase of the general
+      officers of the Army, the deficiency of which has been
+      illustrated by the number and distance of separate commands
+      which the course of the war and the advantage of the service
+      have required.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And I can not press too strongly on the earliest attention of
+      the Legislature the importance of the reorganization of the
+      staff establishment with a view to render more distinct and
+      definite the relations and responsibilities of its several
+      departments. That there is room for improvements which will
+      materially promote both economy and success in what
+      appertains to the Army and the war is equally inculcated by
+      the examples of other countries and by the experience of our
+      own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A revision of the militia laws for the purpose of rendering
+      them more systematic and better adapting them to emergencies
+      of the war is at this time particularly desirable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the additional ships authorized to be fitted for service,
+      two will be shortly ready to sail, a third is under repair,
+      and delay will be avoided in the repair of the residue. Of
+      the appropriations for the purchase of materials for
+      shipbuilding, the greater part has been applied to that
+      object and the purchase will be continued with the balance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The enterprising spirit which has characterized our naval
+      force and its success, both in restraining insults and
+      depredations on our coasts and in reprisals on the enemy,
+      will not fail to recommend an enlargement of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There being reason to believe that the act prohibiting the
+      acceptance of British licenses is not a sufficient guard
+      against the use of them, for purposes favorable to the
+      interests and views of the enemy, further provisions on that
+      subject are highly important. Nor is it less so that penal
+      enactments should be provided for cases of corrupt and
+      perfidious intercourse with the enemy, not amounting to
+      treason nor yet embraced by any statutory provisions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A considerable number of American vessels which were in
+      England when the revocation of the orders in council took
+      place were laden with British manufactures under an erroneous
+      impression that the nonimportation act would immediately
+      cease to operate, and have arrived in the United States. It
+      did not appear proper to exercise on unforeseen cases of such
+      magnitude the ordinary powers vested in the Treasury
+      Department to mitigate forfeitures without previously
+      affording to Congress an opportunity of making on the subject
+      such provision as they may think proper. In their decision
+      they will doubtless equally consult what is due to equitable
+      considerations and to the public interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the
+      30th of September last have exceeded $16,500,000, which have
+      been sufficient to defray all the demands on the Treasury to
+      that day, including a necessary reimbursement of near three
+      millions of the principal of the public debt. In these
+      receipts is included a sum of near $5,850,000, received on
+      account of the loans authorized by the acts of the last
+      session; the whole sum actually obtained on loan amounts to
+      $11,000,000, the residue of which, being receivable
+      subsequent to the 30th of September last, will, together with
+      the current revenue, enable us to defray all the expenses of
+      this year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The duties on the late unexpected importations of British
+      manufactures will render the revenue of the ensuing year more
+      productive than could have been anticipated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The situation of our country, fellow-citizens, is not without
+      its difficulties, though it abounds in animating
+      considerations, of which the view here presented of our
+      pecuniary resources is an example. With more than one nation
+      we have serious and unsettled controversies, and with one,
+      powerful in the means and habits of war, we are at war. The
+      spirit and strength of the nation are nevertheless equal to
+      the support of all its rights, and to carry it through all
+      its trials. They can be met in that confidence. Above all, we
+      have the inestimable consolation of knowing that the war in
+      which we are actually engaged is a war neither of ambition
+      nor of vainglory; that it is waged not in violation of the
+      rights of others, but in the maintenance of our own; that it
+      was preceded by a patience without example under wrongs
+      accumulating without end, and that it was finally not
+      declared until every hope of averting it was extinguished by
+      the transfer of the British scepter into new hands clinging
+      to former councils, and until declarations were reiterated to
+      the last hour, through the British envoy here, that the
+      hostile edicts against our commercial rights and our maritime
+      independence would not be revoked; nay, that they could not
+      be revoked without violating the obligations of Great Britain
+      to other powers, as well as to her own interests. To have
+      shrunk under such circumstances from manly resistance would
+      have been a degradation blasting our best and proudest hopes;
+      it would have struck us from the high rank where the virtuous
+      struggles of our fathers had placed us, and have betrayed the
+      magnificent legacy which we hold in trust for future
+      generations. It would have acknowledged that on the element
+      which forms three-fourths of the globe we inhabit, and where
+      all independent nations have equal and common rights, the
+      American people were not an independent people, but colonists
+      and vassals. It was at this moment and with such an
+      alternative that war was chosen. The nation felt the
+      necessity of it, and called for it. The appeal was
+      accordingly made, in a just cause, to the Just and
+      All-powerful Being who holds in His hand the chain of events
+      and the destiny of nations. It remains only that, faithful to
+      ourselves, entangled in no connections with the views of
+      other powers, and ever ready to accept peace from the hand of
+      justice, we prosecute the war with united counsels and with
+      the ample faculties of the nation until peace be so obtained
+      and as the only means under the Divine blessing of speedily
+      obtaining it.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      NOVEMBER, 12, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the further information of Congress relative to the
+      pacific advances made on the part of this Government to that
+      of Great Britain, and the manner in which they have been met
+      by the latter, I transmit the sequel of the communications on
+      that subject received from the late charge d'affaires at
+      London.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      NOVEMBER 17, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to Congress copies of a letter from the consul
+      general of the United States to Algiers, stating the
+      circumstances preceding and attending his departure from that
+      Regency.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 11, 1812</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to Congress copies of a letter to the Secretary of
+      the Navy from Captain Decatur, of the frigate <i>United
+      States</i>, reporting his combat and capture of the British
+      frigate <i>Macedonian</i>. Too much praise can not be
+      bestowed on that officer and his companions on board for the
+      consummate skill and conspicuous valor by which this trophy
+      has been added to the naval arms of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit also a letter from Captain Jones, who commanded
+      the sloop of war <i>Wasp</i>, reporting his capture of the
+      British sloop of war <i>Frolic</i>, after a close action, in
+      which other brilliant titles will be seen to the public
+      admiration and praise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A nation feeling what it owes to itself and to its citizens
+      could never abandon to arbitrary violence on the ocean a
+      class of them which give such examples of capacity and
+      courage in defending their rights on that element, examples
+      which ought to impress on the enemy, however brave and
+      powerful, preference of justice and peace to hostility
+      against a country whose prosperous career may be accelerated
+      but can not be prevented by the assaults made on it.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 22, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit, for the information of Congress, copies of a
+      correspondence between John Mitchell, agent for American
+      prisoners of war at Halifax, and the British admiral
+      commanding at that station.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit, for the like purpose, copies of a letter from
+      Commodore Rodgers to the Secretary of the Navy,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 22, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before Congress a letter, with accompanying documents,
+      from Captain Bainbridge, now commanding the United States
+      frigate the <i>Constitution</i>, reporting his capture and
+      destruction of the British frigate the <i>Java</i>. The
+      circumstances and the issue of this combat afford another
+      example of the professional skill and heroic spirit which
+      prevail in our naval service. The signal display of both by
+      Captain Bainbridge, his officers and crew, commands the
+      highest praise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This being a second instance in which the condition of the
+      captured ship, by rendering it impossible to get her into
+      port, has barred a contemplated reward of successful valor, I
+      recommend to the consideration of Congress the equity and
+      propriety of a general provision allowing in such cases, both
+      past and future, a fair proportion of the value which would
+      accrue to the captors on the safe arrival and sale of the
+      prize.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 24, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before Congress copies of a proclamation of the British
+      lieutenant-governor of the island of Bermuda, which has
+      appeared under circumstances leaving no doubt of its
+      authenticity. It recites a British order in council of the
+      26th of October last, providing for the supply of the British
+      West Indies and other colonial possessions by a trade under
+      special licenses, and is accompanied by a circular
+      instruction to the colonial governors which confines licensed
+      importations from ports of the United States to the ports of
+      the Eastern States exclusively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Government of Great Britain had already introduced into
+      her commerce during war a system which, at once violating the
+      rights of other nations and resting on a mass of forgery and
+      perjury unknown to other times, was making an unfortunate
+      progress in undermining those principles of morality and
+      religion which are the best foundation of national happiness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The policy now proclaimed to the world introduces into her
+      modes of warfare a system equally distinguished by the
+      deformity of its features and the depravity of its character,
+      having for its object to dissolve the ties of allegiance and
+      the sentiments of loyalty in the adversary nation, and to
+      seduce and separate its component parts the one from the
+      other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The general tendency of these demoralizing and disorganizing
+      contrivances will be reprobated by the civilized and
+      Christian world, and the insulting attempt on the virtue, the
+      honor, the patriotism, and the fidelity of our brethren of
+      the Eastern States will not fail to call forth all their
+      indignation and resentment, and to attach more and more all
+      the States to that happy Union and Constitution against which
+      such insidious and malignant artifices are directed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The better to guard, nevertheless, against the effect of
+      individual cupidity and treachery and to turn the corrupt
+      projects of the enemy against himself, I recommend to the
+      consideration of Congress the expediency of an effectual
+      prohibition of any trade whatever by citizens or inhabitants
+      of the United States under special licenses, whether relating
+      to persons or ports, and in aid thereof a prohibition of all
+      exportations from the United States in foreign bottoms, few
+      of which are actually employed, whilst multiplying
+      counterfeits of their flags and papers are covering and
+      encouraging the navigation of the enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MARCH 3, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Conformably to the resolution of the House of Representatives
+      of the 27th of January last, I transmit "rolls of the persons
+      having office or employment of a public nature under the
+      United States,"
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      VETO MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      NOVEMBER 5, 1812.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bill entitled "An act supplementary to the acts
+      heretofore passed on the subject of an uniform rule of
+      naturalization," which passed the two Houses at the last
+      session of Congress, having appeared to me liable to abuse by
+      aliens having no real purpose of effectuating a
+      naturalization, and therefore not been signed, and having
+      been presented at an hour too near the close of the session
+      to be returned with objections for reconsideration, the bill
+      failed to become a law. I also recommend that provision be
+      now made in favor of aliens entitled to the contemplated
+      benefit, under such regulations as will prevent advantage
+      being taken of it for improper purposes.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      About to add the solemnity of an oath to the obligations
+      imposed by a second call to the station in which my country
+      heretofore placed me, I find in the presence of this
+      respectable assembly an opportunity of publicly repeating my
+      profound sense of so distinguished a confidence and of the
+      responsibility united with it. The impressions on me are
+      strengthened by such an evidence that my faithful endeavors
+      to discharge my arduous duties have been favorably estimated,
+      and by a consideration of the momentous period at which the
+      trust has been renewed. From the weight and magnitude now
+      belonging to it I should be compelled to shrink if I had less
+      reliance on the support of an enlightened and generous
+      people, and felt less deeply a conviction that the war with a
+      powerful nation, which forms so prominent a feature in our
+      situation, is stamped with that justice which invites the
+      smiles of Heaven on the means of conducting it to a
+      successful termination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      May we not cherish this sentiment without presumption when we
+      reflect on the characters by which this war is distinguished?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not declared on the part of the United States until it
+      had been long made on them, in reality though not in name;
+      until arguments and expostulations had been exhausted; until
+      a positive declaration had been received that the wrongs
+      provoking it would not be discontinued; nor until this last
+      appeal could no longer be delayed without breaking down the
+      spirit of the nation, destroying all confidence in itself and
+      in its political institutions, and either perpetuating a
+      state of disgraceful suffering or regaining by more costly
+      sacrifices and more severe struggles our lost rank and
+      respect among independent powers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the issue of the war are staked our national sovereignty
+      on the high seas and the security of an important class of
+      citizens, whose occupations give the proper value to those of
+      every other class. Not to contend for such a stake is to
+      surrender our equality with other powers on the element
+      common to all and to violate the sacred title which every
+      member of the society has to its protection. I need not call
+      into view the unlawfulness of the practice by which our
+      mariners are forced at the will of every cruising officer
+      from their own vessels into foreign ones, nor paint the
+      outrages inseparable from it. The proofs are in the records
+      of each successive Administration of our Government, and the
+      cruel sufferings of that portion of the American people have
+      found their way to every bosom not dead to the sympathies of
+      human nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the war was just in its origin and necessary and noble in
+      its objects, we can reflect with a proud satisfaction that in
+      carrying it on no principle of justice or honor, no usage of
+      civilized nations, no precept of courtesy or humanity, have
+      been infringed, The war has been waged on our part with
+      scrupulous regard to all these obligations, and in a spirit
+      of liberality which was never surpassed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      How little has been the effect of this example on the conduct
+      of the enemy!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They have retained as prisoners of war citizens of the United
+      States not liable to be so considered under the usages of
+      war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They have refused to consider as prisoners of war, and
+      threatened to punish as traitors and deserters, persons
+      emigrating without restraint to the United States,
+      incorporated by naturalization into our political family, and
+      fighting under the authority of their adopted country in open
+      and honorable war for the maintenance of its rights and
+      safety. Such is the avowed purpose of a Government which is
+      in the practice of naturalizing by thousands citizens of
+      other countries, and not only of permitting but compelling
+      them to fight its battles against their native country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They have not, it is true, taken into their own hands the
+      hatchet and the knife, devoted to indiscriminate massacre,
+      but they have let loose the savages armed with these cruel
+      instruments; have allured them into their service, and
+      carried them to battle by their sides, eager to glut their
+      savage thirst with the blood of the vanquished and to finish
+      the work of torture and death on maimed and defenseless
+      captives. And, what was never before seen, British commanders
+      have extorted victory over the unconquerable valor of our
+      troops by presenting to the sympathy of their chief captives
+      awaiting massacre from their savage associates. And now we
+      find them, in further contempt of the modes of honorable
+      warfare, supplying the place of a conquering force by
+      attempts to disorganize our political society, to dismember
+      our confederated Republic. Happily, like others, these will
+      recoil on the authors; but they mark the degenerate counsels
+      from which they emanate, and if they did not belong to a
+      series of unexampled inconsistencies might excite the greater
+      wonder as proceeding from a Government which founded the very
+      war in which it has been so long engaged on a charge against
+      the disorganizing and insurrectional policy of its adversary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To render the justice of the war on our part the more
+      conspicuous, the reluctance to commence it was followed by
+      the earliest and strongest manifestations of a disposition to
+      arrest its progress. The sword was scarcely out of the
+      scabbard before the enemy was apprised of the reasonable
+      terms on which it would be resheathed. Still more precise
+      advances were repeated, and have been received in a spirit
+      forbidding every reliance not placed on the military
+      resources of the nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These resources are amply sufficient to bring the war to an
+      honorable issue. Our nation is in number more than half that
+      of the British Isles. It is composed of a brave, a free, a
+      virtuous, and an intelligent people. Our country abounds in
+      the necessaries, the arts, and the comforts of life. A
+      general prosperity is visible in the public countenance. The
+      means employed by the British cabinet to undermine it have
+      recoiled on themselves; have given to our national faculties
+      a more rapid development, and, draining or diverting the
+      precious metals from British circulation and British vaults,
+      have poured them into those of the United States. It is a
+      propitious consideration that an unavoidable war should have
+      found this seasonable facility for the contributions required
+      to support it. When the public voice called for war, all
+      knew, and still know, that without them it could not be
+      carried on through the period which it might last, and the
+      patriotism, the good sense, and the manly spirit of our
+      fellow-citizens are pledges for the cheerfulness with which
+      they will bear each his share of the common burden. To render
+      the war short and its success sure, animated and systematic
+      exertions alone are necessary, and the success of our arms
+      now may long preserve our country from the necessity of
+      another resort to them. Already have the gallant exploits of
+      our naval heroes proved to the world our inherent capacity to
+      maintain our rights on one element. If the reputation of our
+      arms has been thrown under clouds on the other, presaging
+      flashes of heroic enterprise assure us that nothing is
+      wanting to correspondent triumphs there also but die
+      discipline and habits which are in daily progress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      MARCH 4, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL SESSION MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>May 25, 1813</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of
+      Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At an early day after the close of the last session of
+      Congress an offer was formally communicated from His Imperial
+      Majesty the Emperor of Russia of his mediation, as the common
+      friend of the United States and Great Britain, for the
+      purpose of facilitating a peace between them. The high
+      character of the Emperor Alexander being a satisfactory
+      pledge for the sincerity and impartiality of his offer, it
+      was immediately accepted, and as a further proof of the
+      disposition on the part of the United States, to meet their
+      adversary in honorable experiments for terminating the war it
+      was determined to avoid intermediate delays incident to the
+      distance of the parties by a definitive provision for the
+      contemplated negotiation. Three of our eminent citizens were
+      accordingly commissioned with the requisite powers to
+      conclude a treaty of peace with persons clothed with like
+      powers on the part of Great Britain. They are authorized also
+      to enter into such conventional regulations of the commerce
+      between the two countries as may be mutually advantageous.
+      The two envoys who, were in the United States at the time of
+      their appointment have proceeded to join their colleague
+      already at St. Petersburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The envoys have received another commission authorizing them
+      to conclude with Russia a treaty of commerce with a view to
+      strengthen the amicable relations and improve the beneficial
+      intercourse between the two countries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The issue of this friendly interposition of the Russian
+      Emperor and this pacific manifestation on the part of the
+      United States time only can decide. That the sentiments of
+      Great Britain toward that Sovereign will have produced an
+      acceptance of his offered mediation must be presumed. That no
+      adequate motives exist to prefer a continuance of war with
+      the United States to the terms on which they are willing to
+      close it is certain. The British cabinet also must be
+      sensible that, with respect to the important question of
+      impressment, on which the war so essentially turns, a search
+      for or seizure of British persons or property on board
+      neutral vessels on the high seas is not a belligerent right
+      derived from the law of nations, and it is obvious that no
+      visit or search or use of force for any purpose on board the
+      vessels of one independent power on the high seas can in war
+      or peace be sanctioned by the laws or authority of another
+      power. It is equally obvious that, for the purpose of
+      preserving to each State its seafaring members, by excluding
+      them from the vessels of the other, the mode heretofore
+      proposed by the United States and now enacted by them as an
+      article of municipal policy, can not for a moment be compared
+      with the mode practiced by Great Britain without a conviction
+      of its title to preference, inasmuch as the latter leaves the
+      discrimination between the mariners of the two nations to
+      officers exposed by unavoidable bias as well as by a defect
+      of evidence to a wrong decision, under circumstances
+      precluding for the most part the enforcement of controlling
+      penalties, and where a wrong decision, besides the
+      irreparable violation of the sacred rights of persons, might
+      frustrate the plans and profits of entire voyages; whereas
+      the mode assumed by the United States guards with studied
+      fairness and efficacy against errors in such cases and avoids
+      the effect of casual errors on the safety of navigation and
+      the success of mercantile expeditions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the reasonableness of expectations drawn from these
+      considerations could guarantee their fulfillment a just peace
+      would not be distant. But it becomes the wisdom of the
+      National Legislature to keep in mind the true policy, or
+      rather the indispensable obligation, of adapting its measures
+      to the supposition that the only course to that happy event
+      is in the vigorous employment of the resources of war. And
+      painful as the reflection is, this duty is particularly
+      enforced by the spirit and manner in which the war continues
+      to be waged by the enemy, who, uninfluenced by the unvaried
+      examples of humanity set them, are adding to the savage fury
+      of it on one frontier a system of plunder and conflagration
+      on the other, equally forbidden by respect for national
+      character and by the established rules of civilized warfare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As an encouragement to persevering and invigorated exertions
+      to bring the contest to a happy result, I have the
+      satisfaction of being able to appeal to the auspicious
+      progress of our arms both by land and on the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In continuation of the brilliant achievements of our infant
+      Navy, a signal triumph has been gained by Captain Lawrence
+      and his companions in the <i>Hornet</i> sloop of war, which
+      destroyed a British sloop of war with a celerity so
+      unexampled and with a slaughter of the enemy so
+      disproportionate to the loss in the <i>Hornet</i> as to claim
+      for the conquerors the highest praise and the full recompense
+      provided by Congress in preceding cases. Our public ships of
+      war in general, as well as the private armed vessels, have
+      continued also their activity and success against the
+      commerce of the enemy, and by their vigilance and address
+      have greatly frustrated the efforts of the hostile squadrons
+      distributed along our coasts to intercept them in returning
+      into port and resuming their cruises.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The augmentation of our naval force, as authorized at the
+      last session of Congress, is in progress. On the Lakes our
+      superiority is near at hand where it is not already
+      established.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The events of the campaign, so far as they are known to us,
+      furnish matter of congratulation, and show that under a wise
+      organization and efficient direction the Army is destined to
+      a glory not less brilliant than that which already encircles
+      the Navy. The attack and capture of York is in that quarter a
+      presage of future and greater victories, while on the western
+      frontier the issue of the late siege of Fort Meigs leaves us
+      nothing to regret but a single act of inconsiderate valor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The provisions last made for filling the ranks and enlarging
+      the staff of the Army have had the best effects. It will be
+      for the consideration of Congress whether other provisions
+      depending on their authority may not still further improve
+      the military establishment and the means of defense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sudden death of the distinguished citizen who represented
+      the United States in France, without any special arrangements
+      by him for such a contingency, has left us without the
+      expected sequel to his last communications, nor has the
+      French Government taken any measures for bringing the
+      depending negotiations to a conclusion through its
+      representative in the United States. This failure adds to
+      delays before so unreasonably spun out. A successor to our
+      deceased minister has been appointed and is ready to proceed
+      on his mission. The course which he will pursue in fulfilling
+      it is that prescribed by a steady regard to the true
+      interests of the United States, which equally avoids an
+      abandonment of their just demands and a connection of their
+      fortunes with the systems of other powers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The receipts in the Treasury from the 1st of October to the
+      31st day of March last, including the sums received on
+      account of Treasury notes and of the loans authorized by the
+      acts of the last and the preceding sessions of Congress, have
+      amounted to $15,412,000. The expenditures during the same
+      period amounted to $15,920,000, and left in the Treasury on
+      the 1st of April the sum of $1,857,000. The loan of
+      $16,000,000, authorized by the act of the 8th of February
+      last, has been contracted for. Of that sum more than
+      $1,000,000 had been paid into the Treasury prior to the 1st
+      of April, and formed a part of the receipts as above stated.
+      The remainder of that loan, amounting to near $15,000,000,
+      with the sum of $5,000,000 authorized to be issued in
+      Treasury notes, and the estimated receipts from the customs
+      and the sales of public lands, amounting to $9,300,000, and
+      making, in the whole, $29,300,000, to be received during the
+      last nine months of the present year, will be necessary to
+      meet the expenditures already authorized and the engagements
+      contracted in relation to the public debt. These engagements
+      amount during that period to $10,500,000, which, with near
+      one million for the civil, miscellaneous, and diplomatic
+      expenses, both foreign and domestic, and $17,800,000 for the
+      military and naval expenditures, including the ships of war
+      building and to be built, will leave a sum in the Treasury at
+      the end of the present year equal to that on the 1st of April
+      last. A part of this sum may be considered as a resource for
+      defraying any extraordinary expenses already authorized by
+      law beyond the sums above estimated, and a further resource
+      for any emergency may be found in the sum of $1,000,000, the
+      loan of which to the United States has been authorized by the
+      State of Pennsylvania, but which has not yet been brought
+      into effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This view of our finances, whilst it shows that due provision
+      has been made for the expenses of the current year, shows at
+      the same time, by the limited amount of the actual revenue
+      and the dependence on loans, the necessity of providing more
+      adequately for the future supplies of the Treasury. This can
+      be best done by a well-digested system of internal revenue in
+      aid of existing sources, which will have the effect both of
+      abridging the amount of necessary loans and, on that account,
+      as well as by placing the public credit on a more
+      satisfactory basis, of improving the terms on which loans may
+      be obtained. The loan of sixteen millions was not contracted
+      for at a less interest than about 7 1/2 per cent, and,
+      although other causes may have had an agency, it can not be
+      doubted that, with the advantage of a more extended and less
+      precarious revenue, a lower rate of interest might have
+      sufficed. A longer postponement of this advantage could not
+      fail to have a still greater influence on future loans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In recommending to the National Legislature this resort to
+      additional taxes I feel great satisfaction in the assurance
+      that our constituents, who have already displayed so much
+      zeal and firmness in the cause of their country, will
+      cheerfully give any other proof of their patriotism which it
+      calls for. Happily no people, with local and transitory
+      exceptions never to be wholly avoided, are more able than the
+      people of the United States to spare for the public wants a
+      portion of their private means, whether regard be had to the
+      ordinary profits of industry or the ordinary price of
+      subsistence in our country compared with those in any other.
+      And in no case could stronger reasons be felt for yielding
+      the requisite contributions. By rendering the public
+      resources certain and commensurate to the public exigencies,
+      the constituted authorities will be able to prosecute the war
+      the more rapidly to its proper issue; every hostile hope
+      founded on a calculated failure of our resources will be cut
+      off, and by adding to the evidence of bravery and skill in
+      combats on the ocean and the land, and alacrity in supplying
+      the treasure necessary to give them their fullest effect, and
+      demonstrating to the world the public energy which our
+      political institutions combine, with the personal liberty
+      distinguishing them, the best security will be provided
+      against future enterprises on the rights or the peace of the
+      nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The contest in which the United States are engaged appeals
+      for its support to every motive that can animate an
+      uncorrupted and enlightened people&mdash;to the love of
+      country; to the pride of liberty; to an emulation of the
+      glorious founders of their independence by a successful
+      vindication of its violated attributes; to the gratitude and
+      sympathy which demand security from the most degrading wrongs
+      of a class of citizens who have proved themselves so worthy
+      the protection of their country by their heroic zeal in its
+      defense; and, finally, to the sacred obligation of
+      transmitting entire to future generations that precious
+      patrimony of national rights and independence which is held
+      in trust by the present from the goodness of Divine
+      Providence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Being aware of the inconveniences to which a protracted
+      session at this season would be liable, I limit the present
+      communication to objects of primary importance. In special
+      messages which may ensue regard will be had to the same
+      consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      MAY 29, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Swedish Government having repeatedly manifested a desire
+      to interchange a public minister with the United States, and
+      having lately appointed one with that view, and other
+      considerations concurring to render it advisable at this
+      period to make a correspondent appointment, I nominate
+      Jonathan Russell, of Rhode Island, to be minister
+      plenipotentiary of the United States to Sweden.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>July 6, 1813</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have received from the committee appointed by the
+      resolution of the Senate of the 14th day of June a copy of
+      that resolution, which authorizes the committee to confer
+      with the President on the subject of the nomination made by
+      him of a minister plenipotentiary to Sweden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Conceiving it to be my duty to decline the proposed
+      conference with the committee, and it being uncertain when it
+      may be convenient to explain to the committee, and through
+      them to the Senate, the grounds of my so doing, I think it
+      proper to address the explanation directly to the Senate.
+      Without entering into a general review of the relations in
+      which the Constitution has placed the several departments of
+      the Government to each other, it will suffice to remark that
+      the Executive and Senate, in the cases of appointments to
+      office and of treaties, are to be considered as independent
+      of and coordinate with each other. If they agree, the
+      appointments or treaties are made; if the Senate disagree,
+      they fail. If the Senate wish information previous to their
+      final decision, the practice, keeping in view the
+      constitutional relations of the Senate and the Executive, has
+      been either to request the Executive to furnish it or to
+      refer the subject to a committee of their body to
+      communicate, either formally or informally, with the head of
+      the proper department. The appointment of a committee of the
+      Senate to confer immediately with the Executive himself
+      appears to lose sight of the coordinate relation between the
+      Executive and the Senate which the Constitution has
+      established, and which ought therefore to be maintained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The relation between the Senate and House of Representatives,
+      in whom legislative power is concurrently vested, is
+      sufficiently analogous to illustrate that between the
+      Executive and Senate in making appointments and treaties. The
+      two Houses are in like manner independent of and coordinate
+      with each other, and the invariable practice of each in
+      appointing committees of conference and consultation is to
+      commission them to confer not with the coordinate body
+      itself, but with a committee of that body; and although both
+      branches of the Legislature may be too numerous to hold
+      conveniently a conference with committees, were they to be
+      appointed by either to confer with the entire body of the
+      other, it may be fairly presumed that if the whole number of
+      either branch were not too large for the purpose the
+      objection to such a conference, being against the principle
+      as derogating from the coordinate relations of the two
+      Houses, would retain all its force.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I add only that I am entirely persuaded of the purity of the
+      intentions of the Senate in the course they have pursued on
+      this occasion, and with which my view of the subject makes it
+      my duty not to accord, and that they will be cheerfully
+      furnished with all the suitable information in possession of
+      the Executive in any mode deemed consistent with the
+      principles of the Constitution and the settled practice under
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>July 20, 1813</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There being sufficient ground to infer that it is the purpose
+      of the enemy to combine with the blockade of our ports
+      special licenses to neutral vessels or to British vessels in
+      neutral disguises, whereby they may draw from our country the
+      precise kind and quantity of exports essential to their
+      wants, whilst its general commerce remains obstructed,
+      keeping in view also the insidious discrimination between the
+      different ports of the United States; and as such a system,
+      if not counteracted, will have the effect of diminishing very
+      materially the pressure of the war on the enemy, and
+      encouraging a perseverance in it, at the same time that it
+      will leave the general commerce of the United States under
+      all the pressure the enemy can impose, thus subjecting the
+      whole to British regulation in subserviency to British
+      monopoly, I recommend to the consideration of Congress the
+      expediency of an immediate and effectual prohibition of
+      exports limited to a convenient day in their next session,
+      and removable in the meantime in the event of a cessation of
+      the blockade of our ports.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PROCLAMATION.
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      [From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 4, p. 345.]
+    </center>
+    <h3>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Whereas the Congress of the United States, by a joint
+      resolution of the two Houses, have signified a request that a
+      day may be recommended to be observed by the people of the
+      United States with religious solemnity as a day of public
+      humiliation and prayer; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas in times of public calamity such as that of the war
+      brought on the United States by the injustice of a foreign
+      government it is especially becoming that the hearts of all
+      should be touched with the same and the eyes of all be turned
+      to that Almighty Power in whose hand are the welfare and the
+      destiny of nations:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I do therefore issue this my proclamation, recommending to
+      all who shall be piously disposed to unite their hearts and
+      voices in addressing at one and the same time their vows and
+      adorations to the Great Parent and Sovereign of the Universe
+      that they assemble on the second Thursday of September next
+      in their respective religious congregations to render Him
+      thanks for the many blessings He has bestowed on the people
+      of the United States; that He has blessed them with a land
+      capable of yielding all the necessaries and requisites of
+      human life, with ample means for convenient exchanges with
+      foreign countries; that He has blessed the labors employed in
+      its cultivation and improvement; that He is now blessing the
+      exertions to extend and establish the arts and manufactures
+      which will secure within ourselves supplies too important to
+      remain dependent on the precarious policy or the peaceable
+      dispositions of other nations, and particularly that He has
+      blessed the United States with a political Constitution
+      founded on the will and authority of the whole people and
+      guaranteeing to each individual security, not only of his
+      person and his property, but of those sacred rights of
+      conscience so essential to his present happiness and so dear
+      to his future hopes; that with those expressions of devout
+      thankfulness be joined supplications to the same Almighty
+      Power that He would look down with compassion on our
+      infirmities; that He would pardon our manifold transgressions
+      and awaken and strengthen in all the wholesome purposes of
+      repentance and amendment; that in this season of trial and
+      calamity He would preside in a particular manner over our
+      public councils and inspire all citizens with a love of their
+      country and with those fraternal affections and that mutual
+      confidence which have so happy a tendency to make us safe at
+      home and respected abroad; and that as He was graciously
+      pleased heretofore to smile on our struggles against the
+      attempts of the Government of the Empire of which these
+      States then made a part to wrest from them the rights and
+      privileges to which they were entitled in common with every
+      other part and to raise them to the station of an independent
+      and sovereign people, so He would now be pleased in like
+      manner to bestow His blessing on our arms in resisting the
+      hostile and persevering efforts of the same power to degrade
+      us on the ocean, the common inheritance of all, from rights
+      and immunities belonging and essential to the American people
+      as a coequal member of the great community of independent
+      nations; and that, inspiring our enemies with moderation,
+      with justice, and with that spirit of reasonable
+      accommodation which our country has continued to manifest, we
+      may be enabled to beat our swords into plowshares and to
+      enjoy in peace every man the fruits of his honest industry
+      and the rewards of his lawful enterprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the public homage of a people can ever be worthy the
+      favorable regard of the Holy and Omniscient Being to whom it
+      is addressed, it must be that in which those who join in it
+      are guided only by their free choice, by the impulse of their
+      hearts and the dictates of their consciences; and such a
+      spectacle must be interesting to all Christian nations as
+      proving that religion, that gift of Heaven for the good of
+      man, freed from all coercive edicts, from that unhallowed
+      connection with the powers of this world which corrupts
+      religion into an instrument or an usurper of the policy of
+      the state, and making no appeal but to reason, to the heart,
+      and to the conscience, can spread its benign influence
+      everywhere and can attract to the divine altar those freewill
+      offerings of humble supplication, thanksgiving, and praise
+      which alone can be acceptable to Him whom no hypocrisy can
+      deceive and no forced sacrifices propitiate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon these principles and with these views the good people of
+      the United States are invited, in conformity with the
+      resolution aforesaid, to dedicate the day above named to the
+      religious solemnities therein recommended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Given at Washington, this 23d day of July, A.D. 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      FIFTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 7, 1813</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of
+      Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In meeting you at the present interesting conjuncture it
+      would have been highly satisfactory if I could have
+      communicated a favorable result to the mission charged with
+      negotiations for restoring peace. It was a just expectation,
+      from the respect due to the distinguished Sovereign who had
+      invited them by his offer of mediation, from the readiness
+      with which the invitation was accepted on the part of the
+      United States, and from the pledge to be found in an act of
+      their Legislature for the liberality which their
+      plenipotentiaries would carry into the negotiations, that no
+      time would be lost by the British Government in embracing the
+      experiment for hastening a stop to the effusion of blood. A
+      prompt and cordial acceptance of the mediation on that side
+      was the less to be doubted, as it was of a nature not to
+      submit rights or pretensions on either side to the decision
+      of an umpire, but to afford merely an opportunity, honorable
+      and desirable to both, for discussing and, if possible,
+      adjusting them for the interest of both.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The British cabinet, either mistaking our desire of peace for
+      a dread of British power or misled by other fallacious
+      calculations, has disappointed this reasonable anticipation.
+      No communications from our envoys having reached us, no
+      information on the subject has been received from that
+      source; but it is known that the mediation was declined in
+      the first instance, and there is no evidence, notwithstanding
+      the lapse of time, that a change of disposition in the
+      British councils has taken place or is to be expected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under such circumstances a nation proud of its rights and
+      conscious of its strength has no choice but an exertion of
+      the one in support of the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To this determination the best encouragement is derived from
+      the success with which it has pleased the Almighty to bless
+      our arms both on the land and on the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst proofs have been continued of the enterprise and skill
+      of our cruisers, public and private, on the ocean, and a new
+      trophy gained in the capture of a British by an American
+      vessel of war, after an action giving celebrity to the name
+      of the victorious commander, the great inland waters on which
+      the enemy were also to be encountered have presented
+      achievements of our naval arms as brilliant in their
+      character as they have been important in their consequences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On Lake Erie, the squadron under command of Captain Perry
+      having met the British squadron of superior force, a
+      sanguinary conflict ended in the capture of the whole. The
+      conduct of that officer, adroit as it was daring, and which
+      was so well seconded by his comrades, justly entitles them to
+      the admiration and gratitude of their country, and will fill
+      an early page in its naval annals with a victory never
+      surpassed in luster, however much it may have been in
+      magnitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On Lake Ontario the caution of the British commander, favored
+      by contingencies, frustrated the efforts of the American
+      commander to bring on a decisive action. Captain Chauncey was
+      able, however, to establish an ascendency on that important
+      theater, and to prove by the manner in which he effected
+      everything possible that opportunities only were wanted for a
+      more shining display of his own talents and the gallantry of
+      those under his command.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The success on Lake Erie having opened a passage to the
+      territory of the enemy, the officer commanding the
+      Northwestern army transferred the war thither, and rapidly
+      pursuing the hostile troops, fleeing with their savage
+      associates, forced a general action, which quickly terminated
+      in the capture of the British and dispersion of the savage
+      force.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This result is signally honorable to Major General Harrison,
+      by whose military talents it was prepared; to Colonel Johnson
+      and his mounted volunteers, whose impetuous onset gave a
+      decisive blow to the ranks of the enemy, and to the spirit of
+      the volunteer militia, equally brave and patriotic, who bore
+      an interesting part in the scene; more especially to the
+      chief magistrate of Kentucky, at the head of them, whose
+      heroism signalized in the war which established the
+      independence of his country, sought at an advanced age a
+      share in hardships and battles for maintaining its rights and
+      its safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The effect of these successes has been to rescue the
+      inhabitants of Michigan from their oppressions, aggravated by
+      gross infractions of the capitulation which subjected them to
+      a foreign power; to alienate the savages of numerous tribes
+      from the enemy, by whom they were disappointed and abandoned,
+      and to relieve an extensive region of country from a
+      merciless warfare which desolated its frontiers and imposed
+      on its citizens the most harassing services.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In consequence of our naval superiority on Lake Ontario and
+      the opportunity afforded by it for concentrating our forces
+      by water, operations which had been provisionally planned
+      were set on foot against the possessions of the enemy on the
+      St. Lawrence. Such, however, was the delay produced in the
+      first instance by adverse weather of unusual violence and
+      continuance and such the circumstances attending the final
+      movements of the army, that the prospect, at one time so
+      favorable, was not realized.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cruelty of the enemy in enlisting the savages into a war
+      with a nation desirous of mutual emulation in mitigating its
+      calamities has not been confined to any one quarter. Wherever
+      they could be turned against us no exertions to effect it
+      have been spared. On our southwestern border the Creek
+      tribes, who, yielding to our persevering endeavors, were
+      gradually acquiring more civilized habits, became the
+      unfortunate victims of seduction. A war in that quarter has
+      been the consequence, infuriated by a bloody fanaticism
+      recently propagated among them. It was necessary to crush
+      such a war before it could spread among the contiguous tribes
+      and before it could favor enterprises of the enemy into that
+      vicinity. With this view a force was called into the service
+      of the United States from the States of Georgia and
+      Tennessee, which, with the nearest regular troops and other
+      corps from the Mississippi Territory, might not only chastise
+      the savages into present peace but make a lasting impression
+      on their fears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The progress of the expedition, as far as is yet known,
+      corresponds with the martial zeal with which it was espoused,
+      and the best hopes of a satisfactory issue are authorized by
+      the complete success with which a well-planned enterprise was
+      executed against a body of hostile savages by a detachment of
+      the volunteer militia of Tennessee, under the gallant command
+      of General Coffee, and by a still more important victory over
+      a larger body of them, gained under the immediate command of
+      Major General Jackson, an officer equally distinguished for
+      his patriotism and his military talents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The systematic perseverance of the enemy in courting the aid
+      of the savages in all quarters had the natural effect of
+      kindling their ordinary propensity to war into a passion,
+      which, even among those best disposed toward the United
+      States, was ready, if not employed on our side, to be turned
+      against us. A departure from our protracted forbearance to
+      accept the services tendered by them has thus been forced
+      upon us. But in yielding to it the retaliation has been
+      mitigated as much as possible, both in its extent and in its
+      character, stopping far short of the example of the enemy,
+      who owe the advantages they have occasionally gained in
+      battle chiefly to the number of their savage associates, and
+      who have not controlled them either from their usual practice
+      of indiscriminate massacre on defenseless inhabitants or from
+      scenes of carnage without a parallel on prisoners to the
+      British arms, guarded by all the laws of humanity and of
+      honorable war. For these enormities the enemy are equally
+      responsible, whether with the power to prevent them they want
+      the will or with the knowledge of a want of power they still
+      avail themselves of such instruments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In other respects the enemy are pursuing a course which
+      threatens consequences most afflicting to humanity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A standing law of Great Britain naturalizes, as is well
+      known, all aliens complying with conditions limited to a
+      shorter period than those required by the United States, and
+      naturalized subjects are in war employed by her Government in
+      common with native subjects. In a contiguous British Province
+      regulations promulgated since the commencement of the war
+      compel citizens of the United States being there under
+      certain circumstances to bear arms, whilst of the native
+      emigrants from the United States, who compose much of the
+      population of the Province, a number have actually borne arms
+      against the United States within their limits, some of whom,
+      after having done so, have become prisoners of war, and are
+      now in our possession. The British commander in that
+      Province, nevertheless, with the sanction, as appears, of his
+      Government, thought proper to select from American prisoners
+      of war and send to Great Britain for trial as criminals a
+      number of individuals who had emigrated from the British
+      dominions long prior to the state of war between the two
+      nations, who had incorporated themselves into our political
+      society in the modes recognized by the law and the practice
+      of Great Britain, and who were made prisoners of war under
+      the banners of their adopted country, fighting for its rights
+      and its safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The protection due to these citizens requiring an effectual
+      interposition in their behalf, a like number of British
+      prisoners of war were put into confinement, with a
+      notification that they would experience whatever violence
+      might be committed on the American prisoners of war sent to
+      Great Britain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was hoped that this necessary consequence of the step
+      unadvisedly taken on the part of Great Britain would have led
+      her Government to reflect on the inconsistencies of its
+      conduct, and that a sympathy with the British, if not with
+      the American, sufferers would have arrested the cruel career
+      opened by its example.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was unhappily not the case. In violation both of
+      consistency and of humanity, American officers and
+      noncommissioned officers in double the number of the British
+      soldiers confined here were ordered into close confinement,
+      with formal notice that in the event of a retaliation for the
+      death which might be inflicted on the prisoners of war sent
+      to Great Britain for trial the officers so confined would be
+      put to death also. It was notified at the same time that the
+      commanders of the British fleets and armies on our coasts are
+      instructed in the same event to proceed with a destructive
+      severity against our towns and their inhabitants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That no doubt might be left with the enemy of our adherence
+      to the retaliatory resort imposed on us, a correspondent
+      number of British officers, prisoners of war in our hands,
+      were immediately put into close confinement to abide the fate
+      of those confined by the enemy, and the British Government
+      has been apprised of the determination of this Government to
+      retaliate any other proceedings against us contrary to the
+      legitimate modes of warfare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is as fortunate for the United States that they have it in
+      their power to meet the enemy in this deplorable contest as
+      it is honorable to them that they do not join in it but under
+      the most imperious obligations, and with the humane purpose
+      of effectuating a return to the established usages of war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The views of the French Government on the subjects which have
+      been so long committed to negotiation have received no
+      elucidation since the close of your late session. The
+      minister plenipotentiary of the United States at Paris had
+      not been enabled by proper opportunities to press the objects
+      of his mission as prescribed by his instructions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The militia being always to be regarded as the great bulwark
+      of defense and security for free states, and the Constitution
+      having wisely committed to the national authority a use of
+      that force as the best provision against an unsafe military
+      establishment, as well as a resource peculiarly adapted to a
+      country having the extent and the exposure of the United
+      States, I recommend to Congress a revision of the militia
+      laws for the purpose of securing more effectually the
+      services of all detachments called into the employment and
+      placed under the Government of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will deserve the consideration of Congress also whether
+      among other improvements in the militia laws justice does not
+      require a regulation, under due precautions, for defraying
+      the expense incident to the first assembling as well as the
+      subsequent movements of detachments called into the national
+      service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To give to our vessels of war, public and private, the
+      requisite advantage in their cruises, it is of much
+      importance that they should have, both for themselves and
+      their prizes, the use of the ports and markets of friendly
+      powers. With this view, I recommend to Congress the
+      expediency of such legal provisions as may supply the defects
+      or remove the doubts of the Executive authority, to allow to
+      the cruisers of other powers at war with enemies of the
+      United States such use of the American ports as may
+      correspond with the privileges allowed by such powers to
+      American cruisers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the year ending on the 30th of September last the
+      receipts into the Treasury have exceeded $37,500,000, of
+      which near twenty-four millions were the produce of loans.
+      After meeting all demands for the public service there
+      remained in the Treasury on that day near $7,000,000. Under
+      the authority contained in the act of the 2d of August last
+      for borrowing $7,500,000, that sum has been obtained on terms
+      more favorable to the United States than those of the
+      preceding loan made during the present year. Further sums to
+      a considerable amount will be necessary to be obtained in the
+      same way during the ensuing year, and from the increased
+      capital of the country, from the fidelity with which the
+      public engagements have been kept and the public credit
+      maintained, it may be expected on good grounds that the
+      necessary pecuniary supplies will not be wanting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The expenses of the current year, from the multiplied
+      operations falling within it, have necessarily been
+      extensive; but on a just estimate of the campaign in which
+      the mass of them has been incurred the cost will not be found
+      disproportionate to the advantages which have been gained.
+      The campaign has, indeed, in its latter stages in one quarter
+      been less favorable than was expected, but in addition to the
+      importance of our naval success the progress of the campaign
+      has been filled with incidents highly honorable to the
+      American arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The attacks of the enemy on Craney Island, on Fort Meigs, on
+      Sacketts Harbor, and on Sandusky have been vigorously and
+      successfully repulsed; nor have they in any case succeeded on
+      either frontier excepting when directed against the peaceable
+      dwellings of individuals or villages unprepared or
+      undefended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the other hand, the movements of the American Army have
+      been followed by the reduction of York, and of Forts George,
+      Erie, and Maiden; by the recovery of Detroit and the
+      extinction of the Indian war in the West, and by the
+      occupancy or command of a large portion of Upper Canada.
+      Battles have also been fought on the borders of the St.
+      Lawrence, which, though not accomplishing their entire
+      objects, reflect honor on the discipline and prowess of our
+      soldiery, the best auguries of eventual victory. In the same
+      scale are to be placed the late successes in the South over
+      one of the most powerful, which had become one of the most
+      hostile also, of the Indian tribes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would be improper to close this communication without
+      expressing a thankfulness in which all ought to unite for the
+      numerous blessings with which our beloved country continues
+      to be favored; for the abundance which overspreads our land,
+      and the prevailing health of its inhabitants; for the
+      preservation of our internal tranquillity, and the stability
+      of our free institutions, and, above all, for the light of
+      divine truth and the protection of every man's conscience in
+      the enjoyment of it. And although among our blessings we can
+      not number an exemption from the evils of war, yet these will
+      never be regarded as the greatest of evils by the friends of
+      liberty and of the rights of nations. Our country has before
+      preferred them to the degraded condition which was the
+      alternative when the sword was drawn in the cause which gave
+      birth to our national independence, and none who contemplate
+      the magnitude and feel the value of that glorious event will
+      shrink from a struggle to maintain the high and happy ground
+      on which it placed the American people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With all good citizens the justice and necessity of resisting
+      wrongs and usurpations no longer to be borne will
+      sufficiently outweigh the privations and sacrifices
+      inseparable from a state of war. But it is a reflection,
+      moreover, peculiarly consoling, that, whilst wars are
+      generally aggravated by their baneful effects on the internal
+      improvements and permanent prosperity of the nations engaged
+      in them, such is the favored situation of the United States
+      that the calamities of the contest into which they have been
+      compelled to enter are mitigated by improvements and
+      advantages of which the contest itself is the source.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the war has increased the interruptions of our commerce,
+      it has at the same time cherished and multiplied our
+      manufactures so as to make us independent of all other
+      countries for the more essential branches for which we ought
+      to be dependent on none, and is even rapidly giving them an
+      extent which will create additional staples in our future
+      intercourse with foreign markets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If much treasure has been expended, no inconsiderable portion
+      of it has been applied to objects durable in their value and
+      necessary to our permanent safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the war has exposed us to increased spoliations on the
+      ocean and to predatory incursions on the land, it has
+      developed the national means of retaliating the former and of
+      providing protection against the latter, demonstrating to all
+      that every blow aimed at our maritime independence is an
+      impulse accelerating the growth of our maritime power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By diffusing through the mass of the nation the elements of
+      military discipline and instruction; by augmenting and
+      distributing warlike preparations applicable to future use;
+      by evincing the zeal and valor with which they will be
+      employed and the cheerfulness with which every necessary
+      burden will be borne, a greater respect for our rights and a
+      longer duration of our future peace are promised than could
+      be expected without these proofs of the national character
+      and resources.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The war has proved moreover that our free Government, like
+      other free governments, though slow in its early movements,
+      acquires in its progress a force proportioned to its freedom,
+      and that the union of these States, the guardian of the
+      freedom and safety of all and of each, is strengthened by
+      every occasion that puts it to the test.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In fine, the war, with all its vicissitudes, is illustrating
+      the capacity and the destiny of the United States to be a
+      great, a flourishing, and a powerful nation, worthy of the
+      friendship which it is disposed to cultivate with all others,
+      and authorized by its own example to require from all an
+      observance of the laws of justice and reciprocity. Beyond
+      these their claims have never extended, and in contending for
+      these we behold a subject for our congratulations in the
+      daily testimonies of increasing harmony throughout the
+      nation, and may humbly repose our trust in the smiles of
+      Heaven on so righteous a cause.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 9, 1813.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tendency of our commercial and navigation laws in their
+      present state to favor the enemy and thereby prolong the war
+      is more and more developed by experience. Supplies of the
+      most essential kinds And their way not only to British ports
+      and British armies at a distance, but the armies in our
+      neighborhood with which our own are contending derive from
+      our ports and outlets a subsistence attainable with
+      difficulty, if at all, from other sources. Even the fleets
+      and troops infesting our coasts and waters are by like
+      supplies accommodated and encouraged in their predatory and
+      incursive warfare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Abuses having a like tendency take place in our import trade.
+      British fabrics and products find their way into our ports
+      under the name and from the ports of other countries, and
+      often in British vessels disguised as neutrals by false
+      colors and papers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To these abuses it may be added that illegal importations are
+      openly made with advantage to the violators of the law,
+      produced by undervaluations or other circumstances involved
+      in the course of the judicial proceedings against them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is found also that the practice of ransoming is a cover
+      for collusive captures and a channel for intelligence
+      advantageous to the enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To remedy as much as possible these evils, I recommend:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That an effectual embargo on exports be immediately enacted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That all articles known to be derived, either not at all or
+      in any immaterial degree only, from the productions of any
+      other country than Great Britain, and particularly the
+      extensive articles made of wool and cotton materials, and
+      ardent spirits made from the cane, be expressly and
+      absolutely prohibited, from whatever port or place or in
+      whatever vessels the same may be brought into the United
+      States, and that all violations of the nonimportation act be
+      subjected to adequate penalties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That among the proofs of the neutral and national character
+      of foreign vessels it be required that the masters and
+      supercargoes and three-fourths at least of the crews be
+      citizens or subjects of the country under whose flag the
+      vessels sail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That all persons concerned in collusive captures by the enemy
+      or in ransoming vessels or their cargoes from the enemy be
+      subjected to adequate penalties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To shorten as much as possible the duration of the war it is
+      indispensable that the enemy should feel all the pressure
+      that can be given to it, and the restraints having that
+      tendency will be borne with the greater cheerfulness by all
+      good citizens, as the restraints will affect those most who
+      are most ready to sacrifice the interest of their country in
+      pursuit of their own.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 6, 1814.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit, for the information of Congress, copies of a
+      letter from the British secretary of state for foreign
+      affairs to the Secretary of State, with the answer of the
+      latter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In appreciating the accepted proposal of the Government of
+      Great Britain for instituting negotiations for peace Congress
+      will not fail to keep in mind that vigorous preparations for
+      carrying on the war can in no respect impede the progress to
+      a favorable result, whilst a relaxation of such preparations,
+      should the wishes of the United States for a speedy
+      restoration of the blessings of peace be disappointed, would
+      necessarily have the most injurious consequences.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 26, 1814.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has appeared that at the recovery of the Michigan
+      Territory from the temporary possession of the enemy the
+      inhabitants thereof were left in so destitute and distressed
+      a condition as to require from the public stores certain
+      supplies essential to their subsistence, which have been
+      prolonged under the same necessity which called for them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The deplorable situation of the savages thrown by the same
+      event on the mercy and humanity of the American commander at
+      Detroit drew from the same source the means of saving them
+      from perishing by famine, and in other places the appeals
+      made by the wants and sufferings of that unhappy description
+      of people have been equally imperious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The necessity imposed by the conduct of the enemy in relation
+      to the savages of admitting their cooperation in some
+      instances with our arms has also involved occasional expense
+      in supplying their wants, and it is possible that a
+      perseverance of the enemy in their cruel policy may render a
+      further expense for the like purpose inevitable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On these subjects an estimate from the Department of War will
+      be laid before Congress, and I recommend a suitable provision
+      for them.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MARCH 31, 1814.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Taking into view the mutual interests which the United States
+      and the foreign nations in amity with them have in a liberal
+      commercial intercourse, and the extensive changes favorable
+      thereto which have recently taken place; taking into view
+      also the important advantages which may otherwise result from
+      adapting the state of our commercial laws to the
+      circumstances now existing, I recommend to the consideration
+      of Congress the expediency of authorizing, after a certain
+      day, exportations, specie excepted, from the United States in
+      vessels of the United States and in vessels owned and
+      navigated by the subjects of powers at peace with them, and a
+      repeal of so much of our laws as prohibits the importation of
+      articles not the property of enemies, but produced or
+      manufactured only within their dominions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I recommend also, as a more effectual safeguard and
+      encouragement to our growing manufactures, that the
+      additional duties on imports which are to expire at the end
+      of one year after a peace with Great Britain be prolonged to
+      the end of two years after that event, and that, in favor of
+      our moneyed institutions, the exportation of specie be
+      prohibited throughout the same period.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PROCLAMATIONS.
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      [From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 6, p. 279.]
+    </center>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Whereas information has been received that a number of
+      individuals who have deserted from the Army of the United
+      States have become sensible of their offenses and are
+      desirous of returning to their duty, a full pardon is hereby
+      granted and proclaimed to each and all such individuals as
+      shall within three months from the date hereof surrender
+      themselves to the commanding officer of any military post
+      within the United States or the Territories thereof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United
+      States to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same
+      with my hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Done at the city of Washington, the 17th day of June, A.D.
+      1814, and of the Independence of the United States the thirty
+      eighth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       By the President:<br>
+       JAMES MONROE,<br>
+       <i>Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Whereas it is manifest that the blockade which has been
+      proclaimed by the enemy of the whole Atlantic coast of the
+      United States, nearly 2,000 miles in extent, and abounding in
+      ports, harbors, and navigable inlets, can not be carried into
+      effect by any adequate force actually stationed for the
+      purpose, and it is rendered a matter of certainty and
+      notoriety by the multiplied and daily arrivals and departures
+      of the public and private armed vessels of the United States
+      and of other vessels that no such adequate force has been so
+      stationed; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas a blockade thus destitute of the character of a
+      regular and legal blockade as defined and recognized by the
+      established law of nations, whatever other purposes it may be
+      made to answer, forms no lawful prohibition or obstacle to
+      such neutral and friendly vessels as may choose to visit and
+      trade with the United States; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas it accords with the interest and the amicable views
+      of the United States to favor and promote as far as may be
+      the free and mutually beneficial commercial intercourse of
+      all friendly nations disposed to engage therein, and with
+      that view to afford to their vessels destined to the United
+      States a more positive and satisfactory security against all
+      interruptions, molestations, or vexations whatever from the
+      cruisers of the United States:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now be it known that I, James Madison, President of the
+      United States of America, do by this my proclamation strictly
+      order and instruct all the public armed vessels of the United
+      States and all private armed vessels commissioned as
+      privateers or with letters of marque and reprisal not to
+      interrupt, detain, or otherwise molest or vex any vessels
+      whatever belonging to neutral powers or the subjects or
+      citizens thereof, which vessels shall be actually bound and
+      proceeding to any port or place within the jurisdiction of
+      the United States, but, on the contrary, to render to all
+      such vessels all the aid and kind offices which they may need
+      or require.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Given under my hand and the seal of the United States at the
+      city of Washington, the 29th day of June, A.D. 1814, and of
+      the Independence of the United States the thirty-eighth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       By the President:<br>
+       JAMES MONROE,<br>
+       <i>Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [From Annals of Congress, Thirteenth Congress, vol. 3, 9.]
+    </center>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Whereas great and weighty matters claiming the consideration
+      of the Congress of the United States form an extraordinary
+      occasion for convening them, I do by these presents appoint
+      Monday, the 19th day of September next, for their meeting at
+      the city of Washington, hereby requiring the respective
+      Senators and Representatives then and there to assemble in
+      Congress, in order to receive such communications as may then
+      be made to them and to consult and determine on such measures
+      as in their wisdom may be deemed meet for the welfare of the
+      United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United
+      States to be hereunto affixed, and signed the same with my
+      hand,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Done at the city of Washington, the 8th day of August, A.D.
+      1814, and of the Independence of the United States the
+      thirty-ninth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       By the President:<br>
+       JAMES MONROE,<br>
+       <i>Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [From Nile's Weekly Register, vol. 7, p. 2.]
+    </center>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Whereas the enemy by a sudden incursion have succeeded in
+      invading the capital of the nation, defended at the moment by
+      troops less numerous than their own and almost entirely of
+      the militia, during their possession of which, though for a
+      single day only, they wantonly destroyed the public edifices,
+      having no relation in their structure to operations of war
+      nor used at the time for military annoyance, some of these
+      edifices being also costly monuments of taste and of the
+      arts, and others depositories of the public archives, not
+      only precious to the nation as the memorials of its origin
+      and its early transactions, but interesting to all nations as
+      contributions to the general stock of historical instruction
+      and political science; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas advantage has been taken of the loss of a fort more
+      immediately guarding the neighboring town of Alexandria to
+      place the town within the range of a naval force too long and
+      too much in the habit of abusing its superiority wherever it
+      can be applied to require as the alternative of a general
+      conflagration an undisturbed plunder of private property,
+      which has been executed in a manner peculiarly distressing to
+      the inhabitants, who had inconsiderately cast themselves upon
+      the justice and generosity of the victor; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas it now appears by a direct communication from the
+      British commander on the American station to be his avowed
+      purpose to employ the force under his direction "in
+      destroying and laying waste such towns and districts upon the
+      coast as may be found assailable," adding to this declaration
+      the insulting pretext that it is in retaliation for a wanton
+      destruction committed by the army of the United States in
+      Upper Canada, when it is notorious that no destruction has
+      been committed, which, notwithstanding the multiplied
+      outrages previously committed by the enemy was not
+      unauthorized, and promptly shown to be so, and that the
+      United States have been as constant in their endeavors to
+      reclaim the enemy from such outrages by the contrast of their
+      own example as they have been ready to terminate on
+      reasonable conditions the war itself; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas these proceedings and declared purposes, which
+      exhibit a deliberate disregard of the principles of humanity
+      and the rules of civilized warfare, and which must give to
+      the existing war a character of extended devastation and
+      barbarism at the very moment of negotiations for peace,
+      invited by the enemy himself, leave no prospect of safety to
+      anything within the reach of his predatory and incendiary
+      operations but in manful and universal determination to
+      chastise and expel the invader:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United
+      States, do issue this my proclamation, exhorting all the good
+      people thereof to unite their hearts and hands in giving
+      effect to the ample means possessed for that purpose. I
+      enjoin it on all officers, civil and military, to exert
+      themselves in executing the duties with which they are
+      respectively charged; and more especially I require the
+      officers commanding the respective military districts to be
+      vigilant and alert in providing for the defense thereof, for
+      the more effectual accomplishment of which they are
+      authorized to call to the defense of exposed and threatened
+      places portions of the militia most convenient thereto,
+      whether they be or be not parts of the quotas detached for
+      the service of the United States under requisitions of the
+      General Government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On an occasion which appeals so forcibly to the proud
+      feelings and patriotic devotion of the American people none
+      will forget what they owe to themselves, what they owe to
+      their country and the high destinies which await it, what to
+      the glory acquired by their fathers in establishing the
+      independence which is now to be maintained by their sons with
+      the augmented strength and resources with which time and
+      Heaven had blessed them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused
+      the seal of the United States to be affixed to these
+      presents. Done at the city of Washington, the 1st day of
+      September, A.D. 1814 and of the Independence of the United
+      States the thirty-ninth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       By the President:<br>
+       JAMES MONROE,<br>
+       <i>Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>September 17, 1814</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SIR: The destruction of the Capitol by the enemy having made
+      it necessary that other accommodations should be provided for
+      the meeting of Congress, chambers for the Senate and for the
+      House of Representatives, with other requisite apartments,
+      have been fitted up, under the direction of the
+      superintendent of the city, in the public building heretofore
+      allotted for the post and other public offices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this information, be pleased, sir, to accept assurances
+      of my great respect and consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SIXTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>September 20, 1814</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of
+      Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding the early day which had been fixed for your
+      session of the present year, I was induced to call you
+      together still sooner, as well that any inadequacy in the
+      existing provisions for the wants of the Treasury might be
+      supplied as that no delay might happen in providing for the
+      result of the negotiations on foot with Great Britain,
+      whether it should require arrangements adapted to a return of
+      peace or further and more effective provisions for
+      prosecuting the war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That result is not yet known. If, on the one hand, the repeal
+      of the orders in council and the general pacification in
+      Europe, which withdrew the occasion on which impressments
+      from American vessels were practiced, suggest expectations
+      that peace and amity may be reestablished, we are compelled,
+      on the other hand, by the refusal of the British Government
+      to accept the offered mediation of the Emperor of Russia, by
+      the delays in giving effect to its own proposal of a direct
+      negotiation, and, above all, by the principles and manner in
+      which the war is now avowedly carried on to infer that a
+      spirit of hostility is indulged more violent than ever
+      against the rights and prosperity of this country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This increased violence is best explained by the two
+      important circumstances that the great contest in Europe for
+      an equilibrium guaranteeing all its States against the
+      ambition of any has been closed without any check on the
+      overbearing power of Great Britain on the ocean, and it has
+      left in her hands disposable armaments, with which,
+      forgetting the difficulties of a remote war with a free
+      people, and yielding to the intoxication of success, with the
+      example of a great victim to it before her eyes, she
+      cherishes hopes of still further aggrandizing a power already
+      formidable in its abuses to the tranquillity of the civilized
+      and commercial world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But whatever may have inspired the enemy with these more
+      violent purposes, the public councils of a nation more able
+      to maintain than it was to acquire its independence, and with
+      a devotion to it rendered more ardent by the experience of
+      its blessings, can never deliberate but on the means most
+      effectual for defeating the extravagant views or
+      unwarrantable passions with which alone the war can now be
+      pursued against us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the events of the present campaign the enemy, with all his
+      augmented means and wanton use of them, has little ground for
+      exultation, unless he can feel it in the success of his
+      recent enterprises against this metropolis and the
+      neighboring town of Alexandria, from both of which his
+      retreats were as precipitate as his attempts were bold and
+      fortunate. In his other incursions on our Atlantic frontier
+      his progress, often checked and chastised by the martial
+      spirit of the neighboring citizens, has had more effect in
+      distressing individuals and in dishonoring his arms than in
+      promoting any object of legitimate warfare; and in the two
+      instances mentioned, however deeply to be regretted on our
+      part, he will find in his transient success, which
+      interrupted for a moment only the ordinary public business at
+      the seat of Government, no compensation for the loss of
+      character with the world by his violations of private
+      property and by his destruction of public edifices protected
+      as monuments of the arts by the laws of civilized warfare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On our side we can appeal to a series of achievements which
+      have given new luster to the American arms. Besides the
+      brilliant incidents in the minor operations of the campaign,
+      the splendid victories gained on the Canadian side of the
+      Niagara by the American forces under Major-General Brown and
+      Brigadiers Scott and Gaines have gained for these heroes and
+      their emulating companions the most unfading laurels, and,
+      having triumphantly tested the progressive discipline of the
+      American soldiery, have taught the enemy that the longer he
+      protracts his hostile efforts the more certain and decisive
+      will be his final discomfiture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On our southern border victory has continued also to follow
+      the American standard. The bold and skillful operations of
+      Major-General Jackson, conducting troops drawn from the
+      militia of the States least distant, particularly of
+      Tennessee, have subdued the principal tribes of hostile
+      savages, and, by establishing a peace with them, preceded by
+      recent and exemplary chastisement, has best guarded against
+      the mischief of their cooperation with the British
+      enterprises which may be planned against that quarter of our
+      country. Important tribes of Indians on our northwestern
+      frontier have also acceded to stipulations which bind them to
+      the interests of the United States and to consider our enemy
+      as theirs also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the recent attempt of the enemy on the city of Baltimore,
+      defended by militia and volunteers, aided by a small body of
+      regulars and seamen, he was received with a spirit which
+      produced a rapid retreat to his ships, whilst a concurrent
+      attack by a large fleet was successfully resisted by the
+      steady and well-directed fire of the fort and batteries
+      opposed to it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In another recent attack by a powerful force on our troops at
+      Plattsburg, of which regulars made a part only, the enemy,
+      after a perseverance for many hours, was finally compelled to
+      seek safety in a hasty retreat, with our gallant bands
+      pressing upon him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the Lakes, so much contested throughout the war, the great
+      exertions for the command made on our part have been well
+      repaid. On Lake Ontario our squadron is now and has been for
+      some time in a condition to confine that of the enemy to his
+      own port, and to favor the operations of our land forces on
+      that frontier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A part of the squadron on Lake Erie has been extended into
+      Lake Huron, and has produced the advantage of displaying our
+      command on that lake also. One object of the expedition was
+      the reduction of Mackinaw, which failed with the loss of a
+      few brave men, among whom was an officer justly distinguished
+      for his gallant exploits. The expedition, ably conducted by
+      both the land and the naval commanders, was otherwise highly
+      valuable in its effects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On Lake Champlain, where our superiority had for some time
+      been undisputed, the British squadron lately came into action
+      with the American, commanded by Captain Macdonough. It issued
+      in the capture of the whole of the enemy's ships. The best
+      praise for this officer and his intrepid comrades is in the
+      likeness of his triumph to the illustrious victory which
+      immortalized another officer and established at a critical
+      moment our command of another lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the ocean the pride of our naval arms had been amply
+      supported. A second frigate has indeed fallen into the hands
+      of the enemy, but the loss is hidden in the blaze of heroism
+      with which she was defended. Captain Porter, who commanded
+      her, and whose previous career had been distinguished by
+      daring enterprise and by fertility of genius, maintained a
+      sanguinary contest against two ships, one of them superior to
+      his own, and under other severe disadvantages, till humanity
+      tore down the colors which valor had nailed to the mast. This
+      officer and his brave comrades have added much to the rising
+      glory of the American flag, and have merited all the
+      effusions of gratitude which their country is ever ready to
+      bestow on the champions of its rights and of its safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two smaller vessels of war have also become prizes to the
+      enemy, but by a superiority of force which sufficiently
+      vindicates the reputation of their commanders, whilst two
+      others, one commanded by Captain Warrington, the other by
+      Captain Blakely, have captured British ships of the same
+      class with a gallantry and good conduct which entitle them
+      and their companions to a just share in the praise of their
+      country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In spite of the naval force of the enemy accumulated on our
+      coasts, our private cruisers also have not ceased to annoy
+      his commerce and to bring their rich prizes into our ports,
+      contributing thus, with other proofs, to demonstrate the
+      incompetency and illegality of a blockade the proclamation of
+      which is made the pretext for vexing and discouraging the
+      commerce of neutral powers with the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To meet the extended and diversified warfare adopted by the
+      enemy, great bodies of militia have been taken into service
+      for the public defense, and great expenses incurred. That the
+      defense everywhere may be both more convenient and more
+      economical, Congress will see the necessity of immediate
+      measures for filling the ranks of the Regular Army and of
+      enlarging the provision for special corps, mounted and
+      unmounted, to be engaged for longer periods of service than
+      are due from the militia. I earnestly renew, at the same
+      time, a recommendation of such changes in the system of the
+      militia as, by classing and disciplining for the most prompt
+      and active service the portions most capable of it, will give
+      to that great resource for the public safety all the
+      requisite energy and efficiency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moneys received into the Treasury during the nine months
+      ending on the 30th day of June last amounted to $32,000,000,
+      of which near eleven millions were the proceeds of the public
+      revenue and the remainder derived from loans. The
+      disbursements for public expenditures during the same period
+      exceeded $34,000,000, and left in the Treasury on the 1st day
+      of July near $5,000,000. The demands during the remainder of
+      the present year already authorized by Congress and the
+      expenses incident to an extension of the operations of the
+      war will render it necessary that large sums should be
+      provided to meet them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this view of the national affairs Congress will be urged
+      to take up without delay as well the subject of pecuniary
+      supplies as that of military force, and on a scale
+      commensurate with the extent and the character which the war
+      has assumed. It is not to be disguised that the situation of
+      our country calls for its greatest efforts. Our enemy is
+      powerful in men and in money, on the land and on the water.
+      Availing himself of fortuitous advantages, he is aiming with
+      his undivided force a deadly blow at our growing prosperity,
+      perhaps at our national existence. He has avowed his purpose
+      of trampling on the usages of civilized warfare, and given
+      earnests of it in the plunder and wanton destruction of
+      private property. In his pride of maritime dominion and in
+      his thirst of commercial monopoly he strikes with peculiar
+      animosity at the progress of our navigation and of our
+      manufactures. His barbarous policy has not even spared those
+      monuments of the arts and models of taste with which our
+      country had enriched and embellished its infant metropolis.
+      From such an adversary hostility in its greatest force and in
+      its worst forms may be looked for. The American people will
+      face it with the undaunted spirit which in their
+      revolutionary struggle defeated his unrighteous projects. His
+      threats and his barbarities, instead of dismay, will kindle
+      in every bosom an indignation not to be extinguished but in
+      the disaster and expulsion of such cruel invaders. In
+      providing the means necessary the National Legislature will
+      not distrust the heroic and enlightened patriotism of its
+      constituents. They will cheerfully and proudly bear every
+      burden of every kind which the safety and honor of the nation
+      demand. We have seen them everywhere paying their taxes,
+      direct and indirect, with the greatest promptness and
+      alacrity. We see them rushing with enthusiasm to the scenes
+      where danger and duty call. In offering their blood they give
+      the surest pledge that no other tribute will be withheld.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having forborne to declare war until to other aggressions had
+      been added the capture of nearly a thousand American vessels
+      and the impressment of thousands of American seafaring
+      citizens, and until a final declaration had been made by the
+      Government of Great Britain that her hostile orders against
+      our commerce would not be revoked but on conditions as
+      impossible as unjust, whilst it was known that these orders
+      would not otherwise cease but with a war which had lasted
+      nearly twenty years, and which, according to appearances at
+      that time, might last as many more; having manifested on
+      every occasion and in every proper mode a sincere desire to
+      arrest the effusion of blood and meet our enemy on the ground
+      of justice and reconciliation, our beloved country, in still
+      opposing to his persevering hostility all its energies, with
+      an undiminished disposition toward peace and friendship on
+      honorable terms, must carry with it the good wishes of the
+      impartial world and the best hopes of support from an
+      omnipotent and kind Providence.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      SEPTEMBER 26, 1814.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to Congress, for their information, copies of a
+      letter from Admiral Cochrane, commanding His Britannic
+      Majesty's naval forces on the American station, to the
+      Secretary of State, with his answer, and of a reply from
+      Admiral Cochrane.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>October 10, 1814</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before Congress communications just received from the
+      plenipotentiaries of the United States charged with
+      negotiating peace with Great Britain, showing the conditions
+      on which alone that Government is willing to put an end to
+      the war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The instructions to those plenipotentiaries, disclosing the
+      grounds on which they were authorized to negotiate and
+      conclude a treaty of peace, will be the subject of another
+      communication.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>October 13, 1814</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I now transmit to Congress copies of the instructions to the
+      plenipotentiaries of the United States charged with
+      negotiating a peace with Great Britain, as referred to in my
+      message of the 10th instant.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 1, 1814.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit, for the information of Congress, the
+      communications last received from the ministers extraordinary
+      and plenipotentiary of the United States at Ghent, explaining
+      the course and actual state of their negotiations with the
+      plenipotentiaries of Great Britain.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 15, 1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have received from the American commissioners a treaty of
+      peace and amity between His Britannic Majesty and the United
+      States of America, signed by those commissioners and by the
+      commissioners of His Britannic Majesty at Ghent on the 24th
+      of December, 1814. The termination of hostilities depends
+      upon the time of the ratification of the treaty by both
+      parties. I lose no time, therefore, in submitting the treaty
+      to the Senate for their advice and approbation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit also a letter from the American commissioners,
+      which accompanied the treaty.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 18, 1815</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before Congress copies of the treaty of peace and amity
+      between the United States and His Britannic Majesty, which
+      was signed by the commissioners of both parties at Ghent on
+      the 24th of December, 1814, and the ratifications of which
+      have been duly exchanged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While performing this act I congratulate you and our
+      constituents upon an event which is highly honorable to the
+      nation, and terminates with peculiar felicity a campaign
+      signalized by the most brilliant successes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The late war, although reluctantly declared by Congress, had
+      become a necessary resort to assert the rights and
+      independence of the nation. It has been waged with a success
+      which is the natural result of the wisdom of the legislative
+      councils, of the patriotism of the people, of the public
+      spirit of the militia, and of the valor of the military and
+      naval forces of the country. Peace, at all times a blessing,
+      is peculiarly welcome, therefore, at a period when the causes
+      for the war have ceased to operate, when the Government has
+      demonstrated the efficiency of its powers of defense, and
+      when the nation can review its conduct without regret and
+      without reproach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I recommend to your care and beneficence the gallant men
+      whose achievements in every department of the military
+      service, on the land and on the water, have so essentially
+      contributed to the honor of the American name and to the
+      restoration of peace. The feelings of conscious patriotism
+      and worth will animate such men under every change of fortune
+      and pursuit, but their country performs a duty to itself when
+      it bestows those testimonials of approbation and applause
+      which are at once the reward and the incentive to great
+      actions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reduction of the public expenditures to the demands of a
+      peace establishment will doubtless engage the immediate
+      attention of Congress. There are, however, important
+      considerations which forbid a sudden and general revocation
+      of the measures that have been produced by the war.
+      Experience has taught us that neither the pacific
+      dispositions of the American people nor the pacific character
+      of their political institutions can altogether exempt them
+      from that strife which appears beyond the ordinary lot of
+      nations to be incident to the actual period of the world, and
+      the same faithful monitor demonstrates that a certain degree
+      of preparation for war is not only indispensable to avert
+      disasters in the onset, but affords also the best security
+      for the continuance of peace. The wisdom of Congress will
+      therefore, I am confident, provide for the maintenance of an
+      adequate regular force; for the gradual advancement of the
+      naval establishment; for improving all the means of harbor
+      defense; for adding discipline to the distinguished bravery
+      of the militia, and for cultivating the military art in its
+      essential branches, under the liberal patronage of
+      Government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The resources of our country were at all times competent to
+      the attainment of every national object, but they will now be
+      enriched and invigorated by the activity which peace will
+      introduce into all the scenes of domestic enterprise and
+      labor. The provision that has been made for the public
+      creditors during the present session of Congress must have a
+      decisive effect in the establishment of the public credit
+      both at home and abroad. The reviving interests of commerce
+      will claim the legislative attention at the earliest
+      opportunity, and such regulations will, I trust, be
+      seasonably devised as shall secure to the United States their
+      just proportion of the navigation of the world. The most
+      liberal policy toward other nations, if met by corresponding
+      dispositions, will in this respect be found the most
+      beneficial policy toward ourselves. But there is no subject
+      that can enter with greater force and merit into the
+      deliberations of Congress than a consideration of the means
+      to preserve and promote the manufactures which have sprung
+      into existence and attained an unparalleled maturity
+      throughout the United States during the period of the
+      European wars. This source of national independence and
+      wealth I anxiously recommend, therefore, to the prompt and
+      constant guardianship of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The termination of the legislative sessions will soon
+      separate you, fellow citizens, from each other, and restore
+      you to your constituents. I pray you to bear with you the
+      expressions of my sanguine hope that the peace which has been
+      just declared will not only be the foundation of the most
+      friendly intercourse between the United States and Great
+      Britain, but that it will also be productive of happiness and
+      harmony in every section of our beloved country. The
+      influence of your precepts and example must be everywhere
+      powerful, and while we accord in grateful acknowledgments for
+      the protection which Providence has bestowed upon us, let us
+      never cease to inculcate obedience to the laws and fidelity
+      to the Union as constituting the palladium of the national
+      independence and prosperity.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 22, 1815</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before Congress copies of two ratified treaties which
+      were entered into on the part of the United States, one on
+      the 22d day of July, 1814, with the several tribes of Indians
+      called the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanees, Senakas, and
+      Miamies; the other on the 9th day of August, 1814, with the
+      Creek Nation of Indians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is referred to the consideration of Congress how far
+      legislative provisions may be necessary for carrying any part
+      of these stipulations into effect.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 23, 1815</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Congress will have seen by the communication from the
+      consul-general of the United States at Algiers laid before
+      them on the 17th of November, 1812, the hostile proceedings
+      of the Dey against that functionary. These have been followed
+      by acts of more overt and direct warfare against the citizens
+      of the United States trading in the Mediterranean, some of
+      whom are still detained in captivity, notwithstanding the
+      attempts which have been made to ransom them, and are treated
+      with the rigor usual on the coast of Barbary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The considerations which rendered it unnecessary and
+      unimportant to commence hostile operations on the part of the
+      United States being now terminated by the peace with Great
+      Britain, which opens the prospect of an active and valuable
+      trade of their citizens within the range of the Algerine
+      cruisers, I recommend to Congress the expediency of an act
+      declaring the existence of a state of war between the United
+      States and the Dey and Regency of Algiers, and of such
+      provisions as may be requisite for a vigorous prosecution of
+      it to a successful issue.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 25, 1815</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peace having happily taken place between the United States
+      and Great Britain, it is desirable to guard against incidents
+      which during periods of war in Europe might tend to interrupt
+      it, and it is believed in particular that the navigation of
+      American vessels exclusively by American seamen, either
+      natives or such as are already naturalized, would not only
+      conduce to the attainment of that object, but also to
+      increase the number of our seamen, and consequently to render
+      our commerce and navigation independent of the service of
+      foreigners who might be recalled by their governments under
+      circumstances the most inconvenient to the United States. I
+      recommend the subject, therefore, to the consideration of
+      Congress, and in deciding upon it I am persuaded that they
+      will sufficiently estimate the policy of manifesting to the
+      world a desire on all occasions to cultivate harmony with
+      other nations by any reasonable accommodations which do not
+      impair the enjoyment of any of the essential rights of a free
+      and independent people. The example on the part of the
+      American Government will merit and may be expected to receive
+      a reciprocal attention from all the friendly powers of
+      Europe.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      VETO MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 30, 1815</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having bestowed on the bill entitled "An act to incorporate
+      the subscribers to the Bank of the United States of America"
+      that full consideration which is due to the great importance
+      of the subject, and dictated by the respect which I feel for
+      the two Houses of Congress, I am constrained by a deep and
+      solemn conviction that the bill ought not to become a law to
+      return it to the Senate, in which it originated, with my
+      objections to the same.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Waiving the question of the constitutional authority of the
+      Legislature to establish an incorporated bank as being
+      precluded in my judgment by repeated recognitions under
+      varied circumstances of the validity of such an institution
+      in acts of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches
+      of the Government, accompanied by indications, in different
+      modes, of a concurrence of the general will of the nation,
+      the proposed bank does not appear to be calculated to answer
+      the purposes of reviving the public credit, of providing a
+      national medium of circulation, and of aiding the Treasury by
+      facilitating the indispensable anticipations of the revenue
+      and by affording to the public more durable loans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. The capital of the bank is to be compounded of specie, of
+      public stock, and of Treasury notes convertible into stock,
+      with a certain proportion of each of which every subscriber
+      is to furnish himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The amount of the stock to be subscribed will not, it is
+      believed, be sufficient to produce in favor of the public
+      credit any considerable or lasting elevation of the market
+      price, whilst this may be occasionally depressed by the bank
+      itself if it should carry into the market the allowed
+      proportion of its capital consisting of public stock in order
+      to procure specie, which it may find its account in procuring
+      with some sacrifice on that part of its capital.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor will any adequate advantage arise to the public credit
+      from the subscription of Treasury notes. The actual issue of
+      these notes nearly equals at present, and will soon exceed,
+      the amount to be subscribed to the bank. The direct effect of
+      this operation is simply to convert fifteen millions of
+      Treasury notes into fifteen millions of 6 per cent stock,
+      with the collateral effect of promoting an additional demand
+      for Treasury notes beyond what might otherwise be negotiable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Public credit might indeed be expected to derive advantage
+      from the establishment of a national bank, without regard to
+      the formation of its capital, if the full aid and cooperation
+      of the institution were secured to the Government during the
+      war and during the period of its fiscal embarrassments. But
+      the bank proposed will be free from all legal obligation to
+      cooperate with the public measures, and whatever might be the
+      patriotic disposition of its directors to contribute to the
+      removal of those embarrassments, and to invigorate the
+      prosecution of the war, fidelity to the pecuniary and general
+      interest of the institution according to their estimate of it
+      might oblige them to decline a connection of their operations
+      with those of the National Treasury during the continuance of
+      the war and the difficulties incident to it. Temporary
+      sacrifices of interest, though overbalanced by the future and
+      permanent profits of the charter, not being requirable of
+      right in behalf of the public, might not be gratuitously
+      made, and the bank would reap the full benefit of the grant,
+      whilst the public would lose the equivalent expected from it;
+      for it must be kept in view that the sole inducement to such
+      a grant on the part of the public would be the prospect of
+      substantial aids to its pecuniary means at the present crisis
+      and during the sequel of the war. It is evident that the
+      stock of the bank will on the return of peace, if not sooner,
+      rise in the market to a value which, if the bank were
+      established in a period of peace, would authorize and obtain
+      for the public a bonus to a very large amount. In lieu of
+      such a bonus the Government is fairly entitled to and ought
+      not to relinquish or risk the needful services of the bank
+      under the pressing circumstances of war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. The bank as proposed to be constituted can not be relied
+      on during the war to provide a circulating medium nor to
+      furnish loans or anticipations of the public revenue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without a medium the taxes can not be collected, and in the
+      absence of specie the medium understood to be the best
+      substitute is that of notes issued by a national bank. The
+      proposed bank will commence and conduct its operations under
+      an obligation to pay its notes in specie, or be subject to
+      the loss of its charter. Without such an obligation the notes
+      of the bank, though not exchangeable for specie, yet resting
+      on good pledges and performing the uses of specie in the
+      payment of taxes and in other public transactions, would, as
+      experience has ascertained, qualify the bank to supply at
+      once a circulating medium and pecuniary aids to the
+      Government. Under the fetters imposed by the bill it is
+      manifest that during the actual state of things, and probably
+      during the war, the period particularly requiring such a
+      medium and such a resource for loans and advances to the
+      Government, notes for which the bank would be compellable to
+      give specie in exchange could not be kept in circulation. The
+      most the bank could effect, and the most it could be expected
+      to aim at, would be to keep the institution alive by limited
+      and local transactions which, with the interest on the public
+      stock in the bank, might yield a dividend sufficient for the
+      purpose until a change from war to peace should enable it, by
+      a flow of specie into its vaults and a removal of the
+      external demand for it, to derive its contemplated emoluments
+      from a safe and full extension of its operations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the whole, when it is considered that the proposed
+      establishment will enjoy a monopoly of the profits of a
+      national bank for a period of twenty years; that the
+      monopolized profits will be continually growing with the
+      progress of the national population and wealth; that the
+      nation will during the same period be dependent on the notes
+      of the bank for that species of circulating medium whenever
+      the precious metals may be wanted, and at all times for so
+      much thereof as may be an eligible substitute for a specie
+      medium, and that the extensive employment of the notes in the
+      collection of the augmented taxes will, moreover, enable the
+      bank greatly to extend its profitable issues of them without
+      the expense of specie capital to support their circulation,
+      it is as reasonable as it is requisite that the Government,
+      in return for these extraordinary concessions to the bank,
+      should have a greater security for attaining the public
+      objects of the institution than is presented in the bill, and
+      particularly for every practicable accommodation, both in the
+      temporary advances necessary to anticipate the taxes and in
+      those more durable loans which are equally necessary to
+      diminish the resort to taxes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In discharging this painful duty of stating objections to a
+      measure which has undergone the deliberations and received
+      the sanction of the two Houses of the National Legislature I
+      console myself with the reflection that if they have not the
+      weight which I attach to them they can be constitutionally
+      overruled, and with a confidence that in a contrary event the
+      wisdom of Congress will hasten to substitute a more
+      commensurate and certain provision for the public exigencies.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PROCLAMATIONS.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The two Houses of the National Legislature having by a joint
+      resolution expressed their desire that in the present time of
+      public calamity and war a day may be recommended to be
+      observed by the people of the United States as a day of
+      public humiliation and fasting and of prayer to Almighty God
+      for the safety and welfare of these States, His blessing on
+      their arms, and a speedy restoration of peace, I have deemed
+      it proper by this proclamation to recommend that Thursday,
+      the 12th of January next, be set apart as a day on which all
+      may have an opportunity of voluntarily offering at the same
+      time in their respective religious assemblies their humble
+      adoration to the Great Sovereign of the Universe, of
+      confessing their sins and transgressions, and of
+      strengthening their vows of repentance and amendment. They
+      will be invited by the same solemn occasion to call to mind
+      the distinguished favors conferred on the American people in
+      the general health which has been enjoyed, in the abundant
+      fruits of the season, in the progress of the arts
+      instrumental to their comfort, their prosperity, and their
+      security, and in the victories which have so powerfully
+      contributed to the defense and protection of our country, a
+      devout thankfulness for all which ought to be mingled with
+      their supplications to the Beneficent Parent of the Human
+      Race that He would be graciously pleased to pardon all their
+      offenses against Him; to support and animate them in the
+      discharge of their respective duties; to continue to them the
+      precious advantages flowing from political institutions so
+      auspicious to their safety against dangers from abroad, to
+      their tranquillity at home, and to their liberties, civil and
+      religious; and that He would in a special manner preside over
+      the nation in its public councils and constituted
+      authorities, giving wisdom to its measures and success to its
+      arms in maintaining its rights and in overcoming all hostile
+      designs and attempts against it; and, finally, that by
+      inspiring the enemy with dispositions favorable to a just and
+      reasonable peace its blessings may be speedily and happily
+      restored.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Given at the city of Washington, the 16th day of November,
+      1814, and of the Independence of the United States the
+      thirty-eighth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Among the many evils produced by the wars which with little
+      intermission have afflicted Europe and extended their ravages
+      into other quarters of the globe for a period exceeding
+      twenty years, the dispersion or a considerable portion of the
+      inhabitants of different countries in sorrow and in want has
+      not been the least injurious to human happiness nor the least
+      severe in the trial of human virtue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It had been long ascertained that many foreigners, flying
+      from the dangers of their own home, and that some citizens,
+      forgetful of their duty, had cooperated in forming an
+      establishment on the island of Barrataria, near the mouth of
+      the river Mississippi, for the purposes of a clandestine and
+      lawless trade. The Government of the United States caused the
+      establishment to be broken up and destroyed, and having
+      obtained the means of designating the offenders of every
+      description, it only remained to answer the demands of
+      justice by inflicting an exemplary punishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it has since been represented that the offenders have
+      manifested a sincere penitence; that they have abandoned the
+      prosecution of the worse cause for the support of the best,
+      and particularly that they have exhibited in the defense of
+      New Orleans unequivocal traits of courage and fidelity.
+      Offenders who have refused to become the associates of the
+      enemy in the war upon the most seducing terms of invitation
+      and who have aided to repel his hostile invasion of the
+      territory of the United States can no longer be considered as
+      objects of punishment, but as objects of a generous
+      forgiveness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has therefore been seen with great satisfaction that the
+      general assembly of the State of Louisiana earnestly
+      recommend those offenders to the benefit of a full pardon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And in compliance with that recommendation, as well as in
+      consideration of all the other extraordinary circumstances of
+      the case, I, James Madison, President of the United States of
+      America, do issue this proclamation, hereby granting,
+      publishing, and declaring a free and full pardon of all
+      offenses committed in violation of any act or acts of the
+      Congress of the said United States touching the revenue,
+      trade, and navigation thereof or touching the intercourse and
+      commerce of the United States with foreign nations at any
+      time before the 8th day of January, in the present year 1815,
+      by any person or persons whomsoever being inhabitants of New
+      Orleans and the adjacent country or being inhabitants of the
+      said island of Barrataria and the places adjacent:
+      <i>Provided</i>, That every person claiming the benefit of
+      this full pardon in order to entitle himself thereto shall
+      produce a certificate in writing from the governor of the
+      State of Louisiana stating that such person has aided in the
+      defense of New Orleans and the adjacent country during the
+      invasion thereof as aforesaid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And I do hereby further authorize and direct all suits,
+      indictments, and prosecutions for fines, penalties, and
+      forfeitures against any person or persons who shall be
+      entitled to the benefit of this full pardon forthwith to be
+      stayed, discontinued, and released; and all civil officers
+      are hereby required, according to the duties of their
+      respective stations, to carry this proclamation into
+      immediate and faithful execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Done at the city of Washington, the 6th day of February, in
+      the year 1815, and of the Independence of the United States
+      the thirty-ninth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       By the President:<br>
+       JAMES MONROE,<br>
+       <i>Acting as Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 7, p. 397.]
+    </center>
+    <h3>
+      JAMES MADISON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <i>To all and singular to whom these presents shall come,
+      greeting</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas a treaty of peace and amity between the United States
+      of America and His Britannic Majesty was signed at Ghent on
+      the 24th day of December, 1814, by the plenipotentiaries
+      respectively appointed for that purpose; and the said treaty
+      having been, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate
+      of the United States, duly accepted, ratified, and confirmed
+      on the 17th day of February, 1815, and ratified copies
+      thereof having been exchanged agreeably to the tenor of the
+      said treaty, which is in the words following, to wit:
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [Here follows the treaty.]
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Now, therefore, to the end that the said treaty of peace and
+      amity may be observed with good faith on the part of the
+      United States, I, James Madison, President as aforesaid, have
+      caused the premises to be made public; and I do hereby enjoin
+      all persons bearing office, civil or military, within the
+      United States and all others citizens or inhabitants thereof
+      or being within the same faithfully to observe and fulfill
+      the said treaty and every clause and article thereof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United
+      States to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same
+      with my hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Done at the city of Washington, this 18th day of February,
+      A.D. 1815, and of the Sovereignty and Independence of the
+      United States the thirty-ninth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       By the President:<br>
+       JAMES MONROE,<br>
+       <i>Acting Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States
+      have by a joint resolution signified their desire that a day
+      may be recommended to be observed by the people of the United
+      States with religious solemnity as a day of thanksgiving and
+      of devout acknowledgments to Almighty God for His great
+      goodness manifested in restoring to them the blessing of
+      peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the
+      goodness of the Great Disposer of Events and of the Destiny
+      of Nations than the people of the United States. His kind
+      providence originally conducted them to one of the best
+      portions of the dwelling place allotted for the great family
+      of the human race. He protected and cherished them under all
+      the difficulties and trials to which they were exposed in
+      their early days. Under His fostering care their habits,
+      their sentiments, and their pursuits prepared them for a
+      transition in due time to a state of independence and
+      self-government. In the arduous struggle by which it was
+      attained they were distinguished by multiplied tokens of His
+      benign interposition. During the interval which succeeded He
+      reared them into the strength and endowed them with the
+      resources which have enabled them to assert their national
+      rights and to enhance their national character in another
+      arduous conflict, which is now so happily terminated by a
+      peace and reconciliation with those who have been our
+      enemies. And to the same Divine Author of Every Good and
+      Perfect Gift we are indebted for all those privileges and
+      advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly
+      enjoyed in this favored land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is for blessings such as these, and more especially for
+      the restoration of the blessing of peace, that I now
+      recommend that the second Thursday in April next be set apart
+      as a day on which the people of every religious denomination
+      may in their solemn assemblies unite their hearts and their
+      voices in a freewill offering to their Heavenly Benefactor of
+      their homage of thanksgiving and of their songs of praise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Given at the city of Washington on the 4th day of March, A.D.
+      1815, and of the Independence of the United States the
+      thirty-ninth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Whereas information has been received that sundry persons
+      citizens of the United States or residents within the same,
+      and especially within the State of Louisiana, are conspiring
+      together to begin and set on foot, provide, and prepare the
+      means for a military expedition or enterprise against the
+      dominions of Spain, with which the United States are happily
+      at peace; that for this purpose they are collecting arms,
+      military stores, provisions, vessels, and other means; are
+      deceiving and seducing honest and well-meaning citizens to
+      engage in their unlawful enterprises; are organizing,
+      officering, and arming themselves for the same contrary to
+      the laws in such cases made and provided:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have therefore thought fit to issue this my proclamation,
+      warning and enjoining all faithful citizens who have been led
+      without due knowledge or consideration to participate in the
+      said unlawful enterprises to withdraw from the same without
+      delay, and commanding all persons whatsoever engaged or
+      concerned in the same to cease all further proceedings
+      therein, as they will answer the contrary at their peril. And
+      I hereby enjoin and require all officers, civil and military,
+      of the United States or of any of the States or Territories,
+      all judges, justices, and other officers of the peace, all
+      military officers of the Army or Navy of the United States,
+      and officers of the militia, to be vigilant, each within his
+      respective department and according to his functions, in
+      searching out and bringing to punishment all persons engaged
+      or concerned in such enterprises, in seizing and detaining,
+      subject to the disposition of the law, all arms, military
+      stores, vessels, or other means provided or providing for the
+      same, and, in general, in preventing the carrying on such
+      expedition or enterprise by all the lawful means within their
+      power. And I require all good and faithful citizens and
+      others within the United States to be aiding and assisting
+      herein, and especially in the discovery, apprehension, and
+      bringing to justice of all such offenders, in preventing the
+      execution of their unlawful combinations or designs, and in
+      giving information against them to the proper authorities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United
+      States of America to be affixed to these presents, and signed
+      the same with my hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Done at the city of Washington, the 1st day of September,
+      A.D. 1815, and of the Independence of the said United States
+      of America the fortieth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SEVENTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 5, 1815</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of
+      Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have the satisfaction on our present meeting of being able
+      to communicate to you the successful termination of the war
+      which had been commenced against the United States by the
+      Regency of Algiers. The squadron in advance on that service,
+      under Commodore Decatur, lost not a moment after its arrival
+      in the Mediterranean in seeking the naval force of the enemy
+      then cruising in that sea, and succeeded in capturing two of
+      his ships, one of them the principal ship, commanded by the
+      Algerine admiral. The high character of the American
+      commander was brilliantly sustained on the occasion which
+      brought his own ship into close action with that of his
+      adversary, as was the accustomed gallantry of all the
+      officers and men actually engaged. Having prepared the way by
+      this demonstration of American skill and prowess, he hastened
+      to the port of Algiers, where peace was promptly yielded to
+      his victorious force. In the terms stipulated the rights and
+      honor of the United States were particularly consulted by a
+      perpetual relinquishment on the part of the Dey of all
+      pretensions to tribute from them. The impressions which have
+      thus been made, strengthened as they will have been by
+      subsequent transactions with the Regencies of Tunis and of
+      Tripoli by the appearance of the larger force which followed
+      under Commodore Bainbridge, the chief in command of the
+      expedition, and by the judicious precautionary arrangements
+      left by him in that quarter, afford a reasonable prospect of
+      future security for the valuable portion of our commerce
+      which passes within reach of the Barbary cruisers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is another source of satisfaction that the treaty of peace
+      with Great Britain has been succeeded by a convention on the
+      subject of commerce concluded by the plenipotentiaries of the
+      two countries. In this result a disposition is manifested on
+      the part of that nation corresponding with the disposition of
+      the United States, which it may be hoped will be improved
+      into liberal arrangements on other subjects on which the
+      parties have mutual interests, or which might endanger their
+      future harmony. Congress will decide on the expediency of
+      promoting such a sequel by giving effect to the measure of
+      confining the American navigation to American seamen&mdash;a
+      measure which, at the same time that it might have that
+      conciliatory tendency, would have the further advantage of
+      increasing the independence of our navigation and the
+      resources for our maritime defense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In conformity with the articles in the treaty of Ghent
+      relating to the Indians, as well as with a view to the
+      tranquillity of our western and northwestern frontiers,
+      measures were taken to establish an immediate peace with the
+      several tribes who had been engaged in hostilities against
+      the United States. Such of them as were invited to Detroit
+      acceded readily to a renewal of the former treaties of
+      friendship. Of the other tribes who were invited to a station
+      on the Mississippi the greater number have also accepted the
+      peace offered to them. The residue, consisting of the more
+      distant tribes or parts of tribes, remain to be brought over
+      by further explanations, or by such other means as may be
+      adapted to the dispositions they may finally disclose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian tribes within and bordering on the southern
+      frontier, whom a cruel war on their part had compelled us to
+      chastise into peace, have latterly shown a restlessness which
+      has called for preparatory measures for repressing it, and
+      for protecting the commissioners engaged in carrying the
+      terms of the peace into execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The execution of the act for fixing the military peace
+      establishment has been attended with difficulties which even
+      now can only be overcome by legislative aid. The selection of
+      officers, the payment and discharge of the troops enlisted
+      for the war, the payment of the retained troops and their
+      reunion from detached and distant stations, the collection
+      and security of the public property in the Quartermaster,
+      Commissary, and Ordnance departments, and the constant
+      medical assistance required in hospitals and garrisons
+      rendered a complete execution of the act impracticable on the
+      1st of May, the period more immediately contemplated. As
+      soon, however, as circumstances would permit, and as far as
+      it has been practicable consistently with the public
+      interests, the reduction of the Army has been accomplished;
+      but the appropriations for its pay and for other branches of
+      the military service having proved inadequate, the earliest
+      attention to that subject will be necessary; and the
+      expediency of continuing upon the peace establishment the
+      staff officers who have hitherto been provisionally retained
+      is also recommended to the consideration of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the performance of the Executive duty upon this occasion
+      there has not been wanting a just sensibility to the merits
+      of the American Army during the late war; but the obvious
+      policy and design in fixing an efficient military peace
+      establishment did not afford an opportunity to distinguish
+      the aged and infirm on account of their past services nor the
+      wounded and disabled on account of their present sufferings.
+      The extent of the reduction, indeed, unavoidably involved the
+      exclusion of many meritorious officers of every rank from the
+      service of their country; and so equal as well as so numerous
+      were the claims to attention that a decision by the standard
+      of comparative merit could seldom be attained. Judged,
+      however, in candor by a general standard of positive merit,
+      the Army Register will, it is believed, do honor to the
+      establishment, while the case of those officers whose names
+      are not included in it devolves with the strongest interest
+      upon the legislative authority for such provision as shall be
+      deemed the best calculated to give support and solace to the
+      veteran and the invalid, to display the beneficence as well
+      as the justice of the Government, and to inspire a martial
+      zeal for the public service upon every future emergency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the embarrassments arising from the want of an
+      uniform national currency have not been diminished since the
+      adjournment of Congress, great satisfaction has been derived
+      in contemplating the revival of the public credit and the
+      efficiency of the public resources. The receipts into the
+      Treasury from the various branches of revenue during the nine
+      months ending on the 30th of September last have been
+      estimated at $12,500,000; the issues of Treasury notes of
+      every denomination during the same period amounted to the sum
+      of $14,000,000, and there was also obtained upon loan during
+      the same period a sum of $9,000,000 of which the sum of
+      $6,000,000 was subscribed in cash and the sum of $3,000,000
+      in Treasury notes. With these means, added to the sum of
+      $1,500,000, being the balance of money in the Treasury on the
+      1st day of January, there has been paid between the 1st of
+      January and the 1st of October on account of the
+      appropriations of the preceding and of the present year
+      (exclusively of the amount of the Treasury notes subscribed
+      to the loan and of the amount redeemed in the payment of
+      duties and taxes) the aggregate sum of $33,500,000, leaving a
+      balance then in the Treasury estimated at the sum of
+      $3,000,000. Independent, however, of the arrearages due for
+      military services and supplies, it is presumed that a further
+      sum of $5,000,000, including the interest on the public debt
+      payable on the 1st of January next, will be demanded at the
+      Treasury to complete the expenditures of the present year,
+      and for which the existing ways and means will sufficiently
+      provide.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The national debt, as it was ascertained on the 1st of
+      October last, amounted in the whole to the sum of
+      $120,000,000, consisting of the unredeemed balance of the
+      debt contracted before the late war ($39,000,000), the amount
+      of the funded debt contracted in consequence of the war
+      ($64,000,000), and the amount of the unfunded and floating
+      debt, including the various issues of Treasury notes,
+      $17,000,000, which is in a gradual course of payment. There
+      will probably be some addition to the public debt upon the
+      liquidation of various claims which are depending, and a
+      conciliatory disposition on the part of Congress may lead
+      honorably and advantageously to an equitable arrangement of
+      the militia expenses incurred by the several States without
+      the previous sanction or authority of the Government of the
+      United States; but when it is considered that the new as well
+      as the old portion of the debt has been contracted in the
+      assertion of the national rights and independence, and when
+      it is recollected that the public expenditures, not being
+      exclusively bestowed upon subjects of a transient nature,
+      will long be visible in the number and equipments of the
+      American Navy, in the military works for the defense of our
+      harbors and our frontiers, and in the supplies of our
+      arsenals and magazines the amount will bear a gratifying
+      comparison with the objects which have been attained, as well
+      as with the resources of the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The arrangements of the finances with a view to the receipts
+      and expenditures of a permanent peace establishment will
+      necessarily enter into the deliberations of Congress during
+      the present session. It is true that the improved condition
+      of the public revenue will not only afford the means of
+      maintaining the faith of the Government with its creditors
+      inviolate, and of prosecuting successfully the measures of
+      the most liberal policy, but will also justify an immediate
+      alleviation of the burdens imposed by the necessities of the
+      war. It is, however, essential to every modification of the
+      finances that the benefits of an uniform national currency
+      should be restored to the community. The absence of the
+      precious metals will, it is believed, be a temporary evil,
+      but until they can again be rendered the general medium of
+      exchange it devolves on the wisdom of Congress to provide a
+      substitute which shall equally engage the confidence and
+      accommodate the wants of the citizens throughout the Union.
+      If the operation of the State banks can not produce this
+      result, the probable operation of a national bank will merit
+      consideration; and if neither of these expedients be deemed
+      effectual it may become necessary to ascertain the terms upon
+      which the notes of the Government (no longer required as an
+      instrument of credit) shall be issued upon motives of general
+      policy as a common medium of circulation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding the security for future repose which the
+      United States ought to find in their love of peace and their
+      constant respect for the rights of other nations, the
+      character of the times particularly inculcates the lesson
+      that, whether to prevent or repel danger, we ought not to be
+      unprepared for it. This consideration will sufficiently
+      recommend to Congress a liberal provision for the immediate
+      extension and gradual completion of the works of defense,
+      both fixed and floating, on our maritime frontier, and an
+      adequate provision for guarding our inland frontier against
+      dangers to which certain portions of it may continue to be
+      exposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As an improvement in our military establishment, it will
+      deserve the consideration of Congress whether a corps of
+      invalids might not be so organized and employed as at once to
+      aid in the support of meritorious individuals excluded by age
+      or infirmities from the existing establishment, and to
+      procure to the public the benefit of their stationary
+      services and of their exemplary discipline. I recommend also
+      an enlargement of the Military Academy already established,
+      and the establishment of others in other sections of the
+      Union; and I can not press too much on the attention of
+      Congress such a classification and organization of the
+      militia as will most effectually render it the safeguard of a
+      free state. If experience has shewn in the recent splendid
+      achievements of militia the value of this resource for the
+      public defense, it has shewn also the importance of that
+      skill in the use of arms and that familiarity with the
+      essential rules of discipline which can not be expected from
+      the regulations now in force. With this subject is intimately
+      connected the necessity of accommodating the laws in every
+      respect to the great object of enabling the political
+      authority of the Union to employ promptly and effectually the
+      physical power of the Union in the cases designated by the
+      Constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The signal services which have been rendered by our Navy and
+      the capacities it has developed for successful cooperation in
+      the national defense will give to that portion of the public
+      force its full value in the eyes of Congress, at an epoch
+      which calls for the constant vigilance of all governments. To
+      preserve the ships now in a sound state, to complete those
+      already contemplated, to provide amply the imperishable
+      materials for prompt augmentations, and to improve the
+      existing arrangements into more advantageous establishments
+      for the construction, the repairs, and the security of
+      vessels of war is dictated by the soundest policy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In adjusting the duties on imports to the object of revenue
+      the influence of the tariff on manufactures will necessarily
+      present itself for consideration. However wise the theory may
+      be which leaves to the sagacity and interest of individuals
+      the application of their industry and resources, there are in
+      this as in other cases exceptions to the general rule.
+      Besides the condition which the theory itself implies of a
+      reciprocal adoption by other nations, experience teaches that
+      so many circumstances must concur in introducing and maturing
+      manufacturing establishments, especially of the more
+      complicated kinds, that a country may remain long without
+      them, although sufficiently advanced and in some respects
+      even peculiarly fitted for carrying them on with success.
+      Under circumstances giving a powerful impulse to
+      manufacturing industry it has made among us a progress and
+      exhibited an efficiency which justify the belief that with a
+      protection not more than is due to the enterprising citizens
+      whose interests are now at stake it will become at an early
+      day not only safe against occasional competitions from
+      abroad, but a source of domestic wealth and even of external
+      commerce. In selecting the branches more especially entitled
+      to the public patronage a preference is obviously claimed by
+      such as will relieve the United States from a dependence on
+      foreign supplies, ever subject to casual failures, for
+      articles necessary for the public defense or connected with
+      the primary wants of individuals. It will be an additional
+      recommendation of particular manufactures where the materials
+      for them are extensively drawn from our agriculture, and
+      consequently impart and insure to that great fund of national
+      prosperity and independence an encouragement which can not
+      fail to be rewarded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the means of advancing the public interest the occasion
+      is a proper one for recalling the attention of Congress to
+      the great importance of establishing throughout our country
+      the roads and canals which can best be executed under the
+      national authority. No objects within the circle of political
+      economy so richly repay the expense bestowed on them; there
+      are none the utility of which is more universally ascertained
+      and acknowledged; none that do more honor to the governments
+      whose wise and enlarged patriotism duly appreciates them. Nor
+      is there any country which presents a field where nature
+      invites more the art of man to complete her own work for his
+      accommodation and benefit. These considerations are
+      strengthened, moreover, by the political effect of these
+      facilities for intercommunication in bringing and binding
+      more closely together the various parts of our extended
+      confederacy. Whilst the States individually, with a laudable
+      enterprise and emulation, avail themselves of their local
+      advantages by new roads, by navigable canals, and by
+      improving the streams susceptible of navigation, the General
+      Government is the more urged to similar undertakings,
+      requiring a national jurisdiction and national means, by the
+      prospect of thus systematically completing so inestimable a
+      work; and it is a happy reflection that any defect of
+      constitutional authority which may be encountered can be
+      supplied in a mode which the Constitution itself has
+      providently pointed out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The present is a favorable season also for bringing again
+      into view the establishment of a national seminary of
+      learning within the District of Columbia, and with means
+      drawn from the property therein, subject to the authority of
+      the General Government. Such an institution claims the
+      patronage of Congress as a monument of their solicitude for
+      the advancement of knowledge, without which the blessings of
+      liberty can not be fully enjoyed or long preserved; as a
+      model instructive in the formation of other seminaries; as a
+      nursery of enlightened preceptors, and as a central resort of
+      youth and genius from every part of their country, diffusing
+      on their return examples of those national feelings, those
+      liberal sentiments, and those congenial manners which
+      contribute cement to our Union and strength to the great
+      political fabric of which that is the foundation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In closing this communication I ought not to repress a
+      sensibility, in which you will unite, to the happy lot of our
+      country and to the goodness of a superintending Providence,
+      to which we are indebted for it. Whilst other portions of
+      mankind are laboring under the distresses of war or
+      struggling with adversity in other forms, the United States
+      are in the tranquil enjoyment of prosperous and honorable
+      peace. In reviewing the scenes through which it has been
+      attained we can rejoice in the proofs given that our
+      political institutions, founded in human rights and framed
+      for their preservation, are equal to the severest trials of
+      war, as well as adapted to the ordinary periods of repose. As
+      fruits of this experience and of the reputation acquired by
+      the American arms on the land and on the water, the nation
+      finds itself possessed of a growing respect abroad and of a
+      just confidence in itself, which are among the best pledges
+      for its peaceful career. Under other aspects of our country
+      the strongest features of its flourishing condition are seen
+      in a population rapidly increasing on a territory as
+      productive as it is extensive; in a general industry and
+      fertile ingenuity which find their ample rewards, and in an
+      affluent revenue which admits a reduction of the public
+      burdens without withdrawing the means of sustaining the
+      public credit, of gradually discharging the public debt, of
+      providing for the necessary defensive and precautionary
+      establishments, and of patronizing in every authorized mode
+      undertakings conducive to the aggregate wealth and individual
+      comfort of our citizens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It remains for the guardians of the public welfare to
+      persevere in that justice and good will toward other nations
+      which invite a return of these sentiments toward the United
+      States; to cherish institutions which guarantee their safety
+      and their liberties, civil and religious; and to combine with
+      a liberal system of foreign commerce an improvement of the
+      national advantages and a protection and extension of the
+      independent resources of our highly favored and happy
+      country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In all measures having such objects my faithful cooperation
+      will be afforded.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 6, 1815</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before the Senate, for their consideration and advice
+      as to a ratification, a treaty of peace with the Dey of
+      Algiers concluded on the 30th day of June, 1815, with a
+      letter relating to the same from the American commissioners
+      to the Secretary of State.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 6, 1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before the Senate, for their consideration and advice
+      as to a ratification, a convention to regulate the commerce
+      between the United States and Great Britain, signed by their
+      respective plenipotentiaries on the 3d of July last, with
+      letters relating to the same from the American
+      plenipotentiaries to the Secretary of State, and also the
+      declaration with which it is the intention of the British
+      Government to accompany the exchange of the ratification of
+      the convention.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 6, 1815</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before the Senate, for their consideration and advice
+      as to a ratification, treaties which have been concluded with
+      the following Indian tribes, viz: Iaway tribe, Kickapoo
+      tribe, Poutawatamie, Siouxs of the Lakes, Piankeshaw tribe,
+      Siouxs of the River St. Peters, Great and Little Osage
+      tribes, Yancton tribe, Mahas, Fox tribe, Teeton, Sac Nation,
+      Kanzas tribe, Chippewa, Ottawa, Potawatamie, Shawanoe,
+      Wyandot, Miami, Delaware, and Seneca.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate also the letters from the commissioners on the
+      part of the United States relating to their proceedings on
+      those occasions.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 11, 1815</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit the original of the convention between the United
+      States and Great Britain, as signed by their respective
+      plenipotentiaries, on the 3d day of July last, a copy of
+      which was laid before the Senate on the 5th instant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit also a copy of the late treaty of peace with
+      Algiers, as certified by one of the commissioners of the
+      United States, an office copy of which was laid before the
+      Senate on the 5th instant, the original of the treaty not
+      having been received.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 23, 1815.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before Congress copies of a proclamation notifying the
+      convention concluded with Great Britain on the 3d day of July
+      last, and that the same has been duly ratified; and I
+      recommend to Congress such legislative provisions as the
+      convention may call for on the part of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 18, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The accompanying extract from the occurrences at Fort Jackson
+      in August, 1814, during the negotiation of a treaty with the
+      Indians shows that the friendly Creeks, wishing to give to
+      General Jackson, Benjamin Hawkins, and others a national mark
+      of their gratitude and regard, conveyed to them,
+      respectively, a donation of land, with a request that the
+      grant might be duly confirmed by the Government of the United
+      States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Taking into consideration the peculiar circumstances of the
+      case, the expediency of indulging the Indians in wishes which
+      they associated with the treaty signed by them, and that the
+      case involves an inviting opportunity for bestowing on an
+      officer who has rendered such illustrious services to his
+      country a token of its sensibility to them, the inducement to
+      which can not be diminished by the delicacy and
+      disinterestedness of his proposal to transfer the benefit
+      from himself, I recommend to Congress that provision be made
+      for carrying into effect the wishes and request of the
+      Indians as expressed by them.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 6, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is represented that the lands in the Michigan Territory
+      designated by law toward satisfying land bounties promised
+      the soldiers of the late army are so covered with swamps and
+      lakes, or otherwise unfit for cultivation, that a very
+      inconsiderable proportion can be applied to the intended
+      grants. I recommend, therefore, that other lands be
+      designated by Congress for the purpose of supplying the
+      deficiency.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MARCH 5, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 2d
+      instant, they are informed that great losses having been
+      sustained by citizens of the United States from unjust
+      seizures and confiscations of their property by the late
+      Government of Naples, it was deemed expedient that
+      indemnification should be claimed by a special mission for
+      that purpose. The occasion may be proper, also, for securing
+      the use and accommodations of the Neapolitan ports, which may
+      at any time be needed by the public ships of the United
+      States, and for obtaining relief for the American commerce
+      from the disadvantageous and unequal regulations now
+      operating against it in that Kingdom,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MARCH 9, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before Congress a statement of the militia of the
+      United States according to the latest returns received by the
+      Department of War.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      APRIL 11, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a view to the more convenient arrangement of the
+      important and growing business connected with the grant of
+      exclusive rights to inventors and authors, I recommend the
+      establishment of a distinct office within the Department of
+      State to be charged therewith, under a director with a salary
+      adequate to his services, and with the privilege of franking
+      communications by mail from and to the office. I recommend
+      also that further restraints be imposed on the issue of
+      patents to wrongful claimants, and further guards provided
+      against fraudulent exactions of fees by persons possessed of
+      patents.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      APRIL 16, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before Congress copies of a convention concluded
+      between the United States and the Cherokee Indians on the 2d
+      day of March last, as the same has been duly ratified and
+      proclaimed; and I recommend that such provision be made by
+      Congress as the stipulations therein contained may require,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      APRIL 17, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It being presumed that further information may have changed
+      the views of the Senate relative to the importance and
+      expediency of a mission to Naples for the purpose of
+      negotiating indemnities to our citizens for spoliations
+      committed by the Neapolitan Government, I nominate William
+      Pinkney, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to
+      Russia, to be minister plenipotentiary to Naples, specially
+      charged with that trust.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PROCLAMATIONS.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Whereas it has been represented that many uninformed or
+      evil-disposed persons have taken possession of or made a
+      settlement on the public lands of the United States which
+      have not been previously sold, ceded, or leased by the United
+      States, or the claim to which lands by such persons has not
+      been previously recognized or confirmed by the United States,
+      which possession or settlement is by the act of Congress
+      passed on the 3d day of March, 1807, expressly prohibited;
+      and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas the due execution of the said act of Congress, as
+      well as the general interest, requires that such illegal
+      practices should be promptly repressed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United
+      States, have thought proper to issue my proclamation
+      commanding and strictly enjoining all persons who have
+      unlawfully taken possession of or made any settlement on the
+      public lands as aforesaid forthwith to remove therefrom; and
+      I do hereby further command and enjoin the marshal, or
+      officer acting as marshal, in any State or Territory where
+      such possession shall have been taken or settlement made to
+      remove, from and after the 10th day of March, 1816, all or
+      any of the said unlawful occupants; and to effect the said
+      service I do hereby authorize the employment of such military
+      force as may become necessary in pursuance of the provisions
+      of the act of Congress aforesaid, warning the offenders,
+      moreover, that they will be prosecuted in all such other ways
+      as the law directs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United
+      States of America to be affixed to these presents, and signed
+      the same with my hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Done at the city of Washington, the 12th day of December,
+      A.D. 1815, and of the Independence of the said United States
+      of America the fortieth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       By the President:<br>
+       JAMES MONROE,<br>
+       <i>Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 10, p. 208.]
+    </center>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Whereas by the act entitled "An act granting bounties in land
+      and extra pay to certain Canadian volunteers," passed the 5th
+      March, 1816, it was enacted that the locations of the land
+      warrants of the said volunteers should "be subject to such
+      regulations as to priority of choice and manner of location
+      as the President of the United States shall direct:"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wherefore I, James Madison, President of the United States,
+      in conformity with the provisions of the act before recited,
+      do hereby make known that the land warrants of the said
+      Canadian volunteers may be located agreeably to the said act
+      at the land offices at Vincennes or Jeffersonville, in the
+      Indiana Territory, on the first Monday in June next, with the
+      registers of the said land offices; that the warrantees may,
+      in person or by their attorneys or other legal
+      representatives, in the presence of the register and receiver
+      of the said land district, draw lots for the priority of
+      location; and that should any of the warrants not appear for
+      location on that day they may be located afterwards,
+      according to their priority of presentation, the locations in
+      the district of Vincennes to be made at Vincennes and the
+      locations in the district of Jeffersonville to be made at
+      Jeffersonville.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Given under my hand the 1st day of May, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       By the President:<br>
+       JOSIAH MEIGS,<br>
+       <i>Commissioner of the General Land Office</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 3, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of
+      Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In reviewing the present state of our country, our attention
+      can not be withheld from the effect produced by peculiar
+      seasons which have very generally impaired the annual gifts
+      of the earth and threatened scarcity in particular districts.
+      Such, however, is the variety of soils, of climates, and of
+      products within our extensive limits that the aggregate
+      resources for subsistence are more than sufficient for the
+      aggregate wants. And as far as an economy of consumption,
+      more than usual, may be necessary, our thankfulness is due to
+      Providence for what is far more than a compensation, in the
+      remarkable health which has distinguished the present year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amidst the advantages which have succeeded the peace of
+      Europe, and that of the United States with Great Britain, in
+      a general invigoration of industry among us and in the
+      extension of our commerce, the value of which is more and
+      more disclosing itself to commercial nations, it is to be
+      regretted that a depression is experienced by particular
+      branches of our manufactures and by a portion of our
+      navigation. As the first proceeds in an essential degree from
+      an excess of imported merchandise, which carries a check in
+      its own tendency, the cause in its present extent can not be
+      of very long duration. The evil will not, however, be viewed
+      by Congress without a recollection that manufacturing
+      establishments, if suffered to sink too low or languish too
+      long, may not revive after the causes shall have ceased, and
+      that in the vicissitudes of human affairs situations may
+      recur in which a dependence on foreign sources for
+      indispensable supplies may be among the most serious
+      embarrassments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The depressed state of our navigation is to be ascribed in a
+      material degree to its exclusion from the colonial ports of
+      the nation most extensively connected with us in commerce,
+      and from the indirect operation of that exclusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Previous to the late convention at London between the United
+      States and Great Britain the relative state of the navigation
+      laws of the two countries, growing out of the treaty of 1794,
+      had given to the British navigation a material advantage over
+      the American in the intercourse between the American ports
+      and British ports in Europe. The convention of London
+      equalized the laws of the two countries relating to those
+      ports, leaving the intercourse between our ports and the
+      ports of the British colonies subject, as before, to the
+      respective regulations of the parties. The British Government
+      enforcing now regulations which prohibit a trade between its
+      colonies and the United States in American vessels, whilst
+      they permit a trade in British vessels, the American
+      navigation loses accordingly, and the loss is augmented by
+      the advantage which is given to the British competition over
+      the American in the navigation between our ports and British
+      ports in Europe by the circuitous voyages enjoyed by the one
+      and not enjoyed by the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reasonableness of the rule of reciprocity applied to one
+      branch of the commercial intercourse has been pressed on our
+      part as equally applicable to both branches; but it is
+      ascertained that the British cabinet declines all negotiation
+      on the subject, with a disavowal, however, of any disposition
+      to view in an unfriendly light whatever countervailing
+      regulations the United States may oppose to the regulations
+      of which they complain. The wisdom of the Legislature will
+      decide on the course which, under these circumstances, is
+      prescribed by a joint regard to the amicable relations
+      between the two nations and to the just interests of the
+      United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have the satisfaction to state, generally, that we remain
+      in amity with foreign powers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An occurrence has indeed taken place in the Gulf of Mexico
+      which, if sanctioned by the Spanish Government, may make an
+      exception as to that power. According to the report of our
+      naval commander on that station, one of our public armed
+      vessels was attacked by an overpowering force under a Spanish
+      commander, and the American flag, with the officers and crew,
+      insulted in a manner calling for prompt reparation. This has
+      been demanded. In the meantime a frigate and a smaller vessel
+      of war have been ordered into that Gulf for the protection of
+      our commerce. It would be improper to omit that the
+      representative of His Catholic Majesty in the United States
+      lost no time in giving the strongest assurances that no
+      hostile order could have emanated from his Government, and
+      that it will be as ready to do as to expect whatever the
+      nature of the case and the friendly relations of the two
+      countries shall be found to require.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The posture of our affairs with Algiers at the present moment
+      is not known. The Dey, drawing pretexts from circumstances
+      for which the United States were not answerable, addressed a
+      letter to this Government declaring the treaty last concluded
+      with him to have been annulled by our violation of it, and
+      presenting as the alternative war or a renewal of the former
+      treaty, which stipulated, among other things, an annual
+      tribute. The answer, with an explicit declaration that the
+      United States preferred war to tribute, required his
+      recognition and observance of the treaty last made, which
+      abolishes tribute and the slavery of our captured citizens.
+      The result of the answer has not been received. Should he
+      renew his warfare on our commerce, we rely on the protection
+      it will find in our naval force actually in the
+      Mediterranean.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the other Barbary States our affairs have undergone no
+      change.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian tribes within our limits appear also disposed to
+      remain at peace. From several of them purchases of lands have
+      been made particularly favorable to the wishes and security
+      of our frontier settlements, as well as to the general
+      interests of the nation. In some instances the titles, though
+      not supported by due proof, and clashing those of one tribe
+      with the claims of another, have been extinguished by double
+      purchases, the benevolent policy of the United States
+      preferring the augmented expense to the hazard of doing
+      injustice or to the enforcement of justice against a feeble
+      and untutored people by means involving or threatening an
+      effusion of blood. I am happy to add that the tranquillity
+      which has been restored among the tribes themselves, as well
+      as between them and our own population, will favor the
+      resumption of the work of civilization which had made an
+      encouraging progress among some tribes, and that the facility
+      is increasing for extending that divided and individual
+      ownership, which exists now in movable property only, to the
+      soil itself, and of thus establishing in the culture and
+      improvement of it the true foundation for a transit from the
+      habits of the savage to the arts and comforts of social life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a subject of the highest importance to the national
+      welfare, I must again earnestly recommend to the
+      consideration of Congress a reorganization of the militia on
+      a plan which will form it into classes according to the
+      periods of life more or less adapted to military services. An
+      efficient militia is authorized and contemplated by the
+      Constitution and required by the spirit and safety of free
+      government. The present organization of our militia is
+      universally regarded as less efficient than it ought to be
+      made, and no organization can be better calculated to give to
+      it its due force than a classification which will assign the
+      foremost place in the defense of the country to that portion
+      of its citizens whose activity and animation best enable them
+      to rally to its standard. Besides the consideration that a
+      time of peace is the time when the change can be made with
+      most convenience and equity, it will now be aided by the
+      experience of a recent war in which the militia bore so
+      interesting a part.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Congress will call to mind that no adequate provision has yet
+      been made for the uniformity of weights and measures also
+      contemplated by the Constitution. The great utility of a
+      standard fixed in its nature and founded on the easy rule of
+      decimal proportions is sufficiently obvious. It led the
+      Government at an early stage to preparatory steps for
+      introducing it, and a completion of the work will be a just
+      title to the public gratitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The importance which I have attached to the establishment of
+      a university within this District on a scale and for objects
+      worthy of the American nation induces me to renew my
+      recommendation of it to the favorable consideration of
+      Congress. And I particularly invite again their attention to
+      the expediency of exercising their existing powers, and,
+      where necessary, of resorting to the prescribed mode of
+      enlarging them, in order to effectuate a comprehensive system
+      of roads and canals, such as will have the effect of drawing
+      more closely together every part of our country by promoting
+      intercourse and improvements and by increasing the share of
+      every part in the common stock of national prosperity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Occurrences having taken place which shew that the statutory
+      provisions for the dispensation of criminal justice are
+      deficient in relation both to places and to persons under the
+      exclusive cognizance of the national authority, an amendment
+      of the law embracing such cases will merit the earliest
+      attention of the Legislature. It will be a seasonable
+      occasion also for inquiring how far legislative interposition
+      maybe further requisite in providing penalties for offenses
+      designated in the Constitution or in the statutes, and to
+      which either no penalties are annexed or none with sufficient
+      certainty. And I submit to the wisdom of Congress whether a
+      more enlarged revisal of the criminal code be not expedient
+      for the purpose of mitigating in certain cases penalties
+      which were adopted into it antecedent to experiment and
+      examples which justify and recommend a more lenient policy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The United States, having been the first to abolish within
+      the extent of their authority the transportation of the
+      natives of Africa into slavery, by prohibiting the
+      introduction of slaves and by punishing their citizens
+      participating in the traffic, can not but be gratified at the
+      progress made by concurrent efforts of other nations toward a
+      general suppression of so great an evil. They must feel at
+      the same time the greater solicitude to give the fullest
+      efficacy to their own regulations. With that view, the
+      interposition of Congress appears to be required by the
+      violations and evasions which it is suggested are chargeable
+      on unworthy citizens who mingle in the slave trade under
+      foreign flags and with foreign ports, and by collusive
+      importations of slaves into the United States through
+      adjoining ports and territories. I present the subject to
+      Congress with a full assurance of their disposition to apply
+      all the remedy which can be afforded by an amendment of the
+      law. The regulations which were intended to guard against
+      abuses of a kindred character in the trade between the
+      several States ought also to be rendered more effectual for
+      their humane object.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To these recommendations I add, for the consideration of
+      Congress, the expediency of a remodification of the judiciary
+      establishment, and of an additional department in the
+      executive branch of the Government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first is called for by the accruing business which
+      necessarily swells the duties of the Federal courts, and by
+      the great and widening space within which justice is to be
+      dispensed by them. The time seems to have arrived which
+      claims for members of the Supreme Court a relief from
+      itinerary fatigues, incompatible as well with the age which a
+      portion of them will always have attained as with the
+      researches and preparations which are due to their stations
+      and to the juridical reputation of their country. And
+      considerations equally cogent require a more convenient
+      organization of the subordinate tribunals, which may be
+      accomplished without an objectionable increase of the number
+      or expense of the judges.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The extent and variety of executive business also
+      accumulating with the progress of our country and its growing
+      population call for an additional department, to be charged
+      with duties now overburdening other departments and with such
+      as have not been annexed to any department.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The course of experience recommends, as another improvement
+      in the executive establishment, that the provision for the
+      station of Attorney-General, whose residence at the seat of
+      Government, official connections with it, and the management
+      of the public business before the judiciary preclude an
+      extensive participation in professional emoluments, be made
+      more adequate to his services and his relinquishments, and
+      that, with a view to his reasonable accommodation and to a
+      proper depository of his official opinions and proceedings,
+      there be included in the provision the usual appurtenances to
+      a public office.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In directing the legislative attention to the state of the
+      finances it is a subject of great gratification to find that
+      even within the short period which has elapsed since the
+      return of peace the revenue has far exceeded all the current
+      demands upon the Treasury, and that under any probable
+      diminution of its future annual products which the
+      vicissitudes of commerce may occasion it will afford an ample
+      fund for the effectual and early extinguishment of the public
+      debt. It has been estimated that during the year 1816 the
+      actual receipts of revenue at the Treasury, including the
+      balance at the commencement of the year, and excluding the
+      proceeds of loans and Treasury notes, will amount to about
+      the sum of $47,000,000; that during the same year the actual
+      payments at the Treasury, including the payment of the
+      arrearages of the War Department as well as the payment of a
+      considerable excess beyond the annual appropriations, will
+      amount to about the sum of $38,000,000, and that consequently
+      at the close of the year there will be a surplus in the
+      Treasury of about the sum of $9,000,000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The operations of the Treasury continued to be obstructed by
+      difficulties arising from the condition of the national
+      currency, but they have nevertheless been effectual to a
+      beneficial extent in the reduction of the public debt and the
+      establishment of the public credit. The floating debt of
+      Treasury notes and temporary loans will soon be entirely
+      discharged. The aggregate of the funded debt, composed of
+      debts incurred during the wars of 1776 and 1812, has been
+      estimated with reference to the 1st of January next at a sum
+      not exceeding $110,000,000. The ordinary annual expenses of
+      the Government for the maintenance of all its institutions,
+      civil, military, and naval, have been estimated at a sum less
+      than $20,000,000, and the permanent revenue to be derived
+      from all the existing sources has been estimated at a sum of
+      about $25,000,000,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon this general view of the subject it is obvious that
+      there is only wanting to the fiscal prosperity of the
+      Government the restoration of an uniform medium of exchange.
+      The resources and the faith of the nation, displayed in the
+      system which Congress has established, insure respect and
+      confidence both at home and abroad. The local accumulations
+      of the revenue have already enabled the Treasury to meet the
+      public engagements in the local currency of most of the
+      States, and it is expected that the same cause will produce
+      the same effect throughout the Union; but for the interests
+      of the community at large, as well as for the purposes of the
+      Treasury, it is essential that the nation should possess a
+      currency of equal value, credit, and use wherever it may
+      circulate. The Constitution has intrusted Congress
+      exclusively with the power of creating and regulating a
+      currency of that description, and the measures which were
+      taken during the last session in execution of the power give
+      every promise of success. The Bank of the United States has
+      been organized under auspices the most favorable, and can not
+      fail to be an important auxiliary to those measures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a more enlarged view of the public finances, with a view
+      of the measures pursued by the Treasury Department previous
+      to the resignation of the late Secretary, I transmit an
+      extract from the last report of that officer. Congress will
+      perceive in it ample proofs of the solid foundation on which
+      the financial prosperity of the nation rests, and will do
+      justice to the distinguished ability and successful exertions
+      with which the duties of the Department were executed during
+      a period remarkable for its difficulties and its peculiar
+      perplexities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The period of my retiring from the public service being at
+      little distance, I shall find no occasion more proper than
+      the present for expressing to my fellow-citizens my deep
+      sense of the continued confidence and kind support which I
+      have received from them. My grateful recollection of these
+      distinguished marks of their favorable regard can never
+      cease, and with the consciousness that, if I have not served
+      my country with greater ability, I have served it with a
+      sincere devotion will accompany me as a source of unfailing
+      gratification.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Happily, I shall carry with me from the public theater other
+      sources, which those who love their country most will best
+      appreciate. I shall behold it blessed with tranquillity and
+      prosperity at home and with peace and respect abroad. I can
+      indulge the proud reflection that the American people have
+      reached in safety and success their fortieth year as an
+      independent nation; that for nearly an entire generation they
+      have had experience of their present Constitution, the
+      offspring of their undisturbed deliberations and of their
+      free choice; that they have found it to bear the trials of
+      adverse as well as prosperous circumstances: to contain in
+      its combination of the federate and elective principles a
+      reconcilement of public strength with individual liberty, of
+      national power for the defense of national rights with a
+      security against wars of injustice, of ambition, and of
+      vainglory in the fundamental provision which subjects all
+      questions of war to the will of the nation itself, which is
+      to pay its costs and feel its calamities. Nor is it less a
+      peculiar felicity of this Constitution, so dear to us all,
+      that it is found to be capable, without losing its vital
+      energies, of expanding itself over a spacious territory with
+      the increase and expansion of the community for whose benefit
+      it was established.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And may I not be allowed to add to this gratifying spectacle
+      that I shall read in the character of the American people, in
+      their devotion to true liberty and to the Constitution which
+      is its palladium, sure presages that the destined career of
+      my country will exhibit a Government pursuing the public good
+      as its sole object, and regulating its means by the great
+      principles consecrated in its charter and by those moral
+      principles to which they are so well allied; a Government
+      which watches over the purity of elections, the freedom of
+      speech and of the press, the trial by jury, and the equal
+      interdict against encroachments and compacts between religion
+      and the state; which maintains inviolably the maxims of
+      public faith, the security of persons and property, and
+      encourages in every authorized mode that general diffusion of
+      knowledge which guarantees to public liberty its permanency
+      and to those who possess the blessing the true enjoyment of
+      it; a Government which avoids intrusions on the internal
+      repose of other nations, and repels them from its own; which
+      does justice to all nations with a readiness equal to the
+      firmness with which it requires justice from them; and which,
+      whilst it refines its domestic code from every ingredient not
+      congenial with the precepts of an enlightened age and the
+      sentiments of a virtuous people, seeks by appeals to reason
+      and by its liberal examples to infuse into the law which
+      governs the civilized world a spirit which may diminish the
+      frequency or circumscribe the calamities of war, and
+      meliorate the social and beneficent relations of peace; a
+      Government, in a word, whose conduct within and without may
+      bespeak the most noble of all ambitions&mdash;-that of
+      promoting peace on earth and good will to man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These contemplations, sweetening the remnant of my days, will
+      animate my prayers for the happiness of my beloved country,
+      and a perpetuity of the institutions under which it is
+      enjoyed.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 6, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ninth section of the act passed at the last session of
+      Congress "to authorize the payment for property lost,
+      captured, or destroyed by the enemy while in the military
+      service of the United States, and for other purposes," having
+      received a construction giving to it a scope of great and
+      uncertain extent, I thought it proper that proceedings
+      relative to claims under that part of the act should be
+      suspended until Congress should have an opportunity of
+      defining more precisely the cases contemplated by them. With
+      that view I now recommend the subject to their consideration.
+      They will have an opportunity at the same time of considering
+      how far other provisions of the act may be rendered more
+      clear and precise in their import.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 10, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before the Senate, for their consideration and advice
+      as to a ratification, treaties concluded with the several
+      Indian tribes according to the following statement:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       A LIST OF INDIAN TRIBES WITH WHOM TREATIES HAVE BEEN MADE
+      SINCE THE LAST SESSION OF CONGRESS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Weas and Kickapoos tribes of Indians</i>.&mdash;Treaty
+      concluded at Fort Harrison between Benjamin Parke and the
+      chiefs and headmen of those tribes the 4th June, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottowotomees</i>.&mdash;Treaty
+      concluded at St. Louis between Governors Clarke, Edwards, and
+      Colonel Choteau and the chiefs and headmen of those tribes on
+      the 24th August, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Winnebago tribes</i>.&mdash;Made by the same persons on
+      part United States and the headmen of this tribe at St. Louis
+      3d June, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Sacks of Rock River</i>.&mdash;Made by same at St. Louis
+      13th May, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Siouxs composing three tribes, the Siouxs of the Leaf, the
+      Siouxs of the Broad Leaf, and the Siouxs who Shoot on the
+      Pine-tops</i>.&mdash;Made and concluded by the same at St.
+      Louis 1st June, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Chickasaw tribe</i>.&mdash;Treaty made by General Jackson,
+      David Merrewether, esq., and Jesse Franklin, esq., and the
+      headmen of that nation at Chickasaw council house 20th
+      September, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Cherokee tribe</i>.&mdash;Treaty made by General Jackson,
+      David Merrewether, esq., and Jesse Franklin, esq., and the
+      headmen of that nation at Turkey Town on the 4th October,
+      1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Choctaw tribe</i>.&mdash;Treaty made by General John
+      Coffee, John Rhea, and John McKee, esquires, and the headmen
+      and warriors of that nation at the Choctaw trading house on
+      the 24th of October, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 13, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A treaty of commerce between the United States and the King
+      of Sweden and Norway having been concluded and signed on the
+      4th day of September last by their plenipotentiaries, I lay
+      the same before the Senate for their consideration and advice
+      as to a ratification.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 21, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with the resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 6th instant, I transmit to them the
+      proceedings of the commissioner appointed under the act "to
+      authorize the payment for property lost, captured, or
+      destroyed by the enemy while in the military service of the
+      United States, and for other purposes," as reported by the
+      commissioner to the Department of War.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 26, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is found that the existing laws have not the efficacy
+      necessary to prevent violations of the obligations of the
+      United States as a nation at peace toward belligerent parties
+      and other unlawful acts on the high seas by armed vessels
+      equipped within the waters of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a view to maintain more effectually the respect due to
+      the laws, to the character, and to the neutral and pacific
+      relations of the United States, I recommend to the
+      consideration of Congress the expediency of such further
+      legislative provisions as may be requisite for detaining
+      vessels actually equipped, or in a course of equipment, with
+      a warlike force within the jurisdiction of the United States,
+      or, as the case may be, for obtaining from the owners or
+      commanders of such vessels adequate securities against the
+      abuse of their armaments, with the exceptions in such
+      provisions proper for the cases of merchant vessels furnished
+      with the defensive armaments usual on distant and dangerous
+      expeditions, and of a private commerce in military stores
+      permitted by our laws, and which the law of nations does not
+      require the United States to prohibit.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 25, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before Congress copies of ratified treaties between the
+      United States and the following Indian tribes:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First. The Wea and Kickapoo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Second. The united tribes of Ottawas, Chippawas, and
+      Potowotomies residing on the Illinois and Melwakee rivers and
+      their waters and on the southwestern parts of Lake Michigan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Third. That portion of the Winnebago tribe or nation residing
+      on the Ouisconsin River,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fourth. The Sacs of Rock River and the adjacent country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fifth. Eight bands of the Siouxs, composing the three tribes
+      called the Siouxs of the Leaf, the Siouxs of the Broad Leaf,
+      and the Siouxs who Shoot in the Pine Tops.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sixth. The Chickasaw tribe of Indians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Seventh. The Cherokee tribe of Indians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eighth. The Chactaw tribe of Indians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Congress will take into consideration how far legislative
+      provisions may be necessary for carrying into effect
+      stipulations contained in the said treaties,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 31, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of His
+      Most Christian Majesty having renewed, under special
+      instructions from his Government, the claim of the
+      representative of Baron de Beaumarchais for 1,000,000 livres,
+      which were debited to him in the settlement of his accounts
+      with the United States, I lay before Congress copies of the
+      memoir on that subject addressed by the said envoy to the
+      Secretary of State.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Considering that the sum of which the million of livres in
+      question made a part was a gratuitous grant from the French
+      Government to the United States, and the declaration of that
+      Government that that part of the grant was put into the hands
+      of M. de Beaumarchais as its agent, not as the agent of the
+      United States, and was duly accounted for by him to the
+      French Government; considering also the concurring opinions
+      of two Attorneys-General of the United States that the said
+      debit was not legally sustainable in behalf of the United
+      States, I recommend the case to the favorable attention of
+      the Legislature, whose authority alone can finally decide on
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 3, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Government of Great Britain, induced by the posture of
+      the relations with the United States which succeeded the
+      conclusion of the recent commercial convention, issued an
+      order on the 17th day of August, 1815, discontinuing the
+      discriminating duties payable in British ports on American
+      vessels and their cargoes. It was not until the 22d of
+      December following that a corresponding discontinuance of
+      discriminating duties on British vessels and their cargoes in
+      American ports took effect under the authority vested in the
+      Executive by the act of March, 1816. During the period
+      between those two dates there was consequently a failure of
+      reciprocity or equality in the existing regulations of the
+      two countries. I recommend to the consideration of Congress
+      the expediency of paying to the British Government the amount
+      of the duties remitted during the period in question to
+      citizens of the United States, subject to a deduction of the
+      amount of whatever discriminating duties may have commenced
+      in British ports after the signature of that convention and
+      been collected previous to the 17th of August, 1815.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 6, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On comparing the fourth section of the act of Congress passed
+      March 31, 1814, providing for the indemnification of certain
+      claimants of public lands in the Mississippi Territory, with
+      the article of agreement and cession between the United
+      States and State of Georgia, bearing date April 30, 1802, it
+      appears that the engagements entered into with the claimants
+      interfere with the rights and interests secured to that
+      State. I recommend to Congress that provision be made by law
+      for payments to the State of Georgia equal to the amount of
+      Mississippi stock which shall be paid into the Treasury until
+      the stipulated sum of $1,250,000 shall be completed.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      VETO MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      MARCH 3, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having considered the bill this day presented to me entitled
+      "An act to set apart and pledge certain funds for internal
+      improvements," and which sets apart and pledges funds "for
+      constructing roads and canals, and improving the navigation
+      of water courses, in order to facilitate, promote, and give
+      security to internal commerce among the several States, and
+      to render more easy and less expensive the means and
+      provisions for the common defense," I am constrained by the
+      insuperable difficulty I feel in reconciling the bill with
+      the Constitution of the United States to return it with that
+      objection to the House of Representatives, in which it
+      originated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The legislative powers vested in Congress are specified and
+      enumerated in the eighth section of the first article of the
+      Constitution, and it does not appear that the power proposed
+      to be exercised by the bill is among the enumerated powers,
+      or that it falls by any just interpretation within the power
+      to make laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution
+      those or other powers vested by the Constitution in the
+      Government of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The power to regulate commerce among the several States" can
+      not include a power to construct roads and canals, and to
+      improve the navigation of water courses in order to
+      facilitate, promote, and secure such a commerce without a
+      latitude of construction departing from the ordinary import
+      of the terms strengthened by the known inconveniences which
+      doubtless led to the grant of this remedial power to
+      Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To refer the power in question to the clause "to provide for
+      the common defense and general welfare" would be contrary to
+      the established and consistent rules of interpretation, as
+      rendering the special and careful enumeration of powers which
+      follow the clause nugatory and improper. Such a view of the
+      Constitution would have the effect of giving to Congress a
+      general power of legislation instead of the defined and
+      limited one hitherto understood to belong to them, the terms
+      "common defense and general welfare" embracing every object
+      and act within the purview of a legislative trust. It would
+      have the effect of subjecting both the Constitution and laws
+      of the several States in all cases not specifically exempted
+      to be superseded by laws of Congress, it being expressly
+      declared "that the Constitution of the United States and laws
+      made in pursuance thereof shall be the supreme law of the
+      land, and the judges of every State shall be bound thereby,
+      anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the
+      contrary notwithstanding." Such a view of the Constitution,
+      finally, would have the effect of excluding the judicial
+      authority of the United States from its participation in
+      guarding the boundary between the legislative powers of the
+      General and the State Governments, inasmuch as questions
+      relating to the general welfare, being questions of policy
+      and expediency, are unsusceptible of judicial cognizance and
+      decision.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A restriction of the power "to provide for the common defense
+      and general welfare" to cases which are to be provided for by
+      the expenditure of money would still leave within the
+      legislative power of Congress all the great and most
+      important measures of Government, money being the ordinary
+      and necessary means of carrying them into execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If a general power to construct roads and canals, and to
+      improve the navigation of water courses, with the train of
+      powers incident thereto, be not possessed by Congress, the
+      assent of the States in the mode provided in the bill can not
+      confer the power. The only cases in which the consent and
+      cession of particular States can extend the power of Congress
+      are those specified and provided for in the Constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am not unaware of the great importance of roads and canals
+      and the improved navigation of water courses, and that a
+      power in the National Legislature to provide for them might
+      be exercised with signal advantage to the general prosperity.
+      But seeing that such a power is not expressly given by the
+      Constitution, and believing that it can not be deduced from
+      any part of it without an inadmissible latitude of
+      construction and a reliance on insufficient precedents;
+      believing also that the permanent success of the Constitution
+      depends on a definite partition of powers between the General
+      and the State Governments, and that no adequate landmarks
+      would be left by the constructive extension of the powers of
+      Congress as proposed in the bill, I have no option but to
+      withhold my signature from it, and to cherishing the hope
+      that its beneficial objects may be attained by a resort for
+      the necessary powers to the same wisdom and virtue in the
+      nation which established the Constitution in its actual form
+      and providently marked out in the instrument itself a safe
+      and practicable mode of improving it as experience might
+      suggest.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PROCLAMATION.
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      [From Annals of Congress, Fourteenth Congress, second
+      session, 218.]
+    </center>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 1, 1817</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senators of the United States, respectively</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SIR: Objects interesting to the United States requiring that
+      the Senate should be in session on the 4th of March next to
+      receive such communications as may be made to it on the part
+      of the Executive, your attendance in the Senate Chamber in
+      this city on that day is accordingly requested.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MADISON.
+    </p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Compilation of the Messages and
+Papers of the Presidents, by Edited by James D. Richardson
+
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diff --git a/old/10895.txt b/old/10895.txt
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+++ b/old/10895.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of
+the Presidents, by Edited by James D. Richardson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents
+       Section 4 (of 4) of Volume 1: James Madison
+
+Author: Edited by James D. Richardson
+
+Release Date: January 31, 2004 [EBook #10895]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES MADISON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Garcia and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+A COMPILATION OF THE MESSAGES AND PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENTS.
+
+BY JAMES D. RICHARDSON
+
+
+James Madison
+
+March 4, 1809, to March 4, 1817
+
+
+
+
+James Madison
+
+
+James Madison was born in King George County, Va., on the 16th of March,
+1751. He was the son of James Madison, the family being of English
+descent, and among the early settlers of Virginia. Was fitted for
+college by private tutors, and entered Princeton College in 1769,
+graduating in 1771; remained a year at college pursuing his studies.
+After this he returned to Virginia and began the practice of law. In
+1776 was elected a member of the general assembly of Virginia, and in
+1778 was appointed a member of the executive council. In the winter of
+1779-80 was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress, of which body
+he continued an active and prominent member till 1784. The legislature
+of Virginia appointed him in 1786 a delegate to a convention at
+Annapolis, Md., to devise a system of commercial regulations for all the
+States. Upon their recommendation a convention of delegates from all the
+States was held in Philadelphia in May, 1787. This Convention framed the
+Constitution of the United States, and of it Mr. Madison was a leading
+member. He was next a member of the convention of his State which met to
+consider the new Constitution for the United States. Was a member of the
+House of Representatives in the First Congress, taking his seat in
+April, 1789, and continued to be a member of the House during both of
+Washington's terms as President. He married Mrs. Dolly Paine Todd, of
+Philadelphia, in 1794, she being the widow of a Pennsylvania lawyer. Her
+father was a Quaker, and had removed from Virginia to Philadelphia.
+Declined the office of Secretary of State, vacated by Jefferson, in
+1793. He retired from Congress in 1797, and in 1798 accepted a seat in
+the Virginia assembly. In 1801 was appointed by President Jefferson
+Secretary of State, which office he held during the eight years of
+Jefferson's Administration. In 1808 was elected President, and was
+reelected in 1812. On March 4, 1817, he retired from public life, and
+passed the remainder of his days at Montpelier, in Orange County, Va. In
+1829 was chosen a member of the State convention to revise the
+constitution of Virginia, and was also chosen president of an
+agricultural society in his county. He died on the 28th day of June,
+1836, and was buried at his home.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT ELECT.
+
+The President of the Senate communicated the following letter from the
+President elect of the United States:
+
+CITY OF WASHINGTON, _March 2, 1809_.
+
+Hon. JOHN MILLEDGE,
+
+_President pro tempore of the Senate_.
+
+SIR: I beg leave through you to inform the honorable the Senate of the
+United States that I propose to take the oath which the Constitution
+prescribes to the President of the United States before he enters on the
+execution of his office on Saturday, the 4th instant, at 12 o'clock, in
+the Chamber of the House of Representatives.
+
+I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, sir, your most
+obedient and most humble servant,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
+
+
+Unwilling to depart from examples of the most revered authority, I avail
+myself of the occasion now presented to express the profound impression
+made on me by the call of my country to the station to the duties of
+which I am about to pledge myself by the most solemn of sanctions. So
+distinguished a mark of confidence, proceeding from the deliberate and
+tranquil suffrage of a free and virtuous nation, would under any
+circumstances have commanded my gratitude and devotion, as well as
+filled me with an awful sense of the trust to be assumed. Under the
+various circumstances which give peculiar solemnity to the existing
+period, I feel that both the honor and the responsibility allotted to me
+are inexpressibly enhanced.
+
+The present situation of the world is indeed without a parallel, and
+that of our own country full of difficulties. The pressure of these,
+too, is the more severely felt because they have fallen upon us at a
+moment when the national prosperity being at a height not before
+attained, the contrast resulting from the change has been rendered the
+more striking. Under the benign influence of our republican
+institutions, and the maintenance of peace with all nations whilst so
+many of them were engaged in bloody and wasteful wars, the fruits of a
+just policy were enjoyed in an unrivaled growth of our faculties and
+resources. Proofs of this were seen in the improvements of agriculture,
+in the successful enterprises of commerce, in the progress of
+manufactures and useful arts, in the increase of the public revenue and
+the use made of it in reducing the public debt, and in the valuable
+works and establishments everywhere multiplying over the face of our
+land.
+
+It is a precious reflection that the transition from this prosperous
+condition of our country to the scene which has for some time been
+distressing us is not chargeable on any unwarrantable views, nor, as I
+trust, on any involuntary errors in the public councils. Indulging no
+passions which trespass on the rights or the repose of other nations, it
+has been the true glory of the United States to cultivate peace by
+observing justice, and to entitle themselves to the respect of the
+nations at war by fulfilling their neutral obligations with the most
+scrupulous impartiality. If there be candor in the world, the truth of
+these assertions will not be questioned; posterity at least will do
+justice to them.
+
+This unexceptionable course could not avail against the injustice and
+violence of the belligerent powers. In their rage against each other, or
+impelled by more direct motives, principles of retaliation have been
+introduced equally contrary to universal reason and acknowledged law.
+How long their arbitrary edicts will be continued in spite of the
+demonstrations that not even a pretext for them has been given by the
+United States, and of the fair and liberal attempt to induce a
+revocation of them, can not be anticipated. Assuring myself that under
+every vicissitude the determined spirit and united councils of the
+nation will be safeguards to its honor and its essential interests, I
+repair to the post assigned me with no other discouragement than what
+springs from my own inadequacy to its high duties. If I do not sink
+under the weight of this deep conviction it is because I find some
+support in a consciousness of the purposes and a confidence in the
+principles which I bring with me into this arduous service.
+
+To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all nations having
+correspondent dispositions; to maintain sincere neutrality toward
+belligerent nations; to prefer in all cases amicable discussion and
+reasonable accommodation of differences to a decision of them by an
+appeal to arms; to exclude foreign intrigues and foreign partialities,
+so degrading to all countries and so baneful to free ones; to foster a
+spirit of independence too just to invade the rights of others, too
+proud to surrender our own, too liberal to indulge unworthy prejudices
+ourselves and too elevated not to look down upon them in others; to hold
+the union of the States as the basis of their peace and happiness; to
+support the Constitution, which is the cement of the Union, as well in
+its limitations as in its authorities; to respect the rights and
+authorities reserved to the States and to the people as equally
+incorporated with and essential to the success of the general system; to
+avoid the slightest interference with the rights of conscience or the
+functions of religion, so wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction; to
+preserve in their full energy the other salutary provisions in behalf of
+private and personal rights, and of the freedom of the press; to observe
+economy in public expenditures; to liberate the public resources by an
+honorable discharge of the public debts; to keep within the requisite
+limits a standing military force, always remembering that an armed and
+trained militia is the firmest bulwark of republics--that without
+standing armies their liberty can never be in danger, nor with large
+ones safe; to promote by authorized means improvements friendly to
+agriculture, to manufactures, and to external as well as internal
+commerce; to favor in like manner the advancement of science and the
+diffusion of information as the best aliment to true liberty; to carry
+on the benevolent plans which have been so meritoriously applied to the
+conversion of our aboriginal neighbors from the degradation and
+wretchedness of savage life to a participation of the improvements of
+which the human mind and manners are susceptible in a civilized
+state--as far as sentiments and intentions such as these can aid the
+fulfillment of my duty, they will be a resource which can not fail me.
+
+It is my good fortune, moreover, to have the path in which I am to tread
+lighted by examples of illustrious services successfully rendered in the
+most trying difficulties by those who have marched before me. Of those
+of my immediate predecessor it might least become me here to speak. I
+may, however, be pardoned for not suppressing the sympathy with which my
+heart is full in the rich reward he enjoys in the benedictions of a
+beloved country, gratefully bestowed for exalted talents zealously
+devoted through a long career to the advancement of its highest interest
+and happiness.
+
+But the source to which I look for the aids which alone can supply my
+deficiencies is in the well-tried intelligence and virtue of my
+fellow-citizens, and in the counsels of those representing them in the
+other departments associated in the care of the national interests. In
+these my confidence will under every difficulty be best placed, next to
+that which we have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and
+guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of
+nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this
+rising Republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout
+gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent supplications and best
+hopes for the future.
+
+MARCH 4, 1809.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL SESSION MESSAGE.
+
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+On this first occasion of meeting you it affords me much satisfaction to
+be able to communicate the commencement of a favorable change in our
+foreign relations, the critical state of which induced a session of
+Congress at this early period.
+
+In consequence of the provisions of the act interdicting commercial
+intercourse with Great Britain and France, our ministers at London and
+Paris were without delay instructed to let it be understood by the
+French and British Governments that the authority vested in the
+Executive to renew commercial intercourse with their respective nations
+would be exercised in the case specified by that act.
+
+Soon after these instructions were dispatched it was found that the
+British Government, anticipating from early proceedings of Congress at
+their last session the state of our laws, which has had the effect of
+placing the two belligerent powers on a footing of equal restrictions,
+and relying on the conciliatory disposition of the United States, had
+transmitted to their legation here provisional instructions not only to
+offer satisfaction for the attack on the frigate _Chesapeake_, and
+to make known the determination of His Britannic Majesty to send an
+envoy extraordinary with powers to conclude a treaty on all the points
+between the two countries, but, moreover, to signify his willingness in
+the meantime to withdraw his orders in council, in the persuasion that
+the intercourse with Great Britain would be renewed on the part of the
+United States.
+
+These steps of the British Government led to the correspondence and the
+proclamation now laid before you, by virtue of which the commerce
+between the two countries will be renewable after the 10th day of June
+next.
+
+Whilst I take pleasure in doing justice to the councils of His Britannic
+Majesty, which, no longer adhering to the policy which made an
+abandonment by France of her decrees a prerequisite to a revocation of
+the British orders, have substituted the amicable course which has
+issued thus happily, I can not do less than refer to the proposal
+heretofore made on the part of the United States, embracing a like
+restoration of the suspended commerce, as a proof of the spirit of
+accommodation which has at no time been intermitted, and to the result
+which now calls for our congratulations, as corroborating the principles
+by which the public councils have been guided during a period of the
+most trying embarrassments.
+
+The discontinuance of the British orders as they respect the United
+States having been thus arranged, a communication of the event has been
+forwarded in one of our public vessels to our minister plenipotentiary
+at Paris, with instructions to avail himself of the important addition
+thereby made to the considerations which press on the justice of the
+French Government a revocation of its decrees or such a modification of
+them as that they shall cease to violate the neutral commerce of the
+United States.
+
+The revision of our commercial laws proper to adapt them to the
+arrangement which has taken place with Great Britain will doubtless
+engage the early attention of Congress. It will be worthy at the same
+time of their just and provident care to make such further alterations
+in the laws as will more especially protect and foster the several
+branches of manufacture which have been recently instituted or extended
+by the laudable exertions of our citizens.
+
+Under the existing aspect of our affairs I have thought it not
+inconsistent with a just precaution to have the gunboats, with the
+exception of those at New Orleans, placed in a situation incurring no
+expense beyond that requisite for their preservation and conveniency for
+future service, and to have the crews of those at New Orleans reduced to
+the number required for their navigation and safety.
+
+I have thought also that our citizens detached in quotas of militia
+amounting to 100,000 under the act of March, 1808, might not improperly
+be relieved from the state in which they were held for immediate
+service. A discharge of them has been accordingly directed.
+
+The progress made in raising and organizing the additional military
+force, for which provision was made by the act of April, 1808, together
+with the disposition of the troops, will appear by a report which the
+Secretary of War is preparing, and which will be laid before you.
+
+Of the additional frigates required by an act of the last session to be
+fitted for actual service, two are in readiness, one nearly so, and the
+fourth is expected to be ready in the month of July. A report which the
+Secretary of the Navy is preparing on the subject, to be laid before
+Congress, will shew at the same time the progress made in officering and
+manning these ships. It will shew also the degree in which the
+provisions of the act relating to the other public armed ships have been
+carried into execution.
+
+It will rest with the judgment of Congress to decide how far the change
+in our external prospects may authorize any modifications of the laws
+relating to the army and navy establishments.
+
+The works of defense for our seaport towns and harbors have proceeded
+with as much activity as the season of the year and other circumstances
+would admit. It is necessary, however, to state that, the appropriations
+hitherto made being found to be deficient, a further provision will
+claim the early consideration of Congress.
+
+The whole of the 8 per cent stock remaining due by the United States,
+amounting to $5,300,000, had been reimbursed on the last day of the year
+1808; and on the 1st day of April last the sum in the Treasury exceeded
+$9,500,000. This, together with the receipts of the current year on
+account of former revenue bonds, will probably be nearly if not
+altogether sufficient to defray the expenses of the year. But the
+suspension of exports and the consequent decrease of importations during
+the last twelve months will necessarily cause a great diminution in the
+receipts of the year 1810. After that year, should our foreign relations
+be undisturbed, the revenue will again be more than commensurate to all
+the expenditures.
+
+Aware of the inconveniences of a protracted session at the present
+season of the year, I forbear to call the attention of the Legislature
+to any matters not particularly urgent. It remains, therefore, only to
+assure you of the fidelity and alacrity with which I shall cooperate
+for the welfare and happiness of our country, and to pray that it may
+experience a continuance of the divine blessings by which it has been
+so signally favored.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+MAY 23, 1809.
+
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+MAY 26, 1809.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I now lay before Congress the report of the Secretary of War, shewing
+the progress made in carrying into effect the act of April, 1808, for
+raising an additional military force, and the disposition of the troops.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JUNE 4, 1809.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the request of the legislature of Pennsylvania, I
+transmit to Congress a copy of certain of its proceedings, communicated
+for the purpose by the governor of that State.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JUNE 15, 1809.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 13th instant,
+I transmit extracts from letters from Mr. Pinkney to the Secretary of
+State, accompanied by letters and communications to him from the British
+secretary of state for the foreign department, all of which have been
+received here since the last session of Congress.
+
+To these documents are added a communication just made by Mr. Erskine
+to the Secretary of State, and his answer.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JUNE 20, 1809.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 19th instant, I
+transmit such information as has been received respecting exiles from
+Cuba arrived or expected within the United States; also a letter from
+General Turreau connected with that subject.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JUNE 26, 1809.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+The considerations which led to the nomination of a minister
+plenipotentiary to Russia being strengthened by evidence since received
+of the earnest desire of the Emperor to establish a diplomatic
+intercourse between the two countries, and of a disposition in his
+councils favorable to the extension of a commerce mutually advantageous,
+as will be seen by the extracts from letters from General Armstrong and
+Consul Harris herewith confidentially communicated, I nominate John
+Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, to be minister plenipotentiary of the
+United States to the Court of St. Petersburg.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATIONS.
+
+
+[From Annals of Congress, Eleventh Congress, part 2, 2060.]
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas it is provided by the eleventh section of the act of Congress
+entitled "An act to interdict the commercial intercourse between the
+United States and Great Britain and France and their dependencies, and
+for other purposes," that "in case either France or Great Britain shall
+so revoke or modify her edicts as that they shall cease to violate the
+neutral commerce of the United States" the President is authorized to
+declare the same by proclamation, after which the trade suspended by the
+said act and by an act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the
+ports and harbors of the United States and the several acts
+supplementary thereto may be renewed with the nation so doing; and
+
+Whereas the Honorable David Montague Erskine, His Britannic Majesty's
+envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, has, by the order and
+in the name of his Sovereign, declared to this Government that the
+British orders in council of January and November, 1807, will have been
+withdrawn as respects the United States on the 10th day of June next:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United States, do
+hereby proclaim that the orders in council aforesaid will have been
+withdrawn on the said 10th day of June next, after which day the trade
+of the United States with Great Britain, as suspended by the act of
+Congress above mentioned and an act laying an embargo on all ships and
+vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States and the several
+acts supplementary thereto, may be renewed.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Given under my hand and the seal of the United States at Washington,
+the 19th day of April, A.D. 1809, and of the Independence of the United
+States the thirty-third.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  R. SMITH,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+[From Annals of Congress, Eleventh Congress, part 2, 2076.]
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas, in consequence of a communication from His Britannic Majesty's
+envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary declaring that the
+British orders of council of January and November, 1807, would have been
+withdrawn on the 10th day of June last, and by virtue of authority given
+in such event by the eleventh section of the act of Congress entitled
+"An act to interdict the commercial intercourse between the United
+States and Great Britain and France and their dependencies, and for
+other purposes," I, James Madison, President of the United States, did
+issue my proclamation bearing date on the 19th of April last, declaring
+that the orders in council aforesaid would have been so withdrawn on the
+said 10th day of June, after which the trade suspended by certain acts
+of Congress might be renewed; and
+
+Whereas it is now officially made known to me that the said orders in
+council have not been withdrawn agreeably to the communication and
+declaration aforesaid:
+
+I do hereby proclaim the same, and, consequently, that the trade
+renewable on the event of the said orders, being withdrawn, is to be
+considered as under the operation of the several acts by which such
+trade was suspended.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Given under my hand and the seal of the United States at the city of
+Washington, the 9th day of August, A.D. 1809, and of the Independence
+of the said United States the thirty-fourth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  R. SMITH,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+NOVEMBER 29, 1809.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+At the period of our last meeting I had the satisfaction of
+communicating an adjustment with one of the principal belligerent
+nations, highly important in itself, and still more so as presaging a
+more extended accommodation. It is with deep concern I am now to inform
+you that the favorable prospect has been overclouded by a refusal of the
+British Government to abide by the act of its minister plenipotentiary,
+and by its ensuing policy toward the United States as seen through the
+communications of the minister sent to replace him.
+
+Whatever pleas may be urged for a disavowal of engagements formed by
+diplomatic functionaries in cases where by the terms of the engagements
+a mutual ratification is reserved, or where notice at the time may have
+been given of a departure from instructions, or in extraordinary cases
+essentially violating the principles of equity, a disavowal could not
+have been apprehended in a case where no such notice or violation
+existed, where no such ratification was reserved, and more especially
+where, as is now in proof, an engagement to be executed without any such
+ratification was contemplated by the instructions given, and where it
+had with good faith been carried into immediate execution on the part of
+the United States.
+
+These considerations not having restrained the British Government from
+disavowing the arrangement by virtue of which its orders in council were
+to be revoked, and the event authorizing the renewal of commercial
+intercourse having thus not taken place, it necessarily became a
+question of equal urgency and importance whether the act prohibiting
+that intercourse was not to be considered as remaining in legal force.
+This question being, after due deliberation, determined in the
+affirmative, a proclamation to that effect was issued. It could not but
+happen, however, that a return to this state of things from that which
+had followed an execution of the arrangement by the United States would
+involve difficulties. With a view to diminish these as much as possible,
+the instructions from the Secretary of the Treasury now laid before you
+were transmitted to the collectors of the several ports. If in
+permitting British vessels to depart without giving bonds not to proceed
+to their own ports it should appear that the tenor of legal authority
+has not been strictly pursued, it is to be ascribed to the anxious
+desire which was felt that no individuals should be injured by so
+unforeseen an occurrence; and I rely on the regard of Congress for
+the equitable interests of our own citizens to adopt whatever further
+provisions may be found requisite for a general remission of penalties
+involuntarily incurred.
+
+The recall of the disavowed minister having been followed by the
+appointment of a successor, hopes were indulged that the new mission
+would contribute to alleviate the disappointment which had been
+produced, and to remove the causes which had so long embarrassed the
+good understanding of the two nations. It could not be doubted that it
+would at least be charged with conciliatory explanations of the step
+which had been taken and with proposals to be substituted for the
+rejected arrangement. Reasonable and universal as this expectation was,
+it also has not been fulfilled. From the first official disclosures of
+the new minister it was found that he had received no authority to enter
+into explanations relative to either branch of the arrangement disavowed
+nor any authority to substitute proposals as to that branch which
+concerned the British orders in council, and, finally, that his
+proposals with respect to the other branch, the attack on the frigate
+_Chesapeake_, were founded on a presumption repeatedly declared to
+be inadmissible by the United States, that the first step toward
+adjustment was due from them, the proposals at the same time omitting
+even a reference to the officer answerable for the murderous aggression,
+and asserting a claim not less contrary to the British laws and British
+practice than to the principles and obligations of the United States.
+
+The correspondence between the Department of State and this minister
+will show how unessentially the features presented in its commencement
+have been varied in its progress. It will show also that, forgetting the
+respect due to all governments, he did not refrain from imputations on
+this, which required that no further communications should be received
+from him. The necessity of this step will be made known to His Britannic
+Majesty through the minister plenipotentiary of the United States in
+London; and it would indicate a want of the confidence due to a
+Government which so well understands and exacts what becomes foreign
+ministers near it not to infer that the misconduct of its own
+representative will be viewed in the same light in which it has been
+regarded here. The British Government will learn at the same time that
+a ready attention will be given to communications through any channel
+which may be substituted. It will be happy if the change in this respect
+should be accompanied by a favorable revision of the unfriendly policy
+which has been so long pursued toward the United States.
+
+With France, the other belligerent, whose trespasses on our commercial
+rights have long been the subject of our just remonstrances, the posture
+of our relations does not correspond with the measures taken on the part
+of the United States to effect a favorable change. The result of the
+several communications made to her Government, in pursuance of the
+authorities vested by Congress in the Executive, is contained in the
+correspondence of our minister at Paris now laid before you.
+
+By some of the other belligerents, although professing just and amicable
+dispositions, injuries materially affecting our commerce have not been
+duly controlled or repressed. In these cases the interpositions deemed
+proper on our part have not been omitted. But it well deserves the
+consideration of the Legislature how far both the safety and the honor
+of the American flag may be consulted, by adequate provisions against
+that collusive prostitution of it by individuals unworthy of the
+American name which has so much favored the real or pretended suspicions
+under which the honest commerce of their fellow-citizens has suffered.
+
+In relation to the powers on the coast of Barbary, nothing has occurred
+which is not of a nature rather to inspire confidence than distrust as
+to the continuance of the existing amity. With our Indian neighbors, the
+just and benevolent system continued toward them has also preserved
+peace, and is more and more advancing habits favorable to their
+civilization and happiness.
+
+From a statement which will be made by the Secretary of War it will be
+seen that the fortifications on our maritime frontier are in many of the
+ports completed, affording the defense which was contemplated, and that
+a further time will be required to render complete the works in the
+harbor of New York and in some other places. By the enlargement of the
+works and the employment of a greater number of hands at the public
+armories the supply of small arms of an improving quality appears to be
+annually increasing at a rate that, with those made on private contract,
+may be expected to go far toward providing for the public exigency.
+
+The act of Congress providing for the equipment of our vessels of war
+having been fully carried into execution, I refer to the statement of
+the Secretary of the Navy for the information which may be proper on
+that subject. To that statement is added a view of the transfers of
+appropriations authorized by the act of the session preceding the last
+and of the grounds on which the transfers were made.
+
+Whatever may be the course of your deliberations on the subject of our
+military establishments, I should fail in my duty in not recommending
+to your serious attention the importance of giving to our militia, the
+great bulwark of our security and resource of our power, an organization
+the best adapted to eventual situations for which the United States
+ought to be prepared.
+
+The sums which had been previously accumulated in the Treasury, together
+with the receipts during the year ending on the 30th of September last
+(and amounting to more than $9,000,000), have enabled us to fulfill all
+our engagements and to defray the current expenses of Government without
+recurring to any loan. But the insecurity of our commerce and the
+consequent diminution of the public revenue will probably produce a
+deficiency in the receipts of the ensuing year, for which and for other
+details I refer to the statements which will be transmitted from the
+Treasury.
+
+In the state which has been presented of our affairs with the great
+parties to a disastrous and protracted war, carried on in a mode equally
+injurious and unjust to the United States as a neutral nation, the
+wisdom of the National legislature will be again summoned to the
+important decision on the alternatives before them. That these will be
+met in a spirit worthy the councils of a nation conscious both of its
+rectitude and of its rights, and careful as well of its honor as of its
+peace, I have an entire confidence; and that the result will be stamped
+by a unanimity becoming the occasion, and be supported by every portion
+of our citizens with a patriotism enlightened and invigorated by
+experience, ought as little to be doubted.
+
+In the midst of the wrongs and vexations experienced from external
+causes there is much room for congratulation on the prosperity and
+happiness flowing from our situation at home. The blessing of health
+has never been more universal. The fruits of the seasons, though in
+particular articles and districts short of their usual redundancy, are
+more than sufficient for our wants and our comforts. The face of our
+country everywhere presents the evidence of laudable enterprise, of
+extensive capital, and of durable improvement. In a cultivation of the
+materials and the extension of useful manufactures, more especially
+in the general application to household fabrics, we behold a rapid
+diminution of our dependence on foreign supplies. Nor is it unworthy
+of reflection that this revolution in our pursuits and habits is in no
+slight degree a consequence of those impolitic and arbitrary edicts by
+which the contending nations, in endeavoring each of them to obstruct
+our trade with the other, have so far abridged our means of procuring
+the productions and manufactures of which our own are now taking the
+place.
+
+Recollecting always that for every advantage which may contribute to
+distinguish our lot from that to which others are doomed by the unhappy
+spirit of the times we are indebted to that Divine Providence whose
+goodness has been so remarkably extended to this rising nation, it
+becomes us to cherish a devout gratitude, and to implore from the same
+omnipotent source a blessing on the consultations and measures about to
+be undertaken for the welfare of our beloved country.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+DECEMBER 12, 1809.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+According to the request of the House of Representatives expressed in
+their resolution of the 11th instant, I now lay before them a printed
+copy of a paper purporting to be a circular letter from Mr. Jackson to
+the British consuls in the United States, as received in a Gazette at
+the Department of State; and also a printed paper received in a letter
+from our minister in London, purporting to be a copy of a dispatch from
+Mr. Canning to Mr. Erskine of the 23d of January last.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 16, 1809.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+Agreeably to the request in the resolution of the 15th instant, I
+transmit a copy of the correspondence with the governor of Pennsylvania
+in the case of Gideon Olmstead,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 16, 1809.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Agreeably to the request expressed in the resolution of the 13th
+instant, I lay before the House extracts from the correspondence of the
+minister plenipotentiary of the United States at London.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 22, 1809.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate, for their consideration whether they will
+advise and consent to the ratification thereof, a treaty concluded on
+the 30th September last with the Delaware, Potawattamie, Miami, and
+Eel-river Miami Indian tribes northwest of the Ohio; a separate article
+of the same date, with the said tribes, and a convention with the Weea
+tribe, concluded on the 26th October last; the whole being accompanied
+with the explanatory documents,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 3, 1810.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The act authorizing a detachment of 100,000 men from the militia will
+expire on the 30th of March next. Its early revival is recommended, in
+order that timely steps may be taken for arrangements such as the act
+contemplated.
+
+Without interfering with the modifications rendered necessary by the
+defects or the inefficacy of the laws restrictive of commerce and
+navigation, or with the policy of disallowing to foreign armed vessels
+the use of our waters, it falls within my duty to recommend also that,
+in addition to the precautionary measure authorized by that act and to
+the regular troops for completing the legal establishment of which
+enlistments are renewed, every necessary provision may be made for a
+volunteer force of 20,000 men, to be enlisted for a short period and
+held in a state of organization and readiness for actual service at the
+shortest warning.
+
+I submit to the consideration of Congress, moreover, the expediency of
+such a classification and organization of the militia as will best
+insure prompt and successive aids from that source, adequate to
+emergencies which may call for them.
+
+It will rest with them also to determine how far further provision may
+be expedient for putting into actual service, if necessary, any part of
+the naval armament not now employed.
+
+At a period presenting features in the conduct of foreign powers toward
+the United States which impose on them the necessity of precautionary
+measures involving expense, it is a happy consideration that such is the
+solid state of the public credit that reliance may be justly placed on
+any legal provision that may be made for resorting to it in a convenient
+form and to an adequate amount,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 9, 1810.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate, for their consideration whether they will
+advise and consent to the ratification thereof, a treaty concluded on
+the 9th day of December last with the Kickapoo tribe of Indians,
+accompanied by explanations in an extract of a letter from the governor
+of the Indiana Territory,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 15, 1810.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate, for their consideration whether they will
+advise and consent to the ratification thereof, a treaty concluded with
+the Great and Little Osage Indians on the 10th day of November, 1808,
+and the 31st day of August, 1809.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 22, 1810.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate a report of the Secretary of the Treasury,
+complying with their resolution of the 27th of December, on the subject
+of disbursements in the intercourse with the Barbary Powers.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 28, 1810.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I now lay before you copies of the treaties concluded with the Delaware,
+Pottawatamie, Miami, Eel River, and Wea tribes of Indians for the
+extinguishment of their title to the lands therein described, and I
+recommend to the consideration of Congress the making provision by law
+for carrying them into execution.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+MARCH 15, 1810.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+A treaty having been entered into and duly ratified with the Kickapoo
+tribe of Indians for the extinguishment of their title to certain lands
+within the Indiana Territory, involving conditions which require
+legislative provision, I submit copies thereof to both branches for
+consideration.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+MARCH 27, 1810,
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In consequence of your resolution of the 26th instant, an inquiry has
+been made into the correspondence of our minister at the Court of London
+with the Department of State, from which it appears that no official
+communication has been received from him since his receipt of the letter
+of November 23 last from the Secretary of State. A letter of January 4,
+1810, has been received from that minister by Mr. Smith, but being
+stated to be private and unofficial, and involving, moreover, personal
+considerations of a delicate nature, a copy is considered as not within
+the purview of the call of the House.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATIONS.
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas the territory south of the Mississippi Territory and eastward of
+the river Mississippi, and extending to the river Perdido, of which
+possession was not delivered to the United States in pursuance of the
+treaty concluded at Paris on the 30th April, 1803, has at all times, as
+is well known, been considered and claimed by them as being within the
+colony of Louisiana conveyed by the said treaty in the same extent that
+it had in the hands of Spain and that it had when France originally
+possessed it; and
+
+Whereas the acquiescence of the United States in the temporary
+continuance of the said territory under the Spanish authority was not
+the result of any distrust of their title, as has been particularly
+evinced by the general tenor of their laws and by the distinction made
+in the application of those laws between that territory and foreign
+countries, but was occasioned by their conciliatory views and by a
+confidence in the justice of their cause and in the success of candid
+discussion and amicable negotiation with a just and friendly power; and
+
+Whereas a satisfactory adjustment, too long delayed, without the fault
+of the United States, has for some time been entirely suspended by
+events over which they had no control; and
+
+Whereas a crisis has at length arrived subversive of the order of things
+under the Spanish authorities, whereby a failure of the United States
+to take the said territory into its possession may lead to events
+ultimately contravening the views of both parties, whilst in the
+meantime the tranquillity and security of our adjoining territories are
+endangered and new facilities given to violations of our revenue and
+commercial laws and of those prohibiting the introduction of slaves;
+
+Considering, moreover, that under these peculiar and imperative
+circumstances a forbearance on the part of the United States to occupy
+the territory in question, and thereby guard against the confusions and
+contingencies which threaten it, might be construed into a dereliction
+of their title or an insensibility to the importance of the stake;
+considering that in the hands of the United States it will not cease
+to be a subject of fair and friendly negotiation and adjustment;
+considering, finally, that the acts of Congress, though contemplating a
+present possession by a foreign authority, have contemplated also an
+eventual possession of the said territory by the United States, and are
+accordingly so framed as in that case to extend in their operation to
+the same:
+
+Now be it known that I, James Madison, President of the United States of
+America, in pursuance of these weighty and urgent considerations, have
+deemed it right and requisite that possession should be taken of the
+said territory in the name and behalf of the United States. William
+C.C. Claiborne, governor of the Orleans Territory, of which the said
+Territory is to be taken as part, will accordingly proceed to execute
+the same and to exercise over the said Territory the authorities and
+functions legally appertaining to his office; and the good people
+inhabiting the same are invited and enjoined to pay due respect to him
+in that character, to be obedient to the laws, to maintain order, to
+cherish harmony, and in every manner to conduct themselves as peaceable
+citizens, under full assurance that they will be protected in the
+enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion.
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
+hereunto affixed, and signed the same with my hand.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Done at the city of Washington, the 27th day of October, A.D. 1810, and
+in the thirty-fifth year of the Independence of the said United States.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  R. SMITH,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+[From Annals of Congress, Eleventh Congress, third session, 1248.]
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas by the fourth section of the act of Congress passed on the 1st
+day of May, 1810, entitled "An act concerning the commercial intercourse
+between the United States and Great Britain and France and their
+dependencies, and for other purposes," it is provided "that in case
+either Great Britain or France shall before the 3d day of March next
+so revoke or modify her edicts as that they shall cease to violate the
+neutral commerce of the United States, which fact the President of the
+United States shall declare by proclamation, and if the other nation
+shall not within three months thereafter so revoke or modify her edicts
+in like manner, then the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth,
+ninth, tenth, and eighteenth sections of the act entitled 'An act to
+interdict the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great
+Britain and France and their dependencies, and for other purposes,'
+shall from and after the expiration of three months from the date of the
+proclamation aforesaid be revived and have full force and effect so far
+as relates to the dominions, colonies, and dependencies, and to the
+articles the growth, produce, or manufacture of the dominions, colonies,
+and dependencies, of the nation thus refusing or neglecting to revoke or
+modify her edicts in the manner aforesaid. And the restrictions imposed
+by this act shall, from the date of such proclamation cease and be
+discontinued in relation to the nation revoking or modifying her decrees
+in the manner aforesaid;" and
+
+Whereas it has been officially made known to this Government that the
+edicts of France violating the neutral commerce of the United States
+have been so revoked as to cease to have effect on the 1st of the
+present month:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United States, do
+hereby proclaim that the said edicts of France have been so revoked as
+that they ceased on the said 1st day of the present month to violate the
+neutral commerce of the United States, and that from the date of these
+presents all the restrictions imposed by the aforesaid act shall cease
+and be discontinued in relation to France and their dependencies.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
+hereunto affixed, and signed the same with my hand, at the city of
+Washington, this 2d day of November, A.D. 1810, and of the Independence
+of the United States the thirty-fifth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  R. SMITH,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 5, 1810_.
+
+_Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+The embarrassments which have prevailed in our foreign relations, and so
+much employed the deliberations of Congress, make it a primary duty in
+meeting you to communicate whatever may have occurred in that branch of
+our national affairs.
+
+The act of the last session of Congress concerning the commercial
+intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France and
+their dependencies having invited in a new form a termination of their
+edicts against our neutral commerce, copies of the act were immediately
+forwarded to our ministers at London and Paris, with a view that its
+object might be within the early attention of the French and British
+Governments.
+
+By the communication received through our minister at Paris it appeared
+that a knowledge of the act by the French Government was followed by a
+declaration that the Berlin and Milan decrees were revoked, and would
+cease to have effect on the 1st day of November ensuing. These being the
+only known edicts of France within the description of the act, and the
+revocation of them being such that they ceased at that date to violate
+our neutral commerce, the fact, as prescribed by law, was announced by a
+proclamation bearing date the 2d day of November.
+
+It would have well accorded with the conciliatory views indicated by
+this proceeding on the part of France to have extended them to all the
+grounds of just complaint which now remain unadjusted with the United
+States. It was particularly anticipated that, as a further evidence of
+just dispositions toward them, restoration would have been immediately
+made of the property of our citizens seized under a misapplication of
+the principle of reprisals combined with a misconstruction of a law of
+the United States. This expectation has not been fulfilled.
+
+From the British Government no communication on the subject of the act
+has been received. To a communication from our minister at London of a
+revocation by the French Government of its Berlin and Milan decrees it
+was answered that the British system would be relinquished as soon as
+the repeal of the French decrees should have actually taken effect and
+the commerce of neutral nations have been restored to the condition in
+which it stood previously to the promulgation of those decrees. This
+pledge, although it does not necessarily import, does not exclude the
+intention of relinquishing, along with the orders in council, the
+practice of those novel blockades which have a like effect of
+interrupting our neutral commerce, and this further justice to the
+United States is the rather to be looked for, inasmuch as the blockades
+in question, being not more contrary to the established law of nations
+than inconsistent with the rules of blockade formally recognized by
+Great Britain herself, could have no alleged basis other than the plea
+of retaliation alleged as the basis of the orders in council. Under the
+modification of the original orders of November, 1807, into the orders
+of April, 1809, there is, indeed, scarcely a nominal distinction between
+the orders and the blockades. One of those illegitimate blockades,
+bearing date in May, 1806, having been expressly avowed to be still
+unrescinded, and to be in effect comprehended in the orders in council,
+was too distinctly brought within the purview of the act of Congress not
+to be comprehended in the explanation of the requisites to a compliance
+with it. The British Government was accordingly apprised by our minister
+near it that such was the light in which the subject was to be regarded.
+
+On the other important subjects depending between the United States and
+that Government no progress has been made from which an early and
+satisfactory result can be relied on.
+
+In this new posture of our relations with those powers the consideration
+of Congress will be properly turned to a removal of doubts which may
+occur in the exposition and of difficulties in the execution of the act
+above cited.
+
+The commerce of the United States with the north of Europe, heretofore
+much vexed by licentious cruisers, particularly under the Danish flag,
+has latterly been visited with fresh and extensive depredations. The
+measures pursued in behalf of our injured citizens not having obtained
+justice for them, a further and more formal interposition with the
+Danish Government is contemplated. The principles which have been
+maintained by that Government in relation to neutral commerce, and the
+friendly professions of His Danish Majesty toward the United States, are
+valuable pledges in favor of a successful issue.
+
+Among the events growing out of the state of the Spanish Monarchy, our
+attention was imperiously attracted to the change developing itself in
+that portion of West Florida which, though of right appertaining to the
+United States, had remained in the possession of Spain awaiting the
+result of negotiations for its actual delivery to them. The Spanish
+authority was subverted and a situation produced exposing the country to
+ulterior events which might essentially affect the rights and welfare of
+the Union. In such a conjuncture I did not delay the interposition
+required for the occupancy of the territory west of the river Perdido,
+to which the title of the United States extends, and to which the laws
+provided for the Territory of Orleans are applicable. With this view,
+the proclamation of which a copy is laid before you was confided to the
+governor of that Territory to be carried into effect. The legality and
+necessity of the course pursued assure me of the favorable light in
+which it will present itself to the Legislature, and of the promptitude
+with which they will supply whatever provisions may be due to the
+essential rights and equitable interests of the people thus brought into
+the bosom of the American family.
+
+Our amity with the powers of Barbary, with the exception of a recent
+occurrence at Tunis, of which an explanation is just received, appears
+to have been uninterrupted and to have become more firmly established.
+
+With the Indian tribes also the peace and friendship of the United
+States are found to be so eligible that the general disposition to
+preserve both continues to gain strength.
+
+I feel particular satisfaction in remarking that an interior view of our
+country presents us with grateful proofs of its substantial and
+increasing prosperity. To a thriving agriculture and the improvements
+related to it is added a highly interesting extension of useful
+manufactures, the combined product of professional occupations and of
+household industry. Such indeed is the experience of economy as well as
+of policy in these substitutes for supplies heretofore obtained by
+foreign commerce that in a national view the change is justly regarded
+as of itself more than a recompense for those privations and losses
+resulting from foreign injustice which furnished the general impulse
+required for its accomplishment. How far it may be expedient to guard
+the infancy of this improvement in the distribution of labor by
+regulations of the commercial tariff is a subject which can not fail to
+suggest itself to your patriotic reflections.
+
+It will rest with the consideration of Congress also whether a provident
+as well as fair encouragement would not be given to our navigation by
+such regulations as would place it on a level of competition with
+foreign vessels, particularly in transporting the important and bulky
+productions of our own soil. The failure of equality and reciprocity in
+the existing regulations on this subject operates in our ports as a
+premium to foreign competitors, and the inconvenience must increase as
+these may be multiplied under more favorable circumstances by the more
+than countervailing encouragements now given them by the laws of their
+respective countries.
+
+Whilst it is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone
+can be permanently a free people, and whilst it is evident that the
+means of diffusing and improving useful knowledge form so small a
+proportion of the expenditures for national purposes, I can not presume
+it to be unseasonable to invite your attention to the advantages of
+superadding to the means of education provided by the several States a
+seminary of learning instituted by the National Legislature within the
+limits of their exclusive jurisdiction, the expense of which might be
+defrayed or reimbursed out of the vacant grounds which have accrued to
+the nation within those limits.
+
+Such an institution, though local in its legal character, would be
+universal in its beneficial effects. By enlightening the opinions, by
+expanding the patriotism, and by assimilating the principles, the
+sentiments, and the manners of those who might resort to this temple of
+science, to be redistributed in due time through every part of the
+community, sources of jealousy and prejudice would be diminished, the
+features of national character would be multiplied, and greater extent
+given to social harmony. But, above all, a well-constituted seminary in
+the center of the nation is recommended by the consideration that the
+additional instruction emanating from it would contribute not less to
+strengthen the foundations than to adorn the structure of our free and
+happy system of government.
+
+Among the commercial abuses still committed under the American flag, and
+leaving in force my former reference to that subject, it appears that
+American citizens are instrumental in carrying on a traffic in enslaved
+Africans, equally in violation of the laws of humanity and in defiance
+of those of their own country. The same just and benevolent motives
+which produced the interdiction in force against this criminal conduct
+will doubtless be felt by Congress in devising further means of
+suppressing the evil.
+
+In the midst of uncertainties necessarily connected with the great
+interests of the United States, prudence requires a continuance of our
+defensive and precautionary arrangement. The Secretary of War and
+Secretary of the Navy will submit the statements and estimates which may
+aid Congress in their ensuing provisions for the land and naval forces.
+The statements of the latter will include a view of the transfers of
+appropriations in the naval expenditures and the grounds on which they
+were made.
+
+The fortifications for the defense of our maritime frontier have been
+prosecuted according to the plan laid down in 1808. The works, with some
+exceptions, are completed and furnished with ordnance. Those for the
+security of the city of New York, though far advanced toward completion,
+will require a further time and appropriation. This is the case with a
+few others, either not completed or in need of repairs.
+
+The improvements in quality and quantity made in the manufacture of
+cannon and small arms, both at the public armories and private
+factories, warrant additional confidence in the competency of these
+resources for supplying the public exigencies.
+
+These preparations for arming the militia having thus far provided for
+one of the objects contemplated by the power vested in Congress with
+respect to that great bulwark of the public safety, it is for their
+consideration whether further provisions are not requisite for the other
+contemplated objects of organization and discipline. To give to this
+great mass of physical and moral force the efficiency which it merits,
+and is capable of receiving, it is indispensable that they should be
+instructed and practiced in the rules by which they are to be governed.
+Toward an accomplishment of this important work I recommend for the
+consideration of Congress the expediency of instituting a system which
+shall in the first instance call into the field at the public expense
+and for a given time certain portions of the commissioned and
+noncommissioned officers. The instruction and discipline thus acquired
+would gradually diffuse through the entire body of the militia that
+practical knowledge and promptitude for active service which are the
+great ends to be pursued. Experience has left no doubt either of the
+necessity or of the efficacy of competent military skill in those
+portions of an army in fitting it for the final duties which it may have
+to perform.
+
+The Corps of Engineers, with the Military Academy, are entitled to the
+early attention of Congress. The buildings at the seat fixed by law for
+the present Academy are so far in decay as not to afford the necessary
+accommodation. But a revision of the law is recommended, principally
+with a view to a more enlarged cultivation and diffusion of the
+advantages of such institutions, by providing professorships for all the
+necessary branches of military instruction, and by the establishment of
+an additional academy at the seat of Government or elsewhere. The means
+by which war, as well for defense as for offense, are now carried on
+render these schools of the more scientific operations an indispensable
+part of every adequate system. Even among nations whose large standing
+armies and frequent wars afford every other opportunity of instruction
+these establishments are found to be indispensable for the due
+attainment of the branches of military science which require a regular
+course of study and experiment. In a government happily without the
+other opportunities seminaries where the elementary principles of the
+art of war can be taught without actual war, and without the expense of
+extensive and standing armies, have the precious advantage of uniting an
+essential preparation against external danger with a scrupulous regard
+to internal safety. In no other way, probably, can a provision of equal
+efficacy for the public defense be made at so little expense or more
+consistently with the public liberty.
+
+The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th of
+September last (and amounting to more than $8,500,000) have exceeded the
+current expenses of the Government, including the interest on the public
+debt. For the purpose of reimbursing at the end of the year $3,750,000
+of the principal, a loan, as authorized by law, had been negotiated to
+that amount, but has since been reduced to $2,750,000, the reduction
+being permitted by the state of the Treasury, in which there will be a
+balance remaining at the end of the year estimated at $2,000,000. For
+the probable receipts of the next year and other details I refer to
+statements which will be transmitted from the Treasury, and which will
+enable you to judge what further provisions may be necessary for the
+ensuing years.
+
+Reserving for future occasions in the course of the session whatever
+other communications may claim your attention, I close the present by
+expressing my reliance, under the blessing of Divine Providence, on the
+judgment and patriotism which will guide your measures at a period
+particularly calling for united councils and inflexible exertions for
+the welfare of our country, and by assuring you of the fidelity and
+alacrity with which my cooperation will be afforded.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+DECEMBER 12, 1810.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress, and recommend to their early attention, a report
+of the Secretary of State, from which it will be seen that a very
+considerable demand beyond the legal appropriations has been incurred
+for the support of seamen distressed by seizures, in different parts of
+Europe, of the vessels to which they belonged.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 3, 1811_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to Congress, in confidence, a letter of the 2d of December
+from Governor Folch, of West Florida, to the Secretary of State, and
+another of the same date from the same to John McKee.
+
+I communicate in like manner a letter from the British charge d'affaires
+to the Secretary of State, with the answer of the latter. Although the
+letter can not have been written in consequence of any instruction from
+the British Government founded on the late order for taking possession
+of the portion of West Florida well known to be claimed by the United
+States; although no communication has ever been made by that Government
+to this of any stipulation with Spain contemplating an interposition
+which might so materially affect the United States, and although no call
+can have been made by Spain in the present instance for the fulfillment
+of any such subsisting engagement, yet the spirit and scope of the
+document, with the accredited source from which it proceeds, required
+that it should not be withheld from the consideration of Congress.
+
+Taking into view the tenor of these several communications, the posture
+of things with which they are connected, the intimate relation of the
+country adjoining the United States eastward of the river Perdido to
+their security and tranquillity, and the peculiar interest they
+otherwise have in its destiny, I recommend to the consideration of
+Congress the seasonableness of a declaration that the United States
+could not see without serious inquietude any part of a neighboring
+territory in which they have in different respects so deep and so just a
+concern pass from the hands of Spain into those of any other foreign
+power.
+
+I recommend to their consideration also the expediency of authorizing
+the Executive to take temporary possession of any part or parts of the
+said Territory, in pursuance of arrangements which may be desired by the
+Spanish authorities, and for making provision for the government of the
+same during such possession.
+
+The wisdom of Congress will at the same time determine how far it may be
+expedient to provide for the event of a subversion of the Spanish
+authorities within the Territory in question, and an apprehended
+occupancy thereof by any other foreign power.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 10, 1811.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to Congress, in confidence, the translation of a letter
+from Louis de Onis to the captain general of Caraccas.
+
+The tendency of misrepresentations and suggestions which it may be
+inferred from this specimen enter into more important correspondences of
+the writer to promote in foreign councils at a critical period views
+adverse to the peace and to the best interests of our country renders
+the contents of the letter of sufficient moment to be made known to the
+legislature,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 30, 1811.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress copies of a letter from the Secretary of the
+Treasury, accompanied by copies of the Laws, Treaties, and other
+Documents Relative to the Public Lands, as collected and arranged
+pursuant to the act passed April 27, 1810.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 31, 1811.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress a letter from the charge d'affaires of the United
+States at Paris to the Secretary of State, and another from the same to
+the French minister of foreign relations; also two letters from the
+agent of the American consul at Bordeaux to the Secretary of State.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 16, 1811.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I now lay before Congress the treaty concluded on the 10th of November,
+1808, on the part of the United States with the Great and Little Osage
+tribes of Indians, with a view to such legal provisions as may be deemed
+proper for fulfilling its stipulations.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+VETO MESSAGES.
+
+
+FEBRUARY 21, 1811.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Having examined and considered the bill entitled "An act incorporating
+the Protestant Episcopal Church in the town of Alexandria, in the
+District of Columbia," I now return the bill to the House of
+Representatives, in which it originated, with the following objections:
+
+_Because_ the bill exceeds the rightful authority to which
+governments are limited by the essential distinction between civil and
+religious functions, and violates in particular the article of the
+Constitution of the United States which declares that "Congress shall
+make no law respecting a religious establishment." The bill enacts into
+and establishes by law sundry rules and proceedings relative purely to
+the organization and polity of the church incorporated, and
+comprehending even the election and removal of the minister of the same,
+so that no change could be made therein by the particular society or by
+the general church of which it is a member, and whose authority it
+recognizes. This particular church, therefore, would so far be a
+religious establishment by law, a legal force and sanction being given
+to certain articles in its constitution and administration. Nor can it
+be considered that the articles thus established are to be taken as the
+descriptive criteria only of the corporate identity of the society,
+inasmuch as this identity must depend on other characteristics, as the
+regulations established are generally unessential and alterable
+according to the principles and canons by which churches of that
+denomination govern themselves, and as the injunctions and prohibitions
+contained in the regulations would be enforced by the penal consequences
+applicable to a violation of them according to the local law.
+
+_Because_ the bill vests in the said incorporated church an
+authority to provide for the support of the poor and the education of
+poor children of the same, an authority which, being altogether
+superfluous if the provision is to be the result of pious charity, would
+be a precedent for giving to religious societies as such a legal agency
+in carrying into effect a public and civil duty.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 28, 1811.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Having examined and considered the bill entitled "An act for the relief
+of Richard Tervin, William Coleman, Edwin Lewis, Samuel Mims, Joseph
+Wilson, and the Baptist Church at Salem Meeting House, in the
+Mississippi Territory," I now return the same to the House of
+Representatives, in which it originated, with the following objection:
+
+_Because_ the bill in reserving a certain parcel of land of the
+United States for the use of said Baptist Church comprises a principle
+and precedent for the appropriation of funds of the United States for
+the use and support of religious societies, contrary to the article of
+the Constitution which declares that "Congress shall make no law
+respecting a religious establishment."
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+[From the National Intelligencer, July 25, 1811]
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas great and weighty matters claiming the consideration of the
+Congress of the United States form an extraordinary occasion for
+convening them, I do by these presents appoint Monday, the 4th day of
+November next, for their meeting at the city of Washington, hereby
+requiring the respective Senators and Representatives then and there to
+assemble in Congress, in order to receive such communications as may
+then be made to them, and to consult and determine on such measures as
+in their wisdom may be deemed meet for the welfare of the United States.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
+hereunto affixed, and signed the same with my hand, Done at the city of
+Washington, the 24th day of July, A.D. 1811, and of the Independence of
+the United States the thirty-sixth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _November 5, 1811_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+In calling you together sooner than a separation from your homes would
+otherwise have been required I yielded to considerations drawn from the
+posture of our foreign affairs, and in fixing the present for the time
+of your meeting regard was had to the probability of further
+developments of the policy of the belligerent powers toward this country
+which might the more unite the national councils in the measures to be
+pursued.
+
+At the close of the last session of Congress it was hoped that the
+successive confirmations of the extinction of the French decrees, so far
+as they violated our neutral commerce, would have induced the Government
+of Great Britain to repeal its orders in council, and thereby authorize
+a removal of the existing obstructions to her commerce with the United
+States.
+
+Instead of this reasonable step toward satisfaction and friendship
+between the two nations, the orders were, at a moment when least to have
+been expected, put into more rigorous execution; and it was communicated
+through the British envoy just arrived that whilst the revocation of the
+edicts of France, as officially made known to the British Government,
+was denied to have taken place, it was an indispensable condition of the
+repeal of the British orders that commerce should be restored to a
+footing that would admit the productions and manufactures of Great
+Britain, when owned by neutrals, into markets shut against them by her
+enemy, the United States being given to understand that in the meantime
+a continuance of their non importation act would lead to measures of
+retaliation.
+
+At a later date it has indeed appeared that a communication to the
+British Government of fresh evidence of the repeal of the French decrees
+against our neutral trade was followed by an intimation that it had been
+transmitted to the British plenipotentiary here in order that it might
+receive full consideration in the depending discussions. This
+communication appears not to have been received; but the transmission of
+it hither, instead of founding on it an actual repeal of the orders or
+assurances that the repeal would ensue, will not permit us to rely on
+any effective change in the British cabinet. To be ready to meet with
+cordiality satisfactory proofs of such a change, and to proceed in the
+meantime in adapting our measures to the views which have been disclosed
+through that minister will best consult our whole duty.
+
+In the unfriendly spirit of those disclosures indemnity and redress for
+other wrongs have continued to be withheld, and our coasts and the
+mouths of our harbors have again witnessed scenes not less derogatory to
+the dearest of our national rights than vexatious to the regular course
+of our trade.
+
+Among the occurrences produced by the conduct of British ships of war
+hovering on our coasts was an encounter between one of them and the
+American frigate commanded by Captain Rodgers, rendered unavoidable on
+the part of the latter by a fire commenced without cause by the former,
+whose commander is therefore alone chargeable with the blood
+unfortunately shed in maintaining the honor of the American flag. The
+proceedings of a court of inquiry requested by Captain Rodgers are
+communicated, together with the correspondence relating to the
+occurrence, between the Secretary of State and His Britannic Majesty's
+envoy. To these are added the several correspondences which have passed
+on the subject of the British orders in council, and to both the
+correspondence relating to the Floridas, in which Congress will be made
+acquainted with the interposition which the Government of Great Britain
+has thought proper to make against the proceeding of the United States.
+
+The justice and fairness which have been evinced on the part of the
+United States toward France, both before and since the revocation of her
+decrees, authorized an expectation that her Government would have
+followed up that measure by all such others as were due to our
+reasonable claims, as well as dictated by its amicable professions. No
+proof, however, is yet given of an intention to repair the other wrongs
+done to the United States, and particularly to restore the great amount
+of American property seized and condemned under edicts which, though not
+affecting our neutral relations, and therefore not entering into
+questions between the United States and other belligerents, were
+nevertheless founded in such unjust principles that the reparation ought
+to have been prompt and ample.
+
+In addition to this and other demands of strict right on that nation,
+the United States have much reason to be dissatisfied with the rigorous
+and unexpected restrictions to which their trade with the French
+dominions has been subjected, and which, if not discontinued, will
+require at least corresponding restrictions on importations from France
+into the United States.
+
+On all those subjects our minister plenipotentiary lately sent to Paris
+has carried with him the necessary instructions, the result of which
+will be communicated to you, and, by ascertaining the ulterior policy of
+the French Government toward the United States, Will enable you to adapt
+to it that of the United States toward France.
+
+Our other foreign relations remain without unfavorable changes. With
+Russia they are on the best footing of friendship. The ports of Sweden
+have afforded proofs of friendly dispositions toward our commerce in the
+councils of that nation also, and the information from our special
+minister to Denmark shews that the mission had been attended with
+valuable effects to our citizens, whose property had been so extensively
+violated and endangered by cruisers under the Danish flag.
+
+Under the ominous indications which commanded attention it became a duty
+to exert the means committed to the executive department in providing
+for the general security. The works of defense on our maritime frontier
+have accordingly been prosecuted with an activity leaving little to be
+added for the completion of the most important ones, and, as
+particularly suited for cooperation in emergencies, a portion of the
+gunboats have in particular harbors been ordered into use. The ships of
+war before in commission, with the addition of a frigate, have been
+chiefly employed as a cruising guard to the rights of our coast, and
+such a disposition has been made of our land forces as was thought to
+promise the services most appropriate and important. In this disposition
+is included a force consisting of regulars and militia, embodied in the
+Indiana Territory and marched toward our northwestern frontier. This
+measure was made requisite by several murders and depredations committed
+by Indians, but more especially by the menacing preparations and aspect
+of a combination of them on the Wabash, under the influence and
+direction of a fanatic of the Shawanese tribe. With these exceptions the
+Indian tribes retain their peaceable dispositions toward us, and their
+usual pursuits.
+
+I must now add that the period is arrived which claims from the
+legislative guardians of the national rights a system of more ample
+provisions for maintaining them. Notwithstanding the scrupulous justice,
+the protracted moderation, and the multiplied efforts on the part of the
+United States to substitute for the accumulating dangers to the peace of
+the two countries all the mutual advantages of reestablished friendship
+and confidence, we have seen that the British cabinet perseveres not
+only in withholding a remedy for other wrongs, so long and so loudly
+calling for it, but in the execution, brought home to the threshold of
+our territory, of measures which under existing circumstances have the
+character as well as the effect of war on our lawful commerce.
+
+With this evidence of hostile inflexibility in trampling on rights which
+no independent nation can relinquish, Congress will feel the duty of
+putting the United States into an armor and an attitude demanded by the
+crisis, and corresponding with the national spirit and expectations.
+
+I recommend, accordingly, that adequate provision be made for filling
+the ranks and prolonging the enlistments of the regular troops; for an
+auxiliary force to be engaged for a more limited term; for the
+acceptance of volunteer corps, whose patriotic ardor may court a
+participation in urgent services; for detachments as they may be wanted
+of other portions of the militia, and for such a preparation of the
+great body as will proportion its usefulness to its intrinsic
+capacities. Nor can the occasion fail to remind you of the importance of
+those military seminaries which in every event will form a valuable and
+frugal part of our military establishment.
+
+The manufacture of cannon and small arms has proceeded with due success,
+and the stock and resources of all the necessary munitions are adequate
+to emergencies. It will not be inexpedient, however, for Congress to
+authorize an enlargement of them.
+
+Your attention will of course be drawn to such provisions on the subject
+of our naval force as may be required for the services to which it may
+be best adapted. I submit to Congress the seasonableness also of an
+authority to augment the stock of such materials as are imperishable in
+their nature, or may not at once be attainable.
+
+In contemplating the scenes which distinguish this momentous epoch, and
+estimating their claims to our attention, it is impossible to overlook
+those developing themselves among the great communities which occupy the
+southern portion of our own hemisphere and extend into our neighborhood.
+An enlarged philanthropy and an enlightened forecast concur in imposing
+on the national councils an obligation to take a deep interest in their
+destinies, to cherish reciprocal sentiments of good will, to regard the
+progress of events, and not to be unprepared for whatever order of
+things may be ultimately established.
+
+Under another aspect of our situation the early attention of Congress
+will be due to the expediency of further guards against evasions and
+infractions of our commercial laws. The practice of smuggling, which is
+odious everywhere, and particularly criminal in free governments, where,
+the laws being made by all for the good of all, a fraud is committed on
+every individual as well as on the state, attains its utmost guilt when
+it blends with a pursuit of ignominious gain a treacherous subserviency,
+in the transgressors, to a foreign policy adverse to that of their own
+country. It is then that the virtuous indignation of the public should
+be enabled to manifest itself through the regular animadversions of the
+most competent laws.
+
+To secure greater respect to our-mercantile flag, and to the honest
+interests which it covers, it is expedient also that it be made
+punishable in our citizens to accept licenses from foreign governments
+for a trade unlawfully interdicted by them to other American citizens,
+or to trade under false colors or papers of any sort.
+
+A prohibition is equally called for against the acceptance by our
+citizens of special licenses to be used in a trade with the United
+States, and against the admission into particular ports of the United
+States of vessels from foreign countries authorized to trade with
+particular ports only.
+
+Although other subjects will press more immediately on your
+deliberations, a portion of them can not but be well bestowed on the
+just and sound policy of securing to our manufactures the success they
+have attained, and are still attaining, in some degree, under the
+impulse of causes not permanent, and to our navigation, the fair extent
+of which is at present abridged by the unequal regulations of foreign
+governments.
+
+Besides the reasonableness of saving our manufactures from sacrifices
+which a change of circumstances might bring on them, the national
+interest requires that, with respect to such articles at least as belong
+to our defense and our primary wants, we should not be left in
+unnecessary dependence on external supplies. And whilst foreign
+governments adhere to the existing discriminations in their ports
+against our navigation, and an equality or lesser discrimination is
+enjoyed by their navigation in our ports, the effect can not be
+mistaken, because it has been seriously felt by our shipping interests;
+and in proportion as this takes place the advantages of an independent
+conveyance of our products to foreign markets and of a growing body of
+mariners trained by their occupations for the service of their country
+in times of danger must be diminished.
+
+The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th of
+September last have exceeded $13,500,000, and have enabled us to defray
+the current expenses, including the interest on the public debt, and to
+reimburse more than $5,000,000 of the principal without recurring to the
+loan authorized by the act of the last session. The temporary loan
+obtained in the latter end of the year 1810 has also been reimbursed,
+and is not included in that amount.
+
+The decrease of revenue arising from the situation of our commerce, and
+the extraordinary expenses which have and may become necessary, must be
+taken into view in making commensurate provisions for the ensuing year;
+and I recommend to your consideration the propriety of insuring a
+sufficiency of annual revenue at least to defray the ordinary expenses
+of Government, and to pay the interest on the public debt, including
+that on new loans which may be authorized.
+
+I can not close this communication without expressing my deep sense of
+the crisis in which you are assembled, my confidence in a wise and
+honorable result to your deliberations, and assurances of the faithful
+zeal with which my cooperating duties will be discharged, invoking at
+the same time the blessing of Heaven on our beloved country and on all
+the means that may be employed in vindicating its rights and advancing
+its welfare.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _November 13, 1811_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to Congress copies of a correspondence between the envoy
+extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Great Britain and the
+Secretary of State relative to the aggression committed by a British
+ship of war on the United States frigate _Chesapeake_, by which it
+will be seen that that subject of difference between the two countries
+is terminated by an offer of reparation, which has been acceded to.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 18, 1811_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress two letters received from Governor Harrison, of
+the Indiana Territory, reporting the particulars and the issue of the
+expedition under his command, of which notice was taken in my
+communication of November 5.
+
+While it is deeply lamented that so many valuable lives have been lost
+in the action which took place on the 7th ultimo, Congress will see with
+satisfaction the dauntless spirit and fortitude victoriously displayed
+by every description of the troops engaged, as well as the collected
+firmness which distinguished their commander on an occasion requiring
+the utmost exertions of valor and discipline.
+
+It may reasonably be expected that the good effects of this critical
+defeat and dispersion of a combination of savages, which appears to have
+been spreading to a greater extent, will be experienced not only in a
+cessation of the murders and depredations committed on our frontier, but
+in the prevention of any hostile incursions otherwise to have been
+apprehended.
+
+The families of those brave and patriotic citizens who have fallen in
+this severe conflict will doubtless engage the favorable attention of
+Congress.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 23, 1811_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to Congress copies of an act of the legislature of New
+York relating to a canal from the Great Lakes to Hudson River. In making
+the communication I consult the respect due to that State, in whose
+behalf the commissioners appointed by the act have placed it in my hands
+for the purpose.
+
+The utility of canal navigation is universally admitted. It is no less
+certain that scarcely any country offers more extensive opportunities
+for that branch of improvements than the United States, and none,
+perhaps, inducements equally persuasive to make the most of them. The
+particular undertaking contemplated by the State of New York, which
+marks an honorable spirit of enterprise and comprises objects of
+national as well as more limited importance, will recall the attention
+of Congress to the signal advantages to be derived to the United States
+from a general system of internal communication and conveyance, and
+suggest to their consideration whatever steps may be proper on their
+part toward its introduction and accomplishment. As some of those
+advantages have an intimate connection with the arrangements and
+exertions for the general security, it is at a period calling for those
+that the merits of such a system will be seen in the strongest lights.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 27, 1811_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress copies of resolutions entered into by the
+legislature of Pennsylvania, which have been transmitted to me with that
+view by the governor of that State, in pursuance of one of the said
+resolutions.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 15, 1812_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress an account of the contingent expenses of the
+Government for the year 1811, incurred on the occasion of taking
+possession of the territory limited eastwardly by the river Perdido,
+and amounting to $3,396.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 16, 1812_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to Congress a letter from the envoy extraordinary and
+minister plenipotentiary of Great Britain to the Secretary of State,
+with the answer of the latter.
+
+The continued evidence afforded in this correspondence of the hostile
+policy of the British Government against our national rights strengthens
+the considerations recommending and urging the preparation of adequate
+means for maintaining them.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+MARCH 3, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+At the request of the convention assembled in the Territory of Orleans
+on the 22d day of November last, I transmit to Congress the proceedings
+of that body in pursuance of the act entitled "An act to enable the
+people of the Territory of Orleans to form a constitution and State
+government, and for the admission of the said State into the Union on an
+equal footing with the original States, and for other purposes."
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+MARCH 9, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress copies of certain documents which remain in the
+Department of State. They prove that at a recent period, whilst the
+United States, notwithstanding the wrongs sustained by them, ceased not
+to observe the laws of peace and neutrality toward Great Britain, and in
+the midst of amicable professions and negotiations on the part of the
+British Government, through its public minister here, a secret agent of
+that Government was employed in certain States, more especially at the
+seat of government in Massachusetts, in fomenting disaffection to the
+constituted authorities of the nation, and in intrigues with the
+disaffected, for the purpose of bringing about resistance to the laws,
+and eventually, in concert with a British force, of destroying the Union
+and forming the eastern part thereof into a political connection with
+Great Britain.
+
+In addition to the effect which the discovery of such a procedure ought
+to have on the public councils, it will not fail to render more dear to
+the hearts of all good citizens that happy union of these States which,
+under Divine Providence, is the guaranty of their liberties, their
+safety, their tranquillity, and their prosperity.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+APRIL 1, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Considering it as expedient, under existing circumstances and prospects,
+that a general embargo be laid on all vessels now in port, or hereafter
+arriving, for the period of sixty days, I recommend the immediate
+passage of a law to that effect.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+APRIL 20, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Among the incidents to the unexampled increase and expanding interests
+of the American nation under the fostering influence of free
+constitutions and just laws has been a corresponding accumulation of
+duties in the several Departments of the Government, and this has been
+necessarily the greater in consequence of the peculiar state of our
+foreign relations and the connection of these with our internal
+administration.
+
+The extensive and multiplied preparations into which the United States
+are at length driven for maintaining their violated rights have caused
+this augmentation of business to press on the Department of War
+particularly, with a weight disproportionate to the powers of any single
+officer, with no other aids than are authorized by existing laws. With a
+view to a more adequate arrangement for the essential objects of that
+Department, I recommend to the early consideration of Congress a
+provision for two subordinate appointments therein, with such
+compensations annexed as may be reasonably expected by citizens duly
+qualified for the important functions which may be properly assigned to
+them.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+MAY 26, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to Congress, for their information, copies and extracts
+from the correspondence of the Secretary of State and the minister
+plenipotentiary of the United States at Paris. These documents will
+place before Congress the actual posture of our relations with France.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _June 1, 1812_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to Congress certain documents, being a continuation of
+those heretofore laid before them on the subject of our affairs with
+Great Britain.
+
+Without going back beyond the renewal in 1803 of the war in which
+Great Britain is engaged, and omitting unrepaired wrongs of inferior
+magnitude, the conduct of her Government presents a series of acts
+hostile to the United States as an independent and neutral nation.
+
+British cruisers have been in the continued practice of violating
+the American flag on the great highway of nations, and of seizing
+and carrying off persons sailing under it, not in the exercise of a
+belligerent right founded on the law of nations against an enemy, but
+of a municipal prerogative over British subjects. British jurisdiction
+is thus extended to neutral vessels in a situation where no laws can
+operate but the law of nations and the laws of the country to which the
+vessels belong, and a self-redress is assumed which, if British subjects
+were wrongfully detained and alone concerned, is that substitution of
+force for a resort to the responsible sovereign which falls within
+the definition of war. Could the seizure of British subjects in such
+cases be regarded as within the exercise of a belligerent right, the
+acknowledged laws of war, which forbid an article of captured property
+to be adjudged without a regular investigation before a competent
+tribunal, would imperiously demand the fairest trial where the sacred
+rights of persons were at issue. In place of such a trial these rights
+are subjected to the will of every petty commander.
+
+The practice, hence, is so far from affecting British subjects alone
+that, under the pretext of searching for these, thousands of American
+citizens, under the safeguard of public law and of their national flag,
+have been torn from their country and from everything dear to them; have
+been dragged on board ships of war of a foreign nation and exposed,
+under the severities of their discipline, to be exiled to the most
+distant and deadly climes, to risk their lives in the battles of their
+oppressors, and to be the melancholy instruments of taking away those of
+their own brethren.
+
+Against this crying enormity, which Great Britain would be so prompt
+to avenge if committed against herself, the United States have in vain
+exhausted remonstrances and expostulations, and that no proof might be
+wanting of their conciliatory dispositions, and no pretext left for a
+continuance of the practice, the British Government was formally assured
+of the readiness of the United States to enter into arrangements such as
+could not be rejected if the recovery of British subjects were the real
+and the sole object. The communication passed without effect.
+
+British cruisers have been in the practice also of violating the rights
+and the peace of our coasts. They hover over and harass our entering and
+departing commerce. To the most insulting pretensions they have added
+the most lawless proceedings in our very harbors, and have wantonly
+spilt American blood within the sanctuary of our territorial
+jurisdiction. The principles and rules enforced by that nation, when
+a neutral nation, against armed vessels of belligerents hovering near
+her coasts and disturbing her commerce are well known. When called on,
+nevertheless, by the United States to punish the greater offenses
+committed by her own vessels, her Government has bestowed on their
+commanders additional marks of honor and confidence.
+
+Under pretended blockades, without the presence of an adequate force and
+sometimes without the practicability of applying one, our commerce has
+been plundered in every sea, the great staples of our country have been
+cut off from their legitimate markets, and a destructive blow aimed
+at our agricultural and maritime interests. In aggravation of these
+predatory measures they have been considered as in force from the dates
+of their notification, a retrospective effect being thus added, as has
+been done in other important cases, to the unlawfulness of the course
+pursued. And to render the outrage the more signal these mock blockades
+have been reiterated and enforced in the face of official communications
+from the British Government declaring as the true definition of a legal
+blockade "that particular ports must be actually invested and previous
+warning given to vessels bound to them not to enter."
+
+Not content with these occasional expedients for laying waste our
+neutral trade, the cabinet of Britain resorted at length to the sweeping
+system of blockades, under the name of orders in council, which has
+been molded and managed as might best suit its political views, its
+commercial jealousies, or the avidity of British cruisers.
+
+To our remonstrances against the complicated and transcendent injustice
+of this innovation the first reply was that the orders were reluctantly
+adopted by Great Britain as a necessary retaliation on decrees of her
+enemy proclaiming a general blockade of the British Isles at a time when
+the naval force of that enemy dared not issue from his own ports. She
+was reminded without effect that her own prior blockades, unsupported by
+an adequate naval force actually applied and continued, were a bar to
+this plea; that executed edicts against millions of our property could
+not be retaliation on edicts confessedly impossible to be executed; that
+retaliation, to be just, should fall on the party setting the guilty
+example, not on an innocent party which was not even chargeable with an
+acquiescence in it.
+
+When deprived of this flimsy veil for a prohibition of our trade with
+her enemy by the repeal of his prohibition of our trade with Great
+Britain, her cabinet, instead of a corresponding repeal or a practical
+discontinuance of its orders, formally avowed a determination to persist
+in them against the United States until the markets of her enemy should
+be laid open to British products, thus asserting an obligation on a
+neutral power to require one belligerent to encourage by its internal
+regulations the trade of another belligerent, contradicting her own
+practice toward all nations, in peace as well as in war, and betraying
+the insincerity of those professions which inculcated a belief that,
+having resorted to her orders with regret, she was anxious to find an
+occasion for putting an end to them.
+
+Abandoning still more all respect for the neutral rights of the United
+States and for its own consistency, the British Government now demands
+as prerequisites to a repeal of its orders as they relate to the United
+States that a formality should be observed in the repeal of the French
+decrees nowise necessary to their termination nor exemplified by British
+usage, and that the French repeal, besides including that portion of the
+decrees which operates within a territorial jurisdiction, as well as
+that which operates on the high seas, against the commerce of the United
+States should not be a single and special repeal in relation to the
+United States, but should be extended to whatever other neutral nations
+unconnected with them may be affected by those decrees. And as an
+additional insult, they are called on for a formal disavowal of
+conditions and pretensions advanced by the French Government for which
+the United States are so far from having made themselves responsible
+that, in official explanations which have been published to the world,
+and in a correspondence of the American minister at London with the
+British minister for foreign affairs such a responsibility was
+explicitly and emphatically disclaimed.
+
+It has become, indeed, sufficiently certain that the commerce of
+the United States is to be sacrificed, not as interfering with the
+belligerent rights of Great Britain; not as supplying the wants of
+her enemies, which she herself supplies; but as interfering with the
+monopoly which she covets for her own commerce and navigation. She
+carries on a war against the lawful commerce of a friend that she may
+the better carry on a commerce with an enemy--a commerce polluted by the
+forgeries and perjuries which are for the most part the only passports
+by which it can succeed.
+
+Anxious to make every experiment short of the last resort of injured
+nations, the United States have withheld from Great Britain, under
+successive modifications, the benefits of a free intercourse with their
+market, the loss of which could not but outweigh the profits accruing
+from her restrictions of our commerce with other nations. And to entitle
+these experiments to the more favorable consideration they were so
+framed as to enable her to place her adversary under the exclusive
+operation of them. To these appeals her Government has been equally
+inflexible, as if willing to make sacrifices of every sort rather than
+yield to the claims of justice or renounce the errors of a false pride.
+Nay, so far were the attempts carried to overcome the attachment
+of the British cabinet to its unjust edicts that it received every
+encouragement within the competency of the executive branch of our
+Government to expect that a repeal of them would be followed by a war
+between the United States and France, unless the French edicts should
+also be repealed. Even this communication, although silencing forever
+the plea of a disposition in the United States to acquiesce in those
+edicts originally the sole plea for them, received no attention.
+
+If no other proof existed of a predetermination of the British
+Government against a repeal of its orders, it might be found in the
+correspondence of the minister plenipotentiary of the United States at
+London and the British secretary for foreign affairs in 1810, on the
+question whether the blockade of May, 1806, was considered as in force
+or as not in force. It had been ascertained that the French Government,
+which urged this blockade as the ground of its Berlin decree, was
+willing in the event of its removal to repeal that decree, which, being
+followed by alternate repeals of the other offensive edicts, might
+abolish the whole system on both sides. This inviting opportunity for
+accomplishing an object so important to the United States, and professed
+so often to be the desire of both the belligerents, was made known
+to the British Government. As that Government admits that an actual
+application of an adequate force is necessary to the existence of a
+legal blockade, and it was notorious that if such a force had ever been
+applied its long discontinuance had annulled the blockade in question,
+there could be no sufficient objection on the part of Great Britain to a
+formal revocation of it, and no imaginable objection to a declaration of
+the fact that the blockade did not exist. The declaration would have
+been consistent with her avowed principles of blockade, and would have
+enabled the United States to demand from France the pledged repeal of
+her decrees, either with success, in which case the way would have
+been opened for a general repeal of the belligerent edicts, or without
+success, in which case the United States would have been justified
+in turning their measures exclusively against France. The British
+Government would, however, neither rescind the blockade nor declare its
+nonexistence, nor permit its nonexistence to be inferred and affirmed
+by the American plenipotentiary. On the contrary, by representing the
+blockade to be comprehended in the orders in council, the United States
+were compelled so to regard it in their subsequent proceedings.
+
+There was a period when a favorable change in the policy of the
+British cabinet was justly considered as established. The minister
+plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty here proposed an adjustment of
+the differences more immediately endangering the harmony of the two
+countries. The proposition was accepted with the promptitude and
+cordiality corresponding with the invariable professions of this
+Government. A foundation appeared to be laid for a sincere and lasting
+reconciliation. The prospect, however, quickly vanished. The whole
+proceeding was disavowed by the British Government without any
+explanations which could at that time repress the belief that the
+disavowal proceeded from a spirit of hostility to the commercial rights
+and prosperity of the United States; and it has since come into proof
+that at the very moment when the public minister was holding the
+language of friendship and inspiring confidence in the sincerity of the
+negotiation with which he was charged a secret agent of his Government
+was employed in intrigues having for their object a subversion of our
+Government and a dismemberment of our happy union.
+
+In reviewing the conduct of Great Britain toward the United States
+our attention is necessarily drawn to the warfare just renewed by the
+savages on one of our extensive frontiers--a warfare which is known to
+spare neither age nor sex and to be distinguished by features peculiarly
+shocking to humanity. It is difficult to account for the activity and
+combinations which have for some time been developing themselves among
+tribes in constant intercourse with British traders and garrisons
+without connecting their hostility with that influence and without
+recollecting the authenticated examples of such interpositions
+heretofore furnished by the officers and agents of that Government.
+
+Such is the spectacle of injuries and indignities which have been heaped
+on our country, and such the crisis which its unexampled forbearance and
+conciliatory efforts have not been able to avert. It might at least
+have been expected that an enlightened nation, if less urged by moral
+obligations or invited by friendly dispositions on the part of the
+United States, would have found in its true interest alone a sufficient
+motive to respect their rights and their tranquillity on the high
+seas; that an enlarged policy would have favored that free and general
+circulation of commerce in which the British nation is at all times
+interested, and which in times of war is the best alleviation of its
+calamities to herself as well as to other belligerents; and more
+especially that the British cabinet would not, for the sake of a
+precarious and surreptitious intercourse with hostile markets, have
+persevered in a course of measures which necessarily put at hazard the
+invaluable market of a great and growing country, disposed to cultivate
+the mutual advantages of an active commerce.
+
+Other counsels have prevailed. Our moderation and conciliation have
+had no other effect than to encourage perseverance and to enlarge
+pretensions. We behold our seafaring citizens still the daily victims of
+lawless violence, committed on the great common and highway of nations,
+even within sight of the country which owes them protection. We behold
+our vessels, freighted with the products of our soil and industry, or
+returning with the honest proceeds of them, wrested from their lawful
+destinations, confiscated by prize courts no longer the organs of public
+law but the instruments of arbitrary edicts, and their unfortunate crews
+dispersed and lost, or forced or inveigled in British ports into British
+fleets, whilst arguments are employed in support of these aggressions
+which have no foundation but in a principle equally supporting a claim
+to regulate our external commerce in all cases whatsoever.
+
+We behold, in fine, on the side of Great Britain a state of war against
+the United States, and on the side of the United States a state of peace
+toward Great Britain.
+
+Whether the United States shall continue passive under these progressive
+usurpations and these accumulating wrongs, or, opposing force to force
+in defense of their national rights, shall commit a just cause into
+the hands of the Almighty Disposer of Events, avoiding all connections
+which might entangle it in the contest or views of other powers,
+and preserving a constant readiness to concur in an honorable
+reestablishment of peace and friendship, is a solemn question which
+the Constitution wisely confides to the legislative department of the
+Government. In recommending it to their early deliberations I am happy
+in the assurance that the decision will be worthy the enlightened and
+patriotic councils of a virtuous, a free, and a powerful nation.
+
+Having presented this view of the relations of the United States with
+Great Britain and of the solemn alternative growing out of them, I
+proceed to remark that the communications last made to Congress on the
+subject of our relations with France will have shewn that since the
+revocation of her decrees, as they violated the neutral rights of the
+United States, her Government has authorized illegal captures by its
+privateers and public ships, and that other outrages have been practiced
+on our vessels and our citizens. It will have been seen also that no
+indemnity had been provided or satisfactorily pledged for the extensive
+spoliations committed under the violent and retrospective orders of the
+French Government against the property of our citizens seized within the
+jurisdiction of France. I abstain at this time from recommending to the
+consideration of Congress definitive measures with respect to that
+nation, in the expectation that the result of unclosed discussions
+between our minister plenipotentiary at Paris and the French Government
+will speedily enable Congress to decide with greater advantage on the
+course due to the rights, the interests, and the honor of our country.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JUNE 30, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+With a view the better to adapt to the public service the volunteer
+force contemplated by the act passed on the 6th day of February, I
+recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency of making the
+requisite provision for the officers thereof being commissioned by the
+authority of the United States.
+
+Considering the distribution of the military forces of the United States
+required by the circumstances of our country, I recommend also to the
+consideration of Congress the expediency of providing for the
+appointment of an additional number of general officers, and of deputies
+in the Adjutant's, Quartermaster's, Inspector's, and Paymaster's
+departments of the Army, and for the employment in cases of emergency of
+additional engineers.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JULY 1, 1812.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+26th of June, I transmit the information contained in the documents
+herewith enclosed.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+_From the Secretary of State to General George Matthews and Colonel
+John M'Kee_.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF STATE, _January 26, 1811_.
+
+The President of the United States having appointed you jointly and
+severally commissioners for carrying into effect certain provisions of
+an act of Congress (a copy of which is inclosed) relative to the portion
+of the Floridas situated to the east of the river Perdido, you will
+repair to that quarter with all possible expedition, concealing from
+general observation the trust committed to you with that discretion
+which the delicacy and importance of the undertaking require.
+
+Should you find Governor Folk or the local authority existing there
+inclined to surrender in an amicable manner the possession of the
+remaining portion or portions of West Florida now held by him in the
+name of the Spanish Monarchy, you are to accept in behalf of the United
+States the abdication of his or of the other existing authority and the
+jurisdiction of the country over which it extends. And should a
+stipulation be insisted on for the redelivery of the country at a future
+period, you may engage for such redelivery to the lawful sovereign.
+
+The debts clearly due from the Spanish Government to the people of the
+Territory surrendered may, if insisted on, be assumed within reasonable
+limits and under specified descriptions to be settled hereafter as a
+claim against Spain in an adjustment of our affairs with her. You may
+also guarantee, in the name of the United States, the confirmation of
+all such titles to land as are clearly sanctioned by Spanish laws, and
+Spanish civil functionaries, where no special reasons may require
+changes, are to be permitted to remain in office with the assurance of a
+continuation of the prevailing laws, with such alterations only as may
+be necessarily required in the new situation of the country.
+
+If it should be required and be found necessary, you may agree to
+advance, as above, a reasonable sum for the transportation of the
+Spanish troops.
+
+These directions are adapted to one of the contingencies specified in
+the act of Congress, namely, the amicable surrender of the possession of
+the Territory by the local ruling authority. But should the arrangement
+contemplated by the statute not be made, and should there be room to
+entertain a suspicion of an existing design in any foreign power to
+occupy the country in question, you are to keep yourselves on the alert,
+and on the first undoubted manifestation of the approach of a force for
+that purpose you will exercise with promptness and vigor the powers with
+which you are invested by the President to preoccupy by force the
+Territory, to the entire exclusion of any armament that may be advancing
+to take the possession of it. In this event you will exercise a sound
+discretion in applying the powers given with respect to debts, titles to
+lands, civil officers, and the continuation of the Spanish laws, taking
+care to commit the Government on no point further than may be necessary;
+and should any Spanish military force remain within the country after
+the occupancy by the troops of the United States, you may in such case
+aid in their removal from the same.
+
+The universal toleration which the laws of the United States assure to
+every religious persuasion will not escape you as an argument for
+quieting the minds of uninformed individuals who may entertain fears on
+that head.
+
+The conduct you are to pursue in regard to East Florida must be
+regulated by the dictates of your own judgments, on a close view and
+accurate knowledge of the precise state of things there, and of the real
+disposition of the Spanish Government always recurring to the present
+instruction as the paramount rule of your proceedings. Should you
+discover an inclination in the governor of East Florida, or in the
+existing local authority, amicably to surrender that province into the
+possession of the United States, you are to accept it on the same terms
+that are prescribed by these instructions in relation to West Florida.
+And in case of the actual appearance of any attempt to take possession
+by a foreign power, you will pursue the same effective measures for the
+occupation of the Territory and for the exclusion of the foreign force
+as you are directed to pursue with respect to the country east of the
+Perdido, forming at this time the extent of Governor Folk's
+jurisdiction.
+
+If you should, under these instructions, obtain possession of Mobile,
+you will lose no time in informing Governor Claiborne thereof, with a
+request that he will without delay take the necessary steps for the
+occupation of the same.
+
+All ordnance and military stores that may be found in the Territory must
+be held as the property of the Spanish Government, to be accounted for
+hereafter to the proper authority, and you will not fail to transmit an
+inventory thereof to this Department.
+
+If in the execution of any part of these instructions you should need
+the aid of a military force, the same will be afforded you upon your
+application to the commanding officer of the troops of the United States
+on that station, or to the commanding officer of the nearest post, in
+virtue of orders which have been issued from the War Department. And in
+case you should, moreover, need naval assistance, you will receive the
+same upon your application to the naval commander in pursuance of orders
+from the Navy Department.
+
+From the Treasury Department will be issued the necessary instructions
+in relation to imposts and duties, and to the slave ships whose arrival
+is apprehended.
+
+The President, relying upon your discretion, authorizes you to draw upon
+the collectors of Orleans and Savannah for such sums as may be necessary
+to defray unavoidable expenses that may be incurred in the execution of
+these instructions, not exceeding in your drafts on New Orleans $8,000
+and in your drafts on Savannah $2,000, without further authority, of
+which expenses you will hereafter exhibit a detailed account duly
+supported by satisfactory vouchers.
+
+POSTSCRIPT.--If Governor Folk should unexpectedly require and
+pertinaciously insist that the stipulation for the redelivery of the
+Territory should also include that portion of the country which is
+situated west of the river Perdido, you are, in yielding to such demand,
+only to use general words that may by implication comprehend that
+portion of country; but at the same time you are expressly to provide
+that such stipulation shall not in any way impair or affect the right or
+title of the United States to the same.
+
+
+
+_The Secretary of State to General Matthews_.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF STATE, _April 4, 1812_.
+
+General MATTHEWS, etc.
+
+SIR: I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 14th of March,
+and have now to communicate to you the sentiments of the President on
+the very interesting subject to which it relates.
+
+I am sorry to have to state that the measures which you appear to have
+adopted for obtaining possession of Amelia Island and other parts of
+Bast Florida are not authorized by the law of the United States or the
+instructions founded on it under which you have acted.
+
+You were authorized by the law, a copy of which was communicated to you,
+and by your instructions, which are strictly conformable to it, to take
+possession of East Florida only in case one of the following contingencies
+should happen: Either that the governor or other existing local
+authority should be disposed to place it amicably in the hands of the
+United States, or that an attempt should be made to, take possession
+of it by a foreign power. Should the first contingency happen it would
+follow that the arrangement, being amicable, would require no force on
+the part of the United States to carry it into effect. It was only in
+case of an attempt to take it by a foreign power that force could be
+necessary, in which event only were you authorized to avail yourself
+of it.
+
+In neither of these contingencies was it the policy of the law or
+purpose of the Executive to wrest the Province forcibly from Spain,
+but only to occupy it with a view to prevent its falling into the
+hands of any foreign power, and to hold that pledge under the existing
+peculiarity of the circumstances of the Spanish Monarchy for a just
+result in an amicable negotiation with Spain.
+
+Had the United States been disposed to proceed otherwise, that intention
+would have been manifested by a change of the law and suitable measures
+to carry it into effect; and as it was in their power to take possession
+whenever they might think that circumstances authorized and required it,
+it would be the more to be regretted if possession should be effected by
+any means irregular in themselves and subjecting the Government of the
+United States to unmerited censure.
+
+The views of the Executive respecting East Florida are further
+illustrated by your instructions as to West Florida. Although the United
+States have thought that they had a good title to the latter Province,
+they did not take possession until after the Spanish authority had been
+subverted by a revolutionary proceeding, and the contingency of the
+country being thrown into foreign hands had forced itself into view. Nor
+did they then, nor have they since, dispossessed the Spanish troops of
+the post which they occupied. If they did not think proper to take
+possession by force of a province to which they thought they were justly
+entitled, it could not be presumed that they should intend to act
+differently in respect to one to which they had not such a claim.
+
+I may add that although due sensibility has been always felt for the
+injuries which were received from the Spanish Government in the last
+war, the present situation of Spain has been a motive for a moderate and
+pacific policy toward her.
+
+In communicating to you these sentiments of the Executive on the
+measures you have lately adopted for taking possession of East Florida,
+I add with pleasure that the utmost confidence is reposed in your
+integrity and zeal to promote the welfare of your country. To that zeal
+the error into which you have fallen is imputed. But in consideration of
+the part which you have taken, which differs so essentially from that
+contemplated and authorized by the Government, and contradicts so
+entirely the principles on which it has uniformly and sincerely acted,
+you will be sensible of the necessity of discontinuing the service in
+which you have been employed.
+
+You will therefore consider your powers as revoked on the receipt of
+this letter. The new duties to be performed will be transferred to the
+governor of Georgia, to whom instructions will be given on all the
+circumstances to which it may be proper at the present juncture to call
+his attention.
+
+I have the honor to be, very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+_The Secretary of State to His Excellency D.B. Mitchell, the
+governor of Georgia_.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF STATE, _April 10, 1812_.
+
+SIR: The President is desirous of availing the public of your services
+in a concern of much delicacy and of high importance to the United
+States. Circumstances with which you are in some degree acquainted, but
+which will be fully explained by the inclosed papers, have made it
+necessary to revoke the powers heretofore committed to General Matthews
+and to commit them to you. The President is persuaded that you will not
+hesitate to undertake a trust so important to the nation, and peculiarly
+to the State of Georgia. He is the more confident in this belief from
+the consideration that these new duties may be discharged without
+interfering, as he presumes, with those of the station which you now
+hold.
+
+By the act of the 15th of January, 1811, you will observe that it was
+not contemplated to take possession of East Florida or any part thereof,
+unless it should be surrendered to the United States amicably by the
+governor or other local authority of the Province, or against an attempt
+to take possession of it by a foreign power, and you will also see that
+General Matthews's instructions, of which a copy is likewise inclosed,
+correspond fully with the law.
+
+By the documents in possession of the Government it appears that neither
+of these contingencies have happened; that instead of an amicable
+surrender by the governor or other local authority the troops of the
+United States have been used to dispossess the Spanish authority by
+force. I forbear to dwell on the details of this transaction because it
+is painful to recite them. By the letter to General Matthews which is
+inclosed, open for your perusal, you will fully comprehend the views of
+the Government respecting the late transaction, and by the law, the
+former instructions to the General, and the late letter now forwarded
+you will be made acquainted with the course of conduct which it is
+expected of you to pursue in future in discharging the duties heretofore
+enjoined on him.
+
+It is the desire of the President that you should turn your attention
+and direct your efforts in the first instance to the restoration of that
+state of things in the Province which existed before the late
+transactions. The Executive considers it proper to restore back to the
+Spanish authorities Amelia Island and such other parts, if any, of East
+Florida as may have thus been taken from them. With this view it will be
+necessary for you to communicate _directly_ with the governor or
+principal officer of Spain in that Province, and to act in harmony with
+him in the attainment of it. It is presumed that the arrangement will be
+easily and amicably made between you. I inclose you an order from the
+Secretary of War to the commander of the troops of the United States to
+evacuate the country when requested so to do by you, and to pay the same
+respect in future to your order in fulfilling the duties enjoined by the
+law that he had been instructed to do to that of General Matthews.
+
+In restoring to the Spanish authorities Amelia Island and such other
+parts of East Florida as may have been taken possession of in the name
+of the United States there is another object to which your particular
+attention will be due. In the measures lately adopted by General
+Matthews to take possession of that Territory it is probable that much
+reliance has been placed by the people who acted in it on the
+countenance and support of the United States. It will be improper to
+expose these people to the resentment of the Spanish authorities. It is
+not to be presumed that those authorities in regaining possession of the
+Territory in this amicable mode from the United States will be disposed
+to indulge any such feeling toward them. You will, however, come to a
+full understanding with the Spanish governor on this subject, and not
+fail to obtain from him the most explicit and satisfactory assurance
+respecting it. Of this assurance you will duly apprise the parties
+interested, and of the confidence which you repose in it. It is hoped
+that on this delicate and very interesting point the Spanish governor
+will avail himself of the opportunity it presents to evince the friendly
+disposition of his Government toward the United States.
+
+There is one other remaining circumstance only to which I wish to call
+your attention, and that relates to General Matthews himself. His
+gallant and meritorious services in our Revolution and patriotic conduct
+since have always been held in high estimation by the Government. His
+errors in this instance are imputed altogether to his zeal to promote
+the welfare of his country; but they are of a nature to impose on the
+Government the necessity of the measures now taken, in giving effect to
+which you will doubtless feel a disposition to consult, as far as may
+be, his personal sensibility.
+
+I have the honor to be, etc.,
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+P.S.--Should you find it impracticable to execute the duties designated
+above in person, the President requests that you will be so good as to
+employ some very respectable character to represent you in it, to whom
+you are authorized to allow a similar compensation. It is hoped,
+however, that you may be able to attend to it in person, for reasons
+which I need not enter into. The expenses to which you may be exposed
+will be promptly paid to your draft on this Department.
+
+
+
+_The Secretary of State to D.B. Mitchell, esq., governor of Georgia_.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF STATE, _May 27, 1812_.
+
+SIR: I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 2d instant from
+St. Marys, where you had arrived in discharge of the trust reposed in
+you by the President, in relation to East Florida.
+
+My letter by Mr. Isaacs has, I presume, substantially answered the most
+important of the queries submitted in your letter, but I will give to
+each a more distinct answer.
+
+By the law of which a copy was forwarded to you it is made the duty of
+the President to prevent the occupation of East Florida by any foreign
+power. It follows that you are authorized to consider the entrance, or
+attempt to enter, especially under existing circumstances, of British
+troops of any description as the case contemplated by the law, and to
+use the proper means to defeat it.
+
+An instruction will be immediately forwarded to the commander of the
+naval force of the United States in the neighborhood of East Florida to
+give you any assistance, in case of emergency, which you may think
+necessary and require.
+
+It is not expected, if you find it proper to withdraw the troops, that
+you should interfere to compel the patriots to surrender the country or
+any part of it to the Spanish authorities. The United States are
+responsible for their own conduct only; not for that of the inhabitants
+of East Florida. Indeed, in consequence of the compromitment of the
+United States to the inhabitants, you have been already instructed not
+to withdraw the troops, unless you find that it may be done consistently
+with their safety, and to report to the Government the result of your
+conferences with the Spanish authorities, with your opinion of their
+views, holding in the meantime the ground occupied.
+
+In the present state of our affairs with Great Britain the course above
+pointed out is the more justifiable and proper.
+
+I have the honor, etc.,
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+JULY 6, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate copies and extracts of documents in the
+archives of the Department of State falling within the purview of their
+resolution of the 4th instant, on the subject of British impressments
+from American vessels. The information, though voluminous, might have
+been enlarged with more time for research and preparation. In some
+instances it might at the same time have been abridged but for the
+difficulty of separating the matter extraneous to the immediate object
+of the resolution.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+
+VETO MESSAGE.
+
+
+APRIL 3, 1812.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Having examined and considered the bill entitled "An act providing for
+the trial of causes pending in the respective district courts of the
+United States, in case of the absence or disability of the judges
+thereof," which bill was presented to me on the 25th of March past, I
+now return the same to the House of Representatives, in which it
+originated, with the following objections:
+
+Because the additional services imposed by the bill on the justices of
+the Supreme Court of the United States are to be performed by them
+rather in the quality of other judges of other courts, namely, judges of
+the district courts, than in the quality of justices of the Supreme
+Court. They are to hold the said district courts, and to do and perform
+all acts relating to the said courts which are by law required of the
+district judges. The bill therefore virtually appoints, for the time,
+the justices of the Supreme Court to other distinct offices to which, if
+compatible with their original offices, they ought to be appointed by
+another than the legislative authority, in pursuance of legislative
+provisions authorizing the appointments.
+
+Because the appeal allowed by law for the decision of the district
+courts to the circuit courts, whilst it corroborates the construction
+which regards a judge of one court as clothed with a new office, by
+being constituted a judge of the other, submits for correction erroneous
+judgments, not to superior or other judges, but to the erring individual
+himself, acting as sole judge in the appellate court.
+
+Because the additional services to be required may, by distances of
+place and by the casualties contemplated by the bill, become
+disproportionate to the strength and health of the justices who are to
+perform them, the additional services being, moreover, entitled to no
+additional compensation, nor the additional expenses incurred to
+reimbursement. In this view the bill appears to be contrary to equity,
+as well as a precedent for modifications and extensions of judicial
+services encroaching on the constitutional tenure of judicial offices.
+
+Because, by referring to the President of the United States questions of
+disability in the district judges and of the unreasonableness of
+delaying the suits or causes pending in the district courts, and leaving
+it with him in such causes to require the justices of the Supreme Court
+to perform additional services, the bill introduces an unsuitable
+relation of members of the judiciary department to a discretionary
+authority of the executive department.
+
+JAMES MADISON
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATIONS.
+
+
+[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 1, p. 448.]
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas information has been received that a number of individuals who
+have deserted from the Army of the United States have become sensible of
+their offense and are desirous of returning to their duty, a full pardon
+is hereby granted and proclaimed to each and all such individuals as
+shall within four months from the date hereof surrender themselves to
+the commanding officer of any military post within the United States or
+the Territories thereof.
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
+affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Done at the city of Washington, the 7th day of February, A.D. 1812, and
+of the Independence of the United States the thirty-sixth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+[From Annals of Congress, Twelfth Congress, part 2, 2223.]
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas the Congress of the United States, by virtue of the constituted
+authority vested in them, have declared by their act bearing date the
+18th day of the present month that war exists between the United Kingdom
+of Great Britain and Ireland and the dependencies thereof and the United
+States of America and their Territories:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United States of
+America, do hereby proclaim the same to all whom it may concern; and I
+do specially enjoin on all persons holding offices, civil or military,
+under the authority of the United States that they be vigilant and
+zealous in discharging the duties respectively incident thereto; and I
+do moreover exhort all the good people of the United States, as they
+love their country, as they value the precious heritage derived from the
+virtue and valor of their fathers, as they feel the wrongs which have
+forced on them the last resort of injured nations, and as they consult
+the best means under the blessing of Divine Providence of abridging its
+calamities, that they exert themselves in preserving order, in promoting
+concord, in maintaining the authority and efficacy of the laws, and in
+supporting and invigorating all the measures which may be adopted by the
+constituted authorities for obtaining a speedy, a just, and an honorable
+peace.
+
+In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
+the United States to be affixed to these presents.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Done at the city of Washington, the 19th day of June, 1812, and of the
+Independence of the United States the thirty-sixth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+[From Annals of Congress, Twelfth Congress, part 2, 2224.]
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas the Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution of the
+two Houses, have signified a request that a day may be recommended to be
+observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity as
+a day of public humiliation and prayer; and
+
+Whereas such a recommendation will enable the several religious
+denominations and societies so disposed to offer at one and the same
+time their common vows and adorations to Almighty God on the solemn
+occasion produced by the war in which He has been pleased to permit
+the injustice of a foreign power to involve these United States:
+
+I do therefore recommend the third Thursday in August next as a
+convenient day to be set apart for the devout purposes of rendering the
+Sovereign of the Universe and the Benefactor of Mankind the public
+homage due to His holy attributes; of acknowledging the transgressions
+which might justly provoke the manifestations of His divine displeasure;
+of seeking His merciful forgiveness and His assistance in the great
+duties of repentance and amendment, and especially of offering fervent
+supplications that in the present season of calamity and war He would
+take the American people under His peculiar care and protection; that He
+would guide their public councils, animate their patriotism, and bestow
+His blessing on their arms; that He would inspire all nations with a
+love of justice and of concord and with a reverence for the unerring
+precept of our holy religion to do to others as they would require that
+others should do to them; and, finally, that, turning the hearts of our
+enemies from the violence and injustice which sway their councils
+against us, He would hasten a restoration of the blessings of peace.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Given at Washington, the 9th day of July, A.D. 1812.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 3, p. 101.]
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas information has been received that a number of individuals who
+have deserted from the Army of the United States have become sensible of
+their offenses and are desirous of returning to their duty, a full
+pardon is hereby granted and proclaimed to each and all such individuals
+as shall within four months from the date hereof surrender themselves to
+the commanding officer of any military post within the United States or
+the Territories thereof.
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
+affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Done at the city of Washington, the 8th day of October, A.D. 1812, and
+of the Independence of the United States the thirty-seventh.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _November 4, 1812_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+On our present meeting it is my first duty to invite your attention to
+the providential favors which our country has experienced in the unusual
+degree of health dispensed to its inhabitants, and in the rich abundance
+with which the earth has rewarded the labors bestowed on it. In the
+successful cultivation of other branches of industry, and in the
+progress of general improvement favorable to the national prosperity,
+there is just occasion also for our mutual congratulations and
+thankfulness.
+
+With these blessings are necessarily mingled the pressures and
+vicissitudes incident to the state of war into which the United States
+have been forced by the perseverance of a foreign power in its system of
+injustice and aggression.
+
+Previous to its declaration it was deemed proper, as a measure of
+precaution and forecast, that a considerable force should be placed in
+the Michigan Territory with a general view to its security, and, in
+the event of war, to such operations in the uppermost Canada as would
+intercept the hostile influence of Great Britain over the savages,
+obtain the command of the lake on which that part of Canada borders,
+and maintain cooperating relations with such forces as might be most
+conveniently employed against other parts. Brigadier-General Hull was
+charged with this provisional service, having under his command a body
+of troops composed of regulars and of volunteers from the State of Ohio.
+Having reached his destination after his knowledge of the war, and
+possessing discretionary authority to act offensively, he passed into
+the neighboring territory of the enemy with a prospect of easy and
+victorious progress. The expedition, nevertheless, terminated
+unfortunately, not only in a retreat to the town and fort of Detroit,
+but in the surrender of both and of the gallant corps commanded by that
+officer. The causes of this painful reverse will be investigated by a
+military tribunal.
+
+A distinguishing feature in the operations which preceded and followed
+this adverse event is the use made by the enemy of the merciless savages
+under their influence. Whilst the benevolent policy of the United States
+invariably recommended peace and promoted civilization among that
+wretched portion of the human race, and was making exertions to dissuade
+them from taking either side in the war, the enemy has not scrupled to
+call to his aid their ruthless ferocity, armed with the horrors of those
+instruments of carnage and torture which are known to spare neither age
+nor sex. In this outrage against the laws of honorable war and against
+the feelings sacred to humanity the British commanders can not resort to
+a plea of retaliation, for it is committed in the face of our example.
+They can not mitigate it by calling it a self-defense against men in
+arms, for it embraces the most shocking butcheries of defenseless
+families. Nor can it be pretended that they are not answerable for the
+atrocities perpetrated, since the savages are employed with a knowledge,
+and even with menaces, that their fury could not be controlled. Such is
+the spectacle which the deputed authorities of a nation boasting its
+religion and morality have not been restrained from presenting to an
+enlightened age.
+
+The misfortune at Detroit was not, however, without a consoling effect.
+It was followed by signal proofs that the national spirit rises
+according to the pressure on it. The loss of an important post and of
+the brave men surrendered with it inspired everywhere new ardor and
+determination. In the States and districts least remote it was no sooner
+known than every citizen was ready to fly with his arms at once to
+protect his brethren against the bloodthirsty savages let loose by the
+enemy on an extensive frontier, and to convert a partial calamity into
+a source of invigorated efforts. This patriotic zeal, which it was
+necessary rather to limit than excite, has embodied an ample force from
+the States of Kentucky and Ohio and from parts of Pennsylvania and
+Virginia. It is placed, with the addition of a few regulars, under
+the command of Brigadier-General Harrison, who possesses the entire
+confidence of his fellow-soldiers, among whom are citizens, some of them
+volunteers in the ranks, not less distinguished by their political
+stations than by their personal merits. The greater portion of this
+force is proceeding on its destination toward the Michigan Territory,
+having succeeded in relieving an important frontier post, and in several
+incidental operations against hostile tribes of savages, rendered
+indispensable by the subserviency into which they had been seduced by
+the enemy--a seduction the more cruel as it could not fail to impose a
+necessity of precautionary severities against those who yielded to it.
+
+At a recent date an attack was made on a post of the enemy near Niagara
+by a detachment of the regular and other forces under the command of
+Major-General Van Rensselaer, of the militia of the State of New York.
+The attack, it appears, was ordered in compliance with the ardor of the
+troops, who executed it with distinguished gallantry, and were for a
+time victorious; but not receiving the expected support, they were
+compelled to yield to reenforcements of British regulars and savages.
+Our loss has been considerable, and is deeply to be lamented. That of
+the enemy, less ascertained, will be the more felt, as it includes among
+the killed the commanding general, who was also the governor of the
+Province, and was sustained by veteran troops from unexperienced
+soldiers, who must daily improve in the duties of the field.
+
+Our expectation of gaining the command of the Lakes by the invasion of
+Canada from Detroit having been disappointed, measures were instantly
+taken to provide on them a naval force superior to that of the enemy.
+From the talents and activity of the officer charged with this object
+everything that can be done may be expected. Should the present season
+not admit of complete success, the progress made will insure for the
+next a naval ascendency where it is essential to our permanent peace
+with and control over the savages.
+
+Among the incidents to the measures of the war I am constrained to
+advert to the refusal of the governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut
+to furnish the required detachments of militia toward the defense of the
+maritime frontier. The refusal was founded on a novel and unfortunate
+exposition of the provisions of the Constitution relating to the
+militia. The correspondences which will be laid before you contain
+the requisite information on the subject. It is obvious that if the
+authority of the United States to call into service and command the
+militia for the public defense can be thus frustrated, even in a state
+of declared war and of course under apprehensions of invasion preceding
+war, they are not one nation for the purpose most of all requiring it,
+and that the public safety may have no other resource than in those
+large and permanent military establishments which are forbidden by the
+principles of our free government, and against the necessity of which
+the militia were meant to be a constitutional bulwark.
+
+On the coasts and on the ocean the war has been as successful as
+circumstances inseparable from its early stages could promise. Our
+public ships and private cruisers, by their activity, and, where there
+was occasion, by their intrepidity, have made the enemy sensible of the
+difference between a reciprocity of captures and the long confinement of
+them to their side. Our trade, with little exception, has safely reached
+our ports, having been much favored in it by the course pursued by a
+squadron of our frigates under the command of Commodore Rodgers, and in
+the instance in which skill and bravery were more particularly tried
+with those of the enemy the American flag had an auspicious triumph.
+The frigate _Constitution_, commanded by Captain Hull, after a close
+and short engagement completely disabled and captured a British frigate,
+gaining for that officer and all on board a praise which can not be too
+liberally bestowed, not merely for the victory actually achieved, but
+for that prompt and cool exertion of commanding talents which, giving to
+courage its highest character, and to the force applied its full effect,
+proved that more could have been done in a contest requiring more.
+
+Anxious to abridge the evils from which a state of war can not be
+exempt, I lost no time after it was declared in conveying to the British
+Government the terms on which its progress might be arrested, without
+awaiting the delays of a formal and final pacification, and our charge
+d'affaires at London was at the same time authorized to agree to an
+armistice founded upon them. These terms required that the orders in
+council should be repealed as they affected the United States, without a
+revival of blockades violating acknowledged rules, and that there should
+be an immediate discharge of American seamen from British ships, and a
+stop to impressment from American ships, with an understanding that
+an exclusion of the seamen of each nation from the ships of the other
+should be stipulated, and that the armistice should be improved into
+a definitive and comprehensive adjustment of depending controversies.
+Although a repeal of the orders susceptible of explanations meeting the
+views of this Government had taken place before this pacific advance was
+communicated to that of Great Britain, the advance was declined from an
+avowed repugnance to a suspension of the practice of impressments during
+the armistice, and without any intimation that the arrangement proposed
+with respect to seamen would be accepted. Whether the subsequent
+communications from this Government, affording an occasion for
+reconsidering the subject on the part of Great Britain, will be viewed
+in a more favorable light or received in a more accommodating spirit
+remains to be known. It would be unwise to relax our measures in any
+respect on a presumption of such a result.
+
+The documents from the Department of State which relate to this subject
+will give a view also of the propositions for an armistice which have
+been received here, one of them from the authorities at Halifax and in
+Canada, the other from the British Government itself through Admiral
+Warren, and of the grounds on which neither of them could be accepted.
+
+Our affairs with France retain the posture which they held at my last
+communications to you. Notwithstanding the authorized expectations of an
+early as well as favorable issue to the discussions on foot, these have
+been procrastinated to the latest date. The only intervening occurrence
+meriting attention is the promulgation of a French decree purporting to
+be a definitive repeal of the Berlin and Milan decrees. This proceeding,
+although made the ground of the repeal of the British orders in council,
+is rendered by the time and manner of it liable to many objections.
+
+The final communications from our special minister to Denmark afford
+further proofs of the good effects of his mission, and of the amicable
+disposition of the Danish Government. From Russia we have the
+satisfaction to receive assurances of continued friendship, and that it
+will not be affected by the rupture between the United States and Great
+Britain. Sweden also professes sentiments favorable to the subsisting
+harmony.
+
+With the Barbary Powers, excepting that of Algiers, our affairs remain
+on the ordinary footing. The consul-general residing with that Regency
+has suddenly and without cause been banished, together with all the
+American citizens found there. Whether this was the transitory effect of
+capricious despotism or the first act of predetermined hostility is not
+ascertained. Precautions were taken by the consul on the latter
+supposition.
+
+The Indian tribes not under foreign instigations remain at peace, and
+receive the civilizing attentions which have proved so beneficial to
+them.
+
+With a view to that vigorous prosecution of the war to which our
+national faculties are adequate, the attention of Congress will be
+particularly drawn to the insufficiency of existing provisions for
+filling up the military establishment. Such is the happy condition of
+our country, arising from the facility of subsistence and the high wages
+for every species of occupation, that notwithstanding the augmented
+inducements provided at the last session, a partial success only has
+attended the recruiting service. The deficiency has been necessarily
+supplied during the campaign by other than regular troops, with all
+the inconveniences and expense incident to them. The remedy lies in
+establishing more favorably for the private soldier the proportion
+between his recompense and the term of his enlistment, and it is a
+subject which can not too soon or too seriously be taken into
+consideration.
+
+The same insufficiency has been experienced in the provisions for
+volunteers made by an act of the last session. The recompense for the
+service required in this case is still less attractive than in the
+other, and although patriotism alone has sent into the field some
+valuable corps of that description, those alone who can afford the
+sacrifice can be reasonably expected to yield to that impulse.
+
+It will merit consideration also whether as auxiliary to the security
+of our frontiers corps may not be advantageously organized with a
+restriction of their services to particular districts convenient to
+them, and whether the local and occasional services of mariners and
+others in the seaport towns under a similar organization would not be
+a provident addition to the means of their defense.
+
+I recommend a provision for an increase of the general officers of the
+Army, the deficiency of which has been illustrated by the number and
+distance of separate commands which the course of the war and the
+advantage of the service have required.
+
+And I can not press too strongly on the earliest attention of the
+Legislature the importance of the reorganization of the staff
+establishment with a view to render more distinct and definite the
+relations and responsibilities of its several departments. That there
+is room for improvements which will materially promote both economy and
+success in what appertains to the Army and the war is equally inculcated
+by the examples of other countries and by the experience of our own.
+
+A revision of the militia laws for the purpose of rendering them more
+systematic and better adapting them to emergencies of the war is at this
+time particularly desirable.
+
+Of the additional ships authorized to be fitted for service, two will
+be shortly ready to sail, a third is under repair, and delay will be
+avoided in the repair of the residue. Of the appropriations for the
+purchase of materials for shipbuilding, the greater part has been
+applied to that object and the purchase will be continued with the
+balance.
+
+The enterprising spirit which has characterized our naval force and its
+success, both in restraining insults and depredations on our coasts and
+in reprisals on the enemy, will not fail to recommend an enlargement of
+it.
+
+There being reason to believe that the act prohibiting the acceptance
+of British licenses is not a sufficient guard against the use of them,
+for purposes favorable to the interests and views of the enemy, further
+provisions on that subject are highly important. Nor is it less so that
+penal enactments should be provided for cases of corrupt and perfidious
+intercourse with the enemy, not amounting to treason nor yet embraced
+by any statutory provisions.
+
+A considerable number of American vessels which were in England when the
+revocation of the orders in council took place were laden with British
+manufactures under an erroneous impression that the nonimportation act
+would immediately cease to operate, and have arrived in the United
+States. It did not appear proper to exercise on unforeseen cases of such
+magnitude the ordinary powers vested in the Treasury Department to
+mitigate forfeitures without previously affording to Congress an
+opportunity of making on the subject such provision as they may think
+proper. In their decision they will doubtless equally consult what is
+due to equitable considerations and to the public interest.
+
+The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th of
+September last have exceeded $16,500,000, which have been sufficient
+to defray all the demands on the Treasury to that day, including a
+necessary reimbursement of near three millions of the principal of the
+public debt. In these receipts is included a sum of near $5,850,000,
+received on account of the loans authorized by the acts of the last
+session; the whole sum actually obtained on loan amounts to $11,000,000,
+the residue of which, being receivable subsequent to the 30th of
+September last, will, together with the current revenue, enable us to
+defray all the expenses of this year.
+
+The duties on the late unexpected importations of British manufactures
+will render the revenue of the ensuing year more productive than could
+have been anticipated.
+
+The situation of our country, fellow-citizens, is not without its
+difficulties, though it abounds in animating considerations, of which
+the view here presented of our pecuniary resources is an example. With
+more than one nation we have serious and unsettled controversies, and
+with one, powerful in the means and habits of war, we are at war. The
+spirit and strength of the nation are nevertheless equal to the support
+of all its rights, and to carry it through all its trials. They can be
+met in that confidence. Above all, we have the inestimable consolation
+of knowing that the war in which we are actually engaged is a war
+neither of ambition nor of vainglory; that it is waged not in violation
+of the rights of others, but in the maintenance of our own; that it was
+preceded by a patience without example under wrongs accumulating without
+end, and that it was finally not declared until every hope of averting
+it was extinguished by the transfer of the British scepter into new
+hands clinging to former councils, and until declarations were
+reiterated to the last hour, through the British envoy here, that
+the hostile edicts against our commercial rights and our maritime
+independence would not be revoked; nay, that they could not be revoked
+without violating the obligations of Great Britain to other powers, as
+well as to her own interests. To have shrunk under such circumstances
+from manly resistance would have been a degradation blasting our best
+and proudest hopes; it would have struck us from the high rank where the
+virtuous struggles of our fathers had placed us, and have betrayed the
+magnificent legacy which we hold in trust for future generations. It
+would have acknowledged that on the element which forms three-fourths of
+the globe we inhabit, and where all independent nations have equal and
+common rights, the American people were not an independent people,
+but colonists and vassals. It was at this moment and with such an
+alternative that war was chosen. The nation felt the necessity of it,
+and called for it. The appeal was accordingly made, in a just cause,
+to the Just and All-powerful Being who holds in His hand the chain of
+events and the destiny of nations. It remains only that, faithful to
+ourselves, entangled in no connections with the views of other powers,
+and ever ready to accept peace from the hand of justice, we prosecute
+the war with united counsels and with the ample faculties of the nation
+until peace be so obtained and as the only means under the Divine
+blessing of speedily obtaining it.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+NOVEMBER, 12, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+For the further information of Congress relative to the pacific advances
+made on the part of this Government to that of Great Britain, and the
+manner in which they have been met by the latter, I transmit the sequel
+of the communications on that subject received from the late charge
+d'affaires at London.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+NOVEMBER 17, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress copies of a letter from the consul general of
+the United States to Algiers, stating the circumstances preceding and
+attending his departure from that Regency.
+
+JAMES MADISON
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 11, 1812_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress copies of a letter to the Secretary of the Navy
+from Captain Decatur, of the frigate _United States_, reporting his
+combat and capture of the British frigate _Macedonian_. Too much
+praise can not be bestowed on that officer and his companions on board
+for the consummate skill and conspicuous valor by which this trophy has
+been added to the naval arms of the United States.
+
+I transmit also a letter from Captain Jones, who commanded the sloop
+of war _Wasp_, reporting his capture of the British sloop of war
+_Frolic_, after a close action, in which other brilliant titles will
+be seen to the public admiration and praise.
+
+A nation feeling what it owes to itself and to its citizens could never
+abandon to arbitrary violence on the ocean a class of them which give
+such examples of capacity and courage in defending their rights on that
+element, examples which ought to impress on the enemy, however brave and
+powerful, preference of justice and peace to hostility against a country
+whose prosperous career may be accelerated but can not be prevented by
+the assaults made on it.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 22, 1813.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit, for the information of Congress, copies of a correspondence
+between John Mitchell, agent for American prisoners of war at Halifax,
+and the British admiral commanding at that station.
+
+I transmit, for the like purpose, copies of a letter from Commodore
+Rodgers to the Secretary of the Navy,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 22, 1813.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress a letter, with accompanying documents, from
+Captain Bainbridge, now commanding the United States frigate the
+_Constitution_, reporting his capture and destruction of the
+British frigate the _Java_. The circumstances and the issue of this
+combat afford another example of the professional skill and heroic
+spirit which prevail in our naval service. The signal display of both by
+Captain Bainbridge, his officers and crew, commands the highest praise.
+
+This being a second instance in which the condition of the captured
+ship, by rendering it impossible to get her into port, has barred
+a contemplated reward of successful valor, I recommend to the
+consideration of Congress the equity and propriety of a general
+provision allowing in such cases, both past and future, a fair
+proportion of the value which would accrue to the captors on the
+safe arrival and sale of the prize.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 24, 1813.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress copies of a proclamation of the British
+lieutenant-governor of the island of Bermuda, which has appeared under
+circumstances leaving no doubt of its authenticity. It recites a British
+order in council of the 26th of October last, providing for the supply
+of the British West Indies and other colonial possessions by a trade
+under special licenses, and is accompanied by a circular instruction to
+the colonial governors which confines licensed importations from ports
+of the United States to the ports of the Eastern States exclusively.
+
+The Government of Great Britain had already introduced into her commerce
+during war a system which, at once violating the rights of other nations
+and resting on a mass of forgery and perjury unknown to other times,
+was making an unfortunate progress in undermining those principles
+of morality and religion which are the best foundation of national
+happiness.
+
+The policy now proclaimed to the world introduces into her modes of
+warfare a system equally distinguished by the deformity of its features
+and the depravity of its character, having for its object to dissolve
+the ties of allegiance and the sentiments of loyalty in the adversary
+nation, and to seduce and separate its component parts the one from the
+other.
+
+The general tendency of these demoralizing and disorganizing
+contrivances will be reprobated by the civilized and Christian world,
+and the insulting attempt on the virtue, the honor, the patriotism, and
+the fidelity of our brethren of the Eastern States will not fail to call
+forth all their indignation and resentment, and to attach more and more
+all the States to that happy Union and Constitution against which such
+insidious and malignant artifices are directed.
+
+The better to guard, nevertheless, against the effect of individual
+cupidity and treachery and to turn the corrupt projects of the enemy
+against himself, I recommend to the consideration of Congress the
+expediency of an effectual prohibition of any trade whatever by citizens
+or inhabitants of the United States under special licenses, whether
+relating to persons or ports, and in aid thereof a prohibition of all
+exportations from the United States in foreign bottoms, few of which are
+actually employed, whilst multiplying counterfeits of their flags and
+papers are covering and encouraging the navigation of the enemy.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+MARCH 3, 1813.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Conformably to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+27th of January last, I transmit "rolls of the persons having office or
+employment of a public nature under the United States,"
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+VETO MESSAGE.
+
+
+NOVEMBER 5, 1812.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The bill entitled "An act supplementary to the acts heretofore passed on
+the subject of an uniform rule of naturalization," which passed the two
+Houses at the last session of Congress, having appeared to me liable to
+abuse by aliens having no real purpose of effectuating a naturalization,
+and therefore not been signed, and having been presented at an hour
+too near the close of the session to be returned with objections for
+reconsideration, the bill failed to become a law. I also recommend that
+provision be now made in favor of aliens entitled to the contemplated
+benefit, under such regulations as will prevent advantage being taken
+of it for improper purposes.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
+
+
+About to add the solemnity of an oath to the obligations imposed by a
+second call to the station in which my country heretofore placed me,
+I find in the presence of this respectable assembly an opportunity of
+publicly repeating my profound sense of so distinguished a confidence
+and of the responsibility united with it. The impressions on me are
+strengthened by such an evidence that my faithful endeavors to discharge
+my arduous duties have been favorably estimated, and by a consideration
+of the momentous period at which the trust has been renewed. From the
+weight and magnitude now belonging to it I should be compelled to shrink
+if I had less reliance on the support of an enlightened and generous
+people, and felt less deeply a conviction that the war with a powerful
+nation, which forms so prominent a feature in our situation, is stamped
+with that justice which invites the smiles of Heaven on the means of
+conducting it to a successful termination.
+
+May we not cherish this sentiment without presumption when we reflect
+on the characters by which this war is distinguished?
+
+It was not declared on the part of the United States until it had been
+long made on them, in reality though not in name; until arguments and
+expostulations had been exhausted; until a positive declaration had been
+received that the wrongs provoking it would not be discontinued; nor
+until this last appeal could no longer be delayed without breaking down
+the spirit of the nation, destroying all confidence in itself and in its
+political institutions, and either perpetuating a state of disgraceful
+suffering or regaining by more costly sacrifices and more severe
+struggles our lost rank and respect among independent powers.
+
+On the issue of the war are staked our national sovereignty on the
+high seas and the security of an important class of citizens, whose
+occupations give the proper value to those of every other class. Not to
+contend for such a stake is to surrender our equality with other powers
+on the element common to all and to violate the sacred title which every
+member of the society has to its protection. I need not call into view
+the unlawfulness of the practice by which our mariners are forced at the
+will of every cruising officer from their own vessels into foreign
+ones, nor paint the outrages inseparable from it. The proofs are in the
+records of each successive Administration of our Government, and the
+cruel sufferings of that portion of the American people have found their
+way to every bosom not dead to the sympathies of human nature.
+
+As the war was just in its origin and necessary and noble in its
+objects, we can reflect with a proud satisfaction that in carrying it
+on no principle of justice or honor, no usage of civilized nations, no
+precept of courtesy or humanity, have been infringed, The war has been
+waged on our part with scrupulous regard to all these obligations, and
+in a spirit of liberality which was never surpassed.
+
+How little has been the effect of this example on the conduct of the
+enemy!
+
+They have retained as prisoners of war citizens of the United States
+not liable to be so considered under the usages of war.
+
+They have refused to consider as prisoners of war, and threatened to
+punish as traitors and deserters, persons emigrating without restraint
+to the United States, incorporated by naturalization into our political
+family, and fighting under the authority of their adopted country in
+open and honorable war for the maintenance of its rights and safety.
+Such is the avowed purpose of a Government which is in the practice of
+naturalizing by thousands citizens of other countries, and not only of
+permitting but compelling them to fight its battles against their native
+country.
+
+They have not, it is true, taken into their own hands the hatchet and
+the knife, devoted to indiscriminate massacre, but they have let loose
+the savages armed with these cruel instruments; have allured them into
+their service, and carried them to battle by their sides, eager to glut
+their savage thirst with the blood of the vanquished and to finish the
+work of torture and death on maimed and defenseless captives. And, what
+was never before seen, British commanders have extorted victory over the
+unconquerable valor of our troops by presenting to the sympathy of their
+chief captives awaiting massacre from their savage associates. And now
+we find them, in further contempt of the modes of honorable warfare,
+supplying the place of a conquering force by attempts to disorganize our
+political society, to dismember our confederated Republic. Happily, like
+others, these will recoil on the authors; but they mark the degenerate
+counsels from which they emanate, and if they did not belong to a
+series of unexampled inconsistencies might excite the greater wonder as
+proceeding from a Government which founded the very war in which it has
+been so long engaged on a charge against the disorganizing and
+insurrectional policy of its adversary.
+
+To render the justice of the war on our part the more conspicuous, the
+reluctance to commence it was followed by the earliest and strongest
+manifestations of a disposition to arrest its progress. The sword was
+scarcely out of the scabbard before the enemy was apprised of the
+reasonable terms on which it would be resheathed. Still more precise
+advances were repeated, and have been received in a spirit forbidding
+every reliance not placed on the military resources of the nation.
+
+These resources are amply sufficient to bring the war to an honorable
+issue. Our nation is in number more than half that of the British Isles.
+It is composed of a brave, a free, a virtuous, and an intelligent
+people. Our country abounds in the necessaries, the arts, and the
+comforts of life. A general prosperity is visible in the public
+countenance. The means employed by the British cabinet to undermine it
+have recoiled on themselves; have given to our national faculties a more
+rapid development, and, draining or diverting the precious metals from
+British circulation and British vaults, have poured them into those of
+the United States. It is a propitious consideration that an unavoidable
+war should have found this seasonable facility for the contributions
+required to support it. When the public voice called for war, all knew,
+and still know, that without them it could not be carried on through the
+period which it might last, and the patriotism, the good sense, and the
+manly spirit of our fellow-citizens are pledges for the cheerfulness
+with which they will bear each his share of the common burden. To render
+the war short and its success sure, animated and systematic exertions
+alone are necessary, and the success of our arms now may long preserve
+our country from the necessity of another resort to them. Already
+have the gallant exploits of our naval heroes proved to the world
+our inherent capacity to maintain our rights on one element. If the
+reputation of our arms has been thrown under clouds on the other,
+presaging flashes of heroic enterprise assure us that nothing is wanting
+to correspondent triumphs there also but die discipline and habits which
+are in daily progress.
+
+MARCH 4, 1813.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL SESSION MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 25, 1813_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+At an early day after the close of the last session of Congress an offer
+was formally communicated from His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of
+Russia of his mediation, as the common friend of the United States and
+Great Britain, for the purpose of facilitating a peace between them. The
+high character of the Emperor Alexander being a satisfactory pledge for
+the sincerity and impartiality of his offer, it was immediately
+accepted, and as a further proof of the disposition on the part of the
+United States, to meet their adversary in honorable experiments for
+terminating the war it was determined to avoid intermediate delays
+incident to the distance of the parties by a definitive provision for
+the contemplated negotiation. Three of our eminent citizens were
+accordingly commissioned with the requisite powers to conclude a treaty
+of peace with persons clothed with like powers on the part of Great
+Britain. They are authorized also to enter into such conventional
+regulations of the commerce between the two countries as may be mutually
+advantageous. The two envoys who, were in the United States at the time
+of their appointment have proceeded to join their colleague already at
+St. Petersburg.
+
+The envoys have received another commission authorizing them to conclude
+with Russia a treaty of commerce with a view to strengthen the amicable
+relations and improve the beneficial intercourse between the two
+countries.
+
+The issue of this friendly interposition of the Russian Emperor and this
+pacific manifestation on the part of the United States time only can
+decide. That the sentiments of Great Britain toward that Sovereign will
+have produced an acceptance of his offered mediation must be presumed.
+That no adequate motives exist to prefer a continuance of war with the
+United States to the terms on which they are willing to close it is
+certain. The British cabinet also must be sensible that, with respect to
+the important question of impressment, on which the war so essentially
+turns, a search for or seizure of British persons or property on board
+neutral vessels on the high seas is not a belligerent right derived from
+the law of nations, and it is obvious that no visit or search or use of
+force for any purpose on board the vessels of one independent power on
+the high seas can in war or peace be sanctioned by the laws or authority
+of another power. It is equally obvious that, for the purpose of
+preserving to each State its seafaring members, by excluding them from
+the vessels of the other, the mode heretofore proposed by the United
+States and now enacted by them as an article of municipal policy, can
+not for a moment be compared with the mode practiced by Great Britain
+without a conviction of its title to preference, inasmuch as the latter
+leaves the discrimination between the mariners of the two nations to
+officers exposed by unavoidable bias as well as by a defect of evidence
+to a wrong decision, under circumstances precluding for the most part
+the enforcement of controlling penalties, and where a wrong decision,
+besides the irreparable violation of the sacred rights of persons, might
+frustrate the plans and profits of entire voyages; whereas the mode
+assumed by the United States guards with studied fairness and efficacy
+against errors in such cases and avoids the effect of casual errors on
+the safety of navigation and the success of mercantile expeditions.
+
+If the reasonableness of expectations drawn from these considerations
+could guarantee their fulfillment a just peace would not be distant. But
+it becomes the wisdom of the National Legislature to keep in mind the
+true policy, or rather the indispensable obligation, of adapting its
+measures to the supposition that the only course to that happy event is
+in the vigorous employment of the resources of war. And painful as the
+reflection is, this duty is particularly enforced by the spirit and
+manner in which the war continues to be waged by the enemy, who,
+uninfluenced by the unvaried examples of humanity set them, are adding
+to the savage fury of it on one frontier a system of plunder and
+conflagration on the other, equally forbidden by respect for national
+character and by the established rules of civilized warfare.
+
+As an encouragement to persevering and invigorated exertions to bring
+the contest to a happy result, I have the satisfaction of being able to
+appeal to the auspicious progress of our arms both by land and on the
+water.
+
+In continuation of the brilliant achievements of our infant Navy, a
+signal triumph has been gained by Captain Lawrence and his companions in
+the _Hornet_ sloop of war, which destroyed a British sloop of war
+with a celerity so unexampled and with a slaughter of the enemy so
+disproportionate to the loss in the _Hornet_ as to claim for the
+conquerors the highest praise and the full recompense provided by
+Congress in preceding cases. Our public ships of war in general, as well
+as the private armed vessels, have continued also their activity and
+success against the commerce of the enemy, and by their vigilance and
+address have greatly frustrated the efforts of the hostile squadrons
+distributed along our coasts to intercept them in returning into port
+and resuming their cruises.
+
+The augmentation of our naval force, as authorized at the last session
+of Congress, is in progress. On the Lakes our superiority is near at
+hand where it is not already established.
+
+The events of the campaign, so far as they are known to us, furnish
+matter of congratulation, and show that under a wise organization and
+efficient direction the Army is destined to a glory not less brilliant
+than that which already encircles the Navy. The attack and capture of
+York is in that quarter a presage of future and greater victories, while
+on the western frontier the issue of the late siege of Fort Meigs leaves
+us nothing to regret but a single act of inconsiderate valor.
+
+The provisions last made for filling the ranks and enlarging the staff
+of the Army have had the best effects. It will be for the consideration
+of Congress whether other provisions depending on their authority may
+not still further improve the military establishment and the means of
+defense.
+
+The sudden death of the distinguished citizen who represented the United
+States in France, without any special arrangements by him for such a
+contingency, has left us without the expected sequel to his last
+communications, nor has the French Government taken any measures for
+bringing the depending negotiations to a conclusion through its
+representative in the United States. This failure adds to delays before
+so unreasonably spun out. A successor to our deceased minister has been
+appointed and is ready to proceed on his mission. The course which he
+will pursue in fulfilling it is that prescribed by a steady regard to
+the true interests of the United States, which equally avoids an
+abandonment of their just demands and a connection of their fortunes
+with the systems of other powers.
+
+The receipts in the Treasury from the 1st of October to the 31st day of
+March last, including the sums received on account of Treasury notes and
+of the loans authorized by the acts of the last and the preceding
+sessions of Congress, have amounted to $15,412,000. The expenditures
+during the same period amounted to $15,920,000, and left in the Treasury
+on the 1st of April the sum of $1,857,000. The loan of $16,000,000,
+authorized by the act of the 8th of February last, has been contracted
+for. Of that sum more than $1,000,000 had been paid into the Treasury
+prior to the 1st of April, and formed a part of the receipts as above
+stated. The remainder of that loan, amounting to near $15,000,000, with
+the sum of $5,000,000 authorized to be issued in Treasury notes, and the
+estimated receipts from the customs and the sales of public lands,
+amounting to $9,300,000, and making, in the whole, $29,300,000, to
+be received during the last nine months of the present year, will
+be necessary to meet the expenditures already authorized and the
+engagements contracted in relation to the public debt. These engagements
+amount during that period to $10,500,000, which, with near one million
+for the civil, miscellaneous, and diplomatic expenses, both foreign and
+domestic, and $17,800,000 for the military and naval expenditures,
+including the ships of war building and to be built, will leave a sum
+in the Treasury at the end of the present year equal to that on the 1st
+of April last. A part of this sum may be considered as a resource for
+defraying any extraordinary expenses already authorized by law beyond
+the sums above estimated, and a further resource for any emergency may
+be found in the sum of $1,000,000, the loan of which to the United
+States has been authorized by the State of Pennsylvania, but which has
+not yet been brought into effect.
+
+This view of our finances, whilst it shows that due provision has been
+made for the expenses of the current year, shows at the same time, by
+the limited amount of the actual revenue and the dependence on loans,
+the necessity of providing more adequately for the future supplies
+of the Treasury. This can be best done by a well-digested system of
+internal revenue in aid of existing sources, which will have the effect
+both of abridging the amount of necessary loans and, on that account, as
+well as by placing the public credit on a more satisfactory basis, of
+improving the terms on which loans may be obtained. The loan of sixteen
+millions was not contracted for at a less interest than about 7 1/2 per
+cent, and, although other causes may have had an agency, it can not be
+doubted that, with the advantage of a more extended and less precarious
+revenue, a lower rate of interest might have sufficed. A longer
+postponement of this advantage could not fail to have a still greater
+influence on future loans.
+
+In recommending to the National Legislature this resort to additional
+taxes I feel great satisfaction in the assurance that our constituents,
+who have already displayed so much zeal and firmness in the cause of
+their country, will cheerfully give any other proof of their patriotism
+which it calls for. Happily no people, with local and transitory
+exceptions never to be wholly avoided, are more able than the people
+of the United States to spare for the public wants a portion of their
+private means, whether regard be had to the ordinary profits of industry
+or the ordinary price of subsistence in our country compared with those
+in any other. And in no case could stronger reasons be felt for yielding
+the requisite contributions. By rendering the public resources certain
+and commensurate to the public exigencies, the constituted authorities
+will be able to prosecute the war the more rapidly to its proper issue;
+every hostile hope founded on a calculated failure of our resources
+will be cut off, and by adding to the evidence of bravery and skill
+in combats on the ocean and the land, and alacrity in supplying the
+treasure necessary to give them their fullest effect, and demonstrating
+to the world the public energy which our political institutions combine,
+with the personal liberty distinguishing them, the best security will be
+provided against future enterprises on the rights or the peace of the
+nation.
+
+The contest in which the United States are engaged appeals for its
+support to every motive that can animate an uncorrupted and enlightened
+people--to the love of country; to the pride of liberty; to an emulation
+of the glorious founders of their independence by a successful
+vindication of its violated attributes; to the gratitude and sympathy
+which demand security from the most degrading wrongs of a class of
+citizens who have proved themselves so worthy the protection of their
+country by their heroic zeal in its defense; and, finally, to the sacred
+obligation of transmitting entire to future generations that precious
+patrimony of national rights and independence which is held in trust by
+the present from the goodness of Divine Providence.
+
+Being aware of the inconveniences to which a protracted session at this
+season would be liable, I limit the present communication to objects of
+primary importance. In special messages which may ensue regard will be
+had to the same consideration.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+MAY 29, 1813.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+The Swedish Government having repeatedly manifested a desire to
+interchange a public minister with the United States, and having lately
+appointed one with that view, and other considerations concurring to
+render it advisable at this period to make a correspondent appointment,
+I nominate Jonathan Russell, of Rhode Island, to be minister
+plenipotentiary of the United States to Sweden.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _July 6, 1813_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I have received from the committee appointed by the resolution of the
+Senate of the 14th day of June a copy of that resolution, which
+authorizes the committee to confer with the President on the subject of
+the nomination made by him of a minister plenipotentiary to Sweden.
+
+Conceiving it to be my duty to decline the proposed conference with the
+committee, and it being uncertain when it may be convenient to explain
+to the committee, and through them to the Senate, the grounds of my so
+doing, I think it proper to address the explanation directly to the
+Senate. Without entering into a general review of the relations in which
+the Constitution has placed the several departments of the Government to
+each other, it will suffice to remark that the Executive and Senate, in
+the cases of appointments to office and of treaties, are to be
+considered as independent of and coordinate with each other. If they
+agree, the appointments or treaties are made; if the Senate disagree,
+they fail. If the Senate wish information previous to their final
+decision, the practice, keeping in view the constitutional relations of
+the Senate and the Executive, has been either to request the Executive
+to furnish it or to refer the subject to a committee of their body to
+communicate, either formally or informally, with the head of the proper
+department. The appointment of a committee of the Senate to confer
+immediately with the Executive himself appears to lose sight of the
+coordinate relation between the Executive and the Senate which the
+Constitution has established, and which ought therefore to be
+maintained.
+
+The relation between the Senate and House of Representatives, in whom
+legislative power is concurrently vested, is sufficiently analogous to
+illustrate that between the Executive and Senate in making appointments
+and treaties. The two Houses are in like manner independent of and
+coordinate with each other, and the invariable practice of each in
+appointing committees of conference and consultation is to commission
+them to confer not with the coordinate body itself, but with a committee
+of that body; and although both branches of the Legislature may be too
+numerous to hold conveniently a conference with committees, were they to
+be appointed by either to confer with the entire body of the other, it
+may be fairly presumed that if the whole number of either branch were
+not too large for the purpose the objection to such a conference, being
+against the principle as derogating from the coordinate relations of the
+two Houses, would retain all its force.
+
+I add only that I am entirely persuaded of the purity of the intentions
+of the Senate in the course they have pursued on this occasion, and with
+which my view of the subject makes it my duty not to accord, and that
+they will be cheerfully furnished with all the suitable information in
+possession of the Executive in any mode deemed consistent with the
+principles of the Constitution and the settled practice under it.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _July 20, 1813_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+There being sufficient ground to infer that it is the purpose of the
+enemy to combine with the blockade of our ports special licenses to
+neutral vessels or to British vessels in neutral disguises, whereby
+they may draw from our country the precise kind and quantity of
+exports essential to their wants, whilst its general commerce remains
+obstructed, keeping in view also the insidious discrimination between
+the different ports of the United States; and as such a system, if not
+counteracted, will have the effect of diminishing very materially the
+pressure of the war on the enemy, and encouraging a perseverance in it,
+at the same time that it will leave the general commerce of the United
+States under all the pressure the enemy can impose, thus subjecting
+the whole to British regulation in subserviency to British monopoly,
+I recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency of an
+immediate and effectual prohibition of exports limited to a convenient
+day in their next session, and removable in the meantime in the event
+of a cessation of the blockade of our ports.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 4, p. 345.]
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas the Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution of the
+two Houses, have signified a request that a day may be recommended to be
+observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity as
+a day of public humiliation and prayer; and
+
+Whereas in times of public calamity such as that of the war brought on
+the United States by the injustice of a foreign government it is
+especially becoming that the hearts of all should be touched with the
+same and the eyes of all be turned to that Almighty Power in whose hand
+are the welfare and the destiny of nations:
+
+I do therefore issue this my proclamation, recommending to all who shall
+be piously disposed to unite their hearts and voices in addressing at
+one and the same time their vows and adorations to the Great Parent and
+Sovereign of the Universe that they assemble on the second Thursday of
+September next in their respective religious congregations to render Him
+thanks for the many blessings He has bestowed on the people of the
+United States; that He has blessed them with a land capable of yielding
+all the necessaries and requisites of human life, with ample means for
+convenient exchanges with foreign countries; that He has blessed the
+labors employed in its cultivation and improvement; that He is now
+blessing the exertions to extend and establish the arts and manufactures
+which will secure within ourselves supplies too important to remain
+dependent on the precarious policy or the peaceable dispositions of
+other nations, and particularly that He has blessed the United States
+with a political Constitution founded on the will and authority of the
+whole people and guaranteeing to each individual security, not only of
+his person and his property, but of those sacred rights of conscience so
+essential to his present happiness and so dear to his future hopes; that
+with those expressions of devout thankfulness be joined supplications to
+the same Almighty Power that He would look down with compassion on our
+infirmities; that He would pardon our manifold transgressions and
+awaken and strengthen in all the wholesome purposes of repentance and
+amendment; that in this season of trial and calamity He would preside in
+a particular manner over our public councils and inspire all citizens
+with a love of their country and with those fraternal affections and
+that mutual confidence which have so happy a tendency to make us safe
+at home and respected abroad; and that as He was graciously pleased
+heretofore to smile on our struggles against the attempts of the
+Government of the Empire of which these States then made a part to wrest
+from them the rights and privileges to which they were entitled in
+common with every other part and to raise them to the station of an
+independent and sovereign people, so He would now be pleased in like
+manner to bestow His blessing on our arms in resisting the hostile and
+persevering efforts of the same power to degrade us on the ocean, the
+common inheritance of all, from rights and immunities belonging and
+essential to the American people as a coequal member of the great
+community of independent nations; and that, inspiring our enemies
+with moderation, with justice, and with that spirit of reasonable
+accommodation which our country has continued to manifest, we may be
+enabled to beat our swords into plowshares and to enjoy in peace every
+man the fruits of his honest industry and the rewards of his lawful
+enterprise.
+
+If the public homage of a people can ever be worthy the favorable regard
+of the Holy and Omniscient Being to whom it is addressed, it must be
+that in which those who join in it are guided only by their free choice,
+by the impulse of their hearts and the dictates of their consciences;
+and such a spectacle must be interesting to all Christian nations as
+proving that religion, that gift of Heaven for the good of man, freed
+from all coercive edicts, from that unhallowed connection with the
+powers of this world which corrupts religion into an instrument or an
+usurper of the policy of the state, and making no appeal but to reason,
+to the heart, and to the conscience, can spread its benign influence
+everywhere and can attract to the divine altar those freewill offerings
+of humble supplication, thanksgiving, and praise which alone can be
+acceptable to Him whom no hypocrisy can deceive and no forced sacrifices
+propitiate.
+
+Upon these principles and with these views the good people of the United
+States are invited, in conformity with the resolution aforesaid, to
+dedicate the day above named to the religious solemnities therein
+recommended.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Given at Washington, this 23d day of July, A.D. 1813.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+FIFTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1813_.
+
+_Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+In meeting you at the present interesting conjuncture it would have been
+highly satisfactory if I could have communicated a favorable result to
+the mission charged with negotiations for restoring peace. It was a just
+expectation, from the respect due to the distinguished Sovereign who had
+invited them by his offer of mediation, from the readiness with which
+the invitation was accepted on the part of the United States, and from
+the pledge to be found in an act of their Legislature for the liberality
+which their plenipotentiaries would carry into the negotiations, that no
+time would be lost by the British Government in embracing the experiment
+for hastening a stop to the effusion of blood. A prompt and cordial
+acceptance of the mediation on that side was the less to be doubted, as
+it was of a nature not to submit rights or pretensions on either side
+to the decision of an umpire, but to afford merely an opportunity,
+honorable and desirable to both, for discussing and, if possible,
+adjusting them for the interest of both.
+
+The British cabinet, either mistaking our desire of peace for a dread
+of British power or misled by other fallacious calculations, has
+disappointed this reasonable anticipation. No communications from
+our envoys having reached us, no information on the subject has been
+received from that source; but it is known that the mediation was
+declined in the first instance, and there is no evidence,
+notwithstanding the lapse of time, that a change of disposition in the
+British councils has taken place or is to be expected.
+
+Under such circumstances a nation proud of its rights and conscious of
+its strength has no choice but an exertion of the one in support of the
+other.
+
+To this determination the best encouragement is derived from the success
+with which it has pleased the Almighty to bless our arms both on the
+land and on the water.
+
+Whilst proofs have been continued of the enterprise and skill of our
+cruisers, public and private, on the ocean, and a new trophy gained in
+the capture of a British by an American vessel of war, after an action
+giving celebrity to the name of the victorious commander, the great
+inland waters on which the enemy were also to be encountered have
+presented achievements of our naval arms as brilliant in their character
+as they have been important in their consequences.
+
+On Lake Erie, the squadron under command of Captain Perry having met the
+British squadron of superior force, a sanguinary conflict ended in the
+capture of the whole. The conduct of that officer, adroit as it was
+daring, and which was so well seconded by his comrades, justly entitles
+them to the admiration and gratitude of their country, and will fill an
+early page in its naval annals with a victory never surpassed in luster,
+however much it may have been in magnitude.
+
+On Lake Ontario the caution of the British commander, favored by
+contingencies, frustrated the efforts of the American commander to bring
+on a decisive action. Captain Chauncey was able, however, to establish
+an ascendency on that important theater, and to prove by the manner
+in which he effected everything possible that opportunities only were
+wanted for a more shining display of his own talents and the gallantry
+of those under his command.
+
+The success on Lake Erie having opened a passage to the territory of the
+enemy, the officer commanding the Northwestern army transferred the war
+thither, and rapidly pursuing the hostile troops, fleeing with their
+savage associates, forced a general action, which quickly terminated in
+the capture of the British and dispersion of the savage force.
+
+This result is signally honorable to Major General Harrison, by whose
+military talents it was prepared; to Colonel Johnson and his mounted
+volunteers, whose impetuous onset gave a decisive blow to the ranks of
+the enemy, and to the spirit of the volunteer militia, equally brave and
+patriotic, who bore an interesting part in the scene; more especially to
+the chief magistrate of Kentucky, at the head of them, whose heroism
+signalized in the war which established the independence of his country,
+sought at an advanced age a share in hardships and battles for
+maintaining its rights and its safety.
+
+The effect of these successes has been to rescue the inhabitants of
+Michigan from their oppressions, aggravated by gross infractions of
+the capitulation which subjected them to a foreign power; to alienate
+the savages of numerous tribes from the enemy, by whom they were
+disappointed and abandoned, and to relieve an extensive region of
+country from a merciless warfare which desolated its frontiers and
+imposed on its citizens the most harassing services.
+
+In consequence of our naval superiority on Lake Ontario and the
+opportunity afforded by it for concentrating our forces by water,
+operations which had been provisionally planned were set on foot against
+the possessions of the enemy on the St. Lawrence. Such, however, was the
+delay produced in the first instance by adverse weather of unusual
+violence and continuance and such the circumstances attending the final
+movements of the army, that the prospect, at one time so favorable, was
+not realized.
+
+The cruelty of the enemy in enlisting the savages into a war with a
+nation desirous of mutual emulation in mitigating its calamities has not
+been confined to any one quarter. Wherever they could be turned against
+us no exertions to effect it have been spared. On our southwestern
+border the Creek tribes, who, yielding to our persevering endeavors,
+were gradually acquiring more civilized habits, became the unfortunate
+victims of seduction. A war in that quarter has been the consequence,
+infuriated by a bloody fanaticism recently propagated among them. It
+was necessary to crush such a war before it could spread among the
+contiguous tribes and before it could favor enterprises of the enemy
+into that vicinity. With this view a force was called into the service
+of the United States from the States of Georgia and Tennessee, which,
+with the nearest regular troops and other corps from the Mississippi
+Territory, might not only chastise the savages into present peace but
+make a lasting impression on their fears.
+
+The progress of the expedition, as far as is yet known, corresponds with
+the martial zeal with which it was espoused, and the best hopes of a
+satisfactory issue are authorized by the complete success with which a
+well-planned enterprise was executed against a body of hostile savages
+by a detachment of the volunteer militia of Tennessee, under the gallant
+command of General Coffee, and by a still more important victory over a
+larger body of them, gained under the immediate command of Major General
+Jackson, an officer equally distinguished for his patriotism and his
+military talents.
+
+The systematic perseverance of the enemy in courting the aid of the
+savages in all quarters had the natural effect of kindling their
+ordinary propensity to war into a passion, which, even among those
+best disposed toward the United States, was ready, if not employed
+on our side, to be turned against us. A departure from our protracted
+forbearance to accept the services tendered by them has thus been forced
+upon us. But in yielding to it the retaliation has been mitigated as
+much as possible, both in its extent and in its character, stopping far
+short of the example of the enemy, who owe the advantages they have
+occasionally gained in battle chiefly to the number of their savage
+associates, and who have not controlled them either from their usual
+practice of indiscriminate massacre on defenseless inhabitants or from
+scenes of carnage without a parallel on prisoners to the British arms,
+guarded by all the laws of humanity and of honorable war. For these
+enormities the enemy are equally responsible, whether with the power to
+prevent them they want the will or with the knowledge of a want of power
+they still avail themselves of such instruments.
+
+In other respects the enemy are pursuing a course which threatens
+consequences most afflicting to humanity.
+
+A standing law of Great Britain naturalizes, as is well known, all
+aliens complying with conditions limited to a shorter period than
+those required by the United States, and naturalized subjects are
+in war employed by her Government in common with native subjects.
+In a contiguous British Province regulations promulgated since the
+commencement of the war compel citizens of the United States being there
+under certain circumstances to bear arms, whilst of the native emigrants
+from the United States, who compose much of the population of the
+Province, a number have actually borne arms against the United States
+within their limits, some of whom, after having done so, have become
+prisoners of war, and are now in our possession. The British commander
+in that Province, nevertheless, with the sanction, as appears, of his
+Government, thought proper to select from American prisoners of war and
+send to Great Britain for trial as criminals a number of individuals who
+had emigrated from the British dominions long prior to the state of war
+between the two nations, who had incorporated themselves into our
+political society in the modes recognized by the law and the practice of
+Great Britain, and who were made prisoners of war under the banners of
+their adopted country, fighting for its rights and its safety.
+
+The protection due to these citizens requiring an effectual
+interposition in their behalf, a like number of British prisoners of
+war were put into confinement, with a notification that they would
+experience whatever violence might be committed on the American
+prisoners of war sent to Great Britain.
+
+It was hoped that this necessary consequence of the step unadvisedly
+taken on the part of Great Britain would have led her Government to
+reflect on the inconsistencies of its conduct, and that a sympathy with
+the British, if not with the American, sufferers would have arrested the
+cruel career opened by its example.
+
+This was unhappily not the case. In violation both of consistency and of
+humanity, American officers and noncommissioned officers in double the
+number of the British soldiers confined here were ordered into close
+confinement, with formal notice that in the event of a retaliation for
+the death which might be inflicted on the prisoners of war sent to Great
+Britain for trial the officers so confined would be put to death also.
+It was notified at the same time that the commanders of the British
+fleets and armies on our coasts are instructed in the same event to
+proceed with a destructive severity against our towns and their
+inhabitants.
+
+That no doubt might be left with the enemy of our adherence to the
+retaliatory resort imposed on us, a correspondent number of British
+officers, prisoners of war in our hands, were immediately put into close
+confinement to abide the fate of those confined by the enemy, and the
+British Government has been apprised of the determination of this
+Government to retaliate any other proceedings against us contrary to
+the legitimate modes of warfare.
+
+It is as fortunate for the United States that they have it in their
+power to meet the enemy in this deplorable contest as it is honorable
+to them that they do not join in it but under the most imperious
+obligations, and with the humane purpose of effectuating a return to
+the established usages of war.
+
+The views of the French Government on the subjects which have been so
+long committed to negotiation have received no elucidation since the
+close of your late session. The minister plenipotentiary of the United
+States at Paris had not been enabled by proper opportunities to press
+the objects of his mission as prescribed by his instructions.
+
+The militia being always to be regarded as the great bulwark of defense
+and security for free states, and the Constitution having wisely
+committed to the national authority a use of that force as the best
+provision against an unsafe military establishment, as well as a
+resource peculiarly adapted to a country having the extent and the
+exposure of the United States, I recommend to Congress a revision of the
+militia laws for the purpose of securing more effectually the services
+of all detachments called into the employment and placed under the
+Government of the United States.
+
+It will deserve the consideration of Congress also whether among other
+improvements in the militia laws justice does not require a regulation,
+under due precautions, for defraying the expense incident to the first
+assembling as well as the subsequent movements of detachments called
+into the national service.
+
+To give to our vessels of war, public and private, the requisite
+advantage in their cruises, it is of much importance that they should
+have, both for themselves and their prizes, the use of the ports and
+markets of friendly powers. With this view, I recommend to Congress the
+expediency of such legal provisions as may supply the defects or remove
+the doubts of the Executive authority, to allow to the cruisers of other
+powers at war with enemies of the United States such use of the American
+ports as may correspond with the privileges allowed by such powers to
+American cruisers.
+
+During the year ending on the 30th of September last the receipts into
+the Treasury have exceeded $37,500,000, of which near twenty-four
+millions were the produce of loans. After meeting all demands for
+the public service there remained in the Treasury on that day near
+$7,000,000. Under the authority contained in the act of the 2d of August
+last for borrowing $7,500,000, that sum has been obtained on terms more
+favorable to the United States than those of the preceding loan made
+during the present year. Further sums to a considerable amount will be
+necessary to be obtained in the same way during the ensuing year, and
+from the increased capital of the country, from the fidelity with which
+the public engagements have been kept and the public credit maintained,
+it may be expected on good grounds that the necessary pecuniary supplies
+will not be wanting.
+
+The expenses of the current year, from the multiplied operations falling
+within it, have necessarily been extensive; but on a just estimate of
+the campaign in which the mass of them has been incurred the cost will
+not be found disproportionate to the advantages which have been gained.
+The campaign has, indeed, in its latter stages in one quarter been less
+favorable than was expected, but in addition to the importance of our
+naval success the progress of the campaign has been filled with
+incidents highly honorable to the American arms.
+
+The attacks of the enemy on Craney Island, on Fort Meigs, on Sacketts
+Harbor, and on Sandusky have been vigorously and successfully repulsed;
+nor have they in any case succeeded on either frontier excepting when
+directed against the peaceable dwellings of individuals or villages
+unprepared or undefended.
+
+On the other hand, the movements of the American Army have been followed
+by the reduction of York, and of Forts George, Erie, and Maiden; by the
+recovery of Detroit and the extinction of the Indian war in the West,
+and by the occupancy or command of a large portion of Upper Canada.
+Battles have also been fought on the borders of the St. Lawrence, which,
+though not accomplishing their entire objects, reflect honor on the
+discipline and prowess of our soldiery, the best auguries of eventual
+victory. In the same scale are to be placed the late successes in the
+South over one of the most powerful, which had become one of the most
+hostile also, of the Indian tribes.
+
+It would be improper to close this communication without expressing a
+thankfulness in which all ought to unite for the numerous blessings
+with which our beloved country continues to be favored; for the
+abundance which overspreads our land, and the prevailing health of its
+inhabitants; for the preservation of our internal tranquillity, and
+the stability of our free institutions, and, above all, for the light
+of divine truth and the protection of every man's conscience in the
+enjoyment of it. And although among our blessings we can not number an
+exemption from the evils of war, yet these will never be regarded as
+the greatest of evils by the friends of liberty and of the rights of
+nations. Our country has before preferred them to the degraded condition
+which was the alternative when the sword was drawn in the cause which
+gave birth to our national independence, and none who contemplate the
+magnitude and feel the value of that glorious event will shrink from a
+struggle to maintain the high and happy ground on which it placed the
+American people.
+
+With all good citizens the justice and necessity of resisting wrongs
+and usurpations no longer to be borne will sufficiently outweigh the
+privations and sacrifices inseparable from a state of war. But it
+is a reflection, moreover, peculiarly consoling, that, whilst wars
+are generally aggravated by their baneful effects on the internal
+improvements and permanent prosperity of the nations engaged in them,
+such is the favored situation of the United States that the calamities
+of the contest into which they have been compelled to enter are
+mitigated by improvements and advantages of which the contest itself
+is the source.
+
+If the war has increased the interruptions of our commerce, it has at
+the same time cherished and multiplied our manufactures so as to make us
+independent of all other countries for the more essential branches for
+which we ought to be dependent on none, and is even rapidly giving them
+an extent which will create additional staples in our future intercourse
+with foreign markets.
+
+If much treasure has been expended, no inconsiderable portion of it has
+been applied to objects durable in their value and necessary to our
+permanent safety.
+
+If the war has exposed us to increased spoliations on the ocean and to
+predatory incursions on the land, it has developed the national means of
+retaliating the former and of providing protection against the latter,
+demonstrating to all that every blow aimed at our maritime independence
+is an impulse accelerating the growth of our maritime power.
+
+By diffusing through the mass of the nation the elements of military
+discipline and instruction; by augmenting and distributing warlike
+preparations applicable to future use; by evincing the zeal and valor
+with which they will be employed and the cheerfulness with which every
+necessary burden will be borne, a greater respect for our rights and a
+longer duration of our future peace are promised than could be expected
+without these proofs of the national character and resources.
+
+The war has proved moreover that our free Government, like other free
+governments, though slow in its early movements, acquires in its
+progress a force proportioned to its freedom, and that the union of
+these States, the guardian of the freedom and safety of all and of each,
+is strengthened by every occasion that puts it to the test.
+
+In fine, the war, with all its vicissitudes, is illustrating the
+capacity and the destiny of the United States to be a great, a
+flourishing, and a powerful nation, worthy of the friendship which it
+is disposed to cultivate with all others, and authorized by its own
+example to require from all an observance of the laws of justice and
+reciprocity. Beyond these their claims have never extended, and in
+contending for these we behold a subject for our congratulations in the
+daily testimonies of increasing harmony throughout the nation, and may
+humbly repose our trust in the smiles of Heaven on so righteous a cause.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+DECEMBER 9, 1813.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The tendency of our commercial and navigation laws in their present
+state to favor the enemy and thereby prolong the war is more and more
+developed by experience. Supplies of the most essential kinds And their
+way not only to British ports and British armies at a distance, but the
+armies in our neighborhood with which our own are contending derive from
+our ports and outlets a subsistence attainable with difficulty, if at
+all, from other sources. Even the fleets and troops infesting our coasts
+and waters are by like supplies accommodated and encouraged in their
+predatory and incursive warfare.
+
+Abuses having a like tendency take place in our import trade. British
+fabrics and products find their way into our ports under the name and
+from the ports of other countries, and often in British vessels
+disguised as neutrals by false colors and papers.
+
+To these abuses it may be added that illegal importations are openly
+made with advantage to the violators of the law, produced by
+undervaluations or other circumstances involved in the course of the
+judicial proceedings against them.
+
+It is found also that the practice of ransoming is a cover for collusive
+captures and a channel for intelligence advantageous to the enemy.
+
+To remedy as much as possible these evils, I recommend:
+
+That an effectual embargo on exports be immediately enacted.
+
+That all articles known to be derived, either not at all or in any
+immaterial degree only, from the productions of any other country than
+Great Britain, and particularly the extensive articles made of wool and
+cotton materials, and ardent spirits made from the cane, be expressly
+and absolutely prohibited, from whatever port or place or in whatever
+vessels the same may be brought into the United States, and that all
+violations of the nonimportation act be subjected to adequate penalties.
+
+That among the proofs of the neutral and national character of
+foreign vessels it be required that the masters and supercargoes and
+three-fourths at least of the crews be citizens or subjects of the
+country under whose flag the vessels sail.
+
+That all persons concerned in collusive captures by the enemy or in
+ransoming vessels or their cargoes from the enemy be subjected to
+adequate penalties.
+
+To shorten as much as possible the duration of the war it is
+indispensable that the enemy should feel all the pressure that can be
+given to it, and the restraints having that tendency will be borne with
+the greater cheerfulness by all good citizens, as the restraints will
+affect those most who are most ready to sacrifice the interest of their
+country in pursuit of their own.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 6, 1814.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit, for the information of Congress, copies of a letter from the
+British secretary of state for foreign affairs to the Secretary of
+State, with the answer of the latter.
+
+In appreciating the accepted proposal of the Government of Great Britain
+for instituting negotiations for peace Congress will not fail to keep in
+mind that vigorous preparations for carrying on the war can in no
+respect impede the progress to a favorable result, whilst a relaxation
+of such preparations, should the wishes of the United States for a
+speedy restoration of the blessings of peace be disappointed, would
+necessarily have the most injurious consequences.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 26, 1814.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+It has appeared that at the recovery of the Michigan Territory from the
+temporary possession of the enemy the inhabitants thereof were left in
+so destitute and distressed a condition as to require from the public
+stores certain supplies essential to their subsistence, which have been
+prolonged under the same necessity which called for them.
+
+The deplorable situation of the savages thrown by the same event on the
+mercy and humanity of the American commander at Detroit drew from the
+same source the means of saving them from perishing by famine, and in
+other places the appeals made by the wants and sufferings of that
+unhappy description of people have been equally imperious.
+
+The necessity imposed by the conduct of the enemy in relation to the
+savages of admitting their cooperation in some instances with our arms
+has also involved occasional expense in supplying their wants, and it
+is possible that a perseverance of the enemy in their cruel policy may
+render a further expense for the like purpose inevitable.
+
+On these subjects an estimate from the Department of War will be laid
+before Congress, and I recommend a suitable provision for them.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+MARCH 31, 1814.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Taking into view the mutual interests which the United States and
+the foreign nations in amity with them have in a liberal commercial
+intercourse, and the extensive changes favorable thereto which have
+recently taken place; taking into view also the important advantages
+which may otherwise result from adapting the state of our commercial
+laws to the circumstances now existing, I recommend to the consideration
+of Congress the expediency of authorizing, after a certain day,
+exportations, specie excepted, from the United States in vessels of the
+United States and in vessels owned and navigated by the subjects of
+powers at peace with them, and a repeal of so much of our laws as
+prohibits the importation of articles not the property of enemies, but
+produced or manufactured only within their dominions.
+
+I recommend also, as a more effectual safeguard and encouragement to our
+growing manufactures, that the additional duties on imports which are
+to expire at the end of one year after a peace with Great Britain be
+prolonged to the end of two years after that event, and that, in favor
+of our moneyed institutions, the exportation of specie be prohibited
+throughout the same period.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATIONS.
+
+
+[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 6, p. 279.]
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas information has been received that a number of individuals who
+have deserted from the Army of the United States have become sensible of
+their offenses and are desirous of returning to their duty, a full
+pardon is hereby granted and proclaimed to each and all such individuals
+as shall within three months from the date hereof surrender themselves
+to the commanding officer of any military post within the United States
+or the Territories thereof.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
+affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand.
+
+Done at the city of Washington, the 17th day of June, A.D. 1814, and of
+the Independence of the United States the thirty eighth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas it is manifest that the blockade which has been proclaimed by
+the enemy of the whole Atlantic coast of the United States, nearly 2,000
+miles in extent, and abounding in ports, harbors, and navigable inlets,
+can not be carried into effect by any adequate force actually stationed
+for the purpose, and it is rendered a matter of certainty and notoriety
+by the multiplied and daily arrivals and departures of the public and
+private armed vessels of the United States and of other vessels that no
+such adequate force has been so stationed; and
+
+Whereas a blockade thus destitute of the character of a regular and
+legal blockade as defined and recognized by the established law of
+nations, whatever other purposes it may be made to answer, forms no
+lawful prohibition or obstacle to such neutral and friendly vessels
+as may choose to visit and trade with the United States; and
+
+Whereas it accords with the interest and the amicable views of the
+United States to favor and promote as far as may be the free and
+mutually beneficial commercial intercourse of all friendly nations
+disposed to engage therein, and with that view to afford to their
+vessels destined to the United States a more positive and satisfactory
+security against all interruptions, molestations, or vexations whatever
+from the cruisers of the United States:
+
+Now be it known that I, James Madison, President of the United States of
+America, do by this my proclamation strictly order and instruct all the
+public armed vessels of the United States and all private armed vessels
+commissioned as privateers or with letters of marque and reprisal not
+to interrupt, detain, or otherwise molest or vex any vessels whatever
+belonging to neutral powers or the subjects or citizens thereof, which
+vessels shall be actually bound and proceeding to any port or place
+within the jurisdiction of the United States, but, on the contrary, to
+render to all such vessels all the aid and kind offices which they may
+need or require.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Given under my hand and the seal of the United States at the city of
+Washington, the 29th day of June, A.D. 1814, and of the Independence
+of the United States the thirty-eighth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+[From Annals of Congress, Thirteenth Congress, vol. 3, 9.]
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas great and weighty matters claiming the consideration of the
+Congress of the United States form an extraordinary occasion for
+convening them, I do by these presents appoint Monday, the 19th day of
+September next, for their meeting at the city of Washington, hereby
+requiring the respective Senators and Representatives then and there to
+assemble in Congress, in order to receive such communications as may
+then be made to them and to consult and determine on such measures as in
+their wisdom may be deemed meet for the welfare of the United States.
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
+hereunto affixed, and signed the same with my hand,
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Done at the city of Washington, the 8th day of August, A.D. 1814, and of
+the Independence of the United States the thirty-ninth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+[From Nile's Weekly Register, vol. 7, p. 2.]
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas the enemy by a sudden incursion have succeeded in invading the
+capital of the nation, defended at the moment by troops less numerous
+than their own and almost entirely of the militia, during their
+possession of which, though for a single day only, they wantonly
+destroyed the public edifices, having no relation in their structure to
+operations of war nor used at the time for military annoyance, some of
+these edifices being also costly monuments of taste and of the arts, and
+others depositories of the public archives, not only precious to the
+nation as the memorials of its origin and its early transactions, but
+interesting to all nations as contributions to the general stock of
+historical instruction and political science; and
+
+Whereas advantage has been taken of the loss of a fort more immediately
+guarding the neighboring town of Alexandria to place the town within the
+range of a naval force too long and too much in the habit of abusing its
+superiority wherever it can be applied to require as the alternative of
+a general conflagration an undisturbed plunder of private property,
+which has been executed in a manner peculiarly distressing to the
+inhabitants, who had inconsiderately cast themselves upon the justice
+and generosity of the victor; and
+
+Whereas it now appears by a direct communication from the British
+commander on the American station to be his avowed purpose to employ the
+force under his direction "in destroying and laying waste such towns and
+districts upon the coast as may be found assailable," adding to this
+declaration the insulting pretext that it is in retaliation for a wanton
+destruction committed by the army of the United States in Upper Canada,
+when it is notorious that no destruction has been committed, which,
+notwithstanding the multiplied outrages previously committed by the
+enemy was not unauthorized, and promptly shown to be so, and that the
+United States have been as constant in their endeavors to reclaim the
+enemy from such outrages by the contrast of their own example as they
+have been ready to terminate on reasonable conditions the war itself;
+and
+
+Whereas these proceedings and declared purposes, which exhibit a
+deliberate disregard of the principles of humanity and the rules of
+civilized warfare, and which must give to the existing war a character
+of extended devastation and barbarism at the very moment of negotiations
+for peace, invited by the enemy himself, leave no prospect of safety to
+anything within the reach of his predatory and incendiary operations but
+in manful and universal determination to chastise and expel the invader:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United States, do
+issue this my proclamation, exhorting all the good people thereof to
+unite their hearts and hands in giving effect to the ample means
+possessed for that purpose. I enjoin it on all officers, civil and
+military, to exert themselves in executing the duties with which they
+are respectively charged; and more especially I require the officers
+commanding the respective military districts to be vigilant and alert in
+providing for the defense thereof, for the more effectual accomplishment
+of which they are authorized to call to the defense of exposed and
+threatened places portions of the militia most convenient thereto,
+whether they be or be not parts of the quotas detached for the service
+of the United States under requisitions of the General Government.
+
+On an occasion which appeals so forcibly to the proud feelings and
+patriotic devotion of the American people none will forget what they
+owe to themselves, what they owe to their country and the high destinies
+which await it, what to the glory acquired by their fathers in
+establishing the independence which is now to be maintained by their
+sons with the augmented strength and resources with which time and
+Heaven had blessed them.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
+the United States to be affixed to these presents. Done at the city of
+Washington, the 1st day of September, A.D. 1814 and of the Independence
+of the United States the thirty-ninth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _September 17, 1814_.
+
+The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+SIR: The destruction of the Capitol by the enemy having made it
+necessary that other accommodations should be provided for the
+meeting of Congress, chambers for the Senate and for the House of
+Representatives, with other requisite apartments, have been fitted up,
+under the direction of the superintendent of the city, in the public
+building heretofore allotted for the post and other public offices.
+
+With this information, be pleased, sir, to accept assurances of my great
+respect and consideration.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SIXTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _September 20, 1814_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+Notwithstanding the early day which had been fixed for your session of
+the present year, I was induced to call you together still sooner, as
+well that any inadequacy in the existing provisions for the wants of the
+Treasury might be supplied as that no delay might happen in providing
+for the result of the negotiations on foot with Great Britain, whether
+it should require arrangements adapted to a return of peace or further
+and more effective provisions for prosecuting the war.
+
+That result is not yet known. If, on the one hand, the repeal of the
+orders in council and the general pacification in Europe, which withdrew
+the occasion on which impressments from American vessels were practiced,
+suggest expectations that peace and amity may be reestablished, we are
+compelled, on the other hand, by the refusal of the British Government
+to accept the offered mediation of the Emperor of Russia, by the delays
+in giving effect to its own proposal of a direct negotiation, and, above
+all, by the principles and manner in which the war is now avowedly
+carried on to infer that a spirit of hostility is indulged more violent
+than ever against the rights and prosperity of this country.
+
+This increased violence is best explained by the two important
+circumstances that the great contest in Europe for an equilibrium
+guaranteeing all its States against the ambition of any has been closed
+without any check on the overbearing power of Great Britain on the
+ocean, and it has left in her hands disposable armaments, with which,
+forgetting the difficulties of a remote war with a free people, and
+yielding to the intoxication of success, with the example of a great
+victim to it before her eyes, she cherishes hopes of still further
+aggrandizing a power already formidable in its abuses to the
+tranquillity of the civilized and commercial world.
+
+But whatever may have inspired the enemy with these more violent
+purposes, the public councils of a nation more able to maintain than it
+was to acquire its independence, and with a devotion to it rendered more
+ardent by the experience of its blessings, can never deliberate but
+on the means most effectual for defeating the extravagant views or
+unwarrantable passions with which alone the war can now be pursued
+against us.
+
+In the events of the present campaign the enemy, with all his augmented
+means and wanton use of them, has little ground for exultation, unless
+he can feel it in the success of his recent enterprises against this
+metropolis and the neighboring town of Alexandria, from both of which
+his retreats were as precipitate as his attempts were bold and
+fortunate. In his other incursions on our Atlantic frontier his
+progress, often checked and chastised by the martial spirit of the
+neighboring citizens, has had more effect in distressing individuals
+and in dishonoring his arms than in promoting any object of legitimate
+warfare; and in the two instances mentioned, however deeply to be
+regretted on our part, he will find in his transient success, which
+interrupted for a moment only the ordinary public business at the seat
+of Government, no compensation for the loss of character with the world
+by his violations of private property and by his destruction of public
+edifices protected as monuments of the arts by the laws of civilized
+warfare.
+
+On our side we can appeal to a series of achievements which have given
+new luster to the American arms. Besides the brilliant incidents in the
+minor operations of the campaign, the splendid victories gained on the
+Canadian side of the Niagara by the American forces under Major-General
+Brown and Brigadiers Scott and Gaines have gained for these heroes and
+their emulating companions the most unfading laurels, and, having
+triumphantly tested the progressive discipline of the American soldiery,
+have taught the enemy that the longer he protracts his hostile efforts
+the more certain and decisive will be his final discomfiture.
+
+On our southern border victory has continued also to follow the American
+standard. The bold and skillful operations of Major-General Jackson,
+conducting troops drawn from the militia of the States least distant,
+particularly of Tennessee, have subdued the principal tribes of hostile
+savages, and, by establishing a peace with them, preceded by recent and
+exemplary chastisement, has best guarded against the mischief of their
+cooperation with the British enterprises which may be planned against
+that quarter of our country. Important tribes of Indians on our
+northwestern frontier have also acceded to stipulations which bind them
+to the interests of the United States and to consider our enemy as
+theirs also.
+
+In the recent attempt of the enemy on the city of Baltimore, defended by
+militia and volunteers, aided by a small body of regulars and seamen, he
+was received with a spirit which produced a rapid retreat to his ships,
+whilst a concurrent attack by a large fleet was successfully resisted by
+the steady and well-directed fire of the fort and batteries opposed to
+it.
+
+In another recent attack by a powerful force on our troops at
+Plattsburg, of which regulars made a part only, the enemy, after a
+perseverance for many hours, was finally compelled to seek safety in a
+hasty retreat, with our gallant bands pressing upon him.
+
+On the Lakes, so much contested throughout the war, the great exertions
+for the command made on our part have been well repaid. On Lake Ontario
+our squadron is now and has been for some time in a condition to confine
+that of the enemy to his own port, and to favor the operations of our
+land forces on that frontier.
+
+A part of the squadron on Lake Erie has been extended into Lake Huron,
+and has produced the advantage of displaying our command on that lake
+also. One object of the expedition was the reduction of Mackinaw, which
+failed with the loss of a few brave men, among whom was an officer
+justly distinguished for his gallant exploits. The expedition, ably
+conducted by both the land and the naval commanders, was otherwise
+highly valuable in its effects.
+
+On Lake Champlain, where our superiority had for some time been
+undisputed, the British squadron lately came into action with the
+American, commanded by Captain Macdonough. It issued in the capture of
+the whole of the enemy's ships. The best praise for this officer and his
+intrepid comrades is in the likeness of his triumph to the illustrious
+victory which immortalized another officer and established at a critical
+moment our command of another lake.
+
+On the ocean the pride of our naval arms had been amply supported. A
+second frigate has indeed fallen into the hands of the enemy, but the
+loss is hidden in the blaze of heroism with which she was defended.
+Captain Porter, who commanded her, and whose previous career had
+been distinguished by daring enterprise and by fertility of genius,
+maintained a sanguinary contest against two ships, one of them superior
+to his own, and under other severe disadvantages, till humanity tore
+down the colors which valor had nailed to the mast. This officer and his
+brave comrades have added much to the rising glory of the American flag,
+and have merited all the effusions of gratitude which their country is
+ever ready to bestow on the champions of its rights and of its safety.
+
+Two smaller vessels of war have also become prizes to the enemy, but by
+a superiority of force which sufficiently vindicates the reputation
+of their commanders, whilst two others, one commanded by Captain
+Warrington, the other by Captain Blakely, have captured British ships of
+the same class with a gallantry and good conduct which entitle them and
+their companions to a just share in the praise of their country.
+
+In spite of the naval force of the enemy accumulated on our coasts, our
+private cruisers also have not ceased to annoy his commerce and to bring
+their rich prizes into our ports, contributing thus, with other proofs,
+to demonstrate the incompetency and illegality of a blockade the
+proclamation of which is made the pretext for vexing and discouraging
+the commerce of neutral powers with the United States.
+
+To meet the extended and diversified warfare adopted by the enemy, great
+bodies of militia have been taken into service for the public defense,
+and great expenses incurred. That the defense everywhere may be both
+more convenient and more economical, Congress will see the necessity
+of immediate measures for filling the ranks of the Regular Army and of
+enlarging the provision for special corps, mounted and unmounted, to be
+engaged for longer periods of service than are due from the militia. I
+earnestly renew, at the same time, a recommendation of such changes in
+the system of the militia as, by classing and disciplining for the most
+prompt and active service the portions most capable of it, will give to
+that great resource for the public safety all the requisite energy and
+efficiency.
+
+The moneys received into the Treasury during the nine months ending on
+the 30th day of June last amounted to $32,000,000, of which near eleven
+millions were the proceeds of the public revenue and the remainder
+derived from loans. The disbursements for public expenditures during the
+same period exceeded $34,000,000, and left in the Treasury on the 1st
+day of July near $5,000,000. The demands during the remainder of the
+present year already authorized by Congress and the expenses incident to
+an extension of the operations of the war will render it necessary that
+large sums should be provided to meet them.
+
+From this view of the national affairs Congress will be urged to take
+up without delay as well the subject of pecuniary supplies as that of
+military force, and on a scale commensurate with the extent and the
+character which the war has assumed. It is not to be disguised that the
+situation of our country calls for its greatest efforts. Our enemy is
+powerful in men and in money, on the land and on the water. Availing
+himself of fortuitous advantages, he is aiming with his undivided force
+a deadly blow at our growing prosperity, perhaps at our national
+existence. He has avowed his purpose of trampling on the usages of
+civilized warfare, and given earnests of it in the plunder and wanton
+destruction of private property. In his pride of maritime dominion and
+in his thirst of commercial monopoly he strikes with peculiar animosity
+at the progress of our navigation and of our manufactures. His barbarous
+policy has not even spared those monuments of the arts and models of
+taste with which our country had enriched and embellished its infant
+metropolis. From such an adversary hostility in its greatest force and
+in its worst forms may be looked for. The American people will face it
+with the undaunted spirit which in their revolutionary struggle defeated
+his unrighteous projects. His threats and his barbarities, instead of
+dismay, will kindle in every bosom an indignation not to be extinguished
+but in the disaster and expulsion of such cruel invaders. In providing
+the means necessary the National Legislature will not distrust the
+heroic and enlightened patriotism of its constituents. They will
+cheerfully and proudly bear every burden of every kind which the safety
+and honor of the nation demand. We have seen them everywhere paying
+their taxes, direct and indirect, with the greatest promptness and
+alacrity. We see them rushing with enthusiasm to the scenes where danger
+and duty call. In offering their blood they give the surest pledge that
+no other tribute will be withheld.
+
+Having forborne to declare war until to other aggressions had been added
+the capture of nearly a thousand American vessels and the impressment of
+thousands of American seafaring citizens, and until a final declaration
+had been made by the Government of Great Britain that her hostile
+orders against our commerce would not be revoked but on conditions as
+impossible as unjust, whilst it was known that these orders would not
+otherwise cease but with a war which had lasted nearly twenty years, and
+which, according to appearances at that time, might last as many more;
+having manifested on every occasion and in every proper mode a sincere
+desire to arrest the effusion of blood and meet our enemy on the ground
+of justice and reconciliation, our beloved country, in still opposing
+to his persevering hostility all its energies, with an undiminished
+disposition toward peace and friendship on honorable terms, must carry
+with it the good wishes of the impartial world and the best hopes of
+support from an omnipotent and kind Providence.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+SEPTEMBER 26, 1814.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress, for their information, copies of a letter from
+Admiral Cochrane, commanding His Britannic Majesty's naval forces on the
+American station, to the Secretary of State, with his answer, and of a
+reply from Admiral Cochrane.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _October 10, 1814_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress communications just received from the
+plenipotentiaries of the United States charged with negotiating peace
+with Great Britain, showing the conditions on which alone that
+Government is willing to put an end to the war.
+
+The instructions to those plenipotentiaries, disclosing the grounds on
+which they were authorized to negotiate and conclude a treaty of peace,
+will be the subject of another communication.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _October 13, 1814_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I now transmit to Congress copies of the instructions to the
+plenipotentiaries of the United States charged with negotiating a peace
+with Great Britain, as referred to in my message of the 10th instant.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 1,  1814.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit, for the information of Congress, the communications last
+received from the ministers extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the
+United States at Ghent, explaining the course and actual state of their
+negotiations with the plenipotentiaries of Great Britain.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 15, 1815.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I have received from the American commissioners a treaty of peace and
+amity between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America,
+signed by those commissioners and by the commissioners of His Britannic
+Majesty at Ghent on the 24th of December, 1814. The termination of
+hostilities depends upon the time of the ratification of the treaty by
+both parties. I lose no time, therefore, in submitting the treaty to the
+Senate for their advice and approbation.
+
+I transmit also a letter from the American commissioners, which
+accompanied the treaty.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 18, 1815_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress copies of the treaty of peace and amity between
+the United States and His Britannic Majesty, which was signed by the
+commissioners of both parties at Ghent on the 24th of December, 1814,
+and the ratifications of which have been duly exchanged.
+
+While performing this act I congratulate you and our constituents upon
+an event which is highly honorable to the nation, and terminates with
+peculiar felicity a campaign signalized by the most brilliant successes.
+
+The late war, although reluctantly declared by Congress, had become a
+necessary resort to assert the rights and independence of the nation. It
+has been waged with a success which is the natural result of the wisdom
+of the legislative councils, of the patriotism of the people, of the
+public spirit of the militia, and of the valor of the military and naval
+forces of the country. Peace, at all times a blessing, is peculiarly
+welcome, therefore, at a period when the causes for the war have ceased
+to operate, when the Government has demonstrated the efficiency of its
+powers of defense, and when the nation can review its conduct without
+regret and without reproach.
+
+I recommend to your care and beneficence the gallant men whose
+achievements in every department of the military service, on the land
+and on the water, have so essentially contributed to the honor of the
+American name and to the restoration of peace. The feelings of conscious
+patriotism and worth will animate such men under every change of fortune
+and pursuit, but their country performs a duty to itself when it bestows
+those testimonials of approbation and applause which are at once the
+reward and the incentive to great actions.
+
+The reduction of the public expenditures to the demands of a peace
+establishment will doubtless engage the immediate attention of Congress.
+There are, however, important considerations which forbid a sudden and
+general revocation of the measures that have been produced by the war.
+Experience has taught us that neither the pacific dispositions of
+the American people nor the pacific character of their political
+institutions can altogether exempt them from that strife which appears
+beyond the ordinary lot of nations to be incident to the actual period
+of the world, and the same faithful monitor demonstrates that a certain
+degree of preparation for war is not only indispensable to avert
+disasters in the onset, but affords also the best security for the
+continuance of peace. The wisdom of Congress will therefore, I am
+confident, provide for the maintenance of an adequate regular force; for
+the gradual advancement of the naval establishment; for improving all
+the means of harbor defense; for adding discipline to the distinguished
+bravery of the militia, and for cultivating the military art in its
+essential branches, under the liberal patronage of Government.
+
+The resources of our country were at all times competent to the
+attainment of every national object, but they will now be enriched and
+invigorated by the activity which peace will introduce into all the
+scenes of domestic enterprise and labor. The provision that has been
+made for the public creditors during the present session of Congress
+must have a decisive effect in the establishment of the public credit
+both at home and abroad. The reviving interests of commerce will
+claim the legislative attention at the earliest opportunity, and such
+regulations will, I trust, be seasonably devised as shall secure to the
+United States their just proportion of the navigation of the world.
+The most liberal policy toward other nations, if met by corresponding
+dispositions, will in this respect be found the most beneficial policy
+toward ourselves. But there is no subject that can enter with greater
+force and merit into the deliberations of Congress than a consideration
+of the means to preserve and promote the manufactures which have sprung
+into existence and attained an unparalleled maturity throughout the
+United States during the period of the European wars. This source of
+national independence and wealth I anxiously recommend, therefore, to
+the prompt and constant guardianship of Congress.
+
+The termination of the legislative sessions will soon separate you,
+fellow citizens, from each other, and restore you to your constituents.
+I pray you to bear with you the expressions of my sanguine hope that
+the peace which has been just declared will not only be the foundation
+of the most friendly intercourse between the United States and Great
+Britain, but that it will also be productive of happiness and harmony in
+every section of our beloved country. The influence of your precepts and
+example must be everywhere powerful, and while we accord in grateful
+acknowledgments for the protection which Providence has bestowed upon
+us, let us never cease to inculcate obedience to the laws and fidelity
+to the Union as constituting the palladium of the national independence
+and prosperity.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 22, 1815_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress copies of two ratified treaties which were entered
+into on the part of the United States, one on the 22d day of July, 1814,
+with the several tribes of Indians called the Wyandots, Delawares,
+Shawanees, Senakas, and Miamies; the other on the 9th day of August,
+1814, with the Creek Nation of Indians.
+
+It is referred to the consideration of Congress how far legislative
+provisions may be necessary for carrying any part of these stipulations
+into effect.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1815_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Congress will have seen by the communication from the consul-general of
+the United States at Algiers laid before them on the 17th of November,
+1812, the hostile proceedings of the Dey against that functionary. These
+have been followed by acts of more overt and direct warfare against the
+citizens of the United States trading in the Mediterranean, some of whom
+are still detained in captivity, notwithstanding the attempts which have
+been made to ransom them, and are treated with the rigor usual on the
+coast of Barbary.
+
+The considerations which rendered it unnecessary and unimportant to
+commence hostile operations on the part of the United States being now
+terminated by the peace with Great Britain, which opens the prospect of
+an active and valuable trade of their citizens within the range of the
+Algerine cruisers, I recommend to Congress the expediency of an act
+declaring the existence of a state of war between the United States
+and the Dey and Regency of Algiers, and of such provisions as may be
+requisite for a vigorous prosecution of it to a successful issue.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 25, 1815_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Peace having happily taken place between the United States and Great
+Britain, it is desirable to guard against incidents which during periods
+of war in Europe might tend to interrupt it, and it is believed in
+particular that the navigation of American vessels exclusively by
+American seamen, either natives or such as are already naturalized,
+would not only conduce to the attainment of that object, but also to
+increase the number of our seamen, and consequently to render our
+commerce and navigation independent of the service of foreigners who
+might be recalled by their governments under circumstances the most
+inconvenient to the United States. I recommend the subject, therefore,
+to the consideration of Congress, and in deciding upon it I am persuaded
+that they will sufficiently estimate the policy of manifesting to the
+world a desire on all occasions to cultivate harmony with other nations
+by any reasonable accommodations which do not impair the enjoyment
+of any of the essential rights of a free and independent people. The
+example on the part of the American Government will merit and may be
+expected to receive a reciprocal attention from all the friendly powers
+of Europe.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+VETO MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 30, 1815_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+Having bestowed on the bill entitled "An act to incorporate the
+subscribers to the Bank of the United States of America" that full
+consideration which is due to the great importance of the subject, and
+dictated by the respect which I feel for the two Houses of Congress, I
+am constrained by a deep and solemn conviction that the bill ought not
+to become a law to return it to the Senate, in which it originated, with
+my objections to the same.
+
+Waiving the question of the constitutional authority of the Legislature
+to establish an incorporated bank as being precluded in my judgment by
+repeated recognitions under varied circumstances of the validity of such
+an institution in acts of the legislative, executive, and judicial
+branches of the Government, accompanied by indications, in different
+modes, of a concurrence of the general will of the nation, the proposed
+bank does not appear to be calculated to answer the purposes of reviving
+the public credit, of providing a national medium of circulation, and of
+aiding the Treasury by facilitating the indispensable anticipations of
+the revenue and by affording to the public more durable loans.
+
+1. The capital of the bank is to be compounded of specie, of public
+stock, and of Treasury notes convertible into stock, with a certain
+proportion of each of which every subscriber is to furnish himself.
+
+The amount of the stock to be subscribed will not, it is believed, be
+sufficient to produce in favor of the public credit any considerable or
+lasting elevation of the market price, whilst this may be occasionally
+depressed by the bank itself if it should carry into the market the
+allowed proportion of its capital consisting of public stock in order to
+procure specie, which it may find its account in procuring with some
+sacrifice on that part of its capital.
+
+Nor will any adequate advantage arise to the public credit from the
+subscription of Treasury notes. The actual issue of these notes nearly
+equals at present, and will soon exceed, the amount to be subscribed
+to the bank. The direct effect of this operation is simply to convert
+fifteen millions of Treasury notes into fifteen millions of 6 per cent
+stock, with the collateral effect of promoting an additional demand for
+Treasury notes beyond what might otherwise be negotiable.
+
+Public credit might indeed be expected to derive advantage from the
+establishment of a national bank, without regard to the formation of its
+capital, if the full aid and cooperation of the institution were secured
+to the Government during the war and during the period of its fiscal
+embarrassments. But the bank proposed will be free from all legal
+obligation to cooperate with the public measures, and whatever might be
+the patriotic disposition of its directors to contribute to the removal
+of those embarrassments, and to invigorate the prosecution of the war,
+fidelity to the pecuniary and general interest of the institution
+according to their estimate of it might oblige them to decline a
+connection of their operations with those of the National Treasury
+during the continuance of the war and the difficulties incident to it.
+Temporary sacrifices of interest, though overbalanced by the future
+and permanent profits of the charter, not being requirable of right in
+behalf of the public, might not be gratuitously made, and the bank would
+reap the full benefit of the grant, whilst the public would lose the
+equivalent expected from it; for it must be kept in view that the sole
+inducement to such a grant on the part of the public would be the
+prospect of substantial aids to its pecuniary means at the present
+crisis and during the sequel of the war. It is evident that the stock of
+the bank will on the return of peace, if not sooner, rise in the market
+to a value which, if the bank were established in a period of peace,
+would authorize and obtain for the public a bonus to a very large
+amount. In lieu of such a bonus the Government is fairly entitled to and
+ought not to relinquish or risk the needful services of the bank under
+the pressing circumstances of war.
+
+2. The bank as proposed to be constituted can not be relied on during
+the war to provide a circulating medium nor to furnish loans or
+anticipations of the public revenue.
+
+Without a medium the taxes can not be collected, and in the absence of
+specie the medium understood to be the best substitute is that of notes
+issued by a national bank. The proposed bank will commence and conduct
+its operations under an obligation to pay its notes in specie, or be
+subject to the loss of its charter. Without such an obligation the notes
+of the bank, though not exchangeable for specie, yet resting on good
+pledges and performing the uses of specie in the payment of taxes and in
+other public transactions, would, as experience has ascertained, qualify
+the bank to supply at once a circulating medium and pecuniary aids to
+the Government. Under the fetters imposed by the bill it is manifest
+that during the actual state of things, and probably during the war, the
+period particularly requiring such a medium and such a resource for
+loans and advances to the Government, notes for which the bank would be
+compellable to give specie in exchange could not be kept in circulation.
+The most the bank could effect, and the most it could be expected to
+aim at, would be to keep the institution alive by limited and local
+transactions which, with the interest on the public stock in the bank,
+might yield a dividend sufficient for the purpose until a change from
+war to peace should enable it, by a flow of specie into its vaults and
+a removal of the external demand for it, to derive its contemplated
+emoluments from a safe and full extension of its operations.
+
+On the whole, when it is considered that the proposed establishment
+will enjoy a monopoly of the profits of a national bank for a period of
+twenty years; that the monopolized profits will be continually growing
+with the progress of the national population and wealth; that the nation
+will during the same period be dependent on the notes of the bank for
+that species of circulating medium whenever the precious metals may
+be wanted, and at all times for so much thereof as may be an eligible
+substitute for a specie medium, and that the extensive employment of the
+notes in the collection of the augmented taxes will, moreover, enable
+the bank greatly to extend its profitable issues of them without the
+expense of specie capital to support their circulation, it is as
+reasonable as it is requisite that the Government, in return for these
+extraordinary concessions to the bank, should have a greater security
+for attaining the public objects of the institution than is presented in
+the bill, and particularly for every practicable accommodation, both in
+the temporary advances necessary to anticipate the taxes and in those
+more durable loans which are equally necessary to diminish the resort
+to taxes.
+
+In discharging this painful duty of stating objections to a measure
+which has undergone the deliberations and received the sanction of
+the two Houses of the National Legislature I console myself with the
+reflection that if they have not the weight which I attach to them they
+can be constitutionally overruled, and with a confidence that in a
+contrary event the wisdom of Congress will hasten to substitute a more
+commensurate and certain provision for the public exigencies.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATIONS.
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+The two Houses of the National Legislature having by a joint resolution
+expressed their desire that in the present time of public calamity and
+war a day may be recommended to be observed by the people of the United
+States as a day of public humiliation and fasting and of prayer to
+Almighty God for the safety and welfare of these States, His blessing on
+their arms, and a speedy restoration of peace, I have deemed it proper
+by this proclamation to recommend that Thursday, the 12th of January
+next, be set apart as a day on which all may have an opportunity of
+voluntarily offering at the same time in their respective religious
+assemblies their humble adoration to the Great Sovereign of the
+Universe, of confessing their sins and transgressions, and of
+strengthening their vows of repentance and amendment. They will be
+invited by the same solemn occasion to call to mind the distinguished
+favors conferred on the American people in the general health which has
+been enjoyed, in the abundant fruits of the season, in the progress of
+the arts instrumental to their comfort, their prosperity, and their
+security, and in the victories which have so powerfully contributed to
+the defense and protection of our country, a devout thankfulness for all
+which ought to be mingled with their supplications to the Beneficent
+Parent of the Human Race that He would be graciously pleased to pardon
+all their offenses against Him; to support and animate them in the
+discharge of their respective duties; to continue to them the precious
+advantages flowing from political institutions so auspicious to their
+safety against dangers from abroad, to their tranquillity at home, and
+to their liberties, civil and religious; and that He would in a special
+manner preside over the nation in its public councils and constituted
+authorities, giving wisdom to its measures and success to its arms
+in maintaining its rights and in overcoming all hostile designs and
+attempts against it; and, finally, that by inspiring the enemy with
+dispositions favorable to a just and reasonable peace its blessings
+may be speedily and happily restored.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Given at the city of Washington, the 16th day of November, 1814, and of
+the Independence of the United States the thirty-eighth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Among the many evils produced by the wars which with little intermission
+have afflicted Europe and extended their ravages into other quarters
+of the globe for a period exceeding twenty years, the dispersion or a
+considerable portion of the inhabitants of different countries in sorrow
+and in want has not been the least injurious to human happiness nor the
+least severe in the trial of human virtue.
+
+It had been long ascertained that many foreigners, flying from the
+dangers of their own home, and that some citizens, forgetful of their
+duty, had cooperated in forming an establishment on the island of
+Barrataria, near the mouth of the river Mississippi, for the purposes
+of a clandestine and lawless trade. The Government of the United States
+caused the establishment to be broken up and destroyed, and having
+obtained the means of designating the offenders of every description,
+it only remained to answer the demands of justice by inflicting an
+exemplary punishment.
+
+But it has since been represented that the offenders have manifested a
+sincere penitence; that they have abandoned the prosecution of the worse
+cause for the support of the best, and particularly that they have
+exhibited in the defense of New Orleans unequivocal traits of courage
+and fidelity. Offenders who have refused to become the associates of the
+enemy in the war upon the most seducing terms of invitation and who have
+aided to repel his hostile invasion of the territory of the United
+States can no longer be considered as objects of punishment, but as
+objects of a generous forgiveness.
+
+It has therefore been seen with great satisfaction that the general
+assembly of the State of Louisiana earnestly recommend those offenders
+to the benefit of a full pardon.
+
+And in compliance with that recommendation, as well as in consideration
+of all the other extraordinary circumstances of the case, I, James
+Madison, President of the United States of America, do issue this
+proclamation, hereby granting, publishing, and declaring a free and full
+pardon of all offenses committed in violation of any act or acts of the
+Congress of the said United States touching the revenue, trade, and
+navigation thereof or touching the intercourse and commerce of the
+United States with foreign nations at any time before the 8th day of
+January, in the present year 1815, by any person or persons whomsoever
+being inhabitants of New Orleans and the adjacent country or being
+inhabitants of the said island of Barrataria and the places adjacent:
+_Provided_, That every person claiming the benefit of this full
+pardon in order to entitle himself thereto shall produce a certificate
+in writing from the governor of the State of Louisiana stating that such
+person has aided in the defense of New Orleans and the adjacent country
+during the invasion thereof as aforesaid.
+
+And I do hereby further authorize and direct all suits, indictments,
+and prosecutions for fines, penalties, and forfeitures against any
+person or persons who shall be entitled to the benefit of this full
+pardon forthwith to be stayed, discontinued, and released; and all
+civil officers are hereby required, according to the duties of their
+respective stations, to carry this proclamation into immediate and
+faithful execution.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Done at the city of Washington, the 6th day of February, in the year
+1815, and of the Independence of the United States the thirty-ninth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Acting as Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 7, p. 397.]
+
+
+JAMES MADISON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+_To all and singular to whom these presents shall come, greeting_:
+
+Whereas a treaty of peace and amity between the United States of America
+and His Britannic Majesty was signed at Ghent on the 24th day of
+December, 1814, by the plenipotentiaries respectively appointed for that
+purpose; and the said treaty having been, by and with the advice and
+consent of the Senate of the United States, duly accepted, ratified, and
+confirmed on the 17th day of February, 1815, and ratified copies thereof
+having been exchanged agreeably to the tenor of the said treaty, which
+is in the words following, to wit:
+
+[Here follows the treaty.]
+
+Now, therefore, to the end that the said treaty of peace and amity may
+be observed with good faith on the part of the United States, I, James
+Madison, President as aforesaid, have caused the premises to be made
+public; and I do hereby enjoin all persons bearing office, civil or
+military, within the United States and all others citizens or
+inhabitants thereof or being within the same faithfully to observe and
+fulfill the said treaty and every clause and article thereof.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
+affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand.
+
+Done at the city of Washington, this 18th day of February, A.D. 1815,
+and of the Sovereignty and Independence of the United States the
+thirty-ninth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Acting Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States have by a
+joint resolution signified their desire that a day may be recommended to
+be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity
+as a day of thanksgiving and of devout acknowledgments to Almighty God
+for His great goodness manifested in restoring to them the blessing of
+peace.
+
+No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness of
+the Great Disposer of Events and of the Destiny of Nations than the
+people of the United States. His kind providence originally conducted
+them to one of the best portions of the dwelling place allotted for the
+great family of the human race. He protected and cherished them under
+all the difficulties and trials to which they were exposed in their
+early days. Under His fostering care their habits, their sentiments, and
+their pursuits prepared them for a transition in due time to a state of
+independence and self-government. In the arduous struggle by which it
+was attained they were distinguished by multiplied tokens of His benign
+interposition. During the interval which succeeded He reared them into
+the strength and endowed them with the resources which have enabled them
+to assert their national rights and to enhance their national character
+in another arduous conflict, which is now so happily terminated by a
+peace and reconciliation with those who have been our enemies. And to
+the same Divine Author of Every Good and Perfect Gift we are indebted
+for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil,
+which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land.
+
+It is for blessings such as these, and more especially for the
+restoration of the blessing of peace, that I now recommend that the
+second Thursday in April next be set apart as a day on which the people
+of every religious denomination may in their solemn assemblies unite
+their hearts and their voices in a freewill offering to their Heavenly
+Benefactor of their homage of thanksgiving and of their songs of praise.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Given at the city of Washington on the 4th day of March, A.D. 1815, and
+of the Independence of the United States the thirty-ninth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas information has been received that sundry persons citizens of
+the United States or residents within the same, and especially within
+the State of Louisiana, are conspiring together to begin and set on
+foot, provide, and prepare the means for a military expedition or
+enterprise against the dominions of Spain, with which the United States
+are happily at peace; that for this purpose they are collecting arms,
+military stores, provisions, vessels, and other means; are deceiving and
+seducing honest and well-meaning citizens to engage in their unlawful
+enterprises; are organizing, officering, and arming themselves for the
+same contrary to the laws in such cases made and provided:
+
+I have therefore thought fit to issue this my proclamation, warning and
+enjoining all faithful citizens who have been led without due knowledge
+or consideration to participate in the said unlawful enterprises to
+withdraw from the same without delay, and commanding all persons
+whatsoever engaged or concerned in the same to cease all further
+proceedings therein, as they will answer the contrary at their peril.
+And I hereby enjoin and require all officers, civil and military, of the
+United States or of any of the States or Territories, all judges,
+justices, and other officers of the peace, all military officers of the
+Army or Navy of the United States, and officers of the militia, to be
+vigilant, each within his respective department and according to his
+functions, in searching out and bringing to punishment all persons
+engaged or concerned in such enterprises, in seizing and detaining,
+subject to the disposition of the law, all arms, military stores,
+vessels, or other means provided or providing for the same, and, in
+general, in preventing the carrying on such expedition or enterprise by
+all the lawful means within their power. And I require all good and
+faithful citizens and others within the United States to be aiding and
+assisting herein, and especially in the discovery, apprehension, and
+bringing to justice of all such offenders, in preventing the execution
+of their unlawful combinations or designs, and in giving information
+against them to the proper authorities.
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States of
+America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my
+hand.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Done at the city of Washington, the 1st day of September, A.D. 1815, and
+of the Independence of the said United States of America the fortieth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SEVENTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 5, 1815_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+I have the satisfaction on our present meeting of being able to
+communicate to you the successful termination of the war which had been
+commenced against the United States by the Regency of Algiers. The
+squadron in advance on that service, under Commodore Decatur, lost not a
+moment after its arrival in the Mediterranean in seeking the naval force
+of the enemy then cruising in that sea, and succeeded in capturing two
+of his ships, one of them the principal ship, commanded by the Algerine
+admiral. The high character of the American commander was brilliantly
+sustained on the occasion which brought his own ship into close action
+with that of his adversary, as was the accustomed gallantry of all the
+officers and men actually engaged. Having prepared the way by this
+demonstration of American skill and prowess, he hastened to the port of
+Algiers, where peace was promptly yielded to his victorious force. In
+the terms stipulated the rights and honor of the United States were
+particularly consulted by a perpetual relinquishment on the part of
+the Dey of all pretensions to tribute from them. The impressions which
+have thus been made, strengthened as they will have been by subsequent
+transactions with the Regencies of Tunis and of Tripoli by the
+appearance of the larger force which followed under Commodore
+Bainbridge, the chief in command of the expedition, and by the judicious
+precautionary arrangements left by him in that quarter, afford a
+reasonable prospect of future security for the valuable portion of our
+commerce which passes within reach of the Barbary cruisers.
+
+It is another source of satisfaction that the treaty of peace with Great
+Britain has been succeeded by a convention on the subject of commerce
+concluded by the plenipotentiaries of the two countries. In this result
+a disposition is manifested on the part of that nation corresponding
+with the disposition of the United States, which it may be hoped will
+be improved into liberal arrangements on other subjects on which the
+parties have mutual interests, or which might endanger their future
+harmony. Congress will decide on the expediency of promoting such a
+sequel by giving effect to the measure of confining the American
+navigation to American seamen--a measure which, at the same time that it
+might have that conciliatory tendency, would have the further advantage
+of increasing the independence of our navigation and the resources for
+our maritime defense.
+
+In conformity with the articles in the treaty of Ghent relating to the
+Indians, as well as with a view to the tranquillity of our western and
+northwestern frontiers, measures were taken to establish an immediate
+peace with the several tribes who had been engaged in hostilities
+against the United States. Such of them as were invited to Detroit
+acceded readily to a renewal of the former treaties of friendship.
+Of the other tribes who were invited to a station on the Mississippi
+the greater number have also accepted the peace offered to them. The
+residue, consisting of the more distant tribes or parts of tribes,
+remain to be brought over by further explanations, or by such other
+means as may be adapted to the dispositions they may finally disclose.
+
+The Indian tribes within and bordering on the southern frontier, whom a
+cruel war on their part had compelled us to chastise into peace, have
+latterly shown a restlessness which has called for preparatory measures
+for repressing it, and for protecting the commissioners engaged in
+carrying the terms of the peace into execution.
+
+The execution of the act for fixing the military peace establishment has
+been attended with difficulties which even now can only be overcome by
+legislative aid. The selection of officers, the payment and discharge of
+the troops enlisted for the war, the payment of the retained troops and
+their reunion from detached and distant stations, the collection and
+security of the public property in the Quartermaster, Commissary, and
+Ordnance departments, and the constant medical assistance required
+in hospitals and garrisons rendered a complete execution of the
+act impracticable on the 1st of May, the period more immediately
+contemplated. As soon, however, as circumstances would permit, and as
+far as it has been practicable consistently with the public interests,
+the reduction of the Army has been accomplished; but the appropriations
+for its pay and for other branches of the military service having proved
+inadequate, the earliest attention to that subject will be necessary;
+and the expediency of continuing upon the peace establishment the staff
+officers who have hitherto been provisionally retained is also
+recommended to the consideration of Congress.
+
+In the performance of the Executive duty upon this occasion there has
+not been wanting a just sensibility to the merits of the American Army
+during the late war; but the obvious policy and design in fixing an
+efficient military peace establishment did not afford an opportunity to
+distinguish the aged and infirm on account of their past services nor
+the wounded and disabled on account of their present sufferings. The
+extent of the reduction, indeed, unavoidably involved the exclusion
+of many meritorious officers of every rank from the service of their
+country; and so equal as well as so numerous were the claims to
+attention that a decision by the standard of comparative merit could
+seldom be attained. Judged, however, in candor by a general standard of
+positive merit, the Army Register will, it is believed, do honor to the
+establishment, while the case of those officers whose names are not
+included in it devolves with the strongest interest upon the legislative
+authority for such provision as shall be deemed the best calculated to
+give support and solace to the veteran and the invalid, to display the
+beneficence as well as the justice of the Government, and to inspire a
+martial zeal for the public service upon every future emergency.
+
+Although the embarrassments arising from the want of an uniform national
+currency have not been diminished since the adjournment of Congress,
+great satisfaction has been derived in contemplating the revival of the
+public credit and the efficiency of the public resources. The receipts
+into the Treasury from the various branches of revenue during the nine
+months ending on the 30th of September last have been estimated at
+$12,500,000; the issues of Treasury notes of every denomination during
+the same period amounted to the sum of $14,000,000, and there was also
+obtained upon loan during the same period a sum of $9,000,000 of which
+the sum of $6,000,000 was subscribed in cash and the sum of $3,000,000
+in Treasury notes. With these means, added to the sum of $1,500,000,
+being the balance of money in the Treasury on the 1st day of January,
+there has been paid between the 1st of January and the 1st of October on
+account of the appropriations of the preceding and of the present year
+(exclusively of the amount of the Treasury notes subscribed to the loan
+and of the amount redeemed in the payment of duties and taxes) the
+aggregate sum of $33,500,000, leaving a balance then in the Treasury
+estimated at the sum of $3,000,000. Independent, however, of the
+arrearages due for military services and supplies, it is presumed that
+a further sum of $5,000,000, including the interest on the public debt
+payable on the 1st of January next, will be demanded at the Treasury
+to complete the expenditures of the present year, and for which the
+existing ways and means will sufficiently provide.
+
+The national debt, as it was ascertained on the 1st of October last,
+amounted in the whole to the sum of $120,000,000, consisting of
+the unredeemed balance of the debt contracted before the late war
+($39,000,000), the amount of the funded debt contracted in consequence
+of the war ($64,000,000), and the amount of the unfunded and floating
+debt, including the various issues of Treasury notes, $17,000,000, which
+is in a gradual course of payment. There will probably be some addition
+to the public debt upon the liquidation of various claims which are
+depending, and a conciliatory disposition on the part of Congress may
+lead honorably and advantageously to an equitable arrangement of the
+militia expenses incurred by the several States without the previous
+sanction or authority of the Government of the United States; but when
+it is considered that the new as well as the old portion of the debt
+has been contracted in the assertion of the national rights and
+independence, and when it is recollected that the public expenditures,
+not being exclusively bestowed upon subjects of a transient nature, will
+long be visible in the number and equipments of the American Navy, in
+the military works for the defense of our harbors and our frontiers, and
+in the supplies of our arsenals and magazines the amount will bear a
+gratifying comparison with the objects which have been attained, as well
+as with the resources of the country.
+
+The arrangements of the finances with a view to the receipts and
+expenditures of a permanent peace establishment will necessarily enter
+into the deliberations of Congress during the present session. It is
+true that the improved condition of the public revenue will not only
+afford the means of maintaining the faith of the Government with its
+creditors inviolate, and of prosecuting successfully the measures of
+the most liberal policy, but will also justify an immediate alleviation
+of the burdens imposed by the necessities of the war. It is, however,
+essential to every modification of the finances that the benefits of
+an uniform national currency should be restored to the community. The
+absence of the precious metals will, it is believed, be a temporary
+evil, but until they can again be rendered the general medium of
+exchange it devolves on the wisdom of Congress to provide a substitute
+which shall equally engage the confidence and accommodate the wants of
+the citizens throughout the Union. If the operation of the State banks
+can not produce this result, the probable operation of a national bank
+will merit consideration; and if neither of these expedients be deemed
+effectual it may become necessary to ascertain the terms upon which the
+notes of the Government (no longer required as an instrument of credit)
+shall be issued upon motives of general policy as a common medium of
+circulation.
+
+Notwithstanding the security for future repose which the United States
+ought to find in their love of peace and their constant respect for
+the rights of other nations, the character of the times particularly
+inculcates the lesson that, whether to prevent or repel danger, we ought
+not to be unprepared for it. This consideration will sufficiently
+recommend to Congress a liberal provision for the immediate extension
+and gradual completion of the works of defense, both fixed and floating,
+on our maritime frontier, and an adequate provision for guarding our
+inland frontier against dangers to which certain portions of it may
+continue to be exposed.
+
+As an improvement in our military establishment, it will deserve the
+consideration of Congress whether a corps of invalids might not be so
+organized and employed as at once to aid in the support of meritorious
+individuals excluded by age or infirmities from the existing
+establishment, and to procure to the public the benefit of their
+stationary services and of their exemplary discipline. I recommend also
+an enlargement of the Military Academy already established, and the
+establishment of others in other sections of the Union; and I can not
+press too much on the attention of Congress such a classification and
+organization of the militia as will most effectually render it the
+safeguard of a free state. If experience has shewn in the recent
+splendid achievements of militia the value of this resource for the
+public defense, it has shewn also the importance of that skill in the
+use of arms and that familiarity with the essential rules of discipline
+which can not be expected from the regulations now in force. With this
+subject is intimately connected the necessity of accommodating the laws
+in every respect to the great object of enabling the political authority
+of the Union to employ promptly and effectually the physical power of
+the Union in the cases designated by the Constitution.
+
+The signal services which have been rendered by our Navy and the
+capacities it has developed for successful cooperation in the national
+defense will give to that portion of the public force its full value in
+the eyes of Congress, at an epoch which calls for the constant vigilance
+of all governments. To preserve the ships now in a sound state, to
+complete those already contemplated, to provide amply the imperishable
+materials for prompt augmentations, and to improve the existing
+arrangements into more advantageous establishments for the construction,
+the repairs, and the security of vessels of war is dictated by the
+soundest policy.
+
+In adjusting the duties on imports to the object of revenue the
+influence of the tariff on manufactures will necessarily present itself
+for consideration. However wise the theory may be which leaves to the
+sagacity and interest of individuals the application of their industry
+and resources, there are in this as in other cases exceptions to the
+general rule. Besides the condition which the theory itself implies of
+a reciprocal adoption by other nations, experience teaches that so many
+circumstances must concur in introducing and maturing manufacturing
+establishments, especially of the more complicated kinds, that a country
+may remain long without them, although sufficiently advanced and in some
+respects even peculiarly fitted for carrying them on with success. Under
+circumstances giving a powerful impulse to manufacturing industry it has
+made among us a progress and exhibited an efficiency which justify the
+belief that with a protection not more than is due to the enterprising
+citizens whose interests are now at stake it will become at an early day
+not only safe against occasional competitions from abroad, but a source
+of domestic wealth and even of external commerce. In selecting the
+branches more especially entitled to the public patronage a preference
+is obviously claimed by such as will relieve the United States from a
+dependence on foreign supplies, ever subject to casual failures, for
+articles necessary for the public defense or connected with the primary
+wants of individuals. It will be an additional recommendation of
+particular manufactures where the materials for them are extensively
+drawn from our agriculture, and consequently impart and insure to that
+great fund of national prosperity and independence an encouragement
+which can not fail to be rewarded.
+
+Among the means of advancing the public interest the occasion is
+a proper one for recalling the attention of Congress to the great
+importance of establishing throughout our country the roads and canals
+which can best be executed under the national authority. No objects
+within the circle of political economy so richly repay the expense
+bestowed on them; there are none the utility of which is more
+universally ascertained and acknowledged; none that do more honor to the
+governments whose wise and enlarged patriotism duly appreciates them.
+Nor is there any country which presents a field where nature invites
+more the art of man to complete her own work for his accommodation and
+benefit. These considerations are strengthened, moreover, by the
+political effect of these facilities for intercommunication in bringing
+and binding more closely together the various parts of our extended
+confederacy. Whilst the States individually, with a laudable enterprise
+and emulation, avail themselves of their local advantages by new
+roads, by navigable canals, and by improving the streams susceptible
+of navigation, the General Government is the more urged to similar
+undertakings, requiring a national jurisdiction and national means, by
+the prospect of thus systematically completing so inestimable a work;
+and it is a happy reflection that any defect of constitutional authority
+which may be encountered can be supplied in a mode which the
+Constitution itself has providently pointed out.
+
+The present is a favorable season also for bringing again into view the
+establishment of a national seminary of learning within the District of
+Columbia, and with means drawn from the property therein, subject to
+the authority of the General Government. Such an institution claims
+the patronage of Congress as a monument of their solicitude for the
+advancement of knowledge, without which the blessings of liberty can
+not be fully enjoyed or long preserved; as a model instructive in the
+formation of other seminaries; as a nursery of enlightened preceptors,
+and as a central resort of youth and genius from every part of their
+country, diffusing on their return examples of those national feelings,
+those liberal sentiments, and those congenial manners which contribute
+cement to our Union and strength to the great political fabric of which
+that is the foundation.
+
+In closing this communication I ought not to repress a sensibility,
+in which you will unite, to the happy lot of our country and to the
+goodness of a superintending Providence, to which we are indebted for
+it. Whilst other portions of mankind are laboring under the distresses
+of war or struggling with adversity in other forms, the United States
+are in the tranquil enjoyment of prosperous and honorable peace. In
+reviewing the scenes through which it has been attained we can rejoice
+in the proofs given that our political institutions, founded in human
+rights and framed for their preservation, are equal to the severest
+trials of war, as well as adapted to the ordinary periods of repose. As
+fruits of this experience and of the reputation acquired by the American
+arms on the land and on the water, the nation finds itself possessed of
+a growing respect abroad and of a just confidence in itself, which are
+among the best pledges for its peaceful career. Under other aspects of
+our country the strongest features of its flourishing condition are seen
+in a population rapidly increasing on a territory as productive as it is
+extensive; in a general industry and fertile ingenuity which find their
+ample rewards, and in an affluent revenue which admits a reduction of
+the public burdens without withdrawing the means of sustaining the
+public credit, of gradually discharging the public debt, of providing
+for the necessary defensive and precautionary establishments, and of
+patronizing in every authorized mode undertakings conducive to the
+aggregate wealth and individual comfort of our citizens.
+
+It remains for the guardians of the public welfare to persevere in that
+justice and good will toward other nations which invite a return of
+these sentiments toward the United States; to cherish institutions which
+guarantee their safety and their liberties, civil and religious; and to
+combine with a liberal system of foreign commerce an improvement of the
+national advantages and a protection and extension of the independent
+resources of our highly favored and happy country.
+
+In all measures having such objects my faithful cooperation will be
+afforded.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 6, 1815_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate, for their consideration and advice as to a
+ratification, a treaty of peace with the Dey of Algiers concluded on
+the 30th day of June, 1815, with a letter relating to the same from
+the American commissioners to the Secretary of State.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 6, 1815.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate, for their consideration and advice as to a
+ratification, a convention to regulate the commerce between the United
+States and Great Britain, signed by their respective plenipotentiaries
+on the 3d of July last, with letters relating to the same from the
+American plenipotentiaries to the Secretary of State, and also the
+declaration with which it is the intention of the British Government
+to accompany the exchange of the ratification of the convention.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 6, 1815_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate, for their consideration and advice as to a
+ratification, treaties which have been concluded with the following
+Indian tribes, viz: Iaway tribe, Kickapoo tribe, Poutawatamie, Siouxs
+of the Lakes, Piankeshaw tribe, Siouxs of the River St. Peters, Great
+and Little Osage tribes, Yancton tribe, Mahas, Fox tribe, Teeton, Sac
+Nation, Kanzas tribe, Chippewa, Ottawa, Potawatamie, Shawanoe, Wyandot,
+Miami, Delaware, and Seneca.
+
+I communicate also the letters from the commissioners on the part of
+the United States relating to their proceedings on those occasions.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 11, 1815_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit the original of the convention between the United States and
+Great Britain, as signed by their respective plenipotentiaries, on the
+3d day of July last, a copy of which was laid before the Senate on the
+5th instant.
+
+I transmit also a copy of the late treaty of peace with Algiers, as
+certified by one of the commissioners of the United States, an office
+copy of which was laid before the Senate on the 5th instant, the
+original of the treaty not having been received.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 23, 1815.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress copies of a proclamation notifying the convention
+concluded with Great Britain on the 3d day of July last, and that the
+same has been duly ratified; and I recommend to Congress such
+legislative provisions as the convention may call for on the part of the
+United States.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 18, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The accompanying extract from the occurrences at Fort Jackson in August,
+1814, during the negotiation of a treaty with the Indians shows that the
+friendly Creeks, wishing to give to General Jackson, Benjamin Hawkins,
+and others a national mark of their gratitude and regard, conveyed to
+them, respectively, a donation of land, with a request that the grant
+might be duly confirmed by the Government of the United States.
+
+Taking into consideration the peculiar circumstances of the case, the
+expediency of indulging the Indians in wishes which they associated with
+the treaty signed by them, and that the case involves an inviting
+opportunity for bestowing on an officer who has rendered such
+illustrious services to his country a token of its sensibility to them,
+the inducement to which can not be diminished by the delicacy and
+disinterestedness of his proposal to transfer the benefit from himself,
+I recommend to Congress that provision be made for carrying into effect
+the wishes and request of the Indians as expressed by them.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 6, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+It is represented that the lands in the Michigan Territory designated by
+law toward satisfying land bounties promised the soldiers of the late
+army are so covered with swamps and lakes, or otherwise unfit for
+cultivation, that a very inconsiderable proportion can be applied to the
+intended grants. I recommend, therefore, that other lands be designated
+by Congress for the purpose of supplying the deficiency.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+MARCH 5, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 2d instant, they
+are informed that great losses having been sustained by citizens of
+the United States from unjust seizures and confiscations of their
+property by the late Government of Naples, it was deemed expedient
+that indemnification should be claimed by a special mission for that
+purpose. The occasion may be proper, also, for securing the use and
+accommodations of the Neapolitan ports, which may at any time be needed
+by the public ships of the United States, and for obtaining relief for
+the American commerce from the disadvantageous and unequal regulations
+now operating against it in that Kingdom,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+MARCH 9, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress a statement of the militia of the United States
+according to the latest returns received by the Department of War.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+APRIL 11, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+With a view to the more convenient arrangement of the important and
+growing business connected with the grant of exclusive rights to
+inventors and authors, I recommend the establishment of a distinct
+office within the Department of State to be charged therewith, under a
+director with a salary adequate to his services, and with the privilege
+of franking communications by mail from and to the office. I recommend
+also that further restraints be imposed on the issue of patents to
+wrongful claimants, and further guards provided against fraudulent
+exactions of fees by persons possessed of patents.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+APRIL 16, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress copies of a convention concluded between the
+United States and the Cherokee Indians on the 2d day of March last, as
+the same has been duly ratified and proclaimed; and I recommend that
+such provision be made by Congress as the stipulations therein contained
+may require,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+APRIL 17, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+It being presumed that further information may have changed the views
+of the Senate relative to the importance and expediency of a mission to
+Naples for the purpose of negotiating indemnities to our citizens for
+spoliations committed by the Neapolitan Government, I nominate William
+Pinkney, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Russia,
+to be minister plenipotentiary to Naples, specially charged with that
+trust.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATIONS.
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas it has been represented that many uninformed or evil-disposed
+persons have taken possession of or made a settlement on the public
+lands of the United States which have not been previously sold, ceded,
+or leased by the United States, or the claim to which lands by such
+persons has not been previously recognized or confirmed by the United
+States, which possession or settlement is by the act of Congress passed
+on the 3d day of March, 1807, expressly prohibited; and
+
+Whereas the due execution of the said act of Congress, as well as the
+general interest, requires that such illegal practices should be
+promptly repressed:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United States,
+have thought proper to issue my proclamation commanding and strictly
+enjoining all persons who have unlawfully taken possession of or made
+any settlement on the public lands as aforesaid forthwith to remove
+therefrom; and I do hereby further command and enjoin the marshal,
+or officer acting as marshal, in any State or Territory where such
+possession shall have been taken or settlement made to remove, from
+and after the 10th day of March, 1816, all or any of the said unlawful
+occupants; and to effect the said service I do hereby authorize the
+employment of such military force as may become necessary in pursuance
+of the provisions of the act of Congress aforesaid, warning the
+offenders, moreover, that they will be prosecuted in all such other ways
+as the law directs.
+
+In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States of
+America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my
+hand.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Done at the city of Washington, the 12th day of December, A.D. 1815, and
+of the Independence of the said United States of America the fortieth.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JAMES MONROE,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 10, p. 208.]
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas by the act entitled "An act granting bounties in land and extra
+pay to certain Canadian volunteers," passed the 5th March, 1816, it was
+enacted that the locations of the land warrants of the said volunteers
+should "be subject to such regulations as to priority of choice and
+manner of location as the President of the United States shall direct:"
+
+Wherefore I, James Madison, President of the United States, in
+conformity with the provisions of the act before recited, do hereby make
+known that the land warrants of the said Canadian volunteers may be
+located agreeably to the said act at the land offices at Vincennes or
+Jeffersonville, in the Indiana Territory, on the first Monday in June
+next, with the registers of the said land offices; that the warrantees
+may, in person or by their attorneys or other legal representatives, in
+the presence of the register and receiver of the said land district,
+draw lots for the priority of location; and that should any of the
+warrants not appear for location on that day they may be located
+afterwards, according to their priority of presentation, the locations
+in the district of Vincennes to be made at Vincennes and the locations
+in the district of Jeffersonville to be made at Jeffersonville.
+
+Given under my hand the 1st day of May, 1816.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+By the President:
+  JOSIAH MEIGS,
+    _Commissioner of the General Land Office_.
+
+
+
+
+
+EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+DECEMBER 3, 1816.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+In reviewing the present state of our country, our attention can not be
+withheld from the effect produced by peculiar seasons which have very
+generally impaired the annual gifts of the earth and threatened scarcity
+in particular districts. Such, however, is the variety of soils, of
+climates, and of products within our extensive limits that the aggregate
+resources for subsistence are more than sufficient for the aggregate
+wants. And as far as an economy of consumption, more than usual, may be
+necessary, our thankfulness is due to Providence for what is far more
+than a compensation, in the remarkable health which has distinguished
+the present year.
+
+Amidst the advantages which have succeeded the peace of Europe, and that
+of the United States with Great Britain, in a general invigoration of
+industry among us and in the extension of our commerce, the value of
+which is more and more disclosing itself to commercial nations, it is
+to be regretted that a depression is experienced by particular branches
+of our manufactures and by a portion of our navigation. As the first
+proceeds in an essential degree from an excess of imported merchandise,
+which carries a check in its own tendency, the cause in its present
+extent can not be of very long duration. The evil will not, however,
+be viewed by Congress without a recollection that manufacturing
+establishments, if suffered to sink too low or languish too long,
+may not revive after the causes shall have ceased, and that in the
+vicissitudes of human affairs situations may recur in which a dependence
+on foreign sources for indispensable supplies may be among the most
+serious embarrassments.
+
+The depressed state of our navigation is to be ascribed in a material
+degree to its exclusion from the colonial ports of the nation most
+extensively connected with us in commerce, and from the indirect
+operation of that exclusion.
+
+Previous to the late convention at London between the United States
+and Great Britain the relative state of the navigation laws of the two
+countries, growing out of the treaty of 1794, had given to the British
+navigation a material advantage over the American in the intercourse
+between the American ports and British ports in Europe. The convention
+of London equalized the laws of the two countries relating to those
+ports, leaving the intercourse between our ports and the ports of the
+British colonies subject, as before, to the respective regulations of
+the parties. The British Government enforcing now regulations which
+prohibit a trade between its colonies and the United States in American
+vessels, whilst they permit a trade in British vessels, the American
+navigation loses accordingly, and the loss is augmented by the advantage
+which is given to the British competition over the American in the
+navigation between our ports and British ports in Europe by the
+circuitous voyages enjoyed by the one and not enjoyed by the other.
+
+The reasonableness of the rule of reciprocity applied to one branch of
+the commercial intercourse has been pressed on our part as equally
+applicable to both branches; but it is ascertained that the British
+cabinet declines all negotiation on the subject, with a disavowal,
+however, of any disposition to view in an unfriendly light whatever
+countervailing regulations the United States may oppose to the
+regulations of which they complain. The wisdom of the Legislature will
+decide on the course which, under these circumstances, is prescribed by
+a joint regard to the amicable relations between the two nations and to
+the just interests of the United States.
+
+I have the satisfaction to state, generally, that we remain in amity with
+foreign powers.
+
+An occurrence has indeed taken place in the Gulf of Mexico which, if
+sanctioned by the Spanish Government, may make an exception as to that
+power. According to the report of our naval commander on that station,
+one of our public armed vessels was attacked by an overpowering force
+under a Spanish commander, and the American flag, with the officers and
+crew, insulted in a manner calling for prompt reparation. This has been
+demanded. In the meantime a frigate and a smaller vessel of war have
+been ordered into that Gulf for the protection of our commerce. It would
+be improper to omit that the representative of His Catholic Majesty in
+the United States lost no time in giving the strongest assurances that
+no hostile order could have emanated from his Government, and that it
+will be as ready to do as to expect whatever the nature of the case and
+the friendly relations of the two countries shall be found to require.
+
+The posture of our affairs with Algiers at the present moment is not
+known. The Dey, drawing pretexts from circumstances for which the United
+States were not answerable, addressed a letter to this Government
+declaring the treaty last concluded with him to have been annulled by
+our violation of it, and presenting as the alternative war or a renewal
+of the former treaty, which stipulated, among other things, an annual
+tribute. The answer, with an explicit declaration that the United States
+preferred war to tribute, required his recognition and observance of
+the treaty last made, which abolishes tribute and the slavery of our
+captured citizens. The result of the answer has not been received.
+Should he renew his warfare on our commerce, we rely on the protection
+it will find in our naval force actually in the Mediterranean.
+
+With the other Barbary States our affairs have undergone no change.
+
+The Indian tribes within our limits appear also disposed to remain
+at peace. From several of them purchases of lands have been made
+particularly favorable to the wishes and security of our frontier
+settlements, as well as to the general interests of the nation. In some
+instances the titles, though not supported by due proof, and clashing
+those of one tribe with the claims of another, have been extinguished by
+double purchases, the benevolent policy of the United States preferring
+the augmented expense to the hazard of doing injustice or to the
+enforcement of justice against a feeble and untutored people by means
+involving or threatening an effusion of blood. I am happy to add that
+the tranquillity which has been restored among the tribes themselves, as
+well as between them and our own population, will favor the resumption
+of the work of civilization which had made an encouraging progress among
+some tribes, and that the facility is increasing for extending that
+divided and individual ownership, which exists now in movable property
+only, to the soil itself, and of thus establishing in the culture and
+improvement of it the true foundation for a transit from the habits of
+the savage to the arts and comforts of social life.
+
+As a subject of the highest importance to the national welfare, I
+must again earnestly recommend to the consideration of Congress a
+reorganization of the militia on a plan which will form it into classes
+according to the periods of life more or less adapted to military
+services. An efficient militia is authorized and contemplated by the
+Constitution and required by the spirit and safety of free government.
+The present organization of our militia is universally regarded as less
+efficient than it ought to be made, and no organization can be better
+calculated to give to it its due force than a classification which will
+assign the foremost place in the defense of the country to that portion
+of its citizens whose activity and animation best enable them to rally
+to its standard. Besides the consideration that a time of peace is the
+time when the change can be made with most convenience and equity, it
+will now be aided by the experience of a recent war in which the militia
+bore so interesting a part.
+
+Congress will call to mind that no adequate provision has yet been made
+for the uniformity of weights and measures also contemplated by the
+Constitution. The great utility of a standard fixed in its nature and
+founded on the easy rule of decimal proportions is sufficiently obvious.
+It led the Government at an early stage to preparatory steps for
+introducing it, and a completion of the work will be a just title to
+the public gratitude.
+
+The importance which I have attached to the establishment of a
+university within this District on a scale and for objects worthy of
+the American nation induces me to renew my recommendation of it to the
+favorable consideration of Congress. And I particularly invite again
+their attention to the expediency of exercising their existing powers,
+and, where necessary, of resorting to the prescribed mode of enlarging
+them, in order to effectuate a comprehensive system of roads and canals,
+such as will have the effect of drawing more closely together every
+part of our country by promoting intercourse and improvements and by
+increasing the share of every part in the common stock of national
+prosperity.
+
+Occurrences having taken place which shew that the statutory provisions
+for the dispensation of criminal justice are deficient in relation both
+to places and to persons under the exclusive cognizance of the national
+authority, an amendment of the law embracing such cases will merit the
+earliest attention of the Legislature. It will be a seasonable occasion
+also for inquiring how far legislative interposition maybe further
+requisite in providing penalties for offenses designated in the
+Constitution or in the statutes, and to which either no penalties are
+annexed or none with sufficient certainty. And I submit to the wisdom
+of Congress whether a more enlarged revisal of the criminal code be not
+expedient for the purpose of mitigating in certain cases penalties which
+were adopted into it antecedent to experiment and examples which justify
+and recommend a more lenient policy.
+
+The United States, having been the first to abolish within the extent
+of their authority the transportation of the natives of Africa into
+slavery, by prohibiting the introduction of slaves and by punishing
+their citizens participating in the traffic, can not but be gratified
+at the progress made by concurrent efforts of other nations toward a
+general suppression of so great an evil. They must feel at the same
+time the greater solicitude to give the fullest efficacy to their own
+regulations. With that view, the interposition of Congress appears to
+be required by the violations and evasions which it is suggested are
+chargeable on unworthy citizens who mingle in the slave trade under
+foreign flags and with foreign ports, and by collusive importations of
+slaves into the United States through adjoining ports and territories.
+I present the subject to Congress with a full assurance of their
+disposition to apply all the remedy which can be afforded by an
+amendment of the law. The regulations which were intended to guard
+against abuses of a kindred character in the trade between the several
+States ought also to be rendered more effectual for their humane object.
+
+To these recommendations I add, for the consideration of Congress, the
+expediency of a remodification of the judiciary establishment, and of
+an additional department in the executive branch of the Government.
+
+The first is called for by the accruing business which necessarily
+swells the duties of the Federal courts, and by the great and widening
+space within which justice is to be dispensed by them. The time seems to
+have arrived which claims for members of the Supreme Court a relief from
+itinerary fatigues, incompatible as well with the age which a portion of
+them will always have attained as with the researches and preparations
+which are due to their stations and to the juridical reputation of their
+country. And considerations equally cogent require a more convenient
+organization of the subordinate tribunals, which may be accomplished
+without an objectionable increase of the number or expense of the
+judges.
+
+The extent and variety of executive business also accumulating with
+the progress of our country and its growing population call for an
+additional department, to be charged with duties now overburdening other
+departments and with such as have not been annexed to any department.
+
+The course of experience recommends, as another improvement in the
+executive establishment, that the provision for the station of
+Attorney-General, whose residence at the seat of Government, official
+connections with it, and the management of the public business before
+the judiciary preclude an extensive participation in professional
+emoluments, be made more adequate to his services and his
+relinquishments, and that, with a view to his reasonable accommodation
+and to a proper depository of his official opinions and proceedings,
+there be included in the provision the usual appurtenances to a public
+office.
+
+In directing the legislative attention to the state of the finances it
+is a subject of great gratification to find that even within the short
+period which has elapsed since the return of peace the revenue has far
+exceeded all the current demands upon the Treasury, and that under any
+probable diminution of its future annual products which the vicissitudes
+of commerce may occasion it will afford an ample fund for the effectual
+and early extinguishment of the public debt. It has been estimated that
+during the year 1816 the actual receipts of revenue at the Treasury,
+including the balance at the commencement of the year, and excluding
+the proceeds of loans and Treasury notes, will amount to about the sum
+of $47,000,000; that during the same year the actual payments at the
+Treasury, including the payment of the arrearages of the War Department
+as well as the payment of a considerable excess beyond the annual
+appropriations, will amount to about the sum of $38,000,000, and that
+consequently at the close of the year there will be a surplus in the
+Treasury of about the sum of $9,000,000.
+
+The operations of the Treasury continued to be obstructed by
+difficulties arising from the condition of the national currency, but
+they have nevertheless been effectual to a beneficial extent in the
+reduction of the public debt and the establishment of the public credit.
+The floating debt of Treasury notes and temporary loans will soon be
+entirely discharged. The aggregate of the funded debt, composed of
+debts incurred during the wars of 1776 and 1812, has been estimated
+with reference to the 1st of January next at a sum not exceeding
+$110,000,000. The ordinary annual expenses of the Government for the
+maintenance of all its institutions, civil, military, and naval, have
+been estimated at a sum less than $20,000,000, and the permanent revenue
+to be derived from all the existing sources has been estimated at a sum
+of about $25,000,000,
+
+Upon this general view of the subject it is obvious that there is only
+wanting to the fiscal prosperity of the Government the restoration of an
+uniform medium of exchange. The resources and the faith of the nation,
+displayed in the system which Congress has established, insure respect
+and confidence both at home and abroad. The local accumulations of the
+revenue have already enabled the Treasury to meet the public engagements
+in the local currency of most of the States, and it is expected that the
+same cause will produce the same effect throughout the Union; but for
+the interests of the community at large, as well as for the purposes
+of the Treasury, it is essential that the nation should possess a
+currency of equal value, credit, and use wherever it may circulate.
+The Constitution has intrusted Congress exclusively with the power of
+creating and regulating a currency of that description, and the measures
+which were taken during the last session in execution of the power
+give every promise of success. The Bank of the United States has been
+organized under auspices the most favorable, and can not fail to be an
+important auxiliary to those measures.
+
+For a more enlarged view of the public finances, with a view of the
+measures pursued by the Treasury Department previous to the resignation
+of the late Secretary, I transmit an extract from the last report of
+that officer. Congress will perceive in it ample proofs of the solid
+foundation on which the financial prosperity of the nation rests, and
+will do justice to the distinguished ability and successful exertions
+with which the duties of the Department were executed during a period
+remarkable for its difficulties and its peculiar perplexities.
+
+The period of my retiring from the public service being at little
+distance, I shall find no occasion more proper than the present for
+expressing to my fellow-citizens my deep sense of the continued
+confidence and kind support which I have received from them. My grateful
+recollection of these distinguished marks of their favorable regard can
+never cease, and with the consciousness that, if I have not served my
+country with greater ability, I have served it with a sincere devotion
+will accompany me as a source of unfailing gratification.
+
+Happily, I shall carry with me from the public theater other sources,
+which those who love their country most will best appreciate. I shall
+behold it blessed with tranquillity and prosperity at home and with
+peace and respect abroad. I can indulge the proud reflection that the
+American people have reached in safety and success their fortieth year
+as an independent nation; that for nearly an entire generation they have
+had experience of their present Constitution, the offspring of their
+undisturbed deliberations and of their free choice; that they have found
+it to bear the trials of adverse as well as prosperous circumstances:
+to contain in its combination of the federate and elective principles
+a reconcilement of public strength with individual liberty, of national
+power for the defense of national rights with a security against wars of
+injustice, of ambition, and of vainglory in the fundamental provision
+which subjects all questions of war to the will of the nation itself,
+which is to pay its costs and feel its calamities. Nor is it less a
+peculiar felicity of this Constitution, so dear to us all, that it is
+found to be capable, without losing its vital energies, of expanding
+itself over a spacious territory with the increase and expansion of the
+community for whose benefit it was established.
+
+And may I not be allowed to add to this gratifying spectacle that I
+shall read in the character of the American people, in their devotion
+to true liberty and to the Constitution which is its palladium, sure
+presages that the destined career of my country will exhibit a
+Government pursuing the public good as its sole object, and regulating
+its means by the great principles consecrated in its charter and by
+those moral principles to which they are so well allied; a Government
+which watches over the purity of elections, the freedom of speech and
+of the press, the trial by jury, and the equal interdict against
+encroachments and compacts between religion and the state; which
+maintains inviolably the maxims of public faith, the security of persons
+and property, and encourages in every authorized mode that general
+diffusion of knowledge which guarantees to public liberty its permanency
+and to those who possess the blessing the true enjoyment of it; a
+Government which avoids intrusions on the internal repose of other
+nations, and repels them from its own; which does justice to all nations
+with a readiness equal to the firmness with which it requires justice
+from them; and which, whilst it refines its domestic code from every
+ingredient not congenial with the precepts of an enlightened age and the
+sentiments of a virtuous people, seeks by appeals to reason and by its
+liberal examples to infuse into the law which governs the civilized
+world a spirit which may diminish the frequency or circumscribe the
+calamities of war, and meliorate the social and beneficent relations of
+peace; a Government, in a word, whose conduct within and without may
+bespeak the most noble of all ambitions---that of promoting peace on
+earth and good will to man.
+
+These contemplations, sweetening the remnant of my days, will animate my
+prayers for the happiness of my beloved country, and a perpetuity of the
+institutions under which it is enjoyed.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+DECEMBER 6, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The ninth section of the act passed at the last session of Congress "to
+authorize the payment for property lost, captured, or destroyed by the
+enemy while in the military service of the United States, and for other
+purposes," having received a construction giving to it a scope of great
+and uncertain extent, I thought it proper that proceedings relative to
+claims under that part of the act should be suspended until Congress
+should have an opportunity of defining more precisely the cases
+contemplated by them. With that view I now recommend the subject to
+their consideration. They will have an opportunity at the same time of
+considering how far other provisions of the act may be rendered more
+clear and precise in their import.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 10, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate, for their consideration and advice as to
+a ratification, treaties concluded with the several Indian tribes
+according to the following statement:
+
+A LIST OF INDIAN TRIBES WITH WHOM TREATIES HAVE BEEN MADE SINCE THE LAST
+SESSION OF CONGRESS.
+
+_Weas and Kickapoos tribes of Indians_.--Treaty concluded at Fort
+Harrison between Benjamin Parke and the chiefs and headmen of those
+tribes the 4th June, 1816.
+
+_Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottowotomees_.--Treaty concluded at St. Louis
+between Governors Clarke, Edwards, and Colonel Choteau and the chiefs
+and headmen of those tribes on the 24th August, 1816.
+
+_Winnebago tribes_.--Made by the same persons on part United States
+and the headmen of this tribe at St. Louis 3d June, 1816.
+
+_Sacks of Rock River_.--Made by same at St. Louis 13th May, 1816.
+
+_Siouxs composing three tribes, the Siouxs of the Leaf, the Siouxs of
+the Broad Leaf, and the Siouxs who Shoot on the Pine-tops_.--Made and
+concluded by the same at St. Louis 1st June, 1816.
+
+_Chickasaw tribe_.--Treaty made by General Jackson, David Merrewether,
+esq., and Jesse Franklin, esq., and the headmen of that nation at
+Chickasaw council house 20th September, 1816.
+
+_Cherokee tribe_.--Treaty made by General Jackson, David Merrewether,
+esq., and Jesse Franklin, esq., and the headmen of that nation at Turkey
+Town on the 4th October, 1816.
+
+_Choctaw tribe_.--Treaty made by General John Coffee, John Rhea, and
+John McKee, esquires, and the headmen and warriors of that nation at
+the Choctaw trading house on the 24th of October, 1816.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 13, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+A treaty of commerce between the United States and the King of Sweden
+and Norway having been concluded and signed on the 4th day of September
+last by their plenipotentiaries, I lay the same before the Senate for
+their consideration and advice as to a ratification.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 21, 1816.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 6th instant, I transmit to them the proceedings of the commissioner
+appointed under the act "to authorize the payment for property lost,
+captured, or destroyed by the enemy while in the military service of the
+United States, and for other purposes," as reported by the commissioner
+to the Department of War.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 26, 1816.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+It is found that the existing laws have not the efficacy necessary to
+prevent violations of the obligations of the United States as a nation
+at peace toward belligerent parties and other unlawful acts on the high
+seas by armed vessels equipped within the waters of the United States.
+
+With a view to maintain more effectually the respect due to the laws, to
+the character, and to the neutral and pacific relations of the United
+States, I recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency of
+such further legislative provisions as may be requisite for detaining
+vessels actually equipped, or in a course of equipment, with a warlike
+force within the jurisdiction of the United States, or, as the case may
+be, for obtaining from the owners or commanders of such vessels adequate
+securities against the abuse of their armaments, with the exceptions in
+such provisions proper for the cases of merchant vessels furnished with
+the defensive armaments usual on distant and dangerous expeditions, and
+of a private commerce in military stores permitted by our laws, and
+which the law of nations does not require the United States to prohibit.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 25, 1817.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before Congress copies of ratified treaties between the United
+States and the following Indian tribes:
+
+First. The Wea and Kickapoo.
+
+Second. The united tribes of Ottawas, Chippawas, and Potowotomies
+residing on the Illinois and Melwakee rivers and their waters and
+on the southwestern parts of Lake Michigan.
+
+Third. That portion of the Winnebago tribe or nation residing on the
+Ouisconsin River,
+
+Fourth. The Sacs of Rock River and the adjacent country.
+
+Fifth. Eight bands of the Siouxs, composing the three tribes called the
+Siouxs of the Leaf, the Siouxs of the Broad Leaf, and the Siouxs who
+Shoot in the Pine Tops.
+
+Sixth. The Chickasaw tribe of Indians.
+
+Seventh. The Cherokee tribe of Indians.
+
+Eighth. The Chactaw tribe of Indians.
+
+Congress will take into consideration how far legislative provisions may
+be necessary for carrying into effect stipulations contained in the said
+treaties,
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 31, 1817.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of His Most
+Christian Majesty having renewed, under special instructions from his
+Government, the claim of the representative of Baron de Beaumarchais for
+1,000,000 livres, which were debited to him in the settlement of his
+accounts with the United States, I lay before Congress copies of the
+memoir on that subject addressed by the said envoy to the Secretary of
+State.
+
+Considering that the sum of which the million of livres in question made
+a part was a gratuitous grant from the French Government to the United
+States, and the declaration of that Government that that part of the
+grant was put into the hands of M. de Beaumarchais as its agent, not as
+the agent of the United States, and was duly accounted for by him to
+the French Government; considering also the concurring opinions of two
+Attorneys-General of the United States that the said debit was not
+legally sustainable in behalf of the United States, I recommend the case
+to the favorable attention of the Legislature, whose authority alone can
+finally decide on it.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 3, 1817.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The Government of Great Britain, induced by the posture of the relations
+with the United States which succeeded the conclusion of the recent
+commercial convention, issued an order on the 17th day of August, 1815,
+discontinuing the discriminating duties payable in British ports on
+American vessels and their cargoes. It was not until the 22d of December
+following that a corresponding discontinuance of discriminating duties
+on British vessels and their cargoes in American ports took effect under
+the authority vested in the Executive by the act of March, 1816. During
+the period between those two dates there was consequently a failure
+of reciprocity or equality in the existing regulations of the two
+countries. I recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency
+of paying to the British Government the amount of the duties remitted
+during the period in question to citizens of the United States, subject
+to a deduction of the amount of whatever discriminating duties may have
+commenced in British ports after the signature of that convention and
+been collected previous to the 17th of August, 1815.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 6, 1817.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+On comparing the fourth section of the act of Congress passed March 31,
+1814, providing for the indemnification of certain claimants of public
+lands in the Mississippi Territory, with the article of agreement and
+cession between the United States and State of Georgia, bearing date
+April 30, 1802, it appears that the engagements entered into with the
+claimants interfere with the rights and interests secured to that State.
+I recommend to Congress that provision be made by law for payments to
+the State of Georgia equal to the amount of Mississippi stock which
+shall be paid into the Treasury until the stipulated sum of $1,250,000
+shall be completed.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+VETO MESSAGE.
+
+
+MARCH 3, 1817.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Having considered the bill this day presented to me entitled "An act
+to set apart and pledge certain funds for internal improvements,"
+and which sets apart and pledges funds "for constructing roads and
+canals, and improving the navigation of water courses, in order to
+facilitate, promote, and give security to internal commerce among
+the several States, and to render more easy and less expensive the
+means and provisions for the common defense," I am constrained by
+the insuperable difficulty I feel in reconciling the bill with the
+Constitution of the United States to return it with that objection
+to the House of Representatives, in which it originated.
+
+The legislative powers vested in Congress are specified and enumerated
+in the eighth section of the first article of the Constitution, and it
+does not appear that the power proposed to be exercised by the bill is
+among the enumerated powers, or that it falls by any just interpretation
+within the power to make laws necessary and proper for carrying into
+execution those or other powers vested by the Constitution in the
+Government of the United States.
+
+"The power to regulate commerce among the several States" can not
+include a power to construct roads and canals, and to improve the
+navigation of water courses in order to facilitate, promote, and secure
+such a commerce without a latitude of construction departing from the
+ordinary import of the terms strengthened by the known inconveniences
+which doubtless led to the grant of this remedial power to Congress.
+
+To refer the power in question to the clause "to provide for the common
+defense and general welfare" would be contrary to the established and
+consistent rules of interpretation, as rendering the special and careful
+enumeration of powers which follow the clause nugatory and improper.
+Such a view of the Constitution would have the effect of giving to
+Congress a general power of legislation instead of the defined and
+limited one hitherto understood to belong to them, the terms "common
+defense and general welfare" embracing every object and act within the
+purview of a legislative trust. It would have the effect of subjecting
+both the Constitution and laws of the several States in all cases not
+specifically exempted to be superseded by laws of Congress, it being
+expressly declared "that the Constitution of the United States and laws
+made in pursuance thereof shall be the supreme law of the land, and
+the judges of every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the
+constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." Such
+a view of the Constitution, finally, would have the effect of excluding
+the judicial authority of the United States from its participation in
+guarding the boundary between the legislative powers of the General and
+the State Governments, inasmuch as questions relating to the general
+welfare, being questions of policy and expediency, are unsusceptible of
+judicial cognizance and decision.
+
+A restriction of the power "to provide for the common defense and
+general welfare" to cases which are to be provided for by the
+expenditure of money would still leave within the legislative power of
+Congress all the great and most important measures of Government, money
+being the ordinary and necessary means of carrying them into execution.
+
+If a general power to construct roads and canals, and to improve the
+navigation of water courses, with the train of powers incident thereto,
+be not possessed by Congress, the assent of the States in the mode
+provided in the bill can not confer the power. The only cases in which
+the consent and cession of particular States can extend the power of
+Congress are those specified and provided for in the Constitution.
+
+I am not unaware of the great importance of roads and canals and the
+improved navigation of water courses, and that a power in the National
+Legislature to provide for them might be exercised with signal advantage
+to the general prosperity. But seeing that such a power is not expressly
+given by the Constitution, and believing that it can not be deduced from
+any part of it without an inadmissible latitude of construction and a
+reliance on insufficient precedents; believing also that the permanent
+success of the Constitution depends on a definite partition of powers
+between the General and the State Governments, and that no adequate
+landmarks would be left by the constructive extension of the powers of
+Congress as proposed in the bill, I have no option but to withhold
+my signature from it, and to cherishing the hope that its beneficial
+objects may be attained by a resort for the necessary powers to the same
+wisdom and virtue in the nation which established the Constitution in
+its actual form and providently marked out in the instrument itself a
+safe and practicable mode of improving it as experience might suggest.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+[From Annals of Congress, Fourteenth Congress, second session, 218.]
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 1, 1817_.
+
+_To the Senators of the United States, respectively_:
+
+SIR: Objects interesting to the United States requiring that the Senate
+should be in session on the 4th of March next to receive such
+communications as may be made to it on the part of the Executive, your
+attendance in the Senate Chamber in this city on that day is accordingly
+requested.
+
+JAMES MADISON.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Compilation of the Messages and
+Papers of the Presidents, by Edited by James D. Richardson
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES MADISON ***
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