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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of
+the Presidents, 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 1 (of 3) of Volume 2: James Monroe
+
+Author: James D. Richardson
+
+Release Date: February 3, 2004 [EBook #10919]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES MONROE ***
+
+
+
+
+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
+
+
+VOLUME II
+
+
+1897
+
+
+
+
+Prefatory Note
+
+
+The first volume of this compilation was given to Congress and the
+public about May 1, 1896. I believe I am warranted in saying here that
+it met with much favor by all who examined it. The press of the country
+was unsparing in its praise. Congress, by a resolution passed on the 22d
+day of May, ordered the printing of 15,000 additional copies, of the
+entire publication.
+
+I have inserted in this volume a steel engraving of the Treasury
+building; the succeeding volumes will contain engravings of other
+important public buildings.
+
+The resolution authorizing this work required the publication of
+the annual, special, and veto messages, inaugural addresses, and
+proclamations of the Presidents. I have found in addition to these
+documents others which emanated from the Chief Magistrats, called
+Executive orders; they are in the nature of proclamations, and have like
+force and effect. I have therefore included in this, and will include
+in the succeeding volumes, all such Executive orders as may appear to
+have national importance or to possess more than ordinary interest.
+
+If this volume meets the same degree of favor as the first, I shall be
+greatly gratified.
+
+JAMES D. RICHARDSON.
+
+JULY 4, 1896.
+
+
+
+
+James Monroe
+
+March 4, 1817, to March 4, 1825
+
+
+
+
+James Monroe
+
+
+James Monroe was born April 28, 1758, in Westmoreland County, Va. He was
+the son of Spence Monroe and Elizabeth Jones, both natives of Virginia.
+When in his eighteenth year he enlisted as a private soldier in the
+Army to fight for independence; was in several battles, and was wounded
+in the engagement at Trenton; was promoted to the rank of captain of
+infantry. During 1777 and 1778 he acted as aid to Lord Stirling, and
+distinguished himself. He studied law under the direction of Thomas
+Jefferson, then governor of Virginia, who in 1780 appointed him to visit
+the army in South Carolina on an important mission. In 1782 he was
+elected to the Virginia assembly by the county of King George, and was
+by that body chosen a member of the executive council. The next year
+he was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress, and remained a
+member until 1786; while a member he married a Miss Kortright, of New
+York City. Retiring from Congress, he began the practice of law at
+Fredericksburg, Va., but was at once elected to the legislature. In 1788
+was a delegate to the State convention assembled to consider the Federal
+Constitution. Was a Senator from Virginia from 1790 to 1794. In May,
+1794, was appointed by Washington minister to France. He was recalled
+in 1796 and was again elected to the legislature. In 1799 was elected
+governor of Virginia. In 1802 was appointed by President Jefferson envoy
+extraordinary to France, and in 1803 was sent to London as the successor
+of Rufus King. In 1805 performed a diplomatic mission to Spain in
+relation to the boundary of Louisiana, returning to London the following
+year; returned to the United States in 1808. In 1811 was again elected
+governor of his State, but in the same year resigned that office to
+become Secretary of State under President Madison. After the capture
+of Washington, in 1814, he was appointed to the War Department, which
+position he held until 1815, without relinquishing the office of
+Secretary of State. He remained at the head of the Department of State
+until the close of Mr. Madison's term. Was elected President in 1816,
+and reelected in 1820, retiring March 4, 1825, to his residence in
+Loudoun County, Va. In 1829 was elected a member of the convention
+called to revise the constitution of the State, and was unanimously
+chosen to preside over its deliberations. He was forced by ill health
+to retire from office, and removed to New York to reside with his
+son-in-law, Mr. Samuel L. Gouverneur. He died July 4, 1831, and was
+buried in New York City, but in 1858 his remains were removed to
+Richmond, Va.
+
+
+
+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 1, 1817_.
+
+Hon. JOHN GAILLARD.
+
+_President of the Senate of the United States_.
+
+SIR: I beg leave through you to inform the honorable 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 Tuesday, 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 MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
+
+
+I should be destitute of feeling if I was not deeply affected by the
+strong proof which my fellow-citizens have given me of their confidence
+in calling me to the high office whose functions I am about to assume.
+As the expression of their good opinion of my conduct in the public
+service, I derive from it a gratification which those who are conscious
+of having done all that they could to merit it can alone feel. My
+sensibility is increased by a just estimate of the importance of the
+trust and of the nature and extent of its duties, with the proper
+discharge of which the highest interests of a great and free people
+are intimately connected. Conscious of my own deficiency, I can not
+enter on these duties without great anxiety for the result. From a just
+responsibility I will never shrink, calculating with confidence that in
+my best efforts to promote the public welfare my motives will always
+be duly appreciated and my conduct be viewed with that candor and
+indulgence which I have experienced in other stations.
+
+In commencing the duties of the chief executive office it has been the
+practice of the distinguished men who have gone before me to explain the
+principles which would govern them in their respective Administrations.
+In following their venerated example my attention is naturally drawn to
+the great causes which have contributed in a principal degree to produce
+the present happy condition of the United States. They will best explain
+the nature of our duties and shed much light on the policy which ought
+to be pursued in future.
+
+From the commencement of our Revolution to the present day almost forty
+years have elapsed, and from the establishment of this Constitution
+twenty-eight. Through this whole term the Government has been what may
+emphatically be called self-government. And what has been the effect? To
+whatever object we turn our attention, whether it relates to our foreign
+or domestic concerns, we find abundant cause to felicitate ourselves
+in the excellence of our institutions. During a period fraught with
+difficulties and marked by very extraordinary events the United States
+have nourished beyond example. Their citizens individually have been
+happy and the nation prosperous.
+
+Under this Constitution our commerce has been wisely regulated with
+foreign nations and between the States; new States have been admitted
+into our Union; our territory has been enlarged by fair and honorable
+treaty, and with great advantage to the original States; the States,
+respectively protected by the National Government under a mild, parental
+system against foreign dangers, and enjoying within their separate
+spheres, by a wise partition of power, a just proportion of the
+sovereignty, have improved their police, extended their settlements, and
+attained a strength and maturity which are the best proofs of wholesome
+laws well administered. And if we look to the condition of individuals
+what a proud spectacle does it exhibit! On whom has oppression fallen in
+any quarter of our Union? Who has been deprived of any right of person
+or property? Who restrained from offering his vows in the mode which he
+prefers to the Divine Author of his being? It is well known that all
+these blessings have been enjoyed in their fullest extent; and I add
+with peculiar satisfaction that there has been no example of a capital
+punishment being inflicted on anyone for the crime of high treason.
+
+Some who might admit the competency of our Government to these
+beneficent duties might doubt it in trials which put to the test its
+strength and efficiency as a member of the great community of nations.
+Here too experience has afforded us the most satisfactory proof in its
+favor. Just as this Constitution was put into action several of the
+principal States of Europe had become much agitated and some of them
+seriously convulsed. Destructive wars ensued, which have of late only
+been terminated. In the course of these conflicts the United States
+received great injury from several of the parties. It was their interest
+to stand aloof from the contest, to demand justice from the party
+committing the injury, and to cultivate by a fair and honorable conduct
+the friendship of all. War became at length inevitable, and the result
+has shown that our Government is equal to that, the greatest of trials,
+under the most unfavorable circumstances. Of the virtue of the people
+and of the heroic exploits of the Army, the Navy, and the militia I need
+not speak.
+
+Such, then, is the happy Government under which we live--a Government
+adequate to every purpose for which the social compact is formed, a
+Government elective in all its branches, under which every citizen may
+by his merit obtain the highest trust recognized by the Constitution;
+which contains within it no cause of discord, none to put at variance
+one portion of the community with another; a Government which protects
+every citizen in the full enjoyment of his rights, and is able to
+protect the nation against injustice from foreign powers.
+
+Other considerations of the highest importance admonish us to cherish
+our Union and to cling to the Government which supports it. Fortunate as
+we are in our political institutions, we have not been less so in other
+circumstances on which our prosperity and happiness essentially depend.
+Situated within the temperate zone, and extending through many degrees
+of latitude along the Atlantic, the United States enjoy all the
+varieties of climate, and every production incident to that portion
+of the globe. Penetrating internally to the Great Lakes and beyond
+the sources of the great rivers which communicate through our whole
+interior, no country was ever happier with respect to its domain.
+Blessed, too, with a fertile soil, our produce has always been very
+abundant, leaving, even in years the least favorable, a surplus for
+the wants of our fellow-men in other countries. Such is our peculiar
+felicity that there is not a part of our Union that is not particularly
+interested in preserving it. The great agricultural interest of the
+nation prospers under its protection. Local interests are not less
+fostered by it. Our fellow-citizens of the North engaged in navigation
+find great encouragement in being made the favored carriers of the vast
+productions of the other portions of the United States, while the
+inhabitants of these are amply recompensed, in their turn, by the
+nursery for seamen and naval force thus formed and reared up for
+the support of our common rights. Our manufactures find a generous
+encouragement by the policy which patronizes domestic industry, and the
+surplus of our produce a steady and profitable market by local wants in
+less-favored parts at home.
+
+Such, then, being the highly favored condition of our country, it is the
+interest of every citizen to maintain it. What are the dangers which
+menace us? If any exist they ought to be ascertained and guarded
+against.
+
+In explaining my sentiments on this subject it may be asked, What raised
+us to the present happy state? How did we accomplish the Revolution? How
+remedy the defects of the first instrument of our Union, by infusing
+into the National Government sufficient power for national purposes,
+without impairing the just rights of the States or affecting those of
+individuals? How sustain and pass with glory through the late war?
+The Government has been in the hands of the people. To the people,
+therefore, and to the faithful and able depositaries of their trust is
+the credit due. Had the people of the United States been educated in
+different principles, had they been less intelligent, less independent,
+or less virtuous, can it be believed that we should have maintained the
+same steady and consistent career or been blessed with the same success?
+While, then, the constituent body retains its present sound and
+healthful state everything will be safe. They will choose competent
+and faithful representatives for every department. It is only when
+the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into
+a populace, that they are incapable of exercising the sovereignty.
+Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The
+people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement
+and ruin. Let us, then, look to the great cause, and endeavor to
+preserve it in full force. Let us by all wise and constitutional
+measures promote intelligence among the people as the best means of
+preserving our liberties.
+
+Dangers from abroad are not less deserving of attention. Experiencing
+the fortune of other nations, the United States may be again involved
+in war, and it may in that event be the object of the adverse party to
+overset our Government, to break our Union, and demolish us as a nation.
+Our distance from Europe and the just, moderate, and pacific policy of
+our Government may form some security against these dangers, but they
+ought to be anticipated and guarded against. Many of our citizens are
+engaged in commerce and navigation, and all of them are in a certain
+degree dependent on their prosperous state. Many are engaged in the
+fisheries. These interests are exposed to invasion in the wars between
+other powers, and we should disregard the faithful admonition of
+experience if we did not expect it. We must support our rights or lose
+our character, and with it, perhaps, our liberties. A people who fail
+to do it can scarcely be said to hold a place among independent nations.
+National honor is national property of the highest value. The sentiment
+in the mind of every citizen is national strength. It ought therefore
+to be cherished.
+
+To secure us against these dangers our coast and inland frontiers should
+be fortified, our Army and Navy, regulated upon just principles as to
+the force of each, be kept in perfect order, and our militia be placed
+on the best practicable footing. To put our extensive coast in such a
+state of defense as to secure our cities and interior from invasion will
+be attended with expense, but the work when finished will be permanent,
+and it is fair to presume that a single campaign of invasion by a naval
+force superior to our own, aided by a few thousand land troops, would
+expose us to greater expense, without taking into the estimate the loss
+of property and distress of our citizens, than would be sufficient for
+this great work. Our land and naval forces should be moderate, but
+adequate to the necessary purposes--the former to garrison and preserve
+our fortifications and to meet the first invasions of a foreign foe,
+and, while constituting the elements of a greater force, to preserve the
+science as well as all the necessary implements of war in a state to be
+brought into activity in the event of war; the latter, retained within
+the limits proper in a state of peace, might aid in maintaining the
+neutrality of the United States with dignity in the wars of other powers
+and in saving the property of their citizens from spoliation. In time
+of war, with the enlargement of which the great naval resources of the
+country render it susceptible, and which should be duly fostered in
+time of peace, it would contribute essentially, both as an auxiliary
+of defense and as a powerful engine of annoyance, to diminish the
+calamities of war and to bring the war to a speedy and honorable
+termination.
+
+But it ought always to be held prominently in view that the safety of
+these States and of everything dear to a free people must depend in an
+eminent degree on the militia. Invasions may be made too formidable to
+be resisted by any land and naval force which it would comport either
+with the principles of our Government or the circumstances of the United
+States to maintain. In such cases recourse must be had to the great body
+of the people, and in a manner to produce the best effect. It is of the
+highest importance, therefore, that they be so organized and trained as
+to be prepared for any emergency. The arrangement should be such as to
+put at the command of the Government the ardent patriotism and youthful
+vigor of the country. If formed on equal and just principles, it can not
+be oppressive. It is the crisis which makes the pressure, and not the
+laws which provide a remedy for it. This arrangement should be formed,
+too, in time of peace, to be the better prepared for war. With such an
+organization of such a people the United States have nothing to dread
+from foreign invasion. At its approach an overwhelming force of gallant
+men might always be put in motion.
+
+Other interests of high importance will claim attention, among which
+the improvement of our country by roads and canals, proceeding always
+with a constitutional sanction, holds a distinguished place. By thus
+facilitating the intercourse between the States we shall add much to
+the convenience and comfort of our fellow-citizens, much to the ornament
+of the country, and, what is of greater importance, we shall shorten
+distances, and, by making each part more accessible to and dependent
+on the other, we shall bind the Union more closely together. Nature
+has done so much for us by intersecting the country with so many great
+rivers, bays, and lakes, approaching from distant points so near to each
+other, that the inducement to complete the work seems to be peculiarly
+strong. A more interesting spectacle was perhaps never seen than is
+exhibited within the limits of the United States--a territory so vast
+and advantageously situated, containing objects so grand, so useful,
+so happily connected in all their parts!
+
+Our manufactures will likewise require the systematic and fostering care
+of the Government. Possessing as we do all the raw materials, the fruit
+of our own soil and industry, we ought not to depend in the degree we
+have done on supplies from other countries. While we are thus dependent
+the sudden event of war, unsought and unexpected, can not fail to plunge
+us into the most serious difficulties, it is important, too, that the
+capital which nourishes our manufactures should be domestic, as its
+influence in that case instead of exhausting, as it may do in foreign
+hands, would be felt advantageously on agriculture and every other
+branch of industry. Equally important is it to provide at home a market
+for our raw materials, as by extending the competition it will enhance
+the price and protect the cultivator against the casualties incident to
+foreign markets.
+
+With the Indian tribes it is our duty to cultivate friendly relations
+and to act with kindness and liberality in all our transactions. Equally
+proper is it to persevere in our efforts to extend to them the
+advantages of civilization.
+
+The great amount of our revenue and the flourishing state of the
+Treasury are a full proof of the competency of the national resources
+for any emergency, as they are of the willingness of our fellow citizens
+to bear the burdens which the public necessities require. The vast
+amount of vacant lands, the value of which daily augments, forms an
+additional resource of great extent and duration. These resources,
+besides accomplishing every other necessary purpose, put it completely
+in the power of the United States to discharge the national debt at an
+early period. Peace is the best time for improvement and preparation of
+every kind; it is in peace that our commerce flourishes most, that taxes
+are most easily paid, and that the revenue is most productive.
+
+The Executive is charged officially in the Departments under it with
+the disbursement of the public money, and is responsible for the
+faithful application of it to the purposes for which it is raised. The
+Legislature is the watchful guardian over the public purse. It is its
+duty to see that the disbursement has been honestly made. To meet the
+requisite responsibility every facility should be afforded to the
+Executive to enable it to bring the public agents intrusted with the
+public money strictly and promptly to account. Nothing should be
+presumed against them; but if, with the requisite facilities, the public
+money is suffered to lie long and uselessly in their hands, they
+will not be the only defaulters, nor will the demoralizing effect be
+confined to them. It will evince a relaxation and want of tone in the
+Administration which will be felt by the whole community. I shall do all
+I can to secure economy and fidelity in this important branch of the
+Administration, and I doubt not that the Legislature will perform its
+duty with equal zeal. A thorough examination should be regularly made,
+and I will promote it.
+
+It is particularly gratifying to me to enter on the discharge of these
+duties at a time when the United States are blessed with peace. It is a
+state most consistent with their prosperity and happiness. It will be my
+sincere desire to preserve it, so far as depends on the Executive, on
+just principles with all nations, claiming nothing unreasonable of any
+and rendering to each what is its due.
+
+Equally gratifying is it to witness the increased harmony of opinion
+which pervades our Union. Discord does not belong to our system.
+Union is recommended as well by the free and benign principles of our
+Government, extending its blessings to every individual, as by the other
+eminent advantages attending it. The American people have encountered
+together great dangers and sustained severe trials with success. They
+constitute one great family with a common interest. Experience has
+enlightened us on some questions of essential importance to the country.
+The progress has been slow, dictated by a just reflection and a faithful
+regard to every interest connected with it. To promote this harmony in
+accord with the principles of our republican Government and in a manner
+to give them the most complete effect, and to advance in all other
+respects the best interests of our Union, will be the object of my
+constant and zealous exertions.
+
+Never did a government commence under auspices so favorable, nor ever
+was success so complete. If we look to the history of other nations,
+ancient or modern, we find no example of a growth so rapid, so gigantic,
+of a people so prosperous and happy. In contemplating what we have still
+to perform, the heart of every citizen must expand with joy when he
+reflects how near our Government has approached to perfection; that in
+respect to it we have no essential improvement to make; that the great
+object is to preserve it in the essential principles and features which
+characterize it, and that that is to be done by preserving the virtue
+and enlightening the minds of the people; and as a security against
+foreign dangers to adopt such arrangements as are indispensable to the
+support of our independence, our rights and liberties. If we persevere
+in the career in which we have advanced so far and in the path already
+traced, we can not fail, under the favor of a gracious Providence, to
+attain the high destiny which seems to await us.
+
+In the Administrations of the illustrious men who have preceded me
+in this high station, with some of whom I have been connected by the
+closest ties from early life, examples are presented which will always
+be found highly instructive and useful to their successors. From these
+I shall endeavor to derive all the advantages which they may afford.
+Of my immediate predecessor, under whom so important a portion of this
+great and successful experiment has been made, I shall be pardoned for
+expressing my earnest wishes that he may long enjoy in his retirement
+the affections of a grateful country, the best reward of exalted talents
+and the most faithful and meritorious services. Relying on the aid to
+be derived from the other departments of the Government, I enter on the
+trust to which I have been called by the suffrages of my fellow citizens
+with my fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will be graciously
+pleased to continue to us that protection which He has already so
+conspicuously displayed in our favor.
+
+MARCH 4, 1817.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 12, p. 176.]
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+
+Whereas by an act entitled "An act providing for the sale of the tract
+of land at the lower rapids of Sandusky River," passed on the 27th day
+of April, 1816, it was enacted that all the lands in the said tract,
+except the reservations made in the said act, should be offered for
+sale to the highest bidder at Wooster, in the State of Ohio, under the
+direction of the register of the land office and the receiver of public
+moneys at Wooster, and on such day or days as shall, by a public
+proclamation of the President of the United States, be designated for
+that purpose; and
+
+Whereas by an act entitled "An act providing for the sale of the tract
+of land at the British fort at the Miami of the Lake, at the foot of the
+rapids, and for other purposes," passed the 27th day of April, 1816, it
+was enacted that all the land contained in the said tract, except the
+reservations and exceptions made in the said act, should be offered for
+sale to the highest bidder at Wooster, in the State of Ohio, under the
+direction of the register of the land office and the receiver of public
+moneys at Wooster, and on such day or days as shall, by a public
+proclamation of the President of the United States, be designated for
+that purpose:
+
+Wherefore I, James Monroe, President of the United States, in conformity
+with the provisions of the acts before recited, do hereby declare and
+make known that the lands authorized to be sold by the first mentioned
+act shall be offered for sale to the highest bidder at Wooster, in the
+State of Ohio, on the first Monday in July next, and continue open for
+seven days and no longer, and that the lands authorized to be sold by
+the last-mentioned act shall be offered for sale to the highest bidder
+at the same place on the third Tuesday in July next, and continue open
+for seven days and no longer.
+
+Given under my hand this 15th day of April, 1817.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  J. MEIGS,
+    _Commissioner of the General Land Office_
+
+
+
+
+FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+At no period of our political existence had we so much cause to
+felicitate ourselves at the prosperous and happy condition of our
+country. The abundant fruits of the earth have filled it with plenty. An
+extensive and profitable commerce has greatly augmented our revenue. The
+public credit has attained an extraordinary elevation. Our preparations
+for defense in case of future wars, from which, by the experience
+of all nations, we ought not to expect to be exempted, are advancing
+under a well-digested system with all the dispatch which so important
+a work will admit. Our free Government, founded on the interest and
+affections of the people, has gained and is daily gaining strength.
+Local jealousies are rapidly yielding to more generous, enlarged, and
+enlightened views of national policy. For advantages so numerous and
+highly important it is our duty to unite in grateful acknowledgments
+to that Omnipotent Being from whom they are derived, and in unceasing
+prayer that He will endow us with virtue and strength to maintain and
+hand them down in their utmost purity to our latest posterity.
+
+I have the satisfaction to inform you that an arrangement which had
+been commenced by my predecessor with the British Government for the
+reduction of the naval force by Great Britain and the United States on
+the Lakes has been concluded, by which it is provided that neither party
+shall keep in service on Lake Champlain more than one vessel, on Lake
+Ontario more than one, and on Lake Erie and the upper lakes more than
+two, to be armed each with one cannon only, and that all the other armed
+vessels of both parties, of which an exact list is interchanged, shall
+be dismantled. It is also agreed that the force retained shall be
+restricted in its duty to the internal purposes of each party, and
+that the arrangement shall remain in force until six months shall have
+expired after notice given by one of the parties to the other of its
+desire that it should terminate. By this arrangement useless expense
+on both sides and, what is of still greater importance, the danger of
+collision between armed vessels in those inland waters, which was great,
+is prevented.
+
+I have the satisfaction also to state that the commissioners under the
+fourth article of the treaty of Ghent, to whom it was referred to decide
+to which party the several islands in the bay of Passamaquoddy belonged
+under the treaty of 1783, have agreed in a report, by which all the
+islands in the possession of each party before the late war have been
+decreed to it. The commissioners acting under the other articles of the
+treaty of Ghent for the settlement of boundaries have also been engaged
+in the discharge, of their respective duties, but have not yet completed
+them. The difference which arose between the two Governments under that
+treaty respecting the right of the United States to take and cure fish
+on the coast of the British provinces north of our limits, which had
+been secured by the treaty of 1783, is still in negotiation. The
+proposition made by this Government to extend to the colonies of Great
+Britain the principle of the convention of London, by which the commerce
+between the ports of the United States and British ports in Europe had
+been placed on a footing of equality, has been declined by the British
+Government. This subject having been thus amicably discussed between
+the two Governments, and it appearing that the British Government
+is unwilling to depart from its present regulations, it remains for
+Congress to decide whether they will make any other regulations in
+consequence thereof for the protection and improvement of our
+navigation.
+
+The negotiation with Spain for spoliations on our commerce and the
+settlement of boundaries remains essentially in the state it held by the
+communications that were made to Congress by my predecessor. It has been
+evidently the policy of the Spanish Government to keep the negotiation
+suspended, and in this the United States have acquiesced, from an
+amicable disposition toward Spain and in the expectation that her
+Government would, from a sense of justice, finally accede to such an
+arrangement as would be equal between the parties. A disposition has
+been lately shown by the Spanish Government to move in the negotiation,
+which has been met by this Government, and should the conciliatory
+and friendly policy which has invariably guided our councils be
+reciprocated, a just and satisfactory arrangement maybe expected. It
+is proper, however, to remark that no proposition has yet been made
+from which such a result can be presumed.
+
+It was anticipated at an early stage that the contest between Spain and
+the colonies would become highly interesting to the United States. It
+was natural that our citizens should sympathize in events which affected
+their neighbors. It seemed probable also that the prosecution of the
+conflict along our coast and in contiguous countries would occasionally
+interrupt our commerce and otherwise affect the persons and property of
+our citizens. These anticipations have been realized. Such injuries have
+been received from persons acting under authority of both the parties,
+and for which redress has in most instances been withheld. Through every
+stage of the conflict the United States have maintained an impartial
+neutrality, giving aid to neither of the parties in men, money, ships,
+or munitions of war. They have regarded the contest not in the light
+of an ordinary insurrection or rebellion, but as a civil war between
+parties nearly equal, having as to neutral powers equal rights. Our
+ports have been open to both, and every article the fruit of our soil
+or of the industry of our citizens which either was permitted to take
+has been equally free to the other. Should the colonies establish their
+independence, it is proper now to state that this Government neither
+seeks nor would accept from them any advantage in commerce or otherwise
+which will not be equally open to all other nations. The colonies will
+in that event become independent states, free from any obligation to or
+connection with us which it may not then be their interest to form on
+the basis of a fair reciprocity.
+
+In the summer of the present year an expedition was set on foot against
+East Florida by persons claiming to act under the authority of some of
+the colonies, who took possession of Amelia Island, at the mouth of
+the St. Marys River, near the boundary of the State of Georgia. As
+this Province lies eastward of the Mississippi, and is bounded by the
+United States and the ocean on every side, and has been a subject of
+negotiation with the Government of Spain as an indemnity for losses by
+spoliation or in exchange for territory of equal value westward of the
+Mississippi, a fact well known to the world, it excited surprise that
+any countenance should be given to this measure by any of the colonies.
+As it would be difficult to reconcile it with the friendly relations
+existing between the United States and the colonies, a doubt was
+entertained whether it had been authorized by them, or any of them.
+This doubt has gained strength by the circumstances which have unfolded
+themselves in the prosecution of the enterprise, which have marked it as
+a mere private, unauthorized adventure. Projected and commenced with an
+incompetent force, reliance seems to have been placed on what might be
+drawn, in defiance of our laws, from within our limits; and of late, as
+their resources have failed, it has assumed a more marked character of
+unfriendliness to us, the island being made a channel for the illicit
+introduction of slaves from Africa into the United States, an asylum for
+fugitive slaves from the neighboring States, and a port for smuggling of
+every kind.
+
+A similar establishment was made at an earlier period by persons of the
+same description in the Gulf of Mexico at a place called Galvezton,
+within the limits of the United States, as we contend, under the cession
+of Louisiana. This enterprise has been marked in a more signal manner by
+all the objectionable circumstances which characterized the other, and
+more particularly by the equipment of privateers which have annoyed our
+commerce, and by smuggling. These establishments, if ever sanctioned
+by any authority whatever, which is not believed, have abused their
+trust and forfeited all claim to consideration. A just regard for the
+rights and interests of the United States required that they should be
+suppressed, and orders have been accordingly issued to that effect. The
+imperious considerations which produced this measure will be explained
+to the parties whom it may in any degree concern.
+
+To obtain correct information on every subject in which the United
+States are interested; to inspire just sentiments in all persons in
+authority, on either side, of our friendly disposition so far as it may
+comport with an impartial neutrality, and to secure proper respect to
+our commerce in every port and from every flag, it has been thought
+proper to send a ship of war with three distinguished citizens along the
+southern coast with instruction to touch at such ports as they may find
+most expedient for these purposes. With the existing authorities, with
+those in the possession of and exercising the sovereignty, must the
+communication be held; from them alone can redress for past injuries
+committed by persons acting under them be obtained; by them alone can
+the commission of the like in future be prevented.
+
+Our relations with the other powers of Europe have experienced no
+essential change since the last session. In our intercourse with each
+due attention continues to be paid to the protection of our commerce,
+and to every other object in which the United States are interested.
+A strong hope is entertained that, by adhering to the maxims of a just,
+a candid, and friendly policy, we may long preserve amicable relations
+with all the powers of Europe on conditions advantageous and honorable
+to our country.
+
+With the Barbary States and the Indian tribes our pacific relations have
+been preserved.
+
+In calling your attention to the internal concerns of our country the
+view which they exhibit is peculiarly gratifying. The payments which
+have been made into the Treasury show the very productive state of the
+public revenue. After satisfying the appropriations made by law for
+the support of the civil Government and of the military and naval
+establishments, embracing suitable provision for fortifications and for
+the gradual increase of the Navy, paying the interest of the public
+debt, and extinguishing more than eighteen millions of the principal,
+within the present year, it is estimated that a balance of more than
+$6,000,000 will remain in the Treasury on the 1st day of January
+applicable to the current service of the ensuing year.
+
+The payments into the Treasury during the year 1818 on account of
+imposts and tonnage, resulting principally from duties which have
+accrued in the present year, may be fairly estimated at $20,000,000;
+the internal revenues at $2,500,000; the public lands at $1,500,000;
+bank dividends and incidental receipts at $500,000; making in the
+whole $24,500,000.
+
+The annual permanent expenditure for the support of the civil Government
+and of the Army and Navy, as now established by law, amounts to
+$11,800,000, and for the sinking fund to $10,000,000, making in the
+whole $21,800,000, leaving an annual excess of revenue beyond the
+expenditure of $2,700,000, exclusive of the balance estimated to be
+in the Treasury on the 1st day of January, 1818.
+
+In the present state of the Treasury the whole of the Louisiana debt
+maybe redeemed in the year 1819, after which, if the public debt
+continues as it now is, above par, there will be annually about five
+millions of the sinking fund unexpended until the year 1825, when the
+loan of 1812 and the stock created by funding Treasury notes will be
+redeemable.
+
+It is also estimated that the Mississippi stock will be discharged
+during the year 1819 from the proceeds of the public lands assigned to
+that object, after which the receipts from those lands will annually
+add to the public revenue the sum of one million and a half, making the
+permanent annual revenue amount to $26,000,000, and leaving an annual
+excess of revenue after the year 1819 beyond the permanent authorized
+expenditure of more than $4,000,000.
+
+By the last returns to the Department of War the militia force of the
+several States may be estimated at 800,000 men--infantry, artillery, and
+cavalry. Great part of this force is armed, and measures are taken to
+arm the whole. An improvement in the organization and discipline of
+the militia is one of the great objects which claims the unremitted
+attention of Congress.
+
+The regular force amounts nearly to the number required by law, and is
+stationed along the Atlantic and inland frontiers.
+
+Of the naval force it has been necessary to maintain strong squadrons in
+the Mediterranean and in the Gulf of Mexico.
+
+From several of the Indian tribes inhabiting the country bordering on
+Lake Erie purchases have been made of lands on conditions very favorable
+to the United States, and, as it is presumed, not less so to the tribes
+themselves.
+
+By these purchases the Indian title, with moderate reservations, has
+been extinguished to the whole of the land within the limits of the
+State of Ohio, and to a part of that in the Michigan Territory and of
+the State of Indiana. From the Cherokee tribe a tract has been purchased
+in the State of Georgia and an arrangement made by which, in exchange
+for lands beyond the Mississippi, a great part, if not the whole, of the
+land belonging to that tribe eastward of that river in the States of
+North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, and in the Alabama Territory
+will soon be acquired. By these acquisitions, and others that may
+reasonably be expected soon to follow, we shall be enabled to extend our
+settlements from the inhabited parts of the State of Ohio along Lake
+Erie into the Michigan Territory, and to connect our settlements by
+degrees through the State of Indiana and the Illinois Territory to
+that of Missouri. A similar and equally advantageous effect will soon
+be produced to the south, through the whole extent of the States and
+territory which border on the waters emptying into the Mississippi and
+the Mobile. In this progress, which the rights of nature demand and
+nothing can prevent, marking a growth rapid and gigantic, it is our duty
+to make new efforts for the preservation, improvement, and civilization
+of the native inhabitants. The hunter state can exist only in the vast
+uncultivated desert. It yields to the more dense and compact form and
+greater force of civilized population; and of right it ought to yield,
+for the earth was given to mankind to support the greatest number of
+which it is capable, and no tribe or people have a right to withhold
+from the wants of others more than is necessary for their own support
+and comfort. It is gratifying to know that the reservations of land made
+by the treaties with the tribes on Lake Erie were made with a view to
+individual ownership among them and to the cultivation of the soil by
+all, and that an annual stipend has been pledged to supply their other
+wants. It will merit the consideration of Congress whether other
+provision not stipulated by treaty ought to be made for these tribes and
+for the advancement of the liberal and humane policy of the United
+States toward all the tribes within our limits, and more particularly
+for their improvement in the arts of civilized life.
+
+Among the advantages incident to these purchases, and to those which
+have preceded, the security which may thereby be afforded to our inland
+frontiers is peculiarly important. With a strong barrier, consisting
+of our own people, thus planted on the Lakes, the Mississippi, and
+the Mobile, with the protection to be derived from the regular force,
+Indian hostilities, if they do not altogether cease, will henceforth
+lose their terror. Fortifications in those quarters to any extent will
+not be necessary, and the expense attending them may be saved. A people
+accustomed to the use of firearms only, as the Indian tribes are,
+will shun even moderate works which are defended by cannon. Great
+fortifications will therefore be requisite only in future along the
+coast and at some points in the interior connected with it. On these
+will the safety of our towns and the commerce of our great rivers, from
+the Bay of Fundy to the Mississippi, depend. On these, therefore, should
+the utmost attention, skill, and labor be bestowed.
+
+A considerable and rapid augmentation in the value of all the public
+lands, proceeding from these and other obvious causes, may henceforward
+be expected. The difficulties attending early emigrations will be
+dissipated even in the most remote parts. Several new States have been
+admitted into our Union to the west and south, and Territorial
+governments, happily organized, established over every other portion in
+which there is vacant land for sale. In terminating Indian hostilities,
+as must soon be done, in a formidable shape at least, the emigration,
+which has heretofore been great, will probably increase, and the demand
+for land and the augmentation in its value be in like proportion. The
+great increase of our population throughout the Union will alone produce
+an important effect, and in no quarter will it be so sensibly felt as in
+those in contemplation. The public lands are a public stock, which ought
+to be disposed of to the best advantage for the nation. The nation
+should therefore derive the profit proceeding from the continual rise
+in their value. Every encouragement should be given to the emigrants
+consistent with a fair competition between them, but that competition
+should operate in the first sale to the advantage of the nation rather
+than of individuals. Great capitalists will derive all the benefit
+incident to their superior wealth under any mode of sale which may be
+adopted. But if, looking forward to the rise in the value of the public
+lands, they should have the opportunity of amassing at a low price vast
+bodies in their hands, the profit will accrue to them and not to the
+public. They would also have the power in that degree to control the
+emigration and settlement in such a manner as their opinion of their
+respective interests might dictate. I submit this subject to the
+consideration of Congress, that such further provision may be made in
+the sale of the public lands, with a view to the public interest, should
+any be deemed expedient, as in their judgment may be best adapted to the
+object.
+
+When we consider the vast extent of territory within the United States,
+the great amount and value of its productions, the connection of its
+parts, and other circumstances on which their prosperity and happiness
+depend, we can not fail to entertain a high sense of the advantage to be
+derived from the facility which may be afforded in the intercourse
+between them by means of good roads and canals. Never did a country of
+such vast extent offer equal inducements to improvements of this kind,
+nor ever were consequences of such magnitude involved in them. As this
+subject was acted on by Congress at the last session, and there may
+be a disposition to revive it at the present, I have brought it into
+view for the purpose of communicating my sentiments on a very important
+circumstance connected with it with that freedom and candor which a
+regard for the public interest and a proper respect for Congress
+require. A difference of opinion has existed from the first formation
+of our Constitution to the present time among our most enlightened and
+virtuous citizens respecting the right of Congress to establish such a
+system of improvement. Taking into view the trust with which I am now
+honored, it would be improper after what has passed that this discussion
+should be revived with an uncertainty of my opinion respecting the
+right. Disregarding early impressions, I have bestowed on the subject
+all the deliberation which its great importance and a just sense of my
+duty required, and the result is a settled conviction in my mind that
+Congress do not possess the right. It is not contained in any of the
+specified powers granted to Congress, nor can I consider it incidental
+to or a necessary means, viewed on the most liberal scale, for carrying
+into effect any of the powers which are specifically granted. In
+communicating this result I can not resist the obligation which I feel
+to suggest to Congress the propriety of recommending to the States
+the adoption of an amendment to the Constitution which shall give to
+Congress the right in question. In cases of doubtful construction,
+especially of such vital interest, it comports with the nature and
+origin of our institutions, and will contribute much to preserve them,
+to apply to our constituents for an explicit grant of the power. We may
+confidently rely that if it appears to their satisfaction that the power
+is necessary, it will always be granted.
+
+In this case I am happy to observe that experience has afforded the most
+ample proof of its utility, and that the benign spirit of conciliation
+and harmony which now manifests itself throughout our Union promises
+to such a recommendation the most prompt and favorable result. I think
+proper to suggest also, in case this measure is adopted, that it be
+recommended to the States to include in the amendment sought a right
+in Congress to institute likewise seminaries of learning, for the
+all-important purpose of diffusing knowledge among our fellow-citizens
+throughout the United States.
+
+Our manufactories will require the continued attention of Congress. The
+capital employed in them is considerable, and the knowledge acquired in
+the machinery and fabric of all the most useful manufactures is of great
+value. Their preservation, which depends on due encouragement is
+connected with the high interests of the nation.
+
+Although the progress of the public buildings has been as favorable as
+circumstances have permitted, it is to be regretted that the Capitol is
+not yet in a state to receive you. There is good cause to presume that
+the two wings, the only parts as yet commenced, will be prepared for
+that purpose at the next session. The time seems now to have arrived
+when this subject may be deemed worthy the attention of Congress on
+a scale adequate to national purposes. The completion of the middle
+building will be necessary to the convenient accommodation of Congress,
+of the committees, and various offices belonging to it. It is evident
+that the other public buildings are altogether insufficient for the
+accommodation of the several Executive Departments, some of whom are
+much crowded and even subjected to the necessity of obtaining it in
+private buildings at some distance from the head of the Department,
+and with inconvenience to the management of the public business. Most
+nations have taken an interest and a pride in the improvement and
+ornament of their metropolis, and none were more conspicuous in that
+respect than the ancient republics. The policy which dictated the
+establishment of a permanent residence for the National Government and
+the spirit in which it was commenced and has been prosecuted show that
+such improvement was thought worthy the attention of this nation. Its
+central position, between the northern and southern extremes of our
+Union, and its approach to the west at the head of a great navigable
+river which interlocks with the Western waters, prove the wisdom of the
+councils which established it.
+
+Nothing appears to be more reasonable and proper than that convenient
+accommodation should be provided on a well-digested plan for the
+heads of the several Departments and for the Attorney-General, and
+it is believed that the public ground in the city applied to these
+objects will be found amply sufficient. I submit this subject to the
+consideration of Congress, that such further provision may be made in
+it as to them may seem proper.
+
+In contemplating the happy situation of the United States, our attention
+is drawn with peculiar interest to the surviving officers and soldiers
+of our Revolutionary army, who so eminently contributed by their
+services to lay its foundation. Most of those very meritorious citizens
+have paid the debt of nature and gone to repose. It is believed that
+among the survivors there are some not provided for by existing laws,
+who are reduced to indigence and even to real distress. These men have a
+claim on the gratitude of their country, and it will do honor to their
+country to provide for them. The lapse of a few years more and the
+opportunity will be forever lost; indeed, so long already has been the
+interval that the number to be benefited by any provision which may be
+made will not be great.
+
+It appearing in a satisfactory manner that the revenue arising from
+imposts and tonnage and from the sale of the public lands will be fully
+adequate to the support of the civil Government, of the present military
+and naval establishments, including the annual augmentation of the
+latter to the extent provided for, to the payment of the interest of the
+public debt, and to the extinguishment of it at the times authorized,
+without the aid of the internal taxes, I consider it my duty to
+recommend to Congress their repeal. To impose taxes when the public
+exigencies require them is an obligation of the most sacred character,
+especially with a free people. The faithful fulfillment of it is among
+the highest proofs of their virtue and capacity for self-government.
+To dispense with taxes when it may be done with perfect safety is
+equally the duty of their representatives. In this instance we have
+the satisfaction to know that they were imposed when the demand was
+imperious, and have been sustained with exemplary fidelity. I have to
+add that however gratifying it may be to me regarding the prosperous and
+happy condition of our country to recommend the repeal of these taxes at
+this time, I shall nevertheless be attentive to events, and, should any
+future emergency occur, be not less prompt to suggest such measures and
+burdens as may then be requisite and proper.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+DECEMBER 2, 1817.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I submit to the Senate, for their consideration and advice, the
+following treaties entered into with several of the Indian tribes,
+to wit:
+
+A treaty of peace and friendship made and concluded by William Clark,
+Ninian Edwards, and Auguste Choteau, commissioners on the part of the
+United States of America, and the chiefs and warriors of the Menomene
+tribe or nation of Indians, on the 30th of March, 1817, at St. Louis.
+
+A treaty of peace and friendship made and concluded on the 4th June,
+1817, at St. Louis, by William Clark, Ninian Edwards, and Auguste
+Choteau, commissioners on the part of the United States of America,
+and the chiefs and warriors of the Ottoes tribe of Indians.
+
+A treaty of peace and friendship made and concluded on the 5th June,
+1817, at St. Louis, by William Clark, Ninian Edwards, and Auguste
+Choteau, commissioners on the part of the United States of America,
+and the chiefs and warriors of the Poncarar tribe of Indians.
+
+A treaty concluded at the Cherokee Agency on the 8th of July, 1817,
+between Major-General Andrew Jackson, Joseph McMinn, governor of the
+State of Tennessee, and General David Meriwether, commissioners of the
+United States of America, of the one part, and the chiefs, headmen, and
+warriors of the Cherokee Nation east of the Mississippi River and the
+chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the Cherokees on the Arkansas River,
+and their deputies, John D. Chisholm and James Rogers.
+
+A treaty concluded on the 29th day of September, 1817, at the foot of
+the Rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie, between Lewis Cass and Duncan
+McArthur, commissioners of the United States, and the sachems, chiefs,
+and warriors of the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, Shawnese, Potawatamies,
+Ottawas, and Chippewa tribes of Indians.
+
+The Wyandots and other tribes parties to the treaty lately concluded
+with them have, by a deputation to this city, requested permission to
+retain possession of such lands as they actually cultivate and reside
+on, for the ensuing year. They have also expressed a desire that the
+reservations made in their favor should be enlarged, representing that
+they had entered into the treaty in full confidence that that would be
+done, preferring a reliance on the justice of the United States for such
+extension rather than that the treaty should fail.
+
+The Wyandots claim an extension of their reservation to 16 miles square,
+and the other tribes in a proportional degree. Sufficient information is
+not now in the possession of the Executive to enable it to decide how
+far it may be proper to comply with the wishes of these tribes in the
+extent desired. The necessary information may be obtained in the course
+of the next year, and if they are permitted to remain in the possession
+of the lands they cultivate during that time such further extension of
+their reservations may be made by law at the next session as justice and
+a liberal policy toward these people may require. It is submitted to the
+consideration of the Senate whether it may not be proper to annex to
+their advice and consent for the ratification of the treaty a
+declaration providing for the above objects.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+DECEMBER 11, 1817.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 15, 1817_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 8th of this month, I transmit, for the information of the House, a
+report from the Secretary of State, with the documents referred to in it,
+containing all the information in the possession of the Executive which
+it is proper to disclose, relative to certain persons who lately took
+possession of Amelia Island and Galvezton.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 18, 1817.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 11th of this
+month, I transmit, for the information of the Senate, a report from the
+Secretary of the Treasury, relating to the progress made in surveying
+the several tracts of military bounty lands appropriated by Congress for
+the late army of the United States, and the time at which such survey
+will probably be completed.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 22, 1817.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+11th of this month, requesting to be informed of the present strength
+of the Army of the United States, its distribution among the several
+military posts which it is designed to protect, and its competency to
+preserve and defend the fortifications amongst which it is distributed,
+and to aid in constructing such other military works, if any, as it may
+be deemed proper to erect for the more effectual security of the United
+States and of the Territories thereof, I now transmit a report from the
+Secretary of War which contains the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 29, 1817.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 16th of this month,
+requesting information touching the execution of so much of the first
+article of the treaty of Ghent as relates to the restitution of slaves,
+which has not heretofore been communicated, I now transmit a report of
+the Secretary of State on that subject.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 29, 1817.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+12th of this month, requesting to be informed whether any, and which, of
+the Representatives in a list thereto annexed have held offices since
+the 4th of March last, designating the offices, the times of appointment
+and acceptance, and whether they were at that time so held or when they
+had been resigned, I now transmit a report from the Secretary of State
+which contains the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 12, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The claim of the representatives of the late Caron de Beaumarchais
+having been recommended to the favorable consideration of the
+Legislature by my predecessor in his message to Congress of the 31st of
+January last, and concurring in the sentiments therein expressed, I now
+transmit copies of a new representation relative to it received by the
+Secretary of State from the minister of France, and of a correspondence
+on the subject between the minister of the United States at Paris and
+the Duke of Richelieu, inclosed with that representation.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I have the satisfaction to inform Congress that the establishment at
+Amelia Island has been suppressed, and without the effusion of blood.
+The papers which explain this transaction I now lay before Congress.
+
+By the suppression of this establishment and of that at Galveztown,
+which will soon follow; if it has not already ceased to exist, there is
+good cause to believe that the consummation of a project fraught with
+much injury to the United States has been prevented.
+
+When we consider the persons engaged in it, being adventurers from
+different countries, with very few, if any, of the native inhabitants
+of the Spanish colonies; the territory on which the establishments were
+made--one on a portion of that claimed by the United States westward
+of the Mississippi, the other on a part of East Florida, a Province
+in negotiation between the United States and Spain; the claim of their
+leader as announced by his proclamation on taking possession of Amelia
+Island, comprising the whole of both the Floridas, without excepting
+that part of West Florida which is incorporated into the State of
+Louisiana; their conduct while in the possession of the island making it
+instrumental to every species of contraband, and, in regard to slaves,
+of the most odious and dangerous character, it may fairly be concluded
+that if the enterprise had succeeded on the scale on which it was formed
+much annoyance and injury would have resulted from it to the United
+States.
+
+Other circumstances were thought to be no less deserving of attention.
+The institution of a government by foreign adventurers in the island,
+distinct from the colonial governments of Buenos Ayres, Venezuela, or
+Mexico, pretending to sovereignty and exercising its highest offices,
+particularly in granting commissions to privateers, were acts which
+could not fail to draw after them the most serious consequences. It was
+the duty of the Executive either to extend to this establishment all the
+advantages of that neutrality which the United States had proclaimed,
+and have observed in favor of the colonies of Spain who, by the strength
+of their own population and resources, had declared their independence
+and were affording strong proof of their ability to maintain it, or of
+making the discrimination which circumstances required.
+
+Had the first course been pursued, we should not only have sanctioned
+all the unlawful claims and practices of this pretended Government
+in regard to the United States, but have countenanced a system of
+privateering in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere the ill effects of
+which might, and probably would, have been deeply and very extensively
+felt.
+
+The path of duty was plain from the commencement, but it was painful to
+enter upon it while the obligation could be resisted. The law of 1811,
+lately published, and which it is therefore proper now to mention, was
+considered applicable to the case from the moment that the proclamation
+of the chief of the enterprise was seen, and its obligation was daily
+increased by other considerations of high importance already mentioned,
+which were deemed sufficiently strong in themselves to dictate the
+course which has been pursued.
+
+Early intimation having been received of the dangerous purposes of these
+adventurers, timely precautions were taken by the establishment of a
+force near the St. Marys to prevent their effect, or it is probable that
+it would have been more sensibly felt.
+
+To such establishments, made so near to our settlements in the
+expectation of deriving aid from them, it is particularly gratifying
+to find that very little encouragement was given. The example so
+conspicuously displayed by our fellow-citizens that their sympathies
+can not be perverted to improper purposes, but that a love of country,
+the influence of moral principles, and a respect for the laws are
+predominant with them, is a sure pledge that all the very flattering
+anticipations which have been formed of the success of our institutions
+will be realized. This example has proved that if our relations with
+foreign powers are to be changed it must be done by the constituted
+authorities, who alone, acting on a high responsibility, are competent
+to the purpose, and until such change is thus made that our
+fellow-citizens will respect the existing relations by a faithful
+adherence to the laws which secure them.
+
+Believing that this enterprise, though undertaken by persons some
+of whom may have held commissions from some of the colonies, was
+unauthorized by and unknown to the colonial governments, full confidence
+is entertained that it will be disclaimed by them, and that effectual
+measures will be taken to prevent the abuse of their authority in all
+cases to the injury of the United States.
+
+For these injuries, especially those proceeding from Amelia Island,
+Spain would be responsible if it was not manifest that, though committed
+in the latter instance through her territory, she was utterly unable to
+prevent them. Her territory, however, ought not to be made instrumental,
+through her inability to defend it, to purposes so injurious to the
+United States. To a country over which she fails to maintain her
+authority, and which she permits to be converted to the annoyance of her
+neighbors, her jurisdiction for the time necessarily ceases to exist.
+The territory of Spain will nevertheless be respected so far as it may
+be done consistently with the essential interests and safety of the
+United States. In expelling these adventurers from these posts it was
+not intended to make any conquest from Spain or to injure in any degree
+the cause of the colonies. Care will be taken that no part of the
+territory contemplated by the law of 1811 shall be occupied by a
+foreign government of any kind, or that injuries of the nature of
+those complained of shall be repeated; but this, it is expected, will
+be provided for with every other interest in a spirit of amity in the
+negotiation now depending with the Government of Spain.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+JANUARY 13, 1818.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 23, 1818_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+9th of December last, requesting information of what roads have been
+made or are in progress under the authority of the Executive of the
+United States, the States and Territories through which they pass or are
+intended to pass, the periods when they were ordered to be made, and
+how far they have been executed, I now communicate a report from the
+Secretary of the Treasury, and likewise a report from the Secretary
+of War, containing the information which is desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 28, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 22d of this month,
+requesting to be informed "in what manner the troops in the service of
+the United States now operating against the Seminole tribe of Indians
+have been subsisted, whether by contract or otherwise, and whether they
+have been furnished regularly with rations," I now transmit a report
+from the Secretary of War containing the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 29, 1818_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 23d of December last, requesting information relative to the
+imprisonment and detention in confinement of Richard W. Meade, a
+citizen of the United States, I now transmit to the House a report
+from the Secretary of State containing the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 8th of last month,
+requesting me to cause to be laid before it the proceedings which may
+have been had under an act entitled "An act for the gradual increase of
+the Navy of the United States," specifying the number of ships put on
+the stocks and of what class; the quantity of materials procured for
+shipbuilding, and also the sums of money which may have been paid out
+of the fund created by said act, and for what objects; and likewise
+the contracts which may have been entered into in execution of the act
+aforesaid on which moneys may not yet have been advanced, I now transmit
+a report of the Secretary of the Navy, accompanied by a report from the
+Board of Commissioners of the Navy, with documents which contain the
+information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+FEBRUARY 2, 1818.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 6, 1818_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the Secretary
+of State, in compliance with the resolution of said House requesting
+information respecting the ratification of the thirteenth article of
+the amendments to the Constitution of the United States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 10, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+As the house appropriated for the President of the United States will be
+finished this year, it is thought to merit the attention of the Congress
+in what manner it should be furnished and what measures ought to be
+adopted for the safe-keeping of the furniture in future. All the public
+furniture provided before 1814 having been destroyed with the public
+buildings in that year, and little afterwards procured, owing to the
+inadequacy of the appropriation, it has become necessary to provide
+almost every article requisite for such an establishment, whence the
+sum to be expended will be much greater than at any former period. The
+furniture in its kind and extent is thought to be an object not less
+deserving attention than the building for which it is intended. Both
+being national objects, each seems to have an equal claim to legislative
+sanction. The disbursement of the public money, too, ought, it is
+presumed, to be in like manner provided for by law. The person who may
+happen to be placed by the suffrage of his fellow-citizens in the high
+trust, having no personal interest in these concerns, should be exempted
+from undue responsibility respecting them.
+
+For a building so extensive, intended for a purpose exclusively
+national, in which in the furniture provided for it a mingled regard
+is due to the simplicity and purity of our institutions and to the
+character of the people who are represented in it, the sum already
+appropriated has proved altogether inadequate, The present is therefore
+a proper time for Congress to take the subject into consideration, with
+a view to all the objects claiming attention, and to regulate it by law.
+On a knowledge of the furniture procured and the sum expended for it
+a just estimate may be formed regarding the extent of the building of
+what will still be wanting to furnish the house. Many of the articles,
+being of a durable nature, may be handed down through a long series of
+service, and being of great value, such as plate, ought not to be left
+altogether and at all times to the care of servants alone. It seems to
+be advisable that a public agent Should be charged with it during the
+occasional absences of the President, and have authority to transfer
+it from one President to another, and likewise to make reports of
+occasional deficiencies, as the basis on which further provision should
+be made.
+
+It may also merit consideration whether it may not be proper to commit
+the care of the public buildings, particularly the President's house and
+the Capitol, with the grounds belonging to them, including likewise the
+furniture of the latter, in a more special manner to a public agent.
+Hitherto the charge of this valuable property seems to have been
+connected with the structure of the buildings and committed to those
+employed in it. This guard will necessarily cease when the buildings
+are finished, at which time the interest in them will be proportionably
+augmented. It is presumed that this trust is, in a certain degree at
+least, incidental to the other duties of the superintendent of the
+public buildings, but it may merit consideration whether it will not be
+proper to charge him with it more explicitly, and to give him authority
+to employ one or more persons under him for these purposes.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 12, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
+
+I lay before the House of Representatives copies of two communications
+received at the Department of State from the minister of Great Britain,
+and submit to their consideration the propriety of making such
+legislative provisions as may be necessary for a compliance with the
+representations contained in them.
+
+By the express terms of that compact it was, when ratified by the two
+Governments, to be in force for the term of four years _from the day of
+its signature_. The revocation of all the discriminating duties became,
+therefore, the obligation of both Governments _from that day_, and it
+is conceived that every individual who has been required to pay, and
+who has paid, any of the extra duties revoked by the convention has a
+just and lawful claim upon the respective Governments for its return.
+From various accidents it has happened that both here and in Great
+Britain the cessation of the extra duties has been fixed to commence
+at different times. It is desirable that Congress should pass an act
+providing for the return of _all_ the extra duties _incompatible with
+the terms of the convention_ which have been levied upon British vessels
+or merchandise after the 3d of July, 1815. The British Parliament have
+already set the example of fixing that day for the cessation of the
+extra duties of export by their act of 30th of June last, and the
+minister of the United States in London is instructed to require the
+extension of the same principle to _all_ the extra duties levied on
+vessels and merchandise of the United States in the ports of Great
+Britain since that day. It is not doubted that the British Government
+will comply with this requisition, and that the act suggested may be
+passed by Congress with full confidence that the reciprocal measure
+will receive the sanction of the British Parliament.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate requesting me to cause to
+be laid before them a statement of all the arms and accouterments which
+have been manufactured at the different armories of the United States,
+with the cost of each stand, and the number delivered to each State,
+respectively, under the act for arming the whole body of militia, I now
+transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with the documents marked
+A, B, and C, which, together with a report to him from the Ordnance
+Department, contains the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 19th of January,
+1818, requesting information of measures which have been taken in
+pursuance of so much of the act to authorize the appointment of a
+surveyor for lands in the northern part of the Mississippi Territory,
+passed the 3d of March, 1817, as relates to the reservation of certain
+sections for the purpose of laying out and establishing towns thereon,
+I now transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, which, with
+the letters and charts referred to in it, contains all the information
+which is desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 25, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The commissioners of the two Governments, under the fourth article
+of the treaty of Ghent, having come to a decision upon the questions
+submitted to them, I lay before Congress copies of that decision,
+together with copies of the declaration signed and reported by the
+commissioners of this Government.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 27, 1818.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate herewith to the House of Representatives a copy of a
+letter from the governor of the State of South Carolina to the Secretary
+of State, together with extracts from the journals of proceedings in
+both branches of the legislature of that Commonwealth, relative to a
+proposed amendment of the Constitution, which letter and extracts are
+connected with the subject of my communication to the House of the 6th
+instant.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 28, 1818_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the House a report from the Secretary of State, together
+with the papers relating to the claims of merchants of the United States
+upon the Government of Naples, in conformity with the resolution of the
+House of the 30th January last.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 11, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate requesting information
+respecting the requisitions that were made on the contractors between
+the 1st of June and the 24th of December, 1817, for deposits of
+provisions in advance at the several posts on the frontiers of Georgia
+and the adjoining territory, their conduct in compliance therewith, the
+amount of money advanced to B. G. Orr, and the extent of his failure,
+with a copy of the articles of contract entered into with him, I now lay
+before the Senate a report from the Secretary of War, which, with the
+documents accompanying it, will afford the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 14, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 16th of December
+and of the House of Representatives of the 24th of February last,
+I lay before Congress a report of the Secretary of State, and the
+papers referred to in it, respecting the negotiation with the Government
+of Spain. To explain fully the nature of the differences between the
+United States and Spain and the conduct of the parties it has been found
+necessary to go back to an early epoch. The recent correspondence,
+with the documents accompanying it, will give a full view of the whole
+subject, and place the conduct of the United States in every stage and
+under every circumstance, for justice, moderation, and a firm adherence
+to their rights, on the high and honorable ground which it has
+invariably sustained.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 16, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the United States of
+the 31st of December last, requesting the President to cause to be laid
+before them a statement of the proceedings which may have been had under
+the act of Congress passed on the 3d March, 1817, entitled "An act to
+set apart and dispose of certain public lands for the encouragement and
+cultivation of the vine and olive," I now transmit a report from the
+Secretary of the Treasury, containing all the information possessed by
+the Executive relating to the proceedings under the said act.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 16, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the United States of
+the 3d of February last, requesting the President to cause to be laid
+before them "a statement of the progress made under the act to provide
+for surveying the coast of the United States, passed February 10, 1807,
+and any subsequent acts on the same subject, and the expenses incurred
+thereby," I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury
+containing the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MARCH 19, 1818.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In the course of the last summer a negotiation was commenced with
+the Government of the Netherlands with a view to the revival and
+modification of the commercial treaty existing between the two
+countries, adapted to their present circumstances.
+
+The report from the Secretary of State which I now lay before Congress
+will show the obstacles which arose in the progress of the conferences
+between the respective plenipotentiaries, and which resulted in the
+agreement between them then to refer the subject to the consideration
+of their respective Governments. As the difficulties appear to be of a
+nature which may, perhaps, for the present be more easily removed by
+reciprocal legislative regulations, formed in the spirit of amity and
+conciliation, than by conventional stipulations, Congress may think it
+advisable to leave the subsisting treaty in its present state, and to
+meet the liberal exemption from discriminating tonnage duties which has
+been conceded in the Netherlands to the vessels of the United States
+by a similar exemption to the vessels of the Netherlands which have
+arrived, or may hereafter arrive, in our ports, commencing from the time
+when the exemption was granted to the vessels of the United States. I
+would further recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency
+of extending the benefit of the same regulation, to commence from the
+passage of the law, to the vessels of Russia, Hamburg, and Bremen, and
+of making it prospectively general in favor of every nation in whose
+ports the vessels of the United States are admitted on the same footing
+as their own.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 23, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with
+the estimate of the expense which will be incurred by the establishment
+of two dockyards for repairing vessels of the largest size.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 25, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I now lay before Congress all the information in the possession of
+the Executive respecting the war with the Seminoles, and the measures
+which it has been thought proper to adopt for the safety of our
+fellow-citizens on the frontier exposed to their ravages. The inclosed
+documents show that the hostilities of this tribe were unprovoked, the
+offspring of a spirit long cherished and often manifested toward the
+United States, and that in the present instance it was extending itself
+to other tribes and daily assuming a more serious aspect. As soon as the
+nature and object of this combination were perceived the major-general
+commanding the Southern division of the troops of the United States was
+ordered to the theater of action, charged with the management of the war
+and vested with the powers necessary to give it effect. The season of
+the year being unfavorable to active operations, and the recesses of
+the country affording shelter to these savages in case of retreat, may
+prevent a prompt termination of the war; but it may be fairly presumed
+that it will not be long before this tribe and its associates receive
+the punishment which they have provoked and justly merited.
+
+As almost the whole of this tribe inhabits the country within the limits
+of Florida, Spain was bound by the treaty of 1795 to restrain them from
+committing hostilities against the United States. We have seen with
+regret that her Government has altogether failed to fulfill this
+obligation, nor are we aware that it made any effort to that effect.
+When we consider her utter inability to check, even in the slightest
+degree, the movements of this tribe by her very small and incompetent
+force in Florida, we are not disposed to ascribe the failure to any
+other cause. The inability, however, of Spain to maintain her authority
+over the territory and Indians within her limits, and in consequence to
+fulfill the treaty, ought not to expose the United States to other and
+greater injuries. When the authority of Spain ceases to exist there, the
+United States have a right to pursue their enemy on a principle of
+self-defense. In this instance the right is more complete and obvious
+because we shall perform only what Spain was bound to have performed
+herself. To the high obligations and privileges of this great and sacred
+right of self-defense will the movement of our troops be strictly
+confined. Orders have been given to the general in command not to enter
+Florida unless it be in pursuit of the enemy, and in that case to
+respect the Spanish authority wherever it is maintained; and he will be
+instructed to withdraw his forces from the Province as soon as he shall
+have reduced that tribe to order, and secure our fellow-citizens in that
+quarter by satisfactory arrangements against its unprovoked and savage
+hostilities in future.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 25, 1818_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In conformity with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+5th of December last, I now transmit a report of the Secretary of State,
+with a copy of the documents which it is thought proper to communicate
+relating to the independence and political condition of the Provinces of
+Spanish America,
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 26, 1818_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives, in compliance with their
+resolution of March 20, such information not heretofore communicated
+as is in the possession of the Executive relating to the occupation of
+Amelia Island. If any doubt had before existed of the improper conduct
+of the persons who authorized and of those who were engaged in the
+invasion and previous occupancy of that island, of the unfriendly spirit
+toward the United States with which it was commenced and prosecuted, and
+of its injurious effect on their highest interests, particularly by its
+tendency to compromit them with foreign powers in all the unwarrantable
+acts of the adventurers, it is presumed that these documents would
+remove it. It appears by the letter of Mr. Pazos, agent of Commodore
+Aury, that the project of seizing the Floridas was formed and executed
+at a time when it was understood that Spain had resolved to cede them
+to the United States, and to prevent such cession from taking effect.
+The whole proceeding in every stage and circumstance was unlawful. The
+commission to General M'Gregor was granted at Philadelphia in direct
+violation of a positive law, and all the measures pursued under it by
+him in collecting his force and directing its movements were equally
+unlawful. With the conduct of these persons I have always been unwilling
+to connect any of the colonial governments, because I never could
+believe that they had given their sanction either to the project in its
+origin or to the measures which were pursued in the execution of it.
+These documents confirm the opinion which I have invariably entertained
+and expressed in their favor.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 28, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate relative to the pensioners
+of the United States, the sum annually paid to each, and the States or
+Territories in which said pensioners are respectively paid, I now
+transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which, with documents
+marked A and B, contains all the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL 6, 1818.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+An arrangement having been made and concluded between this Government
+and that of Great Britain with respect to the naval armament of
+the two Governments, respectively, on the Lakes, I lay before the
+Senate a copy of the correspondence upon that subject, including the
+stipulations mutually agreed upon by the two parties. I submit it to the
+consideration of the Senate whether this is such an arrangement as the
+Executive is competent to enter into by the powers vested in it by the
+Constitution, or is such an one as requires the advice and consent of
+the Senate, and, in the latter case, for their advice and consent should
+it be approved.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 9, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the Senate requesting me to cause
+to be laid before them a list of the names of the several agents of
+Indian affairs and of agents of Indian trading houses, with the pay and
+emolument of the agents, respectively, I now transmit a report from the
+Secretary of War, which contains the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL 10, 1818.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate respecting the supplies
+of the Northwestern army, within certain periods therein specified, by
+contractors, commissaries, and agents, and the expense thereby incurred,
+I now transmit to them a report from the Secretary of War, which, with
+the documents accompanying it, will afford the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 15, 1818_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 10th instant, relative to the capture and imprisonment of certain
+persons, citizens of the United States, therein specifically mentioned,
+I now transmit a report from the Secretary of State, which, with the
+documents accompanying it, embraces the objects contemplated by the
+said resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 20, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate a copy of the rules, regulations, and
+instructions for the naval service of the United States, prepared by the
+Board of Navy Commissioners in obedience to an act of Congress passed
+7th of February, 1815, entitled "An act to alter and amend the several
+acts for establishing a Navy Department by adding thereto a Board of
+Commissioners."
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATIONS.
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas by an act of the lieutenant-governor, council, and assembly of
+His Britannic Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia, passed in the year
+1816, it was, among other things, enacted that from and after the 1st
+day of May of that year "no plaster of paris, otherwise called gypsum,
+which should be laden or put on board any ship or vessel at any port
+or place within the limits of the said Province to be transported from
+thence to any other port or place within or without the said limits
+should, directly or indirectly, be unladen or landed or put on shore at
+any port or place in the United States of America eastward of Boston,
+in the State of Massachusetts, nor unladen or put on board any American
+ship, vessel, boat, or shallop of any description at any port or place
+eastward of Boston aforesaid, under the penalty of the forfeiture of
+every such ship or vessel from which any such plaster of paris, or
+gypsum, should be unladen contrary to the provision of the said act,
+together with her boats, tackle, apparel, and furniture, to be seized
+and prosecuted in the manner thereinafter mentioned;" and
+
+Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States passed on the
+3d day of March, 1817, it was enacted that from and after the 4th day
+of July then next no plaster of paris the production of any country or
+its dependencies from which the vessels of the United States were not
+permitted to bring the same article should be imported into the United
+States in any foreign vessel, and that all plaster of paris imported or
+attempted to be imported into the United States contrary to the true
+intent and meaning of the said act of Congress, and the vessel in which
+the same might be imported or attempted to be imported, together with
+the cargo, tackle, apparel, and furniture, should be forfeited to the
+United States and liable to be seized, prosecuted, and condemned in the
+manner therein prescribed; and
+
+Whereas by the said act of Congress it was further enacted that the
+same should continue and be in force five years from January 31, 1817;
+provided, nevertheless, that if any foreign nation or its dependencies
+which at the time of the passage of the said act of Congress had in
+force regulations on the subject of the trade in plaster of paris
+prohibiting the exportation thereof to certain ports of the United
+States should discontinue such regulations, the President of the United
+States was thereby authorized to declare that fact by his proclamation,
+and the restrictions imposed by the said act of Congress should from the
+date of such proclamation cease and be discontinued in relation to the
+nation or its dependencies discontinuing such regulations; and
+
+Whereas an act of the lieutenant-governor, council, and assembly
+of His Britannic Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia, repealing the
+above-mentioned act of the said Province, passed in the year 1816, has
+been officially communicated by his said Majesty's envoy extraordinary
+and minister plenipotentiary to this Government; and
+
+Whereas by the said repealing act of the said Province of Nova Scotia,
+one of the dependencies of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
+Ireland, the regulations at the time of the passage of the said act of
+Congress in force in the said Province on the subject of the trade in
+plaster of paris, prohibiting the exportation thereof to certain ports
+of the United States, have been and are discontinued:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States of
+America, do by this my proclamation declare that fact, and that the
+restrictions imposed by the said act of Congress do from the date hereof
+cease and are discontinued in relation to His Britannic Majesty's said
+Province of Nova Scotia.
+
+Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 23d day of
+April, A. D. 1818, and in the forty-second year of the Independence of
+the United States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  John Quincy Adams
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas an arrangement was entered into at the city of Washington in
+the month of April, A.D. 1817, between Richard Rush, esq., at that time
+acting as Secretary for the Department of State of the United States,
+for and in behalf of the Government of the United States, and the Right
+Honorable Charles Bagot, His Britannic Majesty's envoy extraordinary and
+minister plenipotentiary, for and in behalf of His Britannic Majesty,
+which arrangement is in the words following, to wit:
+
+  The naval force to be maintained upon the American lakes by His
+  Majesty and the Government of the United States shall henceforth
+  be confined to the following vessels on each side; that is--
+
+  On Lake Ontario, to one vessel not exceeding 100 tons burden and
+  armed with one 18-pound cannon.
+
+  On the upper lakes, to two vessels not exceeding like burden each
+  and armed with like force.
+
+  On the waters of Lake Champlain, to one vessel not exceeding like
+  burden and armed with like force.
+
+  All other armed vessels on these lakes shall be forthwith dismantled,
+  and no other vessels of war shall be there built or armed.
+
+  If either party should hereafter be-desirous of annulling this
+  stipulation, and should give notice to that effect to the other
+  party, it shall cease to be binding after the expiration of six
+  months from the date of such notice.
+
+  The naval force so to be limited shall be restricted to such services
+  as will in no respect interfere with the proper duties of the armed
+  vessels of the other party.
+
+
+And whereas the Senate of the United States have approved of the said
+arrangement and recommended that it should be carried into effect, the
+same having also received the sanction of His Royal Highness the Prince
+Regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of His Britannic Majesty:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States, do
+by this my proclamation make known and declare that the arrangement
+aforesaid and every stipulation thereof has been duly entered into,
+concluded, and confirmed, and is of full force and effect.
+
+Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 28th day of
+April, A.D. 1818, and of the Independence of the United States the
+forty-second.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  John Quincy Adams,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas it appears by a proclamation of the lieutenant-governor of His
+Britannic Majesty's Province of New Brunswick bearing date the 10th day
+of April last, and officially communicated by his envoy extraordinary
+and minister plenipotentiary residing in the United States to this
+Government, that the regulations on the subject of the trade in plaster
+of paris, prohibiting the exportation thereof to certain ports of the
+United States, which were in force in the said Province at the time of
+the enactment of the act of the Congress of the United States entitled
+"An act to regulate the trade in plaster of paris," passed on the 3d day
+of March, 1817, have been and are discontinued:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States, do
+hereby declare that fact, and that the restrictions imposed by the said
+act of Congress shall from the date hereof cease and be discontinued in
+relation to the said Province of New Brunswick.
+
+Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 4th day of July,
+A.D. 1818, and in the forty-third year of the Independence of the United
+States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  John Quincy Adams,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 3d of
+March, 1815, so much of the several acts imposing duties on the ships
+and vessels and on goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the
+United States as imposed a discriminating duty of tonnage between
+foreign vessels and vessels of the United States and between goods
+imported into the United States in foreign vessels and vessels of the
+United States were repealed so far as the same respected the produce or
+manufacture of the nation to which such foreign ship or vessel might
+belong, such repeal to take effect in favor of any foreign nation
+whenever the President of the United States should be satisfied that the
+discriminating or countervailing duties of such foreign nation so far as
+they operate to the disadvantage of the United States have been
+abolished; and
+
+Whereas satisfactory proof has been received by me from the
+burgo-masters and senators of the free and Hanseatic city of Bremen
+that from and after the 12th day of May, 1815, all discriminating or
+countervailing duties of the said city so far as they operated to the
+disadvantage of the United States have been and are abolished:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States of
+America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several
+acts imposing duties on the tonnage of ships and vessels and on goods,
+wares, and merchandise imported into the United States as imposed a
+discriminating duty of tonnage between vessels of the free and Hanseatic
+city of Bremen and vessels of the United States and between goods
+imported into the United States in vessels of Bremen and vessels of the
+United States are repealed so far as the same respect the produce or
+manufacture of the said free Hanseatic city of Bremen.
+
+Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 24th day of July,
+A.D. 1818, and the forty-third year of the Independence of the United
+States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 3d of
+March, 1815, so much of the several acts imposing duties on the ships
+and vessels and on goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the
+United States as imposed a discriminating duty of tonnage between
+foreign vessels and vessels of the United States and between goods
+imported into the United States in foreign vessels and vessels of the
+United States were repealed so far as the same respected the produce
+or manufacture of the nation to which such foreign ship or vessel might
+belong, such repeal to take effect in favor of any foreign nation
+whenever the President of the United States should be satisfied that
+the discriminating or countervailing duties of such foreign nation so
+far as they operate to the disadvantage of the United States have been
+abolished; and
+
+Whereas satisfactory proof has been received by me from the
+burgo-masters and senators of the free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg
+that from and after the 13th day of November, 1815, all discriminating
+and countervailing duties of the said city so far as they operated to
+the disadvantage of the United States have been and are abolished:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States of
+America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several
+acts imposing duties on the tonnage of ships and vessels and on goods,
+wares, and merchandise imported into the United States as imposed a
+discriminating duty of tonnage between vessels of the free and Hanseatic
+city of Hamburg and vessels of the United States and between goods
+imported into the United States in vessels of Hamburg and vessels of the
+United States are repealed so far as the same respect the produce or
+manufacture of the said free Hanseatic city of Hamburg.
+
+Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 1st day of August,
+A.D. 1818, and the forty-third year of the Independence of the United
+States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  John Quincy Adams,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+NOVEMBER 16, 1818.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+The auspicious circumstances under which you will commence the duties of
+the present session will lighten the burdens inseparable from the high
+trust committed to you. The fruits of the earth have been unusually
+abundant, commerce has flourished, the revenue has exceeded the most
+favorable anticipation, and peace and amity are preserved with foreign
+nations on conditions just and honorable to our country. For these
+inestimable blessings we can not but be grateful to that Providence
+which watches over the destiny of nations.
+
+As the term limited for the operation of the commercial convention with
+Great Britain will expire early in the month of July next, and it was
+deemed important that there should be no interval during which that
+portion of our commerce which was provided for by that convention should
+not be regulated, either by arrangement between the two Governments or
+by the authority of Congress, the minister of the United States at
+London was instructed early in the last summer to invite the attention
+of the British Government to the subject, with a view to that object.
+He was instructed to propose also that the negotiation which it
+was wished to open might extend to the general commerce of the two
+countries, and to every other interest and unsettled difference between
+them, particularly those relating to impressment, the fisheries, and
+boundaries, in the hope that an arrangement might be made on principles
+of reciprocal advantage which might comprehend and provide in a
+satisfactory manner for all these high concerns. I have the satisfaction
+to state that the proposal was received by the British Government in
+the spirit which prompted it, and that a negotiation has been opened at
+London embracing all these objects. On full consideration of the great
+extent and magnitude of the trust it was thought proper to commit it to
+not less than two of our distinguished citizens, and in consequence the
+envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States
+at Paris has been associated with our envoy extraordinary and minister
+plenipotentiary at London, to both of whom corresponding instructions
+have been given, and they are now engaged in the discharge of its
+duties. It is proper to add that to prevent any inconvenience resulting
+from the delay incident to a negotiation on so many important subjects
+it was agreed before entering on it that the existing convention should
+be continued for a term not less than eight years.
+
+Our relations with Spain remain nearly in the state in which they were
+at the close of the last session. The convention of 1802, providing for
+the adjustment of a certain portion of the claims of our citizens for
+injuries sustained by spoliation, and so long suspended by the Spanish
+Government, has at length been ratified by it, but no arrangement has
+yet been made for the payment of another portion of like claims, not
+less extensive or well founded, or for other classes of claims, or for
+the settlement of boundaries. These subjects have again been brought
+under consideration in both countries, but no agreement has been entered
+into respecting them. In the meantime events have occurred which clearly
+prove the ill effect of the policy which that Government has so long
+pursued on the friendly relations of the two countries, which it is
+presumed is at least of as much importance to Spain as to the United
+States to maintain. A state of things has existed in the Floridas the
+tendency of which has been obvious to all who have paid the slightest
+attention to the progress of affairs in that quarter. Throughout
+the whole of those Provinces to which the Spanish title extends the
+Government of Spain has scarcely been felt. Its authority has been
+confined almost exclusively to the walls of Pensacola and St. Augustine,
+within which only small garrisons have been maintained. Adventurers from
+every country, fugitives from justice, and absconding slaves have found
+an asylum there. Several tribes of Indians, strong in the number of
+their warriors, remarkable for their ferocity, and whose settlements
+extend to our limits, inhabit those Provinces. These different hordes of
+people, connected together, disregarding on the one side the authority
+of Spain, and protected on the other by an imaginary line which
+separates Florida from the United States, have violated our laws
+prohibiting the introduction of slaves, have practiced various frauds
+on our revenue, and committed every kind of outrage on our peaceable
+citizens which their proximity to us enabled them to perpetrate. The
+invasion of Amelia Island last year by a small band of adventurers, not
+exceeding 150 in number, who wrested it from the inconsiderable Spanish
+force stationed there, and held it several months, during which a single
+feeble effort only was made to recover it, which failed, clearly proves
+how completely extinct the Spanish authority had become, as the conduct
+of those adventurers while in possession of the island as distinctly
+shows the pernicious purposes for which their combination had been
+formed.
+
+This country had, in fact, become the theater of every species of
+lawless adventure. With little population of its own, the Spanish
+authority almost extinct, and the colonial governments in a state of
+revolution, having no pretension to it, and sufficiently employed in
+their own concerns, it was in a great measure derelict, and the object
+of cupidity to every adventurer. A system of buccaneering was rapidly
+organizing over it which menaced in its consequences the lawful commerce
+of every nation, and particularly of the United States, while it
+presented a temptation to every people, on whose seduction its success
+principally depended. In regard to the United States, the pernicious
+effect of this unlawful combination was not confined to the ocean;
+the Indian tribes have constituted the effective force in Florida.
+With these tribes these adventurers had formed at an early period a
+connection with a view to avail themselves of that force to promote
+their own projects of accumulation and aggrandizement. It is to the
+interference of some of these adventurers, in misrepresenting the claims
+and titles of the Indians to land and in practicing on their savage
+propensities, that the Seminole war is principally to be traced. Men who
+thus connect themselves with savage communities and stimulate them to
+war, which is always attended on their part with acts of barbarity the
+most shocking, deserve to be viewed in a worse light than the savages.
+They would certainly have no claim to an immunity from the punishment
+which, according to the rules of warfare practiced by the savages, might
+justly be inflicted on the savages themselves.
+
+If the embarrassments of Spain prevented her from making an indemnity
+to our citizens for so long a time from her treasury for their losses
+by spoliation and otherwise, it was always in her power to have provided
+it by the cession of this territory. Of this her Government has been
+repeatedly apprised, and the cession was the more to have been
+anticipated as Spain must have known that in ceding it she would in
+effect cede what had become of little value to her, and would likewise
+relieve herself from the important obligation secured by the treaty of
+1795 and all other compromitments respecting it. If the United States,
+from consideration of these embarrassments, declined pressing their
+claims in a spirit of hostility, the motive ought at least to have been
+duly appreciated by the Government of Spain. It is well known to her
+Government that other powers have made to the United States an indemnity
+for like losses sustained by their citizens at the same epoch.
+
+There is nevertheless a limit beyond which this spirit of amity and
+forbearance can in no instance be justified. If it was proper to rely on
+amicable negotiation for an indemnity for losses, it would not have been
+so to have permitted the inability of Spain to fulfill her engagements
+and to sustain her authority in the Floridas to be perverted by foreign
+adventurers and savages to purposes so destructive to the lives of our
+fellow-citizens and the highest interests of the United States. The
+right of self-defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and
+alike necessary to nations and to individuals, and whether the attack be
+made by Spain herself or by those who abuse her power, its obligation is
+not the less strong. The invaders of Amelia Island had assumed a popular
+and respected title under which they might approach and wound us. As
+their object was distinctly seen, and the duty imposed on the Executive
+by an existing law was profoundly felt, that mask was not permitted to
+protect them. It was thought incumbent on the United States to suppress
+the establishment, and it was accordingly done. The combination in
+Florida for the unlawful purposes stated, the acts perpetrated by that
+combination, and, above all, the incitement of the Indians to massacre
+our fellow-citizens of every age and of both sexes, merited a like
+treatment and received it. In pursuing these savages to an imaginary
+line in the woods it would have been the height of folly to have
+suffered that line to protect them. Had that been done the war could
+never cease. Even if the territory had been exclusively that of Spain
+and her power complete over it, we had a right by the law of nations
+to follow the enemy on it and to subdue him there. But the territory
+belonged, in a certain sense at least, to the savage enemy who inhabited
+it; the power of Spain had ceased to exist over it, and protection
+was sought under her title by those who had committed on our citizens
+hostilities which she was bound by treaty to have prevented, but had not
+the power to prevent. To have stopped at that line would have given new
+encouragement to these savages and new vigor to the whole combination
+existing there in the prosecution of all its pernicious purposes.
+
+In suppressing the establishment at Amelia Island no unfriendliness was
+manifested toward Spain, because the post was taken from a force which
+had wrested it from her. The measure, it is true, was not adopted in
+concert with the Spanish Government or those in authority under it,
+because in transactions connected with the war in which Spain and the
+colonies are engaged it was thought proper in doing justice to the
+United States to maintain a strict impartiality toward both the
+belligerent parties without consulting or acting in concert with either.
+It gives me pleasure to state that the Governments of Buenos Ayres and
+Venezuela, whose names were assumed, have explicitly disclaimed all
+participation in those measures, and even the knowledge of them until
+communicated by this Government, and have also expressed their
+satisfaction that a course of proceedings had been suppressed which if
+justly imputable to them would dishonor their cause.
+
+In authorizing Major-General Jackson to enter Florida in pursuit of the
+Seminoles care was taken not to encroach on the rights of Spain. I
+regret to have to add that in executing this order facts were disclosed
+respecting the conduct of the officers of Spain in authority there in
+encouraging the war, furnishing munitions of war and other supplies to
+carry it on, and in other acts not less marked which evinced their
+participation in the hostile purposes of that combination and justified
+the confidence with which it inspired the savages that by those officers
+they would be protected. A conduct so incompatible with the friendly
+relations existing between the two countries, particularly with the
+positive obligation of the fifth article of the treaty of 1795, by which
+Spain was bound to restrain, even by force, those savages from acts of
+hostility against the United States, could not fail to excite surprise.
+The commanding general was convinced that he should fail in his object,
+that he should in effect accomplish nothing, if he did not deprive
+those savages of the resource on which they had calculated and of the
+protection on which they had relied in making the war. As all the
+documents relating to this occurrence will be laid before Congress,
+it is not necessary to enter into further detail respecting it.
+
+Although the reasons which induced Major-General Jackson to take these
+posts were duly appreciated, there was nevertheless no hesitation in
+deciding on the course which it became the Government to pursue. As
+there was reason to believe that the commanders of these posts had
+violated their instructions, there was no disposition to impute to
+their Government a conduct so unprovoked and hostile. An order was
+in consequence issued to the general in command there to deliver the
+posts--Pensacola unconditionally to any person duly authorized to
+receive it, and St. Marks, which is in the heart of the Indian country,
+on the arrival of a competent force to defend it against those savages
+and their associates.
+
+In entering Florida to suppress this combination no idea was entertained
+of hostility to Spain, and however justifiable the commanding general
+was, in consequence of the misconduct of the Spanish officers, in
+entering St. Marks and Pensacola to terminate it by proving to the
+savages and their associates that they should not be protected even
+there, yet the amicable relations existing between the United States
+and Spain could not be altered by that act alone. By ordering the
+restitution of the posts those relations were preserved. To a change
+of them the power of the Executive is deemed incompetent; it is vested
+in Congress only.
+
+By this measure, so promptly taken, due respect was shown to the
+Government of Spain. The misconduct of her officers has not been imputed
+to her. She was enabled to review with candor her relations with the
+United States and her own situation, particularly in respect to the
+territory in question, with the dangers inseparable from it, and
+regarding the losses we have sustained for which indemnity has been so
+long withheld, and the injuries we have suffered through that territory,
+and her means of redress, she was likewise enabled to take with honor
+the course best calculated to do justice to the United States and to
+promote her own welfare.
+
+Copies of the instructions to the commanding general, of his
+correspondence with the Secretary of War, explaining his motives
+and justifying his conduct, with a copy of the proceedings of the
+courts-martial in the trial of Arbuthnot and Ambristie, and of the
+correspondence between the Secretary of State and the minister
+plenipotentiary of Spain near this Government, and of the minister
+plenipotentiary of the United States at Madrid with the Government
+of Spain, will be laid before Congress.
+
+The civil war which has so long prevailed between Spain and the
+Provinces in South America still continues, without any prospect of
+its speedy termination. The information respecting the condition of
+those countries which has been collected by the commissioners recently
+returned from thence will be laid before Congress in copies of their
+reports, with such other information as has been received from other
+agents of the United States.
+
+It appears from these communications that the Government at Buenos Ayres
+declared itself independent in July, 1816, having previously exercised
+the power of an independent government, though in the name of the King
+of Spain, from the year 1810; that the Banda Oriental, Entre Rios, and
+Paraguay, with the city of Santa Fee, all of which are also independent,
+are unconnected with the present Government of Buenos Ayres; that Chili
+has declared itself independent and is closely connected with Buenos
+Ayres; that Venezuela has also declared itself independent, and now
+maintains the conflict with various success; and that the remaining
+parts of South America, except Monte Video and such other portions of
+the eastern bank of the La Plata as are held by Portugal, are still in
+the possession of Spain or in a certain degree under her influence.
+
+By a circular note addressed by the ministers of Spain to the allied
+powers, with whom they are respectively accredited, it appears that the
+allies have undertaken to mediate between Spain and the South American
+Provinces, and that the manner and extent of their interposition would
+be settled by a congress which was to have met at Aix-la-Chapelle
+in September last. From the general policy and course of proceeding
+observed by the allied powers in regard to this contest it is inferred
+that they will confine their interposition to the expression of their
+sentiments, abstaining from the application of force. I state this
+impression that force will not be applied with the greater satisfaction
+because it is a course more consistent with justice and likewise
+authorizes a hope that the calamities of the war will be confined
+to the parties only, and will be of shorter duration.
+
+From the view taken of this subject, founded on all the information that
+we have been able to obtain, there is good cause to be satisfied with
+the course heretofore pursued by the United States in regard to this
+contest, and to conclude that it is proper to adhere to it, especially
+in the present state of affairs.
+
+I have great satisfaction in stating that our relations with France,
+Russia, and other powers continue on the most friendly basis.
+
+In our domestic concerns we have ample cause of satisfaction. The
+receipts into the Treasury during the three first quarters of the year
+have exceeded $17,000,000.
+
+After satisfying all the demands which have been made under existing
+appropriations, including the final extinction of the old 6 per cent
+stock and the redemption of a moiety of the Louisiana debt, it is
+estimated that there will remain in the Treasury on the 1st day of
+January next more than $2,000,000.
+
+It is ascertained that the gross revenue which has accrued from the
+customs during the same period amounts to $21,000,000, and that the
+revenue of the whole year may be estimated at not less than $26,000,000.
+The sale of the public lands during the year has also greatly exceeded,
+both in quantity and price, that of any former year, and there is just
+reason to expect a progressive improvement in that source of revenue.
+
+It is gratifying to know that although the annual expenditure has been
+increased by the act of the last session of Congress providing for
+Revolutionary pensions to an amount about equal to the proceeds of the
+internal duties which were then repealed, the revenue for the ensuing
+year will be proportionally augmented, and that whilst the public
+expenditure will probably remain stationary, each successive year will
+add to the national resources by the ordinary increase of our population
+and by the gradual development of our latent sources of national
+prosperity.
+
+The strict execution of the revenue laws, resulting principally from
+the salutary provisions of the act of the 20th of April last amending
+the several collection laws, has, it is presumed, secured to domestic
+manufactures all the relief that can be derived from the duties which
+have been imposed upon foreign merchandise for their protection. Under
+the influence of this relief several branches of this important national
+interest have assumed greater activity, and although it is hoped that
+others will gradually revive and ultimately triumph over every obstacle,
+yet the expediency of granting further protection is submitted to your
+consideration.
+
+The measures of defense authorized by existing laws have been pursued
+with the zeal and activity due to so important an object, and with all
+the dispatch practicable in so extensive and great an undertaking. The
+survey of our maritime and inland frontiers has been continued, and at
+the points where it was decided to erect fortifications the work has
+been commenced, and in some instances considerable progress has been
+made. In compliance with resolutions of the last session, the Board of
+Commissioners were directed to examine in a particular manner the parts
+of the coast therein designated and to report their opinion of the
+most suitable sites for two naval depots. This work is in a train of
+execution. The opinion of the Board on this subject, with a plan of all
+the works necessary to a general system of defense so far as it has been
+formed, will be laid before Congress in a report from the proper
+department as soon as it can be prepared.
+
+In conformity with the appropriations of the last session, treaties have
+been formed with the Quapaw tribe of Indians, inhabiting the country on
+the Arkansaw, and with the Great and Little Osages north of the White
+River; with the tribes in the State of Indiana; with the several tribes
+within the State of Ohio and the Michigan Territory, and with the
+Chickasaws, by which very extensive cessions of territory have been made
+to the United States. Negotiations are now depending with the tribes in
+the Illinois Territory and with the Choctaws, by which it is expected
+that other extensive cessions will be made. I take great interest
+in stating that the cessions already made, which are considered so
+important to the United States, have been obtained on conditions very
+satisfactory to the Indians.
+
+With a view to the security of our inland frontiers, it has been thought
+expedient to establish strong posts at the mouth of Yellow Stone River
+and at the Mandan village on the Missouri, and at the mouth of St.
+Peters on the Mississippi, at no great distance from our northern
+boundaries. It can hardly be presumed while such posts are maintained
+in the rear of the Indian tribes that they will venture to attack our
+peaceable inhabitants. A strong hope is entertained that this measure
+will likewise be productive of much good to the tribes themselves,
+especially in promoting the great object of their civilization.
+Experience has clearly demonstrated that independent savage communities
+can not long exist within the limits of a civilized population.
+The progress of the latter has almost invariably terminated in the
+extinction of the former, especially of the tribes belonging to our
+portion of this hemisphere, among whom loftiness of sentiment and
+gallantry in action have been conspicuous. To civilize them, and even
+to prevent their extinction, it seems to be indispensable that their
+independence as communities should cease, and that the control of the
+United States over them should be complete and undisputed. The hunter
+state will then be more easily abandoned, and recourse will be had to
+the acquisition and culture of land and to other pursuits tending to
+dissolve the ties which connect them together as a savage community and
+to give a new character to every individual. I present this subject to
+the consideration of Congress on the presumption that it may be found
+expedient and practicable to adopt some benevolent provisions, having
+these objects in view, relative to the tribes within our settlements.
+
+It has been necessary during the present year to maintain a strong naval
+force in the Mediterranean and in the Gulf of Mexico, and to send some
+public ships along the southern coast and to the Pacific Ocean. By
+these means amicable relations with the Barbary Powers have been
+preserved, our commerce has been protected, and our rights respected.
+The augmentation of our Navy is advancing with a steady progress toward
+the limit contemplated by law.
+
+I communicate with great satisfaction the accession of another State
+(Illinois) to our Union, because I perceive from the proof afforded by
+the additions already made the regular progress and sure consummation of
+a policy of which history affords no example, and of which the good
+effect can not be too highly estimated. By extending our Government on
+the principles of our Constitution over the vast territory within our
+limits, on the Lakes and the Mississippi and its numerous streams, new
+life and vigor are infused into every part of our system. By increasing
+the number of the States the confidence of the State governments in
+their own security is increased and their jealousy of the National
+Government proportionally diminished. The impracticability of one
+consolidated government for this great and growing nation will be more
+apparent and will be universally admitted. Incapable of exercising local
+authority except for general purposes, the General Government will
+no longer be dreaded. In those cases of a local nature and for all
+the great purposes for which it was instituted its authority will be
+cherished. Each government will acquire new force and a greater freedom
+of action within its proper sphere. Other inestimable advantages will
+follow. Our produce will be augmented to an incalculable amount in
+articles of the greatest value for domestic use and foreign commerce.
+Our navigation will in like degree be increased, and as the shipping of
+the Atlantic States will be employed in the transportation of the vast
+produce of the Western country, even those parts of the United States
+which are most remote from each other will be further bound together by
+the strongest ties which mutual interest can create.
+
+The situation of this District, it is thought, requires the attention of
+Congress. By the Constitution the power of legislation is exclusively
+vested in the Congress of the United States. In the exercise of this
+power, in which the people have no participation, Congress legislate in
+all cases directly on the local concerns of the District. As this is a
+departure, for a special purpose, from the general principles of our
+system, it may merit consideration whether an arrangement better adapted
+to the principles of our Government and to the particular interests
+of the people may not be devised which will neither infringe the
+Constitution nor affect the object which the provision in question
+was intended to secure. The growing population, already considerable,
+and the increasing business of the District, which it is believed
+already interferes with the deliberations of Congress on great national
+concerns, furnish additional motives for recommending this subject to
+your consideration.
+
+When we view the great blessings with which our country has been
+favored, those which we now enjoy, and the means which we possess of
+handing them down unimpaired to our latest posterity, our attention is
+irresistibly drawn to the source from whence they flow. Let us, then,
+unite in offering our most grateful acknowledgments for these blessings
+to the Divine Author of All Good.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+NOVEMBER 30, 1818.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate, for their advice and consent, the several
+treaties which have recently been made with the Chickasaws, the Quapaws,
+the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, Shawnese, Potawatamies, Ottawas, and
+Chippewas, the Peoria, Kaskaskias, Mitchigamia, Cahokia, and Tamarois,
+the Great and Little Osages, the Weas, Potawatamies, Delaware and Miami,
+the Wyandot, and the four Pawnees tribes of Indians.
+
+By reference to the journal of the commissioners it appears that George
+and Levi Colbert have bargained and sold to the United States the
+reservations made to them by the treaty of September, 1816, and that
+a deed of trust of the same has been made by them to James Jackson,
+of Nashville. I would therefore suggest, in case the Chickasaw treaty
+be approved by the Senate, the propriety of providing by law for
+the payment of the sum stipulated to be given to them for their
+reservations.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 2, 1818.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate copies of such of the documents referred to in
+the message of the 17th of last month as have been prepared since that
+period. They contain a copy of the reports of Mr. Rodney and Mr. Graham,
+two of the commissioners to South America, who returned first from the
+mission, and of the papers connected with those reports. They also
+present a full view of the operations of our troops employed in the
+Seminole war in Florida.
+
+It would have been gratifying to me to have communicated with the
+message all the documents referred to in it, but as two of our
+commissioners from South America made their reports a few days only
+before the meeting of Congress and the third on the day of its meeting,
+it was impossible to transmit at that time more than one copy of the
+two reports first made.
+
+The residue of the documents will be communicated as soon as they are
+prepared.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 2, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of 25th of last month,
+requesting to be furnished with such information as may be possessed by
+the Executive touching the execution of so much of the first article of
+the late treaty of peace and amity between His Britannic Majesty and the
+United States as relates to the restitution of slaves, and which has not
+heretofore been communicated, I lay before the Senate a report made by
+the Secretary of State on the 1st instant in relation to that subject.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 2, 1818.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives copies of such documents
+referred to in the message of the 17th ultimo as have been prepared
+since that period. They present a full view of the operations of our
+troops employed in the Seminole war who entered Florida.
+
+The residue of the documents, which are very voluminous, will be
+transmitted as soon as they can be prepared.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 12, 1818.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+10th instant, I transmit a report of the Secretary of War, with copies
+of the correspondence between the governor of Georgia and Major-General
+Andrew Jackson on the subject of the arrest of Captain Obed Wright.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 29, 1818.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate, for their consideration, a convention, signed
+at London on the 20th of October last, between the United States and
+Great Britain, together with the documents showing the course and
+progress of the negotiation. I have to request that these documents,
+which are original, may be returned when the Senate shall have acted on
+the convention.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 31, 1818.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives
+of the 24th instant, requesting me to lay before it "copies of the
+correspondence, if any, between the Department of War and the governor
+of Georgia, in answer to the letter of the latter to the former dated
+on the 1st of June of the present year, communicated to the House on
+the 12th instant; and also the correspondence, if any, between the
+Department of War and General Andrew Jackson, in answer to the letter of
+the latter of the date 7th May, 1818, also communicated to the House on
+the 12th instant," I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with a
+copy of an extract of a letter from Major Van De Venter, chief clerk in
+the Department of War, in reply to General Jackson's letter of the 7th
+of May, 1818.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 31, 1818.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+7th instant, requesting me to lay before it "the proceedings which have
+been had under the act entitled 'An act for the gradual increase of the
+Navy of the United States,' specifying the number of ships which have
+been put on the stocks, and of what class, and the quantity and kind of
+materials which have been procured in compliance with the provisions of
+said act; and also the sums of money which have been paid out of the
+fund created by the said act, and for what objects; and likewise the
+contracts which have been entered into in execution of said act on which
+moneys may not yet have been advanced," I transmit a report from the
+Acting Secretary of the Navy, together with a communication from the
+Board of Navy Commissioners, which, with the documents accompanying it,
+comprehends all the information required by the House of
+Representatives.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 4, 1819_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress a proclamation, dated the 22d of last
+month, of the convention made and concluded at Madrid between the
+plenipotentiaries of the United States and His Catholic Majesty on the
+11th of August, 1802, the ratifications of which were not exchanged
+until the 21st ultimo, together with the translation of a letter from
+the minister of Spain to the Secretary of State.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 4, 1819.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate, in pursuance of their resolution of the
+30th of last month, requesting to be furnished with the instructions,
+including that of the 28th of July, 1818, to the plenipotentiaries of
+the United States who negotiated the convention with His Britannic
+Majesty signed on the 20th day of October in the same year, copies
+of all these instructions, including that particularly referred to.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 11, 1819.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 5th instant,
+requesting me "to cause to be laid before it a statement of the
+effective force composing the military establishment of the United
+States; also a statement of the different posts and garrisons at and
+within which troops are stationed, and the actual number of officers,
+noncommissioned officers, and privates at each post and garrison,
+respectively; also to designate in such statement the number of
+artillerists and the number and caliber of ordnance at each of the said
+posts and garrisons," I transmit a report from the Secretary of War,
+which, with the documents accompanying it, contains all the information
+required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 29, 1819.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives, in compliance with their
+resolution of the 4th of this month, a report from the Secretary of
+State concerning the applications which have been made by any of
+the independent Governments of South America to have a minister or
+consul-general accredited by the Government of the United States, with
+the answers of this Government to the applications addressed to it.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 30, 1819.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 18th instant, requesting me to cause any information not already
+communicated to be laid before the House whether Amelia Island, St.
+Marks, and Pensacola yet remain in the possession of the United States,
+and, if so, by what laws the inhabitants are governed; whether articles
+imported therein from foreign countries are subject to any, and what,
+duties, and by what laws, and whether the said duties are collected and
+how; whether vessels arriving in the United States from Pensacola and
+Amelia Island, and in Pensacola and Amelia Island from the United
+States, respectively, are considered and treated as vessels arriving
+from foreign countries, I transmit a report from the Secretary of the
+Treasury, and likewise one from the Secretary of War, which will afford
+all the information requested by the House of Representatives.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 2, 1819.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I nominate John Overton, Newton Cannon, and Robert Weakly, of Tennessee,
+as commissioners to negotiate with the Chickasaw tribe of Indians for
+the cession of a tract of land 4 miles square, including a salt spring,
+reserved to the said tribe by the fourth article of a treaty concluded
+with the said Indians on the 19th day of October, 1818.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 2, 1819.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 13th of last month,
+requesting me "to cause to be laid before it a statement showing the
+measures that have been taken to collect the balances stated to be due
+from the several supervisors and collectors of the old direct tax of two
+millions; also a similar statement of the balances due from the officers
+of the old internal revenue, and to designate in such statement the
+persons who have been interested in the collection of the said debts and
+the sums by them respectively collected, and the time when the same were
+collected," I transmit a report of the Secretary of the Treasury, which,
+with the documents accompanying it, contains all the information
+required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 3, 1819_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to Congress copies of applications received from the
+minister of Great Britain in behalf of certain British subjects who have
+suffered in their property by proceedings to which the United States by
+their military and judicial officers have been parties. These injuries
+have been sustained under circumstances which appear to recommend
+strongly to the attention of Congress the claim to indemnity for the
+losses occasioned by them, which the legislative authority is alone
+competent to provide.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 5, 1819.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 25th of last month,
+requesting me "to cause to be laid before it a copy of the rules and
+regulations adopted for the government of the Military Academy at West
+Point; also how many cadets have been admitted into the Academy, the
+time of the residence of each cadet at that institution, and how many
+of them have been appointed officers in the Army and Navy of the United
+States," I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which, with the
+accompanying documents, will afford all the information required by the
+said resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 6, 1819_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress a copy of a letter from Governor Bibb to
+Major-General Jackson, connected with the late military operations
+in Florida. This letter has been mislaid, or it would have been
+communicated with the other documents at the commencement of the
+session.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 6, 1819.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress, for their consideration, applications which have
+been received from the minister resident of Prussia and from the senates
+of the free and Hanseatic cities of Hamburg and Bremen, the object of
+which is that the advantages secured by the act of Congress of 20th of
+April last to the vessels and merchandise of the Netherlands should
+be extended to those of Prussia, Hamburg, and Bremen. It will appear
+from these documents that the vessels of the United States and the
+merchandise laden in them are in the ports of those Governments,
+respectively, entitled to the same advantages in respect to imposts and
+duties as those of the native subjects of the countries themselves.
+
+The principle of reciprocity appears to entitle them to the return of
+the same favor on the part of the United States, and I recommend it to
+Congress that provision to that effect may be made.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 22, 1819.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate a treaty of amity, settlement, and limits
+between the United States of America and His Catholic Majesty,
+concluded and signed this day, for the decision of the Senate as to
+its ratification. Copies of the correspondence between the Secretary
+of State and the minister from Spain connected with this subject since
+the renewal of the negotiation are likewise inclosed.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 26, 1819_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The treaty of amity, settlement, and limits between the United States
+and His Catholic Majesty having been on the part of the United States
+ratified, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, copies of
+it are now transmitted to Congress. As the ratification on the part
+of Spain may be expected to take place during the recess of Congress,
+I recommend to their consideration the adoption of such legislative
+measures contingent upon the event of the exchange of the ratifications
+as may be necessary or expedient for carrying the treaty into effect
+in the interval between the sessions, and until Congress at their next
+session may see fit to make further provision on the subject.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MARCH 2, 1819.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+A convention having been concluded between John C. Calhoun, Secretary of
+War, especially authorized therefor by me, and the chiefs and headmen of
+the Cherokee Nation of Indians, likewise duly authorized and empowered
+by said nation, I now lay the original instrument before the Senate for
+the exercise of its constitutional power respecting the ratification
+thereof.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1819_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+The public buildings being advanced to a stage to afford accommodation
+for Congress, I offer you my sincere congratulations on the
+recommencement of your duties in the Capitol.
+
+In bringing to view the incidents most deserving attention which have
+occurred since your last session, I regret to have to state that several
+of our principal cities have suffered by sickness, that an unusual
+drought has prevailed in the Middle and Western States, and that a
+derangement has been felt in some of our moneyed institutions which has
+proportionably affected their credit. I am happy, however, to have it in
+my power to assure you that the health of our cities is now completely
+restored; that the produce of the year, though less abundant than usual,
+will not only be amply sufficient for home consumption, but afford a
+large surplus for the supply of the wants of other nations, and that the
+derangement in the circulating paper medium, by being left to those
+remedies which its obvious causes suggested and the good sense and
+virtue of our fellow-citizens supplied, has diminished.
+
+Having informed Congress, on the 27th of February last, that a treaty of
+amity, settlement, and limits had been concluded in this city between
+the United States and Spain, and ratified by the competent authorities
+of the former, full confidence was entertained that it would have been
+ratified by His Catholic Majesty with equal promptitude and a like
+earnest desire to terminate on the conditions of that treaty the
+differences which had so long existed between the two countries. Every
+view which the subject admitted of was thought to have justified this
+conclusion. Great losses had been sustained by citizens of the United
+States from Spanish cruisers more than twenty years before, which had
+not been redressed. These losses had been acknowledged and provided for
+by a treaty as far back as the year 1802, which, although concluded at
+Madrid, was not then ratified by the Government of Spain, nor since,
+until the last year, when it was suspended by the late treaty, a more
+satisfactory provision to both parties, as was presumed, having been
+made for them. Other differences had arisen in this long interval,
+affecting their highest interests, which were likewise provided for by
+this last treaty. The treaty itself was formed on great consideration
+and a thorough knowledge of all circumstances, the subject-matter of
+every article having been for years under discussion and repeated
+references having been made by the minister of Spain to his Government
+on the points respecting which the greatest difference of opinion
+prevailed. It was formed by a minister duly authorized for the purpose,
+who had represented his Government in the United States and been
+employed in this long-protracted negotiation several years, and who, it
+is not denied, kept strictly within the letter of his instructions. The
+faith of Spain was therefore pledged, under circumstances of peculiar
+force and solemnity, for its ratification. On the part of the United
+States this treaty was evidently acceded to in a spirit of conciliation
+and concession. The indemnity for injuries and losses so long before
+sustained, and now again acknowledged and provided for, was to be
+paid by them without becoming a charge on the treasury of Spain. For
+territory ceded by Spain other territory of great value, to which our
+claim was believed to be well founded, was ceded by the United States,
+and in a quarter more interesting to her. This cession was nevertheless
+received as the means of indemnifying our citizens in a considerable
+sum, the presumed amount of their losses. Other considerations of great
+weight urged the cession of this territory by Spain. It was surrounded
+by the Territories of the United States on every side except on that of
+the ocean. Spain had lost her authority over it, and, falling into the
+hands of adventurers connected with the savages, it was made the means
+of unceasing annoyance and injury to our Union in many of its most
+essential interests. By this cession, then, Spain ceded a territory
+in reality of no value to her and obtained concessions of the highest
+importance by the settlement of long-standing differences with the
+United States affecting their respective claims and limits, and likewise
+relieved herself from the obligation of a treaty relating to it which
+she had failed to fulfill, and also from the responsibility incident to
+the most flagrant and pernicious abuses of her rights where she could
+not support her authority.
+
+It being known that the treaty was formed under these circumstances, not
+a doubt was entertained that His Catholic Majesty would have ratified
+it without delay. I regret to have to state that this reasonable
+expectation has been disappointed; that the treaty was not ratified
+within the time stipulated and has not since been ratified. As it is
+important that the nature and character of this unexpected occurrence
+should be distinctly understood, I think it my duty to communicate to
+you all the facts and circumstances in my possession relating to it.
+
+Anxious to prevent all future disagreement with Spain by giving the
+most prompt effect to the treaty which had been thus concluded, and
+particularly by the establishment of a government in Florida which
+should preserve order there, the minister of the United States who
+had been recently appointed to His Catholic Majesty, and to whom the
+ratification by his Government had been committed to be exchanged for
+that of Spain, was instructed to transmit the latter to the Department
+of State as soon as obtained, by a public ship subjected to his order
+for the purpose. Unexpected delay occurring in the ratification by
+Spain, he requested to be informed of the cause. It was stated in
+reply that the great importance of the subject, and a desire to obtain
+explanations on certain points which were not specified, had produced
+the delay, and that an envoy would be dispatched to the United States to
+obtain such explanations of this Government. The minister of the United
+States offered to give full explanation on any point on which it might
+be desired, which proposal was declined. Having communicated this
+result to the Department of State in August last, he was instructed,
+notwithstanding the disappointment and surprise which it produced, to
+inform the Government of Spain that if the treaty should be ratified and
+transmitted here at any time before the meeting of Congress it would
+be received and have the same effect as if it had been ratified in due
+time. This order was executed, the authorized communication was made
+to the Government of Spain, and by its answer, which has just been
+received, we are officially made acquainted for the first time with
+the causes which have prevented the ratification of the treaty by His
+Catholic Majesty. It is alleged by the minister of Spain that this
+Government had attempted to alter one of the principal articles of the
+treaty by a declaration which the minister of the United States had
+been ordered to present when he should deliver the ratification by his
+Government in exchange for that of Spain, and of which he gave notice,
+explanatory of the sense in which that article was understood. It is
+further alleged that this Government had recently tolerated or protected
+an expedition from the United States against the Province of Texas,
+These two imputed acts are stated as the reasons which have induced His
+Catholic Majesty to withhold his ratification from the treaty, to obtain
+explanations respecting which it is repeated that an envoy would be
+forthwith dispatched to the United States. How far these allegations
+will justify the conduct of the Government of Spain will appear on
+a view of the following facts and the evidence which supports them:
+
+It will be seen by the documents transmitted herewith that the
+declaration mentioned relates to a clause in the eighth article
+concerning certain grants of land recently made by His Catholic Majesty
+in Florida, which it was understood had conveyed all the lands which
+till then had been ungranted; it was the intention of the parties to
+annul these latter grants, and that clause was drawn for that express
+purpose and for none other. The date of these grants was unknown, but it
+was understood to be posterior to that inserted in the article; indeed,
+it must be obvious to all that if that provision in the treaty had not
+the effect of annulling these grants, it would be altogether nugatory.
+Immediately after the treaty was concluded and ratified by this
+Government an intimation was received that these grants were of anterior
+date to that fixed on by the treaty and that they would not, of course,
+be affected by it. The mere possibility of such a case, so inconsistent
+with the intention of the parties and the meaning of the article,
+induced this Government to demand an explanation on the subject, which
+was immediately granted, and which corresponds with this statement. With
+respect to the other act alleged, that this Government had tolerated or
+protected an expedition against Texas, it is utterly without foundation.
+Every discountenance has invariably been given to any such attempt from
+within the limits of the United States, as is fully evinced by the acts
+of the Government and the proceedings of the courts. There being cause,
+however, to apprehend, in the course of the last summer, that some
+adventurers entertained views of the kind suggested, the attention of
+the constituted authorities in that quarter was immediately drawn to
+them, and it is known that the project, whatever it might be, has
+utterly failed.
+
+These facts will, it is presumed, satisfy every impartial mind that the
+Government of Spain had no justifiable cause for declining to ratify
+the treaty. A treaty concluded in conformity with instructions is
+obligatory, in good faith, in all its stipulations, according to the
+true intent and meaning of the parties. Each party is bound to ratify
+it. If either could set it aside without the consent of the other, there
+would be no longer any rules applicable to such transactions between
+nations. By this proceeding the Government of Spain has rendered to the
+United States a new and very serious injury. It has been stated that a
+minister would be sent to ask certain explanations of this Government;
+but if such were desired, why were they not asked within the time
+limited for the ratification? Is it contemplated to open a new
+negotiation respecting any of the articles or conditions of the treaty?
+If that were done, to what consequences might it not lead? At what time
+and in what manner would a new negotiation terminate? By this proceeding
+Spain has formed a relation between the two countries which will justify
+any measures on the part of the United States which a strong sense of
+injury and a proper regard for the rights and interests of the nation
+may dictate.
+
+In the course to be pursued these objects should be constantly held in
+view and have their due weight. Our national honor must be maintained,
+and a new and a distinguished proof be afforded of that regard for
+justice and moderation which has invariably governed the councils of
+this free people. It must be obvious to all that if the United States
+had been desirous of making conquests, or had been even willing to
+aggrandize themselves in that way, they could have had no inducement
+to form this treaty. They would have much cause for gratulation at the
+course which has been pursued by Spain. An ample field for ambition
+is open before them, but such a career is not consistent with the
+principles of their Government nor the interests of the nation.
+
+From a full view of all circumstances, it is submitted to the
+consideration of Congress whether it will not be proper for the United
+States to carry the conditions of the treaty into effect in the same
+manner as if it had been ratified by Spain, claiming on their part all
+its advantages and yielding to Spain those secured to her. By pursuing
+this course we shall rest on the sacred ground of right, sanctioned in
+the most solemn manner by Spain herself by a treaty which she was bound
+to ratify, for refusing to do which she must incur the censure of other
+nations, even those most friendly to her, while by confining ourselves
+within that limit we can not fail to obtain their well-merited
+approbation. We must have peace on a frontier where we have been so long
+disturbed; our citizens must be indemnified for losses so long since
+sustained, and for which indemnity has been so unjustly withheld from
+them. Accomplishing these great objects, we obtain all that is
+desirable.
+
+But His Catholic Majesty has twice declared his determination to send a
+minister to the United States to ask explanations on certain points and
+to give them respecting his delay to ratify the treaty. Shall we act by
+taking the ceded territory and proceeding to execute the other
+conditions of the treaty before this minister arrives and is heard? This
+is a case which forms a strong appeal to the candor, the magnanimity,
+and the honor of this people. Much is due to courtesy between nations.
+By a short delay we shall lose nothing, for, resting on the ground of
+immutable truth and justice, we can not be diverted from our purpose.
+It ought to be presumed that the explanations which may be given to the
+minister of Spain will be satisfactory, and produce the desired result.
+In any event, the delay for the purpose mentioned, being a further
+manifestation of the sincere desire to terminate in the most friendly
+manner all differences with Spain, can not fail to be duly appreciated
+by His Catholic Majesty as well as by other powers. It is submitted,
+therefore, whether it will not be proper to make the law proposed for
+carrying the conditions of the treaty into effect, should it be adopted,
+contingent; to suspend its operation, upon the responsibility of the
+Executive, in such manner as to afford an opportunity for such friendly
+explanations as may be desired during the present session of Congress.
+
+I communicate to Congress a copy of the treaty and of the instructions
+to the minister of the United States at Madrid respecting it; of his
+correspondence with the minister of Spain, and of such other documents
+as may be necessary to give a full view of the subject.
+
+In the course which the Spanish Government have on this occasion thought
+proper to pursue it is satisfactory to know that they have not been
+countenanced by any other European power. On the contrary, the opinion
+and wishes both of France and Great Britain have not been withheld
+either from the United States or from Spain, and have been unequivocal
+in favor of the ratification. There is also reason to believe that the
+sentiments of the Imperial Government of Russia have been the same, and
+that they have also been made known to the cabinet of Madrid.
+
+In the civil war existing between Spain and the Spanish Provinces in
+this hemisphere the greatest care has been taken to enforce the laws
+intended to preserve an impartial neutrality. Our ports have continued
+to be equally open to both parties and on the same conditions, and our
+citizens have been equally restrained from interfering in favor of
+either to the prejudice of the other. The progress of the war, however,
+has operated manifestly in favor of the colonies. Buenos Ayres still
+maintains unshaken the independence which it declared in 1816, and has
+enjoyed since 1810. Like success has also lately attended Chili and the
+Provinces north of the La Plata bordering on it, and likewise Venezuela.
+
+This contest has from its commencement been very interesting to other
+powers, and to none more so than to the United States. A virtuous people
+may and will confine themselves within the limit of a strict neutrality;
+but it is not in their power to behold a conflict so vitally important
+to their neighbors without the sensibility and sympathy which naturally
+belong to such a case. It has been the steady purpose of this Government
+to prevent that feeling leading to excess, and it is very gratifying
+to have it in my power to state that so strong has been the sense
+throughout the whole community of what was due to the character and
+obligations of the nation that very few examples of a contrary kind
+have occurred.
+
+The distance of the colonies from the parent country and the great
+extent of their population and resources gave them advantages which it
+was anticipated at a very early period would be difficult for Spain to
+surmount. The steadiness, consistency, and success with which they have
+pursued their object, as evinced more particularly by the undisturbed
+sovereignty which Buenos Ayres has so long enjoyed, evidently give them
+a strong claim to the favorable consideration of other nations. These
+sentiments on the part of the United States have not been withheld
+from other powers, with whom it is desirable to act in concert. Should
+it become manifest to the world that the efforts of Spain to subdue
+these Provinces will be fruitless, it may be presumed that the Spanish
+Government itself will give up the contest. In producing such a
+determination it can not be doubted that the opinion of friendly powers
+who have taken no part in the controversy will have their merited
+influence.
+
+It is of the highest importance to our national character and
+indispensable to the morality of our citizens that all violations of
+our neutrality should be prevented. No door should be left open for the
+evasion of our laws, no opportunity afforded to any who may be disposed
+to take advantage of it to compromit the interest or the honor of the
+nation. It is submitted, therefore, to the consideration of Congress
+whether it may not be advisable to revise the laws with a view to this
+desirable result.
+
+It is submitted also whether it may not be proper to designate by law
+the several ports or places along the coast at which only foreign ships
+of war and privateers may be admitted. The difficulty of sustaining the
+regulations of our commerce and of other important interests from abuse
+without such designation furnishes a strong motive for this measure.
+
+At the time of the negotiation for the renewal of the commercial
+convention between the United States and Great Britain a hope had been
+entertained that an article might have been agreed upon mutually
+satisfactory to both countries, regulating upon principles of justice
+and reciprocity the commercial intercourse between the United States and
+the British possessions as well in the West Indies as upon the continent
+of North America. The plenipotentiaries of the two Governments not
+having been able to come to an agreement on this important interest,
+those of the United States reserved for the consideration of this
+Government the proposals which had been presented to them as the
+ultimate offer on the part of the British Government, and which they
+were not authorized to accept. On their transmission here they were
+examined with due deliberation, the result of which was a new effort to
+meet the views of the British Government. The minister of the United
+States was instructed to make a further proposal, which has not been
+accepted. It was, however, declined in an amicable manner. I recommend
+to the consideration of Congress whether further prohibitory provisions
+in the laws relating to this intercourse may not be expedient. It is
+seen with interest that although it has not been practicable as yet
+to agree in any arrangement of this important branch of their commerce,
+such is the disposition of the parties that each will view any
+regulations which the other may make respecting it in the most friendly
+light.
+
+By the fifth article of the convention concluded on the 20th of October,
+1818, it was stipulated that the differences which have arisen between
+the two Governments with regard to the true intent and meaning of the
+fifth article of the treaty of Ghent, in relation to the carrying away
+by British officers of slaves from the United States after the exchange
+of the ratifications of the treaty of peace, should be referred to
+the decision of some friendly sovereign or state to be named for that
+purpose. The minister of the United States has been instructed to name
+to the British Government a foreign sovereign, the common friend to
+both parties, for the decision of this question. The answer of that
+Government to the proposal when received will indicate the further
+measures to be pursued on the part of the United States.
+
+Although the pecuniary embarrassments which affected various parts of
+the Union during the latter part of the preceding year have during the
+present been considerably augmented, and still continue to exist, the
+receipts into the Treasury to the 30th of September last have amounted
+to $19,000,000. After defraying the current expenses of the Government,
+including the interest and reimbursement of the public debt payable to
+that period, amounting to $18,200,000, there remained in the Treasury on
+that day more than $2,500,000, which, with the sums receivable during
+the remainder of the year, will exceed the current demands upon the
+Treasury for the same period.
+
+The causes which have tended to diminish the public receipts could not
+fail to have a corresponding effect upon the revenue which has accrued
+upon imposts and tonnage during the three first quarters of the present
+year. It is, however, ascertained that the duties which have been secured
+during that period exceed $18,000,000, and those of the whole year will
+probably amount to $23,000,000.
+
+For the probable receipts of the next year I refer you to the statements
+which will be transmitted from the Treasury, which will enable you to
+judge whether further provision be necessary.
+
+The great reduction in the price of the principal articles of domestic
+growth which has occurred during the present year, and the consequent
+fall in the price of labor, apparently so favorable to the success of
+domestic manufactures, have not shielded them against other causes
+adverse to their prosperity. The pecuniary embarrassments which have so
+deeply affected the commercial interests of the nation have been no less
+adverse to our manufacturing establishments in several sections of the
+Union.
+
+The great reduction of the currency which the banks have been
+constrained to make in order to continue specie payments, and the
+vitiated character of it where such reductions have not been attempted,
+instead of placing within the reach of these establishments the
+pecuniary aid necessary to avail themselves of the advantages resulting
+from the reduction in the prices of the raw materials and of labor, have
+compelled the banks to withdraw from them a portion of the capital
+heretofore advanced to them. That aid which has been refused by the
+banks has not been obtained from other sources, owing to the loss of
+individual confidence from the frequent failures which have recently
+occurred in some of our principal commercial cities.
+
+An additional cause for the depression of these establishments may
+probably be found in the pecuniary embarrassments which have recently
+affected those countries with which our commerce has been principally
+prosecuted. Their manufactures, for the want of a ready or profitable
+market at home, have been shipped by the manufacturers to the United
+States, and in many instances sold at a price below their current value
+at the place of manufacture. Although this practice may from its nature
+be considered temporary or contingent, it is not on that account less
+injurious in its effects. Uniformity in the demand and price of an
+article is highly desirable to the domestic manufacturer.
+
+It is deemed of great importance to give encouragement to our domestic
+manufacturers. In what manner the evils which have been adverted to may
+be remedied, and how far it may be practicable in other respects to
+afford to them further encouragement, paying due regard to the other
+great interests of the nation, is submitted to the wisdom of Congress.
+
+The survey of the coast for the establishment of fortifications is
+now nearly completed, and considerable progress has been made in the
+collection of materials for the construction of fortifications in the
+Gulf of Mexico and in the Chesapeake Bay. The works on the eastern bank
+of the Potomac below Alexandria and on the Pea Patch, in the Delaware,
+are much advanced, and it is expected that the fortifications at the
+Narrows, in the harbor of New York, will be completed the present year.
+To derive all the advantages contemplated from these fortifications it
+was necessary that they should be judiciously posted, and constructed
+with a view to permanence, The progress hitherto has therefore been
+slow; but as the difficulties in parts heretofore the least explored
+and known are surmounted, it will in future be more rapid. As soon as
+the survey of the coast is completed, which it is expected will be done
+early in the next spring, the engineers employed in it will proceed to
+examine for like purposes the northern and northwestern frontiers.
+
+The troops intended to occupy a station at the mouth of the St. Peters,
+on the Mississippi, have established themselves there, and those who
+were ordered to the mouth of the Yellow Stone, on the Missouri, have
+ascended that river to the Council Bluff, where they will remain
+until the next spring, when they will proceed to the place of their
+destination. I have the satisfaction to state that this measure has
+been executed in amity with the Indian tribes, and that it promises to
+produce, in regard to them, all the advantages which were contemplated
+by it.
+
+Much progress has likewise been made in the construction of ships of war
+and in the collection of timber and other materials for shipbuilding. It
+is not doubted that our Navy will soon be augmented to the number and
+placed in all respects on the footing provided for by law.
+
+The Board, consisting of engineers and naval officers, have not yet
+made their final report of sites for two naval depots, as instructed
+according to the resolutions of March 18 and April 20, 1818, but they
+have examined the coast therein designated, and their report is expected
+in the next month.
+
+For the protection of our commerce in the Mediterranean, along the
+southern Atlantic coast, in the Pacific and Indian oceans, it has been
+found necessary to maintain a strong naval force, which it seems proper
+for the present to continue. There is much reason to believe that if any
+portion of the squadron heretofore stationed in the Mediterranean should
+be withdrawn our intercourse with the powers bordering on that sea would
+be much interrupted, if not altogether destroyed. Such, too, has been
+the growth of a spirit of piracy in the other quarters mentioned, by
+adventurers from every country, in abuse of the friendly flags which
+they have assumed, that not to protect our commerce there would be to
+abandon it as a prey to their rapacity. Due attention has likewise been
+paid to the suppression of the slave trade, in compliance with a law of
+the last session. Orders have been given to the commanders of all our
+public ships to seize all vessels navigated under our flag engaged in
+that trade, and to bring them in to be proceeded against in the manner
+prescribed by that law. It is hoped that these vigorous measures,
+supported by like acts by other nations, will soon terminate a commerce
+so disgraceful to the civilized world.
+
+In the execution of the duty imposed by these acts, and of a high trust
+connected with it, it is with deep regret I have to state the loss which
+has been sustained by the death of Commodore Perry. His gallantry in a
+brilliant exploit in the late war added to the renown of his country.
+His death is deplored as a national misfortune.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1819_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit herewith to the Senate a collection of the commercial
+regulations of the different foreign countries with which the United
+States have commercial intercourse, which has been compiled in
+compliance with the resolution of the Senate of 3d March, 1817.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 14, 1819_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In conformity with the resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 24th of February last, I now transmit a report of the Secretary of
+State, with extracts and copies of several letters, touching the causes
+of the imprisonment of William White, an American citizen, at Buenos
+Ayres.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 17, 1819_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Some doubt being entertained respecting the true intent and meaning
+of the act of the last session entitled "An act in addition to the
+acts prohibiting the slave trade," as to the duties of the agents to
+be appointed on the coast of Africa, I think it proper to state the
+interpretation which has been given of the act and the measures adopted
+to carry it into effect, that Congress may, should it be deemed
+advisable, amend the same before further proceeding is had under it.
+
+The obligation to instruct the commanders of all our armed vessels to
+seize and bring into port all ships or vessels of the United States,
+wheresoever found, having on board any negro, mulatto, or person of
+color in violation of former acts for the suppression of the slave
+trade, being imperative, was executed without delay. No seizures have
+yet been made, but as they were contemplated by the law, and might be
+presumed, it seemed proper to make the necessary regulations applicable
+to such seizures for carrying the several provisions of the act into
+effect.
+
+It is enjoined on the Executive to cause all negroes, mulattoes, or
+persons of color who may be taken under the act to be removed to Africa.
+It is the obvious import of the law that none of the persons thus taken
+should remain within the United States, and no place other than the
+coast of Africa being designated, their removal or delivery, whether
+carried from the United States or landed immediately from the vessels
+in which they were taken, was supposed to be confined to that coast. No
+settlement or station being specified, the whole coast was thought to be
+left open for the selection of a proper place at which the persons thus
+taken should be delivered. The Executive is authorized to appoint one
+or more agents residing there to receive such persons, and $100,000 are
+appropriated for the general purposes of the law.
+
+On due consideration of the several sections of the act, and of its
+humane policy, it was supposed to be the intention of Congress that
+all the persons above described who might be taken under it and landed
+in Africa should be aided in their return to their former homes, or in
+their establishment at or near the place where landed. Some shelter and
+food would be necessary for them there as soon as landed, let their
+subsequent disposition be what it might. Should they be landed without
+such provision having been previously made, they might perish.
+
+It was supposed, by the authority given to the Executive to appoint
+agents residing on that coast, that they should provide such shelter
+and food, and perform the other beneficent and charitable offices
+contemplated by the act. The coast of Africa having been little
+explored, and no persons residing there who possessed the requisite
+qualifications to entitle them to the trust being known to the
+Executive, to none such could it be committed. It was believed that
+citizens only who would go hence well instructed in the views of their
+Government and zealous to give them effect would be competent to these
+duties, and that it was not the intention of the law to preclude their
+appointment. It was obvious that the longer these persons should be
+detained in the United States in the hands of the marshals the greater
+would be the expense, and that for the same term would the main purpose
+of the law be suspended. It seemed, therefore, to be incumbent on me
+to make the necessary arrangements for carrying this act into effect
+in Africa in time to meet the delivery of any persons who might be
+taken by the public vessels and landed there under it.
+
+On this view of the policy and sanctions of the law it has been decided
+to send a public ship to the coast of Africa with two such agents,
+who will take with them tools and other implements necessary for the
+purposes above mentioned. To each of these agents a small salary has
+been allowed--$1,500 to the principal and $1,200 to the other.
+
+All our public agents on the coast of Africa receive salaries for their
+services, and it was understood that none of our citizens possessing the
+requisite qualifications would accept these trusts, by which they would
+be confined to parts the least frequented and civilized, without
+a reasonable compensation, Such allowance therefore seemed to be
+indispensable to the execution of the act. It is intended also to
+subject a portion of the sum appropriated to the order of the principal
+agent for the special objects above stated, amounting in the whole,
+including the salaries of the agents for one year, to rather less than
+one third of the appropriation. Special instructions will be given to
+these agents, defining in precise terms their duties in regard to the
+persons thus delivered to them, the disbursement of the money by the
+principal agent, and his accountability for the same. They will also
+have power to select the most suitable place on the coast of Africa at
+which all persons who may be taken under this act shall be delivered to
+them, with an express injunction to exercise no power founded on the
+principle of colonization or other power than that of performing the
+benevolent offices above recited by the permission and sanction of the
+existing government under which they may establish themselves. Orders
+will be given to the commander of the public ship in which they will
+sail to cruise along the coast to give the more complete effect to the
+principal object of the act.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 17, 1819_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of Congress of the 27th March, 1818,
+the journal, acts, and proceedings of the convention which formed the
+present Constitution of the United States have been published. The
+resolution directs that 1,000 copies should be printed, of which one
+copy should be furnished to each member of the Fifteenth Congress, and
+the residue to be subject to the future disposition of Congress. The
+number of copies sufficient to supply the members of the late Congress
+having been reserved for that purpose, the remainder are now deposited
+at the Department of State subject to the order of Congress. The
+documents mentioned in the resolution of the 27th March, 1818, are
+in the process of publication.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 24, 1819_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+On the 23d of February. 1803, a message from the President of the United
+States was transmitted to both Houses of Congress, together with the
+report of the then Secretary of State, Mr. Madison, upon the case of
+the Danish brigantine _Henrick_ and her cargo, belonging to citizens
+of Hamburg, recommending the claim to the favorable consideration of
+Congress. In February, 1805, it was again presented by a message from
+the President to the consideration of Congress, but has not since been
+definitively acted upon.
+
+The minister resident from Denmark and the consul-general from Hamburg
+having recently renewed applications in behalf of the respective
+owners of the vessel and cargo, I transmit herewith copies of their
+communications for the further consideration of the Legislature, upon
+whose files all the documents relating to the claim are still existing.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 31, 1819.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate, for its advice and consent as to the
+ratification, three treaties which have been concluded in the course of
+the present year with the Kickapoos, the Chippaways, and the Kickapoos
+of the Vermillion by commissioners who were duly authorized for the
+purpose.
+
+With the Chippaways there is a supplementary article stipulating certain
+advantages in their favor on condition that the same shall be ratified
+by the Executive, with the advice and consent of the Senate, which I
+likewise submit to your consideration.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 8, 1820_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+14th December, 1819, requesting me to cause to be laid before it any
+information I may possess respecting certain executions which have been
+inflicted in the Army of the United States since the year 1815 contrary
+to the laws and regulations provided for the government of the same,
+I transmit a report from the Secretary of War containing a detailed
+account in relation to the object of the said resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 8, 1820_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 20th of January,
+1819, requesting me "to cause a report to be laid before them at their
+next session of such facts as may be within the means of the Government
+to obtain shewing how far it may be expedient or not to provide by
+law for clothing the Army with articles manufactured in the United
+States," I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which, with
+the accompanying documents, comprehends all the information required
+by the Senate in their resolution aforesaid.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 19, 1820_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives
+requesting me "to lay before it at as early a day as may be convenient
+an account of the expenditure of the several sums appropriated for
+building fortifications from the year 1816 to the year 1819, inclusive,
+indicating the places at which works of defense have been begun, the
+magnitude of the works contemplated at each place, their present
+condition, the amount already expended, and the estimated amount
+requisite for the completion of each, also the mode by which the
+fortifications are built, by contract or otherwise," I now transmit
+to the House a report from the Secretary of War, to whom the said
+resolution was referred, which, with the documents accompanying it,
+contains all the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 8, 1820_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In conformity with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+24th January, 1820, requesting me "to inform the House what loans, if
+any, have been made since the peace, to private citizens, of powder,
+lead, and other munitions belonging to the Government by officers of any
+department of the Army or Navy, specifying the times, terms, objects,
+and extent of such loans, the names of the persons by whom and to
+whom made, the different times of repayment, and also the amount of
+the ultimate loss, if any, likely to be incurred by the Government in
+consequence thereof," I now transmit a report from the Secretary of War,
+which, with the accompanying documents, contains all the information
+that can be furnished on the subject.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 1, 1820_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+4th of February last, requesting to be informed what progress has been
+made in surveying certain parts of the coast of North Carolina and in
+ascertaining the latitude and longitude of the extreme points of Cape
+Hatteras, Cape Look Out, and Cape Fear, according to a resolution of the
+19th of January, 1819, I have to state that it is intended to carry the
+resolution of the 19th of March into effect in the present year. The
+cooperation of the Board of Engineers with Naval Commissioners being
+necessary in executing that duty, and the Board having been engaged
+last year in surveying the eastern coast of our Union, it would have
+interfered with previous arrangements and been attended with increased
+expense had they been withdrawn from it. The Board will, however, be
+employed during the present summer in the regular execution of its
+duties in the survey of the coast of North Carolina, when instructions
+will be given it to afford the necessary aid to carry the resolution of
+the 19th of January of the last year into effect.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 4, 1820_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate, in pursuance of their resolution of the 4th of
+January last, a report from the Secretary of State, with a list of fines
+incurred under the act of Congress entitled "An act in addition to the
+act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States,"
+which appear from the records of the Department of State to have been
+remitted by the Executive authority of the United States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 8, 1820_.
+
+The PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE OF THE SENATE:
+
+I transmit to the Senate copies of sundry papers having relation to the
+treaty of 22d February, 1819, between the United States and Spain, which
+have been received at the Department of State, and have not before been
+communicated to the Senate.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 8, 1820_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress a report from the Secretary of the Treasury,
+which, with the accompanying documents, will shew that the act of the
+20th May, 1812, respecting the northern and western boundaries of the
+State of Ohio, has been executed.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 17, 1820_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+It being stipulated by the fourth article of the articles of agreement
+and cession entered into on the 24th of April, 1802, with the State of
+Georgia that the United States should at their own expense extinguish
+for the use of that State, as soon as it might be done on reasonable
+terms, the Indian title to all the lands within its limits, and the
+legislature of Georgia being desirous to make a further acquisition of
+said lands at this time, presuming that it may be done on reasonable
+terms; and it being also represented that property of considerable value
+which had been taken by the Creek and Cherokee Indians from citizens of
+Georgia, the restoration of which had been provided for by different
+treaties, but which has never been made, it is proposed to hold a treaty
+with those nations, and more particularly with the Creeks, in the course
+of this summer. For the attainment of these objects I submit the subject
+to the consideration of Congress, that a sum adequate to the expenses
+attending such treaty may be appropriated should Congress deem it
+expedient.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 20, 1820_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 16th of February,
+1820, requesting me to cause to be laid before it "abstracts of the
+bonds or other securities given under the laws of the United States by
+the collectors of the customs, receivers of public moneys for lands, and
+registers of public lands, paymasters in the Army, and pursers in the
+Navy, who are now in office, or who have heretofore been in office, and
+whose accounts remain unsettled, together with a statement of such other
+facts as may tend to shew the expediency or inexpediency of so far
+altering the laws respecting such officers that they may hereafter
+be appointed for limited periods, subject to removal as heretofore,"
+I transmit to the Senate a report from the Secretary of the Treasury,
+which, with the documents accompanying it, will afford all the
+information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 27, 1820_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress an extract of a letter from the minister
+plenipotentiary of the United States at St. Petersburg, of the 1st of
+November last, on the subject of our relations with Spain, indicating
+the sentiments of the Emperor of Russia respecting the nonratification
+by His Catholic Majesty of the treaty lately concluded between the
+United States and Spain, and the strong interest which His Imperial
+Majesty takes in promoting the ratification of that treaty. Of this
+friendly disposition the most satisfactory assurance has been since
+given directly to this Government by the minister of Russia residing
+here.
+
+I transmit also to Congress an extract of a letter from the minister
+plenipotentiary of the United States at Madrid of a later date than
+those heretofore communicated, by which it appears that, at the instance
+of the chargé d'affaires of the Emperor of Russia, a new pledge had been
+given by the Spanish Government that the minister who had been lately
+appointed to the United States should set out on his mission without
+delay, with full power to settle all differences in a manner
+satisfactory to the parties.
+
+I have further to state that the Governments of France and Great Britain
+continue to manifest the sentiments heretofore communicated respecting
+the nonratification of the treaty by Spain, and to interpose their good
+offices to promote its ratification.
+
+It is proper to add that the Governments of France and Russia have
+expressed an earnest desire that the United States would take no steps
+for the present on the principle of reprisal which might possibly tend
+to disturb the peace between the United States and Spain. There is good
+cause to presume from the delicate manner in which this sentiment has
+been conveyed that it is founded in a belief as well as a desire that
+our just objects may be accomplished without the hazard of such an
+extremity.
+
+On full consideration of all these circumstances, I have thought it my
+duty to submit to Congress whether it will not be advisable to postpone
+a decision on the questions now depending with Spain until the next
+session. The distress of that nation at this juncture affords a motive
+for this forbearance which can not fail to be duly appreciated. Under
+such circumstances the attention of the Spanish Government may be
+diverted from its foreign concerns, and the arrival of a minister here
+be longer delayed. I am the more induced to suggest this course of
+proceeding from a knowledge that, while we shall thereby make a just
+return to the powers whose good offices have been acknowledged, and
+increase by a new and signal proof of moderation our claims on Spain,
+our attitude in regard to her will not be less favorable at the next
+session than it is at the present.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 9, 1820_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to Congress a correspondence which has taken place
+between the Secretary of State and the envoy extraordinary and
+minister plenipotentiary of His Catholic Majesty since the message
+of the 27th March last, respecting the treaty which was concluded
+between the United States and Spain on the 22d February, 1819.
+
+After the failure of His Catholic Majesty for so long a time to ratify
+the treaty, it was expected that this minister would have brought with
+him the ratification, or that he would have been authorized to give
+an order for the delivery of the territory ceded by it to the United
+States. It appears, however, that the treaty is still unratified and
+that the minister has no authority to surrender the territory. The
+object of his mission has been to make complaints and to demand
+explanations respecting an imputed system of hostility on the part of
+citizens of the United States against the subjects and dominions of
+Spain, and an unfriendly policy in their Government, and to obtain new
+stipulations against these alleged injuries as the condition on which
+the treaty should be ratified.
+
+Unexpected as such complaints and such a demand were under existing
+circumstances, it was thought proper, without compromising the
+Government as to the course to be pursued, to meet them promptly and to
+give the explanations that were desired on every subject with the utmost
+candor. The result has proved what was sufficiently well known before,
+that the charge of a systematic hostility being adopted and pursued by
+citizens of the United States against the dominions and subjects of
+Spain is utterly destitute of foundation, and that their Government in
+all its branches has maintained with the utmost rigor that neutrality in
+the civil war between Spain and the colonies which they were the first
+to declare. No force has been collected nor incursions made from within
+the United States against the dominions of Spain, nor have any naval
+equipments been permitted in favor of either party against the other.
+Their citizens have been warned of the obligations incident to the
+neutral condition of their country; their public officers have been
+instructed to see that the laws were faithfully executed, and severe
+examples have been made of some who violated them.
+
+In regard to the stipulation proposed as the condition of the
+ratification of the treaty, that the United States shall abandon the
+right to recognize the revolutionary colonies in South America, or to
+form other relations with them when in their judgment it may be just and
+expedient so to do, it is manifestly so repugnant to the honor and even
+to the independence of the United States that it has been impossible
+to discuss it. In making this proposal it is perceived that His
+Catholic Majesty has entirely misconceived the principles on which
+this Government has acted in being a party to a negotiation so long
+protracted for claims so well founded and reasonable, as he likewise has
+the sacrifices which the United States have made, comparatively, with
+Spain in the treaty to which it is proposed to annex so extraordinary
+and improper a condition.
+
+Had the minister of Spain offered an unqualified pledge that the treaty
+should be ratified by his Sovereign on being made acquainted with the
+explanations which had been given by this Government, there would have
+been a strong motive for accepting and submitting it to the Senate for
+their advice and consent, rather than to resort to other measures for
+redress, however justifiable and proper; but he gives no such pledge;
+oil the contrary, he declares explicitly that the refusal of this
+Government to relinquish the right of judging and acting for itself
+hereafter, according to circumstances, in regard to the Spanish
+colonies, a right common to all nations, has rendered it impossible for
+him under his instructions to make such engagement. He thinks that his
+Sovereign will be induced by his communications to ratify the treaty,
+but still he leaves him free either to adopt that measure or to decline
+it. He admits that the other objections are essentially removed and will
+not in themselves prevent the ratification, provided the difficulty on
+the third point is surmounted. The result, therefore, is that the treaty
+is declared to have no obligation whatever; that its ratification is
+made to depend not on the considerations which led to its adoption and
+the conditions which it contains, but on a new article unconnected with
+it, respecting which a new negotiation must be opened, of indefinite
+duration and doubtful issue.
+
+Under this view of the subject the course to be pursued would appear to
+be direct and obvious if the affairs of Spain had remained in the state
+in which they were when this minister sailed. But it is known that an
+important change has since taken place in the Government of that country
+which can not fail to be sensibly felt in its intercourse with other
+nations. The minister of Spain has essentially declared his inability to
+act in consequence of that change. With him, however, under his present
+powers nothing could be done. The attitude of the United States must now
+be assumed on full consideration of what is due to their rights, their
+interest and honor, without regard to the powers or incidents of the
+late mission. We may at pleasure occupy the territory which was intended
+and provided by the late treaty as an indemnity for losses so long
+since sustained by our citizens; but still, nothing could be settled
+definitively without a treaty between the two nations. Is this the time
+to make the pressure? If the United States were governed by views of
+ambition and aggrandizement, many strong reasons might be given in its
+favor; but they have no objects of that kind to accomplish, none which
+are not founded in justice and which can be injured by forbearance.
+Great hope is entertained that this change will promote the happiness of
+the Spanish nation. The good order, moderation, and humanity which have
+characterized the movement are the best guaranties of its success.
+
+The United States would not be justified in their own estimation should
+they take any step to disturb its harmony. When the Spanish Government
+is completely organized on the principles of this change, as it is
+expected it soon will be, there is just ground to presume that our
+differences with Spain will be speedily and satisfactorily settled.
+
+With these remarks I submit it to the wisdom of Congress whether it will
+not still be advisable to postpone any decision on this subject until
+the next session.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 11, 1820_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit herewith to the Senate a report from the Secretary of State,
+together with the returns of causes depending in the courts of the
+United States, collected conformably to a resolution of the Senate of
+the 18th of January, 1819.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 12, 1820_.
+
+The SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary
+of State, with the document prepared in pursuance of a resolution of the
+House of the 14th ultimo, on the subject of claims of citizens of the
+United States for Spanish spoliations upon their property and commerce.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 3d of
+March, 1815, so much of the several acts imposing duties on the ships
+and vessels and on goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the
+United States as imposed a discriminating duty of tonnage between
+foreign vessels and vessels of the United States and between goods
+imported into the United States in foreign vessels and vessels of the
+United States were repealed so far as the same respected the produce
+or manufacture of the nation to which such foreign ship or vessel
+might belong, such repeal to take effect in favor of any foreign
+nation whenever the President of the United States should be satisfied
+that the discriminating or countervailing duties of such foreign nation
+so far as they operate to the disadvantage of the United States have
+been abolished; and
+
+Whereas satisfactory proof has been received by me from the
+burgo-masters and senate of the free and Hanseatic city of Lubeck that
+from and after the 30th day of October, 1819, all discriminating or
+countervailing duties of the said city so far as they operated to
+the disadvantage of the United States have been and are abolished:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States of
+America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several
+acts imposing duties on the tonnage of ships and vessels and on goods,
+wares, and merchandise imported into the United States as imposed a
+discriminating duty of tonnage between vessels of the free and Hanseatic
+city of Lubeck and vessels of the United States and between goods
+imported into the United States in vessels of Lubeck and vessels of
+the United States are repealed so far as the same respect the produce
+or manufacture of the said free Hanseatic city of Lubeck.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 4th day of May,
+A.D. 1820, and forty-fourth year of the Independence of the United
+states.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _November 14, 1820_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+In communicating to you a just view of public affairs at the
+commencement of your present labors, I do it with great satisfaction,
+because, taking all circumstances into consideration which claim
+attention, I see much cause to rejoice in the felicity of our situation.
+In making this remark I do not wish to be understood to imply that
+an unvaried prosperity is to be seen in every interest of this great
+community. In the progress of a nation inhabiting a territory of such
+vast extent and great variety of climate, every portion of which is
+engaged in foreign commerce and liable to be affected in some degree
+by the changes which occur in the condition and regulations of foreign
+countries, it would be strange if the produce of our soil and the
+industry and enterprise of our fellow-citizens received at all times
+and in every quarter an uniform and equal encouragement. This would be
+more than we would have a right to expect under circumstances the most
+favorable. Pressures on certain interests, it is admitted, have been
+felt; but allowing to these their greatest extent, they detract but
+little from the force of the remarks already made. In forming a just
+estimate of our present situation it is proper to look at the whole in
+the outline as well as in the detail. A free, virtuous, and enlightened
+people know well the great principles and causes on which their
+happiness depends, and even those who suffer most occasionally in their
+transitory concerns find great relief under their sufferings from the
+blessings which they otherwise enjoy and in the consoling and animating
+hope which they administer. From whence do these pressures come? Not
+from a government which is founded by, administered for, and supported
+by the people. We trace them to the peculiar character of the epoch
+in which we live, and to the extraordinary occurrences which have
+signalized it. The convulsions with which several of the powers of
+Europe have been shaken and the long and destructive wars in which
+all were engaged, with their sudden transition to a state of peace,
+presenting in the first instance unusual encouragement to our commerce
+and withdrawing it in the second even within its wonted limit, could not
+fail to be sensibly felt here. The station, too, which we had to support
+through this long conflict, compelled as we were finally to become
+a party to it with a principal power, and to make great exertions,
+suffer heavy losses, and to contract considerable debts, disturbing
+the ordinary course of affairs by augmenting to a vast amount the
+circulating medium, and thereby elevating at one time the price of
+every article above a just standard and depressing it at another below
+it, had likewise its due effect.
+
+It is manifest that the pressures of which we complain have proceeded
+in a great measure from these causes. When, then, we take into view
+the prosperous and happy condition of our country in all the great
+circumstances which constitute the felicity of a nation--every
+individual in the full enjoyment of all his rights, the Union blessed
+with plenty and rapidly rising to greatness under a National Government
+which operates with complete effect in every part without being felt
+in any except by the ample protection which it affords, and under
+State governments which perform their equal share, according to
+a wise distribution of power between them, in promoting the public
+happiness--it is impossible to behold so gratifying, so glorious a
+spectacle without being penetrated with the most profound and grateful
+acknowledgments to the Supreme Author of All Good for such manifold and
+inestimable blessings. Deeply impressed with these sentiments, I can not
+regard the pressures to which I have adverted otherwise than in the
+light of mild and instructive admonitions, warning us of dangers to
+be shunned in future, teaching us lessons of economy corresponding
+with the simplicity and purity of our institutions and best adapted
+to their support, evincing the connection and dependence which the
+various parts of our happy Union have on each other, thereby augmenting
+daily our social incorporation and adding by its strong ties new strength
+and vigor to the political; opening a wider range, and with new
+encouragement, to the industry and enterprise of our fellow-citizens at
+home and abroad, and more especially by the multiplied proofs which it
+has accumulated of the great perfection of our most excellent system of
+government, the powerful instrument in the hands of our All-merciful
+Creator in securing to us these blessings.
+
+Happy as our situation is, it does not exempt us from solicitude and
+care for the future. On the contrary, as the blessings which we enjoy
+are great, proportionably great should be our vigilance, zeal, and
+activity to preserve them. Foreign wars may again expose us to new
+wrongs, which would impose on us new duties for which we ought to be
+prepared. The state of Europe is unsettled, and how long peace may
+be preserved is altogether uncertain; in addition to which we have
+interests of our own to adjust which will require particular attention.
+A correct view of our relations with each power will enable you to form
+a just idea of existing difficulties, and of the measures of precaution
+best adapted to them.
+
+Respecting our relations with Spain nothing explicit can now be
+communicated. On the adjournment of Congress in May last the minister
+plenipotentiary of the United States at Madrid was instructed to inform
+the Government of Spain that if His Catholic Majesty should then ratify
+the treaty this Government would accept the ratification so far as
+to submit to the decision of the Senate the question whether such
+ratification should be received in exchange for that of the United
+States heretofore given. By letters from the minister of the United
+States to the Secretary of State it appears that a communication in
+conformity with his instructions had been made to the Government of
+Spain, and that the Cortes had the subject under consideration. The
+result of the deliberations of that body, which is daily expected,
+will be made known to Congress as soon as it is received. The friendly
+sentiment which was expressed on the part of the United States in the
+message of the 9th of May last is still entertained for Spain. Among
+the causes of regret, however, which are inseparable from the delay
+attending this transaction it is proper to state that satisfactory
+information has been received that measures have been recently adopted
+by designing persons to convert certain parts of the Province of East
+Florida into depots for the reception of foreign goods, from whence
+to smuggle them into the United States. By opening a port within the
+limits of Florida, immediately on our boundary where there was no
+settlement, the object could not be misunderstood. An early accommodation
+of differences will, it is hoped, prevent all such fraudulent and
+pernicious practices, and place the relations of the two countries
+on a very amicable and permanent basis.
+
+The commercial relations between the United States and the British
+colonies in the West Indies and on this continent have undergone no
+change, the British Government still preferring to leave that commerce
+under the restriction heretofore imposed on it on each side. It is
+satisfactory to recollect that the restraints resorted to by the United
+States were defensive only, intended to prevent a monopoly under British
+regulations in favor of Great Britain, as it likewise is to know that
+the experiment is advancing in a spirit of amity between the parties.
+
+The question depending between the United States and Great Britain
+respecting the construction of the first article of the treaty of Ghent
+has been referred by both Governments to the decision of the Emperor of
+Russia, who has accepted the umpirage.
+
+An attempt has been made with the Government of France to regulate by
+treaty the commerce between the two countries on the principle of
+reciprocity and equality. By the last communication from the minister
+plenipotentiary of the United States at Paris, to whom full power had
+been given, we learn that the negotiation had been commenced there; but
+serious difficulties having occurred, the French Government had resolved
+to transfer it to the United States, for which purpose the minister
+plenipotentiary of France had been ordered to repair to this city, and
+whose arrival might soon be expected. It is hoped that this important
+interest may be arranged on just conditions and in a manner equally
+satisfactory to both parties. It is submitted to Congress to decide,
+until such arrangement is made, how far it may be proper, on the
+principle of the act of the last session which augmented the tonnage
+duty on French vessels, to adopt other measures for carrying more
+completely into effect the policy of that act.
+
+The act referred to, which imposed new tonnage on French vessels, having
+been in force from and after the 1st day of July, it has happened that
+several vessels of that nation which had been dispatched from France
+before its existence was known have entered the ports of the United
+States, and been subject to its operation, without that previous notice
+which the general spirit of our laws gives to individuals in similar
+cases. The object of that law having been merely to countervail the
+inequalities which existed to the disadvantage of the United States
+in their commercial intercourse with France, it is submitted also to
+the consideration of Congress whether, in the spirit of amity and
+conciliation which it is no less the inclination than the policy of the
+United States to preserve in their intercourse with other powers, it may
+not be proper to extend relief to the individuals interested in those
+cases by exempting from the operation of the law all those vessels which
+have entered our ports without having had the means of previously
+knowing the existence of the additional duty.
+
+The contest between Spain and the colonies, according to the most
+authentic information, is maintained by the latter with improved
+success. The unfortunate divisions which were known to exist some time
+since at Buenos Ayres it is understood still prevail. In no part of
+South America has Spain made any impression on the colonies, while in
+many parts, and particularly in Venezuela and New Grenada, the colonies
+have gained strength and acquired reputation, both for the management
+of the war in which they have been successful and for the order of the
+internal administration. The late change in the Government of Spain,
+by the reestablishment of the constitution of 1812, is an event which
+promises to be favorable to the revolution. Under the authority of the
+Cortes the Congress of Angostura was invited to open a negotiation
+for the settlement of differences between the parties, to which it
+was replied that they would willingly open the negotiation provided
+the acknowledgment of their independence was made its basis, but not
+otherwise. Of further proceedings between them we are uninformed. No
+facts are known to this Government to warrant the belief that any of
+the powers of Europe will take part in the contest, whence it may be
+inferred, considering all circumstances which must have weight in
+producing the result, that an adjustment will finally take place on
+the basis proposed by the colonies. To promote that result by friendly
+counsels with other powers, including Spain herself, has been the
+uniform policy of this Government.
+
+In looking to the internal concerns of our country you will, I am
+persuaded, derive much satisfaction from a view of the several objects
+to which, in the discharge of your official duties, your attention will
+be drawn. Among these none holds a more important place than the public
+revenue, from the direct operation of the power by which it is raised on
+the people, and by its influence in giving effect to every other power
+of the Government. The revenue depends on the resources of the country,
+and the facility by which the amount required is raised is a strong
+proof of the extent of the resources and of the efficiency of the
+Government. A few prominent facts will place this great interest in a
+just light before you. On the 30th of September, 1815, the funded and
+floating debt of the United States was estimated at $119,635,558. If to
+this sum be added the amount of 5 per cent stock subscribed to the Bank
+of the United States, the amount of Mississippi stock and of the stock
+which was issued subsequently to that date, the balances ascertained to
+be due to certain States for military services and to individuals for
+supplies furnished and services rendered during the late war, the public
+debt may be estimated as amounting at that date, and as afterwards
+liquidated, to $158,713,049. On the 30th of September, 1820, it amounted
+to $91,993,883, having been reduced in that interval by payments
+$66,879,165. During this term the expenses of the Government of the
+United States were likewise defrayed in every branch of the civil,
+military, and naval establishments; the public edifices in this city
+have been rebuilt with considerable additions; extensive fortifications
+have been commenced, and are in a train of execution; permanent arsenals
+and magazines have been erected in various parts of the Union; our Navy
+has been considerably augmented, and the ordnance, munitions of war, and
+stores of the Army and Navy, which were much exhausted during the war,
+have been replenished.
+
+By the discharge of so large a proportion of the public debt and the
+execution of such extensive and important operations in so short a
+time a just estimate may be formed of the great extent of our national
+resources. The demonstration is the more complete and gratifying when it
+is recollected that the direct tax and excise were repealed soon after
+the termination of the late war, and that the revenue applied to these
+purposes has been derived almost wholly from other sources.
+
+The receipts into the Treasury from every source to the 30th of
+September last have amounted to $16,794,107.66, whilst the public
+expenditures to the same period amounted to $16,871,534.72, leaving in
+the Treasury on that day a sum estimated at $1,950,000. For the probable
+receipts of the following year I refer you to the statement which will
+be transmitted from the Treasury.
+
+The sum of $3,000,000 authorized to be raised by loan by an act of the
+last session of Congress has been obtained upon terms advantageous to
+the Government, indicating not only an increased confidence in the faith
+of the nation, but the existence of a large amount of capital seeking
+that mode of investment at a rate of interest not exceeding 5 per cent
+per annum.
+
+It is proper to add that there is now due to the Treasury for the sale
+of public lands $22,996,545. In bringing this subject to view I consider
+it my duty to submit to Congress whether it may not be advisable to
+extend to the purchasers of these lands, in consideration of the
+unfavorable change which has occurred since the sales, a reasonable
+indulgence. It is known that the purchases were made when the price
+of every article had risen to its greatest height, and that the
+installments are becoming due at a period of great depression. It
+is presumed that some plan may be devised by the wisdom of Congress,
+compatible with the public interest, which would afford great relief
+to these purchasers.
+
+Considerable progress has been made during the present season in
+examining the coast and its various bays and other inlets, in the
+collection of materials, and in the construction of fortifications for
+the defense of the Union at several of the positions at which it has
+been decided to erect such works. At Mobile Point and Dauphin Island,
+and at the Rigolets, leading to Lake Pontchartrain, materials to
+a considerable amount have been collected, and all the necessary
+preparations made for the commencement of the works. At Old Point
+Comfort, at the mouth of James River, and at the Rip-Rap, on the
+opposite shore in the Chesapeake Bay, materials to a vast amount have
+been collected; and at the Old Point some progress has been made in the
+construction of the fortification, which is on a very extensive scale.
+The work at Fort Washington, on this river, will be completed early in
+the next spring, and that on the Pea Patch, in the Delaware, in the
+course of the next season. Fort Diamond, at the Narrows, in the harbor
+of New York, will be finished this year. The works at Boston, New York,
+Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, and Niagara have been in part repaired,
+and the coast of North Carolina, extending south to Cape Fear, has been
+examined, as have likewise other parts of the coast eastward of Boston.
+Great exertions have been made to push forward these works with the
+utmost dispatch possible; but when their extent is considered, with the
+important purposes for which they are intended--the defense of the whole
+coast, and, in consequence, of the whole interior--and that they are to
+last for ages, it will be manifest that a well-digested plan, founded on
+military principles, connecting the whole together, combining security
+with economy, could not be prepared without repeated examinations
+of the most exposed and difficult parts, and that it would also take
+considerable time to collect the materials at the several points where
+they would be required. From all the light that has been shed on this
+subject I am satisfied that every favorable anticipation which has
+been formed of this great undertaking will be verified, and that when
+completed it will afford very great if not complete protection to our
+Atlantic frontier in the event of another war--a protection sufficient
+to counterbalance in a single campaign with an enemy powerful at sea the
+expense of all these works, without taking into the estimate the saving
+of the lives of so many of our citizens, the protection of our towns
+and other property, or the tendency of such works to prevent war.
+
+Our military positions have been maintained at Belle Point, on the
+Arkansas, at Council Bluffs, on the Missouri, at St. Peters, on the
+Mississippi, and at Green Bay, on the upper Lakes. Commodious barracks
+have already been erected at most of these posts, with such works as
+were necessary for their defense. Progress has also been made in opening
+communications between them and in raising supplies at each for the
+support of the troops by their own labor, particularly those most
+remote.
+
+With the Indians peace has been preserved and a progress made in
+carrying into effect the act of Congress making an appropriation for
+their civilization, with the prospect of favorable results. As connected
+equally with both these objects, our trade with those tribes is thought
+to merit the attention of Congress. In their original state game
+is their sustenance and war their occupation, and if they find no
+employment from civilized powers they destroy each other. Left to
+themselves their extirpation is inevitable. By a judicious regulation of
+our trade with them we supply their wants, administer to their comforts,
+and gradually, as the game retires, draw them to us. By maintaining
+posts far in the interior we acquire a more thorough and direct control
+over them, without which it is confidently believed that a complete
+change in their manners can never be accomplished. By such posts, aided
+by a proper regulation of our trade with them and a judicious civil
+administration over them, to be provided for by law, we shall, it is
+presumed, be enabled not only to protect our own settlements from their
+savage incursions and preserve peace among the several tribes, but
+accomplish also the great purpose of their civilization.
+
+Considerable progress has also been made in the construction of ships of
+war, some of which have been launched in the course of the present year.
+
+Our peace with the powers on the coast of Barbary has been preserved,
+but we owe it altogether to the presence of our squadron in the
+Mediterranean. It has been found equally necessary to employ some of
+our vessels for the protection of our commerce in the Indian Sea, the
+Pacific, and along the Atlantic coast. The interests which we have
+depending in those quarters, which have been much improved of late, are
+of great extent and of high importance to the nation as well as to the
+parties concerned, and would undoubtedly suffer if such protection was
+not extended to them. In execution of the law of the last session for
+the suppression of the slave trade some of our public ships have also
+been employed on the coast of Africa, where several captures have
+already been made of vessels engaged in that disgraceful traffic.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+DECEMBER 12, 1820.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 6th of December,
+requesting that the agent employed under the act entitled "An act
+authorizing the purchase of fire engines and building houses for the
+safekeeping of the same" should report in the manner stated in the said
+resolution his conduct in execution of the said act, I now transmit
+to the Senate a report from the agent, which communicates all the
+information which has been desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 14, 1820.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I submit to the consideration of the Senate, for their advice and
+consent as to the ratification, the following treaties, concluded with
+the several Indian tribes therein mentioned since the last session
+of Congress, with their documents, viz: With the Weas, Kickapoos,
+Chippeways, Ottawas, Choctaws, and Mahas; and also a treaty with the
+Kickapoos amended as proposed by a resolution of the Senate at their
+last session.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 14, 1820_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 21st November last, requesting the President to lay before the
+House information relating to the progress and expenditures of the
+commissioners under the fifth, sixth, and seventh articles of the treaty
+of Ghent, I now transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with
+documents containing all the information in the possession of that
+Department requested by the resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 1, 1821_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+22d of November last, requesting the President to inform that House what
+naval force has been stationed for the protection of the commerce of
+our citizens in the West India Islands and parts adjacent during the
+present year, and whether any depredations by pirates or others upon the
+property of citizens of the United States engaged in such commerce have
+been reported to our Government, I now submit for the information of
+the House a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with accompanying
+documents, which contains all the information in the possession of the
+Government required by that resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 4, 1821_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+I communicate to the House of Representatives a report from the
+Secretary of State, which, with the papers accompanying it, contains
+all the information in the possession of the Executive requested by a
+resolution of the House of the 4th December last, on the subject of the
+African slave trade.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 4, 1821_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+15th of December last, requesting the President of the United States
+to cause to be laid before that House a statement of expenditures and
+receipts in the Indian Department; also the nature and extent of the
+contracts entered into, and with whom, from the 2d of March, 1811, to
+the present period, I now transmit a letter from the Secretary of War,
+with a report of the superintendent of Indian trade, which contains the
+information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 12, 1821_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary
+of State, with the inclosed documents, relating to the negotiation for
+the suppression of the slave trade, which should have accompanied a
+message on that subject communicated to the House some time since, but
+which were accidentally omitted.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 18, 1821_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 4th instant,
+"requesting the President of the United States to communicate to the
+Senate any information he may have as to the power or authority which
+belonged to Don John Bonaventure Morales and to the Baron Carondelet
+to grant and dispose of the lands of Spain in Louisiana previously to
+the year 1803," I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury,
+submitting a letter of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, with
+the document to which it refers.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 18, 1821_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives
+requesting the President to inform the House, if in his opinion proper,
+whether any, and, if any, what, negotiations since the 1st of January,
+1816, have been had with the Six Nations of Indians, or any portion
+of them, who the commissioners or agents were, the objects of the
+negotiation, the expenses of the same, the compensation of each
+commissioner, secretary, or agent, and to whom the moneys were paid,
+I now transmit a report from the Secretary of War communicating the
+information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 31, 1821_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
+
+I transmit to Congress a report from the Secretary of the Treasury
+submitting copies of the instructions given to the commissioners
+appointed under the act of the 15th of May, 1820, authorizing the
+location of a road from Wheeling, in the State of Virginia, to a point
+on the left bank of the Mississippi River between St. Louis and the
+mouth of the Illinois River, and copies of the report made by the said
+commissioners to the Treasury Department of the progress they have made
+in the execution of the duties prescribed by the said act, together
+with maps of the country through which the location is to be made.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 5, 1821.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit, in confidence, to the Senate reports from the
+Secretary of State and of the Treasury, with the papers containing the
+correspondence and the information in possession of the Government the
+communication of which was requested by the resolution of the Senate of
+the 23d of last month. It is desired that the original letters may, when
+the Senate shall have no further use for them, be returned.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 8, 1821.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 1st instant,
+requesting the President of the United States "to cause to be laid
+before the Senate any information he may have in relation to the claims
+of citizens of Georgia against the Creek Nation of Indians, and why
+these claims, if any exist, have not been heretofore adjusted and
+settled under the provisions of the treaties of 1790 and 1796," I
+now transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with accompanying
+documents, which contains all the information on this subject in the
+possession of the Executive.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 13, 1821.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+The ratification by the Spanish Government of the treaty of amity,
+settlement, and limits between the United States and Spain, signed on
+the 22d of February, 1819, and on the 24th of that month ratified on the
+part of the United States, has been received by the envoy extraordinary
+and minister plenipotentiary of that power at this place, who has given
+notice that he is ready to exchange the ratifications.
+
+By the sixteenth article of that treaty it was stipulated that the
+ratifications should be exchanged within six months from the day of its
+signature, which time having elapsed before the ratification of Spain
+was given, a copy and translation thereof are now transmitted to the
+Senate for their advice and consent to receive it in exchange for the
+ratification of the United. States heretofore executed.
+
+The treaty was submitted to the consideration of the Cortes of that
+Kingdom before its ratification, which was finally given with their
+assent and sanction. The correspondence between the Spanish minister of
+foreign affairs and the minister of the United States at Madrid on that
+occasion is also herewith communicated to the Senate, together with a
+memorandum by the Secretary of State of his conference with the Spanish
+envoy here yesterday, when that minister gave notice of his readiness
+to exchange the ratifications.
+
+The return of the original papers now transmitted, to avoid the delay
+necessary to the making of copies, is requested.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 22, 1821_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 16th instant,
+requesting "the President of the United States to cause to be laid
+before the Senate the original order for building the barracks at
+Sacketts Harbor, together with all communications between the War
+Department and Major-General Brown relative thereto, and the amount
+of public moneys expended thereon," I now transmit a report from
+the Secretary of War, with the papers inclosed, which contains the
+information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 22, 1821_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The treaty of amity, settlement, and limits between the United States
+and Spain, signed on the 22d of February, 1819, having been ratified by
+the contracting parties, and the ratifications having been exchanged,
+it is herewith communicated to Congress, that such legislative measures
+may be taken as they shall judge proper for carrying the same into
+execution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 24, 1821_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress a letter from the Secretary of War, inclosing
+an annual return of the militia of the United States, prepared by the
+Adjutant and Inspector General conformably to the militia laws on that
+subject.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 28, 1821_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit to Congress certain extracts and a copy of letters
+received by the Secretary of State from the marshal of the United States
+for the eastern district of Virginia, in relation to the execution of
+the act of the 14th of March, 1820, to provide for taking the Fourth
+Census, together with the answers returned to that marshal by the
+Secretary of State. As the time within which the assistants of the
+marshals can legally make their returns expired on the first Monday of
+the present month, it would appear by the information from the marshal
+at Richmond that the completion of the Fourth Census as it respects the
+eastern district of Virginia will have been defeated not only as it
+regards the period contemplated by law, but during the whole of the
+current year, unless Congress, to whom the case is submitted, should by
+an act of the present session allow further time for making the returns
+in question.
+
+As connected with this subject, it is also submitted for the
+consideration of Congress how far the marshals ought to be liable to
+the payment of postage on the conveyance of the papers concerning the
+census and manufactures by the mail. In one instance it has been already
+ascertained that this item of contingent expense will amount to nearly a
+moiety of the compensation of the marshal for the whole of his services.
+If the marshals are to be relieved from this charge, provision will be
+necessary by law either for the admission of it in their accounts or the
+refunding of it by the respective postmasters.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 2, 1821_.
+
+_To the Congress of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to the two Houses of Congress copies of a treaty this
+day ratified on the part of the United States, concluded and signed at
+the Indian Springs on the 8th of January last, with the Creek Nation of
+Indians, in order to such legislative measures as may be necessary for
+giving effect to it.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 3, 1821_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The treaty concluded between the United States and the Kickapoo tribe
+of Indians on the 30th of July, 1820, having been ratified by and with
+the advice and consent of the Senate, I now lay a copy of the said
+treaty before the House of Representatives in order to such legislative
+provisions being made as may be necessary to carry into effect the
+stipulations therein contained on the part of the United States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
+
+
+Fellow-Citizens: I shall not attempt to describe the grateful emotions
+which the new and very distinguished proof of the confidence of my
+fellow-citizens, evinced by my reelection to this high trust, has
+excited in my bosom. The approbation which it announces of my conduct
+in the preceding term affords me a consolation which I shall profoundly
+feel through life. The general accord with which it has been expressed
+adds to the great and never-ceasing obligations which it imposes. To
+merit the continuance of this good opinion, and to carry it with me into
+my retirement as the solace of advancing years, will be the object of my
+most zealous and unceasing efforts.
+
+Having no pretensions to the high and commanding claims of my
+predecessors, whose names are so much more conspicuously identified
+with our Revolution, and who contributed so preeminently to promote its
+success, I consider myself rather as the instrument than the cause of
+the union which has prevailed in the late election. In surmounting,
+in favor of my humble pretensions, the difficulties which so often
+produce division in like occurrences, it is obvious that other powerful
+causes, indicating the great strength and stability of our Union, have
+essentially contributed to draw you together. That these powerful causes
+exist, and that they are permanent, is my fixed opinion; that they may
+produce a like accord in all questions touching, however remotely, the
+liberty, prosperity, and happiness of our country will always be the
+object of my most fervent prayers to the Supreme Author of All Good.
+
+In a government which is founded by the people, who possess exclusively
+the sovereignty, it seems proper that the person who may be placed by
+their suffrages in this high trust should declare on commencing its
+duties the principles on which he intends to conduct the Administration.
+If the person thus elected has served the preceding term, an opportunity
+is afforded him to review its principal occurrences and to give such
+further explanation respecting them as in his judgment may be useful
+to his constituents. The events of one year have influence on those
+of another, and, in like manner, of a preceding on the succeeding
+Administration. The movements of a great nation are connected in all
+their parts. If errors have been committed they ought to be corrected;
+if the policy is sound it ought to be supported. It is by a thorough
+knowledge of the whole subject that our fellow-citizens are enabled
+to judge correctly of the past and to give a proper direction to the
+future.
+
+Just before the commencement of the last term the United States had
+concluded a war with a very powerful nation on conditions equal and
+honorable to both parties. The events of that war are too recent and
+too deeply impressed on the memory of all to require a development from
+me. Our commerce had been in a great measure driven from the sea; our
+Atlantic and inland frontiers were invaded in almost every part; the
+waste of life along our coast and on some parts of our inland frontiers,
+to the defense of which our gallant and patriotic citizens were called,
+was immense, in addition to which not less than $120,000,000 were added
+at its end to the public debt.
+
+As soon as the war had terminated, the nation, admonished by its
+events, resolved to place itself in a situation which should be better
+calculated to prevent the recurrence of a like evil, and, in case it
+should recur, to mitigate its calamities. With this view, after reducing
+our land force to the basis of a peace establishment, which has been
+further modified since, provision was made for the construction of
+fortifications at proper points through the whole extent of our coast
+and such an augmentation of our naval force as should be well adapted
+to both purposes. The laws making this provision were passed in 1815
+and 1816, and it has been since the constant effort of the Executive
+to carry them into effect.
+
+The advantage of these fortifications and of an augmented naval
+force in the extent contemplated, in a point of economy, has been
+fully illustrated by a report of the Board of Engineers and Naval
+Commissioners lately communicated to Congress, by which it appears that
+in an invasion by 20,000 men, with a correspondent naval force, in a
+campaign of six months only, the whole expense of the construction of
+the works would be defrayed by the difference in the sum necessary to
+maintain the force which would be adequate to our defense with the aid
+of those works and that which would be incurred without them. The reason
+of this difference is obvious. If fortifications are judiciously placed
+on our great inlets, as distant from our cities as circumstances will
+permit, they will form the only points of attack, and the enemy will
+be detained there by a small regular force a sufficient time to enable
+our militia to collect and repair to that on which the attack is made.
+A force adequate to the enemy, collected at that single point, with
+suitable preparation for such others as might be menaced, is all that
+would be requisite. But if there were no fortifications, then the enemy
+might go where he pleased, and, changing his position and sailing from
+place to place, our force must be called out and spread in vast numbers
+along the whole coast and on both sides of every bay and river as
+high up in each as it might be navigable for ships of war. By these
+fortifications, supported by our Navy, to which they would afford like
+support, we should present to other powers an armed front from St. Croix
+to the Sabine, which would protect in the event of war our whole coast
+and interior from invasion; and even in the wars of other powers, in
+which we were neutral, they would be found eminently useful, as, by
+keeping their public ships at a distance from our cities, peace and
+order in them would be preserved and the Government be protected from
+insult.
+
+It need scarcely be remarked that these measures have not been resorted
+to in a spirit of hostility to other powers. Such a disposition does
+not exist toward any power. Peace and good will have been, and will
+hereafter be, cultivated with all, and by the most faithful regard to
+justice. They have been dictated by a love of peace, of economy, and
+an earnest desire to save the lives of our fellow-citizens from that
+destruction and our country from that devastation which are inseparable
+from war when it finds us unprepared for it. It is believed, and
+experience, has shown, that such a preparation is the best expedient
+that can be resorted to to prevent war. I add with much pleasure that
+considerable progress has already been made in these measures of
+defense, and that they will be completed in a few years, considering the
+great extent and importance of the object, if the plan be zealously and
+steadily persevered in.
+
+The conduct of the Government in what relates to foreign powers
+is always an object of the highest importance to the nation. Its
+agriculture, commerce, manufactures, fisheries, revenue, in short, its
+peace, may all be affected by it. Attention is therefore due to this
+subject.
+
+At the period adverted to the powers of Europe, after having been
+engaged in long and destructive wars with each other, had concluded a
+peace, which happily still exists. Our peace with the power with whom we
+had been engaged had also been concluded. The war between Spain and the
+colonies in South America, which had commenced many years before, was
+then the only conflict that remained unsettled. This being a contest
+between different parts of the same community, in which other powers
+had not interfered, was not affected by their accommodations.
+
+This contest was considered at an early stage by my predecessor a civil
+war in which the parties were entitled to equal rights in our ports.
+This decision, the first made by any power, being formed on great
+consideration of the comparative strength and resources of the parties,
+the length of time, and successful opposition made by the colonies, and
+of all other circumstances on which it ought to depend, was in strict
+accord with the law of nations. Congress has invariably acted on this
+principle, having made no change in our relations with either party. Our
+attitude has therefore been that of neutrality between them, which has
+been maintained by the Government with the strictest impartiality. No
+aid has been afforded to either, nor has any privilege been enjoyed by
+the one which has not been equally open to the other party, and every
+exertion has been made in its power to enforce the execution of the
+laws prohibiting illegal equipments with equal rigor against both.
+
+By this equality between the parties their public vessels have been
+received in our ports on the same footing; they have enjoyed an equal
+right to purchase and export arms, munitions of war, and every other
+supply, the exportation of all articles whatever being permitted under
+laws which were passed long before the commencement of the contest; our
+citizens have traded equally with both, and their commerce with each
+has been alike protected by the Government.
+
+Respecting the attitude which it may be proper for the United States to
+maintain hereafter between the parties, I have no hesitation in stating
+it as my opinion that the neutrality heretofore observed should still
+be adhered to. From the change in the Government of Spain and the
+negotiation now depending, invited by the Cortes and accepted by the
+colonies, it may be presumed that their differences will be settled on
+the terms proposed by the colonies. Should the war be continued, the
+United States, regarding its occurrences, will always have it in their
+power to adopt such measures respecting it as their honor and interest
+may require.
+
+Shortly after the general peace a band of adventurers took advantage
+of this conflict and of the facility which it afforded to establish a
+system of buccaneering in the neighboring seas, to the great annoyance
+of the commerce of the United States, and, as was represented, of that
+of other powers. Of this spirit and of its injurious bearing on the
+United States strong proofs were afforded by the establishment at Amelia
+Island, and the purposes to which it was made instrumental by this band
+in 1817, and by the occurrences which took place in other parts of
+Florida in 1818, the details of which in both instances are too well
+known to require to be now recited. I am satisfied had a less decisive
+course been adopted that the worst consequences would have resulted from
+it. We have seen that these checks, decisive as they were, were not
+sufficient to crush that piratical spirit. Many culprits brought within
+our limits have been condemned to suffer death, the punishment due to
+that atrocious crime. The decisions of upright and enlightened tribunals
+fall equally on all whose crimes subject them, by a fair interpretation
+of the law, to its censure. It belongs to the Executive not to suffer
+the executions under these decisions to transcend the great purpose
+for which punishment is necessary. The full benefit of example being
+secured, policy as well as humanity equally forbids that they should be
+carried further. I have acted on this principle, pardoning those who
+appear to have been led astray by ignorance of the criminality of the
+acts they had committed, and suffering the law to take effect on those
+only in whose favor no extenuating circumstances could be urged.
+
+Great confidence is entertained that the late treaty with Spain, which
+has been ratified by both the parties, and the ratifications whereof
+have been exchanged, has placed the relations of the two countries on a
+basis of permanent friendship. The provision made by it for such of our
+citizens as have claims on Spain of the character described will, it
+is presumed, be very satisfactory to them, and the boundary which is
+established between the territories of the parties westward of the
+Mississippi, heretofore in dispute, has, it is thought, been settled
+on conditions just and advantageous to both. But to the acquisition of
+Florida too much importance can not be attached. It secures to the
+United States a territory important in itself, and whose importance is
+much increased by its bearing on many of the highest interests of the
+Union. It opens to several of the neighboring States a free passage to
+the ocean, through the Province ceded, by several rivers, having their
+sources high up within their limits. It secures us against all future
+annoyance from powerful Indian tribes. It gives us several excellent
+harbors in the Gulf of Mexico for ships of war of the largest size.
+It covers by its position in the Gulf the Mississippi and other great
+waters within our extended limits, and thereby enables the United States
+to afford complete protection to the vast and very valuable productions
+of our whole Western country, which find a market through those streams.
+
+By a treaty with the British Government, bearing date on the 20th of
+October, 1818, the convention regulating the commerce between the United
+States and Great Britain, concluded on the 3d of July, 1815, which was
+about expiring, was revived and continued for the term of ten years from
+the time of its expiration. By that treaty, also, the differences which
+had arisen under the treaty of Ghent respecting the right claimed by the
+United States for their citizens to take and cure fish on the coast of
+His Britannic Majesty's dominions in America, with other differences on
+important interests, were adjusted to the satisfaction of both parties.
+No agreement has yet been entered into respecting the commerce between
+the United States and the British dominions in the West Indies and
+on this continent. The restraints imposed on that commerce by Great
+Britain, and reciprocated by the United States on a principle of
+defense, continue still in force.
+
+The negotiation with France for the regulation of the commercial
+relations between the two countries, which in the course of the last
+summer had been commenced at Paris, has since been transferred to this
+city, and will be pursued on the part of the United States in the spirit
+of conciliation, and with an earnest desire that it may terminate in an
+arrangement satisfactory to both parties.
+
+Our relations with the Barbary Powers are preserved in the same state
+and by the same means that were employed when I came into this office.
+As early as 1801 it was found necessary to send a squadron into the
+Mediterranean for the protection of our commerce, and no period has
+intervened, a short term excepted, when it was thought advisable to
+withdraw it. The great interests which the United States have in the
+Pacific, in commerce and in the fisheries, have also made it necessary
+to maintain a naval force there. In disposing of this force in both
+instances the most effectual measures in our power have been taken,
+without interfering with its other duties, for the suppression of the
+slave trade and of piracy in the neighboring seas.
+
+The situation of the United States in regard to their resources, the
+extent of their revenue, and the facility with which it is raised
+affords a most gratifying spectacle. The payment of nearly $67,000,000
+of the public debt, with the great progress made in measures of defense
+and in other improvements of various kinds since the late war, are
+conclusive proofs of this extraordinary prosperity, especially when it
+is recollected that these expenditures have been defrayed without a
+burthen on the people, the direct tax and excise having been repealed
+soon after the conclusion of the late war, and the revenue applied to
+these great objects having been raised in a manner not to be felt. Our
+great resources therefore remain untouched for any purpose which may
+affect the vital interests of the nation. For all such purposes they
+are inexhaustible. They are more especially to be found in the virtue,
+patriotism, and intelligence of our fellow-citizens, and in the devotion
+with which they would yield up by any just measure of taxation all their
+property in support of the rights and honor of their country.
+
+Under the present depression of prices, affecting all the productions
+of the country and every branch of industry, proceeding from causes
+explained on a former occasion, the revenue has considerably diminished,
+the effect of which has been to compel Congress either to abandon these
+great measures of defense or to resort to loans or internal taxes to
+supply the deficiency. On the presumption that this depression and the
+deficiency in the revenue arising from it would be temporary, loans
+were authorized for the demands of the last and present year. Anxious
+to relieve my fellow-citizens in 1817 from every burthen which could
+be dispensed with, and the state of the Treasury permitting it, I
+recommended the repeal of the internal taxes, knowing that such relief
+was then peculiarly necessary in consequence of the great exertions made
+in the late war. I made that recommendation under a pledge that should
+the public exigencies require a recurrence to them at any time while I
+remained in this trust, I would with equal promptitude perform the duty
+which would then be alike incumbent on me. By the experiment now making
+it will be seen by the next session of Congress whether the revenue
+shall have been so augmented as to be adequate to all these necessary
+purposes. Should the deficiency still continue, and especially should it
+be probable that it would be permanent, the course to be pursued appears
+to me to be obvious. I am satisfied that under certain circumstances
+loans may be resorted to with great advantage. I am equally well
+satisfied, as a general rule, that the demands of the current year,
+especially in time of peace, should be provided for by the revenue
+of that year.
+
+I have never dreaded, nor have I ever shunned, in any situation in
+which I have been placed making appeals to the virtue and patriotism
+of my fellow-citizens, well knowing that they could never be made in
+vain, especially in times of great emergency or for purposes of high
+national importance. Independently of the exigency of the case, many
+considerations of great weight urge a policy having in view a provision
+of revenue to meet to a certain extent the demands of the nation,
+without relying altogether on the precarious resource of foreign
+commerce. I am satisfied that internal duties and excises, with
+corresponding imposts on foreign articles of the same kind, would,
+without imposing any serious burdens on the people, enhance the price
+of produce, promote our manufactures, and augment the revenue, at the
+same time that they made it more secure and permanent.
+
+The care of the Indian tribes within our limits has long been an
+essential part of our system, but, unfortunately, it has not been
+executed in a manner to accomplish all the objects intended by it.
+We have treated them as independent nations, without their having any
+substantial pretensions to that rank. The distinction has flattered
+their pride, retarded their improvement, and in many instances paved
+the way to their destruction. The progress of our settlements westward,
+supported as they are by a dense population, has constantly driven them
+back, with almost the total sacrifice of the lands which they have been
+compelled to abandon. They have claims on the magnanimity and, I may
+add, on the justice of this nation which we must all feel. We should
+become their real benefactors; we should perform the office of their
+Great Father, the endearing title which they emphatically give to the
+Chief Magistrate of our Union. Their sovereignty over vast territories
+should cease, in lieu of which the right of soil should be secured to
+each individual and his posterity in competent portions; and for the
+territory thus ceded by each tribe some reasonable equivalent should
+be granted, to be vested in permanent funds for the support of civil
+government over them and for the education of their children, for their
+instruction in the arts of husbandry, and to provide sustenance for
+them until they could provide it for themselves. My earnest hope is that
+Congress will digest some plan, founded on these principles, with such
+improvements as their wisdom may suggest, and carry it into effect as
+soon as it may be practicable.
+
+Europe is again unsettled and the prospect of war increasing. Should the
+flame light up in any quarter, how far it may extend it is impossible to
+foresee. It is our peculiar felicity to be altogether unconnected with
+the causes which produce this menacing aspect elsewhere. With every
+power we are in perfect amity, and it is our interest to remain so
+if it be practicable on just conditions. I see no reasonable cause to
+apprehend variance with any power, unless it proceed from a violation
+of our maritime rights. In these contests, should they occur, and to
+whatever extent they may be carried, we shall be neutral; but as a
+neutral power we have rights which it is our duty to maintain. For
+like injuries it will be incumbent on us to seek redress in a spirit
+of amity, in full confidence that, injuring none, none would knowingly
+injure us. For more imminent dangers we should be prepared, and
+it should always be recollected that such preparation adapted to
+the circumstances and sanctioned by the judgment and wishes of our
+constituents can not fail to have a good effect in averting dangers of
+every kind. We should recollect also that the season of peace is best
+adapted to these preparations.
+
+If we turn our attention, fellow-citizens, more immediately to the
+internal concerns of our country, and more especially to those on which
+its future welfare depends, we have every reason to anticipate the
+happiest results. It is now rather more than forty-four years since we
+declared our independence, and thirty-seven since it was acknowledged.
+The talents and virtues which were displayed in that great struggle were
+a sure presage of all that has since followed. A people who were able to
+surmount in their infant state such great perils would be more competent
+as they rose into manhood to repel any which they might meet in their
+progress. Their physical strength would be more adequate to foreign
+danger, and the practice of self-government, aided by the light of
+experience, could not fail to produce an effect equally salutary on
+all those questions connected with the internal organization. These
+favorable anticipations have been realized.
+
+In our whole system, national and State, we have shunned all the defects
+which unceasingly preyed on the vitals and destroyed the ancient
+Republics. In them there were distinct orders, a nobility and a people,
+or the people governed in one assembly. Thus, in the one instance
+there was a perpetual conflict between the orders in society for the
+ascendency, in which the victory of either terminated in the overthrow
+of the government and the ruin of the state; in the other, in which
+the people governed in a body, and whose dominions seldom exceeded the
+dimensions of a county in one of our States, a tumultuous and disorderly
+movement permitted only a transitory existence. In this great nation
+there is but one order, that of the people, whose power, by a peculiarly
+happy improvement of the representative principle, is transferred from
+them, without impairing in the slightest degree their sovereignty, to
+bodies of their own creation, and to persons elected by themselves, in
+the full extent necessary for all the purposes of free, enlightened,
+and efficient government. The whole system is elective, the complete
+sovereignty being in the people, and every officer in every department
+deriving his authority from and being responsible to them for his
+conduct.
+
+Our career has corresponded with this great outline. Perfection in our
+organization could not have been expected in the outset either in the
+National or State Governments or in tracing the line between their
+respective powers. But no serious conflict has arisen, nor any contest
+but such as are managed by argument and by a fair appeal to the good
+sense of the people, and many of the defects which experience had
+clearly demonstrated in both Governments have been remedied. By steadily
+pursuing this course in this spirit there is every reason to believe
+that our system will soon attain the highest degree of perfection of
+which human institutions are capable, and that the movement in all its
+branches will exhibit such a degree of order and harmony as to command
+the admiration and respect of the civilized world.
+
+Our physical attainments have not been less eminent. Twenty-five years
+ago the river Mississippi was shut up and our Western brethren had no
+outlet for their commerce. What has been the progress since that time?
+The river has not only become the property of the United States from its
+source to the ocean, with all its tributary streams (with the exception
+of the upper part of the Red River only), but Louisiana, with a fair and
+liberal boundary on the western side and the Floridas on the eastern,
+have been ceded to us. The United States now enjoy the complete and
+uninterrupted sovereignty over the whole territory from St. Croix to the
+Sabine. New States, settled from among ourselves in this and in other
+parts, have been admitted into our Union in equal participation in
+the national sovereignty with the original States. Our population has
+augmented in an astonishing degree and extended in every direction.
+We now, fellow-citizens, comprise within our limits the dimensions
+and faculties of a great power under a Government possessing all the
+energies of any government ever known to the Old World, with an utter
+incapacity to oppress the people.
+
+Entering with these views the office which I have just solemnly sworn to
+execute with fidelity and to the utmost of my ability, I derive great
+satisfaction from a knowledge that I shall be assisted in the several
+Departments by the very enlightened and upright citizens from whom I
+have received so much aid in the preceding term. With full confidence
+in the continuance of that candor and generous indulgence from my
+fellow-citizens at large which I have heretofore experienced, and with
+a firm reliance on the protection of Almighty God, I shall forthwith
+commence the duties of the high trust to which you have called me.
+
+MARCH 5, 1821.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATIONS.
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas information has been received that an atrocious murder,
+aggravated by the additional crime of robbery, was, on the 6th or 7th
+day of this present month, committed in the county of Alexandria and
+District of Columbia on William Seaver, late of this city; and
+
+Whereas the apprehension and punishment of the murderer or murderers and
+his or their accessary or accessaries will be an example due to justice
+and humanity and every way salutary in its operation:
+
+I have therefore thought fit to issue this my proclamation, hereby
+exhorting the citizens of the United States, and particularly those of
+this District, and requiring all officers, according to their respective
+stations, to use their utmost endeavors to apprehend and bring the
+principal or principals, accessary or accessaries, to the said murder
+to justice.
+
+And I do moreover offer a reward of $300 for each principal, if there be
+more than one, and $150 for each accessary before the fact, if there be
+more than one, who shall be apprehended after the day of the date hereof
+and brought to justice, to be paid upon his conviction of the crime or
+crimes aforesaid.
+
+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, this 10th day of July, A.D. 1821, and of
+the Independence of the United States the forty-sixth.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas the Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution of the
+2d day of March last, entitled "Resolution providing for the admission
+of the State of Missouri into the Union on a certain condition," did
+determine and declare "that Missouri should be admitted into this
+Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects
+whatever upon the fundamental condition that the fourth clause of the
+twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitution submitted
+on the part of said State to Congress shall never be construed to
+authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in
+conformity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the States of this
+Union shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and
+immunities to which such citizen is entitled under the Constitution of
+the United States: _Provided_, That the legislature of said State, by
+a solemn public act, shall declare the assent of the said State to the
+said fundamental condition, and shall transmit to the President of
+the United States on or before the first Monday in November next an
+authentic copy of said act, upon the receipt whereof the President,
+by proclamation, shall announce the fact, whereupon, and without any
+further proceeding on the part of Congress, the admission of the said
+State into this Union shall be considered as complete;" and
+
+Whereas by a solemn public act of the assembly of said State of
+Missouri, passed on the 26th of June, in the present year, entitled "A
+solemn public act declaring the assent of this State to the fundamental
+condition contained in a resolution passed by the Congress of the United
+States providing for the admission of the State of Missouri into the
+Union on a certain condition," an authentic copy whereof has been
+communicated to me, it is solemnly and publicly enacted and declared
+that that State has assented, and does assent, that the fourth clause
+of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitution of
+said State "shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any
+law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which
+any citizen of either of the United States shall be excluded from the
+enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizens
+are entitled under the Constitution of the United States:"
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States, in
+pursuance of the resolution of Congress aforesaid, have issued this my
+proclamation, announcing the fact that the said State of Missouri has
+assented to the fundamental condition required by the resolution of
+Congress aforesaid, whereupon the admission of the said State of
+Missouri into this Union is declared to be complete.
+
+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 10th day of August, A.D. 1821, and
+of the Independence of the said United States of America the
+forty-sixth.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 3d of
+March, 1815, so much of the several acts imposing duties on the ships
+and vessels and on goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the
+United States as imposed a discriminating duty of tonnage between
+foreign vessels and vessels of the United States and between goods
+imported into the United States in foreign vessels and vessels of the
+United States were repealed so far as the same respected the produce or
+manufacture of the nation to which such foreign ship or vessel might
+belong, such repeal to take effect in favor of any foreign nation
+whenever the President of the United States should be satisfied that
+the discriminating or countervailing duties of such foreign nation so
+far as they operate to the disadvantage of the United States have been
+abolished; and
+
+Whereas satisfactory proof has been received by me, through the chargé
+d'affaires of the United States in Sweden, under date of the 30th day of
+January, 1821, that thenceforward all discriminating or countervailing
+duties in the Kingdom of Norway so far as they operated to the
+disadvantage of the United States had been and were abolished:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States of
+America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several
+acts imposing duties on the tonnage of ships and vessels and on goods,
+wares, and merchandise imported into the United States as imposed a
+discriminating duty of tonnage between vessels of the Kingdom of Norway
+and vessels of the United States and between goods imported into the
+United States in vessels of the said Kingdom of Norway and vessels of
+the United States are repealed so far as the same respect the produce
+or manufacture of the said Kingdom of Norway.
+
+Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 20th day of August,
+A.D. 1821, and the forty-sixth year of the Independence of the United
+States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 3d of
+March, 1815, so much of the several acts imposing duties on the ships
+and vessels and on goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the
+United States as imposed a discriminating duty of tonnage between
+foreign vessels and vessels of the United States and between goods
+imported into the United States in foreign vessels and vessels of the
+United States were repealed so far as the same respected the produce or
+manufacture of the nation to which such foreign ship or vessel might
+belong, such repeal to take effect in favor of any foreign nation
+whenever the President of the United States should be satisfied that
+the discriminating or countervailing duties of such foreign nation so
+far as they operate to the disadvantage of the United States have been
+abolished; and
+
+Whereas satisfactory proof has been received by me, under date of
+the 11th of May last, that thenceforward all discriminating or
+countervailing duties of the Dukedom of Oldenburg so far as they might
+operate to the disadvantage of the United States should be and were
+abolished upon His Highness the Duke of Oldenburg's being duly certified
+of a reciprocal act on the part of the United States:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States of
+America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several
+acts imposing duties on the tonnage of ships and vessels and on goods,
+wares, and merchandise imported into the United States as imposed
+a discriminating duty of tonnage between vessels of the Dukedom of
+Oldenburg and vessels of the United States and between goods imported
+into the United States in vessels of the said Dukedom of Oldenburg and
+vessels of the United States are repealed so far as the same respect
+the produce or manufacture of the said Dukedom of Oldenburg.
+
+Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 22d day of
+November, A.D. 1821, and the forty-sixth year of the Independence
+of the United States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+FIFTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 3, 1821_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+The progress of our affairs since the last session has been such as
+may justly be claimed and expected under a Government deriving all
+its powers from an enlightened people, and under laws formed by their
+representatives, on great consideration, for the sole purpose of
+promoting the welfare and happiness of their constituents. In the
+execution of those laws and of the powers vested by the Constitution in
+the Executive, unremitted attention has been paid to the great objects
+to which they extend. In the concerns which are exclusively internal
+there is good cause to be satisfied with the result. The laws have had
+their due operation and effect. In those relating to foreign powers,
+I am happy to state that peace and amity are preserved with all by
+a strict observance on both sides of the rights of each. In matters
+touching our commercial intercourse, where a difference of opinion has
+existed as to the conditions on which it should be placed, each party
+has pursued its own policy without giving just cause of offense to the
+other. In this annual communication, especially when it is addressed
+to a new Congress, the whole scope of our political concerns naturally
+comes into view, that errors, if such have been committed, may be
+corrected; that defects which have become manifest may be remedied; and,
+on the other hand, that measures which were adopted on due deliberation,
+and which experience has shewn are just in themselves and essential to
+the public welfare, should be persevered in and supported. In performing
+this necessary and very important duty I shall endeavor to place before
+you on its merits every subject that is thought to be entitled to your
+particular attention in as distinct and clear a light as I may be able.
+
+By an act of the 3d of March, 1815, so much of the several acts as
+imposed higher duties on the tonnage of foreign vessels and on the
+manufactures and productions of foreign nations when imported into the
+United States in foreign vessels than when imported in vessels of the
+United States were repealed so far as respected the manufactures and
+productions of the nation to which such vessels belonged, on the
+condition that the repeal should take effect only in favor of any
+foreign nation when the Executive should be satisfied that such
+discriminating duties to the disadvantage of the United States had
+likewise been repealed by such nation. By this act a proposition was
+made to all nations to place our commerce with each on a basis which it
+was presumed would be acceptable to all. Every nation was allowed to
+bring its manufactures and productions into our ports and to take the
+manufactures and productions of the United States back to their ports in
+their own vessels on the same conditions that they might be transported
+in vessels of the United States, and in return it was required that a
+like accommodation should be granted to the vessels of the United States
+in the ports of other powers. The articles to be admitted or prohibited
+on either side formed no part of the proposed arrangement. Each party
+would retain the right to admit or prohibit such articles from the other
+as it thought proper, and on its own conditions.
+
+When the nature of the commerce between the United States and every
+other country was taken into view, it was thought that this proposition
+would be considered fair, and even liberal, by every power. The exports
+of the United States consist generally of articles of the first
+necessity and of rude materials in demand for foreign manufactories, of
+great bulk, requiring for their transportation many vessels, the return
+for which in the manufactures and productions of any foreign country,
+even when disposed of there to advantage, may be brought in a single
+vessel. This observation is the more especially applicable to those
+countries from which manufactures alone are imported, but it applies in
+a great extent to the European dominions of every European power and in
+a certain extent to all the colonies of those powers. By placing, then,
+the navigation precisely on the same ground in the transportation of
+exports and imports between the United States and other countries it was
+presumed that all was offered which could be desired. It seemed to be
+the only proposition which could be devised which would retain even the
+semblance of equality in our favor.
+
+Many considerations of great weight gave us a right to expect that this
+commerce should be extended to the colonies as well as to the European
+dominions of other powers. With the latter, especially with countries
+exclusively manufacturing, the advantage was manifestly on their side.
+An indemnity for that loss was expected from a trade with the colonies,
+and with the greater reason as it was known that the supplies which the
+colonies derived from us were of the highest importance to them, their
+labor being bestowed with so much greater profit in the culture of other
+articles; and because, likewise, the articles of which those supplies
+consisted, forming so large a proportion of the exports of the United
+States, were never admitted into any of the ports of Europe except in
+cases of great emergency to avert a serious calamity. When no article
+is admitted which is not required to supply the wants of the party
+admitting it, and admitted then not in favor of any particular country
+to the disadvantage of others, but on conditions equally applicable to
+all, it seems just that the articles thus admitted and invited should be
+carried thither in the vessels of the country affording such supply and
+that the reciprocity should be found in a corresponding accommodation
+on the other side. By allowing each party to participate in the
+transportation of such supplies on the payment of equal tonnage a strong
+proof was afforded of an accommodating spirit. To abandon to it the
+transportation of the whole would be a sacrifice which ought not to
+be expected. The demand in the present instance would be the more
+unreasonable in consideration of the great inequality existing in
+the trade with the parent country.
+
+Such was the basis of our system as established by the act of 1815 and
+such its true character. In the year in which this act was passed a
+treaty was concluded with Great Britain, in strict conformity with
+its principles, in regard to her European dominions. To her colonies,
+however, in the West Indies and on this continent it was not extended,
+the British Government claiming the exclusive supply of those colonies,
+and from our own ports, and of the productions of the colonies in return
+in her own vessels. To this claim the United States could not assent,
+and in consequence each party suspended the intercourse in the vessels
+of the other by a prohibition which still exists.
+
+The same conditions were offered to France, but not accepted. Her
+Government has demanded other conditions more favorable to her
+navigation, and which should also give extraordinary encouragement to
+her manufactures and productions in ports of the United States. To these
+it was thought improper to accede, and in consequence the restrictive
+regulations which had been adopted on her part, being countervailed
+on the part of the United States, the direct commerce between the two
+countries in the vessels of each party has been in a great measure
+suspended. It is much to be regretted that, although a negotiation has
+been long pending, such is the diversity of views entertained on the
+various points which have been brought into discussion that there does
+not appear to be any reasonable prospect of its early conclusion.
+
+It is my duty to state, as a cause of very great regret, that very
+serious differences have occurred in this negotiation respecting the
+construction of the eighth article of the treaty of 1803, by which
+Louisiana was ceded to the United States, and likewise respecting the
+seizure of the _Apollo_, in 1820, for a violation of our revenue laws.
+The claim of the Government of France has excited not less surprise than
+concern, because there does not appear to be a just foundation for it in
+either instance. By the eighth article of the treaty referred to it is
+stipulated that after the expiration of twelve years, during which time
+it was provided by the seventh or preceding article that the vessels
+of France and Spain should be admitted into the ports of the ceded
+territory without paying higher duties on merchandise or tonnage on the
+vessels than such as were paid by citizens of the United States, the
+ships of France should forever afterwards be placed on the footing of
+the most favored nation. By the obvious construction of this article it
+is presumed that it was intended that no favor should be granted to any
+power in those ports to which France should not be forthwith entitled,
+nor should any accommodation be allowed to another power on conditions
+to which she would not also be entitled on the same conditions. Under
+this construction no favor or accommodation could be granted to any
+power to the prejudice of France. By allowing the equivalent allowed by
+those powers she would always stand in those ports on the footing of the
+most favored nation. But if this article should be so construed as that
+France should enjoy, of right, and without paying the equivalent, all
+the advantages of such conditions as might be allowed to other powers in
+return for important concessions made by them, then the whole character
+of the stipulation would be changed. She would not be placed on the
+footing of the most favored nation, but on a footing held by no other
+nation. She would enjoy all advantages allowed to them in consideration
+of like advantages allowed to us, free from every and any condition
+whatever.
+
+As little cause has the Government of France to complain of the seizure
+of the _Apollo_ and the removal of other vessels from the waters of
+the St. Marys. It will not be denied that every nation has a right to
+regulate its commercial system as it thinks fit and to enforce the
+collection of its revenue, provided it be done without an invasion of
+the rights of other powers. The violation of its revenue laws is an
+offense which all nations punish, the punishment of which gives no just
+cause of complaint to the power to which the offenders belong, provided
+it be extended to all equally. In this case every circumstance which
+occurred indicated a fixed purpose to violate our revenue laws. Had the
+party intended to have pursued a fair trade he would have entered our
+ports and paid the duties; or had he intended to carry on a legitimate
+circuitous commerce with the United States he would have entered the
+port of some other power, landed his goods at the custom-house according
+to law, and re-shipped and sent them in the vessel of such power, or
+of some other power which might lawfully bring them, free from such
+duties, to a port of the United States. But the conduct of the party
+in this case was altogether different. He entered the river St. Marys,
+the boundary line between the United States and Florida, and took his
+position on the Spanish side, on which in the whole extent of the river
+there was no town, no port or custom-house, and scarcely any settlement.
+His purpose, therefore, was not to sell his goods to the inhabitants of
+Florida, but to citizens of the United States, in exchange for their
+productions, which could not be done without a direct and palpable
+breach of our laws. It is known that a regular systematic plan had been
+formed by certain persons for the violation of our revenue system, which
+made it the more necessary to check the proceeding in its commencement.
+
+That the unsettled bank of a river so remote from the Spanish garrisons
+and population could give no protection to any party in such a practice
+is believed to be in strict accord with the law of nations. It would
+not have comported with a friendly policy in Spain herself to have
+established a custom-house there, since it could have subserved no other
+purpose than to elude our revenue law. But the Government of Spain did
+not adopt that measure. On the contrary, it is understood that the
+Captain-General of Cuba, to whom an application to that effect was made
+by these adventurers, had not acceded to it. The condition of those
+Provinces for many years before they were ceded to the United States
+need not now be dwelt on. Inhabited by different tribes of Indians and
+an inroad for every kind of adventurer, the jurisdiction of Spain may
+be said to have been almost exclusively confined to her garrisons. It
+certainly could not extend to places where she had no authority. The
+rules, therefore, applicable to settled countries governed by laws could
+not be deemed so to the deserts of Florida and to the occurrences there.
+It merits attention also that the territory had then been ceded to
+the United States by a treaty the ratification of which had not been
+refused, and which has since been performed. Under any circumstances,
+therefore, Spain became less responsible for such acts committed there,
+and the United States more at liberty to exercise authority to prevent
+so great a mischief. The conduct of this Government has in every
+instance been conciliatory and friendly to France. The construction of
+our revenue law in its application to the cases which have formed the
+ground of such serious complaint on her part and the order to the
+collector of St. Marys, in accord with it, were given two years before
+these cases occurred, and in reference to a breach which was attempted
+by the subjects of another power. The application, therefore, to the
+cases in question was inevitable. As soon as the treaty by which these
+Provinces were ceded to the United States was ratified, and all danger
+of further breach of our revenue laws ceased, an order was given for the
+release of the vessel which had been seized and for the dismission of
+the libel which had been instituted against her.
+
+The principles of this system of reciprocity, founded on the law of the
+3d of March, 1815, have been since carried into effect with the Kingdoms
+of the Netherlands, Sweden, Prussia, and with Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck,
+and Oldenburg, with a provision made by subsequent laws in regard to
+the Netherlands, Prussia, Hamburg, and Bremen that such produce and
+manufactures as could only be, or most usually were, first shipped from
+the ports of those countries, the same being imported in vessels wholly
+belonging to their subjects, should be considered and admitted as their
+own manufactures and productions.
+
+The Government of Norway has by an ordinance opened the ports of that
+part of the dominions of the King of Sweden to the vessels of the United
+States upon the payment of no other or higher duties than are paid by
+Norwegian vessels, from whatever place arriving and with whatever
+articles laden. They have requested the reciprocal allowance for the
+vessels of Norway in the ports of the United States. As this privilege
+is not within the scope of the act of the 3d of March, 1815, and can
+only be granted by Congress, and as it may involve the commercial
+relations of the United States with other nations, the subject is
+submitted to the wisdom of Congress.
+
+I have presented thus fully to your view our commercial relations with
+other powers, that, seeing them in detail with each power, and knowing
+the basis on which they rest, Congress may in its wisdom decide whether
+any change ought to be made, and, if any, in what respect. If this basis
+is unjust or unreasonable, surely it ought to be abandoned; but if it
+be just and reasonable, and any change in it will make concessions
+subversive of equality and tending in its consequences to sap the
+foundations of our prosperity, then the reasons are equally strong for
+adhering to the ground already taken, and supporting it by such further
+regulations as may appear to be proper, should any additional support
+be found necessary.
+
+The question concerning the construction of the first article of the
+treaty of Ghent has been, by a joint act of the representatives of
+the United States and of Great Britain at the Court of St. Petersburg,
+submitted to the decision of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of
+Russia. The result of that submission has not yet been received. The
+commissioners under the fifth article of that treaty not having been
+able to agree upon their decision, their reports to the two Governments,
+according to the provisions of the treaty, may be expected at an early
+day.
+
+With Spain the treaty of February 22, 1819, has been partly carried into
+execution. Possession of East and West Florida has been given to the
+United States, but the officers charged with that service by an order
+from His Catholic Majesty, delivered by his minister to the Secretary
+of State, and transmitted by a special agent to the Captain-General
+of Cuba, to whom it was directed and in whom the government of those
+Provinces was vested, have not only omitted, in contravention of the
+order of their Sovereign, the performance of the express stipulation
+to deliver over the archives and documents relating to the property
+and sovereignty of those Provinces, all of which it was expected would
+have been delivered either before or when the troops were withdrawn,
+but defeated since every effort of the United States to obtain them,
+especially those of the greatest importance. This omission has given
+rise to several incidents of a painful nature, the character of which
+will be fully disclosed by the documents which will be hereafter
+communicated.
+
+In every other circumstance the law of the 3d of March last, for
+carrying into effect that treaty, has been duly attended to. For the
+execution of that part which preserved in force, for the government of
+the inhabitants for the term specified, all the civil, military, and
+judicial powers exercised by the existing government of those Provinces
+an adequate number of officers, as was presumed, were appointed, and
+ordered to their respective stations. Both Provinces were formed into
+one Territory, and a governor appointed for it; but in consideration
+of the pre-existing division and of the distance and difficulty of
+communication between Pensacola, the residence of the governor of West
+Florida, and St. Augustine, that of the governor of East Florida,
+at which places the inconsiderable population of each Province was
+principally collected, two secretaries were appointed, the one to reside
+at Pensacola and the other at St. Augustine. Due attention was likewise
+paid to the execution of the laws of the United States relating to the
+revenue and the slave trade, which were extended to these Provinces.
+The whole Territory was divided into three collection districts, that
+part lying between the river St. Marys and Cape Florida forming one,
+that from the Cape to the Apalachicola another, and that from the
+Apalachicola to the Perdido the third. To these districts the usual
+number of revenue officers were appointed; and to secure the due
+operation of these laws one judge and a district attorney were appointed
+to reside at Pensacola, and likewise one judge and a district attorney
+to reside at St. Augustine, with a specified boundary between them;
+and one marshal for the whole, with authority to appoint a deputy. In
+carrying this law into effect, and especially that part relating to the
+powers of the existing government of those Provinces, it was thought
+important, in consideration of the short term for which it was to
+operate and the radical change which would be made at the approaching
+session of Congress, to avoid expense, to make no appointment which
+should not be absolutely necessary to give effect to those powers, to
+withdraw none of our citizens from their pursuits, whereby to subject
+the Government to claims which could not be gratified and the parties
+to losses which it would be painful to witness.
+
+It has been seen with much concern that in the performance of these
+duties a collision arose between the governor of the Territory and the
+judge appointed for the western district. It was presumed that the
+law under which this transitory government was organized, and the
+commissions which were granted to the officers who were appointed to
+execute each branch of the system, and to which the commissions were
+adapted, would have been understood in the same sense by them in which
+they were understood by the Executive. Much allowance is due to officers
+employed in each branch of this system, and the more so as there is good
+cause to believe that each acted under the conviction that he possessed
+the power which he undertook to exercise. Of the officer holding the
+principal station, I think it proper to observe that he accepted it
+with reluctance, in compliance with the invitation given him, and from
+a high sense of duty to his country, being willing to contribute to the
+consummation of an event which would insure complete protection to an
+important part of our Union, which had suffered much from incursion and
+invasion, and to the defense of which his very gallant and patriotic
+services had been so signally and usefully devoted.
+
+From the intrinsic difficulty of executing laws deriving their origin
+from different sources, and so essentially different in many important
+circumstances, the advantage, and indeed the necessity, of establishing
+as soon as may be practicable a well-organized government over that
+Territory on the principles of our system is apparent. This subject is
+therefore recommended to the early consideration of Congress.
+
+In compliance with an injunction of the law of the 3d of March last,
+three commissioners have also been appointed and a board organized for
+carrying into effect the eleventh article of the treaty above recited,
+making provision for the payment of such of our citizens as have
+well-founded claims on Spain of the character specified by that treaty.
+This board has entered on its duties and made some progress therein.
+The commissioner and surveyor of His Catholic Majesty, provided for by
+the fourth article of the treaty, have not yet arrived in the United
+States, but are soon expected. As soon as they do arrive corresponding
+appointments will be made and every facility be afforded for the due
+execution of this service.
+
+The Government of His Most Faithful Majesty since the termination of the
+last session of Congress has been removed from Rio de Janeiro to Lisbon,
+where a revolution similar to that which had occurred in the neighboring
+Kingdom of Spain had in like manner been sanctioned by the accepted
+and pledged faith of the reigning monarch. The diplomatic intercourse
+between the United States and the Portuguese dominions, interrupted
+by this important event, has not yet been resumed, but the change
+of internal administration having already materially affected the
+commercial intercourse of the United States with the Portuguese
+dominions, the renewal of the public missions between the two countries
+appears to be desirable at an early day.
+
+It is understood that the colonies in South America have had great
+success during the present year in the struggle for' their independence.
+The new Government of Colombia has extended its territories and
+considerably augmented its strength, and at Buenos Ayres, where civil
+dissensions had for some time before prevailed, greater harmony and
+better order appear to have been established. Equal success has attended
+their efforts in the Provinces on the Pacific. It has long been manifest
+that it would be impossible for Spain to reduce these colonies by force,
+and equally so that no conditions short of their independence would be
+satisfactory to them. It may therefore be presumed, and it is earnestly
+hoped, that the Government of Spain, guided by enlightened and liberal
+councils, will find it to comport with its interests and due to its
+magnanimity to terminate this exhausting controversy on that basis. To
+promote this result by friendly counsel with the Government of Spain
+will be the object of the Government of the United States.
+
+In conducting the fiscal operations of the year it has been found
+necessary to carry into full effect the act of the last session of
+Congress authorizing a loan of $5,000,000. This sum has been raised at
+an average premium of $5.59 per centum upon stock bearing an interest
+at the rate of 5 per cent per annum, redeemable at the option of the
+Government after the 1st day of January, 1835.
+
+There has been issued under the provisions of this act $4,735,296.30 of
+5 per cent stock, and there has been or will be redeemed during the year
+$3,197,030.71 of Louisiana 6 per cent deferred stock and Mississippi
+stock. There has therefore been an actual increase of the public debt
+contracted during the year of $1,538,266.69.
+
+The receipts into the Treasury from the 1st of January to the 30th of
+September last have amounted to $16,219,197.70, which, with the balance
+of $1,198,461.21 in the Treasury on the former day, make the aggregate
+sum of $17,417,658.91. The payments from the Treasury during the same
+period have amounted to $15,655,288.47, leaving in the Treasury on the
+last-mentioned day the sum of $1,762,370.44. It is estimated that the
+receipts of the fourth quarter of the year will exceed the demands which
+will be made on the Treasury during the same period, and that the amount
+in the Treasury on the 30th of September last will be increased on the
+1st day of January next.
+
+At the close of the last session it was anticipated that the progressive
+diminution of the public revenue in 1819 and 1820, which had been the
+result of the languid state of our foreign commerce in those years,
+had in the latter year reached its extreme point of depression. It
+has, however, been ascertained that that point was reached only at the
+termination of the first quarter of the present year. From that time
+until the 30th of September last the duties secured have exceeded those
+of the corresponding quarters of the last year $1,172,000, whilst the
+amount of debentures issued during the three first quarters of this year
+is $952,000 less than that of the same quarters of the last year.
+
+There are just grounds to believe that the improvement which has
+occurred in the revenue during the last-mentioned period will not only
+be maintained, but that it will progressively increase through the next
+and several succeeding years, so as to realize the results which were
+presented upon that subject by the official reports of the Treasury at
+the commencement of the last session of Congress.
+
+Under the influence of the most unfavorable circumstances the revenue
+for the next and subsequent years to the year 1825 will exceed the
+demands at present authorized by law.
+
+It may fairly be presumed that under the protection given to domestic
+manufactures by the existing laws we shall become at no distant period a
+manufacturing country on an extensive scale. Possessing as we do the raw
+materials in such vast amount, with a capacity to augment them to an
+indefinite extent; raising within the country aliment of every kind to
+an amount far exceeding the demand for home consumption, even in the
+most unfavorable years, and to be obtained always at a very moderate
+price; skilled also, as our people are, in the mechanic arts and in
+every improvement calculated to lessen the demand for and the price of
+labor, it is manifest that their success in every branch of domestic
+industry may and will be carried, under the encouragement given by the
+present duties, to an extent to meet any demand which under a fair
+competition may be made upon it.
+
+A considerable increase of domestic manufactures, by diminishing the
+importation of foreign, will probably tend to lessen the amount of the
+public revenue. As, however, a large proportion of the revenue which is
+derived from duties is raised from other articles than manufactures, the
+demand for which will increase with our population, it is believed that
+a fund will still be raised from that source adequate to the greater
+part of the public expenditures, especially as those expenditures,
+should we continue to be blessed with peace, will be diminished by the
+completion of the fortifications, dockyards, and other public works, by
+the augmentation of the Navy to the point to which it is proposed to
+carry it, and by the payment of the public debt, including pensions for
+military services.
+
+It can not be doubted that the more complete our internal resources and
+the less dependent we are on foreign powers for every national as well
+as domestic purpose the greater and more stable will be the public
+felicity. By the increase of domestic manufactures will the demand for
+the rude materials at home be increased, and thus will the dependence of
+the several parts of our Union on each other and the strength of the
+Union itself be proportionably augmented. In this process, which is very
+desirable, and inevitable under the existing duties, the resources which
+obviously present themselves to supply a deficiency in the revenue,
+should it occur, are the interests which may derive the principal
+benefit from the change. If domestic manufactures are raised by duties
+on foreign, the deficiency in the fund necessary for public purposes
+should be supplied by duties on the former. At the last session it
+seemed doubtful whether the revenue derived from the present sources
+would be adequate to all the great purposes of our Union, including
+the construction of our fortifications, the augmentation of the Navy,
+and the protection of our commerce against the dangers to which it is
+exposed. Had the deficiency been such as to subject us to the necessity
+either to abandon those measures of defense or to resort to other means
+for adequate funds, the course presented to the adoption of a virtuous
+and enlightened people appeared to be a plain one. It must be gratifying
+to all to know that this necessity does not exist. Nothing, however, in
+contemplation of such important objects, which can be easily provided
+for, should be left to hazard. It is thought that the revenue may
+receive an augmentation from the existing sources, and in a manner to
+aid our manufactures, without hastening prematurely the result which
+has been suggested. It is believed that a moderate additional duty on
+certain articles would have that effect, without being liable to any
+serious objection.
+
+The examination of the whole coast, for the construction of permanent
+fortifications, from St. Croix to the Sabine, with the exception of part
+of the territory lately acquired, will be completed in the present year,
+as will be the survey of the Mississippi, under the resolution of the
+House of Representatives, from the mouth of the Ohio to the ocean, and
+likewise of the Ohio from Louisville to the Mississippi. A progress
+corresponding with the sums appropriated has also been made in the
+construction of these fortifications at the points designated. As they
+will form a system of defense for the whole maritime frontier, and in
+consequence for the interior, and are to last for ages, the greatest
+care has been taken to fix the position of each work and to form it on
+such a scale as will be adequate to the purpose intended by it. All the
+inlets and assailable parts of our Union have been minutely examined,
+and positions taken with a view to the best effect, observing in every
+instance a just regard for economy. Doubts, however, being entertained
+as to the propriety of the position and extent of the work at Dauphine
+Island, further progress in it was suspended soon after the last session
+of Congress, and an order given to the Board of Engineers and Naval
+Commissioners to make a further and more minute examination of it in
+both respects, and to report the result without delay.
+
+Due progress has been made in the construction of vessels of war
+according to the law providing for the gradual augmentation of the Navy,
+and to the extent of existing appropriations. The vessels authorized by
+the act of 1820 have all been completed and are now in actual service.
+None of the larger ships have been or will be launched for the present,
+the object being to protect all which may not be required for immediate
+service from decay by suitable buildings erected over them. A squadron
+has been maintained, as heretofore, in the Mediterranean, by means
+whereof peace has been preserved with the Barbary Powers. This squadron
+has been reduced the present year to as small a force as is compatible
+with the fulfillment of the object intended by it. From past experience
+and the best information respecting the views of those powers it is
+distinctly understood that should our squadron be withdrawn they would
+soon recommence their hostilities and depredations upon our commerce.
+Their fortifications have lately been rebuilt and their maritime force
+increased. It has also been found necessary to maintain a naval force on
+the Pacific for the protection of the very important interests of our
+citizens engaged in commerce and the fisheries in that sea. Vessels have
+likewise been employed in cruising along the Atlantic coast, in the Gulf
+of Mexico, on the coast of Africa, and in the neighboring seas. In
+the latter many piracies have been committed on our commerce, and so
+extensive was becoming the range of those unprincipled adventurers that
+there was cause to apprehend, without a timely and decisive effort
+to suppress them, the worst consequences would ensue. Fortunately, a
+considerable check has been given to that spirit by our cruisers, who
+have succeeded in capturing and destroying several of their vessels.
+Nevertheless, it is considered an object of high importance to continue
+these cruises until the practice is entirely suppressed. Like success
+has attended our efforts to suppress the slave trade. Under the flag
+of the United States and the sanction of their papers the trade may
+be considered as entirely suppressed, and if any of our citizens are
+engaged in it under the flags and papers of other powers, it is only
+from a respect to the rights of those powers that these offenders are
+not seized and brought home to receive the punishment which the laws
+inflict. If every other power should adopt the same policy and pursue
+the same vigorous means for carrying it into effect, the trade could
+no longer exist.
+
+Deeply impressed with the blessings which we enjoy, and of which we have
+such manifold proofs, my mind is irresistibly drawn to that Almighty
+Being, the great source from whence they proceed and to whom our most
+grateful acknowledgments are due.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 16, 1821_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury,
+inclosing the report of the commissioners appointed in conformity with
+the provisions of "An act to authorize the building of light-houses
+therein mentioned, and for other purposes," approved the 3d of March,
+1821.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 16, 1821_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+By a resolution of Congress approved on the 27th of March, 1818, it was
+directed that the journal, acts, and proceedings of the Convention
+which formed the present Constitution of the United States should be
+published, under the direction of the President of the United States,
+together with the secret journals of the acts and proceedings, and the
+foreign correspondence (with a certain exception), of the Congress of
+the United States from the first meeting thereof down to the date of the
+ratification of the definitive treaty of peace between Great Britain
+and the United States, in the year 1783, and that 1,000 copies thereof
+should be printed, of which one copy should be furnished to each member
+of that (the Fifteenth) Congress, and the residue should remain subject
+to the future disposition of Congress.
+
+And by a resolution of Congress approved on the 21st April, 1820, it
+was provided that the secret journal, together with all the papers
+and documents connected with that journal, and all other papers and
+documents heretofore considered confidential, of the old Congress, from
+the date of the ratification of the definitive treaty of the year 1783
+to the formation of the present Government, which were remaining in
+the office of the Secretary of State, should be published under the
+direction of the President of the United States, and that I,000 copies
+thereof should be printed and deposited in the Library subject to the
+disposition of Congress.
+
+In pursuance of these two resolutions, 1,000 copies of the journals
+and acts of the Convention which formed the Constitution have been
+heretofore printed and placed at the disposal of Congress, and 1,000
+copies of the secret journals of the Congress of the Confederation,
+complete, have been printed, 250 copies of which have been reserved to
+comply with the direction of furnishing one copy to each member of the
+Fifteenth Congress; the remaining 750 copies have been deposited in the
+Library and are now at the disposal of Congress.
+
+By the general appropriation act of 9th April, 1818, the sum of $10,000
+was appropriated for defraying the expenses of printing done pursuant to
+the resolution of the 27th of March of that year. No appropriation has
+yet been made to defray the expenses incident to the execution of the
+resolution of 21st April, 1820. The whole expense hitherto incurred
+in carrying both resolutions into effect has exceeded by $542.56 the
+appropriation of April, 1818. This balance remains due to the printers,
+and is included in the estimates of appropriation for the year 1822.
+That part of the resolution of the 27th March, 1818, which directs
+the publication of the foreign correspondence of the Congress of the
+Confederation remains yet to be executed, and a further appropriation
+will be necessary for carrying it into effect.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 30, 1821.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate a treaty of peace and amity concluded between
+the United States and the Dey and Regency of Algiers on the 23d of
+December, 1816.
+
+This treaty is in all respects the same in its provisions with that
+which had been concluded on the 30th of June, 1815, and was ratified, by
+and with the advice and consent of the Senate, on the 26th of December
+of that year, with the exception of one additional and explanatory
+article.
+
+The circumstances which have occasioned the delay in laying the
+present treaty before the Senate for their advice and consent to its
+ratification are, that having been received in the spring of the year
+1817, during the recess of the Senate, in the interval between the time
+when the Department of State was vacated by its late Secretary and the
+entrance of his successor upon the duties of the office, and when a
+change also occurred of the chief clerk of the Department, it was not
+recollected by the officers of the Department that it remained without
+the constitutional sanction of the Senate until shortly before the
+commencement of the present session. The documents explanatory of the
+additional articles are likewise herewith transmitted.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON _January 7, 1822_.
+
+_To the Congress of the United States_:
+
+I transmit a report of the Secretary of the Navy, together with a survey
+of the coast of North Carolina, made in pursuance of a resolution of
+Congress of the 19th January, 1819.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 8, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In pursuance of a joint resolution of the two Houses of Congress of the
+3d of March, 1821, authorizing the President to cause such number of
+astronomical observations to be made by methods which might, in his
+judgment, be best adapted to insure a correct determination of the
+longitude of the Capitol, in the city of Washington, from Greenwich or
+some other known meridian in Europe, and that he cause the data, with
+accurate calculations on statements founded thereon, to be laid before
+them at their present session, I herewith transmit to Congress the
+report made by William Lambert, who was selected by me on the 10th
+of April last to perform the service required by that resolution.
+
+As no compensation is authorized by law for the execution of the duties
+assigned to Mr. Lambert, it is submitted to the discretion of Congress
+to make the necessary provision for an adequate allowance to him and to
+the assistant whom he employed to aid him in his observations.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 17, 1822.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I nominate the persons whose names are stated in the inclosed letter
+from the Secretary of War for the appointments therein respectively
+proposed for them.
+
+The changes in the Army growing out of the act of the 2d of March, 1821,
+"to reduce and fix the military peace establishment of the United
+States," are exhibited in the Official Register for the year 1822,
+herewith submitted for the information of the Senate.
+
+Under the late organization of the artillery arm, with the exception of
+the colonel of the regiment of light artillery, there were no grades
+higher than lieutenant-colonel recognized. Three of the four colonels of
+artillery provided for by the act of Congress of the 2d of March, 1821,
+were considered, therefore, as original vacancies, to be filled, as the
+good of the service might dictate, from the Army corps.
+
+The Pay Department being considered as a part of the military
+establishment, and, within the meaning of the above-recited act,
+constituting one of the corps of the Army, the then Pay master-General
+was appointed colonel of one of the regiments. A contrary construction,
+which would have limited the corps specified in the twelfth section of
+the act to the line of the Army, would equally have excluded all the
+other branches of the staff, as well that of the Pay Department,
+which was expressly comprehended among those to be reduced. Such a
+construction did not seem to be authorized by the act, since by its
+general terms it was inferred to have been intended to give a power
+of sufficient extent to make the reduction by which so many were to
+be disbanded operate with as little inconvenience as possible to the
+parties. Acting on these views and on the recommendation of the board of
+general officers, who were called in on account of their knowledge and
+experience to aid the Executive in so delicate a service, I thought
+it proper to appoint Colonel Towson to one of the new regiments of
+artillery, it being a corps in which he had eminently distinguished
+himself and acquired great knowledge and experience in the late war.
+
+In reconciling conflicting claims provision for four officers of
+distinction could only be made in grades inferior to those which they
+formerly held. Their names are submitted, with the nomination for the
+brevet rank of the grades from which they were severally reduced.
+
+It is proper also to observe that as it was found difficult in executing
+the act to retain each officer in the corps to which he belonged, the
+power of transferring officers from one corps to another was reserved
+in the general orders, published in the Register, till the 1st day of
+January last, in order that upon vacancies occurring those who had been
+put out of their proper corps might as far as possible be restored to
+it. Under this reservation, and in conformity to the power vested in
+the Executive by the first section of the seventy-fifth article of
+the general regulations of the Army, approved by Congress at the last
+session, on the resignation of Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell, of the corps
+of artillery, Lieutenant-Colonel Lindsay, who had belonged to this corps
+before the late reduction, was transferred back to it in the same grade.
+As an additional motive to the transfer, it had the effect of preventing
+Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor and Major Woolley being reduced to lower
+grades than those which they held before the reduction, and Captain Cobb
+from being disbanded under the act. These circumstances were considered
+as constituting an extraordinary case within the meaning of the section
+already referred to of the Regulations of the Army. It is, however,
+submitted to the Senate whether this is a case requiring their
+confirmation; and in case that such should be their opinion, it is
+submitted to them for their constitutional confirmation.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 20, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives
+"requesting the President of the United States to cause to be laid
+before this House an account of the expenditures made under the act to
+provide for the civilization of the Indian tribes, specifying the times
+when, the persons to whom, and the particular purpose for which such
+expenditures have been made," I herewith transmit a report from the
+Secretary of War.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 28, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the 2d instant, I transmit a report
+of the Secretary of State, with all the documents relating to the
+misunderstanding between Andrew Jackson, while acting as governor of
+the Floridas, and Eligius Fromentin, judge of a court therein; and also
+of the correspondence between the Secretary of State and the minister
+plenipotentiary of His Catholic Majesty on certain proceedings in that
+Territory in execution of the powers vested in the governor by the
+Executive under the law of the last session for carrying into effect the
+late treaty between the United States and Spain. Being always desirous
+to communicate to Congress, or to either House, all the information in
+the possession of the Executive respecting any important interest of our
+Union which may be communicated without real injury to our constituents,
+and which can rarely happen except in negotiations pending with foreign
+powers, and deeming it more consistent with the principles of our
+Government in cases submitted to my discretion, as in the present
+instance, to hazard error by the freedom of the communication rather
+than by withholding any portion of information belonging to the subject,
+I have thought proper to communicate every document comprised within
+this call.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 30, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In pursuance of a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+16th instant, requesting information with regard to outrages and abuses
+committed upon the persons of the officers and crews of American vessels
+at The Havannah and other Spanish ports in America, and whether the
+Spanish authorities have taken any measures to punish, restrain, or
+countenance such outrages, I herewith transmit to that House a report
+from the Secretary of State, containing the information called for.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 30, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In pursuance of a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+8th instant, I transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the
+Secretary of State, containing all the information procured by him in
+relation to commissions of bankruptcy in certain districts of the United
+States under the act of 4th of April, 1800, "to establish an uniform
+system of bankruptcy in the United States."
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 7, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives
+requesting the President to "cause that House to be informed whether the
+commissioners appointed to lay out the continuation of the Cumberland
+road from Wheeling, in the State of Virginia, through the States of
+Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to the Mississippi River, have completed
+the same, and, if not completed, the reason why their duties have been
+suspended," I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury,
+which furnishes the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 10, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives
+"requesting the President of the United States to cause to be laid
+before this House any information which he may have of the condition
+of the several Indian tribes within the United States and the measures
+hitherto devised and pursued for their civilization," I now transmit
+a report from the Secretary of War.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives
+"requesting the President of the United States to cause to be reported
+to this House whether the Indian title has been extinguished by the
+United States to any lands the right of soil in which has been or is
+claimed by any particular State, and, if so, the conditions upon which
+the same has been extinguished," I herewith transmit a report from the
+Secretary of War, furnishing all the information in the possession of
+that Department embraced by the resolution,
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 14th instant,
+requesting the President of the United States "to make known to the
+Senate the annual disposition which has been made of the sum of $15,000
+appropriated by an act of Congress of the year 1802 to promote
+civilization among friendly Indian tribes, showing to what tribes that
+evidence of the national bounty has been extended, the names of the
+agents who have been intrusted with the application of the money, the
+several amounts by them received, and the manner in which they have
+severally applied it to accomplish the objects of the act," I herewith
+transmit a report from the Secretary of War, furnishing all the
+information upon this subject in the possession of that Department.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 25, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Under the appropriation made by the act of Congress of the 11th of
+April, 1820, for holding treaties with the Creek and Cherokee nations of
+Indians for the extinguishment of the Indian title to lands within the
+State of Georgia, pursuant to the fourth condition of the first article
+of the articles of agreement and cession concluded between the United
+States and the State of Georgia on the 24th day of April, 1802, a treaty
+was held with the Creek Nation, the expense of which upon the settlement
+of the accounts of the commissioners who were appointed to conduct the
+negotiation was ascertained to amount to the sum of $24,695, leaving an
+unexpended balance of the sum appropriated of $5,305, a sum too small
+to negotiate a treaty with the Cherokees, as was contemplated by the
+act making the appropriation. The legislature of Georgia being still
+desirous that a treaty should be held for further extinguishment of the
+Indian title to lands within that State, and to obtain an indemnity to
+the citizens of that State for property of considerable value, which has
+been taken from them by the Cherokee Indians, I submit the subject to
+the consideration of Congress, that a further sum, which, in addition
+to the balance of the former appropriation, will be adequate to the
+expenses attending a treaty with them, may be appropriated should
+Congress deem it expedient.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 4, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+22d ultimo, requesting the President of the United States "to cause to
+be laid before this House a statement showing the amount of woolens
+purchased for the use of the Army during the years 1820 and 1821,
+comprising a description of the articles, of whom the purchases were
+made, at what prices, and what proportion thereof was of American
+manufacture," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 8, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In transmitting to the House of Representatives the documents called for
+by the resolution of that House of the 30th January, I consider it my
+duty to invite the attention of Congress to a very important subject,
+and to communicate the sentiments of the Executive on it, that, should
+Congress entertain similar sentiments, there may be such cooperation
+between the two departments of the Government as their respective rights
+and duties may require.
+
+The revolutionary movement in the Spanish Provinces in this hemisphere
+attracted the attention and excited the sympathy of our fellow-citizens
+from its commencement. This feeling was natural and honorable to
+them, from causes which need not be communicated to you. It has been
+gratifying to all to see the general acquiescence which has been
+manifested in the policy which the constituted authorities have deemed
+it proper to pursue in regard to this contest. As soon as the movement
+assumed such a steady and consistent form as to make the success of the
+Provinces probable, the rights to which they were entitled by the law
+of nations as equal parties to a civil war were extended to them. Each
+party was permitted to enter our ports with its public and private
+ships, and to take from them every article which was the subject of
+commerce with other nations. Our citizens, also, have carried on
+commerce with both parties, and the Government has protected it with
+each in articles not contraband of war. Through the whole of this
+contest the United States have remained neutral, and have fulfilled with
+the utmost impartiality all the obligations incident to that character.
+
+This contest has now reached such a stage and been attended with such
+decisive success on the part of the Provinces that it merits the most
+profound consideration whether their right to the rank of independent
+nations, with all the advantages incident to it in their intercourse
+with the United States, is not complete. Buenos Ayres assumed that rank
+by a formal declaration in 1816, and has enjoyed it since 1810 free from
+invasion by the parent country. The Provinces composing the Republic
+of Colombia, after having separately declared their independence, were
+united by a fundamental law of the 17th of December, 1819. A strong
+Spanish force occupied at that time certain parts of the territory
+within their limits and waged a destructive war. That force has since
+been repeatedly defeated, and the whole of it either made prisoners
+or destroyed or expelled from the country, with the exception of an
+inconsiderable portion only, which is blockaded in two fortresses.
+The Provinces on the Pacific have likewise been very successful. Chili
+declared independence in 1818, and has since enjoyed it undisturbed; and
+of late, by the assistance of Chili and Buenos Ayres, the revolution
+has extended to Peru. Of the movement in Mexico our information is less
+authentic, but it is, nevertheless, distinctly understood that the new
+Government has declared its independence, and that there is now no
+opposition to it there nor a force to make any. For the last three years
+the Government of Spain has not sent a single corps of troops to any
+part of that country, nor is there any reason to believe it will send
+any in future. Thus it is manifest that all those Provinces are not only
+in the full enjoyment of their independence, but, considering the state
+of the war and other circumstances, that there is not the most remote
+prospect of their being deprived of it.
+
+When the result of such a contest is manifestly settled, the new
+governments have a claim to recognition by other powers which ought not
+to be resisted. Civil wars too often excite feelings which the parties
+can not control. The opinion entertained by other powers as to the
+result may assuage those feelings and promote an accommodation between
+them useful and honorable to both. The delay which has been observed in
+making a decision on this important subject will, it is presumed, have
+afforded an unequivocal proof to Spain, as it must have done to other
+powers, of the high respect entertained by the United States for her
+rights and of their determination not to interfere with them. The
+Provinces belonging to this hemisphere are our neighbors, and have
+successively, as each portion of the country acquired its independence,
+pressed their recognition by an appeal to facts not to be contested, and
+which they thought gave them a just title to it. To motives of interest
+this Government has invariably disclaimed all pretension, being resolved
+to take no part in the controversy or other measure in regard to it
+which should not merit the sanction of the civilized world. To other
+claims a just sensibility has been always felt and frankly acknowledged,
+but they in themselves could never become an adequate cause of action.
+It was incumbent on this Government to look to every important fact and
+circumstance on which a sound opinion could be formed, which has been
+done. When we regard, then, the great length of time which this war has
+been prosecuted, the complete success which has attended it in favor
+of the Provinces, the present condition of the parties, and the utter
+inability of Spain to produce any change in it, we are compelled to
+conclude that its fate is settled, and that the Provinces which have
+declared their independence and are in the enjoyment of it ought to
+be recognized.
+
+Of the views of the Spanish Government on this subject no particular
+information has been recently received. It may be presumed that the
+successful progress of the revolution through such a long series of
+years, gaining strength and extending annually in every direction, and
+embracing by the late important events, with little exception, all the
+dominions of Spain south of the United States on this continent, placing
+thereby the complete sovereignty over the whole in the hands of the
+people, will reconcile the parent country to an accommodation with them
+on the basis of their unqualified independence. Nor has any authentic
+information been recently received of the disposition of other powers
+respecting it. A sincere desire has been cherished to act in concert
+with them in the proposed recognition, of which several were some time
+past duly apprised; but it was understood that they were not prepared
+for it. The immense space between those powers, even those which border
+on the Atlantic, and these Provinces makes the movement an affair
+of less interest and excitement to them than to us. It is probable,
+therefore, that they have been less attentive to its progress than we
+have been. It may be presumed, however, that the late events will dispel
+all doubt of the result.
+
+In proposing this measure it is not contemplated to change thereby in
+the slightest manner our friendly relations with either of the parties,
+but to observe in all respects, as heretofore, should the war be
+continued, the most perfect neutrality between them. Of this friendly
+disposition an assurance will be given to the Government of Spain,
+to whom it is presumed it will be, as it ought to be, satisfactory.
+The measure is proposed under a thorough conviction that it is in
+strict accord with the law of nations, that it is just and right as
+to the parties, and that the United States owe it to their station
+and character in the world, as well as to their essential interests,
+to adopt it. Should Congress concur in the view herein presented, they
+will doubtless see the propriety of making the necessary appropriations
+for carrying it into effect.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 9, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, together with the annual
+return of the militia of the United States, and an exhibit of the arms,
+accouterments, and ammunition of the several States and Territories of
+the United States, prepared in conformity with the militia laws on that
+subject.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 12, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate the copy of a supplementary report, made by
+William Lambert, in relation to the longitude of the Capitol from
+Greenwich, in pursuance of a joint resolution of the two Houses of
+Congress of the 3d of March, 1821, and I subjoin an extract from the
+letter of Mr. Lambert submitting that report.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 26, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Congress having suspended the appropriation, at the last session,
+for the fortification at Dauphine Island, in consequence of a doubt
+which was entertained of the propriety of that position, the further
+prosecution of the work was suspended, and an order given, as intimated
+in the message of the 3d of December, to the Board of Engineers and
+Naval Commissioners to examine that part of the coast, and particularly
+that position, as also the position at Mobile Point, with which it is
+connected, and to report their opinion thereon, which has been done,
+and which report is herewith communicated.
+
+By this report it appears to be still the opinion of the Board that the
+construction of works at both these positions is of great importance to
+the defense of New Orleans and of all that portion of our Union which is
+connected with and dependent on the Mississippi and on the other waters
+which empty into the Gulf of Mexico between that river and Cape Florida.
+That the subject may be fully before Congress, I transmit also a copy
+of the former report of the Board, being that on which the work was
+undertaken and has been in part executed. Approving as I do the opinion
+of the Board, I consider it my duty to state the reasons on which I
+adopted the first report, especially as they were in part suggested by
+the occurrences of the late war.
+
+The policy which induced Congress to decide on and provide for the
+defense of the coast immediately after the war was founded on the marked
+events of that interesting epoch. The vast body of men which it was
+found necessary to call into the field through the whole extent of our
+maritime frontier, and the number who perished by exposure, with the
+immense expenditure of money and waste of property which followed, were
+to be traced in an eminent degree to the defenseless condition of the
+coast. It was to mitigate these evils in future wars, and even for the
+higher purpose of preventing war itself, that the decision was formed to
+make the coast, so far as it might be practicable, impregnable, and that
+the measures necessary to that great object have been pursued with so
+much zeal since.
+
+It is known that no part of our Union is more exposed to invasion by the
+numerous avenues leading to it, or more defenseless by the thinness of
+the neighboring population, or offers a greater temptation to invasion,
+either as a permanent acquisition or as a prize to the cupidity of
+grasping invaders from the immense amount of produce deposited there,
+than the city of New Orleans. It is known also that the seizure of no
+part of our Union could affect so deeply and vitally the immediate
+interests of so many States and of so many of our fellow-citizens,
+comprising all that extensive territory and numerous population which
+are connected with and dependent on the Mississippi, as the seizure of
+that city. Strong works, well posted, were therefore deemed absolutely
+necessary for its protection.
+
+It is not, however, by the Mississippi only, or the waters which
+communicate directly with or approach nearest to New Orleans, that the
+town is assailable. It will be recollected that in the late war the
+public solicitude was excited not so much by the danger which menaced it
+in those directions as by the apprehension that, while a feint might be
+made there, the main force, landing either in the bay of Mobile or other
+waters between that bay and the Rigolets, would be thrown above the town
+in the rear of the army which had been collected there for its defense.
+Full confidence was entertained that that gallant army, led by the
+gallant and able chief who commanded it, would repel any attack to which
+it might be exposed in front. But had such a force been thrown above the
+town, and a position taken on the banks of the river, the disadvantage
+to which our troops would have been subjected, attacked in front and
+rear as they might have been, may easily be conceived. As their supplies
+would have been cut off, they could not long have remained in the city,
+and, withdrawing from it, it must have fallen immediately into the hands
+of the force below. In ascending the river to attack the force above,
+the attack must have been made to great disadvantage, since it must have
+been on such ground and at such time as the enemy preferred. These
+considerations shew that defenses other than such as are immediately
+connected with the city are of great importance to its safety.
+
+An attempt to seize New Orleans and the lower part of the Mississippi
+will be made only by a great power or a combination of several powers,
+with a strong naval and land force, the latter of which must be brought
+in transports which may sail in shallow water. If the defenses around
+New Orleans are well posted and of sufficient strength to repel any
+attack which may be made on them, the city can be assailed only by a
+land force, which must pass in the direction above suggested, between
+the Rigolets and the bay of Mobile. It becomes, therefore, an object of
+high importance to present such an obstacle to such an attempt as would
+defeat it should it be made. Fortifications are useful for the defense
+of posts, to prevent the approach to cities and the passage of rivers;
+but as works their effect can not be felt beyond the reach of their
+cannon. They are formidable in other respects by the body of men
+within them, which may be removed and applied to other purposes.
+
+Between the Rigolets and the bay of Mobile there is a chain of islands,
+at the extremity of which is Dauphine Island, which forms, with Mobile
+Point, from which it is distant about 3-1/4 miles, the entrance into the
+bay of Mobile, which leads through that part of the State of Alabama to
+the towns of Mobile and Blakeley. The distance between Dauphine Island
+and the Rigolets is 90 miles. The principal islands between them are
+Massacre, Horn, Ship, and Cat islands, near to which there is anchorage
+for large ships of war. The first object is to prevent the landing of
+any force for the purposes above stated between the Rigolets and the bay
+of Mobile; the second, to defeat that force in case it should be landed.
+When the distance from one point to the other is considered, it is
+believed that it would be impossible to establish works so near to each
+other as to prevent the landing of such a force. Its defeat, therefore,
+should be effectually provided for. If the arrangement should be such as
+to make that result evident, it ought to be fairly concluded that the
+attempt would not be made, and thus we should accomplish in the best
+mode possible and with the least expense the complete security of this
+important part of our Union, the great object of our system of defense
+for the whole.
+
+There are some other views of this subject which it is thought will
+merit particular attention in deciding the point in question. Not being
+able to establish a chain of posts, at least for the present, along the
+whole coast from the Rigolets to Dauphine Island, or on all the islands
+between them, at which point shall we begin? Should an attack on the
+city be anticipated, it can not be doubted that an adequate force would
+immediately be ordered there for its defense. If the enemy should
+despair of making an impression on the works near the town, it may be
+presumed that they would promptly decide to make the attempt in the
+manner and in the line above suggested between the Rigolets and the
+bay of Mobile. It will be obvious that the nearer the fortification is
+erected to the Rigolets with a view to this object, should it be on Cat
+or Ship Island, for example, the wider would the passage be left open
+between that work and the bay of Mobile for such an enterprise. The main
+army, being drawn to New Orleans, would be ready to meet such an attempt
+near the Rigolets or at any other point not distant from the city. It
+is probable, therefore, that the enemy, profiting of a fair wind, would
+make his attempt at the greatest distance compatible with his object
+from that point, and at the bay of Mobile should there not be works
+there of sufficient strength to prevent it. Should, however, strong
+works be erected there, such as were sufficient not only for their own
+defense against any attack which might be made on them, but to hold a
+force connected with that which might be drawn from the neighboring
+country, capable of cooperating with the force at the city, and which
+would doubtless be ordered to those works in the event of war, it
+would be dangerous for the invading force to land anywhere between the
+Rigolets and the bay of Mobile and to pass toward the Mississippi above
+the city, lest such a body might be thrown in its rear as to cut off its
+retreat. These considerations show the great advantage of establishing
+at the mouth of the bay of Mobile very strong works, such as would be
+adequate to all the purposes suggested.
+
+If fortifications were necessary only to protect our country and cities
+against the entry of large ships of war into our bays and rivers, they
+would be of little use for the defense of New Orleans, since that city
+can not be approached so near, either by the Mississippi or in any other
+direction, by such vessels for them to make an attack on it. In the
+Gulf, within our limits west of Florida, which had been acquired since
+these works were decided on and commenced, there is no bay or river into
+which large ships of war can enter. As a defense, therefore, against an
+attack from such vessels extensive works would be altogether unnecessary
+either at Mobile Point or at Dauphine Island, since sloops of war only
+can navigate the deepest channel. But it is not for that purpose
+alone that these works are intended. It is to provide also against a
+formidable invasion, both by land and sea, the object of which may be to
+shake the foundation of our system. Should such small works be erected,
+and such an invasion take place, they would be sure to fall at once into
+the hands of the invaders and to be turned against us.
+
+Whether the acquisition of Florida may be considered as affording an
+inducement to make any change in the position or strength of these works
+is a circumstance which also merits attention. From the view which
+I have taken of the subject I am of opinion that it should not. The
+defense of New Orleans and of the river Mississippi against a powerful
+invasion being one of the great objects of such extensive works, that
+object would be essentially abandoned if they should be established
+eastward of the bay of Mobile, since the force to be collected in
+them would be placed at too great a distance to allow the cooperation
+necessary for those purposes between it and that at the city; in
+addition to which, it may be observed that by carrying them to Pensacola
+or farther to the east that bay would fall immediately, in case of such
+invasion, into the hands of the enemy, whereby such cooperation would be
+rendered utterly impossible, and the State of Alabama would also be left
+wholly unprotected.
+
+With a view to such formidable invasion, of which we should never lose
+sight, and of the great objects to which it would be directed, I think
+that very strong works at some point within the Gulf of Mexico will
+be found indispensable. I think also that those works ought to be
+established at the bay of Mobile--one at Mobile Point and the other on
+Dauphine Island--whereby the enemy would be excluded and the complete
+command of that bay, with all the advantages attending it, be secured
+to ourselves. In the case of such invasion, it will, it is presumed,
+be deemed necessary to collect at some point other than at New Orleans
+a strong force, capable of moving in any direction and affording aid
+to any part which may be attacked; and, in my judgment, no position
+presents so many advantages as a point of rendezvous for such force as
+the mouth of that bay. The fortification at the Rigolets will defend the
+entrance by one passage into Lake Pontchartrain, and also into Pearl
+River, which empties into the Gulf at that point. Between the Rigolets
+and Mobile Bay there are but two inlets which deserve the name, those of
+St. Louis and Pascagola, the entrance into which is too shallow even
+for the smallest vessels; and from the Rigolets to Mobile Bay the whole
+coast is equally shallow, affording the depth of a few feet of water
+only. Cat Island, which is nearest the Rigolets, is about 7-1/2 miles
+distant from the coast and 30 from the Rigolets. Ship Island is distant
+about 10 miles from Cat Island and 12 from the coast. Between these
+islands and the coast the water is very shallow.
+
+As to the precise depth of water in approaching those islands from the
+Gulf, the report of the topographical engineers not having yet been
+received, it is impossible to speak with precision; but admitting it
+to be such as for frigates and even ships of the line to enter, the
+anchorage at both is unsafe, being much exposed to northwest winds.
+Along the coast, therefore, there is no motive for such strong works on
+our part--no town to guard, no inlet into the country to defend--and if
+placed on the islands and the entrance to them is such as to admit large
+ships of war, distant as they are from the coast, it would be more easy
+for the enemy to assail them with effect.
+
+The position, however, at Mobile Bay is essentially different. That bay
+takes its name from the Mobile River, which is formed by the junction of
+the Alabama and Tombigbee, which extend each about 300 miles into the
+interior, approaching at their head waters near the Tennessee River.
+If the enemy possessed its mouth, and fortified Mobile Point and
+Dauphine Island, being superior at sea it would be very difficult for
+us to dispossess him of either, even of Mobile Point; and holding that
+position, Pensacola would soon fall, as without incurring great expense
+in the construction of works there it would present but a feeble
+resistance to a strong force in its rear. If we had a work at Mobile
+Point only, the enemy might take Dauphine Island, which would afford
+him great aid in attacking the point, and enable him, even should we
+succeed in repelling the attack, to render us great mischief there and
+throughout the whole Gulf. In every view which can be taken of the
+subject it appears indispensable for us to command the entrance into
+Mobile Bay, and that decision being taken, I think the considerations
+which favor the occupation of Dauphine Island by a strong work are
+conclusive. It is proper to observe that after the repulse before New
+Orleans in the late war the British forces took possession of Dauphine
+Island and held it till the peace. Under neither of the reports of the
+Board of Engineers and Naval Commissioners could any but sloops of war
+enter the bay or the anchorage between Dauphine and Pelican islands.
+Both reports give to that anchorage 18 feet at low water and 20-1/2 at
+high. The only difference between them consists in this, that in the
+first a bar leading to the anchorage, reducing the depth of water to
+12 feet at low tide, was omitted. In neither case could frigates enter,
+though sloops of war of larger size might. The whole scope, however, of
+this reasoning turns on a different principle--on the works necessary to
+defend that bay and, by means thereof, New Orleans, the Mississippi, and
+all the surrounding country against a powerful invasion both by land and
+sea, and not on the precise depth of water in any of the approaches to
+the bay or to the island.
+
+The reasoning which is applicable to the works near New Orleans and at
+the bay of Mobile is equally so in certain respects to those which are
+to be erected for the defense of all the bays and rivers along the other
+parts of the coast. All those works are also erected on a greater scale
+than would be necessary for the sole purpose of preventing the passage
+of our inlets by large ships of war. They are in most instances formed
+for defense against a more powerful invasion, both by land and sea.
+There are, however, some differences between the works which are deemed
+necessary in the Gulf and those in other parts of our Union, founded on
+the peculiar situation of that part of the coast. The vast extent of
+the Mississippi, the great outlet and channel of commerce for so many
+States, all of which may be affected by the seizure of that city, or
+of any part of the river to a great extent above it, is one of those
+striking peculiarities which require particular provision. The thinness
+of the population near the city, making it necessary that the force
+requisite for its defense should be called from distant parts and
+States, is another. The danger which the army assembled at New Orleans
+would be exposed to of being cut off in case the enemy should throw a
+force on the river above it, from the difficulty of ascending the river
+to attack it and of making a retreat in any other direction, is a third.
+For an attack on the city of New Orleans, Mobile Bay, or any part of the
+intermediate coast ships of war would be necessary only as a convoy to
+protect the transports against a naval force on their passage, and on
+their approach to the shore for the landing of the men, and on their
+return home in case they should be repulsed.
+
+On the important subject of our defenses generally I think proper to
+observe that the system was adopted immediately after the late war by
+Congress, on great consideration and a thorough knowledge of the effects
+of that war--by the enormous expense attending it, by the waste of life,
+of property, and by the general distress of the country. The amount of
+debt incurred in that war and due at its conclusion, without taking into
+the estimate other losses, having been heretofore communicated, need
+not now be repeated. The interest of the debt thus incurred is four
+times more than the sum necessary, by annual appropriations, for the
+completion of our whole system of defense, land and naval, to the extent
+provided for and within the time specified. When that system shall be
+completed the expense of construction will cease, and our expenditures
+be proportionally diminished. Should another war occur before it is
+completed, the experience of the last marks in characters too strong
+to be mistaken its inevitable consequences; and should such war occur
+and find us unprepared for it, what will be our justification to the
+enlightened body whom we represent for not having completed these
+defenses? That this system should not have been adopted before the late
+war can not be a cause of surprise to anyone, because all might wish
+to avoid every expense the necessity of which might be in any degree
+doubtful. But with the experience of that war before us it is thought
+there is no cause for hesitation. Will the completion of these works and
+the augmentation of our Navy to the point contemplated by law require
+the imposition of onerous burthens on our fellow-citizens such as they
+can not or will not bear? Have such, or any, burthens been imposed to
+advance the system to its present state? It is known that no burthens
+whatever have been imposed; on the contrary, that all the direct or
+internal taxes have been long repealed, and none paid but those which
+are indirect and voluntary, such as are imposed on articles imported
+from foreign countries, most of which are luxuries, and on the vessels
+employed in the transportation--taxes which some of our most enlightened
+citizens think ought to be imposed on many of the articles for the
+encouragement of our manufactures, even if the revenue derived from them
+could be dispensed with. It is known also that in all other respects
+our condition as a nation is in the highest degree prosperous and
+flourishing, nearly half the debt incurred in the late war having
+already been discharged, and considerable progress having also been made
+in the completion of this system of defense and in the construction of
+other works of great extent and utility, by the revenue derived from
+these sources and from the sale of the public lands. I may add also
+that a very generous provision has been made from the same sources for
+the surviving officers and soldiers of our Revolutionary army. These
+important facts show that this system has been so far executed, and may
+be completed without any real inconvenience to the public. Were it,
+however, otherwise, I have full confidence that any burthens which
+might be found necessary for the completion of this system in both
+its branches within the term contemplated, or much sooner should any
+emergency require it, would be called for rather than complained of
+by our fellow-citizens.
+
+From these views, applicable to the very important subject of our
+defenses generally as well as to the work at Dauphine Island, I think
+it my duty to recommend to Congress an appropriation for the latter.
+I considered the withholding it at the last session as the expression
+only of a doubt by Congress of the propriety of the position, and not
+as a definitive opinion. Supposing that that question would be decided
+at the present session, I caused the position and such parts of the
+coast as are particularly connected with it to be reexamined, that all
+the light on which the decision as to the appropriation could depend
+might be fully before you. In the first survey, the report of which
+was that on which the works intended for the defense of New Orleans,
+the Mississippi, the bay of Mobile, and all the country dependent on
+those waters were sanctioned by the Executive, the commissioners were
+industriously engaged about six months. I should have communicated that
+very able and interesting document then but from a doubt how far the
+interest of our country would justify its publication, a circumstance
+which I now mention that the attention of Congress may be drawn to it.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MARCH 26, 1822.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+Having executed the act entitled "An act to reduce and fix the military
+peace establishment of the United States" on great consideration and
+according to my best judgment, and inferring from the rejection of
+the nomination of Colonel Towson and Colonel Gadsden, officers of very
+distinguished merit, that the view which I took of that law has not been
+well understood, I hereby withdraw all the nominations on which the
+Senate has not decided until I can make a more full communication and
+explanation of that view and of the principles on which I have acted
+in the discharge of that very delicate and important duty.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 27, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+1st instant, requesting "the President to communicate such information
+as he may possess relative to any private claim against the piece of
+land in the Delaware River known by the name of the Peapatch, and to
+state if any, and what, process has been instituted in behalf of such
+claim," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War,
+furnishing the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 28, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+I transmit the original reports on the subject of the fortifications on
+Dauphin Island and Mobile Point, being those on which the works were
+undertaken and have been in part executed. The doubt expressed as to the
+propriety of publication is applicable to this document, which would
+have accompanied the message of the 26th had it been prepared in time.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 29, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress the translation of two letters from the minister
+of France to the Secretary of State, relating to the claim of the heirs
+of Caron de Beaumarchais upon this Government, with the documents
+therewith inclosed, recommending them to the favorable consideration
+of Congress.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 5, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate herewith to the House a report from the Secretary of War,
+containing the information requested by their resolution of the 5th
+ultimo.
+
+It may be proper further to add that the secretaries of both the
+Territories have occasionally required and received the aid of the
+military force of the United States stationed within them, respectively,
+to carry into effect the acts of their authority.
+
+The government of East and West Florida was under the Spanish dominion
+almost exclusively military. The governors of both were military
+officers and united in their persons the chief authority, both civil
+and military.
+
+The principle upon which the act of Congress of the last session
+providing for the temporary government of the newly ceded Provinces was
+carried into execution has been communicated to Congress in my message
+at the opening of the session. It was to leave the authorities of the
+country as they were found existing at the time of the cession, to be
+exercised until the meeting of Congress, when it was known that the
+introduction of a system more congenial to our own institutions would be
+one of the earliest and most important subjects of their deliberations.
+From this, among other obvious considerations, military officers were
+appointed to take possession of both Provinces. But as the military
+command of General Jackson was to cease on the 1st of June, General
+Gaines, the officer next in command, then here, who was first designated
+to take possession of East Florida, received from me a verbal direction
+to give such effect to any requisition from the governor for military
+aid to enforce his authority as the circumstances might require. It was
+not foreseen that the command in both the Provinces would before further
+legislation by Congress on that subject devolve upon the secretaries of
+the Territories, but had it been foreseen the same direction would have
+been given as applicable to them.
+
+No authority has been given to either of the secretaries to issue
+commands to that portion of the Army which is in Florida, and whenever
+the aid of _the military_ has been required by them it has been by
+written requisitions to the officers commanding the troops, who have
+yielded compliance thereto doubtless under the directions received
+from General Gaines as understood by him to be authorized.
+
+Shortly before the meeting of Congress a letter was received at the War
+Department from Colonel Brooke, the officer commanding at Pensacola,
+requesting instructions how far he was to consider these requisitions
+as authoritative, but the assurance that a new organization of the
+government was immediately to be authorized by Congress was a motive
+for superseding any specific decision upon the inquiry.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 6, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives
+requesting the President of the United States to cause to be furnished
+to that House certain information relating to the amount of the public
+money paid to the Attorney-General over and above his salary fixed by
+law since the 1st of January, 1817, specifying the time when paid and
+the fund out of which such payments have been made, I transmit a paper,
+marked A, containing the information desired. I transmit also a paper,
+marked B, containing a statement of sums paid to Attorney General of the
+United States prior to the 1st of January, 1817, and in the paper marked
+C a like statement of sums advanced to district attorneys for services
+not required of them by law. These latter documents being necessary to
+a full view of the subject, it is thought proper to comprise them in
+this communication.
+
+By the act of 24th September, 1789, instituting the office of Attorney
+General, it was made his duty to prosecute and conduct all suits in the
+Supreme Court in which the United States should be concerned, and to
+give his advice and opinion upon questions of law when required by the
+President of the United States, or when requested by the head of any
+of the Departments, touching any matters that might concern their
+Departments. It will be seen, therefore, by the statement communicated
+that no money whatever has been paid to the Attorney General for his
+services in that character, nor for any duty belonging to his office,
+beyond his salary as fixed by law.
+
+It will also be shewn by the documents communicated that the
+construction given of the laws imposing duties on the Attorney General
+and district attorneys have been invariably the same since the
+institution of the Government. On the same authority it was thought
+that the compensation allowed to the present Attorney General for
+certain services, considering their importance and the time employed
+in rendering them, did not exceed, regarding precedents, what might
+fairly be claimed.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL, 13, 1822.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+Having cause to infer that the reasons which led to the construction
+which I gave to the act of the last session entitled "An act to reduce
+and fix the peace establishment of the United States" have not been well
+understood, I consider it my duty to explain more fully the view which
+I took of that act and of the principles on which I executed the very
+difficult and important duty enjoined on me by it.
+
+To do justice to the subject it is thought proper to show the actual
+state of the Army before the passage of the late act, the force in
+service, the several corps of which it was composed, and the grades
+and number of officers commanding it. By seeing distinctly the body
+in all its parts on which the law operated, viewing also with a just
+discrimination the spirit, policy, and positive injunctions of that law
+with reference to precedents established in a former analogous case,
+we shall be enabled to ascertain with great precision whether these
+injunctions have or have not been strictly complied with.
+
+By the act of the 3d of March, 1815, entitled "An act fixing the
+military peace establishment of the United States," the whole force
+in service was reduced to 10,000 men--infantry, artillery, and
+riflemen--exclusive of the Corps of Engineers, which was retained in its
+then state. The regiment of light artillery was retained as it had been
+organized by the act of 3d March, 1814. The infantry was formed into
+9 regiments, 1 of which consisted of riflemen. The regiments of light
+artillery, infantry, riflemen, and Corps of Engineers were commanded
+each by a colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and the usual battalion and
+company officers; and the battalions of the corps of artillery, of which
+there were 8--4 for the Northern and 4 for the Southern division--were
+commanded by lieutenant-colonels or majors, there being 4 of each grade.
+There were, therefore, in the Army at the time the late law was passed
+12 colonels belonging to those branches of the military establishment.
+Two major-generals and 4 brigadiers were likewise retained in service by
+this act; but the staff in several of its branches not being provided
+for, and being indispensable and the omission inadvertent, proceeding
+from the circumstances under which the act was passed, being at the
+close of the session, at which time intelligence of the peace was
+received, it was provisionally retained by the President, and provided
+for afterwards by the act of the 24th April, 1816. By this act the
+Ordnance Department was preserved as it had been organized by the act
+of February 8, 1815, with 1 colonel, 1 lieutenant-colonel, 2 majors,
+10 captains, and 10 first, second, and third lieutenants. One Adjutant
+and Inspector General of the Army and 2 adjutants-general--1 for the
+Northern and 1 for the Southern division--were retained. This act
+provides also for a Paymaster-General, with a suitable number of
+regimental and battalion paymasters, as a part of the general staff,
+constituting the military peace establishment; and the Pay Department
+and every other branch of the staff were subjected to the Rules and
+Articles of War.
+
+By the act of March 2, 1821, it was ordained that the military peace
+establishment should consist of 4 regiments of artillery and 7 of
+infantry, with such officers of engineers, ordnance, and staff as were
+therein specified. It is provided that each regiment of artillery should
+consist of 1 colonel, 1 lieutenant-colonel, 1 major, and 9 companies,
+with the usual company officers, 1 of which to be equipped as light
+artillery, and that there should be attached to each regiment of
+artillery 1 supernumerary captain to perform ordnance duty, thereby
+merging the regiment of artillery and Ordnance Department into these
+4 regiments. It was provided also that each regiment of infantry should
+consist of 1 colonel, 1 lieutenant colonel, 1 major, and 10 companies,
+with the usual company officers. The Corps of Engineers, bombardiers
+excepted, with the topographical engineers and their assistants, were
+to be retained under the existing organization. The former establishment
+as to the number of major generals and brigadiers was curtailed one-half,
+and the office of Inspector and Adjutant General to the Army and of
+adjutant-general to each division annulled, and that of Adjutant General
+to the Army instituted. The Quartermaster, Paymaster, and Commissary
+Departments were also specially provided for, as was every other branch
+of the staff, all of which received a new modification, and were
+subjected to the Rules and Articles of War.
+
+The immediate and direct operation of this act on the military peace
+establishment of 1815 was that of reduction, from which no officer
+belonging to it was exempt, unless it might be the topographical
+engineers; for in retaining the Corps of Engineers, as was manifest
+as well by the clear import of the section relating to it as by the
+provisions of every other clause of the act, reference was had to the
+organization, and not to the officers of the Corps. The establishment
+of 1815 was reduced from 10,000 to about 6,000 men. The 8 battalions of
+artillery, constituting what was called the corps of artillery, and the
+regiment of light artillery as established by the act of 1815, were to
+be incorporated together and formed into 4 new regiments. The regiments
+of infantry were to be reduced from 9 to 7, the rifle regiment being
+broken. Three of the general officers were to be reduced, with very
+many of the officers belonging to the several corps of the Army, and
+particularly of the infantry. All the provisions of the act declare of
+what number of officers and men the several corps provided for by it
+should thenceforward consist, and not that any corps as then existing
+or any officer of any corps, unless the topographical engineers were
+excepted, should be retained. Had it been intended to reduce the
+officers by corps, or to exempt the officers of any corps from the
+operation of the law, or in the organization of the several new corps
+to confine the selection of the officers to be placed in them to the
+several corps of the like kind then existing, and not extend it to the
+whole military establishment, including the staff, or to confine the
+reduction to a proportional number of each corps and of each grade
+in each corps, the object in either instance might have been easily
+accomplished by a declaration to that effect. No such declaration was
+made, nor can such intention be inferred. We see, on the contrary, that
+every corps of the Army and staff was to be reorganized, and most of
+them reduced in officers and men, and that in arranging the officers
+from the old to the new corps full power was granted to the President
+to take them from any and every corps of the former establishment and
+place them in the latter. In this latter grant of power it is proper
+to observe that the most comprehensive terms that could be adopted were
+used, the authority being to cause the arrangement to be made from the
+officers of the several _corps_ then in the service of the United
+States, comprising, of course, every corps of the staff, as well as of
+artillery and infantry, and not from the _corps of troops_, as in the
+former act, and without any limitation as to grades.
+
+It merits particular attention that although the object of this
+latter act was reduction and such its effect on an extensive scale,
+5 new offices were created by it--4 of the grade of colonel for the
+4 regiments of artillery and that of Adjutant-General for the Army. Three
+of the first mentioned were altogether new, the corps having been newly
+created, and although 1 officer of that grade as applicable to the corps
+of light artillery had existed, yet as that regiment was reduced and
+all its parts reorganized in another form and with other duties, being
+incorporated into the 4 new regiments, the commander was manifestly
+displaced and incapable of taking the command of either of the new
+regiments or any station in them until he should be authorized to do so
+by a new appointment. The same remarks are applicable to the office of
+Adjutant-General to the Army. It is an office of new creation, differing
+from that of Adjutant and Inspector General, and likewise from that
+of adjutant-general to a division, which were severally annulled. It
+differs from the first in title, rank, and pay, and from the two latter
+because they had been created by law each for a division, whereas the
+new office, being instituted without such special designation, could
+have relation only to the whole Army. It was manifest, therefore, that
+neither of those officers had any right to this new station nor to
+any other station unless he should be specially appointed to it, the
+principle of reduction being applicable to every officer in every corps.
+It is proper also to observe that the duties of Adjutant-General under
+the existing arrangement correspond in almost every circumstance with
+those of the late Adjutant and Inspector General, and not with those
+of an adjutant-general of a division.
+
+To give effect to this law the President was authorized by the twelfth
+section to cause the officers, noncommissioned officers, artificers,
+musicians, and privates of the several corps then in the service of the
+United States to be arranged in such manner as to form and complete
+out of the same the force thereby provided for, and to cause the
+supernumerary officers, noncommissioned officers, artificers, musicians,
+and privates to be discharged from the service.
+
+In executing this very delicate and important trust I acted with the
+utmost precaution. Sensible of what I owed to my country, I felt
+strongly the obligation of observing the utmost impartiality in
+selecting those officers who were to be retained. In executing this law
+I had no personal object to accomplish or feeling to gratify--no one
+to retain, no one to remove. Having on great consideration fixed the
+principles on which the reduction should be made, I availed myself
+of the example of my predecessor by appointing through the proper
+department a board of general officers to make the selection, and
+whose report I adopted.
+
+In transferring the officers from the old to the new corps the utmost
+care was taken to place them in the latter in the grades and corps to
+which they had respectively belonged in the former, so far as it might
+be practicable. This, though not enjoined by the law, appearing to be
+just and proper, was never departed from except in peculiar cases and
+under imperious circumstances.
+
+In filling the original vacancies in the artillery and in the newly
+created office of Adjutant-General I considered myself at liberty to
+place in them any officer belonging to any part of the whole military
+establishment, whether of the staff or line. In filling original
+vacancies--that is, offices newly created--it is my opinion, as a
+general principle, that Congress have no right under the Constitution
+to impose any restraint by law on the power granted to the President
+so as to prevent his making a free selection of proper persons for these
+offices from the whole body of his fellow-citizens. Without, however,
+entering here into that question, I have no hesitation in declaring it
+as my opinion that the law fully authorized a selection from any branch
+of the whole military establishment of 1815. Justified, therefore, as
+I thought myself in taking that range by the very highest sanction, the
+sole object to which I had to direct my attention was the merit of the
+officers to be selected for these stations. Three generals of great
+merit were either to be dismissed or otherwise provided for. The
+very gallant and patriotic defender of New Orleans had intimated his
+intention to retire, but at my suggestion expressed his willingness
+to accept the office of commissioner to receive the cession of the
+Floridas and of governor for a short time of that Territory. As to one,
+therefore, there was no difficulty. For the other two provision could
+only be made in the mode which was adopted. General Macomb, who had
+signalized himself in the defense of Plattsburg, was placed at the head
+of the Corps of Engineers, to which he had originally belonged, and in
+which he had acquired great experience, Colonel Armistead, then at the
+head of that corps, having voluntarily accepted one of the new regiments
+of artillery, for which he possessed very suitable qualifications.
+General Atkinson, likewise an officer of great merit, was appointed to
+the newly created office of Adjutant-General. Brevet General Porter, an
+officer of great experience in the artillery, and merit, was appointed
+to the command of another of those regiments. Colonel Fenwick, then the
+oldest lieutenant-colonel of artillery, and who had suffered much in the
+late war by severe wounds, was appointed to a third, and Colonel Towson,
+who had served with great distinction in the same corps and been twice
+brevetted for his gallantry in the late war, was appointed to the last
+remaining one. General Atkinson having declined the office of Adjutant
+General, Colonel Gadsden, an officer of distinguished merit and believed
+to possess qualifications suitably adapted to it, was appointed in
+his stead. In making the arrangement the merits of Colonel Butler and
+Colonel Jones were not overlooked. The former was assigned to the place
+which he would have held in the line if he had retained his original
+lineal commission, and the latter to his commission in the line, which
+he had continued to hold with his staff appointment.
+
+That the reduction of the Army and the arrangement of the officers
+from the old to the new establishment and the appointments referred to
+were in every instance strictly conformable to law will, I think, be
+apparent. To the arrangement generally no objection has been heard; it
+has been made, however, to the appointments to the original vacancies,
+and particularly to those of Colonel Towson and Colonel Gadsden. To
+those appointments, therefore, further attention is due. If they were
+improper it must be either that they were illegal or that the officers
+did not merit the offices conferred on them. The acknowledged merit of
+the officers and the peculiar fitness for the offices to which they were
+respectively appointed must preclude all objection on that head. Having
+already suggested my impression that in filling offices newly created,
+to which on no principle whatever anyone could have a claim of right,
+Congress could not under the Constitution restrain the free selection of
+the President from the whole body of his fellow-citizens, I shall only
+further remark that if that impression is well founded all objection
+to these appointments must cease. If the law imposed such restraint,
+it would in that case be void. But, according to my judgment, the law
+imposed none. An objection to the legality of those appointments must be
+founded either on the principle that those officers were not comprised
+within the corps then in the service of the United States--that is, did
+not belong to the peace establishment--or that the power granted by
+the word "arrange" imposed on the President the necessity of placing
+in these new offices persons of the same grade only from the old. It is
+believed that neither objection is well founded. Colonel Towson belonged
+to one of the corps then in the service of the United States, or, in
+other words, of the military peace establishment. By the act of 1815-16
+the Pay Department, of which the Paymaster General was the chief, was
+made one of the branches of the staff, and he and all those under him
+were subjected to the Rules and Articles of War. The appointment,
+therefore, of him, and especially to a new office, was strictly
+conformable to law.
+
+The only difference between the fifth section of the act of 1815 for
+reducing the Army and the twelfth section of the act of 1821 for still
+further reducing it, by which the power to carry those laws into effect
+was granted to the President in each instance, consists in this, that by
+the former he was to cause the arrangement to be made of the officers,
+noncommissioned officers, musicians, and privates of the several _corps
+of troops_ then in the service of the United States, whereas in the
+latter the term _troops_ was omitted. It can not be doubted that that
+omission had an object, and that it was thereby intended to guard
+against misconstruction in so very material and important a circumstance
+by authorizing the application of the act unequivocally to every corps
+of the staff as well as of the line. With that word a much wider range
+was given to the act of 1815 on the reduction which then took place than
+under the last act. The omission of it from the last act, together with
+all the sanctions which were given by Congress to the construction of
+the law in the reduction made under the former, could not fail to dispel
+all doubt as to the extent of the power granted by the last law and of
+the principles which ought to guide, and on which it was thereby made
+the duty of the President to execute it. With respect to the other
+objection--that is, that officers of the same grade only ought to have
+been transferred to these new offices--it is equally unfounded. It is
+admitted that officers may be taken from the old corps and reduced and
+arranged in the new in inferior grades, as was done under the former
+reduction. This admission puts an end to the objection in this case;
+for if an officer may be reduced and arranged from one corps to another
+by an entire change of grade, requiring a new commission and a new
+nomination to the Senate, I see no reason why an officer may not be
+advanced in like manner. In both instances the grade in the old corps
+is alike disregarded. The transfer from it to the new turns on the merit
+of the party, and it is believed that the claim in this instance is felt
+by all with peculiar sensibility. The claim of Colonel Towson is the
+stronger because the arrangement of him to the office to which he is now
+nominated is not to one from which any officer has been removed, and to
+which any other officer may in any view of the case be supposed to have
+had a claim. As Colonel Gadsden held the office of Inspector-General,
+and as such was acknowledged by all to belong to the staff of the Army,
+it is not perceived on what ground his appointment can be objected to.
+
+If such a construction is to be given to the act of 1821 as to confine
+the transfer of officers from the old to the new establishment to the
+_corps of troops_--that is, to the line of the Army--the whole staff of
+the Army in every branch would not only be excluded from any appointment
+in the new establishment, but altogether disbanded from the service.
+It would follow also that all the offices of the staff under the
+new arrangement must be filled by officers belonging to the new
+establishment after its organization and their arrangement in it.
+Other consequences not less serious would follow. If the right of the
+President to fill these original vacancies by the selection of officers
+from any branch of the whole military establishment was denied, he would
+be compelled to place in them officers of the same grade whose corps had
+been reduced, and they with them. The effect, therefore, of the law as
+to those appointments would be to legislate into office men who had been
+already legislated out of office, taking from the President all agency
+in their appointment. Such a construction would not only be subversive
+of the obvious principles of the Constitution, but utterly inconsistent
+with the spirit of the law itself, since it would provide offices for
+a particular grade, and fix every member of that grade in those offices,
+at a time when every other grade was reduced, and among them generals
+and other officers of the highest merit. It would also defeat every
+object of selection, since colonels of infantry would be placed at the
+head of regiments of artillery, a service in which they might have had
+no experience, and for which they might in consequence be unqualified.
+
+Having omitted in the message to Congress at the commencement of the
+session to state the principles on which this law had been executed, and
+having imperfectly explained them in the message to the Senate of the
+17th of January last, I deem it particularly incumbent on me, as well
+from a motive of respect to the Senate as to place my conduct in the
+duty imposed on me by that act in a clear point of view, to make this
+communication at this time. The examples under the law of 1815, whereby
+officers were reduced and arranged from the old corps to the new in
+inferior grades, fully justify all that has been done under the law
+of 1821. If the power to arrange under the former law authorized the
+removal of one officer from a particular station and the location of
+another in it, reducing the latter from a higher to an inferior grade,
+with the advice and consent of the Senate, it surely justifies under
+the latter law the arrangement of these officers, with a like sanction,
+to offices of new creation, from which no one had been removed and to
+which no one had a just claim. It is on the authority of these examples,
+supported by the construction which I gave to the law, that I have acted
+in the discharge of this high trust. I am aware that many officers of
+great merit, having the strongest claims on their country, have been
+reduced and others dismissed, but under the law that result was
+inevitable. It is believed that none have been retained who had not,
+likewise, the strongest claims to the appointments which have been
+conferred on them. To discriminate between men of acknowledged merit,
+especially in a way to affect so sensibly and materially their feelings
+and interests, for many of whom I have personal consideration and
+regard, has been a most painful duty; yet I am conscious that I have
+discharged it with the utmost impartiality. Had I opened the door to
+change in any case, even where error might have been committed, against
+whom could I afterwards have closed it, and into what consequences might
+not such a proceeding have led? The same remarks are applicable to the
+subject in its relation to the Senate, to whose calm and enlightened
+judgment, with these explanations, I again submit the nominations which
+have been rejected.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL 15, 1822.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 12th instant,
+requesting the President of the United States "to cause to be laid
+before the Senate the original proceedings of the board of general
+officers charged with the reduction of the Army under the act of the 2d
+of March, 1821, together with all communications to and from said board
+on the subject of reducing the Army, including the case submitted to the
+Attorney-General, and his opinion thereon," I now transmit a report from
+the Secretary of War, furnishing the information requested.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 15, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate requesting the President
+of the United States to lay before that House any report or information
+which may be in his possession as to the most eligible situation on
+the Western waters for the erection of a national arsenal, I herewith
+transmit a report from the Secretary of War, containing all the
+information on that subject in the possession of the Executive.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 15, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+16th of February last, requesting the President of the United States
+"to communicate to that House whether any foreign government has made
+any claim to any part of the territory of the United States upon the
+coast of the Pacific Ocean north of the forty-second degree of latitude,
+and to what extent; whether any regulations have been made by foreign
+powers affecting the trade on that coast, and how it affects the interest
+of this Republic, and whether any communications have been made to this
+Government by foreign powers touching the contemplated occupation of
+Columbia River," I now transmit a report from the Secretary of State,
+containing the information embraced by that resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 18, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+I communicate to the House of Representatives copies of sundry papers
+having relation to the transactions in East and West Florida, which have
+been received at the Department of State since my message to the two
+Houses of Congress of the 28th of January last, together with copies
+of two letters from the Secretary of State upon the same subject.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+[The same message was sent to the Senate.]
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 23, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+29th January last, requesting the President of the United States to
+cause to be communicated to that House certain information relative to
+the claim made by Jonathan Carver to certain lands within the United
+States near the Falls of St. Anthony. I now transmit a report of the
+Secretary of the Treasury, which, with the accompanying documents,
+contains all the information on this subject in the possession of
+the Executive.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 26, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate, agreeably to their resolution of yesterday, a
+report from the Secretary of State, with copies of the papers requested
+by that resolution, in relation to the recognition of the South American
+Provinces.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 29, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary
+of State, in pursuance of their resolution of the 20th instant,[A]
+"requesting to be furnished with a copy of the judicial proceedings
+in the United States court for the district of Louisiana in the case
+of the French slave ship _La Pensee_."
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+[Footnote: A: An error; so in the original message. The date of the
+resolution is the 18th of April.]
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 30, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate, requesting the President
+of the United States to cause to be laid before the Senate certain
+information respecting the practical operation of the system of
+subsisting the Army under the provisions of the act passed the 14th
+of April, 1818, etc., I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary
+of War, furnishing the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 1, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In the message to both Houses of Congress at the commencement of their
+present session it was mentioned that the Government of Norway had
+issued an ordinance for admitting the vessels of the United States and
+their cargoes into the ports of that Kingdom upon the payment of no
+other or higher duties than are paid by Norwegian vessels, of whatever
+articles the said cargoes may consist and from whatever ports the
+vessels laden with them may come.
+
+In communicating this ordinance to the Government of the United States
+that of Norway has requested the benefit of a similar and reciprocal
+provision for the vessels of Norway and their cargoes which may enter
+the ports of the United States.
+
+This provision being within the competency only of the legislative
+authority of Congress, I communicate to them herewith copies of the
+communications received from the Norwegian Government in relation to
+the subject, and recommend the same to their consideration.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 1, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit herewith to Congress copies of letters received at the
+Department of State from the minister of Great Britain on the subject
+of the duties discriminating between imported rolled and hammered iron.
+I recommend them particularly to the consideration of Congress, believing
+that although there may be ground for controversy with regard to the
+application of the engagements of the treaty to the case, yet a liberal
+construction of those engagements would be compatible at once with a
+conciliatory and a judicious policy.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 4, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+19th of April, requesting the President "to cause to be communicated to
+the House, if not injurious to the public interest, any letter which
+may have been received from Jonathan Russell, one of the ministers
+who concluded the treaty of Ghent, in conformity with the indications
+contained in his letter of the 25th of December, 1814," I have to state
+that having referred the resolution to the Secretary of State, and
+it appearing, by a report from him, that no such document had been
+deposited among the archives of the Department, I examined and found
+among my private papers a letter of that description marked "private"
+by himself. I transmit a copy of the report of the Secretary of State,
+by which it appears that Mr. Russell, on being apprised that the document
+referred to by the resolution had not been deposited in the Department
+of State, delivered there "a paper purporting to be the duplicate of a
+letter written by him from Paris on the 11th of February, 1815, to the
+then Secretary of State, to be communicated to the House as the letter
+called for by the resolution."
+
+On the perusal of the document called for I find that it communicates
+a difference of opinion between Mr. Russell and a majority of his
+colleagues in certain transactions which occurred in the negotiations at
+Ghent, touching interests which have been since satisfactorily adjusted
+by treaty between the United States and Great Britain. The view which
+Mr. Russell presents of his own conduct and that of his colleagues in
+those transactions will, it is presumed, call from the two surviving
+members of that mission who differed from him a reply containing
+their view of those transactions and of the conduct of the parties
+in them, and who, should his letter be communicated to the House of
+Representatives, will also claim that their reply should be communicated
+in like manner by the Executive--a claim which, on the principle of
+equal justice, could not be resisted. The Secretary of State, one of the
+ministers referred to, has already expressed a desire that Mr. Russell's
+letter should be communicated, and that I would transmit at the same
+time a communication from him respecting it.
+
+On full consideration of the subject I have thought it would be improper
+for the Executive to communicate the letter called for unless the House,
+on a knowledge of these circumstances, should desire it, in which case
+the document called for shall be communicated, accompanied by a report
+from the Secretary of State, as above suggested. I have directed a copy
+to be delivered to Mr. Russell, to be disposed of as he may think
+proper, and have caused the original to be deposited in the Department
+of State, with instruction to deliver a copy to any person who may be
+interested.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 6, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
+
+I transmit to Congress translations of two letters from Don Joaquin
+d'Anduaga to the Secretary of State, which have been received at the
+Department of State since my last message communicating copies of big
+correspondence with this Government.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+_Don Joaquin de Anduaga to the Secretary of State_.
+
+[Translation.]
+
+PHILADELPHIA, _April 24, 1822_.
+
+SIR: As soon as the news was received in Madrid of the recent
+occurrences in New Spain after the arrival at Vera Cruz of the
+Captain-General and supreme political chief appointed for those
+Provinces, Don Juan O. Donojú, and some papers were seen relative to
+those same transactions, it was feared that for forming the treaty
+concluded in Cordova on the 24th of August last between the said General
+and the traitor, Colonel Dr. Augustine Iturbide, it had been falsely
+supposed that the former had power from His Catholic Majesty for that
+act, and in a little time the correctness of those suspicions was found,
+as, among other things, the said O. Donojú, when on the 26th of the same
+August he sent this treaty to the governor of Vera Cruz, notifying
+him of its prompt and punctual observance, he told him that at his
+sailing from the Peninsula preparation for the independence of Mexico
+was already thought of, and that its bases were approved of by the
+Government and by a commission of the Cortes. His Majesty, on sight
+of this and of the fatal impression which so great an imposture had
+produced in some ultramarine Provinces, and what must without difficulty
+be the consequence among the rest, thought proper to order that, by
+means of a circular to all the chiefs and corporations beyond seas,
+this atrocious falsehood should be disbelieved; and now he has deigned
+to command me to make it known to the Government of the United States
+that it is false as far as General O. Donojú published beyond his
+instructions, by pointing out to it that he never could have been
+furnished with other instructions than those conformable to
+constitutional principles.
+
+In compliance with this order of His Majesty, I can do no less than
+observe to you, sir, how unfounded one of the reasons is in your note
+of the 6th instant for the recognition by this Government of those of
+the insurgent Provinces of Spanish-America--that it was founded on the
+treaty made by O. Donojú with Iturbide--since not having had that power
+nor instruction to conclude it it is clearly null and of no value.
+
+I repeat to you, sir, the sentiments of my distinguished consideration,
+and pray God that you live many years.
+
+JOAQUIN DE ANDUAGA.
+
+
+
+_Don Joaquin de Anduaga to the Secretary of State_.
+
+[Translation.]
+
+PHILADELPHIA, _April 26, 1822_.
+
+
+
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+_Secretary of State_.
+
+SIR: I have received your note of the 15th instant, in which you are
+pleased to communicate to me the reasons which induce the President
+not only to refuse to His Catholic Majesty the satisfaction which he
+demanded in his royal name for the insults offered by General Jackson
+to the Spanish commissaries and officers, but to approve fully of the
+said chief's conduct.
+
+Before answering the contents of the said note I thought it my duty to
+request instructions from my Government, and therefore without delay I
+have laid it before them. Until they arrive, therefore, I have confined
+myself to two observations:
+
+First. If in my note of the 18th of November last I said that as General
+Jackson had not specified the actions which had induced him to declare
+the Spanish officers expelled from the Floridas criminal, nor given
+proof of them, I thought myself authorized to declare the accusation
+false, I did not this through inadvertency, but upon the evident
+principle that every person accused has a right to declare an accusation
+destitute of proof false, and, much more, an accusation not pretended
+to be proved. This assertion of mine does not presume that I am not
+persuaded of the merit of the said General and of the claim which he has
+upon the gratitude of his country; but although it is believed the duty
+of his country to eulogize and reward his eminent services, yet it will
+be lawful for the representative of a power outraged by him to complain
+of his conduct. I can not persuade myself that to aggravate my said
+expression you could have thought that I had been wanting in due
+respect, it not being possible for that opinion to have entered your
+mind, when by his orders Mr. Forsyth had sent to the Spanish minister
+on the 1st of September last a note, in which, complaining of the
+Captain-General of the island of Cuba, he accuses him of dishonorable
+pecuniary motives in not having delivered the archives, without giving
+any proof of so injurious an assertion; and I must remark that the rank
+of General Mabry in Spain is at least as elevated as that of General
+Jackson in the United States, and that the services performed by him to
+his country have rendered him as worthy as he of its consideration and
+respect.
+
+Second. Although you are pleased to tell me that part of the papers
+taken from Colonel Coppinger are ready to be delivered, which the
+American commissioners, _after having examined them_, have adjudged to
+be returned to Spain, I do not think myself authorized to admit their
+return in this manner, but in the mode which I demanded in my note of
+the 22d of November last.
+
+As I have seen by the public papers that the President has communicated
+to Congress the note which you were pleased to address to me, dated
+the 15th instant, and that it has been ordered to be printed, I take
+the liberty of requesting that you will have the goodness to use your
+influence that this my answer may be treated in the same manner, that
+Congress and the public may be informed that if I have not answered the
+first part of it as respects the general business, it is only to wait
+for the instructions of my Government, but that I have answered what
+was personal.
+
+I renew to you, sir, the sentiments of my distinguished consideration.
+
+JOAQUIN DE ANDUAGA.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 6, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 26th of April,
+requesting the President of the United States "to communicate to the
+Senate the report of the Attorney-General relative to any persons
+(citizens of the United States) who have been charged with or suspected
+of introducing any slaves into the United States contrary to existing
+laws," I transmit herewith two reports from the Attorney-General.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 7, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 25th of April,
+requesting certain information concerning lead mines on lands of the
+United States, I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 7, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+23d of April, requesting the President of the United States to cause to
+be communicated to that House certain information respecting the lead
+mines of the State of Missouri, I herewith transmit a report of the
+Secretary of War.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 7, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 7th of May, requesting the President to communicate to that House
+a letter of Jonathan Russell, esq., referred to in his message of the
+4th instant, together with such communications as he may have received
+relative thereto from any of the other ministers of the United States
+who negotiated the treaty of Ghent, I herewith transmit a report from
+the Secretary of State, with the documents called for by that
+resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+VETO MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 4, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+Having duly considered the bill entitled "An act for the preservation
+and repair of the Cumberland road," it is with deep regret, approving
+as I do the policy, that I am compelled to object to its passage and to
+return the bill to the House of Representatives, in which it originated,
+under a conviction that Congress do not possess the power under the
+Constitution to pass such a law.
+
+A power to establish turnpikes with gates and tolls, and to enforce the
+collection of tolls by penalties, implies a power to adopt and execute a
+complete system of internal improvement. A right to impose duties to be
+paid by all persons passing a certain road, and on horses and carriages,
+as is done by this bill, involves the right to take the land from the
+proprietor on a valuation and to pass laws for the protection of the
+road from injuries, and if it exist as to one road it exists as to any
+other, and to as many roads as Congress may think proper to establish.
+A right to legislate for one of these purposes is a right to legislate
+for the others. It is a complete right of jurisdiction and sovereignty
+for all the purposes of internal improvement, and not merely the
+right of applying money under the power vested in Congress to make
+appropriations, under which power, with the consent of the States
+through which this road passes, the work was originally commenced, and
+has been so far executed. I am of opinion that Congress do not possess
+this power; that the States individually can not grant it, for although
+they may assent to the appropriation of money within their limits for
+such purposes, they can grant no power of jurisdiction or sovereignty by
+special compacts with the United States. This power can be granted only
+by an amendment to the Constitution and in the mode prescribed by it.
+
+If the power exist, it must be either because it has been specifically
+granted to the United States or that it is incidental to some power
+which has been specifically granted. If we examine the specific grants
+of power we do not find it among them, nor is it incidental to any power
+which has been specifically granted.
+
+It has never been contended that the power was specifically granted.
+It is claimed only as being incidental to some one or more of the powers
+which are specifically granted. The following are the powers from which
+it is said to be derived:
+
+First, from the right to establish post-offices and post-roads; second,
+from the right to declare war; third, to regulate commerce; fourth,
+to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare;
+fifth, from the power to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying
+into execution all the powers vested by the Constitution in the
+Government of the United States or in any department or officer thereof;
+sixth and lastly, from the power to dispose of and make all needful
+rules and regulations respecting the territory and other property of
+the United States.
+
+According to my judgment it can not be derived from either of those
+powers, nor from all of them united, and in consequence it does not
+exist.
+
+Having stated my objections to the bill, I should now cheerfully
+communicate at large the reasons on which they are founded if I had
+time to reduce them to such form as to include them in this paper. The
+advanced stage of the session renders that impossible. Having at the
+commencement of my service in this high trust considered it a duty to
+express the opinion that the United States do not possess the power in
+question, and to suggest for the consideration of Congress the propriety
+of recommending to the States an amendment to the Constitution to vest
+the power in the United States, my attention has been often drawn to the
+subject since, in consequence whereof I have occasionally committed my
+sentiments to paper respecting it. The form which this exposition has
+assumed is not such as I should have given it had it been intended for
+Congress, nor is it concluded. Nevertheless, as it contains my views
+on this subject, being one which I deem of very high importance, and
+which in many of its bearings has now become peculiarly urgent, I will
+communicate it to Congress, if in my power, in the course of the day,
+or certainly on Monday next.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 4, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+I transmit the paper alluded to in the message of this day, on the
+subject of internal improvements.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+VIEWS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES ON THE SUBJECT OF INTERNAL
+IMPROVEMENTS.
+
+It may be presumed that the proposition relating to internal
+improvements by roads and canals, which has been several times before
+Congress, will be taken into consideration again either for the purpose
+of recommending to the States the adoption of an amendment to the
+Constitution to vest the necessary power in the General Government or
+to carry the system into effect on the principle that the power has
+already been granted. It seems to be the prevailing opinion that great
+advantage would be derived from the exercise of such a power by Congress.
+Respecting the right there is much diversity of sentiment. It is of the
+highest importance that this question should be settled. If the right
+exist, it ought forthwith to be exercised. If it does not exist, surely
+those who are friends to the power ought to unite in recommending an
+amendment to the Constitution to obtain it. I propose to examine this
+question.
+
+The inquiry confined to its proper objects and within the most limited
+scale is extensive. Our Government is unlike other governments both in
+its origin and form. In analyzing it the differences in certain respects
+between it and those of other nations, ancient and modern, necessarily
+come into view. I propose to notice these differences so far as they are
+connected with the object of inquiry, and the consequences likely to
+result from them, varying in equal degree from those which have attended
+other governments. The digression, if it may be so called, will in every
+instance be short and the transition to the main object immediate and
+direct.
+
+To do justice to the subject it will be necessary to mount to the source
+of power in these States and to pursue this power in its gradations and
+distribution among the several departments in which it is now vested.
+The great division is between the State governments and the General
+Government. If there was a perfect accord in every instance as to
+the precise extent of the powers granted to the General Government,
+we should then know with equal certainty what were the powers which
+remained to the State governments, since it would follow that those
+which were not granted to the one would remain to the other. But it is
+on this point, and particularly respecting the construction of these
+powers and their incidents, that a difference of opinion exists, and
+hence it is necessary to trace distinctly the origin of each government,
+the purposes intended by it, and the means adopted to accomplish them.
+By having the interior of both governments fully before us we shall have
+all the means which can be afforded to enable us to form a correct
+opinion of the endowments of each.
+
+Before the Revolution the present States, then colonies, were separate
+communities, unconnected with each other except in their common relation
+to the Crown. Their governments were instituted by grants from the
+Crown, which operated, according to the conditions of each grant, in
+the nature of a compact between the settlers in each colony and the
+Crown. All power not retained in the Crown was vested exclusively in
+the colonies, each having a government consisting of an executive, a
+judiciary, and a legislative assembly, one branch of which was in every
+instance elected by the people. No office was hereditary, nor did any
+title under the Crown give rank or office in any of the colonies. In
+resisting the encroachments of the parent country and abrogating the
+power of the Crown the authority which had been held by it vested
+exclusively in the people of the colonies, By them was a Congress
+appointed, composed of delegates from each colony, who managed the war,
+declared independence, treated with foreign powers, and acted in all
+things according to the sense of their constituents. The Declaration of
+Independence confirmed in form what had before existed in substance.
+It announced to the world new States, possessing and exercising complete
+sovereignty, which they were resolved to maintain. They were soon after
+recognized by France and other powers, and finally by Great Britain
+herself in 1783.
+
+Soon after the power of the Crown was annulled the people of each
+colony established a constitution or frame of government for themselves,
+in which these separate branches--legislative, executive, and
+judiciary--were instituted, each independent of the others. To these
+branches, each having its appropriate portion, the whole power of the
+people not delegated to Congress was communicated, to be exercised for
+their advantage on the representative principle by persons of their
+appointment, or otherwise deriving their authority immediately from
+them, and holding their offices for stated terms. All the powers
+necessary for useful purposes held by any of the strongest governments
+of the Old World not vested in Congress were imparted to these State
+governments without other checks than such as are necessary to prevent
+abuse, in the form of fundamental declarations or bills of right. The
+great difference between our governments and those of the Old World
+consists in this, that the former, being representative, the persons who
+exercise their powers do it not for themselves or in their own right,
+but for the people, and therefore while they are in the highest degree
+efficient they can never become oppressive. It is this transfer of
+the power of the people to representative and responsible bodies in
+every branch which constitutes the great improvement in the science
+of government and forms the boast of our system. It combines all the
+advantages of every known government without any of their disadvantages.
+It retains the sovereignty in the people, while it avoids the tumult
+and disorder incident to the exercise of that power by the people
+themselves. It possesses all the energy and efficiency of the most
+despotic governments, while it avoids all the oppressions and abuses
+inseparable from those governments.
+
+In every stage of the conflict from its commencement until March,
+1781, the powers of Congress were undefined, but of vast extent.
+The assemblies or conventions of the several colonies being formed by
+representatives from every county in each colony and the Congress by
+delegates from each colonial assembly, the powers of the latter for
+general purposes resembled those of the former for local. They rested
+on the same basis, the people, and were complete for all the purposes
+contemplated. Never was a movement so spontaneous, so patriotic, so
+efficient. The nation exerted its whole faculties in support of its
+rights, and of its independence after the contest took that direction,
+and it succeeded. It was, however, foreseen at a very early stage
+that although the patriotism of the country might be relied on in
+the struggle for its independence, a well-digested compact would be
+necessary to preserve it after obtained. A plan of confederation was
+in consequence proposed and taken into consideration by Congress even
+at the moment when the other great act which severed them from Great
+Britain and declared their independence was proclaimed to the world.
+This compact was ratified on the 21st March, 1781, by the last State,
+and thereupon carried into immediate effect.
+
+The following powers were vested in the United States by the Articles
+of Confederation. As this, the first bond of union, was in operation
+nearly eight years, during which time a practical construction was given
+to many of its powers, all of which were adopted in the Constitution
+with important additions, it is thought that a correct view of those
+powers and of the manner in which they are executed may shed light on
+the subject under consideration. It may fairly be presumed that where
+certain powers were transferred from one instrument to the other and
+in the same terms, or terms descriptive only of the same powers, that
+it was intended that they should be construed in the same sense in
+the latter that they were in the former.
+
+Article I declares that the style of the Confederacy shall be "The
+United States of America."
+
+Article II. Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and
+independence, and every power and right which is not expressly delegated
+to the United States.
+
+Article III. The States severally enter into a firm league of friendship
+with each other for their common defense, the security of their
+liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves
+to assist each other against all force offered to or attacks made upon
+them on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, etc.
+
+Article IV. The free inhabitants of each State, paupers, vagabonds, and
+fugitives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all the privileges
+and immunities of free citizens in the several States, etc. Fugitives
+from justice into any of the States shall be delivered up on the demand
+of the executive of the State from which they fled. Full faith and
+credit shall be given in each State to the records and acts of every
+other State.
+
+Article V. Delegates shall be annually appointed by the legislature of
+each State to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November, with a
+power to recall, etc. No State shall appoint less than two nor more than
+seven, nor shall any delegate hold his office for more than three in six
+years. Each State shall maintain its own delegates. Each State shall
+have one vote. Freedom of speech shall not be impeached, and the members
+shall be protected from arrests, except for treason, etc.
+
+Article VI. No State shall send or receive an embassy or enter into a
+treaty with a foreign power. Nor shall any person holding any office of
+profit or trust under the United States or any State accept any present,
+emolument, office, or title from a foreign power. Nor shall the United
+States or any State grant any title of nobility. No two States shall
+enter into any treaty without the consent of Congress. No State shall
+lay any imposts or duties which may interfere with any treaties entered
+into by the United States. No State shall engage in war unless it be
+invaded or menaced with invasion by some Indian tribe, nor grant letters
+of marque or reprisal unless it be against pirates, nor keep up vessels
+of war nor any body of troops in time of peace without the consent of
+Congress; but every State shall keep up a well regulated militia, etc.
+
+Article VII. When land forces are raised by any State for the common
+defense, all officers of and under the rank of colonel shall be
+appointed by the legislature of each State.
+
+Article VIII. All charges of war and all other expenses which shall be
+incurred for the common defense or general welfare shall be defrayed
+out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several
+States in proportion to the value of all the land in each State
+granted to individuals. The taxes for paying each proportion shall
+be levied by the several States.
+
+Article IX. Congress shall have the sole and exclusive right and power
+of determining on peace and war, except in the cases mentioned in
+the sixth article; of sending and receiving ambassadors; entering
+into alliances, except, etc.; of establishing rules for deciding what
+captures on land and water shall be legal; of granting letters of marque
+and reprisal in time of peace; appointing courts for the trial of
+piracies and felonies on the high seas; for deciding controversies
+between the States and between individuals claiming lands under two or
+more States whose jurisdiction has been adjusted; of regulating the
+alloy and value of coin struck by their authority and of foreign coin;
+fixing the standard of weights and measures; regulating the trade with
+the Indians; establishing and regulating post offices from one State to
+another and throughout all the States, and exacting such postage as may
+be requisite to defray the expenses of the office; of appointing all
+officers of the land forces except the regimental; appointing all the
+officers of the naval forces; to ascertain the necessary sums of money
+to be raised for the service of the United States and appropriate the
+same; to borrow money and emit bills of credit; to build and equip a
+Navy; to agree on the number of land forces and to make requisitions
+on each State for its quota; that the assent of nine States shall be
+requisite to these great acts.
+
+Article X regulates the powers of the committee of the States to sit in
+the recess of Congress.
+
+Article XI provides for the admission of Canada into the Confederation.
+
+Article XII pledges the faith of the United States for the payment of
+all bills of credit issued and money borrowed on their account.
+
+Article XIII. Every State shall abide by the determination of the United
+States on all questions submitted to them by the Confederation, the
+Articles of the Confederation to be perpetual and not to be altered
+without the consent of every State.
+
+This bond of union was soon found to be utterly incompetent to the
+purposes intended by it. It was defective in its powers; it was
+defective also in the means of executing the powers actually granted by
+it. Being a league of sovereign and independent States, its acts, like
+those of all other leagues, required the interposition of the States
+composing it to give them effect within their respective jurisdictions.
+The acts of Congress without the aid of State laws to enforce them were
+altogether nugatory. The refusal or omission of one State to pass such
+laws was urged as a reason to justify like conduct in others, and thus
+the Government was soon at a stand.
+
+The experience of a few years demonstrated that the Confederation could
+not be relied on for the security of the blessings which had been
+derived from the Revolution. The interests of the nation required
+a more efficient Government, which the good sense and virtue of the
+people provided by the adoption of the present Constitution.
+
+The Constitution of the United States was formed by a convention of
+delegates from the several States, who met in Philadelphia, duly
+authorized for the purpose, and it was ratified by a convention in each
+State which was especially called to consider and decide on the same.
+In this progress the State governments were never suspended in their
+functions. On the contrary, they took the lead in it. Conscious of their
+incompetency to secure to the Union the blessings of the Revolution,
+they promoted the diminution of their own powers and the enlargement of
+those of the General Government in the way in which they might be most
+adequate and efficient. It is believed that no other example can be
+found of a Government exerting its influence to lessen its own powers,
+of a policy so enlightened, of a patriotism so pure and disinterested.
+The credit, however, is more especially due to the people of each State,
+in obedience to whose will and under whose control the State governments
+acted.
+
+The Constitution of the United States, being ratified by the people of
+the several States, became of necessity to the extent of its powers the
+paramount authority of the Union. On sound principles it can be viewed
+in no other light. The people, the highest authority known to our
+system, from whom all our institutions spring and on whom they depend,
+formed it. Had the people of the several States thought proper to
+incorporate themselves into one community, under one government, they
+might have done it. They had the power, and there was nothing then nor
+is there anything now, should they be so disposed, to prevent it. They
+wisely stopped, however, at a certain point, extending the incorporation
+to that point, making the National Government thus far a consolidated
+Government, and preserving the State governments without that limit
+perfectly sovereign and independent of the National Government. Had the
+people of the several States incorporated themselves into one community,
+they must have remained such, their Constitution becoming then, like the
+constitution of the several States, incapable of change until altered
+by the will of the majority. In the institution of a State government
+by the citizens of a State a compact is formed to which all and every
+citizen are equal parties. They are also the sole parties and may amend
+it at pleasure. In the institution of the Government of the United
+States by the citizens of every State a compact was formed between the
+whole American people which has the same force and partakes of all the
+qualities to the extent of its powers as a compact between the citizens
+of a State in the formation of their own constitution. It can not be
+altered except by those who formed it or in the mode prescribed by the
+parties to the compact itself.
+
+This Constitution was adopted for the purpose of remedying all
+defects of the Confederation, and in this it has succeeded beyond
+any calculation that could have been formed of any human institution.
+By binding the States together the Constitution performs the great
+office of the Confederation; but it is in that sense only that it has
+any of the properties of that compact, and in that it is more effectual
+to the purpose, as it holds them together by a much stronger bond; and
+in all other respects in which the Confederation failed the Constitution
+has been blessed with complete success. The Confederation was a compact
+between separate and independent States, the execution of whose
+articles in the powers which operated internally depended on the State
+governments. But the great office of the Constitution, by incorporating
+the people of the several States to the extent of its powers into one
+community and enabling it to act directly on the people, was to annul
+the powers of the State governments to that extent, except in cases
+where they were concurrent, and to preclude their agency in giving
+effect to those of the General Government. The Government of the United
+States relies on its own means for the execution of its powers, as the
+State governments do for the execution of theirs, both governments
+having a common origin or sovereign, the people--the State governments
+the people of each State, the National Government the people of every
+State--and being amenable to the power which created it. It is by
+executing its functions as a Government thus originating and thus acting
+that the Constitution of the United States holds the States together and
+performs the office of a league. It is owing to the nature of its powers
+and the high source from whence they are derived--the people--that it
+performs that office better than the Confederation or any league which
+ever existed, being a compact which the State governments did not form,
+to which they are not parties, and which executes its own powers
+independently of them.
+
+There were two separate and independent governments established over
+our Union, one for local purposes over each State by the people of
+the State, the other for national purposes over all the States by
+the people of the United States. The whole power of the people, on the
+representative principle, is divided between them. The State governments
+are independent of each other, and to the extent of their powers are
+complete sovereignties. The National Government begins where the State
+governments terminate, except in some instances where there is a
+concurrent jurisdiction between them. This Government is also, according
+to the extent of its powers, a complete sovereignty. I speak here, as
+repeatedly mentioned before, altogether of representative sovereignties,
+for the real sovereignty is in the people alone.
+
+The history of the world affords no such example of two separate and
+independent governments established over the same people, nor can it
+exist except in governments founded on the sovereignty of the people.
+In monarchies and other governments not representative there can be no
+such division of power. The government is inherent in the possessor;
+it is his, and can not be taken from him without a revolution. In such
+governments alliances and leagues alone are practicable. But with us
+individuals count for nothing in the offices which they hold; that
+is, they have no right to them. They hold them as representatives, by
+appointment from the people, in whom the sovereignty is exclusively
+vested. It is impossible to speak too highly of this system taken
+in its twofold character and in all its great principles of two
+governments, completely distinct from and independent of each other,
+each constitutional, founded by and acting directly on the people, each
+competent to all its purposes, administering all the blessings for which
+it was instituted, without even the most remote danger of exercising
+any of its powers in a way to oppress the people. A system capable
+of expansion over a vast territory not only without weakening either
+government, but enjoying the peculiar advantage of adding thereby new
+strength and vigor to the faculties of both; possessing also this
+additional advantage, that while the several States enjoy all the rights
+reserved to them of separate and independent governments, and each is
+secured by the nature of the Federal Government, which acts directly on
+the people, against the failure of the others to bear their equal share
+of the public burdens, and thereby enjoys in a more perfect degree all
+the advantages of a league, it holds them together by a bond altogether
+different and much stronger than the late Confederation or any league
+that was ever known before--a bond beyond their control, and which can
+not even be amended except in the mode prescribed by it. So great an
+effort in favor of human happiness was never made before; but it became
+those who made it. Established in the new hemisphere, descended from the
+same ancestors, speaking the same language, having the same religion and
+universal toleration, born equal and educated in the same principles of
+free government, made independent by a common struggle and menaced by
+the same dangers, ties existed between them which never applied before
+to separate communities. They had every motive to bind them together
+which could operate on the interests and affections of a generous,
+enlightened, and virtuous people, and it affords inexpressible
+consolation to find that these motives had their merited influence.
+
+In thus tracing our institutions to their origin and pursuing them
+in their progress and modifications down to the adoption of this
+Constitution two important facts have been disclosed, on which it may
+not be improper in this stage to make a few observations. The first is
+that in wresting the power, or what is called the sovereignty, from
+the Crown it passed directly to the people. The second, that it passed
+directly to the people of each colony and not to the people of all the
+colonies in the aggregate; to thirteen distinct communities and not
+to one. To these two facts, each contributing its equal proportion,
+I am inclined to think that we are in an eminent degree indebted for
+the success of our Revolution. By passing to the people it vested in
+a community every individual of which had equal rights and a common
+interest. There was no family dethroned among us, no banished pretender
+in a foreign country looking back to his connections and adherents here
+in the hope of a recall; no order of nobility whose hereditary rights in
+the Government had been violated; no hierarchy which had been degraded
+and oppressed. There was but one order, that of the people, by whom
+everything was gained by the change. I mention it also as a circumstance
+of peculiar felicity that the great body of the people had been born
+and educated under these equal and original institutions. Their habits,
+their principles, and their prejudices were therefore all on the side
+of the Revolution and of free republican government.
+
+Had distinct orders existed, our fortune might and probably would have
+been different. It would scarcely have been possible to have united so
+completely the whole force of the country against a common enemy. A
+contest would probably have arisen in the outset between the orders for
+the control. Had the aristocracy prevailed, the people would have been
+heartless. Had the people prevailed, the nobility would probably have
+left the country, or, remaining behind, internal divisions would have
+taken place in every State and a civil war broken out more destructive
+even than the foreign, which might have defeated the whole movement.
+Ancient and modern history is replete with examples proceeding from
+conflicts between distinct orders, of revolutions attempted which proved
+abortive, of republics which have terminated in despotism. It is owing
+to the simplicity of the elements of which our system is composed that
+the attraction of all the parts has been to a common center, that every
+change has tended to cement the union, and, in short, that we have been
+blessed with such glorious and happy success.
+
+And that the power wrested from the British Crown passed to the people
+of each colony the whole history of our political movement from the
+emigration of our ancestors to the present day clearly demonstrates.
+What produced the Revolution? The violation of our rights. What rights?
+Our chartered rights. To whom were the charters granted, to the people
+of each colony or to the people of all the colonies as a single
+community? We know that no such community as the aggregate existed,
+and of course that no such rights could be violated. It may be added
+that the nature of the powers which were given to the delegates by
+each colony and the manner in which they were executed show that the
+sovereignty was in the people of each and not in the aggregate. They
+respectively presented credentials such as are usual between ministers
+of separate powers, which were examined and approved before they entered
+on the discharge of the important duties committed to them. They voted
+also by colonies and not individually, all the members from one colony
+being entitled to one vote only. This fact alone, the first of our
+political association and at the period of our greatest peril, fixes
+beyond all controversy the source from whence the power which has
+directed and secured success to all our measures has proceeded.
+
+Had the sovereignty passed to the aggregate, consequences might have
+ensued, admitting the success of our Revolution, which might even yet
+seriously affect our system. By passing to the people of each colony
+the opposition to Great Britain, the prosecution of the war, the
+Declaration of Independence, the adoption of the Confederation and
+of this Constitution are all imputable to them. Had it passed to the
+aggregate, every measure would be traced to that source; even the State
+governments might be said to have emanated from it, and amendments of
+their constitutions on that principle be proposed by the same authority.
+In short it is not easy to perceive all the consequences into which such
+a doctrine might lead. It is obvious that the people in mass would have
+had much less agency in all the great measures of the Revolution and in
+those which followed than they actually had, and proportionably less
+credit for their patriotism and services than they are now entitled to
+and enjoy. By passing to the people of each colony the whole body in
+each were kept in constant and active deliberation on subjects of the
+highest national importance and in the supervision of the conduct of all
+the public servants in the discharge of their respective duties. Thus
+the most effectual guards were provided against abuses and dangers of
+every kind which human ingenuity could devise, and the whole people
+rendered more competent to the self-government which by an heroic
+exertion they had acquired.
+
+I will now proceed to examine the powers of the General Government,
+which, like the governments of the several States, is divided into three
+branches--a legislative, executive, and judiciary--each having its
+appropriate share. Of these the legislative, from the nature of its
+powers, all laws proceeding from it, and the manner of its appointment,
+its members being elected immediately by the people, is by far the most
+important. The whole system of the National Government may be said to
+rest essentially on the powers granted to this branch. They mark the
+limit within which, with few exceptions, all the branches must move
+in the discharge of their respective functions. It will be proper,
+therefore, to take a full and correct view of the powers granted to it.
+
+By the eighth section of the first article of the Constitution it is
+declared that Congress shall have power--
+
+First. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay
+the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the
+United States;
+
+Second. To borrow money;
+
+Third. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several
+States, and with the Indian tribes;
+
+Fourth. To establish an uniform rule of naturalization and uniform laws
+respecting bankruptcies;
+
+Fifth. To coin money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin,
+and fix the standard of weights and measures;
+
+Sixth. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities
+and current coin of the United States;
+
+Seventh. To establish post offices and post-roads;
+
+Eighth. To promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing
+for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their
+respective writings and discoveries;
+
+Ninth. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court, to define
+and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and
+offenses against the laws of nations;
+
+Tenth. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make
+rules concerning captures on land and water;
+
+Eleventh. To raise and support armies;
+
+Twelfth. To provide and maintain a navy;
+
+Thirteenth. To make rules for the government of the land and naval
+forces;
+
+Fourteenth. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws
+of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions;
+
+Fifteenth. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the
+militia, and for governing such part of them as may be in the service
+of the United States, reserving to the States the appointment of the
+officers and the authority of training the militia according to the
+discipline prescribed by Congress;
+
+Sixteenth. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatever over
+such district (not exceeding 10 miles square) as may, by the cession of
+particular States and the acceptance of by Congress, become the seat of
+Government of the United States; and to exercise like authority over all
+places purchased, by the consent of the legislature of the State in
+which the same may be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals,
+dockyards, and other needful buildings;
+
+Seventeenth. And to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper
+for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers
+vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States or
+in any department or officer thereof.
+
+To the other branches of the Government the powers properly belonging to
+each are granted. The President, in whom the executive power is vested,
+is made commander in chief of the Army and Navy, and militia when called
+into the service of the United States. He is authorized, with the advice
+and consent of the Senate, two-thirds of the members present concurring,
+to form treaties, to nominate and, with the advice and consent of the
+Senate, to appoint ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls,
+judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers whose appointments
+are not otherwise provided for by law. He has power to grant reprieves
+and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases
+of impeachment. It is made his duty to give to Congress from time to
+time information of the state of the Union, to recommend to their
+consideration such measures as he may judge necessary and expedient, to
+convene both Houses on extraordinary occasions, to receive ambassadors,
+and to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
+
+The judicial power is vested in one Supreme Court and in such inferior
+courts as Congress may establish; and it is made to extend to all cases
+in law and equity arising under the Constitution, the laws of the
+United States, and treaties made under their authority. Cases affecting
+ambassadors and other public characters, cases of admiralty and maritime
+jurisdiction, causes in which the United States are a party, between two
+or more States, between citizens of different States, between citizens
+of the same State claiming grants of land under different States,
+between a State or the citizens thereof and foreign States, are
+specially assigned to these tribunals.
+
+Other powers have been granted in other parts of the Constitution which,
+although they relate to specific objects, unconnected with the ordinary
+administration, yet, as they form important features in the Government
+and may shed useful light on the construction which ought to be given
+to the powers above enumerated, it is proper to bring into view.
+
+By Article I, section 9, clause 1, it is provided that the migration
+or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall
+think proper to admit shall not be prohibited by Congress prior to the
+year 1808, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation not
+exceeding $10 for each person.
+
+By Article III, section 3, clause 1, new States may be admitted by
+Congress into the Union, but that no new State shall be formed within
+the jurisdiction of another State, nor any State be formed by the
+junction of two or more States or parts of States without the consent of
+the legislature of the States concerned as well as of the United States.
+And by the next clause of the same article and section power is vested
+in Congress to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations
+respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United.
+States, with a proviso that nothing in the Constitution shall be so
+construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States or of any
+particular State.
+
+By Article IV, section 4, the United States guarantee to every State a
+republican form of government and engage to protect each of them against
+invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive
+when the legislature can not be convened, against domestic violence.
+
+Of the other parts of the Constitution relating to power, some form
+restraints on the exercise of the powers granted to Congress and others
+on the exercise of the powers remaining to the States. The object in
+both instances is to draw more completely the line between the two
+governments and also to prevent abuses by either. Other parts operate
+like conventional stipulations between the States, abolishing between
+them all distinctions applicable to foreign powers and securing to the
+inhabitants of each State all the rights and immunities of citizens in
+the several States.
+
+By the fifth article it is provided that Congress, whenever two-thirds
+of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments, or, on
+the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several States,
+shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which in either case
+shall be valid as a part of the Constitution when ratified by the
+legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by conventions
+in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode may be proposed
+by Congress: _Provided_, That no State, without its consent, shall be
+deprived of its equal vote in the Senate, and that no amendment which
+may be made prior to the year 1808 shall affect the first and fourth
+clauses in the ninth section of the first article.
+
+By the second section of the sixth article it is declared that the
+Constitution, and laws of the United States which shall be made in
+pursuance thereof, and all treaties made under the authority of the
+United States, shall be the supreme law of the land, and that the judges
+in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or
+laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. This right in the
+National Government to execute its powers was indispensable to its
+existence. If the State governments had not been restrained from
+encroaching on the powers vested in the National Government, the
+Constitution, like the Confederation, would soon have been set at
+naught; and it was not within the limit of the human mind to devise
+any plan for the accomplishment of the object other than by making a
+national constitution which should be to the extent of its powers the
+supreme law of the land. This right in the National Government would
+have existed under the Constitution to the full extent provided for by
+this declaration had it not been made. To prevent the possibility of
+a doubt, however, on so important a subject it was proper to make the
+declaration.
+
+Having presented above a full view of all the powers granted to the
+United States, it will be proper to look to those remaining to the
+States. It is by fixing the great powers which are admitted to belong
+to each government that we may hope to come to a right conclusion
+respecting those in controversy between them. In regard to the National
+Government, this task was easy because its powers were to be found in
+specific grants in the Constitution; but it is more difficult to give a
+detail of the powers of the State governments, as their constitutions,
+containing all powers granted by the people not specifically taken
+from them by grants to the United States, can not well be enumerated.
+Fortunately, a precise detail of all the powers remaining to the State
+governments is not necessary in the present instance. A knowledge of
+their great powers only will answer every purpose contemplated, and
+respecting these there can be no diversity in opinion. They are
+sufficiently recognized and established by the Constitution of the
+United States itself. In designating the important powers of the
+State governments it is proper to observe, first, that the territory
+contemplated by the Constitution belongs to each State in its separate
+character and not to the United States in their aggregate character.
+Bach State holds territory according to its original charter, except in
+cases where cessions have been made to the United States by individual
+States. The United States had none when the Constitution was adopted
+which had not been thus ceded to them and which they held on the
+conditions on which such cession had been made. Within the individual
+States it is believed that they held not a single acre; but if they did
+it was as citizens held it, merely as private property. The territory
+acquired by cession lying without the individual States rests on a
+different principle, and is provided for by a separate and distinct part
+of the Constitution. It is the territory within the individual States to
+which the Constitution in its great principles applies, and it applies
+to such territory as the territory of a State and not as that of the
+United States. The next circumstance to be attended to is that the
+people composing this Union are the people of the several States, and
+not of the United States in the full sense of a consolidated government.
+The militia are the militia of the several States; lands are held under
+the laws of the States; descents, contracts, and all the concerns of
+private property, the administration of justice, and the whole criminal
+code, except in the cases of breaches of the laws of the United States
+made under and in conformity with the powers vested in Congress and of
+the laws of nations, are regulated by State laws. This enumeration shows
+the great extent of the powers of the State governments. The territory
+and the people form the basis on which all governments are founded.
+The militia constitutes their effective force. The regulation and
+protection of property and of personal liberty are also among the
+highest attributes of sovereignty. This, without other evidence, is
+sufficient to show that the great office of the Constitution of the
+United States is to unite the States together under a Government
+endowed with powers adequate to the purposes of its institution,
+relating, directly or indirectly, to foreign concerns, to the discharge
+of which a National Government thus formed alone could be competent.
+
+This view of the exclusive jurisdiction of the several States over the
+territory within their respective limits, except in cases otherwise
+specially provided for, is supported by the obvious intent of the
+several powers granted to Congress, to which a more particular attention
+is now due. Of these the right to declare war is perhaps the most
+important, as well by the consequences attending war as by the other
+powers granted in aid of it. The right to lay taxes, duties, imposts,
+and excises, though necessary for the support of the civil government,
+is equally necessary to sustain the charges of war; the right to raise
+and support armies and a navy and to call forth and govern the militia
+when in the service of the United States are altogether of the latter
+kind. They are granted in aid of the power to make war and intended to
+give effect to it. These several powers are of great force and extent,
+and operate more directly within the limits and upon the resources of
+the States than any of the other powers. But still they are means only
+for given ends. War is declared and must be maintained, an army and a
+navy must be raised, fortifications must be erected for the common
+defense, debts must be paid, For these purposes duties, imposts, and
+excises are levied, taxes are laid, the lands, merchandise, and other
+property of the citizens are liable for them; if the money is not paid,
+seizures are made and the lands are sold. The transaction is terminated;
+the lands pass into other hands, who hold them, as the former
+proprietors did, under the laws of the individual States. They were
+means only to certain ends; the United States have nothing further to
+do with them. The same view is applicable to the power of the General
+Government over persons. The militia is called into the service of the
+United States; the service is performed; the corps returns to the State
+to which it belongs; it is the militia of such State, and not of the
+United States. Soldiers are required for the Army, who may be obtained
+by voluntary enlistment or by some other process founded in the
+principles of equality. In either case the citizen after the tour of
+duty is performed is restored to his former station in society, with his
+equal share in the common sovereignty of the nation. In all these cases,
+which are the strongest which can be given, we see that the right of
+the General Government is nothing more than what it is called in the
+Constitution, a power to perform certain acts, and that the subject on
+which it operates is a means only to that end; that it was both before
+and after that act under the protection and subject to the laws of the
+individual State within which it was.
+
+To the other powers of the General Government the same remarks are
+applicable and with greater force. The right to regulate commerce with
+foreign powers was necessary as well to enable Congress to lay and
+collect duties and imposts as to support the rights of the nation in
+the intercourse with foreign powers. It is executed at the ports of
+the several States and operates almost altogether externally. The right
+to borrow and coin money and to fix its value and that of foreign
+coin are important to the establishment of a National Government, and
+particularly necessary in support of the right to declare war, as,
+indeed, may be considered the right to punish piracy and felonies on
+the high seas and offenses against the laws of nations. The right to
+establish an uniform rule of naturalization and uniform laws respecting
+bankruptcies seems to be essentially connected with the right to
+regulate commerce. The first branch of it relates to foreigners entering
+the country; the second to merchants who have failed. The right to
+promote the progress of useful arts and sciences may be executed without
+touching any of the individual States. It is accomplished by granting
+patents to inventors and preserving models, which may be done
+exclusively within the Federal district. The right to constitute courts
+inferior to the Supreme Court was a necessary consequence of the
+judiciary existing as a separate branch of the General Government.
+Without such inferior court in every State it would be difficult and
+might even be impossible to carry into effect the laws of the General
+Government. The right to establish post-offices and post-roads is
+essentially of the same character. For political, commercial, and social
+purposes it was important that it should be vested in the General
+Government. As a mere matter of regulation, and nothing more, I presume,
+was intended by it, it is a power easily executed and involving little
+authority within the States individually. The right to exercise
+exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over the Federal district
+and over forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful
+buildings with the consent of the State within which the same may be is
+a power of a peculiar character, and is sufficient in itself to confirm
+what has been said of all the other powers of the General Government.
+Of this particular grant further notice will hereafter be taken.
+
+I shall conclude my remarks on this part of the subject by observing
+that the view which has been presented of the powers and character of
+the two Governments is supported by the marked difference which is
+observable in the manner of their endowment. The State governments
+are divided into three branches--a legislative, executive, and
+judiciary--and the appropriate duties of each assigned to it without
+any limitation of power except such as is-necessary to guard against
+abuse, in the form of bills of right. But in instituting the National
+Government an entirely different principle was adopted and pursued. The
+Government itself is organized, like the State governments, into three
+branches, but its powers are enumerated and defined in the most precise
+form. The subject has already been too fully explained to require
+illustration by a general view of the whole Constitution, every part
+of which affords proof of what is here advanced. It will be sufficient
+to advert to the eighth section of the first article, being that more
+particularly which defines the powers and fixes the character of the
+Government of the United States. By this section it is declared that
+Congress shall have power, first, to lay and collect taxes, duties,
+imposts, and excises, etc.
+
+Having shown the origin of the State governments and their endowments
+when first formed; having also shown the origin of the National
+Government and the powers vested in it, and having shown, lastly, the
+powers which are admitted to have remained to the State governments
+after those which were taken from them by the National Government,
+I will now proceed to examine whether the power to adopt and execute
+a system of internal improvement by roads and canals has been vested
+in the United States.
+
+Before we can determine whether this power has been granted to the
+General Government it will be necessary to ascertain distinctly the
+nature and extent of the power requisite to make such improvements.
+When that is done we shall be able to decide whether such power is
+vested in the National Government.
+
+If the power existed it would, it is presumed, be executed by a board of
+skillful engineers, on a view of the whole Union, on a plan which would
+secure complete effect to all the great purposes of our Constitution.
+It is not my intention, however, to take up the subject here on this
+scale. I shall state a case for the purpose of illustration only. Let
+it be supposed that Congress intended to run a road from the city of
+Washington to Baltimore and to connect the Chesapeake Bay with the
+Delaware and the Delaware with the Raritan by a canal, what must be
+done to carry the project into effect? I make here no question of the
+existing power. I speak only of the power necessary for the purpose.
+Commissioners would be appointed to trace a route in the most direct
+line, paying due regard to heights, water courses, and other obstacles,
+and to acquire the right to the ground over which the road and canal
+would pass, with sufficient breadth for each. This must be done by
+voluntary grants, or by purchases from individuals, or, in case they
+would not sell or should ask an exorbitant price, by condemning the
+property and fixing its value by a jury of the vicinage. The next object
+to be attended to after the road and canal are laid out and made is to
+keep them in repair. We know that there are people in every community
+capable of committing voluntary injuries, of pulling down walls that are
+made to sustain the road, of breaking the bridges over water courses,
+and breaking the road itself. Some living near it might be disappointed
+that it did not pass through their lands and commit these acts of
+violence and waste from revenge or in the hope of giving it that
+direction, though for a short time. Injuries of this kind have been
+committed and are still complained of on the road from Cumberland to the
+Ohio. To accomplish this object Congress should have a right to pass
+laws to punish offenders wherever they may be found. Jurisdiction over
+the road would not be sufficient, though it were exclusive. It would
+seldom happen that the parties would be detected in the act. They would
+generally commit it in the night and fly far off before the sun
+appeared. The power to punish these culprits must therefore reach them
+wherever they go. They must also be amenable to competent tribunals,
+Federal or State. The power must likewise extend to another object not
+less essential or important than those already mentioned. Experience
+has shown that the establishment of turnpikes, with gates and tolls and
+persons to collect the tolls, is the best expedient that can be adopted
+to defray the expense of these improvements and the repairs which they
+necessarily require. Congress must therefore have power to make such
+an establishment and to support it by such regulations, with fines and
+penalties in the case of injuries, as may be competent to the purpose.
+The right must extend to all those objects, or it will be utterly
+incompetent. It is possessed and exercised by the States individually,
+and it must be possessed by the United States or the pretension must be
+abandoned.
+
+Let it be further supposed that Congress, believing that they do
+possess the power, have passed an act for those purposes, under which
+commissioners have been appointed, who have begun the work. They are met
+at the first farm on which they enter by the owner, who forbids them
+to trespass on his land. They offer to buy it at a fair price or at
+twice or thrice its value. He persists in his refusal. Can they, on the
+principle recognized and acted on by all the State governments that in
+cases of this kind the obstinacy and perverseness of an individual must
+yield to the public welfare, summon a jury of upright and discreet men
+to condemn the land, value it, and compel the owner to receive the
+amount and to deliver it up to them? I believe that very few would
+concur in the opinion that such a power exists.
+
+The next object is to preserve these improvements from injury. The locks
+of the canal are broken, the walls which sustained the road are pulled
+down, the bridges are broken, the road itself is plowed up, toll is
+refused to be paid, the gates of the canal or turnpike are forced.
+The offenders are pursued, caught, and brought to trial. Can they
+be punished? The question of right must be decided on principle. The
+culprits will avail themselves of every barrier that may serve to screen
+them from punishment. They will plead that the law under which they
+stand arraigned is unconstitutional, and that question must be decided
+by the court, whether Federal or State, on a fair investigation of the
+powers vested in the General Government by the Constitution. If the
+judges find that these powers have not been granted to Congress, the
+prisoners must be acquitted, and by their acquittal all claim to the
+right to establish such a system is at an end.
+
+I have supposed an opposition to be made to the right in Congress by the
+owner of the land and other individuals charged with breaches of laws
+made to protect the works from injury, because it is the mildest form in
+which it can present itself. It is not, however, the only one. A State,
+also, may contest the right, and then the controversy assumes another
+character. Government might contend against government, for to a certain
+extent both the Governments are sovereign and independent of each other,
+and in that form it is possible, though not probable, that opposition
+might be made. To each limitations are prescribed, and should a contest
+rise between them respecting their rights and the people sustain it with
+anything like an equal division of numbers the worst consequences might
+ensue.
+
+It may be urged that the opposition suggested by the owner of the
+land or by the States individually may be avoided by a satisfactory
+arrangement with the parties. But a suppression of opposition in that
+way is no proof of a right in Congress, nor could it, if confined to
+that limit, remove all the impediments to the exercise of the power.
+It is not sufficient that Congress may by the command and application
+of the public revenue purchase the soil, and thus silence that class of
+individuals, or by the accommodation afforded to individual States put
+down opposition on their part. Congress must be able rightfully to
+control all opposition or they can not carry the system into effect.
+Cases would inevitably occur to put the right to the test. The work must
+be preserved from injury, tolls must be collected, offenders must be
+punished. With these culprits no bargain can be made. When brought
+to trial they must deny the validity of the law, and that plea being
+sustained all claim to the right ceases.
+
+If the United States possess this power, it must be either because it
+has been specifically granted or that it is incidental and necessary
+to carry into effect some specific grant. The advocates for the power
+derive it from the following sources: First, the right to establish
+post-offices and post-roads; second, to declare war; third, to regulate
+commerce among the several States; fourth, from the power to pay the
+debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the
+United States; fifth, from the power to make all laws necessary and
+proper for carrying into execution all the powers vested by the
+Constitution in the Government of the United States or in any department
+or officer thereof; sixth and lastly, from the power to dispose of and
+make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and
+other property of the United States. It is to be observed that there
+is but little accord among the advocates for this power as to the
+particular source from whence it is derived. They all agree, however,
+in ascribing it to some one or more of those above mentioned. I will
+examine the ground of the claim in each instance.
+
+The first of these grants is in the following words: "Congress shall
+have power to establish post-offices and post-roads." What is the just
+import of these words and the extent of the grant? The word "establish"
+is the ruling term; "post-offices and post-roads" are the subjects on
+which it acts. The question therefore is, What power is granted by that
+word? The sense in which words are commonly used is that in which they
+are to be understood in all transactions between public bodies and
+individuals. The intention of the parties is to prevail, and there is
+no better way of ascertaining it than by giving to the terms used their
+ordinary import. If we were to ask any number of our most enlightened
+citizens, who had no connection with public affairs and whose minds were
+unprejudiced, what was the import of the word "establish" and the extent
+of the grant which it controls, we do not think there would be any
+difference of opinion among them. We are satisfied that all of them
+would answer that a power was thereby given to Congress to fix on the
+towns, court-houses, and other places throughout our Union at which
+there should be post-offices, the routes by which the mails should be
+carried from one post-office to another, so as to diffuse intelligence
+as extensively and to make the institution as useful as possible, to
+fix the postage to be paid on every letter and packet thus carried, to
+support the establishment, and to protect the post-office and mails from
+robbery by punishing those who should commit the offense. The idea of a
+right to lay off the roads of the United States on a general scale of
+improvement, to take the soil from the proprietor by force, to establish
+turnpikes and tolls, and to punish offenders in the manner stated above
+would never occur to any such person. The use of the existing road by
+the stage, mail carrier, or postboy in passing over it as others do is
+all that would be thought of, the jurisdiction and soil remaining to the
+State, with a right in the State or those authorized by its legislature
+to change the road at pleasure.
+
+The intention of the parties is supported by other proof, which ought
+to place it beyond all doubt. In the former act of Government, the
+Confederation, we find a grant for the same purpose expressed in the
+following words: "The United States in Congress assembled shall have
+the sole and exclusive right and power of establishing and regulating
+post-offices from one State to another throughout all the United States,
+and exacting such postage on the papers passing through the same as
+may be requisite to defray the expenses of the said office." The term
+"establish" was likewise the ruling one in that instrument, and was
+evidently intended and understood to give a power simply and solely to
+fix where there should be post-offices. By transferring this term from
+the Confederation into the Constitution it was doubtless intended that
+it should be understood in the same sense in the latter that it was
+in the former instrument, and to be applied alike to post-offices and
+post-roads. In whatever sense it is applied to post-offices it must
+be applied in the same sense to post-roads. But it may be asked, If
+such was the intention, why were not all the other terms of the grant
+transferred with it? The reason is obvious. The Confederation being a
+bond of union between independent States, it was necessary in granting
+the powers which were to be exercised over them to be very explicit
+and minute in defining the powers granted. But the Constitution to the
+extent of its powers having incorporated the States into one Government
+like the government of the States individually, fewer words in defining
+the powers granted by it were not only adequate, but perhaps better
+adapted to the purpose. We find that brevity is a characteristic of the
+instrument. Had it been intended to convey a more enlarged power in the
+Constitution than had been granted in the Confederation, surely the same
+controlling term would not have been used, or other words would have
+been added, to show such intention and to mark the extent to which the
+power should be carried. It is a liberal construction of the powers
+granted in the Constitution by this term to include in it all the powers
+that were granted in the Confederation by terms which specifically
+defined and, as was supposed, extended their limits. It would be absurd
+to say that by omitting from the Constitution any portion of the
+phraseology which was deemed important in the Confederation the import
+of that term was enlarged, and with it the powers of the Constitution,
+in a proportional degree, beyond what they were in the Confederation.
+The right to exact postage and to protect the post-offices and mails
+from robbery by punishing the offenders may fairly be considered as
+incidents to the grant, since without it the object of the grant might
+be defeated. Whatever is absolutely necessary to the accomplishment of
+the object of the grant, though not specified, may fairly be considered
+as included in it. Beyond this the doctrine of incidental power can not
+be carried.
+
+If we go back to the origin of our settlements and institutions and
+trace their progress down to the Revolution, we shall see that it was in
+this sense, and in none other, that the power was exercised by all our
+colonial governments. Post-offices were made for the country, and not
+the country for them. They are the offspring of improvement; they never
+go before it. Settlements are first made, after which the progress is
+uniform and simple, extending to objects in regular order most necessary
+to the comfort of man--schools, places of public worship, court-houses,
+and markets; post-offices follow. Roads may, indeed, be said to be
+coeval with settlements; they lead to all the places mentioned, and
+to every other which the various and complicated interests of society
+require.
+
+It is believed that not one example can be given, from the first
+settlement of our country to the adoption of this Constitution,
+of a post-office being established without a view to existing roads or
+of a single road having been made by pavement, turnpike, etc., for the
+sole purpose of accommodating a post-office. Such, too, is the uniform
+progress of all societies. In granting, then, this power to the United
+States it was undoubtedly intended by the framers and ratifiers of the
+Constitution to convey it in the sense and extent only in which it had
+been understood and exercised by the previous authorities of the
+country.
+
+This conclusion is confirmed by the object of the grant and the
+manner of its execution. The object is the transportation of the mail
+throughout the United States, which may be done on horseback, and was
+so done until lately, since the establishment of stages. Between the
+great towns and in other places where the population is dense stages are
+preferred because they afford an additional opportunity to make a profit
+from passengers; but where the population is sparse and on crossroads it
+is generally carried on horseback. Unconnected with passengers and other
+objects, it can not be doubted that the mail itself may be carried in
+every part of our Union with nearly as much economy and greater dispatch
+on horseback than in a stage, and in many parts with much greater. In
+every part of the Union in which stages can be preferred the roads are
+sufficiently good provided those which serve for every other purpose
+will accommodate them. In every other part where horses alone are used
+if other people pass them on horseback surely the mail carrier can. For
+an object so simple and so easy in its execution it would doubtless
+excite surprise if it should be thought proper to appoint commissioners
+to lay off the country on a great scheme of improvement, with the
+power to shorten distances, reduce heights, level mountains, and pave
+surfaces.
+
+If the United States possessed the power contended for under this grant,
+might they not in adopting the roads of the individual States for the
+carriage of the mail, as has been done, assume jurisdiction over them
+and preclude a right to interfere with or alter them? Might they not
+establish turnpikes and exercise all the other acts of sovereignty
+above stated over such roads necessary to protect them from injury and
+defray the expense of repairing them? Surely if the right exists these
+consequences necessarily followed as soon as the road was established.
+The absurdity of such a pretension must be apparent to all who examine
+it. In this way a large portion of the territory of every State might be
+taken from it, for there is scarcely a road in any State which will not
+be used for the transportation of the mail. A new field for legislation
+and internal government would thus be opened.
+
+From this view of the subject I think we may fairly conclude that the
+right to adopt and execute a system of internal improvement, or any part
+of it, has not been granted to Congress under the power to establish
+post-offices and post-roads; that the common roads of the country only
+were contemplated by that grant and are fully competent to all its
+purposes.
+
+The next object of inquiry is whether the right to declare war
+includes the right to adopt and execute this system of improvement.
+The objections to it are, I presume, not less conclusive than those
+which are applicable to the grant which we have just examined.
+
+Under the last-mentioned grant a claim has been set up to as much of
+that system as relates to roads. Under this it extends alike to roads
+and canals.
+
+We must examine this grant by the same rules of construction that
+were applied to the preceding one. The object was to take this power
+from the individual States and to vest it in the General Government.
+This has been done in clear and explicit terms, first by granting the
+power to Congress, and secondly by prohibiting the exercise of it by
+the States. "Congress shall have a right to declare war." This is the
+language of the grant. If the right to adopt and execute this system
+of improvement is included in it, it must be by way of incident only,
+since there is nothing in the grant itself which bears any relation to
+roads and canals. The following considerations, it is presumed, prove
+incontestably that this power has not been granted in that or any other
+manner.
+
+The United States are exposed to invasion through the whole extent of
+their Atlantic coast by any European power with whom we might be engaged
+in war--on the northern and northwestern frontier on the side of Canada
+by Great Britain, and on the southern by Spain or any power in alliance
+with her. If internal improvements are to be carried to the full extent
+to which they may be useful for military purposes, the power as it
+exists must apply to all the roads of the Union, there being no
+limitation to it. Wherever such improvements may facilitate the march
+of troops, the transportation of cannon, or otherwise aid the operations
+or mitigate the calamities of war along the coast or in any part of the
+interior they would be useful for military purposes, and might therefore
+be made. The power following as an incident to another power can be
+measured as to its extent by reference only to the obvious extent of the
+power to which it is incidental. So great a scope was, it is believed,
+never given to incidental power.
+
+If it had been intended that the right to declare war should include
+all the powers necessary to maintain war, it would follow that nothing
+would have been done to impair the right or to restrain Congress from
+the exercise of any power which the exigencies of war might require.
+The nature and extent of this exigency would mark the extent of the
+power granted, which should always be construed liberally, so as to be
+adequate to the end. A right to raise money by taxes, duties, excises,
+and by loan, to raise and support armies and a navy, to provide for
+calling forth, arming, disciplining, and governing the militia when
+in the service of the United States, establishing fortifications and
+governing the troops stationed in them independently of the State
+authorities, and to perform many other acts is indispensable to the
+maintenance of war--no war with any great power can be prosecuted with
+success without the command of the resources of the Union in all these
+respects. These powers, then, would of necessity and by common consent
+have fallen within the right to declare war had it been intended to
+convey by way of incident to that right the necessary powers to maintain
+war. But these powers have all been granted specifically with many
+others, in great detail, which experience had shown were necessary for
+the purposes of war. By specifically granting, then, these powers it
+is manifest that every power was thus granted which it was intended
+to grant for military purposes, and that it was also intended that no
+important power should be included in this grant by way of incident,
+however useful it might be for some of the purposes of the grant.
+
+By the sixteenth of the enumerated powers, Article I, section 8,
+Congress are authorized to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases
+whatever over such district as may by cession of particular States and
+the acceptance of Congress, not exceeding 10 miles square, become the
+seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like
+authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature
+of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts,
+magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other useful buildings. If any doubt
+existed on a view of other parts of the Constitution respecting the
+decision which ought to be formed on the question under consideration,
+I should suppose that this clause would completely remove it. It has been
+shown after the most liberal construction of all the enumerated powers
+of the General Government that the territory within the limits of the
+respective States belonged to them; that the United States had no right
+under the powers granted to them, with the exception specified in this
+grant, to any the smallest portion of territory within a State, all
+those powers operating on a different principle and having their full
+effect without impairing in the slightest degree this right in the
+States; that those powers were in every instance means to ends, which
+being accomplished left the subject--that is, the property, in which
+light only land could be regarded--where it was before, under the
+jurisdiction and subject to the laws of the State governments.
+
+The second number of the clause, which is applicable to military
+and naval purposes alone, claims particular attention here. It fully
+confirms the view taken of the other enumerated powers, for had it been
+intended to include in the right to declare war, by way of incident,
+any right of jurisdiction or legislation over territory within a State,
+it would have been done as to fortifications, magazines, arsenals,
+dockyards, and other needful buildings. By specifically granting the
+right as to such small portions of territory as might be necessary for
+these purposes and on certain conditions, minutely and well defined,
+it is manifest that it was not intended to grant it as to any other
+portion on any condition for any purpose or in any manner whatsoever.
+
+It may be said that although the authority to exercise exclusive
+legislation in certain cases within the States with their consent may
+be considered as a prohibition to Congress to exercise like exclusive
+legislation in any other case, although their consent should be granted,
+it does not prohibit the exercise of such jurisdiction or power within
+a State as would be competent to all the purposes of internal
+improvement. I can conceive no ground on which the idea of such a power
+over any part of the territory of a State can be inferred from the power
+to declare war. There never can be an occasion for jurisdiction for
+military purposes except in fortifications, dockyards, and the like
+places. If the soldiers are in the field or are quartered in garrisons
+without the fortifications, the civil authority must prevail where they
+are. The government of the troops by martial law is not affected by it.
+In war, when the forces are increased and the movement is on a greater
+scale, consequences follow which are inseparable from the exigencies
+of the state. More freedom of action and a wider range of power in the
+military commanders, to be exercised on their own responsibility, may
+be necessary to the public safety; but even here the civil authority
+of the State never ceases to operate. It is also exclusive for all
+civil purposes.
+
+Whether any power short of that stated would be adequate to the purposes
+of internal improvement is denied. In the case of territory one
+government must prevail for all the purposes intended by the grant.
+The jurisdiction of the United States might be modified in such manner
+as to admit that of the State in all cases and for all purposes not
+necessary to the execution of the proposed power; but the right of the
+General Government must be complete for all the purposes above stated.
+It must extend to the seizure and condemnation of the property, if
+necessary; to the punishment of offenders for injuries to the roads and
+canals; to the establishment and enforcement of tolls, etc. It must be
+a complete right to the extent above stated or it will be of no avail.
+That right does not exist.
+
+The reasons which operate in favor of the right of exclusive legislation
+in forts, dockyards, etc., do not apply to any other places. The safety
+of such works and of the cities which they are intended to defend, and
+even of whole communities, may sometimes depend on it. If spies are
+admitted within them in time of war, they might communicate intelligence
+to the enemy which might be fatal. All nations surround such works
+with high walls and keep their gates shut. Even here, however, three
+important conditions are indispensable to such exclusive legislation:
+First, the ground must be requisite for and be applied to those
+purposes; second, it must be purchased; third, it must be purchased by
+the consent of the State in which it may be. When we find that so much
+care has been taken to protect the sovereignty of the States over the
+territory within their respective limits, admitting that of the United
+States over such small portions and for such special and important
+purposes only, the conclusion is irresistible not only that the power
+necessary for internal improvements has not been granted, but that it
+has been clearly prohibited.
+
+I come next to the right to regulate commerce, the third source from
+whence the right to make internal improvements is claimed. It is
+expressed in the following words: "Congress shall have power to regulate
+commerce with foreign nations and among the several States and with the
+Indian tribes." The reasoning applicable to the preceding claims is
+equally so to this. The mischief complained of was that this power could
+not be exercised with advantage by the individual States, and the object
+was to transfer it to the United States. The sense in which the power
+was understood and exercised by the States was doubtless that in which
+it was transferred to the United States. The policy was the same
+as to three branches of this grant, and it is scarcely possible to
+separate the two first from each other in any view which may be taken
+of the subject. The last, relating to the Indian tribes, is of a
+nature distinct from the others for reasons too well known to require
+explanation. Commerce between independent powers or communities is
+universally regulated by duties and imposts. It was so regulated by the
+States before the adoption of this Constitution equally in respect to
+each other and to foreign powers. The goods and vessels employed in the
+trade are the only subjects of regulation. It can act on none other.
+A power, then, to impose such duties and imposts in regard to foreign
+nations and to prevent any on the trade between the States was the only
+power granted.
+
+If we recur to the causes which produced the adoption of this
+Constitution, we shall find that injuries resulting from the regulation
+of trade by the States respectively and the advantages anticipated from
+the transfer of the power to Congress were among those which had the
+most weight. Instead of acting as a nation in regard to foreign powers,
+the States individually had commenced a system of restraint on each
+other whereby the interests of foreign powers were promoted at their
+expense. If one State imposed high duties on the goods or vessels of
+a foreign power to countervail the regulations of such power, the next
+adjoining States imposed lighter duties to invite those articles into
+their ports, that they might be transferred thence into the other
+States, securing the duties to themselves. This contracted policy in
+some of the States was soon counteracted by others. Restraints were
+immediately laid on such commerce by the suffering States, and thus had
+grown up a state of affairs disorderly and unnatural, the tendency of
+which was to destroy the Union itself and with it all hope of realizing
+those blessings which we had anticipated from the glorious Revolution
+which had been so recently achieved. From this deplorable dilemma, or,
+rather, certain ruin, we were happily rescued by the adoption of the
+Constitution.
+
+Among the first and most important effects of this great Revolution
+was the complete abolition of this pernicious policy. The States were
+brought together by the Constitution as to commerce into one community
+equally in regard to foreign nations and each other. The regulations
+that were adopted regarded us in both respects as one people. The duties
+and imposts that were laid on the vessels and merchandise of foreign
+nations were all uniform throughout the United States, and in the
+intercourse between the States themselves no duties of any kind were
+imposed other than between different ports and counties within the
+same State.
+
+This view is supported by a series of measures, all of a marked
+character, preceding the adoption of the Constitution. As early as
+the year 1781 Congress recommended it to the States to vest in the
+United States a power to levy a duty of 5 per cent on all goods imported
+from foreign countries into the United States for the term of fifteen
+years. In 1783 this recommendation, with alterations as to the kind of
+duties and an extension of this term to twenty-five years, was repeated
+and more earnestly urged. In 1784 it was recommended to the States
+to authorize Congress to prohibit, under certain modifications, the
+importation of goods from foreign powers into the United States for
+fifteen years. In 1785 the consideration of the subject was resumed,
+and a proposition presented in a new form, with an address to the
+States, explaining fully the principles on which a grant of the power
+to regulate trade was deemed indispensable. In 1786 a meeting took place
+at Annapolis of delegates from several of the States on this subject,
+and on their report a convention was formed at Philadelphia the ensuing
+year from all the States, to whose deliberations we are indebted for
+the present Constitution.
+
+In none of these measures was the subject of internal improvement
+mentioned or even glanced at. Those of 1784, 1785, 1786, and 1787,
+leading step by step to the adoption of the Constitution, had in view
+only the obtaining of a power to enable Congress to regulate trade with
+foreign powers. It is manifest that the regulation of trade with the
+several States was altogether a secondary object, suggested by and
+adopted in connection with the other. If the power necessary to this
+system of improvement is included under either branch of this grant,
+I should suppose that it was the first rather than the second. The
+pretension to it, however, under that branch has never been set up.
+In support of the claim under the second no reason has been assigned
+which appears to have the least weight.
+
+The fourth claim is founded on the right of Congress to "pay the debts
+and provide for the common defense and general welfare" of the United
+States. This claim has less reason on its side than either of those
+which we have already examined. The power of which this forms a part
+is expressed in the following words: "Congress shall have power to lay
+and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; to pay the debts and
+provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States;
+but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the
+United States." That the second part of this grant gives a right to
+appropriate the public money, and nothing more, is evident from the
+following considerations: First. If the right of appropriation is not
+given by this clause, it is not given at all, there being no other grant
+in the Constitution which gives it directly or which has any bearing
+on the subject, even by implication, except the two following: First,
+the prohibition, which is contained in the eleventh of the enumerated
+powers, not to appropriate money for the support of armies for a longer
+term than two years; and, second, the declaration of the sixth member
+or clause of the ninth section of the first article that no money shall
+be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by
+law. Second. This part of the grant has none of the characteristics of
+a distinct and original power. It is manifestly incidental to the great
+objects of the first part of the grant, which authorizes Congress to lay
+and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, a power of vast extent,
+not granted by the Confederation, the grant of which formed one of the
+principal inducements to the adoption of this Constitution. If both
+parts of the grant are taken together (as they must be, for the one
+follows immediately after the other in the same sentence), it seems
+to be impossible to give to the latter any other construction than
+that contended for. Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes,
+duties, imposts, and excises. For what purpose? To pay the debts and
+provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States,
+an arrangement and phraseology which clearly show that the latter part
+of the clause was intended to enumerate the purposes to which the money
+thus raised might be appropriated. Third. If this is not the real object
+and fair construction of the second part of this grant, it follows
+either that it has no import or operation whatever or one of much
+greater extent than the first part. This presumption is evidently
+groundless in both instances. In the first because no part of the
+Constitution can be considered useless; no sentence or clause in it
+without a meaning. In the second because such a construction as made the
+second part of the clause an original grant, embracing the same object
+with the first, but with much greater power than it, would be in the
+highest degree absurd. The order generally observed in grants, an order
+founded in common sense, since it promotes a clear understanding of
+their import, is to grant the power intended to be conveyed in the
+most full and explicit manner, and then to explain or qualify it, if
+explanation or qualification should be necessary. This order has, it
+is believed, been invariably observed in all the grants contained in
+the Constitution. In the second because if the clause in question is
+not construed merely as an authority to appropriate the public money,
+it must be obvious that it conveys a power of indefinite and unlimited
+extent; that there would have been no use for the special powers to
+raise and support armies and a navy, to regulate commerce, to call forth
+the militia, or even to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and
+excises. An unqualified power to pay the debts and provide for the
+common defense and general welfare, as the second part of this clause
+would be if considered as a distinct and separate grant, would extend to
+every object in which the public could be interested. A power to provide
+for the common defense would give to Congress the command of the whole
+force and of all the resources of the Union; but a right to provide for
+the general welfare would go much further. It would, in effect, break
+down all the barriers between the States and the General Government and
+consolidate the whole under the latter.
+
+The powers specifically granted to Congress are what are called the
+enumerated powers, and are numbered in the order in which they stand,
+among which that contained in the first clause holds the first place
+in point of importance. If the power created by the latter part of the
+clause is considered an original grant, unconnected with and independent
+of the first, as in that case it must be, then the first part is
+entirely done away, as are all the other grants in the Constitution,
+being completely absorbed in the transcendent power granted in the
+latter part; but if the clause be construed in the sense contended for,
+then every part has an important meaning and effect; not a line, a word,
+in it is superfluous. A power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts,
+and excises subjects to the call of Congress every branch of the public
+revenue, internal and external, and the addition to pay the debts and
+provide for the common defense and general welfare gives the right of
+applying the money raised--that is, of appropriating it to the purposes
+specified according to a proper construction of the terms. Hence it
+follows that it is the first part of the clause only which gives a power
+which affects in any manner the power remaining to the States, as the
+power to raise money from the people, whether it be by taxes, duties,
+imposts, or excises, though concurrent in the States as to taxes and
+excises must necessarily do. But the use or application of the money
+after it is raised is a power altogether of a different character.
+It imposes no burden on the people, nor can it act on them in a sense
+to take power from the States or in any sense in which power can be
+controverted, or become a question between the two Governments. The
+application of money raised under a lawful power is a right or grant
+which may be abused. It may be applied partially among the States, or
+to improper purposes in our foreign and domestic concerns; but still
+it is a power not felt in the sense of other power, since the only
+complaint which any State can make of such partiality and abuse is
+that some other State or States have obtained greater benefit from the
+application than by a just rule of apportionment they were entitled to.
+The right of appropriation is therefore from its nature secondary and
+incidental to the right of raising money, and it was proper to place
+it in the same grant and same clause with that right. By rinding them,
+then, in that order we see a new proof of the sense in which the grant
+was made, corresponding with the view herein taken of it.
+
+The last part of this grant, which provides that all duties, imposts,
+and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States, furnishes
+another strong proof that it was not intended that the second part
+should constitute a distinct grant in the sense above stated, or
+convey any other right than that of appropriation. This provision
+operates exclusively on the power granted in the first part of the
+clause. It recites three branches of that power--duties, imposts, and
+excises--those only on which it could operate, the rule by which the
+fourth--that is, taxes--should be laid being already provided for in
+another part of the Constitution. The object of this provision is to
+secure a just equality among the States in the exercise of that power
+by Congress. By placing it after both the grants--that is, after that
+to raise and that to appropriate the public money--and making it apply
+to the first only it shows that it was not intended that the power
+granted in the second should be paramount to and destroy that granted in
+the first. It shows also that no such formidable power as that suggested
+had been granted in the second, or any power against the abuse of which
+it was thought necessary specially to provide. Surely if it was deemed
+proper to guard a specific power of limited extent and well-known
+import against injustice and abuse, it would have been much more so
+to have guarded against the abuse of a power of such vast extent and so
+indefinite as would have been granted by the second part of the clause
+if considered as a distinct and original grant.
+
+With this construction all the other enumerated grants, and, indeed,
+all the grants of power contained in the Constitution, have their full
+operation and effect. They all stand well together, fulfilling the great
+purposes intended by them. Under it we behold a great scheme, consistent
+in all its parts, a Government instituted for national purposes, vested
+with adequate powers for those purposes, commencing with the most
+important of all, that of the revenue, and proceeding in regular order
+to the others with which it was deemed proper to endow it, all, too,
+drawn with the utmost circumspection and care. How much more consistent
+is this construction with the great objects of the institution and with
+the high character of the enlightened and patriotic citizens who framed
+it, as well as of those who ratified it, than one which subverts every
+sound principle and rule of construction and throws everything into
+confusion.
+
+I have dwelt thus long on this part of the subject from an earnest
+desire to fix in a clear and satisfactory manner the import of the
+second part of this grant, well knowing from the generality of the terms
+used their tendency to lead into error. I indulge a strong hope that
+the view herein presented will not be without effect, but will tend to
+satisfy the unprejudiced and impartial that nothing more was granted by
+that part than a power to _appropriate_ the public money raised under
+the other part. To what extent that power may be carried will be the
+next object of inquiry.
+
+It is contended on the one side that as the National Government is
+a government of limited powers it has no right to expend money except
+in the performance of acts authorized by the other specific grants
+according to a strict construction of their powers; that this grant
+in neither of its branches gives to Congress discretionary power of
+any kind, but is a mere instrument in its hands to carry into effect
+the powers contained in the other grants. To this construction I was
+inclined in the more early stage of our Government; but on further
+reflection and observation my mind has undergone a change, for reasons
+which I will frankly unfold.
+
+The grant consists, as heretofore observed, of a twofold power--the
+first to raise, the second to appropriate, the public money--and the
+terms used in both instances are general and unqualified. Bach branch
+was obviously drawn with a view to the other, and the import of each
+tends to illustrate that of the other. The grant to raise money gives
+a power over every subject from which revenue may be drawn, and is made
+in the same manner with the grants to declare war, to raise and support
+armies and a navy, to regulate commerce, to establish post-offices
+and post-roads, and with all the other specific grants to the General
+Government. In the discharge of the powers contained in any of these
+grants there is no other check than that which is to be found in the
+great principles of our system, the responsibility of the representative
+to his constituents. If war, for example, is necessary, and Congress
+declare it for good cause, their constituents will support them in it.
+A like support will be given them for the faithful discharge of their
+duties under any and every other power vested in the United States.
+It affords to the friends of our free governments the most heartfelt
+consolation to know--and from the best evidence, our own experience--that
+in great emergencies the boldest measures, such as form the strongest
+appeals to the virtue and patriotism of the people, are sure to obtain
+the most decided approbation. But should the representative act
+corruptly and betray his trust, or otherwise prove that he was unworthy
+of the confidence of his constituents, he would be equally sure to lose
+it and to be removed and otherwise censured, according to his deserts.
+The power to raise money by taxes, duties, imposts, and excises is alike
+unqualified, nor do I see any check on the exercise of it other than
+that which applies to the other powers above recited, the responsibility
+of the representative to his constituents. Congress know the extent of
+the public engagements and the sums necessary to meet them; they know
+how much may be derived from each branch of revenue without pressing
+it too far; and, paying due regard to the interests of the people,
+they likewise know which branch ought to be resorted to in the first
+instance. From the commencement of the Government two branches of this
+power, duties and imposts, have been in constant operation, the revenue
+from which has supported the Government in its various branches and met
+its other ordinary engagements. In great emergencies the other two,
+taxes and excises, have likewise been resorted to, and neither was the
+right or the policy ever called in question.
+
+If we look to the second branch of this power, that which authorizes the
+appropriation of the money thus raised, we find that it is not less
+general and unqualified than the power to raise it. More comprehensive
+terms than to "pay the debts and provide for the common defense and
+general welfare" could not have been used. So intimately connected with
+and dependent on each other are these two branches of power that had
+either been limited the limitation would have had the like effect on
+the other. Had the power to raise money been conditional or restricted
+to special purposes, the appropriation must have corresponded with it,
+for none but the money raised could be appropriated, nor could it be
+appropriated to other purposes than those which were permitted. On the
+other hand, if the right of appropriation had been restricted to certain
+purposes, it would be useless and improper to raise more than would be
+adequate to those purposes. It may fairly be inferred these restraints
+or checks have been carefully and intentionally avoided. The power in
+each branch is alike broad and unqualified, and each is drawn with
+peculiar fitness to the other, the latter requiring terms of great
+extent and force to accommodate the former, which have been adopted,
+and both placed in the same clause and sentence.
+
+Can it be presumed that all these circumstances were so nicely adjusted
+by mere accident? Is it not more just to conclude that they were the
+result of due deliberation and design? Had it been intended that
+Congress should be restricted in the appropriation of the public money
+to such expenditures as were authorized by a rigid construction of the
+other specific grants, how easy would it have been to have provided for
+it by a declaration to that effect. The omission of such declaration is
+therefore an additional proof that it was not intended that the grant
+should be so construed.
+
+It was evidently impossible to have subjected this grant in either
+branch to such restriction without exposing the Government to very
+serious embarrassment. How carry it into effect? If the grant had been
+made in any degree dependent upon the States, the Government would have
+experienced the fate of the Confederation. Like it, it would have
+withered and soon perished. Had the Supreme Court been authorized, or
+should any other tribunal distinct from the Government be authorized,
+to impose its veto, and to say that more money had been raised under
+either branch of this power--that is, by taxes, duties, imposts, or
+excises--than was necessary, that such a tax or duty was useless, that
+the appropriation to this or that purpose was unconstitutional, the
+movement might have been suspended and the whole system disorganized.
+It was impossible to have created a power within the Government or
+any other power distinct from Congress and the Executive which should
+control the movement of the Government in this respect and not destroy
+it. Had it been declared by a clause in the Constitution that the
+expenditures under this grant should be restricted to the construction
+which might be given of the other grants, such restraint, though the
+most innocent, could not have failed to have had an injurious effect on
+the vital principles of the Government and often on its most important
+measures. Those who might wish to defeat a measure proposed might
+construe the power relied on in support of it in a narrow and contracted
+manner, and in that way fix a precedent inconsistent with the true
+import of the grant. At other times those who favored a measure might
+give to the power relied on a forced or strained construction, and,
+succeeding in the object, fix a precedent in the opposite extreme.
+Thus it is manifest that if the right of appropriation be confined
+to that limit, measures may oftentimes be carried or defeated by
+considerations and motives altogether independent of and unconnected
+with their merits, and the several powers of Congress receive
+constructions equally inconsistent with their true import. No such
+declaration, however, has been made, and from the fair import of the
+grant, and, indeed, its positive terms, the inference that such was
+intended seems to be precluded.
+
+Many considerations of great weight operate in favor of this
+construction, while I do not perceive any serious objections to it.
+If it be established, it follows that the words "to provide for the
+common defense and general welfare" have a definite, safe, and useful
+meaning. The idea of their forming an original grant, with unlimited
+power, superseding every other grant, is abandoned. They will be
+considered simply as conveying a right of appropriation, a right
+indispensable to that of raising a revenue and necessary to expenditures
+under every grant. By it, as already observed, no new power will be
+taken from the States, the money to be appropriated being raised under
+a power already granted to Congress. By it, too, the motive for giving
+a forced or strained construction to any of the other specific grants
+will in most instances be diminished and in many utterly destroyed.
+The importance of this consideration can not be too highly estimated,
+since, in addition to the examples already given, it ought particularly
+to be recollected that to whatever extent any specified power may be
+carried the right of jurisdiction goes with it, pursuing it through
+all its incidents. The very important agency which this grant has in
+carrying into effect every other grant is a wrong argument in favor of
+the construction contended for. All the other grants are limited by
+the nature of the offices which they have severally to perform, each
+conveying a power to do a certain thing, and that only, whereas this is
+coextensive with the great scheme of the Government itself. It is the
+lever which raises and puts the whole machinery in motion and continues
+the movement. Should either of the other grants fail in consequence of
+any condition or limitation attached to it or misconstruction of its
+powers, much injury might follow, but still it would be the failure of
+one branch of power, of one item in the system only. All the others
+might move on. But should the right to raise and appropriate the public
+money be improperly restricted, the whole system might be sensibly
+affected, if not disorganized. Each of the other grants is limited by
+the nature of the grant itself; this, by the nature of the Government
+only. Hence it became necessary that, like the power to declare war,
+this power should be commensurate with the great scheme of the
+Government and with all its purposes.
+
+If, then, the right to raise and appropriate the public money is not
+restricted to the expenditures under the other specific grants according
+to a strict construction of their powers, respectively, is there no
+limitation to it? Have Congress a right to raise and appropriate the
+money to any and to every purpose according to their will and pleasure?
+They certainly have not. The Government of the United States is a
+limited Government, instituted for great national purposes, and for
+those only. Other interests are committed to the States, whose duty
+it is to provide for them. Each government should look to the great
+and essential purposes for which it was instituted and confine itself
+to those purposes. A State government will rarely if ever apply money to
+national purposes without making it a charge to the nation. The people
+of the State would not permit it. Nor will Congress be apt to apply
+money in aid of the State administrations for purposes strictly local
+in which the nation at large has no interest, although the State should
+desire it. The people of the other States would condemn it. They would
+declare that Congress had no right to tax them for such a purpose, and
+dismiss at the next election such of their representatives as had voted
+for the measure, especially if it should be severely felt. I do not
+think that in offices of this kind there is much danger of the two
+Governments mistaking their interests or their duties. I rather expect
+that they would soon have a clear and distinct understanding of them
+and move on in great harmony.
+
+Good roads and canals will promote many very important national
+purposes. They will facilitate the operations of war, the movements of
+troops, the transportation of cannon, of provisions, and every warlike
+store, much to our advantage and to the disadvantage of the enemy in
+time of war. Good roads will facilitate the transportation of the mail,
+and thereby promote the purposes of commerce and political intelligence
+among the people. They will by being properly directed to these objects
+enhance the value of our vacant lands, a treasure of vast resource to
+the nation. To the appropriation of the public money to improvements
+having these objects in view and carried to a certain extent I do not
+see any well-founded constitutional objection.
+
+In regard to our foreign concerns, provided they are managed with
+integrity and ability, great liberality is allowable in the application
+of the public money. In the management of these concerns no State
+interests can be affected, no State rights violated. The complete and
+exclusive control over them is vested in Congress. The power to form
+treaties of alliance and commerce with foreign powers, to regulate by
+law our commerce with them, to determine on peace or war, to raise
+armies and a navy, to call forth the militia and direct their operations
+belongs to the General Government. These great powers, embracing the
+whole scope of our foreign relations, being granted, on what principle
+can it be said that the minor are withheld? Are not the latter clearly
+and evidently comprised in the former? Nations are sometimes called upon
+to perform to each other acts of humanity and kindness, of which we see
+so many illustrious examples between individuals in private life. Great
+calamities make appeals to the benevolence of mankind which ought not
+to be resisted. Good offices in such emergencies exalt the character
+of the party rendering them. By exciting grateful feelings they soften
+the intercourse between nations and tend to prevent war. Surely if the
+United States have a right to make war they have a right to prevent it.
+How was it possible to grant to Congress a power for such minor purposes
+other than in general terms, comprising it within the scope and policy
+of that which conveyed it for the greater?
+
+The right of appropriation is nothing more than a right to apply the
+public money to this or that purpose. It has no incidental power, nor
+does it draw after it any consequences of that kind. All that Congress
+could do under it in the case of internal improvements would be to
+appropriate the money necessary to make them. For every act requiring
+legislative sanction or support the State authority must be relied on.
+The condemnation of the land, if the proprietors should refuse to sell
+it, the establishment of turnpikes and tolls, and the protection of the
+work when finished must be done by the State. To these purposes the
+powers of the General Government are believed to be utterly incompetent.
+
+To the objection that the United States have no power in any instance
+which is not complete to all the purposes to which it may be made
+instrumental, and in consequence that they have no right to appropriate
+any portion of the public money to internal improvements because they
+have not the right of sovereignty and jurisdiction over them when made,
+a full answer has, it is presumed, been already given. It may, however,
+be proper to add that if this objection was well founded it would not
+be confined to the simple case of internal improvements, but would
+apply to others of high importance. Congress have a right to regulate
+commerce. To give effect to this power it becomes necessary to establish
+custom-houses in every State along the coast and in many parts of
+the interior. The vast amount of goods imported and the duties to be
+performed to accommodate the merchants and secure the revenue make it
+necessary that spacious buildings should be erected, especially in the
+great towns, for their reception. This, it is manifest, could best be
+performed under the direction of the General Government. Have Congress
+the right to seize the property of individuals if they should refuse
+to sell it, in quarters best adapted to the purpose, to have it valued,
+and to take it at the valuation? Have they a right to exercise
+jurisdiction within those buildings? Neither of these claims has ever
+been set up, nor could it, as is presumed, be sustained. They have
+invariably either rented houses where such as were suitable could be
+obtained, or, where they could not, purchased the ground of individuals,
+erected the buildings, and held them under the laws of the State. Under
+the power to establish post-offices and post-roads houses are also
+requisite for the reception of the mails and the transaction of the
+business of the several offices. These have always been rented or
+purchased and held under the laws of the State in the same manner as
+if they had been taken by a citizen. The United States have a right to
+establish tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court, and such have been
+established in every State of the Union. It is believed that the houses
+for these inferior courts have invariably been rented. No right of
+jurisdiction in them has ever been claimed, nor other right than that of
+privilege, and that only while the court is in session. A still stronger
+case may be urged. Should Congress be compelled by invasion or other
+cause to remove the Government to some town within one of the States,
+would they have a right of jurisdiction over such town, or hold even the
+house in which they held their session under other authority than the
+laws of such State? It is believed that they would not. If they have
+a right to appropriate money for any of these purposes, to be laid out
+under the protection of the laws of the State, surely they have an equal
+right to do it for the purposes of internal improvements.
+
+It is believed that there is not a corporation in the Union which does
+not exercise great discretion in the application of the money raised
+by it to the purposes of its institution. It would be strange if the
+Government of the United States, which was instituted for such important
+purposes and endowed with such extensive powers, should not be allowed
+at least equal discretion and authority. The evil to be particularly
+avoided is the violation of State rights. Shunning that, it seems to be
+reasonable and proper that the powers of Congress should be so construed
+as that the General Government in its intercourse with other nations and
+in our internal concerns should be able to adopt all such measures lying
+within the fair scope and intended to facilitate the direct objects of
+its powers as the public welfare may require and a sound and provident
+policy dictate.
+
+The measures of Congress have been in strict accord with the view taken
+of the right of appropriation both as to its extent and limitation, as
+will be shown by a reference to the laws, commencing at a very early
+period. Many roads have been opened, of which the following are the
+principal: The first from Cumberland, at the head waters of the Potomac,
+in the State of Maryland, through Pennsylvania and Virginia, to the
+State of Ohio (March 29, 1806; see vol. 4, p. 13, of the late edition
+of the laws). The second from the frontiers of Georgia, on the route
+from Athens to New Orleans, to its intersection with the thirty-first
+degree of north latitude (April 31, 1806, p. 58). The third from the
+Mississippi at a point and by a route described to the Ohio (same act).
+The fourth from Nashville, in Tennessee, to Natchez (same act). The
+fifth from the thirty-first degree of north latitude, on the route
+from Athens to New Orleans, under such regulations as might be agreed
+on between the Executive and the Spanish Government (March 3, 1807,
+p. 117). The sixth from the foot of the rapids of the river Miami,
+of Lake Erie, to the western line of the Connecticut Reserve (December
+12, 1811, p. 364). The seventh from the Lower Sandusky to the boundary
+line established by the treaty of Greenville (same act). The eighth from
+a point where the United States road leading from Vincennes to the
+Indian boundary line, established by the treaty of Greenville, strikes
+the said line, to the North Bend, in the State of Ohio (January 8, 1812,
+p. 367). The ninth for repairing and keeping in repair the road between
+Columbia, on Duck River, in Tennessee, and Madisonville, in Louisiana,
+and also the road between Fort Hawkins, in Georgia, and Fort Stoddard
+(April 27, 1816, p. 104 of the acts of that year). The tenth from the
+Shawneetown, on the Ohio River, to the Sabine, and to Kaskaskias,
+in Illinois (April 27, 1816, p. 112). The eleventh from Reynoldsburg,
+on Tennessee River, in the State of Tennessee, through the Chickasaw
+Nation, to intersect the Natchez road near the Chickasaw old town (March
+3, 1817, p. 252). The twelfth: By this act authority was given to the
+President to appoint three commissioners for the purpose of examining
+the country and laying out a road from the termination of the Cumberland
+road, at Wheeling, on the Ohio, through the States of Ohio, Indiana,
+and Illinois, to a point to be chosen by them, on the left bank of the
+Mississippi, between St. Louis and the mouth of the Illinois River, and
+to report an accurate plan of the said road, with an estimate of the
+expense of making it. It is, however, declared by the act that nothing
+was thereby intended to imply an obligation on the part of the United
+States to make or defray the expense of making the said road or any part
+thereof.
+
+In the late war two other roads were made by the troops for military
+purposes--one from the Upper Sandusky, in the State of Ohio, through
+the Black Swamp, toward Detroit, and another from Plattsburg, on Lake
+Champlain, through the Chatauga woods toward Sacketts Harbor, which have
+since been repaired and improved by the troops. Of these latter there
+is no notice in the laws. The extra pay to the soldiers for repairing
+and improving those roads was advanced in the first instance from the
+appropriation to the Quartermaster's Department and afterwards provided
+for by a specific appropriation by Congress. The necessity of keeping
+those roads open and in good repair, being on the frontier, to
+facilitate a communication between our posts, is apparent.
+
+All of these roads except the first were formed merely by cutting down
+the trees and throwing logs across, so as to make causeways over such
+parts as were otherwise impassable. The execution was of the coarsest
+kind. The Cumberland road is the only regular work which has been
+undertaken by the General Government or which could give rise to any
+question between the two Governments respecting its powers. It is a
+great work, over the highest mountains in our Union, connecting from
+the seat of the General Government the Eastern with the Western waters,
+and more intimately the Atlantic with the Western States, in the
+formation of which $1,800,000 have been expended. The measures pursued
+in this case require to be particularly noticed as fixing the opinion
+of the parties, and particularly of Congress, on the important question
+of the right. Passing through Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia,
+it was thought necessary and proper to bring the subject before their
+respective legislatures to obtain their sanction, which was granted by
+each State by a legislative act, approving the route and providing for
+the purchase and condemnation of the land. This road was founded on an
+article of compact between the United States and the State of Ohio,
+under which that State came into the Union, and by which the expense
+attending it was to be defrayed by the application of a certain portion
+of the money arising from the sale of the public lands within that
+State. In this instance, which is by far the strongest in respect to
+the expense, extent, and nature of the work done, the United States have
+exercised no act of jurisdiction or sovereignty within either of the
+States by taking the land from the proprietors by force, by passing acts
+for the protection of the road, or to raise a revenue from it by the
+establishment of turnpikes and tolls, or any other act founded on the
+principle of jurisdiction or right. Whatever they have done has, on the
+contrary, been founded on the opposite principle, on the voluntary and
+unqualified admission that the sovereignty belonged to the State and not
+to the United States, and that they could perform no act which should
+tend to weaken the power of the State or to assume any to themselves.
+All that they have done has been to appropriate the public money to
+the construction of this road and to cause it to be constructed, for
+I presume that no distinction can be taken between the appropriation
+of money raised by the sale of the public lands and of that which
+arises from taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; nor can I believe that
+the power to appropriate derives any sanction from a provision to that
+effect having been made by an article of compact between the United
+States and the people of the then Territory of Ohio. This point may,
+however, be placed in a clearer light by a more particular notice of
+the article itself.
+
+By an act of April 30, 1802, entitled "An act to enable the people of
+the eastern division of the territory northwest of the river Ohio to
+form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of such
+State into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, and
+for other purposes," after describing the limits of the proposed new
+State and authorizing the people thereof to elect a convention to
+form a constitution, the three following propositions were made to the
+convention, to be obligatory on the United States if accepted by it:
+First, that section No. 16 of every township, or, where such section
+had been sold, other lands equivalent thereto, should be granted to the
+inhabitants of such township for the use of free schools. Second, that
+the 6 miles' reservation, including the salt springs commonly called
+the Sciota Salt Springs, the salt springs near the Muskingum River and
+in the military tract, with the sections which include the same, should
+be granted to the said State for the use of the people thereof, under
+such regulations as the legislature of the State should prescribe:
+_Provided_, That it should never sell or lease the same for more than
+ten years. Third, that one twentieth part of the proceeds of the public
+lands lying within the said State which might be sold by Congress from
+and after the 30th June ensuing should be applied to the laying out and
+making public roads from the navigable waters emptying into the
+Atlantic, to the Ohio, and through the State of Ohio, such roads to be
+laid out under the authority of Congress, with the consent of the
+several States through which they should pass.
+
+These three propositions were made on the condition that the convention
+of the State should provide by an ordinance, irrevocable without the
+consent of the United States, that every tract of land sold by Congress
+after the 30th of June ensuing should remain for the term of five years
+after sale exempt from every species of tax whatsoever.
+
+It is impossible to read the ordinance of the 23d of April, 1784, or
+the provisions of the act of April 30, 1802, which are founded on it,
+without being profoundly impressed with the enlightened and magnanimous
+policy which dictated them. Anticipating that the new States would be
+settled by the inhabitants of the original States and their offspring,
+no narrow or contracted jealousy was entertained of their admission
+into the Union in equal participation in the national sovereignty with
+the original States. It was foreseen at the early period at which that
+ordinance passed that the expansion of our Union to the Lakes and to
+the Mississippi and all its waters would not only make us a greater
+power, but cement the Union itself. These three propositions were well
+calculated to promote these great results. A grant of land to each
+township for free schools, and of the salt springs to the State, which
+were within its limits, for the use of its citizens, with 5 per cent of
+the money to be raised from the sale of lands within the State for the
+construction of roads between the original States and the new State, and
+of other roads within the State, indicated a spirit not to be mistaken,
+nor could it fail to produce a corresponding effect in the bosoms of
+those to whom it was addressed. For these considerations the sole return
+required of the convention was that the new State should not tax the
+public lands which might be sold by the United States within it for the
+term of five years after they should be sold. As the value of these
+lands would be enhanced by this exemption from taxes for that term, and
+from which the new State would derive its proportionable benefit, and
+as it would also promote the rapid sale of those lands, and with it
+the augmentation of its own population, it can not be doubted, had this
+exemption been suggested unaccompanied by any propositions of particular
+advantage, that the convention would, in consideration of the relation
+which had before existed between the parties, and was about to be so
+much improved, most willingly have acceded to it and without regarding
+it as an onerous condition.
+
+Since, then, it appears that the whole of the money to be employed in
+making this road was to be raised from the sale of the public lands, and
+which would still belong to the United States, although no mention had
+been made of them in the compact, it follows that the application of the
+money to that purpose stands upon the same ground as if such compact had
+not been made, and in consequence that the example in favor of the right
+of appropriation is in no manner affected by it.
+
+The same rule of construction of the right of appropriation has been
+observed and the same liberal policy pursued toward the other new
+States, with certain modifications adapted to the situation of each,
+which were adopted with the State of Ohio. As, however, the reasoning
+which is applicable to the compact with Ohio in relation to the right
+of appropriation, in which light only I have adverted to it, is equally
+applicable to the several compacts with the other new States, I deem it
+unnecessary to take a particular notice of them.
+
+It is proper to observe that the money which was employed in the
+construction of all the other roads was taken directly from the
+Treasury. This fact affords an additional proof that in the
+contemplation of Congress no difference existed in the application of
+money to those roads between that which was raised by the sale of lands
+and that which was derived from taxes, duties, imposts, and excises.
+
+So far I have confined my remarks to the acts of Congress respecting the
+right of appropriation to such measures only as operate internally and
+affect the territory of the individual States. In adverting to those
+which operate externally and relate to foreign powers I find only two
+which appear to merit particular attention. These were gratuitous grants
+of money for the relief of foreigners in distress--the first in 1794
+to the inhabitants of St. Domingo, who sought an asylum on our coast
+from the convulsions and calamities of the island; the second in 1812
+to the people of Caracas, reduced to misery by an earthquake. The
+considerations which were applicable to these grants have already
+been noticed and need not be repeated.
+
+In this examination of the right of appropriation I thought it proper
+to present to view also the practice of the Government under it, and to
+explore the ground on which each example rested, that the precise nature
+and extent of the construction thereby given of the right might be
+clearly understood. The right to raise money would have given, as is
+presumed, the right to use it, although nothing had been said to that
+effect in the Constitution; and where the right to raise it is granted
+without special limitation, we must look for such limitation to other
+causes. Our attention is first drawn to the right to appropriate, and
+not finding it there we must then look to the general powers of the
+Government as designated by the specific grants and to the purposes
+contemplated by them, allowing to this (the right to raise money), the
+first and most important of the enumerated powers, a scope which will
+be competent to those purposes. The practice of the Government, as
+illustrated by numerous and strong examples directly applicable, ought
+surely to have great weight in fixing the construction of each grant.
+It ought, I presume, to settle it, especially where it is acquiesced
+in by the nation and produces a manifest and positive good. A practical
+construction, thus supported, shows that it has reason on its side and
+is called for by the interests of the Union. Hence, too, the presumption
+that it will be persevered in. It will surely be better to admit that
+the construction given by these examples has been just arid proper than
+to deny that construction and still to practice on it--to say one thing
+and to do another.
+
+Wherein consists the danger of giving a liberal construction to the
+right of Congress to raise and appropriate the public money? It has
+been shown that its obvious effect is to secure the rights of the
+States from encroachment and greater harmony in the political movement
+between the two governments, while it enlarges to a certain extent
+in the most harmless way the useful agency of the General Government
+for all the purposes of its institution. Is not the responsibility of
+the representative to his constituent in every branch of the General
+Government equally strong and as sensibly felt as in the State
+governments, and is not the security against abuse as effectual in the
+one as in the other government? The history of the General Government
+in all its measures fully demonstrates that Congress will never venture
+to impose unnecessary burdens on the people or any that can be avoided.
+Duties and imposts have always been light, not greater, perhaps, than
+would have been imposed for the encouragement of our manufactures had
+there been no occasion for the revenue arising from them; and taxes and
+excises have never been laid except in cases of necessity, and repealed
+as soon as the necessity ceased. Under this mild process and the sale
+of some hundreds of millions of acres of good land the Government will
+be possessed of money, which may be applied with great advantage to
+national purposes. Within the States only will it be applied, and,
+of course, for their benefit, it not being presumable that such appeals
+as were made to the benevolence of the country in the instances of
+the inhabitants of St. Domingo and Caracas will often occur. How,
+then, shall this revenue be applied? Should it be idle in the Treasury?
+That our resources will be equal to such useful purposes I have no
+doubt, especially if by completing our fortifications and raising and
+maintaining our Navy at the point provided for immediately after the
+war we sustain our present altitude and preserve by means thereof for
+any length of time the peace of the Union.
+
+When we hear charges raised against other governments of breaches
+of their constitutions, or, rather, of their charters, we always
+anticipate the most serious consequences--communities deprived of
+privileges which they have long enjoyed, or individuals oppressed and
+punished in violation of the ordinary forms and guards of trial to
+which they were accustomed and entitled. How different is the situation
+of the United States! Nor can anything mark more strongly the great
+characteristics of that difference than the grounds on which like
+charges are raised against this Government. It is not alleged that any
+portion of the community or any individual has been oppressed or that
+money has been raised under a doubtful title. The principal charges are
+that a work of great utility to the Union and affecting immediately
+and with like advantage many of the States has been constructed; that
+pensions to the surviving patriots of our Revolution, to patriots who
+fought the battles and promoted the independence of their country, have
+been granted, by money, too, raised not only without oppression, but
+almost without being felt, and under an acknowledged constitutional
+power.
+
+From this view of the right to appropriate and of the practice under
+it I think that I am authorized to conclude that the right to make
+internal improvements has not been granted by the power "to pay the
+debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare," included
+in the first of the enumerated powers; that that grant conveys nothing
+more than a right to appropriate the public money, and stands on the
+same ground with the right to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts,
+and excises, conveyed by the first branch of that power; that the
+Government itself being limited, both branches of the power to raise
+and appropriate the public money are also limited, the extent of the
+Government as designated by the specific grants marking the extent
+of the power in both branches, extending, however, to every object
+embraced by the fair scope of those grants and not confined to a strict
+construction of their respective powers, it being safer to aid the
+purposes of those grants by the appropriation of money than to extend
+by a forced construction the grant itself; that although the right to
+appropriate the public money to such improvements affords a resource
+indispensably necessary to such a scheme, it is nevertheless deficient
+as a power in the great characteristics on which its execution depends.
+
+The substance of what has been urged on this subject may be expressed in
+a few words. My idea is that Congress have an unlimited power to raise
+money, and that in its appropriation they have a discretionary power,
+restricted only by the duty to appropriate it to purposes of common
+defense and of general, not local, national, not State, benefit.
+
+I will now proceed to the fifth source from which the power is said to
+be derived, viz, the power to make all laws which shall be necessary
+and proper for carrying into execution all the powers vested by the
+Constitution in the Government of the United States or in any department
+or officer thereof. This is the seventeenth and last of the enumerated
+powers granted to Congress.
+
+I have always considered this power as having been granted on a
+principle of greater caution to secure the complete execution of all
+the powers which had been vested in the General Government. It contains
+no distinct and specific power, as every other grant does, such as to
+lay and collect taxes, to declare war, to regulate commerce, and the
+like. Looking to the whole scheme of the General Government, it gives
+to Congress authority to make all laws which should be deemed necessary
+and proper for carrying all its powers into effect. My impression has
+been invariably that this power would have existed substantially if this
+grant had not been made; for why is any power granted unless it be to be
+executed when required, and how can it be executed under our Government
+unless it be by laws necessary and proper for the purpose--that is, well
+adapted to the end? It is a principle universally admitted that a grant
+of a power conveys as a necessary consequence or incident to it the
+means of carrying it into effect by a fair construction of its import.
+In the formation, however, of the Constitution, which was to act
+directly upon the people and be paramount to the extent of its powers
+to the constitutions of the States, it was wise in its framers to leave
+nothing to implication which might be reduced to certainty. It is known
+that all power which rests solely on that ground has been systematically
+and zealously opposed under all governments with which we have any
+acquaintance; and it was reasonable to presume that under our system,
+where there was a division of the sovereignty between the two
+independent governments, the measures of the General Government would
+excite equal jealousy and produce an opposition not less systematic,
+though, perhaps, less violent. Hence the policy by the framers of our
+Government of securing by a fundamental declaration in the Constitution
+a principle which in all other governments had been left to implication
+only. The terms "necessary" and "proper" secure to the powers of all
+the grants to which the authority given in this is applicable a fair
+and sound construction, which is equally binding as a rule on both
+Governments and on all their departments.
+
+In examining the right of the General Government to adopt and execute
+under this grant a system of internal improvement the sole question
+to be decided is whether the power has been granted under any of the
+other grants. If it has, this power is applicable to it to the extent
+stated. If it has not, it does not exist at all, for it has not been
+hereby granted. I have already examined all the other grants (one only
+excepted, which will next claim attention) and shown, as I presume, on
+the most liberal construction of their powers that the right has not
+been granted by any of them; hence it follows that in regard to them
+it has not been granted by this.
+
+I come now to the last source from which this power is said to be
+derived, viz, the power to dispose of and make all needful rules and
+regulations respecting the territory or other property of the United
+States, which is contained in the second clause of the third section
+of the fourth article of the Constitution.
+
+To form a just opinion of the nature and extent of this power it will
+be necessary to bring into view the provisions contained in the first
+clause of the section of the article referred to, which makes an
+essential part of the policy in question. By this it is declared that
+new States shall be admitted into the Union, but that no new States
+shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State,
+nor any States be formed by the junction of two or more States or parts
+of States, without the consent of the legislatures of the States
+concerned as well as of the United States.
+
+If we recur to the condition of our country at the commencement of
+the Revolution, we shall see the origin and cause of these provisions.
+By the charters of the several colonies limits by latitude and other
+descriptions were assigned to each. In commencing the Revolution the
+colonies, as has already been observed, claimed by those limits,
+although their population extended in many instances to a small portion
+of the territory lying within them. It was contended by some of the
+States after the declaration of independence that the vacant lands lying
+within any of the States should become the property of the Union, as by
+a common exertion they would be acquired. This claim was resisted by the
+others on the principle that all the States entered into the contest in
+the full extent of their chartered rights, and that they ought to have
+the full benefit of those rights in the event of success. Happily this
+controversy was settled, as all interfering claims and pretensions
+between the members of our Union and between the General Government and
+any of these members have been, in the most amicable manner and to the
+satisfaction of all parties. On the recommendation of Congress the
+individual States having such territory within their chartered limits
+ceded large portions thereof to the United States on condition that it
+should be laid off into districts of proper dimensions, the lands to
+be sold for the benefit of the United States, and that the districts
+be admitted into the Union when they should obtain such a population
+as it might be thought proper and reasonable to prescribe. This is the
+territory and this the property referred to in the second clause of the
+fourth article of the Constitution.
+
+All the States which had made cessions of vacant territory except
+Georgia had made them before the adoption of the Constitution, and
+that State had made a proposition to Congress to that effect which
+was under consideration at the time the Constitution was adopted. The
+cession was completed after the adoption of the Constitution. It was
+made on the same principle and on similar conditions with those which
+had been already made by the other States. As differences might arise
+respecting the right or the policy in Congress to admit new States
+into the Union under the new Government, or to make regulations for the
+government of the territory ceded in the intermediate state, or for the
+improvement and sale of the public lands, or to accept other cessions,
+it was thought proper to make special provisions for these objects,
+which was accordingly done by the above-recited clause in the
+Constitution.
+
+Thus the power of Congress over the ceded territory was not only
+limited to these special objects, but was also temporary. As soon as
+the territory became a State the jurisdiction over it as it had before
+existed ceased. It extended afterwards only to the unsold lands, and
+as soon as the whole were sold it ceased in that sense also altogether.
+From that moment the United States have no jurisdiction or power in the
+new States other than in the old, nor can it be obtained except by an
+amendment of the Constitution.
+
+Since, then, it is manifest that the power granted to Congress to
+dispose of and make all needful regulations respecting the territory
+and other property of the United States relates solely to the territory
+and property which had been ceded by individual States, and which after
+such cession lay without their respective limits, and for which special
+provision was deemed necessary, the main power of the Constitution
+operating internally, not being applicable or adequate thereto, it
+follows that this power gives no authority, and has even no bearing on
+the question of internal improvement. The authority to admit new States
+and to dispose of the property and regulate the territory is not among
+the enumerated powers granted to Congress, because the duties to be
+performed under it are not among the ordinary duties of that body, like
+the imposition of taxes, the regulation of commerce, and the like. They
+are objects in their nature special, and for which special provision was
+more suitable and proper.
+
+Having now examined all the powers of Congress under which the right
+to adopt and execute a system of internal improvement is claimed and
+the reasons in support of it in each instance, I think that it may
+fairly be concluded that such a right has not been granted. It appears
+and is admitted that much may be done in aid of such a system by the
+right which is derived from several of the existing grants, and more
+especially from that to appropriate the public money. But still it is
+manifest that as a system for the United States it can never be carried
+into effect under that grant nor under all of them united, the great
+and essential power being deficient, consisting of a right to take up
+the subject on principle; to cause our Union to be examined by men of
+science, with a view to such improvements; to authorize commissioners to
+lay off the roads and canals in all proper directions; to take the land
+at a valuation if necessary, and to construct the works; to pass laws
+with suitable penalties for their protection; and to raise a revenue
+from them, to keep them in repair, and make further improvement by the
+establishment of turnpikes and tolls, with gates to be placed at the
+proper distances.
+
+It need scarcely be remarked that this power will operate, like many
+others now existing, without affecting the sovereignty of the States
+except in the particular offices to be performed. The jurisdiction of
+the several States may still exist over the roads and canals within
+their respective limits, extending alike to persons and property, as if
+the right to make and protect such improvements had not been vested in
+Congress. The right, being made commensurate simply with the purposes
+indispensable to the system, may be strictly confined to them. The
+right of Congress to protect the works by laws imposing penalties would
+operate on the same principles as the right to protect the mail. The act
+being punishable only, a jurisdiction over the place would be altogether
+unnecessary and even absurd.
+
+In the preceding inquiry little has been said of the advantages which
+would attend the exercise of such a power by the General Government.
+I have made the inquiry under a deep conviction that they are almost
+incalculable, and that there was a general concurrence of opinion among
+our fellow-citizens to that effect. Still, it may not be improper for
+me to state the grounds upon which my own impression is founded. If it
+sheds no additional light on this interesting part of the subject, it
+will at least show that I have had more than one powerful motive for
+making the inquiry. A general idea is all that I shall attempt.
+
+The advantages of such a system must depend upon the interests to be
+affected by it and the extent to which they may be affected, and those
+must depend on the capacity of our country for improvement and the means
+at its command applicable to that object.
+
+I think that I may venture to affirm that there is no part of our globe
+comprehending so many degrees of latitude on the main ocean and so
+many degrees of longitude into the interior that admits of such great
+improvement and at so little expense. The Atlantic on the one side, and
+the Lakes, forming almost inland seas, on the other, separated by high
+mountains, which rise in the valley of the St. Lawrence and determine
+in that of the Mississippi, traversing from north to south almost the
+whole interior, with innumerable rivers on every side of those mountains,
+some of vast extent, many of which take their sources near to each other,
+give the great outline. The details are to be seen on the valuable maps
+of our country.
+
+It appears by the light already before the public that it is practicable
+and easy to connect by canals the whole coast from its southern to its
+northern extremity in one continued inland navigation, and to connect in
+like manner in many parts the Western lakes and rivers with each other.
+It is equally practicable and easy to facilitate the intercourse between
+the Atlantic and the Western country by improving the navigation of
+many of the rivers which have their sources near to each other in the
+mountains on each side, and by good roads across the mountains between
+the highest navigable points of those rivers. In addition to the example
+of the Cumberland road, already noticed, another of this kind is now in
+train from the head waters of the river James to those of the Kanawha;
+and in like manner may the Savannah be connected with the Tennessee. In
+some instances it is understood that the Eastern and Western waters may
+be connected together directly by canals. One great work of this kind is
+now in its progress and far advanced in the State of New York, and there
+is good reason to believe that two others may be formed, one at each
+extremity of the high mountains above mentioned, connecting in the one
+instance the waters of the St. Lawrence with Lake Champlain, and in
+the other some of the most important of the Western rivers with those
+emptying into the Gulf of Mexico, the advantage of which will be seen
+at the first glance by an enlightened observer.
+
+Great improvements may also be made by good roads in proper directions
+through the interior of the country. As these roads would be laid out
+on principle on a full view of the country, its mountains, rivers, etc.,
+it would be useless, if I had the knowledge, to go into detail respecting
+them. Much has been done by some of the States, but yet much remains to
+be done with a view to the Union.
+
+Under the colonial governments improvements of this kind were not
+thought of. There was, it is believed, not one canal and little
+communication from colony to colony. It was their policy to encourage
+the intercourse between each colony and the parent country only. The
+roads which were attended to were those which led from the interior of
+each colony to its principal towns on the navigable waters. By those
+routes the produce of the country was carried to the coast, and shipped
+thence to the mercantile houses in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, or other
+towns to which the trade was carried on. It is believed that there was
+but one connected route from North to South at the commencement of the
+Revolution, and that a very imperfect one. The existence and principle
+of our Union point out the necessity of a very different policy.
+
+The advantages which would be derived from such improvements are
+incalculable. The facility which would thereby be afforded to the
+transportation of the whole of the rich productions of our country
+to market would alone more than amply compensate for all the labor
+and expense attending them. Great, however, as is that advantage, it
+is one only of many and by no means the most important, Every power of
+the General Government and of the State governments connected with the
+strength and resources of the country would be made more efficient
+for the purposes intended by them. In war they would facilitate the
+transportation of men, ordnance, and provisions, and munitions of war of
+every kind to every part of our extensive coast and interior on which an
+attack might be made or threatened. Those who have any knowledge of the
+occurrences of the late war must know the good effect which would result
+in the event of another war from the command of an interior navigation
+alone along the coast for all the purposes of war as well as of commerce
+between the different parts of our Union. The impediments to all
+military operations which proceeded from the want of such a navigation
+and the reliance which was placed, notwithstanding those impediments,
+on such a commerce can not be forgotten. In every other line their
+good effect would be most sensibly felt. Intelligence by means of the
+Post-Office Department would be more easily, extensively, and rapidly
+diffused. Parts the most remote from each other would be brought more
+closely together. Distant lands would be made more valuable, and the
+industry of our fellow-citizens on every portion of our soil be better
+rewarded.
+
+It is natural in so great a variety of climate that there should be
+a corresponding difference in the produce of the soil; that one part
+should raise what the other might want. It is equally natural that the
+pursuits of industry should vary in like manner; that labor should be
+cheaper and manufactures succeed better in one part than in another;
+that were the climate the most severe and the soil less productive,
+navigation, the fisheries, and commerce should be most relied on.
+Hence the motive for an exchange for mutual accommodation and active
+intercourse between them. Each part would thus find for the surplus
+of its labor, in whatever article it consisted, an extensive market
+at home, which would be the most profitable because free from duty.
+
+There is another view in which these improvements are of still more
+vital importance. The effect which they would have on the bond of union
+itself affords an inducement for them more powerful than any which have
+been urged or than all of them united. The only danger to which our
+system is exposed arises from its expansion over a vast territory.
+Our union is not held together by standing armies or by any ties other
+than the positive interests and powerful attractions of its parts toward
+each other. Ambitious men may hereafter grow up among us who may promise
+to themselves advancement from a change, and by practicing upon the
+sectional interests, feelings, and prejudices endeavor under various
+pretexts to promote it. The history of the world is replete with
+examples of this kind--of military commanders and demagogues becoming
+usurpers and tyrants, and of their fellow-citizens becoming their
+instruments and slaves. I have little fear of this danger, knowing well
+how strong the bond which holds us together is and who the people are
+who are thus held together; but still, it is proper to look at and to
+provide against it, and it is not within the compass of human wisdom
+to make a more effectual provision than would be made by the proposed
+improvements. With their aid and the intercourse which would grow out
+of them the parts would soon become so compacted and bound together
+that nothing could break it.
+
+The expansion of our Union over a vast territory can not operate
+unfavorably to the States individually. On the contrary, it is believed
+that the greater the expansion within practicable limits--and it is not
+easy to say what are not so--the greater the advantage which the States
+individually will derive from it. With governments separate, vigorous,
+and efficient for all local purposes, their distance from each other can
+have no injurious effect upon their respective interests. It has already
+been shown that in some important circumstances, especially with the aid
+of these improvements, they must derive great advantage from that cause
+alone--that is, from their distance from each other. In every other way
+the expansion of our system must operate favorably for every State in
+proportion as it operates favorably for the Union. It is in that sense
+only that it can become a question with the States, or, rather, with
+the people who compose them. As States they can be affected by it only
+by their relation to each other through the General Government and by
+its effect on the operations of that Government. Manifest it is that to
+any extent to which the General Government can sustain and execute its
+functions with complete effect will the States--that is, the people who
+compose them--be benefited. It is only when the expansion shall be
+carried beyond the faculties of the General Government so as to enfeeble
+its operations to the injury of the whole that any of the parts can be
+injured. The tendency in that stage will be to dismemberment and not to
+consolidation. This danger should, therefore, be looked at with profound
+attention as one of a very serious character. I will remark here that
+as the operations of the National Government are of a general nature,
+the States having complete power for internal and local purposes, the
+expansion may be carried to very great extent and with perfect safety.
+It must be obvious to all that the further the expansion is carried,
+provided it be not beyond the just limit, the greater will be the
+freedom of action to both Governments and the more perfect their
+security, and in all other respects the better the effect will be to
+the whole American people. Extent of territory, whether it be great
+or small, gives to a nation many of its characteristics. It marks the
+extent of its resources, of its population, of its physical force.
+It marks, in short, the difference between a great and a small power.
+
+To what extent it may be proper to expand our system of government is a
+question which does not press for a decision at this time. At the end of
+the Revolutionary war, in 1783, we had, as we contended and believed,
+a right to the free navigation of the Mississippi, but it was not until
+after the expiration of twelve years, in 1795, that that right was
+acknowledged and enjoyed. Further difficulties occurred in the bustling
+of a contentious world when, at the expiration of eight years more, the
+United States, sustaining the strength and energy of their character,
+acquired the Province of Louisiana, with the free navigation of the
+river from its source to the ocean and a liberal boundary on the western
+side. To this Florida has since been added, so that we now possess all
+the territory in which the original States had any interest, or in which
+the existing States can be said, either in a national or local point
+of view, to be in any way interested. A range of States on the western
+side of the Mississippi, which already is provided for, puts us
+essentially at ease. Whether it will be wise to go further will turn
+on other considerations than those which have dictated the course
+heretofore pursued. At whatever point we may stop, whether it be at
+a single range of States beyond the Mississippi or by taking a greater
+scope, the advantage of such improvements is deemed of the highest
+importance. It is so on the present scale. The further we go the greater
+will be the necessity for them.
+
+It can not be doubted that improvements for great national purposes
+would be better made by the National Government than by the governments
+of the several States. Our experience prior to the adoption of the
+Constitution demonstrated that in the exercise by the individual States
+of most of the powers granted to the United States a contracted rivalry
+of interest and misapplied jealousy of each other had an important
+influence on all their measures to the great injury of the whole. This
+was particularly exemplified by the regulations which they severally
+made of their commerce with foreign nations and with each other. It
+was this utter incapacity in the State governments, proceeding from
+these and other causes, to act as a nation and to perform all the duties
+which the nation owed to itself under any system which left the General
+Government dependent on the States, which produced the transfer of
+these powers to the United States by the establishment of the present
+Constitution. The reasoning which was applicable to the grant of any of
+the powers now vested in Congress is likewise so, at least to a certain
+extent, to that in question. It is natural that the States individually
+in making improvements should look to their particular and local
+interests, The members composing their respective legislatures represent
+the people of each State only, and might not feel themselves at liberty
+to look to objects in these respects beyond that limit. If the resources
+of the Union were to be brought into operation under the direction of
+the State assemblies, or in concert with them, it may be apprehended
+that every measure would become the object of negotiation, of bargain
+and barter, much to the disadvantage of the system, as well as discredit
+to both governments. But Congress would look to the whole and make
+improvements to promote the welfare of the whole. It is the peculiar
+felicity of the proposed amendment that while it will enable the United
+States to accomplish every national object, the improvements made with
+that view will eminently promote the welfare of the individual States,
+who may also add such others as their own particular interests may
+require.
+
+The situation of the Cumberland road requires the particular and early
+attention of Congress. Being formed over very lofty mountains and in
+many instances over deep and wide streams, across which valuable bridges
+have been erected, which are sustained by stone walls, as are many other
+parts of the road, all these works are subject to decay, have decayed,
+and will decay rapidly unless timely and effectual measures are adopted
+to prevent it.
+
+The declivities from the mountains and all the heights must suffer from
+the frequent and heavy falls of water and its descent to the valleys,
+as also from the deep congelations during our severe winters. Other
+injuries have also been experienced on this road, such as the displacing
+the capping of the walls and other works, committed by worthless people
+either from a desire to render the road impassable or to have the
+transportation in another direction, or from a spirit of wantonness to
+create employment for idlers. These considerations show that an active
+and strict police ought to be established over the whole road, with
+power to make repairs when necessary, to establish turnpikes and tolls
+as the means of raising money to make them, and to prosecute and punish
+those who commit waste and other injuries.
+
+Should the United States be willing to abandon this road to the States
+through which it passes, would they take charge of it, each of that
+portion within its limits, and keep it in repair? It is not to be
+presumed that they would, since the advantages attending it are
+exclusively national, by connecting, as it does, the Atlantic with the
+Western States, and in a line with the seat of the National Government.
+The most expensive parts of this road lie within Pennsylvania and
+Virginia, very near the confines of each State and in a route not
+essentially connected with the commerce of either.
+
+If it is thought proper to vest this power in the United States,
+the only mode in which it can be done is by an amendment of the
+Constitution. The States individually can not transfer the power
+to the United States, nor can the United States receive it. The
+Constitution forms an equal and the sole relation between the General
+Government and the several States, and it recognizes no change in it
+which shall not in like manner apply to all. If it is once admitted
+that the General Government may form compacts with individual States
+not common to the others, and which the others might even disapprove,
+into what pernicious consequences might it not lead? Such compacts are
+utterly repugnant to the principles of the Constitution and of the most
+dangerous tendency. The States through which this road passes have given
+their sanction only to the route and to the acquisition of the soil
+by the United States, a right very different from that of jurisdiction,
+which can not be granted without an amendment to the Constitution, and
+which need not be granted for the purposes of this system except in the
+limited manner heretofore stated. On full consideration, therefore, of
+the whole subject I am of opinion that such an amendment ought to be
+recommended to the several States for their adoption.
+
+I have now essentially executed that part of the task which I imposed
+on myself of examining the right of Congress to adopt and execute a
+system of internal improvement, and, I presume, have shown that it does
+not exist. It is, I think, equally manifest that such a power vested in
+Congress and wisely executed would have the happiest effect on all the
+great interests of our Union. It is, however, my opinion that the power
+should be confined to great national works only, since if it were
+unlimited it would be liable to abuse and might be productive of evil.
+For all minor improvements the resources of the States individually
+would be fully adequate, and by the States such improvements might be
+made with greater advantage than by the Union, as they would understand
+better such as their more immediate and local interests required.
+
+In the view above presented I have thought it proper to trace the
+origin of our institutions, and particularly of the State and National
+Governments, for although they have a common origin in the people, yet,
+as the point at issue turned on what were the powers granted to the
+one government and what were those which remained to the other, I was
+persuaded that an analysis which should mark distinctly the source of
+power in both governments, with its progress in each, would afford the
+best means for obtaining a sound result. In our political career there
+are, obviously, three great epochs. The colonial state forms the first;
+the Revolutionary movement from its commencement to the adoption of the
+Articles of Confederation the second, and the intervening space from
+that event to the present day the third. The first may be considered
+the infant state. It was the school of morality, of political science
+and just principles. The equality of rights enjoyed by the people of
+every colony under their original charters forms the basis of every
+existing institution, and it was owing to the creation by those
+charters of distinct communities that the power, when wrested from the
+Crown, passed directly and exclusively to the people of each colony.
+The Revolutionary struggle gave activity to those principles, and its
+success secured to them a permanent existence in the governments
+of our Union, State and National. The third epoch comprises the
+administration under the Articles of Confederation, with the adoption
+of the Constitution and administration under it. On the first and
+last of these epochs it is not necessary to enlarge for any purpose
+connected with the object of this inquiry. To the second, in which we
+were transferred by a heroic exertion from the first to the third stage,
+and whose events give the true character to every institution, some
+further attention is due. In tracing in greater detail the prominent
+acts of a movement to which we owe so much I shall perform an office
+which, if not useful, will be gratifying to my own feelings, and I hope
+not unacceptable to my readers.
+
+Of the Revolutionary movement itself sentiments too respectful, too
+exalted, can not be entertained. It is impossible for any citizen having
+a just idea of the dangers which we had to encounter to read the record
+of our early proceedings and to see the firmness with which they were
+met and the wisdom and patriotism which were displayed in every stage
+without being deeply affected by it. An attack on Massachusetts was
+considered an attack on every colony, and the people of each moved in
+her defense as in their own cause. The meeting of the General Congress
+in Philadelphia on the 6th of September, 1774, appears to have been
+the result of a spontaneous impulse in every quarter at the same time.
+The first public act proposing it, according to the Journals of
+the First Congress, was passed by the house of representatives of
+Connecticut on the 3d of June of that year; but it is presumed that the
+first suggestion came from Massachusetts, the colony most oppressed,
+and in whose favor the general sympathy was much excited. The exposition
+which that Congress made of grievances, in the petition to the King, in
+the address to the people of Great Britain, and in that to the people
+of the several colonies, evinced a knowledge so profound of the English
+constitution and of the general principles of free government and of
+liberty, of our rights founded on that constitution and on the charters
+of the several colonies, and of the numerous and egregious violations
+which had been committed of them, as must have convinced all impartial
+minds that the talent on this side of the Atlantic was at least equal
+to that on the other. The spirit in which those papers were drawn, which
+was known to be in strict accord with the public sentiment, proved that,
+although the whole people cherished a connection with the parent country
+and were desirous of preserving it on just principles, they nevertheless
+stood embodied at the parting line, ready to separate forever if
+a redress of grievances, the alternative offered, was not promptly
+rendered. That alternative was rejected, and in consequence war and
+dismemberment followed.
+
+The powers granted to the delegates of each colony who composed the
+First Congress looked primarily to the support of rights and to a
+redress of grievances, and, in consequence, to the restoration of
+harmony, which was ardently desired. They justified, however, any
+extremity in case of necessity. They were ample for such purposes,
+and were executed in every circumstance with the utmost fidelity.
+It was not until after the meeting of the Second Congress, which took
+place on the 10th May, 1775, when full proof was laid before it of the
+commencement of hostilities in the preceding month by a deliberate
+attack of the British troops on the militia and inhabitants of Lexington
+and Concord, in Massachusetts, that war might be said to be decided on,
+and measures were taken to support it. The progress even then was slow
+and reluctant, as will be seen by their second petition to the King and
+their second address to the people of Great Britain, which were prepared
+and forwarded after that event. The arrival, however, of large bodies of
+troops and the pressure of war in every direction soon dispelled all
+hope of accommodation.
+
+On the 15th of June, 1775, a commander in chief of the forces raised and
+to be raised for the defense of American liberty was appointed by the
+unanimous vote of Congress, and his conduct in the discharge of the
+duties of that high trust, which he held through the whole of the war,
+has given an example to the world for talents as a military commander;
+for integrity, fortitude, and firmness under the severest trials; for
+respect to the civil authority and devotion to the rights and liberties
+of his country, of which neither Rome nor Greece have exhibited the
+equal. I saw him in my earliest youth, in the retreat through Jersey,
+at the head of a small band, or rather in its rear, for he was always
+next the enemy, and his countenance and manner made an impression on me
+which time can never efface. A lieutenant then in the Third Virginia
+Regiment, I happened to be on the rear guard at Newark, and I counted
+the force under his immediate command by platoons as it passed me, which
+amounted to less than 3,000 men. A deportment so firm, so dignified,
+so exalted, but yet so modest and composed, I have never seen in any
+other person.
+
+On the 6th July, 1775, Congress published a declaration of the causes
+which compelled them to take up arms, and immediately afterwards took
+measures for augmenting the Army and raising a navy; for organizing the
+militia and providing cannon and small arms and military stores of every
+kind; for raising a revenue and pushing the war offensively with all the
+means in their power. Nothing escaped the attention of that enlightened
+body. The people of Canada were invited to join the Union, and a force
+sent into the province to favor the Revolutionary party, which, however,
+was not capable of affording any essential aid. The people of Ireland
+were addressed in terms manifesting due respect for the sufferings, the
+talents, and patriotism of that portion of the British Empire, and a
+suitable acknowledgment was made to the assembly of Jamaica for the
+approbation it had expressed of our cause and the part it had taken
+in support of it with the British Government.
+
+On the 2d of June, 1775, the convention of Massachusetts, by a letter
+signed by their president, of May the 10th, stated to Congress that they
+labored under difficulties for the want of a regular form of government,
+and requested to be favored with explicit advice respecting the taking
+up and exercising the powers of civil government, and declaring their
+readiness to submit to such a general plan as the Congress might direct
+for the colonies, or that they would make it their great study to
+establish such a form of government there as should not only promote
+their own advantage, but the union and interest of all America. To this
+application an answer was given on the 9th, by which it was recommended
+to the convention "to write letters to the inhabitants of the several
+places entitled to representation in assembly, requesting them to choose
+such representatives, and that the assembly, when chosen, should elect
+councilors, and that said assembly or council should exercise the powers
+of government until a governor of His Majesty's appointment will consent
+to govern the colony according to its charter."
+
+On the 18th October of the same year the delegates from New Hampshire
+laid before Congress an instruction from their convention "to use their
+utmost endeavors to obtain the advice and direction of Congress with
+respect to a method for administering justice and regulating their civil
+police." To this a reply was given on the 3d November, by which it was
+recommended to the convention "to call a full and free representation of
+the people, and that the representatives, if they thought it necessary,
+should establish such a form of government as in their judgment would
+best promote the happiness of the people and most effectually secure
+peace and good order in the Province during the continuance of the
+present dispute between Great Britain and the colonies."
+
+On the 4th November it was resolved by Congress "that if the convention
+of South Carolina shall find it necessary to establish a form of
+government in that colony it be recommended to that convention to
+call a full and free representation of the people; and the said
+representatives, if they think it necessary, shall establish such a
+form of government as in their judgment will best promote the happiness
+of the people and most effectually secure peace and good order in the
+colony during the continuance of the present dispute between Great
+Britain and the colonies."
+
+On the 4th December following a resolution passed recommending the same
+measure, and precisely in the same words, to the convention of Virginia.
+
+On the 10th May, 1776, it was recommended to the respective assemblies
+and conventions of the united colonies, where no government sufficient
+to the exigencies of their affairs had been established, "to adopt such
+government as should, in the opinion of the representatives of the
+people, best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents
+in particular and America in general."
+
+On the 7th June resolutions respecting independence were moved and
+seconded, which were referred to a committee of the whole on the 8th
+and 10th, on which latter day it was resolved to postpone a decision on
+the first resolution or main question until the 1st July, but that no
+time might be lost in case the Congress agree thereto that a committee
+be appointed to prepare a declaration to the effect of that resolution.
+On the 11th June, 1776, Congress appointed a committee to prepare and
+digest a plan of confederation for the colonies. On the 12th July the
+committee reported a draft of articles, which were severally afterwards
+debated and amended until the 15th November, 1777, when they were
+adopted. These articles were then proposed to the legislatures of the
+several States, with a request that if approved by them they would
+authorize their delegates to ratify the same in Congress, and, which
+being done, to become conclusive. It was not until the 21st of March,
+1781, as already observed, that they were ratified by the last State
+and carried into effect.
+
+On the 4th July, 1776, independence was declared by an act which
+arrested the attention of the civilized world and will bear the test
+of time. For force and condensation of matter, strength of reason,
+sublimity of sentiment and expression, it is believed that no document
+of equal merit exists. It looked to everything, and with a reach,
+perspicuity, and energy of mind which seemed to be master of everything.
+
+Thus it appears, in addition to the very important charge of managing
+the war, that Congress had under consideration at the same time the
+Declaration of Independence, the adoption of a confederation for the
+States, and the propriety of instituting State governments, with the
+nature of those governments, respecting which it had been consulted by
+the conventions of several of the colonies. So great a trust was never
+reposed before in a body thus constituted, and I am authorized to add,
+looking to the great result, that never were duties more ably or
+faithfully performed.
+
+The distinguishing characteristic of this movement is that although the
+connection which had existed between the people of the several colonies
+before their dismemberment from the parent country was not only not
+dissolved but increased by that event, even before the adoption of the
+Articles of Confederation, yet the preservation and augmentation of that
+tie were the result of a new creation, and proceeded altogether from
+the people of each colony, into whose hands the whole power passed
+exclusively when wrested from the Crown. To the same cause the greater
+change which has since occurred by the adoption of the Constitution is
+to be traced.
+
+The establishment of our institutions forms the most important epoch
+that history hath recorded. They extend unexampled felicity to the whole
+body of our fellow-citizens, and are the admiration of other nations.
+To preserve and hand them down in their utmost purity to the remotest
+ages will require the existence and practice of virtues and talents
+equal to those which were displayed in acquiring them. It is ardently
+hoped and confidently believed that these will not be wanting.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATIONS.
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas by the second section of an act of Congress of the 6th of May
+last, entitled "An act in addition to the act concerning navigation,
+and also to authorize the appointment of deputy collectors," it is
+provided that in the event of the signature of any treaty or convention
+concerning the navigation or commerce between the United States and
+France the President of the United States, if he should deem the same
+expedient, may suspend by proclamation until the end of the next session
+of Congress the operation of the act entitled "An act to impose a new
+tonnage duty on French ships and vessels, and for other purposes," and
+also to suspend, as aforesaid, all other duties on French vessels or
+the goods imported in the same which may exceed the duties on American
+vessels and on similar goods imported in the same; and
+
+Whereas a convention of navigation and commerce between the United
+States of America and His Majesty the King of France and Navarre has
+this day been duly signed by John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, on
+the part of the United States, and by the Baron Hyde de Neuville, envoy
+extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary from France, on the part of
+His Most Christian Majesty, which convention is in the words following:
+
+[Here follows the treaty.]
+
+Now, therefore, be it known that I, James Monroe, President of the
+United States, in pursuance of the authority aforesaid, do hereby
+suspend from and after the 1st day of October next until the end of
+the next session of Congress, the operation of the act aforesaid,
+entitled "An act to impose a new tonnage duty on French ships and
+vessels, and for other purposes," and also all other duties on French
+vessels and the goods being the growth, produce, and manufacture of
+France imported in the same which may exceed the duties on American
+vessels and on similar goods imported in the same, saving only the
+discriminating duties payable on French vessels and on articles the
+growth, produce, and manufacture of France imported in the same
+stipulated by the said convention to be paid.
+
+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 Washington, the 24th day of June, A.D. 1822, and of the
+Independence of the-United States the forty-sixth.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States passed on the
+6th day of May last it was provided that on satisfactory evidence being
+given to the President of the United States that the ports in the
+islands or colonies in the West Indies under the dominion of Great
+Britain have been opened to the vessels of the United States the
+President should be, and thereby was, authorized to issue his
+proclamation declaring that the ports of the United States should
+thereafter be open to the vessels of Great Britain employed in the trade
+and intercourse between the United States and such islands or colonies,
+subject to such reciprocal rules and restrictions as the President of
+the United States might by such proclamation make and publish, anything
+in the laws entitled "An act concerning navigation" or an act entitled
+"An act supplementary to an act concerning navigation" to the contrary
+notwithstanding; and
+
+Whereas satisfactory evidence has been given to the President of the
+United States that the ports hereinafter named in the islands or
+colonies in the West Indies under the dominion of Great Britain have
+been opened to the vessels of the United States; that is to say, the
+ports of Kingston, Savannah le Mar, Montego Bay, Santa Lucia, Antonio,
+St. Ann, Falmouth, Maria, Morant Bay, in Jamaica; St. George, Grenada;
+Roseau, Dominica; St. Johns, Antigua; San Josef, Trinidad; Scarborough,
+Tobago; Road Harbour, Tortola; Nassau, New Providence; Pittstown,
+Crooked Island; Kingston, St. Vincent; Port St. George and Port
+Hamilton, Bermuda; any port where there is a custom-house, Bahamas;
+Bridgetown, Barbadoes; St. Johns, St. Andrews, New Brunswick; Halifax,
+Nova Scotia; Quebec, Canada; St. Johns, Newfoundland; Georgetown,
+Demerara; New Amsterdam, Berbice; Castries, St. Lucia; Besseterre, St.
+Kitts; Charlestown, Nevis; and Plymouth, Montserrat:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States of
+America, do hereby declare and proclaim that the ports of the United
+States shall hereafter, and until the end of the next session of the
+Congress of the United States, be open to the vessels of Great Britain
+employed in the trade and intercourse between the United States and the
+islands and colonies hereinbefore named, anything in the laws entitled
+"An act concerning navigation" or an act entitled "An act supplementary
+to an act concerning navigation" to the contrary notwithstanding, under
+the following reciprocal rules and restrictions, namely:
+
+To vessels of Great Britain, bona fide British built, owned and the
+master and three-fourths of the mariners of which at least shall belong
+to Great Britain, or any United States built ship or vessel which has
+been sold to and become the property of British subjects, such ship or
+vessel being also navigated with a master and three-fourths of the
+mariners at least belonging to Great Britain: _And provided always_,
+That no articles shall be imported into the United States in any such
+British ship or vessel other than articles of the growth, produce, or
+manufacture of the British islands and colonies in the West Indies when
+imported in British vessels coming from any such island or colony, and
+articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture of the British colonies
+in North America or of the island of Newfoundland in vessels coming from
+the port of St. Johns, in that island, or from any of the aforesaid
+ports of the British colonies in North America.
+
+Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 24th day of August,
+A.D. 1822, and in the forty-seventh year of the Independence of the
+United States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+SIXTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 3, 1822_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives_:
+
+Many causes unite to make your present meeting peculiarly interesting to
+our constituents. The operation of our laws on the various subjects to
+which they apply, with the amendments which they occasionally require,
+imposes annually an important duty on the representatives of a free
+people. Our system has happily advanced to such maturity that I am not
+aware that your cares in that respect will be augmented. Other causes
+exist which are highly interesting to the whole civilized world, and to
+no portion of it more so, in certain views, than to the United States.
+Of these causes and of their bearing on the interests of our Union I
+shall communicate the sentiments which I have formed with that freedom
+which a sense of duty dictates. It is proper, however, to invite your
+attention in the first instance to those concerns respecting which
+legislative provision is thought to be particularly urgent.
+
+On the 24th of June last a convention of navigation and commerce was
+concluded in this city between the United States and France by ministers
+duly authorized for the purpose. The sanction of the Executive having
+been given to this convention under a conviction that, taking all its
+stipulations into view, it rested essentially on a basis of reciprocal
+and equal advantage, I deemed it my duty, in compliance with the
+authority vested in the Executive by the second section of the act of
+the last session of the 6th of May, concerning navigation, to suspend by
+proclamation until the end of the next session of Congress the operation
+of the act entitled "An act to impose a new tonnage duty on French ships
+and vessels, and for other purposes," and to suspend likewise all other
+duties on French vessels or the goods imported in them which exceeded
+the duties on American vessels and on similar goods imported in them.
+I shall submit this convention forthwith to the Senate for its advice
+and consent as to the ratification.
+
+Since your last session the prohibition which had been imposed on the
+commerce between the United States and the British colonies in the West
+Indies and on this continent has likewise been removed. Satisfactory
+evidence having been adduced that the ports of those colonies had been
+opened to the vessels of the United States by an act of the British
+Parliament bearing date on the 24th of June last, on the conditions
+specified therein, I deemed it proper, in compliance with the provision
+of the first section of the act of the last session above recited, to
+declare, by proclamation bearing date on the 24th of August last, that
+the ports of the United States should thenceforward and until the end of
+the next session of Congress be opened to the vessels of Great Britain
+employed in that trade, under the limitation specified in that
+proclamation.
+
+A doubt was entertained whether the act of Congress applied to the
+British colonies on this continent as well as to those in the West
+Indies, but as the act of Parliament opened the intercourse equally
+with both, and it was the manifest intention of Congress, as well as
+the obvious policy of the United States, that the provisions of the act
+of Parliament should be met in equal extent on the part of the United
+States, and as also the act of Congress was supposed to vest in the
+President some discretion in the execution of it, I thought it advisable
+to give it a corresponding construction.
+
+Should the constitutional sanction of the Senate be given to the
+ratification of the convention with France, legislative provisions will
+be necessary to carry it fully into effect, as it likewise will be to
+continue in force, on such conditions as may be deemed just and proper,
+the intercourse which has been opened between the United States and the
+British colonies. Every light in the possession of the Executive will
+in due time be communicated on both subjects.
+
+Resting essentially on a basis of reciprocal and equal advantage, it
+has been the object of the Executive in transactions with other powers
+to meet the propositions of each with a liberal spirit, believing that
+thereby the interest of our country would be most effectually promoted.
+This course has been systematically pursued in the late occurrences with
+France and Great Britain, and in strict accord with the views of the
+Legislature. A confident hope is entertained that by the arrangement
+thus commenced with each all differences respecting navigation and
+commerce with the dominions in question will be adjusted, and a solid
+foundation be laid for an active and permanent intercourse which will
+prove equally advantageous to both parties.
+
+The decision of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia on the
+question submitted to him by the United States and Great Britain,
+concerning the construction of the first article of the treaty of Ghent,
+has been received. A convention has since been concluded between the
+parties, under the mediation of His Imperial Majesty, to prescribe the
+mode by which that article shall be carried into effect in conformity
+with that decision. I shall submit this convention to the Senate for
+its advice and consent as to the ratification, and, if obtained, shall
+immediately bring the subject before Congress for such provisions as
+may require the interposition of the Legislature.
+
+In compliance with an act of the last session a Territorial government
+has been established in Florida on the principles of our system. By
+this act the inhabitants are secured in the full enjoyment of their
+rights and liberties, and to admission into the Union, with equal
+participation in the Government with the original States on the
+conditions heretofore prescribed to other Territories. By a clause in
+the ninth article of the treaty with Spain, by which that Territory was
+ceded to the United States, it is stipulated that satisfaction shall
+be made for the injuries, if any, which by process of law shall be
+established to have been suffered by the Spanish officers and individual
+Spanish inhabitants by the late operations of our troops in Florida. No
+provision having yet been made to carry that stipulation into effect,
+it is submitted to the consideration of Congress whether it will not be
+proper to vest the competent power in the district court at Pensacola,
+or in some tribunal to be specially organized for the purpose.
+
+The fiscal operations of the year have been more successful than had
+been anticipated at the commencement of the last session of Congress.
+
+The receipts into the Treasury during the three first quarters of the
+year have exceeded the sum of $14,745,000. The payments made at the
+Treasury during the same period have exceeded $12,279,000, leaving in
+the Treasury on the 30th day of September last, including $1,168,592.24
+which were in the Treasury on the 1st day of January last, a sum
+exceeding $4,128,000.
+
+Besides discharging all demands for the current service of the year,
+including the interest and reimbursement of the public debt, the 6 per
+cent stock of 1796, amounting to $80,000, has been redeemed. It is
+estimated that, after defraying the current expenses of the present
+quarter and redeeming the two millions of 6 per cent stock of 1820,
+there will remain in the Treasury on the 1st of January next nearly
+$3,000,000. It is estimated that the gross amount of duties which have
+been secured from the 1st of January to the 30th of September last has
+exceeded $19,500,000, and the amount for the whole year will probably
+not fall short of $23,000,000.
+
+Of the actual force in service under the present military establishment,
+the posts at which it is stationed, and the condition of each post,
+a report from the Secretary of War which is now communicated will give
+a distinct idea. By like reports the state of the Academy at West Point
+will be seen, as will be the progress which has been made on the
+fortifications along the coast and at the national armories and
+arsenals.
+
+The position on the Red River and that at the Sault of St. Marie are
+the only new posts that have been taken. These posts, with those
+already occupied in the interior, are thought to be well adapted to the
+protection of our frontiers. All the force not placed in the garrisons
+along the coast and in the ordnance depots, and indispensably necessary
+there, is placed on the frontiers.
+
+The organization of the several corps composing the Army is such as to
+admit its expansion to a great extent in case of emergency, the officers
+carrying with them all the light which they possess to the new corps to
+which they might be appointed.
+
+With the organization of the staff there is equal cause to be satisfied.
+By the concentration of every branch with its chief in this city, in
+the presence of the Department, and with a grade in the chief military
+station to keep alive and cherish a military spirit, the greatest
+promptitude in the execution of orders, with the greatest economy and
+efficiency, are secured. The same view is taken of the Military Academy.
+Good order is preserved in it, and the youth are well instructed in
+every science connected with the great objects of the institution. They
+are also well trained and disciplined in the practical parts of the
+profession. It has been always found difficult to control the ardor
+inseparable from that early age in such manner as to give it a proper
+direction. The rights of manhood are too often claimed prematurely, in
+pressing which too far the respect which is due to age and the obedience
+necessary to a course of study and instruction in every such institution
+are sometimes lost sight of. The great object to be accomplished is the
+restraint of that ardor by such wise regulations and government as, by
+directing all the energies of the youthful mind to the attainment of
+useful knowledge, will keep it within a just subordination and at the
+same time elevate it to the highest purposes. This object seems to be
+essentially obtained in this institution, and with great advantage to
+the Union.
+
+The Military Academy forms the basis, in regard to science, on which
+the military establishment rests. It furnishes annually, after due
+examination and on the report of the academic staff, many well-informed
+youths to fill the vacancies which occur in the several corps of the
+Army, while others who retire to private life carry with them such
+attainments as, under the right reserved to the several States to
+appoint the officers and to train the militia, will enable them, by
+affording a wider field for selection, to promote the great object of
+the power vested in Congress of providing for the organizing, arming,
+and disciplining the militia. Thus by the mutual and harmonious
+cooperation of the two governments in the execution of a power divided
+between them, an object always to be cherished, the attainment of a
+great result, on which our liberties may depend, can not fail to be
+secured. I have to add that in proportion as our regular force is small
+should the instruction and discipline of the militia, the great resource
+on which we rely, be pushed to the utmost extent that circumstances
+will admit.
+
+A report from the Secretary of the Navy will communicate the progress
+which has been made in the construction of vessels of war, with other
+interesting details respecting the actual state of the affairs of
+that Department. It has been found necessary for the protection of
+our commerce to maintain the usual squadrons on the Mediterranean,
+the Pacific, and along the Atlantic coast, extending the cruises of the
+latter into the West Indies, where piracy, organized into a system, has
+preyed on the commerce of every country trading thither. A cruise has
+also been maintained on the coast of Africa, when the season would
+permit, for the suppression of the slave trade, and orders have been
+given to the commanders of all our public ships to seize our own
+vessels, should they find any engaged in that trade, and to bring
+them in for adjudication.
+
+In the West Indies piracy is of recent date, which may explain the
+cause why other powers have not combined against it. By the documents
+communicated it will be seen that the efforts of the United States to
+suppress it have had a very salutary effect. The benevolent provision
+of the act under which the protection has been extended alike to the
+commerce of other nations can not fail to be duly appreciated by them.
+
+In compliance with the act of the last session entitled "An act
+to abolish the United States trading establishments," agents were
+immediately appointed and instructed, under the direction of the
+Secretary of the Treasury, to close the business of the trading houses
+among the Indian tribes and to settle the accounts of the factors and
+subfactors engaged in that trade, and to execute in all other respects
+the injunctions of that act in the mode prescribed therein. A final
+report of their proceedings shall be communicated to Congress as soon
+as it is received.
+
+It is with great regret I have to state that a serious malady has
+deprived us of many valuable citizens at Pensacola and checked the
+progress of some of those arrangements which are important to the
+Territory. This effect has been sensibly felt in respect to the Indians
+who inhabit that Territory, consisting of the remnants of several tribes
+who occupy the middle ground between St. Augustine and Pensacola, with
+extensive claims but undefined boundaries. Although peace is preserved
+with those Indians, yet their position and claims tend essentially to
+interrupt the intercourse between the eastern and western parts of the
+Territory, on which our inhabitants are principally settled. It is
+essential to the growth and prosperity of the Territory, as well as to
+the interests of the Union, that these Indians should be removed, by
+special compact with them, to some other position or concentrated within
+narrower limits where they are. With the limited means in the power of
+the Executive, instructions were given to the governor to accomplish
+this object so far as it might be practicable, which was prevented by
+the distressing malady referred to. To carry it fully into effect in
+either mode additional funds will be necessary, to the provision of
+which the powers of Congress alone are competent. With a view to such
+provision as may be deemed proper, the subject is submitted to your
+consideration, and in the interim further proceedings are suspended.
+
+It appearing that so much of the act entitled "An act regulating the
+staff of the Army," which passed on the 14th April, 1818, as relates to
+the commissariat will expire in April next, and the practical operation
+of that department having evinced its great utility, the propriety of
+its renewal is submitted to your consideration.
+
+The view which has been taken of the probable productiveness of the
+lead mines, connected with the importance of the material to the public
+defense, makes it expedient that they should be managed with peculiar
+care. It is therefore suggested whether it will not comport with the
+public interest to provide by law for the appointment of an agent
+skilled in mineralogy to superintend them, under the direction of
+the proper department.
+
+It is understood that the Cumberland road, which was constructed at
+a great expense, has already suffered from the want of that regular
+superintendence and of those repairs which are indispensable to the
+preservation of such a work. This road is of incalculable advantage
+in facilitating the intercourse between the Western and the Atlantic
+States. Through it the whole country from the northern extremity of Lake
+Erie to the Mississippi, and from all the waters which empty into each,
+finds an easy and direct communication to the seat of Government, and
+thence to the Atlantic. The facility which it affords to all military
+and commercial operations, and also to those of the Post-Office
+Department, can not be estimated too highly. This great work is likewise
+an ornament and an honor to the nation. Believing that a competent power
+to adopt and execute a system of internal improvement has not been
+granted to Congress, but that such a power, confined to great national
+purposes and with proper limitations, would be productive of eminent
+advantage to our Union, I have thought it advisable that an amendment
+of the Constitution to that effect should be recommended to the several
+States. A bill which assumed the right to adopt and execute such a
+system having been presented for my signature at the last session,
+I was compelled, from the view which I had taken of the powers of the
+General Government, to negative it, on which occasion I thought it
+proper to communicate the sentiments which I had formed, on mature
+consideration, on the whole subject. To that communication, in all the
+views in which the great interest to which it relates may be supposed
+to merit your attention, I have now to refer. Should Congress, however,
+deem it improper to recommend such an amendment, they have, according to
+my judgment, the right to keep the road in repair by providing for the
+superintendence of it and appropriating the money necessary for repairs.
+Surely if they had the right to appropriate money to make the road they
+have a right to appropriate it to preserve the road from ruin. From the
+exercise of this power no danger is to be apprehended. Under our happy
+system the people are the sole and exclusive fountain of power. Each
+government originates from them, and to them alone, each to its proper
+constituents, are they respectively and solely responsible for the
+faithful discharge of their duties within their constitutional limits;
+and that the people will confine their public agents of every station
+to the strict line of their constitutional duties there is no cause to
+doubt. Having, however, communicated my sentiments to Congress at the
+last session fully in the document to which I have referred, respecting
+the right of appropriation as distinct from the right of jurisdiction
+and sovereignty over the territory in question, I deem it improper to
+enlarge on the subject here.
+
+From the best information that I have been able to obtain it appears
+that our manufactures, though depressed immediately after the peace,
+have considerably increased, and are still increasing, under the
+encouragement given them by the tariff of 1816 and by subsequent
+laws. Satisfied I am, whatever may be the abstract doctrine in favor of
+unrestricted commerce, provided all nations would, concur in it and it
+was not liable to be interrupted by war, which has never occurred and
+can not be expected, that there are other strong reasons applicable to
+our situation and relations with other countries which impose on us the
+obligation to cherish and sustain our manufactures. Satisfied, however,
+I likewise am that the interest of every part of our Union, even of
+those most benefited by manufactures, requires that this subject should
+be touched with the greatest caution, and a critical knowledge of
+the effect to be produced by the slightest change. On full consideration
+of the subject in all its relations I am persuaded that a further
+augmentation may now be made of the duties on certain foreign articles
+in favor of our own and without affecting injuriously any other
+interest. For more precise details I refer you to the communications
+which were made to Congress during the last session.
+
+So great was the amount of accounts for moneys advanced during the late
+war, in addition to others of a previous date which in the regular
+operations of the Government necessarily remained unsettled, that it
+required a considerable length of time for their adjustment. By a report
+from the First Comptroller of the Treasury it appears that on the 4th of
+March, 1817, the accounts then unsettled amounted to $103,068,876.41, of
+which, on the 30th of September of the present year, $93,175,396.56 had
+been settled, leaving on that day a balance unsettled of $9,893,479.85.
+That there have been drawn from the Treasury, in paying the public debt
+and sustaining the Government in all its operations and disbursements,
+since the 4th of March, 1817, $157,199,380.96, the accounts for which
+have been settled to the amount of $137,501,451.12, leaving a balance
+unsettled of $19,697,929.84. For precise details respecting each of
+these balances I refer to the report of the Comptroller and the
+documents which accompany it.
+
+From this view it appears that our commercial differences with France
+and Great Britain have been placed in a train of amicable arrangement on
+conditions fair and honorable in both instances to each party; that our
+finances are in a very productive state, our revenue being at present
+fully competent to all the demands upon it; that our military force is
+well organized in all its branches and capable of rendering the most
+important service in case of emergency that its number will admit of;
+that due progress has been made, under existing appropriations, in the
+construction of fortifications and in the operations of the Ordnance
+Department; that due progress has in like manner been made in the
+construction of ships of war; that our Navy is in the best condition,
+felt and respected in every sea in which it is employed for the
+protection of our commerce; that our manufactures have augmented in
+amount and improved in quality; that great progress has been made in
+the settlement of accounts and in the recovery of the balances due by
+individuals, and that the utmost economy is secured and observed in
+every Department of the Administration.
+
+Other objects will likewise claim your attention, because from the
+station which the United States hold as a member of the great community
+of nations they have rights to maintain, duties to perform, and dangers
+to encounter.
+
+A strong hope was entertained that peace would ere this have been
+concluded between Spain and the independent governments south of the
+United States in this hemisphere. Long experience having evinced the
+competency of those governments to maintain the independence which they
+had declared, it was presumed that the considerations which induced
+their recognition by the United States would have had equal weight with
+other powers, and that Spain herself, yielding to those magnanimous
+feelings of which her history furnishes so many examples, would have
+terminated on that basis a controversy so unavailing and at the same
+time so destructive. We still cherish the hope that this result will
+not long be postponed.
+
+Sustaining our neutral position and allowing to each party while the war
+continues equal rights, it is incumbent on the United States to claim of
+each with equal rigor the faithful observance of our rights according to
+the well-known law of nations. From each, therefore, a like cooperation
+is expected in the suppression of the piratical practice which has grown
+out of this war and of blockades of extensive coasts on both seas,
+which, considering the small force employed to sustain them, have not
+the slightest foundation to rest on.
+
+Europe is still unsettled, and although the war long menaced between
+Russia and Turkey has not broken out, there is no certainty that the
+differences between those powers will be amicably adjusted. It is
+impossible to look to the oppressions of the country respecting which
+those differences arose without being deeply affected. The mention of
+Greece fills the mind with the most exalted sentiments and arouses
+in our bosoms the best feelings of which our nature is susceptible.
+Superior skill and refinement in the arts, heroic gallantry in action,
+disinterested patriotism, enthusiastic zeal and devotion in favor of
+public and personal liberty are associated with our recollections of
+ancient Greece. That such a country should have been overwhelmed and so
+long hidden, as it were, from the world under a gloomy despotism has
+been a cause of unceasing and deep regret to generous minds for ages
+past. It was natural, therefore, that the reappearance of those people
+in their original character, contending in favor of their liberties,
+should produce that great excitement and sympathy in their favor which
+have been so signally displayed throughout the United States. A strong
+hope is entertained that these people will recover their independence
+and resume their equal station among the nations of the earth.
+
+A great effort has been made in Spain and Portugal to improve the
+condition of the people, and it must be very consoling to all benevolent
+minds to see the extraordinary moderation with which it has been
+conducted. That it may promote the happiness of both nations is the
+ardent wish of this whole people, to the expression of which we confine
+ourselves; for whatever may be the feelings or sentiments which every
+individual under our Government has a right to indulge and express,
+it is nevertheless a sacred maxim, equally with the Government and
+people, that the destiny of every independent nation in what relates
+to such improvements of right belongs and ought to be left exclusively
+to themselves.
+
+Whether we reason from the late wars or from those menacing symptoms
+which now appear in Europe, it is manifest that if a convulsion should
+take place in any of those countries it will proceed from causes which
+have no existence and are utterly unknown in these States, in which
+there is but one order, that of the people, to whom the sovereignty
+exclusively belongs. Should war break out in any of those countries, who
+can foretell the extent to which it may be carried or the desolation
+which it may spread? Exempt as we are from these causes, our internal
+tranquillity is secure; and distant as we are from the troubled scene,
+and faithful to first principles in regard to other powers, we might
+reasonably presume that we should not be molested by them. This,
+however, ought not to be calculated on as certain. Unprovoked injuries
+are often inflicted, and even the peculiar felicity of our situation
+might with some be a cause for excitement and aggression. The history
+of the late wars in Europe furnishes a complete demonstration that no
+system of conduct, however correct in principle, can protect neutral
+powers from injury from any party; that a defenseless position and
+distinguished love of peace are the surest invitations to war, and that
+there is no way to avoid it other than by being always prepared and
+willing for just cause to meet it. If there be a people on earth whose
+more especial duty it is to be at all times prepared to defend the
+rights with which they are blessed, and to surpass all others in
+sustaining the necessary burdens, and in submitting to sacrifices to
+make such preparations, it is undoubtedly the people of these States.
+
+When we see that a civil war of the most frightful character rages
+from the Adriatic to the Black Sea; that strong symptoms of war appear
+in other parts, proceeding from causes which, should it break out, may
+become general and be of long duration; that the war still continues
+between Spain and the independent governments, her late Provinces,
+in this hemisphere; that it is likewise menaced between Portugal and
+Brazil, in consequence of the attempt of the latter to dismember
+itself from the former, and that a system of piracy of great extent is
+maintained in the neighboring seas, which will require equal vigilance
+and decision to suppress it, the reasons for sustaining the attitude
+which we now hold and for pushing forward all our measures of defense
+with the utmost vigor appear to me to acquire new force.
+
+The United States owe to the world a great example, and, by means
+thereof, to the cause of liberty and humanity a generous support.
+They have so far succeeded to the satisfaction of the virtuous and
+enlightened of every country. There is no reason to doubt that their
+whole movement will be regulated by a sacred regard to principle, all
+our institutions being founded on that basis. The ability to support our
+own cause under any trial to which it may be exposed is the great point
+on which the public solicitude rests. It has been often charged against
+free governments that they have neither the foresight nor the virtue to
+provide at the proper season for great emergencies; that their course is
+improvident and expensive; that war will always find them unprepared,
+and, whatever may be its calamities, that its terrible warnings will
+be disregarded and forgotten as soon as peace returns. I have full
+confidence that this charge so far as relates to the United States
+will be shewn to be utterly destitute of truth.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+DECEMBER 4, 1822.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+The convention between the United States and France, concluded at
+Washington on the 24th day of June last, is now transmitted to the
+Senate for their advice and consent with regard to its ratification,
+together with the documents relating to the negotiation, which may serve
+to elucidate the deliberations of the Senate concerning its objects and
+the purposes to which it was adapted.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 4, 1822.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit herewith to the Senate, for their constitutional
+consideration and decision thereon, a convention between the United
+States and Great Britain, concluded at St. Petersburg on the 12th day
+of July last, under the mediation of His Imperial Majesty of all the
+Russias, together with the documents appertaining thereto, and which
+may elucidate the motives for its negotiation and the objects for the
+accomplishment of which it is intended.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 6, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+7th of May last, requiring that a plan for the peace establishment of
+the Navy of the United States and also of the Marine Corps should be
+communicated to that House at the present session, I transmit a report
+of the Secretary of the Navy, containing a plan which has been prepared
+for the proposed establishment.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 8th of May last,
+requesting "information relative to the copper mines on the southern
+shore of Lake Superior, their number, value, and position, the names of
+the Indian tribes who claim them, the practicability of extinguishing
+their titles, and the probable advantages which may result to the
+Republic from the acquisition and working these mines," I herewith
+transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which comprises the
+information desired in the resolution referred to.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 9, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+Recent information of the multiplied outrages and depredations which
+have been committed on our seamen and commerce by the pirates in the
+West Indies and Gulf of Mexico, exemplified by the death of a very
+meritorious officer, seems to call for some prompt and decisive measures
+on the part of the Government. All the public vessels adapted to that
+service which can be spared from other indispensable duties are already
+employed in it; but from the knowledge which has been acquired of the
+places from whence these outlaws issue and to which they escape from
+danger it appears that it will require a particular kind of force,
+capable of pursuing them into the shallow waters to which they retire,
+effectually to suppress them. I submit to the consideration of the
+Senate the propriety of organizing such force for that important object.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+[The same message, dated December 6, 1822, was sent to the House of
+Representatives.]
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 9, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 22d of February
+last, "requesting the President of the United States to cause to be
+collected and communicated to the Senate at the commencement of the next
+session of Congress the best information which he may be able to obtain
+relative to certain Christian Indians and the lands intended for their
+benefit on the Muskingum, in the State of Ohio, granted under an act
+of Congress of June 1, 1796, to the Society of the United Brethren
+for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen, showing as correctly as
+possible the advance or decline of said Indians in numbers, morals, and
+intellectual endowments; whether the lands have inured to their sole
+benefit, and, if not, to whom, in whole or in part, have such benefits
+accrued," I transmit a report from the Secretary of War with the
+accompanying documents.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 3, 1823_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the three resolutions of the Senate of the 5th April,
+1822, requesting the President of the United States to communicate in
+detail the expenses of building each vessel of war authorized by the act
+of the 2d of January, 1813, and its supplements, and also the names,
+number, grade, etc., of the officers and men employed at each navy-yard
+and naval station during the two years immediately preceding the 1st of
+January, 1822, I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of the
+Navy, with the accompanying documents, which contains the desired
+information.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 3, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolutions of the House of Representatives of
+the 8th of January, 7th May, and 17th December, 1822, requesting the
+President of the United States to cause to be laid before that House a
+detailed statement of the current expenses of the Ordnance Department
+for the years 1817, 1818, 1819, 1820, and 1821, and as much as can be
+shewn for the year 1822, and also the number and local position of each
+of the armories, arsenals, and magazines of the United States, the total
+expense of constructing and repairing the same up to the year 1821; the
+number of cannon and other arms annually made at each, and the expenses
+of each armory and arsenal for each year from 1816 to 1821, inclusive,
+I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War, accompanied by
+such documents as will be found to contain the desired information.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 3, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+United States of the 19th of December, 1822, requesting the President of
+the United States to cause to be laid before that House the several laws
+which have been made by the governor and legislative council of Florida,
+together with such information as may be in the possession of the
+Executive, I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of State,
+with the accompanying documents, which contains the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 6, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+19th of December last, requesting the President of the United States
+to communicate to the House the progress which has been made in the
+execution of the act of the last session entitled "An act to abolish
+the Indian trading establishments," with a report from the factories,
+respectively, as the same were made to him, I transmit a report from
+the Secretary of the Treasury, with the documents referred to by that
+resolution. In further execution of the act of the last session treaties
+have since been made with the Osage and Sac Indians by which those
+tribes have severally relinquished to the United States their right
+under preceding treaties to the maintenance of a factory within each,
+respectively.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 6, 1823.
+
+_To the Senate_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate, for their advice and consent as to the
+ratification, treaties which have been made with the Osage and Sac
+tribes of Indians in execution of the provision contained in the act
+of the last session entitled "An act to abolish the Indian trading
+establishments."
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 10, 1823_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate requesting the President
+of the United States "to cause to be laid before the Senate the number
+of arms required annually to supply the militia of the West according to
+acts of Congress; the probable number necessary to be placed in military
+deposits located or to be located on the Western waters; the cost of
+transportation of arms to the Western States and deposits; the probable
+cost of manufacturing arms in the West; the probable cost of erecting at
+this time on the Western waters such an armory as that at Harpers Ferry
+or at Springfield, and such other information as he may deem important
+to establish the expediency of erecting on the Western waters a national
+armory," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War
+containing the desired information.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 16, 1823_.
+
+The VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE:
+
+The convention concluded and signed at St. Petersburg on the 21st of
+July last under the mediation of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of all
+the Russias having been ratified by the three powers parties thereto,
+and the ratifications of the same having been duly exchanged, copies of
+it are now communicated to Congress, to the end that the measures for
+carrying it on the part of the United States into execution may obtain
+the cooperation of the Legislature necessary to the accomplishment of
+some of its provisions. A translation is subjoined of three explanatory
+documents, in the French language, referred to in the fourth article of
+the convention and annexed to it. The agreement executed at the exchange
+of the ratifications is likewise communicated.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+[The same message was addressed to the Speaker of the House of
+Representatives.]
+
+
+
+JANUARY 22, 1823.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of December 12, 1822, requesting
+that the President would cause to be laid before the Senate a
+statement exhibiting the amount in aggregate of the goods, wares,
+and merchandise exported from the United States to France, and imported
+from thence, in each year from and after the year 1814 to the year
+1820, discriminating in the reports between the articles of the growth,
+produce, or manufacture of the United States and those of foreign
+countries, and also stating the national character of the vessels in
+which such exports and imports have been made, I transmit a report from
+the Secretary of the Treasury, which contains the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 22, 1823.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
+
+
+In carrying fully into effect the intention of Congress in making an
+appropriation of $5,000 by the act of the 14th April, 1820, for the
+survey of the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers from the Rapids of the
+Ohio at Louisville to the Balize, for the purpose of facilitating and
+ascertaining the most practicable route of improving the navigation of
+these rivers, orders were given through the proper department to the
+Board of Engineers to examine and survey the said rivers with reference
+to those objects, and to report their opinion thereon, which they have
+done, and which report I now communicate for the information of
+Congress.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 25, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+I transmit herewith to the House of Representatives a report from the
+Secretary of State, together with the documents which contain the
+information requested by the resolution of the House of the 10th of
+December last, relating to the establishment at the mouth of Columbia
+River.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of the Navy, containing
+one from Captain John Rodgers, president of the Naval Board, accompanied
+by a description of the inclined plane, dock, and fixtures for hauling
+up ships, and an estimate of the cost and materials and workmanship
+necessary for the completion of a dock and wharves, proposed to be
+connected with the inclined plane constructed at the navy-yard,
+Washington, and recommend the same to the attentive consideration of
+Congress.
+
+It is confidently believed that this invention combines advantages so
+highly useful as to justify the appropriation required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+JANUARY 28, 1823
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 3, 1823.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+Having lately received a memorial from the legislative council of the
+Territory of Florida on subjects very interesting to the inhabitants of
+the Territory and also to the United States, which require legislative
+provision, I transmit the same to Congress and recommend it to their
+consideration,
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+[The same message was addressed to the Speaker of the House of
+Representatives.]
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 3, 1823_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit herewith a resolution of the legislature, with an extract
+of a letter from the governor, of Georgia, and a memorial of the
+legislature of Missouri, relative to the extinguishment of the Indian
+title to lands within the limits of these States, respectively.
+Believing the present time to be propitious for holding treaties for the
+attainment of cessions of land from the Indians within those States,
+I submit the subject to the consideration of Congress, that adequate
+appropriations for such treaties may be made should Congress deem it
+expedient.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 4, 1823.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+12th of December last, requesting the President "to communicate to the
+House such information as he might possess with regard to any expedition
+prepared in the United States and having sailed from thence within the
+year 1822 against the territory or dependency of any power in amity
+with the United States, and to inform the House whether any measures
+have been taken to bring to condign punishment persons who have been
+concerned in such expedition contrary to the laws," I transmit to the
+House reports from the Secretaries of State and of the Treasury, with
+the documents mentioned in each. Those documents contain all the
+information in possession of the Executive relating to the subject of
+the resolution.
+
+That a force of a very limited extent has been equipped in the ports
+of the United States and sailed from thence for the purpose described
+in the resolution is manifest from the documents now communicated. The
+reports from the collectors of Philadelphia and New York will shew in
+what manner this equipment escaped their notice.
+
+The first information of this equipment was received from St.
+Bartholomews, the place of its rendezvous. This was confirmed afterwards
+from Curracoa with an account of its failure. Should any of those
+persons return within the jurisdiction of the United States care will
+be taken that the laws applicable to such offenses are duly enforced
+against them. Whether any aid was afforded by others to the parties
+engaged in this unlawful and contemptible adventure in the ports in
+which it was planned, inconsistent with ordinary commercial transactions
+and contrary to the laws of the United States, will be referred to the
+Attorney-General, on whose advice any measures in regard to them will
+depend.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 6, 1823.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 28th of January last, requesting information "whether the treaty
+concluded with the Choctaw Nation of Indians on the 18th of October,
+1820, has been executed so far as respects the cession of certain lands
+to said nation west of the river Mississippi, and if possession has been
+given of the lands ceded to them; if not, that he assign the reasons
+which prevented the immediate execution of the stipulations of said
+treaty, and whether the difficulties have diminished or increased by the
+delay in its execution," I communicate a report from the Secretary of
+War, with the documents referred to in it,
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 10, 1823.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of February 3, requesting
+a statement of the number and size of cannon, mortars, and howitzers
+necessary for the armament of the fortifications already built and
+intended to be built, with an estimate of the sum necessary for their
+construction, I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, prepared
+in execution of instructions given him to that effect.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 13, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of 22d
+January last, requesting the communication to the House of all the
+correspondence between the Governments of the United States and Great
+Britain relating to the negotiation of the convention of the 20th
+October, 1818, which may not be inconsistent with the public interest,
+I transmit herewith to the House a report from the Secretary of State,
+together with the papers requested by the resolution of the House.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 14, 1823.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 11th of this month,
+requesting the President to cause to be communicated to the Senate
+an estimate of the amount of land in the State of Georgia to which the
+Indian title has been extinguished by the United States since the
+cession of a portion of the territory of Georgia to the United States,
+with a statement of the cost of such extinguishment, and also an
+estimate of the amount of land within the said State to which the Indian
+title still remains to be extinguished, and by what tribes claimed,
+I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which contains the
+information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 17, 1823.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+17th of December, requesting the President to communicate to the House
+a statement of the amount expended for the current expenses of the
+Ordnance Department during the years 1817, 1818, 1819, 1820, and 1821,
+and as much as can be shewn for the year 1822, with the items for which
+the money was expended, the place where and the persons to whom paid,
+what quantity of timber has been procured for gun carriages and
+caissons, its cost annually, and where deposited; the quantity of
+ordnance of every kind that has been procured during those years or
+paid for, and the whole amount of arms of every description now
+belonging to the United States; the sum expended in the purchase of
+sites for arsenals since the peace, the cost of the buildings erected
+thereon, and whether all those arsenals are necessary for the service of
+the United States, I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with
+the documents mentioned therein, which contains the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 18, 1823_.
+
+The VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE:
+
+The convention of navigation and commerce between the United States of
+America and His Majesty the King of France and Navarre, concluded and
+signed at Washington on the 24th of June, 1822, with the first separate
+article thereto annexed, having been ratified by the two parties, and
+the ratifications of the same having been duly exchanged, copies of it
+and of the separate article referred to are now communicated to the two
+Houses of Congress, to the end that the necessary measures for carrying
+it into execution on the part of the United States may be adopted by the
+Legislature.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+[The same message was sent to the House of Representatives.]
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 19, 1823.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 11th of December last, I transmit to the House a report from the
+Secretary of the Treasury, containing the information requested, of
+the amount of moneys advanced to agents, subagents, contractors,
+subcontractors, or individuals since the 1st of January, 1817, which
+have not been accounted for on settlement, and of the loss sustained
+in each case, the sureties taken, and the names of the sureties.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 19, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives, in pursuance of a resolution
+of that House of the 31st of last month, a report from the Secretary of
+State, relative to the commissioners appointed for the purpose of
+ascertaining the titles and claims to land in Florida.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 19, 1823.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives an additional report from
+the Secretary of the Treasury, with the documents referred to therein,
+containing further information of the proceedings in execution of the
+law of the last session respecting the trade with the Indian tribes,
+called for by the resolution of the 19th of December last.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 22, 1823.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+11th of this month, requesting information whether any prize agents have
+neglected to render an account of their agency and to pay over the money
+in their hands, the names of those who have failed, the sums unaccounted
+for, and whether any of those thus failing are in the employ of the
+Government, and their compensation has been in consequence suspended,
+I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with the documents
+referred to by him.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 25, 1823.
+
+_To the Congress of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress the general returns of the militia of the several
+States and Territories for the year 1822, with an account of the arms,
+accouterments, ammunition, ordnance, etc., belonging to each as far as
+the returns have been received, in compliance with the provision of the
+act of 1803.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 25, 1823.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+By a resolution of the 27th of December last the President of the United
+States was requested to communicate to the Senate such information as
+he might possess respecting the political state of the island of St.
+Domingo; whether the Government thereof was claimed by any European
+nation, what our commercial relations with the Government of the island
+were, and whether any further commercial relations with that Government
+would be consistent with the interest and safety of the United States.
+
+From the import of the resolution it is inferred that the Senate were
+fully aware of the delicate and interesting nature of the subject
+embraced by it in all its branches. The call supposes something peculiar
+in the nature of the Government of that island and in the character of
+its population, to which attention is due. Impressed always with an
+anxious desire to meet every call of either House for information,
+I most willingly comply in this instance and with a view to the
+particular circumstances alluded to.
+
+In adverting to the political state of St. Domingo I have to observe
+that the whole island is now united under one Government, under a
+constitution which retains the sovereignty in the hands of the people
+of color, and with provisions which prohibit the employment in the
+Government of all white persons who have emigrated there since 1816,
+or who may hereafter emigrate there, and which prohibit also the
+acquisition by such persons of the right of citizenship or to real
+estate in the island. In the exercise of this sovereignty the Government
+has not been molested by any European, power. No invasion of the island
+has been made or attempted by any power. It is, however, understood that
+the relations between the Government of France and the island have not
+been adjusted, that its independence has not been recognized by France,
+nor has peace been formally established between the parties.
+
+The establishment of a Government of people of color in the island on
+the principles above stated evinces distinctly the idea of a separate
+interest and a distrust of other nations. Had that jealousy been
+confined to the inhabitants of the parent country it would have been
+less an object of attention; but by extending it to the inhabitants of
+other countries with whom no difference ever existed the policy assumes
+a character which does not admit of a like explanation. To what extent
+that spirit may be indulged or to what purposes applied our experience
+has yet been too limited to enable us to form a just estimate. These
+are inquiries more peculiarly interesting to the neighboring islands.
+They nevertheless deserve the attention of the United States.
+
+Between the United States and the island a commercial intercourse
+exists, and it will continue to be the object of this Government to
+promote it. Our commerce there has been subjected to higher duties than
+have been imposed on like articles from some other nations. It has
+nevertheless been extensive, proceeding from the wants of the respective
+parties and the enterprise of our citizens. Of this discrimination
+to our injury we had a right to complain and have complained. It is
+expected that our commercial intercourse with the island will be placed
+on the footing of the most favored nation. No preference is sought
+in our favor, nor ought any to be given to others. Regarding the high
+interest of our happy Union and looking to every circumstance which
+may by any possibility affect the tranquillity of any part, however
+remotely, and guarding against such injury by suitable precautions, it
+is the duty of this Government to promote by all the means in its power
+and by a fair and honorable policy the best interest of every other
+part, and thereby of the whole. Feeling profoundly the force of this
+obligation, I shall continue to exert with unwearied zeal my best
+faculties to give it effect.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 26, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives, in pursuance of a resolution
+of that House of the 30th January last, a report from the Secretary
+of State, containing the information required in relation to the
+transactions of the commissioners under the sixth and seventh articles
+of the treaty of Ghent, and also as to the measures which have been
+taken under the fourth article of the treaty with Spain of the 22d of
+February, 1819, for fixing the boundary line described in the third
+article of the last-mentioned treaty.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 27, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary
+of State, made in pursuance of their resolution of the 21st of January
+last, requesting the President of the United States to cause to be
+arranged and laid before that House a digest shewing such changes in the
+commercial regulations of the different foreign countries with which the
+United States have intercourse as shall have been adopted and come to
+the knowledge of the Executive subsequently to the formation of the
+digest communicated to the Senate on the 7th December, 1819.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 28, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary
+of State, with copies of sundry papers which should have been included
+among those which accompanied my message of the 13th instant, being part
+of the correspondence with Great Britain relating to the negotiation of
+the convention of 20th of October, 1818, but which were accidentally
+omitted from the papers communicated to the House with that message.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 28, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+24th of January, requesting the President to communicate to the House
+the number of persons and the amount due from each whose compensation
+has been withheld or suspended, in pursuance of the law prohibiting
+payments to persons in arrears to the United States; whether the amount
+withheld has been applied in all cases to the extinguishment of their
+debts to the Government; whether the said laws have been enforced in
+all cases against securities who are liable for the payment of any
+arrears due; whether any disbursing officer, within the knowledge of
+the President, has given conclusive evidence of his insolvency, and,
+if so, whether he is still retained in the service of the United States,
+I transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of the Treasury,
+with the documents mentioned therein.
+
+The report has been confined to the operations of the law. Respecting
+the circumstances of individuals in their transactions without the
+sphere of their public duties I have no means of information other
+than those which are common to all.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 7, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of this
+day, requesting information of the measures taken with regard to the
+illegal blockade of the ports of the Spanish Main, and to depredations
+of privateers fitted out from Porto Rico and other Spanish islands on
+the commerce of the United States, I transmit to the House a report
+from the Secretary of State containing the information required by
+the resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+SEVENTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 2, 1823_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives_:
+
+Many important subjects will claim your attention during the
+present session, of which I shall endeavor to give, in aid of your
+deliberations, a just idea in this communication. I undertake this duty
+with diffidence, from the vast extent of the interests on which I have
+to treat and of their great importance to every portion of our Union.
+I enter on it with zeal from a thorough conviction that there never
+was a period since the establishment of our Revolution when, regarding
+the condition of the civilized world and its bearing on us, there
+was greater necessity for devotion in the public servants to their
+respective duties, or for virtue, patriotism, and union in our
+constituents.
+
+Meeting in you a new Congress, I deem it proper to present this view
+of public affairs in greater detail than might otherwise be necessary.
+I do it, however, with peculiar satisfaction, from a knowledge that in
+this respect I shall comply more fully with the sound principles of our
+Government. The people being with us exclusively the sovereign, it is
+indispensable that full information be laid before them on all important
+subjects, to enable them to exercise that high power with complete
+effect. If kept in the dark, they must be incompetent to it. We are
+all liable to error, and those who are engaged in the management of
+public affairs are more subject to excitement and to be led astray by
+their particular interests and passions than the great body of our
+constituents, who, living at home in the pursuit of their ordinary
+avocations, are calm but deeply interested spectators of events and
+of the conduct of those who are parties to them. To the people
+every department of the Government and every individual in each are
+responsible, and the more full their information the better they can
+judge of the wisdom of the policy pursued and of the conduct of each in
+regard to it. From their dispassionate judgment much aid may always be
+obtained, while their approbation will form the greatest incentive
+and most gratifying reward for virtuous actions, and the dread of
+their censure the best security against the abuse of their confidence.
+Their interests in all vital questions are the same, and the bond, by
+sentiment as well as by interest, will be proportionably strengthened as
+they are better informed of the real state of public affairs, especially
+in difficult conjunctures. It is by such knowledge that local prejudices
+and jealousies are surmounted, and that a national policy, extending its
+fostering care and protection to all the great interests of our Union,
+is formed and steadily adhered to.
+
+A precise knowledge of our relations with foreign powers as respects our
+negotiations and transactions with each is thought to be particularly
+necessary. Equally necessary is it that we should form a just estimate
+of our resources, revenue, and progress in every kind of improvement
+connected with the national prosperity and public defense. It is by
+rendering justice to other nations that we may expect it from them.
+It is by our ability to resent injuries and redress wrongs that we may
+avoid them. The commissioners under the fifth article of the treaty of
+Ghent, having disagreed in their opinions respecting that portion of
+the boundary between the Territories of the United States and of Great
+Britain the establishment of which had been submitted to them, have
+made their respective reports in compliance with that article, that
+the same might be referred to the decision of a friendly power. It
+being manifest, however, that it would be difficult, if not impossible,
+for any power to perform that office without great delay and much
+inconvenience to itself, a proposal has been made by this Government,
+and acceded to by that of Great Britain, to endeavor to establish that
+boundary by amicable negotiation. It appearing from long experience
+that no satisfactory arrangement could be formed of the commercial
+intercourse between the United States and the British colonies in this
+hemisphere by legislative acts while each party pursued its own course
+without agreement or concert with the other, a proposal has been made
+to the British Government to regulate this commerce by treaty, as it has
+been to arrange in like manner the just claim of the citizens of the
+United States inhabiting the States and Territories bordering on the
+lakes and rivers which empty into the St. Lawrence to the navigation of
+that river to the ocean. For these and other objects of high importance
+to the interests of both parties a negotiation has been opened with the
+British Government which it is hoped will have a satisfactory result.
+
+The commissioners under the sixth and seventh articles of the treaty of
+Ghent having successfully closed their labors in relation to the sixth,
+have proceeded to the discharge of those relating to the seventh. Their
+progress in the extensive survey required for the performance of their
+duties justifies the presumption that it will be completed in the
+ensuing year.
+
+The negotiation which had been long depending with the French Government
+on several important subjects, and particularly for a just indemnity for
+losses sustained in the late wars by the citizens of the United States
+under unjustifiable seizures and confiscations of their property, has
+not as yet had the desired effect. As this claim rests on the same
+principle with others which have been admitted by the French Government,
+it is not perceived on what just ground it can be rejected. A minister
+will be immediately appointed to proceed to France and resume the
+negotiation on this and other subjects which may arise between the two
+nations.
+
+At the proposal of the Russian Imperial Government, made through the
+minister of the Emperor residing here, a full power and instructions
+have been transmitted to the minister of the United States at St.
+Petersburg to arrange by amicable negotiation the respective rights and
+interests of the two nations on the northwest coast of this continent.
+A similar proposal had been made by His Imperial Majesty to the
+Government of Great Britain, which has likewise been acceded to. The
+Government of the United States has been desirous by this friendly
+proceeding of manifesting the great value which they have invariably
+attached to the friendship of the Emperor and their solicitude to
+cultivate the best understanding with his Government. In the discussions
+to which this interest has given rise and in the arrangements by which
+they may terminate the occasion has been judged proper for asserting,
+as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States
+are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent
+condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be
+considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.
+
+Since the close of the last session of Congress the commissioners
+and arbitrators for ascertaining and determining the amount of
+indemnification which may be due to citizens of the United States
+under the decision of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia,
+in conformity to the convention concluded at St. Petersburg on the 12th
+of July, 1822, have assembled in this city, and organized themselves
+as a board for the performance of the duties assigned to them by that
+treaty. The commission constituted under the eleventh article of the
+treaty of the 22d of February, 1819, between the United States and Spain
+is also in session here, and as the term of three years limited by the
+treaty for the execution of the trust will expire before the period of
+the next regular meeting of Congress, the attention of the Legislature
+will be drawn to the measures which may be necessary to accomplish the
+objects for which the commission was instituted.
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives adopted
+at their last session, instructions have been given to all the ministers
+of the United States accredited to the powers of Europe and America to
+propose the proscription of the African slave trade by classing it under
+the denomination, and inflicting on its perpetrators the punishment, of
+piracy. Should this proposal be acceded to, it is not doubted that this
+odious and criminal practice will be promptly and entirely suppressed.
+It is earnestly hoped that it will be acceded to, from the firm belief
+that it is the most effectual expedient that can be adopted for the
+purpose.
+
+At the commencement of the recent war between France and Spain it was
+declared by the French Government that it would grant no commissions
+to privateers, and that neither the commerce of Spain herself nor
+of neutral nations should be molested by the naval force of France,
+except in the breach of a lawful blockade. This declaration, which
+appears to have been faithfully carried into effect, concurring with
+principles proclaimed and cherished by the United States from the
+first establishment of their independence, suggested the hope that
+the time had arrived when the proposal for adopting it as a permanent
+and invariable rule in all future maritime wars might meet the
+favorable consideration of the great European powers. Instructions have
+accordingly been given to our ministers with France, Russia, and Great
+Britain to make those proposals to their respective Governments, and
+when the friends of humanity reflect on the essential amelioration to
+the condition of the human race which would result from the abolition of
+private war on the sea and on the great facility by which it might be
+accomplished, requiring only the consent of a few sovereigns, an earnest
+hope is indulged that these overtures will meet with an attention
+animated by the spirit in which they were made, and that they will
+ultimately be successful.
+
+The ministers who were appointed to the Republics of Colombia and Buenos
+Ayres during the last session of Congress proceeded shortly afterwards
+to their destinations. Of their arrival there official intelligence has
+not yet been received. The minister appointed to the Republic of Chile
+will sail in a few days. An early appointment will also be made to
+Mexico. A minister has been received from Colombia, and the other
+Governments have been informed that ministers, or diplomatic agents of
+inferior grade, would be received from each, accordingly as they might
+prefer the one or the other.
+
+The minister appointed to Spain proceeded soon after his appointment
+for Cadiz, the residence of the Sovereign to whom he was accredited.
+In approaching that port the frigate which conveyed him was warned off
+by the commander of the French squadron by which it was blockaded and
+not permitted to enter, although apprised by the captain of the frigate
+of the public character of the person whom he had on board, the landing
+of whom was the sole object of his proposed entry. This act, being
+considered an infringement of the rights of ambassadors and of nations,
+will form a just cause of complaint to the Government of France against
+the officer by whom it was committed.
+
+The actual condition of the public finances more than realizes the
+favorable anticipations that were entertained of it at the opening of
+the last session of Congress. On the 1st of January there was a balance
+in the Treasury of $4,237,427.55. From that time to the 30th September
+the receipts amounted to upward of $16,100,000, and the expenditures to
+$11,400,000. During the fourth quarter of the year it is estimated that
+the receipts will at least equal the expenditures, and that there will
+remain in the Treasury on the 1st day of January next a surplus of
+nearly $9,000,000.
+
+On the 1st of January, 1825, a large amount of the war debt and a part
+of the Revolutionary debt become redeemable. Additional portions of the
+former will continue to become redeemable annually until the year 1835.
+It is believed, however, that if the United States remain at peace the
+whole of that debt may be redeemed by the ordinary revenue of those
+years during that period under the provision of the act of March 3,
+1817, creating the sinking fund, and in that case the only part of the
+debt that will remain after the year 1835 will be the $7,000,000 of
+5 per cent stock subscribed to the Bank of the United States, and the
+3 per cent Revolutionary debt, amounting to $13,296,099.06, both of
+which are redeemable at the pleasure of the Government.
+
+The state of the Army in its organization and discipline has been
+gradually improving for several years, and has now attained a high
+degree of perfection. The military disbursements have been regularly
+made and the accounts regularly and promptly rendered for settlement.
+The supplies of various descriptions have been of good quality,
+and regularly issued at all of the posts. A system of economy and
+accountability has been introduced into every branch of the service
+which admits of little additional improvement. This desirable state
+has been attained by the act reorganizing the staff of the Army,
+passed on the 14th of April, 1818.
+
+The moneys appropriated for fortifications have been regularly and
+economically applied, and all the works advanced as rapidly as the
+amount appropriated would admit. Three important works will be completed
+in the course of this year--that is, Fort Washington, Fort Delaware, and
+the fort at the Rigolets, in Louisiana.
+
+The Board of Engineers and the Topographical Corps have been in constant
+and active service in surveying the coast and projecting the works
+necessary for its defense.
+
+The Military Academy has attained a degree of perfection in its
+discipline and instruction equal, as is believed, to any institution
+of its kind in any country.
+
+The money appropriated for the use of the Ordnance Department has been
+regularly and economically applied. The fabrication of arms at the
+national armories and by contract with the Department has been gradually
+improving in quality and cheapness. It is believed that their quality
+is now such as to admit of but little improvement.
+
+The completion of the fortifications renders it necessary that there
+should be a suitable appropriation for the purpose of fabricating the
+cannon and carriages necessary for those works.
+
+Under the appropriation of $5,000 for exploring the Western waters
+for the location of a site for a Western armory, a commission was
+constituted, consisting of Colonel McRee, Colonel Lee, and Captain
+Talcott, who have been engaged in exploring the country. They have not
+yet reported the result of their labors, but it is believed that they
+will be prepared to do it at an early part of the session of Congress.
+
+During the month of June last General Ashley and his party, who were
+trading under a license from the Government, were attacked by the
+Ricarees while peaceably trading with the Indians at their request.
+Several of the party were killed and wounded and their property taken
+or destroyed.
+
+Colonel Leavenworth, who commanded Fort Atkinson, at the Council Bluffs,
+the most western post, apprehending that the hostile spirit of the
+Ricarees would extend to other tribes in that quarter, and that thereby
+the lives of the traders on the Missouri and the peace of the frontier
+would be endangered, took immediate measures to check the evil.
+
+With a detachment of the regiment stationed at the Bluffs he
+successfully attacked the Ricaree village, and it is hoped that such
+an impression has been made on them as well as on the other tribes on
+the Missouri as will prevent a recurrence of future hostility.
+
+The report of the Secretary of War, which is herewith transmitted, will
+exhibit in greater detail the condition of the Department in its various
+branches, and the progress which has been made in its administration
+during the three first quarters of the year.
+
+I transmit a return of the militia of the several States according to
+the last reports which have been made by the proper officers in each to
+the Department of War. By reference to this return it will be seen that
+it is not complete, although great exertions have been made to make it
+so. As the defense and even the liberties of the country must depend in
+times of imminent danger on the militia, it is of the highest importance
+that it be well organized, armed, and disciplined throughout the Union.
+The report of the Secretary of War shews the progress made during the
+three first quarters of the present year by the application of the
+fund appropriated for arming the militia. Much difficulty is found in
+distributing the arms according to the act of Congress providing for
+it from the failure of the proper departments in many of the States to
+make regular returns. The act of May 12, 1820, provides that the system
+of tactics and regulations of the various corps of the Regular Army
+shall be extended to the militia. This act has been very imperfectly
+executed from the want of uniformity in the organization of the militia,
+proceeding from the defects of the system itself, and especially in its
+application to that main arm of the public defense. It is thought that
+this important subject in all its branches merits the attention of
+Congress.
+
+The report of the Secretary of the Navy, which is now communicated,
+furnishes an account of the administration of that Department for the
+three first quarters of the present year, with the progress made in
+augmenting the Navy, and the manner in which the vessels in commission
+have been employed.
+
+The usual force has been maintained in the Mediterranean Sea, the
+Pacific Ocean, and along the Atlantic coast, and has afforded the
+necessary protection to our commerce in those seas.
+
+In the West Indies and the Gulf of Mexico our naval force has been
+augmented by the addition of several small vessels provided for by
+the "act authorizing an additional naval force for the suppression of
+piracy," passed by Congress at their last session. That armament has
+been eminently successful in the accomplishment of its object. The
+piracies by which our commerce in the neighborhood of the island of
+Cuba had been afflicted have been repressed and the confidence of
+our merchants in a great measure restored.
+
+The patriotic zeal and enterprise of Commodore Porter, to whom the
+command of the expedition was confided, has been fully seconded by
+the officers and men under his command. And in reflecting with high
+satisfaction on the honorable manner in which they have sustained the
+reputation of their country and its Navy, the sentiment is alloyed
+only by a concern that in the fulfillment of that arduous service the
+diseases incident to the season and to the climate in which it was
+discharged have deprived the nation of many useful lives, and among
+them of several officers of great promise.
+
+In the month of August a very malignant fever made its appearance
+at Thompsons Island, which threatened the destruction of our station
+there. Many perished, and the commanding officer was severely attacked.
+Uncertain as to his fate and knowing that most of the medical officers
+had been rendered incapable of discharging their duties, it was thought
+expedient to send to that post an officer of rank and experience, with
+several skillful surgeons, to ascertain the origin of the fever and the
+probability of its recurrence there in future seasons; to furnish every
+assistance to those who were suffering, and, if practicable, to avoid
+the necessity of abandoning so important a station. Commodore Rodgers,
+with a promptitude which did him honor, cheerfully accepted that trust,
+and has discharged it in the manner anticipated from his skill and
+patriotism. Before his arrival Commodore Porter, with the greater
+part of the squadron, had removed from the island and returned to the
+United States in consequence of the prevailing sickness. Much useful
+information has, however, been obtained as to the state of the island
+and great relief afforded to those who had been necessarily left there.
+
+Although our expedition, cooperating with an invigorated administration
+of the government of the island of Cuba, and with the corresponding
+active exertions of a British naval force in the same seas, have almost
+entirely destroyed the unlicensed piracies from that island, the success
+of our exertions has not been equally effectual to suppress the same
+crime, under other pretenses and colors, in the neighboring island
+of Porto Rico. They have been committed there under the abusive
+issue of Spanish commissions. At an early period of the present year
+remonstrances were made to the governor of that island, by an agent
+who was sent for the purpose, against those outrages on the peaceful
+commerce of the United States, of which many had occurred. That officer,
+professing his own want of authority to make satisfaction for our just
+complaints, answered only by a reference of them to the Government of
+Spain. The minister of the United States to that court was specially
+instructed to urge the necessity of the immediate and effectual
+interposition of that Government, directing restitution and indemnity
+for wrongs already committed and interdicting the repetition of them.
+The minister, as has been seen, was debarred access to the Spanish
+Government, and in the meantime several new cases of flagrant outrage
+have occurred, and citizens of the United States in the island of Porto
+Rico have suffered, and others been threatened with assassination for
+asserting their unquestionable rights even before the lawful tribunals
+of the country.
+
+The usual orders have been given to all our public ships to seize
+American vessels engaged in the slave trade and bring them in for
+adjudication, and I have the gratification to state that not one so
+employed has been discovered, and there is good reason to believe
+that our flag is now seldom, if at all, disgraced by that traffic.
+It is a source of great satisfaction that we are always enabled to
+recur to the conduct of our Navy with pride and commendation. As a
+means of national defense it enjoys the public confidence, and is
+steadily assuming additional importance. It is submitted whether a more
+efficient and equally economical organization of it might not in several
+respects be effected. It is supposed that higher grades than now exist
+by law would be useful. They would afford well-merited rewards to those
+who have long and faithfully served their country, present the best
+incentives to good conduct, and the best means of insuring a proper
+discipline; destroy the inequality in that respect between military and
+naval services, and relieve our officers from many inconveniences and
+mortifications which occur when our vessels meet those of other nations,
+ours being the only service in which such grades do not exist.
+
+A report of the Postmaster-General, which accompanies this
+communication, will shew the present state of the Post-Office Department
+and its general operations for some years past.
+
+There is established by law 88,600 miles of post-roads, on which the
+mail is now transported 85,700 miles, and contracts have been made
+for its transportation on all the established routes, with one or two
+exceptions. There are 5,240 post-offices in the Union, and as many
+postmasters. The gross amount of postage which accrued from the 1st
+July, 1822, to the 1st July, 1823, was $1,114,345.12. During the
+same period the expenditures of the Post-Office Department amounted
+to $1,169,885.51, and consisted of the following items, viz:
+Compensation to postmasters, $353,995.98; incidental expenses,
+$30,866.37; transportation of the mail, $784,600.08; payments into
+the Treasury, $423.08. On the 1st of July last there was due to the
+Department from postmasters $135,245.28; from _late_ postmasters and
+contractors, $256,749.31; making a total amount of balances due to the
+Department of $391,994.59. These balances embrace all delinquencies
+of postmasters and contractors which have taken place since the
+organization of the Department. There was due by the Department
+to contractors on the 1st of July last $26,548.64.
+
+The transportation of the mail within five years past has been greatly
+extended, and the expenditures of the Department proportionably
+increased. Although the postage which has accrued within the last three
+years has fallen short of the expenditures $262,821.46, it appears that
+collections have been made from the outstanding balances to meet the
+principal part of the current demands.
+
+It is estimated that not more than $250,000 of the above balances can
+be collected, and that a considerable part of this sum can only be
+realized by a resort to legal process. Some improvement in the receipts
+for postage is expected. A prompt attention to the collection of moneys
+received by postmasters, it is believed, will enable the Department
+to continue its operations without aid from the Treasury, unless the
+expenditures shall be increased by the establishment of new mail routes.
+
+A revision of some parts of the post-office law may be necessary;
+and it is submitted whether it would not be proper to provide for the
+appointment of postmasters, where the compensation exceeds a certain
+amount, by nomination to the Senate, as other officers of the General
+Government are appointed.
+
+Having communicated my views to Congress at the commencement of the
+last session respecting the encouragement which ought to be given to our
+manufactures and the principle on which it should be founded, I have
+only to add that those views remain unchanged, and that the present
+state of those countries with which we have the most immediate political
+relations and greatest commercial intercourse tends to confirm them.
+Under this impression I recommend a review of the tariff for the purpose
+of affording such additional protection to those articles which we are
+prepared to manufacture, or which are more immediately connected with
+the defense and independence of the country.
+
+The actual state of the public accounts furnishes additional evidence
+of the efficiency of the present system of accountability in relation
+to the public expenditure. Of the moneys drawn from the Treasury since
+the 4th March, 1817, the sum remaining unaccounted for on the 30th of
+September last is more than a million and a half of dollars less than on
+the 30th of September preceding; and during the same period a reduction
+of nearly a million of dollars has been made in the amount of the
+unsettled accounts for moneys advanced previously to the 4th of March,
+1817. It will be obvious that in proportion as the mass of accounts of
+the latter description is diminished by settlement the difficulty of
+settling the residue is increased from the consideration that in many
+instances it can be obtained only by legal process. For more precise
+details on this subject I refer to a report from the First Comptroller
+of the Treasury.
+
+The sum which was appropriated at the last session for the repairs of
+the Cumberland road has been applied with good effect to that object.
+A final report has not yet been received from the agent who was
+appointed to superintend it. As soon as it is received it shall be
+communicated to Congress.
+
+Many patriotic and enlightened citizens who have made the subject an
+object of particular investigation have suggested an improvement of
+still greater importance. They are of opinion that the waters of the
+Chesapeake and Ohio may be connected together by one continued canal,
+and at an expense far short of the value and importance of the object
+to be obtained. If this could be accomplished it is impossible to
+calculate the beneficial consequences which would result from it.
+A great portion of the produce of the very fertile country through
+which it would pass would find a market through that channel. Troops
+might be moved with great facility in war, with cannon and every kind
+of munition, and in either direction. Connecting the Atlantic with the
+Western country in a line passing through the seat of the National
+Government, it would contribute essentially to strengthen the bond of
+union itself. Believing as I do that Congress possess the right to
+appropriate money for such a national object (the jurisdiction remaining
+to the States through which the canal would pass), I submit it to your
+consideration whether it may not be advisable to authorize by an
+adequate appropriation the employment of a suitable number of the
+officers of the Corps of Engineers to examine the unexplored ground
+during the next season and to report their opinion thereon. It will
+likewise be proper to extend their examination to the several routes
+through which the waters of the Ohio may be connected by canals with
+those of Lake Erie.
+
+As the Cumberland road will require annual repairs, and Congress have
+not thought it expedient to recommend to the States an amendment to the
+Constitution for the purpose of vesting in the United States a power to
+adopt and execute a system of internal improvement, it is also submitted
+to your consideration whether it may not be expedient to authorize the
+Executive to enter into an arrangement with the several States through
+which the road passes to establish tolls, each within its limits, for
+the purpose of defraying the expense of future repairs and of providing
+also by suitable penalties for its protection against future injuries.
+
+The act of Congress of the 7th of May, 1822, appropriated the sum of
+$22,700 for the purpose of erecting two piers as a shelter for vessels
+from ice near Cape Henlopen, Delaware Bay. To effect the object of the
+act the officers of the Board of Engineers, with Commodore Bainbridge,
+were directed to prepare plans and estimates of piers sufficient to
+answer the purpose intended by the act. It appears by their report,
+which accompanies the documents from the War Department, that the
+appropriation is not adequate to the purpose intended; and as the piers
+would be of great service both to the navigation of the Delaware Bay and
+the protection of vessels on the adjacent parts of the coast, I submit
+for the consideration of Congress whether additional and sufficient
+appropriation should not be made.
+
+The Board of Engineers were also directed to examine and survey the
+entrance of the harbor of the port of Presquille, in Pennsylvania, in
+order to make an estimate of the expense of removing the obstructions
+to the entrance, with a plan of the best mode of effecting the same,
+under the appropriation for that purpose by act of Congress passed 3d
+of March last. The report of the Board accompanies the papers from the
+War Department, and is submitted for the consideration of Congress.
+
+A strong hope has been long entertained, founded on the heroic struggle
+of the Greeks, that they would succeed in their contest and resume their
+equal station among the nations of the earth. It is believed that the
+whole civilized world take a deep interest in their welfare. Although
+no power has declared in their favor, yet none, according to our
+information, has taken part against them. Their cause and their
+name have protected them from dangers which might ere this have
+overwhelmed any other people. The ordinary calculations of interest and
+of acquisition with a view to aggrandizement, which mingles so much in
+the transactions of nations, seem to have had no effect in regard to
+them. From the facts which have come to our knowledge there is good
+cause to believe that their enemy has lost forever all dominion over
+them; that Greece will become again an independent nation. That she
+may obtain that rank is the object of our most ardent wishes.
+
+It was stated at the commencement of the last session that a great
+effort was then making in Spain and Portugal to improve the condition of
+the people of those countries, and that it appeared to be conducted with
+extraordinary moderation. It need scarcely be remarked that the result
+has been so far very different from what was then anticipated. Of events
+in that quarter of the globe, with which we have so much intercourse
+and from which we derive our origin, we have always been anxious and
+interested spectators. The citizens of the United States cherish
+sentiments the most friendly in favor of the liberty and happiness
+of their fellow-men on that side of the Atlantic. In the wars of the
+European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken
+any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to do. It is only when
+our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or
+make preparation for our defense. With the movements in this hemisphere
+we are of necessity more immediately connected, and by causes which must
+be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The political
+system of the allied powers is essentially different in this respect
+from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists
+in their respective Governments; and to the defense of our own, which
+has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured
+by the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under which we
+have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe
+it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between
+the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider
+any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this
+hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing
+colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered
+and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared
+their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have,
+on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could
+not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or
+controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power
+in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly
+disposition toward the United States. In the war between those new
+Governments and Spain we declared our neutrality at the time of their
+recognition, and to this we have adhered, and shall continue to adhere,
+provided no change shall occur which, in the judgment of the competent
+authorities of this Government, shall make a corresponding change on
+the part of the United States indispensable to their security.
+
+The late events in Spain and Portugal shew that Europe is still
+unsettled. Of this important fact no stronger proof can be adduced than
+that the allied powers should have thought it proper, on any principle
+satisfactory to themselves, to have interposed by force in the internal
+concerns of Spain. To what extent such interposition may be carried, on
+the same principle, is a question in which all independent powers whose
+governments differ from theirs are interested, even those most remote,
+and surely none more so than the United States. Our policy in regard
+to Europe, which was adopted at an early stage of the wars which have
+so long agitated that quarter of the globe, nevertheless remains the
+same, which is, not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of
+its powers; to consider the government _de facto_ as the legitimate
+government for us; to cultivate friendly relations with it, and to
+preserve those relations by a frank, firm, and manly policy, meeting
+in all instances the just claims of every power, submitting to injuries
+from none. But in regard to those continents circumstances are eminently
+and conspicuously different. It is impossible that the allied powers
+should extend their political system to any portion of either continent
+without endangering our peace and happiness; nor can anyone believe that
+our southern brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their
+own accord. It is equally impossible, therefore, that we should behold
+such interposition in any form with indifference. If we look to the
+comparative strength and resources of Spain and those new Governments,
+and their distance from each other, it must be obvious that she can
+never subdue them. It is still the true policy of the United States
+to leave the parties to themselves, in the hope that other powers will
+pursue the same course.
+
+If we compare the present condition of our Union with its actual state
+at the close of our Revolution, the history of the world furnishes no
+example of a progress in improvement in all the important circumstances
+which constitute the happiness of a nation which bears any resemblance
+to it. At the first epoch our population did not exceed 3,000,000.
+By the last census it amounted to about 10,000,000, and, what is more
+extraordinary, it is almost altogether native, for the immigration
+from other countries has been inconsiderable At the first epoch half
+the territory within our acknowledged limits was uninhabited and a
+wilderness. Since then new territory has been acquired of vast extent,
+comprising within it many rivers, particularly the Mississippi, the
+navigation of which to the ocean was of the highest importance to the
+original States. Over this territory our population has expanded in
+every direction, and new States have been established almost equal in
+number to those which formed the first bond of our Union. This expansion
+of our population and accession of new States to our Union have had the
+happiest effect on all its highest interests. That it has eminently
+augmented our resources and added to our strength and respectability
+as a power is admitted by all. But it is not in these important
+circumstances only that this happy effect is felt. It is manifest that
+by enlarging the basis of our system and increasing the number of
+States the system itself has been greatly strengthened in both its
+branches. Consolidation and disunion have thereby been rendered equally
+impracticable. Each Government, confiding in its own strength, has less
+to apprehend from the other, and in consequence each, enjoying a greater
+freedom of action, is rendered more efficient for all the purposes
+for which it was instituted. It is unnecessary to treat here of the
+vast improvement made in the system itself by the adoption of this
+Constitution and of its happy effect in elevating the character and in
+protecting the rights of the nation as well as of individuals. To what,
+then, do we owe these blessings? It is known to all that we derive them
+from the excellence of our institutions. Ought we not, then, to adopt
+every measure which may be necessary to perpetuate them?
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+WASHINGTON CITY, _December 7, 1823_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+By an act of the last session of Congress it was made the duty of
+the accounting officers of the Treasury to adjust and settle the
+accounts of Daniel D. Tompkins, late governor of the State of New
+York, on principles of equity and justice, subject to the revision and
+final decision of the President of the United States. The accounting
+officers have, in compliance with this act, reported to me a balance of
+$35,190 in favor of Governor Tompkins, which report I have had under
+consideration, together with his claim to an additional allowance,
+and should have decided on the same before the present time had I not
+delayed my decision at his request. From the view which I have taken
+of the subject I am satisfied, considering all the circumstances of
+the case, that a larger sum ought to be allowed him than that reported
+by the accounting officers of the Treasury. No appropriation, however,
+having been made by the act, and it appearing by recent information from
+him that the sum reported would afford him an essential accommodation
+at this time, the subject is submitted to the consideration of Congress
+with a view to that object.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate, for its advice and consent as to the
+ratification, a treaty lately concluded with the Seminole Indians in
+Florida, whereby a cession of territory is made to the United States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+DECEMBER 15, 1823.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 23, 1823_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit to Congress a statement by William Lambert,
+explanatory of his astronomical calculations with a view to establish
+the longitude of the Capitol.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 31, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary
+of State, with accompanying documents, containing the information
+requested by the resolution of the House of the 19th instant, relating
+to the condition and future prospects of the Greeks.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 5, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+18th of December last, requesting copies of contracts for cannon, cannon
+shot, muskets, and other small arms which have been entered into since
+the 1st of January, 1820, and for other detailed information therein
+specified, I herewith transmit a report, with accompanying documents,
+from the Department of War,
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 9, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Agreeably to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 18th
+of December, 1823, requesting copies of all contracts for cannon,
+cannon shot, muskets, and other small arms entered into since the
+1st of January, 1820, I herewith transmit a report from the Department
+of the Navy, with other documents relating thereto.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 12, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In answer to a resolution of the House of Representatives of December
+24, requesting the President of the United States to lay before the
+House such information as he may possess, and which may be disclosed
+without injury to the public good, relative to the determination of
+any sovereign, or combination of sovereigns, to assist Spain in the
+subjugation of her late colonies on the American continent, and whether
+any Government of Europe is disposed or determined to oppose any aid or
+assistance which such sovereign or combination of sovereigns may afford
+to Spain for the subjugation of her late colonies above mentioned,
+I have to state that I possess no information on that subject not known
+to Congress which can be disclosed without injury to the public good.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 30, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+15th of December last, requesting the President of the United States "to
+communicate a plan for a peace establishment of the Navy of the United
+States," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of the Navy,
+which contains the plan required.
+
+In presenting this plan to the consideration of Congress, I avail myself
+of the occasion to make some remarks on it which the importance of the
+subject requires and experience justifies.
+
+If a system of universal and permanent peace could be established, or
+if in war the belligerent parties would respect the rights of neutral
+powers, we should have no occasion for a navy or an army. The expense
+and dangers of such establishments might be avoided. The history of all
+ages proves that this can not be presumed; on the contrary, that at
+least one-half of every century, in ancient as well as modern times,
+has been consumed in wars, and often of the most general and desolating
+character. Nor is there any cause to infer, if we examine the condition
+of the nations with which we have the most intercourse and strongest
+political relations, that we shall in future be exempt from that
+calamity within any period to which a rational calculation may be
+extended. And as to the rights of neutral powers, it is sufficient to
+appeal to our own experience to demonstrate how little regard will be
+paid to them whenever they come in conflict with the interests of the
+powers at war while we rely on the justice of our cause and on argument
+alone. The amount of the property of our fellow-citizens which was
+seized and confiscated or destroyed by the belligerent parties in the
+wars of the French Revolution, and of those which followed before we
+became a party to the war, is almost incalculable.
+
+The whole movement of our Government from the establishment of our
+independence has been guided by a sacred regard for peace. Situated as
+we are in the new hemisphere, distant from Europe and unconnected with
+its affairs, blessed with the happiest Government on earth, and having
+no objects of ambition to gratify, the United States have steadily
+cultivated the relations of amity with every power; and if in any
+European wars a respect for our rights might be relied on, it was
+undoubtedly in those to which I have adverted. The conflict being vital,
+the force being nearly equally balanced, and the result uncertain, each
+party had the strongest motives of interest to cultivate our good will,
+lest we might be thrown into the opposite scale. Powerful as this
+consideration usually is, it was nevertheless utterly disregarded
+in almost every stage of and by every party to those wars. To these
+encroachments and injuries our regard for peace was finally forced
+to yield.
+
+In the war to which at length we became a party our whole coast from St.
+Croix to the Mississippi was either invaded or menaced with invasion,
+and in many parts with a strong imposing force both land and naval.
+In those parts where the population was most dense the pressure was
+comparatively light, but there was scarcely an harbor or city on any
+of our great inlets which could be considered secure. New York and
+Philadelphia were eminently exposed, the then existing works not being
+sufficient for their protection. The same remark is applicable in a
+certain extent to the cities eastward of the former, and as to the
+condition of the whole country southward of the latter the events which
+mark the war are too recent to require detail. Our armies and Navy
+signalized themselves in every quarter where they had occasion to meet
+their gallant foe, and the militia voluntarily flew to their aid with
+a patriotism and fought with a bravery which exalted the reputation of
+their Government and country and which did them the highest honor. In
+whatever direction the enemy chose to move with their squadrons and to
+land their troops our fortifications, where any existed, presented but
+little obstacle to them. They passed those works without difficulty.
+Their squadrons, in fact, annoyed our whole coast, not of the sea only,
+but every bay and great river throughout its whole extent. In entering
+those inlets and sailing up them with a small force the effect was
+disastrous, since it never failed to draw out the whole population on
+each side and to keep it in the field while the squadron remained there.
+The expense attending this species of defense, with the exposure of
+the inhabitants and the waste of property, may readily be conceived.
+
+The occurrences which preceded the war and those which attended it were
+alike replete with useful instruction as to our future policy. Those
+which marked the first epoch demonstrate clearly that in the wars of
+other powers we can rely only on force for the protection of our neutral
+rights. Those of the second demonstrate with equal certainty that in any
+war in which we may be engaged hereafter with a strong naval power the
+expense, waste, and other calamities attending it, considering the vast
+extent of our maritime frontier, can not fail, unless it be defended
+by adequate fortifications and a suitable naval force, to correspond
+with those which were experienced in the late war. Two great objects
+are therefore to be regarded in the establishment of an adequate naval
+force: The first, to prevent war so far as it may be practicable; the
+second, to diminish its calamities when it may be inevitable. Hence the
+subject of defense becomes intimately connected in all its parts in war
+and in peace, for the land and at sea. No government will be disposed in
+its wars with other powers to violate our rights if it knows we have the
+means, are prepared and resolved to defend them. The motive will also be
+diminished if it knows that our defenses by land are so well planned and
+executed that an invasion of our coast can not be productive of the
+evils to which we have heretofore been exposed.
+
+It was under a thorough conviction of these truths, derived from the
+admonitions of the late war, that Congress, as early as the year 1816,
+during the term of my enlightened and virtuous predecessor, under whom
+the war had been declared, prosecuted, and terminated, digested and made
+provision for the defense of our country and support of its rights,
+in peace as well as in war, by acts which authorized and enjoined the
+augmentation of our Navy to a prescribed limit, and the construction
+of suitable fortifications throughout the whole extent of our maritime
+frontier and wherever else they might be deemed necessary. It is to the
+execution of these works, both land and naval, and under a thorough
+conviction that by hastening their completion I should render the best
+service to my country and give the most effectual support to our free
+republican system of government that my humble faculties would admit of,
+that I have devoted so much of my time and labor to this great system of
+national policy since I came into this office, and shall continue to do
+it until my retirement from it at the end of your next session.
+
+The Navy is the arm from which our Government will always derive most
+aid in support of our neutral rights. Every power engaged in war will
+know the strength of our naval force, the number of our ships of each
+class, their condition, and the promptitude with which we may bring them
+into service, and will pay due consideration to that argument. Justice
+will always have great weight in the cabinets of Europe; but in long and
+destructive wars exigencies often occur which press so vitally on them
+that unless the argument of force is brought to its aid it will be
+disregarded. Our land forces will always perform their duty in the event
+of war, but they must perform it on the land. Our Navy is the arm which
+must be principally relied on for the annoyance of the commerce of the
+enemy and for the protection of our own, and also, by cooperation with
+the land forces, for the defense of the country. Capable of moving in
+any and every direction, it possesses the faculty, even when remote from
+our coast, of extending its aid to every interest on which the security
+and welfare of our Union depend. Annoying the commerce of the enemy and
+menacing in turn its coast, provided the force on each side is nearly
+equally balanced, it will draw its squadrons from our own; and in case
+of invasion by a powerful adversary by a land and naval force, which is
+always to be anticipated and ought to be provided against, our Navy may,
+by like cooperation with our land forces, render essential aid in
+protecting our interior from incursion and depredation.
+
+The great object in the event of war is to stop the enemy at the coast.
+If this is done our cities and whole interior will be secure. For the
+accomplishment of this object our fortifications must be principally
+relied on. By placing strong works near the mouths of our great inlets
+in such positions as to command the entrances into them, as may be done
+in many instances, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for ships
+to pass them, especially if other precautions, and particularly that of
+steam batteries, are resorted to in their aid. In the wars between other
+powers into which we may be drawn in support of our neutral rights it
+can not be doubted that this defense would be adequate to the purpose
+intended by it, nor can it be doubted that the knowledge that such works
+existed would form a strong motive with any power not to invade our
+rights, and thereby contribute essentially to prevent war. There are,
+it is admitted, some entrances into our interior which are of such
+vast extent that it would be utterly impossible for any works, however
+extensive or well posted, to command them. Of this class the Chesapeake
+Bay, which is an arm of the sea, may be given as an example. But, in my
+judgment, even this bay may be defended against any power with whom we
+may be involved in war as a third party in the defense of our neutral
+rights. By erecting strong works at the mouth of James River, on both
+sides, near the capes, as we are now doing, and at Old Point Comfort and
+the Rip Raps, and connecting those works together by chains whenever the
+enemy's force appeared, placing in the rear some large ships and steam
+batteries, the passage up the river would be rendered impracticable.
+This guard would also tend to protect the whole country bordering on the
+bay and rivers emptying into it, as the hazard would be too great for
+the enemy, however strong his naval force, to ascend the bay and leave
+such a naval force behind; since, in the event of a storm, whereby his
+vessels might be separated, or of a calm, the ships and steam batteries
+behind the works might rush forth and destroy them. It could only be in
+the event of an invasion by a great power or a combination of several
+powers, and by land as well as by naval forces, that those works could
+be carried; and even then they could not fail to retard the movement of
+the enemy into the country and to give time for the collection of our
+regular troops, militia, and volunteers to that point, and thereby
+contribute essentially to his ultimate defeat and expulsion from our
+territory.
+
+Under a strong impression that a peace establishment of our Navy is
+connected with the possible event of war, and that the naval force
+intended for either state, however small it may be, is connected with
+the general system of public defense, I have thought it proper in
+communicating this report to submit these remarks on the whole subject.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 2, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+11th of December last, requesting the President of the United States to
+communicate to the House all such parts of the correspondence with the
+Government of Spain relating to the Florida treaty to the period of its
+final ratification, not heretofore communicated, which, in his opinion,
+it might not be inconsistent with the public interest to communicate,
+I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with copies
+of the correspondence requested.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The House of Representatives on the 12th instant having "resolved that
+the President of the United States be requested to inform this House
+whether the rules and regulations compiled by General Scott for the
+government of the Army are now in force in the Army, or any part
+thereof, and by what authority the same has been adopted and enforced,"
+I herewith transmit a report from the Department of War, which contains
+the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Agreeably to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 11th
+instant, requesting the President of the United States "to inform this
+House if the line intended to constitute the western boundary of the
+Territory of Arkansas has been run in conformity with the provisions
+of the third section of the act of Congress of the 3d of March, 1823,
+entitled 'An act making appropriation for the military service of the
+United States for the year 1823, and for other purposes,' and, if said
+line has not been run, that he inform this House what instructions have
+been given or measures adopted in relation to the execution of the
+provision of the law, and what causes have prevented said line from
+being run," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War,
+which contains the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The House of Representatives on the 26th ultimo having "resolved that
+the President of the United States be requested to cause to be laid
+before the House an estimate of the expense which would be incurred by
+transporting 200 of the troops now at the Council Bluffs to the mouth
+of the Columbia or Oregon River," I herewith transmit a report of the
+Secretary of War, which contains the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1824_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit to Congress certain documents relating to a claim
+of Massachusetts for services rendered by the militia of that State
+in the late war, and for which payment was made by the State. From the
+particular circumstances attending this claim I have thought it proper
+to submit the subject to the consideration of Congress.
+
+In forming a just estimate of this claim it will be necessary to recur
+to the cause which prevented its admission, or the admission of any part
+thereof, at an earlier day. It will be recollected that when a call was
+made on the militia of that State for service in the late war, under
+an arrangement which was alike applicable to the militia of all the
+States and in conformity with the acts of Congress, the executive of
+Massachusetts refused to comply with the call, on the principle that
+the power vested in Congress by the Constitution to provide for
+calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress
+insurrections, and repel invasions was not a complete power for
+those purposes, but conditional, and dependent on the consent of the
+executives of the several States, and, also, that when called into
+service, such consent being given, they could not be commanded by a
+regular officer of the United States, or other officer than of the
+militia, except by the President in person. That this decision of
+the executive of Massachusetts was repugnant to the Constitution of
+the United States, and of dangerous tendency, especially when it is
+considered that we were then engaged in a war with a powerful nation
+for the defense of our common rights, was the decided opinion of this
+Government; and when the period at which that decision was formed was
+considered, it being as early as the 5th of August, 1812, immediately
+after the war was declared, and that it was not relinquished during the
+war, it was inferred by the Executive of the United States that the
+decision of the executive of that State was alike applicable to all the
+services that were rendered by the militia of the State during the war.
+
+In the correspondence with the governor of Massachusetts at that
+important epoch, and on that very interesting subject, it was announced
+to him by the Secretary of War that if the militia of the State were
+called into service by the executive of the State, and not put under the
+command of the Major-General of the United States, as the militia of
+the other States were, the expense attending their service would be
+chargeable to the State, and not to the United States. It was also
+stated to him at the same time that any claim which the State might
+have for the reimbursement of such expenses could not be allowed by the
+Executive of the United States, since it would involve principles on
+which that branch of the Government could not decide.
+
+Under these circumstances a decision on the claim of the State of
+Massachusetts has hitherto been suspended, and it need not be remarked
+that the suspension has proceeded from a conviction that it would be
+improper to give any sanction by its admission, or by the admission
+of any part thereof, either to the construction of the Constitution
+contended for by the then executive of that State or to its conduct
+at that period toward the General Government and the Union.
+
+In January, 1823, the Representatives in Congress from Massachusetts and
+Maine suggested, by memorial, that the constitutional objection could
+not apply to a portion of the claim, and requested that the accounting
+officer of the Government might be instructed to audit and admit such
+part as might be free from that objection. In all cases where claims
+are presented for militia service it is the duty and the practice of
+the accounting officer to submit them to the Department for instruction
+as to the legality of the claim; that is, whether the service had been
+rendered by order of the competent authority, or otherwise, under
+circumstances to justify the claim against the United States, admitting
+that the evidence in support of it should be satisfactory. To this
+request there appeared to be no well-founded objection, under the
+reservation as to the constitutional principle, and accordingly an order
+was given to the accounting officers of the Treasury to proceed in
+auditing the claim with that reservation.
+
+In conformity with this arrangement, the executive of Massachusetts
+appointed two citizens of that State commissioners to attend to the
+settlement of its claim, and who, in execution of the trust reposed in
+them, have presented to the accounting officer of the Treasury that
+portion comprehending the services of the fifth division of the militia
+of the State, which has been audited and reported for consideration,
+subject to the objection above stated. I have examined this report, with
+the documents presented by the commissioners, and am of opinion that
+the services rendered by that division were spontaneous, patriotic, and
+proper, necessary for self-defense, to repel in some instances actual
+invasion and in others to meet by adequate preparation invasions that
+were menaced. The commissioners of the State having intimated that other
+portions of service stood on similar ground, the accounting officer has
+been instructed, in auditing the whole, to do it in such manner as to
+enable the Department to show distinctly under what circumstances each
+portion of service was rendered, whether voluntary, called out by
+invasion or the menace of invasion, or by public authority, and in such
+case whether the militia rendering such service was placed under the
+authority of the United States or retained under that of the State.
+
+It affords me great pleasure to state that the present executive of
+Massachusetts has disclaimed the principle which was maintained by the
+former executive, and that in this disclaimer both branches of the
+legislature have concurred. By this renunciation the State is placed on
+the same ground in this respect with the other States, and this very
+distressing anomaly in our system is removed. It is well known that the
+great body of our fellow-citizens in Massachusetts are as firmly devoted
+to our Union and to the free republican principles of our Government as
+our fellow-citizens of the other States. Of this important truth their
+conduct in every stage of our Revolutionary struggle and in many other
+emergencies bears ample testimony; and I add with profound interest and
+a thorough conviction that, although the difficulty adverted to in the
+late war with their executive excited equal surprise and regret, it
+was not believed to extend to them. There never was a moment when the
+confidence of the Government in the great body of our fellow-citizens
+of that State was impaired, nor is a doubt entertained that they were
+at all times willing and ready to support their rights and repel an
+invasion by the enemy.
+
+The commissioners of Massachusetts have urged, in compliance with their
+instructions, the payment of so much of their claim as applies to the
+services rendered by the fifth division, which have been audited, and
+I should have no hesitation in admitting it if I did not think, under
+all the circumstances of the case, that the claim in all its parts was
+cognizable by Congress alone. The period at which the constitutional
+difficulty was raised by the executive of the State was in the highest
+degree important, as was the tendency of the principle for which it
+contended, and which was adhered to during the war. The public mind
+throughout the Union was much excited by that occurrence, and great
+solicitude was felt as to its consequences. The Executive of the United
+States was bound to maintain, and did maintain, a just construction of
+the Constitution, in doing which it is gratifying to recollect that the
+most friendly feelings were cherished toward their brethren of that
+State. The executive of the State was warned, in the correspondence
+which then took place, of the light in which its conduct was viewed
+and of the effect it would have, so far as related to the right of the
+Executive of the United States, on any claim which might afterwards be
+presented by the State to compensation for such services. Under these
+circumstances the power of the Executive of the United States to settle
+any portion of this claim seems to be precluded. It seems proper, also,
+that this claim should be decided on full investigation before the
+public, that the principle on which it is decided may be thoroughly
+understood by our fellow-citizens of every State, which can be done by
+Congress alone, who alone, also, possess the power to pass laws which
+may be necessary to carry such decision into effect.
+
+In submitting this subject to the calm and enlightened judgment of
+Congress, I do it with peculiar satisfaction, from a knowledge that you
+are now placed, by the course of events, in a situation which will
+enable you to adopt such measures as will not only comport with the
+sound principles of our Government, but likewise be conducive to other
+the highest interests of our Union. By the renunciation of the principle
+maintained by the then executive of Massachusetts, as has been done by
+its present executive and both branches of the legislature in the most
+formal manner and in accord with the sentiments of the great body of the
+people, the Constitution is restored in a very important feature (that
+connected with the public defense) and in the most important branch
+(that of the militia) to its native strength. It is very gratifying to
+know that this renunciation has been produced by the regular, orderly,
+and pacific operation of our republican system, whereby those who
+were in the right at the moment of difficulty and who sustained the
+Government with great firmness have daily gained strength until this
+result was accomplished. The points on which you will have to decide
+are, What is fairly due for the services which were actually rendered?
+By what means shall we contribute most to cement the Union and give the
+greatest support to our most excellent Constitution? In seeking each
+object separately we are led to the same result. All that can be claimed
+by our fellow-citizens of Massachusetts is that the constitutional
+objection be waived, and that they be placed on the same footing with
+their brethren in the other States; that regarding the services rendered
+by the militia of other States, for which compensation has been made,
+giving to the rule the most liberal construction, like compensation be
+made for similar services rendered by the militia of that State.
+
+I have been led to conclude on great consideration that the principles
+of justice as well as a due regard for the great interests of our Union
+require that this claim in the extent proposed should be acceded to.
+Essential service was rendered in the late war by the militia of
+Massachusetts, and with the most patriotic motives. It seems just,
+therefore, that they should be compensated for such services in like
+manner with the militia of the other States. The constitutional
+difficulty did not originate with them, and has now been removed. It
+comports with our system to look to the service rendered and to the
+intention with which it was rendered, and to award the compensation
+accordingly, especially as it may now be done without the sacrifice of
+principle. The motive in this instance is the stronger because well
+satisfied I am that by so doing we shall give the most effectual support
+to our republican institutions. No latent cause of discontent will be
+left behind. The great body of the people will be gratified, and even
+those who now survive who were then in error can not fail to see with
+interest and satisfaction this distressing occurrence thus happily
+terminated. I therefore consider it my duty to recommend it to Congress
+to make provision for the settlement of the claim of Massachusetts
+for services rendered in the late war by the militia of the State,
+in conformity with the rules which have governed in the settlement of
+the claims for services rendered by the militia of the other States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 24, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of War, containing the
+information called for by a resolution of the House of Representatives
+of the United States, passed on the 4th instant, respecting any suit or
+suits which have been or are now depending, in which the United States
+are interested, for the recovery of the Pea Patch.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 25, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In conformity with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+17th instant, I now transmit the report of the Secretary of the Navy,
+accompanied by statements marked A and B, shewing "the amount of money
+expended in conformity with the provisions of the act entitled 'An act
+for the gradual increase of the Navy of the United States,' approved
+April 29, 1816, and of the act to amend said act, approved 3d of March,
+1821; also the number of vessels built or now on the stocks, with their
+rates, the value of the timber purchased, or for which contracts
+have been made, and whether sufficient timber has been purchased or
+contracted for to build the vessels contemplated by the provisions of
+said acts."
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MARCH 3, 1824.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate a report of the Secretary of the Treasury,
+containing copies of the contracts made by the Surveyor-General,
+and called for by a resolution of the Senate bearing date the 24th
+February, 1824.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MARCH 4, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit a report of the Secretary of the Treasury, which communicates
+all the information in possession of the Department called for by a
+resolution of the House requesting a copy of the report of the register
+of the land office in the eastern district of Louisiana, bearing date
+the 6th of January, 1821, together with all the information from the
+said register to the Treasury Department.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 4, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+1st March, 1823, requesting information of the number and position of
+the permanent fortifications which have been and are now erecting for
+the defense of the coasts, harbors, and frontiers of the United States,
+with the classification and magnitude of each, with the amount expended
+on each, showing the work done and to be done, the number of guns of
+every caliber for each fortification, the total cost of a complete
+armament for each, the force required to garrison each in time of peace
+and of war, I transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of War
+containing the information required by the resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 8, 1824_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+On the 3d March, 1819, James Miller was first commissioned as governor
+of the Territory of Arkansas for the term of three years from that date.
+
+Before the expiration of that time, and in the winter of 1821-22, a
+nomination of him for reappointment was intended, and believed by me
+to have been made to the Senate, and to have received the confirmation
+of that body.
+
+By some accident, the cause of which is unknown, it appears that this
+impression was erroneous, and in December, 1822, it was discovered that
+Mr. Miller had not then been recommissioned, though in the confidence
+that he had been he had continued to act in that capacity. He was then
+renominated to the Senate, with the additional proposal that his
+commission should take effect from 3d March, 1822, when his first
+commission had expired.
+
+The nomination was confirmed by the Senate so far as regarded the
+appointment, but without concurrence in the retrospective effect
+proposed to be given to the commission.
+
+His second commission, therefore, bears date on the 3d January, 1823,
+and the interposition of the Legislature becomes necessary to legalize
+his official acts in the interval between 3d March, 1822, and that time,
+a subject which I recommend to the consideration of Congress.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MARCH 17, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+17th of February last, requesting "information whether any measures had
+been taken for carrying into effect the resolution of Congress of June
+17, 1777, directing a monument to be erected to the memory of David
+Wooster, a brigadier-general in the Army of the United States, who fell
+in defending the liberties of America and bravely repelling an inroad
+of the British forces to Danbury, in Connecticut," I have caused the
+necessary inquiries to be made, and find by the report of the Register
+of the Treasury that no monument has been erected to the memory of that
+patriotic and gallant officer, nor has any money been paid to the
+executive of Connecticut on that account.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 25, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 25th of February, requesting information whether the title of the
+United Brethren for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen to certain
+sections of land in Ohio has been purchased for the United States, and,
+if so, to cause a copy of the contract and of the papers relating
+thereto to be laid before the House, I transmit herewith all the
+documents required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 25, 1824_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+Having seen with regret that occasional errors have been made in
+nominations to the Senate, sometimes by the omission of a letter in
+the name, proceeding from casualties in the Departments and in my own
+office, it would be satisfactory to me if an arrangement could be made
+whereby such errors might be corrected without the formality of a
+special message. Where there is an accord as to the person there seems
+to be no reason for resorting to a renomination for the correction of
+such trivial errors. Any mode which the Senate may adopt will be
+satisfactory to me.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MARCH 25, 1824.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Having stated to Congress on the 7th of December last that Daniel D.
+Tompkins, late governor of New York, was entitled to a larger sum than
+that reported in his favor by the accounting officers of the Government,
+and that in the execution of the law of the last session I had the
+subject still under consideration, I now communicate to you the result.
+
+On full consideration of the law by which this duty was enjoined on me
+and of the report of the committee on the basis of which the law was
+founded, I have thought that I was authorized to adopt the principles
+laid down in that report in deciding on the sum which should be allowed
+to him for his services. With this view and on a comparison of his
+services with those which were rendered by other disbursing officers,
+taking into consideration also his aid in obtaining loans, I had decided
+to allow him 5 per cent for all sums borrowed and disbursed by him, and
+of which decision I informed him. Mr. Tompkins has since stated to me
+that this allowance will not indemnify him for his advances, loans,
+expenditures, and losses in rendering those services, nor place him
+on the footing of those who loaned money to the Government at that
+interesting period. He has also expressed a desire that I would submit
+the subject to the final decision of Congress, which I now do. In
+adopting this measure I think proper to add that I concur fully in the
+sentiments expressed by the committee in favor of the very patriotic and
+valuable services which were rendered by Mr. Tompkins in the late war.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MARCH 28, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit a report of the Secretary of War, together with a
+report from the Commissioner of the General Land Office, accompanied
+by the necessary documents, communicating the information heretofore
+requested by a resolution of the House in relation to the salt springs,
+lead and copper mines, together with the probable value of each of them
+and of the reservations attached to each, the extent to which they have
+been worked, the advantages and proximity of each to navigable waters,
+and the origin, nature, and extent of any claim made to them by
+individuals or companies, which reports contain all the information
+at present possessed on the subjects of the said resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MARCH 30, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+14th instant, requesting information whether an advance of compensation
+had been made to any of the commissioners who had been appointed for
+the examination of titles and claims to land in Florida, and by what
+authority such advance, if any, had been made, I transmit a report of
+the Secretary of State, which contains the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 30, 1824_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress certain papers enumerated in a report from the
+Secretary of War, relating to the compact between the United States and
+the State of Georgia entered into in 1802, whereby the latter ceded to
+the former a portion of the territory then within its limits on the
+conditions therein specified. By the fourth article of that compact
+it was stipulated that the United States should at their own expense
+extinguish for the use of Georgia the Indian title to all the lands
+within the State as soon as it might be done _peaceably_ and on
+_reasonable_ conditions. These papers show the measures adopted by the
+Executive of the United States in fulfillment of the several conditions
+of the compact from its date to the present time, and particularly the
+negotiations and treaties with the Indian tribes for the extinguishment
+of their title, with an estimate of the number of acres purchased and
+sums paid for lands they acquired. They show also the state in which
+this interesting concern now rests with the Cherokees, one of the tribes
+within the State, and the inability of the Executive to make any further
+movement with this tribe without the special sanction of Congress.
+
+I have full confidence that my predecessors exerted their best endeavors
+to execute this compact in all its parts, of which, indeed, the sums
+paid and the lands acquired during their respective terms in fulfillment
+of its several stipulations are a full proof. I have also been animated
+since I came into this office with the same zeal, from an anxious
+desire to meet the wishes of the State, and in the hope that by the
+establishment of these tribes beyond the Mississippi their improvement
+in civilization, their security and happiness would be promoted. By the
+paper bearing date on the 30th of January last, which was communicated
+to the chiefs of the Cherokee Nation in this city, who came to protest
+against any further appropriations of money for holding treaties with
+them, the obligation imposed on the United States by the compact with
+Georgia to extinguish the Indian title to the right of soil within the
+State, and the incompatibility with our system of their existence as
+a distinct community within any State, were pressed with the utmost
+earnestness. It was proposed to them at the same time to procure and
+convey to them territory beyond the Mississippi in exchange for that
+which they hold within the limits of Georgia, or to pay them for it its
+value in money. To this proposal their answer, which bears date 11th of
+February following, gives an unqualified refusal. By this it is manifest
+that at the present time and in their present temper they can be removed
+only by force, to which, should it be deemed proper, the power of the
+Executive is incompetent.
+
+I have no hesitation, however, to declare it as my opinion that the
+Indian title was not affected in the slightest circumstance by the
+compact with Georgia, and that there is no obligation on the United
+States to remove the Indians by force. The express stipulation of the
+compact that their title should be extinguished at the expense of the
+United States when it may be done _peaceably_ and on _reasonable_
+conditions is a full proof that it was the clear and distinct
+understanding of both parties to it that the Indians had a right to
+the territory, in the disposal of which they were to be regarded as
+free agents. An attempt to remove them by force would, in my opinion,
+be unjust. In the future measures to be adopted in regard to the Indians
+within our limits, and, in consequence, within the limits of any State,
+the United States have duties to perform and a character to sustain
+to which they ought not to be indifferent. At an early period their
+improvement in the arts of civilized life was made an object with the
+Government, and that has since been persevered in. This policy was
+dictated by motives of humanity to the aborigines of the country, and
+under a firm conviction that the right to adopt and pursue it was
+equally applicable to all the tribes within our limits.
+
+My impression is equally strong that it would promote essentially the
+security and happiness of the tribes within our limits if they could be
+prevailed on to retire west and north of our States and Territories on
+lands to be procured for them by the United States, in exchange for
+those on which they now reside. Surrounded as they are, and pressed
+as they will be, on every side by the white population, it will be
+difficult if not impossible for them, with their kind of government, to
+sustain order among them. Their interior will be exposed to frequent
+disturbances, to remedy which the interposition of the United States
+will be indispensable, and thus their government will gradually lose its
+authority until it is annihilated. In this process the moral character
+of the tribes will also be lost, since the change will be too rapid to
+admit their improvement in civilization to enable them to institute and
+sustain a government founded on our principles, if such a change were
+compatible either with the compact with Georgia or with our general
+system, or to become members of a State, should any State be willing
+to adopt them in such numbers, regarding the good order, peace, and
+tranquillity of such State. But all these evils may be avoided if these
+tribes will consent to remove beyond the limits of our present States
+and Territories. Lands equally good, and perhaps more fertile, may be
+procured for them in those quarters. The relations between the United
+States and such Indians would still be the same.
+
+Considerations of humanity and benevolence, which have now great weight,
+would operate in that event with an augmented force, since we should
+feel sensibly the obligation imposed on us by the accommodation which
+they thereby afforded us. Placed at ease, as the United States would
+then be, the improvement of those tribes in civilization and in all
+the arts and usages of civilized life would become the part of a general
+system which might be adopted on great consideration, and in which every
+portion of our Union would then take an equal interest. These views have
+steadily been pursued by the Executive, and the moneys which have
+been placed at its disposal have been so applied in the manner best
+calculated, according to its judgment, to produce this desirable result,
+as will appear by the documents which accompany the report of the
+Secretary of War.
+
+I submit this subject to the consideration of Congress under a high
+sense of its importance and of the propriety of an early decision on it.
+This compact gives a claim to the State which ought to be executed in
+all its conditions with perfect good faith. In doing this, however, it
+is the duty of the United States to regard its strict import, and to
+make no sacrifice of their interest not called for by the compact nor
+contemplated by either of the parties when it was entered into, nor
+to commit any breach of right or of humanity in regard to the Indians
+repugnant to the judgment and revolting to the feelings of the whole
+American people. I submit the subject to your consideration, in full
+confidence that you will duly weigh the obligations of the compact with
+Georgia, its import in all its parts, and the extent to which the United
+States are bound to go under it. I submit it with equal confidence that
+you will also weigh the nature of the Indian title to the territory
+within the limits of any State, with the stipulations in the several
+treaties with this tribe respecting territory held by it within the
+State of Georgia, and decide whether any measure on the part of Congress
+is called for at the present time, and what such measure shall be if any
+is deemed expedient.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL 9, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit the report of the Secretary of War, with the
+accompanying documents, containing the information requested by a
+resolution of the House of the 10th ultimo, and which communicates
+the accounts of all the generals of the Army, likewise of the
+Inspector-General, the chiefs of the Engineer and Ordnance Corps, and
+Surgeon-General for the two years preceding the 30th of September last;
+also shewing the amount of money paid to each under the different heads
+of pay, fuel, straw, quarters, transportation, and all other extra and
+contingent allowances; which report, together with the statements
+herewith transmitted, furnishes all the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The executive of Virginia having requested payment of the amount of
+interest paid by the State for moneys borrowed and paid by it for
+services rendered by the militia in the late war, and such claim not
+being allowable according to the uniform decisions of the accounting
+officers of the Government, I submit the subject to your consideration,
+with a report from the Secretary of War and all the documents connected
+with it.
+
+The following are the circumstances on which this claim is founded:
+From an early stage of the war the squadrons of the enemy entered
+occasionally the Chesapeake Bay, and, menacing its shores and those of
+the principal rivers emptying into it, subjected the neighboring militia
+to calls from the local authorities for the defense of the parts thus
+menaced. The pressure was most sensibly felt in 1814, after the attack
+on this city and its capture, when the invading force, retiring to its
+squadron, menaced alike Baltimore, Norfolk, and Richmond. The attack
+on this city had induced a call by the Department of War for large
+detachments of the militia of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia,
+which, being collected in this quarter, and the enemy bearing, in the
+first instance, on Baltimore, were ordered to its defense. As early
+as the 31st of August notice was given by the Secretary of War to the
+governor of Virginia of the position of the enemy and of the danger to
+which Richmond as well as Norfolk and Baltimore were exposed, and he was
+also authorized and enjoined to be on his guard, prepared at every point
+and in every circumstance to meet and repel the invaders. This notice
+was repeated several times afterwards, until the enemy left the bay and
+moved to the south.
+
+In the course of the war the State had augmented its taxes to meet the
+pressure, but the funds being still inadequate, it borrowed money to a
+considerable amount, which was applied to the payment of the militia for
+the services thus rendered. The calls which had been made, except for
+the brigades in this quarter and at Norfolk, being made by the State,
+the settlement with those corps and the payment for their services were
+made according to the rules and usage of the Department by the State
+and not by the United States. On the settlement by the State, after the
+peace, with the accounting officers of the Government the reimbursement
+of the interest which the State had paid on the sums thus borrowed and
+paid to the militia was claimed, but not allowed for the reason above
+stated. It is this claim which I now submit to the consideration of
+Congress.
+
+It need scarcely be remarked that where a State advances money for the
+use of the General Government for a purpose authorized by it that the
+claim for the interest on the amount thus advanced, which has been paid
+by the State, is reasonable and just. The claim is the stronger under
+the circumstance which existed when those advances were made, it being
+at a period of great difficulty, when the United States were compelled
+to borrow very large sums for the prosecution of the war. Had the State
+not borrowed this money the militia, whose services have been recognized
+since by the nation, must have been disbanded and the State left without
+defense.
+
+The claim is, in my opinion, equally well founded where a State advances
+money which it has in its treasury, or which it raises by taxes, to meet
+the current demand.
+
+In submitting this claim to your consideration it is proper to observe
+that many other States have like claims with those of Virginia, and that
+all those similarly circumstanced should be placed on the same footing.
+
+I invite your attention to a principle which is deemed just, and with a
+view that the provision which may be made respecting it may be extended
+alike to all the States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+APRIL, 12, 1824.
+
+
+
+APRIL, 16, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+8th of April, requesting information whether the fifth section of the
+act of the 3d March, 1803, relating to a township of land lying within
+John Cleves Symmes's patent, had been executed, and, if not, what
+reasons had prevented it, I transmit a report from the Secretary of
+the Treasury, which affords the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL, 16, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the Secretary of
+War, containing the information requested by a resolution of the House
+dated 25th ultimo, shewing the reason why the engineers appointed to
+examine the most suitable site for a national armory on the Western
+waters have not made their report.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL, 16, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report from
+the Secretary of War, which contains the information requested by a
+resolution of the 8th instant, respecting the proposals that were made
+by certain Indians, therein described, of the Cherokee Nation for the
+cession of their lands to the United States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 18, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+13th instant, requesting a detailed account of the disbursement of the
+sums appropriated by the acts of the 30th April, 1818, and of the 3d
+March, 1819, for making certain improvements in the grounds connected
+with the public offices and the President's house, I transmit a report
+from the Commissioner of the Public Buildings, which contains the
+information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL, 23, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In conformity with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+yesterday, I have received a copy of the proceedings of the committee to
+whom was referred a communication from Ninian Edwards, lately appointed
+a minister plenipotentiary to Mexico, in which it is decided that
+his attendance in this city for the purpose of being examined by the
+committee on matters contained in the said communication was requisite.
+As soon as I was apprised that such a communication had been made to the
+House, anticipating that the attendance of Mr. Edwards might be desired
+for the purpose stated, I thought it proper that he should be informed
+thereof, and instructed him not to proceed on his mission, but to await
+such call as might be made on him either by the House or its committee,
+and in consequence a letter was addressed to him to that effect by the
+Secretary of State.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL 27, 1824.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In conformity with the resolution of the Senate of the 19th instant,
+requesting information whether the Executive, through the agency of
+the War Department, borrowed any money during the late war, under the
+condition of applying the same to the defense of the State wherein the
+said loans were made, to what amount, and whether interest was paid by
+the United States for such loans, etc., I herewith transmit a report
+from the Secretary of War containing all the information in that
+Department in relation to the resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL, 28, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+The House of Representatives having referred back the accounts and
+claims of Daniel D. Tompkins, late governor of New York, to be settled
+on the principles established by the report of the committee and the law
+founded on it in the last session I have reconsidered the subject, and
+now communicate the result.
+
+By the report of the committee, which it was understood was adopted by
+the House, it was decided that his accounts and claims should be settled
+on the four following principles:
+
+First. That interest should be allowed him on all moneys advanced by
+him for the public from the time of the advance to that of his being
+reimbursed.
+
+Second. That a reasonable commission should be allowed him on all moneys
+disbursed by him during the late war.
+
+Third. That an indemnity should be allowed for all losses which he had
+sustained by the failure of the Government to fulfill its engagements
+to send him money or Treasury notes within the time specified to be
+deposited in certain banks as collateral security for loans procured
+by him at the request and on account of the Government.
+
+Fourth. That he should not be held responsible for losses incurred by
+the frauds and failures of subagents to whom moneys were advanced
+through his hands.
+
+On the first, that of interest on his advances for the public, I have
+allowed him $14,438.68. This allowance is made on advances admitted by
+the accounting department, and on the declaration of Mr. Tompkins that
+the remittances made to him, after his advances and previous to the
+24th of December, 1814, when a very large sum was remitted to him, were
+applied to public purposes and not to the reimbursement of his advances.
+
+On the second head, that of a reasonable commission for his
+disbursements during the late war, I have allowed him 5 per cent on
+the whole sum disbursed by him, amounting to $92,213.13. I have made
+him this extra allowance in consideration of the aid which he afforded
+to the Government at that important epoch in obtaining the loan of a
+considerable part of the sums thus disbursed.
+
+On the third head, that of an indemnity for losses sustained by him in
+consequence of the failure of the Government to fulfill its engagements
+to send him money or Treasury notes within the time specified, I have
+allowed him $4,411.25, being the amount of the loss sustained on the
+sale of Treasury notes, for which he was responsible.
+
+On the fourth head, that of losses sustained by him by any frauds or
+failures of subagents, none such having been shewn no allowance whatever
+has been made to him.
+
+From the amount thus allowed to Mr. Tompkins after deducting the sum
+paid him under the act of the present session and the moneys charged
+to his account there will remain a balance due him of $60,238.46, as
+appears by the sketch herewith communicated.
+
+In making a final decision on Mr. Tompkins's claims a question arises,
+Shall interest be allowed him on the amount of the commission on his
+disbursements? The law of the last session grants to the President
+a power to allow interest on moneys advanced by him to the public,
+but does not authorize it on the commission to be allowed on his
+disbursements. To make such allowance belongs exclusively to Congress.
+Had his claims been settled at the end of the last war on the principles
+established by the law of the last session a commission on disbursements
+would then have been allowed him. This consideration operates with great
+force in favor of the allowance of interest on that commission at this
+time, which I recommend to Congress.
+
+I think proper to add that the official relation which I bore to
+Governor Tompkins at that very interesting epoch, under the highly
+distinguished and meritorious citizen under whom we both served,
+enabling me to feel very sensibly the value of his services, excites a
+strong interest in his favor, which I deem it not improper to express.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 30, 1824_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate, for their constitutional advice with regard
+to its ratification, a convention for the suppression of the African
+slave trade, signed at London on the 13th ultimo by the minister of the
+United States residing there on their part, with the plenipotentiaries
+of the British Government on the part of that nation, together with
+the correspondence relating thereto, a part of which is included in a
+communication made to the House of Representatives on the 19th ultimo,
+a printed copy of which is among the documents herewith sent.
+
+Motives of accommodation to the wishes of the British Government
+render it desirable that the Senate should act definitively upon
+this convention as speedily as may be found convenient.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL 30, 1824.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to the Senate a treaty entered into with the Cherokee
+Nation as early as 1804, but which, owing to causes not now understood,
+has never been carried into effect. Of the authenticity of the
+transaction a report from the Secretary of War, with the documents
+accompanying it, furnishes the most unquestionable proof. I submit it
+to the Senate for its advice and consent as to the ratification.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 7, 1824_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I communicate herewith to the Senate a report from the Secretary
+of State, with the documents relating to the present state of the
+commercial intercourse between the United States and Portugal,
+requested by the resolution of the Senate of the 13th ultimo.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MAY 11, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report of
+the Secretary of War, containing the information called for by the
+resolution of the 10th of March, requesting the names of all the
+officers of the Army who have been brevetted, stating their lineal rank
+and brevet rank, when brevetted, and the amount of money paid to each
+and when paid, which report, with the accompanying documents, contains
+the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MAY 13, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 15th of April, requesting the President to cause to be communicated
+to the House a statement of the supplies which have been sent from the
+United States to any ports of South America for the use of our squadron
+in the Pacific Ocean, of the amount paid for such supplies, with the
+names of the owners of the vessels, and other details therein specified,
+I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of the Navy, which, with
+the documents accompanying it, furnishes the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MAY 14, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the
+Secretary of the Navy, together with the proceedings of a court-martial
+lately held at Norfolk for the trial of Lieutenant Beverly Kennon, as
+requested by a resolution of the House bearing date the 25th of April,
+1824.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 18, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to the House a report, with accompanying documents,
+received from Alexander Hamilton, one of the commissioners of land
+titles in East Florida, deeming the statements therein contained to be
+worthy of the particular attention of the House, and of a nature which
+may, perhaps, require their interposition or that of both branches of
+the Legislature.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 21, 1824_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+Apprehending from the delay in the decision that some difficulty exists
+with the Senate respecting the ratification of the convention lately
+concluded with the British Government for the suppression of the slave
+trade by making it piratical, I deem it proper to communicate for your
+consideration such views as appear to me to merit attention. Charged
+as the Executive is, and as I have long been, with maintaining the
+political relations between the United States and other nations, I
+consider it my duty, in submitting for your advice and consent as to
+the ratification any treaty or convention which has been agreed on
+with another power, to explain, when the occasion requires it, all
+the reasons which induced the measure. It is by such full and frank
+explanation only that the Senate can be enabled to discharge the high
+trust reposed in them with advantage to their country. Having the
+instrument before them, with the views which guided the Executive in
+forming it, the Senate will possess all the light necessary to a sound
+decision.
+
+By an act of Congress of 15th May, 1820, the slave trade, as described
+by that act, was made piratical, and all such of our citizens as might
+be found engaged in that trade were subjected, on conviction thereof
+by the circuit courts of the United States, to capital punishment. To
+communicate more distinctly the import of that act, I refer to its
+fourth and fifth sections, which are in the following words:
+
+  SEC. 4. _And be it further enacted_, That if any citizen of the United
+  States, being of the crew or ship's company of any foreign ship or
+  vessel engaged in the slave trade, or any person whatever, being of the
+  crew or ship's company of any ship or vessel owned in the whole or part
+  or navigated for or in behalf of any citizen or citizens of the United
+  States, shall land from any such ship or vessel, and on any foreign
+  shore seize any Negro or Mulatto not held to service or labor by the
+  laws of either of the States or Territories of the United States, with
+  intent to make such Negro or Mulatto a slave, or shall decoy or forcibly
+  bring or carry, or shall receive, such Negro or Mulatto on board any
+  such ship or vessel, with intent as aforesaid, such citizen or person
+  shall be adjudged a pirate, and on conviction thereof before the circuit
+  court of the United States for the district wherein he may be brought or
+  found shall suffer death.
+
+  SEC. 5. _And be it further enacted_, That if any citizen of the United
+  States, being of the crew or ship's company of any foreign ship or
+  vessel engaged in the slave trade, or any person whatever, being of the
+  crew or ship's company of any ship or vessel owned wholly or in part, or
+  navigated for or in behalf of, any citizen or citizens of the United
+  States, shall forcibly confine or detain, or aid and abet in forcibly
+  confining or detaining, on board such ship or vessel any Negro or
+  Mulatto not held to service by the laws of either of the States or
+  Territories of the United States, with intent to make such Negro or
+  Mulatto a slave, or shall on board any such ship or vessel offer or
+  attempt to sell as a slave any Negro or Mulatto not held to service as
+  aforesaid, or shall on the high seas or anywhere on tide water transfer
+  or deliver over to any other ship or vessel any Negro or Mulatto not
+  held to service as aforesaid, with intent to make such Negro or mulatto
+  a slave, or shall land or deliver on shore from on board any such ship
+  or vessel any such Negro or mulatto, with intent to make sale of, or
+  having previously sold such Negro or Mulatto as a slave, such citizen or
+  person shall be adjudged a pirate, and on conviction thereof before the
+  circuit court of the United States for the district wherein he may be
+  brought or found shall suffer death.
+
+And on the 28th February, 1823, the House of Representatives, by a
+majority of 131 to 9, passed a resolution to the following effect:
+
+  _Resolved_, That the President of the United States be requested to
+  enter upon and prosecute from time to time such negotiations with the
+  several maritime powers of Europe and America as he may deem expedient
+  for the effectual abolition of the African slave trade and its ultimate
+  denunciation as piracy under the law of nations, by the consent of the
+  civilized world.
+
+By the act of Congress above referred to, whereby the most effectual
+means that could be devised were adopted for the extirpation of the
+slave trade, the wish of the United States was explicitly declared, that
+all nations might concur in a similar policy. It could only be by such
+concurrence that the great object could be accomplished, and it was by
+negotiation and treaty alone that such concurrence could be obtained,
+commencing with one power and extending it to others. The course,
+therefore, which the Executive, who had concurred in the act, had to
+pursue was distinctly marked out for it. Had there, however, been any
+doubt respecting it, the resolution of the House of Representatives,
+the branch which might with strict propriety express its opinion, could
+not fail to have removed it.
+
+By the tenth article of the treaty of peace between the United States
+and Great Britain, concluded at Ghent, it was stipulated that both
+parties should use their best endeavors to accomplish the abolition
+of the African slave trade. This object has been accordingly pursued
+by both Governments with great earnestness, by separate acts of
+legislation, and by negotiation almost uninterrupted, with the purpose
+of establishing a conceit between them in some measure which might
+secure its accomplishment.
+
+Great Britain in her negotiations with other powers had concluded
+treaties with Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands, in which, without
+constituting the crime as piracy or classing it with crimes of that
+denomination, the parties had conceded to the naval officers of each
+other the right of search and capture of the vessels of either that
+might be engaged in the slave trade, and had instituted courts
+consisting of judges, subjects of both parties, for the trial of the
+vessels so captured.
+
+In the negotiations with the United States Great Britain had earnestly
+and repeatedly pressed on them the adoption of similar provisions.
+They had been resisted by the Executive on two grounds: One, that
+the constitution of mixed tribunals was incompatible with their
+Constitution; and the other, that the concession of the right of search
+in time of peace for an offense not piratical would be repugnant to the
+feelings of the nation and of dangerous tendency. The right of search is
+the right of war of the belligerent toward the neutral. To extend it in
+time of peace to any object whatever might establish a precedent which
+might lead to others with some powers, and which, even if confined to
+the instance specified, might be subject to great abuse.
+
+Animated by an ardent desire to suppress this trade, the United States
+took stronger ground by making it, by the act above referred to,
+piratical, a measure more adequate to the end and free from many of
+the objections applicable to the plan which had been proposed to them.
+It is this alternative which the Executive, under the sanction and
+injunctions above stated, offered to the British Government, and which
+that Government has accepted. By making the crime piracy the right of
+search attaches to the crime, and which when adopted by all nations will
+be common to all; and that it will be so adopted may fairly be presumed
+if steadily persevered in by the parties to the present convention. In
+the meantime, and with a view to a fair experiment, the obvious course
+seems to be to carry into effect with every power such treaty as may be
+made with each in succession.
+
+In presenting this alternative to the British Government it was made
+an indispensable condition that the trade should be made piratical
+by act of Parliament, as it had been by an act of Congress. This was
+provided for in the convention, and has since been complied with. In
+this respect, therefore, the nations rest on the same ground. Suitable
+provisions have also been adopted to protect each party from the abuse
+of the power granted to the public ships of the other. Instead of
+subjecting the persons detected in the slave trade to trial by the
+courts of the captors, as would be the case if such trade was piracy by
+the laws of nations, it is stipulated that until that event they shall
+be tried by the courts of their own country only. Hence there could be
+no motive for an abuse of the right of search, since such abuse could
+not fail to terminate to the injury of the captor.
+
+Should this convention be adopted, there is every reason to believe
+that it will be the commencement of a system destined to accomplish the
+entire abolition of the slave trade. Great Britain, by making it her
+own, confessedly adopted at the suggestion of the United States, and
+being pledged to propose and urge its adoption by other nations in
+concert with the United States, will find it for her interest to abandon
+the less-effective system of her previous treaties with Spain, Portugal,
+and the Netherlands, and to urge on those and other powers their
+accession to this. The crime will then be universally proscribed as
+piracy, and the traffic be suppressed forever.
+
+Other considerations of high importance urge the adoption of this
+convention. We have at this moment pending with Great Britain sundry
+other negotiations intimately connected with the welfare and even the
+peace of our Union. In one of them nearly a third part of the territory
+of the State of Maine is in contestation. In another the navigation of
+the St. Lawrence, the admission of consuls into the British islands, and
+a system of commercial intercourse between the United States and all the
+British possessions in this hemisphere are subjects of discussion. In a
+third our territorial and other rights upon the northwest coast are to
+be adjusted, while a negotiation on the same interest is opened with
+Russia. In a fourth all the most important controvertible points of
+maritime law in time of war are brought under consideration, and in
+the fifth the whole system of South American concerns, connected with
+a general recognition of South American independence, may again from
+hour to hour become, as it has already been, an object of concerted
+operations of the highest interest to both nations and to the peace
+of the world.
+
+It can not be disguised that the rejection of this convention can not
+fail to have a very injurious influence on the good understanding
+between the two Governments on all these points. That it would place
+the Executive Administration under embarrassment, and subject it, the
+Congress, and the nation to the charge of insincerity respecting the
+great result of the final suppression of the slave trade, and that
+its first and indispensable consequence will be to constrain the
+Executive to suspend all further negotiation with every European and
+American power to which overtures have been made in compliance with the
+resolution of the House of Representatives of 28th February, 1823, must
+be obvious. To invite all nations, with the statute of piracy in our
+hands, to adopt its principles as the law of nations and yet to deny
+to all the common right of search for the pirate, whom it would be
+impossible to detect without entering and searching the vessel, would
+expose us not simply to the charge of inconsistency.
+
+It must be obvious that the restriction of search for pirates to the
+African coast is incompatible with the idea of such a crime. It is
+not doubted also if the convention is adopted that no example of the
+commission of that crime by the citizens or subjects of either power
+will ever occur again. It is believed, therefore, that this right as
+applicable to piracy would not only extirpate the trade, but prove
+altogether innocent in its operation.
+
+In further illustration of the views of Congress on this subject, I
+transmit to the Senate extracts from two resolutions of the House of
+Representatives, one of the 9th February, 1821, the other of 12th April,
+1822. I transmit also a letter from the chargé d'affaires of the British
+Government, which shows the deep interest which that Government takes
+in the ratification of the treaty.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON CITY, _May 22, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the Secretary of
+the Navy, in compliance with their resolution of the 14th of April last,
+respecting prize agents, which report contains the information
+requested.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MAY 24, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+13th instant, requesting the President to communicate any information
+he may possess in relation to the intercourse and trade now carried on
+between the people of the United States (and particularly the people
+of the State of Missouri) and the Mexican Provinces, how and by what
+route that trade or intercourse is carried on, in what it consists, the
+distances, etc., the nations of Indians through which it passes, their
+dispositions, whether pacific or otherwise, the advantages resulting or
+likely to result from that trade or intercourse, I herewith transmit
+a communication from the Department of State, which contains all the
+information which has yet been collected in relation to those subjects.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MAY 24, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the 20th instant, I transmit
+herewith to the House of Representatives a report of David Shriver,
+superintendent of the Cumberland road, stating the manner in which the
+appropriation made at the last session for the repair of that road has
+been expended, and also the present condition of the road.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1824_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+The view which I have now to present to you of our affairs, foreign and
+domestic, realizes the most sanguine anticipations which have been
+entertained of the public prosperity. If we look to the whole, our
+growth as a nation continues to be rapid beyond example; if to the
+States which compose it, the same gratifying spectacle is exhibited.
+Our expansion over the vast territory within our limits has been
+great, without indicating any decline in those sections from which the
+emigration has been most conspicuous. We have daily gained strength by
+a native population in every quarter--a population devoted to our happy
+system of government and cherishing the bond of union with fraternal
+affection. Experience has already shewn that the difference of climate
+and of industry, proceeding from that cause, inseparable from such vast
+domains, and which under other systems might have a repulsive tendency,
+can not fail to produce with us under wise regulations the opposite
+effect. What one portion wants the other may supply; and this will be
+most sensibly felt by the parts most distant from each other, forming
+thereby a domestic market and an active intercourse between the extremes
+and throughout every portion of our Union. Thus by a happy distribution
+of power between the National and State Governments, Governments which
+rest exclusively on the sovereignty of the people and are fully adequate
+to the great purposes for which they were respectively instituted,
+causes which might otherwise lead to dismemberment operate powerfully
+to draw us closer together. In every other circumstance a correct view
+of the actual state of our Union must be equally gratifying to our
+constituents. Our relations with foreign powers are of a friendly
+character, although certain interesting differences remain unsettled
+with some. Our revenue under the mild system of impost and tonnage
+continues to be adequate to all the purposes of the Government Our
+agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and navigation flourish. Our
+fortifications are advancing in the degree authorized by existing
+appropriations to maturity, and due progress is made in the augmentation
+of the Navy to the limit prescribed for it by law. For these blessings
+we owe to Almighty God, from whom we derive them, and with profound
+reverence, our most grateful and unceasing acknowledgments.
+
+In adverting to our relations with foreign powers, which are always
+an object of the highest importance, I have to remark that of the
+subjects which have been brought into discussion with them during the
+present Administration some have been satisfactorily terminated, others
+have been suspended, to be resumed hereafter under circumstances more
+favorable to success, and others are still in negotiation, with the hope
+that they may be adjusted with mutual accommodation to the interests
+and to the satisfaction of the respective parties. It has been the
+invariable object of this Government to cherish the most friendly
+relations with every power, and on principles and conditions which might
+make them permanent. A systematic effort has been made to place our
+commerce with each power on a footing of perfect reciprocity, to settle
+with each in a spirit of candor and liberality all existing differences,
+and to anticipate and remove so far as it might be practicable all
+causes of future variance.
+
+It having been stipulated by the seventh article of the convention of
+navigation and commerce which was concluded on the 24th of June, 1822,
+between the United States and France, that the said convention should
+continue in force for two years from the 1st of October of that year,
+and for an indefinite term afterwards, unless one of the parties should
+declare its intention to renounce it, in which event it should cease
+to operate at the end of six months from such declaration, and no
+such intention having been announced, the convention having been
+found advantageous to both parties, it has since remained, and still
+remains, in force. At the time when that convention was concluded many
+interesting subjects were left unsettled, and particularly our claim to
+indemnity for spoliations which were committed on our commerce in the
+late wars. For these interests and claims it was in the contemplation
+of the parties to make provision at a subsequent day by a more
+comprehensive and definitive treaty. The object has been duly attended
+to since by the Executive, but as yet it has not been accomplished. It
+is hoped that a favorable opportunity will present itself for opening
+a negotiation which may embrace and arrange all existing differences
+and every other concern in which they have a common interest upon the
+accession of the present King of France, an event which has occurred
+since the close of the last session of Congress.
+
+With Great Britain our commercial intercourse rests on the same footing
+that it did at the last session. By the convention of 1815 the commerce
+between the United States and the British dominions in Europe and the
+East Indies was arranged on a principle of reciprocity. That convention
+was confirmed and continued in force, with slight exceptions, by a
+subsequent treaty for the term of ten years from the 20th of October,
+1818, the date of the latter. The trade with the British colonies in the
+West Indies has not as yet been arranged, by treaty or otherwise, to our
+satisfaction. An approach to that result has been made by legislative
+acts, whereby many serious impediments which had been raised by the
+parties in defense of their respective claims were removed. An earnest
+desire exists, and has been manifested on the part of this Government,
+to place the commerce with the colonies, likewise, on a footing of
+reciprocal advantage, and it is hoped that the British Government,
+seeing the justice of the proposal and its importance to the colonies,
+will ere long accede to it.
+
+The commissioners who were appointed for the adjustment of the boundary
+between the territories of the United States and those of Great Britain,
+specified in the fifth article of the treaty of Ghent, having disagreed
+in their decision, and both Governments having agreed to establish that
+boundary by amicable negotiation between them, it is hoped that it may
+be satisfactorily adjusted in that mode. The boundary specified by the
+sixth article has been established by the decision of the commissioners.
+From the progress made in that provided for by the seventh, according to
+a report recently received, there is good cause to presume that it will
+be settled in the course of the ensuing year.
+
+It is a cause of serious regret that no arrangement has yet been finally
+concluded between the two Governments to secure by joint cooperation
+the suppression of the slave trade. It was the object of the British
+Government in the early stages of the negotiation to adopt a plan for
+the suppression which should include the concession of the mutual right
+of search by the ships of war of each party of the vessels of the other
+for suspected offenders. This was objected to by this Government on
+the principle that as the right of search was a right of war of a
+belligerent toward a neutral power it might have an ill effect to extend
+it by treaty, to an offense which had been made comparatively mild, to
+a time of peace. Anxious however, for the suppression of this trade,
+it was thought advisable, in compliance with a resolution of the House
+of Representatives, founded on an act of Congress, to propose to the
+British Government an expedient which should be free from that objection
+and more effectual for the object, by making it piratical. In that
+mode the enormity of tho crime would place the offenders out of the
+protection of their Government, and involve no question of search or
+other question between the parties touching their respective rights.
+It was believed, also, that it would completely suppress the trade
+in the vessels of both parties, and by their respective citizens and
+subjects in those of other powers, with whom it was hoped that the odium
+which would thereby be attached to it would produce a corresponding
+arrangement, and by means thereof its entire extirpation forever. A
+convention to this effect was concluded and signed in London on the
+13th day of March, 1824, by plenipotentiaries duly authorized by both
+Governments, to the ratification of which certain obstacles have arisen
+which are not yet entirely removed. The difference between the parties
+still remaining has been reduced to a point not of sufficient magnitude,
+as is presumed, to be permitted to defeat an object so near to the heart
+of both nations and so desirable to the friends of humanity throughout
+the world. As objections, however, to the principle recommended by the
+House of Representatives, or at least to the consequences inseparable
+from it, and which are understood to apply to the law, have been raised,
+which may deserve a reconsideration of the whole subject, I have thought
+it proper to suspend the conclusion of a new convention until the
+definitive sentiments of Congress may be ascertained. These documents
+relating to the negotiation are with that intent submitted to your
+consideration.
+
+Our commerce with Sweden has been placed on a footing of perfect
+reciprocity by treaty, and with Russia, the Netherlands, Prussia,
+the free Hanseatic cities, the Dukedom of Oldenburg, and Sardinia by
+internal regulations on each side, founded on mutual agreement between
+the respective Governments.
+
+The principles upon which the commercial policy of the United States
+is founded are to be traced to an early period. They are essentially
+connected with those upon which their independence was declared, and
+owe their origin to the enlightened men who took the lead in our
+affairs at that important epoch. They are developed in their first
+treaty of commerce with France of 6th February, 1778, and by a formal
+commission which was instituted immediately after the conclusion of
+their Revolutionary struggle, for the purpose of negotiating treaties
+of commerce with every European power. The first treaty of the United
+States with Prussia, which was negotiated by that commission, affords
+a signal illustration of those principles. The act of Congress of the
+3d March. 1815. adopted immediately after the return of a general peace,
+was a new overture to foreign nations to establish our commercial
+relations with them on the basis of free and equal reciprocity. That
+principle has pervaded all the acts of Congress and all the negotiations
+of the Executive on the subject since.
+
+A convention for the settlement of important questions in relation
+to the northwest coast of this continent and its adjoining seas was
+concluded and signed at St. Petersburg on the 5th day of April last by
+the minister plenipotentiary of the United States and plenipotentiaries
+of the Imperial Government of Russia. It will immediately be laid before
+the Senate for the exercise of the constitutional authority of that body
+with reference to its ratification. It is proper to add that the manner
+in which this negotiation was invited and conducted on the part of the
+Emperor has been very satisfactory.
+
+The great and extraordinary changes which have happened in the
+Governments of Spain and Portugal within the last two years, without
+seriously affecting the friendly relations which under all of them
+have been maintained with those powers by the United States, have been
+obstacles to the adjustment of the particular subjects of discussion
+which have arisen with each. A resolution of the Senate adopted at their
+last session called for information as to the effect produced upon our
+relations with Spain by the recognition on the part of the United States
+of the independent South American Governments. The papers containing
+that information are now communicated to Congress.
+
+A chargé d'affaires has been received from the independent Government of
+Brazil. That country, heretofore a colonial possession of Portugal, had
+some years since been proclaimed by the Sovereign of Portugal himself an
+independent Kingdom. Since his return to Lisbon a revolution in Brazil
+has established a new Government there with an imperial title, at the
+head of which is placed a prince, in whom the regency had been vested by
+the King at the time of his departure. There is reason to expect that by
+amicable negotiation the independence of Brazil will ere long be
+recognized by Portugal herself.
+
+With the remaining powers of Europe, with those on the coast of Barbary,
+and with all the new South American States our relations are of a
+friendly character. We have ministers plenipotentiary residing with the
+Republics of Colombia and Chile, and have received ministers of the same
+rank from Colombia, Guatemala, Buenos Ayres, and Mexico. Our commercial
+relations with all those States are mutually beneficial and increasing.
+With the Republic of Colombia a treaty of commerce has been formed, of
+which a copy is received and the original daily expected. A negotiation
+for a like treaty would have been commenced with Buenos Ayres had it not
+been prevented by the indisposition and lamented decease of Mr. Rodney,
+our minister there, and to whose memory the most respectful attention
+has been shewn by the Government of that Republic. An advantageous
+alteration in our treaty with Tunis has been obtained by our consular
+agent residing there, the official document of which when received will
+be laid before the Senate.
+
+The attention of the Government has been drawn with great solicitude
+to other subjects, and particularly to that relating to a state of
+maritime war, involving the relative rights of neutral and belligerent
+in such wars. Most of the difficulties which we have experienced and of
+the losses which we have sustained since the establishment of our
+independence have proceeded from the unsettled state of those rights and
+the extent to which the belligerent claim has been carried against the
+neutral party. It is impossible to look back on the occurrences of the
+late wars in Europe, and to behold the disregard which was paid to our
+rights as a neutral power, and the waste which was made of our commerce
+by the parties to those wars by various acts of their respective
+Governments, and under the pretext by each that the other had set the
+example, without great mortification and a fixed purpose never to submit
+to the like in future. An attempt to remove those causes of possible
+variance by friendly negotiation and on just principles which should
+be applicable to all parties could, it was presumed, be viewed by none
+other than as a proof of an earnest desire to preserve those relations
+with every power. In the late war between France and Spain a crisis
+occurred in which it seemed probable that all the controvertible
+principles involved in such wars might be brought into discussion and
+settled to the satisfaction of all parties. Propositions having this
+object in view have been made to the Governments of Great Britain,
+France, Russia, and of other powers, which have been received in a
+friendly manner by all, but as yet no treaty has been formed with either
+for its accomplishment. The policy will, it is presumed, be persevered
+in, and in the hope that it may be successful.
+
+It will always be recollected that with one of the parties to those
+wars, and from whom we received those injuries, we sought redress by
+war. From the other, by whose then reigning Government our vessels
+were seized in port as well as at sea and their cargoes confiscated,
+indemnity has been expected, but has not yet been tendered. It was under
+the influence of the latter that our vessels were likewise seized by
+the Governments of Spain, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and Naples, and
+from whom indemnity has been claimed and is still expected, with the
+exception of Spain, by whom it has been rendered. With both parties we
+had abundant cause of war, but we had no alternative but to resist that
+which was most powerful at sea and pressed us nearest at home. With this
+all differences were settled by a treaty, founded on conditions fair and
+honorable to both, and which has been so far executed with perfect good
+faith. It has been earnestly hoped that the other would of its own
+accord, and from a sentiment of justice and conciliation, make to our
+citizens the indemnity to which they are entitled, and thereby remove
+from our relations any just cause of discontent on our side.
+
+It is estimated that the receipts into the Treasury during the current
+year, exclusive of loans, will exceed $18,500,000, which, with the sum
+remaining in the Treasury at the end of the last year, amounting to
+$9.463,922.81, will, after discharging the current disbursements of the
+year, the interest on the public debt, and upward of $11,633,011.52 of
+the principal, leave a balance of more than $3,000,000 in the Treasury
+on the 1st day of January next.
+
+A larger amount of the debt contracted during the late war, bearing an
+interest of 6 per cent, becoming redeemable in the course of the ensuing
+year than could be discharged by the ordinary revenue, the act of the
+26th of May authorized a loan of $5,000,000 at 4-1/2 per cent to meet
+the same. By this arrangement an annual saving will accrue to the public
+of $75,000.
+
+Under the act of the 24th of May last a loan of $5,000,000 was
+authorized, in order to meet the awards under the Florida treaty,
+which was negotiated at par with the Bank of the United States at 4-1/2
+percent, the limit of interest fixed by the act. By this provision the
+claims of our citizens who had sustained so great a loss by spoliations,
+and from whom indemnity had been so long withheld, were promptly paid.
+For these advances the public will be amply repaid at no distant day by
+the sale of the lands in Florida. Of the great advantages resulting from
+the acquisition of the Territory in other respects too high an estimate
+can not be formed.
+
+It is estimated that the receipts into the Treasury during the year
+1825 will be sufficient to meet the disbursements of the year,
+including the sum of $10,000,000, which is annually appropriated by
+the act constituting the sinking fund to the payment of the principal
+and interest of the public debt.
+
+The whole amount of the public debt on the 1st of January next may be
+estimated at $86,000,000, inclusive of $2,500,000 of the loan authorized
+by the act of the 26th of May last. In this estimate is included a stock
+of $7,000,000, issued for the purchase of that amount of the capital
+stock of the Bank of the United States, and which, as the stock of the
+bank still held by the Government will at least be fully equal to its
+reimbursement, ought not to be considered as constituting a part of the
+public debt. Estimating, then, the whole amount of the public debt at
+$79,000,000 and regarding the annual receipts and expenditures of the
+Government, a well-founded hope may be entertained that, should no
+unexpected event occur, the whole of the public debt may be discharged
+in the course of ten years, and the Government be left at liberty
+thereafter to apply such portion of the revenue as may not be necessary
+for current expenses to such other objects as may be most conducive
+to the public security and welfare. That the sums applicable to these
+objects will be very considerable may be fairly concluded when it is
+recollected that a large amount of the public revenue has been applied
+since the late war to the construction of the public buildings in this
+city; to the erection of fortifications along the coast and of arsenals
+in different parts of the Union; to the augmentation of the Navy; to the
+extinguishment of the Indian title to large tracts of fertile territory;
+to the acquisition of Florida; to pensions to Revolutionary officers and
+soldiers, and to invalids of the late war. On many of these objects the
+expense will annually be diminished and cease at no distant period on
+most of them. On the 1st of January, 1817, the public debt amounted
+to $123,491,965.16, and, notwithstanding the large sums which have
+been applied to these objects, it has been reduced since that period
+$37,446,961.78. The last portion of the public debt will be redeemable
+on the 1st of January, 1835, and while there is the best reason to
+believe that the resources of the Government will be continually
+adequate to such portions of it as may become due in the interval, it
+is recommended to Congress to seize every opportunity which may present
+itself to reduce the rate of interest on every part thereof. The high
+state of the public credit and the great abundance of money are at this
+time very favorable to such a result. It must be very gratifying to our
+fellow-citizens to witness this flourishing state of the public finances
+when it is recollected that no burthen whatever has been imposed upon
+them.
+
+The military establishment in all its branches, in the performance of
+the various duties assigned to each, justifies the favorable view which
+was presented of the efficiency of its organization at the last session.
+All the appropriations have been regularly applied to the objects
+intended by Congress, and so far as the disbursements have been made the
+accounts have been rendered and settled without loss to the public.
+The condition of the Army itself, as relates to the officers and men,
+in science and discipline is highly respectable. The Military Academy,
+on which the Army essentially rests, and to which it is much indebted
+for this state of improvement, has attained, in comparison with any
+other institution of a like kind, a high degree of perfection.
+Experience, however, has shewn that the dispersed condition of the corps
+of artillery is unfavorable to the discipline of that important branch
+of the military establishment. To remedy this inconvenience, eleven
+companies have been assembled at the fortification erected at Old Point
+Comfort as a school for artillery instruction, with intention as they
+shall be perfected in the various duties of that service to order them
+to other posts, and to supply their places with other companies for
+instruction in like manner. In this mode a complete knowledge of the
+science and duties of this arm will be extended throughout the whole
+corps of artillery.-But to carry this object fully into effect will
+require the aid of Congress, to obtain which the subject is now
+submitted to your consideration.
+
+Of the progress which has been made in the construction of
+fortifications for the permanent defense of our maritime frontier,
+according to the plan decided on and to the extent of the existing
+appropriations, the report of the Secretary of War, which is herewith
+communicated, will give a detailed account. Their final completion can
+not fail to give great additional security to that frontier, and to
+diminish proportionably the expense of defending it in the event of war.
+
+The provisions in the several acts of Congress of the last session for
+the improvement of the navigation of the Mississippi and the Ohio, of
+the harbor of Presqu'isle, on Lake Erie, and the repair of the Plymouth
+beach are in a course of regular execution; and there is reason to
+believe that the appropriation in each instance will be adequate
+to the object. To carry these improvements fully into effect, the
+superintendence of them has been assigned to officers of the Corps
+of Engineers.
+
+Under the act of 30th April last, authorizing the President to cause a
+survey to be made, with the necessary plans and estimates, of such roads
+and canals as he might deem of national importance in a commercial or
+military point of view, or for the transportation of the mail, a board
+has been instituted, consisting of two distinguished officers of the
+Corps of Engineers and a distinguished civil engineer, with assistants,
+who have been actively employed in carrying into effect the object of
+the act. They have carefully examined the route between the Potomac and
+the Ohio rivers; between the latter and Lake Erie; between the Alleghany
+and the Susquehannah; and the routes between the Delaware and the
+Raritan, Barnstable and Buzzards Bay, and between Boston Harbor and
+Narraganset Bay. Such portion of the Corps of Topographical Engineers
+as could be spared from the survey of the coast has been employed in
+surveying the very important route between the Potomac and the Ohio.
+Considerable progress has been made in it, but the survey can not be
+completed until the next season. It is gratifying to add, from the view
+already taken, that there is good cause to believe that this great
+national object may be fully accomplished.
+
+It is contemplated to commence early in the next season the execution of
+the other branch of the act--that which relates to roads--and with the
+survey of a route from this city, through the Southern States, to New
+Orleans, the importance of which can not be too highly estimated. All
+the officers of both the corps of engineers who could be spared from
+other services have been employed in exploring and surveying the routes
+for canals. To digest a plan for both objects for the great purposes
+specified will require a thorough knowledge of every part of our Union
+and of the relation of each part to the others and of all to the seat of
+the General Government. For such a digest it will be necessary that the
+information be full, minute, and precise. With a view to these important
+objects, I submit to the consideration of the Congress the propriety of
+enlarging both the corps of engineers--the military and topographical.
+It need scarcely be remarked that the more extensively these corps are
+engaged in the improvement of their country, in the execution of the
+powers of Congress, and in aid of the States in such improvements as lie
+beyond that limit, when such aid is desired, the happier the effect will
+be in many views of which the subject is susceptible. By profiting of
+their science the works will always be well executed, and by giving to
+the officers such employment our Union will derive all the advantage, in
+peace as well as in war, from their talents and services which they can
+afford. In this mode, also, the military will be incorporated with the
+civil, and unfounded and injurious distinctions and prejudices of every
+kind be done away. To the corps themselves this service can not fail to
+be equally useful, since by the knowledge they would thus acquire they
+would be eminently better qualified in the event of war for the great
+purposes for which they were instituted.
+
+Our relations with the Indian tribes within our limits have not been
+materially changed during the year. The hostile disposition evinced by
+certain tribes on the Missouri during the last year still continues,
+and has extended in some degree to those on the Upper Mississippi and
+the Upper Lakes. Several parties of our citizens have been plundered
+and murdered by those tribes. In order to establish relations of
+friendship with them, Congress at the last session made an appropriation
+for treaties with them and for the employment of a suitable military
+escort to accompany and attend the commissioners at the places appointed
+for the negotiations. This object has not been effected. The season
+was too far advanced when the appropriation was made and the distance
+too great to permit it, but measures have been taken, and all the
+preparations will be completed to accomplish it at an early period
+in the next season.
+
+Believing that the hostility of the tribes, particularly on the Upper
+Mississippi and the Lakes, is in no small degree owing to the wars which
+are carried on between the tribes residing in that quarter, measures
+have been taken to bring about a general peace among them, which, if
+successful, will not only tend to the security of our citizens, but
+be of great advantage to the Indians themselves.
+
+With the exception of the tribes referred to, our relations with all
+the others are on the same friendly footing, and it affords me great
+satisfaction to add that they are making steady advances in civilization
+and the improvement of their condition. Many of the tribes have already
+made great progress in the arts of civilized life. This desirable result
+has been brought about by the humane and persevering policy of the
+Government, and particularly by means of the appropriation for the
+civilization of the Indians. There have been established under the
+provisions of this act 32 schools, containing 916 scholars, who are
+well instructed in several branches of literature, and likewise in
+agriculture and the ordinary arts of life.
+
+Under the appropriation to authorize treaties with the Creeks and
+Quaupaw Indians commissioners have been appointed and negotiations
+are now pending, but the result is not yet known.
+
+For more full information respecting the principle which has been
+adopted for carrying into effect the act of Congress authorizing
+surveys, with plans and estimates for canals and roads, and on every
+other branch of duty incident to the Department of War. I refer you
+to the report of the Secretary.
+
+The squadron in the Mediterranean has been maintained in the extent
+which was proposed in the report of the Secretary of the Navy of the
+last year, and has afforded to our commerce the necessary protection
+in that sea. Apprehending, however, that the unfriendly relations which
+have existed between Algiers and some of the powers of Europe might
+be extended to us, it has been thought expedient to augment the force
+there, and in consequence the _North Carolina_, a ship of the line,
+has been prepared, and will sail in a few days to join it.
+
+The force employed in the Gulf of Mexico and in the neighboring seas
+for the suppression of piracy has likewise been preserved essentially in
+the state in which it was during the last year. A persevering effort has
+been made for the accomplishment of that object, and much protection has
+thereby been afforded to our commerce, but still the practice is far
+from being suppressed. From every view which has been taken of the
+subject it is thought that it will be necessary rather to augment than
+to diminish our force in that quarter. There is reason to believe that
+the piracies now complained of are committed by bands of robbers who
+inhabit the land, and who, by preserving good intelligence with the
+towns and seizing favorable opportunities, rush forth and fall on
+unprotected merchant vessels, of which they make an easy prey. The
+pillage thus taken they carry to their lurking places, and dispose of
+afterwards at prices tending to seduce the neighboring population. This
+combination is understood to be of great extent, and is the more to be
+deprecated because the crime of piracy is often attended with the murder
+of the crews, these robbers knowing if any survived their lurking places
+would be exposed and they be caught and punished. That this atrocious
+practice should be carried to such extent is cause of equal surprise and
+regret. It is presumed that it must be attributed to the relaxed and
+feeble state of the local governments, since it is not doubted, from
+the high character of the governor of Cuba, who is well known and much
+respected here, that if he had the power he would promptly suppress
+it. Whether those robbers should be pursued on the land, the local
+authorities be made responsible for these atrocities, or any other
+measure be resorted to to suppress them, is submitted to the
+consideration of Congress.
+
+In execution of the laws for the suppression of the slave trade a vessel
+has been occasionally sent from that squadron to the coast of Africa
+with orders to return thence by the usual track of the slave ships, and
+to seize any of our vessels which might be engaged in that trade. None
+have been found, and it is believed that none are thus employed. It is
+well known, however, that the trade still exists under other flags.
+
+The health of our squadron while at Thompsons Island has been much
+better during the present than it was the last season. Some improvements
+have been made and others are contemplated there which, it is believed,
+will have a very salutary effect.
+
+On the Pacific our commerce has much increased, and on that coast, as
+well as on that seas the United States have many important interests
+which require attention and protection. It is thought that all the
+considerations which suggested the expediency of placing a squadron
+on that sea operate with augmented force for maintaining it there, at
+least in equal extent.
+
+For detailed information respecting the state of our maritime force
+on each sea, the improvement necessary to be made on either in the
+organization of the naval establishment generally, and of the laws for
+its better government I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the
+Navy, which is herewith communicated.
+
+The revenue of the Post-Office Department has received a considerable
+augmentation in the present year. The current receipts will exceed the
+expenditures, although the transportation of the mail within the year
+has been much increased. A report of the Postmaster-General, which is
+transmitted, will furnish in detail the necessary information respecting
+the administration and present state of this Department.
+
+In conformity with a resolution of Congress of the last session, an
+invitation was given to General Lafayette to visit the United States,
+with an assurance that a ship of war should attend at any port of France
+which he might designate, to receive and convey him across the Atlantic,
+whenever it might be convenient for him to sail. He declined the offer
+of the public ship from motives of delicacy, but assured me that he
+had long intended and would certainly visit our Union in the course of
+the present year. In August last he arrived at New York, where he was
+received with the warmth of affection and gratitude to which his very
+important and disinterested services and sacrifices in our Revolutionary
+struggle so eminently entitled him. A corresponding sentiment has since
+been manifested in his favor throughout every portion of our Union, and
+affectionate invitations have been given him to extend his visits to
+them. To these he has yielded all the accommodation in his power.
+At every designated point of rendezvous the whole population of the
+neighboring country has been assembled to greet him, among whom it
+has excited in a peculiar manner the sensibility of all to behold the
+surviving members of our Revolutionary contest, civil and military, who
+had shared with him in the toils and dangers of the war, many of them
+in a decrepit state. A more interesting spectacle, it is believed, was
+never witnessed, because none could be founded on purer principles, none
+proceed from higher or more disinterested motives. That the feelings
+of those who had fought and bled with him in a common cause should
+have been much excited was natural. There are, however, circumstances
+attending these interviews which pervaded the whole community and
+touched the breasts of every age, even the youngest among us. There
+was not an individual present who had not some relative who had not
+partaken in those scenes, nor an infant who had not heard the relation
+of them. But the circumstance which was most sensibly felt, and which
+his presence brought forcibly to the recollection of all, was the great
+cause in which we were engaged and the blessings which we have derived
+from our success in it. The struggle was for independence and liberty,
+public and personal, and in this we succeeded. The meeting with one who
+had borne so distinguished a part in that great struggle, and from such
+lofty and disinterested motives, could not fail to affect profoundly
+every individual and of every age. It is natural that we should all take
+a deep interest in his future welfare, as we do. His high claims on our
+Union are felt, and the sentiment universal that they should be met in
+a generous spirit. Under these impressions I invite your attention to
+the subject, with a view that, regarding his very important services,
+losses, and sacrifices, a provision may be made and tendered to him
+which shall correspond with the sentiments and be worthy the character
+of the American people.
+
+In turning our attention to the condition of the civilized world,
+in which the United States have always taken a deep interest, it is
+gratifying to see how large a portion of it is blessed with peace.
+The only wars which now exist within that limit are those between
+Turkey and Greece, in Europe, and between Spain and the new Governments,
+our neighbors, in this hemisphere. In both these wars the cause of
+independence, of liberty and humanity, continues to prevail. The success
+of Greece, when the relative population of the contending parties is
+considered, commands our admiration and applause, and that it has had a
+similar effect with the neighboring powers is obvious. The feeling of
+the whole civilized world is excited in a high degree in their favor.
+May we not hope that these sentiments, winning on the hearts of their
+respective Governments, may lead to a more decisive result; that they
+may produce an accord among them to replace Greece on the ground which
+she formerly held, and to which her heroic exertions at this day so
+eminently entitle her?
+
+With respect to the contest to which our neighbors are a party, it is
+evident that Spain as a power is scarcely felt in it. These new States
+had completely achieved their independence before it was acknowledged by
+the United States, and they have since maintained it with little foreign
+pressure. The disturbances which have appeared in certain portions of
+that vast territory have proceeded from internal causes, which had their
+origin in their former Governments and have not yet been thoroughly
+removed. It is manifest that these causes are daily losing their effect,
+and that these new States are settling down under Governments elective
+and representative in every branch, similar to our own. In this course
+we ardently wish them to persevere, under a firm conviction that it will
+promote their happiness. In this, their career, however, we have not
+interfered, believing that every people have a right to institute for
+themselves the government which, in their judgment, may suit them best.
+Our example is before them, of the good effect of which, being our
+neighbors, they are competent judges, and to their judgment we leave
+it, in the expectation that other powers will pursue the same policy.
+The deep interest which we take in their independence, which we have
+acknowledged, and in their enjoyment of all the rights incident
+thereto, especially in the very important one of instituting their own
+Governments, has been declared, and is known to the world. Separated as
+we are from Europe by the great Atlantic Ocean, we can have no concern
+in the wars of the European Governments nor in the causes which produce
+them. The balance of power between them, into whichever scale it may
+turn in its various vibrations, can not affect us. It is the interest
+of the United States to preserve the most friendly relations with every
+power and on conditions fair, equal, arid applicable to all. But in
+regard to our neighbors our situation is different. It is impossible
+for the European Governments to interfere in their concerns, especially
+in those alluded to, which are vital, without affecting us; indeed, the
+motive which might induce such interference in the present state of the
+war between the parties, if a war it may be called, would appear to be
+equally applicable to us. It is gratifying to know that some of the
+powers with whom we enjoy a very friendly intercourse, and to whom
+these views have been communicated, have appeared to acquiesce in them.
+
+The augmentation of our population with the expansion of our Union and
+increased number of States have produced effects in certain branches
+of our system which merit the attention of Congress. Some of our
+arrangements, and particularly the judiciary establishment, were made
+with a view to the original thirteen States only. Since then the United
+States have acquired a vast extent of territory; eleven new States have
+been admitted into the Union, and Territories have been laid off for
+three others, which will likewise be admitted at no distant day. An
+organization of the Supreme Court which assigns to the judges any
+portion of the duties which belong to the inferior, requiring their
+passage over so vast a space under any distribution of the States that
+may now be made, if not impracticable in the execution, must render
+it impossible for them to discharge the duties of either branch with
+advantage to the Union. The duties of the Supreme Court would be of
+great importance if its decisions were confined to the ordinary limits
+of other tribunals, but when it is considered that this court decides,
+and in the last resort, on all the great questions which arise under our
+Constitution, involving those between the United States individually,
+between the States and the United States, and between the latter and
+foreign powers, too high an estimate of their importance can not be
+formed. The great interests of the nation seem to require that the
+judges of the Supreme Court should be exempted from every other duty
+than those which are incident to that high trust. The organization of
+the inferior courts would of course be adapted to circumstances. It is
+presumed that such an one might be formed as would secure an able and
+faithful discharge of their duties, and without any material
+augmentation of expense.
+
+The condition of the aborigines within our limits, and especially
+those who are within the limits of any of the States, merits likewise
+particular attention. Experience has shown that unless the tribes be
+civilized they can never be incorporated into our system in any form
+whatever. It has likewise shown that in the regular augmentation of
+our population with the extension of our settlements their situation
+will become deplorable, if their extinction is not menaced. Some
+well-digested plan which will rescue them from such calamities is due
+to their rights, to the rights of humanity, and to the honor of the
+nation. Their civilization is indispensable to their safety, and this
+can be accomplished only by degrees. The process must commence with the
+infant state, through whom some effect may be wrought on the parental.
+Difficulties of the most serious character present themselves to the
+attainment of this very desirable result on the territory on which they
+now reside. To remove them from it by force, even with a view to their
+own security and happiness, would be revolting to humanity and utterly
+unjustifiable. Between the limits of our present States and Territories
+and the Rocky Mountains and Mexico there is a vast territory to which
+they might be invited with inducements which might be successful. It is
+thought if that territory should be divided into districts by previous
+agreement with the tribes now residing there and civil governments be
+established in each, with schools for every branch of instruction in
+literature and the arts of civilized life, that all the tribes now
+within our limits might gradually be drawn there. The execution of
+this plan would necessarily be attended with expense, and that not
+inconsiderable, but it is doubted whether any other can be devised
+which would be less liable to that objection or more likely to succeed.
+
+In looking to the interests which the United States have on the
+Pacific Ocean and on the western coast of this continent, the propriety
+of establishing a military post at the mouth of Columbia River, or at
+some other point in that quarter within our acknowledged limits, is
+submitted to the consideration of Congress. Our commerce and fisheries
+on that sea and along the coast have much increased and are increasing.
+It is thought that a military post, to which our ships of war might
+resort, would afford protection to every interest, and have a tendency
+to conciliate the tribes to the northwest, with whom our trade is
+extensive. It is thought also that by the establishment of such a post
+the intercourse between our Western States and Territories and the
+Pacific and our trade with the tribes residing in the interior on each
+side of the Rocky Mountains would be essentially promoted. To carry this
+object into effect the appropriation of an adequate sum to authorize the
+employment of a frigate, with an officer of the Corps of Engineers,
+to explore the mouth of the Columbia River and the coast contiguous
+thereto, to enable the Executive to make such establishment at the most
+suitable point, is recommended to Congress.
+
+It is thought that attention is also due to the improvement of this
+city. The communication between the public buildings and in various
+other parts and the grounds around those buildings require it. It is
+presumed also that the completion of the canal from the Tiber to the
+Eastern Branch would have a very salutary effect. Great exertions have
+been made and expenses incurred by the citizens in improvements of
+various kinds; but those which are suggested belong exclusively to the
+Government, or are of a nature to require expenditures beyond their
+resources. The public lots which are still for sale would, it is not
+doubted, be more than adequate to these purposes.
+
+From the view above presented it is manifest that the situation of the
+United States is in the highest degree prosperous and happy. There is no
+object which as a people we can desire which we do not possess or which
+is not within our reach. Blessed with governments the happiest which the
+world ever knew, with no distinct orders in society or divided interests
+in any portion of the vast territory over which their dominion extends,
+we have every motive to cling together which can animate a virtuous and
+enlightened people. The great object is to preserve these blessings,
+and to hand them down to the latest posterity. Our experience ought to
+satisfy us that our progress under the most correct and provident policy
+will not be exempt from danger. Our institutions form an important epoch
+in the history of the civilized world. On their preservation and in
+their utmost purity everything will depend. Extending as our interests
+do to every part of the inhabited globe and to every sea to which our
+citizens are carried by their industry and enterprise, to which they are
+invited by the wants of others, and have a right to go, we must either
+protect them in the enjoyment of their rights or abandon them in certain
+events to waste and desolation. Our attitude is highly interesting as
+relates to other powers, and particularly to our southern neighbors. We
+have duties to perform with respect to all to which we must be faithful.
+To every kind of danger we should pay the most vigilant and unceasing
+attention, remove the cause where it may be practicable, and be prepared
+to meet it when inevitable.
+
+Against foreign danger the policy of the Government seems to be already
+settled. The events of the late war admonished us to make our maritime
+frontier impregnable by a well-digested chain of fortifications, and
+to give efficient protection to our commerce by augmenting our Navy
+to a certain extent, which has been steadily pursued, and which it is
+incumbent upon us to complete as soon as circumstances will permit.
+In the event of war it is on the maritime frontier that we shall be
+assailed. It is in that quarter, therefore, that we should be prepared
+to meet the attack. It is there that our whole force will be called
+into action to prevent the destruction of our towns and the desolation
+and pillage of the interior. To give full effect to this policy great
+improvements will be indispensable. Access to those works by every
+practicable communication should be made easy and in every direction.
+The intercourse between every part of our Union should also be promoted
+and facilitated by the exercise of those powers which may comport with
+a faithful regard to the great principles of our Constitution. With
+respect to internal causes, those great principles point out with
+equal certainty the policy to be pursued. Resting on the people as
+our Governments do, State and National, with well-defined powers,
+it is of the highest importance that they severally keep within the
+limits prescribed to them. Fulfilling that sacred duty, it is of equal
+importance that the movement between them be harmonious, and in case
+of any disagreement, should any such occur, a calm appeal be made to
+the people, and that their voice be heard and promptly obeyed. Both
+Governments being instituted for the common good, we can not fail to
+prosper while those who made them are attentive to the conduct of their
+representatives and control their measures. In the pursuit of these
+great objects let a generous spirit and national views and feelings be
+indulged, and let every part recollect that by cherishing that spirit
+and improving the condition of the others in what relates to their
+welfare the general interest will not only be promoted, but the local
+advantage be reciprocated by all.
+
+I can not conclude this communication, the last of the kind which I
+shall have to make, without recollecting with great sensibility and
+heartfelt gratitude the many instances of the public confidence and the
+generous support which I have received from my fellow-citizens in the
+various trusts with which I have been honored. Having commenced my
+service in early youth, and continued it since with few and short
+intervals, I have witnessed the great difficulties to which our Union
+has been exposed, and admired the virtue and intelligence with which
+they have been surmounted. From the present prosperous and happy state
+I derive a gratification which I can not express. That these blessings
+may be preserved and perpetuated will be the object of my fervent and
+unceasing prayers to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+DECEMBER 6, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Agreeably to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 13th of
+May last, requesting the President to cause to be made and submitted to
+the House on the first day of the next [present] session of Congress a
+full and complete statement of the exact number of lots belonging to
+the United States in the city of Washington which have been sold by the
+public agents for that purpose; when sold, by whom, to whom, and for
+what price each lot was purchased; what part of the purchase money has
+been paid, the amount due, and by whom due, and when payable; whether
+the debts are well secured, and whether the money received has been
+applied, to what purposes, and by whom, I herewith transmit a report and
+statements from the Commissioner of Public Buildings, which will afford
+the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 13, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with an act of Congress which originated in the House
+of Representatives, passed the 26th of May, 1824, "to authorize the
+President of the United States to enter into certain negotiations
+relative to lands located under Virginia military land warrants, lying
+between Ludlow's and Roberts's lines, in the State of Ohio," I herewith
+transmit a report, with accompanying documents, from the Commissioner
+of the General Land Office, shewing the measures which have been taken
+under the provisions of the aforesaid act.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 13, 1824_.
+
+The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE PRO TEMPORE:
+
+I transmit to the Senate a convention, negotiated and signed by Samuel
+D. Heap, acting consul of the United States, on the part of the United
+States, and Mahmoud Bashaw, Bey of Tunis, on the 24th day of February
+last, together with copies of Mr. Heap's correspondence appertaining
+to the negotiation of the same, for the constitutional consideration
+of the Senate with regard to its ratification.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 13, 1824_.
+
+The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES PRO TEMPORE:
+
+I transmit to the Senate the convention, signed by the plenipotentiaries
+of the United States and of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia
+at St. Petersburg on the 5th (17th) of April last, referred to in
+my message to both Houses of Congress, together with the documents
+appertaining to the negotiation of the same, for the constitutional
+consideration of the Senate with regard to its ratification.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 23, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Agreeably to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+15th instant, requesting the President to lay before the House a copy
+of the instructions under which the articles of a treaty with the
+Cherokee Indians were formed by Daniel Smith and R.J. Meigs, acting as
+commissioners of the United States, at Telico on the 24th October, 1804,
+with copies of all the correspondence or other documents relating to
+that instrument in either of the Executive Departments, with a statement
+of the causes which prevented an earlier decision upon it, I herewith
+transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with the documents referred
+to in it.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 23, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of State,
+with copies of the correspondence with the Government of France
+requested by the resolution of the House of the 26th May last.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
+
+_Washington, December 23, 1824_.
+
+  The Secretary of State, to whom has been referred a resolution of the
+  House of Representatives of the 26th of May last, requesting that the
+  President of the United States would lay before that House at the
+  then next session, as early as the public interest would permit, the
+  correspondence which might be held with the Government of France prior
+  to that time on the subject of injuries sustained by citizens of the
+  United States since the year 1806, has the honor of reporting to the
+  President copies of the documents requested by that resolution.
+
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
+
+
+
+[Extract of a letter from Mr. Adams (No. 1) to Mr. Sheldon, dated
+Department of State, Washington, August 13, 1823.]
+
+I have had the honor of receiving your dispatches Nos. 1 and 2, the
+latter dated the 10th of June. Mr. Gallatin arrived with his family
+at New York on the 24th of that month.
+
+I inclose herewith copies of the recent correspondence between the
+Count de Menou, the chargé d'affaires of France, and this Department
+on various subjects highly interesting to the relations between the
+two countries.
+
+With regard to the Count's note of the 11th of July, the President
+received with great satisfaction the testimonial of the Viscount de
+Chateaubriand to the candor and ability with which Mr. Gallatin has
+performed the duties of his official station in France. The proposal
+to renew the negotiation in behalf of the well-founded claims of our
+citizens upon the French Government in _connection_ with a claim on
+the part of France to special privileges in the ports of Louisiana,
+which, after a very full discussion, had in the views of this Government
+been proved utterly groundless, could neither be accepted nor considered
+as evidence of the same conciliatory spirit. The claims of our citizens
+are for mere justice; they are for reparation of unquestionable
+wrongs--for indemnity or restitution of property taken from them or
+destroyed without shadow or color of right. The claim under the eighth
+article of the Louisiana convention has nothing to rest upon but a
+forced construction of the terms of the stipulation, which the American
+Government considered, and have invariably considered, as totally
+without foundation. These are elements not to be coupled together in the
+same negotiation, and while we yet trust to the final sense of justice
+of France for the adjustment of the righteous claims of our citizens, we
+still hope that their unquestionable character will ultimately secure
+to them a consideration unencumbered with other discussions. You will
+respectfully make this representation to the Viscount de Chateaubriand,
+with the assurance of the readiness of this Government to discuss the
+question upon the Louisiana convention further if desired by France,
+but of our final conviction that it is not to be blended with the claims
+of our citizens for mere justice.
+
+
+
+_Count de Menou to Mr. Adams_.
+
+[Translation.]
+
+LEGATION OF FRANCE TO THE UNITED STATES,
+
+_Washington, July 11, 1823_.
+
+The Honorable SECRETARY OF STATE:
+
+His Excellency the Viscount de Chateaubriand, in announcing to me that
+Mr. Gallatin was about to leave France, expresses his regret at his
+departure in such terms that I should do him injustice were I not to use
+his own expressions. "My correspondence with this minister," he remarks
+to me, "has caused me to appreciate his talents, his ability, and his
+attachment to the system of friendship that unites the two powers. It
+is with regret that I suspend my communications with him."
+
+I esteem myself happy, sir, in conveying to you such sentiments toward
+the representative of the United States in France, and I should have
+thought that I had but imperfectly apprehended the design of the
+Viscount de Chateaubriand had I neglected to communicate them to the
+Federal Government.
+
+The minister for foreign affairs reminds me also on this occasion that
+Mr. Gallatin having frequently laid before him claims of Americans
+against the French Government, he had shown himself disposed to enter
+upon a general negotiation, in which they should be comprehended with
+claims of French citizens against the Federal Government at the same
+time with the arrangement relative to the execution of the eighth
+article of the treaty of Louisiana, The object of his excellency was to
+arrive at a speedy and friendly disposition of all difficulties that
+might subsist between the two powers, well assured that France and the
+United States would be found to have the same views of justice and
+conciliation.
+
+His excellency regrets that Mr. Gallatin, who, he says, "has convinced
+him how pleasing and advantageous it is to negotiate with a statesman
+who exhibits candor and ability in his discussions," did not receive
+from his Government during his stay in France the necessary powers for
+this double negotiation. But he informs me that the Government of His
+Majesty remains always disposed to open it, either with Mr. Gallatin
+should he return with these powers, or with Mr. Sheldon if the Federal
+Government should think proper to confer them on him.
+
+I greatly desire, sir, to see these propositions acceded to by the
+Federal Government and to be able to reply to his excellency, as he
+expresses his wish that an arrangement putting an end to every subject
+of discussion might soon be expected.
+
+I pray the Secretary of State to receive the renewed assurance of my
+high consideration.
+
+The chargé d'affaires of France near the United States,
+
+MENOU.
+
+
+
+_Mr. Adams to Count de Menou_.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
+
+_Washington, August 12, 1823_.
+
+The COUNT DE MENOU,
+
+_Chargé d'Affaires from France_.
+
+SIR: Your letter of the 11th of last month has been submitted to the
+consideration of the President of the United States, by whom I am
+directed to express the high satisfaction that he has felt at the manner
+in which His Excellency the Viscount de Chateaubriand has noticed in
+his correspondence with you the temporary absence of Mr. Gallatin from
+France and the terms of regard and esteem with which he notices the
+character and conduct of that minister. The anxious desire of the
+President for the promotion of the good understanding between the United
+States and France could not be more gratified than by the testimonial of
+His Most Christian Majesty's Government to the good faith and ability
+with which the minister of the United States at his Court has performed
+his official duties.
+
+With regard to the assurance of His Excellency the Viscount de
+Chateaubriand's disposition to enter upon a negotiation with Mr.
+Gallatin in the event of his return to France, or with Mr. Sheldon
+during his absence, concerning the claims of citizens of the United
+States on the Government of France in connection with an arrangement
+concerning the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty, I am directed to
+observe that those subjects rest upon grounds so totally different that
+the Government of the United States can not consent to connect them
+together in negotiation.
+
+The claims of the citizens of the United States upon the French
+Government have been of many years' standing, often represented by
+successive ministers of the United States, and particularly by Mr.
+Gallatin during a residence of seven years, with a perspicuity of
+statement and a force of evidence which could leave to the Government
+of the United States no desire but that they should have been received
+with friendly attention and no regret but that they should have proved
+ineffectual. The justice of these claims has never been denied by
+France, and while the United States are still compelled to wait for
+their adjustment, similar and less forceful claims of the subjects of
+other nations have been freely admitted and liquidated.
+
+A long and protracted discussion has already taken place between the
+two Governments in relation to the claim of France under the eighth
+article of the Louisiana convention, the result of which has been a
+thorough conviction on the part of the American Government that the
+claim has no foundation in the treaty whatever. The reasons for this
+conviction have been so fully set forth in the discussion that it was
+not anticipated a further examination of it would be thought desirable.
+As a subject of discussion, however, the American Government is willing
+to resume it whenever it may suit the views of France to present further
+considerations relating to it; but while convinced that the claim is
+entirely without foundation, they can not place it on a footing of
+concurrent negotiation with claims of their citizens, the justice of
+which is so unequivocal that they have not even been made the subject
+of denial.
+
+From the attention which His Excellency the Viscount de Chateaubriand
+has intimated his willingness to give to the consideration of these
+claims the President indulges the hope that they will be taken into view
+upon their own merits, and in that hope the representative of the United
+States at Paris will at an early day be instructed to present them again
+to the undivided and unconditional sense of the justice of France.
+
+I pray you, sir, to accept the renewed assurance of my distinguished
+consideration.
+
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
+
+
+
+[Extract of a letter from Mr, Sheldon (No. 2) to Mr, Adams, dated
+Paris, October 16, 1823.]
+
+I took an early occasion after the receipt of your dispatch No. 1, of
+the 10th August, to communicate the subjects of it in a conversation
+I had with Viscount de Chateaubriand. His observations in relation to
+that of the claims, as connected with the pretensions of France under
+the Louisiana treaty, were of a very general nature and amounted to
+little more than a repetition of his readiness to enter upon the
+consideration of whatever subjects of discussion might exist between the
+two countries and the expression of his satisfaction at the prospect of
+being soon relieved from the labor which the affairs of Spain had thrown
+upon him, and having thus more time to devote to those of the United
+States and others not of the same pressing nature. He avoided any
+intimation of a disposition to take up the claims by themselves, and
+it can hardly be expected that the French Government will at this time
+relax from the ground they have so lately taken upon that point. I
+informed him that I should communicate in writing an answer to the
+overture made by Count de Menou at Washington for uniting in a new
+negotiation this subject with that of the Louisiana treaty, in substance
+the same as that gentleman had already received there, and should again
+press upon the French Government the consideration of the claims by
+themselves; to which he replied that any communication I might make
+would be received and treated with all the attention to which it was
+entitled on his part.
+
+
+
+_Mr. Sheldon to the Viscount de Chateaubriand_.
+
+PARIS, _October 11, 1823_.
+
+SIR: Mr. Gallatin, during his residence as minister of the United
+States in France, had upon various occasions called the attention
+of His Majesty's Government to the claims of our citizens for the
+reparation of wrongs sustained by them from the unjust seizure,
+detention, and confiscation of their property by officers and agents
+acting under authority of the Government of France. During the past
+year His Majesty's ministers had consented to enter upon the
+consideration of these claims, but they proposed to couple with it
+another subject having no connection with those claims, either in its
+nature, its origin, or the principles on which it depended--a question
+of the disputed construction of one of the articles of the treaty of
+cession of Louisiana, by virtue of which France claimed certain
+commercial privileges in the ports of that Province. Mr. Gallatin had
+not received from his Government any authority to connect these two
+dissimilar subjects in the same negotiation, or, indeed, to treat upon
+the latter, which had already been very amply discussed at Washington
+between the Secretary of State of the United States and His Majesty's
+minister at that place, without producing any result except a conviction
+on the part of the Government of the United States that the privileges
+for French vessels, as claimed by the minister of France, never could
+have been, and were not in fact, conceded by the treaty in question.
+A stop was then put to the negotiations already commenced in relation
+to the claims, and with which had been united, on the proposition of
+the French Government, and as being naturally connected with it, the
+consideration of certain claims of French citizens on the Government
+of the United States.
+
+The chargé d'affaires of France at Washington has lately, on behalf
+of his Government, expressed to that of the United States a wish that
+this double negotiation might be resumed and that a definitive
+arrangement might be made as well in relation to the disputed article of
+the Louisiana treaty as of the subject of the claims upon the one side
+and upon the other. The Government of the United States has nothing
+more at heart than to remove by friendly arrangements every subject of
+difference which may exist between the two countries, and to examine
+with the greatest impartiality and good faith as well the nature and
+extent of the stipulations into which they have entered as the appeals
+to their justice made by individuals claiming reparation for wrongs
+supposed to have been sustained at their hands.
+
+But these two subjects are essentially dissimilar; there are no points
+of connection between them; the principles upon which they depend are
+totally different; they have no bearing upon each other; and the justice
+which is due to individuals ought not to be delayed or made dependent
+upon the right or the wrong interpretation by one or the other party of
+a treaty having for its object the regulation of entirely distinct and
+different interests.
+
+The reclamations of American citizens upon the Government of France
+are for mere justice--for the reparation of unquestionable wrongs,
+indemnity or restitution of property taken from them or destroyed
+forcibly and without right. They are of ancient date, and justice has
+been long and anxiously waited for. They have been often represented to
+the Government of France, and their validity is not disputed. Similar
+reclamations without greater merit or stronger titles to admission
+presented by citizens of other nations have been favorably received,
+examined, and liquidated, and it seems to have been hitherto reserved
+to those of the United States alone to meet with impediments at every
+juncture and to seek in vain the moment in which the Government of
+France could consent to enter upon their consideration. Although the
+question arising under the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty has
+already been fully examined, the Government of the United States is
+ready, if it is desired by France, and if it is thought that any new
+light can be thrown upon it, to discuss the subject further whenever it
+shall be presented anew by France to their consideration. But they are
+convinced that by blending it with the claims not only will no progress
+be made toward its solution, but that these last, standing upon their
+own unquestionable character, ought not to be trammeled with a subject
+to which they are wholly foreign.
+
+I am instructed to bring them anew before your excellency, and to
+express the hope of the President that His Majesty's Government will not
+continue to insist upon connecting together two subjects of so different
+a nature, but that the claims may be taken up on their own merits and
+receive the consideration which they deserve, unencumbered with other
+discussions.
+
+I request your excellency to accept the assurance, etc,
+
+D. SHELDON.
+
+
+
+[Extracts of a letter from the Secretary of State to Mr. Brown, dated
+Washington, December 23, 1823.]
+
+You will immediately after your reception earnestly call the attention
+of the French Government to the claims of our citizens for indemnity.
+
+You will at the same time explicitly make known that this Government
+can not consent to connect this discussion with that of the pretension
+raised by France on the construction given by her to the eighth article
+of the Louisiana cession treaty. The difference in the nature and
+character of the two interests is such that they can not with propriety
+be blended together. The claims are of reparation to individuals for
+their property taken from them by manifest and undisputed wrong. The
+question upon the Louisiana treaty is a question of _right_ upon the
+meaning of a contract. It has been fully, deliberately, and thoroughly
+investigated, and the Government of the United States is under the
+entire and solemn conviction that the pretension of France is utterly
+unfounded. We are, nevertheless, willing to resume the discussion if
+desired by France; but to refuse justice to individuals unless the
+United States will accede to the construction of an article in a treaty
+contrary to what they believe to be its real meaning would be not only
+incompatible with the principles of equity, but submitting to a species
+of compulsion derogatory to the honor of the nation.
+
+
+
+[Extract of a letter (No. 2) from James Brown, envoy extraordinary and
+minister plenipotentiary of the United States, dated April 28, 1824.]
+
+I have in a letter to M. de Chateaubriand, copy of which I have now the
+honor to send, made an effort to separate the claims of our citizens
+from the Louisiana question.
+
+
+
+_Mr. Brown to M. de Chateaubriand_.
+
+PARIS, _April 28, 1824_.
+
+His Excellency VISCOUNT DE CHATEAUBRIAND,
+
+_Minister of Foreign Affairs, etc_.
+
+SIR: In the conference with which your excellency honored me a few
+days ago I mentioned a subject deeply interesting to many citizens
+of the United States, on which I have been instructed to address your
+excellency, and to which I earnestly wish to call your immediate
+attention.
+
+It is well known to your excellency that my predecessor, Mr. Gallatin,
+during several years made repeated and urgent applications to His
+Majesty's Government for the adjustment of claims to a very large
+amount, affecting the interests of American citizens and originating in
+gross violations of the law of nations and of the rights of the United
+States, and that he never could obtain from France either a settlement
+of those claims or even an examination and discussion of their validity.
+To numerous letters addressed by him to His Majesty's ministers on that
+subject either no answers were given or answers which had for their only
+object to postpone the investigation of the subject. Whilst, however,
+he indulged the hope that these delays would be abandoned, and that the
+rights of our citizens, which had been urged for so many years, would at
+length be taken up for examination, he learned with surprise and regret
+that His Majesty's Government had determined to insist that they should
+be discussed in connection with the question of the construction of
+the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty of cession. Against this
+determination he strongly but ineffectually remonstrated in a letter
+to Mr. De Villele, dated the 12th November, 1822.
+
+It is notorious that the Government of the United States, whenever
+requested by that of His Majesty, have uniformly agreed to discuss any
+subject presented for their consideration, whether the object has been
+to obtain the redress of public or private injuries. Acting upon this
+principle, the question of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty
+was, upon the suggestion of the minister of France, made the subject of
+a voluminous correspondence, in the course of which all the arguments
+of the parties respectively were fully made known to each other and
+examined. The result of this discussion has been a thorough conviction
+on the part of the Government of the United States that the construction
+of that article of the treaty contended for by France is destitute of
+any solid foundation and wholly inadmissible. After a discussion so
+full as to exhaust every argument on that question, the attempt to
+renew it in connection with the question of the claims of our citizens
+appeared to the Government of the United States to be a measure so
+contrary to the fair and regular course of examining controverted
+points between nations that they instructed Mr, Sheldon, their chargé
+d'affaires, to prepare and present a note explaining their views of the
+proceeding, which he delivered on the 11th of October, 1823. To this
+note no answer has ever been received.
+
+I have the express instructions of the Government again to call the
+attention of that of His Majesty to this subject, and to insist that
+the claims of our citizens may continue to be discussed as a distinct
+question, without connecting it in any way with the construction of the
+Louisiana treaty. The two subjects are in every respect dissimilar. The
+difference in the nature and character of the two interests is such as
+to prevent them from being blended in the same discussion. The claims
+against France are of reparation to individuals for their property taken
+from them by undisputed wrong and injustice; the claim of France under
+the treaty is that of a right founded on a contract. In the examination
+of these questions the one can impart no light to the other; they are
+wholly unconnected, and ought on every principle to undergo a distinct
+and separate examination. To involve in the same investigation the
+indisputable rights of American citizens to indemnity for losses and
+the doubtful construction of a treaty can have no other effect than to
+occasion an indefinite postponement of the reparation due to individuals
+or a sacrifice on the part of the Government of the United States of a
+treaty stipulation in order to obtain that reparation. The United States
+would hope that such an alternative will not be pressed upon them by the
+Government of His Majesty.
+
+Whilst I indulge a hope that the course to which I have objected will no
+longer be insisted on by His Majesty's ministers, permit me to renew to
+your excellency the sincere assurance that the United States earnestly
+desire that every subject of difference between the two countries should
+be amicably adjusted and all their relations placed upon the most
+friendly footing. Although they believe that any further discussion of
+the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty would be wholly unprofitable,
+they will be at all times ready to renew the discussion of that article
+or to examine any question which may remain to be adjusted between them
+and France.
+
+I request your excellency to accept, etc.
+
+JAMES BROWN.
+
+
+
+[Extract of a letter (No. 3) from James Brown to the Secretary of State,
+dated Paris, May 11, 1824.]
+
+I have the honor to inclose a copy of the answer of the minister of
+foreign affairs to the letter which I addressed to him on the 27th
+ultimo, upon the subject of the claims of our citizens against the
+French Government. You will perceive that no change has been made in
+the determination expressed to Mr. Gallatin of connecting in the same
+discussion the question on the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty
+of cession and the claims of the citizens of the United States against
+France. In expressing this resolution it has not been considered
+necessary even to notice the arguments made use of to induce them
+to adopt a different opinion.
+
+
+
+_Viscount Chateaubriand to Mr. Brown_.
+
+[Translation.]
+
+PARIS, _May 7, 1824_.
+
+SIR: The object of the letter which you did me the honor to address to
+me on the 28th of April is to recall the affair of American claims,
+already repeatedly called up by your predecessors, that they may be
+regulated by an arrangement between the two powers, and that in this
+negotiation the examination of the difficulties which were raised about
+the execution of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty should not
+be included.
+
+Although the claims made by France upon this last point be of a
+different nature from those of the Americans, yet no less attention
+ought to be paid to arrange both in a just and amicable manner.
+
+Our claims upon the eighth article had already been laid before the
+Federal Government by His Majesty's plenipotentiary when he was
+negotiating the commercial convention of 24th June, 1822.
+
+The negotiators not agreeing upon a subject so important, the King's
+Government did not wish this difficulty to suspend any longer the
+conclusion of an arrangement which might give more activity to commerce
+and multiply relations equally useful to the two powers. It reserves to
+itself the power of comprehending this object in another negotiation,
+and it does not renounce in any manner the claim which it urged.
+
+It is for this reason, sir, that my predecessors and myself have
+constantly insisted that the arrangements to be made upon the eighth
+article of the Louisiana treaty should be made a part of those which
+your Government were desirous of making upon other questions still at
+issue.
+
+It is the intention of His Majesty not to leave unsettled any subject
+of grave discussion between the two States, and the King is too well
+convinced of the friendly sentiments of your Government not to believe
+that the United States will be disposed to agree with France on all the
+points.
+
+His Majesty authorizes me, sir, to declare to you that a negotiation
+will be opened with you upon the American claims if this negotiation
+should also include the French claims, and particularly the arrangements
+to be concluded concerning the execution of the eighth article of the
+Louisiana treaty.
+
+Accept, sir, the assurances of the very distinguished consideration with
+which I have the honor to be, etc.,
+
+CHATEAUBRIAND.
+
+
+
+[Extracts of a letter (No. 4) from the Secretary of State to Mr. Brown,
+dated Department of State, Washington, August 14, 1824.]
+
+The subject which has first claimed the attention of the President
+has been the result of your correspondence with the Viscount de
+Chateaubriand in relation to the claims of numerous citizens of
+the United States upon the justice of the French Government.
+
+I inclose herewith a copy of the report of the Committee on Foreign
+Relations of the House of Representatives upon several petitions
+addressed to that body at their last session by some of those claimants
+and a resolution of the House adopted thereupon.
+
+The President has deliberately considered the purport of M. de
+Chateaubriand's answer to your note of the 28th of April upon this
+subject, and he desires that you will renew with earnestness the
+application for indemnity to our citizens for claims notoriously just
+and resting upon the same principle with others which have been admitted
+and adjusted by the Government of France.
+
+In the note of the Viscount de Chateaubriand to you of 7th May it is
+said that he is authorized to declare a negotiation will be opened with
+you upon the American claims if this negotiation should also include
+French claims, and particularly the arrangements to be concluded
+concerning the execution of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty.
+
+You are authorized in reply to declare that any just claims which
+subjects of France may have upon the Government of the United States
+will readily be included in the negotiation, and to stipulate any
+suitable provision for the examination, adjustment, and satisfaction
+of them.
+
+But the question relating to the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty
+is not only of a different character--it can not be blended with that of
+indemnity for individual claims without a sacrifice on the part of the
+United States of a principle of right. The negotiation for indemnity
+presupposes that wrong has been done, that indemnity ought to be made,
+and the object of any treaty stipulation concerning it can only be to
+ascertain what is justly due and to make provision for the payment of
+it. By consenting to connect with such a negotiation that relating to
+the eighth article of the Louisiana convention the United States would
+abandon the _principle_ upon which the whole discussion concerning
+it depends. The situation of the parties to the negotiation would be
+unequal. The United States, asking reparation for admitted wrong, are
+told that France will not discuss it with them unless they will first
+renounce their own sense of right to admit and discuss with it a claim
+the _justice_ of which they have constantly denied.
+
+The Government of the United States is prepared to renew the discussion
+with that of France relating to the eighth article of the Louisiana
+treaty in any manner which may be desired and by which they shall not
+be understood to admit that France has _any_ claim under it whatever.
+
+
+
+_Mr. Brown to Mr. Adams_ (_No. 12_).
+
+PARIS, _August 12, 1824_.
+
+SIR: Some very unimportant changes have taken place in the composition
+of the ministry. The Baron de Damas, late minister of war, is now
+minister of foreign affairs; the Marquis de Clermont Tonnese is
+appointed to the department of war, and the Count Chabrol de Crousal
+to that of the marine.
+
+These appointments are believed to correspond with the wishes of the
+president of the Council of Ministers, and do not inspire a hope that
+our claims will be more favorably attended to than they have been under
+the former administrations. The interpretation of the eighth article
+of the Louisiana treaty contended for by France will, I apprehend,
+be persisted in and all indemnity refused until it shall have been
+discussed and decided. After the correspondence which has already passed
+upon that article, it would appear that any further discussion upon it
+would be wholly unprofitable. With a view, however, of ascertaining the
+opinions of the minister of foreign affairs, I shall at an early day
+solicit a conference with him, and inform you of the result.
+
+I have had the honor of receiving your letter recommending the claim of
+Mr. Kingston to my attention. The difficulties which that claim must
+experience, from its antiquity and from the operation of the treaty of
+1803, can not have escaped your observation. It has also to encounter,
+in common with all our claims, the obstacle presented by the eighth
+article, which is found broad enough to be used as a shield to protect
+France, in the opinion of ministers, from the examination and adjustment
+of any claim which we can present.
+
+I have the honor to be, with great respect, sir, your most obedient and
+humble servant,
+
+JAMES BROWN.
+
+
+
+_Mr. Brown to Mr. Adams_ (_No. 14_).
+
+PARIS, _September 28, 1824_.
+
+SIR: Little has occurred of importance during the present month, except
+the death of the King. This event had been anticipated for nearly a
+year; he had declined gradually, and the affairs of the Government
+have been for some time almost wholly directed by Monsieur, who on his
+accession to the throne has declared that his reign would be only a
+continuation of that of the late King. No change in the policy of the
+Government is expected, and probably none in the composition of the
+ministry. The present King is satisfied with Mr. De Villele, who is at
+its head; and if any of its members should be changed the spirit in
+which public affairs are directed will not, it is believed, be affected
+by that circumstance.
+
+The ceremonies attending the change of the Crown have principally
+occupied the public attention for the last fortnight. It will, I
+presume, be officially announced by the French minister at Washington,
+and, according to the forms observed here, will, I understand, require
+fresh letters of credence for all foreign ministers at this Court,
+addressed to the new King.
+
+My health has not permitted me (having been confined for some weeks to
+the bed by a rheumatic affection) to confer with the Baron de Damas on
+our affairs since his appointment as minister of the foreign department.
+I should regret this the more if I were not satisfied that the same
+impulse will direct the decisions of the Government upon these points
+now as before he had this department in charge, and that no favorable
+change in those decisions can be expected from any personal influence
+which might be exerted by the new minister. I shall, however, take the
+earliest opportunity that my health will allow to mention the subject
+to him and ascertain what his views of it are.
+
+I have the honor to be, with great respect, sir, your most obedient and
+humble servant.
+
+JAMES BROWN.
+
+
+
+[Extracts of a letter from Mr. James Brown to Mr, Adams (No. 16).]
+
+PARIS, _October 23, 1824_.
+
+The packet ship which sailed from New York on the 1st of September
+brought me the letter which you did me the honor to address to me on
+the 14th of August.
+
+In conformity with the instructions contained in that letter, I have
+addressed one to the Baron de Damas, minister of foreign affairs, a copy
+of which I now inclose. I expect to receive his answer in time to be
+sent by the packet which will sail from Havre on the 1st of next month,
+in which event it may probably reach Washington about the 15th of
+December.
+
+The recent changes which have been made in the ministry, of which I have
+already informed you, do not justify any very strong expectation that a
+change of measures in relation to our affairs at this Court will follow.
+The same individuals fill different places in the ministry from those
+which they formerly held, but in all probability adhere to their former
+opinions in relation to the subjects of discussion between the United
+States and France. On the point to which my letter to the Baron de
+Damas particularly relates the Count de Villele has already given his
+deliberate views in his letters to Mr. Gallatin dated 6th and 15th
+November, 1822, and I have every reason to believe that they remain
+unchanged. Having bestowed much attention on the subject, it is probable
+his opinion will be in a great measure decisive as to the answer which
+shall be given to my letter. It is the opinion of many well-informed men
+that in the course of a few months important changes will be made in the
+composition of the ministry. As these changes, however, will proceed
+from causes wholly unconnected with foreign affairs, I am by no means
+sanguine in my expectations that under any new composition of the
+ministry we may hope for a change of policy as it relates to our claims.
+The eighth article of the Louisiana treaty will be continually put
+forward as a bar to our claims and its adjustment urged as often as
+we renew our claim for indemnity.
+
+The Journal des Débats of this morning states that at a superior council
+of commerce and of the colonies at which His Majesty yesterday presided
+Mr. De St. Cricq, president of the bureau de commerce, made a report on
+the commercial convention of the 24th June, 1822, between the United
+States and France.
+
+
+
+_Mr. Brown to Baron de Damas_.
+
+PARIS, _October 22, 1824_.
+
+His Excellency BARON DE DAMAS,
+
+_Minister of Foreign Affairs, etc_.
+
+SIR: I availed myself of the earliest opportunity to transmit to my
+Government a copy of the letter which I had the honor to address to the
+Viscount de Chateaubriand on the 28th day of April last, together with
+a copy of his answer to that letter, dated 7th of May.
+
+After a candid and deliberate consideration of the subject of that
+correspondence, my Government has sent me recent instructions to
+renew with earnestness the application, already so frequently and so
+ineffectually made, for indemnity to our citizens for claims notoriously
+just, and resting on the same principles with others which have been
+admitted and adjusted by the Government of France.
+
+In reply to that part of the Viscount de Chateaubriand's letter in
+which he offers to open with me a negotiation upon American claims if
+that negotiation should also include French claims, and particularly
+the arrangements to be concluded concerning the eighth article of the
+Louisiana treaty, I have been instructed to declare that any just claims
+which the subjects of France may have upon the Government of the United
+States will readily be embraced in the negotiation, and that I am
+authorized to stipulate any suitable provision for the examination,
+adjustment, and satisfaction of them.
+
+The question relating to the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty is
+viewed by my Government as one of a very different character. It can
+not be blended with that of indemnity for individual claims without
+a sacrifice on the part of the United States of a principle of right.
+Every negotiation for indemnity necessarily presupposes that some wrong
+has been done, and that indemnity ought to be made; and the object of
+every treaty stipulation respecting it can only be to ascertain the
+extent of the injury, and to make provision for its adequate reparation.
+This is precisely the nature of the negotiation for American claims
+which has been for so many years the subject of discussion between
+the Governments of the United States and of France. The wrongs done to
+our citizens have never been denied, whilst their right to indemnity
+has been established by acts done by the French Government in cases
+depending upon the same principles under which they derive their claim.
+By consenting to connect with such a negotiation that relating to the
+eighth article of the Louisiana treaty the United States would abandon
+the principle upon which the whole discussion depends. When asking for
+reparation for acknowledged wrong the United States have been told that
+France will not discuss it with them unless they will first renounce
+their own sense of right and admit and discuss in connection with it a
+claim the justice of which they have hitherto constantly denied. In any
+negotiation commenced under such circumstances the situation of the
+parties would be unequal. By consenting to connect the pretensions of
+France under the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty with claims for
+indemnity for acknowledged injustice and injury the United States would
+be understood as admitting that those pretensions were well founded;
+that wrong had been done to France for which reparation ought to be
+made. The Government of the United States, not having yet been convinced
+that this is the case, can not consent to any arrangement which shall
+imply an admission so contrary to their deliberate sense of right.
+
+I am authorized and prepared on behalf of the United States to enter
+upon a further discussion of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty
+in any manner which may be desired, and by which they shall not be
+understood previously to admit that the construction of that article
+claimed by France is well founded; and also to renew the separate
+negotiation for American claims, embracing at the same time all just
+claims winch French subjects may have upon the Government of the
+United States.
+
+The change which has lately taken place in His Majesty's department of
+foreign affairs encourages the hope that this important subject will
+be candidly reconsidered; that the obstacles which have arrested the
+progress of the negotiation may be removed, and that the subjects of
+contestation between the two Governments may be ultimately adjusted upon
+such principles as may perpetuate the good understanding and harmony
+which have so long subsisted between the United States and France.
+
+Should I, however, be disappointed in the result of this application,
+it is to be seriously apprehended that as the United States have not
+hitherto seen in the course of the discussion any just claim of France
+arising from the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty, so in the
+persevering refusal of the French Government to discuss and adjust
+the well-founded claims of citizens of the United States to indemnity
+for wrongs unless in connection with one which they are satisfied
+is unfounded the United States will ultimately perceive only a
+determination to deny justice to the claimants.
+
+Permit me respectfully to request that at as early a day as your
+convenience will allow your excellency will favor me with an answer
+to this letter.
+
+I embrace with pleasure this occasion to offer to your excellency the
+renewed assurance, etc.,
+
+JAMES BROWN.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 24, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+23d December, 1823, requesting that a negotiation should be opened with
+the British Government "for the cession of so much land on the island of
+Abaco at or near the Hole-in-the-Wall, and on such other places within
+the acknowledged dominions of that power on the islands, keys, or shoals
+of the Bahama Banks as may be necessary for the erection and support of
+light-houses, beacons, buoys, or floating lights for the security of
+navigation over or near the said banks, and to be used solely for that
+purpose," directions were given to the minister of the United States at
+London on the 1st of January, 1824, to communicate the purport of that
+resolution to the Government of Great Britain with a view to their
+acceding to the wish of this; and I transmit to the House copies of Mr.
+Rush's correspondence upon this subject, communicating the result of
+his application to the British Government.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 28, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 27th instant, requesting information explanatory of the character
+and objects of the visit of the naval officer of the United States
+commanding in the West Indies to the town of Faxyardo, in the island
+of Porto Rico, on the ---- day of November last, I herewith transmit
+a report of the Secretary of the Navy, with a letter from Commodore
+Porter, which contains all the information in possession of the
+Executive on the subject.
+
+Deeming the transactions adverted to of high importance, an order has
+been sent to Commodore Porter to repair hither without delay, that all
+the circumstances connected therewith may be fully investigated.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 5, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+As the term of my service in this high trust will expire at the end
+of the present session of Congress, I think it proper to invite your
+attention to an object very interesting to me, and which in the movement
+of our Government is deemed on principle equally interesting to the
+public. I have been long in the service of my country and in its most
+difficult conjunctures, as well abroad as at home, in the course of
+which I have had a control over the public moneys to a vast amount.
+If in the course of my service it shall appear on the most severe
+scrutiny, which I invite, that the public have sustained any loss by
+any act of mine, or of others for which I ought to be held responsible,
+I am willing to bear it. If, on the other hand, it shall appear on a
+view of the law and of precedents in other cases that justice has been
+withheld from me in any instance, as I have believed it to be in many,
+and greatly to my injury, it is submitted whether it ought not to be
+rendered. It is my wish that all matters of account and claims between
+my country and myself be settled with that strict regard to justice
+which is observed in settlements between individuals in private life.
+It would be gratifying to me, and it appears to be just, that the
+subject should be now examined in both respects with a view to a
+decision hereafter. No bill would, it is presumed, be presented for my
+signature which would operate either for or against me, and I would
+certainly sanction none in my favor. While here I can furnish testimony,
+applicable to any case, in both views, which a full investigation may
+require, and the committee to whom the subject may be referred, by
+reporting facts now with a view to a decision after my retirement, will
+allow time for further information and due consideration of all matters
+relating thereto. Settlements with a person in this trust, which could
+not be made with the accounting officers of the Government, should
+always be made by Congress and before the public. The cause of the delay
+in presenting these claims will be explained to the committee to whom
+the subject may be referred. It will, I presume, be made apparent that
+it was inevitable; that from the peculiar circumstances attending each
+case Congress alone could decide on it, and that from considerations of
+delicacy it would have been highly improper for me to have sought it
+from Congress at an earlier period than that which is now proposed--the
+expiration of my term in this high trust.
+
+Other considerations appear to me to operate with great force in
+favor of the measure which I now propose. A citizen who has long served
+his country in its highest trusts has a right, if he has served with
+fidelity, to enjoy undisturbed tranquillity and peace in his retirement.
+This he can not expect to do unless his conduct in all pecuniary
+concerns shall be placed by severe scrutiny on a basis not to be shaken.
+This, therefore, forms a strong motive with me for the inquiry which I
+now invite. The public may also derive considerable advantage from the
+precedent in the future movement of the Government. It being known that
+such scrutiny was made in my case, it may form a new and strong barrier
+against the abuse of the public confidence in future.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 10, 1825_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I should hasten to communicate to you the documents called for by the
+resolution of the House of Representatives of the 4th instant, relating
+to the conduct of the officers of the Navy of the United States on the
+Pacific Ocean and of other public agents in South America, if such a
+communication might now be made consistently with the public interest or
+with justice to the parties concerned. In consequence of several charges
+which have been alleged against Commodore Stewart, touching his conduct
+while commanding the squadron of the United States on that sea, it has
+been deemed proper to suspend him from duty and to subject him to trial
+on these charges. It appearing also that some of those charges have been
+communicated to the Department by Mr. Prevost, political agent at this
+time of the United States at Peru, and heretofore at Buenos Ayres and
+Chile, and apparently with his sanction, and that charges have likewise
+been made against him by citizens of the United States engaged in
+commerce in that quarter, it has been thought equally just and proper
+that he should attend here, as well to furnish the evidence in his
+possession applicable to the charges exhibited against Commodore
+Stewart as to answer such as have been exhibited against himself.
+
+In this stage the publication of those documents might tend to excite
+prejudices which might operate to the injury of both. It is important
+that the public servants in every station should perform their duty with
+fidelity, according to the injunctions of the law and the orders of the
+Executive in fulfillment thereof. It is peculiarly so that this should
+be done by the commanders of our squadrons, especially on distant seas,
+and by political agents who represent the United States with foreign
+powers, for reasons that are obvious in both instances. It is due to
+their rights and to the character of the Government that they be not
+censured without just cause, which can not be ascertained until, on
+a view of tho charges, they are heard in their defense, and after a
+thorough and impartial investigation of their conduct. Under these
+circumstances it is thought that a communication at this time of those
+documents would not comport with the public interest nor with what is
+due to the parties concerned.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 13, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with two resolutions of the Senate, the first of the
+21st and the second of the 23d December last, requesting information
+respecting the injuries which have been sustained by our citizens by
+piratical depredations, and other details connected therewith, and
+requesting also information of the measures which have been adopted for
+the suppression of piracy, and whether in the opinion of the Executive
+it will not be necessary to adopt other means for the accomplishment
+of the object, and, in that event, what other means it will be most
+advisable to recur to, I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary
+of State, and likewise a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with
+the documents referred to in each.
+
+On the very important question submitted to the Executive as to the
+necessity of recurring to other more effectual means for the suppression
+of a practice so destructive of the lives and property of our citizens,
+I have to observe that three expedients occur--one by the pursuit of the
+offenders to the settled as well as the unsettled parts of the island
+from whence they issue, another by reprisal on the property of the
+inhabitants, and a third by the blockade of the ports of those islands.
+It will be obvious that neither of these measures can be resorted to
+in a spirit of amity with Spain otherwise than in a firm belief that
+neither the Government of Spain nor the government of either of the
+islands has the power to suppress that atrocious practice, and that the
+United States interposed their aid for the accomplishment of an object
+which is of equal importance to them as well as to us. Acting on this
+principle, the facts which justify the proceeding being universally
+known and felt by all engaged in commerce in that sea, it may fairly be
+presumed that neither will the Government of Spain nor the government
+of either of those islands complain of a resort to either of those
+measures, or to all of them, should such resort be necessary. It is
+therefore suggested that a power commensurate with either resource be
+granted to the Executive, to be exercised according to his discretion
+and as circumstances may imperiously require. It is hoped that the
+manifestation of a policy so decisive will produce the happiest result;
+that it will rid these seas and this hemisphere of this practice. This
+hope is strengthened by the belief that the Government of Spain and the
+governments of the islands, particularly of Cuba, whose chief is known
+here, will faithfully cooperate in such measures as may be necessary
+for the accomplishment of this very important object. To secure such
+cooperation will be the earnest desire and, of course, the zealous
+and persevering effort of the Executive.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 17, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate, for its advice and consent as to the
+ratification, a treaty which has been concluded by a commissioner duly
+authorized for the purpose with the Quapaw Indians in Arkansas for the
+cession of their claim to the lands in that Territory. I transmit also
+a report from the Secretary of War, with other documents, relating to
+this subject.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 17, 1825.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+Agreeably to the resolution of the Senate of 19th May last, requesting
+the President to cause to be laid before the Senate a report "shewing
+the amount of duties which shall have accrued on importations into the
+United States for the three quarters of a year ending June 30, 1824;
+also the amount of duties which would have accrued on the same
+importations at such higher rates of duty as may be imposed by any act
+of the present session of Congress," I herewith transmit a report from
+the Secretary of the Treasury, which contains the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 18, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate herewith to both Houses of Congress copies of the
+convention between the United States and His Majesty the Emperor of
+all the Russias, concluded at St. Petersburg on the 5th (17th) of April
+last, which has been duly ratified on both sides, and the ratifications
+of which were exchanged on the 11th instant.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 20, 1825_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+19th of December, 1822, requesting the President to communicate "what
+progress has been made in the execution of the act of the last session
+entitled 'An act to abolish the Indian trading establishments,' with
+a report from the factories, respectively, as the same may be made to
+him," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury,
+with documents, which contains the information requested.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 27, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Being deeply impressed with the opinion that the removal of the Indian
+tribes from the lands which they now occupy within the limits of the
+several States and Territories to the country lying westward and
+northward thereof, within our acknowledged boundaries, is of very
+high importance to our Union, and may be accomplished on conditions and
+in a manner to promote the interest and happiness of those tribes, the
+attention of the Government has been long drawn with great solicitude
+to the object. For the removal of the tribes within the limits of the
+State of Georgia the motive has been peculiarly strong, arising from
+the compact with that State whereby the United States are bound to
+extinguish the Indian title to the lands within it whenever it may
+be done peaceably and on reasonable conditions. In the fulfillment of
+this compact, I have thought that the United States should act with a
+generous spirit; that they should omit nothing which should comport with
+a liberal construction of the instrument and likewise be in accordance
+with the just rights of those tribes. From the view which I have taken
+of the subject I am satisfied that in the discharge of these important
+duties in regard to both the parties alluded to the United States will
+have to encounter no conflicting interests with either. On the contrary,
+that the removal of the tribes from the territory which they now inhabit
+to that which was designated in the message at the commencement of
+the session, which would accomplish the object for Georgia, under a
+well-digested plan for their government and civilization, which should
+be agreeable to themselves, would not only shield them from impending
+ruin, but promote their welfare and happiness. Experience has clearly
+demonstrated that in their present state it is impossible to incorporate
+them in such masses, in any form whatever, into our system. It has also
+demonstrated with equal certainty that without a timely anticipation
+of and provision against the dangers to which they are exposed, under
+causes which it will be difficult, if not impossible, to control, their
+degradation and extermination will be inevitable.
+
+The great object to be accomplished is the removal of these tribes to
+the territory designated on conditions which shall be satisfactory to
+themselves and honorable to the United States. This can be done only by
+conveying to each tribe a good title to an adequate portion of land to
+which it may consent to remove, and by providing for it there a system
+of internal government which shall protect their property from invasion,
+and, by the regular progress of improvement and civilization, prevent
+that degeneracy which has generally marked the transition from the one
+to the other state.
+
+I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, which presents
+the best estimate which can be formed, from the documents in that
+Department, of the number of Indians within our States and Territories
+and of the amount of lands held by the several tribes within each; of
+the state of the country lying northward and westward thereof, within
+our acknowledged boundaries; of the parts to which the Indian title has
+already been extinguished, and of the conditions on which other parts,
+in an amount which may be adequate to the object contemplated, may be
+obtained. By this report it appears that the Indian title has already
+been extinguished to extensive tracts in that quarter, and that other
+portions maybe acquired to the extent desired on very moderate
+conditions. Satisfied I also am that the removal proposed is not only
+practicable, but that the advantages attending it to the Indians may be
+made so apparent to them that all the tribes, even those most opposed,
+may be induced to accede to it at no very distant day.
+
+The digest of such a government, with the consent of the Indians,
+which should be endowed with sufficient power to meet all the objects
+contemplated--to connect the several tribes together in a bond of amity
+and preserve order in each; to prevent intrusions on their property;
+to teach them by regular instruction the arts of civilized life and make
+them a civilized people--is an object of very high importance. It is
+the powerful consideration which we have to offer to these tribes as
+an inducement to relinquish the lands on which they now reside and
+to remove to those which are designated. It is not doubted that this
+arrangement will present considerations of sufficient force to surmount
+all their prejudices in favor of the soil of their nativity, however
+strong they may be. Their elders have sufficient intelligence to discern
+the certain progress of events in the present train, and sufficient
+virtue, by yielding to momentary sacrifices, to protect their families
+and posterity from inevitable destruction. They will also perceive that
+they may thus attain an elevation to which as communities they could not
+otherwise aspire.
+
+To the United States the proposed arrangement offers many important
+advantages in addition to those which have been already enumerated.
+By the establishment of such a government over these tribes with
+their consent we become in reality their benefactors. The relation of
+conflicting interests which has heretofore existed between them and our
+frontier settlements will cease. There will be no more wars between them
+and the United States. Adopting such a government, their movement will
+be in harmony with us, and its good effect be felt throughout the whole
+extent of our territory to the Pacific. It may fairly be presumed that,
+through the agency of such a government, the condition of all the tribes
+inhabiting that vast region may be essentially improved; that permanent
+peace may be preserved with them, and our commerce be much extended.
+
+With a view to this important object I recommend it to Congress to
+adopt, by solemn declaration, certain fundamental principles in accord
+with those above suggested, as the basis of such arrangements as may
+be entered into with the several tribes, to the strict observance of
+which the faith of the nation shall be pledged, I recommend it also to
+Congress to provide by law for the appointment of a suitable number
+of commissioners who shall, under the direction of the President, be
+authorized to visit and explain to the several tribes the objects of
+the Government, and to make with them, according to their instructions,
+such arrangements as shall be best calculated to carry those objects
+into effect.
+
+A negotiation is now depending with the Creek Nation for the cession of
+lands held by it within the limits of Georgia, and with a reasonable
+prospect of success. It is presumed, however, that the result will not
+be known during the present session of Congress. To give effect to this
+negotiation and to the negotiations which it is proposed to hold with
+all the other tribes within the limits of the several States and
+Territories on the principles and for the purposes stated, it is
+recommended that an adequate appropriation be now made by Congress.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 27, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate a treaty concluded in this city with a
+deputation from the Choctaw Indians, accompanied with the report from
+the Secretary of War, with a copy of the correspondence connected with
+the negotiations, for the advice and consent of the Senate.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 2, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate herewith to both Houses of Congress copies of the
+alterations in the treaty of peace and friendship of August, 1797,
+between the United States and the Bashaw Bey of Tunis, concluded at
+the Palace of Bardo, near Tunis, on the 24th of February last, and
+of treaties between the United States and the Sock and Fox tribes of
+Indians and the Ioway tribe of Indians, concluded at the city of
+Washington on the 4th of August last, which have been duly ratified.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 4, 1825_.
+
+The PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE OF THE SENATE:
+
+It appearing by certain provisions contained in a late act of the
+general assembly of Virginia, entitled "An act incorporating the
+Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company," that the assent of Congress will
+be necessary to carry the said act into effect, I herewith transmit
+a copy thereof, that it may be considered with a view to the object
+contemplated.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+[The same message was sent to the House of Representatives.]
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 7, 1825_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit herewith to the House a report from the Secretary of State,
+with copies of the correspondence relating to the claims of the citizens
+of the United States upon the Government of the Netherlands, requested
+by a resolution of the House of the 18th of January last.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 11, 1825_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+January 5, I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of the Navy,
+with copies of the proceedings of the courts-martial in the cases of
+Lieutenants Weaver and Conner.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 14, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with a report
+to him by the Chief Engineer, of the examination which has been made by
+the Board of Engineers for Internal Improvement, in obedience to their
+instructions, of the country between the Potomac and Ohio rivers,
+between the latter and Lake Erie, between the Allegheny and Schuylkill
+rivers, the Delaware and the Raritan, between Buzzards and Barnstable
+bays, and the Narraganset roads and Boston Harbor, with explanatory
+observations on each route. From the view which I have taken of these
+reports I contemplate results of incalculable advantage to our Union,
+because I see in them the most satisfactory proof that certain
+impediments which had a tendency to embarrass the intercourse between
+some of its most important sections may be removed without serious
+difficulty, and that facilities may be afforded in other quarters which
+will have the happiest effect. Of the right in Congress to promote these
+great results by the appropriation of the public money, in harmony
+with the States to be affected by them, having already communicated
+my sentiments fully and on mature consideration, I deem it unnecessary
+to enlarge at this time.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 16, 1825_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary
+of State, containing the information called for by their resolution of
+the 1st of this month, touching the capture and detention of American
+fishermen during the last season.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 17, 1825_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of State,
+with copies of the correspondence with the Government of France,
+requested by the resolution of the House of the 25th of January last.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 17, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I invite the attention of Congress to the peculiar situation of this
+District in regard to the exposure of its inhabitants to contagious
+diseases from abroad, against which it is thought that adequate
+provision should now be made. The exposure being common to the whole
+District, the regulation should apply to the whole, to make which
+Congress alone possesses the adequate power. That the regulation should
+be made by Congress is the more necessary from the consideration that
+this being the seat of the Government, its protection against such
+diseases must form one of its principal objects.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 21, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, with a report
+to him from the Third Auditor, of the settlement in the amount stated
+of the claims of the State of Massachusetts for services rendered by
+the militia of that State in the late war, the payment of which has
+hitherto been prevented by causes which are well known to Congress.
+Having communicated my sentiments on this subject fully in a message
+bearing date on the 23d of February, 1824, it is unnecessary to repeat
+in detail here what I there advanced. By recurring to that message and
+to the documents referred to in it it will be seen that the conduct of
+the executive of that State in refusing to place the militia thereof at
+that difficult conjuncture under the direction of the Executive of the
+United States, as it was bound to do by a fair construction of the
+Constitution, and as the other States did, is the great cause to which
+the difficulty adverted to is to be ascribed. It will also be seen on a
+view of those documents that the executive of the State was warned at
+the time if it persevered in the refusal that the consequences which
+have followed would be inevitable; that the attitude assumed by the
+State formed a case which was not contemplated by the existing laws
+of the United States relating to militia services; that the payment
+of the claims of the State for such services could be provided for by
+Congress only and by a special law for the purpose. Having made this
+communication while acting in the Department of War to the governor
+of Massachusetts, with the sanction and under the direction of my
+enlightened and virtuous predecessor, it would be improper in any view
+which may be taken of the subject for me to change the ground then
+assumed, to withdraw this great question from the consideration of
+Congress, and to act on it myself. Had the Executive been in error,
+it is entitled to censure, making a just allowance for the motive which
+guided it. If its conduct was correct, the ground then assumed ought
+to be maintained by it. It belongs to Congress alone to terminate this
+distressing incident on just principles, with a view to the highest
+interests of our Union.
+
+From the view which I have taken of the subject I am confirmed in the
+opinion that Congress should now decide on the claim and allow to the
+State such portions thereof as are founded on the principles laid down
+in the former message. If those principles are correct, as on great
+consideration I am satisfied they are, it appears to me to be just
+in itself and of high importance that the sums which may be due in
+conformity therewith should no longer be withheld from the State.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 21, 1825_.
+
+The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE PRO TEMPORE:
+
+I transmit to the Senate a convention, signed by the plenipotentiaries
+of the United States and of the Republic of Colombia at Bogota on the
+10th of December, 1824, together with the documents appertaining to the
+negotiation of the same, for the constitutional consideration of the
+Senate with regard to its ratification,
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 21, 1825_.
+
+The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE PRO TEMPORE:
+
+I transmit to the Senate a convention of general peace, amity,
+navigation, and commerce, signed by the plenipotentiaries of the United
+States and of the Republic of Colombia at Bogota on the 3d of October,
+1824, together with the documents appertaining to the negotiation of the
+same, for the constitutional consideration of the Senate with regard to
+its ratification.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1825_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a further report from the
+Secretary of State, in pursuance of their resolution of the 1st instant,
+with the papers to which it refers, upon the subject of the capture and
+detention of American fishermen the past season in the Bay of Fundy.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 25, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
+
+I communicate herewith to both Houses of Congress copies of the treaties
+between the United States and the Quapaw Nation of Indians, concluded at
+Harringtons, in the Territory of Arkansas, on the 15th day of November
+last, and between the United States and the Choctaw Nation of Indians,
+concluded at the city of Washington on the 20th day of January last,
+which have been duly ratified.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 26, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Just before the termination of the last session an act entitled "An
+act concerning wrecks on the coast of Florida," which then passed,
+was presented to me with many others and approved, and, as I thought,
+signed. A report to that effect was then made to Congress. It appeared,
+however, after the adjournment that the evidence of such approbation
+had not been attached to it. Whether the act may be considered in
+force under such circumstances is a point on which it belongs not
+to me to decide. To remove all doubt on the subject, I submit to the
+consideration of Congress the propriety of passing a declaratory act
+to that effect.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 28, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate, for the exercise of its constitutional power,
+a treaty lately concluded at the Indian Springs, by commissioners of
+the United States duly authorized, with the chiefs of the Creek Nation,
+assembled there in council, with the documents connected therewith.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+[From Senate Journal, Eighteenth Congress, second session, p. 269.]
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 19, 1825_.
+
+_The President of the United States to ------, Senator for the State
+of ------_:
+
+Certain matters touching the public good requiring that the Senate of
+the United States should be convened on Friday, the 4th day of March
+next, you are desired to attend at the Senate Chamber, in the city of
+Washington, on that day, then and there to receive and deliberate on
+such communications as shall be made to you.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Compilation of the Messages and
+Papers of the Presidents, by James D. Richardson
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES MONROE ***
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+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Messages and Papers of the
+      Presidents: James Monroe, by James D. Richardson.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+    <!--
+    * { font-family:   Times;
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+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of
+the Presidents, 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 1 (of 3) of Volume 2: James Monroe
+
+Author: James D. Richardson
+
+Release Date: February 3, 2004 [EBook #10919]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES MONROE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Garcia and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      A COMPILATION OF THE MESSAGES AND PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENTS
+    </h1>
+    <center>
+      <b>BY JAMES D. RICHARDSON</b>
+    </center>
+    <h2>
+      VOLUME II
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      Copyright 1897 by James D. Richardson
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Prefatory Note
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The first volume of this compilation was given to Congress
+      and the public about May 1, 1896. I believe I am warranted in
+      saying here that it met with much favor by all who examined
+      it. The press of the country was unsparing in its praise.
+      Congress, by a resolution passed on the 22d day of May,
+      ordered the printing of 15,000 additional copies, of the
+      entire publication.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have inserted in this volume a steel engraving of the
+      Treasury building; the succeeding volumes will contain
+      engravings of other important public buildings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The resolution authorizing this work required the publication
+      of the annual, special, and veto messages, inaugural
+      addresses, and proclamations of the Presidents. I have found
+      in addition to these documents others which emanated from the
+      Chief Magistrats, called Executive orders; they are in the
+      nature of proclamations, and have like force and effect. I
+      have therefore included in this, and will include in the
+      succeeding volumes, all such Executive orders as may appear
+      to have national importance or to possess more than ordinary
+      interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If this volume meets the same degree of favor as the first, I
+      shall be greatly gratified.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES D. RICHARDSON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      JULY 4, 1896.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      James Monroe
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      March 4, 1817, to March 4, 1825
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      James Monroe
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      James Monroe was born April 28, 1758, in Westmoreland County,
+      Va. He was the son of Spence Monroe and Elizabeth Jones, both
+      natives of Virginia. When in his eighteenth year he enlisted
+      as a private soldier in the Army to fight for independence;
+      was in several battles, and was wounded in the engagement at
+      Trenton; was promoted to the rank of captain of infantry.
+      During 1777 and 1778 he acted as aid to Lord Stirling, and
+      distinguished himself. He studied law under the direction of
+      Thomas Jefferson, then governor of Virginia, who in 1780
+      appointed him to visit the army in South Carolina on an
+      important mission. In 1782 he was elected to the Virginia
+      assembly by the county of King George, and was by that body
+      chosen a member of the executive council. The next year he
+      was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress, and
+      remained a member until 1786; while a member he married a
+      Miss Kortright, of New York City. Retiring from Congress, he
+      began the practice of law at Fredericksburg, Va., but was at
+      once elected to the legislature. In 1788 was a delegate to
+      the State convention assembled to consider the Federal
+      Constitution. Was a Senator from Virginia from 1790 to 1794.
+      In May, 1794, was appointed by Washington minister to France.
+      He was recalled in 1796 and was again elected to the
+      legislature. In 1799 was elected governor of Virginia. In
+      1802 was appointed by President Jefferson envoy extraordinary
+      to France, and in 1803 was sent to London as the successor of
+      Rufus King. In 1805 performed a diplomatic mission to Spain
+      in relation to the boundary of Louisiana, returning to London
+      the following year; returned to the United States in 1808. In
+      1811 was again elected governor of his State, but in the same
+      year resigned that office to become Secretary of State under
+      President Madison. After the capture of Washington, in 1814,
+      he was appointed to the War Department, which position he
+      held until 1815, without relinquishing the office of
+      Secretary of State. He remained at the head of the Department
+      of State until the close of Mr. Madison's term. Was elected
+      President in 1816, and reelected in 1820, retiring March 4,
+      1825, to his residence in Loudoun County, Va. In 1829 was
+      elected a member of the convention called to revise the
+      constitution of the State, and was unanimously chosen to
+      preside over its deliberations. He was forced by ill health
+      to retire from office, and removed to New York to reside with
+      his son-in-law, Mr. Samuel L. Gouverneur. He died July 4,
+      1831, and was buried in New York City, but in 1858 his
+      remains were removed to Richmond, Va.
+    </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 1, 1817</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hon. JOHN GAILLARD.<br>
+       <i>President of the Senate of the United States</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SIR: I beg leave through you to inform the honorable 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
+      Tuesday, 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 MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I should be destitute of feeling if I was not deeply affected
+      by the strong proof which my fellow-citizens have given me of
+      their confidence in calling me to the high office whose
+      functions I am about to assume. As the expression of their
+      good opinion of my conduct in the public service, I derive
+      from it a gratification which those who are conscious of
+      having done all that they could to merit it can alone feel.
+      My sensibility is increased by a just estimate of the
+      importance of the trust and of the nature and extent of its
+      duties, with the proper discharge of which the highest
+      interests of a great and free people are intimately
+      connected. Conscious of my own deficiency, I can not enter on
+      these duties without great anxiety for the result. From a
+      just responsibility I will never shrink, calculating with
+      confidence that in my best efforts to promote the public
+      welfare my motives will always be duly appreciated and my
+      conduct be viewed with that candor and indulgence which I
+      have experienced in other stations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In commencing the duties of the chief executive office it has
+      been the practice of the distinguished men who have gone
+      before me to explain the principles which would govern them
+      in their respective Administrations. In following their
+      venerated example my attention is naturally drawn to the
+      great causes which have contributed in a principal degree to
+      produce the present happy condition of the United States.
+      They will best explain the nature of our duties and shed much
+      light on the policy which ought to be pursued in future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the commencement of our Revolution to the present day
+      almost forty years have elapsed, and from the establishment
+      of this Constitution twenty-eight. Through this whole term
+      the Government has been what may emphatically be called
+      self-government. And what has been the effect? To whatever
+      object we turn our attention, whether it relates to our
+      foreign or domestic concerns, we find abundant cause to
+      felicitate ourselves in the excellence of our institutions.
+      During a period fraught with difficulties and marked by very
+      extraordinary events the United States have nourished beyond
+      example. Their citizens individually have been happy and the
+      nation prosperous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under this Constitution our commerce has been wisely
+      regulated with foreign nations and between the States; new
+      States have been admitted into our Union; our territory has
+      been enlarged by fair and honorable treaty, and with great
+      advantage to the original States; the States, respectively
+      protected by the National Government under a mild, parental
+      system against foreign dangers, and enjoying within their
+      separate spheres, by a wise partition of power, a just
+      proportion of the sovereignty, have improved their police,
+      extended their settlements, and attained a strength and
+      maturity which are the best proofs of wholesome laws well
+      administered. And if we look to the condition of individuals
+      what a proud spectacle does it exhibit! On whom has
+      oppression fallen in any quarter of our Union? Who has been
+      deprived of any right of person or property? Who restrained
+      from offering his vows in the mode which he prefers to the
+      Divine Author of his being? It is well known that all these
+      blessings have been enjoyed in their fullest extent; and I
+      add with peculiar satisfaction that there has been no example
+      of a capital punishment being inflicted on anyone for the
+      crime of high treason.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some who might admit the competency of our Government to
+      these beneficent duties might doubt it in trials which put to
+      the test its strength and efficiency as a member of the great
+      community of nations. Here too experience has afforded us the
+      most satisfactory proof in its favor. Just as this
+      Constitution was put into action several of the principal
+      States of Europe had become much agitated and some of them
+      seriously convulsed. Destructive wars ensued, which have of
+      late only been terminated. In the course of these conflicts
+      the United States received great injury from several of the
+      parties. It was their interest to stand aloof from the
+      contest, to demand justice from the party committing the
+      injury, and to cultivate by a fair and honorable conduct the
+      friendship of all. War became at length inevitable, and the
+      result has shown that our Government is equal to that, the
+      greatest of trials, under the most unfavorable circumstances.
+      Of the virtue of the people and of the heroic exploits of the
+      Army, the Navy, and the militia I need not speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such, then, is the happy Government under which we
+      live&mdash;a Government adequate to every purpose for which
+      the social compact is formed, a Government elective in all
+      its branches, under which every citizen may by his merit
+      obtain the highest trust recognized by the Constitution;
+      which contains within it no cause of discord, none to put at
+      variance one portion of the community with another; a
+      Government which protects every citizen in the full enjoyment
+      of his rights, and is able to protect the nation against
+      injustice from foreign powers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Other considerations of the highest importance admonish us to
+      cherish our Union and to cling to the Government which
+      supports it. Fortunate as we are in our political
+      institutions, we have not been less so in other circumstances
+      on which our prosperity and happiness essentially depend.
+      Situated within the temperate zone, and extending through
+      many degrees of latitude along the Atlantic, the United
+      States enjoy all the varieties of climate, and every
+      production incident to that portion of the globe. Penetrating
+      internally to the Great Lakes and beyond the sources of the
+      great rivers which communicate through our whole interior, no
+      country was ever happier with respect to its domain. Blessed,
+      too, with a fertile soil, our produce has always been very
+      abundant, leaving, even in years the least favorable, a
+      surplus for the wants of our fellow-men in other countries.
+      Such is our peculiar felicity that there is not a part of our
+      Union that is not particularly interested in preserving it.
+      The great agricultural interest of the nation prospers under
+      its protection. Local interests are not less fostered by it.
+      Our fellow-citizens of the North engaged in navigation find
+      great encouragement in being made the favored carriers of the
+      vast productions of the other portions of the United States,
+      while the inhabitants of these are amply recompensed, in
+      their turn, by the nursery for seamen and naval force thus
+      formed and reared up for the support of our common rights.
+      Our manufactures find a generous encouragement by the policy
+      which patronizes domestic industry, and the surplus of our
+      produce a steady and profitable market by local wants in
+      less-favored parts at home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such, then, being the highly favored condition of our
+      country, it is the interest of every citizen to maintain it.
+      What are the dangers which menace us? If any exist they ought
+      to be ascertained and guarded against.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In explaining my sentiments on this subject it may be asked,
+      What raised us to the present happy state? How did we
+      accomplish the Revolution? How remedy the defects of the
+      first instrument of our Union, by infusing into the National
+      Government sufficient power for national purposes, without
+      impairing the just rights of the States or affecting those of
+      individuals? How sustain and pass with glory through the late
+      war? The Government has been in the hands of the people. To
+      the people, therefore, and to the faithful and able
+      depositaries of their trust is the credit due. Had the people
+      of the United States been educated in different principles,
+      had they been less intelligent, less independent, or less
+      virtuous, can it be believed that we should have maintained
+      the same steady and consistent career or been blessed with
+      the same success? While, then, the constituent body retains
+      its present sound and healthful state everything will be
+      safe. They will choose competent and faithful representatives
+      for every department. It is only when the people become
+      ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace,
+      that they are incapable of exercising the sovereignty.
+      Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon
+      found. The people themselves become the willing instruments
+      of their own debasement and ruin. Let us, then, look to the
+      great cause, and endeavor to preserve it in full force. Let
+      us by all wise and constitutional measures promote
+      intelligence among the people as the best means of preserving
+      our liberties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dangers from abroad are not less deserving of attention.
+      Experiencing the fortune of other nations, the United States
+      may be again involved in war, and it may in that event be the
+      object of the adverse party to overset our Government, to
+      break our Union, and demolish us as a nation. Our distance
+      from Europe and the just, moderate, and pacific policy of our
+      Government may form some security against these dangers, but
+      they ought to be anticipated and guarded against. Many of our
+      citizens are engaged in commerce and navigation, and all of
+      them are in a certain degree dependent on their prosperous
+      state. Many are engaged in the fisheries. These interests are
+      exposed to invasion in the wars between other powers, and we
+      should disregard the faithful admonition of experience if we
+      did not expect it. We must support our rights or lose our
+      character, and with it, perhaps, our liberties. A people who
+      fail to do it can scarcely be said to hold a place among
+      independent nations. National honor is national property of
+      the highest value. The sentiment in the mind of every citizen
+      is national strength. It ought therefore to be cherished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To secure us against these dangers our coast and inland
+      frontiers should be fortified, our Army and Navy, regulated
+      upon just principles as to the force of each, be kept in
+      perfect order, and our militia be placed on the best
+      practicable footing. To put our extensive coast in such a
+      state of defense as to secure our cities and interior from
+      invasion will be attended with expense, but the work when
+      finished will be permanent, and it is fair to presume that a
+      single campaign of invasion by a naval force superior to our
+      own, aided by a few thousand land troops, would expose us to
+      greater expense, without taking into the estimate the loss of
+      property and distress of our citizens, than would be
+      sufficient for this great work. Our land and naval forces
+      should be moderate, but adequate to the necessary
+      purposes&mdash;the former to garrison and preserve our
+      fortifications and to meet the first invasions of a foreign
+      foe, and, while constituting the elements of a greater force,
+      to preserve the science as well as all the necessary
+      implements of war in a state to be brought into activity in
+      the event of war; the latter, retained within the limits
+      proper in a state of peace, might aid in maintaining the
+      neutrality of the United States with dignity in the wars of
+      other powers and in saving the property of their citizens
+      from spoliation. In time of war, with the enlargement of
+      which the great naval resources of the country render it
+      susceptible, and which should be duly fostered in time of
+      peace, it would contribute essentially, both as an auxiliary
+      of defense and as a powerful engine of annoyance, to diminish
+      the calamities of war and to bring the war to a speedy and
+      honorable termination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it ought always to be held prominently in view that the
+      safety of these States and of everything dear to a free
+      people must depend in an eminent degree on the militia.
+      Invasions may be made too formidable to be resisted by any
+      land and naval force which it would comport either with the
+      principles of our Government or the circumstances of the
+      United States to maintain. In such cases recourse must be had
+      to the great body of the people, and in a manner to produce
+      the best effect. It is of the highest importance, therefore,
+      that they be so organized and trained as to be prepared for
+      any emergency. The arrangement should be such as to put at
+      the command of the Government the ardent patriotism and
+      youthful vigor of the country. If formed on equal and just
+      principles, it can not be oppressive. It is the crisis which
+      makes the pressure, and not the laws which provide a remedy
+      for it. This arrangement should be formed, too, in time of
+      peace, to be the better prepared for war. With such an
+      organization of such a people the United States have nothing
+      to dread from foreign invasion. At its approach an
+      overwhelming force of gallant men might always be put in
+      motion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Other interests of high importance will claim attention,
+      among which the improvement of our country by roads and
+      canals, proceeding always with a constitutional sanction,
+      holds a distinguished place. By thus facilitating the
+      intercourse between the States we shall add much to the
+      convenience and comfort of our fellow-citizens, much to the
+      ornament of the country, and, what is of greater importance,
+      we shall shorten distances, and, by making each part more
+      accessible to and dependent on the other, we shall bind the
+      Union more closely together. Nature has done so much for us
+      by intersecting the country with so many great rivers, bays,
+      and lakes, approaching from distant points so near to each
+      other, that the inducement to complete the work seems to be
+      peculiarly strong. A more interesting spectacle was perhaps
+      never seen than is exhibited within the limits of the United
+      States&mdash;a territory so vast and advantageously situated,
+      containing objects so grand, so useful, so happily connected
+      in all their parts!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our manufactures will likewise require the systematic and
+      fostering care of the Government. Possessing as we do all the
+      raw materials, the fruit of our own soil and industry, we
+      ought not to depend in the degree we have done on supplies
+      from other countries. While we are thus dependent the sudden
+      event of war, unsought and unexpected, can not fail to plunge
+      us into the most serious difficulties, it is important, too,
+      that the capital which nourishes our manufactures should be
+      domestic, as its influence in that case instead of
+      exhausting, as it may do in foreign hands, would be felt
+      advantageously on agriculture and every other branch of
+      industry. Equally important is it to provide at home a market
+      for our raw materials, as by extending the competition it
+      will enhance the price and protect the cultivator against the
+      casualties incident to foreign markets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the Indian tribes it is our duty to cultivate friendly
+      relations and to act with kindness and liberality in all our
+      transactions. Equally proper is it to persevere in our
+      efforts to extend to them the advantages of civilization.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great amount of our revenue and the flourishing state of
+      the Treasury are a full proof of the competency of the
+      national resources for any emergency, as they are of the
+      willingness of our fellow citizens to bear the burdens which
+      the public necessities require. The vast amount of vacant
+      lands, the value of which daily augments, forms an additional
+      resource of great extent and duration. These resources,
+      besides accomplishing every other necessary purpose, put it
+      completely in the power of the United States to discharge the
+      national debt at an early period. Peace is the best time for
+      improvement and preparation of every kind; it is in peace
+      that our commerce flourishes most, that taxes are most easily
+      paid, and that the revenue is most productive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Executive is charged officially in the Departments under
+      it with the disbursement of the public money, and is
+      responsible for the faithful application of it to the
+      purposes for which it is raised. The Legislature is the
+      watchful guardian over the public purse. It is its duty to
+      see that the disbursement has been honestly made. To meet the
+      requisite responsibility every facility should be afforded to
+      the Executive to enable it to bring the public agents
+      intrusted with the public money strictly and promptly to
+      account. Nothing should be presumed against them; but if,
+      with the requisite facilities, the public money is suffered
+      to lie long and uselessly in their hands, they will not be
+      the only defaulters, nor will the demoralizing effect be
+      confined to them. It will evince a relaxation and want of
+      tone in the Administration which will be felt by the whole
+      community. I shall do all I can to secure economy and
+      fidelity in this important branch of the Administration, and
+      I doubt not that the Legislature will perform its duty with
+      equal zeal. A thorough examination should be regularly made,
+      and I will promote it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is particularly gratifying to me to enter on the discharge
+      of these duties at a time when the United States are blessed
+      with peace. It is a state most consistent with their
+      prosperity and happiness. It will be my sincere desire to
+      preserve it, so far as depends on the Executive, on just
+      principles with all nations, claiming nothing unreasonable of
+      any and rendering to each what is its due.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Equally gratifying is it to witness the increased harmony of
+      opinion which pervades our Union. Discord does not belong to
+      our system. Union is recommended as well by the free and
+      benign principles of our Government, extending its blessings
+      to every individual, as by the other eminent advantages
+      attending it. The American people have encountered together
+      great dangers and sustained severe trials with success. They
+      constitute one great family with a common interest.
+      Experience has enlightened us on some questions of essential
+      importance to the country. The progress has been slow,
+      dictated by a just reflection and a faithful regard to every
+      interest connected with it. To promote this harmony in accord
+      with the principles of our republican Government and in a
+      manner to give them the most complete effect, and to advance
+      in all other respects the best interests of our Union, will
+      be the object of my constant and zealous exertions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Never did a government commence under auspices so favorable,
+      nor ever was success so complete. If we look to the history
+      of other nations, ancient or modern, we find no example of a
+      growth so rapid, so gigantic, of a people so prosperous and
+      happy. In contemplating what we have still to perform, the
+      heart of every citizen must expand with joy when he reflects
+      how near our Government has approached to perfection; that in
+      respect to it we have no essential improvement to make; that
+      the great object is to preserve it in the essential
+      principles and features which characterize it, and that that
+      is to be done by preserving the virtue and enlightening the
+      minds of the people; and as a security against foreign
+      dangers to adopt such arrangements as are indispensable to
+      the support of our independence, our rights and liberties. If
+      we persevere in the career in which we have advanced so far
+      and in the path already traced, we can not fail, under the
+      favor of a gracious Providence, to attain the high destiny
+      which seems to await us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the Administrations of the illustrious men who have
+      preceded me in this high station, with some of whom I have
+      been connected by the closest ties from early life, examples
+      are presented which will always be found highly instructive
+      and useful to their successors. From these I shall endeavor
+      to derive all the advantages which they may afford. Of my
+      immediate predecessor, under whom so important a portion of
+      this great and successful experiment has been made, I shall
+      be pardoned for expressing my earnest wishes that he may long
+      enjoy in his retirement the affections of a grateful country,
+      the best reward of exalted talents and the most faithful and
+      meritorious services. Relying on the aid to be derived from
+      the other departments of the Government, I enter on the trust
+      to which I have been called by the suffrages of my fellow
+      citizens with my fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will
+      be graciously pleased to continue to us that protection which
+      He has already so conspicuously displayed in our favor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      MARCH 4, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PROCLAMATION.
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      [From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 12, p. 176.]
+    </center>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Whereas by an act entitled "An act providing for the sale of
+      the tract of land at the lower rapids of Sandusky River,"
+      passed on the 27th day of April, 1816, it was enacted that
+      all the lands in the said tract, except the reservations made
+      in the said act, should be offered for sale to the highest
+      bidder at Wooster, in the State of Ohio, under the direction
+      of the register of the land office and the receiver of public
+      moneys at Wooster, and on such day or days as shall, by a
+      public proclamation of the President of the United States, be
+      designated for that purpose; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas by an act entitled "An act providing for the sale of
+      the tract of land at the British fort at the Miami of the
+      Lake, at the foot of the rapids, and for other purposes,"
+      passed the 27th day of April, 1816, it was enacted that all
+      the land contained in the said tract, except the reservations
+      and exceptions made in the said act, should be offered for
+      sale to the highest bidder at Wooster, in the State of Ohio,
+      under the direction of the register of the land office and
+      the receiver of public moneys at Wooster, and on such day or
+      days as shall, by a public proclamation of the President of
+      the United States, be designated for that purpose:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wherefore I, James Monroe, President of the United States, in
+      conformity with the provisions of the acts before recited, do
+      hereby declare and make known that the lands authorized to be
+      sold by the first mentioned act shall be offered for sale to
+      the highest bidder at Wooster, in the State of Ohio, on the
+      first Monday in July next, and continue open for seven days
+      and no longer, and that the lands authorized to be sold by
+      the last-mentioned act shall be offered for sale to the
+      highest bidder at the same place on the third Tuesday in July
+      next, and continue open for seven days and no longer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Given under my hand this 15th day of April, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+       By the President:<br>
+      J. MEIGS,<br>
+       <i>Commissioner of the General Land Office</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of
+      Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At no period of our political existence had we so much cause
+      to felicitate ourselves at the prosperous and happy condition
+      of our country. The abundant fruits of the earth have filled
+      it with plenty. An extensive and profitable commerce has
+      greatly augmented our revenue. The public credit has attained
+      an extraordinary elevation. Our preparations for defense in
+      case of future wars, from which, by the experience of all
+      nations, we ought not to expect to be exempted, are advancing
+      under a well-digested system with all the dispatch which so
+      important a work will admit. Our free Government, founded on
+      the interest and affections of the people, has gained and is
+      daily gaining strength. Local jealousies are rapidly yielding
+      to more generous, enlarged, and enlightened views of national
+      policy. For advantages so numerous and highly important it is
+      our duty to unite in grateful acknowledgments to that
+      Omnipotent Being from whom they are derived, and in unceasing
+      prayer that He will endow us with virtue and strength to
+      maintain and hand them down in their utmost purity to our
+      latest posterity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have the satisfaction to inform you that an arrangement
+      which had been commenced by my predecessor with the British
+      Government for the reduction of the naval force by Great
+      Britain and the United States on the Lakes has been
+      concluded, by which it is provided that neither party shall
+      keep in service on Lake Champlain more than one vessel, on
+      Lake Ontario more than one, and on Lake Erie and the upper
+      lakes more than two, to be armed each with one cannon only,
+      and that all the other armed vessels of both parties, of
+      which an exact list is interchanged, shall be dismantled. It
+      is also agreed that the force retained shall be restricted in
+      its duty to the internal purposes of each party, and that the
+      arrangement shall remain in force until six months shall have
+      expired after notice given by one of the parties to the other
+      of its desire that it should terminate. By this arrangement
+      useless expense on both sides and, what is of still greater
+      importance, the danger of collision between armed vessels in
+      those inland waters, which was great, is prevented.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have the satisfaction also to state that the commissioners
+      under the fourth article of the treaty of Ghent, to whom it
+      was referred to decide to which party the several islands in
+      the bay of Passamaquoddy belonged under the treaty of 1783,
+      have agreed in a report, by which all the islands in the
+      possession of each party before the late war have been
+      decreed to it. The commissioners acting under the other
+      articles of the treaty of Ghent for the settlement of
+      boundaries have also been engaged in the discharge, of their
+      respective duties, but have not yet completed them. The
+      difference which arose between the two Governments under that
+      treaty respecting the right of the United States to take and
+      cure fish on the coast of the British provinces north of our
+      limits, which had been secured by the treaty of 1783, is
+      still in negotiation. The proposition made by this Government
+      to extend to the colonies of Great Britain the principle of
+      the convention of London, by which the commerce between the
+      ports of the United States and British ports in Europe had
+      been placed on a footing of equality, has been declined by
+      the British Government. This subject having been thus
+      amicably discussed between the two Governments, and it
+      appearing that the British Government is unwilling to depart
+      from its present regulations, it remains for Congress to
+      decide whether they will make any other regulations in
+      consequence thereof for the protection and improvement of our
+      navigation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The negotiation with Spain for spoliations on our commerce
+      and the settlement of boundaries remains essentially in the
+      state it held by the communications that were made to
+      Congress by my predecessor. It has been evidently the policy
+      of the Spanish Government to keep the negotiation suspended,
+      and in this the United States have acquiesced, from an
+      amicable disposition toward Spain and in the expectation that
+      her Government would, from a sense of justice, finally accede
+      to such an arrangement as would be equal between the parties.
+      A disposition has been lately shown by the Spanish Government
+      to move in the negotiation, which has been met by this
+      Government, and should the conciliatory and friendly policy
+      which has invariably guided our councils be reciprocated, a
+      just and satisfactory arrangement maybe expected. It is
+      proper, however, to remark that no proposition has yet been
+      made from which such a result can be presumed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was anticipated at an early stage that the contest between
+      Spain and the colonies would become highly interesting to the
+      United States. It was natural that our citizens should
+      sympathize in events which affected their neighbors. It
+      seemed probable also that the prosecution of the conflict
+      along our coast and in contiguous countries would
+      occasionally interrupt our commerce and otherwise affect the
+      persons and property of our citizens. These anticipations
+      have been realized. Such injuries have been received from
+      persons acting under authority of both the parties, and for
+      which redress has in most instances been withheld. Through
+      every stage of the conflict the United States have maintained
+      an impartial neutrality, giving aid to neither of the parties
+      in men, money, ships, or munitions of war. They have regarded
+      the contest not in the light of an ordinary insurrection or
+      rebellion, but as a civil war between parties nearly equal,
+      having as to neutral powers equal rights. Our ports have been
+      open to both, and every article the fruit of our soil or of
+      the industry of our citizens which either was permitted to
+      take has been equally free to the other. Should the colonies
+      establish their independence, it is proper now to state that
+      this Government neither seeks nor would accept from them any
+      advantage in commerce or otherwise which will not be equally
+      open to all other nations. The colonies will in that event
+      become independent states, free from any obligation to or
+      connection with us which it may not then be their interest to
+      form on the basis of a fair reciprocity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the summer of the present year an expedition was set on
+      foot against East Florida by persons claiming to act under
+      the authority of some of the colonies, who took possession of
+      Amelia Island, at the mouth of the St. Marys River, near the
+      boundary of the State of Georgia. As this Province lies
+      eastward of the Mississippi, and is bounded by the United
+      States and the ocean on every side, and has been a subject of
+      negotiation with the Government of Spain as an indemnity for
+      losses by spoliation or in exchange for territory of equal
+      value westward of the Mississippi, a fact well known to the
+      world, it excited surprise that any countenance should be
+      given to this measure by any of the colonies. As it would be
+      difficult to reconcile it with the friendly relations
+      existing between the United States and the colonies, a doubt
+      was entertained whether it had been authorized by them, or
+      any of them. This doubt has gained strength by the
+      circumstances which have unfolded themselves in the
+      prosecution of the enterprise, which have marked it as a mere
+      private, unauthorized adventure. Projected and commenced with
+      an incompetent force, reliance seems to have been placed on
+      what might be drawn, in defiance of our laws, from within our
+      limits; and of late, as their resources have failed, it has
+      assumed a more marked character of unfriendliness to us, the
+      island being made a channel for the illicit introduction of
+      slaves from Africa into the United States, an asylum for
+      fugitive slaves from the neighboring States, and a port for
+      smuggling of every kind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A similar establishment was made at an earlier period by
+      persons of the same description in the Gulf of Mexico at a
+      place called Galvezton, within the limits of the United
+      States, as we contend, under the cession of Louisiana. This
+      enterprise has been marked in a more signal manner by all the
+      objectionable circumstances which characterized the other,
+      and more particularly by the equipment of privateers which
+      have annoyed our commerce, and by smuggling. These
+      establishments, if ever sanctioned by any authority whatever,
+      which is not believed, have abused their trust and forfeited
+      all claim to consideration. A just regard for the rights and
+      interests of the United States required that they should be
+      suppressed, and orders have been accordingly issued to that
+      effect. The imperious considerations which produced this
+      measure will be explained to the parties whom it may in any
+      degree concern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To obtain correct information on every subject in which the
+      United States are interested; to inspire just sentiments in
+      all persons in authority, on either side, of our friendly
+      disposition so far as it may comport with an impartial
+      neutrality, and to secure proper respect to our commerce in
+      every port and from every flag, it has been thought proper to
+      send a ship of war with three distinguished citizens along
+      the southern coast with instruction to touch at such ports as
+      they may find most expedient for these purposes. With the
+      existing authorities, with those in the possession of and
+      exercising the sovereignty, must the communication be held;
+      from them alone can redress for past injuries committed by
+      persons acting under them be obtained; by them alone can the
+      commission of the like in future be prevented.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our relations with the other powers of Europe have
+      experienced no essential change since the last session. In
+      our intercourse with each due attention continues to be paid
+      to the protection of our commerce, and to every other object
+      in which the United States are interested. A strong hope is
+      entertained that, by adhering to the maxims of a just, a
+      candid, and friendly policy, we may long preserve amicable
+      relations with all the powers of Europe on conditions
+      advantageous and honorable to our country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the Barbary States and the Indian tribes our pacific
+      relations have been preserved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In calling your attention to the internal concerns of our
+      country the view which they exhibit is peculiarly gratifying.
+      The payments which have been made into the Treasury show the
+      very productive state of the public revenue. After satisfying
+      the appropriations made by law for the support of the civil
+      Government and of the military and naval establishments,
+      embracing suitable provision for fortifications and for the
+      gradual increase of the Navy, paying the interest of the
+      public debt, and extinguishing more than eighteen millions of
+      the principal, within the present year, it is estimated that
+      a balance of more than $6,000,000 will remain in the Treasury
+      on the 1st day of January applicable to the current service
+      of the ensuing year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The payments into the Treasury during the year 1818 on
+      account of imposts and tonnage, resulting principally from
+      duties which have accrued in the present year, may be fairly
+      estimated at $20,000,000; the internal revenues at
+      $2,500,000; the public lands at $1,500,000; bank dividends
+      and incidental receipts at $500,000; making in the whole
+      $24,500,000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The annual permanent expenditure for the support of the civil
+      Government and of the Army and Navy, as now established by
+      law, amounts to $11,800,000, and for the sinking fund to
+      $10,000,000, making in the whole $21,800,000, leaving an
+      annual excess of revenue beyond the expenditure of
+      $2,700,000, exclusive of the balance estimated to be in the
+      Treasury on the 1st day of January, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the present state of the Treasury the whole of the
+      Louisiana debt maybe redeemed in the year 1819, after which,
+      if the public debt continues as it now is, above par, there
+      will be annually about five millions of the sinking fund
+      unexpended until the year 1825, when the loan of 1812 and the
+      stock created by funding Treasury notes will be redeemable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is also estimated that the Mississippi stock will be
+      discharged during the year 1819 from the proceeds of the
+      public lands assigned to that object, after which the
+      receipts from those lands will annually add to the public
+      revenue the sum of one million and a half, making the
+      permanent annual revenue amount to $26,000,000, and leaving
+      an annual excess of revenue after the year 1819 beyond the
+      permanent authorized expenditure of more than $4,000,000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the last returns to the Department of War the militia
+      force of the several States may be estimated at 800,000
+      men&mdash;infantry, artillery, and cavalry. Great part of
+      this force is armed, and measures are taken to arm the whole.
+      An improvement in the organization and discipline of the
+      militia is one of the great objects which claims the
+      unremitted attention of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The regular force amounts nearly to the number required by
+      law, and is stationed along the Atlantic and inland
+      frontiers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the naval force it has been necessary to maintain strong
+      squadrons in the Mediterranean and in the Gulf of Mexico.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From several of the Indian tribes inhabiting the country
+      bordering on Lake Erie purchases have been made of lands on
+      conditions very favorable to the United States, and, as it is
+      presumed, not less so to the tribes themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By these purchases the Indian title, with moderate
+      reservations, has been extinguished to the whole of the land
+      within the limits of the State of Ohio, and to a part of that
+      in the Michigan Territory and of the State of Indiana. From
+      the Cherokee tribe a tract has been purchased in the State of
+      Georgia and an arrangement made by which, in exchange for
+      lands beyond the Mississippi, a great part, if not the whole,
+      of the land belonging to that tribe eastward of that river in
+      the States of North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, and in
+      the Alabama Territory will soon be acquired. By these
+      acquisitions, and others that may reasonably be expected soon
+      to follow, we shall be enabled to extend our settlements from
+      the inhabited parts of the State of Ohio along Lake Erie into
+      the Michigan Territory, and to connect our settlements by
+      degrees through the State of Indiana and the Illinois
+      Territory to that of Missouri. A similar and equally
+      advantageous effect will soon be produced to the south,
+      through the whole extent of the States and territory which
+      border on the waters emptying into the Mississippi and the
+      Mobile. In this progress, which the rights of nature demand
+      and nothing can prevent, marking a growth rapid and gigantic,
+      it is our duty to make new efforts for the preservation,
+      improvement, and civilization of the native inhabitants. The
+      hunter state can exist only in the vast uncultivated desert.
+      It yields to the more dense and compact form and greater
+      force of civilized population; and of right it ought to
+      yield, for the earth was given to mankind to support the
+      greatest number of which it is capable, and no tribe or
+      people have a right to withhold from the wants of others more
+      than is necessary for their own support and comfort. It is
+      gratifying to know that the reservations of land made by the
+      treaties with the tribes on Lake Erie were made with a view
+      to individual ownership among them and to the cultivation of
+      the soil by all, and that an annual stipend has been pledged
+      to supply their other wants. It will merit the consideration
+      of Congress whether other provision not stipulated by treaty
+      ought to be made for these tribes and for the advancement of
+      the liberal and humane policy of the United States toward all
+      the tribes within our limits, and more particularly for their
+      improvement in the arts of civilized life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the advantages incident to these purchases, and to
+      those which have preceded, the security which may thereby be
+      afforded to our inland frontiers is peculiarly important.
+      With a strong barrier, consisting of our own people, thus
+      planted on the Lakes, the Mississippi, and the Mobile, with
+      the protection to be derived from the regular force, Indian
+      hostilities, if they do not altogether cease, will henceforth
+      lose their terror. Fortifications in those quarters to any
+      extent will not be necessary, and the expense attending them
+      may be saved. A people accustomed to the use of firearms
+      only, as the Indian tribes are, will shun even moderate works
+      which are defended by cannon. Great fortifications will
+      therefore be requisite only in future along the coast and at
+      some points in the interior connected with it. On these will
+      the safety of our towns and the commerce of our great rivers,
+      from the Bay of Fundy to the Mississippi, depend. On these,
+      therefore, should the utmost attention, skill, and labor be
+      bestowed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A considerable and rapid augmentation in the value of all the
+      public lands, proceeding from these and other obvious causes,
+      may henceforward be expected. The difficulties attending
+      early emigrations will be dissipated even in the most remote
+      parts. Several new States have been admitted into our Union
+      to the west and south, and Territorial governments, happily
+      organized, established over every other portion in which
+      there is vacant land for sale. In terminating Indian
+      hostilities, as must soon be done, in a formidable shape at
+      least, the emigration, which has heretofore been great, will
+      probably increase, and the demand for land and the
+      augmentation in its value be in like proportion. The great
+      increase of our population throughout the Union will alone
+      produce an important effect, and in no quarter will it be so
+      sensibly felt as in those in contemplation. The public lands
+      are a public stock, which ought to be disposed of to the best
+      advantage for the nation. The nation should therefore derive
+      the profit proceeding from the continual rise in their value.
+      Every encouragement should be given to the emigrants
+      consistent with a fair competition between them, but that
+      competition should operate in the first sale to the advantage
+      of the nation rather than of individuals. Great capitalists
+      will derive all the benefit incident to their superior wealth
+      under any mode of sale which may be adopted. But if, looking
+      forward to the rise in the value of the public lands, they
+      should have the opportunity of amassing at a low price vast
+      bodies in their hands, the profit will accrue to them and not
+      to the public. They would also have the power in that degree
+      to control the emigration and settlement in such a manner as
+      their opinion of their respective interests might dictate. I
+      submit this subject to the consideration of Congress, that
+      such further provision may be made in the sale of the public
+      lands, with a view to the public interest, should any be
+      deemed expedient, as in their judgment may be best adapted to
+      the object.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When we consider the vast extent of territory within the
+      United States, the great amount and value of its productions,
+      the connection of its parts, and other circumstances on which
+      their prosperity and happiness depend, we can not fail to
+      entertain a high sense of the advantage to be derived from
+      the facility which may be afforded in the intercourse between
+      them by means of good roads and canals. Never did a country
+      of such vast extent offer equal inducements to improvements
+      of this kind, nor ever were consequences of such magnitude
+      involved in them. As this subject was acted on by Congress at
+      the last session, and there may be a disposition to revive it
+      at the present, I have brought it into view for the purpose
+      of communicating my sentiments on a very important
+      circumstance connected with it with that freedom and candor
+      which a regard for the public interest and a proper respect
+      for Congress require. A difference of opinion has existed
+      from the first formation of our Constitution to the present
+      time among our most enlightened and virtuous citizens
+      respecting the right of Congress to establish such a system
+      of improvement. Taking into view the trust with which I am
+      now honored, it would be improper after what has passed that
+      this discussion should be revived with an uncertainty of my
+      opinion respecting the right. Disregarding early impressions,
+      I have bestowed on the subject all the deliberation which its
+      great importance and a just sense of my duty required, and
+      the result is a settled conviction in my mind that Congress
+      do not possess the right. It is not contained in any of the
+      specified powers granted to Congress, nor can I consider it
+      incidental to or a necessary means, viewed on the most
+      liberal scale, for carrying into effect any of the powers
+      which are specifically granted. In communicating this result
+      I can not resist the obligation which I feel to suggest to
+      Congress the propriety of recommending to the States the
+      adoption of an amendment to the Constitution which shall give
+      to Congress the right in question. In cases of doubtful
+      construction, especially of such vital interest, it comports
+      with the nature and origin of our institutions, and will
+      contribute much to preserve them, to apply to our
+      constituents for an explicit grant of the power. We may
+      confidently rely that if it appears to their satisfaction
+      that the power is necessary, it will always be granted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this case I am happy to observe that experience has
+      afforded the most ample proof of its utility, and that the
+      benign spirit of conciliation and harmony which now manifests
+      itself throughout our Union promises to such a recommendation
+      the most prompt and favorable result. I think proper to
+      suggest also, in case this measure is adopted, that it be
+      recommended to the States to include in the amendment sought
+      a right in Congress to institute likewise seminaries of
+      learning, for the all-important purpose of diffusing
+      knowledge among our fellow-citizens throughout the United
+      States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our manufactories will require the continued attention of
+      Congress. The capital employed in them is considerable, and
+      the knowledge acquired in the machinery and fabric of all the
+      most useful manufactures is of great value. Their
+      preservation, which depends on due encouragement is connected
+      with the high interests of the nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the progress of the public buildings has been as
+      favorable as circumstances have permitted, it is to be
+      regretted that the Capitol is not yet in a state to receive
+      you. There is good cause to presume that the two wings, the
+      only parts as yet commenced, will be prepared for that
+      purpose at the next session. The time seems now to have
+      arrived when this subject may be deemed worthy the attention
+      of Congress on a scale adequate to national purposes. The
+      completion of the middle building will be necessary to the
+      convenient accommodation of Congress, of the committees, and
+      various offices belonging to it. It is evident that the other
+      public buildings are altogether insufficient for the
+      accommodation of the several Executive Departments, some of
+      whom are much crowded and even subjected to the necessity of
+      obtaining it in private buildings at some distance from the
+      head of the Department, and with inconvenience to the
+      management of the public business. Most nations have taken an
+      interest and a pride in the improvement and ornament of their
+      metropolis, and none were more conspicuous in that respect
+      than the ancient republics. The policy which dictated the
+      establishment of a permanent residence for the National
+      Government and the spirit in which it was commenced and has
+      been prosecuted show that such improvement was thought worthy
+      the attention of this nation. Its central position, between
+      the northern and southern extremes of our Union, and its
+      approach to the west at the head of a great navigable river
+      which interlocks with the Western waters, prove the wisdom of
+      the councils which established it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing appears to be more reasonable and proper than that
+      convenient accommodation should be provided on a
+      well-digested plan for the heads of the several Departments
+      and for the Attorney-General, and it is believed that the
+      public ground in the city applied to these objects will be
+      found amply sufficient. I submit this subject to the
+      consideration of Congress, that such further provision may be
+      made in it as to them may seem proper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In contemplating the happy situation of the United States,
+      our attention is drawn with peculiar interest to the
+      surviving officers and soldiers of our Revolutionary army,
+      who so eminently contributed by their services to lay its
+      foundation. Most of those very meritorious citizens have paid
+      the debt of nature and gone to repose. It is believed that
+      among the survivors there are some not provided for by
+      existing laws, who are reduced to indigence and even to real
+      distress. These men have a claim on the gratitude of their
+      country, and it will do honor to their country to provide for
+      them. The lapse of a few years more and the opportunity will
+      be forever lost; indeed, so long already has been the
+      interval that the number to be benefited by any provision
+      which may be made will not be great.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It appearing in a satisfactory manner that the revenue
+      arising from imposts and tonnage and from the sale of the
+      public lands will be fully adequate to the support of the
+      civil Government, of the present military and naval
+      establishments, including the annual augmentation of the
+      latter to the extent provided for, to the payment of the
+      interest of the public debt, and to the extinguishment of it
+      at the times authorized, without the aid of the internal
+      taxes, I consider it my duty to recommend to Congress their
+      repeal. To impose taxes when the public exigencies require
+      them is an obligation of the most sacred character,
+      especially with a free people. The faithful fulfillment of it
+      is among the highest proofs of their virtue and capacity for
+      self-government. To dispense with taxes when it may be done
+      with perfect safety is equally the duty of their
+      representatives. In this instance we have the satisfaction to
+      know that they were imposed when the demand was imperious,
+      and have been sustained with exemplary fidelity. I have to
+      add that however gratifying it may be to me regarding the
+      prosperous and happy condition of our country to recommend
+      the repeal of these taxes at this time, I shall nevertheless
+      be attentive to events, and, should any future emergency
+      occur, be not less prompt to suggest such measures and
+      burdens as may then be requisite and proper.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      DECEMBER 2, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I submit to the Senate, for their consideration and advice,
+      the following treaties entered into with several of the
+      Indian tribes, to wit:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A treaty of peace and friendship made and concluded by
+      William Clark, Ninian Edwards, and Auguste Choteau,
+      commissioners on the part of the United States of America,
+      and the chiefs and warriors of the Menomene tribe or nation
+      of Indians, on the 30th of March, 1817, at St. Louis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A treaty of peace and friendship made and concluded on the
+      4th June, 1817, at St. Louis, by William Clark, Ninian
+      Edwards, and Auguste Choteau, commissioners on the part of
+      the United States of America, and the chiefs and warriors of
+      the Ottoes tribe of Indians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A treaty of peace and friendship made and concluded on the
+      5th June, 1817, at St. Louis, by William Clark, Ninian
+      Edwards, and Auguste Choteau, commissioners on the part of
+      the United States of America, and the chiefs and warriors of
+      the Poncarar tribe of Indians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A treaty concluded at the Cherokee Agency on the 8th of July,
+      1817, between Major-General Andrew Jackson, Joseph McMinn,
+      governor of the State of Tennessee, and General David
+      Meriwether, commissioners of the United States of America, of
+      the one part, and the chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the
+      Cherokee Nation east of the Mississippi River and the chiefs,
+      headmen, and warriors of the Cherokees on the Arkansas River,
+      and their deputies, John D. Chisholm and James Rogers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A treaty concluded on the 29th day of September, 1817, at the
+      foot of the Rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie, between Lewis
+      Cass and Duncan McArthur, commissioners of the United States,
+      and the sachems, chiefs, and warriors of the Wyandot, Seneca,
+      Delaware, Shawnese, Potawatamies, Ottawas, and Chippewa
+      tribes of Indians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Wyandots and other tribes parties to the treaty lately
+      concluded with them have, by a deputation to this city,
+      requested permission to retain possession of such lands as
+      they actually cultivate and reside on, for the ensuing year.
+      They have also expressed a desire that the reservations made
+      in their favor should be enlarged, representing that they had
+      entered into the treaty in full confidence that that would be
+      done, preferring a reliance on the justice of the United
+      States for such extension rather than that the treaty should
+      fail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Wyandots claim an extension of their reservation to 16
+      miles square, and the other tribes in a proportional degree.
+      Sufficient information is not now in the possession of the
+      Executive to enable it to decide how far it may be proper to
+      comply with the wishes of these tribes in the extent desired.
+      The necessary information may be obtained in the course of
+      the next year, and if they are permitted to remain in the
+      possession of the lands they cultivate during that time such
+      further extension of their reservations may be made by law at
+      the next session as justice and a liberal policy toward these
+      people may require. It is submitted to the consideration of
+      the Senate whether it may not be proper to annex to their
+      advice and consent for the ratification of the treaty a
+      declaration providing for the above objects.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      DECEMBER 11, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 15, 1817</i>.
+    </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 8th of this month, I transmit, for the
+      information of the House, a report from the Secretary of
+      State, with the documents referred to in it, containing all
+      the information in the possession of the Executive which it
+      is proper to disclose, relative to certain persons who lately
+      took possession of Amelia Island and Galvezton.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 18, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 11th
+      of this month, I transmit, for the information of the Senate,
+      a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, relating to the
+      progress made in surveying the several tracts of military
+      bounty lands appropriated by Congress for the late army of
+      the United States, and the time at which such survey will
+      probably be completed.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 22, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 11th of this month, requesting to be
+      informed of the present strength of the Army of the United
+      States, its distribution among the several military posts
+      which it is designed to protect, and its competency to
+      preserve and defend the fortifications amongst which it is
+      distributed, and to aid in constructing such other military
+      works, if any, as it may be deemed proper to erect for the
+      more effectual security of the United States and of the
+      Territories thereof, I now transmit a report from the
+      Secretary of War which contains the information desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 29, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 16th of
+      this month, requesting information touching the execution of
+      so much of the first article of the treaty of Ghent as
+      relates to the restitution of slaves, which has not
+      heretofore been communicated, I now transmit a report of the
+      Secretary of State on that subject.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 29, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 12th of this month, requesting to be
+      informed whether any, and which, of the Representatives in a
+      list thereto annexed have held offices since the 4th of March
+      last, designating the offices, the times of appointment and
+      acceptance, and whether they were at that time so held or
+      when they had been resigned, I now transmit a report from the
+      Secretary of State which contains the information desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 12, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The claim of the representatives of the late Caron de
+      Beaumarchais having been recommended to the favorable
+      consideration of the Legislature by my predecessor in his
+      message to Congress of the 31st of January last, and
+      concurring in the sentiments therein expressed, I now
+      transmit copies of a new representation relative to it
+      received by the Secretary of State from the minister of
+      France, and of a correspondence on the subject between the
+      minister of the United States at Paris and the Duke of
+      Richelieu, inclosed with that representation.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have the satisfaction to inform Congress that the
+      establishment at Amelia Island has been suppressed, and
+      without the effusion of blood. The papers which explain this
+      transaction I now lay before Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the suppression of this establishment and of that at
+      Galveztown, which will soon follow; if it has not already
+      ceased to exist, there is good cause to believe that the
+      consummation of a project fraught with much injury to the
+      United States has been prevented.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When we consider the persons engaged in it, being adventurers
+      from different countries, with very few, if any, of the
+      native inhabitants of the Spanish colonies; the territory on
+      which the establishments were made&mdash;one on a portion of
+      that claimed by the United States westward of the
+      Mississippi, the other on a part of East Florida, a Province
+      in negotiation between the United States and Spain; the claim
+      of their leader as announced by his proclamation on taking
+      possession of Amelia Island, comprising the whole of both the
+      Floridas, without excepting that part of West Florida which
+      is incorporated into the State of Louisiana; their conduct
+      while in the possession of the island making it instrumental
+      to every species of contraband, and, in regard to slaves, of
+      the most odious and dangerous character, it may fairly be
+      concluded that if the enterprise had succeeded on the scale
+      on which it was formed much annoyance and injury would have
+      resulted from it to the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Other circumstances were thought to be no less deserving of
+      attention. The institution of a government by foreign
+      adventurers in the island, distinct from the colonial
+      governments of Buenos Ayres, Venezuela, or Mexico, pretending
+      to sovereignty and exercising its highest offices,
+      particularly in granting commissions to privateers, were acts
+      which could not fail to draw after them the most serious
+      consequences. It was the duty of the Executive either to
+      extend to this establishment all the advantages of that
+      neutrality which the United States had proclaimed, and have
+      observed in favor of the colonies of Spain who, by the
+      strength of their own population and resources, had declared
+      their independence and were affording strong proof of their
+      ability to maintain it, or of making the discrimination which
+      circumstances required.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had the first course been pursued, we should not only have
+      sanctioned all the unlawful claims and practices of this
+      pretended Government in regard to the United States, but have
+      countenanced a system of privateering in the Gulf of Mexico
+      and elsewhere the ill effects of which might, and probably
+      would, have been deeply and very extensively felt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The path of duty was plain from the commencement, but it was
+      painful to enter upon it while the obligation could be
+      resisted. The law of 1811, lately published, and which it is
+      therefore proper now to mention, was considered applicable to
+      the case from the moment that the proclamation of the chief
+      of the enterprise was seen, and its obligation was daily
+      increased by other considerations of high importance already
+      mentioned, which were deemed sufficiently strong in
+      themselves to dictate the course which has been pursued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early intimation having been received of the dangerous
+      purposes of these adventurers, timely precautions were taken
+      by the establishment of a force near the St. Marys to prevent
+      their effect, or it is probable that it would have been more
+      sensibly felt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To such establishments, made so near to our settlements in
+      the expectation of deriving aid from them, it is particularly
+      gratifying to find that very little encouragement was given.
+      The example so conspicuously displayed by our fellow-citizens
+      that their sympathies can not be perverted to improper
+      purposes, but that a love of country, the influence of moral
+      principles, and a respect for the laws are predominant with
+      them, is a sure pledge that all the very flattering
+      anticipations which have been formed of the success of our
+      institutions will be realized. This example has proved that
+      if our relations with foreign powers are to be changed it
+      must be done by the constituted authorities, who alone,
+      acting on a high responsibility, are competent to the
+      purpose, and until such change is thus made that our
+      fellow-citizens will respect the existing relations by a
+      faithful adherence to the laws which secure them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Believing that this enterprise, though undertaken by persons
+      some of whom may have held commissions from some of the
+      colonies, was unauthorized by and unknown to the colonial
+      governments, full confidence is entertained that it will be
+      disclaimed by them, and that effectual measures will be taken
+      to prevent the abuse of their authority in all cases to the
+      injury of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For these injuries, especially those proceeding from Amelia
+      Island, Spain would be responsible if it was not manifest
+      that, though committed in the latter instance through her
+      territory, she was utterly unable to prevent them. Her
+      territory, however, ought not to be made instrumental,
+      through her inability to defend it, to purposes so injurious
+      to the United States. To a country over which she fails to
+      maintain her authority, and which she permits to be converted
+      to the annoyance of her neighbors, her jurisdiction for the
+      time necessarily ceases to exist. The territory of Spain will
+      nevertheless be respected so far as it may be done
+      consistently with the essential interests and safety of the
+      United States. In expelling these adventurers from these
+      posts it was not intended to make any conquest from Spain or
+      to injure in any degree the cause of the colonies. Care will
+      be taken that no part of the territory contemplated by the
+      law of 1811 shall be occupied by a foreign government of any
+      kind, or that injuries of the nature of those complained of
+      shall be repeated; but this, it is expected, will be provided
+      for with every other interest in a spirit of amity in the
+      negotiation now depending with the Government of Spain.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      JANUARY 13, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 23, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 9th of December last, requesting
+      information of what roads have been made or are in progress
+      under the authority of the Executive of the United States,
+      the States and Territories through which they pass or are
+      intended to pass, the periods when they were ordered to be
+      made, and how far they have been executed, I now communicate
+      a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, and likewise a
+      report from the Secretary of War, containing the information
+      which is desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 28, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 22d of
+      this month, requesting to be informed "in what manner the
+      troops in the service of the United States now operating
+      against the Seminole tribe of Indians have been subsisted,
+      whether by contract or otherwise, and whether they have been
+      furnished regularly with rations," I now transmit a report
+      from the Secretary of War containing the information
+      required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 29, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 23d of December last, requesting
+      information relative to the imprisonment and detention in
+      confinement of Richard W. Meade, a citizen of the United
+      States, I now transmit to the House a report from the
+      Secretary of State containing the information required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 8th of
+      last month, requesting me to cause to be laid before it the
+      proceedings which may have been had under an act entitled "An
+      act for the gradual increase of the Navy of the United
+      States," specifying the number of ships put on the stocks and
+      of what class; the quantity of materials procured for
+      shipbuilding, and also the sums of money which may have been
+      paid out of the fund created by said act, and for what
+      objects; and likewise the contracts which may have been
+      entered into in execution of the act aforesaid on which
+      moneys may not yet have been advanced, I now transmit a
+      report of the Secretary of the Navy, accompanied by a report
+      from the Board of Commissioners of the Navy, with documents
+      which contain the information desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      FEBRUARY 2, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 6, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the
+      Secretary of State, in compliance with the resolution of said
+      House requesting information respecting the ratification of
+      the thirteenth article of the amendments to the Constitution
+      of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 10, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the house appropriated for the President of the United
+      States will be finished this year, it is thought to merit the
+      attention of the Congress in what manner it should be
+      furnished and what measures ought to be adopted for the
+      safe-keeping of the furniture in future. All the public
+      furniture provided before 1814 having been destroyed with the
+      public buildings in that year, and little afterwards
+      procured, owing to the inadequacy of the appropriation, it
+      has become necessary to provide almost every article
+      requisite for such an establishment, whence the sum to be
+      expended will be much greater than at any former period. The
+      furniture in its kind and extent is thought to be an object
+      not less deserving attention than the building for which it
+      is intended. Both being national objects, each seems to have
+      an equal claim to legislative sanction. The disbursement of
+      the public money, too, ought, it is presumed, to be in like
+      manner provided for by law. The person who may happen to be
+      placed by the suffrage of his fellow-citizens in the high
+      trust, having no personal interest in these concerns, should
+      be exempted from undue responsibility respecting them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a building so extensive, intended for a purpose
+      exclusively national, in which in the furniture provided for
+      it a mingled regard is due to the simplicity and purity of
+      our institutions and to the character of the people who are
+      represented in it, the sum already appropriated has proved
+      altogether inadequate, The present is therefore a proper time
+      for Congress to take the subject into consideration, with a
+      view to all the objects claiming attention, and to regulate
+      it by law. On a knowledge of the furniture procured and the
+      sum expended for it a just estimate may be formed regarding
+      the extent of the building of what will still be wanting to
+      furnish the house. Many of the articles, being of a durable
+      nature, may be handed down through a long series of service,
+      and being of great value, such as plate, ought not to be left
+      altogether and at all times to the care of servants alone. It
+      seems to be advisable that a public agent Should be charged
+      with it during the occasional absences of the President, and
+      have authority to transfer it from one President to another,
+      and likewise to make reports of occasional deficiencies, as
+      the basis on which further provision should be made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may also merit consideration whether it may not be proper
+      to commit the care of the public buildings, particularly the
+      President's house and the Capitol, with the grounds belonging
+      to them, including likewise the furniture of the latter, in a
+      more special manner to a public agent. Hitherto the charge of
+      this valuable property seems to have been connected with the
+      structure of the buildings and committed to those employed in
+      it. This guard will necessarily cease when the buildings are
+      finished, at which time the interest in them will be
+      proportionably augmented. It is presumed that this trust is,
+      in a certain degree at least, incidental to the other duties
+      of the superintendent of the public buildings, but it may
+      merit consideration whether it will not be proper to charge
+      him with it more explicitly, and to give him authority to
+      employ one or more persons under him for these purposes.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 12, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before the House of Representatives copies of two
+      communications received at the Department of State from the
+      minister of Great Britain, and submit to their consideration
+      the propriety of making such legislative provisions as may be
+      necessary for a compliance with the representations contained
+      in them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the express terms of that compact it was, when ratified by
+      the two Governments, to be in force for the term of four
+      years <i>from the day of its signature</i>. The revocation of
+      all the discriminating duties became, therefore, the
+      obligation of both Governments <i>from that day</i>, and it
+      is conceived that every individual who has been required to
+      pay, and who has paid, any of the extra duties revoked by the
+      convention has a just and lawful claim upon the respective
+      Governments for its return. From various accidents it has
+      happened that both here and in Great Britain the cessation of
+      the extra duties has been fixed to commence at different
+      times. It is desirable that Congress should pass an act
+      providing for the return of <i>all</i> the extra duties
+      <i>incompatible with the terms of the convention</i> which
+      have been levied upon British vessels or merchandise after
+      the 3d of July, 1815. The British Parliament have already set
+      the example of fixing that day for the cessation of the extra
+      duties of export by their act of 30th of June last, and the
+      minister of the United States in London is instructed to
+      require the extension of the same principle to <i>all</i> the
+      extra duties levied on vessels and merchandise of the United
+      States in the ports of Great Britain since that day. It is
+      not doubted that the British Government will comply with this
+      requisition, and that the act suggested may be passed by
+      Congress with full confidence that the reciprocal measure
+      will receive the sanction of the British Parliament.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 23, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate requesting me
+      to cause to be laid before them a statement of all the arms
+      and accouterments which have been manufactured at the
+      different armories of the United States, with the cost of
+      each stand, and the number delivered to each State,
+      respectively, under the act for arming the whole body of
+      militia, I now transmit a report from the Secretary of War,
+      with the documents marked A, B, and C, which, together with a
+      report to him from the Ordnance Department, contains the
+      information required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 23, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 19th of
+      January, 1818, requesting information of measures which have
+      been taken in pursuance of so much of the act to authorize
+      the appointment of a surveyor for lands in the northern part
+      of the Mississippi Territory, passed the 3d of March, 1817,
+      as relates to the reservation of certain sections for the
+      purpose of laying out and establishing towns thereon, I now
+      transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, which,
+      with the letters and charts referred to in it, contains all
+      the information which is desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 25, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The commissioners of the two Governments, under the fourth
+      article of the treaty of Ghent, having come to a decision
+      upon the questions submitted to them, I lay before Congress
+      copies of that decision, together with copies of the
+      declaration signed and reported by the commissioners of this
+      Government.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 27, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate herewith to the House of Representatives a copy
+      of a letter from the governor of the State of South Carolina
+      to the Secretary of State, together with extracts from the
+      journals of proceedings in both branches of the legislature
+      of that Commonwealth, relative to a proposed amendment of the
+      Constitution, which letter and extracts are connected with
+      the subject of my communication to the House of the 6th
+      instant.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 28, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before the House a report from the Secretary of State,
+      together with the papers relating to the claims of merchants
+      of the United States upon the Government of Naples, in
+      conformity with the resolution of the House of the 30th
+      January last.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 11, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate requesting
+      information respecting the requisitions that were made on the
+      contractors between the 1st of June and the 24th of December,
+      1817, for deposits of provisions in advance at the several
+      posts on the frontiers of Georgia and the adjoining
+      territory, their conduct in compliance therewith, the amount
+      of money advanced to B. G. Orr, and the extent of his
+      failure, with a copy of the articles of contract entered into
+      with him, I now lay before the Senate a report from the
+      Secretary of War, which, with the documents accompanying it,
+      will afford the information desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 14, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 16th of
+      December and of the House of Representatives of the 24th of
+      February last, I lay before Congress a report of the
+      Secretary of State, and the papers referred to in it,
+      respecting the negotiation with the Government of Spain. To
+      explain fully the nature of the differences between the
+      United States and Spain and the conduct of the parties it has
+      been found necessary to go back to an early epoch. The recent
+      correspondence, with the documents accompanying it, will give
+      a full view of the whole subject, and place the conduct of
+      the United States in every stage and under every
+      circumstance, for justice, moderation, and a firm adherence
+      to their rights, on the high and honorable ground which it
+      has invariably sustained.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 16, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the United
+      States of the 31st of December last, requesting the President
+      to cause to be laid before them a statement of the
+      proceedings which may have been had under the act of Congress
+      passed on the 3d March, 1817, entitled "An act to set apart
+      and dispose of certain public lands for the encouragement and
+      cultivation of the vine and olive," I now transmit a report
+      from the Secretary of the Treasury, containing all the
+      information possessed by the Executive relating to the
+      proceedings under the said act.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 16, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the United
+      States of the 3d of February last, requesting the President
+      to cause to be laid before them "a statement of the progress
+      made under the act to provide for surveying the coast of the
+      United States, passed February 10, 1807, and any subsequent
+      acts on the same subject, and the expenses incurred thereby,"
+      I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury
+      containing the information required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MARCH 19, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the course of the last summer a negotiation was commenced
+      with the Government of the Netherlands with a view to the
+      revival and modification of the commercial treaty existing
+      between the two countries, adapted to their present
+      circumstances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The report from the Secretary of State which I now lay before
+      Congress will show the obstacles which arose in the progress
+      of the conferences between the respective plenipotentiaries,
+      and which resulted in the agreement between them then to
+      refer the subject to the consideration of their respective
+      Governments. As the difficulties appear to be of a nature
+      which may, perhaps, for the present be more easily removed by
+      reciprocal legislative regulations, formed in the spirit of
+      amity and conciliation, than by conventional stipulations,
+      Congress may think it advisable to leave the subsisting
+      treaty in its present state, and to meet the liberal
+      exemption from discriminating tonnage duties which has been
+      conceded in the Netherlands to the vessels of the United
+      States by a similar exemption to the vessels of the
+      Netherlands which have arrived, or may hereafter arrive, in
+      our ports, commencing from the time when the exemption was
+      granted to the vessels of the United States. I would further
+      recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency of
+      extending the benefit of the same regulation, to commence
+      from the passage of the law, to the vessels of Russia,
+      Hamburg, and Bremen, and of making it prospectively general
+      in favor of every nation in whose ports the vessels of the
+      United States are admitted on the same footing as their own.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 23, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before the Senate a report from the Secretary of the
+      Navy, with the estimate of the expense which will be incurred
+      by the establishment of two dockyards for repairing vessels
+      of the largest size.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 25, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I now lay before Congress all the information in the
+      possession of the Executive respecting the war with the
+      Seminoles, and the measures which it has been thought proper
+      to adopt for the safety of our fellow-citizens on the
+      frontier exposed to their ravages. The inclosed documents
+      show that the hostilities of this tribe were unprovoked, the
+      offspring of a spirit long cherished and often manifested
+      toward the United States, and that in the present instance it
+      was extending itself to other tribes and daily assuming a
+      more serious aspect. As soon as the nature and object of this
+      combination were perceived the major-general commanding the
+      Southern division of the troops of the United States was
+      ordered to the theater of action, charged with the management
+      of the war and vested with the powers necessary to give it
+      effect. The season of the year being unfavorable to active
+      operations, and the recesses of the country affording shelter
+      to these savages in case of retreat, may prevent a prompt
+      termination of the war; but it may be fairly presumed that it
+      will not be long before this tribe and its associates receive
+      the punishment which they have provoked and justly merited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As almost the whole of this tribe inhabits the country within
+      the limits of Florida, Spain was bound by the treaty of 1795
+      to restrain them from committing hostilities against the
+      United States. We have seen with regret that her Government
+      has altogether failed to fulfill this obligation, nor are we
+      aware that it made any effort to that effect. When we
+      consider her utter inability to check, even in the slightest
+      degree, the movements of this tribe by her very small and
+      incompetent force in Florida, we are not disposed to ascribe
+      the failure to any other cause. The inability, however, of
+      Spain to maintain her authority over the territory and
+      Indians within her limits, and in consequence to fulfill the
+      treaty, ought not to expose the United States to other and
+      greater injuries. When the authority of Spain ceases to exist
+      there, the United States have a right to pursue their enemy
+      on a principle of self-defense. In this instance the right is
+      more complete and obvious because we shall perform only what
+      Spain was bound to have performed herself. To the high
+      obligations and privileges of this great and sacred right of
+      self-defense will the movement of our troops be strictly
+      confined. Orders have been given to the general in command
+      not to enter Florida unless it be in pursuit of the enemy,
+      and in that case to respect the Spanish authority wherever it
+      is maintained; and he will be instructed to withdraw his
+      forces from the Province as soon as he shall have reduced
+      that tribe to order, and secure our fellow-citizens in that
+      quarter by satisfactory arrangements against its unprovoked
+      and savage hostilities in future.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 25, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In conformity with the resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 5th of December last, I now transmit a
+      report of the Secretary of State, with a copy of the
+      documents which it is thought proper to communicate relating
+      to the independence and political condition of the Provinces
+      of Spanish America,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 26, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the House of Representatives, in compliance
+      with their resolution of March 20, such information not
+      heretofore communicated as is in the possession of the
+      Executive relating to the occupation of Amelia Island. If any
+      doubt had before existed of the improper conduct of the
+      persons who authorized and of those who were engaged in the
+      invasion and previous occupancy of that island, of the
+      unfriendly spirit toward the United States with which it was
+      commenced and prosecuted, and of its injurious effect on
+      their highest interests, particularly by its tendency to
+      compromit them with foreign powers in all the unwarrantable
+      acts of the adventurers, it is presumed that these documents
+      would remove it. It appears by the letter of Mr. Pazos, agent
+      of Commodore Aury, that the project of seizing the Floridas
+      was formed and executed at a time when it was understood that
+      Spain had resolved to cede them to the United States, and to
+      prevent such cession from taking effect. The whole proceeding
+      in every stage and circumstance was unlawful. The commission
+      to General M'Gregor was granted at Philadelphia in direct
+      violation of a positive law, and all the measures pursued
+      under it by him in collecting his force and directing its
+      movements were equally unlawful. With the conduct of these
+      persons I have always been unwilling to connect any of the
+      colonial governments, because I never could believe that they
+      had given their sanction either to the project in its origin
+      or to the measures which were pursued in the execution of it.
+      These documents confirm the opinion which I have invariably
+      entertained and expressed in their favor.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 28, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate relative to the
+      pensioners of the United States, the sum annually paid to
+      each, and the States or Territories in which said pensioners
+      are respectively paid, I now transmit a report from the
+      Secretary of War, which, with documents marked A and B,
+      contains all the information required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      APRIL 6, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An arrangement having been made and concluded between this
+      Government and that of Great Britain with respect to the
+      naval armament of the two Governments, respectively, on the
+      Lakes, I lay before the Senate a copy of the correspondence
+      upon that subject, including the stipulations mutually agreed
+      upon by the two parties. I submit it to the consideration of
+      the Senate whether this is such an arrangement as the
+      Executive is competent to enter into by the powers vested in
+      it by the Constitution, or is such an one as requires the
+      advice and consent of the Senate, and, in the latter case,
+      for their advice and consent should it be approved.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>April 9, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with the resolution of the Senate requesting me
+      to cause to be laid before them a list of the names of the
+      several agents of Indian affairs and of agents of Indian
+      trading houses, with the pay and emolument of the agents,
+      respectively, I now transmit a report from the Secretary of
+      War, which contains the information required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      APRIL 10, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate respecting the
+      supplies of the Northwestern army, within certain periods
+      therein specified, by contractors, commissaries, and agents,
+      and the expense thereby incurred, I now transmit to them a
+      report from the Secretary of War, which, with the documents
+      accompanying it, will afford the information required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>April 15, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 10th instant, relative to the capture
+      and imprisonment of certain persons, citizens of the United
+      States, therein specifically mentioned, I now transmit a
+      report from the Secretary of State, which, with the documents
+      accompanying it, embraces the objects contemplated by the
+      said resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>April 20, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate a copy of the rules, regulations,
+      and instructions for the naval service of the United States,
+      prepared by the Board of Navy Commissioners in obedience to
+      an act of Congress passed 7th of February, 1815, entitled "An
+      act to alter and amend the several acts for establishing a
+      Navy Department by adding thereto a Board of Commissioners."
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </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 by an act of the lieutenant-governor, council, and
+      assembly of His Britannic Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia,
+      passed in the year 1816, it was, among other things, enacted
+      that from and after the 1st day of May of that year "no
+      plaster of paris, otherwise called gypsum, which should be
+      laden or put on board any ship or vessel at any port or place
+      within the limits of the said Province to be transported from
+      thence to any other port or place within or without the said
+      limits should, directly or indirectly, be unladen or landed
+      or put on shore at any port or place in the United States of
+      America eastward of Boston, in the State of Massachusetts,
+      nor unladen or put on board any American ship, vessel, boat,
+      or shallop of any description at any port or place eastward
+      of Boston aforesaid, under the penalty of the forfeiture of
+      every such ship or vessel from which any such plaster of
+      paris, or gypsum, should be unladen contrary to the provision
+      of the said act, together with her boats, tackle, apparel,
+      and furniture, to be seized and prosecuted in the manner
+      thereinafter mentioned;" and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States passed
+      on the 3d day of March, 1817, it was enacted that from and
+      after the 4th day of July then next no plaster of paris the
+      production of any country or its dependencies from which the
+      vessels of the United States were not permitted to bring the
+      same article should be imported into the United States in any
+      foreign vessel, and that all plaster of paris imported or
+      attempted to be imported into the United States contrary to
+      the true intent and meaning of the said act of Congress, and
+      the vessel in which the same might be imported or attempted
+      to be imported, together with the cargo, tackle, apparel, and
+      furniture, should be forfeited to the United States and
+      liable to be seized, prosecuted, and condemned in the manner
+      therein prescribed; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas by the said act of Congress it was further enacted
+      that the same should continue and be in force five years from
+      January 31, 1817; provided, nevertheless, that if any foreign
+      nation or its dependencies which at the time of the passage
+      of the said act of Congress had in force regulations on the
+      subject of the trade in plaster of paris prohibiting the
+      exportation thereof to certain ports of the United States
+      should discontinue such regulations, the President of the
+      United States was thereby authorized to declare that fact by
+      his proclamation, and the restrictions imposed by the said
+      act of Congress should from the date of such proclamation
+      cease and be discontinued in relation to the nation or its
+      dependencies discontinuing such regulations; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas an act of the lieutenant-governor, council, and
+      assembly of His Britannic Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia,
+      repealing the above-mentioned act of the said Province,
+      passed in the year 1816, has been officially communicated by
+      his said Majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister
+      plenipotentiary to this Government; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas by the said repealing act of the said Province of
+      Nova Scotia, one of the dependencies of the United Kingdom of
+      Great Britain and Ireland, the regulations at the time of the
+      passage of the said act of Congress in force in the said
+      Province on the subject of the trade in plaster of paris,
+      prohibiting the exportation thereof to certain ports of the
+      United States, have been and are discontinued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United
+      States of America, do by this my proclamation declare that
+      fact, and that the restrictions imposed by the said act of
+      Congress do from the date hereof cease and are discontinued
+      in relation to His Britannic Majesty's said Province of Nova
+      Scotia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 23d day
+      of April, A. D. 1818, and in the forty-second year of the
+      Independence of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+      By the President:<br>
+       John Quincy Adams<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 an arrangement was entered into at the city of
+      Washington in the month of April, A.D. 1817, between Richard
+      Rush, esq., at that time acting as Secretary for the
+      Department of State of the United States, for and in behalf
+      of the Government of the United States, and the Right
+      Honorable Charles Bagot, His Britannic Majesty's envoy
+      extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, for and in behalf
+      of His Britannic Majesty, which arrangement is in the words
+      following, to wit:
+    </p>
+    <p class="q">
+      The naval force to be maintained upon the American lakes by
+      His Majesty and the Government of the United States shall
+      henceforth be confined to the following vessels on each side;
+      that is&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p class="q">
+      On Lake Ontario, to one vessel not exceeding 100 tons burden
+      and armed with one 18-pound cannon.
+    </p>
+    <p class="q">
+      On the upper lakes, to two vessels not exceeding like burden
+      each and armed with like force.
+    </p>
+    <p class="q">
+      On the waters of Lake Champlain, to one vessel not exceeding
+      like burden and armed with like force.
+    </p>
+    <p class="q">
+      All other armed vessels on these lakes shall be forthwith
+      dismantled, and no other vessels of war shall be there built
+      or armed.
+    </p>
+    <p class="q">
+      If either party should hereafter be-desirous of annulling
+      this stipulation, and should give notice to that effect to
+      the other party, it shall cease to be binding after the
+      expiration of six months from the date of such notice.
+    </p>
+    <p class="q">
+      The naval force so to be limited shall be restricted to such
+      services as will in no respect interfere with the proper
+      duties of the armed vessels of the other party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And whereas the Senate of the United States have approved of
+      the said arrangement and recommended that it should be
+      carried into effect, the same having also received the
+      sanction of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, acting in
+      the name and on the behalf of His Britannic Majesty:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United
+      States, do by this my proclamation make known and declare
+      that the arrangement aforesaid and every stipulation thereof
+      has been duly entered into, concluded, and confirmed, and is
+      of full force and effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 28th day
+      of April, A.D. 1818, and of the Independence of the United
+      States the forty-second.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+      By the President:<br>
+       John Quincy Adams,<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 appears by a proclamation of the
+      lieutenant-governor of His Britannic Majesty's Province of
+      New Brunswick bearing date the 10th day of April last, and
+      officially communicated by his envoy extraordinary and
+      minister plenipotentiary residing in the United States to
+      this Government, that the regulations on the subject of the
+      trade in plaster of paris, prohibiting the exportation
+      thereof to certain ports of the United States, which were in
+      force in the said Province at the time of the enactment of
+      the act of the Congress of the United States entitled "An act
+      to regulate the trade in plaster of paris," passed on the 3d
+      day of March, 1817, have been and are discontinued:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United
+      States, do hereby declare that fact, and that the
+      restrictions imposed by the said act of Congress shall from
+      the date hereof cease and be discontinued in relation to the
+      said Province of New Brunswick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 4th day
+      of July, A.D. 1818, and in the forty-third year of the
+      Independence of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+      By the President:<br>
+       John Quincy Adams,<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 by an act of the Congress of the United States of the
+      3d of March, 1815, so much of the several acts imposing
+      duties on the ships and vessels and on goods, wares, and
+      merchandise imported into the United States as imposed a
+      discriminating duty of tonnage between foreign vessels and
+      vessels of the United States and between goods imported into
+      the United States in foreign vessels and vessels of the
+      United States were repealed so far as the same respected the
+      produce or manufacture of the nation to which such foreign
+      ship or vessel might belong, such repeal to take effect in
+      favor of any foreign nation whenever the President of the
+      United States should be satisfied that the discriminating or
+      countervailing duties of such foreign nation so far as they
+      operate to the disadvantage of the United States have been
+      abolished; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas satisfactory proof has been received by me from the
+      burgo-masters and senators of the free and Hanseatic city of
+      Bremen that from and after the 12th day of May, 1815, all
+      discriminating or countervailing duties of the said city so
+      far as they operated to the disadvantage of the United States
+      have been and are abolished:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United
+      States of America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so
+      much of the several acts imposing duties on the tonnage of
+      ships and vessels and on goods, wares, and merchandise
+      imported into the United States as imposed a discriminating
+      duty of tonnage between vessels of the free and Hanseatic
+      city of Bremen and vessels of the United States and between
+      goods imported into the United States in vessels of Bremen
+      and vessels of the United States are repealed so far as the
+      same respect the produce or manufacture of the said free
+      Hanseatic city of Bremen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 24th day
+      of July, A.D. 1818, and the forty-third year of the
+      Independence of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+      By the President:<br>
+       John Quincy Adams,<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 by an act of the Congress of the United States of the
+      3d of March, 1815, so much of the several acts imposing
+      duties on the ships and vessels and on goods, wares, and
+      merchandise imported into the United States as imposed a
+      discriminating duty of tonnage between foreign vessels and
+      vessels of the United States and between goods imported into
+      the United States in foreign vessels and vessels of the
+      United States were repealed so far as the same respected the
+      produce or manufacture of the nation to which such foreign
+      ship or vessel might belong, such repeal to take effect in
+      favor of any foreign nation whenever the President of the
+      United States should be satisfied that the discriminating or
+      countervailing duties of such foreign nation so far as they
+      operate to the disadvantage of the United States have been
+      abolished; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas satisfactory proof has been received by me from the
+      burgo-masters and senators of the free and Hanseatic city of
+      Hamburg that from and after the 13th day of November, 1815,
+      all discriminating and countervailing duties of the said city
+      so far as they operated to the disadvantage of the United
+      States have been and are abolished:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United
+      States of America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so
+      much of the several acts imposing duties on the tonnage of
+      ships and vessels and on goods, wares, and merchandise
+      imported into the United States as imposed a discriminating
+      duty of tonnage between vessels of the free and Hanseatic
+      city of Hamburg and vessels of the United States and between
+      goods imported into the United States in vessels of Hamburg
+      and vessels of the United States are repealed so far as the
+      same respect the produce or manufacture of the said free
+      Hanseatic city of Hamburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 1st day
+      of August, A.D. 1818, and the forty-third year of the
+      Independence of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+      By the President:<br>
+       John Quincy Adams,<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">
+      NOVEMBER 16, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of
+      Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The auspicious circumstances under which you will commence
+      the duties of the present session will lighten the burdens
+      inseparable from the high trust committed to you. The fruits
+      of the earth have been unusually abundant, commerce has
+      flourished, the revenue has exceeded the most favorable
+      anticipation, and peace and amity are preserved with foreign
+      nations on conditions just and honorable to our country. For
+      these inestimable blessings we can not but be grateful to
+      that Providence which watches over the destiny of nations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the term limited for the operation of the commercial
+      convention with Great Britain will expire early in the month
+      of July next, and it was deemed important that there should
+      be no interval during which that portion of our commerce
+      which was provided for by that convention should not be
+      regulated, either by arrangement between the two Governments
+      or by the authority of Congress, the minister of the United
+      States at London was instructed early in the last summer to
+      invite the attention of the British Government to the
+      subject, with a view to that object. He was instructed to
+      propose also that the negotiation which it was wished to open
+      might extend to the general commerce of the two countries,
+      and to every other interest and unsettled difference between
+      them, particularly those relating to impressment, the
+      fisheries, and boundaries, in the hope that an arrangement
+      might be made on principles of reciprocal advantage which
+      might comprehend and provide in a satisfactory manner for all
+      these high concerns. I have the satisfaction to state that
+      the proposal was received by the British Government in the
+      spirit which prompted it, and that a negotiation has been
+      opened at London embracing all these objects. On full
+      consideration of the great extent and magnitude of the trust
+      it was thought proper to commit it to not less than two of
+      our distinguished citizens, and in consequence the envoy
+      extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United
+      States at Paris has been associated with our envoy
+      extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at London, to both
+      of whom corresponding instructions have been given, and they
+      are now engaged in the discharge of its duties. It is proper
+      to add that to prevent any inconvenience resulting from the
+      delay incident to a negotiation on so many important subjects
+      it was agreed before entering on it that the existing
+      convention should be continued for a term not less than eight
+      years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our relations with Spain remain nearly in the state in which
+      they were at the close of the last session. The convention of
+      1802, providing for the adjustment of a certain portion of
+      the claims of our citizens for injuries sustained by
+      spoliation, and so long suspended by the Spanish Government,
+      has at length been ratified by it, but no arrangement has yet
+      been made for the payment of another portion of like claims,
+      not less extensive or well founded, or for other classes of
+      claims, or for the settlement of boundaries. These subjects
+      have again been brought under consideration in both
+      countries, but no agreement has been entered into respecting
+      them. In the meantime events have occurred which clearly
+      prove the ill effect of the policy which that Government has
+      so long pursued on the friendly relations of the two
+      countries, which it is presumed is at least of as much
+      importance to Spain as to the United States to maintain. A
+      state of things has existed in the Floridas the tendency of
+      which has been obvious to all who have paid the slightest
+      attention to the progress of affairs in that quarter.
+      Throughout the whole of those Provinces to which the Spanish
+      title extends the Government of Spain has scarcely been felt.
+      Its authority has been confined almost exclusively to the
+      walls of Pensacola and St. Augustine, within which only small
+      garrisons have been maintained. Adventurers from every
+      country, fugitives from justice, and absconding slaves have
+      found an asylum there. Several tribes of Indians, strong in
+      the number of their warriors, remarkable for their ferocity,
+      and whose settlements extend to our limits, inhabit those
+      Provinces. These different hordes of people, connected
+      together, disregarding on the one side the authority of
+      Spain, and protected on the other by an imaginary line which
+      separates Florida from the United States, have violated our
+      laws prohibiting the introduction of slaves, have practiced
+      various frauds on our revenue, and committed every kind of
+      outrage on our peaceable citizens which their proximity to us
+      enabled them to perpetrate. The invasion of Amelia Island
+      last year by a small band of adventurers, not exceeding 150
+      in number, who wrested it from the inconsiderable Spanish
+      force stationed there, and held it several months, during
+      which a single feeble effort only was made to recover it,
+      which failed, clearly proves how completely extinct the
+      Spanish authority had become, as the conduct of those
+      adventurers while in possession of the island as distinctly
+      shows the pernicious purposes for which their combination had
+      been formed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This country had, in fact, become the theater of every
+      species of lawless adventure. With little population of its
+      own, the Spanish authority almost extinct, and the colonial
+      governments in a state of revolution, having no pretension to
+      it, and sufficiently employed in their own concerns, it was
+      in a great measure derelict, and the object of cupidity to
+      every adventurer. A system of buccaneering was rapidly
+      organizing over it which menaced in its consequences the
+      lawful commerce of every nation, and particularly of the
+      United States, while it presented a temptation to every
+      people, on whose seduction its success principally depended.
+      In regard to the United States, the pernicious effect of this
+      unlawful combination was not confined to the ocean; the
+      Indian tribes have constituted the effective force in
+      Florida. With these tribes these adventurers had formed at an
+      early period a connection with a view to avail themselves of
+      that force to promote their own projects of accumulation and
+      aggrandizement. It is to the interference of some of these
+      adventurers, in misrepresenting the claims and titles of the
+      Indians to land and in practicing on their savage
+      propensities, that the Seminole war is principally to be
+      traced. Men who thus connect themselves with savage
+      communities and stimulate them to war, which is always
+      attended on their part with acts of barbarity the most
+      shocking, deserve to be viewed in a worse light than the
+      savages. They would certainly have no claim to an immunity
+      from the punishment which, according to the rules of warfare
+      practiced by the savages, might justly be inflicted on the
+      savages themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the embarrassments of Spain prevented her from making an
+      indemnity to our citizens for so long a time from her
+      treasury for their losses by spoliation and otherwise, it was
+      always in her power to have provided it by the cession of
+      this territory. Of this her Government has been repeatedly
+      apprised, and the cession was the more to have been
+      anticipated as Spain must have known that in ceding it she
+      would in effect cede what had become of little value to her,
+      and would likewise relieve herself from the important
+      obligation secured by the treaty of 1795 and all other
+      compromitments respecting it. If the United States, from
+      consideration of these embarrassments, declined pressing
+      their claims in a spirit of hostility, the motive ought at
+      least to have been duly appreciated by the Government of
+      Spain. It is well known to her Government that other powers
+      have made to the United States an indemnity for like losses
+      sustained by their citizens at the same epoch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is nevertheless a limit beyond which this spirit of
+      amity and forbearance can in no instance be justified. If it
+      was proper to rely on amicable negotiation for an indemnity
+      for losses, it would not have been so to have permitted the
+      inability of Spain to fulfill her engagements and to sustain
+      her authority in the Floridas to be perverted by foreign
+      adventurers and savages to purposes so destructive to the
+      lives of our fellow-citizens and the highest interests of the
+      United States. The right of self-defense never ceases. It is
+      among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to
+      individuals, and whether the attack be made by Spain herself
+      or by those who abuse her power, its obligation is not the
+      less strong. The invaders of Amelia Island had assumed a
+      popular and respected title under which they might approach
+      and wound us. As their object was distinctly seen, and the
+      duty imposed on the Executive by an existing law was
+      profoundly felt, that mask was not permitted to protect them.
+      It was thought incumbent on the United States to suppress the
+      establishment, and it was accordingly done. The combination
+      in Florida for the unlawful purposes stated, the acts
+      perpetrated by that combination, and, above all, the
+      incitement of the Indians to massacre our fellow-citizens of
+      every age and of both sexes, merited a like treatment and
+      received it. In pursuing these savages to an imaginary line
+      in the woods it would have been the height of folly to have
+      suffered that line to protect them. Had that been done the
+      war could never cease. Even if the territory had been
+      exclusively that of Spain and her power complete over it, we
+      had a right by the law of nations to follow the enemy on it
+      and to subdue him there. But the territory belonged, in a
+      certain sense at least, to the savage enemy who inhabited it;
+      the power of Spain had ceased to exist over it, and
+      protection was sought under her title by those who had
+      committed on our citizens hostilities which she was bound by
+      treaty to have prevented, but had not the power to prevent.
+      To have stopped at that line would have given new
+      encouragement to these savages and new vigor to the whole
+      combination existing there in the prosecution of all its
+      pernicious purposes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In suppressing the establishment at Amelia Island no
+      unfriendliness was manifested toward Spain, because the post
+      was taken from a force which had wrested it from her. The
+      measure, it is true, was not adopted in concert with the
+      Spanish Government or those in authority under it, because in
+      transactions connected with the war in which Spain and the
+      colonies are engaged it was thought proper in doing justice
+      to the United States to maintain a strict impartiality toward
+      both the belligerent parties without consulting or acting in
+      concert with either. It gives me pleasure to state that the
+      Governments of Buenos Ayres and Venezuela, whose names were
+      assumed, have explicitly disclaimed all participation in
+      those measures, and even the knowledge of them until
+      communicated by this Government, and have also expressed
+      their satisfaction that a course of proceedings had been
+      suppressed which if justly imputable to them would dishonor
+      their cause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In authorizing Major-General Jackson to enter Florida in
+      pursuit of the Seminoles care was taken not to encroach on
+      the rights of Spain. I regret to have to add that in
+      executing this order facts were disclosed respecting the
+      conduct of the officers of Spain in authority there in
+      encouraging the war, furnishing munitions of war and other
+      supplies to carry it on, and in other acts not less marked
+      which evinced their participation in the hostile purposes of
+      that combination and justified the confidence with which it
+      inspired the savages that by those officers they would be
+      protected. A conduct so incompatible with the friendly
+      relations existing between the two countries, particularly
+      with the positive obligation of the fifth article of the
+      treaty of 1795, by which Spain was bound to restrain, even by
+      force, those savages from acts of hostility against the
+      United States, could not fail to excite surprise. The
+      commanding general was convinced that he should fail in his
+      object, that he should in effect accomplish nothing, if he
+      did not deprive those savages of the resource on which they
+      had calculated and of the protection on which they had relied
+      in making the war. As all the documents relating to this
+      occurrence will be laid before Congress, it is not necessary
+      to enter into further detail respecting it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the reasons which induced Major-General Jackson to
+      take these posts were duly appreciated, there was
+      nevertheless no hesitation in deciding on the course which it
+      became the Government to pursue. As there was reason to
+      believe that the commanders of these posts had violated their
+      instructions, there was no disposition to impute to their
+      Government a conduct so unprovoked and hostile. An order was
+      in consequence issued to the general in command there to
+      deliver the posts&mdash;Pensacola unconditionally to any
+      person duly authorized to receive it, and St. Marks, which is
+      in the heart of the Indian country, on the arrival of a
+      competent force to defend it against those savages and their
+      associates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In entering Florida to suppress this combination no idea was
+      entertained of hostility to Spain, and however justifiable
+      the commanding general was, in consequence of the misconduct
+      of the Spanish officers, in entering St. Marks and Pensacola
+      to terminate it by proving to the savages and their
+      associates that they should not be protected even there, yet
+      the amicable relations existing between the United States and
+      Spain could not be altered by that act alone. By ordering the
+      restitution of the posts those relations were preserved. To a
+      change of them the power of the Executive is deemed
+      incompetent; it is vested in Congress only.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this measure, so promptly taken, due respect was shown to
+      the Government of Spain. The misconduct of her officers has
+      not been imputed to her. She was enabled to review with
+      candor her relations with the United States and her own
+      situation, particularly in respect to the territory in
+      question, with the dangers inseparable from it, and regarding
+      the losses we have sustained for which indemnity has been so
+      long withheld, and the injuries we have suffered through that
+      territory, and her means of redress, she was likewise enabled
+      to take with honor the course best calculated to do justice
+      to the United States and to promote her own welfare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Copies of the instructions to the commanding general, of his
+      correspondence with the Secretary of War, explaining his
+      motives and justifying his conduct, with a copy of the
+      proceedings of the courts-martial in the trial of Arbuthnot
+      and Ambristie, and of the correspondence between the
+      Secretary of State and the minister plenipotentiary of Spain
+      near this Government, and of the minister plenipotentiary of
+      the United States at Madrid with the Government of Spain,
+      will be laid before Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The civil war which has so long prevailed between Spain and
+      the Provinces in South America still continues, without any
+      prospect of its speedy termination. The information
+      respecting the condition of those countries which has been
+      collected by the commissioners recently returned from thence
+      will be laid before Congress in copies of their reports, with
+      such other information as has been received from other agents
+      of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It appears from these communications that the Government at
+      Buenos Ayres declared itself independent in July, 1816,
+      having previously exercised the power of an independent
+      government, though in the name of the King of Spain, from the
+      year 1810; that the Banda Oriental, Entre Rios, and Paraguay,
+      with the city of Santa Fee, all of which are also
+      independent, are unconnected with the present Government of
+      Buenos Ayres; that Chili has declared itself independent and
+      is closely connected with Buenos Ayres; that Venezuela has
+      also declared itself independent, and now maintains the
+      conflict with various success; and that the remaining parts
+      of South America, except Monte Video and such other portions
+      of the eastern bank of the La Plata as are held by Portugal,
+      are still in the possession of Spain or in a certain degree
+      under her influence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By a circular note addressed by the ministers of Spain to the
+      allied powers, with whom they are respectively accredited, it
+      appears that the allies have undertaken to mediate between
+      Spain and the South American Provinces, and that the manner
+      and extent of their interposition would be settled by a
+      congress which was to have met at Aix-la-Chapelle in
+      September last. From the general policy and course of
+      proceeding observed by the allied powers in regard to this
+      contest it is inferred that they will confine their
+      interposition to the expression of their sentiments,
+      abstaining from the application of force. I state this
+      impression that force will not be applied with the greater
+      satisfaction because it is a course more consistent with
+      justice and likewise authorizes a hope that the calamities of
+      the war will be confined to the parties only, and will be of
+      shorter duration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the view taken of this subject, founded on all the
+      information that we have been able to obtain, there is good
+      cause to be satisfied with the course heretofore pursued by
+      the United States in regard to this contest, and to conclude
+      that it is proper to adhere to it, especially in the present
+      state of affairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have great satisfaction in stating that our relations with
+      France, Russia, and other powers continue on the most
+      friendly basis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In our domestic concerns we have ample cause of satisfaction.
+      The receipts into the Treasury during the three first
+      quarters of the year have exceeded $17,000,000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After satisfying all the demands which have been made under
+      existing appropriations, including the final extinction of
+      the old 6 per cent stock and the redemption of a moiety of
+      the Louisiana debt, it is estimated that there will remain in
+      the Treasury on the 1st day of January next more than
+      $2,000,000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is ascertained that the gross revenue which has accrued
+      from the customs during the same period amounts to
+      $21,000,000, and that the revenue of the whole year may be
+      estimated at not less than $26,000,000. The sale of the
+      public lands during the year has also greatly exceeded, both
+      in quantity and price, that of any former year, and there is
+      just reason to expect a progressive improvement in that
+      source of revenue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is gratifying to know that although the annual expenditure
+      has been increased by the act of the last session of Congress
+      providing for Revolutionary pensions to an amount about equal
+      to the proceeds of the internal duties which were then
+      repealed, the revenue for the ensuing year will be
+      proportionally augmented, and that whilst the public
+      expenditure will probably remain stationary, each successive
+      year will add to the national resources by the ordinary
+      increase of our population and by the gradual development of
+      our latent sources of national prosperity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The strict execution of the revenue laws, resulting
+      principally from the salutary provisions of the act of the
+      20th of April last amending the several collection laws, has,
+      it is presumed, secured to domestic manufactures all the
+      relief that can be derived from the duties which have been
+      imposed upon foreign merchandise for their protection. Under
+      the influence of this relief several branches of this
+      important national interest have assumed greater activity,
+      and although it is hoped that others will gradually revive
+      and ultimately triumph over every obstacle, yet the
+      expediency of granting further protection is submitted to
+      your consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The measures of defense authorized by existing laws have been
+      pursued with the zeal and activity due to so important an
+      object, and with all the dispatch practicable in so extensive
+      and great an undertaking. The survey of our maritime and
+      inland frontiers has been continued, and at the points where
+      it was decided to erect fortifications the work has been
+      commenced, and in some instances considerable progress has
+      been made. In compliance with resolutions of the last
+      session, the Board of Commissioners were directed to examine
+      in a particular manner the parts of the coast therein
+      designated and to report their opinion of the most suitable
+      sites for two naval depots. This work is in a train of
+      execution. The opinion of the Board on this subject, with a
+      plan of all the works necessary to a general system of
+      defense so far as it has been formed, will be laid before
+      Congress in a report from the proper department as soon as it
+      can be prepared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In conformity with the appropriations of the last session,
+      treaties have been formed with the Quapaw tribe of Indians,
+      inhabiting the country on the Arkansaw, and with the Great
+      and Little Osages north of the White River; with the tribes
+      in the State of Indiana; with the several tribes within the
+      State of Ohio and the Michigan Territory, and with the
+      Chickasaws, by which very extensive cessions of territory
+      have been made to the United States. Negotiations are now
+      depending with the tribes in the Illinois Territory and with
+      the Choctaws, by which it is expected that other extensive
+      cessions will be made. I take great interest in stating that
+      the cessions already made, which are considered so important
+      to the United States, have been obtained on conditions very
+      satisfactory to the Indians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a view to the security of our inland frontiers, it has
+      been thought expedient to establish strong posts at the mouth
+      of Yellow Stone River and at the Mandan village on the
+      Missouri, and at the mouth of St. Peters on the Mississippi,
+      at no great distance from our northern boundaries. It can
+      hardly be presumed while such posts are maintained in the
+      rear of the Indian tribes that they will venture to attack
+      our peaceable inhabitants. A strong hope is entertained that
+      this measure will likewise be productive of much good to the
+      tribes themselves, especially in promoting the great object
+      of their civilization. Experience has clearly demonstrated
+      that independent savage communities can not long exist within
+      the limits of a civilized population. The progress of the
+      latter has almost invariably terminated in the extinction of
+      the former, especially of the tribes belonging to our portion
+      of this hemisphere, among whom loftiness of sentiment and
+      gallantry in action have been conspicuous. To civilize them,
+      and even to prevent their extinction, it seems to be
+      indispensable that their independence as communities should
+      cease, and that the control of the United States over them
+      should be complete and undisputed. The hunter state will then
+      be more easily abandoned, and recourse will be had to the
+      acquisition and culture of land and to other pursuits tending
+      to dissolve the ties which connect them together as a savage
+      community and to give a new character to every individual. I
+      present this subject to the consideration of Congress on the
+      presumption that it may be found expedient and practicable to
+      adopt some benevolent provisions, having these objects in
+      view, relative to the tribes within our settlements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been necessary during the present year to maintain a
+      strong naval force in the Mediterranean and in the Gulf of
+      Mexico, and to send some public ships along the southern
+      coast and to the Pacific Ocean. By these means amicable
+      relations with the Barbary Powers have been preserved, our
+      commerce has been protected, and our rights respected. The
+      augmentation of our Navy is advancing with a steady progress
+      toward the limit contemplated by law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate with great satisfaction the accession of
+      another State (Illinois) to our Union, because I perceive
+      from the proof afforded by the additions already made the
+      regular progress and sure consummation of a policy of which
+      history affords no example, and of which the good effect can
+      not be too highly estimated. By extending our Government on
+      the principles of our Constitution over the vast territory
+      within our limits, on the Lakes and the Mississippi and its
+      numerous streams, new life and vigor are infused into every
+      part of our system. By increasing the number of the States
+      the confidence of the State governments in their own security
+      is increased and their jealousy of the National Government
+      proportionally diminished. The impracticability of one
+      consolidated government for this great and growing nation
+      will be more apparent and will be universally admitted.
+      Incapable of exercising local authority except for general
+      purposes, the General Government will no longer be dreaded.
+      In those cases of a local nature and for all the great
+      purposes for which it was instituted its authority will be
+      cherished. Each government will acquire new force and a
+      greater freedom of action within its proper sphere. Other
+      inestimable advantages will follow. Our produce will be
+      augmented to an incalculable amount in articles of the
+      greatest value for domestic use and foreign commerce. Our
+      navigation will in like degree be increased, and as the
+      shipping of the Atlantic States will be employed in the
+      transportation of the vast produce of the Western country,
+      even those parts of the United States which are most remote
+      from each other will be further bound together by the
+      strongest ties which mutual interest can create.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The situation of this District, it is thought, requires the
+      attention of Congress. By the Constitution the power of
+      legislation is exclusively vested in the Congress of the
+      United States. In the exercise of this power, in which the
+      people have no participation, Congress legislate in all cases
+      directly on the local concerns of the District. As this is a
+      departure, for a special purpose, from the general principles
+      of our system, it may merit consideration whether an
+      arrangement better adapted to the principles of our
+      Government and to the particular interests of the people may
+      not be devised which will neither infringe the Constitution
+      nor affect the object which the provision in question was
+      intended to secure. The growing population, already
+      considerable, and the increasing business of the District,
+      which it is believed already interferes with the
+      deliberations of Congress on great national concerns, furnish
+      additional motives for recommending this subject to your
+      consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When we view the great blessings with which our country has
+      been favored, those which we now enjoy, and the means which
+      we possess of handing them down unimpaired to our latest
+      posterity, our attention is irresistibly drawn to the source
+      from whence they flow. Let us, then, unite in offering our
+      most grateful acknowledgments for these blessings to the
+      Divine Author of All Good.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      NOVEMBER 30, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before the Senate, for their advice and consent, the
+      several treaties which have recently been made with the
+      Chickasaws, the Quapaws, the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware,
+      Shawnese, Potawatamies, Ottawas, and Chippewas, the Peoria,
+      Kaskaskias, Mitchigamia, Cahokia, and Tamarois, the Great and
+      Little Osages, the Weas, Potawatamies, Delaware and Miami,
+      the Wyandot, and the four Pawnees tribes of Indians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By reference to the journal of the commissioners it appears
+      that George and Levi Colbert have bargained and sold to the
+      United States the reservations made to them by the treaty of
+      September, 1816, and that a deed of trust of the same has
+      been made by them to James Jackson, of Nashville. I would
+      therefore suggest, in case the Chickasaw treaty be approved
+      by the Senate, the propriety of providing by law for the
+      payment of the sum stipulated to be given to them for their
+      reservations.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 2, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate copies of such of the documents
+      referred to in the message of the 17th of last month as have
+      been prepared since that period. They contain a copy of the
+      reports of Mr. Rodney and Mr. Graham, two of the
+      commissioners to South America, who returned first from the
+      mission, and of the papers connected with those reports. They
+      also present a full view of the operations of our troops
+      employed in the Seminole war in Florida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would have been gratifying to me to have communicated with
+      the message all the documents referred to in it, but as two
+      of our commissioners from South America made their reports a
+      few days only before the meeting of Congress and the third on
+      the day of its meeting, it was impossible to transmit at that
+      time more than one copy of the two reports first made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The residue of the documents will be communicated as soon as
+      they are prepared.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 2, 1818</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of 25th of last
+      month, requesting to be furnished with such information as
+      may be possessed by the Executive touching the execution of
+      so much of the first article of the late treaty of peace and
+      amity between His Britannic Majesty and the United States as
+      relates to the restitution of slaves, and which has not
+      heretofore been communicated, I lay before the Senate a
+      report made by the Secretary of State on the 1st instant in
+      relation to that subject.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 2, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the House of Representatives copies of such
+      documents referred to in the message of the 17th ultimo as
+      have been prepared since that period. They present a full
+      view of the operations of our troops employed in the Seminole
+      war who entered Florida.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The residue of the documents, which are very voluminous, will
+      be transmitted as soon as they can be prepared.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 12, 1818.
+    </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 10th instant, I transmit a report of
+      the Secretary of War, with copies of the correspondence
+      between the governor of Georgia and Major-General Andrew
+      Jackson on the subject of the arrest of Captain Obed Wright.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 29, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before the Senate, for their consideration, a
+      convention, signed at London on the 20th of October last,
+      between the United States and Great Britain, together with
+      the documents showing the course and progress of the
+      negotiation. I have to request that these documents, which
+      are original, may be returned when the Senate shall have
+      acted on the convention.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 31, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 24th instant, requesting me to lay
+      before it "copies of the correspondence, if any, between the
+      Department of War and the governor of Georgia, in answer to
+      the letter of the latter to the former dated on the 1st of
+      June of the present year, communicated to the House on the
+      12th instant; and also the correspondence, if any, between
+      the Department of War and General Andrew Jackson, in answer
+      to the letter of the latter of the date 7th May, 1818, also
+      communicated to the House on the 12th instant," I transmit a
+      report from the Secretary of War, with a copy of an extract
+      of a letter from Major Van De Venter, chief clerk in the
+      Department of War, in reply to General Jackson's letter of
+      the 7th of May, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 31, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 7th instant, requesting me to lay
+      before it "the proceedings which have been had under the act
+      entitled 'An act for the gradual increase of the Navy of the
+      United States,' specifying the number of ships which have
+      been put on the stocks, and of what class, and the quantity
+      and kind of materials which have been procured in compliance
+      with the provisions of said act; and also the sums of money
+      which have been paid out of the fund created by the said act,
+      and for what objects; and likewise the contracts which have
+      been entered into in execution of said act on which moneys
+      may not yet have been advanced," I transmit a report from the
+      Acting Secretary of the Navy, together with a communication
+      from the Board of Navy Commissioners, which, with the
+      documents accompanying it, comprehends all the information
+      required by the House of Representatives.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 4, 1819</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to Congress a proclamation, dated the 22d of last
+      month, of the convention made and concluded at Madrid between
+      the plenipotentiaries of the United States and His Catholic
+      Majesty on the 11th of August, 1802, the ratifications of
+      which were not exchanged until the 21st ultimo, together with
+      the translation of a letter from the minister of Spain to the
+      Secretary of State.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 4, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate, in pursuance of their resolution of
+      the 30th of last month, requesting to be furnished with the
+      instructions, including that of the 28th of July, 1818, to
+      the plenipotentiaries of the United States who negotiated the
+      convention with His Britannic Majesty signed on the 20th day
+      of October in the same year, copies of all these
+      instructions, including that particularly referred to.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 11, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 5th
+      instant, requesting me "to cause to be laid before it a
+      statement of the effective force composing the military
+      establishment of the United States; also a statement of the
+      different posts and garrisons at and within which troops are
+      stationed, and the actual number of officers, noncommissioned
+      officers, and privates at each post and garrison,
+      respectively; also to designate in such statement the number
+      of artillerists and the number and caliber of ordnance at
+      each of the said posts and garrisons," I transmit a report
+      from the Secretary of War, which, with the documents
+      accompanying it, contains all the information required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 29, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the House of Representatives, in compliance
+      with their resolution of the 4th of this month, a report from
+      the Secretary of State concerning the applications which have
+      been made by any of the independent Governments of South
+      America to have a minister or consul-general accredited by
+      the Government of the United States, with the answers of this
+      Government to the applications addressed to it.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 30, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 18th instant, requesting me to cause
+      any information not already communicated to be laid before
+      the House whether Amelia Island, St. Marks, and Pensacola yet
+      remain in the possession of the United States, and, if so, by
+      what laws the inhabitants are governed; whether articles
+      imported therein from foreign countries are subject to any,
+      and what, duties, and by what laws, and whether the said
+      duties are collected and how; whether vessels arriving in the
+      United States from Pensacola and Amelia Island, and in
+      Pensacola and Amelia Island from the United States,
+      respectively, are considered and treated as vessels arriving
+      from foreign countries, I transmit a report from the
+      Secretary of the Treasury, and likewise one from the
+      Secretary of War, which will afford all the information
+      requested by the House of Representatives.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 2, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I nominate John Overton, Newton Cannon, and Robert Weakly, of
+      Tennessee, as commissioners to negotiate with the Chickasaw
+      tribe of Indians for the cession of a tract of land 4 miles
+      square, including a salt spring, reserved to the said tribe
+      by the fourth article of a treaty concluded with the said
+      Indians on the 19th day of October, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 2, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 13th of
+      last month, requesting me "to cause to be laid before it a
+      statement showing the measures that have been taken to
+      collect the balances stated to be due from the several
+      supervisors and collectors of the old direct tax of two
+      millions; also a similar statement of the balances due from
+      the officers of the old internal revenue, and to designate in
+      such statement the persons who have been interested in the
+      collection of the said debts and the sums by them
+      respectively collected, and the time when the same were
+      collected," I transmit a report of the Secretary of the
+      Treasury, which, with the documents accompanying it, contains
+      all the information required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 3, 1819</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate to Congress copies of applications received
+      from the minister of Great Britain in behalf of certain
+      British subjects who have suffered in their property by
+      proceedings to which the United States by their military and
+      judicial officers have been parties. These injuries have been
+      sustained under circumstances which appear to recommend
+      strongly to the attention of Congress the claim to indemnity
+      for the losses occasioned by them, which the legislative
+      authority is alone competent to provide.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 5, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 25th of
+      last month, requesting me "to cause to be laid before it a
+      copy of the rules and regulations adopted for the government
+      of the Military Academy at West Point; also how many cadets
+      have been admitted into the Academy, the time of the
+      residence of each cadet at that institution, and how many of
+      them have been appointed officers in the Army and Navy of the
+      United States," I transmit a report from the Secretary of
+      War, which, with the accompanying documents, will afford all
+      the information required by the said resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 6, 1819</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to Congress a copy of a letter from Governor Bibb
+      to Major-General Jackson, connected with the late military
+      operations in Florida. This letter has been mislaid, or it
+      would have been communicated with the other documents at the
+      commencement of the session.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 6, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to Congress, for their consideration, applications
+      which have been received from the minister resident of
+      Prussia and from the senates of the free and Hanseatic cities
+      of Hamburg and Bremen, the object of which is that the
+      advantages secured by the act of Congress of 20th of April
+      last to the vessels and merchandise of the Netherlands should
+      be extended to those of Prussia, Hamburg, and Bremen. It will
+      appear from these documents that the vessels of the United
+      States and the merchandise laden in them are in the ports of
+      those Governments, respectively, entitled to the same
+      advantages in respect to imposts and duties as those of the
+      native subjects of the countries themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The principle of reciprocity appears to entitle them to the
+      return of the same favor on the part of the United States,
+      and I recommend it to Congress that provision to that effect
+      may be made.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 22, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate a treaty of amity, settlement, and
+      limits between the United States of America and His Catholic
+      Majesty, concluded and signed this day, for the decision of
+      the Senate as to its ratification. Copies of the
+      correspondence between the Secretary of State and the
+      minister from Spain connected with this subject since the
+      renewal of the negotiation are likewise inclosed.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 26, 1819</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The treaty of amity, settlement, and limits between the
+      United States and His Catholic Majesty having been on the
+      part of the United States ratified, by and with the advice
+      and consent of the Senate, copies of it are now transmitted
+      to Congress. As the ratification on the part of Spain may be
+      expected to take place during the recess of Congress, I
+      recommend to their consideration the adoption of such
+      legislative measures contingent upon the event of the
+      exchange of the ratifications as may be necessary or
+      expedient for carrying the treaty into effect in the interval
+      between the sessions, and until Congress at their next
+      session may see fit to make further provision on the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MARCH 2, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A convention having been concluded between John C. Calhoun,
+      Secretary of War, especially authorized therefor by me, and
+      the chiefs and headmen of the Cherokee Nation of Indians,
+      likewise duly authorized and empowered by said nation, I now
+      lay the original instrument before the Senate for the
+      exercise of its constitutional power respecting the
+      ratification thereof.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 7, 1819</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of
+      Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The public buildings being advanced to a stage to afford
+      accommodation for Congress, I offer you my sincere
+      congratulations on the recommencement of your duties in the
+      Capitol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In bringing to view the incidents most deserving attention
+      which have occurred since your last session, I regret to have
+      to state that several of our principal cities have suffered
+      by sickness, that an unusual drought has prevailed in the
+      Middle and Western States, and that a derangement has been
+      felt in some of our moneyed institutions which has
+      proportionably affected their credit. I am happy, however, to
+      have it in my power to assure you that the health of our
+      cities is now completely restored; that the produce of the
+      year, though less abundant than usual, will not only be amply
+      sufficient for home consumption, but afford a large surplus
+      for the supply of the wants of other nations, and that the
+      derangement in the circulating paper medium, by being left to
+      those remedies which its obvious causes suggested and the
+      good sense and virtue of our fellow-citizens supplied, has
+      diminished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having informed Congress, on the 27th of February last, that
+      a treaty of amity, settlement, and limits had been concluded
+      in this city between the United States and Spain, and
+      ratified by the competent authorities of the former, full
+      confidence was entertained that it would have been ratified
+      by His Catholic Majesty with equal promptitude and a like
+      earnest desire to terminate on the conditions of that treaty
+      the differences which had so long existed between the two
+      countries. Every view which the subject admitted of was
+      thought to have justified this conclusion. Great losses had
+      been sustained by citizens of the United States from Spanish
+      cruisers more than twenty years before, which had not been
+      redressed. These losses had been acknowledged and provided
+      for by a treaty as far back as the year 1802, which, although
+      concluded at Madrid, was not then ratified by the Government
+      of Spain, nor since, until the last year, when it was
+      suspended by the late treaty, a more satisfactory provision
+      to both parties, as was presumed, having been made for them.
+      Other differences had arisen in this long interval, affecting
+      their highest interests, which were likewise provided for by
+      this last treaty. The treaty itself was formed on great
+      consideration and a thorough knowledge of all circumstances,
+      the subject-matter of every article having been for years
+      under discussion and repeated references having been made by
+      the minister of Spain to his Government on the points
+      respecting which the greatest difference of opinion
+      prevailed. It was formed by a minister duly authorized for
+      the purpose, who had represented his Government in the United
+      States and been employed in this long-protracted negotiation
+      several years, and who, it is not denied, kept strictly
+      within the letter of his instructions. The faith of Spain was
+      therefore pledged, under circumstances of peculiar force and
+      solemnity, for its ratification. On the part of the United
+      States this treaty was evidently acceded to in a spirit of
+      conciliation and concession. The indemnity for injuries and
+      losses so long before sustained, and now again acknowledged
+      and provided for, was to be paid by them without becoming a
+      charge on the treasury of Spain. For territory ceded by Spain
+      other territory of great value, to which our claim was
+      believed to be well founded, was ceded by the United States,
+      and in a quarter more interesting to her. This cession was
+      nevertheless received as the means of indemnifying our
+      citizens in a considerable sum, the presumed amount of their
+      losses. Other considerations of great weight urged the
+      cession of this territory by Spain. It was surrounded by the
+      Territories of the United States on every side except on that
+      of the ocean. Spain had lost her authority over it, and,
+      falling into the hands of adventurers connected with the
+      savages, it was made the means of unceasing annoyance and
+      injury to our Union in many of its most essential interests.
+      By this cession, then, Spain ceded a territory in reality of
+      no value to her and obtained concessions of the highest
+      importance by the settlement of long-standing differences
+      with the United States affecting their respective claims and
+      limits, and likewise relieved herself from the obligation of
+      a treaty relating to it which she had failed to fulfill, and
+      also from the responsibility incident to the most flagrant
+      and pernicious abuses of her rights where she could not
+      support her authority.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It being known that the treaty was formed under these
+      circumstances, not a doubt was entertained that His Catholic
+      Majesty would have ratified it without delay. I regret to
+      have to state that this reasonable expectation has been
+      disappointed; that the treaty was not ratified within the
+      time stipulated and has not since been ratified. As it is
+      important that the nature and character of this unexpected
+      occurrence should be distinctly understood, I think it my
+      duty to communicate to you all the facts and circumstances in
+      my possession relating to it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Anxious to prevent all future disagreement with Spain by
+      giving the most prompt effect to the treaty which had been
+      thus concluded, and particularly by the establishment of a
+      government in Florida which should preserve order there, the
+      minister of the United States who had been recently appointed
+      to His Catholic Majesty, and to whom the ratification by his
+      Government had been committed to be exchanged for that of
+      Spain, was instructed to transmit the latter to the
+      Department of State as soon as obtained, by a public ship
+      subjected to his order for the purpose. Unexpected delay
+      occurring in the ratification by Spain, he requested to be
+      informed of the cause. It was stated in reply that the great
+      importance of the subject, and a desire to obtain
+      explanations on certain points which were not specified, had
+      produced the delay, and that an envoy would be dispatched to
+      the United States to obtain such explanations of this
+      Government. The minister of the United States offered to give
+      full explanation on any point on which it might be desired,
+      which proposal was declined. Having communicated this result
+      to the Department of State in August last, he was instructed,
+      notwithstanding the disappointment and surprise which it
+      produced, to inform the Government of Spain that if the
+      treaty should be ratified and transmitted here at any time
+      before the meeting of Congress it would be received and have
+      the same effect as if it had been ratified in due time. This
+      order was executed, the authorized communication was made to
+      the Government of Spain, and by its answer, which has just
+      been received, we are officially made acquainted for the
+      first time with the causes which have prevented the
+      ratification of the treaty by His Catholic Majesty. It is
+      alleged by the minister of Spain that this Government had
+      attempted to alter one of the principal articles of the
+      treaty by a declaration which the minister of the United
+      States had been ordered to present when he should deliver the
+      ratification by his Government in exchange for that of Spain,
+      and of which he gave notice, explanatory of the sense in
+      which that article was understood. It is further alleged that
+      this Government had recently tolerated or protected an
+      expedition from the United States against the Province of
+      Texas, These two imputed acts are stated as the reasons which
+      have induced His Catholic Majesty to withhold his
+      ratification from the treaty, to obtain explanations
+      respecting which it is repeated that an envoy would be
+      forthwith dispatched to the United States. How far these
+      allegations will justify the conduct of the Government of
+      Spain will appear on a view of the following facts and the
+      evidence which supports them:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will be seen by the documents transmitted herewith that
+      the declaration mentioned relates to a clause in the eighth
+      article concerning certain grants of land recently made by
+      His Catholic Majesty in Florida, which it was understood had
+      conveyed all the lands which till then had been ungranted; it
+      was the intention of the parties to annul these latter
+      grants, and that clause was drawn for that express purpose
+      and for none other. The date of these grants was unknown, but
+      it was understood to be posterior to that inserted in the
+      article; indeed, it must be obvious to all that if that
+      provision in the treaty had not the effect of annulling these
+      grants, it would be altogether nugatory. Immediately after
+      the treaty was concluded and ratified by this Government an
+      intimation was received that these grants were of anterior
+      date to that fixed on by the treaty and that they would not,
+      of course, be affected by it. The mere possibility of such a
+      case, so inconsistent with the intention of the parties and
+      the meaning of the article, induced this Government to demand
+      an explanation on the subject, which was immediately granted,
+      and which corresponds with this statement. With respect to
+      the other act alleged, that this Government had tolerated or
+      protected an expedition against Texas, it is utterly without
+      foundation. Every discountenance has invariably been given to
+      any such attempt from within the limits of the United States,
+      as is fully evinced by the acts of the Government and the
+      proceedings of the courts. There being cause, however, to
+      apprehend, in the course of the last summer, that some
+      adventurers entertained views of the kind suggested, the
+      attention of the constituted authorities in that quarter was
+      immediately drawn to them, and it is known that the project,
+      whatever it might be, has utterly failed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These facts will, it is presumed, satisfy every impartial
+      mind that the Government of Spain had no justifiable cause
+      for declining to ratify the treaty. A treaty concluded in
+      conformity with instructions is obligatory, in good faith, in
+      all its stipulations, according to the true intent and
+      meaning of the parties. Each party is bound to ratify it. If
+      either could set it aside without the consent of the other,
+      there would be no longer any rules applicable to such
+      transactions between nations. By this proceeding the
+      Government of Spain has rendered to the United States a new
+      and very serious injury. It has been stated that a minister
+      would be sent to ask certain explanations of this Government;
+      but if such were desired, why were they not asked within the
+      time limited for the ratification? Is it contemplated to open
+      a new negotiation respecting any of the articles or
+      conditions of the treaty? If that were done, to what
+      consequences might it not lead? At what time and in what
+      manner would a new negotiation terminate? By this proceeding
+      Spain has formed a relation between the two countries which
+      will justify any measures on the part of the United States
+      which a strong sense of injury and a proper regard for the
+      rights and interests of the nation may dictate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the course to be pursued these objects should be
+      constantly held in view and have their due weight. Our
+      national honor must be maintained, and a new and a
+      distinguished proof be afforded of that regard for justice
+      and moderation which has invariably governed the councils of
+      this free people. It must be obvious to all that if the
+      United States had been desirous of making conquests, or had
+      been even willing to aggrandize themselves in that way, they
+      could have had no inducement to form this treaty. They would
+      have much cause for gratulation at the course which has been
+      pursued by Spain. An ample field for ambition is open before
+      them, but such a career is not consistent with the principles
+      of their Government nor the interests of the nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From a full view of all circumstances, it is submitted to the
+      consideration of Congress whether it will not be proper for
+      the United States to carry the conditions of the treaty into
+      effect in the same manner as if it had been ratified by
+      Spain, claiming on their part all its advantages and yielding
+      to Spain those secured to her. By pursuing this course we
+      shall rest on the sacred ground of right, sanctioned in the
+      most solemn manner by Spain herself by a treaty which she was
+      bound to ratify, for refusing to do which she must incur the
+      censure of other nations, even those most friendly to her,
+      while by confining ourselves within that limit we can not
+      fail to obtain their well-merited approbation. We must have
+      peace on a frontier where we have been so long disturbed; our
+      citizens must be indemnified for losses so long since
+      sustained, and for which indemnity has been so unjustly
+      withheld from them. Accomplishing these great objects, we
+      obtain all that is desirable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But His Catholic Majesty has twice declared his determination
+      to send a minister to the United States to ask explanations
+      on certain points and to give them respecting his delay to
+      ratify the treaty. Shall we act by taking the ceded territory
+      and proceeding to execute the other conditions of the treaty
+      before this minister arrives and is heard? This is a case
+      which forms a strong appeal to the candor, the magnanimity,
+      and the honor of this people. Much is due to courtesy between
+      nations. By a short delay we shall lose nothing, for, resting
+      on the ground of immutable truth and justice, we can not be
+      diverted from our purpose. It ought to be presumed that the
+      explanations which may be given to the minister of Spain will
+      be satisfactory, and produce the desired result. In any
+      event, the delay for the purpose mentioned, being a further
+      manifestation of the sincere desire to terminate in the most
+      friendly manner all differences with Spain, can not fail to
+      be duly appreciated by His Catholic Majesty as well as by
+      other powers. It is submitted, therefore, whether it will not
+      be proper to make the law proposed for carrying the
+      conditions of the treaty into effect, should it be adopted,
+      contingent; to suspend its operation, upon the responsibility
+      of the Executive, in such manner as to afford an opportunity
+      for such friendly explanations as may be desired during the
+      present session of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate to Congress a copy of the treaty and of the
+      instructions to the minister of the United States at Madrid
+      respecting it; of his correspondence with the minister of
+      Spain, and of such other documents as may be necessary to
+      give a full view of the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the course which the Spanish Government have on this
+      occasion thought proper to pursue it is satisfactory to know
+      that they have not been countenanced by any other European
+      power. On the contrary, the opinion and wishes both of France
+      and Great Britain have not been withheld either from the
+      United States or from Spain, and have been unequivocal in
+      favor of the ratification. There is also reason to believe
+      that the sentiments of the Imperial Government of Russia have
+      been the same, and that they have also been made known to the
+      cabinet of Madrid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the civil war existing between Spain and the Spanish
+      Provinces in this hemisphere the greatest care has been taken
+      to enforce the laws intended to preserve an impartial
+      neutrality. Our ports have continued to be equally open to
+      both parties and on the same conditions, and our citizens
+      have been equally restrained from interfering in favor of
+      either to the prejudice of the other. The progress of the
+      war, however, has operated manifestly in favor of the
+      colonies. Buenos Ayres still maintains unshaken the
+      independence which it declared in 1816, and has enjoyed since
+      1810. Like success has also lately attended Chili and the
+      Provinces north of the La Plata bordering on it, and likewise
+      Venezuela.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This contest has from its commencement been very interesting
+      to other powers, and to none more so than to the United
+      States. A virtuous people may and will confine themselves
+      within the limit of a strict neutrality; but it is not in
+      their power to behold a conflict so vitally important to
+      their neighbors without the sensibility and sympathy which
+      naturally belong to such a case. It has been the steady
+      purpose of this Government to prevent that feeling leading to
+      excess, and it is very gratifying to have it in my power to
+      state that so strong has been the sense throughout the whole
+      community of what was due to the character and obligations of
+      the nation that very few examples of a contrary kind have
+      occurred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The distance of the colonies from the parent country and the
+      great extent of their population and resources gave them
+      advantages which it was anticipated at a very early period
+      would be difficult for Spain to surmount. The steadiness,
+      consistency, and success with which they have pursued their
+      object, as evinced more particularly by the undisturbed
+      sovereignty which Buenos Ayres has so long enjoyed, evidently
+      give them a strong claim to the favorable consideration of
+      other nations. These sentiments on the part of the United
+      States have not been withheld from other powers, with whom it
+      is desirable to act in concert. Should it become manifest to
+      the world that the efforts of Spain to subdue these Provinces
+      will be fruitless, it may be presumed that the Spanish
+      Government itself will give up the contest. In producing such
+      a determination it can not be doubted that the opinion of
+      friendly powers who have taken no part in the controversy
+      will have their merited influence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is of the highest importance to our national character and
+      indispensable to the morality of our citizens that all
+      violations of our neutrality should be prevented. No door
+      should be left open for the evasion of our laws, no
+      opportunity afforded to any who may be disposed to take
+      advantage of it to compromit the interest or the honor of the
+      nation. It is submitted, therefore, to the consideration of
+      Congress whether it may not be advisable to revise the laws
+      with a view to this desirable result.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is submitted also whether it may not be proper to
+      designate by law the several ports or places along the coast
+      at which only foreign ships of war and privateers may be
+      admitted. The difficulty of sustaining the regulations of our
+      commerce and of other important interests from abuse without
+      such designation furnishes a strong motive for this measure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the time of the negotiation for the renewal of the
+      commercial convention between the United States and Great
+      Britain a hope had been entertained that an article might
+      have been agreed upon mutually satisfactory to both
+      countries, regulating upon principles of justice and
+      reciprocity the commercial intercourse between the United
+      States and the British possessions as well in the West Indies
+      as upon the continent of North America. The plenipotentiaries
+      of the two Governments not having been able to come to an
+      agreement on this important interest, those of the United
+      States reserved for the consideration of this Government the
+      proposals which had been presented to them as the ultimate
+      offer on the part of the British Government, and which they
+      were not authorized to accept. On their transmission here
+      they were examined with due deliberation, the result of which
+      was a new effort to meet the views of the British Government.
+      The minister of the United States was instructed to make a
+      further proposal, which has not been accepted. It was,
+      however, declined in an amicable manner. I recommend to the
+      consideration of Congress whether further prohibitory
+      provisions in the laws relating to this intercourse may not
+      be expedient. It is seen with interest that although it has
+      not been practicable as yet to agree in any arrangement of
+      this important branch of their commerce, such is the
+      disposition of the parties that each will view any
+      regulations which the other may make respecting it in the
+      most friendly light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the fifth article of the convention concluded on the 20th
+      of October, 1818, it was stipulated that the differences
+      which have arisen between the two Governments with regard to
+      the true intent and meaning of the fifth article of the
+      treaty of Ghent, in relation to the carrying away by British
+      officers of slaves from the United States after the exchange
+      of the ratifications of the treaty of peace, should be
+      referred to the decision of some friendly sovereign or state
+      to be named for that purpose. The minister of the United
+      States has been instructed to name to the British Government
+      a foreign sovereign, the common friend to both parties, for
+      the decision of this question. The answer of that Government
+      to the proposal when received will indicate the further
+      measures to be pursued on the part of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the pecuniary embarrassments which affected various
+      parts of the Union during the latter part of the preceding
+      year have during the present been considerably augmented, and
+      still continue to exist, the receipts into the Treasury to
+      the 30th of September last have amounted to $19,000,000.
+      After defraying the current expenses of the Government,
+      including the interest and reimbursement of the public debt
+      payable to that period, amounting to $18,200,000, there
+      remained in the Treasury on that day more than $2,500,000,
+      which, with the sums receivable during the remainder of the
+      year, will exceed the current demands upon the Treasury for
+      the same period.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The causes which have tended to diminish the public receipts
+      could not fail to have a corresponding effect upon the
+      revenue which has accrued upon imposts and tonnage during the
+      three first quarters of the present year. It is, however,
+      ascertained that the duties which have been secured during
+      that period exceed $18,000,000, and those of the whole year
+      will probably amount to $23,000,000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the probable receipts of the next year I refer you to the
+      statements which will be transmitted from the Treasury, which
+      will enable you to judge whether further provision be
+      necessary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great reduction in the price of the principal articles of
+      domestic growth which has occurred during the present year,
+      and the consequent fall in the price of labor, apparently so
+      favorable to the success of domestic manufactures, have not
+      shielded them against other causes adverse to their
+      prosperity. The pecuniary embarrassments which have so deeply
+      affected the commercial interests of the nation have been no
+      less adverse to our manufacturing establishments in several
+      sections of the Union.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great reduction of the currency which the banks have been
+      constrained to make in order to continue specie payments, and
+      the vitiated character of it where such reductions have not
+      been attempted, instead of placing within the reach of these
+      establishments the pecuniary aid necessary to avail
+      themselves of the advantages resulting from the reduction in
+      the prices of the raw materials and of labor, have compelled
+      the banks to withdraw from them a portion of the capital
+      heretofore advanced to them. That aid which has been refused
+      by the banks has not been obtained from other sources, owing
+      to the loss of individual confidence from the frequent
+      failures which have recently occurred in some of our
+      principal commercial cities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An additional cause for the depression of these
+      establishments may probably be found in the pecuniary
+      embarrassments which have recently affected those countries
+      with which our commerce has been principally prosecuted.
+      Their manufactures, for the want of a ready or profitable
+      market at home, have been shipped by the manufacturers to the
+      United States, and in many instances sold at a price below
+      their current value at the place of manufacture. Although
+      this practice may from its nature be considered temporary or
+      contingent, it is not on that account less injurious in its
+      effects. Uniformity in the demand and price of an article is
+      highly desirable to the domestic manufacturer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is deemed of great importance to give encouragement to our
+      domestic manufacturers. In what manner the evils which have
+      been adverted to may be remedied, and how far it may be
+      practicable in other respects to afford to them further
+      encouragement, paying due regard to the other great interests
+      of the nation, is submitted to the wisdom of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The survey of the coast for the establishment of
+      fortifications is now nearly completed, and considerable
+      progress has been made in the collection of materials for the
+      construction of fortifications in the Gulf of Mexico and in
+      the Chesapeake Bay. The works on the eastern bank of the
+      Potomac below Alexandria and on the Pea Patch, in the
+      Delaware, are much advanced, and it is expected that the
+      fortifications at the Narrows, in the harbor of New York,
+      will be completed the present year. To derive all the
+      advantages contemplated from these fortifications it was
+      necessary that they should be judiciously posted, and
+      constructed with a view to permanence, The progress hitherto
+      has therefore been slow; but as the difficulties in parts
+      heretofore the least explored and known are surmounted, it
+      will in future be more rapid. As soon as the survey of the
+      coast is completed, which it is expected will be done early
+      in the next spring, the engineers employed in it will proceed
+      to examine for like purposes the northern and northwestern
+      frontiers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The troops intended to occupy a station at the mouth of the
+      St. Peters, on the Mississippi, have established themselves
+      there, and those who were ordered to the mouth of the Yellow
+      Stone, on the Missouri, have ascended that river to the
+      Council Bluff, where they will remain until the next spring,
+      when they will proceed to the place of their destination. I
+      have the satisfaction to state that this measure has been
+      executed in amity with the Indian tribes, and that it
+      promises to produce, in regard to them, all the advantages
+      which were contemplated by it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Much progress has likewise been made in the construction of
+      ships of war and in the collection of timber and other
+      materials for shipbuilding. It is not doubted that our Navy
+      will soon be augmented to the number and placed in all
+      respects on the footing provided for by law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Board, consisting of engineers and naval officers, have
+      not yet made their final report of sites for two naval
+      depots, as instructed according to the resolutions of March
+      18 and April 20, 1818, but they have examined the coast
+      therein designated, and their report is expected in the next
+      month.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the protection of our commerce in the Mediterranean,
+      along the southern Atlantic coast, in the Pacific and Indian
+      oceans, it has been found necessary to maintain a strong
+      naval force, which it seems proper for the present to
+      continue. There is much reason to believe that if any portion
+      of the squadron heretofore stationed in the Mediterranean
+      should be withdrawn our intercourse with the powers bordering
+      on that sea would be much interrupted, if not altogether
+      destroyed. Such, too, has been the growth of a spirit of
+      piracy in the other quarters mentioned, by adventurers from
+      every country, in abuse of the friendly flags which they have
+      assumed, that not to protect our commerce there would be to
+      abandon it as a prey to their rapacity. Due attention has
+      likewise been paid to the suppression of the slave trade, in
+      compliance with a law of the last session. Orders have been
+      given to the commanders of all our public ships to seize all
+      vessels navigated under our flag engaged in that trade, and
+      to bring them in to be proceeded against in the manner
+      prescribed by that law. It is hoped that these vigorous
+      measures, supported by like acts by other nations, will soon
+      terminate a commerce so disgraceful to the civilized world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the execution of the duty imposed by these acts, and of a
+      high trust connected with it, it is with deep regret I have
+      to state the loss which has been sustained by the death of
+      Commodore Perry. His gallantry in a brilliant exploit in the
+      late war added to the renown of his country. His death is
+      deplored as a national misfortune.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 7, 1819</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit herewith to the Senate a collection of the
+      commercial regulations of the different foreign countries
+      with which the United States have commercial intercourse,
+      which has been compiled in compliance with the resolution of
+      the Senate of 3d March, 1817.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 14, 1819</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In conformity with the resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 24th of February last, I now transmit
+      a report of the Secretary of State, with extracts and copies
+      of several letters, touching the causes of the imprisonment
+      of William White, an American citizen, at Buenos Ayres.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 17, 1819</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some doubt being entertained respecting the true intent and
+      meaning of the act of the last session entitled "An act in
+      addition to the acts prohibiting the slave trade," as to the
+      duties of the agents to be appointed on the coast of Africa,
+      I think it proper to state the interpretation which has been
+      given of the act and the measures adopted to carry it into
+      effect, that Congress may, should it be deemed advisable,
+      amend the same before further proceeding is had under it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The obligation to instruct the commanders of all our armed
+      vessels to seize and bring into port all ships or vessels of
+      the United States, wheresoever found, having on board any
+      negro, mulatto, or person of color in violation of former
+      acts for the suppression of the slave trade, being
+      imperative, was executed without delay. No seizures have yet
+      been made, but as they were contemplated by the law, and
+      might be presumed, it seemed proper to make the necessary
+      regulations applicable to such seizures for carrying the
+      several provisions of the act into effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is enjoined on the Executive to cause all negroes,
+      mulattoes, or persons of color who may be taken under the act
+      to be removed to Africa. It is the obvious import of the law
+      that none of the persons thus taken should remain within the
+      United States, and no place other than the coast of Africa
+      being designated, their removal or delivery, whether carried
+      from the United States or landed immediately from the vessels
+      in which they were taken, was supposed to be confined to that
+      coast. No settlement or station being specified, the whole
+      coast was thought to be left open for the selection of a
+      proper place at which the persons thus taken should be
+      delivered. The Executive is authorized to appoint one or more
+      agents residing there to receive such persons, and $100,000
+      are appropriated for the general purposes of the law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On due consideration of the several sections of the act, and
+      of its humane policy, it was supposed to be the intention of
+      Congress that all the persons above described who might be
+      taken under it and landed in Africa should be aided in their
+      return to their former homes, or in their establishment at or
+      near the place where landed. Some shelter and food would be
+      necessary for them there as soon as landed, let their
+      subsequent disposition be what it might. Should they be
+      landed without such provision having been previously made,
+      they might perish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was supposed, by the authority given to the Executive to
+      appoint agents residing on that coast, that they should
+      provide such shelter and food, and perform the other
+      beneficent and charitable offices contemplated by the act.
+      The coast of Africa having been little explored, and no
+      persons residing there who possessed the requisite
+      qualifications to entitle them to the trust being known to
+      the Executive, to none such could it be committed. It was
+      believed that citizens only who would go hence well
+      instructed in the views of their Government and zealous to
+      give them effect would be competent to these duties, and that
+      it was not the intention of the law to preclude their
+      appointment. It was obvious that the longer these persons
+      should be detained in the United States in the hands of the
+      marshals the greater would be the expense, and that for the
+      same term would the main purpose of the law be suspended. It
+      seemed, therefore, to be incumbent on me to make the
+      necessary arrangements for carrying this act into effect in
+      Africa in time to meet the delivery of any persons who might
+      be taken by the public vessels and landed there under it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this view of the policy and sanctions of the law it has
+      been decided to send a public ship to the coast of Africa
+      with two such agents, who will take with them tools and other
+      implements necessary for the purposes above mentioned. To
+      each of these agents a small salary has been
+      allowed&mdash;$1,500 to the principal and $1,200 to the
+      other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All our public agents on the coast of Africa receive salaries
+      for their services, and it was understood that none of our
+      citizens possessing the requisite qualifications would accept
+      these trusts, by which they would be confined to parts the
+      least frequented and civilized, without a reasonable
+      compensation, Such allowance therefore seemed to be
+      indispensable to the execution of the act. It is intended
+      also to subject a portion of the sum appropriated to the
+      order of the principal agent for the special objects above
+      stated, amounting in the whole, including the salaries of the
+      agents for one year, to rather less than one third of the
+      appropriation. Special instructions will be given to these
+      agents, defining in precise terms their duties in regard to
+      the persons thus delivered to them, the disbursement of the
+      money by the principal agent, and his accountability for the
+      same. They will also have power to select the most suitable
+      place on the coast of Africa at which all persons who may be
+      taken under this act shall be delivered to them, with an
+      express injunction to exercise no power founded on the
+      principle of colonization or other power than that of
+      performing the benevolent offices above recited by the
+      permission and sanction of the existing government under
+      which they may establish themselves. Orders will be given to
+      the commander of the public ship in which they will sail to
+      cruise along the coast to give the more complete effect to
+      the principal object of the act.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 17, 1819</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of Congress of the 27th
+      March, 1818, the journal, acts, and proceedings of the
+      convention which formed the present Constitution of the
+      United States have been published. The resolution directs
+      that 1,000 copies should be printed, of which one copy should
+      be furnished to each member of the Fifteenth Congress, and
+      the residue to be subject to the future disposition of
+      Congress. The number of copies sufficient to supply the
+      members of the late Congress having been reserved for that
+      purpose, the remainder are now deposited at the Department of
+      State subject to the order of Congress. The documents
+      mentioned in the resolution of the 27th March, 1818, are in
+      the process of publication.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 24, 1819</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 23d of February. 1803, a message from the President of
+      the United States was transmitted to both Houses of Congress,
+      together with the report of the then Secretary of State, Mr.
+      Madison, upon the case of the Danish brigantine
+      <i>Henrick</i> and her cargo, belonging to citizens of
+      Hamburg, recommending the claim to the favorable
+      consideration of Congress. In February, 1805, it was again
+      presented by a message from the President to the
+      consideration of Congress, but has not since been
+      definitively acted upon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The minister resident from Denmark and the consul-general
+      from Hamburg having recently renewed applications in behalf
+      of the respective owners of the vessel and cargo, I transmit
+      herewith copies of their communications for the further
+      consideration of the Legislature, upon whose files all the
+      documents relating to the claim are still existing.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 31, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate, for its advice and consent as to
+      the ratification, three treaties which have been concluded in
+      the course of the present year with the Kickapoos, the
+      Chippaways, and the Kickapoos of the Vermillion by
+      commissioners who were duly authorized for the purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the Chippaways there is a supplementary article
+      stipulating certain advantages in their favor on condition
+      that the same shall be ratified by the Executive, with the
+      advice and consent of the Senate, which I likewise submit to
+      your consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 8, 1820</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 14th December, 1819, requesting me to
+      cause to be laid before it any information I may possess
+      respecting certain executions which have been inflicted in
+      the Army of the United States since the year 1815 contrary to
+      the laws and regulations provided for the government of the
+      same, I transmit a report from the Secretary of War
+      containing a detailed account in relation to the object of
+      the said resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 8, 1820</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 20th of
+      January, 1819, requesting me "to cause a report to be laid
+      before them at their next session of such facts as may be
+      within the means of the Government to obtain shewing how far
+      it may be expedient or not to provide by law for clothing the
+      Army with articles manufactured in the United States," I
+      transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which, with the
+      accompanying documents, comprehends all the information
+      required by the Senate in their resolution aforesaid.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 19, 1820</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives requesting me "to lay before it at as early a
+      day as may be convenient an account of the expenditure of the
+      several sums appropriated for building fortifications from
+      the year 1816 to the year 1819, inclusive, indicating the
+      places at which works of defense have been begun, the
+      magnitude of the works contemplated at each place, their
+      present condition, the amount already expended, and the
+      estimated amount requisite for the completion of each, also
+      the mode by which the fortifications are built, by contract
+      or otherwise," I now transmit to the House a report from the
+      Secretary of War, to whom the said resolution was referred,
+      which, with the documents accompanying it, contains all the
+      information required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 8, 1820</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In conformity with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 24th January, 1820, requesting me "to
+      inform the House what loans, if any, have been made since the
+      peace, to private citizens, of powder, lead, and other
+      munitions belonging to the Government by officers of any
+      department of the Army or Navy, specifying the times, terms,
+      objects, and extent of such loans, the names of the persons
+      by whom and to whom made, the different times of repayment,
+      and also the amount of the ultimate loss, if any, likely to
+      be incurred by the Government in consequence thereof," I now
+      transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which, with the
+      accompanying documents, contains all the information that can
+      be furnished on the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 1, 1820</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 4th of February last, requesting to be
+      informed what progress has been made in surveying certain
+      parts of the coast of North Carolina and in ascertaining the
+      latitude and longitude of the extreme points of Cape
+      Hatteras, Cape Look Out, and Cape Fear, according to a
+      resolution of the 19th of January, 1819, I have to state that
+      it is intended to carry the resolution of the 19th of March
+      into effect in the present year. The cooperation of the Board
+      of Engineers with Naval Commissioners being necessary in
+      executing that duty, and the Board having been engaged last
+      year in surveying the eastern coast of our Union, it would
+      have interfered with previous arrangements and been attended
+      with increased expense had they been withdrawn from it. The
+      Board will, however, be employed during the present summer in
+      the regular execution of its duties in the survey of the
+      coast of North Carolina, when instructions will be given it
+      to afford the necessary aid to carry the resolution of the
+      19th of January of the last year into effect.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 4, 1820</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate, in pursuance of their resolution of
+      the 4th of January last, a report from the Secretary of
+      State, with a list of fines incurred under the act of
+      Congress entitled "An act in addition to the act for the
+      punishment of certain crimes against the United States,"
+      which appear from the records of the Department of State to
+      have been remitted by the Executive authority of the United
+      States.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 8, 1820</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE OF THE SENATE:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate copies of sundry papers having
+      relation to the treaty of 22d February, 1819, between the
+      United States and Spain, which have been received at the
+      Department of State, and have not before been communicated to
+      the Senate.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 8, 1820</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to Congress a report from the Secretary of the
+      Treasury, which, with the accompanying documents, will shew
+      that the act of the 20th May, 1812, respecting the northern
+      and western boundaries of the State of Ohio, has been
+      executed.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 17, 1820</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It being stipulated by the fourth article of the articles of
+      agreement and cession entered into on the 24th of April,
+      1802, with the State of Georgia that the United States should
+      at their own expense extinguish for the use of that State, as
+      soon as it might be done on reasonable terms, the Indian
+      title to all the lands within its limits, and the legislature
+      of Georgia being desirous to make a further acquisition of
+      said lands at this time, presuming that it may be done on
+      reasonable terms; and it being also represented that property
+      of considerable value which had been taken by the Creek and
+      Cherokee Indians from citizens of Georgia, the restoration of
+      which had been provided for by different treaties, but which
+      has never been made, it is proposed to hold a treaty with
+      those nations, and more particularly with the Creeks, in the
+      course of this summer. For the attainment of these objects I
+      submit the subject to the consideration of Congress, that a
+      sum adequate to the expenses attending such treaty may be
+      appropriated should Congress deem it expedient.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 20, 1820</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 16th of
+      February, 1820, requesting me to cause to be laid before it
+      "abstracts of the bonds or other securities given under the
+      laws of the United States by the collectors of the customs,
+      receivers of public moneys for lands, and registers of public
+      lands, paymasters in the Army, and pursers in the Navy, who
+      are now in office, or who have heretofore been in office, and
+      whose accounts remain unsettled, together with a statement of
+      such other facts as may tend to shew the expediency or
+      inexpediency of so far altering the laws respecting such
+      officers that they may hereafter be appointed for limited
+      periods, subject to removal as heretofore," I transmit to the
+      Senate a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, which,
+      with the documents accompanying it, will afford all the
+      information required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 27, 1820</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to Congress an extract of a letter from the
+      minister plenipotentiary of the United States at St.
+      Petersburg, of the 1st of November last, on the subject of
+      our relations with Spain, indicating the sentiments of the
+      Emperor of Russia respecting the nonratification by His
+      Catholic Majesty of the treaty lately concluded between the
+      United States and Spain, and the strong interest which His
+      Imperial Majesty takes in promoting the ratification of that
+      treaty. Of this friendly disposition the most satisfactory
+      assurance has been since given directly to this Government by
+      the minister of Russia residing here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit also to Congress an extract of a letter from the
+      minister plenipotentiary of the United States at Madrid of a
+      later date than those heretofore communicated, by which it
+      appears that, at the instance of the charg&eacute; d'affaires
+      of the Emperor of Russia, a new pledge had been given by the
+      Spanish Government that the minister who had been lately
+      appointed to the United States should set out on his mission
+      without delay, with full power to settle all differences in a
+      manner satisfactory to the parties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have further to state that the Governments of France and
+      Great Britain continue to manifest the sentiments heretofore
+      communicated respecting the nonratification of the treaty by
+      Spain, and to interpose their good offices to promote its
+      ratification.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is proper to add that the Governments of France and Russia
+      have expressed an earnest desire that the United States would
+      take no steps for the present on the principle of reprisal
+      which might possibly tend to disturb the peace between the
+      United States and Spain. There is good cause to presume from
+      the delicate manner in which this sentiment has been conveyed
+      that it is founded in a belief as well as a desire that our
+      just objects may be accomplished without the hazard of such
+      an extremity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On full consideration of all these circumstances, I have
+      thought it my duty to submit to Congress whether it will not
+      be advisable to postpone a decision on the questions now
+      depending with Spain until the next session. The distress of
+      that nation at this juncture affords a motive for this
+      forbearance which can not fail to be duly appreciated. Under
+      such circumstances the attention of the Spanish Government
+      may be diverted from its foreign concerns, and the arrival of
+      a minister here be longer delayed. I am the more induced to
+      suggest this course of proceeding from a knowledge that,
+      while we shall thereby make a just return to the powers whose
+      good offices have been acknowledged, and increase by a new
+      and signal proof of moderation our claims on Spain, our
+      attitude in regard to her will not be less favorable at the
+      next session than it is at the present.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>May 9, 1820</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate to Congress a correspondence which has taken
+      place between the Secretary of State and the envoy
+      extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of His Catholic
+      Majesty since the message of the 27th March last, respecting
+      the treaty which was concluded between the United States and
+      Spain on the 22d February, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the failure of His Catholic Majesty for so long a time
+      to ratify the treaty, it was expected that this minister
+      would have brought with him the ratification, or that he
+      would have been authorized to give an order for the delivery
+      of the territory ceded by it to the United States. It
+      appears, however, that the treaty is still unratified and
+      that the minister has no authority to surrender the
+      territory. The object of his mission has been to make
+      complaints and to demand explanations respecting an imputed
+      system of hostility on the part of citizens of the United
+      States against the subjects and dominions of Spain, and an
+      unfriendly policy in their Government, and to obtain new
+      stipulations against these alleged injuries as the condition
+      on which the treaty should be ratified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Unexpected as such complaints and such a demand were under
+      existing circumstances, it was thought proper, without
+      compromising the Government as to the course to be pursued,
+      to meet them promptly and to give the explanations that were
+      desired on every subject with the utmost candor. The result
+      has proved what was sufficiently well known before, that the
+      charge of a systematic hostility being adopted and pursued by
+      citizens of the United States against the dominions and
+      subjects of Spain is utterly destitute of foundation, and
+      that their Government in all its branches has maintained with
+      the utmost rigor that neutrality in the civil war between
+      Spain and the colonies which they were the first to declare.
+      No force has been collected nor incursions made from within
+      the United States against the dominions of Spain, nor have
+      any naval equipments been permitted in favor of either party
+      against the other. Their citizens have been warned of the
+      obligations incident to the neutral condition of their
+      country; their public officers have been instructed to see
+      that the laws were faithfully executed, and severe examples
+      have been made of some who violated them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In regard to the stipulation proposed as the condition of the
+      ratification of the treaty, that the United States shall
+      abandon the right to recognize the revolutionary colonies in
+      South America, or to form other relations with them when in
+      their judgment it may be just and expedient so to do, it is
+      manifestly so repugnant to the honor and even to the
+      independence of the United States that it has been impossible
+      to discuss it. In making this proposal it is perceived that
+      His Catholic Majesty has entirely misconceived the principles
+      on which this Government has acted in being a party to a
+      negotiation so long protracted for claims so well founded and
+      reasonable, as he likewise has the sacrifices which the
+      United States have made, comparatively, with Spain in the
+      treaty to which it is proposed to annex so extraordinary and
+      improper a condition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had the minister of Spain offered an unqualified pledge that
+      the treaty should be ratified by his Sovereign on being made
+      acquainted with the explanations which had been given by this
+      Government, there would have been a strong motive for
+      accepting and submitting it to the Senate for their advice
+      and consent, rather than to resort to other measures for
+      redress, however justifiable and proper; but he gives no such
+      pledge; oil the contrary, he declares explicitly that the
+      refusal of this Government to relinquish the right of judging
+      and acting for itself hereafter, according to circumstances,
+      in regard to the Spanish colonies, a right common to all
+      nations, has rendered it impossible for him under his
+      instructions to make such engagement. He thinks that his
+      Sovereign will be induced by his communications to ratify the
+      treaty, but still he leaves him free either to adopt that
+      measure or to decline it. He admits that the other objections
+      are essentially removed and will not in themselves prevent
+      the ratification, provided the difficulty on the third point
+      is surmounted. The result, therefore, is that the treaty is
+      declared to have no obligation whatever; that its
+      ratification is made to depend not on the considerations
+      which led to its adoption and the conditions which it
+      contains, but on a new article unconnected with it,
+      respecting which a new negotiation must be opened, of
+      indefinite duration and doubtful issue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under this view of the subject the course to be pursued would
+      appear to be direct and obvious if the affairs of Spain had
+      remained in the state in which they were when this minister
+      sailed. But it is known that an important change has since
+      taken place in the Government of that country which can not
+      fail to be sensibly felt in its intercourse with other
+      nations. The minister of Spain has essentially declared his
+      inability to act in consequence of that change. With him,
+      however, under his present powers nothing could be done. The
+      attitude of the United States must now be assumed on full
+      consideration of what is due to their rights, their interest
+      and honor, without regard to the powers or incidents of the
+      late mission. We may at pleasure occupy the territory which
+      was intended and provided by the late treaty as an indemnity
+      for losses so long since sustained by our citizens; but
+      still, nothing could be settled definitively without a treaty
+      between the two nations. Is this the time to make the
+      pressure? If the United States were governed by views of
+      ambition and aggrandizement, many strong reasons might be
+      given in its favor; but they have no objects of that kind to
+      accomplish, none which are not founded in justice and which
+      can be injured by forbearance. Great hope is entertained that
+      this change will promote the happiness of the Spanish nation.
+      The good order, moderation, and humanity which have
+      characterized the movement are the best guaranties of its
+      success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The United States would not be justified in their own
+      estimation should they take any step to disturb its harmony.
+      When the Spanish Government is completely organized on the
+      principles of this change, as it is expected it soon will be,
+      there is just ground to presume that our differences with
+      Spain will be speedily and satisfactorily settled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With these remarks I submit it to the wisdom of Congress
+      whether it will not still be advisable to postpone any
+      decision on this subject until the next session.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>May 11, 1820</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit herewith to the Senate a report from the Secretary
+      of State, together with the returns of causes depending in
+      the courts of the United States, collected conformably to a
+      resolution of the Senate of the 18th of January, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>May 12, 1820</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the
+      Secretary of State, with the document prepared in pursuance
+      of a resolution of the House of the 14th ultimo, on the
+      subject of claims of citizens of the United States for
+      Spanish spoliations upon their property and commerce.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PROCLAMATION.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the
+      3d of March, 1815, so much of the several acts imposing
+      duties on the ships and vessels and on goods, wares, and
+      merchandise imported into the United States as imposed a
+      discriminating duty of tonnage between foreign vessels and
+      vessels of the United States and between goods imported into
+      the United States in foreign vessels and vessels of the
+      United States were repealed so far as the same respected the
+      produce or manufacture of the nation to which such foreign
+      ship or vessel might belong, such repeal to take effect in
+      favor of any foreign nation whenever the President of the
+      United States should be satisfied that the discriminating or
+      countervailing duties of such foreign nation so far as they
+      operate to the disadvantage of the United States have been
+      abolished; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas satisfactory proof has been received by me from the
+      burgo-masters and senate of the free and Hanseatic city of
+      Lubeck that from and after the 30th day of October, 1819, all
+      discriminating or countervailing duties of the said city so
+      far as they operated to the disadvantage of the United States
+      have been and are abolished:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United
+      States of America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so
+      much of the several acts imposing duties on the tonnage of
+      ships and vessels and on goods, wares, and merchandise
+      imported into the United States as imposed a discriminating
+      duty of tonnage between vessels of the free and Hanseatic
+      city of Lubeck and vessels of the United States and between
+      goods imported into the United States in vessels of Lubeck
+      and vessels of the United States are repealed so far as the
+      same respect the produce or manufacture of the said free
+      Hanseatic city of Lubeck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      [SEAL.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 4th day
+      of May, A.D. 1820, and forty-fourth year of the Independence
+      of the United states.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+      By the President:<br>
+       JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,<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 14, 1820</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of
+      Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In communicating to you a just view of public affairs at the
+      commencement of your present labors, I do it with great
+      satisfaction, because, taking all circumstances into
+      consideration which claim attention, I see much cause to
+      rejoice in the felicity of our situation. In making this
+      remark I do not wish to be understood to imply that an
+      unvaried prosperity is to be seen in every interest of this
+      great community. In the progress of a nation inhabiting a
+      territory of such vast extent and great variety of climate,
+      every portion of which is engaged in foreign commerce and
+      liable to be affected in some degree by the changes which
+      occur in the condition and regulations of foreign countries,
+      it would be strange if the produce of our soil and the
+      industry and enterprise of our fellow-citizens received at
+      all times and in every quarter an uniform and equal
+      encouragement. This would be more than we would have a right
+      to expect under circumstances the most favorable. Pressures
+      on certain interests, it is admitted, have been felt; but
+      allowing to these their greatest extent, they detract but
+      little from the force of the remarks already made. In forming
+      a just estimate of our present situation it is proper to look
+      at the whole in the outline as well as in the detail. A free,
+      virtuous, and enlightened people know well the great
+      principles and causes on which their happiness depends, and
+      even those who suffer most occasionally in their transitory
+      concerns find great relief under their sufferings from the
+      blessings which they otherwise enjoy and in the consoling and
+      animating hope which they administer. From whence do these
+      pressures come? Not from a government which is founded by,
+      administered for, and supported by the people. We trace them
+      to the peculiar character of the epoch in which we live, and
+      to the extraordinary occurrences which have signalized it.
+      The convulsions with which several of the powers of Europe
+      have been shaken and the long and destructive wars in which
+      all were engaged, with their sudden transition to a state of
+      peace, presenting in the first instance unusual encouragement
+      to our commerce and withdrawing it in the second even within
+      its wonted limit, could not fail to be sensibly felt here.
+      The station, too, which we had to support through this long
+      conflict, compelled as we were finally to become a party to
+      it with a principal power, and to make great exertions,
+      suffer heavy losses, and to contract considerable debts,
+      disturbing the ordinary course of affairs by augmenting to a
+      vast amount the circulating medium, and thereby elevating at
+      one time the price of every article above a just standard and
+      depressing it at another below it, had likewise its due
+      effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is manifest that the pressures of which we complain have
+      proceeded in a great measure from these causes. When, then,
+      we take into view the prosperous and happy condition of our
+      country in all the great circumstances which constitute the
+      felicity of a nation&mdash;every individual in the full
+      enjoyment of all his rights, the Union blessed with plenty
+      and rapidly rising to greatness under a National Government
+      which operates with complete effect in every part without
+      being felt in any except by the ample protection which it
+      affords, and under State governments which perform their
+      equal share, according to a wise distribution of power
+      between them, in promoting the public happiness&mdash;it is
+      impossible to behold so gratifying, so glorious a spectacle
+      without being penetrated with the most profound and grateful
+      acknowledgments to the Supreme Author of All Good for such
+      manifold and inestimable blessings. Deeply impressed with
+      these sentiments, I can not regard the pressures to which I
+      have adverted otherwise than in the light of mild and
+      instructive admonitions, warning us of dangers to be shunned
+      in future, teaching us lessons of economy corresponding with
+      the simplicity and purity of our institutions and best
+      adapted to their support, evincing the connection and
+      dependence which the various parts of our happy Union have on
+      each other, thereby augmenting daily our social incorporation
+      and adding by its strong ties new strength and vigor to the
+      political; opening a wider range, and with new encouragement,
+      to the industry and enterprise of our fellow-citizens at home
+      and abroad, and more especially by the multiplied proofs
+      which it has accumulated of the great perfection of our most
+      excellent system of government, the powerful instrument in
+      the hands of our All-merciful Creator in securing to us these
+      blessings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Happy as our situation is, it does not exempt us from
+      solicitude and care for the future. On the contrary, as the
+      blessings which we enjoy are great, proportionably great
+      should be our vigilance, zeal, and activity to preserve them.
+      Foreign wars may again expose us to new wrongs, which would
+      impose on us new duties for which we ought to be prepared.
+      The state of Europe is unsettled, and how long peace may be
+      preserved is altogether uncertain; in addition to which we
+      have interests of our own to adjust which will require
+      particular attention. A correct view of our relations with
+      each power will enable you to form a just idea of existing
+      difficulties, and of the measures of precaution best adapted
+      to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Respecting our relations with Spain nothing explicit can now
+      be communicated. On the adjournment of Congress in May last
+      the minister plenipotentiary of the United States at Madrid
+      was instructed to inform the Government of Spain that if His
+      Catholic Majesty should then ratify the treaty this
+      Government would accept the ratification so far as to submit
+      to the decision of the Senate the question whether such
+      ratification should be received in exchange for that of the
+      United States heretofore given. By letters from the minister
+      of the United States to the Secretary of State it appears
+      that a communication in conformity with his instructions had
+      been made to the Government of Spain, and that the Cortes had
+      the subject under consideration. The result of the
+      deliberations of that body, which is daily expected, will be
+      made known to Congress as soon as it is received. The
+      friendly sentiment which was expressed on the part of the
+      United States in the message of the 9th of May last is still
+      entertained for Spain. Among the causes of regret, however,
+      which are inseparable from the delay attending this
+      transaction it is proper to state that satisfactory
+      information has been received that measures have been
+      recently adopted by designing persons to convert certain
+      parts of the Province of East Florida into depots for the
+      reception of foreign goods, from whence to smuggle them into
+      the United States. By opening a port within the limits of
+      Florida, immediately on our boundary where there was no
+      settlement, the object could not be misunderstood. An early
+      accommodation of differences will, it is hoped, prevent all
+      such fraudulent and pernicious practices, and place the
+      relations of the two countries on a very amicable and
+      permanent basis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The commercial relations between the United States and the
+      British colonies in the West Indies and on this continent
+      have undergone no change, the British Government still
+      preferring to leave that commerce under the restriction
+      heretofore imposed on it on each side. It is satisfactory to
+      recollect that the restraints resorted to by the United
+      States were defensive only, intended to prevent a monopoly
+      under British regulations in favor of Great Britain, as it
+      likewise is to know that the experiment is advancing in a
+      spirit of amity between the parties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The question depending between the United States and Great
+      Britain respecting the construction of the first article of
+      the treaty of Ghent has been referred by both Governments to
+      the decision of the Emperor of Russia, who has accepted the
+      umpirage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An attempt has been made with the Government of France to
+      regulate by treaty the commerce between the two countries on
+      the principle of reciprocity and equality. By the last
+      communication from the minister plenipotentiary of the United
+      States at Paris, to whom full power had been given, we learn
+      that the negotiation had been commenced there; but serious
+      difficulties having occurred, the French Government had
+      resolved to transfer it to the United States, for which
+      purpose the minister plenipotentiary of France had been
+      ordered to repair to this city, and whose arrival might soon
+      be expected. It is hoped that this important interest may be
+      arranged on just conditions and in a manner equally
+      satisfactory to both parties. It is submitted to Congress to
+      decide, until such arrangement is made, how far it may be
+      proper, on the principle of the act of the last session which
+      augmented the tonnage duty on French vessels, to adopt other
+      measures for carrying more completely into effect the policy
+      of that act.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The act referred to, which imposed new tonnage on French
+      vessels, having been in force from and after the 1st day of
+      July, it has happened that several vessels of that nation
+      which had been dispatched from France before its existence
+      was known have entered the ports of the United States, and
+      been subject to its operation, without that previous notice
+      which the general spirit of our laws gives to individuals in
+      similar cases. The object of that law having been merely to
+      countervail the inequalities which existed to the
+      disadvantage of the United States in their commercial
+      intercourse with France, it is submitted also to the
+      consideration of Congress whether, in the spirit of amity and
+      conciliation which it is no less the inclination than the
+      policy of the United States to preserve in their intercourse
+      with other powers, it may not be proper to extend relief to
+      the individuals interested in those cases by exempting from
+      the operation of the law all those vessels which have entered
+      our ports without having had the means of previously knowing
+      the existence of the additional duty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The contest between Spain and the colonies, according to the
+      most authentic information, is maintained by the latter with
+      improved success. The unfortunate divisions which were known
+      to exist some time since at Buenos Ayres it is understood
+      still prevail. In no part of South America has Spain made any
+      impression on the colonies, while in many parts, and
+      particularly in Venezuela and New Grenada, the colonies have
+      gained strength and acquired reputation, both for the
+      management of the war in which they have been successful and
+      for the order of the internal administration. The late change
+      in the Government of Spain, by the reestablishment of the
+      constitution of 1812, is an event which promises to be
+      favorable to the revolution. Under the authority of the
+      Cortes the Congress of Angostura was invited to open a
+      negotiation for the settlement of differences between the
+      parties, to which it was replied that they would willingly
+      open the negotiation provided the acknowledgment of their
+      independence was made its basis, but not otherwise. Of
+      further proceedings between them we are uninformed. No facts
+      are known to this Government to warrant the belief that any
+      of the powers of Europe will take part in the contest, whence
+      it may be inferred, considering all circumstances which must
+      have weight in producing the result, that an adjustment will
+      finally take place on the basis proposed by the colonies. To
+      promote that result by friendly counsels with other powers,
+      including Spain herself, has been the uniform policy of this
+      Government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In looking to the internal concerns of our country you will,
+      I am persuaded, derive much satisfaction from a view of the
+      several objects to which, in the discharge of your official
+      duties, your attention will be drawn. Among these none holds
+      a more important place than the public revenue, from the
+      direct operation of the power by which it is raised on the
+      people, and by its influence in giving effect to every other
+      power of the Government. The revenue depends on the resources
+      of the country, and the facility by which the amount required
+      is raised is a strong proof of the extent of the resources
+      and of the efficiency of the Government. A few prominent
+      facts will place this great interest in a just light before
+      you. On the 30th of September, 1815, the funded and floating
+      debt of the United States was estimated at $119,635,558. If
+      to this sum be added the amount of 5 per cent stock
+      subscribed to the Bank of the United States, the amount of
+      Mississippi stock and of the stock which was issued
+      subsequently to that date, the balances ascertained to be due
+      to certain States for military services and to individuals
+      for supplies furnished and services rendered during the late
+      war, the public debt may be estimated as amounting at that
+      date, and as afterwards liquidated, to $158,713,049. On the
+      30th of September, 1820, it amounted to $91,993,883, having
+      been reduced in that interval by payments $66,879,165. During
+      this term the expenses of the Government of the United States
+      were likewise defrayed in every branch of the civil,
+      military, and naval establishments; the public edifices in
+      this city have been rebuilt with considerable additions;
+      extensive fortifications have been commenced, and are in a
+      train of execution; permanent arsenals and magazines have
+      been erected in various parts of the Union; our Navy has been
+      considerably augmented, and the ordnance, munitions of war,
+      and stores of the Army and Navy, which were much exhausted
+      during the war, have been replenished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the discharge of so large a proportion of the public debt
+      and the execution of such extensive and important operations
+      in so short a time a just estimate may be formed of the great
+      extent of our national resources. The demonstration is the
+      more complete and gratifying when it is recollected that the
+      direct tax and excise were repealed soon after the
+      termination of the late war, and that the revenue applied to
+      these purposes has been derived almost wholly from other
+      sources.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The receipts into the Treasury from every source to the 30th
+      of September last have amounted to $16,794,107.66, whilst the
+      public expenditures to the same period amounted to
+      $16,871,534.72, leaving in the Treasury on that day a sum
+      estimated at $1,950,000. For the probable receipts of the
+      following year I refer you to the statement which will be
+      transmitted from the Treasury.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sum of $3,000,000 authorized to be raised by loan by an
+      act of the last session of Congress has been obtained upon
+      terms advantageous to the Government, indicating not only an
+      increased confidence in the faith of the nation, but the
+      existence of a large amount of capital seeking that mode of
+      investment at a rate of interest not exceeding 5 per cent per
+      annum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is proper to add that there is now due to the Treasury for
+      the sale of public lands $22,996,545. In bringing this
+      subject to view I consider it my duty to submit to Congress
+      whether it may not be advisable to extend to the purchasers
+      of these lands, in consideration of the unfavorable change
+      which has occurred since the sales, a reasonable indulgence.
+      It is known that the purchases were made when the price of
+      every article had risen to its greatest height, and that the
+      installments are becoming due at a period of great
+      depression. It is presumed that some plan may be devised by
+      the wisdom of Congress, compatible with the public interest,
+      which would afford great relief to these purchasers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Considerable progress has been made during the present season
+      in examining the coast and its various bays and other inlets,
+      in the collection of materials, and in the construction of
+      fortifications for the defense of the Union at several of the
+      positions at which it has been decided to erect such works.
+      At Mobile Point and Dauphin Island, and at the Rigolets,
+      leading to Lake Pontchartrain, materials to a considerable
+      amount have been collected, and all the necessary
+      preparations made for the commencement of the works. At Old
+      Point Comfort, at the mouth of James River, and at the
+      Rip-Rap, on the opposite shore in the Chesapeake Bay,
+      materials to a vast amount have been collected; and at the
+      Old Point some progress has been made in the construction of
+      the fortification, which is on a very extensive scale. The
+      work at Fort Washington, on this river, will be completed
+      early in the next spring, and that on the Pea Patch, in the
+      Delaware, in the course of the next season. Fort Diamond, at
+      the Narrows, in the harbor of New York, will be finished this
+      year. The works at Boston, New York, Baltimore, Norfolk,
+      Charleston, and Niagara have been in part repaired, and the
+      coast of North Carolina, extending south to Cape Fear, has
+      been examined, as have likewise other parts of the coast
+      eastward of Boston. Great exertions have been made to push
+      forward these works with the utmost dispatch possible; but
+      when their extent is considered, with the important purposes
+      for which they are intended&mdash;the defense of the whole
+      coast, and, in consequence, of the whole interior&mdash;and
+      that they are to last for ages, it will be manifest that a
+      well-digested plan, founded on military principles,
+      connecting the whole together, combining security with
+      economy, could not be prepared without repeated examinations
+      of the most exposed and difficult parts, and that it would
+      also take considerable time to collect the materials at the
+      several points where they would be required. From all the
+      light that has been shed on this subject I am satisfied that
+      every favorable anticipation which has been formed of this
+      great undertaking will be verified, and that when completed
+      it will afford very great if not complete protection to our
+      Atlantic frontier in the event of another war&mdash;a
+      protection sufficient to counterbalance in a single campaign
+      with an enemy powerful at sea the expense of all these works,
+      without taking into the estimate the saving of the lives of
+      so many of our citizens, the protection of our towns and
+      other property, or the tendency of such works to prevent war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our military positions have been maintained at Belle Point,
+      on the Arkansas, at Council Bluffs, on the Missouri, at St.
+      Peters, on the Mississippi, and at Green Bay, on the upper
+      Lakes. Commodious barracks have already been erected at most
+      of these posts, with such works as were necessary for their
+      defense. Progress has also been made in opening
+      communications between them and in raising supplies at each
+      for the support of the troops by their own labor,
+      particularly those most remote.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the Indians peace has been preserved and a progress made
+      in carrying into effect the act of Congress making an
+      appropriation for their civilization, with the prospect of
+      favorable results. As connected equally with both these
+      objects, our trade with those tribes is thought to merit the
+      attention of Congress. In their original state game is their
+      sustenance and war their occupation, and if they find no
+      employment from civilized powers they destroy each other.
+      Left to themselves their extirpation is inevitable. By a
+      judicious regulation of our trade with them we supply their
+      wants, administer to their comforts, and gradually, as the
+      game retires, draw them to us. By maintaining posts far in
+      the interior we acquire a more thorough and direct control
+      over them, without which it is confidently believed that a
+      complete change in their manners can never be accomplished.
+      By such posts, aided by a proper regulation of our trade with
+      them and a judicious civil administration over them, to be
+      provided for by law, we shall, it is presumed, be enabled not
+      only to protect our own settlements from their savage
+      incursions and preserve peace among the several tribes, but
+      accomplish also the great purpose of their civilization.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Considerable progress has also been made in the construction
+      of ships of war, some of which have been launched in the
+      course of the present year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our peace with the powers on the coast of Barbary has been
+      preserved, but we owe it altogether to the presence of our
+      squadron in the Mediterranean. It has been found equally
+      necessary to employ some of our vessels for the protection of
+      our commerce in the Indian Sea, the Pacific, and along the
+      Atlantic coast. The interests which we have depending in
+      those quarters, which have been much improved of late, are of
+      great extent and of high importance to the nation as well as
+      to the parties concerned, and would undoubtedly suffer if
+      such protection was not extended to them. In execution of the
+      law of the last session for the suppression of the slave
+      trade some of our public ships have also been employed on the
+      coast of Africa, where several captures have already been
+      made of vessels engaged in that disgraceful traffic.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 12, 1820.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 6th of
+      December, requesting that the agent employed under the act
+      entitled "An act authorizing the purchase of fire engines and
+      building houses for the safekeeping of the same" should
+      report in the manner stated in the said resolution his
+      conduct in execution of the said act, I now transmit to the
+      Senate a report from the agent, which communicates all the
+      information which has been desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 14, 1820.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I submit to the consideration of the Senate, for their advice
+      and consent as to the ratification, the following treaties,
+      concluded with the several Indian tribes therein mentioned
+      since the last session of Congress, with their documents,
+      viz: With the Weas, Kickapoos, Chippeways, Ottawas, Choctaws,
+      and Mahas; and also a treaty with the Kickapoos amended as
+      proposed by a resolution of the Senate at their last session.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 14, 1820</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 21st November last, requesting the
+      President to lay before the House information relating to the
+      progress and expenditures of the commissioners under the
+      fifth, sixth, and seventh articles of the treaty of Ghent, I
+      now transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with
+      documents containing all the information in the possession of
+      that Department requested by the resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 1, 1821</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 22d of November last, requesting the
+      President to inform that House what naval force has been
+      stationed for the protection of the commerce of our citizens
+      in the West India Islands and parts adjacent during the
+      present year, and whether any depredations by pirates or
+      others upon the property of citizens of the United States
+      engaged in such commerce have been reported to our
+      Government, I now submit for the information of the House a
+      report from the Secretary of the Navy, with accompanying
+      documents, which contains all the information in the
+      possession of the Government required by that resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 4, 1821</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate to the House of Representatives a report from
+      the Secretary of State, which, with the papers accompanying
+      it, contains all the information in the possession of the
+      Executive requested by a resolution of the House of the 4th
+      December last, on the subject of the African slave trade.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 4, 1821</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 15th of December last, requesting the
+      President of the United States to cause to be laid before
+      that House a statement of expenditures and receipts in the
+      Indian Department; also the nature and extent of the
+      contracts entered into, and with whom, from the 2d of March,
+      1811, to the present period, I now transmit a letter from the
+      Secretary of War, with a report of the superintendent of
+      Indian trade, which contains the information desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 12, 1821</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the
+      Secretary of State, with the inclosed documents, relating to
+      the negotiation for the suppression of the slave trade, which
+      should have accompanied a message on that subject
+      communicated to the House some time since, but which were
+      accidentally omitted.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 18, 1821</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 4th
+      instant, "requesting the President of the United States to
+      communicate to the Senate any information he may have as to
+      the power or authority which belonged to Don John Bonaventure
+      Morales and to the Baron Carondelet to grant and dispose of
+      the lands of Spain in Louisiana previously to the year 1803,"
+      I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury,
+      submitting a letter of the Commissioner of the General Land
+      Office, with the document to which it refers.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 18, 1821</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives requesting the President to inform the House,
+      if in his opinion proper, whether any, and, if any, what,
+      negotiations since the 1st of January, 1816, have been had
+      with the Six Nations of Indians, or any portion of them, who
+      the commissioners or agents were, the objects of the
+      negotiation, the expenses of the same, the compensation of
+      each commissioner, secretary, or agent, and to whom the
+      moneys were paid, I now transmit a report from the Secretary
+      of War communicating the information desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 31, 1821</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to Congress a report from the Secretary of the
+      Treasury submitting copies of the instructions given to the
+      commissioners appointed under the act of the 15th of May,
+      1820, authorizing the location of a road from Wheeling, in
+      the State of Virginia, to a point on the left bank of the
+      Mississippi River between St. Louis and the mouth of the
+      Illinois River, and copies of the report made by the said
+      commissioners to the Treasury Department of the progress they
+      have made in the execution of the duties prescribed by the
+      said act, together with maps of the country through which the
+      location is to be made.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 5, 1821.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I herewith transmit, in confidence, to the Senate reports
+      from the Secretary of State and of the Treasury, with the
+      papers containing the correspondence and the information in
+      possession of the Government the communication of which was
+      requested by the resolution of the Senate of the 23d of last
+      month. It is desired that the original letters may, when the
+      Senate shall have no further use for them, be returned.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 8, 1821.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 1st
+      instant, requesting the President of the United States "to
+      cause to be laid before the Senate any information he may
+      have in relation to the claims of citizens of Georgia against
+      the Creek Nation of Indians, and why these claims, if any
+      exist, have not been heretofore adjusted and settled under
+      the provisions of the treaties of 1790 and 1796," I now
+      transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with
+      accompanying documents, which contains all the information on
+      this subject in the possession of the Executive.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 13, 1821.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ratification by the Spanish Government of the treaty of
+      amity, settlement, and limits between the United States and
+      Spain, signed on the 22d of February, 1819, and on the 24th
+      of that month ratified on the part of the United States, has
+      been received by the envoy extraordinary and minister
+      plenipotentiary of that power at this place, who has given
+      notice that he is ready to exchange the ratifications.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the sixteenth article of that treaty it was stipulated
+      that the ratifications should be exchanged within six months
+      from the day of its signature, which time having elapsed
+      before the ratification of Spain was given, a copy and
+      translation thereof are now transmitted to the Senate for
+      their advice and consent to receive it in exchange for the
+      ratification of the United. States heretofore executed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The treaty was submitted to the consideration of the Cortes
+      of that Kingdom before its ratification, which was finally
+      given with their assent and sanction. The correspondence
+      between the Spanish minister of foreign affairs and the
+      minister of the United States at Madrid on that occasion is
+      also herewith communicated to the Senate, together with a
+      memorandum by the Secretary of State of his conference with
+      the Spanish envoy here yesterday, when that minister gave
+      notice of his readiness to exchange the ratifications.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The return of the original papers now transmitted, to avoid
+      the delay necessary to the making of copies, is requested.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 22, 1821</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 16th
+      instant, requesting "the President of the United States to
+      cause to be laid before the Senate the original order for
+      building the barracks at Sacketts Harbor, together with all
+      communications between the War Department and Major-General
+      Brown relative thereto, and the amount of public moneys
+      expended thereon," I now transmit a report from the Secretary
+      of War, with the papers inclosed, which contains the
+      information desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 22, 1821</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The treaty of amity, settlement, and limits between the
+      United States and Spain, signed on the 22d of February, 1819,
+      having been ratified by the contracting parties, and the
+      ratifications having been exchanged, it is herewith
+      communicated to Congress, that such legislative measures may
+      be taken as they shall judge proper for carrying the same
+      into execution.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 24, 1821</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to Congress a letter from the Secretary of War,
+      inclosing an annual return of the militia of the United
+      States, prepared by the Adjutant and Inspector General
+      conformably to the militia laws on that subject.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 28, 1821</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I herewith transmit to Congress certain extracts and a copy
+      of letters received by the Secretary of State from the
+      marshal of the United States for the eastern district of
+      Virginia, in relation to the execution of the act of the 14th
+      of March, 1820, to provide for taking the Fourth Census,
+      together with the answers returned to that marshal by the
+      Secretary of State. As the time within which the assistants
+      of the marshals can legally make their returns expired on the
+      first Monday of the present month, it would appear by the
+      information from the marshal at Richmond that the completion
+      of the Fourth Census as it respects the eastern district of
+      Virginia will have been defeated not only as it regards the
+      period contemplated by law, but during the whole of the
+      current year, unless Congress, to whom the case is submitted,
+      should by an act of the present session allow further time
+      for making the returns in question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As connected with this subject, it is also submitted for the
+      consideration of Congress how far the marshals ought to be
+      liable to the payment of postage on the conveyance of the
+      papers concerning the census and manufactures by the mail. In
+      one instance it has been already ascertained that this item
+      of contingent expense will amount to nearly a moiety of the
+      compensation of the marshal for the whole of his services. If
+      the marshals are to be relieved from this charge, provision
+      will be necessary by law either for the admission of it in
+      their accounts or the refunding of it by the respective
+      postmasters.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 2, 1821</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Congress of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate to the two Houses of Congress copies of a
+      treaty this day ratified on the part of the United States,
+      concluded and signed at the Indian Springs on the 8th of
+      January last, with the Creek Nation of Indians, in order to
+      such legislative measures as may be necessary for giving
+      effect to it.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 3, 1821</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The treaty concluded between the United States and the
+      Kickapoo tribe of Indians on the 30th of July, 1820, having
+      been ratified by and with the advice and consent of the
+      Senate, I now lay a copy of the said treaty before the House
+      of Representatives in order to such legislative provisions
+      being made as may be necessary to carry into effect the
+      stipulations therein contained on the part of the United
+      States.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Fellow-Citizens: I shall not attempt to describe the grateful
+      emotions which the new and very distinguished proof of the
+      confidence of my fellow-citizens, evinced by my reelection to
+      this high trust, has excited in my bosom. The approbation
+      which it announces of my conduct in the preceding term
+      affords me a consolation which I shall profoundly feel
+      through life. The general accord with which it has been
+      expressed adds to the great and never-ceasing obligations
+      which it imposes. To merit the continuance of this good
+      opinion, and to carry it with me into my retirement as the
+      solace of advancing years, will be the object of my most
+      zealous and unceasing efforts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having no pretensions to the high and commanding claims of my
+      predecessors, whose names are so much more conspicuously
+      identified with our Revolution, and who contributed so
+      preeminently to promote its success, I consider myself rather
+      as the instrument than the cause of the union which has
+      prevailed in the late election. In surmounting, in favor of
+      my humble pretensions, the difficulties which so often
+      produce division in like occurrences, it is obvious that
+      other powerful causes, indicating the great strength and
+      stability of our Union, have essentially contributed to draw
+      you together. That these powerful causes exist, and that they
+      are permanent, is my fixed opinion; that they may produce a
+      like accord in all questions touching, however remotely, the
+      liberty, prosperity, and happiness of our country will always
+      be the object of my most fervent prayers to the Supreme
+      Author of All Good.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a government which is founded by the people, who possess
+      exclusively the sovereignty, it seems proper that the person
+      who may be placed by their suffrages in this high trust
+      should declare on commencing its duties the principles on
+      which he intends to conduct the Administration. If the person
+      thus elected has served the preceding term, an opportunity is
+      afforded him to review its principal occurrences and to give
+      such further explanation respecting them as in his judgment
+      may be useful to his constituents. The events of one year
+      have influence on those of another, and, in like manner, of a
+      preceding on the succeeding Administration. The movements of
+      a great nation are connected in all their parts. If errors
+      have been committed they ought to be corrected; if the policy
+      is sound it ought to be supported. It is by a thorough
+      knowledge of the whole subject that our fellow-citizens are
+      enabled to judge correctly of the past and to give a proper
+      direction to the future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just before the commencement of the last term the United
+      States had concluded a war with a very powerful nation on
+      conditions equal and honorable to both parties. The events of
+      that war are too recent and too deeply impressed on the
+      memory of all to require a development from me. Our commerce
+      had been in a great measure driven from the sea; our Atlantic
+      and inland frontiers were invaded in almost every part; the
+      waste of life along our coast and on some parts of our inland
+      frontiers, to the defense of which our gallant and patriotic
+      citizens were called, was immense, in addition to which not
+      less than $120,000,000 were added at its end to the public
+      debt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the war had terminated, the nation, admonished by
+      its events, resolved to place itself in a situation which
+      should be better calculated to prevent the recurrence of a
+      like evil, and, in case it should recur, to mitigate its
+      calamities. With this view, after reducing our land force to
+      the basis of a peace establishment, which has been further
+      modified since, provision was made for the construction of
+      fortifications at proper points through the whole extent of
+      our coast and such an augmentation of our naval force as
+      should be well adapted to both purposes. The laws making this
+      provision were passed in 1815 and 1816, and it has been since
+      the constant effort of the Executive to carry them into
+      effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The advantage of these fortifications and of an augmented
+      naval force in the extent contemplated, in a point of
+      economy, has been fully illustrated by a report of the Board
+      of Engineers and Naval Commissioners lately communicated to
+      Congress, by which it appears that in an invasion by 20,000
+      men, with a correspondent naval force, in a campaign of six
+      months only, the whole expense of the construction of the
+      works would be defrayed by the difference in the sum
+      necessary to maintain the force which would be adequate to
+      our defense with the aid of those works and that which would
+      be incurred without them. The reason of this difference is
+      obvious. If fortifications are judiciously placed on our
+      great inlets, as distant from our cities as circumstances
+      will permit, they will form the only points of attack, and
+      the enemy will be detained there by a small regular force a
+      sufficient time to enable our militia to collect and repair
+      to that on which the attack is made. A force adequate to the
+      enemy, collected at that single point, with suitable
+      preparation for such others as might be menaced, is all that
+      would be requisite. But if there were no fortifications, then
+      the enemy might go where he pleased, and, changing his
+      position and sailing from place to place, our force must be
+      called out and spread in vast numbers along the whole coast
+      and on both sides of every bay and river as high up in each
+      as it might be navigable for ships of war. By these
+      fortifications, supported by our Navy, to which they would
+      afford like support, we should present to other powers an
+      armed front from St. Croix to the Sabine, which would protect
+      in the event of war our whole coast and interior from
+      invasion; and even in the wars of other powers, in which we
+      were neutral, they would be found eminently useful, as, by
+      keeping their public ships at a distance from our cities,
+      peace and order in them would be preserved and the Government
+      be protected from insult.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It need scarcely be remarked that these measures have not
+      been resorted to in a spirit of hostility to other powers.
+      Such a disposition does not exist toward any power. Peace and
+      good will have been, and will hereafter be, cultivated with
+      all, and by the most faithful regard to justice. They have
+      been dictated by a love of peace, of economy, and an earnest
+      desire to save the lives of our fellow-citizens from that
+      destruction and our country from that devastation which are
+      inseparable from war when it finds us unprepared for it. It
+      is believed, and experience, has shown, that such a
+      preparation is the best expedient that can be resorted to to
+      prevent war. I add with much pleasure that considerable
+      progress has already been made in these measures of defense,
+      and that they will be completed in a few years, considering
+      the great extent and importance of the object, if the plan be
+      zealously and steadily persevered in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conduct of the Government in what relates to foreign
+      powers is always an object of the highest importance to the
+      nation. Its agriculture, commerce, manufactures, fisheries,
+      revenue, in short, its peace, may all be affected by it.
+      Attention is therefore due to this subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the period adverted to the powers of Europe, after having
+      been engaged in long and destructive wars with each other,
+      had concluded a peace, which happily still exists. Our peace
+      with the power with whom we had been engaged had also been
+      concluded. The war between Spain and the colonies in South
+      America, which had commenced many years before, was then the
+      only conflict that remained unsettled. This being a contest
+      between different parts of the same community, in which other
+      powers had not interfered, was not affected by their
+      accommodations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This contest was considered at an early stage by my
+      predecessor a civil war in which the parties were entitled to
+      equal rights in our ports. This decision, the first made by
+      any power, being formed on great consideration of the
+      comparative strength and resources of the parties, the length
+      of time, and successful opposition made by the colonies, and
+      of all other circumstances on which it ought to depend, was
+      in strict accord with the law of nations. Congress has
+      invariably acted on this principle, having made no change in
+      our relations with either party. Our attitude has therefore
+      been that of neutrality between them, which has been
+      maintained by the Government with the strictest impartiality.
+      No aid has been afforded to either, nor has any privilege
+      been enjoyed by the one which has not been equally open to
+      the other party, and every exertion has been made in its
+      power to enforce the execution of the laws prohibiting
+      illegal equipments with equal rigor against both.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this equality between the parties their public vessels
+      have been received in our ports on the same footing; they
+      have enjoyed an equal right to purchase and export arms,
+      munitions of war, and every other supply, the exportation of
+      all articles whatever being permitted under laws which were
+      passed long before the commencement of the contest; our
+      citizens have traded equally with both, and their commerce
+      with each has been alike protected by the Government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Respecting the attitude which it may be proper for the United
+      States to maintain hereafter between the parties, I have no
+      hesitation in stating it as my opinion that the neutrality
+      heretofore observed should still be adhered to. From the
+      change in the Government of Spain and the negotiation now
+      depending, invited by the Cortes and accepted by the
+      colonies, it may be presumed that their differences will be
+      settled on the terms proposed by the colonies. Should the war
+      be continued, the United States, regarding its occurrences,
+      will always have it in their power to adopt such measures
+      respecting it as their honor and interest may require.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly after the general peace a band of adventurers took
+      advantage of this conflict and of the facility which it
+      afforded to establish a system of buccaneering in the
+      neighboring seas, to the great annoyance of the commerce of
+      the United States, and, as was represented, of that of other
+      powers. Of this spirit and of its injurious bearing on the
+      United States strong proofs were afforded by the
+      establishment at Amelia Island, and the purposes to which it
+      was made instrumental by this band in 1817, and by the
+      occurrences which took place in other parts of Florida in
+      1818, the details of which in both instances are too well
+      known to require to be now recited. I am satisfied had a less
+      decisive course been adopted that the worst consequences
+      would have resulted from it. We have seen that these checks,
+      decisive as they were, were not sufficient to crush that
+      piratical spirit. Many culprits brought within our limits
+      have been condemned to suffer death, the punishment due to
+      that atrocious crime. The decisions of upright and
+      enlightened tribunals fall equally on all whose crimes
+      subject them, by a fair interpretation of the law, to its
+      censure. It belongs to the Executive not to suffer the
+      executions under these decisions to transcend the great
+      purpose for which punishment is necessary. The full benefit
+      of example being secured, policy as well as humanity equally
+      forbids that they should be carried further. I have acted on
+      this principle, pardoning those who appear to have been led
+      astray by ignorance of the criminality of the acts they had
+      committed, and suffering the law to take effect on those only
+      in whose favor no extenuating circumstances could be urged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Great confidence is entertained that the late treaty with
+      Spain, which has been ratified by both the parties, and the
+      ratifications whereof have been exchanged, has placed the
+      relations of the two countries on a basis of permanent
+      friendship. The provision made by it for such of our citizens
+      as have claims on Spain of the character described will, it
+      is presumed, be very satisfactory to them, and the boundary
+      which is established between the territories of the parties
+      westward of the Mississippi, heretofore in dispute, has, it
+      is thought, been settled on conditions just and advantageous
+      to both. But to the acquisition of Florida too much
+      importance can not be attached. It secures to the United
+      States a territory important in itself, and whose importance
+      is much increased by its bearing on many of the highest
+      interests of the Union. It opens to several of the
+      neighboring States a free passage to the ocean, through the
+      Province ceded, by several rivers, having their sources high
+      up within their limits. It secures us against all future
+      annoyance from powerful Indian tribes. It gives us several
+      excellent harbors in the Gulf of Mexico for ships of war of
+      the largest size. It covers by its position in the Gulf the
+      Mississippi and other great waters within our extended
+      limits, and thereby enables the United States to afford
+      complete protection to the vast and very valuable productions
+      of our whole Western country, which find a market through
+      those streams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By a treaty with the British Government, bearing date on the
+      20th of October, 1818, the convention regulating the commerce
+      between the United States and Great Britain, concluded on the
+      3d of July, 1815, which was about expiring, was revived and
+      continued for the term of ten years from the time of its
+      expiration. By that treaty, also, the differences which had
+      arisen under the treaty of Ghent respecting the right claimed
+      by the United States for their citizens to take and cure fish
+      on the coast of His Britannic Majesty's dominions in America,
+      with other differences on important interests, were adjusted
+      to the satisfaction of both parties. No agreement has yet
+      been entered into respecting the commerce between the United
+      States and the British dominions in the West Indies and on
+      this continent. The restraints imposed on that commerce by
+      Great Britain, and reciprocated by the United States on a
+      principle of defense, continue still in force.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The negotiation with France for the regulation of the
+      commercial relations between the two countries, which in the
+      course of the last summer had been commenced at Paris, has
+      since been transferred to this city, and will be pursued on
+      the part of the United States in the spirit of conciliation,
+      and with an earnest desire that it may terminate in an
+      arrangement satisfactory to both parties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our relations with the Barbary Powers are preserved in the
+      same state and by the same means that were employed when I
+      came into this office. As early as 1801 it was found
+      necessary to send a squadron into the Mediterranean for the
+      protection of our commerce, and no period has intervened, a
+      short term excepted, when it was thought advisable to
+      withdraw it. The great interests which the United States have
+      in the Pacific, in commerce and in the fisheries, have also
+      made it necessary to maintain a naval force there. In
+      disposing of this force in both instances the most effectual
+      measures in our power have been taken, without interfering
+      with its other duties, for the suppression of the slave trade
+      and of piracy in the neighboring seas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The situation of the United States in regard to their
+      resources, the extent of their revenue, and the facility with
+      which it is raised affords a most gratifying spectacle. The
+      payment of nearly $67,000,000 of the public debt, with the
+      great progress made in measures of defense and in other
+      improvements of various kinds since the late war, are
+      conclusive proofs of this extraordinary prosperity,
+      especially when it is recollected that these expenditures
+      have been defrayed without a burthen on the people, the
+      direct tax and excise having been repealed soon after the
+      conclusion of the late war, and the revenue applied to these
+      great objects having been raised in a manner not to be felt.
+      Our great resources therefore remain untouched for any
+      purpose which may affect the vital interests of the nation.
+      For all such purposes they are inexhaustible. They are more
+      especially to be found in the virtue, patriotism, and
+      intelligence of our fellow-citizens, and in the devotion with
+      which they would yield up by any just measure of taxation all
+      their property in support of the rights and honor of their
+      country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the present depression of prices, affecting all the
+      productions of the country and every branch of industry,
+      proceeding from causes explained on a former occasion, the
+      revenue has considerably diminished, the effect of which has
+      been to compel Congress either to abandon these great
+      measures of defense or to resort to loans or internal taxes
+      to supply the deficiency. On the presumption that this
+      depression and the deficiency in the revenue arising from it
+      would be temporary, loans were authorized for the demands of
+      the last and present year. Anxious to relieve my
+      fellow-citizens in 1817 from every burthen which could be
+      dispensed with, and the state of the Treasury permitting it,
+      I recommended the repeal of the internal taxes, knowing that
+      such relief was then peculiarly necessary in consequence of
+      the great exertions made in the late war. I made that
+      recommendation under a pledge that should the public
+      exigencies require a recurrence to them at any time while I
+      remained in this trust, I would with equal promptitude
+      perform the duty which would then be alike incumbent on me.
+      By the experiment now making it will be seen by the next
+      session of Congress whether the revenue shall have been so
+      augmented as to be adequate to all these necessary purposes.
+      Should the deficiency still continue, and especially should
+      it be probable that it would be permanent, the course to be
+      pursued appears to me to be obvious. I am satisfied that
+      under certain circumstances loans may be resorted to with
+      great advantage. I am equally well satisfied, as a general
+      rule, that the demands of the current year, especially in
+      time of peace, should be provided for by the revenue of that
+      year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have never dreaded, nor have I ever shunned, in any
+      situation in which I have been placed making appeals to the
+      virtue and patriotism of my fellow-citizens, well knowing
+      that they could never be made in vain, especially in times of
+      great emergency or for purposes of high national importance.
+      Independently of the exigency of the case, many
+      considerations of great weight urge a policy having in view a
+      provision of revenue to meet to a certain extent the demands
+      of the nation, without relying altogether on the precarious
+      resource of foreign commerce. I am satisfied that internal
+      duties and excises, with corresponding imposts on foreign
+      articles of the same kind, would, without imposing any
+      serious burdens on the people, enhance the price of produce,
+      promote our manufactures, and augment the revenue, at the
+      same time that they made it more secure and permanent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The care of the Indian tribes within our limits has long been
+      an essential part of our system, but, unfortunately, it has
+      not been executed in a manner to accomplish all the objects
+      intended by it. We have treated them as independent nations,
+      without their having any substantial pretensions to that
+      rank. The distinction has flattered their pride, retarded
+      their improvement, and in many instances paved the way to
+      their destruction. The progress of our settlements westward,
+      supported as they are by a dense population, has constantly
+      driven them back, with almost the total sacrifice of the
+      lands which they have been compelled to abandon. They have
+      claims on the magnanimity and, I may add, on the justice of
+      this nation which we must all feel. We should become their
+      real benefactors; we should perform the office of their Great
+      Father, the endearing title which they emphatically give to
+      the Chief Magistrate of our Union. Their sovereignty over
+      vast territories should cease, in lieu of which the right of
+      soil should be secured to each individual and his posterity
+      in competent portions; and for the territory thus ceded by
+      each tribe some reasonable equivalent should be granted, to
+      be vested in permanent funds for the support of civil
+      government over them and for the education of their children,
+      for their instruction in the arts of husbandry, and to
+      provide sustenance for them until they could provide it for
+      themselves. My earnest hope is that Congress will digest some
+      plan, founded on these principles, with such improvements as
+      their wisdom may suggest, and carry it into effect as soon as
+      it may be practicable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Europe is again unsettled and the prospect of war increasing.
+      Should the flame light up in any quarter, how far it may
+      extend it is impossible to foresee. It is our peculiar
+      felicity to be altogether unconnected with the causes which
+      produce this menacing aspect elsewhere. With every power we
+      are in perfect amity, and it is our interest to remain so if
+      it be practicable on just conditions. I see no reasonable
+      cause to apprehend variance with any power, unless it proceed
+      from a violation of our maritime rights. In these contests,
+      should they occur, and to whatever extent they may be
+      carried, we shall be neutral; but as a neutral power we have
+      rights which it is our duty to maintain. For like injuries it
+      will be incumbent on us to seek redress in a spirit of amity,
+      in full confidence that, injuring none, none would knowingly
+      injure us. For more imminent dangers we should be prepared,
+      and it should always be recollected that such preparation
+      adapted to the circumstances and sanctioned by the judgment
+      and wishes of our constituents can not fail to have a good
+      effect in averting dangers of every kind. We should recollect
+      also that the season of peace is best adapted to these
+      preparations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If we turn our attention, fellow-citizens, more immediately
+      to the internal concerns of our country, and more especially
+      to those on which its future welfare depends, we have every
+      reason to anticipate the happiest results. It is now rather
+      more than forty-four years since we declared our
+      independence, and thirty-seven since it was acknowledged. The
+      talents and virtues which were displayed in that great
+      struggle were a sure presage of all that has since followed.
+      A people who were able to surmount in their infant state such
+      great perils would be more competent as they rose into
+      manhood to repel any which they might meet in their progress.
+      Their physical strength would be more adequate to foreign
+      danger, and the practice of self-government, aided by the
+      light of experience, could not fail to produce an effect
+      equally salutary on all those questions connected with the
+      internal organization. These favorable anticipations have
+      been realized.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In our whole system, national and State, we have shunned all
+      the defects which unceasingly preyed on the vitals and
+      destroyed the ancient Republics. In them there were distinct
+      orders, a nobility and a people, or the people governed in
+      one assembly. Thus, in the one instance there was a perpetual
+      conflict between the orders in society for the ascendency, in
+      which the victory of either terminated in the overthrow of
+      the government and the ruin of the state; in the other, in
+      which the people governed in a body, and whose dominions
+      seldom exceeded the dimensions of a county in one of our
+      States, a tumultuous and disorderly movement permitted only a
+      transitory existence. In this great nation there is but one
+      order, that of the people, whose power, by a peculiarly happy
+      improvement of the representative principle, is transferred
+      from them, without impairing in the slightest degree their
+      sovereignty, to bodies of their own creation, and to persons
+      elected by themselves, in the full extent necessary for all
+      the purposes of free, enlightened, and efficient government.
+      The whole system is elective, the complete sovereignty being
+      in the people, and every officer in every department deriving
+      his authority from and being responsible to them for his
+      conduct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our career has corresponded with this great outline.
+      Perfection in our organization could not have been expected
+      in the outset either in the National or State Governments or
+      in tracing the line between their respective powers. But no
+      serious conflict has arisen, nor any contest but such as are
+      managed by argument and by a fair appeal to the good sense of
+      the people, and many of the defects which experience had
+      clearly demonstrated in both Governments have been remedied.
+      By steadily pursuing this course in this spirit there is
+      every reason to believe that our system will soon attain the
+      highest degree of perfection of which human institutions are
+      capable, and that the movement in all its branches will
+      exhibit such a degree of order and harmony as to command the
+      admiration and respect of the civilized world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our physical attainments have not been less eminent.
+      Twenty-five years ago the river Mississippi was shut up and
+      our Western brethren had no outlet for their commerce. What
+      has been the progress since that time? The river has not only
+      become the property of the United States from its source to
+      the ocean, with all its tributary streams (with the exception
+      of the upper part of the Red River only), but Louisiana, with
+      a fair and liberal boundary on the western side and the
+      Floridas on the eastern, have been ceded to us. The United
+      States now enjoy the complete and uninterrupted sovereignty
+      over the whole territory from St. Croix to the Sabine. New
+      States, settled from among ourselves in this and in other
+      parts, have been admitted into our Union in equal
+      participation in the national sovereignty with the original
+      States. Our population has augmented in an astonishing degree
+      and extended in every direction. We now, fellow-citizens,
+      comprise within our limits the dimensions and faculties of a
+      great power under a Government possessing all the energies of
+      any government ever known to the Old World, with an utter
+      incapacity to oppress the people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Entering with these views the office which I have just
+      solemnly sworn to execute with fidelity and to the utmost of
+      my ability, I derive great satisfaction from a knowledge that
+      I shall be assisted in the several Departments by the very
+      enlightened and upright citizens from whom I have received so
+      much aid in the preceding term. With full confidence in the
+      continuance of that candor and generous indulgence from my
+      fellow-citizens at large which I have heretofore experienced,
+      and with a firm reliance on the protection of Almighty God, I
+      shall forthwith commence the duties of the high trust to
+      which you have called me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      MARCH 5, 1821.
+    </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 information has been received that an atrocious
+      murder, aggravated by the additional crime of robbery, was,
+      on the 6th or 7th day of this present month, committed in the
+      county of Alexandria and District of Columbia on William
+      Seaver, late of this city; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas the apprehension and punishment of the murderer or
+      murderers and his or their accessary or accessaries will be
+      an example due to justice and humanity and every way salutary
+      in its operation:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have therefore thought fit to issue this my proclamation,
+      hereby exhorting the citizens of the United States, and
+      particularly those of this District, and requiring all
+      officers, according to their respective stations, to use
+      their utmost endeavors to apprehend and bring the principal
+      or principals, accessary or accessaries, to the said murder
+      to justice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And I do moreover offer a reward of $300 for each principal,
+      if there be more than one, and $150 for each accessary before
+      the fact, if there be more than one, who shall be apprehended
+      after the day of the date hereof and brought to justice, to
+      be paid upon his conviction of the crime or crimes aforesaid.
+    </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 10th day of July, A.D.
+      1821, and of the Independence of the United States the
+      forty-sixth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+      By the President:<br>
+       JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,<br>
+       <i>Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      A PROCLAMATION.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Whereas the Congress of the United States, by a joint
+      resolution of the 2d day of March last, entitled "Resolution
+      providing for the admission of the State of Missouri into the
+      Union on a certain condition," did determine and declare
+      "that Missouri should be admitted into this Union on an equal
+      footing with the original States in all respects whatever
+      upon the fundamental condition that the fourth clause of the
+      twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitution
+      submitted on the part of said State to Congress shall never
+      be construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no
+      law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any
+      citizen of either of the States of this Union shall be
+      excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and
+      immunities to which such citizen is entitled under the
+      Constitution of the United States: <i>Provided</i>, That the
+      legislature of said State, by a solemn public act, shall
+      declare the assent of the said State to the said fundamental
+      condition, and shall transmit to the President of the United
+      States on or before the first Monday in November next an
+      authentic copy of said act, upon the receipt whereof the
+      President, by proclamation, shall announce the fact,
+      whereupon, and without any further proceeding on the part of
+      Congress, the admission of the said State into this Union
+      shall be considered as complete;" and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas by a solemn public act of the assembly of said State
+      of Missouri, passed on the 26th of June, in the present year,
+      entitled "A solemn public act declaring the assent of this
+      State to the fundamental condition contained in a resolution
+      passed by the Congress of the United States providing for the
+      admission of the State of Missouri into the Union on a
+      certain condition," an authentic copy whereof has been
+      communicated to me, it is solemnly and publicly enacted and
+      declared that that State has assented, and does assent, that
+      the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the third
+      article of the constitution of said State "shall never be
+      construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no
+      law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any
+      citizen of either of the United States shall be excluded from
+      the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to
+      which such citizens are entitled under the Constitution of
+      the United States:"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United
+      States, in pursuance of the resolution of Congress aforesaid,
+      have issued this my proclamation, announcing the fact that
+      the said State of Missouri has assented to the fundamental
+      condition required by the resolution of Congress aforesaid,
+      whereupon the admission of the said State of Missouri into
+      this Union is declared to be complete.
+    </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 10th day of August, A.D.
+      1821, and of the Independence of the said United States of
+      America the forty-sixth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+      By the President:<br>
+       JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,<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 by an act of the Congress of the United States of the
+      3d of March, 1815, so much of the several acts imposing
+      duties on the ships and vessels and on goods, wares, and
+      merchandise imported into the United States as imposed a
+      discriminating duty of tonnage between foreign vessels and
+      vessels of the United States and between goods imported into
+      the United States in foreign vessels and vessels of the
+      United States were repealed so far as the same respected the
+      produce or manufacture of the nation to which such foreign
+      ship or vessel might belong, such repeal to take effect in
+      favor of any foreign nation whenever the President of the
+      United States should be satisfied that the discriminating or
+      countervailing duties of such foreign nation so far as they
+      operate to the disadvantage of the United States have been
+      abolished; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas satisfactory proof has been received by me, through
+      the charg&eacute; d'affaires of the United States in Sweden,
+      under date of the 30th day of January, 1821, that
+      thenceforward all discriminating or countervailing duties in
+      the Kingdom of Norway so far as they operated to the
+      disadvantage of the United States had been and were
+      abolished:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United
+      States of America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so
+      much of the several acts imposing duties on the tonnage of
+      ships and vessels and on goods, wares, and merchandise
+      imported into the United States as imposed a discriminating
+      duty of tonnage between vessels of the Kingdom of Norway and
+      vessels of the United States and between goods imported into
+      the United States in vessels of the said Kingdom of Norway
+      and vessels of the United States are repealed so far as the
+      same respect the produce or manufacture of the said Kingdom
+      of Norway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 20th day
+      of August, A.D. 1821, and the forty-sixth year of the
+      Independence of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+      By the President:<br>
+       JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,<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 by an act of the Congress of the United States of the
+      3d of March, 1815, so much of the several acts imposing
+      duties on the ships and vessels and on goods, wares, and
+      merchandise imported into the United States as imposed a
+      discriminating duty of tonnage between foreign vessels and
+      vessels of the United States and between goods imported into
+      the United States in foreign vessels and vessels of the
+      United States were repealed so far as the same respected the
+      produce or manufacture of the nation to which such foreign
+      ship or vessel might belong, such repeal to take effect in
+      favor of any foreign nation whenever the President of the
+      United States should be satisfied that the discriminating or
+      countervailing duties of such foreign nation so far as they
+      operate to the disadvantage of the United States have been
+      abolished; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas satisfactory proof has been received by me, under
+      date of the 11th of May last, that thenceforward all
+      discriminating or countervailing duties of the Dukedom of
+      Oldenburg so far as they might operate to the disadvantage of
+      the United States should be and were abolished upon His
+      Highness the Duke of Oldenburg's being duly certified of a
+      reciprocal act on the part of the United States:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United
+      States of America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so
+      much of the several acts imposing duties on the tonnage of
+      ships and vessels and on goods, wares, and merchandise
+      imported into the United States as imposed a discriminating
+      duty of tonnage between vessels of the Dukedom of Oldenburg
+      and vessels of the United States and between goods imported
+      into the United States in vessels of the said Dukedom of
+      Oldenburg and vessels of the United States are repealed so
+      far as the same respect the produce or manufacture of the
+      said Dukedom of Oldenburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 22d day
+      of November, A.D. 1821, and the forty-sixth year of the
+      Independence of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+      By the President:<br>
+       JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,<br>
+       <i>Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      FIFTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 3, 1821</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of
+      Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The progress of our affairs since the last session has been
+      such as may justly be claimed and expected under a Government
+      deriving all its powers from an enlightened people, and under
+      laws formed by their representatives, on great consideration,
+      for the sole purpose of promoting the welfare and happiness
+      of their constituents. In the execution of those laws and of
+      the powers vested by the Constitution in the Executive,
+      unremitted attention has been paid to the great objects to
+      which they extend. In the concerns which are exclusively
+      internal there is good cause to be satisfied with the result.
+      The laws have had their due operation and effect. In those
+      relating to foreign powers, I am happy to state that peace
+      and amity are preserved with all by a strict observance on
+      both sides of the rights of each. In matters touching our
+      commercial intercourse, where a difference of opinion has
+      existed as to the conditions on which it should be placed,
+      each party has pursued its own policy without giving just
+      cause of offense to the other. In this annual communication,
+      especially when it is addressed to a new Congress, the whole
+      scope of our political concerns naturally comes into view,
+      that errors, if such have been committed, may be corrected;
+      that defects which have become manifest may be remedied; and,
+      on the other hand, that measures which were adopted on due
+      deliberation, and which experience has shewn are just in
+      themselves and essential to the public welfare, should be
+      persevered in and supported. In performing this necessary and
+      very important duty I shall endeavor to place before you on
+      its merits every subject that is thought to be entitled to
+      your particular attention in as distinct and clear a light as
+      I may be able.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By an act of the 3d of March, 1815, so much of the several
+      acts as imposed higher duties on the tonnage of foreign
+      vessels and on the manufactures and productions of foreign
+      nations when imported into the United States in foreign
+      vessels than when imported in vessels of the United States
+      were repealed so far as respected the manufactures and
+      productions of the nation to which such vessels belonged, on
+      the condition that the repeal should take effect only in
+      favor of any foreign nation when the Executive should be
+      satisfied that such discriminating duties to the disadvantage
+      of the United States had likewise been repealed by such
+      nation. By this act a proposition was made to all nations to
+      place our commerce with each on a basis which it was presumed
+      would be acceptable to all. Every nation was allowed to bring
+      its manufactures and productions into our ports and to take
+      the manufactures and productions of the United States back to
+      their ports in their own vessels on the same conditions that
+      they might be transported in vessels of the United States,
+      and in return it was required that a like accommodation
+      should be granted to the vessels of the United States in the
+      ports of other powers. The articles to be admitted or
+      prohibited on either side formed no part of the proposed
+      arrangement. Each party would retain the right to admit or
+      prohibit such articles from the other as it thought proper,
+      and on its own conditions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the nature of the commerce between the United States and
+      every other country was taken into view, it was thought that
+      this proposition would be considered fair, and even liberal,
+      by every power. The exports of the United States consist
+      generally of articles of the first necessity and of rude
+      materials in demand for foreign manufactories, of great bulk,
+      requiring for their transportation many vessels, the return
+      for which in the manufactures and productions of any foreign
+      country, even when disposed of there to advantage, may be
+      brought in a single vessel. This observation is the more
+      especially applicable to those countries from which
+      manufactures alone are imported, but it applies in a great
+      extent to the European dominions of every European power and
+      in a certain extent to all the colonies of those powers. By
+      placing, then, the navigation precisely on the same ground in
+      the transportation of exports and imports between the United
+      States and other countries it was presumed that all was
+      offered which could be desired. It seemed to be the only
+      proposition which could be devised which would retain even
+      the semblance of equality in our favor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many considerations of great weight gave us a right to expect
+      that this commerce should be extended to the colonies as well
+      as to the European dominions of other powers. With the
+      latter, especially with countries exclusively manufacturing,
+      the advantage was manifestly on their side. An indemnity for
+      that loss was expected from a trade with the colonies, and
+      with the greater reason as it was known that the supplies
+      which the colonies derived from us were of the highest
+      importance to them, their labor being bestowed with so much
+      greater profit in the culture of other articles; and because,
+      likewise, the articles of which those supplies consisted,
+      forming so large a proportion of the exports of the United
+      States, were never admitted into any of the ports of Europe
+      except in cases of great emergency to avert a serious
+      calamity. When no article is admitted which is not required
+      to supply the wants of the party admitting it, and admitted
+      then not in favor of any particular country to the
+      disadvantage of others, but on conditions equally applicable
+      to all, it seems just that the articles thus admitted and
+      invited should be carried thither in the vessels of the
+      country affording such supply and that the reciprocity should
+      be found in a corresponding accommodation on the other side.
+      By allowing each party to participate in the transportation
+      of such supplies on the payment of equal tonnage a strong
+      proof was afforded of an accommodating spirit. To abandon to
+      it the transportation of the whole would be a sacrifice which
+      ought not to be expected. The demand in the present instance
+      would be the more unreasonable in consideration of the great
+      inequality existing in the trade with the parent country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such was the basis of our system as established by the act of
+      1815 and such its true character. In the year in which this
+      act was passed a treaty was concluded with Great Britain, in
+      strict conformity with its principles, in regard to her
+      European dominions. To her colonies, however, in the West
+      Indies and on this continent it was not extended, the British
+      Government claiming the exclusive supply of those colonies,
+      and from our own ports, and of the productions of the
+      colonies in return in her own vessels. To this claim the
+      United States could not assent, and in consequence each party
+      suspended the intercourse in the vessels of the other by a
+      prohibition which still exists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The same conditions were offered to France, but not accepted.
+      Her Government has demanded other conditions more favorable
+      to her navigation, and which should also give extraordinary
+      encouragement to her manufactures and productions in ports of
+      the United States. To these it was thought improper to
+      accede, and in consequence the restrictive regulations which
+      had been adopted on her part, being countervailed on the part
+      of the United States, the direct commerce between the two
+      countries in the vessels of each party has been in a great
+      measure suspended. It is much to be regretted that, although
+      a negotiation has been long pending, such is the diversity of
+      views entertained on the various points which have been
+      brought into discussion that there does not appear to be any
+      reasonable prospect of its early conclusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is my duty to state, as a cause of very great regret, that
+      very serious differences have occurred in this negotiation
+      respecting the construction of the eighth article of the
+      treaty of 1803, by which Louisiana was ceded to the United
+      States, and likewise respecting the seizure of the
+      <i>Apollo</i>, in 1820, for a violation of our revenue laws.
+      The claim of the Government of France has excited not less
+      surprise than concern, because there does not appear to be a
+      just foundation for it in either instance. By the eighth
+      article of the treaty referred to it is stipulated that after
+      the expiration of twelve years, during which time it was
+      provided by the seventh or preceding article that the vessels
+      of France and Spain should be admitted into the ports of the
+      ceded territory without paying higher duties on merchandise
+      or tonnage on the vessels than such as were paid by citizens
+      of the United States, the ships of France should forever
+      afterwards be placed on the footing of the most favored
+      nation. By the obvious construction of this article it is
+      presumed that it was intended that no favor should be granted
+      to any power in those ports to which France should not be
+      forthwith entitled, nor should any accommodation be allowed
+      to another power on conditions to which she would not also be
+      entitled on the same conditions. Under this construction no
+      favor or accommodation could be granted to any power to the
+      prejudice of France. By allowing the equivalent allowed by
+      those powers she would always stand in those ports on the
+      footing of the most favored nation. But if this article
+      should be so construed as that France should enjoy, of right,
+      and without paying the equivalent, all the advantages of such
+      conditions as might be allowed to other powers in return for
+      important concessions made by them, then the whole character
+      of the stipulation would be changed. She would not be placed
+      on the footing of the most favored nation, but on a footing
+      held by no other nation. She would enjoy all advantages
+      allowed to them in consideration of like advantages allowed
+      to us, free from every and any condition whatever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As little cause has the Government of France to complain of
+      the seizure of the <i>Apollo</i> and the removal of other
+      vessels from the waters of the St. Marys. It will not be
+      denied that every nation has a right to regulate its
+      commercial system as it thinks fit and to enforce the
+      collection of its revenue, provided it be done without an
+      invasion of the rights of other powers. The violation of its
+      revenue laws is an offense which all nations punish, the
+      punishment of which gives no just cause of complaint to the
+      power to which the offenders belong, provided it be extended
+      to all equally. In this case every circumstance which
+      occurred indicated a fixed purpose to violate our revenue
+      laws. Had the party intended to have pursued a fair trade he
+      would have entered our ports and paid the duties; or had he
+      intended to carry on a legitimate circuitous commerce with
+      the United States he would have entered the port of some
+      other power, landed his goods at the custom-house according
+      to law, and re-shipped and sent them in the vessel of such
+      power, or of some other power which might lawfully bring
+      them, free from such duties, to a port of the United States.
+      But the conduct of the party in this case was altogether
+      different. He entered the river St. Marys, the boundary line
+      between the United States and Florida, and took his position
+      on the Spanish side, on which in the whole extent of the
+      river there was no town, no port or custom-house, and
+      scarcely any settlement. His purpose, therefore, was not to
+      sell his goods to the inhabitants of Florida, but to citizens
+      of the United States, in exchange for their productions,
+      which could not be done without a direct and palpable breach
+      of our laws. It is known that a regular systematic plan had
+      been formed by certain persons for the violation of our
+      revenue system, which made it the more necessary to check the
+      proceeding in its commencement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That the unsettled bank of a river so remote from the Spanish
+      garrisons and population could give no protection to any
+      party in such a practice is believed to be in strict accord
+      with the law of nations. It would not have comported with a
+      friendly policy in Spain herself to have established a
+      custom-house there, since it could have subserved no other
+      purpose than to elude our revenue law. But the Government of
+      Spain did not adopt that measure. On the contrary, it is
+      understood that the Captain-General of Cuba, to whom an
+      application to that effect was made by these adventurers, had
+      not acceded to it. The condition of those Provinces for many
+      years before they were ceded to the United States need not
+      now be dwelt on. Inhabited by different tribes of Indians and
+      an inroad for every kind of adventurer, the jurisdiction of
+      Spain may be said to have been almost exclusively confined to
+      her garrisons. It certainly could not extend to places where
+      she had no authority. The rules, therefore, applicable to
+      settled countries governed by laws could not be deemed so to
+      the deserts of Florida and to the occurrences there. It
+      merits attention also that the territory had then been ceded
+      to the United States by a treaty the ratification of which
+      had not been refused, and which has since been performed.
+      Under any circumstances, therefore, Spain became less
+      responsible for such acts committed there, and the United
+      States more at liberty to exercise authority to prevent so
+      great a mischief. The conduct of this Government has in every
+      instance been conciliatory and friendly to France. The
+      construction of our revenue law in its application to the
+      cases which have formed the ground of such serious complaint
+      on her part and the order to the collector of St. Marys, in
+      accord with it, were given two years before these cases
+      occurred, and in reference to a breach which was attempted by
+      the subjects of another power. The application, therefore, to
+      the cases in question was inevitable. As soon as the treaty
+      by which these Provinces were ceded to the United States was
+      ratified, and all danger of further breach of our revenue
+      laws ceased, an order was given for the release of the vessel
+      which had been seized and for the dismission of the libel
+      which had been instituted against her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The principles of this system of reciprocity, founded on the
+      law of the 3d of March, 1815, have been since carried into
+      effect with the Kingdoms of the Netherlands, Sweden, Prussia,
+      and with Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck, and Oldenburg, with a
+      provision made by subsequent laws in regard to the
+      Netherlands, Prussia, Hamburg, and Bremen that such produce
+      and manufactures as could only be, or most usually were,
+      first shipped from the ports of those countries, the same
+      being imported in vessels wholly belonging to their subjects,
+      should be considered and admitted as their own manufactures
+      and productions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Government of Norway has by an ordinance opened the ports
+      of that part of the dominions of the King of Sweden to the
+      vessels of the United States upon the payment of no other or
+      higher duties than are paid by Norwegian vessels, from
+      whatever place arriving and with whatever articles laden.
+      They have requested the reciprocal allowance for the vessels
+      of Norway in the ports of the United States. As this
+      privilege is not within the scope of the act of the 3d of
+      March, 1815, and can only be granted by Congress, and as it
+      may involve the commercial relations of the United States
+      with other nations, the subject is submitted to the wisdom of
+      Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have presented thus fully to your view our commercial
+      relations with other powers, that, seeing them in detail with
+      each power, and knowing the basis on which they rest,
+      Congress may in its wisdom decide whether any change ought to
+      be made, and, if any, in what respect. If this basis is
+      unjust or unreasonable, surely it ought to be abandoned; but
+      if it be just and reasonable, and any change in it will make
+      concessions subversive of equality and tending in its
+      consequences to sap the foundations of our prosperity, then
+      the reasons are equally strong for adhering to the ground
+      already taken, and supporting it by such further regulations
+      as may appear to be proper, should any additional support be
+      found necessary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The question concerning the construction of the first article
+      of the treaty of Ghent has been, by a joint act of the
+      representatives of the United States and of Great Britain at
+      the Court of St. Petersburg, submitted to the decision of His
+      Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia. The result of that
+      submission has not yet been received. The commissioners under
+      the fifth article of that treaty not having been able to
+      agree upon their decision, their reports to the two
+      Governments, according to the provisions of the treaty, may
+      be expected at an early day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With Spain the treaty of February 22, 1819, has been partly
+      carried into execution. Possession of East and West Florida
+      has been given to the United States, but the officers charged
+      with that service by an order from His Catholic Majesty,
+      delivered by his minister to the Secretary of State, and
+      transmitted by a special agent to the Captain-General of
+      Cuba, to whom it was directed and in whom the government of
+      those Provinces was vested, have not only omitted, in
+      contravention of the order of their Sovereign, the
+      performance of the express stipulation to deliver over the
+      archives and documents relating to the property and
+      sovereignty of those Provinces, all of which it was expected
+      would have been delivered either before or when the troops
+      were withdrawn, but defeated since every effort of the United
+      States to obtain them, especially those of the greatest
+      importance. This omission has given rise to several incidents
+      of a painful nature, the character of which will be fully
+      disclosed by the documents which will be hereafter
+      communicated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In every other circumstance the law of the 3d of March last,
+      for carrying into effect that treaty, has been duly attended
+      to. For the execution of that part which preserved in force,
+      for the government of the inhabitants for the term specified,
+      all the civil, military, and judicial powers exercised by the
+      existing government of those Provinces an adequate number of
+      officers, as was presumed, were appointed, and ordered to
+      their respective stations. Both Provinces were formed into
+      one Territory, and a governor appointed for it; but in
+      consideration of the pre-existing division and of the
+      distance and difficulty of communication between Pensacola,
+      the residence of the governor of West Florida, and St.
+      Augustine, that of the governor of East Florida, at which
+      places the inconsiderable population of each Province was
+      principally collected, two secretaries were appointed, the
+      one to reside at Pensacola and the other at St. Augustine.
+      Due attention was likewise paid to the execution of the laws
+      of the United States relating to the revenue and the slave
+      trade, which were extended to these Provinces. The whole
+      Territory was divided into three collection districts, that
+      part lying between the river St. Marys and Cape Florida
+      forming one, that from the Cape to the Apalachicola another,
+      and that from the Apalachicola to the Perdido the third. To
+      these districts the usual number of revenue officers were
+      appointed; and to secure the due operation of these laws one
+      judge and a district attorney were appointed to reside at
+      Pensacola, and likewise one judge and a district attorney to
+      reside at St. Augustine, with a specified boundary between
+      them; and one marshal for the whole, with authority to
+      appoint a deputy. In carrying this law into effect, and
+      especially that part relating to the powers of the existing
+      government of those Provinces, it was thought important, in
+      consideration of the short term for which it was to operate
+      and the radical change which would be made at the approaching
+      session of Congress, to avoid expense, to make no appointment
+      which should not be absolutely necessary to give effect to
+      those powers, to withdraw none of our citizens from their
+      pursuits, whereby to subject the Government to claims which
+      could not be gratified and the parties to losses which it
+      would be painful to witness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been seen with much concern that in the performance of
+      these duties a collision arose between the governor of the
+      Territory and the judge appointed for the western district.
+      It was presumed that the law under which this transitory
+      government was organized, and the commissions which were
+      granted to the officers who were appointed to execute each
+      branch of the system, and to which the commissions were
+      adapted, would have been understood in the same sense by them
+      in which they were understood by the Executive. Much
+      allowance is due to officers employed in each branch of this
+      system, and the more so as there is good cause to believe
+      that each acted under the conviction that he possessed the
+      power which he undertook to exercise. Of the officer holding
+      the principal station, I think it proper to observe that he
+      accepted it with reluctance, in compliance with the
+      invitation given him, and from a high sense of duty to his
+      country, being willing to contribute to the consummation of
+      an event which would insure complete protection to an
+      important part of our Union, which had suffered much from
+      incursion and invasion, and to the defense of which his very
+      gallant and patriotic services had been so signally and
+      usefully devoted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the intrinsic difficulty of executing laws deriving
+      their origin from different sources, and so essentially
+      different in many important circumstances, the advantage, and
+      indeed the necessity, of establishing as soon as may be
+      practicable a well-organized government over that Territory
+      on the principles of our system is apparent. This subject is
+      therefore recommended to the early consideration of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with an injunction of the law of the 3d of
+      March last, three commissioners have also been appointed and
+      a board organized for carrying into effect the eleventh
+      article of the treaty above recited, making provision for the
+      payment of such of our citizens as have well-founded claims
+      on Spain of the character specified by that treaty. This
+      board has entered on its duties and made some progress
+      therein. The commissioner and surveyor of His Catholic
+      Majesty, provided for by the fourth article of the treaty,
+      have not yet arrived in the United States, but are soon
+      expected. As soon as they do arrive corresponding
+      appointments will be made and every facility be afforded for
+      the due execution of this service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Government of His Most Faithful Majesty since the
+      termination of the last session of Congress has been removed
+      from Rio de Janeiro to Lisbon, where a revolution similar to
+      that which had occurred in the neighboring Kingdom of Spain
+      had in like manner been sanctioned by the accepted and
+      pledged faith of the reigning monarch. The diplomatic
+      intercourse between the United States and the Portuguese
+      dominions, interrupted by this important event, has not yet
+      been resumed, but the change of internal administration
+      having already materially affected the commercial intercourse
+      of the United States with the Portuguese dominions, the
+      renewal of the public missions between the two countries
+      appears to be desirable at an early day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is understood that the colonies in South America have had
+      great success during the present year in the struggle for'
+      their independence. The new Government of Colombia has
+      extended its territories and considerably augmented its
+      strength, and at Buenos Ayres, where civil dissensions had
+      for some time before prevailed, greater harmony and better
+      order appear to have been established. Equal success has
+      attended their efforts in the Provinces on the Pacific. It
+      has long been manifest that it would be impossible for Spain
+      to reduce these colonies by force, and equally so that no
+      conditions short of their independence would be satisfactory
+      to them. It may therefore be presumed, and it is earnestly
+      hoped, that the Government of Spain, guided by enlightened
+      and liberal councils, will find it to comport with its
+      interests and due to its magnanimity to terminate this
+      exhausting controversy on that basis. To promote this result
+      by friendly counsel with the Government of Spain will be the
+      object of the Government of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In conducting the fiscal operations of the year it has been
+      found necessary to carry into full effect the act of the last
+      session of Congress authorizing a loan of $5,000,000. This
+      sum has been raised at an average premium of $5.59 per centum
+      upon stock bearing an interest at the rate of 5 per cent per
+      annum, redeemable at the option of the Government after the
+      1st day of January, 1835.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There has been issued under the provisions of this act
+      $4,735,296.30 of 5 per cent stock, and there has been or will
+      be redeemed during the year $3,197,030.71 of Louisiana 6 per
+      cent deferred stock and Mississippi stock. There has
+      therefore been an actual increase of the public debt
+      contracted during the year of $1,538,266.69.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The receipts into the Treasury from the 1st of January to the
+      30th of September last have amounted to $16,219,197.70,
+      which, with the balance of $1,198,461.21 in the Treasury on
+      the former day, make the aggregate sum of $17,417,658.91. The
+      payments from the Treasury during the same period have
+      amounted to $15,655,288.47, leaving in the Treasury on the
+      last-mentioned day the sum of $1,762,370.44. It is estimated
+      that the receipts of the fourth quarter of the year will
+      exceed the demands which will be made on the Treasury during
+      the same period, and that the amount in the Treasury on the
+      30th of September last will be increased on the 1st day of
+      January next.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the close of the last session it was anticipated that the
+      progressive diminution of the public revenue in 1819 and
+      1820, which had been the result of the languid state of our
+      foreign commerce in those years, had in the latter year
+      reached its extreme point of depression. It has, however,
+      been ascertained that that point was reached only at the
+      termination of the first quarter of the present year. From
+      that time until the 30th of September last the duties secured
+      have exceeded those of the corresponding quarters of the last
+      year $1,172,000, whilst the amount of debentures issued
+      during the three first quarters of this year is $952,000 less
+      than that of the same quarters of the last year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are just grounds to believe that the improvement which
+      has occurred in the revenue during the last-mentioned period
+      will not only be maintained, but that it will progressively
+      increase through the next and several succeeding years, so as
+      to realize the results which were presented upon that subject
+      by the official reports of the Treasury at the commencement
+      of the last session of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the influence of the most unfavorable circumstances the
+      revenue for the next and subsequent years to the year 1825
+      will exceed the demands at present authorized by law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may fairly be presumed that under the protection given to
+      domestic manufactures by the existing laws we shall become at
+      no distant period a manufacturing country on an extensive
+      scale. Possessing as we do the raw materials in such vast
+      amount, with a capacity to augment them to an indefinite
+      extent; raising within the country aliment of every kind to
+      an amount far exceeding the demand for home consumption, even
+      in the most unfavorable years, and to be obtained always at a
+      very moderate price; skilled also, as our people are, in the
+      mechanic arts and in every improvement calculated to lessen
+      the demand for and the price of labor, it is manifest that
+      their success in every branch of domestic industry may and
+      will be carried, under the encouragement given by the present
+      duties, to an extent to meet any demand which under a fair
+      competition may be made upon it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A considerable increase of domestic manufactures, by
+      diminishing the importation of foreign, will probably tend to
+      lessen the amount of the public revenue. As, however, a large
+      proportion of the revenue which is derived from duties is
+      raised from other articles than manufactures, the demand for
+      which will increase with our population, it is believed that
+      a fund will still be raised from that source adequate to the
+      greater part of the public expenditures, especially as those
+      expenditures, should we continue to be blessed with peace,
+      will be diminished by the completion of the fortifications,
+      dockyards, and other public works, by the augmentation of the
+      Navy to the point to which it is proposed to carry it, and by
+      the payment of the public debt, including pensions for
+      military services.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It can not be doubted that the more complete our internal
+      resources and the less dependent we are on foreign powers for
+      every national as well as domestic purpose the greater and
+      more stable will be the public felicity. By the increase of
+      domestic manufactures will the demand for the rude materials
+      at home be increased, and thus will the dependence of the
+      several parts of our Union on each other and the strength of
+      the Union itself be proportionably augmented. In this
+      process, which is very desirable, and inevitable under the
+      existing duties, the resources which obviously present
+      themselves to supply a deficiency in the revenue, should it
+      occur, are the interests which may derive the principal
+      benefit from the change. If domestic manufactures are raised
+      by duties on foreign, the deficiency in the fund necessary
+      for public purposes should be supplied by duties on the
+      former. At the last session it seemed doubtful whether the
+      revenue derived from the present sources would be adequate to
+      all the great purposes of our Union, including the
+      construction of our fortifications, the augmentation of the
+      Navy, and the protection of our commerce against the dangers
+      to which it is exposed. Had the deficiency been such as to
+      subject us to the necessity either to abandon those measures
+      of defense or to resort to other means for adequate funds,
+      the course presented to the adoption of a virtuous and
+      enlightened people appeared to be a plain one. It must be
+      gratifying to all to know that this necessity does not exist.
+      Nothing, however, in contemplation of such important objects,
+      which can be easily provided for, should be left to hazard.
+      It is thought that the revenue may receive an augmentation
+      from the existing sources, and in a manner to aid our
+      manufactures, without hastening prematurely the result which
+      has been suggested. It is believed that a moderate additional
+      duty on certain articles would have that effect, without
+      being liable to any serious objection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The examination of the whole coast, for the construction of
+      permanent fortifications, from St. Croix to the Sabine, with
+      the exception of part of the territory lately acquired, will
+      be completed in the present year, as will be the survey of
+      the Mississippi, under the resolution of the House of
+      Representatives, from the mouth of the Ohio to the ocean, and
+      likewise of the Ohio from Louisville to the Mississippi. A
+      progress corresponding with the sums appropriated has also
+      been made in the construction of these fortifications at the
+      points designated. As they will form a system of defense for
+      the whole maritime frontier, and in consequence for the
+      interior, and are to last for ages, the greatest care has
+      been taken to fix the position of each work and to form it on
+      such a scale as will be adequate to the purpose intended by
+      it. All the inlets and assailable parts of our Union have
+      been minutely examined, and positions taken with a view to
+      the best effect, observing in every instance a just regard
+      for economy. Doubts, however, being entertained as to the
+      propriety of the position and extent of the work at Dauphine
+      Island, further progress in it was suspended soon after the
+      last session of Congress, and an order given to the Board of
+      Engineers and Naval Commissioners to make a further and more
+      minute examination of it in both respects, and to report the
+      result without delay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Due progress has been made in the construction of vessels of
+      war according to the law providing for the gradual
+      augmentation of the Navy, and to the extent of existing
+      appropriations. The vessels authorized by the act of 1820
+      have all been completed and are now in actual service. None
+      of the larger ships have been or will be launched for the
+      present, the object being to protect all which may not be
+      required for immediate service from decay by suitable
+      buildings erected over them. A squadron has been maintained,
+      as heretofore, in the Mediterranean, by means whereof peace
+      has been preserved with the Barbary Powers. This squadron has
+      been reduced the present year to as small a force as is
+      compatible with the fulfillment of the object intended by it.
+      From past experience and the best information respecting the
+      views of those powers it is distinctly understood that should
+      our squadron be withdrawn they would soon recommence their
+      hostilities and depredations upon our commerce. Their
+      fortifications have lately been rebuilt and their maritime
+      force increased. It has also been found necessary to maintain
+      a naval force on the Pacific for the protection of the very
+      important interests of our citizens engaged in commerce and
+      the fisheries in that sea. Vessels have likewise been
+      employed in cruising along the Atlantic coast, in the Gulf of
+      Mexico, on the coast of Africa, and in the neighboring seas.
+      In the latter many piracies have been committed on our
+      commerce, and so extensive was becoming the range of those
+      unprincipled adventurers that there was cause to apprehend,
+      without a timely and decisive effort to suppress them, the
+      worst consequences would ensue. Fortunately, a considerable
+      check has been given to that spirit by our cruisers, who have
+      succeeded in capturing and destroying several of their
+      vessels. Nevertheless, it is considered an object of high
+      importance to continue these cruises until the practice is
+      entirely suppressed. Like success has attended our efforts to
+      suppress the slave trade. Under the flag of the United States
+      and the sanction of their papers the trade may be considered
+      as entirely suppressed, and if any of our citizens are
+      engaged in it under the flags and papers of other powers, it
+      is only from a respect to the rights of those powers that
+      these offenders are not seized and brought home to receive
+      the punishment which the laws inflict. If every other power
+      should adopt the same policy and pursue the same vigorous
+      means for carrying it into effect, the trade could no longer
+      exist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Deeply impressed with the blessings which we enjoy, and of
+      which we have such manifold proofs, my mind is irresistibly
+      drawn to that Almighty Being, the great source from whence
+      they proceed and to whom our most grateful acknowledgments
+      are due.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 16, 1821</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to Congress a letter from the Secretary of the
+      Treasury, inclosing the report of the commissioners appointed
+      in conformity with the provisions of "An act to authorize the
+      building of light-houses therein mentioned, and for other
+      purposes," approved the 3d of March, 1821.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 16, 1821</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By a resolution of Congress approved on the 27th of March,
+      1818, it was directed that the journal, acts, and proceedings
+      of the Convention which formed the present Constitution of
+      the United States should be published, under the direction of
+      the President of the United States, together with the secret
+      journals of the acts and proceedings, and the foreign
+      correspondence (with a certain exception), of the Congress of
+      the United States from the first meeting thereof down to the
+      date of the ratification of the definitive treaty of peace
+      between Great Britain and the United States, in the year
+      1783, and that 1,000 copies thereof should be printed, of
+      which one copy should be furnished to each member of that
+      (the Fifteenth) Congress, and the residue should remain
+      subject to the future disposition of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And by a resolution of Congress approved on the 21st April,
+      1820, it was provided that the secret journal, together with
+      all the papers and documents connected with that journal, and
+      all other papers and documents heretofore considered
+      confidential, of the old Congress, from the date of the
+      ratification of the definitive treaty of the year 1783 to the
+      formation of the present Government, which were remaining in
+      the office of the Secretary of State, should be published
+      under the direction of the President of the United States,
+      and that I,000 copies thereof should be printed and deposited
+      in the Library subject to the disposition of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In pursuance of these two resolutions, 1,000 copies of the
+      journals and acts of the Convention which formed the
+      Constitution have been heretofore printed and placed at the
+      disposal of Congress, and 1,000 copies of the secret journals
+      of the Congress of the Confederation, complete, have been
+      printed, 250 copies of which have been reserved to comply
+      with the direction of furnishing one copy to each member of
+      the Fifteenth Congress; the remaining 750 copies have been
+      deposited in the Library and are now at the disposal of
+      Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the general appropriation act of 9th April, 1818, the sum
+      of $10,000 was appropriated for defraying the expenses of
+      printing done pursuant to the resolution of the 27th of March
+      of that year. No appropriation has yet been made to defray
+      the expenses incident to the execution of the resolution of
+      21st April, 1820. The whole expense hitherto incurred in
+      carrying both resolutions into effect has exceeded by $542.56
+      the appropriation of April, 1818. This balance remains due to
+      the printers, and is included in the estimates of
+      appropriation for the year 1822. That part of the resolution
+      of the 27th March, 1818, which directs the publication of the
+      foreign correspondence of the Congress of the Confederation
+      remains yet to be executed, and a further appropriation will
+      be necessary for carrying it into effect.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 30, 1821.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate a treaty of peace and amity
+      concluded between the United States and the Dey and Regency
+      of Algiers on the 23d of December, 1816.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This treaty is in all respects the same in its provisions
+      with that which had been concluded on the 30th of June, 1815,
+      and was ratified, by and with the advice and consent of the
+      Senate, on the 26th of December of that year, with the
+      exception of one additional and explanatory article.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The circumstances which have occasioned the delay in laying
+      the present treaty before the Senate for their advice and
+      consent to its ratification are, that having been received in
+      the spring of the year 1817, during the recess of the Senate,
+      in the interval between the time when the Department of State
+      was vacated by its late Secretary and the entrance of his
+      successor upon the duties of the office, and when a change
+      also occurred of the chief clerk of the Department, it was
+      not recollected by the officers of the Department that it
+      remained without the constitutional sanction of the Senate
+      until shortly before the commencement of the present session.
+      The documents explanatory of the additional articles are
+      likewise herewith transmitted.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON <i>January 7, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Congress of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit a report of the Secretary of the Navy, together
+      with a survey of the coast of North Carolina, made in
+      pursuance of a resolution of Congress of the 19th January,
+      1819.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 8, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In pursuance of a joint resolution of the two Houses of
+      Congress of the 3d of March, 1821, authorizing the President
+      to cause such number of astronomical observations to be made
+      by methods which might, in his judgment, be best adapted to
+      insure a correct determination of the longitude of the
+      Capitol, in the city of Washington, from Greenwich or some
+      other known meridian in Europe, and that he cause the data,
+      with accurate calculations on statements founded thereon, to
+      be laid before them at their present session, I herewith
+      transmit to Congress the report made by William Lambert, who
+      was selected by me on the 10th of April last to perform the
+      service required by that resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As no compensation is authorized by law for the execution of
+      the duties assigned to Mr. Lambert, it is submitted to the
+      discretion of Congress to make the necessary provision for an
+      adequate allowance to him and to the assistant whom he
+      employed to aid him in his observations.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 17, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I nominate the persons whose names are stated in the inclosed
+      letter from the Secretary of War for the appointments therein
+      respectively proposed for them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The changes in the Army growing out of the act of the 2d of
+      March, 1821, "to reduce and fix the military peace
+      establishment of the United States," are exhibited in the
+      Official Register for the year 1822, herewith submitted for
+      the information of the Senate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the late organization of the artillery arm, with the
+      exception of the colonel of the regiment of light artillery,
+      there were no grades higher than lieutenant-colonel
+      recognized. Three of the four colonels of artillery provided
+      for by the act of Congress of the 2d of March, 1821, were
+      considered, therefore, as original vacancies, to be filled,
+      as the good of the service might dictate, from the Army
+      corps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Pay Department being considered as a part of the military
+      establishment, and, within the meaning of the above-recited
+      act, constituting one of the corps of the Army, the then Pay
+      master-General was appointed colonel of one of the regiments.
+      A contrary construction, which would have limited the corps
+      specified in the twelfth section of the act to the line of
+      the Army, would equally have excluded all the other branches
+      of the staff, as well that of the Pay Department, which was
+      expressly comprehended among those to be reduced. Such a
+      construction did not seem to be authorized by the act, since
+      by its general terms it was inferred to have been intended to
+      give a power of sufficient extent to make the reduction by
+      which so many were to be disbanded operate with as little
+      inconvenience as possible to the parties. Acting on these
+      views and on the recommendation of the board of general
+      officers, who were called in on account of their knowledge
+      and experience to aid the Executive in so delicate a service,
+      I thought it proper to appoint Colonel Towson to one of the
+      new regiments of artillery, it being a corps in which he had
+      eminently distinguished himself and acquired great knowledge
+      and experience in the late war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In reconciling conflicting claims provision for four officers
+      of distinction could only be made in grades inferior to those
+      which they formerly held. Their names are submitted, with the
+      nomination for the brevet rank of the grades from which they
+      were severally reduced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is proper also to observe that as it was found difficult
+      in executing the act to retain each officer in the corps to
+      which he belonged, the power of transferring officers from
+      one corps to another was reserved in the general orders,
+      published in the Register, till the 1st day of January last,
+      in order that upon vacancies occurring those who had been put
+      out of their proper corps might as far as possible be
+      restored to it. Under this reservation, and in conformity to
+      the power vested in the Executive by the first section of the
+      seventy-fifth article of the general regulations of the Army,
+      approved by Congress at the last session, on the resignation
+      of Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell, of the corps of artillery,
+      Lieutenant-Colonel Lindsay, who had belonged to this corps
+      before the late reduction, was transferred back to it in the
+      same grade. As an additional motive to the transfer, it had
+      the effect of preventing Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor and Major
+      Woolley being reduced to lower grades than those which they
+      held before the reduction, and Captain Cobb from being
+      disbanded under the act. These circumstances were considered
+      as constituting an extraordinary case within the meaning of
+      the section already referred to of the Regulations of the
+      Army. It is, however, submitted to the Senate whether this is
+      a case requiring their confirmation; and in case that such
+      should be their opinion, it is submitted to them for their
+      constitutional confirmation.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 20, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives "requesting the President of the United
+      States to cause to be laid before this House an account of
+      the expenditures made under the act to provide for the
+      civilization of the Indian tribes, specifying the times when,
+      the persons to whom, and the particular purpose for which
+      such expenditures have been made," I herewith transmit a
+      report from the Secretary of War.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 28, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with the resolution of the 2d instant, I
+      transmit a report of the Secretary of State, with all the
+      documents relating to the misunderstanding between Andrew
+      Jackson, while acting as governor of the Floridas, and
+      Eligius Fromentin, judge of a court therein; and also of the
+      correspondence between the Secretary of State and the
+      minister plenipotentiary of His Catholic Majesty on certain
+      proceedings in that Territory in execution of the powers
+      vested in the governor by the Executive under the law of the
+      last session for carrying into effect the late treaty between
+      the United States and Spain. Being always desirous to
+      communicate to Congress, or to either House, all the
+      information in the possession of the Executive respecting any
+      important interest of our Union which may be communicated
+      without real injury to our constituents, and which can rarely
+      happen except in negotiations pending with foreign powers,
+      and deeming it more consistent with the principles of our
+      Government in cases submitted to my discretion, as in the
+      present instance, to hazard error by the freedom of the
+      communication rather than by withholding any portion of
+      information belonging to the subject, I have thought proper
+      to communicate every document comprised within this call.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 30, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In pursuance of a resolution of the House of Representatives
+      of the 16th instant, requesting information with regard to
+      outrages and abuses committed upon the persons of the
+      officers and crews of American vessels at The Havannah and
+      other Spanish ports in America, and whether the Spanish
+      authorities have taken any measures to punish, restrain, or
+      countenance such outrages, I herewith transmit to that House
+      a report from the Secretary of State, containing the
+      information called for.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 30, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In pursuance of a resolution of the House of Representatives
+      of the 8th instant, I transmit to the House of
+      Representatives a report of the Secretary of State,
+      containing all the information procured by him in relation to
+      commissions of bankruptcy in certain districts of the United
+      States under the act of 4th of April, 1800, "to establish an
+      uniform system of bankruptcy in the United States."
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 7, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives requesting the President to "cause that House
+      to be informed whether the commissioners appointed to lay out
+      the continuation of the Cumberland road from Wheeling, in the
+      State of Virginia, through the States of Ohio, Indiana, and
+      Illinois to the Mississippi River, have completed the same,
+      and, if not completed, the reason why their duties have been
+      suspended," I transmit a report from the Secretary of the
+      Treasury, which furnishes the information desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 10, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives "requesting the President of the United
+      States to cause to be laid before this House any information
+      which he may have of the condition of the several Indian
+      tribes within the United States and the measures hitherto
+      devised and pursued for their civilization," I now transmit a
+      report from the Secretary of War.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 23, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives "requesting the President of the United
+      States to cause to be reported to this House whether the
+      Indian title has been extinguished by the United States to
+      any lands the right of soil in which has been or is claimed
+      by any particular State, and, if so, the conditions upon
+      which the same has been extinguished," I herewith transmit a
+      report from the Secretary of War, furnishing all the
+      information in the possession of that Department embraced by
+      the resolution,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 23, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 14th
+      instant, requesting the President of the United States "to
+      make known to the Senate the annual disposition which has
+      been made of the sum of $15,000 appropriated by an act of
+      Congress of the year 1802 to promote civilization among
+      friendly Indian tribes, showing to what tribes that evidence
+      of the national bounty has been extended, the names of the
+      agents who have been intrusted with the application of the
+      money, the several amounts by them received, and the manner
+      in which they have severally applied it to accomplish the
+      objects of the act," I herewith transmit a report from the
+      Secretary of War, furnishing all the information upon this
+      subject in the possession of that Department.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 25, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the appropriation made by the act of Congress of the
+      11th of April, 1820, for holding treaties with the Creek and
+      Cherokee nations of Indians for the extinguishment of the
+      Indian title to lands within the State of Georgia, pursuant
+      to the fourth condition of the first article of the articles
+      of agreement and cession concluded between the United States
+      and the State of Georgia on the 24th day of April, 1802, a
+      treaty was held with the Creek Nation, the expense of which
+      upon the settlement of the accounts of the commissioners who
+      were appointed to conduct the negotiation was ascertained to
+      amount to the sum of $24,695, leaving an unexpended balance
+      of the sum appropriated of $5,305, a sum too small to
+      negotiate a treaty with the Cherokees, as was contemplated by
+      the act making the appropriation. The legislature of Georgia
+      being still desirous that a treaty should be held for further
+      extinguishment of the Indian title to lands within that
+      State, and to obtain an indemnity to the citizens of that
+      State for property of considerable value, which has been
+      taken from them by the Cherokee Indians, I submit the subject
+      to the consideration of Congress, that a further sum, which,
+      in addition to the balance of the former appropriation, will
+      be adequate to the expenses attending a treaty with them, may
+      be appropriated should Congress deem it expedient.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 4, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 22d ultimo, requesting the President
+      of the United States "to cause to be laid before this House a
+      statement showing the amount of woolens purchased for the use
+      of the Army during the years 1820 and 1821, comprising a
+      description of the articles, of whom the purchases were made,
+      at what prices, and what proportion thereof was of American
+      manufacture," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary
+      of War.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 8, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In transmitting to the House of Representatives the documents
+      called for by the resolution of that House of the 30th
+      January, I consider it my duty to invite the attention of
+      Congress to a very important subject, and to communicate the
+      sentiments of the Executive on it, that, should Congress
+      entertain similar sentiments, there may be such cooperation
+      between the two departments of the Government as their
+      respective rights and duties may require.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The revolutionary movement in the Spanish Provinces in this
+      hemisphere attracted the attention and excited the sympathy
+      of our fellow-citizens from its commencement. This feeling
+      was natural and honorable to them, from causes which need not
+      be communicated to you. It has been gratifying to all to see
+      the general acquiescence which has been manifested in the
+      policy which the constituted authorities have deemed it
+      proper to pursue in regard to this contest. As soon as the
+      movement assumed such a steady and consistent form as to make
+      the success of the Provinces probable, the rights to which
+      they were entitled by the law of nations as equal parties to
+      a civil war were extended to them. Each party was permitted
+      to enter our ports with its public and private ships, and to
+      take from them every article which was the subject of
+      commerce with other nations. Our citizens, also, have carried
+      on commerce with both parties, and the Government has
+      protected it with each in articles not contraband of war.
+      Through the whole of this contest the United States have
+      remained neutral, and have fulfilled with the utmost
+      impartiality all the obligations incident to that character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This contest has now reached such a stage and been attended
+      with such decisive success on the part of the Provinces that
+      it merits the most profound consideration whether their right
+      to the rank of independent nations, with all the advantages
+      incident to it in their intercourse with the United States,
+      is not complete. Buenos Ayres assumed that rank by a formal
+      declaration in 1816, and has enjoyed it since 1810 free from
+      invasion by the parent country. The Provinces composing the
+      Republic of Colombia, after having separately declared their
+      independence, were united by a fundamental law of the 17th of
+      December, 1819. A strong Spanish force occupied at that time
+      certain parts of the territory within their limits and waged
+      a destructive war. That force has since been repeatedly
+      defeated, and the whole of it either made prisoners or
+      destroyed or expelled from the country, with the exception of
+      an inconsiderable portion only, which is blockaded in two
+      fortresses. The Provinces on the Pacific have likewise been
+      very successful. Chili declared independence in 1818, and has
+      since enjoyed it undisturbed; and of late, by the assistance
+      of Chili and Buenos Ayres, the revolution has extended to
+      Peru. Of the movement in Mexico our information is less
+      authentic, but it is, nevertheless, distinctly understood
+      that the new Government has declared its independence, and
+      that there is now no opposition to it there nor a force to
+      make any. For the last three years the Government of Spain
+      has not sent a single corps of troops to any part of that
+      country, nor is there any reason to believe it will send any
+      in future. Thus it is manifest that all those Provinces are
+      not only in the full enjoyment of their independence, but,
+      considering the state of the war and other circumstances,
+      that there is not the most remote prospect of their being
+      deprived of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the result of such a contest is manifestly settled, the
+      new governments have a claim to recognition by other powers
+      which ought not to be resisted. Civil wars too often excite
+      feelings which the parties can not control. The opinion
+      entertained by other powers as to the result may assuage
+      those feelings and promote an accommodation between them
+      useful and honorable to both. The delay which has been
+      observed in making a decision on this important subject will,
+      it is presumed, have afforded an unequivocal proof to Spain,
+      as it must have done to other powers, of the high respect
+      entertained by the United States for her rights and of their
+      determination not to interfere with them. The Provinces
+      belonging to this hemisphere are our neighbors, and have
+      successively, as each portion of the country acquired its
+      independence, pressed their recognition by an appeal to facts
+      not to be contested, and which they thought gave them a just
+      title to it. To motives of interest this Government has
+      invariably disclaimed all pretension, being resolved to take
+      no part in the controversy or other measure in regard to it
+      which should not merit the sanction of the civilized world.
+      To other claims a just sensibility has been always felt and
+      frankly acknowledged, but they in themselves could never
+      become an adequate cause of action. It was incumbent on this
+      Government to look to every important fact and circumstance
+      on which a sound opinion could be formed, which has been
+      done. When we regard, then, the great length of time which
+      this war has been prosecuted, the complete success which has
+      attended it in favor of the Provinces, the present condition
+      of the parties, and the utter inability of Spain to produce
+      any change in it, we are compelled to conclude that its fate
+      is settled, and that the Provinces which have declared their
+      independence and are in the enjoyment of it ought to be
+      recognized.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the views of the Spanish Government on this subject no
+      particular information has been recently received. It may be
+      presumed that the successful progress of the revolution
+      through such a long series of years, gaining strength and
+      extending annually in every direction, and embracing by the
+      late important events, with little exception, all the
+      dominions of Spain south of the United States on this
+      continent, placing thereby the complete sovereignty over the
+      whole in the hands of the people, will reconcile the parent
+      country to an accommodation with them on the basis of their
+      unqualified independence. Nor has any authentic information
+      been recently received of the disposition of other powers
+      respecting it. A sincere desire has been cherished to act in
+      concert with them in the proposed recognition, of which
+      several were some time past duly apprised; but it was
+      understood that they were not prepared for it. The immense
+      space between those powers, even those which border on the
+      Atlantic, and these Provinces makes the movement an affair of
+      less interest and excitement to them than to us. It is
+      probable, therefore, that they have been less attentive to
+      its progress than we have been. It may be presumed, however,
+      that the late events will dispel all doubt of the result.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In proposing this measure it is not contemplated to change
+      thereby in the slightest manner our friendly relations with
+      either of the parties, but to observe in all respects, as
+      heretofore, should the war be continued, the most perfect
+      neutrality between them. Of this friendly disposition an
+      assurance will be given to the Government of Spain, to whom
+      it is presumed it will be, as it ought to be, satisfactory.
+      The measure is proposed under a thorough conviction that it
+      is in strict accord with the law of nations, that it is just
+      and right as to the parties, and that the United States owe
+      it to their station and character in the world, as well as to
+      their essential interests, to adopt it. Should Congress
+      concur in the view herein presented, they will doubtless see
+      the propriety of making the necessary appropriations for
+      carrying it into effect.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 9, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, together with
+      the annual return of the militia of the United States, and an
+      exhibit of the arms, accouterments, and ammunition of the
+      several States and Territories of the United States, prepared
+      in conformity with the militia laws on that subject.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 12, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I lay before the Senate the copy of a supplementary report,
+      made by William Lambert, in relation to the longitude of the
+      Capitol from Greenwich, in pursuance of a joint resolution of
+      the two Houses of Congress of the 3d of March, 1821, and I
+      subjoin an extract from the letter of Mr. Lambert submitting
+      that report.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 26, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Congress having suspended the appropriation, at the last
+      session, for the fortification at Dauphine Island, in
+      consequence of a doubt which was entertained of the propriety
+      of that position, the further prosecution of the work was
+      suspended, and an order given, as intimated in the message of
+      the 3d of December, to the Board of Engineers and Naval
+      Commissioners to examine that part of the coast, and
+      particularly that position, as also the position at Mobile
+      Point, with which it is connected, and to report their
+      opinion thereon, which has been done, and which report is
+      herewith communicated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this report it appears to be still the opinion of the
+      Board that the construction of works at both these positions
+      is of great importance to the defense of New Orleans and of
+      all that portion of our Union which is connected with and
+      dependent on the Mississippi and on the other waters which
+      empty into the Gulf of Mexico between that river and Cape
+      Florida. That the subject may be fully before Congress, I
+      transmit also a copy of the former report of the Board, being
+      that on which the work was undertaken and has been in part
+      executed. Approving as I do the opinion of the Board, I
+      consider it my duty to state the reasons on which I adopted
+      the first report, especially as they were in part suggested
+      by the occurrences of the late war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The policy which induced Congress to decide on and provide
+      for the defense of the coast immediately after the war was
+      founded on the marked events of that interesting epoch. The
+      vast body of men which it was found necessary to call into
+      the field through the whole extent of our maritime frontier,
+      and the number who perished by exposure, with the immense
+      expenditure of money and waste of property which followed,
+      were to be traced in an eminent degree to the defenseless
+      condition of the coast. It was to mitigate these evils in
+      future wars, and even for the higher purpose of preventing
+      war itself, that the decision was formed to make the coast,
+      so far as it might be practicable, impregnable, and that the
+      measures necessary to that great object have been pursued
+      with so much zeal since.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is known that no part of our Union is more exposed to
+      invasion by the numerous avenues leading to it, or more
+      defenseless by the thinness of the neighboring population, or
+      offers a greater temptation to invasion, either as a
+      permanent acquisition or as a prize to the cupidity of
+      grasping invaders from the immense amount of produce
+      deposited there, than the city of New Orleans. It is known
+      also that the seizure of no part of our Union could affect so
+      deeply and vitally the immediate interests of so many States
+      and of so many of our fellow-citizens, comprising all that
+      extensive territory and numerous population which are
+      connected with and dependent on the Mississippi, as the
+      seizure of that city. Strong works, well posted, were
+      therefore deemed absolutely necessary for its protection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not, however, by the Mississippi only, or the waters
+      which communicate directly with or approach nearest to New
+      Orleans, that the town is assailable. It will be recollected
+      that in the late war the public solicitude was excited not so
+      much by the danger which menaced it in those directions as by
+      the apprehension that, while a feint might be made there, the
+      main force, landing either in the bay of Mobile or other
+      waters between that bay and the Rigolets, would be thrown
+      above the town in the rear of the army which had been
+      collected there for its defense. Full confidence was
+      entertained that that gallant army, led by the gallant and
+      able chief who commanded it, would repel any attack to which
+      it might be exposed in front. But had such a force been
+      thrown above the town, and a position taken on the banks of
+      the river, the disadvantage to which our troops would have
+      been subjected, attacked in front and rear as they might have
+      been, may easily be conceived. As their supplies would have
+      been cut off, they could not long have remained in the city,
+      and, withdrawing from it, it must have fallen immediately
+      into the hands of the force below. In ascending the river to
+      attack the force above, the attack must have been made to
+      great disadvantage, since it must have been on such ground
+      and at such time as the enemy preferred. These considerations
+      shew that defenses other than such as are immediately
+      connected with the city are of great importance to its
+      safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An attempt to seize New Orleans and the lower part of the
+      Mississippi will be made only by a great power or a
+      combination of several powers, with a strong naval and land
+      force, the latter of which must be brought in transports
+      which may sail in shallow water. If the defenses around New
+      Orleans are well posted and of sufficient strength to repel
+      any attack which may be made on them, the city can be
+      assailed only by a land force, which must pass in the
+      direction above suggested, between the Rigolets and the bay
+      of Mobile. It becomes, therefore, an object of high
+      importance to present such an obstacle to such an attempt as
+      would defeat it should it be made. Fortifications are useful
+      for the defense of posts, to prevent the approach to cities
+      and the passage of rivers; but as works their effect can not
+      be felt beyond the reach of their cannon. They are formidable
+      in other respects by the body of men within them, which may
+      be removed and applied to other purposes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Between the Rigolets and the bay of Mobile there is a chain
+      of islands, at the extremity of which is Dauphine Island,
+      which forms, with Mobile Point, from which it is distant
+      about 3-1/4 miles, the entrance into the bay of Mobile, which
+      leads through that part of the State of Alabama to the towns
+      of Mobile and Blakeley. The distance between Dauphine Island
+      and the Rigolets is 90 miles. The principal islands between
+      them are Massacre, Horn, Ship, and Cat islands, near to which
+      there is anchorage for large ships of war. The first object
+      is to prevent the landing of any force for the purposes above
+      stated between the Rigolets and the bay of Mobile; the
+      second, to defeat that force in case it should be landed.
+      When the distance from one point to the other is considered,
+      it is believed that it would be impossible to establish works
+      so near to each other as to prevent the landing of such a
+      force. Its defeat, therefore, should be effectually provided
+      for. If the arrangement should be such as to make that result
+      evident, it ought to be fairly concluded that the attempt
+      would not be made, and thus we should accomplish in the best
+      mode possible and with the least expense the complete
+      security of this important part of our Union, the great
+      object of our system of defense for the whole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are some other views of this subject which it is
+      thought will merit particular attention in deciding the point
+      in question. Not being able to establish a chain of posts, at
+      least for the present, along the whole coast from the
+      Rigolets to Dauphine Island, or on all the islands between
+      them, at which point shall we begin? Should an attack on the
+      city be anticipated, it can not be doubted that an adequate
+      force would immediately be ordered there for its defense. If
+      the enemy should despair of making an impression on the works
+      near the town, it may be presumed that they would promptly
+      decide to make the attempt in the manner and in the line
+      above suggested between the Rigolets and the bay of Mobile.
+      It will be obvious that the nearer the fortification is
+      erected to the Rigolets with a view to this object, should it
+      be on Cat or Ship Island, for example, the wider would the
+      passage be left open between that work and the bay of Mobile
+      for such an enterprise. The main army, being drawn to New
+      Orleans, would be ready to meet such an attempt near the
+      Rigolets or at any other point not distant from the city. It
+      is probable, therefore, that the enemy, profiting of a fair
+      wind, would make his attempt at the greatest distance
+      compatible with his object from that point, and at the bay of
+      Mobile should there not be works there of sufficient strength
+      to prevent it. Should, however, strong works be erected
+      there, such as were sufficient not only for their own defense
+      against any attack which might be made on them, but to hold a
+      force connected with that which might be drawn from the
+      neighboring country, capable of cooperating with the force at
+      the city, and which would doubtless be ordered to those works
+      in the event of war, it would be dangerous for the invading
+      force to land anywhere between the Rigolets and the bay of
+      Mobile and to pass toward the Mississippi above the city,
+      lest such a body might be thrown in its rear as to cut off
+      its retreat. These considerations show the great advantage of
+      establishing at the mouth of the bay of Mobile very strong
+      works, such as would be adequate to all the purposes
+      suggested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If fortifications were necessary only to protect our country
+      and cities against the entry of large ships of war into our
+      bays and rivers, they would be of little use for the defense
+      of New Orleans, since that city can not be approached so
+      near, either by the Mississippi or in any other direction, by
+      such vessels for them to make an attack on it. In the Gulf,
+      within our limits west of Florida, which had been acquired
+      since these works were decided on and commenced, there is no
+      bay or river into which large ships of war can enter. As a
+      defense, therefore, against an attack from such vessels
+      extensive works would be altogether unnecessary either at
+      Mobile Point or at Dauphine Island, since sloops of war only
+      can navigate the deepest channel. But it is not for that
+      purpose alone that these works are intended. It is to provide
+      also against a formidable invasion, both by land and sea, the
+      object of which may be to shake the foundation of our system.
+      Should such small works be erected, and such an invasion take
+      place, they would be sure to fall at once into the hands of
+      the invaders and to be turned against us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether the acquisition of Florida may be considered as
+      affording an inducement to make any change in the position or
+      strength of these works is a circumstance which also merits
+      attention. From the view which I have taken of the subject I
+      am of opinion that it should not. The defense of New Orleans
+      and of the river Mississippi against a powerful invasion
+      being one of the great objects of such extensive works, that
+      object would be essentially abandoned if they should be
+      established eastward of the bay of Mobile, since the force to
+      be collected in them would be placed at too great a distance
+      to allow the cooperation necessary for those purposes between
+      it and that at the city; in addition to which, it may be
+      observed that by carrying them to Pensacola or farther to the
+      east that bay would fall immediately, in case of such
+      invasion, into the hands of the enemy, whereby such
+      cooperation would be rendered utterly impossible, and the
+      State of Alabama would also be left wholly unprotected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a view to such formidable invasion, of which we should
+      never lose sight, and of the great objects to which it would
+      be directed, I think that very strong works at some point
+      within the Gulf of Mexico will be found indispensable. I
+      think also that those works ought to be established at the
+      bay of Mobile&mdash;one at Mobile Point and the other on
+      Dauphine Island&mdash;whereby the enemy would be excluded and
+      the complete command of that bay, with all the advantages
+      attending it, be secured to ourselves. In the case of such
+      invasion, it will, it is presumed, be deemed necessary to
+      collect at some point other than at New Orleans a strong
+      force, capable of moving in any direction and affording aid
+      to any part which may be attacked; and, in my judgment, no
+      position presents so many advantages as a point of rendezvous
+      for such force as the mouth of that bay. The fortification at
+      the Rigolets will defend the entrance by one passage into
+      Lake Pontchartrain, and also into Pearl River, which empties
+      into the Gulf at that point. Between the Rigolets and Mobile
+      Bay there are but two inlets which deserve the name, those of
+      St. Louis and Pascagola, the entrance into which is too
+      shallow even for the smallest vessels; and from the Rigolets
+      to Mobile Bay the whole coast is equally shallow, affording
+      the depth of a few feet of water only. Cat Island, which is
+      nearest the Rigolets, is about 7-1/2 miles distant from the
+      coast and 30 from the Rigolets. Ship Island is distant about
+      10 miles from Cat Island and 12 from the coast. Between these
+      islands and the coast the water is very shallow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As to the precise depth of water in approaching those islands
+      from the Gulf, the report of the topographical engineers not
+      having yet been received, it is impossible to speak with
+      precision; but admitting it to be such as for frigates and
+      even ships of the line to enter, the anchorage at both is
+      unsafe, being much exposed to northwest winds. Along the
+      coast, therefore, there is no motive for such strong works on
+      our part&mdash;no town to guard, no inlet into the country to
+      defend&mdash;and if placed on the islands and the entrance to
+      them is such as to admit large ships of war, distant as they
+      are from the coast, it would be more easy for the enemy to
+      assail them with effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The position, however, at Mobile Bay is essentially
+      different. That bay takes its name from the Mobile River,
+      which is formed by the junction of the Alabama and Tombigbee,
+      which extend each about 300 miles into the interior,
+      approaching at their head waters near the Tennessee River. If
+      the enemy possessed its mouth, and fortified Mobile Point and
+      Dauphine Island, being superior at sea it would be very
+      difficult for us to dispossess him of either, even of Mobile
+      Point; and holding that position, Pensacola would soon fall,
+      as without incurring great expense in the construction of
+      works there it would present but a feeble resistance to a
+      strong force in its rear. If we had a work at Mobile Point
+      only, the enemy might take Dauphine Island, which would
+      afford him great aid in attacking the point, and enable him,
+      even should we succeed in repelling the attack, to render us
+      great mischief there and throughout the whole Gulf. In every
+      view which can be taken of the subject it appears
+      indispensable for us to command the entrance into Mobile Bay,
+      and that decision being taken, I think the considerations
+      which favor the occupation of Dauphine Island by a strong
+      work are conclusive. It is proper to observe that after the
+      repulse before New Orleans in the late war the British forces
+      took possession of Dauphine Island and held it till the
+      peace. Under neither of the reports of the Board of Engineers
+      and Naval Commissioners could any but sloops of war enter the
+      bay or the anchorage between Dauphine and Pelican islands.
+      Both reports give to that anchorage 18 feet at low water and
+      20-1/2 at high. The only difference between them consists in
+      this, that in the first a bar leading to the anchorage,
+      reducing the depth of water to 12 feet at low tide, was
+      omitted. In neither case could frigates enter, though sloops
+      of war of larger size might. The whole scope, however, of
+      this reasoning turns on a different principle&mdash;on the
+      works necessary to defend that bay and, by means thereof, New
+      Orleans, the Mississippi, and all the surrounding country
+      against a powerful invasion both by land and sea, and not on
+      the precise depth of water in any of the approaches to the
+      bay or to the island.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reasoning which is applicable to the works near New
+      Orleans and at the bay of Mobile is equally so in certain
+      respects to those which are to be erected for the defense of
+      all the bays and rivers along the other parts of the coast.
+      All those works are also erected on a greater scale than
+      would be necessary for the sole purpose of preventing the
+      passage of our inlets by large ships of war. They are in most
+      instances formed for defense against a more powerful
+      invasion, both by land and sea. There are, however, some
+      differences between the works which are deemed necessary in
+      the Gulf and those in other parts of our Union, founded on
+      the peculiar situation of that part of the coast. The vast
+      extent of the Mississippi, the great outlet and channel of
+      commerce for so many States, all of which may be affected by
+      the seizure of that city, or of any part of the river to a
+      great extent above it, is one of those striking peculiarities
+      which require particular provision. The thinness of the
+      population near the city, making it necessary that the force
+      requisite for its defense should be called from distant parts
+      and States, is another. The danger which the army assembled
+      at New Orleans would be exposed to of being cut off in case
+      the enemy should throw a force on the river above it, from
+      the difficulty of ascending the river to attack it and of
+      making a retreat in any other direction, is a third. For an
+      attack on the city of New Orleans, Mobile Bay, or any part of
+      the intermediate coast ships of war would be necessary only
+      as a convoy to protect the transports against a naval force
+      on their passage, and on their approach to the shore for the
+      landing of the men, and on their return home in case they
+      should be repulsed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the important subject of our defenses generally I think
+      proper to observe that the system was adopted immediately
+      after the late war by Congress, on great consideration and a
+      thorough knowledge of the effects of that war&mdash;by the
+      enormous expense attending it, by the waste of life, of
+      property, and by the general distress of the country. The
+      amount of debt incurred in that war and due at its
+      conclusion, without taking into the estimate other losses,
+      having been heretofore communicated, need not now be
+      repeated. The interest of the debt thus incurred is four
+      times more than the sum necessary, by annual appropriations,
+      for the completion of our whole system of defense, land and
+      naval, to the extent provided for and within the time
+      specified. When that system shall be completed the expense of
+      construction will cease, and our expenditures be
+      proportionally diminished. Should another war occur before it
+      is completed, the experience of the last marks in characters
+      too strong to be mistaken its inevitable consequences; and
+      should such war occur and find us unprepared for it, what
+      will be our justification to the enlightened body whom we
+      represent for not having completed these defenses? That this
+      system should not have been adopted before the late war can
+      not be a cause of surprise to anyone, because all might wish
+      to avoid every expense the necessity of which might be in any
+      degree doubtful. But with the experience of that war before
+      us it is thought there is no cause for hesitation. Will the
+      completion of these works and the augmentation of our Navy to
+      the point contemplated by law require the imposition of
+      onerous burthens on our fellow-citizens such as they can not
+      or will not bear? Have such, or any, burthens been imposed to
+      advance the system to its present state? It is known that no
+      burthens whatever have been imposed; on the contrary, that
+      all the direct or internal taxes have been long repealed, and
+      none paid but those which are indirect and voluntary, such as
+      are imposed on articles imported from foreign countries, most
+      of which are luxuries, and on the vessels employed in the
+      transportation&mdash;taxes which some of our most enlightened
+      citizens think ought to be imposed on many of the articles
+      for the encouragement of our manufactures, even if the
+      revenue derived from them could be dispensed with. It is
+      known also that in all other respects our condition as a
+      nation is in the highest degree prosperous and flourishing,
+      nearly half the debt incurred in the late war having already
+      been discharged, and considerable progress having also been
+      made in the completion of this system of defense and in the
+      construction of other works of great extent and utility, by
+      the revenue derived from these sources and from the sale of
+      the public lands. I may add also that a very generous
+      provision has been made from the same sources for the
+      surviving officers and soldiers of our Revolutionary army.
+      These important facts show that this system has been so far
+      executed, and may be completed without any real inconvenience
+      to the public. Were it, however, otherwise, I have full
+      confidence that any burthens which might be found necessary
+      for the completion of this system in both its branches within
+      the term contemplated, or much sooner should any emergency
+      require it, would be called for rather than complained of by
+      our fellow-citizens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From these views, applicable to the very important subject of
+      our defenses generally as well as to the work at Dauphine
+      Island, I think it my duty to recommend to Congress an
+      appropriation for the latter. I considered the withholding it
+      at the last session as the expression only of a doubt by
+      Congress of the propriety of the position, and not as a
+      definitive opinion. Supposing that that question would be
+      decided at the present session, I caused the position and
+      such parts of the coast as are particularly connected with it
+      to be reexamined, that all the light on which the decision as
+      to the appropriation could depend might be fully before you.
+      In the first survey, the report of which was that on which
+      the works intended for the defense of New Orleans, the
+      Mississippi, the bay of Mobile, and all the country dependent
+      on those waters were sanctioned by the Executive, the
+      commissioners were industriously engaged about six months. I
+      should have communicated that very able and interesting
+      document then but from a doubt how far the interest of our
+      country would justify its publication, a circumstance which I
+      now mention that the attention of Congress may be drawn to
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MARCH 26, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having executed the act entitled "An act to reduce and fix
+      the military peace establishment of the United States" on
+      great consideration and according to my best judgment, and
+      inferring from the rejection of the nomination of Colonel
+      Towson and Colonel Gadsden, officers of very distinguished
+      merit, that the view which I took of that law has not been
+      well understood, I hereby withdraw all the nominations on
+      which the Senate has not decided until I can make a more full
+      communication and explanation of that view and of the
+      principles on which I have acted in the discharge of that
+      very delicate and important duty.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 27, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 1st instant, requesting "the President
+      to communicate such information as he may possess relative to
+      any private claim against the piece of land in the Delaware
+      River known by the name of the Peapatch, and to state if any,
+      and what, process has been instituted in behalf of such
+      claim," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of
+      War, furnishing the information required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 28, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit the original reports on the subject of the
+      fortifications on Dauphin Island and Mobile Point, being
+      those on which the works were undertaken and have been in
+      part executed. The doubt expressed as to the propriety of
+      publication is applicable to this document, which would have
+      accompanied the message of the 26th had it been prepared in
+      time.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 29, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to Congress the translation of two letters from
+      the minister of France to the Secretary of State, relating to
+      the claim of the heirs of Caron de Beaumarchais upon this
+      Government, with the documents therewith inclosed,
+      recommending them to the favorable consideration of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>April 5, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate herewith to the House a report from the
+      Secretary of War, containing the information requested by
+      their resolution of the 5th ultimo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be proper further to add that the secretaries of both
+      the Territories have occasionally required and received the
+      aid of the military force of the United States stationed
+      within them, respectively, to carry into effect the acts of
+      their authority.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The government of East and West Florida was under the Spanish
+      dominion almost exclusively military. The governors of both
+      were military officers and united in their persons the chief
+      authority, both civil and military.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The principle upon which the act of Congress of the last
+      session providing for the temporary government of the newly
+      ceded Provinces was carried into execution has been
+      communicated to Congress in my message at the opening of the
+      session. It was to leave the authorities of the country as
+      they were found existing at the time of the cession, to be
+      exercised until the meeting of Congress, when it was known
+      that the introduction of a system more congenial to our own
+      institutions would be one of the earliest and most important
+      subjects of their deliberations. From this, among other
+      obvious considerations, military officers were appointed to
+      take possession of both Provinces. But as the military
+      command of General Jackson was to cease on the 1st of June,
+      General Gaines, the officer next in command, then here, who
+      was first designated to take possession of East Florida,
+      received from me a verbal direction to give such effect to
+      any requisition from the governor for military aid to enforce
+      his authority as the circumstances might require. It was not
+      foreseen that the command in both the Provinces would before
+      further legislation by Congress on that subject devolve upon
+      the secretaries of the Territories, but had it been foreseen
+      the same direction would have been given as applicable to
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No authority has been given to either of the secretaries to
+      issue commands to that portion of the Army which is in
+      Florida, and whenever the aid of <i>the military</i> has been
+      required by them it has been by written requisitions to the
+      officers commanding the troops, who have yielded compliance
+      thereto doubtless under the directions received from General
+      Gaines as understood by him to be authorized.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly before the meeting of Congress a letter was received
+      at the War Department from Colonel Brooke, the officer
+      commanding at Pensacola, requesting instructions how far he
+      was to consider these requisitions as authoritative, but the
+      assurance that a new organization of the government was
+      immediately to be authorized by Congress was a motive for
+      superseding any specific decision upon the inquiry.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>April 6, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives requesting the President of the United States
+      to cause to be furnished to that House certain information
+      relating to the amount of the public money paid to the
+      Attorney-General over and above his salary fixed by law since
+      the 1st of January, 1817, specifying the time when paid and
+      the fund out of which such payments have been made, I
+      transmit a paper, marked A, containing the information
+      desired. I transmit also a paper, marked B, containing a
+      statement of sums paid to Attorney General of the United
+      States prior to the 1st of January, 1817, and in the paper
+      marked C a like statement of sums advanced to district
+      attorneys for services not required of them by law. These
+      latter documents being necessary to a full view of the
+      subject, it is thought proper to comprise them in this
+      communication.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the act of 24th September, 1789, instituting the office of
+      Attorney General, it was made his duty to prosecute and
+      conduct all suits in the Supreme Court in which the United
+      States should be concerned, and to give his advice and
+      opinion upon questions of law when required by the President
+      of the United States, or when requested by the head of any of
+      the Departments, touching any matters that might concern
+      their Departments. It will be seen, therefore, by the
+      statement communicated that no money whatever has been paid
+      to the Attorney General for his services in that character,
+      nor for any duty belonging to his office, beyond his salary
+      as fixed by law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will also be shewn by the documents communicated that the
+      construction given of the laws imposing duties on the
+      Attorney General and district attorneys have been invariably
+      the same since the institution of the Government. On the same
+      authority it was thought that the compensation allowed to the
+      present Attorney General for certain services, considering
+      their importance and the time employed in rendering them, did
+      not exceed, regarding precedents, what might fairly be
+      claimed.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      APRIL, 13, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having cause to infer that the reasons which led to the
+      construction which I gave to the act of the last session
+      entitled "An act to reduce and fix the peace establishment of
+      the United States" have not been well understood, I consider
+      it my duty to explain more fully the view which I took of
+      that act and of the principles on which I executed the very
+      difficult and important duty enjoined on me by it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To do justice to the subject it is thought proper to show the
+      actual state of the Army before the passage of the late act,
+      the force in service, the several corps of which it was
+      composed, and the grades and number of officers commanding
+      it. By seeing distinctly the body in all its parts on which
+      the law operated, viewing also with a just discrimination the
+      spirit, policy, and positive injunctions of that law with
+      reference to precedents established in a former analogous
+      case, we shall be enabled to ascertain with great precision
+      whether these injunctions have or have not been strictly
+      complied with.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the act of the 3d of March, 1815, entitled "An act fixing
+      the military peace establishment of the United States," the
+      whole force in service was reduced to 10,000
+      men&mdash;infantry, artillery, and riflemen&mdash;exclusive
+      of the Corps of Engineers, which was retained in its then
+      state. The regiment of light artillery was retained as it had
+      been organized by the act of 3d March, 1814. The infantry was
+      formed into 9 regiments, 1 of which consisted of riflemen.
+      The regiments of light artillery, infantry, riflemen, and
+      Corps of Engineers were commanded each by a colonel,
+      lieutenant-colonel, and the usual battalion and company
+      officers; and the battalions of the corps of artillery, of
+      which there were 8&mdash;4 for the Northern and 4 for the
+      Southern division&mdash;were commanded by lieutenant-colonels
+      or majors, there being 4 of each grade. There were,
+      therefore, in the Army at the time the late law was passed 12
+      colonels belonging to those branches of the military
+      establishment. Two major-generals and 4 brigadiers were
+      likewise retained in service by this act; but the staff in
+      several of its branches not being provided for, and being
+      indispensable and the omission inadvertent, proceeding from
+      the circumstances under which the act was passed, being at
+      the close of the session, at which time intelligence of the
+      peace was received, it was provisionally retained by the
+      President, and provided for afterwards by the act of the 24th
+      April, 1816. By this act the Ordnance Department was
+      preserved as it had been organized by the act of February 8,
+      1815, with 1 colonel, 1 lieutenant-colonel, 2 majors, 10
+      captains, and 10 first, second, and third lieutenants. One
+      Adjutant and Inspector General of the Army and 2
+      adjutants-general&mdash;1 for the Northern and 1 for the
+      Southern division&mdash;were retained. This act provides also
+      for a Paymaster-General, with a suitable number of regimental
+      and battalion paymasters, as a part of the general staff,
+      constituting the military peace establishment; and the Pay
+      Department and every other branch of the staff were subjected
+      to the Rules and Articles of War.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the act of March 2, 1821, it was ordained that the
+      military peace establishment should consist of 4 regiments of
+      artillery and 7 of infantry, with such officers of engineers,
+      ordnance, and staff as were therein specified. It is provided
+      that each regiment of artillery should consist of 1 colonel,
+      1 lieutenant-colonel, 1 major, and 9 companies, with the
+      usual company officers, 1 of which to be equipped as light
+      artillery, and that there should be attached to each regiment
+      of artillery 1 supernumerary captain to perform ordnance
+      duty, thereby merging the regiment of artillery and Ordnance
+      Department into these 4 regiments. It was provided also that
+      each regiment of infantry should consist of 1 colonel, 1
+      lieutenant colonel, 1 major, and 10 companies, with the usual
+      company officers. The Corps of Engineers, bombardiers
+      excepted, with the topographical engineers and their
+      assistants, were to be retained under the existing
+      organization. The former establishment as to the number of
+      major generals and brigadiers was curtailed one-half, and the
+      office of Inspector and Adjutant General to the Army and of
+      adjutant-general to each division annulled, and that of
+      Adjutant General to the Army instituted. The Quartermaster,
+      Paymaster, and Commissary Departments were also specially
+      provided for, as was every other branch of the staff, all of
+      which received a new modification, and were subjected to the
+      Rules and Articles of War.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The immediate and direct operation of this act on the
+      military peace establishment of 1815 was that of reduction,
+      from which no officer belonging to it was exempt, unless it
+      might be the topographical engineers; for in retaining the
+      Corps of Engineers, as was manifest as well by the clear
+      import of the section relating to it as by the provisions of
+      every other clause of the act, reference was had to the
+      organization, and not to the officers of the Corps. The
+      establishment of 1815 was reduced from 10,000 to about 6,000
+      men. The 8 battalions of artillery, constituting what was
+      called the corps of artillery, and the regiment of light
+      artillery as established by the act of 1815, were to be
+      incorporated together and formed into 4 new regiments. The
+      regiments of infantry were to be reduced from 9 to 7, the
+      rifle regiment being broken. Three of the general officers
+      were to be reduced, with very many of the officers belonging
+      to the several corps of the Army, and particularly of the
+      infantry. All the provisions of the act declare of what
+      number of officers and men the several corps provided for by
+      it should thenceforward consist, and not that any corps as
+      then existing or any officer of any corps, unless the
+      topographical engineers were excepted, should be retained.
+      Had it been intended to reduce the officers by corps, or to
+      exempt the officers of any corps from the operation of the
+      law, or in the organization of the several new corps to
+      confine the selection of the officers to be placed in them to
+      the several corps of the like kind then existing, and not
+      extend it to the whole military establishment, including the
+      staff, or to confine the reduction to a proportional number
+      of each corps and of each grade in each corps, the object in
+      either instance might have been easily accomplished by a
+      declaration to that effect. No such declaration was made, nor
+      can such intention be inferred. We see, on the contrary, that
+      every corps of the Army and staff was to be reorganized, and
+      most of them reduced in officers and men, and that in
+      arranging the officers from the old to the new corps full
+      power was granted to the President to take them from any and
+      every corps of the former establishment and place them in the
+      latter. In this latter grant of power it is proper to observe
+      that the most comprehensive terms that could be adopted were
+      used, the authority being to cause the arrangement to be made
+      from the officers of the several <i>corps</i> then in the
+      service of the United States, comprising, of course, every
+      corps of the staff, as well as of artillery and infantry, and
+      not from the <i>corps of troops</i>, as in the former act,
+      and without any limitation as to grades.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It merits particular attention that although the object of
+      this latter act was reduction and such its effect on an
+      extensive scale, 5 new offices were created by it&mdash;4 of
+      the grade of colonel for the 4 regiments of artillery and
+      that of Adjutant-General for the Army. Three of the first
+      mentioned were altogether new, the corps having been newly
+      created, and although 1 officer of that grade as applicable
+      to the corps of light artillery had existed, yet as that
+      regiment was reduced and all its parts reorganized in another
+      form and with other duties, being incorporated into the 4 new
+      regiments, the commander was manifestly displaced and
+      incapable of taking the command of either of the new
+      regiments or any station in them until he should be
+      authorized to do so by a new appointment. The same remarks
+      are applicable to the office of Adjutant-General to the Army.
+      It is an office of new creation, differing from that of
+      Adjutant and Inspector General, and likewise from that of
+      adjutant-general to a division, which were severally
+      annulled. It differs from the first in title, rank, and pay,
+      and from the two latter because they had been created by law
+      each for a division, whereas the new office, being instituted
+      without such special designation, could have relation only to
+      the whole Army. It was manifest, therefore, that neither of
+      those officers had any right to this new station nor to any
+      other station unless he should be specially appointed to it,
+      the principle of reduction being applicable to every officer
+      in every corps. It is proper also to observe that the duties
+      of Adjutant-General under the existing arrangement correspond
+      in almost every circumstance with those of the late Adjutant
+      and Inspector General, and not with those of an
+      adjutant-general of a division.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To give effect to this law the President was authorized by
+      the twelfth section to cause the officers, noncommissioned
+      officers, artificers, musicians, and privates of the several
+      corps then in the service of the United States to be arranged
+      in such manner as to form and complete out of the same the
+      force thereby provided for, and to cause the supernumerary
+      officers, noncommissioned officers, artificers, musicians,
+      and privates to be discharged from the service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In executing this very delicate and important trust I acted
+      with the utmost precaution. Sensible of what I owed to my
+      country, I felt strongly the obligation of observing the
+      utmost impartiality in selecting those officers who were to
+      be retained. In executing this law I had no personal object
+      to accomplish or feeling to gratify&mdash;no one to retain,
+      no one to remove. Having on great consideration fixed the
+      principles on which the reduction should be made, I availed
+      myself of the example of my predecessor by appointing through
+      the proper department a board of general officers to make the
+      selection, and whose report I adopted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In transferring the officers from the old to the new corps
+      the utmost care was taken to place them in the latter in the
+      grades and corps to which they had respectively belonged in
+      the former, so far as it might be practicable. This, though
+      not enjoined by the law, appearing to be just and proper, was
+      never departed from except in peculiar cases and under
+      imperious circumstances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In filling the original vacancies in the artillery and in the
+      newly created office of Adjutant-General I considered myself
+      at liberty to place in them any officer belonging to any part
+      of the whole military establishment, whether of the staff or
+      line. In filling original vacancies&mdash;that is, offices
+      newly created&mdash;it is my opinion, as a general principle,
+      that Congress have no right under the Constitution to impose
+      any restraint by law on the power granted to the President so
+      as to prevent his making a free selection of proper persons
+      for these offices from the whole body of his fellow-citizens.
+      Without, however, entering here into that question, I have no
+      hesitation in declaring it as my opinion that the law fully
+      authorized a selection from any branch of the whole military
+      establishment of 1815. Justified, therefore, as I thought
+      myself in taking that range by the very highest sanction, the
+      sole object to which I had to direct my attention was the
+      merit of the officers to be selected for these stations.
+      Three generals of great merit were either to be dismissed or
+      otherwise provided for. The very gallant and patriotic
+      defender of New Orleans had intimated his intention to
+      retire, but at my suggestion expressed his willingness to
+      accept the office of commissioner to receive the cession of
+      the Floridas and of governor for a short time of that
+      Territory. As to one, therefore, there was no difficulty. For
+      the other two provision could only be made in the mode which
+      was adopted. General Macomb, who had signalized himself in
+      the defense of Plattsburg, was placed at the head of the
+      Corps of Engineers, to which he had originally belonged, and
+      in which he had acquired great experience, Colonel Armistead,
+      then at the head of that corps, having voluntarily accepted
+      one of the new regiments of artillery, for which he possessed
+      very suitable qualifications. General Atkinson, likewise an
+      officer of great merit, was appointed to the newly created
+      office of Adjutant-General. Brevet General Porter, an officer
+      of great experience in the artillery, and merit, was
+      appointed to the command of another of those regiments.
+      Colonel Fenwick, then the oldest lieutenant-colonel of
+      artillery, and who had suffered much in the late war by
+      severe wounds, was appointed to a third, and Colonel Towson,
+      who had served with great distinction in the same corps and
+      been twice brevetted for his gallantry in the late war, was
+      appointed to the last remaining one. General Atkinson having
+      declined the office of Adjutant General, Colonel Gadsden, an
+      officer of distinguished merit and believed to possess
+      qualifications suitably adapted to it, was appointed in his
+      stead. In making the arrangement the merits of Colonel Butler
+      and Colonel Jones were not overlooked. The former was
+      assigned to the place which he would have held in the line if
+      he had retained his original lineal commission, and the
+      latter to his commission in the line, which he had continued
+      to hold with his staff appointment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That the reduction of the Army and the arrangement of the
+      officers from the old to the new establishment and the
+      appointments referred to were in every instance strictly
+      conformable to law will, I think, be apparent. To the
+      arrangement generally no objection has been heard; it has
+      been made, however, to the appointments to the original
+      vacancies, and particularly to those of Colonel Towson and
+      Colonel Gadsden. To those appointments, therefore, further
+      attention is due. If they were improper it must be either
+      that they were illegal or that the officers did not merit the
+      offices conferred on them. The acknowledged merit of the
+      officers and the peculiar fitness for the offices to which
+      they were respectively appointed must preclude all objection
+      on that head. Having already suggested my impression that in
+      filling offices newly created, to which on no principle
+      whatever anyone could have a claim of right, Congress could
+      not under the Constitution restrain the free selection of the
+      President from the whole body of his fellow-citizens, I shall
+      only further remark that if that impression is well founded
+      all objection to these appointments must cease. If the law
+      imposed such restraint, it would in that case be void. But,
+      according to my judgment, the law imposed none. An objection
+      to the legality of those appointments must be founded either
+      on the principle that those officers were not comprised
+      within the corps then in the service of the United
+      States&mdash;that is, did not belong to the peace
+      establishment&mdash;or that the power granted by the word
+      "arrange" imposed on the President the necessity of placing
+      in these new offices persons of the same grade only from the
+      old. It is believed that neither objection is well founded.
+      Colonel Towson belonged to one of the corps then in the
+      service of the United States, or, in other words, of the
+      military peace establishment. By the act of 1815-16 the Pay
+      Department, of which the Paymaster General was the chief, was
+      made one of the branches of the staff, and he and all those
+      under him were subjected to the Rules and Articles of War.
+      The appointment, therefore, of him, and especially to a new
+      office, was strictly conformable to law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only difference between the fifth section of the act of
+      1815 for reducing the Army and the twelfth section of the act
+      of 1821 for still further reducing it, by which the power to
+      carry those laws into effect was granted to the President in
+      each instance, consists in this, that by the former he was to
+      cause the arrangement to be made of the officers,
+      noncommissioned officers, musicians, and privates of the
+      several <i>corps of troops</i> then in the service of the
+      United States, whereas in the latter the term <i>troops</i>
+      was omitted. It can not be doubted that that omission had an
+      object, and that it was thereby intended to guard against
+      misconstruction in so very material and important a
+      circumstance by authorizing the application of the act
+      unequivocally to every corps of the staff as well as of the
+      line. With that word a much wider range was given to the act
+      of 1815 on the reduction which then took place than under the
+      last act. The omission of it from the last act, together with
+      all the sanctions which were given by Congress to the
+      construction of the law in the reduction made under the
+      former, could not fail to dispel all doubt as to the extent
+      of the power granted by the last law and of the principles
+      which ought to guide, and on which it was thereby made the
+      duty of the President to execute it. With respect to the
+      other objection&mdash;that is, that officers of the same
+      grade only ought to have been transferred to these new
+      offices&mdash;it is equally unfounded. It is admitted that
+      officers may be taken from the old corps and reduced and
+      arranged in the new in inferior grades, as was done under the
+      former reduction. This admission puts an end to the objection
+      in this case; for if an officer may be reduced and arranged
+      from one corps to another by an entire change of grade,
+      requiring a new commission and a new nomination to the
+      Senate, I see no reason why an officer may not be advanced in
+      like manner. In both instances the grade in the old corps is
+      alike disregarded. The transfer from it to the new turns on
+      the merit of the party, and it is believed that the claim in
+      this instance is felt by all with peculiar sensibility. The
+      claim of Colonel Towson is the stronger because the
+      arrangement of him to the office to which he is now nominated
+      is not to one from which any officer has been removed, and to
+      which any other officer may in any view of the case be
+      supposed to have had a claim. As Colonel Gadsden held the
+      office of Inspector-General, and as such was acknowledged by
+      all to belong to the staff of the Army, it is not perceived
+      on what ground his appointment can be objected to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If such a construction is to be given to the act of 1821 as
+      to confine the transfer of officers from the old to the new
+      establishment to the <i>corps of troops</i>&mdash;that is, to
+      the line of the Army&mdash;the whole staff of the Army in
+      every branch would not only be excluded from any appointment
+      in the new establishment, but altogether disbanded from the
+      service. It would follow also that all the offices of the
+      staff under the new arrangement must be filled by officers
+      belonging to the new establishment after its organization and
+      their arrangement in it. Other consequences not less serious
+      would follow. If the right of the President to fill these
+      original vacancies by the selection of officers from any
+      branch of the whole military establishment was denied, he
+      would be compelled to place in them officers of the same
+      grade whose corps had been reduced, and they with them. The
+      effect, therefore, of the law as to those appointments would
+      be to legislate into office men who had been already
+      legislated out of office, taking from the President all
+      agency in their appointment. Such a construction would not
+      only be subversive of the obvious principles of the
+      Constitution, but utterly inconsistent with the spirit of the
+      law itself, since it would provide offices for a particular
+      grade, and fix every member of that grade in those offices,
+      at a time when every other grade was reduced, and among them
+      generals and other officers of the highest merit. It would
+      also defeat every object of selection, since colonels of
+      infantry would be placed at the head of regiments of
+      artillery, a service in which they might have had no
+      experience, and for which they might in consequence be
+      unqualified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having omitted in the message to Congress at the commencement
+      of the session to state the principles on which this law had
+      been executed, and having imperfectly explained them in the
+      message to the Senate of the 17th of January last, I deem it
+      particularly incumbent on me, as well from a motive of
+      respect to the Senate as to place my conduct in the duty
+      imposed on me by that act in a clear point of view, to make
+      this communication at this time. The examples under the law
+      of 1815, whereby officers were reduced and arranged from the
+      old corps to the new in inferior grades, fully justify all
+      that has been done under the law of 1821. If the power to
+      arrange under the former law authorized the removal of one
+      officer from a particular station and the location of another
+      in it, reducing the latter from a higher to an inferior
+      grade, with the advice and consent of the Senate, it surely
+      justifies under the latter law the arrangement of these
+      officers, with a like sanction, to offices of new creation,
+      from which no one had been removed and to which no one had a
+      just claim. It is on the authority of these examples,
+      supported by the construction which I gave to the law, that I
+      have acted in the discharge of this high trust. I am aware
+      that many officers of great merit, having the strongest
+      claims on their country, have been reduced and others
+      dismissed, but under the law that result was inevitable. It
+      is believed that none have been retained who had not,
+      likewise, the strongest claims to the appointments which have
+      been conferred on them. To discriminate between men of
+      acknowledged merit, especially in a way to affect so sensibly
+      and materially their feelings and interests, for many of whom
+      I have personal consideration and regard, has been a most
+      painful duty; yet I am conscious that I have discharged it
+      with the utmost impartiality. Had I opened the door to change
+      in any case, even where error might have been committed,
+      against whom could I afterwards have closed it, and into what
+      consequences might not such a proceeding have led? The same
+      remarks are applicable to the subject in its relation to the
+      Senate, to whose calm and enlightened judgment, with these
+      explanations, I again submit the nominations which have been
+      rejected.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      APRIL 15, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 12th
+      instant, requesting the President of the United States "to
+      cause to be laid before the Senate the original proceedings
+      of the board of general officers charged with the reduction
+      of the Army under the act of the 2d of March, 1821, together
+      with all communications to and from said board on the subject
+      of reducing the Army, including the case submitted to the
+      Attorney-General, and his opinion thereon," I now transmit a
+      report from the Secretary of War, furnishing the information
+      requested.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>April 15, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate requesting the
+      President of the United States to lay before that House any
+      report or information which may be in his possession as to
+      the most eligible situation on the Western waters for the
+      erection of a national arsenal, I herewith transmit a report
+      from the Secretary of War, containing all the information on
+      that subject in the possession of the Executive.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>April 15, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 16th of February last, requesting the
+      President of the United States "to communicate to that House
+      whether any foreign government has made any claim to any part
+      of the territory of the United States upon the coast of the
+      Pacific Ocean north of the forty-second degree of latitude,
+      and to what extent; whether any regulations have been made by
+      foreign powers affecting the trade on that coast, and how it
+      affects the interest of this Republic, and whether any
+      communications have been made to this Government by foreign
+      powers touching the contemplated occupation of Columbia
+      River," I now transmit a report from the Secretary of State,
+      containing the information embraced by that resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>April 18, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate to the House of Representatives copies of
+      sundry papers having relation to the transactions in East and
+      West Florida, which have been received at the Department of
+      State since my message to the two Houses of Congress of the
+      28th of January last, together with copies of two letters
+      from the Secretary of State upon the same subject.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [The same message was sent to the Senate.]
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>April 23, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 29th January last, requesting the
+      President of the United States to cause to be communicated to
+      that House certain information relative to the claim made by
+      Jonathan Carver to certain lands within the United States
+      near the Falls of St. Anthony. I now transmit a report of the
+      Secretary of the Treasury, which, with the accompanying
+      documents, contains all the information on this subject in
+      the possession of the Executive.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>April 26, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate, agreeably to their resolution of
+      yesterday, a report from the Secretary of State, with copies
+      of the papers requested by that resolution, in relation to
+      the recognition of the South American Provinces.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>April 29, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the
+      Secretary of State, in pursuance of their resolution of the
+      20th instant, <a href=
+      "#note-1"><small><sup>1</sup></small></a> "requesting to be
+      furnished with a copy of the judicial proceedings in the
+      United States court for the district of Louisiana in the case
+      of the French slave ship <i>La Pensee</i>."
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>April 30, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate, requesting the
+      President of the United States to cause to be laid before the
+      Senate certain information respecting the practical operation
+      of the system of subsisting the Army under the provisions of
+      the act passed the 14th of April, 1818, etc., I herewith
+      transmit a report from the Secretary of War, furnishing the
+      information required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>May 1, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the message to both Houses of Congress at the commencement
+      of their present session it was mentioned that the Government
+      of Norway had issued an ordinance for admitting the vessels
+      of the United States and their cargoes into the ports of that
+      Kingdom upon the payment of no other or higher duties than
+      are paid by Norwegian vessels, of whatever articles the said
+      cargoes may consist and from whatever ports the vessels laden
+      with them may come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In communicating this ordinance to the Government of the
+      United States that of Norway has requested the benefit of a
+      similar and reciprocal provision for the vessels of Norway
+      and their cargoes which may enter the ports of the United
+      States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This provision being within the competency only of the
+      legislative authority of Congress, I communicate to them
+      herewith copies of the communications received from the
+      Norwegian Government in relation to the subject, and
+      recommend the same to their consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>May 1, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit herewith to Congress copies of letters received at
+      the Department of State from the minister of Great Britain on
+      the subject of the duties discriminating between imported
+      rolled and hammered iron. I recommend them particularly to
+      the consideration of Congress, believing that although there
+      may be ground for controversy with regard to the application
+      of the engagements of the treaty to the case, yet a liberal
+      construction of those engagements would be compatible at once
+      with a conciliatory and a judicious policy.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>May 4, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 19th of April, requesting the
+      President "to cause to be communicated to the House, if not
+      injurious to the public interest, any letter which may have
+      been received from Jonathan Russell, one of the ministers who
+      concluded the treaty of Ghent, in conformity with the
+      indications contained in his letter of the 25th of December,
+      1814," I have to state that having referred the resolution to
+      the Secretary of State, and it appearing, by a report from
+      him, that no such document had been deposited among the
+      archives of the Department, I examined and found among my
+      private papers a letter of that description marked "private"
+      by himself. I transmit a copy of the report of the Secretary
+      of State, by which it appears that Mr. Russell, on being
+      apprised that the document referred to by the resolution had
+      not been deposited in the Department of State, delivered
+      there "a paper purporting to be the duplicate of a letter
+      written by him from Paris on the 11th of February, 1815, to
+      the then Secretary of State, to be communicated to the House
+      as the letter called for by the resolution."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the perusal of the document called for I find that it
+      communicates a difference of opinion between Mr. Russell and
+      a majority of his colleagues in certain transactions which
+      occurred in the negotiations at Ghent, touching interests
+      which have been since satisfactorily adjusted by treaty
+      between the United States and Great Britain. The view which
+      Mr. Russell presents of his own conduct and that of his
+      colleagues in those transactions will, it is presumed, call
+      from the two surviving members of that mission who differed
+      from him a reply containing their view of those transactions
+      and of the conduct of the parties in them, and who, should
+      his letter be communicated to the House of Representatives,
+      will also claim that their reply should be communicated in
+      like manner by the Executive&mdash;a claim which, on the
+      principle of equal justice, could not be resisted. The
+      Secretary of State, one of the ministers referred to, has
+      already expressed a desire that Mr. Russell's letter should
+      be communicated, and that I would transmit at the same time a
+      communication from him respecting it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On full consideration of the subject I have thought it would
+      be improper for the Executive to communicate the letter
+      called for unless the House, on a knowledge of these
+      circumstances, should desire it, in which case the document
+      called for shall be communicated, accompanied by a report
+      from the Secretary of State, as above suggested. I have
+      directed a copy to be delivered to Mr. Russell, to be
+      disposed of as he may think proper, and have caused the
+      original to be deposited in the Department of State, with
+      instruction to deliver a copy to any person who may be
+      interested.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>May 6, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to Congress translations of two letters from Don
+      Joaquin d'Anduaga to the Secretary of State, which have been
+      received at the Department of State since my last message
+      communicating copies of big correspondence with this
+      Government.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      <i>Don Joaquin de Anduaga to the Secretary of State</i>.
+    </center>
+    <center>
+      [Translation.]
+    </center>
+    <p class="r">
+      PHILADELPHIA, <i>April 24, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SIR: As soon as the news was received in Madrid of the recent
+      occurrences in New Spain after the arrival at Vera Cruz of
+      the Captain-General and supreme political chief appointed for
+      those Provinces, Don Juan O. Donoj&uacute;, and some papers
+      were seen relative to those same transactions, it was feared
+      that for forming the treaty concluded in Cordova on the 24th
+      of August last between the said General and the traitor,
+      Colonel Dr. Augustine Iturbide, it had been falsely supposed
+      that the former had power from His Catholic Majesty for that
+      act, and in a little time the correctness of those suspicions
+      was found, as, among other things, the said O. Donoj&uacute;,
+      when on the 26th of the same August he sent this treaty to
+      the governor of Vera Cruz, notifying him of its prompt and
+      punctual observance, he told him that at his sailing from the
+      Peninsula preparation for the independence of Mexico was
+      already thought of, and that its bases were approved of by
+      the Government and by a commission of the Cortes. His
+      Majesty, on sight of this and of the fatal impression which
+      so great an imposture had produced in some ultramarine
+      Provinces, and what must without difficulty be the
+      consequence among the rest, thought proper to order that, by
+      means of a circular to all the chiefs and corporations beyond
+      seas, this atrocious falsehood should be disbelieved; and now
+      he has deigned to command me to make it known to the
+      Government of the United States that it is false as far as
+      General O. Donoj&uacute; published beyond his instructions,
+      by pointing out to it that he never could have been furnished
+      with other instructions than those conformable to
+      constitutional principles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with this order of His Majesty, I can do no
+      less than observe to you, sir, how unfounded one of the
+      reasons is in your note of the 6th instant for the
+      recognition by this Government of those of the insurgent
+      Provinces of Spanish-America&mdash;that it was founded on the
+      treaty made by O. Donoj&uacute; with Iturbide&mdash;since not
+      having had that power nor instruction to conclude it it is
+      clearly null and of no value.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I repeat to you, sir, the sentiments of my distinguished
+      consideration, and pray God that you live many years.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JOAQUIN DE ANDUAGA.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      <i>Don Joaquin de Anduaga to the Secretary of State</i>.
+    </center>
+    <center>
+      [Translation.]
+    </center>
+    <p class="r">
+      PHILADELPHIA, <i>April 26, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,<br>
+       <i>Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SIR: I have received your note of the 15th instant, in which
+      you are pleased to communicate to me the reasons which induce
+      the President not only to refuse to His Catholic Majesty the
+      satisfaction which he demanded in his royal name for the
+      insults offered by General Jackson to the Spanish
+      commissaries and officers, but to approve fully of the said
+      chief's conduct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before answering the contents of the said note I thought it
+      my duty to request instructions from my Government, and
+      therefore without delay I have laid it before them. Until
+      they arrive, therefore, I have confined myself to two
+      observations:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First. If in my note of the 18th of November last I said that
+      as General Jackson had not specified the actions which had
+      induced him to declare the Spanish officers expelled from the
+      Floridas criminal, nor given proof of them, I thought myself
+      authorized to declare the accusation false, I did not this
+      through inadvertency, but upon the evident principle that
+      every person accused has a right to declare an accusation
+      destitute of proof false, and, much more, an accusation not
+      pretended to be proved. This assertion of mine does not
+      presume that I am not persuaded of the merit of the said
+      General and of the claim which he has upon the gratitude of
+      his country; but although it is believed the duty of his
+      country to eulogize and reward his eminent services, yet it
+      will be lawful for the representative of a power outraged by
+      him to complain of his conduct. I can not persuade myself
+      that to aggravate my said expression you could have thought
+      that I had been wanting in due respect, it not being possible
+      for that opinion to have entered your mind, when by his
+      orders Mr. Forsyth had sent to the Spanish minister on the
+      1st of September last a note, in which, complaining of the
+      Captain-General of the island of Cuba, he accuses him of
+      dishonorable pecuniary motives in not having delivered the
+      archives, without giving any proof of so injurious an
+      assertion; and I must remark that the rank of General Mabry
+      in Spain is at least as elevated as that of General Jackson
+      in the United States, and that the services performed by him
+      to his country have rendered him as worthy as he of its
+      consideration and respect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Second. Although you are pleased to tell me that part of the
+      papers taken from Colonel Coppinger are ready to be
+      delivered, which the American commissioners, <i>after having
+      examined them</i>, have adjudged to be returned to Spain, I
+      do not think myself authorized to admit their return in this
+      manner, but in the mode which I demanded in my note of the
+      22d of November last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I have seen by the public papers that the President has
+      communicated to Congress the note which you were pleased to
+      address to me, dated the 15th instant, and that it has been
+      ordered to be printed, I take the liberty of requesting that
+      you will have the goodness to use your influence that this my
+      answer may be treated in the same manner, that Congress and
+      the public may be informed that if I have not answered the
+      first part of it as respects the general business, it is only
+      to wait for the instructions of my Government, but that I
+      have answered what was personal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I renew to you, sir, the sentiments of my distinguished
+      consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JOAQUIN DE ANDUAGA.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>May 6, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 26th of
+      April, requesting the President of the United States "to
+      communicate to the Senate the report of the Attorney-General
+      relative to any persons (citizens of the United States) who
+      have been charged with or suspected of introducing any slaves
+      into the United States contrary to existing laws," I transmit
+      herewith two reports from the Attorney-General.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>May 7, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 25th
+      of April, requesting certain information concerning lead
+      mines on lands of the United States, I herewith transmit a
+      report from the Secretary of War.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>May 7, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with the resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 23d of April, requesting the President
+      of the United States to cause to be communicated to that
+      House certain information respecting the lead mines of the
+      State of Missouri, I herewith transmit a report of the
+      Secretary of War.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>May 7, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with the resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 7th of May, requesting the President
+      to communicate to that House a letter of Jonathan Russell,
+      esq., referred to in his message of the 4th instant, together
+      with such communications as he may have received relative
+      thereto from any of the other ministers of the United States
+      who negotiated the treaty of Ghent, I herewith transmit a
+      report from the Secretary of State, with the documents called
+      for by that resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      VETO MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>May 4, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having duly considered the bill entitled "An act for the
+      preservation and repair of the Cumberland road," it is with
+      deep regret, approving as I do the policy, that I am
+      compelled to object to its passage and to return the bill to
+      the House of Representatives, in which it originated, under a
+      conviction that Congress do not possess the power under the
+      Constitution to pass such a law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A power to establish turnpikes with gates and tolls, and to
+      enforce the collection of tolls by penalties, implies a power
+      to adopt and execute a complete system of internal
+      improvement. A right to impose duties to be paid by all
+      persons passing a certain road, and on horses and carriages,
+      as is done by this bill, involves the right to take the land
+      from the proprietor on a valuation and to pass laws for the
+      protection of the road from injuries, and if it exist as to
+      one road it exists as to any other, and to as many roads as
+      Congress may think proper to establish. A right to legislate
+      for one of these purposes is a right to legislate for the
+      others. It is a complete right of jurisdiction and
+      sovereignty for all the purposes of internal improvement, and
+      not merely the right of applying money under the power vested
+      in Congress to make appropriations, under which power, with
+      the consent of the States through which this road passes, the
+      work was originally commenced, and has been so far executed.
+      I am of opinion that Congress do not possess this power; that
+      the States individually can not grant it, for although they
+      may assent to the appropriation of money within their limits
+      for such purposes, they can grant no power of jurisdiction or
+      sovereignty by special compacts with the United States. This
+      power can be granted only by an amendment to the Constitution
+      and in the mode prescribed by it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the power exist, it must be either because it has been
+      specifically granted to the United States or that it is
+      incidental to some power which has been specifically granted.
+      If we examine the specific grants of power we do not find it
+      among them, nor is it incidental to any power which has been
+      specifically granted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has never been contended that the power was specifically
+      granted. It is claimed only as being incidental to some one
+      or more of the powers which are specifically granted. The
+      following are the powers from which it is said to be derived:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First, from the right to establish post-offices and
+      post-roads; second, from the right to declare war; third, to
+      regulate commerce; fourth, to pay the debts and provide for
+      the common defense and general welfare; fifth, from the power
+      to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into
+      execution all the powers vested by the Constitution in the
+      Government of the United States or in any department or
+      officer thereof; sixth and lastly, from the power to dispose
+      of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the
+      territory and other property of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to my judgment it can not be derived from either of
+      those powers, nor from all of them united, and in consequence
+      it does not exist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having stated my objections to the bill, I should now
+      cheerfully communicate at large the reasons on which they are
+      founded if I had time to reduce them to such form as to
+      include them in this paper. The advanced stage of the session
+      renders that impossible. Having at the commencement of my
+      service in this high trust considered it a duty to express
+      the opinion that the United States do not possess the power
+      in question, and to suggest for the consideration of Congress
+      the propriety of recommending to the States an amendment to
+      the Constitution to vest the power in the United States, my
+      attention has been often drawn to the subject since, in
+      consequence whereof I have occasionally committed my
+      sentiments to paper respecting it. The form which this
+      exposition has assumed is not such as I should have given it
+      had it been intended for Congress, nor is it concluded.
+      Nevertheless, as it contains my views on this subject, being
+      one which I deem of very high importance, and which in many
+      of its bearings has now become peculiarly urgent, I will
+      communicate it to Congress, if in my power, in the course of
+      the day, or certainly on Monday next.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>May 4, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit the paper alluded to in the message of this day,
+      on the subject of internal improvements.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      VIEWS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES ON THE SUBJECT OF
+      INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      It may be presumed that the proposition relating to internal
+      improvements by roads and canals, which has been several
+      times before Congress, will be taken into consideration again
+      either for the purpose of recommending to the States the
+      adoption of an amendment to the Constitution to vest the
+      necessary power in the General Government or to carry the
+      system into effect on the principle that the power has
+      already been granted. It seems to be the prevailing opinion
+      that great advantage would be derived from the exercise of
+      such a power by Congress. Respecting the right there is much
+      diversity of sentiment. It is of the highest importance that
+      this question should be settled. If the right exist, it ought
+      forthwith to be exercised. If it does not exist, surely those
+      who are friends to the power ought to unite in recommending
+      an amendment to the Constitution to obtain it. I propose to
+      examine this question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The inquiry confined to its proper objects and within the
+      most limited scale is extensive. Our Government is unlike
+      other governments both in its origin and form. In analyzing
+      it the differences in certain respects between it and those
+      of other nations, ancient and modern, necessarily come into
+      view. I propose to notice these differences so far as they
+      are connected with the object of inquiry, and the
+      consequences likely to result from them, varying in equal
+      degree from those which have attended other governments. The
+      digression, if it may be so called, will in every instance be
+      short and the transition to the main object immediate and
+      direct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To do justice to the subject it will be necessary to mount to
+      the source of power in these States and to pursue this power
+      in its gradations and distribution among the several
+      departments in which it is now vested. The great division is
+      between the State governments and the General Government. If
+      there was a perfect accord in every instance as to the
+      precise extent of the powers granted to the General
+      Government, we should then know with equal certainty what
+      were the powers which remained to the State governments,
+      since it would follow that those which were not granted to
+      the one would remain to the other. But it is on this point,
+      and particularly respecting the construction of these powers
+      and their incidents, that a difference of opinion exists, and
+      hence it is necessary to trace distinctly the origin of each
+      government, the purposes intended by it, and the means
+      adopted to accomplish them. By having the interior of both
+      governments fully before us we shall have all the means which
+      can be afforded to enable us to form a correct opinion of the
+      endowments of each.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before the Revolution the present States, then colonies, were
+      separate communities, unconnected with each other except in
+      their common relation to the Crown. Their governments were
+      instituted by grants from the Crown, which operated,
+      according to the conditions of each grant, in the nature of a
+      compact between the settlers in each colony and the Crown.
+      All power not retained in the Crown was vested exclusively in
+      the colonies, each having a government consisting of an
+      executive, a judiciary, and a legislative assembly, one
+      branch of which was in every instance elected by the people.
+      No office was hereditary, nor did any title under the Crown
+      give rank or office in any of the colonies. In resisting the
+      encroachments of the parent country and abrogating the power
+      of the Crown the authority which had been held by it vested
+      exclusively in the people of the colonies, By them was a
+      Congress appointed, composed of delegates from each colony,
+      who managed the war, declared independence, treated with
+      foreign powers, and acted in all things according to the
+      sense of their constituents. The Declaration of Independence
+      confirmed in form what had before existed in substance. It
+      announced to the world new States, possessing and exercising
+      complete sovereignty, which they were resolved to maintain.
+      They were soon after recognized by France and other powers,
+      and finally by Great Britain herself in 1783.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon after the power of the Crown was annulled the people of
+      each colony established a constitution or frame of government
+      for themselves, in which these separate
+      branches&mdash;legislative, executive, and
+      judiciary&mdash;were instituted, each independent of the
+      others. To these branches, each having its appropriate
+      portion, the whole power of the people not delegated to
+      Congress was communicated, to be exercised for their
+      advantage on the representative principle by persons of their
+      appointment, or otherwise deriving their authority
+      immediately from them, and holding their offices for stated
+      terms. All the powers necessary for useful purposes held by
+      any of the strongest governments of the Old World not vested
+      in Congress were imparted to these State governments without
+      other checks than such as are necessary to prevent abuse, in
+      the form of fundamental declarations or bills of right. The
+      great difference between our governments and those of the Old
+      World consists in this, that the former, being
+      representative, the persons who exercise their powers do it
+      not for themselves or in their own right, but for the people,
+      and therefore while they are in the highest degree efficient
+      they can never become oppressive. It is this transfer of the
+      power of the people to representative and responsible bodies
+      in every branch which constitutes the great improvement in
+      the science of government and forms the boast of our system.
+      It combines all the advantages of every known government
+      without any of their disadvantages. It retains the
+      sovereignty in the people, while it avoids the tumult and
+      disorder incident to the exercise of that power by the people
+      themselves. It possesses all the energy and efficiency of the
+      most despotic governments, while it avoids all the
+      oppressions and abuses inseparable from those governments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In every stage of the conflict from its commencement until
+      March, 1781, the powers of Congress were undefined, but of
+      vast extent. The assemblies or conventions of the several
+      colonies being formed by representatives from every county in
+      each colony and the Congress by delegates from each colonial
+      assembly, the powers of the latter for general purposes
+      resembled those of the former for local. They rested on the
+      same basis, the people, and were complete for all the
+      purposes contemplated. Never was a movement so spontaneous,
+      so patriotic, so efficient. The nation exerted its whole
+      faculties in support of its rights, and of its independence
+      after the contest took that direction, and it succeeded. It
+      was, however, foreseen at a very early stage that although
+      the patriotism of the country might be relied on in the
+      struggle for its independence, a well-digested compact would
+      be necessary to preserve it after obtained. A plan of
+      confederation was in consequence proposed and taken into
+      consideration by Congress even at the moment when the other
+      great act which severed them from Great Britain and declared
+      their independence was proclaimed to the world. This compact
+      was ratified on the 21st March, 1781, by the last State, and
+      thereupon carried into immediate effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The following powers were vested in the United States by the
+      Articles of Confederation. As this, the first bond of union,
+      was in operation nearly eight years, during which time a
+      practical construction was given to many of its powers, all
+      of which were adopted in the Constitution with important
+      additions, it is thought that a correct view of those powers
+      and of the manner in which they are executed may shed light
+      on the subject under consideration. It may fairly be presumed
+      that where certain powers were transferred from one
+      instrument to the other and in the same terms, or terms
+      descriptive only of the same powers, that it was intended
+      that they should be construed in the same sense in the latter
+      that they were in the former.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Article I declares that the style of the Confederacy shall be
+      "The United States of America."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Article II. Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and
+      independence, and every power and right which is not
+      expressly delegated to the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Article III. The States severally enter into a firm league of
+      friendship with each other for their common defense, the
+      security of their liberties, and their mutual and general
+      welfare, binding themselves to assist each other against all
+      force offered to or attacks made upon them on account of
+      religion, sovereignty, trade, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Article IV. The free inhabitants of each State, paupers,
+      vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted, shall be
+      entitled to all the privileges and immunities of free
+      citizens in the several States, etc. Fugitives from justice
+      into any of the States shall be delivered up on the demand of
+      the executive of the State from which they fled. Full faith
+      and credit shall be given in each State to the records and
+      acts of every other State.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Article V. Delegates shall be annually appointed by the
+      legislature of each State to meet in Congress on the first
+      Monday in November, with a power to recall, etc. No State
+      shall appoint less than two nor more than seven, nor shall
+      any delegate hold his office for more than three in six
+      years. Each State shall maintain its own delegates. Each
+      State shall have one vote. Freedom of speech shall not be
+      impeached, and the members shall be protected from arrests,
+      except for treason, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Article VI. No State shall send or receive an embassy or
+      enter into a treaty with a foreign power. Nor shall any
+      person holding any office of profit or trust under the United
+      States or any State accept any present, emolument, office, or
+      title from a foreign power. Nor shall the United States or
+      any State grant any title of nobility. No two States shall
+      enter into any treaty without the consent of Congress. No
+      State shall lay any imposts or duties which may interfere
+      with any treaties entered into by the United States. No State
+      shall engage in war unless it be invaded or menaced with
+      invasion by some Indian tribe, nor grant letters of marque or
+      reprisal unless it be against pirates, nor keep up vessels of
+      war nor any body of troops in time of peace without the
+      consent of Congress; but every State shall keep up a well
+      regulated militia, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Article VII. When land forces are raised by any State for the
+      common defense, all officers of and under the rank of colonel
+      shall be appointed by the legislature of each State.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Article VIII. All charges of war and all other expenses which
+      shall be incurred for the common defense or general welfare
+      shall be defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be
+      supplied by the several States in proportion to the value of
+      all the land in each State granted to individuals. The taxes
+      for paying each proportion shall be levied by the several
+      States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Article IX. Congress shall have the sole and exclusive right
+      and power of determining on peace and war, except in the
+      cases mentioned in the sixth article; of sending and
+      receiving ambassadors; entering into alliances, except, etc.;
+      of establishing rules for deciding what captures on land and
+      water shall be legal; of granting letters of marque and
+      reprisal in time of peace; appointing courts for the trial of
+      piracies and felonies on the high seas; for deciding
+      controversies between the States and between individuals
+      claiming lands under two or more States whose jurisdiction
+      has been adjusted; of regulating the alloy and value of coin
+      struck by their authority and of foreign coin; fixing the
+      standard of weights and measures; regulating the trade with
+      the Indians; establishing and regulating post offices from
+      one State to another and throughout all the States, and
+      exacting such postage as may be requisite to defray the
+      expenses of the office; of appointing all officers of the
+      land forces except the regimental; appointing all the
+      officers of the naval forces; to ascertain the necessary sums
+      of money to be raised for the service of the United States
+      and appropriate the same; to borrow money and emit bills of
+      credit; to build and equip a Navy; to agree on the number of
+      land forces and to make requisitions on each State for its
+      quota; that the assent of nine States shall be requisite to
+      these great acts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Article X regulates the powers of the committee of the States
+      to sit in the recess of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Article XI provides for the admission of Canada into the
+      Confederation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Article XII pledges the faith of the United States for the
+      payment of all bills of credit issued and money borrowed on
+      their account.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Article XIII. Every State shall abide by the determination of
+      the United States on all questions submitted to them by the
+      Confederation, the Articles of the Confederation to be
+      perpetual and not to be altered without the consent of every
+      State.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This bond of union was soon found to be utterly incompetent
+      to the purposes intended by it. It was defective in its
+      powers; it was defective also in the means of executing the
+      powers actually granted by it. Being a league of sovereign
+      and independent States, its acts, like those of all other
+      leagues, required the interposition of the States composing
+      it to give them effect within their respective jurisdictions.
+      The acts of Congress without the aid of State laws to enforce
+      them were altogether nugatory. The refusal or omission of one
+      State to pass such laws was urged as a reason to justify like
+      conduct in others, and thus the Government was soon at a
+      stand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The experience of a few years demonstrated that the
+      Confederation could not be relied on for the security of the
+      blessings which had been derived from the Revolution. The
+      interests of the nation required a more efficient Government,
+      which the good sense and virtue of the people provided by the
+      adoption of the present Constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Constitution of the United States was formed by a
+      convention of delegates from the several States, who met in
+      Philadelphia, duly authorized for the purpose, and it was
+      ratified by a convention in each State which was especially
+      called to consider and decide on the same. In this progress
+      the State governments were never suspended in their
+      functions. On the contrary, they took the lead in it.
+      Conscious of their incompetency to secure to the Union the
+      blessings of the Revolution, they promoted the diminution of
+      their own powers and the enlargement of those of the General
+      Government in the way in which they might be most adequate
+      and efficient. It is believed that no other example can be
+      found of a Government exerting its influence to lessen its
+      own powers, of a policy so enlightened, of a patriotism so
+      pure and disinterested. The credit, however, is more
+      especially due to the people of each State, in obedience to
+      whose will and under whose control the State governments
+      acted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Constitution of the United States, being ratified by the
+      people of the several States, became of necessity to the
+      extent of its powers the paramount authority of the Union. On
+      sound principles it can be viewed in no other light. The
+      people, the highest authority known to our system, from whom
+      all our institutions spring and on whom they depend, formed
+      it. Had the people of the several States thought proper to
+      incorporate themselves into one community, under one
+      government, they might have done it. They had the power, and
+      there was nothing then nor is there anything now, should they
+      be so disposed, to prevent it. They wisely stopped, however,
+      at a certain point, extending the incorporation to that
+      point, making the National Government thus far a consolidated
+      Government, and preserving the State governments without that
+      limit perfectly sovereign and independent of the National
+      Government. Had the people of the several States incorporated
+      themselves into one community, they must have remained such,
+      their Constitution becoming then, like the constitution of
+      the several States, incapable of change until altered by the
+      will of the majority. In the institution of a State
+      government by the citizens of a State a compact is formed to
+      which all and every citizen are equal parties. They are also
+      the sole parties and may amend it at pleasure. In the
+      institution of the Government of the United States by the
+      citizens of every State a compact was formed between the
+      whole American people which has the same force and partakes
+      of all the qualities to the extent of its powers as a compact
+      between the citizens of a State in the formation of their own
+      constitution. It can not be altered except by those who
+      formed it or in the mode prescribed by the parties to the
+      compact itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This Constitution was adopted for the purpose of remedying
+      all defects of the Confederation, and in this it has
+      succeeded beyond any calculation that could have been formed
+      of any human institution. By binding the States together the
+      Constitution performs the great office of the Confederation;
+      but it is in that sense only that it has any of the
+      properties of that compact, and in that it is more effectual
+      to the purpose, as it holds them together by a much stronger
+      bond; and in all other respects in which the Confederation
+      failed the Constitution has been blessed with complete
+      success. The Confederation was a compact between separate and
+      independent States, the execution of whose articles in the
+      powers which operated internally depended on the State
+      governments. But the great office of the Constitution, by
+      incorporating the people of the several States to the extent
+      of its powers into one community and enabling it to act
+      directly on the people, was to annul the powers of the State
+      governments to that extent, except in cases where they were
+      concurrent, and to preclude their agency in giving effect to
+      those of the General Government. The Government of the United
+      States relies on its own means for the execution of its
+      powers, as the State governments do for the execution of
+      theirs, both governments having a common origin or sovereign,
+      the people&mdash;the State governments the people of each
+      State, the National Government the people of every
+      State&mdash;and being amenable to the power which created it.
+      It is by executing its functions as a Government thus
+      originating and thus acting that the Constitution of the
+      United States holds the States together and performs the
+      office of a league. It is owing to the nature of its powers
+      and the high source from whence they are derived&mdash;the
+      people&mdash;that it performs that office better than the
+      Confederation or any league which ever existed, being a
+      compact which the State governments did not form, to which
+      they are not parties, and which executes its own powers
+      independently of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were two separate and independent governments
+      established over our Union, one for local purposes over each
+      State by the people of the State, the other for national
+      purposes over all the States by the people of the United
+      States. The whole power of the people, on the representative
+      principle, is divided between them. The State governments are
+      independent of each other, and to the extent of their powers
+      are complete sovereignties. The National Government begins
+      where the State governments terminate, except in some
+      instances where there is a concurrent jurisdiction between
+      them. This Government is also, according to the extent of its
+      powers, a complete sovereignty. I speak here, as repeatedly
+      mentioned before, altogether of representative sovereignties,
+      for the real sovereignty is in the people alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The history of the world affords no such example of two
+      separate and independent governments established over the
+      same people, nor can it exist except in governments founded
+      on the sovereignty of the people. In monarchies and other
+      governments not representative there can be no such division
+      of power. The government is inherent in the possessor; it is
+      his, and can not be taken from him without a revolution. In
+      such governments alliances and leagues alone are practicable.
+      But with us individuals count for nothing in the offices
+      which they hold; that is, they have no right to them. They
+      hold them as representatives, by appointment from the people,
+      in whom the sovereignty is exclusively vested. It is
+      impossible to speak too highly of this system taken in its
+      twofold character and in all its great principles of two
+      governments, completely distinct from and independent of each
+      other, each constitutional, founded by and acting directly on
+      the people, each competent to all its purposes, administering
+      all the blessings for which it was instituted, without even
+      the most remote danger of exercising any of its powers in a
+      way to oppress the people. A system capable of expansion over
+      a vast territory not only without weakening either
+      government, but enjoying the peculiar advantage of adding
+      thereby new strength and vigor to the faculties of both;
+      possessing also this additional advantage, that while the
+      several States enjoy all the rights reserved to them of
+      separate and independent governments, and each is secured by
+      the nature of the Federal Government, which acts directly on
+      the people, against the failure of the others to bear their
+      equal share of the public burdens, and thereby enjoys in a
+      more perfect degree all the advantages of a league, it holds
+      them together by a bond altogether different and much
+      stronger than the late Confederation or any league that was
+      ever known before&mdash;a bond beyond their control, and
+      which can not even be amended except in the mode prescribed
+      by it. So great an effort in favor of human happiness was
+      never made before; but it became those who made it.
+      Established in the new hemisphere, descended from the same
+      ancestors, speaking the same language, having the same
+      religion and universal toleration, born equal and educated in
+      the same principles of free government, made independent by a
+      common struggle and menaced by the same dangers, ties existed
+      between them which never applied before to separate
+      communities. They had every motive to bind them together
+      which could operate on the interests and affections of a
+      generous, enlightened, and virtuous people, and it affords
+      inexpressible consolation to find that these motives had
+      their merited influence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In thus tracing our institutions to their origin and pursuing
+      them in their progress and modifications down to the adoption
+      of this Constitution two important facts have been disclosed,
+      on which it may not be improper in this stage to make a few
+      observations. The first is that in wresting the power, or
+      what is called the sovereignty, from the Crown it passed
+      directly to the people. The second, that it passed directly
+      to the people of each colony and not to the people of all the
+      colonies in the aggregate; to thirteen distinct communities
+      and not to one. To these two facts, each contributing its
+      equal proportion, I am inclined to think that we are in an
+      eminent degree indebted for the success of our Revolution. By
+      passing to the people it vested in a community every
+      individual of which had equal rights and a common interest.
+      There was no family dethroned among us, no banished pretender
+      in a foreign country looking back to his connections and
+      adherents here in the hope of a recall; no order of nobility
+      whose hereditary rights in the Government had been violated;
+      no hierarchy which had been degraded and oppressed. There was
+      but one order, that of the people, by whom everything was
+      gained by the change. I mention it also as a circumstance of
+      peculiar felicity that the great body of the people had been
+      born and educated under these equal and original
+      institutions. Their habits, their principles, and their
+      prejudices were therefore all on the side of the Revolution
+      and of free republican government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had distinct orders existed, our fortune might and probably
+      would have been different. It would scarcely have been
+      possible to have united so completely the whole force of the
+      country against a common enemy. A contest would probably have
+      arisen in the outset between the orders for the control. Had
+      the aristocracy prevailed, the people would have been
+      heartless. Had the people prevailed, the nobility would
+      probably have left the country, or, remaining behind,
+      internal divisions would have taken place in every State and
+      a civil war broken out more destructive even than the
+      foreign, which might have defeated the whole movement.
+      Ancient and modern history is replete with examples
+      proceeding from conflicts between distinct orders, of
+      revolutions attempted which proved abortive, of republics
+      which have terminated in despotism. It is owing to the
+      simplicity of the elements of which our system is composed
+      that the attraction of all the parts has been to a common
+      center, that every change has tended to cement the union,
+      and, in short, that we have been blessed with such glorious
+      and happy success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And that the power wrested from the British Crown passed to
+      the people of each colony the whole history of our political
+      movement from the emigration of our ancestors to the present
+      day clearly demonstrates. What produced the Revolution? The
+      violation of our rights. What rights? Our chartered rights.
+      To whom were the charters granted, to the people of each
+      colony or to the people of all the colonies as a single
+      community? We know that no such community as the aggregate
+      existed, and of course that no such rights could be violated.
+      It may be added that the nature of the powers which were
+      given to the delegates by each colony and the manner in which
+      they were executed show that the sovereignty was in the
+      people of each and not in the aggregate. They respectively
+      presented credentials such as are usual between ministers of
+      separate powers, which were examined and approved before they
+      entered on the discharge of the important duties committed to
+      them. They voted also by colonies and not individually, all
+      the members from one colony being entitled to one vote only.
+      This fact alone, the first of our political association and
+      at the period of our greatest peril, fixes beyond all
+      controversy the source from whence the power which has
+      directed and secured success to all our measures has
+      proceeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had the sovereignty passed to the aggregate, consequences
+      might have ensued, admitting the success of our Revolution,
+      which might even yet seriously affect our system. By passing
+      to the people of each colony the opposition to Great Britain,
+      the prosecution of the war, the Declaration of Independence,
+      the adoption of the Confederation and of this Constitution
+      are all imputable to them. Had it passed to the aggregate,
+      every measure would be traced to that source; even the State
+      governments might be said to have emanated from it, and
+      amendments of their constitutions on that principle be
+      proposed by the same authority. In short it is not easy to
+      perceive all the consequences into which such a doctrine
+      might lead. It is obvious that the people in mass would have
+      had much less agency in all the great measures of the
+      Revolution and in those which followed than they actually
+      had, and proportionably less credit for their patriotism and
+      services than they are now entitled to and enjoy. By passing
+      to the people of each colony the whole body in each were kept
+      in constant and active deliberation on subjects of the
+      highest national importance and in the supervision of the
+      conduct of all the public servants in the discharge of their
+      respective duties. Thus the most effectual guards were
+      provided against abuses and dangers of every kind which human
+      ingenuity could devise, and the whole people rendered more
+      competent to the self-government which by an heroic exertion
+      they had acquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will now proceed to examine the powers of the General
+      Government, which, like the governments of the several
+      States, is divided into three branches&mdash;a legislative,
+      executive, and judiciary&mdash;each having its appropriate
+      share. Of these the legislative, from the nature of its
+      powers, all laws proceeding from it, and the manner of its
+      appointment, its members being elected immediately by the
+      people, is by far the most important. The whole system of the
+      National Government may be said to rest essentially on the
+      powers granted to this branch. They mark the limit within
+      which, with few exceptions, all the branches must move in the
+      discharge of their respective functions. It will be proper,
+      therefore, to take a full and correct view of the powers
+      granted to it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the eighth section of the first article of the
+      Constitution it is declared that Congress shall have
+      power&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and
+      excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense
+      and general welfare of the United States;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Second. To borrow money;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Third. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among
+      the several States, and with the Indian tribes;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fourth. To establish an uniform rule of naturalization and
+      uniform laws respecting bankruptcies;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fifth. To coin money, regulate the value thereof and of
+      foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sixth. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the
+      securities and current coin of the United States;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Seventh. To establish post offices and post-roads;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eighth. To promote the progress of science and useful arts by
+      securing for limited times to authors and inventors the
+      exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ninth. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court,
+      to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the
+      high seas, and offenses against the laws of nations;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tenth. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal,
+      and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eleventh. To raise and support armies;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Twelfth. To provide and maintain a navy;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thirteenth. To make rules for the government of the land and
+      naval forces;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fourteenth. To provide for calling forth the militia to
+      execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and
+      repel invasions;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fifteenth. To provide for organizing, arming, and
+      disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them
+      as may be in the service of the United States, reserving to
+      the States the appointment of the officers and the authority
+      of training the militia according to the discipline
+      prescribed by Congress;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sixteenth. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases
+      whatever over such district (not exceeding 10 miles square)
+      as may, by the cession of particular States and the
+      acceptance of by Congress, become the seat of Government of
+      the United States; and to exercise like authority over all
+      places purchased, by the consent of the legislature of the
+      State in which the same may be, for the erection of forts,
+      magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Seventeenth. And to make all laws which shall be necessary
+      and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers,
+      and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the
+      Government of the United States or in any department or
+      officer thereof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the other branches of the Government the powers properly
+      belonging to each are granted. The President, in whom the
+      executive power is vested, is made commander in chief of the
+      Army and Navy, and militia when called into the service of
+      the United States. He is authorized, with the advice and
+      consent of the Senate, two-thirds of the members present
+      concurring, to form treaties, to nominate and, with the
+      advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint ambassadors,
+      other public ministers, and consuls, judges of the Supreme
+      Court, and all other officers whose appointments are not
+      otherwise provided for by law. He has power to grant
+      reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States,
+      except in cases of impeachment. It is made his duty to give
+      to Congress from time to time information of the state of the
+      Union, to recommend to their consideration such measures as
+      he may judge necessary and expedient, to convene both Houses
+      on extraordinary occasions, to receive ambassadors, and to
+      take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The judicial power is vested in one Supreme Court and in such
+      inferior courts as Congress may establish; and it is made to
+      extend to all cases in law and equity arising under the
+      Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties
+      made under their authority. Cases affecting ambassadors and
+      other public characters, cases of admiralty and maritime
+      jurisdiction, causes in which the United States are a party,
+      between two or more States, between citizens of different
+      States, between citizens of the same State claiming grants of
+      land under different States, between a State or the citizens
+      thereof and foreign States, are specially assigned to these
+      tribunals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Other powers have been granted in other parts of the
+      Constitution which, although they relate to specific objects,
+      unconnected with the ordinary administration, yet, as they
+      form important features in the Government and may shed useful
+      light on the construction which ought to be given to the
+      powers above enumerated, it is proper to bring into view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By Article I, section 9, clause 1, it is provided that the
+      migration or importation of such persons as any of the States
+      now existing shall think proper to admit shall not be
+      prohibited by Congress prior to the year 1808, but a tax or
+      duty may be imposed on such importation not exceeding $10 for
+      each person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By Article III, section 3, clause 1, new States may be
+      admitted by Congress into the Union, but that no new State
+      shall be formed within the jurisdiction of another State, nor
+      any State be formed by the junction of two or more States or
+      parts of States without the consent of the legislature of the
+      States concerned as well as of the United States. And by the
+      next clause of the same article and section power is vested
+      in Congress to dispose of and make all needful rules and
+      regulations respecting the territory or other property
+      belonging to the United. States, with a proviso that nothing
+      in the Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any
+      claims of the United States or of any particular State.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By Article IV, section 4, the United States guarantee to
+      every State a republican form of government and engage to
+      protect each of them against invasion; and on application of
+      the legislature, or of the executive when the legislature can
+      not be convened, against domestic violence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the other parts of the Constitution relating to power,
+      some form restraints on the exercise of the powers granted to
+      Congress and others on the exercise of the powers remaining
+      to the States. The object in both instances is to draw more
+      completely the line between the two governments and also to
+      prevent abuses by either. Other parts operate like
+      conventional stipulations between the States, abolishing
+      between them all distinctions applicable to foreign powers
+      and securing to the inhabitants of each State all the rights
+      and immunities of citizens in the several States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the fifth article it is provided that Congress, whenever
+      two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall
+      propose amendments, or, on the application of the
+      legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call
+      a convention for proposing amendments, which in either case
+      shall be valid as a part of the Constitution when ratified by
+      the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or
+      by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the
+      other mode may be proposed by Congress: <i>Provided</i>, That
+      no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal
+      vote in the Senate, and that no amendment which may be made
+      prior to the year 1808 shall affect the first and fourth
+      clauses in the ninth section of the first article.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the second section of the sixth article it is declared
+      that the Constitution, and laws of the United States which
+      shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made
+      under the authority of the United States, shall be the
+      supreme law of the land, and that the judges in every State
+      shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws
+      of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. This right in
+      the National Government to execute its powers was
+      indispensable to its existence. If the State governments had
+      not been restrained from encroaching on the powers vested in
+      the National Government, the Constitution, like the
+      Confederation, would soon have been set at naught; and it was
+      not within the limit of the human mind to devise any plan for
+      the accomplishment of the object other than by making a
+      national constitution which should be to the extent of its
+      powers the supreme law of the land. This right in the
+      National Government would have existed under the Constitution
+      to the full extent provided for by this declaration had it
+      not been made. To prevent the possibility of a doubt,
+      however, on so important a subject it was proper to make the
+      declaration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having presented above a full view of all the powers granted
+      to the United States, it will be proper to look to those
+      remaining to the States. It is by fixing the great powers
+      which are admitted to belong to each government that we may
+      hope to come to a right conclusion respecting those in
+      controversy between them. In regard to the National
+      Government, this task was easy because its powers were to be
+      found in specific grants in the Constitution; but it is more
+      difficult to give a detail of the powers of the State
+      governments, as their constitutions, containing all powers
+      granted by the people not specifically taken from them by
+      grants to the United States, can not well be enumerated.
+      Fortunately, a precise detail of all the powers remaining to
+      the State governments is not necessary in the present
+      instance. A knowledge of their great powers only will answer
+      every purpose contemplated, and respecting these there can be
+      no diversity in opinion. They are sufficiently recognized and
+      established by the Constitution of the United States itself.
+      In designating the important powers of the State governments
+      it is proper to observe, first, that the territory
+      contemplated by the Constitution belongs to each State in its
+      separate character and not to the United States in their
+      aggregate character. Bach State holds territory according to
+      its original charter, except in cases where cessions have
+      been made to the United States by individual States. The
+      United States had none when the Constitution was adopted
+      which had not been thus ceded to them and which they held on
+      the conditions on which such cession had been made. Within
+      the individual States it is believed that they held not a
+      single acre; but if they did it was as citizens held it,
+      merely as private property. The territory acquired by cession
+      lying without the individual States rests on a different
+      principle, and is provided for by a separate and distinct
+      part of the Constitution. It is the territory within the
+      individual States to which the Constitution in its great
+      principles applies, and it applies to such territory as the
+      territory of a State and not as that of the United States.
+      The next circumstance to be attended to is that the people
+      composing this Union are the people of the several States,
+      and not of the United States in the full sense of a
+      consolidated government. The militia are the militia of the
+      several States; lands are held under the laws of the States;
+      descents, contracts, and all the concerns of private
+      property, the administration of justice, and the whole
+      criminal code, except in the cases of breaches of the laws of
+      the United States made under and in conformity with the
+      powers vested in Congress and of the laws of nations, are
+      regulated by State laws. This enumeration shows the great
+      extent of the powers of the State governments. The territory
+      and the people form the basis on which all governments are
+      founded. The militia constitutes their effective force. The
+      regulation and protection of property and of personal liberty
+      are also among the highest attributes of sovereignty. This,
+      without other evidence, is sufficient to show that the great
+      office of the Constitution of the United States is to unite
+      the States together under a Government endowed with powers
+      adequate to the purposes of its institution, relating,
+      directly or indirectly, to foreign concerns, to the discharge
+      of which a National Government thus formed alone could be
+      competent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This view of the exclusive jurisdiction of the several States
+      over the territory within their respective limits, except in
+      cases otherwise specially provided for, is supported by the
+      obvious intent of the several powers granted to Congress, to
+      which a more particular attention is now due. Of these the
+      right to declare war is perhaps the most important, as well
+      by the consequences attending war as by the other powers
+      granted in aid of it. The right to lay taxes, duties,
+      imposts, and excises, though necessary for the support of the
+      civil government, is equally necessary to sustain the charges
+      of war; the right to raise and support armies and a navy and
+      to call forth and govern the militia when in the service of
+      the United States are altogether of the latter kind. They are
+      granted in aid of the power to make war and intended to give
+      effect to it. These several powers are of great force and
+      extent, and operate more directly within the limits and upon
+      the resources of the States than any of the other powers. But
+      still they are means only for given ends. War is declared and
+      must be maintained, an army and a navy must be raised,
+      fortifications must be erected for the common defense, debts
+      must be paid, For these purposes duties, imposts, and excises
+      are levied, taxes are laid, the lands, merchandise, and other
+      property of the citizens are liable for them; if the money is
+      not paid, seizures are made and the lands are sold. The
+      transaction is terminated; the lands pass into other hands,
+      who hold them, as the former proprietors did, under the laws
+      of the individual States. They were means only to certain
+      ends; the United States have nothing further to do with them.
+      The same view is applicable to the power of the General
+      Government over persons. The militia is called into the
+      service of the United States; the service is performed; the
+      corps returns to the State to which it belongs; it is the
+      militia of such State, and not of the United States. Soldiers
+      are required for the Army, who may be obtained by voluntary
+      enlistment or by some other process founded in the principles
+      of equality. In either case the citizen after the tour of
+      duty is performed is restored to his former station in
+      society, with his equal share in the common sovereignty of
+      the nation. In all these cases, which are the strongest which
+      can be given, we see that the right of the General Government
+      is nothing more than what it is called in the Constitution, a
+      power to perform certain acts, and that the subject on which
+      it operates is a means only to that end; that it was both
+      before and after that act under the protection and subject to
+      the laws of the individual State within which it was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the other powers of the General Government the same
+      remarks are applicable and with greater force. The right to
+      regulate commerce with foreign powers was necessary as well
+      to enable Congress to lay and collect duties and imposts as
+      to support the rights of the nation in the intercourse with
+      foreign powers. It is executed at the ports of the several
+      States and operates almost altogether externally. The right
+      to borrow and coin money and to fix its value and that of
+      foreign coin are important to the establishment of a National
+      Government, and particularly necessary in support of the
+      right to declare war, as, indeed, may be considered the right
+      to punish piracy and felonies on the high seas and offenses
+      against the laws of nations. The right to establish an
+      uniform rule of naturalization and uniform laws respecting
+      bankruptcies seems to be essentially connected with the right
+      to regulate commerce. The first branch of it relates to
+      foreigners entering the country; the second to merchants who
+      have failed. The right to promote the progress of useful arts
+      and sciences may be executed without touching any of the
+      individual States. It is accomplished by granting patents to
+      inventors and preserving models, which may be done
+      exclusively within the Federal district. The right to
+      constitute courts inferior to the Supreme Court was a
+      necessary consequence of the judiciary existing as a separate
+      branch of the General Government. Without such inferior court
+      in every State it would be difficult and might even be
+      impossible to carry into effect the laws of the General
+      Government. The right to establish post-offices and
+      post-roads is essentially of the same character. For
+      political, commercial, and social purposes it was important
+      that it should be vested in the General Government. As a mere
+      matter of regulation, and nothing more, I presume, was
+      intended by it, it is a power easily executed and involving
+      little authority within the States individually. The right to
+      exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over
+      the Federal district and over forts, magazines, arsenals,
+      dockyards, and other needful buildings with the consent of
+      the State within which the same may be is a power of a
+      peculiar character, and is sufficient in itself to confirm
+      what has been said of all the other powers of the General
+      Government. Of this particular grant further notice will
+      hereafter be taken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I shall conclude my remarks on this part of the subject by
+      observing that the view which has been presented of the
+      powers and character of the two Governments is supported by
+      the marked difference which is observable in the manner of
+      their endowment. The State governments are divided into three
+      branches&mdash;a legislative, executive, and
+      judiciary&mdash;and the appropriate duties of each assigned
+      to it without any limitation of power except such as
+      is-necessary to guard against abuse, in the form of bills of
+      right. But in instituting the National Government an entirely
+      different principle was adopted and pursued. The Government
+      itself is organized, like the State governments, into three
+      branches, but its powers are enumerated and defined in the
+      most precise form. The subject has already been too fully
+      explained to require illustration by a general view of the
+      whole Constitution, every part of which affords proof of what
+      is here advanced. It will be sufficient to advert to the
+      eighth section of the first article, being that more
+      particularly which defines the powers and fixes the character
+      of the Government of the United States. By this section it is
+      declared that Congress shall have power, first, to lay and
+      collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having shown the origin of the State governments and their
+      endowments when first formed; having also shown the origin of
+      the National Government and the powers vested in it, and
+      having shown, lastly, the powers which are admitted to have
+      remained to the State governments after those which were
+      taken from them by the National Government, I will now
+      proceed to examine whether the power to adopt and execute a
+      system of internal improvement by roads and canals has been
+      vested in the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before we can determine whether this power has been granted
+      to the General Government it will be necessary to ascertain
+      distinctly the nature and extent of the power requisite to
+      make such improvements. When that is done we shall be able to
+      decide whether such power is vested in the National
+      Government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the power existed it would, it is presumed, be executed by
+      a board of skillful engineers, on a view of the whole Union,
+      on a plan which would secure complete effect to all the great
+      purposes of our Constitution. It is not my intention,
+      however, to take up the subject here on this scale. I shall
+      state a case for the purpose of illustration only. Let it be
+      supposed that Congress intended to run a road from the city
+      of Washington to Baltimore and to connect the Chesapeake Bay
+      with the Delaware and the Delaware with the Raritan by a
+      canal, what must be done to carry the project into effect? I
+      make here no question of the existing power. I speak only of
+      the power necessary for the purpose. Commissioners would be
+      appointed to trace a route in the most direct line, paying
+      due regard to heights, water courses, and other obstacles,
+      and to acquire the right to the ground over which the road
+      and canal would pass, with sufficient breadth for each. This
+      must be done by voluntary grants, or by purchases from
+      individuals, or, in case they would not sell or should ask an
+      exorbitant price, by condemning the property and fixing its
+      value by a jury of the vicinage. The next object to be
+      attended to after the road and canal are laid out and made is
+      to keep them in repair. We know that there are people in
+      every community capable of committing voluntary injuries, of
+      pulling down walls that are made to sustain the road, of
+      breaking the bridges over water courses, and breaking the
+      road itself. Some living near it might be disappointed that
+      it did not pass through their lands and commit these acts of
+      violence and waste from revenge or in the hope of giving it
+      that direction, though for a short time. Injuries of this
+      kind have been committed and are still complained of on the
+      road from Cumberland to the Ohio. To accomplish this object
+      Congress should have a right to pass laws to punish offenders
+      wherever they may be found. Jurisdiction over the road would
+      not be sufficient, though it were exclusive. It would seldom
+      happen that the parties would be detected in the act. They
+      would generally commit it in the night and fly far off before
+      the sun appeared. The power to punish these culprits must
+      therefore reach them wherever they go. They must also be
+      amenable to competent tribunals, Federal or State. The power
+      must likewise extend to another object not less essential or
+      important than those already mentioned. Experience has shown
+      that the establishment of turnpikes, with gates and tolls and
+      persons to collect the tolls, is the best expedient that can
+      be adopted to defray the expense of these improvements and
+      the repairs which they necessarily require. Congress must
+      therefore have power to make such an establishment and to
+      support it by such regulations, with fines and penalties in
+      the case of injuries, as may be competent to the purpose. The
+      right must extend to all those objects, or it will be utterly
+      incompetent. It is possessed and exercised by the States
+      individually, and it must be possessed by the United States
+      or the pretension must be abandoned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let it be further supposed that Congress, believing that they
+      do possess the power, have passed an act for those purposes,
+      under which commissioners have been appointed, who have begun
+      the work. They are met at the first farm on which they enter
+      by the owner, who forbids them to trespass on his land. They
+      offer to buy it at a fair price or at twice or thrice its
+      value. He persists in his refusal. Can they, on the principle
+      recognized and acted on by all the State governments that in
+      cases of this kind the obstinacy and perverseness of an
+      individual must yield to the public welfare, summon a jury of
+      upright and discreet men to condemn the land, value it, and
+      compel the owner to receive the amount and to deliver it up
+      to them? I believe that very few would concur in the opinion
+      that such a power exists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next object is to preserve these improvements from
+      injury. The locks of the canal are broken, the walls which
+      sustained the road are pulled down, the bridges are broken,
+      the road itself is plowed up, toll is refused to be paid, the
+      gates of the canal or turnpike are forced. The offenders are
+      pursued, caught, and brought to trial. Can they be punished?
+      The question of right must be decided on principle. The
+      culprits will avail themselves of every barrier that may
+      serve to screen them from punishment. They will plead that
+      the law under which they stand arraigned is unconstitutional,
+      and that question must be decided by the court, whether
+      Federal or State, on a fair investigation of the powers
+      vested in the General Government by the Constitution. If the
+      judges find that these powers have not been granted to
+      Congress, the prisoners must be acquitted, and by their
+      acquittal all claim to the right to establish such a system
+      is at an end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have supposed an opposition to be made to the right in
+      Congress by the owner of the land and other individuals
+      charged with breaches of laws made to protect the works from
+      injury, because it is the mildest form in which it can
+      present itself. It is not, however, the only one. A State,
+      also, may contest the right, and then the controversy assumes
+      another character. Government might contend against
+      government, for to a certain extent both the Governments are
+      sovereign and independent of each other, and in that form it
+      is possible, though not probable, that opposition might be
+      made. To each limitations are prescribed, and should a
+      contest rise between them respecting their rights and the
+      people sustain it with anything like an equal division of
+      numbers the worst consequences might ensue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be urged that the opposition suggested by the owner of
+      the land or by the States individually may be avoided by a
+      satisfactory arrangement with the parties. But a suppression
+      of opposition in that way is no proof of a right in Congress,
+      nor could it, if confined to that limit, remove all the
+      impediments to the exercise of the power. It is not
+      sufficient that Congress may by the command and application
+      of the public revenue purchase the soil, and thus silence
+      that class of individuals, or by the accommodation afforded
+      to individual States put down opposition on their part.
+      Congress must be able rightfully to control all opposition or
+      they can not carry the system into effect. Cases would
+      inevitably occur to put the right to the test. The work must
+      be preserved from injury, tolls must be collected, offenders
+      must be punished. With these culprits no bargain can be made.
+      When brought to trial they must deny the validity of the law,
+      and that plea being sustained all claim to the right ceases.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the United States possess this power, it must be either
+      because it has been specifically granted or that it is
+      incidental and necessary to carry into effect some specific
+      grant. The advocates for the power derive it from the
+      following sources: First, the right to establish post-offices
+      and post-roads; second, to declare war; third, to regulate
+      commerce among the several States; fourth, from the power to
+      pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general
+      welfare of the United States; fifth, from the power to make
+      all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution all
+      the powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of
+      the United States or in any department or officer thereof;
+      sixth and lastly, from the power to dispose of and make all
+      needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and
+      other property of the United States. It is to be observed
+      that there is but little accord among the advocates for this
+      power as to the particular source from whence it is derived.
+      They all agree, however, in ascribing it to some one or more
+      of those above mentioned. I will examine the ground of the
+      claim in each instance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first of these grants is in the following words:
+      "Congress shall have power to establish post-offices and
+      post-roads." What is the just import of these words and the
+      extent of the grant? The word "establish" is the ruling term;
+      "post-offices and post-roads" are the subjects on which it
+      acts. The question therefore is, What power is granted by
+      that word? The sense in which words are commonly used is that
+      in which they are to be understood in all transactions
+      between public bodies and individuals. The intention of the
+      parties is to prevail, and there is no better way of
+      ascertaining it than by giving to the terms used their
+      ordinary import. If we were to ask any number of our most
+      enlightened citizens, who had no connection with public
+      affairs and whose minds were unprejudiced, what was the
+      import of the word "establish" and the extent of the grant
+      which it controls, we do not think there would be any
+      difference of opinion among them. We are satisfied that all
+      of them would answer that a power was thereby given to
+      Congress to fix on the towns, court-houses, and other places
+      throughout our Union at which there should be post-offices,
+      the routes by which the mails should be carried from one
+      post-office to another, so as to diffuse intelligence as
+      extensively and to make the institution as useful as
+      possible, to fix the postage to be paid on every letter and
+      packet thus carried, to support the establishment, and to
+      protect the post-office and mails from robbery by punishing
+      those who should commit the offense. The idea of a right to
+      lay off the roads of the United States on a general scale of
+      improvement, to take the soil from the proprietor by force,
+      to establish turnpikes and tolls, and to punish offenders in
+      the manner stated above would never occur to any such person.
+      The use of the existing road by the stage, mail carrier, or
+      postboy in passing over it as others do is all that would be
+      thought of, the jurisdiction and soil remaining to the State,
+      with a right in the State or those authorized by its
+      legislature to change the road at pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The intention of the parties is supported by other proof,
+      which ought to place it beyond all doubt. In the former act
+      of Government, the Confederation, we find a grant for the
+      same purpose expressed in the following words: "The United
+      States in Congress assembled shall have the sole and
+      exclusive right and power of establishing and regulating
+      post-offices from one State to another throughout all the
+      United States, and exacting such postage on the papers
+      passing through the same as may be requisite to defray the
+      expenses of the said office." The term "establish" was
+      likewise the ruling one in that instrument, and was evidently
+      intended and understood to give a power simply and solely to
+      fix where there should be post-offices. By transferring this
+      term from the Confederation into the Constitution it was
+      doubtless intended that it should be understood in the same
+      sense in the latter that it was in the former instrument, and
+      to be applied alike to post-offices and post-roads. In
+      whatever sense it is applied to post-offices it must be
+      applied in the same sense to post-roads. But it may be asked,
+      If such was the intention, why were not all the other terms
+      of the grant transferred with it? The reason is obvious. The
+      Confederation being a bond of union between independent
+      States, it was necessary in granting the powers which were to
+      be exercised over them to be very explicit and minute in
+      defining the powers granted. But the Constitution to the
+      extent of its powers having incorporated the States into one
+      Government like the government of the States individually,
+      fewer words in defining the powers granted by it were not
+      only adequate, but perhaps better adapted to the purpose. We
+      find that brevity is a characteristic of the instrument. Had
+      it been intended to convey a more enlarged power in the
+      Constitution than had been granted in the Confederation,
+      surely the same controlling term would not have been used, or
+      other words would have been added, to show such intention and
+      to mark the extent to which the power should be carried. It
+      is a liberal construction of the powers granted in the
+      Constitution by this term to include in it all the powers
+      that were granted in the Confederation by terms which
+      specifically defined and, as was supposed, extended their
+      limits. It would be absurd to say that by omitting from the
+      Constitution any portion of the phraseology which was deemed
+      important in the Confederation the import of that term was
+      enlarged, and with it the powers of the Constitution, in a
+      proportional degree, beyond what they were in the
+      Confederation. The right to exact postage and to protect the
+      post-offices and mails from robbery by punishing the
+      offenders may fairly be considered as incidents to the grant,
+      since without it the object of the grant might be defeated.
+      Whatever is absolutely necessary to the accomplishment of the
+      object of the grant, though not specified, may fairly be
+      considered as included in it. Beyond this the doctrine of
+      incidental power can not be carried.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If we go back to the origin of our settlements and
+      institutions and trace their progress down to the Revolution,
+      we shall see that it was in this sense, and in none other,
+      that the power was exercised by all our colonial governments.
+      Post-offices were made for the country, and not the country
+      for them. They are the offspring of improvement; they never
+      go before it. Settlements are first made, after which the
+      progress is uniform and simple, extending to objects in
+      regular order most necessary to the comfort of
+      man&mdash;schools, places of public worship, court-houses,
+      and markets; post-offices follow. Roads may, indeed, be said
+      to be coeval with settlements; they lead to all the places
+      mentioned, and to every other which the various and
+      complicated interests of society require.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is believed that not one example can be given, from the
+      first settlement of our country to the adoption of this
+      Constitution, of a post-office being established without a
+      view to existing roads or of a single road having been made
+      by pavement, turnpike, etc., for the sole purpose of
+      accommodating a post-office. Such, too, is the uniform
+      progress of all societies. In granting, then, this power to
+      the United States it was undoubtedly intended by the framers
+      and ratifiers of the Constitution to convey it in the sense
+      and extent only in which it had been understood and exercised
+      by the previous authorities of the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This conclusion is confirmed by the object of the grant and
+      the manner of its execution. The object is the transportation
+      of the mail throughout the United States, which may be done
+      on horseback, and was so done until lately, since the
+      establishment of stages. Between the great towns and in other
+      places where the population is dense stages are preferred
+      because they afford an additional opportunity to make a
+      profit from passengers; but where the population is sparse
+      and on crossroads it is generally carried on horseback.
+      Unconnected with passengers and other objects, it can not be
+      doubted that the mail itself may be carried in every part of
+      our Union with nearly as much economy and greater dispatch on
+      horseback than in a stage, and in many parts with much
+      greater. In every part of the Union in which stages can be
+      preferred the roads are sufficiently good provided those
+      which serve for every other purpose will accommodate them. In
+      every other part where horses alone are used if other people
+      pass them on horseback surely the mail carrier can. For an
+      object so simple and so easy in its execution it would
+      doubtless excite surprise if it should be thought proper to
+      appoint commissioners to lay off the country on a great
+      scheme of improvement, with the power to shorten distances,
+      reduce heights, level mountains, and pave surfaces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the United States possessed the power contended for under
+      this grant, might they not in adopting the roads of the
+      individual States for the carriage of the mail, as has been
+      done, assume jurisdiction over them and preclude a right to
+      interfere with or alter them? Might they not establish
+      turnpikes and exercise all the other acts of sovereignty
+      above stated over such roads necessary to protect them from
+      injury and defray the expense of repairing them? Surely if
+      the right exists these consequences necessarily followed as
+      soon as the road was established. The absurdity of such a
+      pretension must be apparent to all who examine it. In this
+      way a large portion of the territory of every State might be
+      taken from it, for there is scarcely a road in any State
+      which will not be used for the transportation of the mail. A
+      new field for legislation and internal government would thus
+      be opened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this view of the subject I think we may fairly conclude
+      that the right to adopt and execute a system of internal
+      improvement, or any part of it, has not been granted to
+      Congress under the power to establish post-offices and
+      post-roads; that the common roads of the country only were
+      contemplated by that grant and are fully competent to all its
+      purposes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next object of inquiry is whether the right to declare
+      war includes the right to adopt and execute this system of
+      improvement. The objections to it are, I presume, not less
+      conclusive than those which are applicable to the grant which
+      we have just examined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the last-mentioned grant a claim has been set up to as
+      much of that system as relates to roads. Under this it
+      extends alike to roads and canals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We must examine this grant by the same rules of construction
+      that were applied to the preceding one. The object was to
+      take this power from the individual States and to vest it in
+      the General Government. This has been done in clear and
+      explicit terms, first by granting the power to Congress, and
+      secondly by prohibiting the exercise of it by the States.
+      "Congress shall have a right to declare war." This is the
+      language of the grant. If the right to adopt and execute this
+      system of improvement is included in it, it must be by way of
+      incident only, since there is nothing in the grant itself
+      which bears any relation to roads and canals. The following
+      considerations, it is presumed, prove incontestably that this
+      power has not been granted in that or any other manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The United States are exposed to invasion through the whole
+      extent of their Atlantic coast by any European power with
+      whom we might be engaged in war&mdash;on the northern and
+      northwestern frontier on the side of Canada by Great Britain,
+      and on the southern by Spain or any power in alliance with
+      her. If internal improvements are to be carried to the full
+      extent to which they may be useful for military purposes, the
+      power as it exists must apply to all the roads of the Union,
+      there being no limitation to it. Wherever such improvements
+      may facilitate the march of troops, the transportation of
+      cannon, or otherwise aid the operations or mitigate the
+      calamities of war along the coast or in any part of the
+      interior they would be useful for military purposes, and
+      might therefore be made. The power following as an incident
+      to another power can be measured as to its extent by
+      reference only to the obvious extent of the power to which it
+      is incidental. So great a scope was, it is believed, never
+      given to incidental power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If it had been intended that the right to declare war should
+      include all the powers necessary to maintain war, it would
+      follow that nothing would have been done to impair the right
+      or to restrain Congress from the exercise of any power which
+      the exigencies of war might require. The nature and extent of
+      this exigency would mark the extent of the power granted,
+      which should always be construed liberally, so as to be
+      adequate to the end. A right to raise money by taxes, duties,
+      excises, and by loan, to raise and support armies and a navy,
+      to provide for calling forth, arming, disciplining, and
+      governing the militia when in the service of the United
+      States, establishing fortifications and governing the troops
+      stationed in them independently of the State authorities, and
+      to perform many other acts is indispensable to the
+      maintenance of war&mdash;no war with any great power can be
+      prosecuted with success without the command of the resources
+      of the Union in all these respects. These powers, then, would
+      of necessity and by common consent have fallen within the
+      right to declare war had it been intended to convey by way of
+      incident to that right the necessary powers to maintain war.
+      But these powers have all been granted specifically with many
+      others, in great detail, which experience had shown were
+      necessary for the purposes of war. By specifically granting,
+      then, these powers it is manifest that every power was thus
+      granted which it was intended to grant for military purposes,
+      and that it was also intended that no important power should
+      be included in this grant by way of incident, however useful
+      it might be for some of the purposes of the grant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the sixteenth of the enumerated powers, Article I, section
+      8, Congress are authorized to exercise exclusive legislation
+      in all cases whatever over such district as may by cession of
+      particular States and the acceptance of Congress, not
+      exceeding 10 miles square, become the seat of the Government
+      of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all
+      places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the
+      State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts,
+      magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other useful buildings.
+      If any doubt existed on a view of other parts of the
+      Constitution respecting the decision which ought to be formed
+      on the question under consideration, I should suppose that
+      this clause would completely remove it. It has been shown
+      after the most liberal construction of all the enumerated
+      powers of the General Government that the territory within
+      the limits of the respective States belonged to them; that
+      the United States had no right under the powers granted to
+      them, with the exception specified in this grant, to any the
+      smallest portion of territory within a State, all those
+      powers operating on a different principle and having their
+      full effect without impairing in the slightest degree this
+      right in the States; that those powers were in every instance
+      means to ends, which being accomplished left the
+      subject&mdash;that is, the property, in which light only land
+      could be regarded&mdash;where it was before, under the
+      jurisdiction and subject to the laws of the State
+      governments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second number of the clause, which is applicable to
+      military and naval purposes alone, claims particular
+      attention here. It fully confirms the view taken of the other
+      enumerated powers, for had it been intended to include in the
+      right to declare war, by way of incident, any right of
+      jurisdiction or legislation over territory within a State, it
+      would have been done as to fortifications, magazines,
+      arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings. By
+      specifically granting the right as to such small portions of
+      territory as might be necessary for these purposes and on
+      certain conditions, minutely and well defined, it is manifest
+      that it was not intended to grant it as to any other portion
+      on any condition for any purpose or in any manner whatsoever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be said that although the authority to exercise
+      exclusive legislation in certain cases within the States with
+      their consent may be considered as a prohibition to Congress
+      to exercise like exclusive legislation in any other case,
+      although their consent should be granted, it does not
+      prohibit the exercise of such jurisdiction or power within a
+      State as would be competent to all the purposes of internal
+      improvement. I can conceive no ground on which the idea of
+      such a power over any part of the territory of a State can be
+      inferred from the power to declare war. There never can be an
+      occasion for jurisdiction for military purposes except in
+      fortifications, dockyards, and the like places. If the
+      soldiers are in the field or are quartered in garrisons
+      without the fortifications, the civil authority must prevail
+      where they are. The government of the troops by martial law
+      is not affected by it. In war, when the forces are increased
+      and the movement is on a greater scale, consequences follow
+      which are inseparable from the exigencies of the state. More
+      freedom of action and a wider range of power in the military
+      commanders, to be exercised on their own responsibility, may
+      be necessary to the public safety; but even here the civil
+      authority of the State never ceases to operate. It is also
+      exclusive for all civil purposes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether any power short of that stated would be adequate to
+      the purposes of internal improvement is denied. In the case
+      of territory one government must prevail for all the purposes
+      intended by the grant. The jurisdiction of the United States
+      might be modified in such manner as to admit that of the
+      State in all cases and for all purposes not necessary to the
+      execution of the proposed power; but the right of the General
+      Government must be complete for all the purposes above
+      stated. It must extend to the seizure and condemnation of the
+      property, if necessary; to the punishment of offenders for
+      injuries to the roads and canals; to the establishment and
+      enforcement of tolls, etc. It must be a complete right to the
+      extent above stated or it will be of no avail. That right
+      does not exist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reasons which operate in favor of the right of exclusive
+      legislation in forts, dockyards, etc., do not apply to any
+      other places. The safety of such works and of the cities
+      which they are intended to defend, and even of whole
+      communities, may sometimes depend on it. If spies are
+      admitted within them in time of war, they might communicate
+      intelligence to the enemy which might be fatal. All nations
+      surround such works with high walls and keep their gates
+      shut. Even here, however, three important conditions are
+      indispensable to such exclusive legislation: First, the
+      ground must be requisite for and be applied to those
+      purposes; second, it must be purchased; third, it must be
+      purchased by the consent of the State in which it may be.
+      When we find that so much care has been taken to protect the
+      sovereignty of the States over the territory within their
+      respective limits, admitting that of the United States over
+      such small portions and for such special and important
+      purposes only, the conclusion is irresistible not only that
+      the power necessary for internal improvements has not been
+      granted, but that it has been clearly prohibited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I come next to the right to regulate commerce, the third
+      source from whence the right to make internal improvements is
+      claimed. It is expressed in the following words: "Congress
+      shall have power to regulate commerce with foreign nations
+      and among the several States and with the Indian tribes." The
+      reasoning applicable to the preceding claims is equally so to
+      this. The mischief complained of was that this power could
+      not be exercised with advantage by the individual States, and
+      the object was to transfer it to the United States. The sense
+      in which the power was understood and exercised by the States
+      was doubtless that in which it was transferred to the United
+      States. The policy was the same as to three branches of this
+      grant, and it is scarcely possible to separate the two first
+      from each other in any view which may be taken of the
+      subject. The last, relating to the Indian tribes, is of a
+      nature distinct from the others for reasons too well known to
+      require explanation. Commerce between independent powers or
+      communities is universally regulated by duties and imposts.
+      It was so regulated by the States before the adoption of this
+      Constitution equally in respect to each other and to foreign
+      powers. The goods and vessels employed in the trade are the
+      only subjects of regulation. It can act on none other. A
+      power, then, to impose such duties and imposts in regard to
+      foreign nations and to prevent any on the trade between the
+      States was the only power granted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If we recur to the causes which produced the adoption of this
+      Constitution, we shall find that injuries resulting from the
+      regulation of trade by the States respectively and the
+      advantages anticipated from the transfer of the power to
+      Congress were among those which had the most weight. Instead
+      of acting as a nation in regard to foreign powers, the States
+      individually had commenced a system of restraint on each
+      other whereby the interests of foreign powers were promoted
+      at their expense. If one State imposed high duties on the
+      goods or vessels of a foreign power to countervail the
+      regulations of such power, the next adjoining States imposed
+      lighter duties to invite those articles into their ports,
+      that they might be transferred thence into the other States,
+      securing the duties to themselves. This contracted policy in
+      some of the States was soon counteracted by others.
+      Restraints were immediately laid on such commerce by the
+      suffering States, and thus had grown up a state of affairs
+      disorderly and unnatural, the tendency of which was to
+      destroy the Union itself and with it all hope of realizing
+      those blessings which we had anticipated from the glorious
+      Revolution which had been so recently achieved. From this
+      deplorable dilemma, or, rather, certain ruin, we were happily
+      rescued by the adoption of the Constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the first and most important effects of this great
+      Revolution was the complete abolition of this pernicious
+      policy. The States were brought together by the Constitution
+      as to commerce into one community equally in regard to
+      foreign nations and each other. The regulations that were
+      adopted regarded us in both respects as one people. The
+      duties and imposts that were laid on the vessels and
+      merchandise of foreign nations were all uniform throughout
+      the United States, and in the intercourse between the States
+      themselves no duties of any kind were imposed other than
+      between different ports and counties within the same State.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This view is supported by a series of measures, all of a
+      marked character, preceding the adoption of the Constitution.
+      As early as the year 1781 Congress recommended it to the
+      States to vest in the United States a power to levy a duty of
+      5 per cent on all goods imported from foreign countries into
+      the United States for the term of fifteen years. In 1783 this
+      recommendation, with alterations as to the kind of duties and
+      an extension of this term to twenty-five years, was repeated
+      and more earnestly urged. In 1784 it was recommended to the
+      States to authorize Congress to prohibit, under certain
+      modifications, the importation of goods from foreign powers
+      into the United States for fifteen years. In 1785 the
+      consideration of the subject was resumed, and a proposition
+      presented in a new form, with an address to the States,
+      explaining fully the principles on which a grant of the power
+      to regulate trade was deemed indispensable. In 1786 a meeting
+      took place at Annapolis of delegates from several of the
+      States on this subject, and on their report a convention was
+      formed at Philadelphia the ensuing year from all the States,
+      to whose deliberations we are indebted for the present
+      Constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In none of these measures was the subject of internal
+      improvement mentioned or even glanced at. Those of 1784,
+      1785, 1786, and 1787, leading step by step to the adoption of
+      the Constitution, had in view only the obtaining of a power
+      to enable Congress to regulate trade with foreign powers. It
+      is manifest that the regulation of trade with the several
+      States was altogether a secondary object, suggested by and
+      adopted in connection with the other. If the power necessary
+      to this system of improvement is included under either branch
+      of this grant, I should suppose that it was the first rather
+      than the second. The pretension to it, however, under that
+      branch has never been set up. In support of the claim under
+      the second no reason has been assigned which appears to have
+      the least weight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fourth claim is founded on the right of Congress to "pay
+      the debts and provide for the common defense and general
+      welfare" of the United States. This claim has less reason on
+      its side than either of those which we have already examined.
+      The power of which this forms a part is expressed in the
+      following words: "Congress shall have power to lay and
+      collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; to pay the debts
+      and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the
+      United States; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be
+      uniform throughout the United States." That the second part
+      of this grant gives a right to appropriate the public money,
+      and nothing more, is evident from the following
+      considerations: First. If the right of appropriation is not
+      given by this clause, it is not given at all, there being no
+      other grant in the Constitution which gives it directly or
+      which has any bearing on the subject, even by implication,
+      except the two following: First, the prohibition, which is
+      contained in the eleventh of the enumerated powers, not to
+      appropriate money for the support of armies for a longer term
+      than two years; and, second, the declaration of the sixth
+      member or clause of the ninth section of the first article
+      that no money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in
+      consequence of appropriations made by law. Second. This part
+      of the grant has none of the characteristics of a distinct
+      and original power. It is manifestly incidental to the great
+      objects of the first part of the grant, which authorizes
+      Congress to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and
+      excises, a power of vast extent, not granted by the
+      Confederation, the grant of which formed one of the principal
+      inducements to the adoption of this Constitution. If both
+      parts of the grant are taken together (as they must be, for
+      the one follows immediately after the other in the same
+      sentence), it seems to be impossible to give to the latter
+      any other construction than that contended for. Congress
+      shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts,
+      and excises. For what purpose? To pay the debts and provide
+      for the common defense and general welfare of the United
+      States, an arrangement and phraseology which clearly show
+      that the latter part of the clause was intended to enumerate
+      the purposes to which the money thus raised might be
+      appropriated. Third. If this is not the real object and fair
+      construction of the second part of this grant, it follows
+      either that it has no import or operation whatever or one of
+      much greater extent than the first part. This presumption is
+      evidently groundless in both instances. In the first because
+      no part of the Constitution can be considered useless; no
+      sentence or clause in it without a meaning. In the second
+      because such a construction as made the second part of the
+      clause an original grant, embracing the same object with the
+      first, but with much greater power than it, would be in the
+      highest degree absurd. The order generally observed in
+      grants, an order founded in common sense, since it promotes a
+      clear understanding of their import, is to grant the power
+      intended to be conveyed in the most full and explicit manner,
+      and then to explain or qualify it, if explanation or
+      qualification should be necessary. This order has, it is
+      believed, been invariably observed in all the grants
+      contained in the Constitution. In the second because if the
+      clause in question is not construed merely as an authority to
+      appropriate the public money, it must be obvious that it
+      conveys a power of indefinite and unlimited extent; that
+      there would have been no use for the special powers to raise
+      and support armies and a navy, to regulate commerce, to call
+      forth the militia, or even to lay and collect taxes, duties,
+      imposts, and excises. An unqualified power to pay the debts
+      and provide for the common defense and general welfare, as
+      the second part of this clause would be if considered as a
+      distinct and separate grant, would extend to every object in
+      which the public could be interested. A power to provide for
+      the common defense would give to Congress the command of the
+      whole force and of all the resources of the Union; but a
+      right to provide for the general welfare would go much
+      further. It would, in effect, break down all the barriers
+      between the States and the General Government and consolidate
+      the whole under the latter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The powers specifically granted to Congress are what are
+      called the enumerated powers, and are numbered in the order
+      in which they stand, among which that contained in the first
+      clause holds the first place in point of importance. If the
+      power created by the latter part of the clause is considered
+      an original grant, unconnected with and independent of the
+      first, as in that case it must be, then the first part is
+      entirely done away, as are all the other grants in the
+      Constitution, being completely absorbed in the transcendent
+      power granted in the latter part; but if the clause be
+      construed in the sense contended for, then every part has an
+      important meaning and effect; not a line, a word, in it is
+      superfluous. A power to lay and collect taxes, duties,
+      imposts, and excises subjects to the call of Congress every
+      branch of the public revenue, internal and external, and the
+      addition to pay the debts and provide for the common defense
+      and general welfare gives the right of applying the money
+      raised&mdash;that is, of appropriating it to the purposes
+      specified according to a proper construction of the terms.
+      Hence it follows that it is the first part of the clause only
+      which gives a power which affects in any manner the power
+      remaining to the States, as the power to raise money from the
+      people, whether it be by taxes, duties, imposts, or excises,
+      though concurrent in the States as to taxes and excises must
+      necessarily do. But the use or application of the money after
+      it is raised is a power altogether of a different character.
+      It imposes no burden on the people, nor can it act on them in
+      a sense to take power from the States or in any sense in
+      which power can be controverted, or become a question between
+      the two Governments. The application of money raised under a
+      lawful power is a right or grant which may be abused. It may
+      be applied partially among the States, or to improper
+      purposes in our foreign and domestic concerns; but still it
+      is a power not felt in the sense of other power, since the
+      only complaint which any State can make of such partiality
+      and abuse is that some other State or States have obtained
+      greater benefit from the application than by a just rule of
+      apportionment they were entitled to. The right of
+      appropriation is therefore from its nature secondary and
+      incidental to the right of raising money, and it was proper
+      to place it in the same grant and same clause with that
+      right. By rinding them, then, in that order we see a new
+      proof of the sense in which the grant was made, corresponding
+      with the view herein taken of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last part of this grant, which provides that all duties,
+      imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United
+      States, furnishes another strong proof that it was not
+      intended that the second part should constitute a distinct
+      grant in the sense above stated, or convey any other right
+      than that of appropriation. This provision operates
+      exclusively on the power granted in the first part of the
+      clause. It recites three branches of that power&mdash;duties,
+      imposts, and excises&mdash;those only on which it could
+      operate, the rule by which the fourth&mdash;that is,
+      taxes&mdash;should be laid being already provided for in
+      another part of the Constitution. The object of this
+      provision is to secure a just equality among the States in
+      the exercise of that power by Congress. By placing it after
+      both the grants&mdash;that is, after that to raise and that
+      to appropriate the public money&mdash;and making it apply to
+      the first only it shows that it was not intended that the
+      power granted in the second should be paramount to and
+      destroy that granted in the first. It shows also that no such
+      formidable power as that suggested had been granted in the
+      second, or any power against the abuse of which it was
+      thought necessary specially to provide. Surely if it was
+      deemed proper to guard a specific power of limited extent and
+      well-known import against injustice and abuse, it would have
+      been much more so to have guarded against the abuse of a
+      power of such vast extent and so indefinite as would have
+      been granted by the second part of the clause if considered
+      as a distinct and original grant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With this construction all the other enumerated grants, and,
+      indeed, all the grants of power contained in the
+      Constitution, have their full operation and effect. They all
+      stand well together, fulfilling the great purposes intended
+      by them. Under it we behold a great scheme, consistent in all
+      its parts, a Government instituted for national purposes,
+      vested with adequate powers for those purposes, commencing
+      with the most important of all, that of the revenue, and
+      proceeding in regular order to the others with which it was
+      deemed proper to endow it, all, too, drawn with the utmost
+      circumspection and care. How much more consistent is this
+      construction with the great objects of the institution and
+      with the high character of the enlightened and patriotic
+      citizens who framed it, as well as of those who ratified it,
+      than one which subverts every sound principle and rule of
+      construction and throws everything into confusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have dwelt thus long on this part of the subject from an
+      earnest desire to fix in a clear and satisfactory manner the
+      import of the second part of this grant, well knowing from
+      the generality of the terms used their tendency to lead into
+      error. I indulge a strong hope that the view herein presented
+      will not be without effect, but will tend to satisfy the
+      unprejudiced and impartial that nothing more was granted by
+      that part than a power to <i>appropriate</i> the public money
+      raised under the other part. To what extent that power may be
+      carried will be the next object of inquiry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is contended on the one side that as the National
+      Government is a government of limited powers it has no right
+      to expend money except in the performance of acts authorized
+      by the other specific grants according to a strict
+      construction of their powers; that this grant in neither of
+      its branches gives to Congress discretionary power of any
+      kind, but is a mere instrument in its hands to carry into
+      effect the powers contained in the other grants. To this
+      construction I was inclined in the more early stage of our
+      Government; but on further reflection and observation my mind
+      has undergone a change, for reasons which I will frankly
+      unfold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The grant consists, as heretofore observed, of a twofold
+      power&mdash;the first to raise, the second to appropriate,
+      the public money&mdash;and the terms used in both instances
+      are general and unqualified. Bach branch was obviously drawn
+      with a view to the other, and the import of each tends to
+      illustrate that of the other. The grant to raise money gives
+      a power over every subject from which revenue may be drawn,
+      and is made in the same manner with the grants to declare
+      war, to raise and support armies and a navy, to regulate
+      commerce, to establish post-offices and post-roads, and with
+      all the other specific grants to the General Government. In
+      the discharge of the powers contained in any of these grants
+      there is no other check than that which is to be found in the
+      great principles of our system, the responsibility of the
+      representative to his constituents. If war, for example, is
+      necessary, and Congress declare it for good cause, their
+      constituents will support them in it. A like support will be
+      given them for the faithful discharge of their duties under
+      any and every other power vested in the United States. It
+      affords to the friends of our free governments the most
+      heartfelt consolation to know&mdash;and from the best
+      evidence, our own experience&mdash;that in great emergencies
+      the boldest measures, such as form the strongest appeals to
+      the virtue and patriotism of the people, are sure to obtain
+      the most decided approbation. But should the representative
+      act corruptly and betray his trust, or otherwise prove that
+      he was unworthy of the confidence of his constituents, he
+      would be equally sure to lose it and to be removed and
+      otherwise censured, according to his deserts. The power to
+      raise money by taxes, duties, imposts, and excises is alike
+      unqualified, nor do I see any check on the exercise of it
+      other than that which applies to the other powers above
+      recited, the responsibility of the representative to his
+      constituents. Congress know the extent of the public
+      engagements and the sums necessary to meet them; they know
+      how much may be derived from each branch of revenue without
+      pressing it too far; and, paying due regard to the interests
+      of the people, they likewise know which branch ought to be
+      resorted to in the first instance. From the commencement of
+      the Government two branches of this power, duties and
+      imposts, have been in constant operation, the revenue from
+      which has supported the Government in its various branches
+      and met its other ordinary engagements. In great emergencies
+      the other two, taxes and excises, have likewise been resorted
+      to, and neither was the right or the policy ever called in
+      question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If we look to the second branch of this power, that which
+      authorizes the appropriation of the money thus raised, we
+      find that it is not less general and unqualified than the
+      power to raise it. More comprehensive terms than to "pay the
+      debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare"
+      could not have been used. So intimately connected with and
+      dependent on each other are these two branches of power that
+      had either been limited the limitation would have had the
+      like effect on the other. Had the power to raise money been
+      conditional or restricted to special purposes, the
+      appropriation must have corresponded with it, for none but
+      the money raised could be appropriated, nor could it be
+      appropriated to other purposes than those which were
+      permitted. On the other hand, if the right of appropriation
+      had been restricted to certain purposes, it would be useless
+      and improper to raise more than would be adequate to those
+      purposes. It may fairly be inferred these restraints or
+      checks have been carefully and intentionally avoided. The
+      power in each branch is alike broad and unqualified, and each
+      is drawn with peculiar fitness to the other, the latter
+      requiring terms of great extent and force to accommodate the
+      former, which have been adopted, and both placed in the same
+      clause and sentence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Can it be presumed that all these circumstances were so
+      nicely adjusted by mere accident? Is it not more just to
+      conclude that they were the result of due deliberation and
+      design? Had it been intended that Congress should be
+      restricted in the appropriation of the public money to such
+      expenditures as were authorized by a rigid construction of
+      the other specific grants, how easy would it have been to
+      have provided for it by a declaration to that effect. The
+      omission of such declaration is therefore an additional proof
+      that it was not intended that the grant should be so
+      construed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was evidently impossible to have subjected this grant in
+      either branch to such restriction without exposing the
+      Government to very serious embarrassment. How carry it into
+      effect? If the grant had been made in any degree dependent
+      upon the States, the Government would have experienced the
+      fate of the Confederation. Like it, it would have withered
+      and soon perished. Had the Supreme Court been authorized, or
+      should any other tribunal distinct from the Government be
+      authorized, to impose its veto, and to say that more money
+      had been raised under either branch of this power&mdash;that
+      is, by taxes, duties, imposts, or excises&mdash;than was
+      necessary, that such a tax or duty was useless, that the
+      appropriation to this or that purpose was unconstitutional,
+      the movement might have been suspended and the whole system
+      disorganized. It was impossible to have created a power
+      within the Government or any other power distinct from
+      Congress and the Executive which should control the movement
+      of the Government in this respect and not destroy it. Had it
+      been declared by a clause in the Constitution that the
+      expenditures under this grant should be restricted to the
+      construction which might be given of the other grants, such
+      restraint, though the most innocent, could not have failed to
+      have had an injurious effect on the vital principles of the
+      Government and often on its most important measures. Those
+      who might wish to defeat a measure proposed might construe
+      the power relied on in support of it in a narrow and
+      contracted manner, and in that way fix a precedent
+      inconsistent with the true import of the grant. At other
+      times those who favored a measure might give to the power
+      relied on a forced or strained construction, and, succeeding
+      in the object, fix a precedent in the opposite extreme. Thus
+      it is manifest that if the right of appropriation be confined
+      to that limit, measures may oftentimes be carried or defeated
+      by considerations and motives altogether independent of and
+      unconnected with their merits, and the several powers of
+      Congress receive constructions equally inconsistent with
+      their true import. No such declaration, however, has been
+      made, and from the fair import of the grant, and, indeed, its
+      positive terms, the inference that such was intended seems to
+      be precluded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many considerations of great weight operate in favor of this
+      construction, while I do not perceive any serious objections
+      to it. If it be established, it follows that the words "to
+      provide for the common defense and general welfare" have a
+      definite, safe, and useful meaning. The idea of their forming
+      an original grant, with unlimited power, superseding every
+      other grant, is abandoned. They will be considered simply as
+      conveying a right of appropriation, a right indispensable to
+      that of raising a revenue and necessary to expenditures under
+      every grant. By it, as already observed, no new power will be
+      taken from the States, the money to be appropriated being
+      raised under a power already granted to Congress. By it, too,
+      the motive for giving a forced or strained construction to
+      any of the other specific grants will in most instances be
+      diminished and in many utterly destroyed. The importance of
+      this consideration can not be too highly estimated, since, in
+      addition to the examples already given, it ought particularly
+      to be recollected that to whatever extent any specified power
+      may be carried the right of jurisdiction goes with it,
+      pursuing it through all its incidents. The very important
+      agency which this grant has in carrying into effect every
+      other grant is a wrong argument in favor of the construction
+      contended for. All the other grants are limited by the nature
+      of the offices which they have severally to perform, each
+      conveying a power to do a certain thing, and that only,
+      whereas this is coextensive with the great scheme of the
+      Government itself. It is the lever which raises and puts the
+      whole machinery in motion and continues the movement. Should
+      either of the other grants fail in consequence of any
+      condition or limitation attached to it or misconstruction of
+      its powers, much injury might follow, but still it would be
+      the failure of one branch of power, of one item in the system
+      only. All the others might move on. But should the right to
+      raise and appropriate the public money be improperly
+      restricted, the whole system might be sensibly affected, if
+      not disorganized. Each of the other grants is limited by the
+      nature of the grant itself; this, by the nature of the
+      Government only. Hence it became necessary that, like the
+      power to declare war, this power should be commensurate with
+      the great scheme of the Government and with all its purposes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If, then, the right to raise and appropriate the public money
+      is not restricted to the expenditures under the other
+      specific grants according to a strict construction of their
+      powers, respectively, is there no limitation to it? Have
+      Congress a right to raise and appropriate the money to any
+      and to every purpose according to their will and pleasure?
+      They certainly have not. The Government of the United States
+      is a limited Government, instituted for great national
+      purposes, and for those only. Other interests are committed
+      to the States, whose duty it is to provide for them. Each
+      government should look to the great and essential purposes
+      for which it was instituted and confine itself to those
+      purposes. A State government will rarely if ever apply money
+      to national purposes without making it a charge to the
+      nation. The people of the State would not permit it. Nor will
+      Congress be apt to apply money in aid of the State
+      administrations for purposes strictly local in which the
+      nation at large has no interest, although the State should
+      desire it. The people of the other States would condemn it.
+      They would declare that Congress had no right to tax them for
+      such a purpose, and dismiss at the next election such of
+      their representatives as had voted for the measure,
+      especially if it should be severely felt. I do not think that
+      in offices of this kind there is much danger of the two
+      Governments mistaking their interests or their duties. I
+      rather expect that they would soon have a clear and distinct
+      understanding of them and move on in great harmony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Good roads and canals will promote many very important
+      national purposes. They will facilitate the operations of
+      war, the movements of troops, the transportation of cannon,
+      of provisions, and every warlike store, much to our advantage
+      and to the disadvantage of the enemy in time of war. Good
+      roads will facilitate the transportation of the mail, and
+      thereby promote the purposes of commerce and political
+      intelligence among the people. They will by being properly
+      directed to these objects enhance the value of our vacant
+      lands, a treasure of vast resource to the nation. To the
+      appropriation of the public money to improvements having
+      these objects in view and carried to a certain extent I do
+      not see any well-founded constitutional objection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In regard to our foreign concerns, provided they are managed
+      with integrity and ability, great liberality is allowable in
+      the application of the public money. In the management of
+      these concerns no State interests can be affected, no State
+      rights violated. The complete and exclusive control over them
+      is vested in Congress. The power to form treaties of alliance
+      and commerce with foreign powers, to regulate by law our
+      commerce with them, to determine on peace or war, to raise
+      armies and a navy, to call forth the militia and direct their
+      operations belongs to the General Government. These great
+      powers, embracing the whole scope of our foreign relations,
+      being granted, on what principle can it be said that the
+      minor are withheld? Are not the latter clearly and evidently
+      comprised in the former? Nations are sometimes called upon to
+      perform to each other acts of humanity and kindness, of which
+      we see so many illustrious examples between individuals in
+      private life. Great calamities make appeals to the
+      benevolence of mankind which ought not to be resisted. Good
+      offices in such emergencies exalt the character of the party
+      rendering them. By exciting grateful feelings they soften the
+      intercourse between nations and tend to prevent war. Surely
+      if the United States have a right to make war they have a
+      right to prevent it. How was it possible to grant to Congress
+      a power for such minor purposes other than in general terms,
+      comprising it within the scope and policy of that which
+      conveyed it for the greater?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The right of appropriation is nothing more than a right to
+      apply the public money to this or that purpose. It has no
+      incidental power, nor does it draw after it any consequences
+      of that kind. All that Congress could do under it in the case
+      of internal improvements would be to appropriate the money
+      necessary to make them. For every act requiring legislative
+      sanction or support the State authority must be relied on.
+      The condemnation of the land, if the proprietors should
+      refuse to sell it, the establishment of turnpikes and tolls,
+      and the protection of the work when finished must be done by
+      the State. To these purposes the powers of the General
+      Government are believed to be utterly incompetent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the objection that the United States have no power in any
+      instance which is not complete to all the purposes to which
+      it may be made instrumental, and in consequence that they
+      have no right to appropriate any portion of the public money
+      to internal improvements because they have not the right of
+      sovereignty and jurisdiction over them when made, a full
+      answer has, it is presumed, been already given. It may,
+      however, be proper to add that if this objection was well
+      founded it would not be confined to the simple case of
+      internal improvements, but would apply to others of high
+      importance. Congress have a right to regulate commerce. To
+      give effect to this power it becomes necessary to establish
+      custom-houses in every State along the coast and in many
+      parts of the interior. The vast amount of goods imported and
+      the duties to be performed to accommodate the merchants and
+      secure the revenue make it necessary that spacious buildings
+      should be erected, especially in the great towns, for their
+      reception. This, it is manifest, could best be performed
+      under the direction of the General Government. Have Congress
+      the right to seize the property of individuals if they should
+      refuse to sell it, in quarters best adapted to the purpose,
+      to have it valued, and to take it at the valuation? Have they
+      a right to exercise jurisdiction within those buildings?
+      Neither of these claims has ever been set up, nor could it,
+      as is presumed, be sustained. They have invariably either
+      rented houses where such as were suitable could be obtained,
+      or, where they could not, purchased the ground of
+      individuals, erected the buildings, and held them under the
+      laws of the State. Under the power to establish post-offices
+      and post-roads houses are also requisite for the reception of
+      the mails and the transaction of the business of the several
+      offices. These have always been rented or purchased and held
+      under the laws of the State in the same manner as if they had
+      been taken by a citizen. The United States have a right to
+      establish tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court, and such
+      have been established in every State of the Union. It is
+      believed that the houses for these inferior courts have
+      invariably been rented. No right of jurisdiction in them has
+      ever been claimed, nor other right than that of privilege,
+      and that only while the court is in session. A still stronger
+      case may be urged. Should Congress be compelled by invasion
+      or other cause to remove the Government to some town within
+      one of the States, would they have a right of jurisdiction
+      over such town, or hold even the house in which they held
+      their session under other authority than the laws of such
+      State? It is believed that they would not. If they have a
+      right to appropriate money for any of these purposes, to be
+      laid out under the protection of the laws of the State,
+      surely they have an equal right to do it for the purposes of
+      internal improvements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is believed that there is not a corporation in the Union
+      which does not exercise great discretion in the application
+      of the money raised by it to the purposes of its institution.
+      It would be strange if the Government of the United States,
+      which was instituted for such important purposes and endowed
+      with such extensive powers, should not be allowed at least
+      equal discretion and authority. The evil to be particularly
+      avoided is the violation of State rights. Shunning that, it
+      seems to be reasonable and proper that the powers of Congress
+      should be so construed as that the General Government in its
+      intercourse with other nations and in our internal concerns
+      should be able to adopt all such measures lying within the
+      fair scope and intended to facilitate the direct objects of
+      its powers as the public welfare may require and a sound and
+      provident policy dictate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The measures of Congress have been in strict accord with the
+      view taken of the right of appropriation both as to its
+      extent and limitation, as will be shown by a reference to the
+      laws, commencing at a very early period. Many roads have been
+      opened, of which the following are the principal: The first
+      from Cumberland, at the head waters of the Potomac, in the
+      State of Maryland, through Pennsylvania and Virginia, to the
+      State of Ohio (March 29, 1806; see vol. 4, p. 13, of the late
+      edition of the laws). The second from the frontiers of
+      Georgia, on the route from Athens to New Orleans, to its
+      intersection with the thirty-first degree of north latitude
+      (April 31, 1806, p. 58). The third from the Mississippi at a
+      point and by a route described to the Ohio (same act). The
+      fourth from Nashville, in Tennessee, to Natchez (same act).
+      The fifth from the thirty-first degree of north latitude, on
+      the route from Athens to New Orleans, under such regulations
+      as might be agreed on between the Executive and the Spanish
+      Government (March 3, 1807, p. 117). The sixth from the foot
+      of the rapids of the river Miami, of Lake Erie, to the
+      western line of the Connecticut Reserve (December 12, 1811,
+      p. 364). The seventh from the Lower Sandusky to the boundary
+      line established by the treaty of Greenville (same act). The
+      eighth from a point where the United States road leading from
+      Vincennes to the Indian boundary line, established by the
+      treaty of Greenville, strikes the said line, to the North
+      Bend, in the State of Ohio (January 8, 1812, p. 367). The
+      ninth for repairing and keeping in repair the road between
+      Columbia, on Duck River, in Tennessee, and Madisonville, in
+      Louisiana, and also the road between Fort Hawkins, in
+      Georgia, and Fort Stoddard (April 27, 1816, p. 104 of the
+      acts of that year). The tenth from the Shawneetown, on the
+      Ohio River, to the Sabine, and to Kaskaskias, in Illinois
+      (April 27, 1816, p. 112). The eleventh from Reynoldsburg, on
+      Tennessee River, in the State of Tennessee, through the
+      Chickasaw Nation, to intersect the Natchez road near the
+      Chickasaw old town (March 3, 1817, p. 252). The twelfth: By
+      this act authority was given to the President to appoint
+      three commissioners for the purpose of examining the country
+      and laying out a road from the termination of the Cumberland
+      road, at Wheeling, on the Ohio, through the States of Ohio,
+      Indiana, and Illinois, to a point to be chosen by them, on
+      the left bank of the Mississippi, between St. Louis and the
+      mouth of the Illinois River, and to report an accurate plan
+      of the said road, with an estimate of the expense of making
+      it. It is, however, declared by the act that nothing was
+      thereby intended to imply an obligation on the part of the
+      United States to make or defray the expense of making the
+      said road or any part thereof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the late war two other roads were made by the troops for
+      military purposes&mdash;one from the Upper Sandusky, in the
+      State of Ohio, through the Black Swamp, toward Detroit, and
+      another from Plattsburg, on Lake Champlain, through the
+      Chatauga woods toward Sacketts Harbor, which have since been
+      repaired and improved by the troops. Of these latter there is
+      no notice in the laws. The extra pay to the soldiers for
+      repairing and improving those roads was advanced in the first
+      instance from the appropriation to the Quartermaster's
+      Department and afterwards provided for by a specific
+      appropriation by Congress. The necessity of keeping those
+      roads open and in good repair, being on the frontier, to
+      facilitate a communication between our posts, is apparent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All of these roads except the first were formed merely by
+      cutting down the trees and throwing logs across, so as to
+      make causeways over such parts as were otherwise impassable.
+      The execution was of the coarsest kind. The Cumberland road
+      is the only regular work which has been undertaken by the
+      General Government or which could give rise to any question
+      between the two Governments respecting its powers. It is a
+      great work, over the highest mountains in our Union,
+      connecting from the seat of the General Government the
+      Eastern with the Western waters, and more intimately the
+      Atlantic with the Western States, in the formation of which
+      $1,800,000 have been expended. The measures pursued in this
+      case require to be particularly noticed as fixing the opinion
+      of the parties, and particularly of Congress, on the
+      important question of the right. Passing through Maryland,
+      Pennsylvania, and Virginia, it was thought necessary and
+      proper to bring the subject before their respective
+      legislatures to obtain their sanction, which was granted by
+      each State by a legislative act, approving the route and
+      providing for the purchase and condemnation of the land. This
+      road was founded on an article of compact between the United
+      States and the State of Ohio, under which that State came
+      into the Union, and by which the expense attending it was to
+      be defrayed by the application of a certain portion of the
+      money arising from the sale of the public lands within that
+      State. In this instance, which is by far the strongest in
+      respect to the expense, extent, and nature of the work done,
+      the United States have exercised no act of jurisdiction or
+      sovereignty within either of the States by taking the land
+      from the proprietors by force, by passing acts for the
+      protection of the road, or to raise a revenue from it by the
+      establishment of turnpikes and tolls, or any other act
+      founded on the principle of jurisdiction or right. Whatever
+      they have done has, on the contrary, been founded on the
+      opposite principle, on the voluntary and unqualified
+      admission that the sovereignty belonged to the State and not
+      to the United States, and that they could perform no act
+      which should tend to weaken the power of the State or to
+      assume any to themselves. All that they have done has been to
+      appropriate the public money to the construction of this road
+      and to cause it to be constructed, for I presume that no
+      distinction can be taken between the appropriation of money
+      raised by the sale of the public lands and of that which
+      arises from taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; nor can I
+      believe that the power to appropriate derives any sanction
+      from a provision to that effect having been made by an
+      article of compact between the United States and the people
+      of the then Territory of Ohio. This point may, however, be
+      placed in a clearer light by a more particular notice of the
+      article itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By an act of April 30, 1802, entitled "An act to enable the
+      people of the eastern division of the territory northwest of
+      the river Ohio to form a constitution and State government,
+      and for the admission of such State into the Union on an
+      equal footing with the original States, and for other
+      purposes," after describing the limits of the proposed new
+      State and authorizing the people thereof to elect a
+      convention to form a constitution, the three following
+      propositions were made to the convention, to be obligatory on
+      the United States if accepted by it: First, that section No.
+      16 of every township, or, where such section had been sold,
+      other lands equivalent thereto, should be granted to the
+      inhabitants of such township for the use of free schools.
+      Second, that the 6 miles' reservation, including the salt
+      springs commonly called the Sciota Salt Springs, the salt
+      springs near the Muskingum River and in the military tract,
+      with the sections which include the same, should be granted
+      to the said State for the use of the people thereof, under
+      such regulations as the legislature of the State should
+      prescribe: <i>Provided</i>, That it should never sell or
+      lease the same for more than ten years. Third, that one
+      twentieth part of the proceeds of the public lands lying
+      within the said State which might be sold by Congress from
+      and after the 30th June ensuing should be applied to the
+      laying out and making public roads from the navigable waters
+      emptying into the Atlantic, to the Ohio, and through the
+      State of Ohio, such roads to be laid out under the authority
+      of Congress, with the consent of the several States through
+      which they should pass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These three propositions were made on the condition that the
+      convention of the State should provide by an ordinance,
+      irrevocable without the consent of the United States, that
+      every tract of land sold by Congress after the 30th of June
+      ensuing should remain for the term of five years after sale
+      exempt from every species of tax whatsoever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is impossible to read the ordinance of the 23d of April,
+      1784, or the provisions of the act of April 30, 1802, which
+      are founded on it, without being profoundly impressed with
+      the enlightened and magnanimous policy which dictated them.
+      Anticipating that the new States would be settled by the
+      inhabitants of the original States and their offspring, no
+      narrow or contracted jealousy was entertained of their
+      admission into the Union in equal participation in the
+      national sovereignty with the original States. It was
+      foreseen at the early period at which that ordinance passed
+      that the expansion of our Union to the Lakes and to the
+      Mississippi and all its waters would not only make us a
+      greater power, but cement the Union itself. These three
+      propositions were well calculated to promote these great
+      results. A grant of land to each township for free schools,
+      and of the salt springs to the State, which were within its
+      limits, for the use of its citizens, with 5 per cent of the
+      money to be raised from the sale of lands within the State
+      for the construction of roads between the original States and
+      the new State, and of other roads within the State, indicated
+      a spirit not to be mistaken, nor could it fail to produce a
+      corresponding effect in the bosoms of those to whom it was
+      addressed. For these considerations the sole return required
+      of the convention was that the new State should not tax the
+      public lands which might be sold by the United States within
+      it for the term of five years after they should be sold. As
+      the value of these lands would be enhanced by this exemption
+      from taxes for that term, and from which the new State would
+      derive its proportionable benefit, and as it would also
+      promote the rapid sale of those lands, and with it the
+      augmentation of its own population, it can not be doubted,
+      had this exemption been suggested unaccompanied by any
+      propositions of particular advantage, that the convention
+      would, in consideration of the relation which had before
+      existed between the parties, and was about to be so much
+      improved, most willingly have acceded to it and without
+      regarding it as an onerous condition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since, then, it appears that the whole of the money to be
+      employed in making this road was to be raised from the sale
+      of the public lands, and which would still belong to the
+      United States, although no mention had been made of them in
+      the compact, it follows that the application of the money to
+      that purpose stands upon the same ground as if such compact
+      had not been made, and in consequence that the example in
+      favor of the right of appropriation is in no manner affected
+      by it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The same rule of construction of the right of appropriation
+      has been observed and the same liberal policy pursued toward
+      the other new States, with certain modifications adapted to
+      the situation of each, which were adopted with the State of
+      Ohio. As, however, the reasoning which is applicable to the
+      compact with Ohio in relation to the right of appropriation,
+      in which light only I have adverted to it, is equally
+      applicable to the several compacts with the other new States,
+      I deem it unnecessary to take a particular notice of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is proper to observe that the money which was employed in
+      the construction of all the other roads was taken directly
+      from the Treasury. This fact affords an additional proof that
+      in the contemplation of Congress no difference existed in the
+      application of money to those roads between that which was
+      raised by the sale of lands and that which was derived from
+      taxes, duties, imposts, and excises.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So far I have confined my remarks to the acts of Congress
+      respecting the right of appropriation to such measures only
+      as operate internally and affect the territory of the
+      individual States. In adverting to those which operate
+      externally and relate to foreign powers I find only two which
+      appear to merit particular attention. These were gratuitous
+      grants of money for the relief of foreigners in
+      distress&mdash;the first in 1794 to the inhabitants of St.
+      Domingo, who sought an asylum on our coast from the
+      convulsions and calamities of the island; the second in 1812
+      to the people of Caracas, reduced to misery by an earthquake.
+      The considerations which were applicable to these grants have
+      already been noticed and need not be repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this examination of the right of appropriation I thought
+      it proper to present to view also the practice of the
+      Government under it, and to explore the ground on which each
+      example rested, that the precise nature and extent of the
+      construction thereby given of the right might be clearly
+      understood. The right to raise money would have given, as is
+      presumed, the right to use it, although nothing had been said
+      to that effect in the Constitution; and where the right to
+      raise it is granted without special limitation, we must look
+      for such limitation to other causes. Our attention is first
+      drawn to the right to appropriate, and not finding it there
+      we must then look to the general powers of the Government as
+      designated by the specific grants and to the purposes
+      contemplated by them, allowing to this (the right to raise
+      money), the first and most important of the enumerated
+      powers, a scope which will be competent to those purposes.
+      The practice of the Government, as illustrated by numerous
+      and strong examples directly applicable, ought surely to have
+      great weight in fixing the construction of each grant. It
+      ought, I presume, to settle it, especially where it is
+      acquiesced in by the nation and produces a manifest and
+      positive good. A practical construction, thus supported,
+      shows that it has reason on its side and is called for by the
+      interests of the Union. Hence, too, the presumption that it
+      will be persevered in. It will surely be better to admit that
+      the construction given by these examples has been just arid
+      proper than to deny that construction and still to practice
+      on it&mdash;to say one thing and to do another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wherein consists the danger of giving a liberal construction
+      to the right of Congress to raise and appropriate the public
+      money? It has been shown that its obvious effect is to secure
+      the rights of the States from encroachment and greater
+      harmony in the political movement between the two
+      governments, while it enlarges to a certain extent in the
+      most harmless way the useful agency of the General Government
+      for all the purposes of its institution. Is not the
+      responsibility of the representative to his constituent in
+      every branch of the General Government equally strong and as
+      sensibly felt as in the State governments, and is not the
+      security against abuse as effectual in the one as in the
+      other government? The history of the General Government in
+      all its measures fully demonstrates that Congress will never
+      venture to impose unnecessary burdens on the people or any
+      that can be avoided. Duties and imposts have always been
+      light, not greater, perhaps, than would have been imposed for
+      the encouragement of our manufactures had there been no
+      occasion for the revenue arising from them; and taxes and
+      excises have never been laid except in cases of necessity,
+      and repealed as soon as the necessity ceased. Under this mild
+      process and the sale of some hundreds of millions of acres of
+      good land the Government will be possessed of money, which
+      may be applied with great advantage to national purposes.
+      Within the States only will it be applied, and, of course,
+      for their benefit, it not being presumable that such appeals
+      as were made to the benevolence of the country in the
+      instances of the inhabitants of St. Domingo and Caracas will
+      often occur. How, then, shall this revenue be applied? Should
+      it be idle in the Treasury? That our resources will be equal
+      to such useful purposes I have no doubt, especially if by
+      completing our fortifications and raising and maintaining our
+      Navy at the point provided for immediately after the war we
+      sustain our present altitude and preserve by means thereof
+      for any length of time the peace of the Union.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When we hear charges raised against other governments of
+      breaches of their constitutions, or, rather, of their
+      charters, we always anticipate the most serious
+      consequences&mdash;communities deprived of privileges which
+      they have long enjoyed, or individuals oppressed and punished
+      in violation of the ordinary forms and guards of trial to
+      which they were accustomed and entitled. How different is the
+      situation of the United States! Nor can anything mark more
+      strongly the great characteristics of that difference than
+      the grounds on which like charges are raised against this
+      Government. It is not alleged that any portion of the
+      community or any individual has been oppressed or that money
+      has been raised under a doubtful title. The principal charges
+      are that a work of great utility to the Union and affecting
+      immediately and with like advantage many of the States has
+      been constructed; that pensions to the surviving patriots of
+      our Revolution, to patriots who fought the battles and
+      promoted the independence of their country, have been
+      granted, by money, too, raised not only without oppression,
+      but almost without being felt, and under an acknowledged
+      constitutional power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this view of the right to appropriate and of the
+      practice under it I think that I am authorized to conclude
+      that the right to make internal improvements has not been
+      granted by the power "to pay the debts and provide for the
+      common defense and general welfare," included in the first of
+      the enumerated powers; that that grant conveys nothing more
+      than a right to appropriate the public money, and stands on
+      the same ground with the right to lay and collect taxes,
+      duties, imposts, and excises, conveyed by the first branch of
+      that power; that the Government itself being limited, both
+      branches of the power to raise and appropriate the public
+      money are also limited, the extent of the Government as
+      designated by the specific grants marking the extent of the
+      power in both branches, extending, however, to every object
+      embraced by the fair scope of those grants and not confined
+      to a strict construction of their respective powers, it being
+      safer to aid the purposes of those grants by the
+      appropriation of money than to extend by a forced
+      construction the grant itself; that although the right to
+      appropriate the public money to such improvements affords a
+      resource indispensably necessary to such a scheme, it is
+      nevertheless deficient as a power in the great
+      characteristics on which its execution depends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The substance of what has been urged on this subject may be
+      expressed in a few words. My idea is that Congress have an
+      unlimited power to raise money, and that in its appropriation
+      they have a discretionary power, restricted only by the duty
+      to appropriate it to purposes of common defense and of
+      general, not local, national, not State, benefit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will now proceed to the fifth source from which the power
+      is said to be derived, viz, the power to make all laws which
+      shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution all
+      the powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of
+      the United States or in any department or officer thereof.
+      This is the seventeenth and last of the enumerated powers
+      granted to Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have always considered this power as having been granted on
+      a principle of greater caution to secure the complete
+      execution of all the powers which had been vested in the
+      General Government. It contains no distinct and specific
+      power, as every other grant does, such as to lay and collect
+      taxes, to declare war, to regulate commerce, and the like.
+      Looking to the whole scheme of the General Government, it
+      gives to Congress authority to make all laws which should be
+      deemed necessary and proper for carrying all its powers into
+      effect. My impression has been invariably that this power
+      would have existed substantially if this grant had not been
+      made; for why is any power granted unless it be to be
+      executed when required, and how can it be executed under our
+      Government unless it be by laws necessary and proper for the
+      purpose&mdash;that is, well adapted to the end? It is a
+      principle universally admitted that a grant of a power
+      conveys as a necessary consequence or incident to it the
+      means of carrying it into effect by a fair construction of
+      its import. In the formation, however, of the Constitution,
+      which was to act directly upon the people and be paramount to
+      the extent of its powers to the constitutions of the States,
+      it was wise in its framers to leave nothing to implication
+      which might be reduced to certainty. It is known that all
+      power which rests solely on that ground has been
+      systematically and zealously opposed under all governments
+      with which we have any acquaintance; and it was reasonable to
+      presume that under our system, where there was a division of
+      the sovereignty between the two independent governments, the
+      measures of the General Government would excite equal
+      jealousy and produce an opposition not less systematic,
+      though, perhaps, less violent. Hence the policy by the
+      framers of our Government of securing by a fundamental
+      declaration in the Constitution a principle which in all
+      other governments had been left to implication only. The
+      terms "necessary" and "proper" secure to the powers of all
+      the grants to which the authority given in this is applicable
+      a fair and sound construction, which is equally binding as a
+      rule on both Governments and on all their departments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In examining the right of the General Government to adopt and
+      execute under this grant a system of internal improvement the
+      sole question to be decided is whether the power has been
+      granted under any of the other grants. If it has, this power
+      is applicable to it to the extent stated. If it has not, it
+      does not exist at all, for it has not been hereby granted. I
+      have already examined all the other grants (one only
+      excepted, which will next claim attention) and shown, as I
+      presume, on the most liberal construction of their powers
+      that the right has not been granted by any of them; hence it
+      follows that in regard to them it has not been granted by
+      this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I come now to the last source from which this power is said
+      to be derived, viz, the power to dispose of and make all
+      needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or
+      other property of the United States, which is contained in
+      the second clause of the third section of the fourth article
+      of the Constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To form a just opinion of the nature and extent of this power
+      it will be necessary to bring into view the provisions
+      contained in the first clause of the section of the article
+      referred to, which makes an essential part of the policy in
+      question. By this it is declared that new States shall be
+      admitted into the Union, but that no new States shall be
+      formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State,
+      nor any States be formed by the junction of two or more
+      States or parts of States, without the consent of the
+      legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the United
+      States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If we recur to the condition of our country at the
+      commencement of the Revolution, we shall see the origin and
+      cause of these provisions. By the charters of the several
+      colonies limits by latitude and other descriptions were
+      assigned to each. In commencing the Revolution the colonies,
+      as has already been observed, claimed by those limits,
+      although their population extended in many instances to a
+      small portion of the territory lying within them. It was
+      contended by some of the States after the declaration of
+      independence that the vacant lands lying within any of the
+      States should become the property of the Union, as by a
+      common exertion they would be acquired. This claim was
+      resisted by the others on the principle that all the States
+      entered into the contest in the full extent of their
+      chartered rights, and that they ought to have the full
+      benefit of those rights in the event of success. Happily this
+      controversy was settled, as all interfering claims and
+      pretensions between the members of our Union and between the
+      General Government and any of these members have been, in the
+      most amicable manner and to the satisfaction of all parties.
+      On the recommendation of Congress the individual States
+      having such territory within their chartered limits ceded
+      large portions thereof to the United States on condition that
+      it should be laid off into districts of proper dimensions,
+      the lands to be sold for the benefit of the United States,
+      and that the districts be admitted into the Union when they
+      should obtain such a population as it might be thought proper
+      and reasonable to prescribe. This is the territory and this
+      the property referred to in the second clause of the fourth
+      article of the Constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the States which had made cessions of vacant territory
+      except Georgia had made them before the adoption of the
+      Constitution, and that State had made a proposition to
+      Congress to that effect which was under consideration at the
+      time the Constitution was adopted. The cession was completed
+      after the adoption of the Constitution. It was made on the
+      same principle and on similar conditions with those which had
+      been already made by the other States. As differences might
+      arise respecting the right or the policy in Congress to admit
+      new States into the Union under the new Government, or to
+      make regulations for the government of the territory ceded in
+      the intermediate state, or for the improvement and sale of
+      the public lands, or to accept other cessions, it was thought
+      proper to make special provisions for these objects, which
+      was accordingly done by the above-recited clause in the
+      Constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus the power of Congress over the ceded territory was not
+      only limited to these special objects, but was also
+      temporary. As soon as the territory became a State the
+      jurisdiction over it as it had before existed ceased. It
+      extended afterwards only to the unsold lands, and as soon as
+      the whole were sold it ceased in that sense also altogether.
+      From that moment the United States have no jurisdiction or
+      power in the new States other than in the old, nor can it be
+      obtained except by an amendment of the Constitution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since, then, it is manifest that the power granted to
+      Congress to dispose of and make all needful regulations
+      respecting the territory and other property of the United
+      States relates solely to the territory and property which had
+      been ceded by individual States, and which after such cession
+      lay without their respective limits, and for which special
+      provision was deemed necessary, the main power of the
+      Constitution operating internally, not being applicable or
+      adequate thereto, it follows that this power gives no
+      authority, and has even no bearing on the question of
+      internal improvement. The authority to admit new States and
+      to dispose of the property and regulate the territory is not
+      among the enumerated powers granted to Congress, because the
+      duties to be performed under it are not among the ordinary
+      duties of that body, like the imposition of taxes, the
+      regulation of commerce, and the like. They are objects in
+      their nature special, and for which special provision was
+      more suitable and proper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having now examined all the powers of Congress under which
+      the right to adopt and execute a system of internal
+      improvement is claimed and the reasons in support of it in
+      each instance, I think that it may fairly be concluded that
+      such a right has not been granted. It appears and is admitted
+      that much may be done in aid of such a system by the right
+      which is derived from several of the existing grants, and
+      more especially from that to appropriate the public money.
+      But still it is manifest that as a system for the United
+      States it can never be carried into effect under that grant
+      nor under all of them united, the great and essential power
+      being deficient, consisting of a right to take up the subject
+      on principle; to cause our Union to be examined by men of
+      science, with a view to such improvements; to authorize
+      commissioners to lay off the roads and canals in all proper
+      directions; to take the land at a valuation if necessary, and
+      to construct the works; to pass laws with suitable penalties
+      for their protection; and to raise a revenue from them, to
+      keep them in repair, and make further improvement by the
+      establishment of turnpikes and tolls, with gates to be placed
+      at the proper distances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It need scarcely be remarked that this power will operate,
+      like many others now existing, without affecting the
+      sovereignty of the States except in the particular offices to
+      be performed. The jurisdiction of the several States may
+      still exist over the roads and canals within their respective
+      limits, extending alike to persons and property, as if the
+      right to make and protect such improvements had not been
+      vested in Congress. The right, being made commensurate simply
+      with the purposes indispensable to the system, may be
+      strictly confined to them. The right of Congress to protect
+      the works by laws imposing penalties would operate on the
+      same principles as the right to protect the mail. The act
+      being punishable only, a jurisdiction over the place would be
+      altogether unnecessary and even absurd.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the preceding inquiry little has been said of the
+      advantages which would attend the exercise of such a power by
+      the General Government. I have made the inquiry under a deep
+      conviction that they are almost incalculable, and that there
+      was a general concurrence of opinion among our
+      fellow-citizens to that effect. Still, it may not be improper
+      for me to state the grounds upon which my own impression is
+      founded. If it sheds no additional light on this interesting
+      part of the subject, it will at least show that I have had
+      more than one powerful motive for making the inquiry. A
+      general idea is all that I shall attempt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The advantages of such a system must depend upon the
+      interests to be affected by it and the extent to which they
+      may be affected, and those must depend on the capacity of our
+      country for improvement and the means at its command
+      applicable to that object.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I think that I may venture to affirm that there is no part of
+      our globe comprehending so many degrees of latitude on the
+      main ocean and so many degrees of longitude into the interior
+      that admits of such great improvement and at so little
+      expense. The Atlantic on the one side, and the Lakes, forming
+      almost inland seas, on the other, separated by high
+      mountains, which rise in the valley of the St. Lawrence and
+      determine in that of the Mississippi, traversing from north
+      to south almost the whole interior, with innumerable rivers
+      on every side of those mountains, some of vast extent, many
+      of which take their sources near to each other, give the
+      great outline. The details are to be seen on the valuable
+      maps of our country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It appears by the light already before the public that it is
+      practicable and easy to connect by canals the whole coast
+      from its southern to its northern extremity in one continued
+      inland navigation, and to connect in like manner in many
+      parts the Western lakes and rivers with each other. It is
+      equally practicable and easy to facilitate the intercourse
+      between the Atlantic and the Western country by improving the
+      navigation of many of the rivers which have their sources
+      near to each other in the mountains on each side, and by good
+      roads across the mountains between the highest navigable
+      points of those rivers. In addition to the example of the
+      Cumberland road, already noticed, another of this kind is now
+      in train from the head waters of the river James to those of
+      the Kanawha; and in like manner may the Savannah be connected
+      with the Tennessee. In some instances it is understood that
+      the Eastern and Western waters may be connected together
+      directly by canals. One great work of this kind is now in its
+      progress and far advanced in the State of New York, and there
+      is good reason to believe that two others may be formed, one
+      at each extremity of the high mountains above mentioned,
+      connecting in the one instance the waters of the St. Lawrence
+      with Lake Champlain, and in the other some of the most
+      important of the Western rivers with those emptying into the
+      Gulf of Mexico, the advantage of which will be seen at the
+      first glance by an enlightened observer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Great improvements may also be made by good roads in proper
+      directions through the interior of the country. As these
+      roads would be laid out on principle on a full view of the
+      country, its mountains, rivers, etc., it would be useless, if
+      I had the knowledge, to go into detail respecting them. Much
+      has been done by some of the States, but yet much remains to
+      be done with a view to the Union.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the colonial governments improvements of this kind were
+      not thought of. There was, it is believed, not one canal and
+      little communication from colony to colony. It was their
+      policy to encourage the intercourse between each colony and
+      the parent country only. The roads which were attended to
+      were those which led from the interior of each colony to its
+      principal towns on the navigable waters. By those routes the
+      produce of the country was carried to the coast, and shipped
+      thence to the mercantile houses in London, Liverpool,
+      Glasgow, or other towns to which the trade was carried on. It
+      is believed that there was but one connected route from North
+      to South at the commencement of the Revolution, and that a
+      very imperfect one. The existence and principle of our Union
+      point out the necessity of a very different policy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The advantages which would be derived from such improvements
+      are incalculable. The facility which would thereby be
+      afforded to the transportation of the whole of the rich
+      productions of our country to market would alone more than
+      amply compensate for all the labor and expense attending
+      them. Great, however, as is that advantage, it is one only of
+      many and by no means the most important, Every power of the
+      General Government and of the State governments connected
+      with the strength and resources of the country would be made
+      more efficient for the purposes intended by them. In war they
+      would facilitate the transportation of men, ordnance, and
+      provisions, and munitions of war of every kind to every part
+      of our extensive coast and interior on which an attack might
+      be made or threatened. Those who have any knowledge of the
+      occurrences of the late war must know the good effect which
+      would result in the event of another war from the command of
+      an interior navigation alone along the coast for all the
+      purposes of war as well as of commerce between the different
+      parts of our Union. The impediments to all military
+      operations which proceeded from the want of such a navigation
+      and the reliance which was placed, notwithstanding those
+      impediments, on such a commerce can not be forgotten. In
+      every other line their good effect would be most sensibly
+      felt. Intelligence by means of the Post-Office Department
+      would be more easily, extensively, and rapidly diffused.
+      Parts the most remote from each other would be brought more
+      closely together. Distant lands would be made more valuable,
+      and the industry of our fellow-citizens on every portion of
+      our soil be better rewarded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is natural in so great a variety of climate that there
+      should be a corresponding difference in the produce of the
+      soil; that one part should raise what the other might want.
+      It is equally natural that the pursuits of industry should
+      vary in like manner; that labor should be cheaper and
+      manufactures succeed better in one part than in another; that
+      were the climate the most severe and the soil less
+      productive, navigation, the fisheries, and commerce should be
+      most relied on. Hence the motive for an exchange for mutual
+      accommodation and active intercourse between them. Each part
+      would thus find for the surplus of its labor, in whatever
+      article it consisted, an extensive market at home, which
+      would be the most profitable because free from duty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is another view in which these improvements are of
+      still more vital importance. The effect which they would have
+      on the bond of union itself affords an inducement for them
+      more powerful than any which have been urged or than all of
+      them united. The only danger to which our system is exposed
+      arises from its expansion over a vast territory. Our union is
+      not held together by standing armies or by any ties other
+      than the positive interests and powerful attractions of its
+      parts toward each other. Ambitious men may hereafter grow up
+      among us who may promise to themselves advancement from a
+      change, and by practicing upon the sectional interests,
+      feelings, and prejudices endeavor under various pretexts to
+      promote it. The history of the world is replete with examples
+      of this kind&mdash;of military commanders and demagogues
+      becoming usurpers and tyrants, and of their fellow-citizens
+      becoming their instruments and slaves. I have little fear of
+      this danger, knowing well how strong the bond which holds us
+      together is and who the people are who are thus held
+      together; but still, it is proper to look at and to provide
+      against it, and it is not within the compass of human wisdom
+      to make a more effectual provision than would be made by the
+      proposed improvements. With their aid and the intercourse
+      which would grow out of them the parts would soon become so
+      compacted and bound together that nothing could break it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The expansion of our Union over a vast territory can not
+      operate unfavorably to the States individually. On the
+      contrary, it is believed that the greater the expansion
+      within practicable limits&mdash;and it is not easy to say
+      what are not so&mdash;the greater the advantage which the
+      States individually will derive from it. With governments
+      separate, vigorous, and efficient for all local purposes,
+      their distance from each other can have no injurious effect
+      upon their respective interests. It has already been shown
+      that in some important circumstances, especially with the aid
+      of these improvements, they must derive great advantage from
+      that cause alone&mdash;that is, from their distance from each
+      other. In every other way the expansion of our system must
+      operate favorably for every State in proportion as it
+      operates favorably for the Union. It is in that sense only
+      that it can become a question with the States, or, rather,
+      with the people who compose them. As States they can be
+      affected by it only by their relation to each other through
+      the General Government and by its effect on the operations of
+      that Government. Manifest it is that to any extent to which
+      the General Government can sustain and execute its functions
+      with complete effect will the States&mdash;that is, the
+      people who compose them&mdash;be benefited. It is only when
+      the expansion shall be carried beyond the faculties of the
+      General Government so as to enfeeble its operations to the
+      injury of the whole that any of the parts can be injured. The
+      tendency in that stage will be to dismemberment and not to
+      consolidation. This danger should, therefore, be looked at
+      with profound attention as one of a very serious character. I
+      will remark here that as the operations of the National
+      Government are of a general nature, the States having
+      complete power for internal and local purposes, the expansion
+      may be carried to very great extent and with perfect safety.
+      It must be obvious to all that the further the expansion is
+      carried, provided it be not beyond the just limit, the
+      greater will be the freedom of action to both Governments and
+      the more perfect their security, and in all other respects
+      the better the effect will be to the whole American people.
+      Extent of territory, whether it be great or small, gives to a
+      nation many of its characteristics. It marks the extent of
+      its resources, of its population, of its physical force. It
+      marks, in short, the difference between a great and a small
+      power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To what extent it may be proper to expand our system of
+      government is a question which does not press for a decision
+      at this time. At the end of the Revolutionary war, in 1783,
+      we had, as we contended and believed, a right to the free
+      navigation of the Mississippi, but it was not until after the
+      expiration of twelve years, in 1795, that that right was
+      acknowledged and enjoyed. Further difficulties occurred in
+      the bustling of a contentious world when, at the expiration
+      of eight years more, the United States, sustaining the
+      strength and energy of their character, acquired the Province
+      of Louisiana, with the free navigation of the river from its
+      source to the ocean and a liberal boundary on the western
+      side. To this Florida has since been added, so that we now
+      possess all the territory in which the original States had
+      any interest, or in which the existing States can be said,
+      either in a national or local point of view, to be in any way
+      interested. A range of States on the western side of the
+      Mississippi, which already is provided for, puts us
+      essentially at ease. Whether it will be wise to go further
+      will turn on other considerations than those which have
+      dictated the course heretofore pursued. At whatever point we
+      may stop, whether it be at a single range of States beyond
+      the Mississippi or by taking a greater scope, the advantage
+      of such improvements is deemed of the highest importance. It
+      is so on the present scale. The further we go the greater
+      will be the necessity for them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It can not be doubted that improvements for great national
+      purposes would be better made by the National Government than
+      by the governments of the several States. Our experience
+      prior to the adoption of the Constitution demonstrated that
+      in the exercise by the individual States of most of the
+      powers granted to the United States a contracted rivalry of
+      interest and misapplied jealousy of each other had an
+      important influence on all their measures to the great injury
+      of the whole. This was particularly exemplified by the
+      regulations which they severally made of their commerce with
+      foreign nations and with each other. It was this utter
+      incapacity in the State governments, proceeding from these
+      and other causes, to act as a nation and to perform all the
+      duties which the nation owed to itself under any system which
+      left the General Government dependent on the States, which
+      produced the transfer of these powers to the United States by
+      the establishment of the present Constitution. The reasoning
+      which was applicable to the grant of any of the powers now
+      vested in Congress is likewise so, at least to a certain
+      extent, to that in question. It is natural that the States
+      individually in making improvements should look to their
+      particular and local interests, The members composing their
+      respective legislatures represent the people of each State
+      only, and might not feel themselves at liberty to look to
+      objects in these respects beyond that limit. If the resources
+      of the Union were to be brought into operation under the
+      direction of the State assemblies, or in concert with them,
+      it may be apprehended that every measure would become the
+      object of negotiation, of bargain and barter, much to the
+      disadvantage of the system, as well as discredit to both
+      governments. But Congress would look to the whole and make
+      improvements to promote the welfare of the whole. It is the
+      peculiar felicity of the proposed amendment that while it
+      will enable the United States to accomplish every national
+      object, the improvements made with that view will eminently
+      promote the welfare of the individual States, who may also
+      add such others as their own particular interests may
+      require.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The situation of the Cumberland road requires the particular
+      and early attention of Congress. Being formed over very lofty
+      mountains and in many instances over deep and wide streams,
+      across which valuable bridges have been erected, which are
+      sustained by stone walls, as are many other parts of the
+      road, all these works are subject to decay, have decayed, and
+      will decay rapidly unless timely and effectual measures are
+      adopted to prevent it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The declivities from the mountains and all the heights must
+      suffer from the frequent and heavy falls of water and its
+      descent to the valleys, as also from the deep congelations
+      during our severe winters. Other injuries have also been
+      experienced on this road, such as the displacing the capping
+      of the walls and other works, committed by worthless people
+      either from a desire to render the road impassable or to have
+      the transportation in another direction, or from a spirit of
+      wantonness to create employment for idlers. These
+      considerations show that an active and strict police ought to
+      be established over the whole road, with power to make
+      repairs when necessary, to establish turnpikes and tolls as
+      the means of raising money to make them, and to prosecute and
+      punish those who commit waste and other injuries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Should the United States be willing to abandon this road to
+      the States through which it passes, would they take charge of
+      it, each of that portion within its limits, and keep it in
+      repair? It is not to be presumed that they would, since the
+      advantages attending it are exclusively national, by
+      connecting, as it does, the Atlantic with the Western States,
+      and in a line with the seat of the National Government. The
+      most expensive parts of this road lie within Pennsylvania and
+      Virginia, very near the confines of each State and in a route
+      not essentially connected with the commerce of either.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If it is thought proper to vest this power in the United
+      States, the only mode in which it can be done is by an
+      amendment of the Constitution. The States individually can
+      not transfer the power to the United States, nor can the
+      United States receive it. The Constitution forms an equal and
+      the sole relation between the General Government and the
+      several States, and it recognizes no change in it which shall
+      not in like manner apply to all. If it is once admitted that
+      the General Government may form compacts with individual
+      States not common to the others, and which the others might
+      even disapprove, into what pernicious consequences might it
+      not lead? Such compacts are utterly repugnant to the
+      principles of the Constitution and of the most dangerous
+      tendency. The States through which this road passes have
+      given their sanction only to the route and to the acquisition
+      of the soil by the United States, a right very different from
+      that of jurisdiction, which can not be granted without an
+      amendment to the Constitution, and which need not be granted
+      for the purposes of this system except in the limited manner
+      heretofore stated. On full consideration, therefore, of the
+      whole subject I am of opinion that such an amendment ought to
+      be recommended to the several States for their adoption.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have now essentially executed that part of the task which I
+      imposed on myself of examining the right of Congress to adopt
+      and execute a system of internal improvement, and, I presume,
+      have shown that it does not exist. It is, I think, equally
+      manifest that such a power vested in Congress and wisely
+      executed would have the happiest effect on all the great
+      interests of our Union. It is, however, my opinion that the
+      power should be confined to great national works only, since
+      if it were unlimited it would be liable to abuse and might be
+      productive of evil. For all minor improvements the resources
+      of the States individually would be fully adequate, and by
+      the States such improvements might be made with greater
+      advantage than by the Union, as they would understand better
+      such as their more immediate and local interests required.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the view above presented I have thought it proper to trace
+      the origin of our institutions, and particularly of the State
+      and National Governments, for although they have a common
+      origin in the people, yet, as the point at issue turned on
+      what were the powers granted to the one government and what
+      were those which remained to the other, I was persuaded that
+      an analysis which should mark distinctly the source of power
+      in both governments, with its progress in each, would afford
+      the best means for obtaining a sound result. In our political
+      career there are, obviously, three great epochs. The colonial
+      state forms the first; the Revolutionary movement from its
+      commencement to the adoption of the Articles of Confederation
+      the second, and the intervening space from that event to the
+      present day the third. The first may be considered the infant
+      state. It was the school of morality, of political science
+      and just principles. The equality of rights enjoyed by the
+      people of every colony under their original charters forms
+      the basis of every existing institution, and it was owing to
+      the creation by those charters of distinct communities that
+      the power, when wrested from the Crown, passed directly and
+      exclusively to the people of each colony. The Revolutionary
+      struggle gave activity to those principles, and its success
+      secured to them a permanent existence in the governments of
+      our Union, State and National. The third epoch comprises the
+      administration under the Articles of Confederation, with the
+      adoption of the Constitution and administration under it. On
+      the first and last of these epochs it is not necessary to
+      enlarge for any purpose connected with the object of this
+      inquiry. To the second, in which we were transferred by a
+      heroic exertion from the first to the third stage, and whose
+      events give the true character to every institution, some
+      further attention is due. In tracing in greater detail the
+      prominent acts of a movement to which we owe so much I shall
+      perform an office which, if not useful, will be gratifying to
+      my own feelings, and I hope not unacceptable to my readers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the Revolutionary movement itself sentiments too
+      respectful, too exalted, can not be entertained. It is
+      impossible for any citizen having a just idea of the dangers
+      which we had to encounter to read the record of our early
+      proceedings and to see the firmness with which they were met
+      and the wisdom and patriotism which were displayed in every
+      stage without being deeply affected by it. An attack on
+      Massachusetts was considered an attack on every colony, and
+      the people of each moved in her defense as in their own
+      cause. The meeting of the General Congress in Philadelphia on
+      the 6th of September, 1774, appears to have been the result
+      of a spontaneous impulse in every quarter at the same time.
+      The first public act proposing it, according to the Journals
+      of the First Congress, was passed by the house of
+      representatives of Connecticut on the 3d of June of that
+      year; but it is presumed that the first suggestion came from
+      Massachusetts, the colony most oppressed, and in whose favor
+      the general sympathy was much excited. The exposition which
+      that Congress made of grievances, in the petition to the
+      King, in the address to the people of Great Britain, and in
+      that to the people of the several colonies, evinced a
+      knowledge so profound of the English constitution and of the
+      general principles of free government and of liberty, of our
+      rights founded on that constitution and on the charters of
+      the several colonies, and of the numerous and egregious
+      violations which had been committed of them, as must have
+      convinced all impartial minds that the talent on this side of
+      the Atlantic was at least equal to that on the other. The
+      spirit in which those papers were drawn, which was known to
+      be in strict accord with the public sentiment, proved that,
+      although the whole people cherished a connection with the
+      parent country and were desirous of preserving it on just
+      principles, they nevertheless stood embodied at the parting
+      line, ready to separate forever if a redress of grievances,
+      the alternative offered, was not promptly rendered. That
+      alternative was rejected, and in consequence war and
+      dismemberment followed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The powers granted to the delegates of each colony who
+      composed the First Congress looked primarily to the support
+      of rights and to a redress of grievances, and, in
+      consequence, to the restoration of harmony, which was
+      ardently desired. They justified, however, any extremity in
+      case of necessity. They were ample for such purposes, and
+      were executed in every circumstance with the utmost fidelity.
+      It was not until after the meeting of the Second Congress,
+      which took place on the 10th May, 1775, when full proof was
+      laid before it of the commencement of hostilities in the
+      preceding month by a deliberate attack of the British troops
+      on the militia and inhabitants of Lexington and Concord, in
+      Massachusetts, that war might be said to be decided on, and
+      measures were taken to support it. The progress even then was
+      slow and reluctant, as will be seen by their second petition
+      to the King and their second address to the people of Great
+      Britain, which were prepared and forwarded after that event.
+      The arrival, however, of large bodies of troops and the
+      pressure of war in every direction soon dispelled all hope of
+      accommodation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 15th of June, 1775, a commander in chief of the forces
+      raised and to be raised for the defense of American liberty
+      was appointed by the unanimous vote of Congress, and his
+      conduct in the discharge of the duties of that high trust,
+      which he held through the whole of the war, has given an
+      example to the world for talents as a military commander; for
+      integrity, fortitude, and firmness under the severest trials;
+      for respect to the civil authority and devotion to the rights
+      and liberties of his country, of which neither Rome nor
+      Greece have exhibited the equal. I saw him in my earliest
+      youth, in the retreat through Jersey, at the head of a small
+      band, or rather in its rear, for he was always next the
+      enemy, and his countenance and manner made an impression on
+      me which time can never efface. A lieutenant then in the
+      Third Virginia Regiment, I happened to be on the rear guard
+      at Newark, and I counted the force under his immediate
+      command by platoons as it passed me, which amounted to less
+      than 3,000 men. A deportment so firm, so dignified, so
+      exalted, but yet so modest and composed, I have never seen in
+      any other person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 6th July, 1775, Congress published a declaration of
+      the causes which compelled them to take up arms, and
+      immediately afterwards took measures for augmenting the Army
+      and raising a navy; for organizing the militia and providing
+      cannon and small arms and military stores of every kind; for
+      raising a revenue and pushing the war offensively with all
+      the means in their power. Nothing escaped the attention of
+      that enlightened body. The people of Canada were invited to
+      join the Union, and a force sent into the province to favor
+      the Revolutionary party, which, however, was not capable of
+      affording any essential aid. The people of Ireland were
+      addressed in terms manifesting due respect for the
+      sufferings, the talents, and patriotism of that portion of
+      the British Empire, and a suitable acknowledgment was made to
+      the assembly of Jamaica for the approbation it had expressed
+      of our cause and the part it had taken in support of it with
+      the British Government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 2d of June, 1775, the convention of Massachusetts, by
+      a letter signed by their president, of May the 10th, stated
+      to Congress that they labored under difficulties for the want
+      of a regular form of government, and requested to be favored
+      with explicit advice respecting the taking up and exercising
+      the powers of civil government, and declaring their readiness
+      to submit to such a general plan as the Congress might direct
+      for the colonies, or that they would make it their great
+      study to establish such a form of government there as should
+      not only promote their own advantage, but the union and
+      interest of all America. To this application an answer was
+      given on the 9th, by which it was recommended to the
+      convention "to write letters to the inhabitants of the
+      several places entitled to representation in assembly,
+      requesting them to choose such representatives, and that the
+      assembly, when chosen, should elect councilors, and that said
+      assembly or council should exercise the powers of government
+      until a governor of His Majesty's appointment will consent to
+      govern the colony according to its charter."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 18th October of the same year the delegates from New
+      Hampshire laid before Congress an instruction from their
+      convention "to use their utmost endeavors to obtain the
+      advice and direction of Congress with respect to a method for
+      administering justice and regulating their civil police." To
+      this a reply was given on the 3d November, by which it was
+      recommended to the convention "to call a full and free
+      representation of the people, and that the representatives,
+      if they thought it necessary, should establish such a form of
+      government as in their judgment would best promote the
+      happiness of the people and most effectually secure peace and
+      good order in the Province during the continuance of the
+      present dispute between Great Britain and the colonies."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 4th November it was resolved by Congress "that if the
+      convention of South Carolina shall find it necessary to
+      establish a form of government in that colony it be
+      recommended to that convention to call a full and free
+      representation of the people; and the said representatives,
+      if they think it necessary, shall establish such a form of
+      government as in their judgment will best promote the
+      happiness of the people and most effectually secure peace and
+      good order in the colony during the continuance of the
+      present dispute between Great Britain and the colonies."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 4th December following a resolution passed
+      recommending the same measure, and precisely in the same
+      words, to the convention of Virginia.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 10th May, 1776, it was recommended to the respective
+      assemblies and conventions of the united colonies, where no
+      government sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs had
+      been established, "to adopt such government as should, in the
+      opinion of the representatives of the people, best conduce to
+      the happiness and safety of their constituents in particular
+      and America in general."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 7th June resolutions respecting independence were
+      moved and seconded, which were referred to a committee of the
+      whole on the 8th and 10th, on which latter day it was
+      resolved to postpone a decision on the first resolution or
+      main question until the 1st July, but that no time might be
+      lost in case the Congress agree thereto that a committee be
+      appointed to prepare a declaration to the effect of that
+      resolution. On the 11th June, 1776, Congress appointed a
+      committee to prepare and digest a plan of confederation for
+      the colonies. On the 12th July the committee reported a draft
+      of articles, which were severally afterwards debated and
+      amended until the 15th November, 1777, when they were
+      adopted. These articles were then proposed to the
+      legislatures of the several States, with a request that if
+      approved by them they would authorize their delegates to
+      ratify the same in Congress, and, which being done, to become
+      conclusive. It was not until the 21st of March, 1781, as
+      already observed, that they were ratified by the last State
+      and carried into effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 4th July, 1776, independence was declared by an act
+      which arrested the attention of the civilized world and will
+      bear the test of time. For force and condensation of matter,
+      strength of reason, sublimity of sentiment and expression, it
+      is believed that no document of equal merit exists. It looked
+      to everything, and with a reach, perspicuity, and energy of
+      mind which seemed to be master of everything.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus it appears, in addition to the very important charge of
+      managing the war, that Congress had under consideration at
+      the same time the Declaration of Independence, the adoption
+      of a confederation for the States, and the propriety of
+      instituting State governments, with the nature of those
+      governments, respecting which it had been consulted by the
+      conventions of several of the colonies. So great a trust was
+      never reposed before in a body thus constituted, and I am
+      authorized to add, looking to the great result, that never
+      were duties more ably or faithfully performed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The distinguishing characteristic of this movement is that
+      although the connection which had existed between the people
+      of the several colonies before their dismemberment from the
+      parent country was not only not dissolved but increased by
+      that event, even before the adoption of the Articles of
+      Confederation, yet the preservation and augmentation of that
+      tie were the result of a new creation, and proceeded
+      altogether from the people of each colony, into whose hands
+      the whole power passed exclusively when wrested from the
+      Crown. To the same cause the greater change which has since
+      occurred by the adoption of the Constitution is to be traced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The establishment of our institutions forms the most
+      important epoch that history hath recorded. They extend
+      unexampled felicity to the whole body of our fellow-citizens,
+      and are the admiration of other nations. To preserve and hand
+      them down in their utmost purity to the remotest ages will
+      require the existence and practice of virtues and talents
+      equal to those which were displayed in acquiring them. It is
+      ardently hoped and confidently believed that these will not
+      be wanting.
+    </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>
+      Whereas by the second section of an act of Congress of the
+      6th of May last, entitled "An act in addition to the act
+      concerning navigation, and also to authorize the appointment
+      of deputy collectors," it is provided that in the event of
+      the signature of any treaty or convention concerning the
+      navigation or commerce between the United States and France
+      the President of the United States, if he should deem the
+      same expedient, may suspend by proclamation until the end of
+      the next session of Congress the operation of the act
+      entitled "An act to impose a new tonnage duty on French ships
+      and vessels, and for other purposes," and also to suspend, as
+      aforesaid, all other duties on French vessels or the goods
+      imported in the same which may exceed the duties on American
+      vessels and on similar goods imported in the same; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas a convention of navigation and commerce between the
+      United States of America and His Majesty the King of France
+      and Navarre has this day been duly signed by John Quincy
+      Adams, Secretary of State, on the part of the United States,
+      and by the Baron Hyde de Neuville, envoy extraordinary and
+      minister plenipotentiary from France, on the part of His Most
+      Christian Majesty, which convention is in the words
+      following:
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [Here follows the treaty.]
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      Now, therefore, be it known that I, James Monroe, President
+      of the United States, in pursuance of the authority
+      aforesaid, do hereby suspend from and after the 1st day of
+      October next until the end of the next session of Congress,
+      the operation of the act aforesaid, entitled "An act to
+      impose a new tonnage duty on French ships and vessels, and
+      for other purposes," and also all other duties on French
+      vessels and the goods being the growth, produce, and
+      manufacture of France imported in the same which may exceed
+      the duties on American vessels and on similar goods imported
+      in the same, saving only the discriminating duties payable on
+      French vessels and on articles the growth, produce, and
+      manufacture of France imported in the same stipulated by the
+      said convention to be paid.
+    </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 Washington, the 24th day of June, A.D. 1822, and of
+      the Independence of the-United States the forty-sixth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+      By the President:<br>
+       JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,<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 by an act of the Congress of the United States passed
+      on the 6th day of May last it was provided that on
+      satisfactory evidence being given to the President of the
+      United States that the ports in the islands or colonies in
+      the West Indies under the dominion of Great Britain have been
+      opened to the vessels of the United States the President
+      should be, and thereby was, authorized to issue his
+      proclamation declaring that the ports of the United States
+      should thereafter be open to the vessels of Great Britain
+      employed in the trade and intercourse between the United
+      States and such islands or colonies, subject to such
+      reciprocal rules and restrictions as the President of the
+      United States might by such proclamation make and publish,
+      anything in the laws entitled "An act concerning navigation"
+      or an act entitled "An act supplementary to an act concerning
+      navigation" to the contrary notwithstanding; and
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereas satisfactory evidence has been given to the President
+      of the United States that the ports hereinafter named in the
+      islands or colonies in the West Indies under the dominion of
+      Great Britain have been opened to the vessels of the United
+      States; that is to say, the ports of Kingston, Savannah le
+      Mar, Montego Bay, Santa Lucia, Antonio, St. Ann, Falmouth,
+      Maria, Morant Bay, in Jamaica; St. George, Grenada; Roseau,
+      Dominica; St. Johns, Antigua; San Josef, Trinidad;
+      Scarborough, Tobago; Road Harbour, Tortola; Nassau, New
+      Providence; Pittstown, Crooked Island; Kingston, St. Vincent;
+      Port St. George and Port Hamilton, Bermuda; any port where
+      there is a custom-house, Bahamas; Bridgetown, Barbadoes; St.
+      Johns, St. Andrews, New Brunswick; Halifax, Nova Scotia;
+      Quebec, Canada; St. Johns, Newfoundland; Georgetown,
+      Demerara; New Amsterdam, Berbice; Castries, St. Lucia;
+      Besseterre, St. Kitts; Charlestown, Nevis; and Plymouth,
+      Montserrat:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United
+      States of America, do hereby declare and proclaim that the
+      ports of the United States shall hereafter, and until the end
+      of the next session of the Congress of the United States, be
+      open to the vessels of Great Britain employed in the trade
+      and intercourse between the United States and the islands and
+      colonies hereinbefore named, anything in the laws entitled
+      "An act concerning navigation" or an act entitled "An act
+      supplementary to an act concerning navigation" to the
+      contrary notwithstanding, under the following reciprocal
+      rules and restrictions, namely:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To vessels of Great Britain, bona fide British built, owned
+      and the master and three-fourths of the mariners of which at
+      least shall belong to Great Britain, or any United States
+      built ship or vessel which has been sold to and become the
+      property of British subjects, such ship or vessel being also
+      navigated with a master and three-fourths of the mariners at
+      least belonging to Great Britain: <i>And provided always</i>,
+      That no articles shall be imported into the United States in
+      any such British ship or vessel other than articles of the
+      growth, produce, or manufacture of the British islands and
+      colonies in the West Indies when imported in British vessels
+      coming from any such island or colony, and articles of the
+      growth, produce, or manufacture of the British colonies in
+      North America or of the island of Newfoundland in vessels
+      coming from the port of St. Johns, in that island, or from
+      any of the aforesaid ports of the British colonies in North
+      America.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 24th day
+      of August, A.D. 1822, and in the forty-seventh year of the
+      Independence of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br>
+      By the President:<br>
+       JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,<br>
+       <i>Secretary of State</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SIXTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 3, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of
+      Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many causes unite to make your present meeting peculiarly
+      interesting to our constituents. The operation of our laws on
+      the various subjects to which they apply, with the amendments
+      which they occasionally require, imposes annually an
+      important duty on the representatives of a free people. Our
+      system has happily advanced to such maturity that I am not
+      aware that your cares in that respect will be augmented.
+      Other causes exist which are highly interesting to the whole
+      civilized world, and to no portion of it more so, in certain
+      views, than to the United States. Of these causes and of
+      their bearing on the interests of our Union I shall
+      communicate the sentiments which I have formed with that
+      freedom which a sense of duty dictates. It is proper,
+      however, to invite your attention in the first instance to
+      those concerns respecting which legislative provision is
+      thought to be particularly urgent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 24th of June last a convention of navigation and
+      commerce was concluded in this city between the United States
+      and France by ministers duly authorized for the purpose. The
+      sanction of the Executive having been given to this
+      convention under a conviction that, taking all its
+      stipulations into view, it rested essentially on a basis of
+      reciprocal and equal advantage, I deemed it my duty, in
+      compliance with the authority vested in the Executive by the
+      second section of the act of the last session of the 6th of
+      May, concerning navigation, to suspend by proclamation until
+      the end of the next session of Congress the operation of the
+      act entitled "An act to impose a new tonnage duty on French
+      ships and vessels, and for other purposes," and to suspend
+      likewise all other duties on French vessels or the goods
+      imported in them which exceeded the duties on American
+      vessels and on similar goods imported in them. I shall submit
+      this convention forthwith to the Senate for its advice and
+      consent as to the ratification.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since your last session the prohibition which had been
+      imposed on the commerce between the United States and the
+      British colonies in the West Indies and on this continent has
+      likewise been removed. Satisfactory evidence having been
+      adduced that the ports of those colonies had been opened to
+      the vessels of the United States by an act of the British
+      Parliament bearing date on the 24th of June last, on the
+      conditions specified therein, I deemed it proper, in
+      compliance with the provision of the first section of the act
+      of the last session above recited, to declare, by
+      proclamation bearing date on the 24th of August last, that
+      the ports of the United States should thenceforward and until
+      the end of the next session of Congress be opened to the
+      vessels of Great Britain employed in that trade, under the
+      limitation specified in that proclamation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A doubt was entertained whether the act of Congress applied
+      to the British colonies on this continent as well as to those
+      in the West Indies, but as the act of Parliament opened the
+      intercourse equally with both, and it was the manifest
+      intention of Congress, as well as the obvious policy of the
+      United States, that the provisions of the act of Parliament
+      should be met in equal extent on the part of the United
+      States, and as also the act of Congress was supposed to vest
+      in the President some discretion in the execution of it, I
+      thought it advisable to give it a corresponding construction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Should the constitutional sanction of the Senate be given to
+      the ratification of the convention with France, legislative
+      provisions will be necessary to carry it fully into effect,
+      as it likewise will be to continue in force, on such
+      conditions as may be deemed just and proper, the intercourse
+      which has been opened between the United States and the
+      British colonies. Every light in the possession of the
+      Executive will in due time be communicated on both subjects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Resting essentially on a basis of reciprocal and equal
+      advantage, it has been the object of the Executive in
+      transactions with other powers to meet the propositions of
+      each with a liberal spirit, believing that thereby the
+      interest of our country would be most effectually promoted.
+      This course has been systematically pursued in the late
+      occurrences with France and Great Britain, and in strict
+      accord with the views of the Legislature. A confident hope is
+      entertained that by the arrangement thus commenced with each
+      all differences respecting navigation and commerce with the
+      dominions in question will be adjusted, and a solid
+      foundation be laid for an active and permanent intercourse
+      which will prove equally advantageous to both parties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The decision of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia on
+      the question submitted to him by the United States and Great
+      Britain, concerning the construction of the first article of
+      the treaty of Ghent, has been received. A convention has
+      since been concluded between the parties, under the mediation
+      of His Imperial Majesty, to prescribe the mode by which that
+      article shall be carried into effect in conformity with that
+      decision. I shall submit this convention to the Senate for
+      its advice and consent as to the ratification, and, if
+      obtained, shall immediately bring the subject before Congress
+      for such provisions as may require the interposition of the
+      Legislature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with an act of the last session a Territorial
+      government has been established in Florida on the principles
+      of our system. By this act the inhabitants are secured in the
+      full enjoyment of their rights and liberties, and to
+      admission into the Union, with equal participation in the
+      Government with the original States on the conditions
+      heretofore prescribed to other Territories. By a clause in
+      the ninth article of the treaty with Spain, by which that
+      Territory was ceded to the United States, it is stipulated
+      that satisfaction shall be made for the injuries, if any,
+      which by process of law shall be established to have been
+      suffered by the Spanish officers and individual Spanish
+      inhabitants by the late operations of our troops in Florida.
+      No provision having yet been made to carry that stipulation
+      into effect, it is submitted to the consideration of Congress
+      whether it will not be proper to vest the competent power in
+      the district court at Pensacola, or in some tribunal to be
+      specially organized for the purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fiscal operations of the year have been more successful
+      than had been anticipated at the commencement of the last
+      session of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The receipts into the Treasury during the three first
+      quarters of the year have exceeded the sum of $14,745,000.
+      The payments made at the Treasury during the same period have
+      exceeded $12,279,000, leaving in the Treasury on the 30th day
+      of September last, including $1,168,592.24 which were in the
+      Treasury on the 1st day of January last, a sum exceeding
+      $4,128,000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides discharging all demands for the current service of
+      the year, including the interest and reimbursement of the
+      public debt, the 6 per cent stock of 1796, amounting to
+      $80,000, has been redeemed. It is estimated that, after
+      defraying the current expenses of the present quarter and
+      redeeming the two millions of 6 per cent stock of 1820, there
+      will remain in the Treasury on the 1st of January next nearly
+      $3,000,000. It is estimated that the gross amount of duties
+      which have been secured from the 1st of January to the 30th
+      of September last has exceeded $19,500,000, and the amount
+      for the whole year will probably not fall short of
+      $23,000,000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the actual force in service under the present military
+      establishment, the posts at which it is stationed, and the
+      condition of each post, a report from the Secretary of War
+      which is now communicated will give a distinct idea. By like
+      reports the state of the Academy at West Point will be seen,
+      as will be the progress which has been made on the
+      fortifications along the coast and at the national armories
+      and arsenals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The position on the Red River and that at the Sault of St.
+      Marie are the only new posts that have been taken. These
+      posts, with those already occupied in the interior, are
+      thought to be well adapted to the protection of our
+      frontiers. All the force not placed in the garrisons along
+      the coast and in the ordnance depots, and indispensably
+      necessary there, is placed on the frontiers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The organization of the several corps composing the Army is
+      such as to admit its expansion to a great extent in case of
+      emergency, the officers carrying with them all the light
+      which they possess to the new corps to which they might be
+      appointed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the organization of the staff there is equal cause to be
+      satisfied. By the concentration of every branch with its
+      chief in this city, in the presence of the Department, and
+      with a grade in the chief military station to keep alive and
+      cherish a military spirit, the greatest promptitude in the
+      execution of orders, with the greatest economy and
+      efficiency, are secured. The same view is taken of the
+      Military Academy. Good order is preserved in it, and the
+      youth are well instructed in every science connected with the
+      great objects of the institution. They are also well trained
+      and disciplined in the practical parts of the profession. It
+      has been always found difficult to control the ardor
+      inseparable from that early age in such manner as to give it
+      a proper direction. The rights of manhood are too often
+      claimed prematurely, in pressing which too far the respect
+      which is due to age and the obedience necessary to a course
+      of study and instruction in every such institution are
+      sometimes lost sight of. The great object to be accomplished
+      is the restraint of that ardor by such wise regulations and
+      government as, by directing all the energies of the youthful
+      mind to the attainment of useful knowledge, will keep it
+      within a just subordination and at the same time elevate it
+      to the highest purposes. This object seems to be essentially
+      obtained in this institution, and with great advantage to the
+      Union.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Military Academy forms the basis, in regard to science,
+      on which the military establishment rests. It furnishes
+      annually, after due examination and on the report of the
+      academic staff, many well-informed youths to fill the
+      vacancies which occur in the several corps of the Army, while
+      others who retire to private life carry with them such
+      attainments as, under the right reserved to the several
+      States to appoint the officers and to train the militia, will
+      enable them, by affording a wider field for selection, to
+      promote the great object of the power vested in Congress of
+      providing for the organizing, arming, and disciplining the
+      militia. Thus by the mutual and harmonious cooperation of the
+      two governments in the execution of a power divided between
+      them, an object always to be cherished, the attainment of a
+      great result, on which our liberties may depend, can not fail
+      to be secured. I have to add that in proportion as our
+      regular force is small should the instruction and discipline
+      of the militia, the great resource on which we rely, be
+      pushed to the utmost extent that circumstances will admit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A report from the Secretary of the Navy will communicate the
+      progress which has been made in the construction of vessels
+      of war, with other interesting details respecting the actual
+      state of the affairs of that Department. It has been found
+      necessary for the protection of our commerce to maintain the
+      usual squadrons on the Mediterranean, the Pacific, and along
+      the Atlantic coast, extending the cruises of the latter into
+      the West Indies, where piracy, organized into a system, has
+      preyed on the commerce of every country trading thither. A
+      cruise has also been maintained on the coast of Africa, when
+      the season would permit, for the suppression of the slave
+      trade, and orders have been given to the commanders of all
+      our public ships to seize our own vessels, should they find
+      any engaged in that trade, and to bring them in for
+      adjudication.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the West Indies piracy is of recent date, which may
+      explain the cause why other powers have not combined against
+      it. By the documents communicated it will be seen that the
+      efforts of the United States to suppress it have had a very
+      salutary effect. The benevolent provision of the act under
+      which the protection has been extended alike to the commerce
+      of other nations can not fail to be duly appreciated by them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with the act of the last session entitled "An
+      act to abolish the United States trading establishments,"
+      agents were immediately appointed and instructed, under the
+      direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, to close the
+      business of the trading houses among the Indian tribes and to
+      settle the accounts of the factors and subfactors engaged in
+      that trade, and to execute in all other respects the
+      injunctions of that act in the mode prescribed therein. A
+      final report of their proceedings shall be communicated to
+      Congress as soon as it is received.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is with great regret I have to state that a serious malady
+      has deprived us of many valuable citizens at Pensacola and
+      checked the progress of some of those arrangements which are
+      important to the Territory. This effect has been sensibly
+      felt in respect to the Indians who inhabit that Territory,
+      consisting of the remnants of several tribes who occupy the
+      middle ground between St. Augustine and Pensacola, with
+      extensive claims but undefined boundaries. Although peace is
+      preserved with those Indians, yet their position and claims
+      tend essentially to interrupt the intercourse between the
+      eastern and western parts of the Territory, on which our
+      inhabitants are principally settled. It is essential to the
+      growth and prosperity of the Territory, as well as to the
+      interests of the Union, that these Indians should be removed,
+      by special compact with them, to some other position or
+      concentrated within narrower limits where they are. With the
+      limited means in the power of the Executive, instructions
+      were given to the governor to accomplish this object so far
+      as it might be practicable, which was prevented by the
+      distressing malady referred to. To carry it fully into effect
+      in either mode additional funds will be necessary, to the
+      provision of which the powers of Congress alone are
+      competent. With a view to such provision as may be deemed
+      proper, the subject is submitted to your consideration, and
+      in the interim further proceedings are suspended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It appearing that so much of the act entitled "An act
+      regulating the staff of the Army," which passed on the 14th
+      April, 1818, as relates to the commissariat will expire in
+      April next, and the practical operation of that department
+      having evinced its great utility, the propriety of its
+      renewal is submitted to your consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The view which has been taken of the probable productiveness
+      of the lead mines, connected with the importance of the
+      material to the public defense, makes it expedient that they
+      should be managed with peculiar care. It is therefore
+      suggested whether it will not comport with the public
+      interest to provide by law for the appointment of an agent
+      skilled in mineralogy to superintend them, under the
+      direction of the proper department.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is understood that the Cumberland road, which was
+      constructed at a great expense, has already suffered from the
+      want of that regular superintendence and of those repairs
+      which are indispensable to the preservation of such a work.
+      This road is of incalculable advantage in facilitating the
+      intercourse between the Western and the Atlantic States.
+      Through it the whole country from the northern extremity of
+      Lake Erie to the Mississippi, and from all the waters which
+      empty into each, finds an easy and direct communication to
+      the seat of Government, and thence to the Atlantic. The
+      facility which it affords to all military and commercial
+      operations, and also to those of the Post-Office Department,
+      can not be estimated too highly. This great work is likewise
+      an ornament and an honor to the nation. Believing that a
+      competent power to adopt and execute a system of internal
+      improvement has not been granted to Congress, but that such a
+      power, confined to great national purposes and with proper
+      limitations, would be productive of eminent advantage to our
+      Union, I have thought it advisable that an amendment of the
+      Constitution to that effect should be recommended to the
+      several States. A bill which assumed the right to adopt and
+      execute such a system having been presented for my signature
+      at the last session, I was compelled, from the view which I
+      had taken of the powers of the General Government, to
+      negative it, on which occasion I thought it proper to
+      communicate the sentiments which I had formed, on mature
+      consideration, on the whole subject. To that communication,
+      in all the views in which the great interest to which it
+      relates may be supposed to merit your attention, I have now
+      to refer. Should Congress, however, deem it improper to
+      recommend such an amendment, they have, according to my
+      judgment, the right to keep the road in repair by providing
+      for the superintendence of it and appropriating the money
+      necessary for repairs. Surely if they had the right to
+      appropriate money to make the road they have a right to
+      appropriate it to preserve the road from ruin. From the
+      exercise of this power no danger is to be apprehended. Under
+      our happy system the people are the sole and exclusive
+      fountain of power. Each government originates from them, and
+      to them alone, each to its proper constituents, are they
+      respectively and solely responsible for the faithful
+      discharge of their duties within their constitutional limits;
+      and that the people will confine their public agents of every
+      station to the strict line of their constitutional duties
+      there is no cause to doubt. Having, however, communicated my
+      sentiments to Congress at the last session fully in the
+      document to which I have referred, respecting the right of
+      appropriation as distinct from the right of jurisdiction and
+      sovereignty over the territory in question, I deem it
+      improper to enlarge on the subject here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the best information that I have been able to obtain it
+      appears that our manufactures, though depressed immediately
+      after the peace, have considerably increased, and are still
+      increasing, under the encouragement given them by the tariff
+      of 1816 and by subsequent laws. Satisfied I am, whatever may
+      be the abstract doctrine in favor of unrestricted commerce,
+      provided all nations would, concur in it and it was not
+      liable to be interrupted by war, which has never occurred and
+      can not be expected, that there are other strong reasons
+      applicable to our situation and relations with other
+      countries which impose on us the obligation to cherish and
+      sustain our manufactures. Satisfied, however, I likewise am
+      that the interest of every part of our Union, even of those
+      most benefited by manufactures, requires that this subject
+      should be touched with the greatest caution, and a critical
+      knowledge of the effect to be produced by the slightest
+      change. On full consideration of the subject in all its
+      relations I am persuaded that a further augmentation may now
+      be made of the duties on certain foreign articles in favor of
+      our own and without affecting injuriously any other interest.
+      For more precise details I refer you to the communications
+      which were made to Congress during the last session.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So great was the amount of accounts for moneys advanced
+      during the late war, in addition to others of a previous date
+      which in the regular operations of the Government necessarily
+      remained unsettled, that it required a considerable length of
+      time for their adjustment. By a report from the First
+      Comptroller of the Treasury it appears that on the 4th of
+      March, 1817, the accounts then unsettled amounted to
+      $103,068,876.41, of which, on the 30th of September of the
+      present year, $93,175,396.56 had been settled, leaving on
+      that day a balance unsettled of $9,893,479.85. That there
+      have been drawn from the Treasury, in paying the public debt
+      and sustaining the Government in all its operations and
+      disbursements, since the 4th of March, 1817, $157,199,380.96,
+      the accounts for which have been settled to the amount of
+      $137,501,451.12, leaving a balance unsettled of
+      $19,697,929.84. For precise details respecting each of these
+      balances I refer to the report of the Comptroller and the
+      documents which accompany it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this view it appears that our commercial differences
+      with France and Great Britain have been placed in a train of
+      amicable arrangement on conditions fair and honorable in both
+      instances to each party; that our finances are in a very
+      productive state, our revenue being at present fully
+      competent to all the demands upon it; that our military force
+      is well organized in all its branches and capable of
+      rendering the most important service in case of emergency
+      that its number will admit of; that due progress has been
+      made, under existing appropriations, in the construction of
+      fortifications and in the operations of the Ordnance
+      Department; that due progress has in like manner been made in
+      the construction of ships of war; that our Navy is in the
+      best condition, felt and respected in every sea in which it
+      is employed for the protection of our commerce; that our
+      manufactures have augmented in amount and improved in
+      quality; that great progress has been made in the settlement
+      of accounts and in the recovery of the balances due by
+      individuals, and that the utmost economy is secured and
+      observed in every Department of the Administration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Other objects will likewise claim your attention, because
+      from the station which the United States hold as a member of
+      the great community of nations they have rights to maintain,
+      duties to perform, and dangers to encounter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A strong hope was entertained that peace would ere this have
+      been concluded between Spain and the independent governments
+      south of the United States in this hemisphere. Long
+      experience having evinced the competency of those governments
+      to maintain the independence which they had declared, it was
+      presumed that the considerations which induced their
+      recognition by the United States would have had equal weight
+      with other powers, and that Spain herself, yielding to those
+      magnanimous feelings of which her history furnishes so many
+      examples, would have terminated on that basis a controversy
+      so unavailing and at the same time so destructive. We still
+      cherish the hope that this result will not long be postponed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sustaining our neutral position and allowing to each party
+      while the war continues equal rights, it is incumbent on the
+      United States to claim of each with equal rigor the faithful
+      observance of our rights according to the well-known law of
+      nations. From each, therefore, a like cooperation is expected
+      in the suppression of the piratical practice which has grown
+      out of this war and of blockades of extensive coasts on both
+      seas, which, considering the small force employed to sustain
+      them, have not the slightest foundation to rest on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Europe is still unsettled, and although the war long menaced
+      between Russia and Turkey has not broken out, there is no
+      certainty that the differences between those powers will be
+      amicably adjusted. It is impossible to look to the
+      oppressions of the country respecting which those differences
+      arose without being deeply affected. The mention of Greece
+      fills the mind with the most exalted sentiments and arouses
+      in our bosoms the best feelings of which our nature is
+      susceptible. Superior skill and refinement in the arts,
+      heroic gallantry in action, disinterested patriotism,
+      enthusiastic zeal and devotion in favor of public and
+      personal liberty are associated with our recollections of
+      ancient Greece. That such a country should have been
+      overwhelmed and so long hidden, as it were, from the world
+      under a gloomy despotism has been a cause of unceasing and
+      deep regret to generous minds for ages past. It was natural,
+      therefore, that the reappearance of those people in their
+      original character, contending in favor of their liberties,
+      should produce that great excitement and sympathy in their
+      favor which have been so signally displayed throughout the
+      United States. A strong hope is entertained that these people
+      will recover their independence and resume their equal
+      station among the nations of the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A great effort has been made in Spain and Portugal to improve
+      the condition of the people, and it must be very consoling to
+      all benevolent minds to see the extraordinary moderation with
+      which it has been conducted. That it may promote the
+      happiness of both nations is the ardent wish of this whole
+      people, to the expression of which we confine ourselves; for
+      whatever may be the feelings or sentiments which every
+      individual under our Government has a right to indulge and
+      express, it is nevertheless a sacred maxim, equally with the
+      Government and people, that the destiny of every independent
+      nation in what relates to such improvements of right belongs
+      and ought to be left exclusively to themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether we reason from the late wars or from those menacing
+      symptoms which now appear in Europe, it is manifest that if a
+      convulsion should take place in any of those countries it
+      will proceed from causes which have no existence and are
+      utterly unknown in these States, in which there is but one
+      order, that of the people, to whom the sovereignty
+      exclusively belongs. Should war break out in any of those
+      countries, who can foretell the extent to which it may be
+      carried or the desolation which it may spread? Exempt as we
+      are from these causes, our internal tranquillity is secure;
+      and distant as we are from the troubled scene, and faithful
+      to first principles in regard to other powers, we might
+      reasonably presume that we should not be molested by them.
+      This, however, ought not to be calculated on as certain.
+      Unprovoked injuries are often inflicted, and even the
+      peculiar felicity of our situation might with some be a cause
+      for excitement and aggression. The history of the late wars
+      in Europe furnishes a complete demonstration that no system
+      of conduct, however correct in principle, can protect neutral
+      powers from injury from any party; that a defenseless
+      position and distinguished love of peace are the surest
+      invitations to war, and that there is no way to avoid it
+      other than by being always prepared and willing for just
+      cause to meet it. If there be a people on earth whose more
+      especial duty it is to be at all times prepared to defend the
+      rights with which they are blessed, and to surpass all others
+      in sustaining the necessary burdens, and in submitting to
+      sacrifices to make such preparations, it is undoubtedly the
+      people of these States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When we see that a civil war of the most frightful character
+      rages from the Adriatic to the Black Sea; that strong
+      symptoms of war appear in other parts, proceeding from causes
+      which, should it break out, may become general and be of long
+      duration; that the war still continues between Spain and the
+      independent governments, her late Provinces, in this
+      hemisphere; that it is likewise menaced between Portugal and
+      Brazil, in consequence of the attempt of the latter to
+      dismember itself from the former, and that a system of piracy
+      of great extent is maintained in the neighboring seas, which
+      will require equal vigilance and decision to suppress it, the
+      reasons for sustaining the attitude which we now hold and for
+      pushing forward all our measures of defense with the utmost
+      vigor appear to me to acquire new force.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The United States owe to the world a great example, and, by
+      means thereof, to the cause of liberty and humanity a
+      generous support. They have so far succeeded to the
+      satisfaction of the virtuous and enlightened of every
+      country. There is no reason to doubt that their whole
+      movement will be regulated by a sacred regard to principle,
+      all our institutions being founded on that basis. The ability
+      to support our own cause under any trial to which it may be
+      exposed is the great point on which the public solicitude
+      rests. It has been often charged against free governments
+      that they have neither the foresight nor the virtue to
+      provide at the proper season for great emergencies; that
+      their course is improvident and expensive; that war will
+      always find them unprepared, and, whatever may be its
+      calamities, that its terrible warnings will be disregarded
+      and forgotten as soon as peace returns. I have full
+      confidence that this charge so far as relates to the United
+      States will be shewn to be utterly destitute of truth.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 4, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The convention between the United States and France,
+      concluded at Washington on the 24th day of June last, is now
+      transmitted to the Senate for their advice and consent with
+      regard to its ratification, together with the documents
+      relating to the negotiation, which may serve to elucidate the
+      deliberations of the Senate concerning its objects and the
+      purposes to which it was adapted.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 4, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit herewith to the Senate, for their constitutional
+      consideration and decision thereon, a convention between the
+      United States and Great Britain, concluded at St. Petersburg
+      on the 12th day of July last, under the mediation of His
+      Imperial Majesty of all the Russias, together with the
+      documents appertaining thereto, and which may elucidate the
+      motives for its negotiation and the objects for the
+      accomplishment of which it is intended.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 6, 1822</i>.
+    </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 7th of May last, requiring that a plan
+      for the peace establishment of the Navy of the United States
+      and also of the Marine Corps should be communicated to that
+      House at the present session, I transmit a report of the
+      Secretary of the Navy, containing a plan which has been
+      prepared for the proposed establishment.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 7, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 8th of
+      May last, requesting "information relative to the copper
+      mines on the southern shore of Lake Superior, their number,
+      value, and position, the names of the Indian tribes who claim
+      them, the practicability of extinguishing their titles, and
+      the probable advantages which may result to the Republic from
+      the acquisition and working these mines," I herewith transmit
+      a report from the Secretary of War, which comprises the
+      information desired in the resolution referred to.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 9, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Recent information of the multiplied outrages and
+      depredations which have been committed on our seamen and
+      commerce by the pirates in the West Indies and Gulf of
+      Mexico, exemplified by the death of a very meritorious
+      officer, seems to call for some prompt and decisive measures
+      on the part of the Government. All the public vessels adapted
+      to that service which can be spared from other indispensable
+      duties are already employed in it; but from the knowledge
+      which has been acquired of the places from whence these
+      outlaws issue and to which they escape from danger it appears
+      that it will require a particular kind of force, capable of
+      pursuing them into the shallow waters to which they retire,
+      effectually to suppress them. I submit to the consideration
+      of the Senate the propriety of organizing such force for that
+      important object.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [The same message, dated December 6, 1822, was sent to the
+      House of Representatives.]
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 9, 1822</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 22d of
+      February last, "requesting the President of the United States
+      to cause to be collected and communicated to the Senate at
+      the commencement of the next session of Congress the best
+      information which he may be able to obtain relative to
+      certain Christian Indians and the lands intended for their
+      benefit on the Muskingum, in the State of Ohio, granted under
+      an act of Congress of June 1, 1796, to the Society of the
+      United Brethren for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen,
+      showing as correctly as possible the advance or decline of
+      said Indians in numbers, morals, and intellectual endowments;
+      whether the lands have inured to their sole benefit, and, if
+      not, to whom, in whole or in part, have such benefits
+      accrued," I transmit a report from the Secretary of War with
+      the accompanying documents.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 3, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with the three resolutions of the Senate of the
+      5th April, 1822, requesting the President of the United
+      States to communicate in detail the expenses of building each
+      vessel of war authorized by the act of the 2d of January,
+      1813, and its supplements, and also the names, number, grade,
+      etc., of the officers and men employed at each navy-yard and
+      naval station during the two years immediately preceding the
+      1st of January, 1822, I herewith transmit a report from the
+      Secretary of the Navy, with the accompanying documents, which
+      contains the desired information.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 3, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with the resolutions of the House of
+      Representatives of the 8th of January, 7th May, and 17th
+      December, 1822, requesting the President of the United States
+      to cause to be laid before that House a detailed statement of
+      the current expenses of the Ordnance Department for the years
+      1817, 1818, 1819, 1820, and 1821, and as much as can be shewn
+      for the year 1822, and also the number and local position of
+      each of the armories, arsenals, and magazines of the United
+      States, the total expense of constructing and repairing the
+      same up to the year 1821; the number of cannon and other arms
+      annually made at each, and the expenses of each armory and
+      arsenal for each year from 1816 to 1821, inclusive, I
+      herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War,
+      accompanied by such documents as will be found to contain the
+      desired information.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 3, 1823</i>.
+    </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 United States of the 19th of December,
+      1822, requesting the President of the United States to cause
+      to be laid before that House the several laws which have been
+      made by the governor and legislative council of Florida,
+      together with such information as may be in the possession of
+      the Executive, I herewith transmit a report from the
+      Secretary of State, with the accompanying documents, which
+      contains the information desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 6, 1823</i>.
+    </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 19th of December last, requesting the
+      President of the United States to communicate to the House
+      the progress which has been made in the execution of the act
+      of the last session entitled "An act to abolish the Indian
+      trading establishments," with a report from the factories,
+      respectively, as the same were made to him, I transmit a
+      report from the Secretary of the Treasury, with the documents
+      referred to by that resolution. In further execution of the
+      act of the last session treaties have since been made with
+      the Osage and Sac Indians by which those tribes have
+      severally relinquished to the United States their right under
+      preceding treaties to the maintenance of a factory within
+      each, respectively.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 6, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate, for their advice and consent as to
+      the ratification, treaties which have been made with the
+      Osage and Sac tribes of Indians in execution of the provision
+      contained in the act of the last session entitled "An act to
+      abolish the Indian trading establishments."
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 10, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate requesting the
+      President of the United States "to cause to be laid before
+      the Senate the number of arms required annually to supply the
+      militia of the West according to acts of Congress; the
+      probable number necessary to be placed in military deposits
+      located or to be located on the Western waters; the cost of
+      transportation of arms to the Western States and deposits;
+      the probable cost of manufacturing arms in the West; the
+      probable cost of erecting at this time on the Western waters
+      such an armory as that at Harpers Ferry or at Springfield,
+      and such other information as he may deem important to
+      establish the expediency of erecting on the Western waters a
+      national armory," I herewith transmit a report from the
+      Secretary of War containing the desired information.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 16, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND PRESIDENT OF THE
+      SENATE:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The convention concluded and signed at St. Petersburg on the
+      21st of July last under the mediation of His Imperial Majesty
+      the Emperor of all the Russias having been ratified by the
+      three powers parties thereto, and the ratifications of the
+      same having been duly exchanged, copies of it are now
+      communicated to Congress, to the end that the measures for
+      carrying it on the part of the United States into execution
+      may obtain the cooperation of the Legislature necessary to
+      the accomplishment of some of its provisions. A translation
+      is subjoined of three explanatory documents, in the French
+      language, referred to in the fourth article of the convention
+      and annexed to it. The agreement executed at the exchange of
+      the ratifications is likewise communicated.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [The same message was addressed to the Speaker of the House
+      of Representatives.]
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 22, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of December 12, 1822,
+      requesting that the President would cause to be laid before
+      the Senate a statement exhibiting the amount in aggregate of
+      the goods, wares, and merchandise exported from the United
+      States to France, and imported from thence, in each year from
+      and after the year 1814 to the year 1820, discriminating in
+      the reports between the articles of the growth, produce, or
+      manufacture of the United States and those of foreign
+      countries, and also stating the national character of the
+      vessels in which such exports and imports have been made, I
+      transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, which
+      contains the information desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 22, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In carrying fully into effect the intention of Congress in
+      making an appropriation of $5,000 by the act of the 14th
+      April, 1820, for the survey of the Ohio and the Mississippi
+      rivers from the Rapids of the Ohio at Louisville to the
+      Balize, for the purpose of facilitating and ascertaining the
+      most practicable route of improving the navigation of these
+      rivers, orders were given through the proper department to
+      the Board of Engineers to examine and survey the said rivers
+      with reference to those objects, and to report their opinion
+      thereon, which they have done, and which report I now
+      communicate for the information of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 25, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit herewith to the House of Representatives a report
+      from the Secretary of State, together with the documents
+      which contain the information requested by the resolution of
+      the House of the 10th of December last, relating to the
+      establishment at the mouth of Columbia River.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of the Navy,
+      containing one from Captain John Rodgers, president of the
+      Naval Board, accompanied by a description of the inclined
+      plane, dock, and fixtures for hauling up ships, and an
+      estimate of the cost and materials and workmanship necessary
+      for the completion of a dock and wharves, proposed to be
+      connected with the inclined plane constructed at the
+      navy-yard, Washington, and recommend the same to the
+      attentive consideration of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is confidently believed that this invention combines
+      advantages so highly useful as to justify the appropriation
+      required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      JANUARY 28, 1823
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 3, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having lately received a memorial from the legislative
+      council of the Territory of Florida on subjects very
+      interesting to the inhabitants of the Territory and also to
+      the United States, which require legislative provision, I
+      transmit the same to Congress and recommend it to their
+      consideration,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [The same message was addressed to the Speaker of the House
+      of Representatives.]
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 3, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit herewith a resolution of the legislature, with an
+      extract of a letter from the governor, of Georgia, and a
+      memorial of the legislature of Missouri, relative to the
+      extinguishment of the Indian title to lands within the limits
+      of these States, respectively. Believing the present time to
+      be propitious for holding treaties for the attainment of
+      cessions of land from the Indians within those States, I
+      submit the subject to the consideration of Congress, that
+      adequate appropriations for such treaties may be made should
+      Congress deem it expedient.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 4, 1823.
+    </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 12th of December last, requesting the
+      President "to communicate to the House such information as he
+      might possess with regard to any expedition prepared in the
+      United States and having sailed from thence within the year
+      1822 against the territory or dependency of any power in
+      amity with the United States, and to inform the House whether
+      any measures have been taken to bring to condign punishment
+      persons who have been concerned in such expedition contrary
+      to the laws," I transmit to the House reports from the
+      Secretaries of State and of the Treasury, with the documents
+      mentioned in each. Those documents contain all the
+      information in possession of the Executive relating to the
+      subject of the resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That a force of a very limited extent has been equipped in
+      the ports of the United States and sailed from thence for the
+      purpose described in the resolution is manifest from the
+      documents now communicated. The reports from the collectors
+      of Philadelphia and New York will shew in what manner this
+      equipment escaped their notice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first information of this equipment was received from St.
+      Bartholomews, the place of its rendezvous. This was confirmed
+      afterwards from Curracoa with an account of its failure.
+      Should any of those persons return within the jurisdiction of
+      the United States care will be taken that the laws applicable
+      to such offenses are duly enforced against them. Whether any
+      aid was afforded by others to the parties engaged in this
+      unlawful and contemptible adventure in the ports in which it
+      was planned, inconsistent with ordinary commercial
+      transactions and contrary to the laws of the United States,
+      will be referred to the Attorney-General, on whose advice any
+      measures in regard to them will depend.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 6, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 28th of January last, requesting
+      information "whether the treaty concluded with the Choctaw
+      Nation of Indians on the 18th of October, 1820, has been
+      executed so far as respects the cession of certain lands to
+      said nation west of the river Mississippi, and if possession
+      has been given of the lands ceded to them; if not, that he
+      assign the reasons which prevented the immediate execution of
+      the stipulations of said treaty, and whether the difficulties
+      have diminished or increased by the delay in its execution,"
+      I communicate a report from the Secretary of War, with the
+      documents referred to in it,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 10, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of February 3,
+      requesting a statement of the number and size of cannon,
+      mortars, and howitzers necessary for the armament of the
+      fortifications already built and intended to be built, with
+      an estimate of the sum necessary for their construction, I
+      transmit a report from the Secretary of War, prepared in
+      execution of instructions given him to that effect.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 13, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of 22d January last, requesting the
+      communication to the House of all the correspondence between
+      the Governments of the United States and Great Britain
+      relating to the negotiation of the convention of the 20th
+      October, 1818, which may not be inconsistent with the public
+      interest, I transmit herewith to the House a report from the
+      Secretary of State, together with the papers requested by the
+      resolution of the House.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 14, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 11th of
+      this month, requesting the President to cause to be
+      communicated to the Senate an estimate of the amount of land
+      in the State of Georgia to which the Indian title has been
+      extinguished by the United States since the cession of a
+      portion of the territory of Georgia to the United States,
+      with a statement of the cost of such extinguishment, and also
+      an estimate of the amount of land within the said State to
+      which the Indian title still remains to be extinguished, and
+      by what tribes claimed, I transmit a report from the
+      Secretary of War, which contains the information desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 17, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 17th of December, requesting the
+      President to communicate to the House a statement of the
+      amount expended for the current expenses of the Ordnance
+      Department during the years 1817, 1818, 1819, 1820, and 1821,
+      and as much as can be shewn for the year 1822, with the items
+      for which the money was expended, the place where and the
+      persons to whom paid, what quantity of timber has been
+      procured for gun carriages and caissons, its cost annually,
+      and where deposited; the quantity of ordnance of every kind
+      that has been procured during those years or paid for, and
+      the whole amount of arms of every description now belonging
+      to the United States; the sum expended in the purchase of
+      sites for arsenals since the peace, the cost of the buildings
+      erected thereon, and whether all those arsenals are necessary
+      for the service of the United States, I transmit a report
+      from the Secretary of War, with the documents mentioned
+      therein, which contains the information desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 18, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND PRESIDENT OF THE
+      SENATE:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The convention of navigation and commerce between the United
+      States of America and His Majesty the King of France and
+      Navarre, concluded and signed at Washington on the 24th of
+      June, 1822, with the first separate article thereto annexed,
+      having been ratified by the two parties, and the
+      ratifications of the same having been duly exchanged, copies
+      of it and of the separate article referred to are now
+      communicated to the two Houses of Congress, to the end that
+      the necessary measures for carrying it into execution on the
+      part of the United States may be adopted by the Legislature.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [The same message was sent to the House of Representatives.]
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 19, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 11th of December last, I transmit to
+      the House a report from the Secretary of the Treasury,
+      containing the information requested, of the amount of moneys
+      advanced to agents, subagents, contractors, subcontractors,
+      or individuals since the 1st of January, 1817, which have not
+      been accounted for on settlement, and of the loss sustained
+      in each case, the sureties taken, and the names of the
+      sureties.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 19, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the House of Representatives, in pursuance of a
+      resolution of that House of the 31st of last month, a report
+      from the Secretary of State, relative to the commissioners
+      appointed for the purpose of ascertaining the titles and
+      claims to land in Florida.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 19, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the House of Representatives an additional
+      report from the Secretary of the Treasury, with the documents
+      referred to therein, containing further information of the
+      proceedings in execution of the law of the last session
+      respecting the trade with the Indian tribes, called for by
+      the resolution of the 19th of December last.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 22, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 11th of this month, requesting
+      information whether any prize agents have neglected to render
+      an account of their agency and to pay over the money in their
+      hands, the names of those who have failed, the sums
+      unaccounted for, and whether any of those thus failing are in
+      the employ of the Government, and their compensation has been
+      in consequence suspended, I transmit a report from the
+      Secretary of the Navy, with the documents referred to by him.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 25, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Congress of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to Congress the general returns of the militia of
+      the several States and Territories for the year 1822, with an
+      account of the arms, accouterments, ammunition, ordnance,
+      etc., belonging to each as far as the returns have been
+      received, in compliance with the provision of the act of
+      1803.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 25, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By a resolution of the 27th of December last the President of
+      the United States was requested to communicate to the Senate
+      such information as he might possess respecting the political
+      state of the island of St. Domingo; whether the Government
+      thereof was claimed by any European nation, what our
+      commercial relations with the Government of the island were,
+      and whether any further commercial relations with that
+      Government would be consistent with the interest and safety
+      of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the import of the resolution it is inferred that the
+      Senate were fully aware of the delicate and interesting
+      nature of the subject embraced by it in all its branches. The
+      call supposes something peculiar in the nature of the
+      Government of that island and in the character of its
+      population, to which attention is due. Impressed always with
+      an anxious desire to meet every call of either House for
+      information, I most willingly comply in this instance and
+      with a view to the particular circumstances alluded to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In adverting to the political state of St. Domingo I have to
+      observe that the whole island is now united under one
+      Government, under a constitution which retains the
+      sovereignty in the hands of the people of color, and with
+      provisions which prohibit the employment in the Government of
+      all white persons who have emigrated there since 1816, or who
+      may hereafter emigrate there, and which prohibit also the
+      acquisition by such persons of the right of citizenship or to
+      real estate in the island. In the exercise of this
+      sovereignty the Government has not been molested by any
+      European, power. No invasion of the island has been made or
+      attempted by any power. It is, however, understood that the
+      relations between the Government of France and the island
+      have not been adjusted, that its independence has not been
+      recognized by France, nor has peace been formally established
+      between the parties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The establishment of a Government of people of color in the
+      island on the principles above stated evinces distinctly the
+      idea of a separate interest and a distrust of other nations.
+      Had that jealousy been confined to the inhabitants of the
+      parent country it would have been less an object of
+      attention; but by extending it to the inhabitants of other
+      countries with whom no difference ever existed the policy
+      assumes a character which does not admit of a like
+      explanation. To what extent that spirit may be indulged or to
+      what purposes applied our experience has yet been too limited
+      to enable us to form a just estimate. These are inquiries
+      more peculiarly interesting to the neighboring islands. They
+      nevertheless deserve the attention of the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Between the United States and the island a commercial
+      intercourse exists, and it will continue to be the object of
+      this Government to promote it. Our commerce there has been
+      subjected to higher duties than have been imposed on like
+      articles from some other nations. It has nevertheless been
+      extensive, proceeding from the wants of the respective
+      parties and the enterprise of our citizens. Of this
+      discrimination to our injury we had a right to complain and
+      have complained. It is expected that our commercial
+      intercourse with the island will be placed on the footing of
+      the most favored nation. No preference is sought in our
+      favor, nor ought any to be given to others. Regarding the
+      high interest of our happy Union and looking to every
+      circumstance which may by any possibility affect the
+      tranquillity of any part, however remotely, and guarding
+      against such injury by suitable precautions, it is the duty
+      of this Government to promote by all the means in its power
+      and by a fair and honorable policy the best interest of every
+      other part, and thereby of the whole. Feeling profoundly the
+      force of this obligation, I shall continue to exert with
+      unwearied zeal my best faculties to give it effect.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 26, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the House of Representatives, in pursuance of a
+      resolution of that House of the 30th January last, a report
+      from the Secretary of State, containing the information
+      required in relation to the transactions of the commissioners
+      under the sixth and seventh articles of the treaty of Ghent,
+      and also as to the measures which have been taken under the
+      fourth article of the treaty with Spain of the 22d of
+      February, 1819, for fixing the boundary line described in the
+      third article of the last-mentioned treaty.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 27, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the
+      Secretary of State, made in pursuance of their resolution of
+      the 21st of January last, requesting the President of the
+      United States to cause to be arranged and laid before that
+      House a digest shewing such changes in the commercial
+      regulations of the different foreign countries with which the
+      United States have intercourse as shall have been adopted and
+      come to the knowledge of the Executive subsequently to the
+      formation of the digest communicated to the Senate on the 7th
+      December, 1819.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 28, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the
+      Secretary of State, with copies of sundry papers which should
+      have been included among those which accompanied my message
+      of the 13th instant, being part of the correspondence with
+      Great Britain relating to the negotiation of the convention
+      of 20th of October, 1818, but which were accidentally omitted
+      from the papers communicated to the House with that message.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 28, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 24th of January, requesting the
+      President to communicate to the House the number of persons
+      and the amount due from each whose compensation has been
+      withheld or suspended, in pursuance of the law prohibiting
+      payments to persons in arrears to the United States; whether
+      the amount withheld has been applied in all cases to the
+      extinguishment of their debts to the Government; whether the
+      said laws have been enforced in all cases against securities
+      who are liable for the payment of any arrears due; whether
+      any disbursing officer, within the knowledge of the
+      President, has given conclusive evidence of his insolvency,
+      and, if so, whether he is still retained in the service of
+      the United States, I transmit to the House a report from the
+      Secretary of the Treasury, with the documents mentioned
+      therein.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The report has been confined to the operations of the law.
+      Respecting the circumstances of individuals in their
+      transactions without the sphere of their public duties I have
+      no means of information other than those which are common to
+      all.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 7, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of this day, requesting information of the
+      measures taken with regard to the illegal blockade of the
+      ports of the Spanish Main, and to depredations of privateers
+      fitted out from Porto Rico and other Spanish islands on the
+      commerce of the United States, I transmit to the House a
+      report from the Secretary of State containing the information
+      required by the resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SEVENTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 2, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of
+      Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many important subjects will claim your attention during the
+      present session, of which I shall endeavor to give, in aid of
+      your deliberations, a just idea in this communication. I
+      undertake this duty with diffidence, from the vast extent of
+      the interests on which I have to treat and of their great
+      importance to every portion of our Union. I enter on it with
+      zeal from a thorough conviction that there never was a period
+      since the establishment of our Revolution when, regarding the
+      condition of the civilized world and its bearing on us, there
+      was greater necessity for devotion in the public servants to
+      their respective duties, or for virtue, patriotism, and union
+      in our constituents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meeting in you a new Congress, I deem it proper to present
+      this view of public affairs in greater detail than might
+      otherwise be necessary. I do it, however, with peculiar
+      satisfaction, from a knowledge that in this respect I shall
+      comply more fully with the sound principles of our
+      Government. The people being with us exclusively the
+      sovereign, it is indispensable that full information be laid
+      before them on all important subjects, to enable them to
+      exercise that high power with complete effect. If kept in the
+      dark, they must be incompetent to it. We are all liable to
+      error, and those who are engaged in the management of public
+      affairs are more subject to excitement and to be led astray
+      by their particular interests and passions than the great
+      body of our constituents, who, living at home in the pursuit
+      of their ordinary avocations, are calm but deeply interested
+      spectators of events and of the conduct of those who are
+      parties to them. To the people every department of the
+      Government and every individual in each are responsible, and
+      the more full their information the better they can judge of
+      the wisdom of the policy pursued and of the conduct of each
+      in regard to it. From their dispassionate judgment much aid
+      may always be obtained, while their approbation will form the
+      greatest incentive and most gratifying reward for virtuous
+      actions, and the dread of their censure the best security
+      against the abuse of their confidence. Their interests in all
+      vital questions are the same, and the bond, by sentiment as
+      well as by interest, will be proportionably strengthened as
+      they are better informed of the real state of public affairs,
+      especially in difficult conjunctures. It is by such knowledge
+      that local prejudices and jealousies are surmounted, and that
+      a national policy, extending its fostering care and
+      protection to all the great interests of our Union, is formed
+      and steadily adhered to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A precise knowledge of our relations with foreign powers as
+      respects our negotiations and transactions with each is
+      thought to be particularly necessary. Equally necessary is it
+      that we should form a just estimate of our resources,
+      revenue, and progress in every kind of improvement connected
+      with the national prosperity and public defense. It is by
+      rendering justice to other nations that we may expect it from
+      them. It is by our ability to resent injuries and redress
+      wrongs that we may avoid them. The commissioners under the
+      fifth article of the treaty of Ghent, having disagreed in
+      their opinions respecting that portion of the boundary
+      between the Territories of the United States and of Great
+      Britain the establishment of which had been submitted to
+      them, have made their respective reports in compliance with
+      that article, that the same might be referred to the decision
+      of a friendly power. It being manifest, however, that it
+      would be difficult, if not impossible, for any power to
+      perform that office without great delay and much
+      inconvenience to itself, a proposal has been made by this
+      Government, and acceded to by that of Great Britain, to
+      endeavor to establish that boundary by amicable negotiation.
+      It appearing from long experience that no satisfactory
+      arrangement could be formed of the commercial intercourse
+      between the United States and the British colonies in this
+      hemisphere by legislative acts while each party pursued its
+      own course without agreement or concert with the other, a
+      proposal has been made to the British Government to regulate
+      this commerce by treaty, as it has been to arrange in like
+      manner the just claim of the citizens of the United States
+      inhabiting the States and Territories bordering on the lakes
+      and rivers which empty into the St. Lawrence to the
+      navigation of that river to the ocean. For these and other
+      objects of high importance to the interests of both parties a
+      negotiation has been opened with the British Government which
+      it is hoped will have a satisfactory result.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The commissioners under the sixth and seventh articles of the
+      treaty of Ghent having successfully closed their labors in
+      relation to the sixth, have proceeded to the discharge of
+      those relating to the seventh. Their progress in the
+      extensive survey required for the performance of their duties
+      justifies the presumption that it will be completed in the
+      ensuing year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The negotiation which had been long depending with the French
+      Government on several important subjects, and particularly
+      for a just indemnity for losses sustained in the late wars by
+      the citizens of the United States under unjustifiable
+      seizures and confiscations of their property, has not as yet
+      had the desired effect. As this claim rests on the same
+      principle with others which have been admitted by the French
+      Government, it is not perceived on what just ground it can be
+      rejected. A minister will be immediately appointed to proceed
+      to France and resume the negotiation on this and other
+      subjects which may arise between the two nations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the proposal of the Russian Imperial Government, made
+      through the minister of the Emperor residing here, a full
+      power and instructions have been transmitted to the minister
+      of the United States at St. Petersburg to arrange by amicable
+      negotiation the respective rights and interests of the two
+      nations on the northwest coast of this continent. A similar
+      proposal had been made by His Imperial Majesty to the
+      Government of Great Britain, which has likewise been acceded
+      to. The Government of the United States has been desirous by
+      this friendly proceeding of manifesting the great value which
+      they have invariably attached to the friendship of the
+      Emperor and their solicitude to cultivate the best
+      understanding with his Government. In the discussions to
+      which this interest has given rise and in the arrangements by
+      which they may terminate the occasion has been judged proper
+      for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and
+      interests of the United States are involved, that the
+      American continents, by the free and independent condition
+      which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to
+      be considered as subjects for future colonization by any
+      European powers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since the close of the last session of Congress the
+      commissioners and arbitrators for ascertaining and
+      determining the amount of indemnification which may be due to
+      citizens of the United States under the decision of His
+      Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia, in conformity to the
+      convention concluded at St. Petersburg on the 12th of July,
+      1822, have assembled in this city, and organized themselves
+      as a board for the performance of the duties assigned to them
+      by that treaty. The commission constituted under the eleventh
+      article of the treaty of the 22d of February, 1819, between
+      the United States and Spain is also in session here, and as
+      the term of three years limited by the treaty for the
+      execution of the trust will expire before the period of the
+      next regular meeting of Congress, the attention of the
+      Legislature will be drawn to the measures which may be
+      necessary to accomplish the objects for which the commission
+      was instituted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives adopted at their last session, instructions
+      have been given to all the ministers of the United States
+      accredited to the powers of Europe and America to propose the
+      proscription of the African slave trade by classing it under
+      the denomination, and inflicting on its perpetrators the
+      punishment, of piracy. Should this proposal be acceded to, it
+      is not doubted that this odious and criminal practice will be
+      promptly and entirely suppressed. It is earnestly hoped that
+      it will be acceded to, from the firm belief that it is the
+      most effectual expedient that can be adopted for the purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the commencement of the recent war between France and
+      Spain it was declared by the French Government that it would
+      grant no commissions to privateers, and that neither the
+      commerce of Spain herself nor of neutral nations should be
+      molested by the naval force of France, except in the breach
+      of a lawful blockade. This declaration, which appears to have
+      been faithfully carried into effect, concurring with
+      principles proclaimed and cherished by the United States from
+      the first establishment of their independence, suggested the
+      hope that the time had arrived when the proposal for adopting
+      it as a permanent and invariable rule in all future maritime
+      wars might meet the favorable consideration of the great
+      European powers. Instructions have accordingly been given to
+      our ministers with France, Russia, and Great Britain to make
+      those proposals to their respective Governments, and when the
+      friends of humanity reflect on the essential amelioration to
+      the condition of the human race which would result from the
+      abolition of private war on the sea and on the great facility
+      by which it might be accomplished, requiring only the consent
+      of a few sovereigns, an earnest hope is indulged that these
+      overtures will meet with an attention animated by the spirit
+      in which they were made, and that they will ultimately be
+      successful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ministers who were appointed to the Republics of Colombia
+      and Buenos Ayres during the last session of Congress
+      proceeded shortly afterwards to their destinations. Of their
+      arrival there official intelligence has not yet been
+      received. The minister appointed to the Republic of Chile
+      will sail in a few days. An early appointment will also be
+      made to Mexico. A minister has been received from Colombia,
+      and the other Governments have been informed that ministers,
+      or diplomatic agents of inferior grade, would be received
+      from each, accordingly as they might prefer the one or the
+      other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The minister appointed to Spain proceeded soon after his
+      appointment for Cadiz, the residence of the Sovereign to whom
+      he was accredited. In approaching that port the frigate which
+      conveyed him was warned off by the commander of the French
+      squadron by which it was blockaded and not permitted to
+      enter, although apprised by the captain of the frigate of the
+      public character of the person whom he had on board, the
+      landing of whom was the sole object of his proposed entry.
+      This act, being considered an infringement of the rights of
+      ambassadors and of nations, will form a just cause of
+      complaint to the Government of France against the officer by
+      whom it was committed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The actual condition of the public finances more than
+      realizes the favorable anticipations that were entertained of
+      it at the opening of the last session of Congress. On the 1st
+      of January there was a balance in the Treasury of
+      $4,237,427.55. From that time to the 30th September the
+      receipts amounted to upward of $16,100,000, and the
+      expenditures to $11,400,000. During the fourth quarter of the
+      year it is estimated that the receipts will at least equal
+      the expenditures, and that there will remain in the Treasury
+      on the 1st day of January next a surplus of nearly
+      $9,000,000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 1st of January, 1825, a large amount of the war debt
+      and a part of the Revolutionary debt become redeemable.
+      Additional portions of the former will continue to become
+      redeemable annually until the year 1835. It is believed,
+      however, that if the United States remain at peace the whole
+      of that debt may be redeemed by the ordinary revenue of those
+      years during that period under the provision of the act of
+      March 3, 1817, creating the sinking fund, and in that case
+      the only part of the debt that will remain after the year
+      1835 will be the $7,000,000 of 5 per cent stock subscribed to
+      the Bank of the United States, and the 3 per cent
+      Revolutionary debt, amounting to $13,296,099.06, both of
+      which are redeemable at the pleasure of the Government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The state of the Army in its organization and discipline has
+      been gradually improving for several years, and has now
+      attained a high degree of perfection. The military
+      disbursements have been regularly made and the accounts
+      regularly and promptly rendered for settlement. The supplies
+      of various descriptions have been of good quality, and
+      regularly issued at all of the posts. A system of economy and
+      accountability has been introduced into every branch of the
+      service which admits of little additional improvement. This
+      desirable state has been attained by the act reorganizing the
+      staff of the Army, passed on the 14th of April, 1818.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moneys appropriated for fortifications have been
+      regularly and economically applied, and all the works
+      advanced as rapidly as the amount appropriated would admit.
+      Three important works will be completed in the course of this
+      year&mdash;that is, Fort Washington, Fort Delaware, and the
+      fort at the Rigolets, in Louisiana.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Board of Engineers and the Topographical Corps have been
+      in constant and active service in surveying the coast and
+      projecting the works necessary for its defense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Military Academy has attained a degree of perfection in
+      its discipline and instruction equal, as is believed, to any
+      institution of its kind in any country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The money appropriated for the use of the Ordnance Department
+      has been regularly and economically applied. The fabrication
+      of arms at the national armories and by contract with the
+      Department has been gradually improving in quality and
+      cheapness. It is believed that their quality is now such as
+      to admit of but little improvement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The completion of the fortifications renders it necessary
+      that there should be a suitable appropriation for the purpose
+      of fabricating the cannon and carriages necessary for those
+      works.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the appropriation of $5,000 for exploring the Western
+      waters for the location of a site for a Western armory, a
+      commission was constituted, consisting of Colonel McRee,
+      Colonel Lee, and Captain Talcott, who have been engaged in
+      exploring the country. They have not yet reported the result
+      of their labors, but it is believed that they will be
+      prepared to do it at an early part of the session of
+      Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the month of June last General Ashley and his party,
+      who were trading under a license from the Government, were
+      attacked by the Ricarees while peaceably trading with the
+      Indians at their request. Several of the party were killed
+      and wounded and their property taken or destroyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Colonel Leavenworth, who commanded Fort Atkinson, at the
+      Council Bluffs, the most western post, apprehending that the
+      hostile spirit of the Ricarees would extend to other tribes
+      in that quarter, and that thereby the lives of the traders on
+      the Missouri and the peace of the frontier would be
+      endangered, took immediate measures to check the evil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a detachment of the regiment stationed at the Bluffs he
+      successfully attacked the Ricaree village, and it is hoped
+      that such an impression has been made on them as well as on
+      the other tribes on the Missouri as will prevent a recurrence
+      of future hostility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The report of the Secretary of War, which is herewith
+      transmitted, will exhibit in greater detail the condition of
+      the Department in its various branches, and the progress
+      which has been made in its administration during the three
+      first quarters of the year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit a return of the militia of the several States
+      according to the last reports which have been made by the
+      proper officers in each to the Department of War. By
+      reference to this return it will be seen that it is not
+      complete, although great exertions have been made to make it
+      so. As the defense and even the liberties of the country must
+      depend in times of imminent danger on the militia, it is of
+      the highest importance that it be well organized, armed, and
+      disciplined throughout the Union. The report of the Secretary
+      of War shews the progress made during the three first
+      quarters of the present year by the application of the fund
+      appropriated for arming the militia. Much difficulty is found
+      in distributing the arms according to the act of Congress
+      providing for it from the failure of the proper departments
+      in many of the States to make regular returns. The act of May
+      12, 1820, provides that the system of tactics and regulations
+      of the various corps of the Regular Army shall be extended to
+      the militia. This act has been very imperfectly executed from
+      the want of uniformity in the organization of the militia,
+      proceeding from the defects of the system itself, and
+      especially in its application to that main arm of the public
+      defense. It is thought that this important subject in all its
+      branches merits the attention of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The report of the Secretary of the Navy, which is now
+      communicated, furnishes an account of the administration of
+      that Department for the three first quarters of the present
+      year, with the progress made in augmenting the Navy, and the
+      manner in which the vessels in commission have been employed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The usual force has been maintained in the Mediterranean Sea,
+      the Pacific Ocean, and along the Atlantic coast, and has
+      afforded the necessary protection to our commerce in those
+      seas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the West Indies and the Gulf of Mexico our naval force has
+      been augmented by the addition of several small vessels
+      provided for by the "act authorizing an additional naval
+      force for the suppression of piracy," passed by Congress at
+      their last session. That armament has been eminently
+      successful in the accomplishment of its object. The piracies
+      by which our commerce in the neighborhood of the island of
+      Cuba had been afflicted have been repressed and the
+      confidence of our merchants in a great measure restored.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The patriotic zeal and enterprise of Commodore Porter, to
+      whom the command of the expedition was confided, has been
+      fully seconded by the officers and men under his command. And
+      in reflecting with high satisfaction on the honorable manner
+      in which they have sustained the reputation of their country
+      and its Navy, the sentiment is alloyed only by a concern that
+      in the fulfillment of that arduous service the diseases
+      incident to the season and to the climate in which it was
+      discharged have deprived the nation of many useful lives, and
+      among them of several officers of great promise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the month of August a very malignant fever made its
+      appearance at Thompsons Island, which threatened the
+      destruction of our station there. Many perished, and the
+      commanding officer was severely attacked. Uncertain as to his
+      fate and knowing that most of the medical officers had been
+      rendered incapable of discharging their duties, it was
+      thought expedient to send to that post an officer of rank and
+      experience, with several skillful surgeons, to ascertain the
+      origin of the fever and the probability of its recurrence
+      there in future seasons; to furnish every assistance to those
+      who were suffering, and, if practicable, to avoid the
+      necessity of abandoning so important a station. Commodore
+      Rodgers, with a promptitude which did him honor, cheerfully
+      accepted that trust, and has discharged it in the manner
+      anticipated from his skill and patriotism. Before his arrival
+      Commodore Porter, with the greater part of the squadron, had
+      removed from the island and returned to the United States in
+      consequence of the prevailing sickness. Much useful
+      information has, however, been obtained as to the state of
+      the island and great relief afforded to those who had been
+      necessarily left there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although our expedition, cooperating with an invigorated
+      administration of the government of the island of Cuba, and
+      with the corresponding active exertions of a British naval
+      force in the same seas, have almost entirely destroyed the
+      unlicensed piracies from that island, the success of our
+      exertions has not been equally effectual to suppress the same
+      crime, under other pretenses and colors, in the neighboring
+      island of Porto Rico. They have been committed there under
+      the abusive issue of Spanish commissions. At an early period
+      of the present year remonstrances were made to the governor
+      of that island, by an agent who was sent for the purpose,
+      against those outrages on the peaceful commerce of the United
+      States, of which many had occurred. That officer, professing
+      his own want of authority to make satisfaction for our just
+      complaints, answered only by a reference of them to the
+      Government of Spain. The minister of the United States to
+      that court was specially instructed to urge the necessity of
+      the immediate and effectual interposition of that Government,
+      directing restitution and indemnity for wrongs already
+      committed and interdicting the repetition of them. The
+      minister, as has been seen, was debarred access to the
+      Spanish Government, and in the meantime several new cases of
+      flagrant outrage have occurred, and citizens of the United
+      States in the island of Porto Rico have suffered, and others
+      been threatened with assassination for asserting their
+      unquestionable rights even before the lawful tribunals of the
+      country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The usual orders have been given to all our public ships to
+      seize American vessels engaged in the slave trade and bring
+      them in for adjudication, and I have the gratification to
+      state that not one so employed has been discovered, and there
+      is good reason to believe that our flag is now seldom, if at
+      all, disgraced by that traffic. It is a source of great
+      satisfaction that we are always enabled to recur to the
+      conduct of our Navy with pride and commendation. As a means
+      of national defense it enjoys the public confidence, and is
+      steadily assuming additional importance. It is submitted
+      whether a more efficient and equally economical organization
+      of it might not in several respects be effected. It is
+      supposed that higher grades than now exist by law would be
+      useful. They would afford well-merited rewards to those who
+      have long and faithfully served their country, present the
+      best incentives to good conduct, and the best means of
+      insuring a proper discipline; destroy the inequality in that
+      respect between military and naval services, and relieve our
+      officers from many inconveniences and mortifications which
+      occur when our vessels meet those of other nations, ours
+      being the only service in which such grades do not exist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A report of the Postmaster-General, which accompanies this
+      communication, will shew the present state of the Post-Office
+      Department and its general operations for some years past.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is established by law 88,600 miles of post-roads, on
+      which the mail is now transported 85,700 miles, and contracts
+      have been made for its transportation on all the established
+      routes, with one or two exceptions. There are 5,240
+      post-offices in the Union, and as many postmasters. The gross
+      amount of postage which accrued from the 1st July, 1822, to
+      the 1st July, 1823, was $1,114,345.12. During the same period
+      the expenditures of the Post-Office Department amounted to
+      $1,169,885.51, and consisted of the following items, viz:
+      Compensation to postmasters, $353,995.98; incidental
+      expenses, $30,866.37; transportation of the mail,
+      $784,600.08; payments into the Treasury, $423.08. On the 1st
+      of July last there was due to the Department from postmasters
+      $135,245.28; from <i>late</i> postmasters and contractors,
+      $256,749.31; making a total amount of balances due to the
+      Department of $391,994.59. These balances embrace all
+      delinquencies of postmasters and contractors which have taken
+      place since the organization of the Department. There was due
+      by the Department to contractors on the 1st of July last
+      $26,548.64.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The transportation of the mail within five years past has
+      been greatly extended, and the expenditures of the Department
+      proportionably increased. Although the postage which has
+      accrued within the last three years has fallen short of the
+      expenditures $262,821.46, it appears that collections have
+      been made from the outstanding balances to meet the principal
+      part of the current demands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is estimated that not more than $250,000 of the above
+      balances can be collected, and that a considerable part of
+      this sum can only be realized by a resort to legal process.
+      Some improvement in the receipts for postage is expected. A
+      prompt attention to the collection of moneys received by
+      postmasters, it is believed, will enable the Department to
+      continue its operations without aid from the Treasury, unless
+      the expenditures shall be increased by the establishment of
+      new mail routes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A revision of some parts of the post-office law may be
+      necessary; and it is submitted whether it would not be proper
+      to provide for the appointment of postmasters, where the
+      compensation exceeds a certain amount, by nomination to the
+      Senate, as other officers of the General Government are
+      appointed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having communicated my views to Congress at the commencement
+      of the last session respecting the encouragement which ought
+      to be given to our manufactures and the principle on which it
+      should be founded, I have only to add that those views remain
+      unchanged, and that the present state of those countries with
+      which we have the most immediate political relations and
+      greatest commercial intercourse tends to confirm them. Under
+      this impression I recommend a review of the tariff for the
+      purpose of affording such additional protection to those
+      articles which we are prepared to manufacture, or which are
+      more immediately connected with the defense and independence
+      of the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The actual state of the public accounts furnishes additional
+      evidence of the efficiency of the present system of
+      accountability in relation to the public expenditure. Of the
+      moneys drawn from the Treasury since the 4th March, 1817, the
+      sum remaining unaccounted for on the 30th of September last
+      is more than a million and a half of dollars less than on the
+      30th of September preceding; and during the same period a
+      reduction of nearly a million of dollars has been made in the
+      amount of the unsettled accounts for moneys advanced
+      previously to the 4th of March, 1817. It will be obvious that
+      in proportion as the mass of accounts of the latter
+      description is diminished by settlement the difficulty of
+      settling the residue is increased from the consideration that
+      in many instances it can be obtained only by legal process.
+      For more precise details on this subject I refer to a report
+      from the First Comptroller of the Treasury.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sum which was appropriated at the last session for the
+      repairs of the Cumberland road has been applied with good
+      effect to that object. A final report has not yet been
+      received from the agent who was appointed to superintend it.
+      As soon as it is received it shall be communicated to
+      Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many patriotic and enlightened citizens who have made the
+      subject an object of particular investigation have suggested
+      an improvement of still greater importance. They are of
+      opinion that the waters of the Chesapeake and Ohio may be
+      connected together by one continued canal, and at an expense
+      far short of the value and importance of the object to be
+      obtained. If this could be accomplished it is impossible to
+      calculate the beneficial consequences which would result from
+      it. A great portion of the produce of the very fertile
+      country through which it would pass would find a market
+      through that channel. Troops might be moved with great
+      facility in war, with cannon and every kind of munition, and
+      in either direction. Connecting the Atlantic with the Western
+      country in a line passing through the seat of the National
+      Government, it would contribute essentially to strengthen the
+      bond of union itself. Believing as I do that Congress possess
+      the right to appropriate money for such a national object
+      (the jurisdiction remaining to the States through which the
+      canal would pass), I submit it to your consideration whether
+      it may not be advisable to authorize by an adequate
+      appropriation the employment of a suitable number of the
+      officers of the Corps of Engineers to examine the unexplored
+      ground during the next season and to report their opinion
+      thereon. It will likewise be proper to extend their
+      examination to the several routes through which the waters of
+      the Ohio may be connected by canals with those of Lake Erie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Cumberland road will require annual repairs, and
+      Congress have not thought it expedient to recommend to the
+      States an amendment to the Constitution for the purpose of
+      vesting in the United States a power to adopt and execute a
+      system of internal improvement, it is also submitted to your
+      consideration whether it may not be expedient to authorize
+      the Executive to enter into an arrangement with the several
+      States through which the road passes to establish tolls, each
+      within its limits, for the purpose of defraying the expense
+      of future repairs and of providing also by suitable penalties
+      for its protection against future injuries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The act of Congress of the 7th of May, 1822, appropriated the
+      sum of $22,700 for the purpose of erecting two piers as a
+      shelter for vessels from ice near Cape Henlopen, Delaware
+      Bay. To effect the object of the act the officers of the
+      Board of Engineers, with Commodore Bainbridge, were directed
+      to prepare plans and estimates of piers sufficient to answer
+      the purpose intended by the act. It appears by their report,
+      which accompanies the documents from the War Department, that
+      the appropriation is not adequate to the purpose intended;
+      and as the piers would be of great service both to the
+      navigation of the Delaware Bay and the protection of vessels
+      on the adjacent parts of the coast, I submit for the
+      consideration of Congress whether additional and sufficient
+      appropriation should not be made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Board of Engineers were also directed to examine and
+      survey the entrance of the harbor of the port of Presquille,
+      in Pennsylvania, in order to make an estimate of the expense
+      of removing the obstructions to the entrance, with a plan of
+      the best mode of effecting the same, under the appropriation
+      for that purpose by act of Congress passed 3d of March last.
+      The report of the Board accompanies the papers from the War
+      Department, and is submitted for the consideration of
+      Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A strong hope has been long entertained, founded on the
+      heroic struggle of the Greeks, that they would succeed in
+      their contest and resume their equal station among the
+      nations of the earth. It is believed that the whole civilized
+      world take a deep interest in their welfare. Although no
+      power has declared in their favor, yet none, according to our
+      information, has taken part against them. Their cause and
+      their name have protected them from dangers which might ere
+      this have overwhelmed any other people. The ordinary
+      calculations of interest and of acquisition with a view to
+      aggrandizement, which mingles so much in the transactions of
+      nations, seem to have had no effect in regard to them. From
+      the facts which have come to our knowledge there is good
+      cause to believe that their enemy has lost forever all
+      dominion over them; that Greece will become again an
+      independent nation. That she may obtain that rank is the
+      object of our most ardent wishes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was stated at the commencement of the last session that a
+      great effort was then making in Spain and Portugal to improve
+      the condition of the people of those countries, and that it
+      appeared to be conducted with extraordinary moderation. It
+      need scarcely be remarked that the result has been so far
+      very different from what was then anticipated. Of events in
+      that quarter of the globe, with which we have so much
+      intercourse and from which we derive our origin, we have
+      always been anxious and interested spectators. The citizens
+      of the United States cherish sentiments the most friendly in
+      favor of the liberty and happiness of their fellow-men on
+      that side of the Atlantic. In the wars of the European powers
+      in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any
+      part, nor does it comport with our policy so to do. It is
+      only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we
+      resent injuries or make preparation for our defense. With the
+      movements in this hemisphere we are of necessity more
+      immediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious to
+      all enlightened and impartial observers. The political system
+      of the allied powers is essentially different in this respect
+      from that of America. This difference proceeds from that
+      which exists in their respective Governments; and to the
+      defense of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so
+      much blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their
+      most enlightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed
+      unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it,
+      therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing
+      between the United States and those powers to declare that we
+      should consider any attempt on their part to extend their
+      system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our
+      peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies
+      of any European power we have not interfered and shall not
+      interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their
+      independence and maintained it, and whose independence we
+      have, on great consideration and on just principles,
+      acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the
+      purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other
+      manner their destiny, by any European power in any other
+      light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition
+      toward the United States. In the war between those new
+      Governments and Spain we declared our neutrality at the time
+      of their recognition, and to this we have adhered, and shall
+      continue to adhere, provided no change shall occur which, in
+      the judgment of the competent authorities of this Government,
+      shall make a corresponding change on the part of the United
+      States indispensable to their security.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The late events in Spain and Portugal shew that Europe is
+      still unsettled. Of this important fact no stronger proof can
+      be adduced than that the allied powers should have thought it
+      proper, on any principle satisfactory to themselves, to have
+      interposed by force in the internal concerns of Spain. To
+      what extent such interposition may be carried, on the same
+      principle, is a question in which all independent powers
+      whose governments differ from theirs are interested, even
+      those most remote, and surely none more so than the United
+      States. Our policy in regard to Europe, which was adopted at
+      an early stage of the wars which have so long agitated that
+      quarter of the globe, nevertheless remains the same, which
+      is, not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of its
+      powers; to consider the government <i>de facto</i> as the
+      legitimate government for us; to cultivate friendly relations
+      with it, and to preserve those relations by a frank, firm,
+      and manly policy, meeting in all instances the just claims of
+      every power, submitting to injuries from none. But in regard
+      to those continents circumstances are eminently and
+      conspicuously different. It is impossible that the allied
+      powers should extend their political system to any portion of
+      either continent without endangering our peace and happiness;
+      nor can anyone believe that our southern brethren, if left to
+      themselves, would adopt it of their own accord. It is equally
+      impossible, therefore, that we should behold such
+      interposition in any form with indifference. If we look to
+      the comparative strength and resources of Spain and those new
+      Governments, and their distance from each other, it must be
+      obvious that she can never subdue them. It is still the true
+      policy of the United States to leave the parties to
+      themselves, in the hope that other powers will pursue the
+      same course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If we compare the present condition of our Union with its
+      actual state at the close of our Revolution, the history of
+      the world furnishes no example of a progress in improvement
+      in all the important circumstances which constitute the
+      happiness of a nation which bears any resemblance to it. At
+      the first epoch our population did not exceed 3,000,000. By
+      the last census it amounted to about 10,000,000, and, what is
+      more extraordinary, it is almost altogether native, for the
+      immigration from other countries has been inconsiderable At
+      the first epoch half the territory within our acknowledged
+      limits was uninhabited and a wilderness. Since then new
+      territory has been acquired of vast extent, comprising within
+      it many rivers, particularly the Mississippi, the navigation
+      of which to the ocean was of the highest importance to the
+      original States. Over this territory our population has
+      expanded in every direction, and new States have been
+      established almost equal in number to those which formed the
+      first bond of our Union. This expansion of our population and
+      accession of new States to our Union have had the happiest
+      effect on all its highest interests. That it has eminently
+      augmented our resources and added to our strength and
+      respectability as a power is admitted by all. But it is not
+      in these important circumstances only that this happy effect
+      is felt. It is manifest that by enlarging the basis of our
+      system and increasing the number of States the system itself
+      has been greatly strengthened in both its branches.
+      Consolidation and disunion have thereby been rendered equally
+      impracticable. Each Government, confiding in its own
+      strength, has less to apprehend from the other, and in
+      consequence each, enjoying a greater freedom of action, is
+      rendered more efficient for all the purposes for which it was
+      instituted. It is unnecessary to treat here of the vast
+      improvement made in the system itself by the adoption of this
+      Constitution and of its happy effect in elevating the
+      character and in protecting the rights of the nation as well
+      as of individuals. To what, then, do we owe these blessings?
+      It is known to all that we derive them from the excellence of
+      our institutions. Ought we not, then, to adopt every measure
+      which may be necessary to perpetuate them?
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON CITY, <i>December 7, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By an act of the last session of Congress it was made the
+      duty of the accounting officers of the Treasury to adjust and
+      settle the accounts of Daniel D. Tompkins, late governor of
+      the State of New York, on principles of equity and justice,
+      subject to the revision and final decision of the President
+      of the United States. The accounting officers have, in
+      compliance with this act, reported to me a balance of $35,190
+      in favor of Governor Tompkins, which report I have had under
+      consideration, together with his claim to an additional
+      allowance, and should have decided on the same before the
+      present time had I not delayed my decision at his request.
+      From the view which I have taken of the subject I am
+      satisfied, considering all the circumstances of the case,
+      that a larger sum ought to be allowed him than that reported
+      by the accounting officers of the Treasury. No appropriation,
+      however, having been made by the act, and it appearing by
+      recent information from him that the sum reported would
+      afford him an essential accommodation at this time, the
+      subject is submitted to the consideration of Congress with a
+      view to that object.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate, for its advice and consent as to
+      the ratification, a treaty lately concluded with the Seminole
+      Indians in Florida, whereby a cession of territory is made to
+      the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      DECEMBER 15, 1823.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 23, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I herewith transmit to Congress a statement by William
+      Lambert, explanatory of his astronomical calculations with a
+      view to establish the longitude of the Capitol.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 31, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the
+      Secretary of State, with accompanying documents, containing
+      the information requested by the resolution of the House of
+      the 19th instant, relating to the condition and future
+      prospects of the Greeks.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 5, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 18th of December last, requesting
+      copies of contracts for cannon, cannon shot, muskets, and
+      other small arms which have been entered into since the 1st
+      of January, 1820, and for other detailed information therein
+      specified, I herewith transmit a report, with accompanying
+      documents, from the Department of War,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 9, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Agreeably to a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+      the 18th of December, 1823, requesting copies of all
+      contracts for cannon, cannon shot, muskets, and other small
+      arms entered into since the 1st of January, 1820, I herewith
+      transmit a report from the Department of the Navy, with other
+      documents relating thereto.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 12, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In answer to a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+      December 24, requesting the President of the United States to
+      lay before the House such information as he may possess, and
+      which may be disclosed without injury to the public good,
+      relative to the determination of any sovereign, or
+      combination of sovereigns, to assist Spain in the subjugation
+      of her late colonies on the American continent, and whether
+      any Government of Europe is disposed or determined to oppose
+      any aid or assistance which such sovereign or combination of
+      sovereigns may afford to Spain for the subjugation of her
+      late colonies above mentioned, I have to state that I possess
+      no information on that subject not known to Congress which
+      can be disclosed without injury to the public good.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 30, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 15th of December last, requesting the
+      President of the United States "to communicate a plan for a
+      peace establishment of the Navy of the United States," I
+      herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of the Navy,
+      which contains the plan required.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In presenting this plan to the consideration of Congress, I
+      avail myself of the occasion to make some remarks on it which
+      the importance of the subject requires and experience
+      justifies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If a system of universal and permanent peace could be
+      established, or if in war the belligerent parties would
+      respect the rights of neutral powers, we should have no
+      occasion for a navy or an army. The expense and dangers of
+      such establishments might be avoided. The history of all ages
+      proves that this can not be presumed; on the contrary, that
+      at least one-half of every century, in ancient as well as
+      modern times, has been consumed in wars, and often of the
+      most general and desolating character. Nor is there any cause
+      to infer, if we examine the condition of the nations with
+      which we have the most intercourse and strongest political
+      relations, that we shall in future be exempt from that
+      calamity within any period to which a rational calculation
+      may be extended. And as to the rights of neutral powers, it
+      is sufficient to appeal to our own experience to demonstrate
+      how little regard will be paid to them whenever they come in
+      conflict with the interests of the powers at war while we
+      rely on the justice of our cause and on argument alone. The
+      amount of the property of our fellow-citizens which was
+      seized and confiscated or destroyed by the belligerent
+      parties in the wars of the French Revolution, and of those
+      which followed before we became a party to the war, is almost
+      incalculable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole movement of our Government from the establishment
+      of our independence has been guided by a sacred regard for
+      peace. Situated as we are in the new hemisphere, distant from
+      Europe and unconnected with its affairs, blessed with the
+      happiest Government on earth, and having no objects of
+      ambition to gratify, the United States have steadily
+      cultivated the relations of amity with every power; and if in
+      any European wars a respect for our rights might be relied
+      on, it was undoubtedly in those to which I have adverted. The
+      conflict being vital, the force being nearly equally
+      balanced, and the result uncertain, each party had the
+      strongest motives of interest to cultivate our good will,
+      lest we might be thrown into the opposite scale. Powerful as
+      this consideration usually is, it was nevertheless utterly
+      disregarded in almost every stage of and by every party to
+      those wars. To these encroachments and injuries our regard
+      for peace was finally forced to yield.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the war to which at length we became a party our whole
+      coast from St. Croix to the Mississippi was either invaded or
+      menaced with invasion, and in many parts with a strong
+      imposing force both land and naval. In those parts where the
+      population was most dense the pressure was comparatively
+      light, but there was scarcely an harbor or city on any of our
+      great inlets which could be considered secure. New York and
+      Philadelphia were eminently exposed, the then existing works
+      not being sufficient for their protection. The same remark is
+      applicable in a certain extent to the cities eastward of the
+      former, and as to the condition of the whole country
+      southward of the latter the events which mark the war are too
+      recent to require detail. Our armies and Navy signalized
+      themselves in every quarter where they had occasion to meet
+      their gallant foe, and the militia voluntarily flew to their
+      aid with a patriotism and fought with a bravery which exalted
+      the reputation of their Government and country and which did
+      them the highest honor. In whatever direction the enemy chose
+      to move with their squadrons and to land their troops our
+      fortifications, where any existed, presented but little
+      obstacle to them. They passed those works without difficulty.
+      Their squadrons, in fact, annoyed our whole coast, not of the
+      sea only, but every bay and great river throughout its whole
+      extent. In entering those inlets and sailing up them with a
+      small force the effect was disastrous, since it never failed
+      to draw out the whole population on each side and to keep it
+      in the field while the squadron remained there. The expense
+      attending this species of defense, with the exposure of the
+      inhabitants and the waste of property, may readily be
+      conceived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The occurrences which preceded the war and those which
+      attended it were alike replete with useful instruction as to
+      our future policy. Those which marked the first epoch
+      demonstrate clearly that in the wars of other powers we can
+      rely only on force for the protection of our neutral rights.
+      Those of the second demonstrate with equal certainty that in
+      any war in which we may be engaged hereafter with a strong
+      naval power the expense, waste, and other calamities
+      attending it, considering the vast extent of our maritime
+      frontier, can not fail, unless it be defended by adequate
+      fortifications and a suitable naval force, to correspond with
+      those which were experienced in the late war. Two great
+      objects are therefore to be regarded in the establishment of
+      an adequate naval force: The first, to prevent war so far as
+      it may be practicable; the second, to diminish its calamities
+      when it may be inevitable. Hence the subject of defense
+      becomes intimately connected in all its parts in war and in
+      peace, for the land and at sea. No government will be
+      disposed in its wars with other powers to violate our rights
+      if it knows we have the means, are prepared and resolved to
+      defend them. The motive will also be diminished if it knows
+      that our defenses by land are so well planned and executed
+      that an invasion of our coast can not be productive of the
+      evils to which we have heretofore been exposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was under a thorough conviction of these truths, derived
+      from the admonitions of the late war, that Congress, as early
+      as the year 1816, during the term of my enlightened and
+      virtuous predecessor, under whom the war had been declared,
+      prosecuted, and terminated, digested and made provision for
+      the defense of our country and support of its rights, in
+      peace as well as in war, by acts which authorized and
+      enjoined the augmentation of our Navy to a prescribed limit,
+      and the construction of suitable fortifications throughout
+      the whole extent of our maritime frontier and wherever else
+      they might be deemed necessary. It is to the execution of
+      these works, both land and naval, and under a thorough
+      conviction that by hastening their completion I should render
+      the best service to my country and give the most effectual
+      support to our free republican system of government that my
+      humble faculties would admit of, that I have devoted so much
+      of my time and labor to this great system of national policy
+      since I came into this office, and shall continue to do it
+      until my retirement from it at the end of your next session.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Navy is the arm from which our Government will always
+      derive most aid in support of our neutral rights. Every power
+      engaged in war will know the strength of our naval force, the
+      number of our ships of each class, their condition, and the
+      promptitude with which we may bring them into service, and
+      will pay due consideration to that argument. Justice will
+      always have great weight in the cabinets of Europe; but in
+      long and destructive wars exigencies often occur which press
+      so vitally on them that unless the argument of force is
+      brought to its aid it will be disregarded. Our land forces
+      will always perform their duty in the event of war, but they
+      must perform it on the land. Our Navy is the arm which must
+      be principally relied on for the annoyance of the commerce of
+      the enemy and for the protection of our own, and also, by
+      cooperation with the land forces, for the defense of the
+      country. Capable of moving in any and every direction, it
+      possesses the faculty, even when remote from our coast, of
+      extending its aid to every interest on which the security and
+      welfare of our Union depend. Annoying the commerce of the
+      enemy and menacing in turn its coast, provided the force on
+      each side is nearly equally balanced, it will draw its
+      squadrons from our own; and in case of invasion by a powerful
+      adversary by a land and naval force, which is always to be
+      anticipated and ought to be provided against, our Navy may,
+      by like cooperation with our land forces, render essential
+      aid in protecting our interior from incursion and
+      depredation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great object in the event of war is to stop the enemy at
+      the coast. If this is done our cities and whole interior will
+      be secure. For the accomplishment of this object our
+      fortifications must be principally relied on. By placing
+      strong works near the mouths of our great inlets in such
+      positions as to command the entrances into them, as may be
+      done in many instances, it will be difficult, if not
+      impossible, for ships to pass them, especially if other
+      precautions, and particularly that of steam batteries, are
+      resorted to in their aid. In the wars between other powers
+      into which we may be drawn in support of our neutral rights
+      it can not be doubted that this defense would be adequate to
+      the purpose intended by it, nor can it be doubted that the
+      knowledge that such works existed would form a strong motive
+      with any power not to invade our rights, and thereby
+      contribute essentially to prevent war. There are, it is
+      admitted, some entrances into our interior which are of such
+      vast extent that it would be utterly impossible for any
+      works, however extensive or well posted, to command them. Of
+      this class the Chesapeake Bay, which is an arm of the sea,
+      may be given as an example. But, in my judgment, even this
+      bay may be defended against any power with whom we may be
+      involved in war as a third party in the defense of our
+      neutral rights. By erecting strong works at the mouth of
+      James River, on both sides, near the capes, as we are now
+      doing, and at Old Point Comfort and the Rip Raps, and
+      connecting those works together by chains whenever the
+      enemy's force appeared, placing in the rear some large ships
+      and steam batteries, the passage up the river would be
+      rendered impracticable. This guard would also tend to protect
+      the whole country bordering on the bay and rivers emptying
+      into it, as the hazard would be too great for the enemy,
+      however strong his naval force, to ascend the bay and leave
+      such a naval force behind; since, in the event of a storm,
+      whereby his vessels might be separated, or of a calm, the
+      ships and steam batteries behind the works might rush forth
+      and destroy them. It could only be in the event of an
+      invasion by a great power or a combination of several powers,
+      and by land as well as by naval forces, that those works
+      could be carried; and even then they could not fail to retard
+      the movement of the enemy into the country and to give time
+      for the collection of our regular troops, militia, and
+      volunteers to that point, and thereby contribute essentially
+      to his ultimate defeat and expulsion from our territory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under a strong impression that a peace establishment of our
+      Navy is connected with the possible event of war, and that
+      the naval force intended for either state, however small it
+      may be, is connected with the general system of public
+      defense, I have thought it proper in communicating this
+      report to submit these remarks on the whole subject.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 2, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 11th of December last, requesting the
+      President of the United States to communicate to the House
+      all such parts of the correspondence with the Government of
+      Spain relating to the Florida treaty to the period of its
+      final ratification, not heretofore communicated, which, in
+      his opinion, it might not be inconsistent with the public
+      interest to communicate, I herewith transmit a report from
+      the Secretary of State, with copies of the correspondence
+      requested.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 23, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The House of Representatives on the 12th instant having
+      "resolved that the President of the United States be
+      requested to inform this House whether the rules and
+      regulations compiled by General Scott for the government of
+      the Army are now in force in the Army, or any part thereof,
+      and by what authority the same has been adopted and
+      enforced," I herewith transmit a report from the Department
+      of War, which contains the information required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 23, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Agreeably to a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+      the 11th instant, requesting the President of the United
+      States "to inform this House if the line intended to
+      constitute the western boundary of the Territory of Arkansas
+      has been run in conformity with the provisions of the third
+      section of the act of Congress of the 3d of March, 1823,
+      entitled 'An act making appropriation for the military
+      service of the United States for the year 1823, and for other
+      purposes,' and, if said line has not been run, that he inform
+      this House what instructions have been given or measures
+      adopted in relation to the execution of the provision of the
+      law, and what causes have prevented said line from being
+      run," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War,
+      which contains the information required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 23, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The House of Representatives on the 26th ultimo having
+      "resolved that the President of the United States be
+      requested to cause to be laid before the House an estimate of
+      the expense which would be incurred by transporting 200 of
+      the troops now at the Council Bluffs to the mouth of the
+      Columbia or Oregon River," I herewith transmit a report of
+      the Secretary of War, which contains the information
+      required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 23, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I herewith transmit to Congress certain documents relating to
+      a claim of Massachusetts for services rendered by the militia
+      of that State in the late war, and for which payment was made
+      by the State. From the particular circumstances attending
+      this claim I have thought it proper to submit the subject to
+      the consideration of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In forming a just estimate of this claim it will be necessary
+      to recur to the cause which prevented its admission, or the
+      admission of any part thereof, at an earlier day. It will be
+      recollected that when a call was made on the militia of that
+      State for service in the late war, under an arrangement which
+      was alike applicable to the militia of all the States and in
+      conformity with the acts of Congress, the executive of
+      Massachusetts refused to comply with the call, on the
+      principle that the power vested in Congress by the
+      Constitution to provide for calling forth the militia to
+      execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and
+      repel invasions was not a complete power for those purposes,
+      but conditional, and dependent on the consent of the
+      executives of the several States, and, also, that when called
+      into service, such consent being given, they could not be
+      commanded by a regular officer of the United States, or other
+      officer than of the militia, except by the President in
+      person. That this decision of the executive of Massachusetts
+      was repugnant to the Constitution of the United States, and
+      of dangerous tendency, especially when it is considered that
+      we were then engaged in a war with a powerful nation for the
+      defense of our common rights, was the decided opinion of this
+      Government; and when the period at which that decision was
+      formed was considered, it being as early as the 5th of
+      August, 1812, immediately after the war was declared, and
+      that it was not relinquished during the war, it was inferred
+      by the Executive of the United States that the decision of
+      the executive of that State was alike applicable to all the
+      services that were rendered by the militia of the State
+      during the war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the correspondence with the governor of Massachusetts at
+      that important epoch, and on that very interesting subject,
+      it was announced to him by the Secretary of War that if the
+      militia of the State were called into service by the
+      executive of the State, and not put under the command of the
+      Major-General of the United States, as the militia of the
+      other States were, the expense attending their service would
+      be chargeable to the State, and not to the United States. It
+      was also stated to him at the same time that any claim which
+      the State might have for the reimbursement of such expenses
+      could not be allowed by the Executive of the United States,
+      since it would involve principles on which that branch of the
+      Government could not decide.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under these circumstances a decision on the claim of the
+      State of Massachusetts has hitherto been suspended, and it
+      need not be remarked that the suspension has proceeded from a
+      conviction that it would be improper to give any sanction by
+      its admission, or by the admission of any part thereof,
+      either to the construction of the Constitution contended for
+      by the then executive of that State or to its conduct at that
+      period toward the General Government and the Union.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In January, 1823, the Representatives in Congress from
+      Massachusetts and Maine suggested, by memorial, that the
+      constitutional objection could not apply to a portion of the
+      claim, and requested that the accounting officer of the
+      Government might be instructed to audit and admit such part
+      as might be free from that objection. In all cases where
+      claims are presented for militia service it is the duty and
+      the practice of the accounting officer to submit them to the
+      Department for instruction as to the legality of the claim;
+      that is, whether the service had been rendered by order of
+      the competent authority, or otherwise, under circumstances to
+      justify the claim against the United States, admitting that
+      the evidence in support of it should be satisfactory. To this
+      request there appeared to be no well-founded objection, under
+      the reservation as to the constitutional principle, and
+      accordingly an order was given to the accounting officers of
+      the Treasury to proceed in auditing the claim with that
+      reservation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In conformity with this arrangement, the executive of
+      Massachusetts appointed two citizens of that State
+      commissioners to attend to the settlement of its claim, and
+      who, in execution of the trust reposed in them, have
+      presented to the accounting officer of the Treasury that
+      portion comprehending the services of the fifth division of
+      the militia of the State, which has been audited and reported
+      for consideration, subject to the objection above stated. I
+      have examined this report, with the documents presented by
+      the commissioners, and am of opinion that the services
+      rendered by that division were spontaneous, patriotic, and
+      proper, necessary for self-defense, to repel in some
+      instances actual invasion and in others to meet by adequate
+      preparation invasions that were menaced. The commissioners of
+      the State having intimated that other portions of service
+      stood on similar ground, the accounting officer has been
+      instructed, in auditing the whole, to do it in such manner as
+      to enable the Department to show distinctly under what
+      circumstances each portion of service was rendered, whether
+      voluntary, called out by invasion or the menace of invasion,
+      or by public authority, and in such case whether the militia
+      rendering such service was placed under the authority of the
+      United States or retained under that of the State.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It affords me great pleasure to state that the present
+      executive of Massachusetts has disclaimed the principle which
+      was maintained by the former executive, and that in this
+      disclaimer both branches of the legislature have concurred.
+      By this renunciation the State is placed on the same ground
+      in this respect with the other States, and this very
+      distressing anomaly in our system is removed. It is well
+      known that the great body of our fellow-citizens in
+      Massachusetts are as firmly devoted to our Union and to the
+      free republican principles of our Government as our
+      fellow-citizens of the other States. Of this important truth
+      their conduct in every stage of our Revolutionary struggle
+      and in many other emergencies bears ample testimony; and I
+      add with profound interest and a thorough conviction that,
+      although the difficulty adverted to in the late war with
+      their executive excited equal surprise and regret, it was not
+      believed to extend to them. There never was a moment when the
+      confidence of the Government in the great body of our
+      fellow-citizens of that State was impaired, nor is a doubt
+      entertained that they were at all times willing and ready to
+      support their rights and repel an invasion by the enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The commissioners of Massachusetts have urged, in compliance
+      with their instructions, the payment of so much of their
+      claim as applies to the services rendered by the fifth
+      division, which have been audited, and I should have no
+      hesitation in admitting it if I did not think, under all the
+      circumstances of the case, that the claim in all its parts
+      was cognizable by Congress alone. The period at which the
+      constitutional difficulty was raised by the executive of the
+      State was in the highest degree important, as was the
+      tendency of the principle for which it contended, and which
+      was adhered to during the war. The public mind throughout the
+      Union was much excited by that occurrence, and great
+      solicitude was felt as to its consequences. The Executive of
+      the United States was bound to maintain, and did maintain, a
+      just construction of the Constitution, in doing which it is
+      gratifying to recollect that the most friendly feelings were
+      cherished toward their brethren of that State. The executive
+      of the State was warned, in the correspondence which then
+      took place, of the light in which its conduct was viewed and
+      of the effect it would have, so far as related to the right
+      of the Executive of the United States, on any claim which
+      might afterwards be presented by the State to compensation
+      for such services. Under these circumstances the power of the
+      Executive of the United States to settle any portion of this
+      claim seems to be precluded. It seems proper, also, that this
+      claim should be decided on full investigation before the
+      public, that the principle on which it is decided may be
+      thoroughly understood by our fellow-citizens of every State,
+      which can be done by Congress alone, who alone, also, possess
+      the power to pass laws which may be necessary to carry such
+      decision into effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In submitting this subject to the calm and enlightened
+      judgment of Congress, I do it with peculiar satisfaction,
+      from a knowledge that you are now placed, by the course of
+      events, in a situation which will enable you to adopt such
+      measures as will not only comport with the sound principles
+      of our Government, but likewise be conducive to other the
+      highest interests of our Union. By the renunciation of the
+      principle maintained by the then executive of Massachusetts,
+      as has been done by its present executive and both branches
+      of the legislature in the most formal manner and in accord
+      with the sentiments of the great body of the people, the
+      Constitution is restored in a very important feature (that
+      connected with the public defense) and in the most important
+      branch (that of the militia) to its native strength. It is
+      very gratifying to know that this renunciation has been
+      produced by the regular, orderly, and pacific operation of
+      our republican system, whereby those who were in the right at
+      the moment of difficulty and who sustained the Government
+      with great firmness have daily gained strength until this
+      result was accomplished. The points on which you will have to
+      decide are, What is fairly due for the services which were
+      actually rendered? By what means shall we contribute most to
+      cement the Union and give the greatest support to our most
+      excellent Constitution? In seeking each object separately we
+      are led to the same result. All that can be claimed by our
+      fellow-citizens of Massachusetts is that the constitutional
+      objection be waived, and that they be placed on the same
+      footing with their brethren in the other States; that
+      regarding the services rendered by the militia of other
+      States, for which compensation has been made, giving to the
+      rule the most liberal construction, like compensation be made
+      for similar services rendered by the militia of that State.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have been led to conclude on great consideration that the
+      principles of justice as well as a due regard for the great
+      interests of our Union require that this claim in the extent
+      proposed should be acceded to. Essential service was rendered
+      in the late war by the militia of Massachusetts, and with the
+      most patriotic motives. It seems just, therefore, that they
+      should be compensated for such services in like manner with
+      the militia of the other States. The constitutional
+      difficulty did not originate with them, and has now been
+      removed. It comports with our system to look to the service
+      rendered and to the intention with which it was rendered, and
+      to award the compensation accordingly, especially as it may
+      now be done without the sacrifice of principle. The motive in
+      this instance is the stronger because well satisfied I am
+      that by so doing we shall give the most effectual support to
+      our republican institutions. No latent cause of discontent
+      will be left behind. The great body of the people will be
+      gratified, and even those who now survive who were then in
+      error can not fail to see with interest and satisfaction this
+      distressing occurrence thus happily terminated. I therefore
+      consider it my duty to recommend it to Congress to make
+      provision for the settlement of the claim of Massachusetts
+      for services rendered in the late war by the militia of the
+      State, in conformity with the rules which have governed in
+      the settlement of the claims for services rendered by the
+      militia of the other States.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      FEBRUARY 24, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of War,
+      containing the information called for by a resolution of the
+      House of Representatives of the United States, passed on the
+      4th instant, respecting any suit or suits which have been or
+      are now depending, in which the United States are interested,
+      for the recovery of the Pea Patch.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 25, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In conformity with the resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 17th instant, I now transmit the
+      report of the Secretary of the Navy, accompanied by
+      statements marked A and B, shewing "the amount of money
+      expended in conformity with the provisions of the act
+      entitled 'An act for the gradual increase of the Navy of the
+      United States,' approved April 29, 1816, and of the act to
+      amend said act, approved 3d of March, 1821; also the number
+      of vessels built or now on the stocks, with their rates, the
+      value of the timber purchased, or for which contracts have
+      been made, and whether sufficient timber has been purchased
+      or contracted for to build the vessels contemplated by the
+      provisions of said acts."
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MARCH 3, 1824.
+    </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, containing copies of the contracts made by the
+      Surveyor-General, and called for by a resolution of the
+      Senate bearing date the 24th February, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MARCH 4, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit a report of the Secretary of the Treasury, which
+      communicates all the information in possession of the
+      Department called for by a resolution of the House requesting
+      a copy of the report of the register of the land office in
+      the eastern district of Louisiana, bearing date the 6th of
+      January, 1821, together with all the information from the
+      said register to the Treasury Department.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 4, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 1st March, 1823, requesting
+      information of the number and position of the permanent
+      fortifications which have been and are now erecting for the
+      defense of the coasts, harbors, and frontiers of the United
+      States, with the classification and magnitude of each, with
+      the amount expended on each, showing the work done and to be
+      done, the number of guns of every caliber for each
+      fortification, the total cost of a complete armament for
+      each, the force required to garrison each in time of peace
+      and of war, I transmit to the House a report from the
+      Secretary of War containing the information required by the
+      resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 8, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the 3d March, 1819, James Miller was first commissioned as
+      governor of the Territory of Arkansas for the term of three
+      years from that date.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before the expiration of that time, and in the winter of
+      1821-22, a nomination of him for reappointment was intended,
+      and believed by me to have been made to the Senate, and to
+      have received the confirmation of that body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By some accident, the cause of which is unknown, it appears
+      that this impression was erroneous, and in December, 1822, it
+      was discovered that Mr. Miller had not then been
+      recommissioned, though in the confidence that he had been he
+      had continued to act in that capacity. He was then
+      renominated to the Senate, with the additional proposal that
+      his commission should take effect from 3d March, 1822, when
+      his first commission had expired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The nomination was confirmed by the Senate so far as regarded
+      the appointment, but without concurrence in the retrospective
+      effect proposed to be given to the commission.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His second commission, therefore, bears date on the 3d
+      January, 1823, and the interposition of the Legislature
+      becomes necessary to legalize his official acts in the
+      interval between 3d March, 1822, and that time, a subject
+      which I recommend to the consideration of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MARCH 17, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 17th of February last, requesting
+      "information whether any measures had been taken for carrying
+      into effect the resolution of Congress of June 17, 1777,
+      directing a monument to be erected to the memory of David
+      Wooster, a brigadier-general in the Army of the United
+      States, who fell in defending the liberties of America and
+      bravely repelling an inroad of the British forces to Danbury,
+      in Connecticut," I have caused the necessary inquiries to be
+      made, and find by the report of the Register of the Treasury
+      that no monument has been erected to the memory of that
+      patriotic and gallant officer, nor has any money been paid to
+      the executive of Connecticut on that account.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 25, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 25th of February, requesting
+      information whether the title of the United Brethren for
+      Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen to certain sections
+      of land in Ohio has been purchased for the United States,
+      and, if so, to cause a copy of the contract and of the papers
+      relating thereto to be laid before the House, I transmit
+      herewith all the documents required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 25, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having seen with regret that occasional errors have been made
+      in nominations to the Senate, sometimes by the omission of a
+      letter in the name, proceeding from casualties in the
+      Departments and in my own office, it would be satisfactory to
+      me if an arrangement could be made whereby such errors might
+      be corrected without the formality of a special message.
+      Where there is an accord as to the person there seems to be
+      no reason for resorting to a renomination for the correction
+      of such trivial errors. Any mode which the Senate may adopt
+      will be satisfactory to me.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MARCH 25, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having stated to Congress on the 7th of December last that
+      Daniel D. Tompkins, late governor of New York, was entitled
+      to a larger sum than that reported in his favor by the
+      accounting officers of the Government, and that in the
+      execution of the law of the last session I had the subject
+      still under consideration, I now communicate to you the
+      result.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On full consideration of the law by which this duty was
+      enjoined on me and of the report of the committee on the
+      basis of which the law was founded, I have thought that I was
+      authorized to adopt the principles laid down in that report
+      in deciding on the sum which should be allowed to him for his
+      services. With this view and on a comparison of his services
+      with those which were rendered by other disbursing officers,
+      taking into consideration also his aid in obtaining loans, I
+      had decided to allow him 5 per cent for all sums borrowed and
+      disbursed by him, and of which decision I informed him. Mr.
+      Tompkins has since stated to me that this allowance will not
+      indemnify him for his advances, loans, expenditures, and
+      losses in rendering those services, nor place him on the
+      footing of those who loaned money to the Government at that
+      interesting period. He has also expressed a desire that I
+      would submit the subject to the final decision of Congress,
+      which I now do. In adopting this measure I think proper to
+      add that I concur fully in the sentiments expressed by the
+      committee in favor of the very patriotic and valuable
+      services which were rendered by Mr. Tompkins in the late war.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MARCH 28, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I herewith transmit a report of the Secretary of War,
+      together with a report from the Commissioner of the General
+      Land Office, accompanied by the necessary documents,
+      communicating the information heretofore requested by a
+      resolution of the House in relation to the salt springs, lead
+      and copper mines, together with the probable value of each of
+      them and of the reservations attached to each, the extent to
+      which they have been worked, the advantages and proximity of
+      each to navigable waters, and the origin, nature, and extent
+      of any claim made to them by individuals or companies, which
+      reports contain all the information at present possessed on
+      the subjects of the said resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MARCH 30, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 14th instant, requesting information
+      whether an advance of compensation had been made to any of
+      the commissioners who had been appointed for the examination
+      of titles and claims to land in Florida, and by what
+      authority such advance, if any, had been made, I transmit a
+      report of the Secretary of State, which contains the
+      information desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>March 30, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to Congress certain papers enumerated in a report
+      from the Secretary of War, relating to the compact between
+      the United States and the State of Georgia entered into in
+      1802, whereby the latter ceded to the former a portion of the
+      territory then within its limits on the conditions therein
+      specified. By the fourth article of that compact it was
+      stipulated that the United States should at their own expense
+      extinguish for the use of Georgia the Indian title to all the
+      lands within the State as soon as it might be done
+      <i>peaceably</i> and on <i>reasonable</i> conditions. These
+      papers show the measures adopted by the Executive of the
+      United States in fulfillment of the several conditions of the
+      compact from its date to the present time, and particularly
+      the negotiations and treaties with the Indian tribes for the
+      extinguishment of their title, with an estimate of the number
+      of acres purchased and sums paid for lands they acquired.
+      They show also the state in which this interesting concern
+      now rests with the Cherokees, one of the tribes within the
+      State, and the inability of the Executive to make any further
+      movement with this tribe without the special sanction of
+      Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have full confidence that my predecessors exerted their
+      best endeavors to execute this compact in all its parts, of
+      which, indeed, the sums paid and the lands acquired during
+      their respective terms in fulfillment of its several
+      stipulations are a full proof. I have also been animated
+      since I came into this office with the same zeal, from an
+      anxious desire to meet the wishes of the State, and in the
+      hope that by the establishment of these tribes beyond the
+      Mississippi their improvement in civilization, their security
+      and happiness would be promoted. By the paper bearing date on
+      the 30th of January last, which was communicated to the
+      chiefs of the Cherokee Nation in this city, who came to
+      protest against any further appropriations of money for
+      holding treaties with them, the obligation imposed on the
+      United States by the compact with Georgia to extinguish the
+      Indian title to the right of soil within the State, and the
+      incompatibility with our system of their existence as a
+      distinct community within any State, were pressed with the
+      utmost earnestness. It was proposed to them at the same time
+      to procure and convey to them territory beyond the
+      Mississippi in exchange for that which they hold within the
+      limits of Georgia, or to pay them for it its value in money.
+      To this proposal their answer, which bears date 11th of
+      February following, gives an unqualified refusal. By this it
+      is manifest that at the present time and in their present
+      temper they can be removed only by force, to which, should it
+      be deemed proper, the power of the Executive is incompetent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have no hesitation, however, to declare it as my opinion
+      that the Indian title was not affected in the slightest
+      circumstance by the compact with Georgia, and that there is
+      no obligation on the United States to remove the Indians by
+      force. The express stipulation of the compact that their
+      title should be extinguished at the expense of the United
+      States when it may be done <i>peaceably</i> and on
+      <i>reasonable</i> conditions is a full proof that it was the
+      clear and distinct understanding of both parties to it that
+      the Indians had a right to the territory, in the disposal of
+      which they were to be regarded as free agents. An attempt to
+      remove them by force would, in my opinion, be unjust. In the
+      future measures to be adopted in regard to the Indians within
+      our limits, and, in consequence, within the limits of any
+      State, the United States have duties to perform and a
+      character to sustain to which they ought not to be
+      indifferent. At an early period their improvement in the arts
+      of civilized life was made an object with the Government, and
+      that has since been persevered in. This policy was dictated
+      by motives of humanity to the aborigines of the country, and
+      under a firm conviction that the right to adopt and pursue it
+      was equally applicable to all the tribes within our limits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My impression is equally strong that it would promote
+      essentially the security and happiness of the tribes within
+      our limits if they could be prevailed on to retire west and
+      north of our States and Territories on lands to be procured
+      for them by the United States, in exchange for those on which
+      they now reside. Surrounded as they are, and pressed as they
+      will be, on every side by the white population, it will be
+      difficult if not impossible for them, with their kind of
+      government, to sustain order among them. Their interior will
+      be exposed to frequent disturbances, to remedy which the
+      interposition of the United States will be indispensable, and
+      thus their government will gradually lose its authority until
+      it is annihilated. In this process the moral character of the
+      tribes will also be lost, since the change will be too rapid
+      to admit their improvement in civilization to enable them to
+      institute and sustain a government founded on our principles,
+      if such a change were compatible either with the compact with
+      Georgia or with our general system, or to become members of a
+      State, should any State be willing to adopt them in such
+      numbers, regarding the good order, peace, and tranquillity of
+      such State. But all these evils may be avoided if these
+      tribes will consent to remove beyond the limits of our
+      present States and Territories. Lands equally good, and
+      perhaps more fertile, may be procured for them in those
+      quarters. The relations between the United States and such
+      Indians would still be the same.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Considerations of humanity and benevolence, which have now
+      great weight, would operate in that event with an augmented
+      force, since we should feel sensibly the obligation imposed
+      on us by the accommodation which they thereby afforded us.
+      Placed at ease, as the United States would then be, the
+      improvement of those tribes in civilization and in all the
+      arts and usages of civilized life would become the part of a
+      general system which might be adopted on great consideration,
+      and in which every portion of our Union would then take an
+      equal interest. These views have steadily been pursued by the
+      Executive, and the moneys which have been placed at its
+      disposal have been so applied in the manner best calculated,
+      according to its judgment, to produce this desirable result,
+      as will appear by the documents which accompany the report of
+      the Secretary of War.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I submit this subject to the consideration of Congress under
+      a high sense of its importance and of the propriety of an
+      early decision on it. This compact gives a claim to the State
+      which ought to be executed in all its conditions with perfect
+      good faith. In doing this, however, it is the duty of the
+      United States to regard its strict import, and to make no
+      sacrifice of their interest not called for by the compact nor
+      contemplated by either of the parties when it was entered
+      into, nor to commit any breach of right or of humanity in
+      regard to the Indians repugnant to the judgment and revolting
+      to the feelings of the whole American people. I submit the
+      subject to your consideration, in full confidence that you
+      will duly weigh the obligations of the compact with Georgia,
+      its import in all its parts, and the extent to which the
+      United States are bound to go under it. I submit it with
+      equal confidence that you will also weigh the nature of the
+      Indian title to the territory within the limits of any State,
+      with the stipulations in the several treaties with this tribe
+      respecting territory held by it within the State of Georgia,
+      and decide whether any measure on the part of Congress is
+      called for at the present time, and what such measure shall
+      be if any is deemed expedient.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      APRIL 9, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I herewith transmit the report of the Secretary of War, with
+      the accompanying documents, containing the information
+      requested by a resolution of the House of the 10th ultimo,
+      and which communicates the accounts of all the generals of
+      the Army, likewise of the Inspector-General, the chiefs of
+      the Engineer and Ordnance Corps, and Surgeon-General for the
+      two years preceding the 30th of September last; also shewing
+      the amount of money paid to each under the different heads of
+      pay, fuel, straw, quarters, transportation, and all other
+      extra and contingent allowances; which report, together with
+      the statements herewith transmitted, furnishes all the
+      information required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The executive of Virginia having requested payment of the
+      amount of interest paid by the State for moneys borrowed and
+      paid by it for services rendered by the militia in the late
+      war, and such claim not being allowable according to the
+      uniform decisions of the accounting officers of the
+      Government, I submit the subject to your consideration, with
+      a report from the Secretary of War and all the documents
+      connected with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The following are the circumstances on which this claim is
+      founded: From an early stage of the war the squadrons of the
+      enemy entered occasionally the Chesapeake Bay, and, menacing
+      its shores and those of the principal rivers emptying into
+      it, subjected the neighboring militia to calls from the local
+      authorities for the defense of the parts thus menaced. The
+      pressure was most sensibly felt in 1814, after the attack on
+      this city and its capture, when the invading force, retiring
+      to its squadron, menaced alike Baltimore, Norfolk, and
+      Richmond. The attack on this city had induced a call by the
+      Department of War for large detachments of the militia of
+      Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, which, being collected
+      in this quarter, and the enemy bearing, in the first
+      instance, on Baltimore, were ordered to its defense. As early
+      as the 31st of August notice was given by the Secretary of
+      War to the governor of Virginia of the position of the enemy
+      and of the danger to which Richmond as well as Norfolk and
+      Baltimore were exposed, and he was also authorized and
+      enjoined to be on his guard, prepared at every point and in
+      every circumstance to meet and repel the invaders. This
+      notice was repeated several times afterwards, until the enemy
+      left the bay and moved to the south.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the course of the war the State had augmented its taxes to
+      meet the pressure, but the funds being still inadequate, it
+      borrowed money to a considerable amount, which was applied to
+      the payment of the militia for the services thus rendered.
+      The calls which had been made, except for the brigades in
+      this quarter and at Norfolk, being made by the State, the
+      settlement with those corps and the payment for their
+      services were made according to the rules and usage of the
+      Department by the State and not by the United States. On the
+      settlement by the State, after the peace, with the accounting
+      officers of the Government the reimbursement of the interest
+      which the State had paid on the sums thus borrowed and paid
+      to the militia was claimed, but not allowed for the reason
+      above stated. It is this claim which I now submit to the
+      consideration of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It need scarcely be remarked that where a State advances
+      money for the use of the General Government for a purpose
+      authorized by it that the claim for the interest on the
+      amount thus advanced, which has been paid by the State, is
+      reasonable and just. The claim is the stronger under the
+      circumstance which existed when those advances were made, it
+      being at a period of great difficulty, when the United States
+      were compelled to borrow very large sums for the prosecution
+      of the war. Had the State not borrowed this money the
+      militia, whose services have been recognized since by the
+      nation, must have been disbanded and the State left without
+      defense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The claim is, in my opinion, equally well founded where a
+      State advances money which it has in its treasury, or which
+      it raises by taxes, to meet the current demand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In submitting this claim to your consideration it is proper
+      to observe that many other States have like claims with those
+      of Virginia, and that all those similarly circumstanced
+      should be placed on the same footing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I invite your attention to a principle which is deemed just,
+      and with a view that the provision which may be made
+      respecting it may be extended alike to all the States.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      APRIL, 12, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      APRIL, 16, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 8th of April, requesting information
+      whether the fifth section of the act of the 3d March, 1803,
+      relating to a township of land lying within John Cleves
+      Symmes's patent, had been executed, and, if not, what reasons
+      had prevented it, I transmit a report from the Secretary of
+      the Treasury, which affords the information desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      APRIL, 16, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the
+      Secretary of War, containing the information requested by a
+      resolution of the House dated 25th ultimo, shewing the reason
+      why the engineers appointed to examine the most suitable site
+      for a national armory on the Western waters have not made
+      their report.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      APRIL, 16, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report
+      from the Secretary of War, which contains the information
+      requested by a resolution of the 8th instant, respecting the
+      proposals that were made by certain Indians, therein
+      described, of the Cherokee Nation for the cession of their
+      lands to the United States.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>April 18, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 13th instant, requesting a detailed
+      account of the disbursement of the sums appropriated by the
+      acts of the 30th April, 1818, and of the 3d March, 1819, for
+      making certain improvements in the grounds connected with the
+      public offices and the President's house, I transmit a report
+      from the Commissioner of the Public Buildings, which contains
+      the information desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      APRIL, 23, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In conformity with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of yesterday, I have received a copy of the
+      proceedings of the committee to whom was referred a
+      communication from Ninian Edwards, lately appointed a
+      minister plenipotentiary to Mexico, in which it is decided
+      that his attendance in this city for the purpose of being
+      examined by the committee on matters contained in the said
+      communication was requisite. As soon as I was apprised that
+      such a communication had been made to the House, anticipating
+      that the attendance of Mr. Edwards might be desired for the
+      purpose stated, I thought it proper that he should be
+      informed thereof, and instructed him not to proceed on his
+      mission, but to await such call as might be made on him
+      either by the House or its committee, and in consequence a
+      letter was addressed to him to that effect by the Secretary
+      of State.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      APRIL 27, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In conformity with the resolution of the Senate of the 19th
+      instant, requesting information whether the Executive,
+      through the agency of the War Department, borrowed any money
+      during the late war, under the condition of applying the same
+      to the defense of the State wherein the said loans were made,
+      to what amount, and whether interest was paid by the United
+      States for such loans, etc., I herewith transmit a report
+      from the Secretary of War containing all the information in
+      that Department in relation to the resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      APRIL, 28, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The House of Representatives having referred back the
+      accounts and claims of Daniel D. Tompkins, late governor of
+      New York, to be settled on the principles established by the
+      report of the committee and the law founded on it in the last
+      session I have reconsidered the subject, and now communicate
+      the result.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the report of the committee, which it was understood was
+      adopted by the House, it was decided that his accounts and
+      claims should be settled on the four following principles:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First. That interest should be allowed him on all moneys
+      advanced by him for the public from the time of the advance
+      to that of his being reimbursed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Second. That a reasonable commission should be allowed him on
+      all moneys disbursed by him during the late war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Third. That an indemnity should be allowed for all losses
+      which he had sustained by the failure of the Government to
+      fulfill its engagements to send him money or Treasury notes
+      within the time specified to be deposited in certain banks as
+      collateral security for loans procured by him at the request
+      and on account of the Government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fourth. That he should not be held responsible for losses
+      incurred by the frauds and failures of subagents to whom
+      moneys were advanced through his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the first, that of interest on his advances for the
+      public, I have allowed him $14,438.68. This allowance is made
+      on advances admitted by the accounting department, and on the
+      declaration of Mr. Tompkins that the remittances made to him,
+      after his advances and previous to the 24th of December,
+      1814, when a very large sum was remitted to him, were applied
+      to public purposes and not to the reimbursement of his
+      advances.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the second head, that of a reasonable commission for his
+      disbursements during the late war, I have allowed him 5 per
+      cent on the whole sum disbursed by him, amounting to
+      $92,213.13. I have made him this extra allowance in
+      consideration of the aid which he afforded to the Government
+      at that important epoch in obtaining the loan of a
+      considerable part of the sums thus disbursed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the third head, that of an indemnity for losses sustained
+      by him in consequence of the failure of the Government to
+      fulfill its engagements to send him money or Treasury notes
+      within the time specified, I have allowed him $4,411.25,
+      being the amount of the loss sustained on the sale of
+      Treasury notes, for which he was responsible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the fourth head, that of losses sustained by him by any
+      frauds or failures of subagents, none such having been shewn
+      no allowance whatever has been made to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the amount thus allowed to Mr. Tompkins after deducting
+      the sum paid him under the act of the present session and the
+      moneys charged to his account there will remain a balance due
+      him of $60,238.46, as appears by the sketch herewith
+      communicated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In making a final decision on Mr. Tompkins's claims a
+      question arises, Shall interest be allowed him on the amount
+      of the commission on his disbursements? The law of the last
+      session grants to the President a power to allow interest on
+      moneys advanced by him to the public, but does not authorize
+      it on the commission to be allowed on his disbursements. To
+      make such allowance belongs exclusively to Congress. Had his
+      claims been settled at the end of the last war on the
+      principles established by the law of the last session a
+      commission on disbursements would then have been allowed him.
+      This consideration operates with great force in favor of the
+      allowance of interest on that commission at this time, which
+      I recommend to Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I think proper to add that the official relation which I bore
+      to Governor Tompkins at that very interesting epoch, under
+      the highly distinguished and meritorious citizen under whom
+      we both served, enabling me to feel very sensibly the value
+      of his services, excites a strong interest in his favor,
+      which I deem it not improper to express.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>April 30, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate, for their constitutional advice
+      with regard to its ratification, a convention for the
+      suppression of the African slave trade, signed at London on
+      the 13th ultimo by the minister of the United States residing
+      there on their part, with the plenipotentiaries of the
+      British Government on the part of that nation, together with
+      the correspondence relating thereto, a part of which is
+      included in a communication made to the House of
+      Representatives on the 19th ultimo, a printed copy of which
+      is among the documents herewith sent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Motives of accommodation to the wishes of the British
+      Government render it desirable that the Senate should act
+      definitively upon this convention as speedily as may be found
+      convenient.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      APRIL 30, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate to the Senate a treaty entered into with the
+      Cherokee Nation as early as 1804, but which, owing to causes
+      not now understood, has never been carried into effect. Of
+      the authenticity of the transaction a report from the
+      Secretary of War, with the documents accompanying it,
+      furnishes the most unquestionable proof. I submit it to the
+      Senate for its advice and consent as to the ratification.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>May 7, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate herewith to the Senate a report from the
+      Secretary of State, with the documents relating to the
+      present state of the commercial intercourse between the
+      United States and Portugal, requested by the resolution of
+      the Senate of the 13th ultimo.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MAY 11, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report
+      of the Secretary of War, containing the information called
+      for by the resolution of the 10th of March, requesting the
+      names of all the officers of the Army who have been
+      brevetted, stating their lineal rank and brevet rank, when
+      brevetted, and the amount of money paid to each and when
+      paid, which report, with the accompanying documents, contains
+      the information desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MAY 13, 1824.
+    </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 15th of April, requesting the
+      President to cause to be communicated to the House a
+      statement of the supplies which have been sent from the
+      United States to any ports of South America for the use of
+      our squadron in the Pacific Ocean, of the amount paid for
+      such supplies, with the names of the owners of the vessels,
+      and other details therein specified, I transmit herewith a
+      report from the Secretary of the Navy, which, with the
+      documents accompanying it, furnishes the information desired.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MAY 14, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report
+      of the Secretary of the Navy, together with the proceedings
+      of a court-martial lately held at Norfolk for the trial of
+      Lieutenant Beverly Kennon, as requested by a resolution of
+      the House bearing date the 25th of April, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>May 18, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate to the House a report, with accompanying
+      documents, received from Alexander Hamilton, one of the
+      commissioners of land titles in East Florida, deeming the
+      statements therein contained to be worthy of the particular
+      attention of the House, and of a nature which may, perhaps,
+      require their interposition or that of both branches of the
+      Legislature.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>May 21, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Apprehending from the delay in the decision that some
+      difficulty exists with the Senate respecting the ratification
+      of the convention lately concluded with the British
+      Government for the suppression of the slave trade by making
+      it piratical, I deem it proper to communicate for your
+      consideration such views as appear to me to merit attention.
+      Charged as the Executive is, and as I have long been, with
+      maintaining the political relations between the United States
+      and other nations, I consider it my duty, in submitting for
+      your advice and consent as to the ratification any treaty or
+      convention which has been agreed on with another power, to
+      explain, when the occasion requires it, all the reasons which
+      induced the measure. It is by such full and frank explanation
+      only that the Senate can be enabled to discharge the high
+      trust reposed in them with advantage to their country. Having
+      the instrument before them, with the views which guided the
+      Executive in forming it, the Senate will possess all the
+      light necessary to a sound decision.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By an act of Congress of 15th May, 1820, the slave trade, as
+      described by that act, was made piratical, and all such of
+      our citizens as might be found engaged in that trade were
+      subjected, on conviction thereof by the circuit courts of the
+      United States, to capital punishment. To communicate more
+      distinctly the import of that act, I refer to its fourth and
+      fifth sections, which are in the following words:
+    </p>
+    <p class="q">
+      SEC. 4. <i>And be it further enacted</i>, That if any citizen
+      of the United States, being of the crew or ship's company of
+      any foreign ship or vessel engaged in the slave trade, or any
+      person whatever, being of the crew or ship's company of any
+      ship or vessel owned in the whole or part or navigated for or
+      in behalf of any citizen or citizens of the United States,
+      shall land from any such ship or vessel, and on any foreign
+      shore seize any Negro or Mulatto not held to service or labor
+      by the laws of either of the States or Territories of the
+      United States, with intent to make such Negro or Mulatto a
+      slave, or shall decoy or forcibly bring or carry, or shall
+      receive, such Negro or Mulatto on board any such ship or
+      vessel, with intent as aforesaid, such citizen or person
+      shall be adjudged a pirate, and on conviction thereof before
+      the circuit court of the United States for the district
+      wherein he may be brought or found shall suffer death.
+    </p>
+    <p class="q">
+      SEC. 5. <i>And be it further enacted</i>, That if any citizen
+      of the United States, being of the crew or ship's company of
+      any foreign ship or vessel engaged in the slave trade, or any
+      person whatever, being of the crew or ship's company of any
+      ship or vessel owned wholly or in part, or navigated for or
+      in behalf of, any citizen or citizens of the United States,
+      shall forcibly confine or detain, or aid and abet in forcibly
+      confining or detaining, on board such ship or vessel any
+      Negro or Mulatto not held to service by the laws of either of
+      the States or Territories of the United States, with intent
+      to make such Negro or Mulatto a slave, or shall on board any
+      such ship or vessel offer or attempt to sell as a slave any
+      Negro or Mulatto not held to service as aforesaid, or shall
+      on the high seas or anywhere on tide water transfer or
+      deliver over to any other ship or vessel any Negro or Mulatto
+      not held to service as aforesaid, with intent to make such
+      Negro or mulatto a slave, or shall land or deliver on shore
+      from on board any such ship or vessel any such Negro or
+      mulatto, with intent to make sale of, or having previously
+      sold such Negro or Mulatto as a slave, such citizen or person
+      shall be adjudged a pirate, and on conviction thereof before
+      the circuit court of the United States for the district
+      wherein he may be brought or found shall suffer death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And on the 28th February, 1823, the House of Representatives,
+      by a majority of 131 to 9, passed a resolution to the
+      following effect:
+    </p>
+    <p class="q">
+      <i>Resolved</i>, That the President of the United States be
+      requested to enter upon and prosecute from time to time such
+      negotiations with the several maritime powers of Europe and
+      America as he may deem expedient for the effectual abolition
+      of the African slave trade and its ultimate denunciation as
+      piracy under the law of nations, by the consent of the
+      civilized world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the act of Congress above referred to, whereby the most
+      effectual means that could be devised were adopted for the
+      extirpation of the slave trade, the wish of the United States
+      was explicitly declared, that all nations might concur in a
+      similar policy. It could only be by such concurrence that the
+      great object could be accomplished, and it was by negotiation
+      and treaty alone that such concurrence could be obtained,
+      commencing with one power and extending it to others. The
+      course, therefore, which the Executive, who had concurred in
+      the act, had to pursue was distinctly marked out for it. Had
+      there, however, been any doubt respecting it, the resolution
+      of the House of Representatives, the branch which might with
+      strict propriety express its opinion, could not fail to have
+      removed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the tenth article of the treaty of peace between the
+      United States and Great Britain, concluded at Ghent, it was
+      stipulated that both parties should use their best endeavors
+      to accomplish the abolition of the African slave trade. This
+      object has been accordingly pursued by both Governments with
+      great earnestness, by separate acts of legislation, and by
+      negotiation almost uninterrupted, with the purpose of
+      establishing a conceit between them in some measure which
+      might secure its accomplishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Great Britain in her negotiations with other powers had
+      concluded treaties with Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands,
+      in which, without constituting the crime as piracy or
+      classing it with crimes of that denomination, the parties had
+      conceded to the naval officers of each other the right of
+      search and capture of the vessels of either that might be
+      engaged in the slave trade, and had instituted courts
+      consisting of judges, subjects of both parties, for the trial
+      of the vessels so captured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the negotiations with the United States Great Britain had
+      earnestly and repeatedly pressed on them the adoption of
+      similar provisions. They had been resisted by the Executive
+      on two grounds: One, that the constitution of mixed tribunals
+      was incompatible with their Constitution; and the other, that
+      the concession of the right of search in time of peace for an
+      offense not piratical would be repugnant to the feelings of
+      the nation and of dangerous tendency. The right of search is
+      the right of war of the belligerent toward the neutral. To
+      extend it in time of peace to any object whatever might
+      establish a precedent which might lead to others with some
+      powers, and which, even if confined to the instance
+      specified, might be subject to great abuse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Animated by an ardent desire to suppress this trade, the
+      United States took stronger ground by making it, by the act
+      above referred to, piratical, a measure more adequate to the
+      end and free from many of the objections applicable to the
+      plan which had been proposed to them. It is this alternative
+      which the Executive, under the sanction and injunctions above
+      stated, offered to the British Government, and which that
+      Government has accepted. By making the crime piracy the right
+      of search attaches to the crime, and which when adopted by
+      all nations will be common to all; and that it will be so
+      adopted may fairly be presumed if steadily persevered in by
+      the parties to the present convention. In the meantime, and
+      with a view to a fair experiment, the obvious course seems to
+      be to carry into effect with every power such treaty as may
+      be made with each in succession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In presenting this alternative to the British Government it
+      was made an indispensable condition that the trade should be
+      made piratical by act of Parliament, as it had been by an act
+      of Congress. This was provided for in the convention, and has
+      since been complied with. In this respect, therefore, the
+      nations rest on the same ground. Suitable provisions have
+      also been adopted to protect each party from the abuse of the
+      power granted to the public ships of the other. Instead of
+      subjecting the persons detected in the slave trade to trial
+      by the courts of the captors, as would be the case if such
+      trade was piracy by the laws of nations, it is stipulated
+      that until that event they shall be tried by the courts of
+      their own country only. Hence there could be no motive for an
+      abuse of the right of search, since such abuse could not fail
+      to terminate to the injury of the captor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Should this convention be adopted, there is every reason to
+      believe that it will be the commencement of a system destined
+      to accomplish the entire abolition of the slave trade. Great
+      Britain, by making it her own, confessedly adopted at the
+      suggestion of the United States, and being pledged to propose
+      and urge its adoption by other nations in concert with the
+      United States, will find it for her interest to abandon the
+      less-effective system of her previous treaties with Spain,
+      Portugal, and the Netherlands, and to urge on those and other
+      powers their accession to this. The crime will then be
+      universally proscribed as piracy, and the traffic be
+      suppressed forever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Other considerations of high importance urge the adoption of
+      this convention. We have at this moment pending with Great
+      Britain sundry other negotiations intimately connected with
+      the welfare and even the peace of our Union. In one of them
+      nearly a third part of the territory of the State of Maine is
+      in contestation. In another the navigation of the St.
+      Lawrence, the admission of consuls into the British islands,
+      and a system of commercial intercourse between the United
+      States and all the British possessions in this hemisphere are
+      subjects of discussion. In a third our territorial and other
+      rights upon the northwest coast are to be adjusted, while a
+      negotiation on the same interest is opened with Russia. In a
+      fourth all the most important controvertible points of
+      maritime law in time of war are brought under consideration,
+      and in the fifth the whole system of South American concerns,
+      connected with a general recognition of South American
+      independence, may again from hour to hour become, as it has
+      already been, an object of concerted operations of the
+      highest interest to both nations and to the peace of the
+      world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It can not be disguised that the rejection of this convention
+      can not fail to have a very injurious influence on the good
+      understanding between the two Governments on all these
+      points. That it would place the Executive Administration
+      under embarrassment, and subject it, the Congress, and the
+      nation to the charge of insincerity respecting the great
+      result of the final suppression of the slave trade, and that
+      its first and indispensable consequence will be to constrain
+      the Executive to suspend all further negotiation with every
+      European and American power to which overtures have been made
+      in compliance with the resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of 28th February, 1823, must be obvious. To
+      invite all nations, with the statute of piracy in our hands,
+      to adopt its principles as the law of nations and yet to deny
+      to all the common right of search for the pirate, whom it
+      would be impossible to detect without entering and searching
+      the vessel, would expose us not simply to the charge of
+      inconsistency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It must be obvious that the restriction of search for pirates
+      to the African coast is incompatible with the idea of such a
+      crime. It is not doubted also if the convention is adopted
+      that no example of the commission of that crime by the
+      citizens or subjects of either power will ever occur again.
+      It is believed, therefore, that this right as applicable to
+      piracy would not only extirpate the trade, but prove
+      altogether innocent in its operation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In further illustration of the views of Congress on this
+      subject, I transmit to the Senate extracts from two
+      resolutions of the House of Representatives, one of the 9th
+      February, 1821, the other of 12th April, 1822. I transmit
+      also a letter from the charg&eacute; d'affaires of the
+      British Government, which shows the deep interest which that
+      Government takes in the ratification of the treaty.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON CITY, <i>May 22, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the
+      Secretary of the Navy, in compliance with their resolution of
+      the 14th of April last, respecting prize agents, which report
+      contains the information requested.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MAY 24, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 13th instant, requesting the President
+      to communicate any information he may possess in relation to
+      the intercourse and trade now carried on between the people
+      of the United States (and particularly the people of the
+      State of Missouri) and the Mexican Provinces, how and by what
+      route that trade or intercourse is carried on, in what it
+      consists, the distances, etc., the nations of Indians through
+      which it passes, their dispositions, whether pacific or
+      otherwise, the advantages resulting or likely to result from
+      that trade or intercourse, I herewith transmit a
+      communication from the Department of State, which contains
+      all the information which has yet been collected in relation
+      to those subjects.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MAY 24, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the 20th instant, I
+      transmit herewith to the House of Representatives a report of
+      David Shriver, superintendent of the Cumberland road, stating
+      the manner in which the appropriation made at the last
+      session for the repair of that road has been expended, and
+      also the present condition of the road.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 7, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of
+      Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The view which I have now to present to you of our affairs,
+      foreign and domestic, realizes the most sanguine
+      anticipations which have been entertained of the public
+      prosperity. If we look to the whole, our growth as a nation
+      continues to be rapid beyond example; if to the States which
+      compose it, the same gratifying spectacle is exhibited. Our
+      expansion over the vast territory within our limits has been
+      great, without indicating any decline in those sections from
+      which the emigration has been most conspicuous. We have daily
+      gained strength by a native population in every
+      quarter&mdash;a population devoted to our happy system of
+      government and cherishing the bond of union with fraternal
+      affection. Experience has already shewn that the difference
+      of climate and of industry, proceeding from that cause,
+      inseparable from such vast domains, and which under other
+      systems might have a repulsive tendency, can not fail to
+      produce with us under wise regulations the opposite effect.
+      What one portion wants the other may supply; and this will be
+      most sensibly felt by the parts most distant from each other,
+      forming thereby a domestic market and an active intercourse
+      between the extremes and throughout every portion of our
+      Union. Thus by a happy distribution of power between the
+      National and State Governments, Governments which rest
+      exclusively on the sovereignty of the people and are fully
+      adequate to the great purposes for which they were
+      respectively instituted, causes which might otherwise lead to
+      dismemberment operate powerfully to draw us closer together.
+      In every other circumstance a correct view of the actual
+      state of our Union must be equally gratifying to our
+      constituents. Our relations with foreign powers are of a
+      friendly character, although certain interesting differences
+      remain unsettled with some. Our revenue under the mild system
+      of impost and tonnage continues to be adequate to all the
+      purposes of the Government Our agriculture, commerce,
+      manufactures, and navigation flourish. Our fortifications are
+      advancing in the degree authorized by existing appropriations
+      to maturity, and due progress is made in the augmentation of
+      the Navy to the limit prescribed for it by law. For these
+      blessings we owe to Almighty God, from whom we derive them,
+      and with profound reverence, our most grateful and unceasing
+      acknowledgments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In adverting to our relations with foreign powers, which are
+      always an object of the highest importance, I have to remark
+      that of the subjects which have been brought into discussion
+      with them during the present Administration some have been
+      satisfactorily terminated, others have been suspended, to be
+      resumed hereafter under circumstances more favorable to
+      success, and others are still in negotiation, with the hope
+      that they may be adjusted with mutual accommodation to the
+      interests and to the satisfaction of the respective parties.
+      It has been the invariable object of this Government to
+      cherish the most friendly relations with every power, and on
+      principles and conditions which might make them permanent. A
+      systematic effort has been made to place our commerce with
+      each power on a footing of perfect reciprocity, to settle
+      with each in a spirit of candor and liberality all existing
+      differences, and to anticipate and remove so far as it might
+      be practicable all causes of future variance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It having been stipulated by the seventh article of the
+      convention of navigation and commerce which was concluded on
+      the 24th of June, 1822, between the United States and France,
+      that the said convention should continue in force for two
+      years from the 1st of October of that year, and for an
+      indefinite term afterwards, unless one of the parties should
+      declare its intention to renounce it, in which event it
+      should cease to operate at the end of six months from such
+      declaration, and no such intention having been announced, the
+      convention having been found advantageous to both parties, it
+      has since remained, and still remains, in force. At the time
+      when that convention was concluded many interesting subjects
+      were left unsettled, and particularly our claim to indemnity
+      for spoliations which were committed on our commerce in the
+      late wars. For these interests and claims it was in the
+      contemplation of the parties to make provision at a
+      subsequent day by a more comprehensive and definitive treaty.
+      The object has been duly attended to since by the Executive,
+      but as yet it has not been accomplished. It is hoped that a
+      favorable opportunity will present itself for opening a
+      negotiation which may embrace and arrange all existing
+      differences and every other concern in which they have a
+      common interest upon the accession of the present King of
+      France, an event which has occurred since the close of the
+      last session of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With Great Britain our commercial intercourse rests on the
+      same footing that it did at the last session. By the
+      convention of 1815 the commerce between the United States and
+      the British dominions in Europe and the East Indies was
+      arranged on a principle of reciprocity. That convention was
+      confirmed and continued in force, with slight exceptions, by
+      a subsequent treaty for the term of ten years from the 20th
+      of October, 1818, the date of the latter. The trade with the
+      British colonies in the West Indies has not as yet been
+      arranged, by treaty or otherwise, to our satisfaction. An
+      approach to that result has been made by legislative acts,
+      whereby many serious impediments which had been raised by the
+      parties in defense of their respective claims were removed.
+      An earnest desire exists, and has been manifested on the part
+      of this Government, to place the commerce with the colonies,
+      likewise, on a footing of reciprocal advantage, and it is
+      hoped that the British Government, seeing the justice of the
+      proposal and its importance to the colonies, will ere long
+      accede to it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The commissioners who were appointed for the adjustment of
+      the boundary between the territories of the United States and
+      those of Great Britain, specified in the fifth article of the
+      treaty of Ghent, having disagreed in their decision, and both
+      Governments having agreed to establish that boundary by
+      amicable negotiation between them, it is hoped that it may be
+      satisfactorily adjusted in that mode. The boundary specified
+      by the sixth article has been established by the decision of
+      the commissioners. From the progress made in that provided
+      for by the seventh, according to a report recently received,
+      there is good cause to presume that it will be settled in the
+      course of the ensuing year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a cause of serious regret that no arrangement has yet
+      been finally concluded between the two Governments to secure
+      by joint cooperation the suppression of the slave trade. It
+      was the object of the British Government in the early stages
+      of the negotiation to adopt a plan for the suppression which
+      should include the concession of the mutual right of search
+      by the ships of war of each party of the vessels of the other
+      for suspected offenders. This was objected to by this
+      Government on the principle that as the right of search was a
+      right of war of a belligerent toward a neutral power it might
+      have an ill effect to extend it by treaty, to an offense
+      which had been made comparatively mild, to a time of peace.
+      Anxious however, for the suppression of this trade, it was
+      thought advisable, in compliance with a resolution of the
+      House of Representatives, founded on an act of Congress, to
+      propose to the British Government an expedient which should
+      be free from that objection and more effectual for the
+      object, by making it piratical. In that mode the enormity of
+      tho crime would place the offenders out of the protection of
+      their Government, and involve no question of search or other
+      question between the parties touching their respective
+      rights. It was believed, also, that it would completely
+      suppress the trade in the vessels of both parties, and by
+      their respective citizens and subjects in those of other
+      powers, with whom it was hoped that the odium which would
+      thereby be attached to it would produce a corresponding
+      arrangement, and by means thereof its entire extirpation
+      forever. A convention to this effect was concluded and signed
+      in London on the 13th day of March, 1824, by
+      plenipotentiaries duly authorized by both Governments, to the
+      ratification of which certain obstacles have arisen which are
+      not yet entirely removed. The difference between the parties
+      still remaining has been reduced to a point not of sufficient
+      magnitude, as is presumed, to be permitted to defeat an
+      object so near to the heart of both nations and so desirable
+      to the friends of humanity throughout the world. As
+      objections, however, to the principle recommended by the
+      House of Representatives, or at least to the consequences
+      inseparable from it, and which are understood to apply to the
+      law, have been raised, which may deserve a reconsideration of
+      the whole subject, I have thought it proper to suspend the
+      conclusion of a new convention until the definitive
+      sentiments of Congress may be ascertained. These documents
+      relating to the negotiation are with that intent submitted to
+      your consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our commerce with Sweden has been placed on a footing of
+      perfect reciprocity by treaty, and with Russia, the
+      Netherlands, Prussia, the free Hanseatic cities, the Dukedom
+      of Oldenburg, and Sardinia by internal regulations on each
+      side, founded on mutual agreement between the respective
+      Governments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The principles upon which the commercial policy of the United
+      States is founded are to be traced to an early period. They
+      are essentially connected with those upon which their
+      independence was declared, and owe their origin to the
+      enlightened men who took the lead in our affairs at that
+      important epoch. They are developed in their first treaty of
+      commerce with France of 6th February, 1778, and by a formal
+      commission which was instituted immediately after the
+      conclusion of their Revolutionary struggle, for the purpose
+      of negotiating treaties of commerce with every European
+      power. The first treaty of the United States with Prussia,
+      which was negotiated by that commission, affords a signal
+      illustration of those principles. The act of Congress of the
+      3d March. 1815. adopted immediately after the return of a
+      general peace, was a new overture to foreign nations to
+      establish our commercial relations with them on the basis of
+      free and equal reciprocity. That principle has pervaded all
+      the acts of Congress and all the negotiations of the
+      Executive on the subject since.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A convention for the settlement of important questions in
+      relation to the northwest coast of this continent and its
+      adjoining seas was concluded and signed at St. Petersburg on
+      the 5th day of April last by the minister plenipotentiary of
+      the United States and plenipotentiaries of the Imperial
+      Government of Russia. It will immediately be laid before the
+      Senate for the exercise of the constitutional authority of
+      that body with reference to its ratification. It is proper to
+      add that the manner in which this negotiation was invited and
+      conducted on the part of the Emperor has been very
+      satisfactory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great and extraordinary changes which have happened in
+      the Governments of Spain and Portugal within the last two
+      years, without seriously affecting the friendly relations
+      which under all of them have been maintained with those
+      powers by the United States, have been obstacles to the
+      adjustment of the particular subjects of discussion which
+      have arisen with each. A resolution of the Senate adopted at
+      their last session called for information as to the effect
+      produced upon our relations with Spain by the recognition on
+      the part of the United States of the independent South
+      American Governments. The papers containing that information
+      are now communicated to Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A charg&eacute; d'affaires has been received from the
+      independent Government of Brazil. That country, heretofore a
+      colonial possession of Portugal, had some years since been
+      proclaimed by the Sovereign of Portugal himself an
+      independent Kingdom. Since his return to Lisbon a revolution
+      in Brazil has established a new Government there with an
+      imperial title, at the head of which is placed a prince, in
+      whom the regency had been vested by the King at the time of
+      his departure. There is reason to expect that by amicable
+      negotiation the independence of Brazil will ere long be
+      recognized by Portugal herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the remaining powers of Europe, with those on the coast
+      of Barbary, and with all the new South American States our
+      relations are of a friendly character. We have ministers
+      plenipotentiary residing with the Republics of Colombia and
+      Chile, and have received ministers of the same rank from
+      Colombia, Guatemala, Buenos Ayres, and Mexico. Our commercial
+      relations with all those States are mutually beneficial and
+      increasing. With the Republic of Colombia a treaty of
+      commerce has been formed, of which a copy is received and the
+      original daily expected. A negotiation for a like treaty
+      would have been commenced with Buenos Ayres had it not been
+      prevented by the indisposition and lamented decease of Mr.
+      Rodney, our minister there, and to whose memory the most
+      respectful attention has been shewn by the Government of that
+      Republic. An advantageous alteration in our treaty with Tunis
+      has been obtained by our consular agent residing there, the
+      official document of which when received will be laid before
+      the Senate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The attention of the Government has been drawn with great
+      solicitude to other subjects, and particularly to that
+      relating to a state of maritime war, involving the relative
+      rights of neutral and belligerent in such wars. Most of the
+      difficulties which we have experienced and of the losses
+      which we have sustained since the establishment of our
+      independence have proceeded from the unsettled state of those
+      rights and the extent to which the belligerent claim has been
+      carried against the neutral party. It is impossible to look
+      back on the occurrences of the late wars in Europe, and to
+      behold the disregard which was paid to our rights as a
+      neutral power, and the waste which was made of our commerce
+      by the parties to those wars by various acts of their
+      respective Governments, and under the pretext by each that
+      the other had set the example, without great mortification
+      and a fixed purpose never to submit to the like in future. An
+      attempt to remove those causes of possible variance by
+      friendly negotiation and on just principles which should be
+      applicable to all parties could, it was presumed, be viewed
+      by none other than as a proof of an earnest desire to
+      preserve those relations with every power. In the late war
+      between France and Spain a crisis occurred in which it seemed
+      probable that all the controvertible principles involved in
+      such wars might be brought into discussion and settled to the
+      satisfaction of all parties. Propositions having this object
+      in view have been made to the Governments of Great Britain,
+      France, Russia, and of other powers, which have been received
+      in a friendly manner by all, but as yet no treaty has been
+      formed with either for its accomplishment. The policy will,
+      it is presumed, be persevered in, and in the hope that it may
+      be successful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will always be recollected that with one of the parties to
+      those wars, and from whom we received those injuries, we
+      sought redress by war. From the other, by whose then reigning
+      Government our vessels were seized in port as well as at sea
+      and their cargoes confiscated, indemnity has been expected,
+      but has not yet been tendered. It was under the influence of
+      the latter that our vessels were likewise seized by the
+      Governments of Spain, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and Naples,
+      and from whom indemnity has been claimed and is still
+      expected, with the exception of Spain, by whom it has been
+      rendered. With both parties we had abundant cause of war, but
+      we had no alternative but to resist that which was most
+      powerful at sea and pressed us nearest at home. With this all
+      differences were settled by a treaty, founded on conditions
+      fair and honorable to both, and which has been so far
+      executed with perfect good faith. It has been earnestly hoped
+      that the other would of its own accord, and from a sentiment
+      of justice and conciliation, make to our citizens the
+      indemnity to which they are entitled, and thereby remove from
+      our relations any just cause of discontent on our side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is estimated that the receipts into the Treasury during
+      the current year, exclusive of loans, will exceed
+      $18,500,000, which, with the sum remaining in the Treasury at
+      the end of the last year, amounting to $9.463,922.81, will,
+      after discharging the current disbursements of the year, the
+      interest on the public debt, and upward of $11,633,011.52 of
+      the principal, leave a balance of more than $3,000,000 in the
+      Treasury on the 1st day of January next.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A larger amount of the debt contracted during the late war,
+      bearing an interest of 6 per cent, becoming redeemable in the
+      course of the ensuing year than could be discharged by the
+      ordinary revenue, the act of the 26th of May authorized a
+      loan of $5,000,000 at 4-1/2 per cent to meet the same. By
+      this arrangement an annual saving will accrue to the public
+      of $75,000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the act of the 24th of May last a loan of $5,000,000
+      was authorized, in order to meet the awards under the Florida
+      treaty, which was negotiated at par with the Bank of the
+      United States at 4-1/2 percent, the limit of interest fixed
+      by the act. By this provision the claims of our citizens who
+      had sustained so great a loss by spoliations, and from whom
+      indemnity had been so long withheld, were promptly paid. For
+      these advances the public will be amply repaid at no distant
+      day by the sale of the lands in Florida. Of the great
+      advantages resulting from the acquisition of the Territory in
+      other respects too high an estimate can not be formed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is estimated that the receipts into the Treasury during
+      the year 1825 will be sufficient to meet the disbursements of
+      the year, including the sum of $10,000,000, which is annually
+      appropriated by the act constituting the sinking fund to the
+      payment of the principal and interest of the public debt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole amount of the public debt on the 1st of January
+      next may be estimated at $86,000,000, inclusive of $2,500,000
+      of the loan authorized by the act of the 26th of May last. In
+      this estimate is included a stock of $7,000,000, issued for
+      the purchase of that amount of the capital stock of the Bank
+      of the United States, and which, as the stock of the bank
+      still held by the Government will at least be fully equal to
+      its reimbursement, ought not to be considered as constituting
+      a part of the public debt. Estimating, then, the whole amount
+      of the public debt at $79,000,000 and regarding the annual
+      receipts and expenditures of the Government, a well-founded
+      hope may be entertained that, should no unexpected event
+      occur, the whole of the public debt may be discharged in the
+      course of ten years, and the Government be left at liberty
+      thereafter to apply such portion of the revenue as may not be
+      necessary for current expenses to such other objects as may
+      be most conducive to the public security and welfare. That
+      the sums applicable to these objects will be very
+      considerable may be fairly concluded when it is recollected
+      that a large amount of the public revenue has been applied
+      since the late war to the construction of the public
+      buildings in this city; to the erection of fortifications
+      along the coast and of arsenals in different parts of the
+      Union; to the augmentation of the Navy; to the extinguishment
+      of the Indian title to large tracts of fertile territory; to
+      the acquisition of Florida; to pensions to Revolutionary
+      officers and soldiers, and to invalids of the late war. On
+      many of these objects the expense will annually be diminished
+      and cease at no distant period on most of them. On the 1st of
+      January, 1817, the public debt amounted to $123,491,965.16,
+      and, notwithstanding the large sums which have been applied
+      to these objects, it has been reduced since that period
+      $37,446,961.78. The last portion of the public debt will be
+      redeemable on the 1st of January, 1835, and while there is
+      the best reason to believe that the resources of the
+      Government will be continually adequate to such portions of
+      it as may become due in the interval, it is recommended to
+      Congress to seize every opportunity which may present itself
+      to reduce the rate of interest on every part thereof. The
+      high state of the public credit and the great abundance of
+      money are at this time very favorable to such a result. It
+      must be very gratifying to our fellow-citizens to witness
+      this flourishing state of the public finances when it is
+      recollected that no burthen whatever has been imposed upon
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The military establishment in all its branches, in the
+      performance of the various duties assigned to each, justifies
+      the favorable view which was presented of the efficiency of
+      its organization at the last session. All the appropriations
+      have been regularly applied to the objects intended by
+      Congress, and so far as the disbursements have been made the
+      accounts have been rendered and settled without loss to the
+      public. The condition of the Army itself, as relates to the
+      officers and men, in science and discipline is highly
+      respectable. The Military Academy, on which the Army
+      essentially rests, and to which it is much indebted for this
+      state of improvement, has attained, in comparison with any
+      other institution of a like kind, a high degree of
+      perfection. Experience, however, has shewn that the dispersed
+      condition of the corps of artillery is unfavorable to the
+      discipline of that important branch of the military
+      establishment. To remedy this inconvenience, eleven companies
+      have been assembled at the fortification erected at Old Point
+      Comfort as a school for artillery instruction, with intention
+      as they shall be perfected in the various duties of that
+      service to order them to other posts, and to supply their
+      places with other companies for instruction in like manner.
+      In this mode a complete knowledge of the science and duties
+      of this arm will be extended throughout the whole corps of
+      artillery.-But to carry this object fully into effect will
+      require the aid of Congress, to obtain which the subject is
+      now submitted to your consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the progress which has been made in the construction of
+      fortifications for the permanent defense of our maritime
+      frontier, according to the plan decided on and to the extent
+      of the existing appropriations, the report of the Secretary
+      of War, which is herewith communicated, will give a detailed
+      account. Their final completion can not fail to give great
+      additional security to that frontier, and to diminish
+      proportionably the expense of defending it in the event of
+      war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The provisions in the several acts of Congress of the last
+      session for the improvement of the navigation of the
+      Mississippi and the Ohio, of the harbor of Presqu'isle, on
+      Lake Erie, and the repair of the Plymouth beach are in a
+      course of regular execution; and there is reason to believe
+      that the appropriation in each instance will be adequate to
+      the object. To carry these improvements fully into effect,
+      the superintendence of them has been assigned to officers of
+      the Corps of Engineers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the act of 30th April last, authorizing the President
+      to cause a survey to be made, with the necessary plans and
+      estimates, of such roads and canals as he might deem of
+      national importance in a commercial or military point of
+      view, or for the transportation of the mail, a board has been
+      instituted, consisting of two distinguished officers of the
+      Corps of Engineers and a distinguished civil engineer, with
+      assistants, who have been actively employed in carrying into
+      effect the object of the act. They have carefully examined
+      the route between the Potomac and the Ohio rivers; between
+      the latter and Lake Erie; between the Alleghany and the
+      Susquehannah; and the routes between the Delaware and the
+      Raritan, Barnstable and Buzzards Bay, and between Boston
+      Harbor and Narraganset Bay. Such portion of the Corps of
+      Topographical Engineers as could be spared from the survey of
+      the coast has been employed in surveying the very important
+      route between the Potomac and the Ohio. Considerable progress
+      has been made in it, but the survey can not be completed
+      until the next season. It is gratifying to add, from the view
+      already taken, that there is good cause to believe that this
+      great national object may be fully accomplished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is contemplated to commence early in the next season the
+      execution of the other branch of the act&mdash;that which
+      relates to roads&mdash;and with the survey of a route from
+      this city, through the Southern States, to New Orleans, the
+      importance of which can not be too highly estimated. All the
+      officers of both the corps of engineers who could be spared
+      from other services have been employed in exploring and
+      surveying the routes for canals. To digest a plan for both
+      objects for the great purposes specified will require a
+      thorough knowledge of every part of our Union and of the
+      relation of each part to the others and of all to the seat of
+      the General Government. For such a digest it will be
+      necessary that the information be full, minute, and precise.
+      With a view to these important objects, I submit to the
+      consideration of the Congress the propriety of enlarging both
+      the corps of engineers&mdash;the military and topographical.
+      It need scarcely be remarked that the more extensively these
+      corps are engaged in the improvement of their country, in the
+      execution of the powers of Congress, and in aid of the States
+      in such improvements as lie beyond that limit, when such aid
+      is desired, the happier the effect will be in many views of
+      which the subject is susceptible. By profiting of their
+      science the works will always be well executed, and by giving
+      to the officers such employment our Union will derive all the
+      advantage, in peace as well as in war, from their talents and
+      services which they can afford. In this mode, also, the
+      military will be incorporated with the civil, and unfounded
+      and injurious distinctions and prejudices of every kind be
+      done away. To the corps themselves this service can not fail
+      to be equally useful, since by the knowledge they would thus
+      acquire they would be eminently better qualified in the event
+      of war for the great purposes for which they were instituted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our relations with the Indian tribes within our limits have
+      not been materially changed during the year. The hostile
+      disposition evinced by certain tribes on the Missouri during
+      the last year still continues, and has extended in some
+      degree to those on the Upper Mississippi and the Upper Lakes.
+      Several parties of our citizens have been plundered and
+      murdered by those tribes. In order to establish relations of
+      friendship with them, Congress at the last session made an
+      appropriation for treaties with them and for the employment
+      of a suitable military escort to accompany and attend the
+      commissioners at the places appointed for the negotiations.
+      This object has not been effected. The season was too far
+      advanced when the appropriation was made and the distance too
+      great to permit it, but measures have been taken, and all the
+      preparations will be completed to accomplish it at an early
+      period in the next season.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Believing that the hostility of the tribes, particularly on
+      the Upper Mississippi and the Lakes, is in no small degree
+      owing to the wars which are carried on between the tribes
+      residing in that quarter, measures have been taken to bring
+      about a general peace among them, which, if successful, will
+      not only tend to the security of our citizens, but be of
+      great advantage to the Indians themselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the exception of the tribes referred to, our relations
+      with all the others are on the same friendly footing, and it
+      affords me great satisfaction to add that they are making
+      steady advances in civilization and the improvement of their
+      condition. Many of the tribes have already made great
+      progress in the arts of civilized life. This desirable result
+      has been brought about by the humane and persevering policy
+      of the Government, and particularly by means of the
+      appropriation for the civilization of the Indians. There have
+      been established under the provisions of this act 32 schools,
+      containing 916 scholars, who are well instructed in several
+      branches of literature, and likewise in agriculture and the
+      ordinary arts of life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the appropriation to authorize treaties with the Creeks
+      and Quaupaw Indians commissioners have been appointed and
+      negotiations are now pending, but the result is not yet
+      known.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For more full information respecting the principle which has
+      been adopted for carrying into effect the act of Congress
+      authorizing surveys, with plans and estimates for canals and
+      roads, and on every other branch of duty incident to the
+      Department of War. I refer you to the report of the
+      Secretary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The squadron in the Mediterranean has been maintained in the
+      extent which was proposed in the report of the Secretary of
+      the Navy of the last year, and has afforded to our commerce
+      the necessary protection in that sea. Apprehending, however,
+      that the unfriendly relations which have existed between
+      Algiers and some of the powers of Europe might be extended to
+      us, it has been thought expedient to augment the force there,
+      and in consequence the <i>North Carolina</i>, a ship of the
+      line, has been prepared, and will sail in a few days to join
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The force employed in the Gulf of Mexico and in the
+      neighboring seas for the suppression of piracy has likewise
+      been preserved essentially in the state in which it was
+      during the last year. A persevering effort has been made for
+      the accomplishment of that object, and much protection has
+      thereby been afforded to our commerce, but still the practice
+      is far from being suppressed. From every view which has been
+      taken of the subject it is thought that it will be necessary
+      rather to augment than to diminish our force in that quarter.
+      There is reason to believe that the piracies now complained
+      of are committed by bands of robbers who inhabit the land,
+      and who, by preserving good intelligence with the towns and
+      seizing favorable opportunities, rush forth and fall on
+      unprotected merchant vessels, of which they make an easy
+      prey. The pillage thus taken they carry to their lurking
+      places, and dispose of afterwards at prices tending to seduce
+      the neighboring population. This combination is understood to
+      be of great extent, and is the more to be deprecated because
+      the crime of piracy is often attended with the murder of the
+      crews, these robbers knowing if any survived their lurking
+      places would be exposed and they be caught and punished. That
+      this atrocious practice should be carried to such extent is
+      cause of equal surprise and regret. It is presumed that it
+      must be attributed to the relaxed and feeble state of the
+      local governments, since it is not doubted, from the high
+      character of the governor of Cuba, who is well known and much
+      respected here, that if he had the power he would promptly
+      suppress it. Whether those robbers should be pursued on the
+      land, the local authorities be made responsible for these
+      atrocities, or any other measure be resorted to to suppress
+      them, is submitted to the consideration of Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In execution of the laws for the suppression of the slave
+      trade a vessel has been occasionally sent from that squadron
+      to the coast of Africa with orders to return thence by the
+      usual track of the slave ships, and to seize any of our
+      vessels which might be engaged in that trade. None have been
+      found, and it is believed that none are thus employed. It is
+      well known, however, that the trade still exists under other
+      flags.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The health of our squadron while at Thompsons Island has been
+      much better during the present than it was the last season.
+      Some improvements have been made and others are contemplated
+      there which, it is believed, will have a very salutary
+      effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the Pacific our commerce has much increased, and on that
+      coast, as well as on that seas the United States have many
+      important interests which require attention and protection.
+      It is thought that all the considerations which suggested the
+      expediency of placing a squadron on that sea operate with
+      augmented force for maintaining it there, at least in equal
+      extent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For detailed information respecting the state of our maritime
+      force on each sea, the improvement necessary to be made on
+      either in the organization of the naval establishment
+      generally, and of the laws for its better government I refer
+      you to the report of the Secretary of the Navy, which is
+      herewith communicated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The revenue of the Post-Office Department has received a
+      considerable augmentation in the present year. The current
+      receipts will exceed the expenditures, although the
+      transportation of the mail within the year has been much
+      increased. A report of the Postmaster-General, which is
+      transmitted, will furnish in detail the necessary information
+      respecting the administration and present state of this
+      Department.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In conformity with a resolution of Congress of the last
+      session, an invitation was given to General Lafayette to
+      visit the United States, with an assurance that a ship of war
+      should attend at any port of France which he might designate,
+      to receive and convey him across the Atlantic, whenever it
+      might be convenient for him to sail. He declined the offer of
+      the public ship from motives of delicacy, but assured me that
+      he had long intended and would certainly visit our Union in
+      the course of the present year. In August last he arrived at
+      New York, where he was received with the warmth of affection
+      and gratitude to which his very important and disinterested
+      services and sacrifices in our Revolutionary struggle so
+      eminently entitled him. A corresponding sentiment has since
+      been manifested in his favor throughout every portion of our
+      Union, and affectionate invitations have been given him to
+      extend his visits to them. To these he has yielded all the
+      accommodation in his power. At every designated point of
+      rendezvous the whole population of the neighboring country
+      has been assembled to greet him, among whom it has excited in
+      a peculiar manner the sensibility of all to behold the
+      surviving members of our Revolutionary contest, civil and
+      military, who had shared with him in the toils and dangers of
+      the war, many of them in a decrepit state. A more interesting
+      spectacle, it is believed, was never witnessed, because none
+      could be founded on purer principles, none proceed from
+      higher or more disinterested motives. That the feelings of
+      those who had fought and bled with him in a common cause
+      should have been much excited was natural. There are,
+      however, circumstances attending these interviews which
+      pervaded the whole community and touched the breasts of every
+      age, even the youngest among us. There was not an individual
+      present who had not some relative who had not partaken in
+      those scenes, nor an infant who had not heard the relation of
+      them. But the circumstance which was most sensibly felt, and
+      which his presence brought forcibly to the recollection of
+      all, was the great cause in which we were engaged and the
+      blessings which we have derived from our success in it. The
+      struggle was for independence and liberty, public and
+      personal, and in this we succeeded. The meeting with one who
+      had borne so distinguished a part in that great struggle, and
+      from such lofty and disinterested motives, could not fail to
+      affect profoundly every individual and of every age. It is
+      natural that we should all take a deep interest in his future
+      welfare, as we do. His high claims on our Union are felt, and
+      the sentiment universal that they should be met in a generous
+      spirit. Under these impressions I invite your attention to
+      the subject, with a view that, regarding his very important
+      services, losses, and sacrifices, a provision may be made and
+      tendered to him which shall correspond with the sentiments
+      and be worthy the character of the American people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In turning our attention to the condition of the civilized
+      world, in which the United States have always taken a deep
+      interest, it is gratifying to see how large a portion of it
+      is blessed with peace. The only wars which now exist within
+      that limit are those between Turkey and Greece, in Europe,
+      and between Spain and the new Governments, our neighbors, in
+      this hemisphere. In both these wars the cause of
+      independence, of liberty and humanity, continues to prevail.
+      The success of Greece, when the relative population of the
+      contending parties is considered, commands our admiration and
+      applause, and that it has had a similar effect with the
+      neighboring powers is obvious. The feeling of the whole
+      civilized world is excited in a high degree in their favor.
+      May we not hope that these sentiments, winning on the hearts
+      of their respective Governments, may lead to a more decisive
+      result; that they may produce an accord among them to replace
+      Greece on the ground which she formerly held, and to which
+      her heroic exertions at this day so eminently entitle her?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With respect to the contest to which our neighbors are a
+      party, it is evident that Spain as a power is scarcely felt
+      in it. These new States had completely achieved their
+      independence before it was acknowledged by the United States,
+      and they have since maintained it with little foreign
+      pressure. The disturbances which have appeared in certain
+      portions of that vast territory have proceeded from internal
+      causes, which had their origin in their former Governments
+      and have not yet been thoroughly removed. It is manifest that
+      these causes are daily losing their effect, and that these
+      new States are settling down under Governments elective and
+      representative in every branch, similar to our own. In this
+      course we ardently wish them to persevere, under a firm
+      conviction that it will promote their happiness. In this,
+      their career, however, we have not interfered, believing that
+      every people have a right to institute for themselves the
+      government which, in their judgment, may suit them best. Our
+      example is before them, of the good effect of which, being
+      our neighbors, they are competent judges, and to their
+      judgment we leave it, in the expectation that other powers
+      will pursue the same policy. The deep interest which we take
+      in their independence, which we have acknowledged, and in
+      their enjoyment of all the rights incident thereto,
+      especially in the very important one of instituting their own
+      Governments, has been declared, and is known to the world.
+      Separated as we are from Europe by the great Atlantic Ocean,
+      we can have no concern in the wars of the European
+      Governments nor in the causes which produce them. The balance
+      of power between them, into whichever scale it may turn in
+      its various vibrations, can not affect us. It is the interest
+      of the United States to preserve the most friendly relations
+      with every power and on conditions fair, equal, arid
+      applicable to all. But in regard to our neighbors our
+      situation is different. It is impossible for the European
+      Governments to interfere in their concerns, especially in
+      those alluded to, which are vital, without affecting us;
+      indeed, the motive which might induce such interference in
+      the present state of the war between the parties, if a war it
+      may be called, would appear to be equally applicable to us.
+      It is gratifying to know that some of the powers with whom we
+      enjoy a very friendly intercourse, and to whom these views
+      have been communicated, have appeared to acquiesce in them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The augmentation of our population with the expansion of our
+      Union and increased number of States have produced effects in
+      certain branches of our system which merit the attention of
+      Congress. Some of our arrangements, and particularly the
+      judiciary establishment, were made with a view to the
+      original thirteen States only. Since then the United States
+      have acquired a vast extent of territory; eleven new States
+      have been admitted into the Union, and Territories have been
+      laid off for three others, which will likewise be admitted at
+      no distant day. An organization of the Supreme Court which
+      assigns to the judges any portion of the duties which belong
+      to the inferior, requiring their passage over so vast a space
+      under any distribution of the States that may now be made, if
+      not impracticable in the execution, must render it impossible
+      for them to discharge the duties of either branch with
+      advantage to the Union. The duties of the Supreme Court would
+      be of great importance if its decisions were confined to the
+      ordinary limits of other tribunals, but when it is considered
+      that this court decides, and in the last resort, on all the
+      great questions which arise under our Constitution, involving
+      those between the United States individually, between the
+      States and the United States, and between the latter and
+      foreign powers, too high an estimate of their importance can
+      not be formed. The great interests of the nation seem to
+      require that the judges of the Supreme Court should be
+      exempted from every other duty than those which are incident
+      to that high trust. The organization of the inferior courts
+      would of course be adapted to circumstances. It is presumed
+      that such an one might be formed as would secure an able and
+      faithful discharge of their duties, and without any material
+      augmentation of expense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The condition of the aborigines within our limits, and
+      especially those who are within the limits of any of the
+      States, merits likewise particular attention. Experience has
+      shown that unless the tribes be civilized they can never be
+      incorporated into our system in any form whatever. It has
+      likewise shown that in the regular augmentation of our
+      population with the extension of our settlements their
+      situation will become deplorable, if their extinction is not
+      menaced. Some well-digested plan which will rescue them from
+      such calamities is due to their rights, to the rights of
+      humanity, and to the honor of the nation. Their civilization
+      is indispensable to their safety, and this can be
+      accomplished only by degrees. The process must commence with
+      the infant state, through whom some effect may be wrought on
+      the parental. Difficulties of the most serious character
+      present themselves to the attainment of this very desirable
+      result on the territory on which they now reside. To remove
+      them from it by force, even with a view to their own security
+      and happiness, would be revolting to humanity and utterly
+      unjustifiable. Between the limits of our present States and
+      Territories and the Rocky Mountains and Mexico there is a
+      vast territory to which they might be invited with
+      inducements which might be successful. It is thought if that
+      territory should be divided into districts by previous
+      agreement with the tribes now residing there and civil
+      governments be established in each, with schools for every
+      branch of instruction in literature and the arts of civilized
+      life, that all the tribes now within our limits might
+      gradually be drawn there. The execution of this plan would
+      necessarily be attended with expense, and that not
+      inconsiderable, but it is doubted whether any other can be
+      devised which would be less liable to that objection or more
+      likely to succeed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In looking to the interests which the United States have on
+      the Pacific Ocean and on the western coast of this continent,
+      the propriety of establishing a military post at the mouth of
+      Columbia River, or at some other point in that quarter within
+      our acknowledged limits, is submitted to the consideration of
+      Congress. Our commerce and fisheries on that sea and along
+      the coast have much increased and are increasing. It is
+      thought that a military post, to which our ships of war might
+      resort, would afford protection to every interest, and have a
+      tendency to conciliate the tribes to the northwest, with whom
+      our trade is extensive. It is thought also that by the
+      establishment of such a post the intercourse between our
+      Western States and Territories and the Pacific and our trade
+      with the tribes residing in the interior on each side of the
+      Rocky Mountains would be essentially promoted. To carry this
+      object into effect the appropriation of an adequate sum to
+      authorize the employment of a frigate, with an officer of the
+      Corps of Engineers, to explore the mouth of the Columbia
+      River and the coast contiguous thereto, to enable the
+      Executive to make such establishment at the most suitable
+      point, is recommended to Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is thought that attention is also due to the improvement
+      of this city. The communication between the public buildings
+      and in various other parts and the grounds around those
+      buildings require it. It is presumed also that the completion
+      of the canal from the Tiber to the Eastern Branch would have
+      a very salutary effect. Great exertions have been made and
+      expenses incurred by the citizens in improvements of various
+      kinds; but those which are suggested belong exclusively to
+      the Government, or are of a nature to require expenditures
+      beyond their resources. The public lots which are still for
+      sale would, it is not doubted, be more than adequate to these
+      purposes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the view above presented it is manifest that the
+      situation of the United States is in the highest degree
+      prosperous and happy. There is no object which as a people we
+      can desire which we do not possess or which is not within our
+      reach. Blessed with governments the happiest which the world
+      ever knew, with no distinct orders in society or divided
+      interests in any portion of the vast territory over which
+      their dominion extends, we have every motive to cling
+      together which can animate a virtuous and enlightened people.
+      The great object is to preserve these blessings, and to hand
+      them down to the latest posterity. Our experience ought to
+      satisfy us that our progress under the most correct and
+      provident policy will not be exempt from danger. Our
+      institutions form an important epoch in the history of the
+      civilized world. On their preservation and in their utmost
+      purity everything will depend. Extending as our interests do
+      to every part of the inhabited globe and to every sea to
+      which our citizens are carried by their industry and
+      enterprise, to which they are invited by the wants of others,
+      and have a right to go, we must either protect them in the
+      enjoyment of their rights or abandon them in certain events
+      to waste and desolation. Our attitude is highly interesting
+      as relates to other powers, and particularly to our southern
+      neighbors. We have duties to perform with respect to all to
+      which we must be faithful. To every kind of danger we should
+      pay the most vigilant and unceasing attention, remove the
+      cause where it may be practicable, and be prepared to meet it
+      when inevitable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Against foreign danger the policy of the Government seems to
+      be already settled. The events of the late war admonished us
+      to make our maritime frontier impregnable by a well-digested
+      chain of fortifications, and to give efficient protection to
+      our commerce by augmenting our Navy to a certain extent,
+      which has been steadily pursued, and which it is incumbent
+      upon us to complete as soon as circumstances will permit. In
+      the event of war it is on the maritime frontier that we shall
+      be assailed. It is in that quarter, therefore, that we should
+      be prepared to meet the attack. It is there that our whole
+      force will be called into action to prevent the destruction
+      of our towns and the desolation and pillage of the interior.
+      To give full effect to this policy great improvements will be
+      indispensable. Access to those works by every practicable
+      communication should be made easy and in every direction. The
+      intercourse between every part of our Union should also be
+      promoted and facilitated by the exercise of those powers
+      which may comport with a faithful regard to the great
+      principles of our Constitution. With respect to internal
+      causes, those great principles point out with equal certainty
+      the policy to be pursued. Resting on the people as our
+      Governments do, State and National, with well-defined powers,
+      it is of the highest importance that they severally keep
+      within the limits prescribed to them. Fulfilling that sacred
+      duty, it is of equal importance that the movement between
+      them be harmonious, and in case of any disagreement, should
+      any such occur, a calm appeal be made to the people, and that
+      their voice be heard and promptly obeyed. Both Governments
+      being instituted for the common good, we can not fail to
+      prosper while those who made them are attentive to the
+      conduct of their representatives and control their measures.
+      In the pursuit of these great objects let a generous spirit
+      and national views and feelings be indulged, and let every
+      part recollect that by cherishing that spirit and improving
+      the condition of the others in what relates to their welfare
+      the general interest will not only be promoted, but the local
+      advantage be reciprocated by all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I can not conclude this communication, the last of the kind
+      which I shall have to make, without recollecting with great
+      sensibility and heartfelt gratitude the many instances of the
+      public confidence and the generous support which I have
+      received from my fellow-citizens in the various trusts with
+      which I have been honored. Having commenced my service in
+      early youth, and continued it since with few and short
+      intervals, I have witnessed the great difficulties to which
+      our Union has been exposed, and admired the virtue and
+      intelligence with which they have been surmounted. From the
+      present prosperous and happy state I derive a gratification
+      which I can not express. That these blessings may be
+      preserved and perpetuated will be the object of my fervent
+      and unceasing prayers to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+    </h2>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 6, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Agreeably to a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+      the 13th of May last, requesting the President to cause to be
+      made and submitted to the House on the first day of the next
+      [present] session of Congress a full and complete statement
+      of the exact number of lots belonging to the United States in
+      the city of Washington which have been sold by the public
+      agents for that purpose; when sold, by whom, to whom, and for
+      what price each lot was purchased; what part of the purchase
+      money has been paid, the amount due, and by whom due, and
+      when payable; whether the debts are well secured, and whether
+      the money received has been applied, to what purposes, and by
+      whom, I herewith transmit a report and statements from the
+      Commissioner of Public Buildings, which will afford the
+      information required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DECEMBER 13, 1824.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with an act of Congress which originated in the
+      House of Representatives, passed the 26th of May, 1824, "to
+      authorize the President of the United States to enter into
+      certain negotiations relative to lands located under Virginia
+      military land warrants, lying between Ludlow's and Roberts's
+      lines, in the State of Ohio," I herewith transmit a report,
+      with accompanying documents, from the Commissioner of the
+      General Land Office, shewing the measures which have been
+      taken under the provisions of the aforesaid act.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 13, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE PRO TEMPORE:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate a convention, negotiated and signed
+      by Samuel D. Heap, acting consul of the United States, on the
+      part of the United States, and Mahmoud Bashaw, Bey of Tunis,
+      on the 24th day of February last, together with copies of Mr.
+      Heap's correspondence appertaining to the negotiation of the
+      same, for the constitutional consideration of the Senate with
+      regard to its ratification.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 13, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES PRO TEMPORE:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate the convention, signed by the
+      plenipotentiaries of the United States and of His Imperial
+      Majesty the Emperor of Russia at St. Petersburg on the 5th
+      (17th) of April last, referred to in my message to both
+      Houses of Congress, together with the documents appertaining
+      to the negotiation of the same, for the constitutional
+      consideration of the Senate with regard to its ratification.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 23, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Agreeably to a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+      the 15th instant, requesting the President to lay before the
+      House a copy of the instructions under which the articles of
+      a treaty with the Cherokee Indians were formed by Daniel
+      Smith and R.J. Meigs, acting as commissioners of the United
+      States, at Telico on the 24th October, 1804, with copies of
+      all the correspondence or other documents relating to that
+      instrument in either of the Executive Departments, with a
+      statement of the causes which prevented an earlier decision
+      upon it, I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of
+      War, with the documents referred to in it.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 23, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I herewith transmit to the House a report from the Secretary
+      of State, with copies of the correspondence with the
+      Government of France requested by the resolution of the House
+      of the 26th May last.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      DEPARTMENT OF STATE,<br>
+       <i>Washington, December 23, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p class="q">
+      The Secretary of State, to whom has been referred a
+      resolution of the House of Representatives of the 26th of May
+      last, requesting that the President of the United States
+      would lay before that House at the then next session, as
+      early as the public interest would permit, the correspondence
+      which might be held with the Government of France prior to
+      that time on the subject of injuries sustained by citizens of
+      the United States since the year 1806, has the honor of
+      reporting to the President copies of the documents requested
+      by that resolution.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [Extract of a letter from Mr. Adams (No. 1) to Mr. Sheldon,
+      dated Department of State, Washington, August 13, 1823.]
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      I have had the honor of receiving your dispatches Nos. 1 and
+      2, the latter dated the 10th of June. Mr. Gallatin arrived
+      with his family at New York on the 24th of that month.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I inclose herewith copies of the recent correspondence
+      between the Count de Menou, the charg&eacute; d'affaires of
+      France, and this Department on various subjects highly
+      interesting to the relations between the two countries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With regard to the Count's note of the 11th of July, the
+      President received with great satisfaction the testimonial of
+      the Viscount de Chateaubriand to the candor and ability with
+      which Mr. Gallatin has performed the duties of his official
+      station in France. The proposal to renew the negotiation in
+      behalf of the well-founded claims of our citizens upon the
+      French Government in <i>connection</i> with a claim on the
+      part of France to special privileges in the ports of
+      Louisiana, which, after a very full discussion, had in the
+      views of this Government been proved utterly groundless,
+      could neither be accepted nor considered as evidence of the
+      same conciliatory spirit. The claims of our citizens are for
+      mere justice; they are for reparation of unquestionable
+      wrongs&mdash;for indemnity or restitution of property taken
+      from them or destroyed without shadow or color of right. The
+      claim under the eighth article of the Louisiana convention
+      has nothing to rest upon but a forced construction of the
+      terms of the stipulation, which the American Government
+      considered, and have invariably considered, as totally
+      without foundation. These are elements not to be coupled
+      together in the same negotiation, and while we yet trust to
+      the final sense of justice of France for the adjustment of
+      the righteous claims of our citizens, we still hope that
+      their unquestionable character will ultimately secure to them
+      a consideration unencumbered with other discussions. You will
+      respectfully make this representation to the Viscount de
+      Chateaubriand, with the assurance of the readiness of this
+      Government to discuss the question upon the Louisiana
+      convention further if desired by France, but of our final
+      conviction that it is not to be blended with the claims of
+      our citizens for mere justice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      <i>Count de Menou to Mr. Adams</i>.
+    </center>
+    <center>
+      [Translation.]
+    </center>
+    <p class="r">
+      LEGATION OF FRANCE TO THE UNITED STATES,<br>
+       <i>Washington, July 11, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Honorable SECRETARY OF STATE:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His Excellency the Viscount de Chateaubriand, in announcing
+      to me that Mr. Gallatin was about to leave France, expresses
+      his regret at his departure in such terms that I should do
+      him injustice were I not to use his own expressions. "My
+      correspondence with this minister," he remarks to me, "has
+      caused me to appreciate his talents, his ability, and his
+      attachment to the system of friendship that unites the two
+      powers. It is with regret that I suspend my communications
+      with him."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I esteem myself happy, sir, in conveying to you such
+      sentiments toward the representative of the United States in
+      France, and I should have thought that I had but imperfectly
+      apprehended the design of the Viscount de Chateaubriand had I
+      neglected to communicate them to the Federal Government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The minister for foreign affairs reminds me also on this
+      occasion that Mr. Gallatin having frequently laid before him
+      claims of Americans against the French Government, he had
+      shown himself disposed to enter upon a general negotiation,
+      in which they should be comprehended with claims of French
+      citizens against the Federal Government at the same time with
+      the arrangement relative to the execution of the eighth
+      article of the treaty of Louisiana, The object of his
+      excellency was to arrive at a speedy and friendly disposition
+      of all difficulties that might subsist between the two
+      powers, well assured that France and the United States would
+      be found to have the same views of justice and conciliation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His excellency regrets that Mr. Gallatin, who, he says, "has
+      convinced him how pleasing and advantageous it is to
+      negotiate with a statesman who exhibits candor and ability in
+      his discussions," did not receive from his Government during
+      his stay in France the necessary powers for this double
+      negotiation. But he informs me that the Government of His
+      Majesty remains always disposed to open it, either with Mr.
+      Gallatin should he return with these powers, or with Mr.
+      Sheldon if the Federal Government should think proper to
+      confer them on him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I greatly desire, sir, to see these propositions acceded to
+      by the Federal Government and to be able to reply to his
+      excellency, as he expresses his wish that an arrangement
+      putting an end to every subject of discussion might soon be
+      expected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I pray the Secretary of State to receive the renewed
+      assurance of my high consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The charg&eacute; d'affaires of France near the United
+      States,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      MENOU.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      <i>Mr. Adams to Count de Menou</i>.
+    </center>
+    <p class="r">
+      DEPARTMENT OF STATE,<br>
+       <i>Washington, August 12, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The COUNT DE MENOU,<br>
+       <i>Charg&eacute; d'Affaires from France</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SIR: Your letter of the 11th of last month has been submitted
+      to the consideration of the President of the United States,
+      by whom I am directed to express the high satisfaction that
+      he has felt at the manner in which His Excellency the
+      Viscount de Chateaubriand has noticed in his correspondence
+      with you the temporary absence of Mr. Gallatin from France
+      and the terms of regard and esteem with which he notices the
+      character and conduct of that minister. The anxious desire of
+      the President for the promotion of the good understanding
+      between the United States and France could not be more
+      gratified than by the testimonial of His Most Christian
+      Majesty's Government to the good faith and ability with which
+      the minister of the United States at his Court has performed
+      his official duties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With regard to the assurance of His Excellency the Viscount
+      de Chateaubriand's disposition to enter upon a negotiation
+      with Mr. Gallatin in the event of his return to France, or
+      with Mr. Sheldon during his absence, concerning the claims of
+      citizens of the United States on the Government of France in
+      connection with an arrangement concerning the eighth article
+      of the Louisiana treaty, I am directed to observe that those
+      subjects rest upon grounds so totally different that the
+      Government of the United States can not consent to connect
+      them together in negotiation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The claims of the citizens of the United States upon the
+      French Government have been of many years' standing, often
+      represented by successive ministers of the United States, and
+      particularly by Mr. Gallatin during a residence of seven
+      years, with a perspicuity of statement and a force of
+      evidence which could leave to the Government of the United
+      States no desire but that they should have been received with
+      friendly attention and no regret but that they should have
+      proved ineffectual. The justice of these claims has never
+      been denied by France, and while the United States are still
+      compelled to wait for their adjustment, similar and less
+      forceful claims of the subjects of other nations have been
+      freely admitted and liquidated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A long and protracted discussion has already taken place
+      between the two Governments in relation to the claim of
+      France under the eighth article of the Louisiana convention,
+      the result of which has been a thorough conviction on the
+      part of the American Government that the claim has no
+      foundation in the treaty whatever. The reasons for this
+      conviction have been so fully set forth in the discussion
+      that it was not anticipated a further examination of it would
+      be thought desirable. As a subject of discussion, however,
+      the American Government is willing to resume it whenever it
+      may suit the views of France to present further
+      considerations relating to it; but while convinced that the
+      claim is entirely without foundation, they can not place it
+      on a footing of concurrent negotiation with claims of their
+      citizens, the justice of which is so unequivocal that they
+      have not even been made the subject of denial.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the attention which His Excellency the Viscount de
+      Chateaubriand has intimated his willingness to give to the
+      consideration of these claims the President indulges the hope
+      that they will be taken into view upon their own merits, and
+      in that hope the representative of the United States at Paris
+      will at an early day be instructed to present them again to
+      the undivided and unconditional sense of the justice of
+      France.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I pray you, sir, to accept the renewed assurance of my
+      distinguished consideration.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [Extract of a letter from Mr, Sheldon (No. 2) to Mr, Adams,
+      dated Paris, October 16, 1823.]
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      I took an early occasion after the receipt of your dispatch
+      No. 1, of the 10th August, to communicate the subjects of it
+      in a conversation I had with Viscount de Chateaubriand. His
+      observations in relation to that of the claims, as connected
+      with the pretensions of France under the Louisiana treaty,
+      were of a very general nature and amounted to little more
+      than a repetition of his readiness to enter upon the
+      consideration of whatever subjects of discussion might exist
+      between the two countries and the expression of his
+      satisfaction at the prospect of being soon relieved from the
+      labor which the affairs of Spain had thrown upon him, and
+      having thus more time to devote to those of the United States
+      and others not of the same pressing nature. He avoided any
+      intimation of a disposition to take up the claims by
+      themselves, and it can hardly be expected that the French
+      Government will at this time relax from the ground they have
+      so lately taken upon that point. I informed him that I should
+      communicate in writing an answer to the overture made by
+      Count de Menou at Washington for uniting in a new negotiation
+      this subject with that of the Louisiana treaty, in substance
+      the same as that gentleman had already received there, and
+      should again press upon the French Government the
+      consideration of the claims by themselves; to which he
+      replied that any communication I might make would be received
+      and treated with all the attention to which it was entitled
+      on his part.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      <i>Mr. Sheldon to the Viscount de Chateaubriand</i>.
+    </center>
+    <p class="r">
+      PARIS, <i>October 11, 1823</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SIR: Mr. Gallatin, during his residence as minister of the
+      United States in France, had upon various occasions called
+      the attention of His Majesty's Government to the claims of
+      our citizens for the reparation of wrongs sustained by them
+      from the unjust seizure, detention, and confiscation of their
+      property by officers and agents acting under authority of the
+      Government of France. During the past year His Majesty's
+      ministers had consented to enter upon the consideration of
+      these claims, but they proposed to couple with it another
+      subject having no connection with those claims, either in its
+      nature, its origin, or the principles on which it
+      depended&mdash;a question of the disputed construction of one
+      of the articles of the treaty of cession of Louisiana, by
+      virtue of which France claimed certain commercial privileges
+      in the ports of that Province. Mr. Gallatin had not received
+      from his Government any authority to connect these two
+      dissimilar subjects in the same negotiation, or, indeed, to
+      treat upon the latter, which had already been very amply
+      discussed at Washington between the Secretary of State of the
+      United States and His Majesty's minister at that place,
+      without producing any result except a conviction on the part
+      of the Government of the United States that the privileges
+      for French vessels, as claimed by the minister of France,
+      never could have been, and were not in fact, conceded by the
+      treaty in question. A stop was then put to the negotiations
+      already commenced in relation to the claims, and with which
+      had been united, on the proposition of the French Government,
+      and as being naturally connected with it, the consideration
+      of certain claims of French citizens on the Government of the
+      United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The charg&eacute; d'affaires of France at Washington has
+      lately, on behalf of his Government, expressed to that of the
+      United States a wish that this double negotiation might be
+      resumed and that a definitive arrangement might be made as
+      well in relation to the disputed article of the Louisiana
+      treaty as of the subject of the claims upon the one side and
+      upon the other. The Government of the United States has
+      nothing more at heart than to remove by friendly arrangements
+      every subject of difference which may exist between the two
+      countries, and to examine with the greatest impartiality and
+      good faith as well the nature and extent of the stipulations
+      into which they have entered as the appeals to their justice
+      made by individuals claiming reparation for wrongs supposed
+      to have been sustained at their hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But these two subjects are essentially dissimilar; there are
+      no points of connection between them; the principles upon
+      which they depend are totally different; they have no bearing
+      upon each other; and the justice which is due to individuals
+      ought not to be delayed or made dependent upon the right or
+      the wrong interpretation by one or the other party of a
+      treaty having for its object the regulation of entirely
+      distinct and different interests.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reclamations of American citizens upon the Government of
+      France are for mere justice&mdash;for the reparation of
+      unquestionable wrongs, indemnity or restitution of property
+      taken from them or destroyed forcibly and without right. They
+      are of ancient date, and justice has been long and anxiously
+      waited for. They have been often represented to the
+      Government of France, and their validity is not disputed.
+      Similar reclamations without greater merit or stronger titles
+      to admission presented by citizens of other nations have been
+      favorably received, examined, and liquidated, and it seems to
+      have been hitherto reserved to those of the United States
+      alone to meet with impediments at every juncture and to seek
+      in vain the moment in which the Government of France could
+      consent to enter upon their consideration. Although the
+      question arising under the eighth article of the Louisiana
+      treaty has already been fully examined, the Government of the
+      United States is ready, if it is desired by France, and if it
+      is thought that any new light can be thrown upon it, to
+      discuss the subject further whenever it shall be presented
+      anew by France to their consideration. But they are convinced
+      that by blending it with the claims not only will no progress
+      be made toward its solution, but that these last, standing
+      upon their own unquestionable character, ought not to be
+      trammeled with a subject to which they are wholly foreign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am instructed to bring them anew before your excellency,
+      and to express the hope of the President that His Majesty's
+      Government will not continue to insist upon connecting
+      together two subjects of so different a nature, but that the
+      claims may be taken up on their own merits and receive the
+      consideration which they deserve, unencumbered with other
+      discussions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I request your excellency to accept the assurance, etc,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      D. SHELDON.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [Extracts of a letter from the Secretary of State to Mr.
+      Brown, dated Washington, December 23, 1823.]
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      You will immediately after your reception earnestly call the
+      attention of the French Government to the claims of our
+      citizens for indemnity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will at the same time explicitly make known that this
+      Government can not consent to connect this discussion with
+      that of the pretension raised by France on the construction
+      given by her to the eighth article of the Louisiana cession
+      treaty. The difference in the nature and character of the two
+      interests is such that they can not with propriety be blended
+      together. The claims are of reparation to individuals for
+      their property taken from them by manifest and undisputed
+      wrong. The question upon the Louisiana treaty is a question
+      of <i>right</i> upon the meaning of a contract. It has been
+      fully, deliberately, and thoroughly investigated, and the
+      Government of the United States is under the entire and
+      solemn conviction that the pretension of France is utterly
+      unfounded. We are, nevertheless, willing to resume the
+      discussion if desired by France; but to refuse justice to
+      individuals unless the United States will accede to the
+      construction of an article in a treaty contrary to what they
+      believe to be its real meaning would be not only incompatible
+      with the principles of equity, but submitting to a species of
+      compulsion derogatory to the honor of the nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [Extract of a letter (No. 2) from James Brown, envoy
+      extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United
+      States, dated April 28, 1824.]
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      I have in a letter to M. de Chateaubriand, copy of which I
+      have now the honor to send, made an effort to separate the
+      claims of our citizens from the Louisiana question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      <i>Mr. Brown to M. de Chateaubriand</i>.
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      PARIS, <i>April 28, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His Excellency VISCOUNT DE CHATEAUBRIAND,<br>
+       <i>Minister of Foreign Affairs, etc</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SIR: In the conference with which your excellency honored me
+      a few days ago I mentioned a subject deeply interesting to
+      many citizens of the United States, on which I have been
+      instructed to address your excellency, and to which I
+      earnestly wish to call your immediate attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is well known to your excellency that my predecessor, Mr.
+      Gallatin, during several years made repeated and urgent
+      applications to His Majesty's Government for the adjustment
+      of claims to a very large amount, affecting the interests of
+      American citizens and originating in gross violations of the
+      law of nations and of the rights of the United States, and
+      that he never could obtain from France either a settlement of
+      those claims or even an examination and discussion of their
+      validity. To numerous letters addressed by him to His
+      Majesty's ministers on that subject either no answers were
+      given or answers which had for their only object to postpone
+      the investigation of the subject. Whilst, however, he
+      indulged the hope that these delays would be abandoned, and
+      that the rights of our citizens, which had been urged for so
+      many years, would at length be taken up for examination, he
+      learned with surprise and regret that His Majesty's
+      Government had determined to insist that they should be
+      discussed in connection with the question of the construction
+      of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty of cession.
+      Against this determination he strongly but ineffectually
+      remonstrated in a letter to Mr. De Villele, dated the 12th
+      November, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is notorious that the Government of the United States,
+      whenever requested by that of His Majesty, have uniformly
+      agreed to discuss any subject presented for their
+      consideration, whether the object has been to obtain the
+      redress of public or private injuries. Acting upon this
+      principle, the question of the eighth article of the
+      Louisiana treaty was, upon the suggestion of the minister of
+      France, made the subject of a voluminous correspondence, in
+      the course of which all the arguments of the parties
+      respectively were fully made known to each other and
+      examined. The result of this discussion has been a thorough
+      conviction on the part of the Government of the United States
+      that the construction of that article of the treaty contended
+      for by France is destitute of any solid foundation and wholly
+      inadmissible. After a discussion so full as to exhaust every
+      argument on that question, the attempt to renew it in
+      connection with the question of the claims of our citizens
+      appeared to the Government of the United States to be a
+      measure so contrary to the fair and regular course of
+      examining controverted points between nations that they
+      instructed Mr, Sheldon, their charg&eacute; d'affaires, to
+      prepare and present a note explaining their views of the
+      proceeding, which he delivered on the 11th of October, 1823.
+      To this note no answer has ever been received.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have the express instructions of the Government again to
+      call the attention of that of His Majesty to this subject,
+      and to insist that the claims of our citizens may continue to
+      be discussed as a distinct question, without connecting it in
+      any way with the construction of the Louisiana treaty. The
+      two subjects are in every respect dissimilar. The difference
+      in the nature and character of the two interests is such as
+      to prevent them from being blended in the same discussion.
+      The claims against France are of reparation to individuals
+      for their property taken from them by undisputed wrong and
+      injustice; the claim of France under the treaty is that of a
+      right founded on a contract. In the examination of these
+      questions the one can impart no light to the other; they are
+      wholly unconnected, and ought on every principle to undergo a
+      distinct and separate examination. To involve in the same
+      investigation the indisputable rights of American citizens to
+      indemnity for losses and the doubtful construction of a
+      treaty can have no other effect than to occasion an
+      indefinite postponement of the reparation due to individuals
+      or a sacrifice on the part of the Government of the United
+      States of a treaty stipulation in order to obtain that
+      reparation. The United States would hope that such an
+      alternative will not be pressed upon them by the Government
+      of His Majesty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst I indulge a hope that the course to which I have
+      objected will no longer be insisted on by His Majesty's
+      ministers, permit me to renew to your excellency the sincere
+      assurance that the United States earnestly desire that every
+      subject of difference between the two countries should be
+      amicably adjusted and all their relations placed upon the
+      most friendly footing. Although they believe that any further
+      discussion of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty
+      would be wholly unprofitable, they will be at all times ready
+      to renew the discussion of that article or to examine any
+      question which may remain to be adjusted between them and
+      France.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I request your excellency to accept, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES BROWN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [Extract of a letter (No. 3) from James Brown to the
+      Secretary of State, dated Paris, May 11, 1824.]
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      I have the honor to inclose a copy of the answer of the
+      minister of foreign affairs to the letter which I addressed
+      to him on the 27th ultimo, upon the subject of the claims of
+      our citizens against the French Government. You will perceive
+      that no change has been made in the determination expressed
+      to Mr. Gallatin of connecting in the same discussion the
+      question on the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty of
+      cession and the claims of the citizens of the United States
+      against France. In expressing this resolution it has not been
+      considered necessary even to notice the arguments made use of
+      to induce them to adopt a different opinion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Viscount Chateaubriand to Mr. Brown</i>.
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [Translation.]
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      PARIS, <i>May 7, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SIR: The object of the letter which you did me the honor to
+      address to me on the 28th of April is to recall the affair of
+      American claims, already repeatedly called up by your
+      predecessors, that they may be regulated by an arrangement
+      between the two powers, and that in this negotiation the
+      examination of the difficulties which were raised about the
+      execution of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty
+      should not be included.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the claims made by France upon this last point be of
+      a different nature from those of the Americans, yet no less
+      attention ought to be paid to arrange both in a just and
+      amicable manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our claims upon the eighth article had already been laid
+      before the Federal Government by His Majesty's
+      plenipotentiary when he was negotiating the commercial
+      convention of 24th June, 1822.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The negotiators not agreeing upon a subject so important, the
+      King's Government did not wish this difficulty to suspend any
+      longer the conclusion of an arrangement which might give more
+      activity to commerce and multiply relations equally useful to
+      the two powers. It reserves to itself the power of
+      comprehending this object in another negotiation, and it does
+      not renounce in any manner the claim which it urged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is for this reason, sir, that my predecessors and myself
+      have constantly insisted that the arrangements to be made
+      upon the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty should be
+      made a part of those which your Government were desirous of
+      making upon other questions still at issue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is the intention of His Majesty not to leave unsettled any
+      subject of grave discussion between the two States, and the
+      King is too well convinced of the friendly sentiments of your
+      Government not to believe that the United States will be
+      disposed to agree with France on all the points.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His Majesty authorizes me, sir, to declare to you that a
+      negotiation will be opened with you upon the American claims
+      if this negotiation should also include the French claims,
+      and particularly the arrangements to be concluded concerning
+      the execution of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accept, sir, the assurances of the very distinguished
+      consideration with which I have the honor to be, etc.,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      CHATEAUBRIAND.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [Extracts of a letter (No. 4) from the Secretary of State to
+      Mr. Brown, dated Department of State, Washington, August 14,
+      1824.]
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      The subject which has first claimed the attention of the
+      President has been the result of your correspondence with the
+      Viscount de Chateaubriand in relation to the claims of
+      numerous citizens of the United States upon the justice of
+      the French Government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I inclose herewith a copy of the report of the Committee on
+      Foreign Relations of the House of Representatives upon
+      several petitions addressed to that body at their last
+      session by some of those claimants and a resolution of the
+      House adopted thereupon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The President has deliberately considered the purport of M.
+      de Chateaubriand's answer to your note of the 28th of April
+      upon this subject, and he desires that you will renew with
+      earnestness the application for indemnity to our citizens for
+      claims notoriously just and resting upon the same principle
+      with others which have been admitted and adjusted by the
+      Government of France.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the note of the Viscount de Chateaubriand to you of 7th
+      May it is said that he is authorized to declare a negotiation
+      will be opened with you upon the American claims if this
+      negotiation should also include French claims, and
+      particularly the arrangements to be concluded concerning the
+      execution of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You are authorized in reply to declare that any just claims
+      which subjects of France may have upon the Government of the
+      United States will readily be included in the negotiation,
+      and to stipulate any suitable provision for the examination,
+      adjustment, and satisfaction of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the question relating to the eighth article of the
+      Louisiana treaty is not only of a different
+      character&mdash;it can not be blended with that of indemnity
+      for individual claims without a sacrifice on the part of the
+      United States of a principle of right. The negotiation for
+      indemnity presupposes that wrong has been done, that
+      indemnity ought to be made, and the object of any treaty
+      stipulation concerning it can only be to ascertain what is
+      justly due and to make provision for the payment of it. By
+      consenting to connect with such a negotiation that relating
+      to the eighth article of the Louisiana convention the United
+      States would abandon the <i>principle</i> upon which the
+      whole discussion concerning it depends. The situation of the
+      parties to the negotiation would be unequal. The United
+      States, asking reparation for admitted wrong, are told that
+      France will not discuss it with them unless they will first
+      renounce their own sense of right to admit and discuss with
+      it a claim the <i>justice</i> of which they have constantly
+      denied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Government of the United States is prepared to renew the
+      discussion with that of France relating to the eighth article
+      of the Louisiana treaty in any manner which may be desired
+      and by which they shall not be understood to admit that
+      France has <i>any</i> claim under it whatever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      <i>Mr. Brown to Mr. Adams</i> (<i>No. 12</i>).
+    </center>
+    <p class="r">
+      PARIS, <i>August 12, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SIR: Some very unimportant changes have taken place in the
+      composition of the ministry. The Baron de Damas, late
+      minister of war, is now minister of foreign affairs; the
+      Marquis de Clermont Tonnese is appointed to the department of
+      war, and the Count Chabrol de Crousal to that of the marine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These appointments are believed to correspond with the wishes
+      of the president of the Council of Ministers, and do not
+      inspire a hope that our claims will be more favorably
+      attended to than they have been under the former
+      administrations. The interpretation of the eighth article of
+      the Louisiana treaty contended for by France will, I
+      apprehend, be persisted in and all indemnity refused until it
+      shall have been discussed and decided. After the
+      correspondence which has already passed upon that article, it
+      would appear that any further discussion upon it would be
+      wholly unprofitable. With a view, however, of ascertaining
+      the opinions of the minister of foreign affairs, I shall at
+      an early day solicit a conference with him, and inform you of
+      the result.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have had the honor of receiving your letter recommending
+      the claim of Mr. Kingston to my attention. The difficulties
+      which that claim must experience, from its antiquity and from
+      the operation of the treaty of 1803, can not have escaped
+      your observation. It has also to encounter, in common with
+      all our claims, the obstacle presented by the eighth article,
+      which is found broad enough to be used as a shield to protect
+      France, in the opinion of ministers, from the examination and
+      adjustment of any claim which we can present.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have the honor to be, with great respect, sir, your most
+      obedient and humble servant,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES BROWN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      <i>Mr. Brown to Mr. Adams</i> (<i>No. 14</i>).
+    </center>
+    <p class="r">
+      PARIS, <i>September 28, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SIR: Little has occurred of importance during the present
+      month, except the death of the King. This event had been
+      anticipated for nearly a year; he had declined gradually, and
+      the affairs of the Government have been for some time almost
+      wholly directed by Monsieur, who on his accession to the
+      throne has declared that his reign would be only a
+      continuation of that of the late King. No change in the
+      policy of the Government is expected, and probably none in
+      the composition of the ministry. The present King is
+      satisfied with Mr. De Villele, who is at its head; and if any
+      of its members should be changed the spirit in which public
+      affairs are directed will not, it is believed, be affected by
+      that circumstance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ceremonies attending the change of the Crown have
+      principally occupied the public attention for the last
+      fortnight. It will, I presume, be officially announced by the
+      French minister at Washington, and, according to the forms
+      observed here, will, I understand, require fresh letters of
+      credence for all foreign ministers at this Court, addressed
+      to the new King.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My health has not permitted me (having been confined for some
+      weeks to the bed by a rheumatic affection) to confer with the
+      Baron de Damas on our affairs since his appointment as
+      minister of the foreign department. I should regret this the
+      more if I were not satisfied that the same impulse will
+      direct the decisions of the Government upon these points now
+      as before he had this department in charge, and that no
+      favorable change in those decisions can be expected from any
+      personal influence which might be exerted by the new
+      minister. I shall, however, take the earliest opportunity
+      that my health will allow to mention the subject to him and
+      ascertain what his views of it are.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have the honor to be, with great respect, sir, your most
+      obedient and humble servant.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES BROWN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [Extracts of a letter from Mr. James Brown to Mr, Adams (No.
+      16).]
+    </center>
+    <p class="r">
+      PARIS, <i>October 23, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The packet ship which sailed from New York on the 1st of
+      September brought me the letter which you did me the honor to
+      address to me on the 14th of August.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In conformity with the instructions contained in that letter,
+      I have addressed one to the Baron de Damas, minister of
+      foreign affairs, a copy of which I now inclose. I expect to
+      receive his answer in time to be sent by the packet which
+      will sail from Havre on the 1st of next month, in which event
+      it may probably reach Washington about the 15th of December.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The recent changes which have been made in the ministry, of
+      which I have already informed you, do not justify any very
+      strong expectation that a change of measures in relation to
+      our affairs at this Court will follow. The same individuals
+      fill different places in the ministry from those which they
+      formerly held, but in all probability adhere to their former
+      opinions in relation to the subjects of discussion between
+      the United States and France. On the point to which my letter
+      to the Baron de Damas particularly relates the Count de
+      Villele has already given his deliberate views in his letters
+      to Mr. Gallatin dated 6th and 15th November, 1822, and I have
+      every reason to believe that they remain unchanged. Having
+      bestowed much attention on the subject, it is probable his
+      opinion will be in a great measure decisive as to the answer
+      which shall be given to my letter. It is the opinion of many
+      well-informed men that in the course of a few months
+      important changes will be made in the composition of the
+      ministry. As these changes, however, will proceed from causes
+      wholly unconnected with foreign affairs, I am by no means
+      sanguine in my expectations that under any new composition of
+      the ministry we may hope for a change of policy as it relates
+      to our claims. The eighth article of the Louisiana treaty
+      will be continually put forward as a bar to our claims and
+      its adjustment urged as often as we renew our claim for
+      indemnity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Journal des D&eacute;bats of this morning states that at
+      a superior council of commerce and of the colonies at which
+      His Majesty yesterday presided Mr. De St. Cricq, president of
+      the bureau de commerce, made a report on the commercial
+      convention of the 24th June, 1822, between the United States
+      and France.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      <i>Mr. Brown to Baron de Damas</i>.
+    </center>
+    <p class="r">
+      PARIS, <i>October 22, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His Excellency BARON DE DAMAS,<br>
+       <i>Minister of Foreign Affairs, etc</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      SIR: I availed myself of the earliest opportunity to transmit
+      to my Government a copy of the letter which I had the honor
+      to address to the Viscount de Chateaubriand on the 28th day
+      of April last, together with a copy of his answer to that
+      letter, dated 7th of May.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a candid and deliberate consideration of the subject of
+      that correspondence, my Government has sent me recent
+      instructions to renew with earnestness the application,
+      already so frequently and so ineffectually made, for
+      indemnity to our citizens for claims notoriously just, and
+      resting on the same principles with others which have been
+      admitted and adjusted by the Government of France.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In reply to that part of the Viscount de Chateaubriand's
+      letter in which he offers to open with me a negotiation upon
+      American claims if that negotiation should also include
+      French claims, and particularly the arrangements to be
+      concluded concerning the eighth article of the Louisiana
+      treaty, I have been instructed to declare that any just
+      claims which the subjects of France may have upon the
+      Government of the United States will readily be embraced in
+      the negotiation, and that I am authorized to stipulate any
+      suitable provision for the examination, adjustment, and
+      satisfaction of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The question relating to the eighth article of the Louisiana
+      treaty is viewed by my Government as one of a very different
+      character. It can not be blended with that of indemnity for
+      individual claims without a sacrifice on the part of the
+      United States of a principle of right. Every negotiation for
+      indemnity necessarily presupposes that some wrong has been
+      done, and that indemnity ought to be made; and the object of
+      every treaty stipulation respecting it can only be to
+      ascertain the extent of the injury, and to make provision for
+      its adequate reparation. This is precisely the nature of the
+      negotiation for American claims which has been for so many
+      years the subject of discussion between the Governments of
+      the United States and of France. The wrongs done to our
+      citizens have never been denied, whilst their right to
+      indemnity has been established by acts done by the French
+      Government in cases depending upon the same principles under
+      which they derive their claim. By consenting to connect with
+      such a negotiation that relating to the eighth article of the
+      Louisiana treaty the United States would abandon the
+      principle upon which the whole discussion depends. When
+      asking for reparation for acknowledged wrong the United
+      States have been told that France will not discuss it with
+      them unless they will first renounce their own sense of right
+      and admit and discuss in connection with it a claim the
+      justice of which they have hitherto constantly denied. In any
+      negotiation commenced under such circumstances the situation
+      of the parties would be unequal. By consenting to connect the
+      pretensions of France under the eighth article of the
+      Louisiana treaty with claims for indemnity for acknowledged
+      injustice and injury the United States would be understood as
+      admitting that those pretensions were well founded; that
+      wrong had been done to France for which reparation ought to
+      be made. The Government of the United States, not having yet
+      been convinced that this is the case, can not consent to any
+      arrangement which shall imply an admission so contrary to
+      their deliberate sense of right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I am authorized and prepared on behalf of the United States
+      to enter upon a further discussion of the eighth article of
+      the Louisiana treaty in any manner which may be desired, and
+      by which they shall not be understood previously to admit
+      that the construction of that article claimed by France is
+      well founded; and also to renew the separate negotiation for
+      American claims, embracing at the same time all just claims
+      winch French subjects may have upon the Government of the
+      United States.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The change which has lately taken place in His Majesty's
+      department of foreign affairs encourages the hope that this
+      important subject will be candidly reconsidered; that the
+      obstacles which have arrested the progress of the negotiation
+      may be removed, and that the subjects of contestation between
+      the two Governments may be ultimately adjusted upon such
+      principles as may perpetuate the good understanding and
+      harmony which have so long subsisted between the United
+      States and France.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Should I, however, be disappointed in the result of this
+      application, it is to be seriously apprehended that as the
+      United States have not hitherto seen in the course of the
+      discussion any just claim of France arising from the eighth
+      article of the Louisiana treaty, so in the persevering
+      refusal of the French Government to discuss and adjust the
+      well-founded claims of citizens of the United States to
+      indemnity for wrongs unless in connection with one which they
+      are satisfied is unfounded the United States will ultimately
+      perceive only a determination to deny justice to the
+      claimants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Permit me respectfully to request that at as early a day as
+      your convenience will allow your excellency will favor me
+      with an answer to this letter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I embrace with pleasure this occasion to offer to your
+      excellency the renewed assurance, etc.,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES BROWN.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 24, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 23d December, 1823, requesting that a
+      negotiation should be opened with the British Government "for
+      the cession of so much land on the island of Abaco at or near
+      the Hole-in-the-Wall, and on such other places within the
+      acknowledged dominions of that power on the islands, keys, or
+      shoals of the Bahama Banks as may be necessary for the
+      erection and support of light-houses, beacons, buoys, or
+      floating lights for the security of navigation over or near
+      the said banks, and to be used solely for that purpose,"
+      directions were given to the minister of the United States at
+      London on the 1st of January, 1824, to communicate the
+      purport of that resolution to the Government of Great Britain
+      with a view to their acceding to the wish of this; and I
+      transmit to the House copies of Mr. Rush's correspondence
+      upon this subject, communicating the result of his
+      application to the British Government.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>December 28, 1824</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 27th instant, requesting information
+      explanatory of the character and objects of the visit of the
+      naval officer of the United States commanding in the West
+      Indies to the town of Faxyardo, in the island of Porto Rico,
+      on the &mdash;&mdash; day of November last, I herewith
+      transmit a report of the Secretary of the Navy, with a letter
+      from Commodore Porter, which contains all the information in
+      possession of the Executive on the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Deeming the transactions adverted to of high importance, an
+      order has been sent to Commodore Porter to repair hither
+      without delay, that all the circumstances connected therewith
+      may be fully investigated.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 5, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the term of my service in this high trust will expire at
+      the end of the present session of Congress, I think it proper
+      to invite your attention to an object very interesting to me,
+      and which in the movement of our Government is deemed on
+      principle equally interesting to the public. I have been long
+      in the service of my country and in its most difficult
+      conjunctures, as well abroad as at home, in the course of
+      which I have had a control over the public moneys to a vast
+      amount. If in the course of my service it shall appear on the
+      most severe scrutiny, which I invite, that the public have
+      sustained any loss by any act of mine, or of others for which
+      I ought to be held responsible, I am willing to bear it. If,
+      on the other hand, it shall appear on a view of the law and
+      of precedents in other cases that justice has been withheld
+      from me in any instance, as I have believed it to be in many,
+      and greatly to my injury, it is submitted whether it ought
+      not to be rendered. It is my wish that all matters of account
+      and claims between my country and myself be settled with that
+      strict regard to justice which is observed in settlements
+      between individuals in private life. It would be gratifying
+      to me, and it appears to be just, that the subject should be
+      now examined in both respects with a view to a decision
+      hereafter. No bill would, it is presumed, be presented for my
+      signature which would operate either for or against me, and I
+      would certainly sanction none in my favor. While here I can
+      furnish testimony, applicable to any case, in both views,
+      which a full investigation may require, and the committee to
+      whom the subject may be referred, by reporting facts now with
+      a view to a decision after my retirement, will allow time for
+      further information and due consideration of all matters
+      relating thereto. Settlements with a person in this trust,
+      which could not be made with the accounting officers of the
+      Government, should always be made by Congress and before the
+      public. The cause of the delay in presenting these claims
+      will be explained to the committee to whom the subject may be
+      referred. It will, I presume, be made apparent that it was
+      inevitable; that from the peculiar circumstances attending
+      each case Congress alone could decide on it, and that from
+      considerations of delicacy it would have been highly improper
+      for me to have sought it from Congress at an earlier period
+      than that which is now proposed&mdash;the expiration of my
+      term in this high trust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Other considerations appear to me to operate with great force
+      in favor of the measure which I now propose. A citizen who
+      has long served his country in its highest trusts has a
+      right, if he has served with fidelity, to enjoy undisturbed
+      tranquillity and peace in his retirement. This he can not
+      expect to do unless his conduct in all pecuniary concerns
+      shall be placed by severe scrutiny on a basis not to be
+      shaken. This, therefore, forms a strong motive with me for
+      the inquiry which I now invite. The public may also derive
+      considerable advantage from the precedent in the future
+      movement of the Government. It being known that such scrutiny
+      was made in my case, it may form a new and strong barrier
+      against the abuse of the public confidence in future.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 10, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I should hasten to communicate to you the documents called
+      for by the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+      4th instant, relating to the conduct of the officers of the
+      Navy of the United States on the Pacific Ocean and of other
+      public agents in South America, if such a communication might
+      now be made consistently with the public interest or with
+      justice to the parties concerned. In consequence of several
+      charges which have been alleged against Commodore Stewart,
+      touching his conduct while commanding the squadron of the
+      United States on that sea, it has been deemed proper to
+      suspend him from duty and to subject him to trial on these
+      charges. It appearing also that some of those charges have
+      been communicated to the Department by Mr. Prevost, political
+      agent at this time of the United States at Peru, and
+      heretofore at Buenos Ayres and Chile, and apparently with his
+      sanction, and that charges have likewise been made against
+      him by citizens of the United States engaged in commerce in
+      that quarter, it has been thought equally just and proper
+      that he should attend here, as well to furnish the evidence
+      in his possession applicable to the charges exhibited against
+      Commodore Stewart as to answer such as have been exhibited
+      against himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this stage the publication of those documents might tend
+      to excite prejudices which might operate to the injury of
+      both. It is important that the public servants in every
+      station should perform their duty with fidelity, according to
+      the injunctions of the law and the orders of the Executive in
+      fulfillment thereof. It is peculiarly so that this should be
+      done by the commanders of our squadrons, especially on
+      distant seas, and by political agents who represent the
+      United States with foreign powers, for reasons that are
+      obvious in both instances. It is due to their rights and to
+      the character of the Government that they be not censured
+      without just cause, which can not be ascertained until, on a
+      view of tho charges, they are heard in their defense, and
+      after a thorough and impartial investigation of their
+      conduct. Under these circumstances it is thought that a
+      communication at this time of those documents would not
+      comport with the public interest nor with what is due to the
+      parties concerned.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 13, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with two resolutions of the Senate, the first
+      of the 21st and the second of the 23d December last,
+      requesting information respecting the injuries which have
+      been sustained by our citizens by piratical depredations, and
+      other details connected therewith, and requesting also
+      information of the measures which have been adopted for the
+      suppression of piracy, and whether in the opinion of the
+      Executive it will not be necessary to adopt other means for
+      the accomplishment of the object, and, in that event, what
+      other means it will be most advisable to recur to, I herewith
+      transmit a report from the Secretary of State, and likewise a
+      report from the Secretary of the Navy, with the documents
+      referred to in each.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the very important question submitted to the Executive as
+      to the necessity of recurring to other more effectual means
+      for the suppression of a practice so destructive of the lives
+      and property of our citizens, I have to observe that three
+      expedients occur&mdash;one by the pursuit of the offenders to
+      the settled as well as the unsettled parts of the island from
+      whence they issue, another by reprisal on the property of the
+      inhabitants, and a third by the blockade of the ports of
+      those islands. It will be obvious that neither of these
+      measures can be resorted to in a spirit of amity with Spain
+      otherwise than in a firm belief that neither the Government
+      of Spain nor the government of either of the islands has the
+      power to suppress that atrocious practice, and that the
+      United States interposed their aid for the accomplishment of
+      an object which is of equal importance to them as well as to
+      us. Acting on this principle, the facts which justify the
+      proceeding being universally known and felt by all engaged in
+      commerce in that sea, it may fairly be presumed that neither
+      will the Government of Spain nor the government of either of
+      those islands complain of a resort to either of those
+      measures, or to all of them, should such resort be necessary.
+      It is therefore suggested that a power commensurate with
+      either resource be granted to the Executive, to be exercised
+      according to his discretion and as circumstances may
+      imperiously require. It is hoped that the manifestation of a
+      policy so decisive will produce the happiest result; that it
+      will rid these seas and this hemisphere of this practice.
+      This hope is strengthened by the belief that the Government
+      of Spain and the governments of the islands, particularly of
+      Cuba, whose chief is known here, will faithfully cooperate in
+      such measures as may be necessary for the accomplishment of
+      this very important object. To secure such cooperation will
+      be the earnest desire and, of course, the zealous and
+      persevering effort of the Executive.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 17, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate, for its advice and consent as to
+      the ratification, a treaty which has been concluded by a
+      commissioner duly authorized for the purpose with the Quapaw
+      Indians in Arkansas for the cession of their claim to the
+      lands in that Territory. I transmit also a report from the
+      Secretary of War, with other documents, relating to this
+      subject.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JANUARY 17, 1825.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Agreeably to the resolution of the Senate of 19th May last,
+      requesting the President to cause to be laid before the
+      Senate a report "shewing the amount of duties which shall
+      have accrued on importations into the United States for the
+      three quarters of a year ending June 30, 1824; also the
+      amount of duties which would have accrued on the same
+      importations at such higher rates of duty as may be imposed
+      by any act of the present session of Congress," I herewith
+      transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, which
+      contains the information required.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 18, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate herewith to both Houses of Congress copies of
+      the convention between the United States and His Majesty the
+      Emperor of all the Russias, concluded at St. Petersburg on
+      the 5th (17th) of April last, which has been duly ratified on
+      both sides, and the ratifications of which were exchanged on
+      the 11th instant.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 20, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of the 19th of December, 1822, requesting the
+      President to communicate "what progress has been made in the
+      execution of the act of the last session entitled 'An act to
+      abolish the Indian trading establishments,' with a report
+      from the factories, respectively, as the same may be made to
+      him," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of the
+      Treasury, with documents, which contains the information
+      requested.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 27, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Being deeply impressed with the opinion that the removal of
+      the Indian tribes from the lands which they now occupy within
+      the limits of the several States and Territories to the
+      country lying westward and northward thereof, within our
+      acknowledged boundaries, is of very high importance to our
+      Union, and may be accomplished on conditions and in a manner
+      to promote the interest and happiness of those tribes, the
+      attention of the Government has been long drawn with great
+      solicitude to the object. For the removal of the tribes
+      within the limits of the State of Georgia the motive has been
+      peculiarly strong, arising from the compact with that State
+      whereby the United States are bound to extinguish the Indian
+      title to the lands within it whenever it may be done
+      peaceably and on reasonable conditions. In the fulfillment of
+      this compact, I have thought that the United States should
+      act with a generous spirit; that they should omit nothing
+      which should comport with a liberal construction of the
+      instrument and likewise be in accordance with the just rights
+      of those tribes. From the view which I have taken of the
+      subject I am satisfied that in the discharge of these
+      important duties in regard to both the parties alluded to the
+      United States will have to encounter no conflicting interests
+      with either. On the contrary, that the removal of the tribes
+      from the territory which they now inhabit to that which was
+      designated in the message at the commencement of the session,
+      which would accomplish the object for Georgia, under a
+      well-digested plan for their government and civilization,
+      which should be agreeable to themselves, would not only
+      shield them from impending ruin, but promote their welfare
+      and happiness. Experience has clearly demonstrated that in
+      their present state it is impossible to incorporate them in
+      such masses, in any form whatever, into our system. It has
+      also demonstrated with equal certainty that without a timely
+      anticipation of and provision against the dangers to which
+      they are exposed, under causes which it will be difficult, if
+      not impossible, to control, their degradation and
+      extermination will be inevitable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great object to be accomplished is the removal of these
+      tribes to the territory designated on conditions which shall
+      be satisfactory to themselves and honorable to the United
+      States. This can be done only by conveying to each tribe a
+      good title to an adequate portion of land to which it may
+      consent to remove, and by providing for it there a system of
+      internal government which shall protect their property from
+      invasion, and, by the regular progress of improvement and
+      civilization, prevent that degeneracy which has generally
+      marked the transition from the one to the other state.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, which
+      presents the best estimate which can be formed, from the
+      documents in that Department, of the number of Indians within
+      our States and Territories and of the amount of lands held by
+      the several tribes within each; of the state of the country
+      lying northward and westward thereof, within our acknowledged
+      boundaries; of the parts to which the Indian title has
+      already been extinguished, and of the conditions on which
+      other parts, in an amount which may be adequate to the object
+      contemplated, may be obtained. By this report it appears that
+      the Indian title has already been extinguished to extensive
+      tracts in that quarter, and that other portions maybe
+      acquired to the extent desired on very moderate conditions.
+      Satisfied I also am that the removal proposed is not only
+      practicable, but that the advantages attending it to the
+      Indians may be made so apparent to them that all the tribes,
+      even those most opposed, may be induced to accede to it at no
+      very distant day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The digest of such a government, with the consent of the
+      Indians, which should be endowed with sufficient power to
+      meet all the objects contemplated&mdash;to connect the
+      several tribes together in a bond of amity and preserve order
+      in each; to prevent intrusions on their property; to teach
+      them by regular instruction the arts of civilized life and
+      make them a civilized people&mdash;is an object of very high
+      importance. It is the powerful consideration which we have to
+      offer to these tribes as an inducement to relinquish the
+      lands on which they now reside and to remove to those which
+      are designated. It is not doubted that this arrangement will
+      present considerations of sufficient force to surmount all
+      their prejudices in favor of the soil of their nativity,
+      however strong they may be. Their elders have sufficient
+      intelligence to discern the certain progress of events in the
+      present train, and sufficient virtue, by yielding to
+      momentary sacrifices, to protect their families and posterity
+      from inevitable destruction. They will also perceive that
+      they may thus attain an elevation to which as communities
+      they could not otherwise aspire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the United States the proposed arrangement offers many
+      important advantages in addition to those which have been
+      already enumerated. By the establishment of such a government
+      over these tribes with their consent we become in reality
+      their benefactors. The relation of conflicting interests
+      which has heretofore existed between them and our frontier
+      settlements will cease. There will be no more wars between
+      them and the United States. Adopting such a government, their
+      movement will be in harmony with us, and its good effect be
+      felt throughout the whole extent of our territory to the
+      Pacific. It may fairly be presumed that, through the agency
+      of such a government, the condition of all the tribes
+      inhabiting that vast region may be essentially improved; that
+      permanent peace may be preserved with them, and our commerce
+      be much extended.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a view to this important object I recommend it to
+      Congress to adopt, by solemn declaration, certain fundamental
+      principles in accord with those above suggested, as the basis
+      of such arrangements as may be entered into with the several
+      tribes, to the strict observance of which the faith of the
+      nation shall be pledged, I recommend it also to Congress to
+      provide by law for the appointment of a suitable number of
+      commissioners who shall, under the direction of the
+      President, be authorized to visit and explain to the several
+      tribes the objects of the Government, and to make with them,
+      according to their instructions, such arrangements as shall
+      be best calculated to carry those objects into effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A negotiation is now depending with the Creek Nation for the
+      cession of lands held by it within the limits of Georgia, and
+      with a reasonable prospect of success. It is presumed,
+      however, that the result will not be known during the present
+      session of Congress. To give effect to this negotiation and
+      to the negotiations which it is proposed to hold with all the
+      other tribes within the limits of the several States and
+      Territories on the principles and for the purposes stated, it
+      is recommended that an adequate appropriation be now made by
+      Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 27, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate a treaty concluded in this city with
+      a deputation from the Choctaw Indians, accompanied with the
+      report from the Secretary of War, with a copy of the
+      correspondence connected with the negotiations, for the
+      advice and consent of the Senate.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 2, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate herewith to both Houses of Congress copies of
+      the alterations in the treaty of peace and friendship of
+      August, 1797, between the United States and the Bashaw Bey of
+      Tunis, concluded at the Palace of Bardo, near Tunis, on the
+      24th of February last, and of treaties between the United
+      States and the Sock and Fox tribes of Indians and the Ioway
+      tribe of Indians, concluded at the city of Washington on the
+      4th of August last, which have been duly ratified.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 4, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE OF THE SENATE:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It appearing by certain provisions contained in a late act of
+      the general assembly of Virginia, entitled "An act
+      incorporating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company," that
+      the assent of Congress will be necessary to carry the said
+      act into effect, I herewith transmit a copy thereof, that it
+      may be considered with a view to the object contemplated.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <center>
+      [The same message was sent to the House of Representatives.]
+    </center>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 7, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit herewith to the House a report from the Secretary
+      of State, with copies of the correspondence relating to the
+      claims of the citizens of the United States upon the
+      Government of the Netherlands, requested by a resolution of
+      the House of the 18th of January last.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 11, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In compliance with a resolution of the House of
+      Representatives of January 5, I herewith transmit a report
+      from the Secretary of the Navy, with copies of the
+      proceedings of the courts-martial in the cases of Lieutenants
+      Weaver and Conner.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 14, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with
+      a report to him by the Chief Engineer, of the examination
+      which has been made by the Board of Engineers for Internal
+      Improvement, in obedience to their instructions, of the
+      country between the Potomac and Ohio rivers, between the
+      latter and Lake Erie, between the Allegheny and Schuylkill
+      rivers, the Delaware and the Raritan, between Buzzards and
+      Barnstable bays, and the Narraganset roads and Boston Harbor,
+      with explanatory observations on each route. From the view
+      which I have taken of these reports I contemplate results of
+      incalculable advantage to our Union, because I see in them
+      the most satisfactory proof that certain impediments which
+      had a tendency to embarrass the intercourse between some of
+      its most important sections may be removed without serious
+      difficulty, and that facilities may be afforded in other
+      quarters which will have the happiest effect. Of the right in
+      Congress to promote these great results by the appropriation
+      of the public money, in harmony with the States to be
+      affected by them, having already communicated my sentiments
+      fully and on mature consideration, I deem it unnecessary to
+      enlarge at this time.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 16, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the
+      Secretary of State, containing the information called for by
+      their resolution of the 1st of this month, touching the
+      capture and detention of American fishermen during the last
+      season.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 17, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I herewith transmit to the House a report from the Secretary
+      of State, with copies of the correspondence with the
+      Government of France, requested by the resolution of the
+      House of the 25th of January last.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 17, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I invite the attention of Congress to the peculiar situation
+      of this District in regard to the exposure of its inhabitants
+      to contagious diseases from abroad, against which it is
+      thought that adequate provision should now be made. The
+      exposure being common to the whole District, the regulation
+      should apply to the whole, to make which Congress alone
+      possesses the adequate power. That the regulation should be
+      made by Congress is the more necessary from the consideration
+      that this being the seat of the Government, its protection
+      against such diseases must form one of its principal objects.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 21, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, with
+      a report to him from the Third Auditor, of the settlement in
+      the amount stated of the claims of the State of Massachusetts
+      for services rendered by the militia of that State in the
+      late war, the payment of which has hitherto been prevented by
+      causes which are well known to Congress. Having communicated
+      my sentiments on this subject fully in a message bearing date
+      on the 23d of February, 1824, it is unnecessary to repeat in
+      detail here what I there advanced. By recurring to that
+      message and to the documents referred to in it it will be
+      seen that the conduct of the executive of that State in
+      refusing to place the militia thereof at that difficult
+      conjuncture under the direction of the Executive of the
+      United States, as it was bound to do by a fair construction
+      of the Constitution, and as the other States did, is the
+      great cause to which the difficulty adverted to is to be
+      ascribed. It will also be seen on a view of those documents
+      that the executive of the State was warned at the time if it
+      persevered in the refusal that the consequences which have
+      followed would be inevitable; that the attitude assumed by
+      the State formed a case which was not contemplated by the
+      existing laws of the United States relating to militia
+      services; that the payment of the claims of the State for
+      such services could be provided for by Congress only and by a
+      special law for the purpose. Having made this communication
+      while acting in the Department of War to the governor of
+      Massachusetts, with the sanction and under the direction of
+      my enlightened and virtuous predecessor, it would be improper
+      in any view which may be taken of the subject for me to
+      change the ground then assumed, to withdraw this great
+      question from the consideration of Congress, and to act on it
+      myself. Had the Executive been in error, it is entitled to
+      censure, making a just allowance for the motive which guided
+      it. If its conduct was correct, the ground then assumed ought
+      to be maintained by it. It belongs to Congress alone to
+      terminate this distressing incident on just principles, with
+      a view to the highest interests of our Union.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the view which I have taken of the subject I am
+      confirmed in the opinion that Congress should now decide on
+      the claim and allow to the State such portions thereof as are
+      founded on the principles laid down in the former message. If
+      those principles are correct, as on great consideration I am
+      satisfied they are, it appears to me to be just in itself and
+      of high importance that the sums which may be due in
+      conformity therewith should no longer be withheld from the
+      State.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 21, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE PRO TEMPORE:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate a convention, signed by the
+      plenipotentiaries of the United States and of the Republic of
+      Colombia at Bogota on the 10th of December, 1824, together
+      with the documents appertaining to the negotiation of the
+      same, for the constitutional consideration of the Senate with
+      regard to its ratification,
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 21, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE PRO TEMPORE:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate a convention of general peace,
+      amity, navigation, and commerce, signed by the
+      plenipotentiaries of the United States and of the Republic of
+      Colombia at Bogota on the 3d of October, 1824, together with
+      the documents appertaining to the negotiation of the same,
+      for the constitutional consideration of the Senate with
+      regard to its ratification.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 23, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the House of Representatives a further report
+      from the Secretary of State, in pursuance of their resolution
+      of the 1st instant, with the papers to which it refers, upon
+      the subject of the capture and detention of American
+      fishermen the past season in the Bay of Fundy.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 25, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I communicate herewith to both Houses of Congress copies of
+      the treaties between the United States and the Quapaw Nation
+      of Indians, concluded at Harringtons, in the Territory of
+      Arkansas, on the 15th day of November last, and between the
+      United States and the Choctaw Nation of Indians, concluded at
+      the city of Washington on the 20th day of January last, which
+      have been duly ratified.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 26, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+      States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just before the termination of the last session an act
+      entitled "An act concerning wrecks on the coast of Florida,"
+      which then passed, was presented to me with many others and
+      approved, and, as I thought, signed. A report to that effect
+      was then made to Congress. It appeared, however, after the
+      adjournment that the evidence of such approbation had not
+      been attached to it. Whether the act may be considered in
+      force under such circumstances is a point on which it belongs
+      not to me to decide. To remove all doubt on the subject, I
+      submit to the consideration of Congress the propriety of
+      passing a declaratory act to that effect.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>February 28, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>To the Senate of the United States</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I transmit to the Senate, for the exercise of its
+      constitutional power, a treaty lately concluded at the Indian
+      Springs, by commissioners of the United States duly
+      authorized, with the chiefs of the Creek Nation, assembled
+      there in council, with the documents connected therewith.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      PROCLAMATION.
+    </h2>
+    <center>
+      [From Senate Journal, Eighteenth Congress, second session, p.
+      269.]
+    </center>
+    <p class="r">
+      WASHINGTON, <i>January 19, 1825</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>The President of the United States to
+      &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;, Senator for the State of
+      &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</i>:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Certain matters touching the public good requiring that the
+      Senate of the United States should be convened on Friday, the
+      4th day of March next, you are desired to attend at the
+      Senate Chamber, in the city of Washington, on that day, then
+      and there to receive and deliberate on such communications as
+      shall be made to you.
+    </p>
+    <p class="r">
+      JAMES MONROE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      FOOTNOTES
+    </h2><a name="note-1"><!--Note--></a>
+    <p class="foot">
+      <u>1</u> An error; so in the original message. The date of
+      the resolution is the 18th of April.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &nbsp;
+    </p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Compilation of the Messages and
+Papers of the Presidents, by James D. Richardson
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES MONROE ***
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diff --git a/old/10919.txt b/old/10919.txt
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+++ b/old/10919.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of
+the Presidents, 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 1 (of 3) of Volume 2: James Monroe
+
+Author: James D. Richardson
+
+Release Date: February 3, 2004 [EBook #10919]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES MONROE ***
+
+
+
+
+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
+
+
+VOLUME II
+
+
+1897
+
+
+
+
+Prefatory Note
+
+
+The first volume of this compilation was given to Congress and the
+public about May 1, 1896. I believe I am warranted in saying here that
+it met with much favor by all who examined it. The press of the country
+was unsparing in its praise. Congress, by a resolution passed on the 22d
+day of May, ordered the printing of 15,000 additional copies, of the
+entire publication.
+
+I have inserted in this volume a steel engraving of the Treasury
+building; the succeeding volumes will contain engravings of other
+important public buildings.
+
+The resolution authorizing this work required the publication of
+the annual, special, and veto messages, inaugural addresses, and
+proclamations of the Presidents. I have found in addition to these
+documents others which emanated from the Chief Magistrats, called
+Executive orders; they are in the nature of proclamations, and have like
+force and effect. I have therefore included in this, and will include
+in the succeeding volumes, all such Executive orders as may appear to
+have national importance or to possess more than ordinary interest.
+
+If this volume meets the same degree of favor as the first, I shall be
+greatly gratified.
+
+JAMES D. RICHARDSON.
+
+JULY 4, 1896.
+
+
+
+
+James Monroe
+
+March 4, 1817, to March 4, 1825
+
+
+
+
+James Monroe
+
+
+James Monroe was born April 28, 1758, in Westmoreland County, Va. He was
+the son of Spence Monroe and Elizabeth Jones, both natives of Virginia.
+When in his eighteenth year he enlisted as a private soldier in the
+Army to fight for independence; was in several battles, and was wounded
+in the engagement at Trenton; was promoted to the rank of captain of
+infantry. During 1777 and 1778 he acted as aid to Lord Stirling, and
+distinguished himself. He studied law under the direction of Thomas
+Jefferson, then governor of Virginia, who in 1780 appointed him to visit
+the army in South Carolina on an important mission. In 1782 he was
+elected to the Virginia assembly by the county of King George, and was
+by that body chosen a member of the executive council. The next year
+he was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress, and remained a
+member until 1786; while a member he married a Miss Kortright, of New
+York City. Retiring from Congress, he began the practice of law at
+Fredericksburg, Va., but was at once elected to the legislature. In 1788
+was a delegate to the State convention assembled to consider the Federal
+Constitution. Was a Senator from Virginia from 1790 to 1794. In May,
+1794, was appointed by Washington minister to France. He was recalled
+in 1796 and was again elected to the legislature. In 1799 was elected
+governor of Virginia. In 1802 was appointed by President Jefferson envoy
+extraordinary to France, and in 1803 was sent to London as the successor
+of Rufus King. In 1805 performed a diplomatic mission to Spain in
+relation to the boundary of Louisiana, returning to London the following
+year; returned to the United States in 1808. In 1811 was again elected
+governor of his State, but in the same year resigned that office to
+become Secretary of State under President Madison. After the capture
+of Washington, in 1814, he was appointed to the War Department, which
+position he held until 1815, without relinquishing the office of
+Secretary of State. He remained at the head of the Department of State
+until the close of Mr. Madison's term. Was elected President in 1816,
+and reelected in 1820, retiring March 4, 1825, to his residence in
+Loudoun County, Va. In 1829 was elected a member of the convention
+called to revise the constitution of the State, and was unanimously
+chosen to preside over its deliberations. He was forced by ill health
+to retire from office, and removed to New York to reside with his
+son-in-law, Mr. Samuel L. Gouverneur. He died July 4, 1831, and was
+buried in New York City, but in 1858 his remains were removed to
+Richmond, Va.
+
+
+
+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 1, 1817_.
+
+Hon. JOHN GAILLARD.
+
+_President of the Senate of the United States_.
+
+SIR: I beg leave through you to inform the honorable 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 Tuesday, 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 MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
+
+
+I should be destitute of feeling if I was not deeply affected by the
+strong proof which my fellow-citizens have given me of their confidence
+in calling me to the high office whose functions I am about to assume.
+As the expression of their good opinion of my conduct in the public
+service, I derive from it a gratification which those who are conscious
+of having done all that they could to merit it can alone feel. My
+sensibility is increased by a just estimate of the importance of the
+trust and of the nature and extent of its duties, with the proper
+discharge of which the highest interests of a great and free people
+are intimately connected. Conscious of my own deficiency, I can not
+enter on these duties without great anxiety for the result. From a just
+responsibility I will never shrink, calculating with confidence that in
+my best efforts to promote the public welfare my motives will always
+be duly appreciated and my conduct be viewed with that candor and
+indulgence which I have experienced in other stations.
+
+In commencing the duties of the chief executive office it has been the
+practice of the distinguished men who have gone before me to explain the
+principles which would govern them in their respective Administrations.
+In following their venerated example my attention is naturally drawn to
+the great causes which have contributed in a principal degree to produce
+the present happy condition of the United States. They will best explain
+the nature of our duties and shed much light on the policy which ought
+to be pursued in future.
+
+From the commencement of our Revolution to the present day almost forty
+years have elapsed, and from the establishment of this Constitution
+twenty-eight. Through this whole term the Government has been what may
+emphatically be called self-government. And what has been the effect? To
+whatever object we turn our attention, whether it relates to our foreign
+or domestic concerns, we find abundant cause to felicitate ourselves
+in the excellence of our institutions. During a period fraught with
+difficulties and marked by very extraordinary events the United States
+have nourished beyond example. Their citizens individually have been
+happy and the nation prosperous.
+
+Under this Constitution our commerce has been wisely regulated with
+foreign nations and between the States; new States have been admitted
+into our Union; our territory has been enlarged by fair and honorable
+treaty, and with great advantage to the original States; the States,
+respectively protected by the National Government under a mild, parental
+system against foreign dangers, and enjoying within their separate
+spheres, by a wise partition of power, a just proportion of the
+sovereignty, have improved their police, extended their settlements, and
+attained a strength and maturity which are the best proofs of wholesome
+laws well administered. And if we look to the condition of individuals
+what a proud spectacle does it exhibit! On whom has oppression fallen in
+any quarter of our Union? Who has been deprived of any right of person
+or property? Who restrained from offering his vows in the mode which he
+prefers to the Divine Author of his being? It is well known that all
+these blessings have been enjoyed in their fullest extent; and I add
+with peculiar satisfaction that there has been no example of a capital
+punishment being inflicted on anyone for the crime of high treason.
+
+Some who might admit the competency of our Government to these
+beneficent duties might doubt it in trials which put to the test its
+strength and efficiency as a member of the great community of nations.
+Here too experience has afforded us the most satisfactory proof in its
+favor. Just as this Constitution was put into action several of the
+principal States of Europe had become much agitated and some of them
+seriously convulsed. Destructive wars ensued, which have of late only
+been terminated. In the course of these conflicts the United States
+received great injury from several of the parties. It was their interest
+to stand aloof from the contest, to demand justice from the party
+committing the injury, and to cultivate by a fair and honorable conduct
+the friendship of all. War became at length inevitable, and the result
+has shown that our Government is equal to that, the greatest of trials,
+under the most unfavorable circumstances. Of the virtue of the people
+and of the heroic exploits of the Army, the Navy, and the militia I need
+not speak.
+
+Such, then, is the happy Government under which we live--a Government
+adequate to every purpose for which the social compact is formed, a
+Government elective in all its branches, under which every citizen may
+by his merit obtain the highest trust recognized by the Constitution;
+which contains within it no cause of discord, none to put at variance
+one portion of the community with another; a Government which protects
+every citizen in the full enjoyment of his rights, and is able to
+protect the nation against injustice from foreign powers.
+
+Other considerations of the highest importance admonish us to cherish
+our Union and to cling to the Government which supports it. Fortunate as
+we are in our political institutions, we have not been less so in other
+circumstances on which our prosperity and happiness essentially depend.
+Situated within the temperate zone, and extending through many degrees
+of latitude along the Atlantic, the United States enjoy all the
+varieties of climate, and every production incident to that portion
+of the globe. Penetrating internally to the Great Lakes and beyond
+the sources of the great rivers which communicate through our whole
+interior, no country was ever happier with respect to its domain.
+Blessed, too, with a fertile soil, our produce has always been very
+abundant, leaving, even in years the least favorable, a surplus for
+the wants of our fellow-men in other countries. Such is our peculiar
+felicity that there is not a part of our Union that is not particularly
+interested in preserving it. The great agricultural interest of the
+nation prospers under its protection. Local interests are not less
+fostered by it. Our fellow-citizens of the North engaged in navigation
+find great encouragement in being made the favored carriers of the vast
+productions of the other portions of the United States, while the
+inhabitants of these are amply recompensed, in their turn, by the
+nursery for seamen and naval force thus formed and reared up for
+the support of our common rights. Our manufactures find a generous
+encouragement by the policy which patronizes domestic industry, and the
+surplus of our produce a steady and profitable market by local wants in
+less-favored parts at home.
+
+Such, then, being the highly favored condition of our country, it is the
+interest of every citizen to maintain it. What are the dangers which
+menace us? If any exist they ought to be ascertained and guarded
+against.
+
+In explaining my sentiments on this subject it may be asked, What raised
+us to the present happy state? How did we accomplish the Revolution? How
+remedy the defects of the first instrument of our Union, by infusing
+into the National Government sufficient power for national purposes,
+without impairing the just rights of the States or affecting those of
+individuals? How sustain and pass with glory through the late war?
+The Government has been in the hands of the people. To the people,
+therefore, and to the faithful and able depositaries of their trust is
+the credit due. Had the people of the United States been educated in
+different principles, had they been less intelligent, less independent,
+or less virtuous, can it be believed that we should have maintained the
+same steady and consistent career or been blessed with the same success?
+While, then, the constituent body retains its present sound and
+healthful state everything will be safe. They will choose competent
+and faithful representatives for every department. It is only when
+the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into
+a populace, that they are incapable of exercising the sovereignty.
+Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The
+people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement
+and ruin. Let us, then, look to the great cause, and endeavor to
+preserve it in full force. Let us by all wise and constitutional
+measures promote intelligence among the people as the best means of
+preserving our liberties.
+
+Dangers from abroad are not less deserving of attention. Experiencing
+the fortune of other nations, the United States may be again involved
+in war, and it may in that event be the object of the adverse party to
+overset our Government, to break our Union, and demolish us as a nation.
+Our distance from Europe and the just, moderate, and pacific policy of
+our Government may form some security against these dangers, but they
+ought to be anticipated and guarded against. Many of our citizens are
+engaged in commerce and navigation, and all of them are in a certain
+degree dependent on their prosperous state. Many are engaged in the
+fisheries. These interests are exposed to invasion in the wars between
+other powers, and we should disregard the faithful admonition of
+experience if we did not expect it. We must support our rights or lose
+our character, and with it, perhaps, our liberties. A people who fail
+to do it can scarcely be said to hold a place among independent nations.
+National honor is national property of the highest value. The sentiment
+in the mind of every citizen is national strength. It ought therefore
+to be cherished.
+
+To secure us against these dangers our coast and inland frontiers should
+be fortified, our Army and Navy, regulated upon just principles as to
+the force of each, be kept in perfect order, and our militia be placed
+on the best practicable footing. To put our extensive coast in such a
+state of defense as to secure our cities and interior from invasion will
+be attended with expense, but the work when finished will be permanent,
+and it is fair to presume that a single campaign of invasion by a naval
+force superior to our own, aided by a few thousand land troops, would
+expose us to greater expense, without taking into the estimate the loss
+of property and distress of our citizens, than would be sufficient for
+this great work. Our land and naval forces should be moderate, but
+adequate to the necessary purposes--the former to garrison and preserve
+our fortifications and to meet the first invasions of a foreign foe,
+and, while constituting the elements of a greater force, to preserve the
+science as well as all the necessary implements of war in a state to be
+brought into activity in the event of war; the latter, retained within
+the limits proper in a state of peace, might aid in maintaining the
+neutrality of the United States with dignity in the wars of other powers
+and in saving the property of their citizens from spoliation. In time
+of war, with the enlargement of which the great naval resources of the
+country render it susceptible, and which should be duly fostered in
+time of peace, it would contribute essentially, both as an auxiliary
+of defense and as a powerful engine of annoyance, to diminish the
+calamities of war and to bring the war to a speedy and honorable
+termination.
+
+But it ought always to be held prominently in view that the safety of
+these States and of everything dear to a free people must depend in an
+eminent degree on the militia. Invasions may be made too formidable to
+be resisted by any land and naval force which it would comport either
+with the principles of our Government or the circumstances of the United
+States to maintain. In such cases recourse must be had to the great body
+of the people, and in a manner to produce the best effect. It is of the
+highest importance, therefore, that they be so organized and trained as
+to be prepared for any emergency. The arrangement should be such as to
+put at the command of the Government the ardent patriotism and youthful
+vigor of the country. If formed on equal and just principles, it can not
+be oppressive. It is the crisis which makes the pressure, and not the
+laws which provide a remedy for it. This arrangement should be formed,
+too, in time of peace, to be the better prepared for war. With such an
+organization of such a people the United States have nothing to dread
+from foreign invasion. At its approach an overwhelming force of gallant
+men might always be put in motion.
+
+Other interests of high importance will claim attention, among which
+the improvement of our country by roads and canals, proceeding always
+with a constitutional sanction, holds a distinguished place. By thus
+facilitating the intercourse between the States we shall add much to
+the convenience and comfort of our fellow-citizens, much to the ornament
+of the country, and, what is of greater importance, we shall shorten
+distances, and, by making each part more accessible to and dependent
+on the other, we shall bind the Union more closely together. Nature
+has done so much for us by intersecting the country with so many great
+rivers, bays, and lakes, approaching from distant points so near to each
+other, that the inducement to complete the work seems to be peculiarly
+strong. A more interesting spectacle was perhaps never seen than is
+exhibited within the limits of the United States--a territory so vast
+and advantageously situated, containing objects so grand, so useful,
+so happily connected in all their parts!
+
+Our manufactures will likewise require the systematic and fostering care
+of the Government. Possessing as we do all the raw materials, the fruit
+of our own soil and industry, we ought not to depend in the degree we
+have done on supplies from other countries. While we are thus dependent
+the sudden event of war, unsought and unexpected, can not fail to plunge
+us into the most serious difficulties, it is important, too, that the
+capital which nourishes our manufactures should be domestic, as its
+influence in that case instead of exhausting, as it may do in foreign
+hands, would be felt advantageously on agriculture and every other
+branch of industry. Equally important is it to provide at home a market
+for our raw materials, as by extending the competition it will enhance
+the price and protect the cultivator against the casualties incident to
+foreign markets.
+
+With the Indian tribes it is our duty to cultivate friendly relations
+and to act with kindness and liberality in all our transactions. Equally
+proper is it to persevere in our efforts to extend to them the
+advantages of civilization.
+
+The great amount of our revenue and the flourishing state of the
+Treasury are a full proof of the competency of the national resources
+for any emergency, as they are of the willingness of our fellow citizens
+to bear the burdens which the public necessities require. The vast
+amount of vacant lands, the value of which daily augments, forms an
+additional resource of great extent and duration. These resources,
+besides accomplishing every other necessary purpose, put it completely
+in the power of the United States to discharge the national debt at an
+early period. Peace is the best time for improvement and preparation of
+every kind; it is in peace that our commerce flourishes most, that taxes
+are most easily paid, and that the revenue is most productive.
+
+The Executive is charged officially in the Departments under it with
+the disbursement of the public money, and is responsible for the
+faithful application of it to the purposes for which it is raised. The
+Legislature is the watchful guardian over the public purse. It is its
+duty to see that the disbursement has been honestly made. To meet the
+requisite responsibility every facility should be afforded to the
+Executive to enable it to bring the public agents intrusted with the
+public money strictly and promptly to account. Nothing should be
+presumed against them; but if, with the requisite facilities, the public
+money is suffered to lie long and uselessly in their hands, they
+will not be the only defaulters, nor will the demoralizing effect be
+confined to them. It will evince a relaxation and want of tone in the
+Administration which will be felt by the whole community. I shall do all
+I can to secure economy and fidelity in this important branch of the
+Administration, and I doubt not that the Legislature will perform its
+duty with equal zeal. A thorough examination should be regularly made,
+and I will promote it.
+
+It is particularly gratifying to me to enter on the discharge of these
+duties at a time when the United States are blessed with peace. It is a
+state most consistent with their prosperity and happiness. It will be my
+sincere desire to preserve it, so far as depends on the Executive, on
+just principles with all nations, claiming nothing unreasonable of any
+and rendering to each what is its due.
+
+Equally gratifying is it to witness the increased harmony of opinion
+which pervades our Union. Discord does not belong to our system.
+Union is recommended as well by the free and benign principles of our
+Government, extending its blessings to every individual, as by the other
+eminent advantages attending it. The American people have encountered
+together great dangers and sustained severe trials with success. They
+constitute one great family with a common interest. Experience has
+enlightened us on some questions of essential importance to the country.
+The progress has been slow, dictated by a just reflection and a faithful
+regard to every interest connected with it. To promote this harmony in
+accord with the principles of our republican Government and in a manner
+to give them the most complete effect, and to advance in all other
+respects the best interests of our Union, will be the object of my
+constant and zealous exertions.
+
+Never did a government commence under auspices so favorable, nor ever
+was success so complete. If we look to the history of other nations,
+ancient or modern, we find no example of a growth so rapid, so gigantic,
+of a people so prosperous and happy. In contemplating what we have still
+to perform, the heart of every citizen must expand with joy when he
+reflects how near our Government has approached to perfection; that in
+respect to it we have no essential improvement to make; that the great
+object is to preserve it in the essential principles and features which
+characterize it, and that that is to be done by preserving the virtue
+and enlightening the minds of the people; and as a security against
+foreign dangers to adopt such arrangements as are indispensable to the
+support of our independence, our rights and liberties. If we persevere
+in the career in which we have advanced so far and in the path already
+traced, we can not fail, under the favor of a gracious Providence, to
+attain the high destiny which seems to await us.
+
+In the Administrations of the illustrious men who have preceded me
+in this high station, with some of whom I have been connected by the
+closest ties from early life, examples are presented which will always
+be found highly instructive and useful to their successors. From these
+I shall endeavor to derive all the advantages which they may afford.
+Of my immediate predecessor, under whom so important a portion of this
+great and successful experiment has been made, I shall be pardoned for
+expressing my earnest wishes that he may long enjoy in his retirement
+the affections of a grateful country, the best reward of exalted talents
+and the most faithful and meritorious services. Relying on the aid to
+be derived from the other departments of the Government, I enter on the
+trust to which I have been called by the suffrages of my fellow citizens
+with my fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will be graciously
+pleased to continue to us that protection which He has already so
+conspicuously displayed in our favor.
+
+MARCH 4, 1817.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 12, p. 176.]
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+
+Whereas by an act entitled "An act providing for the sale of the tract
+of land at the lower rapids of Sandusky River," passed on the 27th day
+of April, 1816, it was enacted that all the lands in the said tract,
+except the reservations made in the said act, should be offered for
+sale to the highest bidder at Wooster, in the State of Ohio, under the
+direction of the register of the land office and the receiver of public
+moneys at Wooster, and on such day or days as shall, by a public
+proclamation of the President of the United States, be designated for
+that purpose; and
+
+Whereas by an act entitled "An act providing for the sale of the tract
+of land at the British fort at the Miami of the Lake, at the foot of the
+rapids, and for other purposes," passed the 27th day of April, 1816, it
+was enacted that all the land contained in the said tract, except the
+reservations and exceptions made in the said act, should be offered for
+sale to the highest bidder at Wooster, in the State of Ohio, under the
+direction of the register of the land office and the receiver of public
+moneys at Wooster, and on such day or days as shall, by a public
+proclamation of the President of the United States, be designated for
+that purpose:
+
+Wherefore I, James Monroe, President of the United States, in conformity
+with the provisions of the acts before recited, do hereby declare and
+make known that the lands authorized to be sold by the first mentioned
+act shall be offered for sale to the highest bidder at Wooster, in the
+State of Ohio, on the first Monday in July next, and continue open for
+seven days and no longer, and that the lands authorized to be sold by
+the last-mentioned act shall be offered for sale to the highest bidder
+at the same place on the third Tuesday in July next, and continue open
+for seven days and no longer.
+
+Given under my hand this 15th day of April, 1817.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  J. MEIGS,
+    _Commissioner of the General Land Office_
+
+
+
+
+FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+At no period of our political existence had we so much cause to
+felicitate ourselves at the prosperous and happy condition of our
+country. The abundant fruits of the earth have filled it with plenty. An
+extensive and profitable commerce has greatly augmented our revenue. The
+public credit has attained an extraordinary elevation. Our preparations
+for defense in case of future wars, from which, by the experience
+of all nations, we ought not to expect to be exempted, are advancing
+under a well-digested system with all the dispatch which so important
+a work will admit. Our free Government, founded on the interest and
+affections of the people, has gained and is daily gaining strength.
+Local jealousies are rapidly yielding to more generous, enlarged, and
+enlightened views of national policy. For advantages so numerous and
+highly important it is our duty to unite in grateful acknowledgments
+to that Omnipotent Being from whom they are derived, and in unceasing
+prayer that He will endow us with virtue and strength to maintain and
+hand them down in their utmost purity to our latest posterity.
+
+I have the satisfaction to inform you that an arrangement which had
+been commenced by my predecessor with the British Government for the
+reduction of the naval force by Great Britain and the United States on
+the Lakes has been concluded, by which it is provided that neither party
+shall keep in service on Lake Champlain more than one vessel, on Lake
+Ontario more than one, and on Lake Erie and the upper lakes more than
+two, to be armed each with one cannon only, and that all the other armed
+vessels of both parties, of which an exact list is interchanged, shall
+be dismantled. It is also agreed that the force retained shall be
+restricted in its duty to the internal purposes of each party, and
+that the arrangement shall remain in force until six months shall have
+expired after notice given by one of the parties to the other of its
+desire that it should terminate. By this arrangement useless expense
+on both sides and, what is of still greater importance, the danger of
+collision between armed vessels in those inland waters, which was great,
+is prevented.
+
+I have the satisfaction also to state that the commissioners under the
+fourth article of the treaty of Ghent, to whom it was referred to decide
+to which party the several islands in the bay of Passamaquoddy belonged
+under the treaty of 1783, have agreed in a report, by which all the
+islands in the possession of each party before the late war have been
+decreed to it. The commissioners acting under the other articles of the
+treaty of Ghent for the settlement of boundaries have also been engaged
+in the discharge, of their respective duties, but have not yet completed
+them. The difference which arose between the two Governments under that
+treaty respecting the right of the United States to take and cure fish
+on the coast of the British provinces north of our limits, which had
+been secured by the treaty of 1783, is still in negotiation. The
+proposition made by this Government to extend to the colonies of Great
+Britain the principle of the convention of London, by which the commerce
+between the ports of the United States and British ports in Europe had
+been placed on a footing of equality, has been declined by the British
+Government. This subject having been thus amicably discussed between
+the two Governments, and it appearing that the British Government
+is unwilling to depart from its present regulations, it remains for
+Congress to decide whether they will make any other regulations in
+consequence thereof for the protection and improvement of our
+navigation.
+
+The negotiation with Spain for spoliations on our commerce and the
+settlement of boundaries remains essentially in the state it held by the
+communications that were made to Congress by my predecessor. It has been
+evidently the policy of the Spanish Government to keep the negotiation
+suspended, and in this the United States have acquiesced, from an
+amicable disposition toward Spain and in the expectation that her
+Government would, from a sense of justice, finally accede to such an
+arrangement as would be equal between the parties. A disposition has
+been lately shown by the Spanish Government to move in the negotiation,
+which has been met by this Government, and should the conciliatory
+and friendly policy which has invariably guided our councils be
+reciprocated, a just and satisfactory arrangement maybe expected. It
+is proper, however, to remark that no proposition has yet been made
+from which such a result can be presumed.
+
+It was anticipated at an early stage that the contest between Spain and
+the colonies would become highly interesting to the United States. It
+was natural that our citizens should sympathize in events which affected
+their neighbors. It seemed probable also that the prosecution of the
+conflict along our coast and in contiguous countries would occasionally
+interrupt our commerce and otherwise affect the persons and property of
+our citizens. These anticipations have been realized. Such injuries have
+been received from persons acting under authority of both the parties,
+and for which redress has in most instances been withheld. Through every
+stage of the conflict the United States have maintained an impartial
+neutrality, giving aid to neither of the parties in men, money, ships,
+or munitions of war. They have regarded the contest not in the light
+of an ordinary insurrection or rebellion, but as a civil war between
+parties nearly equal, having as to neutral powers equal rights. Our
+ports have been open to both, and every article the fruit of our soil
+or of the industry of our citizens which either was permitted to take
+has been equally free to the other. Should the colonies establish their
+independence, it is proper now to state that this Government neither
+seeks nor would accept from them any advantage in commerce or otherwise
+which will not be equally open to all other nations. The colonies will
+in that event become independent states, free from any obligation to or
+connection with us which it may not then be their interest to form on
+the basis of a fair reciprocity.
+
+In the summer of the present year an expedition was set on foot against
+East Florida by persons claiming to act under the authority of some of
+the colonies, who took possession of Amelia Island, at the mouth of
+the St. Marys River, near the boundary of the State of Georgia. As
+this Province lies eastward of the Mississippi, and is bounded by the
+United States and the ocean on every side, and has been a subject of
+negotiation with the Government of Spain as an indemnity for losses by
+spoliation or in exchange for territory of equal value westward of the
+Mississippi, a fact well known to the world, it excited surprise that
+any countenance should be given to this measure by any of the colonies.
+As it would be difficult to reconcile it with the friendly relations
+existing between the United States and the colonies, a doubt was
+entertained whether it had been authorized by them, or any of them.
+This doubt has gained strength by the circumstances which have unfolded
+themselves in the prosecution of the enterprise, which have marked it as
+a mere private, unauthorized adventure. Projected and commenced with an
+incompetent force, reliance seems to have been placed on what might be
+drawn, in defiance of our laws, from within our limits; and of late, as
+their resources have failed, it has assumed a more marked character of
+unfriendliness to us, the island being made a channel for the illicit
+introduction of slaves from Africa into the United States, an asylum for
+fugitive slaves from the neighboring States, and a port for smuggling of
+every kind.
+
+A similar establishment was made at an earlier period by persons of the
+same description in the Gulf of Mexico at a place called Galvezton,
+within the limits of the United States, as we contend, under the cession
+of Louisiana. This enterprise has been marked in a more signal manner by
+all the objectionable circumstances which characterized the other, and
+more particularly by the equipment of privateers which have annoyed our
+commerce, and by smuggling. These establishments, if ever sanctioned
+by any authority whatever, which is not believed, have abused their
+trust and forfeited all claim to consideration. A just regard for the
+rights and interests of the United States required that they should be
+suppressed, and orders have been accordingly issued to that effect. The
+imperious considerations which produced this measure will be explained
+to the parties whom it may in any degree concern.
+
+To obtain correct information on every subject in which the United
+States are interested; to inspire just sentiments in all persons in
+authority, on either side, of our friendly disposition so far as it may
+comport with an impartial neutrality, and to secure proper respect to
+our commerce in every port and from every flag, it has been thought
+proper to send a ship of war with three distinguished citizens along the
+southern coast with instruction to touch at such ports as they may find
+most expedient for these purposes. With the existing authorities, with
+those in the possession of and exercising the sovereignty, must the
+communication be held; from them alone can redress for past injuries
+committed by persons acting under them be obtained; by them alone can
+the commission of the like in future be prevented.
+
+Our relations with the other powers of Europe have experienced no
+essential change since the last session. In our intercourse with each
+due attention continues to be paid to the protection of our commerce,
+and to every other object in which the United States are interested.
+A strong hope is entertained that, by adhering to the maxims of a just,
+a candid, and friendly policy, we may long preserve amicable relations
+with all the powers of Europe on conditions advantageous and honorable
+to our country.
+
+With the Barbary States and the Indian tribes our pacific relations have
+been preserved.
+
+In calling your attention to the internal concerns of our country the
+view which they exhibit is peculiarly gratifying. The payments which
+have been made into the Treasury show the very productive state of the
+public revenue. After satisfying the appropriations made by law for
+the support of the civil Government and of the military and naval
+establishments, embracing suitable provision for fortifications and for
+the gradual increase of the Navy, paying the interest of the public
+debt, and extinguishing more than eighteen millions of the principal,
+within the present year, it is estimated that a balance of more than
+$6,000,000 will remain in the Treasury on the 1st day of January
+applicable to the current service of the ensuing year.
+
+The payments into the Treasury during the year 1818 on account of
+imposts and tonnage, resulting principally from duties which have
+accrued in the present year, may be fairly estimated at $20,000,000;
+the internal revenues at $2,500,000; the public lands at $1,500,000;
+bank dividends and incidental receipts at $500,000; making in the
+whole $24,500,000.
+
+The annual permanent expenditure for the support of the civil Government
+and of the Army and Navy, as now established by law, amounts to
+$11,800,000, and for the sinking fund to $10,000,000, making in the
+whole $21,800,000, leaving an annual excess of revenue beyond the
+expenditure of $2,700,000, exclusive of the balance estimated to be
+in the Treasury on the 1st day of January, 1818.
+
+In the present state of the Treasury the whole of the Louisiana debt
+maybe redeemed in the year 1819, after which, if the public debt
+continues as it now is, above par, there will be annually about five
+millions of the sinking fund unexpended until the year 1825, when the
+loan of 1812 and the stock created by funding Treasury notes will be
+redeemable.
+
+It is also estimated that the Mississippi stock will be discharged
+during the year 1819 from the proceeds of the public lands assigned to
+that object, after which the receipts from those lands will annually
+add to the public revenue the sum of one million and a half, making the
+permanent annual revenue amount to $26,000,000, and leaving an annual
+excess of revenue after the year 1819 beyond the permanent authorized
+expenditure of more than $4,000,000.
+
+By the last returns to the Department of War the militia force of the
+several States may be estimated at 800,000 men--infantry, artillery, and
+cavalry. Great part of this force is armed, and measures are taken to
+arm the whole. An improvement in the organization and discipline of
+the militia is one of the great objects which claims the unremitted
+attention of Congress.
+
+The regular force amounts nearly to the number required by law, and is
+stationed along the Atlantic and inland frontiers.
+
+Of the naval force it has been necessary to maintain strong squadrons in
+the Mediterranean and in the Gulf of Mexico.
+
+From several of the Indian tribes inhabiting the country bordering on
+Lake Erie purchases have been made of lands on conditions very favorable
+to the United States, and, as it is presumed, not less so to the tribes
+themselves.
+
+By these purchases the Indian title, with moderate reservations, has
+been extinguished to the whole of the land within the limits of the
+State of Ohio, and to a part of that in the Michigan Territory and of
+the State of Indiana. From the Cherokee tribe a tract has been purchased
+in the State of Georgia and an arrangement made by which, in exchange
+for lands beyond the Mississippi, a great part, if not the whole, of the
+land belonging to that tribe eastward of that river in the States of
+North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, and in the Alabama Territory
+will soon be acquired. By these acquisitions, and others that may
+reasonably be expected soon to follow, we shall be enabled to extend our
+settlements from the inhabited parts of the State of Ohio along Lake
+Erie into the Michigan Territory, and to connect our settlements by
+degrees through the State of Indiana and the Illinois Territory to
+that of Missouri. A similar and equally advantageous effect will soon
+be produced to the south, through the whole extent of the States and
+territory which border on the waters emptying into the Mississippi and
+the Mobile. In this progress, which the rights of nature demand and
+nothing can prevent, marking a growth rapid and gigantic, it is our duty
+to make new efforts for the preservation, improvement, and civilization
+of the native inhabitants. The hunter state can exist only in the vast
+uncultivated desert. It yields to the more dense and compact form and
+greater force of civilized population; and of right it ought to yield,
+for the earth was given to mankind to support the greatest number of
+which it is capable, and no tribe or people have a right to withhold
+from the wants of others more than is necessary for their own support
+and comfort. It is gratifying to know that the reservations of land made
+by the treaties with the tribes on Lake Erie were made with a view to
+individual ownership among them and to the cultivation of the soil by
+all, and that an annual stipend has been pledged to supply their other
+wants. It will merit the consideration of Congress whether other
+provision not stipulated by treaty ought to be made for these tribes and
+for the advancement of the liberal and humane policy of the United
+States toward all the tribes within our limits, and more particularly
+for their improvement in the arts of civilized life.
+
+Among the advantages incident to these purchases, and to those which
+have preceded, the security which may thereby be afforded to our inland
+frontiers is peculiarly important. With a strong barrier, consisting
+of our own people, thus planted on the Lakes, the Mississippi, and
+the Mobile, with the protection to be derived from the regular force,
+Indian hostilities, if they do not altogether cease, will henceforth
+lose their terror. Fortifications in those quarters to any extent will
+not be necessary, and the expense attending them may be saved. A people
+accustomed to the use of firearms only, as the Indian tribes are,
+will shun even moderate works which are defended by cannon. Great
+fortifications will therefore be requisite only in future along the
+coast and at some points in the interior connected with it. On these
+will the safety of our towns and the commerce of our great rivers, from
+the Bay of Fundy to the Mississippi, depend. On these, therefore, should
+the utmost attention, skill, and labor be bestowed.
+
+A considerable and rapid augmentation in the value of all the public
+lands, proceeding from these and other obvious causes, may henceforward
+be expected. The difficulties attending early emigrations will be
+dissipated even in the most remote parts. Several new States have been
+admitted into our Union to the west and south, and Territorial
+governments, happily organized, established over every other portion in
+which there is vacant land for sale. In terminating Indian hostilities,
+as must soon be done, in a formidable shape at least, the emigration,
+which has heretofore been great, will probably increase, and the demand
+for land and the augmentation in its value be in like proportion. The
+great increase of our population throughout the Union will alone produce
+an important effect, and in no quarter will it be so sensibly felt as in
+those in contemplation. The public lands are a public stock, which ought
+to be disposed of to the best advantage for the nation. The nation
+should therefore derive the profit proceeding from the continual rise
+in their value. Every encouragement should be given to the emigrants
+consistent with a fair competition between them, but that competition
+should operate in the first sale to the advantage of the nation rather
+than of individuals. Great capitalists will derive all the benefit
+incident to their superior wealth under any mode of sale which may be
+adopted. But if, looking forward to the rise in the value of the public
+lands, they should have the opportunity of amassing at a low price vast
+bodies in their hands, the profit will accrue to them and not to the
+public. They would also have the power in that degree to control the
+emigration and settlement in such a manner as their opinion of their
+respective interests might dictate. I submit this subject to the
+consideration of Congress, that such further provision may be made in
+the sale of the public lands, with a view to the public interest, should
+any be deemed expedient, as in their judgment may be best adapted to the
+object.
+
+When we consider the vast extent of territory within the United States,
+the great amount and value of its productions, the connection of its
+parts, and other circumstances on which their prosperity and happiness
+depend, we can not fail to entertain a high sense of the advantage to be
+derived from the facility which may be afforded in the intercourse
+between them by means of good roads and canals. Never did a country of
+such vast extent offer equal inducements to improvements of this kind,
+nor ever were consequences of such magnitude involved in them. As this
+subject was acted on by Congress at the last session, and there may
+be a disposition to revive it at the present, I have brought it into
+view for the purpose of communicating my sentiments on a very important
+circumstance connected with it with that freedom and candor which a
+regard for the public interest and a proper respect for Congress
+require. A difference of opinion has existed from the first formation
+of our Constitution to the present time among our most enlightened and
+virtuous citizens respecting the right of Congress to establish such a
+system of improvement. Taking into view the trust with which I am now
+honored, it would be improper after what has passed that this discussion
+should be revived with an uncertainty of my opinion respecting the
+right. Disregarding early impressions, I have bestowed on the subject
+all the deliberation which its great importance and a just sense of my
+duty required, and the result is a settled conviction in my mind that
+Congress do not possess the right. It is not contained in any of the
+specified powers granted to Congress, nor can I consider it incidental
+to or a necessary means, viewed on the most liberal scale, for carrying
+into effect any of the powers which are specifically granted. In
+communicating this result I can not resist the obligation which I feel
+to suggest to Congress the propriety of recommending to the States
+the adoption of an amendment to the Constitution which shall give to
+Congress the right in question. In cases of doubtful construction,
+especially of such vital interest, it comports with the nature and
+origin of our institutions, and will contribute much to preserve them,
+to apply to our constituents for an explicit grant of the power. We may
+confidently rely that if it appears to their satisfaction that the power
+is necessary, it will always be granted.
+
+In this case I am happy to observe that experience has afforded the most
+ample proof of its utility, and that the benign spirit of conciliation
+and harmony which now manifests itself throughout our Union promises
+to such a recommendation the most prompt and favorable result. I think
+proper to suggest also, in case this measure is adopted, that it be
+recommended to the States to include in the amendment sought a right
+in Congress to institute likewise seminaries of learning, for the
+all-important purpose of diffusing knowledge among our fellow-citizens
+throughout the United States.
+
+Our manufactories will require the continued attention of Congress. The
+capital employed in them is considerable, and the knowledge acquired in
+the machinery and fabric of all the most useful manufactures is of great
+value. Their preservation, which depends on due encouragement is
+connected with the high interests of the nation.
+
+Although the progress of the public buildings has been as favorable as
+circumstances have permitted, it is to be regretted that the Capitol is
+not yet in a state to receive you. There is good cause to presume that
+the two wings, the only parts as yet commenced, will be prepared for
+that purpose at the next session. The time seems now to have arrived
+when this subject may be deemed worthy the attention of Congress on
+a scale adequate to national purposes. The completion of the middle
+building will be necessary to the convenient accommodation of Congress,
+of the committees, and various offices belonging to it. It is evident
+that the other public buildings are altogether insufficient for the
+accommodation of the several Executive Departments, some of whom are
+much crowded and even subjected to the necessity of obtaining it in
+private buildings at some distance from the head of the Department,
+and with inconvenience to the management of the public business. Most
+nations have taken an interest and a pride in the improvement and
+ornament of their metropolis, and none were more conspicuous in that
+respect than the ancient republics. The policy which dictated the
+establishment of a permanent residence for the National Government and
+the spirit in which it was commenced and has been prosecuted show that
+such improvement was thought worthy the attention of this nation. Its
+central position, between the northern and southern extremes of our
+Union, and its approach to the west at the head of a great navigable
+river which interlocks with the Western waters, prove the wisdom of the
+councils which established it.
+
+Nothing appears to be more reasonable and proper than that convenient
+accommodation should be provided on a well-digested plan for the
+heads of the several Departments and for the Attorney-General, and
+it is believed that the public ground in the city applied to these
+objects will be found amply sufficient. I submit this subject to the
+consideration of Congress, that such further provision may be made in
+it as to them may seem proper.
+
+In contemplating the happy situation of the United States, our attention
+is drawn with peculiar interest to the surviving officers and soldiers
+of our Revolutionary army, who so eminently contributed by their
+services to lay its foundation. Most of those very meritorious citizens
+have paid the debt of nature and gone to repose. It is believed that
+among the survivors there are some not provided for by existing laws,
+who are reduced to indigence and even to real distress. These men have a
+claim on the gratitude of their country, and it will do honor to their
+country to provide for them. The lapse of a few years more and the
+opportunity will be forever lost; indeed, so long already has been the
+interval that the number to be benefited by any provision which may be
+made will not be great.
+
+It appearing in a satisfactory manner that the revenue arising from
+imposts and tonnage and from the sale of the public lands will be fully
+adequate to the support of the civil Government, of the present military
+and naval establishments, including the annual augmentation of the
+latter to the extent provided for, to the payment of the interest of the
+public debt, and to the extinguishment of it at the times authorized,
+without the aid of the internal taxes, I consider it my duty to
+recommend to Congress their repeal. To impose taxes when the public
+exigencies require them is an obligation of the most sacred character,
+especially with a free people. The faithful fulfillment of it is among
+the highest proofs of their virtue and capacity for self-government.
+To dispense with taxes when it may be done with perfect safety is
+equally the duty of their representatives. In this instance we have
+the satisfaction to know that they were imposed when the demand was
+imperious, and have been sustained with exemplary fidelity. I have to
+add that however gratifying it may be to me regarding the prosperous and
+happy condition of our country to recommend the repeal of these taxes at
+this time, I shall nevertheless be attentive to events, and, should any
+future emergency occur, be not less prompt to suggest such measures and
+burdens as may then be requisite and proper.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+DECEMBER 2, 1817.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I submit to the Senate, for their consideration and advice, the
+following treaties entered into with several of the Indian tribes,
+to wit:
+
+A treaty of peace and friendship made and concluded by William Clark,
+Ninian Edwards, and Auguste Choteau, commissioners on the part of the
+United States of America, and the chiefs and warriors of the Menomene
+tribe or nation of Indians, on the 30th of March, 1817, at St. Louis.
+
+A treaty of peace and friendship made and concluded on the 4th June,
+1817, at St. Louis, by William Clark, Ninian Edwards, and Auguste
+Choteau, commissioners on the part of the United States of America,
+and the chiefs and warriors of the Ottoes tribe of Indians.
+
+A treaty of peace and friendship made and concluded on the 5th June,
+1817, at St. Louis, by William Clark, Ninian Edwards, and Auguste
+Choteau, commissioners on the part of the United States of America,
+and the chiefs and warriors of the Poncarar tribe of Indians.
+
+A treaty concluded at the Cherokee Agency on the 8th of July, 1817,
+between Major-General Andrew Jackson, Joseph McMinn, governor of the
+State of Tennessee, and General David Meriwether, commissioners of the
+United States of America, of the one part, and the chiefs, headmen, and
+warriors of the Cherokee Nation east of the Mississippi River and the
+chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the Cherokees on the Arkansas River,
+and their deputies, John D. Chisholm and James Rogers.
+
+A treaty concluded on the 29th day of September, 1817, at the foot of
+the Rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie, between Lewis Cass and Duncan
+McArthur, commissioners of the United States, and the sachems, chiefs,
+and warriors of the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, Shawnese, Potawatamies,
+Ottawas, and Chippewa tribes of Indians.
+
+The Wyandots and other tribes parties to the treaty lately concluded
+with them have, by a deputation to this city, requested permission to
+retain possession of such lands as they actually cultivate and reside
+on, for the ensuing year. They have also expressed a desire that the
+reservations made in their favor should be enlarged, representing that
+they had entered into the treaty in full confidence that that would be
+done, preferring a reliance on the justice of the United States for such
+extension rather than that the treaty should fail.
+
+The Wyandots claim an extension of their reservation to 16 miles square,
+and the other tribes in a proportional degree. Sufficient information is
+not now in the possession of the Executive to enable it to decide how
+far it may be proper to comply with the wishes of these tribes in the
+extent desired. The necessary information may be obtained in the course
+of the next year, and if they are permitted to remain in the possession
+of the lands they cultivate during that time such further extension of
+their reservations may be made by law at the next session as justice and
+a liberal policy toward these people may require. It is submitted to the
+consideration of the Senate whether it may not be proper to annex to
+their advice and consent for the ratification of the treaty a
+declaration providing for the above objects.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+DECEMBER 11, 1817.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 15, 1817_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 8th of this month, I transmit, for the information of the House, a
+report from the Secretary of State, with the documents referred to in it,
+containing all the information in the possession of the Executive which
+it is proper to disclose, relative to certain persons who lately took
+possession of Amelia Island and Galvezton.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 18, 1817.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 11th of this
+month, I transmit, for the information of the Senate, a report from the
+Secretary of the Treasury, relating to the progress made in surveying
+the several tracts of military bounty lands appropriated by Congress for
+the late army of the United States, and the time at which such survey
+will probably be completed.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 22, 1817.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+11th of this month, requesting to be informed of the present strength
+of the Army of the United States, its distribution among the several
+military posts which it is designed to protect, and its competency to
+preserve and defend the fortifications amongst which it is distributed,
+and to aid in constructing such other military works, if any, as it may
+be deemed proper to erect for the more effectual security of the United
+States and of the Territories thereof, I now transmit a report from the
+Secretary of War which contains the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 29, 1817.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 16th of this month,
+requesting information touching the execution of so much of the first
+article of the treaty of Ghent as relates to the restitution of slaves,
+which has not heretofore been communicated, I now transmit a report of
+the Secretary of State on that subject.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 29, 1817.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+12th of this month, requesting to be informed whether any, and which, of
+the Representatives in a list thereto annexed have held offices since
+the 4th of March last, designating the offices, the times of appointment
+and acceptance, and whether they were at that time so held or when they
+had been resigned, I now transmit a report from the Secretary of State
+which contains the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 12, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The claim of the representatives of the late Caron de Beaumarchais
+having been recommended to the favorable consideration of the
+Legislature by my predecessor in his message to Congress of the 31st of
+January last, and concurring in the sentiments therein expressed, I now
+transmit copies of a new representation relative to it received by the
+Secretary of State from the minister of France, and of a correspondence
+on the subject between the minister of the United States at Paris and
+the Duke of Richelieu, inclosed with that representation.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I have the satisfaction to inform Congress that the establishment at
+Amelia Island has been suppressed, and without the effusion of blood.
+The papers which explain this transaction I now lay before Congress.
+
+By the suppression of this establishment and of that at Galveztown,
+which will soon follow; if it has not already ceased to exist, there is
+good cause to believe that the consummation of a project fraught with
+much injury to the United States has been prevented.
+
+When we consider the persons engaged in it, being adventurers from
+different countries, with very few, if any, of the native inhabitants
+of the Spanish colonies; the territory on which the establishments were
+made--one on a portion of that claimed by the United States westward
+of the Mississippi, the other on a part of East Florida, a Province
+in negotiation between the United States and Spain; the claim of their
+leader as announced by his proclamation on taking possession of Amelia
+Island, comprising the whole of both the Floridas, without excepting
+that part of West Florida which is incorporated into the State of
+Louisiana; their conduct while in the possession of the island making it
+instrumental to every species of contraband, and, in regard to slaves,
+of the most odious and dangerous character, it may fairly be concluded
+that if the enterprise had succeeded on the scale on which it was formed
+much annoyance and injury would have resulted from it to the United
+States.
+
+Other circumstances were thought to be no less deserving of attention.
+The institution of a government by foreign adventurers in the island,
+distinct from the colonial governments of Buenos Ayres, Venezuela, or
+Mexico, pretending to sovereignty and exercising its highest offices,
+particularly in granting commissions to privateers, were acts which
+could not fail to draw after them the most serious consequences. It was
+the duty of the Executive either to extend to this establishment all the
+advantages of that neutrality which the United States had proclaimed,
+and have observed in favor of the colonies of Spain who, by the strength
+of their own population and resources, had declared their independence
+and were affording strong proof of their ability to maintain it, or of
+making the discrimination which circumstances required.
+
+Had the first course been pursued, we should not only have sanctioned
+all the unlawful claims and practices of this pretended Government
+in regard to the United States, but have countenanced a system of
+privateering in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere the ill effects of
+which might, and probably would, have been deeply and very extensively
+felt.
+
+The path of duty was plain from the commencement, but it was painful to
+enter upon it while the obligation could be resisted. The law of 1811,
+lately published, and which it is therefore proper now to mention, was
+considered applicable to the case from the moment that the proclamation
+of the chief of the enterprise was seen, and its obligation was daily
+increased by other considerations of high importance already mentioned,
+which were deemed sufficiently strong in themselves to dictate the
+course which has been pursued.
+
+Early intimation having been received of the dangerous purposes of these
+adventurers, timely precautions were taken by the establishment of a
+force near the St. Marys to prevent their effect, or it is probable that
+it would have been more sensibly felt.
+
+To such establishments, made so near to our settlements in the
+expectation of deriving aid from them, it is particularly gratifying
+to find that very little encouragement was given. The example so
+conspicuously displayed by our fellow-citizens that their sympathies
+can not be perverted to improper purposes, but that a love of country,
+the influence of moral principles, and a respect for the laws are
+predominant with them, is a sure pledge that all the very flattering
+anticipations which have been formed of the success of our institutions
+will be realized. This example has proved that if our relations with
+foreign powers are to be changed it must be done by the constituted
+authorities, who alone, acting on a high responsibility, are competent
+to the purpose, and until such change is thus made that our
+fellow-citizens will respect the existing relations by a faithful
+adherence to the laws which secure them.
+
+Believing that this enterprise, though undertaken by persons some
+of whom may have held commissions from some of the colonies, was
+unauthorized by and unknown to the colonial governments, full confidence
+is entertained that it will be disclaimed by them, and that effectual
+measures will be taken to prevent the abuse of their authority in all
+cases to the injury of the United States.
+
+For these injuries, especially those proceeding from Amelia Island,
+Spain would be responsible if it was not manifest that, though committed
+in the latter instance through her territory, she was utterly unable to
+prevent them. Her territory, however, ought not to be made instrumental,
+through her inability to defend it, to purposes so injurious to the
+United States. To a country over which she fails to maintain her
+authority, and which she permits to be converted to the annoyance of her
+neighbors, her jurisdiction for the time necessarily ceases to exist.
+The territory of Spain will nevertheless be respected so far as it may
+be done consistently with the essential interests and safety of the
+United States. In expelling these adventurers from these posts it was
+not intended to make any conquest from Spain or to injure in any degree
+the cause of the colonies. Care will be taken that no part of the
+territory contemplated by the law of 1811 shall be occupied by a
+foreign government of any kind, or that injuries of the nature of
+those complained of shall be repeated; but this, it is expected, will
+be provided for with every other interest in a spirit of amity in the
+negotiation now depending with the Government of Spain.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+JANUARY 13, 1818.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 23, 1818_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+9th of December last, requesting information of what roads have been
+made or are in progress under the authority of the Executive of the
+United States, the States and Territories through which they pass or are
+intended to pass, the periods when they were ordered to be made, and
+how far they have been executed, I now communicate a report from the
+Secretary of the Treasury, and likewise a report from the Secretary
+of War, containing the information which is desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 28, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 22d of this month,
+requesting to be informed "in what manner the troops in the service of
+the United States now operating against the Seminole tribe of Indians
+have been subsisted, whether by contract or otherwise, and whether they
+have been furnished regularly with rations," I now transmit a report
+from the Secretary of War containing the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 29, 1818_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 23d of December last, requesting information relative to the
+imprisonment and detention in confinement of Richard W. Meade, a
+citizen of the United States, I now transmit to the House a report
+from the Secretary of State containing the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 8th of last month,
+requesting me to cause to be laid before it the proceedings which may
+have been had under an act entitled "An act for the gradual increase of
+the Navy of the United States," specifying the number of ships put on
+the stocks and of what class; the quantity of materials procured for
+shipbuilding, and also the sums of money which may have been paid out
+of the fund created by said act, and for what objects; and likewise
+the contracts which may have been entered into in execution of the act
+aforesaid on which moneys may not yet have been advanced, I now transmit
+a report of the Secretary of the Navy, accompanied by a report from the
+Board of Commissioners of the Navy, with documents which contain the
+information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+FEBRUARY 2, 1818.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 6, 1818_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the Secretary
+of State, in compliance with the resolution of said House requesting
+information respecting the ratification of the thirteenth article of
+the amendments to the Constitution of the United States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 10, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+As the house appropriated for the President of the United States will be
+finished this year, it is thought to merit the attention of the Congress
+in what manner it should be furnished and what measures ought to be
+adopted for the safe-keeping of the furniture in future. All the public
+furniture provided before 1814 having been destroyed with the public
+buildings in that year, and little afterwards procured, owing to the
+inadequacy of the appropriation, it has become necessary to provide
+almost every article requisite for such an establishment, whence the
+sum to be expended will be much greater than at any former period. The
+furniture in its kind and extent is thought to be an object not less
+deserving attention than the building for which it is intended. Both
+being national objects, each seems to have an equal claim to legislative
+sanction. The disbursement of the public money, too, ought, it is
+presumed, to be in like manner provided for by law. The person who may
+happen to be placed by the suffrage of his fellow-citizens in the high
+trust, having no personal interest in these concerns, should be exempted
+from undue responsibility respecting them.
+
+For a building so extensive, intended for a purpose exclusively
+national, in which in the furniture provided for it a mingled regard
+is due to the simplicity and purity of our institutions and to the
+character of the people who are represented in it, the sum already
+appropriated has proved altogether inadequate, The present is therefore
+a proper time for Congress to take the subject into consideration, with
+a view to all the objects claiming attention, and to regulate it by law.
+On a knowledge of the furniture procured and the sum expended for it
+a just estimate may be formed regarding the extent of the building of
+what will still be wanting to furnish the house. Many of the articles,
+being of a durable nature, may be handed down through a long series of
+service, and being of great value, such as plate, ought not to be left
+altogether and at all times to the care of servants alone. It seems to
+be advisable that a public agent Should be charged with it during the
+occasional absences of the President, and have authority to transfer
+it from one President to another, and likewise to make reports of
+occasional deficiencies, as the basis on which further provision should
+be made.
+
+It may also merit consideration whether it may not be proper to commit
+the care of the public buildings, particularly the President's house and
+the Capitol, with the grounds belonging to them, including likewise the
+furniture of the latter, in a more special manner to a public agent.
+Hitherto the charge of this valuable property seems to have been
+connected with the structure of the buildings and committed to those
+employed in it. This guard will necessarily cease when the buildings
+are finished, at which time the interest in them will be proportionably
+augmented. It is presumed that this trust is, in a certain degree at
+least, incidental to the other duties of the superintendent of the
+public buildings, but it may merit consideration whether it will not be
+proper to charge him with it more explicitly, and to give him authority
+to employ one or more persons under him for these purposes.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 12, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
+
+I lay before the House of Representatives copies of two communications
+received at the Department of State from the minister of Great Britain,
+and submit to their consideration the propriety of making such
+legislative provisions as may be necessary for a compliance with the
+representations contained in them.
+
+By the express terms of that compact it was, when ratified by the two
+Governments, to be in force for the term of four years _from the day of
+its signature_. The revocation of all the discriminating duties became,
+therefore, the obligation of both Governments _from that day_, and it
+is conceived that every individual who has been required to pay, and
+who has paid, any of the extra duties revoked by the convention has a
+just and lawful claim upon the respective Governments for its return.
+From various accidents it has happened that both here and in Great
+Britain the cessation of the extra duties has been fixed to commence
+at different times. It is desirable that Congress should pass an act
+providing for the return of _all_ the extra duties _incompatible with
+the terms of the convention_ which have been levied upon British vessels
+or merchandise after the 3d of July, 1815. The British Parliament have
+already set the example of fixing that day for the cessation of the
+extra duties of export by their act of 30th of June last, and the
+minister of the United States in London is instructed to require the
+extension of the same principle to _all_ the extra duties levied on
+vessels and merchandise of the United States in the ports of Great
+Britain since that day. It is not doubted that the British Government
+will comply with this requisition, and that the act suggested may be
+passed by Congress with full confidence that the reciprocal measure
+will receive the sanction of the British Parliament.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate requesting me to cause to
+be laid before them a statement of all the arms and accouterments which
+have been manufactured at the different armories of the United States,
+with the cost of each stand, and the number delivered to each State,
+respectively, under the act for arming the whole body of militia, I now
+transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with the documents marked
+A, B, and C, which, together with a report to him from the Ordnance
+Department, contains the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 19th of January,
+1818, requesting information of measures which have been taken in
+pursuance of so much of the act to authorize the appointment of a
+surveyor for lands in the northern part of the Mississippi Territory,
+passed the 3d of March, 1817, as relates to the reservation of certain
+sections for the purpose of laying out and establishing towns thereon,
+I now transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, which, with
+the letters and charts referred to in it, contains all the information
+which is desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 25, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The commissioners of the two Governments, under the fourth article
+of the treaty of Ghent, having come to a decision upon the questions
+submitted to them, I lay before Congress copies of that decision,
+together with copies of the declaration signed and reported by the
+commissioners of this Government.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 27, 1818.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate herewith to the House of Representatives a copy of a
+letter from the governor of the State of South Carolina to the Secretary
+of State, together with extracts from the journals of proceedings in
+both branches of the legislature of that Commonwealth, relative to a
+proposed amendment of the Constitution, which letter and extracts are
+connected with the subject of my communication to the House of the 6th
+instant.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 28, 1818_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the House a report from the Secretary of State, together
+with the papers relating to the claims of merchants of the United States
+upon the Government of Naples, in conformity with the resolution of the
+House of the 30th January last.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 11, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate requesting information
+respecting the requisitions that were made on the contractors between
+the 1st of June and the 24th of December, 1817, for deposits of
+provisions in advance at the several posts on the frontiers of Georgia
+and the adjoining territory, their conduct in compliance therewith, the
+amount of money advanced to B. G. Orr, and the extent of his failure,
+with a copy of the articles of contract entered into with him, I now lay
+before the Senate a report from the Secretary of War, which, with the
+documents accompanying it, will afford the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 14, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 16th of December
+and of the House of Representatives of the 24th of February last,
+I lay before Congress a report of the Secretary of State, and the
+papers referred to in it, respecting the negotiation with the Government
+of Spain. To explain fully the nature of the differences between the
+United States and Spain and the conduct of the parties it has been found
+necessary to go back to an early epoch. The recent correspondence,
+with the documents accompanying it, will give a full view of the whole
+subject, and place the conduct of the United States in every stage and
+under every circumstance, for justice, moderation, and a firm adherence
+to their rights, on the high and honorable ground which it has
+invariably sustained.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 16, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the United States of
+the 31st of December last, requesting the President to cause to be laid
+before them a statement of the proceedings which may have been had under
+the act of Congress passed on the 3d March, 1817, entitled "An act to
+set apart and dispose of certain public lands for the encouragement and
+cultivation of the vine and olive," I now transmit a report from the
+Secretary of the Treasury, containing all the information possessed by
+the Executive relating to the proceedings under the said act.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 16, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the United States of
+the 3d of February last, requesting the President to cause to be laid
+before them "a statement of the progress made under the act to provide
+for surveying the coast of the United States, passed February 10, 1807,
+and any subsequent acts on the same subject, and the expenses incurred
+thereby," I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury
+containing the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MARCH 19, 1818.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In the course of the last summer a negotiation was commenced with
+the Government of the Netherlands with a view to the revival and
+modification of the commercial treaty existing between the two
+countries, adapted to their present circumstances.
+
+The report from the Secretary of State which I now lay before Congress
+will show the obstacles which arose in the progress of the conferences
+between the respective plenipotentiaries, and which resulted in the
+agreement between them then to refer the subject to the consideration
+of their respective Governments. As the difficulties appear to be of a
+nature which may, perhaps, for the present be more easily removed by
+reciprocal legislative regulations, formed in the spirit of amity and
+conciliation, than by conventional stipulations, Congress may think it
+advisable to leave the subsisting treaty in its present state, and to
+meet the liberal exemption from discriminating tonnage duties which has
+been conceded in the Netherlands to the vessels of the United States
+by a similar exemption to the vessels of the Netherlands which have
+arrived, or may hereafter arrive, in our ports, commencing from the time
+when the exemption was granted to the vessels of the United States. I
+would further recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency
+of extending the benefit of the same regulation, to commence from the
+passage of the law, to the vessels of Russia, Hamburg, and Bremen, and
+of making it prospectively general in favor of every nation in whose
+ports the vessels of the United States are admitted on the same footing
+as their own.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 23, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with
+the estimate of the expense which will be incurred by the establishment
+of two dockyards for repairing vessels of the largest size.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 25, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I now lay before Congress all the information in the possession of
+the Executive respecting the war with the Seminoles, and the measures
+which it has been thought proper to adopt for the safety of our
+fellow-citizens on the frontier exposed to their ravages. The inclosed
+documents show that the hostilities of this tribe were unprovoked, the
+offspring of a spirit long cherished and often manifested toward the
+United States, and that in the present instance it was extending itself
+to other tribes and daily assuming a more serious aspect. As soon as the
+nature and object of this combination were perceived the major-general
+commanding the Southern division of the troops of the United States was
+ordered to the theater of action, charged with the management of the war
+and vested with the powers necessary to give it effect. The season of
+the year being unfavorable to active operations, and the recesses of
+the country affording shelter to these savages in case of retreat, may
+prevent a prompt termination of the war; but it may be fairly presumed
+that it will not be long before this tribe and its associates receive
+the punishment which they have provoked and justly merited.
+
+As almost the whole of this tribe inhabits the country within the limits
+of Florida, Spain was bound by the treaty of 1795 to restrain them from
+committing hostilities against the United States. We have seen with
+regret that her Government has altogether failed to fulfill this
+obligation, nor are we aware that it made any effort to that effect.
+When we consider her utter inability to check, even in the slightest
+degree, the movements of this tribe by her very small and incompetent
+force in Florida, we are not disposed to ascribe the failure to any
+other cause. The inability, however, of Spain to maintain her authority
+over the territory and Indians within her limits, and in consequence to
+fulfill the treaty, ought not to expose the United States to other and
+greater injuries. When the authority of Spain ceases to exist there, the
+United States have a right to pursue their enemy on a principle of
+self-defense. In this instance the right is more complete and obvious
+because we shall perform only what Spain was bound to have performed
+herself. To the high obligations and privileges of this great and sacred
+right of self-defense will the movement of our troops be strictly
+confined. Orders have been given to the general in command not to enter
+Florida unless it be in pursuit of the enemy, and in that case to
+respect the Spanish authority wherever it is maintained; and he will be
+instructed to withdraw his forces from the Province as soon as he shall
+have reduced that tribe to order, and secure our fellow-citizens in that
+quarter by satisfactory arrangements against its unprovoked and savage
+hostilities in future.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 25, 1818_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In conformity with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+5th of December last, I now transmit a report of the Secretary of State,
+with a copy of the documents which it is thought proper to communicate
+relating to the independence and political condition of the Provinces of
+Spanish America,
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 26, 1818_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives, in compliance with their
+resolution of March 20, such information not heretofore communicated
+as is in the possession of the Executive relating to the occupation of
+Amelia Island. If any doubt had before existed of the improper conduct
+of the persons who authorized and of those who were engaged in the
+invasion and previous occupancy of that island, of the unfriendly spirit
+toward the United States with which it was commenced and prosecuted, and
+of its injurious effect on their highest interests, particularly by its
+tendency to compromit them with foreign powers in all the unwarrantable
+acts of the adventurers, it is presumed that these documents would
+remove it. It appears by the letter of Mr. Pazos, agent of Commodore
+Aury, that the project of seizing the Floridas was formed and executed
+at a time when it was understood that Spain had resolved to cede them
+to the United States, and to prevent such cession from taking effect.
+The whole proceeding in every stage and circumstance was unlawful. The
+commission to General M'Gregor was granted at Philadelphia in direct
+violation of a positive law, and all the measures pursued under it by
+him in collecting his force and directing its movements were equally
+unlawful. With the conduct of these persons I have always been unwilling
+to connect any of the colonial governments, because I never could
+believe that they had given their sanction either to the project in its
+origin or to the measures which were pursued in the execution of it.
+These documents confirm the opinion which I have invariably entertained
+and expressed in their favor.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 28, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate relative to the pensioners
+of the United States, the sum annually paid to each, and the States or
+Territories in which said pensioners are respectively paid, I now
+transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which, with documents
+marked A and B, contains all the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL 6, 1818.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+An arrangement having been made and concluded between this Government
+and that of Great Britain with respect to the naval armament of
+the two Governments, respectively, on the Lakes, I lay before the
+Senate a copy of the correspondence upon that subject, including the
+stipulations mutually agreed upon by the two parties. I submit it to the
+consideration of the Senate whether this is such an arrangement as the
+Executive is competent to enter into by the powers vested in it by the
+Constitution, or is such an one as requires the advice and consent of
+the Senate, and, in the latter case, for their advice and consent should
+it be approved.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 9, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the Senate requesting me to cause
+to be laid before them a list of the names of the several agents of
+Indian affairs and of agents of Indian trading houses, with the pay and
+emolument of the agents, respectively, I now transmit a report from the
+Secretary of War, which contains the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL 10, 1818.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate respecting the supplies
+of the Northwestern army, within certain periods therein specified, by
+contractors, commissaries, and agents, and the expense thereby incurred,
+I now transmit to them a report from the Secretary of War, which, with
+the documents accompanying it, will afford the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 15, 1818_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 10th instant, relative to the capture and imprisonment of certain
+persons, citizens of the United States, therein specifically mentioned,
+I now transmit a report from the Secretary of State, which, with the
+documents accompanying it, embraces the objects contemplated by the
+said resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 20, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate a copy of the rules, regulations, and
+instructions for the naval service of the United States, prepared by the
+Board of Navy Commissioners in obedience to an act of Congress passed
+7th of February, 1815, entitled "An act to alter and amend the several
+acts for establishing a Navy Department by adding thereto a Board of
+Commissioners."
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATIONS.
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+Whereas by an act of the lieutenant-governor, council, and assembly of
+His Britannic Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia, passed in the year
+1816, it was, among other things, enacted that from and after the 1st
+day of May of that year "no plaster of paris, otherwise called gypsum,
+which should be laden or put on board any ship or vessel at any port
+or place within the limits of the said Province to be transported from
+thence to any other port or place within or without the said limits
+should, directly or indirectly, be unladen or landed or put on shore at
+any port or place in the United States of America eastward of Boston,
+in the State of Massachusetts, nor unladen or put on board any American
+ship, vessel, boat, or shallop of any description at any port or place
+eastward of Boston aforesaid, under the penalty of the forfeiture of
+every such ship or vessel from which any such plaster of paris, or
+gypsum, should be unladen contrary to the provision of the said act,
+together with her boats, tackle, apparel, and furniture, to be seized
+and prosecuted in the manner thereinafter mentioned;" and
+
+Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States passed on the
+3d day of March, 1817, it was enacted that from and after the 4th day
+of July then next no plaster of paris the production of any country or
+its dependencies from which the vessels of the United States were not
+permitted to bring the same article should be imported into the United
+States in any foreign vessel, and that all plaster of paris imported or
+attempted to be imported into the United States contrary to the true
+intent and meaning of the said act of Congress, and the vessel in which
+the same might be imported or attempted to be imported, together with
+the cargo, tackle, apparel, and furniture, should be forfeited to the
+United States and liable to be seized, prosecuted, and condemned in the
+manner therein prescribed; and
+
+Whereas by the said act of Congress it was further enacted that the
+same should continue and be in force five years from January 31, 1817;
+provided, nevertheless, that if any foreign nation or its dependencies
+which at the time of the passage of the said act of Congress had in
+force regulations on the subject of the trade in plaster of paris
+prohibiting the exportation thereof to certain ports of the United
+States should discontinue such regulations, the President of the United
+States was thereby authorized to declare that fact by his proclamation,
+and the restrictions imposed by the said act of Congress should from the
+date of such proclamation cease and be discontinued in relation to the
+nation or its dependencies discontinuing such regulations; and
+
+Whereas an act of the lieutenant-governor, council, and assembly
+of His Britannic Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia, repealing the
+above-mentioned act of the said Province, passed in the year 1816, has
+been officially communicated by his said Majesty's envoy extraordinary
+and minister plenipotentiary to this Government; and
+
+Whereas by the said repealing act of the said Province of Nova Scotia,
+one of the dependencies of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
+Ireland, the regulations at the time of the passage of the said act of
+Congress in force in the said Province on the subject of the trade in
+plaster of paris, prohibiting the exportation thereof to certain ports
+of the United States, have been and are discontinued:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States of
+America, do by this my proclamation declare that fact, and that the
+restrictions imposed by the said act of Congress do from the date hereof
+cease and are discontinued in relation to His Britannic Majesty's said
+Province of Nova Scotia.
+
+Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 23d day of
+April, A. D. 1818, and in the forty-second year of the Independence of
+the United States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  John Quincy Adams
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas an arrangement was entered into at the city of Washington in
+the month of April, A.D. 1817, between Richard Rush, esq., at that time
+acting as Secretary for the Department of State of the United States,
+for and in behalf of the Government of the United States, and the Right
+Honorable Charles Bagot, His Britannic Majesty's envoy extraordinary and
+minister plenipotentiary, for and in behalf of His Britannic Majesty,
+which arrangement is in the words following, to wit:
+
+  The naval force to be maintained upon the American lakes by His
+  Majesty and the Government of the United States shall henceforth
+  be confined to the following vessels on each side; that is--
+
+  On Lake Ontario, to one vessel not exceeding 100 tons burden and
+  armed with one 18-pound cannon.
+
+  On the upper lakes, to two vessels not exceeding like burden each
+  and armed with like force.
+
+  On the waters of Lake Champlain, to one vessel not exceeding like
+  burden and armed with like force.
+
+  All other armed vessels on these lakes shall be forthwith dismantled,
+  and no other vessels of war shall be there built or armed.
+
+  If either party should hereafter be-desirous of annulling this
+  stipulation, and should give notice to that effect to the other
+  party, it shall cease to be binding after the expiration of six
+  months from the date of such notice.
+
+  The naval force so to be limited shall be restricted to such services
+  as will in no respect interfere with the proper duties of the armed
+  vessels of the other party.
+
+
+And whereas the Senate of the United States have approved of the said
+arrangement and recommended that it should be carried into effect, the
+same having also received the sanction of His Royal Highness the Prince
+Regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of His Britannic Majesty:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States, do
+by this my proclamation make known and declare that the arrangement
+aforesaid and every stipulation thereof has been duly entered into,
+concluded, and confirmed, and is of full force and effect.
+
+Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 28th day of
+April, A.D. 1818, and of the Independence of the United States the
+forty-second.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  John Quincy Adams,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas it appears by a proclamation of the lieutenant-governor of His
+Britannic Majesty's Province of New Brunswick bearing date the 10th day
+of April last, and officially communicated by his envoy extraordinary
+and minister plenipotentiary residing in the United States to this
+Government, that the regulations on the subject of the trade in plaster
+of paris, prohibiting the exportation thereof to certain ports of the
+United States, which were in force in the said Province at the time of
+the enactment of the act of the Congress of the United States entitled
+"An act to regulate the trade in plaster of paris," passed on the 3d day
+of March, 1817, have been and are discontinued:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States, do
+hereby declare that fact, and that the restrictions imposed by the said
+act of Congress shall from the date hereof cease and be discontinued in
+relation to the said Province of New Brunswick.
+
+Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 4th day of July,
+A.D. 1818, and in the forty-third year of the Independence of the United
+States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  John Quincy Adams,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 3d of
+March, 1815, so much of the several acts imposing duties on the ships
+and vessels and on goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the
+United States as imposed a discriminating duty of tonnage between
+foreign vessels and vessels of the United States and between goods
+imported into the United States in foreign vessels and vessels of the
+United States were repealed so far as the same respected the produce or
+manufacture of the nation to which such foreign ship or vessel might
+belong, such repeal to take effect in favor of any foreign nation
+whenever the President of the United States should be satisfied that the
+discriminating or countervailing duties of such foreign nation so far as
+they operate to the disadvantage of the United States have been
+abolished; and
+
+Whereas satisfactory proof has been received by me from the
+burgo-masters and senators of the free and Hanseatic city of Bremen
+that from and after the 12th day of May, 1815, all discriminating or
+countervailing duties of the said city so far as they operated to the
+disadvantage of the United States have been and are abolished:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States of
+America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several
+acts imposing duties on the tonnage of ships and vessels and on goods,
+wares, and merchandise imported into the United States as imposed a
+discriminating duty of tonnage between vessels of the free and Hanseatic
+city of Bremen and vessels of the United States and between goods
+imported into the United States in vessels of Bremen and vessels of the
+United States are repealed so far as the same respect the produce or
+manufacture of the said free Hanseatic city of Bremen.
+
+Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 24th day of July,
+A.D. 1818, and the forty-third year of the Independence of the United
+States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 3d of
+March, 1815, so much of the several acts imposing duties on the ships
+and vessels and on goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the
+United States as imposed a discriminating duty of tonnage between
+foreign vessels and vessels of the United States and between goods
+imported into the United States in foreign vessels and vessels of the
+United States were repealed so far as the same respected the produce
+or manufacture of the nation to which such foreign ship or vessel might
+belong, such repeal to take effect in favor of any foreign nation
+whenever the President of the United States should be satisfied that
+the discriminating or countervailing duties of such foreign nation so
+far as they operate to the disadvantage of the United States have been
+abolished; and
+
+Whereas satisfactory proof has been received by me from the
+burgo-masters and senators of the free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg
+that from and after the 13th day of November, 1815, all discriminating
+and countervailing duties of the said city so far as they operated to
+the disadvantage of the United States have been and are abolished:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States of
+America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several
+acts imposing duties on the tonnage of ships and vessels and on goods,
+wares, and merchandise imported into the United States as imposed a
+discriminating duty of tonnage between vessels of the free and Hanseatic
+city of Hamburg and vessels of the United States and between goods
+imported into the United States in vessels of Hamburg and vessels of the
+United States are repealed so far as the same respect the produce or
+manufacture of the said free Hanseatic city of Hamburg.
+
+Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 1st day of August,
+A.D. 1818, and the forty-third year of the Independence of the United
+States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  John Quincy Adams,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+NOVEMBER 16, 1818.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+The auspicious circumstances under which you will commence the duties of
+the present session will lighten the burdens inseparable from the high
+trust committed to you. The fruits of the earth have been unusually
+abundant, commerce has flourished, the revenue has exceeded the most
+favorable anticipation, and peace and amity are preserved with foreign
+nations on conditions just and honorable to our country. For these
+inestimable blessings we can not but be grateful to that Providence
+which watches over the destiny of nations.
+
+As the term limited for the operation of the commercial convention with
+Great Britain will expire early in the month of July next, and it was
+deemed important that there should be no interval during which that
+portion of our commerce which was provided for by that convention should
+not be regulated, either by arrangement between the two Governments or
+by the authority of Congress, the minister of the United States at
+London was instructed early in the last summer to invite the attention
+of the British Government to the subject, with a view to that object.
+He was instructed to propose also that the negotiation which it
+was wished to open might extend to the general commerce of the two
+countries, and to every other interest and unsettled difference between
+them, particularly those relating to impressment, the fisheries, and
+boundaries, in the hope that an arrangement might be made on principles
+of reciprocal advantage which might comprehend and provide in a
+satisfactory manner for all these high concerns. I have the satisfaction
+to state that the proposal was received by the British Government in
+the spirit which prompted it, and that a negotiation has been opened at
+London embracing all these objects. On full consideration of the great
+extent and magnitude of the trust it was thought proper to commit it to
+not less than two of our distinguished citizens, and in consequence the
+envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States
+at Paris has been associated with our envoy extraordinary and minister
+plenipotentiary at London, to both of whom corresponding instructions
+have been given, and they are now engaged in the discharge of its
+duties. It is proper to add that to prevent any inconvenience resulting
+from the delay incident to a negotiation on so many important subjects
+it was agreed before entering on it that the existing convention should
+be continued for a term not less than eight years.
+
+Our relations with Spain remain nearly in the state in which they were
+at the close of the last session. The convention of 1802, providing for
+the adjustment of a certain portion of the claims of our citizens for
+injuries sustained by spoliation, and so long suspended by the Spanish
+Government, has at length been ratified by it, but no arrangement has
+yet been made for the payment of another portion of like claims, not
+less extensive or well founded, or for other classes of claims, or for
+the settlement of boundaries. These subjects have again been brought
+under consideration in both countries, but no agreement has been entered
+into respecting them. In the meantime events have occurred which clearly
+prove the ill effect of the policy which that Government has so long
+pursued on the friendly relations of the two countries, which it is
+presumed is at least of as much importance to Spain as to the United
+States to maintain. A state of things has existed in the Floridas the
+tendency of which has been obvious to all who have paid the slightest
+attention to the progress of affairs in that quarter. Throughout
+the whole of those Provinces to which the Spanish title extends the
+Government of Spain has scarcely been felt. Its authority has been
+confined almost exclusively to the walls of Pensacola and St. Augustine,
+within which only small garrisons have been maintained. Adventurers from
+every country, fugitives from justice, and absconding slaves have found
+an asylum there. Several tribes of Indians, strong in the number of
+their warriors, remarkable for their ferocity, and whose settlements
+extend to our limits, inhabit those Provinces. These different hordes of
+people, connected together, disregarding on the one side the authority
+of Spain, and protected on the other by an imaginary line which
+separates Florida from the United States, have violated our laws
+prohibiting the introduction of slaves, have practiced various frauds
+on our revenue, and committed every kind of outrage on our peaceable
+citizens which their proximity to us enabled them to perpetrate. The
+invasion of Amelia Island last year by a small band of adventurers, not
+exceeding 150 in number, who wrested it from the inconsiderable Spanish
+force stationed there, and held it several months, during which a single
+feeble effort only was made to recover it, which failed, clearly proves
+how completely extinct the Spanish authority had become, as the conduct
+of those adventurers while in possession of the island as distinctly
+shows the pernicious purposes for which their combination had been
+formed.
+
+This country had, in fact, become the theater of every species of
+lawless adventure. With little population of its own, the Spanish
+authority almost extinct, and the colonial governments in a state of
+revolution, having no pretension to it, and sufficiently employed in
+their own concerns, it was in a great measure derelict, and the object
+of cupidity to every adventurer. A system of buccaneering was rapidly
+organizing over it which menaced in its consequences the lawful commerce
+of every nation, and particularly of the United States, while it
+presented a temptation to every people, on whose seduction its success
+principally depended. In regard to the United States, the pernicious
+effect of this unlawful combination was not confined to the ocean;
+the Indian tribes have constituted the effective force in Florida.
+With these tribes these adventurers had formed at an early period a
+connection with a view to avail themselves of that force to promote
+their own projects of accumulation and aggrandizement. It is to the
+interference of some of these adventurers, in misrepresenting the claims
+and titles of the Indians to land and in practicing on their savage
+propensities, that the Seminole war is principally to be traced. Men who
+thus connect themselves with savage communities and stimulate them to
+war, which is always attended on their part with acts of barbarity the
+most shocking, deserve to be viewed in a worse light than the savages.
+They would certainly have no claim to an immunity from the punishment
+which, according to the rules of warfare practiced by the savages, might
+justly be inflicted on the savages themselves.
+
+If the embarrassments of Spain prevented her from making an indemnity
+to our citizens for so long a time from her treasury for their losses
+by spoliation and otherwise, it was always in her power to have provided
+it by the cession of this territory. Of this her Government has been
+repeatedly apprised, and the cession was the more to have been
+anticipated as Spain must have known that in ceding it she would in
+effect cede what had become of little value to her, and would likewise
+relieve herself from the important obligation secured by the treaty of
+1795 and all other compromitments respecting it. If the United States,
+from consideration of these embarrassments, declined pressing their
+claims in a spirit of hostility, the motive ought at least to have been
+duly appreciated by the Government of Spain. It is well known to her
+Government that other powers have made to the United States an indemnity
+for like losses sustained by their citizens at the same epoch.
+
+There is nevertheless a limit beyond which this spirit of amity and
+forbearance can in no instance be justified. If it was proper to rely on
+amicable negotiation for an indemnity for losses, it would not have been
+so to have permitted the inability of Spain to fulfill her engagements
+and to sustain her authority in the Floridas to be perverted by foreign
+adventurers and savages to purposes so destructive to the lives of our
+fellow-citizens and the highest interests of the United States. The
+right of self-defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and
+alike necessary to nations and to individuals, and whether the attack be
+made by Spain herself or by those who abuse her power, its obligation is
+not the less strong. The invaders of Amelia Island had assumed a popular
+and respected title under which they might approach and wound us. As
+their object was distinctly seen, and the duty imposed on the Executive
+by an existing law was profoundly felt, that mask was not permitted to
+protect them. It was thought incumbent on the United States to suppress
+the establishment, and it was accordingly done. The combination in
+Florida for the unlawful purposes stated, the acts perpetrated by that
+combination, and, above all, the incitement of the Indians to massacre
+our fellow-citizens of every age and of both sexes, merited a like
+treatment and received it. In pursuing these savages to an imaginary
+line in the woods it would have been the height of folly to have
+suffered that line to protect them. Had that been done the war could
+never cease. Even if the territory had been exclusively that of Spain
+and her power complete over it, we had a right by the law of nations
+to follow the enemy on it and to subdue him there. But the territory
+belonged, in a certain sense at least, to the savage enemy who inhabited
+it; the power of Spain had ceased to exist over it, and protection
+was sought under her title by those who had committed on our citizens
+hostilities which she was bound by treaty to have prevented, but had not
+the power to prevent. To have stopped at that line would have given new
+encouragement to these savages and new vigor to the whole combination
+existing there in the prosecution of all its pernicious purposes.
+
+In suppressing the establishment at Amelia Island no unfriendliness was
+manifested toward Spain, because the post was taken from a force which
+had wrested it from her. The measure, it is true, was not adopted in
+concert with the Spanish Government or those in authority under it,
+because in transactions connected with the war in which Spain and the
+colonies are engaged it was thought proper in doing justice to the
+United States to maintain a strict impartiality toward both the
+belligerent parties without consulting or acting in concert with either.
+It gives me pleasure to state that the Governments of Buenos Ayres and
+Venezuela, whose names were assumed, have explicitly disclaimed all
+participation in those measures, and even the knowledge of them until
+communicated by this Government, and have also expressed their
+satisfaction that a course of proceedings had been suppressed which if
+justly imputable to them would dishonor their cause.
+
+In authorizing Major-General Jackson to enter Florida in pursuit of the
+Seminoles care was taken not to encroach on the rights of Spain. I
+regret to have to add that in executing this order facts were disclosed
+respecting the conduct of the officers of Spain in authority there in
+encouraging the war, furnishing munitions of war and other supplies to
+carry it on, and in other acts not less marked which evinced their
+participation in the hostile purposes of that combination and justified
+the confidence with which it inspired the savages that by those officers
+they would be protected. A conduct so incompatible with the friendly
+relations existing between the two countries, particularly with the
+positive obligation of the fifth article of the treaty of 1795, by which
+Spain was bound to restrain, even by force, those savages from acts of
+hostility against the United States, could not fail to excite surprise.
+The commanding general was convinced that he should fail in his object,
+that he should in effect accomplish nothing, if he did not deprive
+those savages of the resource on which they had calculated and of the
+protection on which they had relied in making the war. As all the
+documents relating to this occurrence will be laid before Congress,
+it is not necessary to enter into further detail respecting it.
+
+Although the reasons which induced Major-General Jackson to take these
+posts were duly appreciated, there was nevertheless no hesitation in
+deciding on the course which it became the Government to pursue. As
+there was reason to believe that the commanders of these posts had
+violated their instructions, there was no disposition to impute to
+their Government a conduct so unprovoked and hostile. An order was
+in consequence issued to the general in command there to deliver the
+posts--Pensacola unconditionally to any person duly authorized to
+receive it, and St. Marks, which is in the heart of the Indian country,
+on the arrival of a competent force to defend it against those savages
+and their associates.
+
+In entering Florida to suppress this combination no idea was entertained
+of hostility to Spain, and however justifiable the commanding general
+was, in consequence of the misconduct of the Spanish officers, in
+entering St. Marks and Pensacola to terminate it by proving to the
+savages and their associates that they should not be protected even
+there, yet the amicable relations existing between the United States
+and Spain could not be altered by that act alone. By ordering the
+restitution of the posts those relations were preserved. To a change
+of them the power of the Executive is deemed incompetent; it is vested
+in Congress only.
+
+By this measure, so promptly taken, due respect was shown to the
+Government of Spain. The misconduct of her officers has not been imputed
+to her. She was enabled to review with candor her relations with the
+United States and her own situation, particularly in respect to the
+territory in question, with the dangers inseparable from it, and
+regarding the losses we have sustained for which indemnity has been so
+long withheld, and the injuries we have suffered through that territory,
+and her means of redress, she was likewise enabled to take with honor
+the course best calculated to do justice to the United States and to
+promote her own welfare.
+
+Copies of the instructions to the commanding general, of his
+correspondence with the Secretary of War, explaining his motives
+and justifying his conduct, with a copy of the proceedings of the
+courts-martial in the trial of Arbuthnot and Ambristie, and of the
+correspondence between the Secretary of State and the minister
+plenipotentiary of Spain near this Government, and of the minister
+plenipotentiary of the United States at Madrid with the Government
+of Spain, will be laid before Congress.
+
+The civil war which has so long prevailed between Spain and the
+Provinces in South America still continues, without any prospect of
+its speedy termination. The information respecting the condition of
+those countries which has been collected by the commissioners recently
+returned from thence will be laid before Congress in copies of their
+reports, with such other information as has been received from other
+agents of the United States.
+
+It appears from these communications that the Government at Buenos Ayres
+declared itself independent in July, 1816, having previously exercised
+the power of an independent government, though in the name of the King
+of Spain, from the year 1810; that the Banda Oriental, Entre Rios, and
+Paraguay, with the city of Santa Fee, all of which are also independent,
+are unconnected with the present Government of Buenos Ayres; that Chili
+has declared itself independent and is closely connected with Buenos
+Ayres; that Venezuela has also declared itself independent, and now
+maintains the conflict with various success; and that the remaining
+parts of South America, except Monte Video and such other portions of
+the eastern bank of the La Plata as are held by Portugal, are still in
+the possession of Spain or in a certain degree under her influence.
+
+By a circular note addressed by the ministers of Spain to the allied
+powers, with whom they are respectively accredited, it appears that the
+allies have undertaken to mediate between Spain and the South American
+Provinces, and that the manner and extent of their interposition would
+be settled by a congress which was to have met at Aix-la-Chapelle
+in September last. From the general policy and course of proceeding
+observed by the allied powers in regard to this contest it is inferred
+that they will confine their interposition to the expression of their
+sentiments, abstaining from the application of force. I state this
+impression that force will not be applied with the greater satisfaction
+because it is a course more consistent with justice and likewise
+authorizes a hope that the calamities of the war will be confined
+to the parties only, and will be of shorter duration.
+
+From the view taken of this subject, founded on all the information that
+we have been able to obtain, there is good cause to be satisfied with
+the course heretofore pursued by the United States in regard to this
+contest, and to conclude that it is proper to adhere to it, especially
+in the present state of affairs.
+
+I have great satisfaction in stating that our relations with France,
+Russia, and other powers continue on the most friendly basis.
+
+In our domestic concerns we have ample cause of satisfaction. The
+receipts into the Treasury during the three first quarters of the year
+have exceeded $17,000,000.
+
+After satisfying all the demands which have been made under existing
+appropriations, including the final extinction of the old 6 per cent
+stock and the redemption of a moiety of the Louisiana debt, it is
+estimated that there will remain in the Treasury on the 1st day of
+January next more than $2,000,000.
+
+It is ascertained that the gross revenue which has accrued from the
+customs during the same period amounts to $21,000,000, and that the
+revenue of the whole year may be estimated at not less than $26,000,000.
+The sale of the public lands during the year has also greatly exceeded,
+both in quantity and price, that of any former year, and there is just
+reason to expect a progressive improvement in that source of revenue.
+
+It is gratifying to know that although the annual expenditure has been
+increased by the act of the last session of Congress providing for
+Revolutionary pensions to an amount about equal to the proceeds of the
+internal duties which were then repealed, the revenue for the ensuing
+year will be proportionally augmented, and that whilst the public
+expenditure will probably remain stationary, each successive year will
+add to the national resources by the ordinary increase of our population
+and by the gradual development of our latent sources of national
+prosperity.
+
+The strict execution of the revenue laws, resulting principally from
+the salutary provisions of the act of the 20th of April last amending
+the several collection laws, has, it is presumed, secured to domestic
+manufactures all the relief that can be derived from the duties which
+have been imposed upon foreign merchandise for their protection. Under
+the influence of this relief several branches of this important national
+interest have assumed greater activity, and although it is hoped that
+others will gradually revive and ultimately triumph over every obstacle,
+yet the expediency of granting further protection is submitted to your
+consideration.
+
+The measures of defense authorized by existing laws have been pursued
+with the zeal and activity due to so important an object, and with all
+the dispatch practicable in so extensive and great an undertaking. The
+survey of our maritime and inland frontiers has been continued, and at
+the points where it was decided to erect fortifications the work has
+been commenced, and in some instances considerable progress has been
+made. In compliance with resolutions of the last session, the Board of
+Commissioners were directed to examine in a particular manner the parts
+of the coast therein designated and to report their opinion of the
+most suitable sites for two naval depots. This work is in a train of
+execution. The opinion of the Board on this subject, with a plan of all
+the works necessary to a general system of defense so far as it has been
+formed, will be laid before Congress in a report from the proper
+department as soon as it can be prepared.
+
+In conformity with the appropriations of the last session, treaties have
+been formed with the Quapaw tribe of Indians, inhabiting the country on
+the Arkansaw, and with the Great and Little Osages north of the White
+River; with the tribes in the State of Indiana; with the several tribes
+within the State of Ohio and the Michigan Territory, and with the
+Chickasaws, by which very extensive cessions of territory have been made
+to the United States. Negotiations are now depending with the tribes in
+the Illinois Territory and with the Choctaws, by which it is expected
+that other extensive cessions will be made. I take great interest
+in stating that the cessions already made, which are considered so
+important to the United States, have been obtained on conditions very
+satisfactory to the Indians.
+
+With a view to the security of our inland frontiers, it has been thought
+expedient to establish strong posts at the mouth of Yellow Stone River
+and at the Mandan village on the Missouri, and at the mouth of St.
+Peters on the Mississippi, at no great distance from our northern
+boundaries. It can hardly be presumed while such posts are maintained
+in the rear of the Indian tribes that they will venture to attack our
+peaceable inhabitants. A strong hope is entertained that this measure
+will likewise be productive of much good to the tribes themselves,
+especially in promoting the great object of their civilization.
+Experience has clearly demonstrated that independent savage communities
+can not long exist within the limits of a civilized population.
+The progress of the latter has almost invariably terminated in the
+extinction of the former, especially of the tribes belonging to our
+portion of this hemisphere, among whom loftiness of sentiment and
+gallantry in action have been conspicuous. To civilize them, and even
+to prevent their extinction, it seems to be indispensable that their
+independence as communities should cease, and that the control of the
+United States over them should be complete and undisputed. The hunter
+state will then be more easily abandoned, and recourse will be had to
+the acquisition and culture of land and to other pursuits tending to
+dissolve the ties which connect them together as a savage community and
+to give a new character to every individual. I present this subject to
+the consideration of Congress on the presumption that it may be found
+expedient and practicable to adopt some benevolent provisions, having
+these objects in view, relative to the tribes within our settlements.
+
+It has been necessary during the present year to maintain a strong naval
+force in the Mediterranean and in the Gulf of Mexico, and to send some
+public ships along the southern coast and to the Pacific Ocean. By
+these means amicable relations with the Barbary Powers have been
+preserved, our commerce has been protected, and our rights respected.
+The augmentation of our Navy is advancing with a steady progress toward
+the limit contemplated by law.
+
+I communicate with great satisfaction the accession of another State
+(Illinois) to our Union, because I perceive from the proof afforded by
+the additions already made the regular progress and sure consummation of
+a policy of which history affords no example, and of which the good
+effect can not be too highly estimated. By extending our Government on
+the principles of our Constitution over the vast territory within our
+limits, on the Lakes and the Mississippi and its numerous streams, new
+life and vigor are infused into every part of our system. By increasing
+the number of the States the confidence of the State governments in
+their own security is increased and their jealousy of the National
+Government proportionally diminished. The impracticability of one
+consolidated government for this great and growing nation will be more
+apparent and will be universally admitted. Incapable of exercising local
+authority except for general purposes, the General Government will
+no longer be dreaded. In those cases of a local nature and for all
+the great purposes for which it was instituted its authority will be
+cherished. Each government will acquire new force and a greater freedom
+of action within its proper sphere. Other inestimable advantages will
+follow. Our produce will be augmented to an incalculable amount in
+articles of the greatest value for domestic use and foreign commerce.
+Our navigation will in like degree be increased, and as the shipping of
+the Atlantic States will be employed in the transportation of the vast
+produce of the Western country, even those parts of the United States
+which are most remote from each other will be further bound together by
+the strongest ties which mutual interest can create.
+
+The situation of this District, it is thought, requires the attention of
+Congress. By the Constitution the power of legislation is exclusively
+vested in the Congress of the United States. In the exercise of this
+power, in which the people have no participation, Congress legislate in
+all cases directly on the local concerns of the District. As this is a
+departure, for a special purpose, from the general principles of our
+system, it may merit consideration whether an arrangement better adapted
+to the principles of our Government and to the particular interests
+of the people may not be devised which will neither infringe the
+Constitution nor affect the object which the provision in question
+was intended to secure. The growing population, already considerable,
+and the increasing business of the District, which it is believed
+already interferes with the deliberations of Congress on great national
+concerns, furnish additional motives for recommending this subject to
+your consideration.
+
+When we view the great blessings with which our country has been
+favored, those which we now enjoy, and the means which we possess of
+handing them down unimpaired to our latest posterity, our attention is
+irresistibly drawn to the source from whence they flow. Let us, then,
+unite in offering our most grateful acknowledgments for these blessings
+to the Divine Author of All Good.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+NOVEMBER 30, 1818.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate, for their advice and consent, the several
+treaties which have recently been made with the Chickasaws, the Quapaws,
+the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, Shawnese, Potawatamies, Ottawas, and
+Chippewas, the Peoria, Kaskaskias, Mitchigamia, Cahokia, and Tamarois,
+the Great and Little Osages, the Weas, Potawatamies, Delaware and Miami,
+the Wyandot, and the four Pawnees tribes of Indians.
+
+By reference to the journal of the commissioners it appears that George
+and Levi Colbert have bargained and sold to the United States the
+reservations made to them by the treaty of September, 1816, and that
+a deed of trust of the same has been made by them to James Jackson,
+of Nashville. I would therefore suggest, in case the Chickasaw treaty
+be approved by the Senate, the propriety of providing by law for
+the payment of the sum stipulated to be given to them for their
+reservations.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 2, 1818.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate copies of such of the documents referred to in
+the message of the 17th of last month as have been prepared since that
+period. They contain a copy of the reports of Mr. Rodney and Mr. Graham,
+two of the commissioners to South America, who returned first from the
+mission, and of the papers connected with those reports. They also
+present a full view of the operations of our troops employed in the
+Seminole war in Florida.
+
+It would have been gratifying to me to have communicated with the
+message all the documents referred to in it, but as two of our
+commissioners from South America made their reports a few days only
+before the meeting of Congress and the third on the day of its meeting,
+it was impossible to transmit at that time more than one copy of the
+two reports first made.
+
+The residue of the documents will be communicated as soon as they are
+prepared.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 2, 1818_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of 25th of last month,
+requesting to be furnished with such information as may be possessed by
+the Executive touching the execution of so much of the first article of
+the late treaty of peace and amity between His Britannic Majesty and the
+United States as relates to the restitution of slaves, and which has not
+heretofore been communicated, I lay before the Senate a report made by
+the Secretary of State on the 1st instant in relation to that subject.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 2, 1818.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives copies of such documents
+referred to in the message of the 17th ultimo as have been prepared
+since that period. They present a full view of the operations of our
+troops employed in the Seminole war who entered Florida.
+
+The residue of the documents, which are very voluminous, will be
+transmitted as soon as they can be prepared.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 12, 1818.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+10th instant, I transmit a report of the Secretary of War, with copies
+of the correspondence between the governor of Georgia and Major-General
+Andrew Jackson on the subject of the arrest of Captain Obed Wright.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 29, 1818.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate, for their consideration, a convention, signed
+at London on the 20th of October last, between the United States and
+Great Britain, together with the documents showing the course and
+progress of the negotiation. I have to request that these documents,
+which are original, may be returned when the Senate shall have acted on
+the convention.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 31, 1818.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives
+of the 24th instant, requesting me to lay before it "copies of the
+correspondence, if any, between the Department of War and the governor
+of Georgia, in answer to the letter of the latter to the former dated
+on the 1st of June of the present year, communicated to the House on
+the 12th instant; and also the correspondence, if any, between the
+Department of War and General Andrew Jackson, in answer to the letter of
+the latter of the date 7th May, 1818, also communicated to the House on
+the 12th instant," I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with a
+copy of an extract of a letter from Major Van De Venter, chief clerk in
+the Department of War, in reply to General Jackson's letter of the 7th
+of May, 1818.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 31, 1818.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+7th instant, requesting me to lay before it "the proceedings which have
+been had under the act entitled 'An act for the gradual increase of the
+Navy of the United States,' specifying the number of ships which have
+been put on the stocks, and of what class, and the quantity and kind of
+materials which have been procured in compliance with the provisions of
+said act; and also the sums of money which have been paid out of the
+fund created by the said act, and for what objects; and likewise the
+contracts which have been entered into in execution of said act on which
+moneys may not yet have been advanced," I transmit a report from the
+Acting Secretary of the Navy, together with a communication from the
+Board of Navy Commissioners, which, with the documents accompanying it,
+comprehends all the information required by the House of
+Representatives.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 4, 1819_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress a proclamation, dated the 22d of last
+month, of the convention made and concluded at Madrid between the
+plenipotentiaries of the United States and His Catholic Majesty on the
+11th of August, 1802, the ratifications of which were not exchanged
+until the 21st ultimo, together with the translation of a letter from
+the minister of Spain to the Secretary of State.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 4, 1819.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate, in pursuance of their resolution of the
+30th of last month, requesting to be furnished with the instructions,
+including that of the 28th of July, 1818, to the plenipotentiaries of
+the United States who negotiated the convention with His Britannic
+Majesty signed on the 20th day of October in the same year, copies
+of all these instructions, including that particularly referred to.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 11, 1819.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 5th instant,
+requesting me "to cause to be laid before it a statement of the
+effective force composing the military establishment of the United
+States; also a statement of the different posts and garrisons at and
+within which troops are stationed, and the actual number of officers,
+noncommissioned officers, and privates at each post and garrison,
+respectively; also to designate in such statement the number of
+artillerists and the number and caliber of ordnance at each of the said
+posts and garrisons," I transmit a report from the Secretary of War,
+which, with the documents accompanying it, contains all the information
+required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 29, 1819.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives, in compliance with their
+resolution of the 4th of this month, a report from the Secretary of
+State concerning the applications which have been made by any of
+the independent Governments of South America to have a minister or
+consul-general accredited by the Government of the United States, with
+the answers of this Government to the applications addressed to it.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 30, 1819.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 18th instant, requesting me to cause any information not already
+communicated to be laid before the House whether Amelia Island, St.
+Marks, and Pensacola yet remain in the possession of the United States,
+and, if so, by what laws the inhabitants are governed; whether articles
+imported therein from foreign countries are subject to any, and what,
+duties, and by what laws, and whether the said duties are collected and
+how; whether vessels arriving in the United States from Pensacola and
+Amelia Island, and in Pensacola and Amelia Island from the United
+States, respectively, are considered and treated as vessels arriving
+from foreign countries, I transmit a report from the Secretary of the
+Treasury, and likewise one from the Secretary of War, which will afford
+all the information requested by the House of Representatives.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 2, 1819.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I nominate John Overton, Newton Cannon, and Robert Weakly, of Tennessee,
+as commissioners to negotiate with the Chickasaw tribe of Indians for
+the cession of a tract of land 4 miles square, including a salt spring,
+reserved to the said tribe by the fourth article of a treaty concluded
+with the said Indians on the 19th day of October, 1818.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 2, 1819.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 13th of last month,
+requesting me "to cause to be laid before it a statement showing the
+measures that have been taken to collect the balances stated to be due
+from the several supervisors and collectors of the old direct tax of two
+millions; also a similar statement of the balances due from the officers
+of the old internal revenue, and to designate in such statement the
+persons who have been interested in the collection of the said debts and
+the sums by them respectively collected, and the time when the same were
+collected," I transmit a report of the Secretary of the Treasury, which,
+with the documents accompanying it, contains all the information
+required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 3, 1819_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to Congress copies of applications received from the
+minister of Great Britain in behalf of certain British subjects who have
+suffered in their property by proceedings to which the United States by
+their military and judicial officers have been parties. These injuries
+have been sustained under circumstances which appear to recommend
+strongly to the attention of Congress the claim to indemnity for the
+losses occasioned by them, which the legislative authority is alone
+competent to provide.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 5, 1819.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 25th of last month,
+requesting me "to cause to be laid before it a copy of the rules and
+regulations adopted for the government of the Military Academy at West
+Point; also how many cadets have been admitted into the Academy, the
+time of the residence of each cadet at that institution, and how many
+of them have been appointed officers in the Army and Navy of the United
+States," I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which, with the
+accompanying documents, will afford all the information required by the
+said resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 6, 1819_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress a copy of a letter from Governor Bibb to
+Major-General Jackson, connected with the late military operations
+in Florida. This letter has been mislaid, or it would have been
+communicated with the other documents at the commencement of the
+session.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 6, 1819.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress, for their consideration, applications which have
+been received from the minister resident of Prussia and from the senates
+of the free and Hanseatic cities of Hamburg and Bremen, the object of
+which is that the advantages secured by the act of Congress of 20th of
+April last to the vessels and merchandise of the Netherlands should
+be extended to those of Prussia, Hamburg, and Bremen. It will appear
+from these documents that the vessels of the United States and the
+merchandise laden in them are in the ports of those Governments,
+respectively, entitled to the same advantages in respect to imposts and
+duties as those of the native subjects of the countries themselves.
+
+The principle of reciprocity appears to entitle them to the return of
+the same favor on the part of the United States, and I recommend it to
+Congress that provision to that effect may be made.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 22, 1819.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate a treaty of amity, settlement, and limits
+between the United States of America and His Catholic Majesty,
+concluded and signed this day, for the decision of the Senate as to
+its ratification. Copies of the correspondence between the Secretary
+of State and the minister from Spain connected with this subject since
+the renewal of the negotiation are likewise inclosed.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 26, 1819_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The treaty of amity, settlement, and limits between the United States
+and His Catholic Majesty having been on the part of the United States
+ratified, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, copies of
+it are now transmitted to Congress. As the ratification on the part
+of Spain may be expected to take place during the recess of Congress,
+I recommend to their consideration the adoption of such legislative
+measures contingent upon the event of the exchange of the ratifications
+as may be necessary or expedient for carrying the treaty into effect
+in the interval between the sessions, and until Congress at their next
+session may see fit to make further provision on the subject.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MARCH 2, 1819.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+A convention having been concluded between John C. Calhoun, Secretary of
+War, especially authorized therefor by me, and the chiefs and headmen of
+the Cherokee Nation of Indians, likewise duly authorized and empowered
+by said nation, I now lay the original instrument before the Senate for
+the exercise of its constitutional power respecting the ratification
+thereof.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1819_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+The public buildings being advanced to a stage to afford accommodation
+for Congress, I offer you my sincere congratulations on the
+recommencement of your duties in the Capitol.
+
+In bringing to view the incidents most deserving attention which have
+occurred since your last session, I regret to have to state that several
+of our principal cities have suffered by sickness, that an unusual
+drought has prevailed in the Middle and Western States, and that a
+derangement has been felt in some of our moneyed institutions which has
+proportionably affected their credit. I am happy, however, to have it in
+my power to assure you that the health of our cities is now completely
+restored; that the produce of the year, though less abundant than usual,
+will not only be amply sufficient for home consumption, but afford a
+large surplus for the supply of the wants of other nations, and that the
+derangement in the circulating paper medium, by being left to those
+remedies which its obvious causes suggested and the good sense and
+virtue of our fellow-citizens supplied, has diminished.
+
+Having informed Congress, on the 27th of February last, that a treaty of
+amity, settlement, and limits had been concluded in this city between
+the United States and Spain, and ratified by the competent authorities
+of the former, full confidence was entertained that it would have been
+ratified by His Catholic Majesty with equal promptitude and a like
+earnest desire to terminate on the conditions of that treaty the
+differences which had so long existed between the two countries. Every
+view which the subject admitted of was thought to have justified this
+conclusion. Great losses had been sustained by citizens of the United
+States from Spanish cruisers more than twenty years before, which had
+not been redressed. These losses had been acknowledged and provided for
+by a treaty as far back as the year 1802, which, although concluded at
+Madrid, was not then ratified by the Government of Spain, nor since,
+until the last year, when it was suspended by the late treaty, a more
+satisfactory provision to both parties, as was presumed, having been
+made for them. Other differences had arisen in this long interval,
+affecting their highest interests, which were likewise provided for by
+this last treaty. The treaty itself was formed on great consideration
+and a thorough knowledge of all circumstances, the subject-matter of
+every article having been for years under discussion and repeated
+references having been made by the minister of Spain to his Government
+on the points respecting which the greatest difference of opinion
+prevailed. It was formed by a minister duly authorized for the purpose,
+who had represented his Government in the United States and been
+employed in this long-protracted negotiation several years, and who, it
+is not denied, kept strictly within the letter of his instructions. The
+faith of Spain was therefore pledged, under circumstances of peculiar
+force and solemnity, for its ratification. On the part of the United
+States this treaty was evidently acceded to in a spirit of conciliation
+and concession. The indemnity for injuries and losses so long before
+sustained, and now again acknowledged and provided for, was to be
+paid by them without becoming a charge on the treasury of Spain. For
+territory ceded by Spain other territory of great value, to which our
+claim was believed to be well founded, was ceded by the United States,
+and in a quarter more interesting to her. This cession was nevertheless
+received as the means of indemnifying our citizens in a considerable
+sum, the presumed amount of their losses. Other considerations of great
+weight urged the cession of this territory by Spain. It was surrounded
+by the Territories of the United States on every side except on that of
+the ocean. Spain had lost her authority over it, and, falling into the
+hands of adventurers connected with the savages, it was made the means
+of unceasing annoyance and injury to our Union in many of its most
+essential interests. By this cession, then, Spain ceded a territory
+in reality of no value to her and obtained concessions of the highest
+importance by the settlement of long-standing differences with the
+United States affecting their respective claims and limits, and likewise
+relieved herself from the obligation of a treaty relating to it which
+she had failed to fulfill, and also from the responsibility incident to
+the most flagrant and pernicious abuses of her rights where she could
+not support her authority.
+
+It being known that the treaty was formed under these circumstances, not
+a doubt was entertained that His Catholic Majesty would have ratified
+it without delay. I regret to have to state that this reasonable
+expectation has been disappointed; that the treaty was not ratified
+within the time stipulated and has not since been ratified. As it is
+important that the nature and character of this unexpected occurrence
+should be distinctly understood, I think it my duty to communicate to
+you all the facts and circumstances in my possession relating to it.
+
+Anxious to prevent all future disagreement with Spain by giving the
+most prompt effect to the treaty which had been thus concluded, and
+particularly by the establishment of a government in Florida which
+should preserve order there, the minister of the United States who
+had been recently appointed to His Catholic Majesty, and to whom the
+ratification by his Government had been committed to be exchanged for
+that of Spain, was instructed to transmit the latter to the Department
+of State as soon as obtained, by a public ship subjected to his order
+for the purpose. Unexpected delay occurring in the ratification by
+Spain, he requested to be informed of the cause. It was stated in
+reply that the great importance of the subject, and a desire to obtain
+explanations on certain points which were not specified, had produced
+the delay, and that an envoy would be dispatched to the United States to
+obtain such explanations of this Government. The minister of the United
+States offered to give full explanation on any point on which it might
+be desired, which proposal was declined. Having communicated this
+result to the Department of State in August last, he was instructed,
+notwithstanding the disappointment and surprise which it produced, to
+inform the Government of Spain that if the treaty should be ratified and
+transmitted here at any time before the meeting of Congress it would
+be received and have the same effect as if it had been ratified in due
+time. This order was executed, the authorized communication was made
+to the Government of Spain, and by its answer, which has just been
+received, we are officially made acquainted for the first time with
+the causes which have prevented the ratification of the treaty by His
+Catholic Majesty. It is alleged by the minister of Spain that this
+Government had attempted to alter one of the principal articles of the
+treaty by a declaration which the minister of the United States had
+been ordered to present when he should deliver the ratification by his
+Government in exchange for that of Spain, and of which he gave notice,
+explanatory of the sense in which that article was understood. It is
+further alleged that this Government had recently tolerated or protected
+an expedition from the United States against the Province of Texas,
+These two imputed acts are stated as the reasons which have induced His
+Catholic Majesty to withhold his ratification from the treaty, to obtain
+explanations respecting which it is repeated that an envoy would be
+forthwith dispatched to the United States. How far these allegations
+will justify the conduct of the Government of Spain will appear on
+a view of the following facts and the evidence which supports them:
+
+It will be seen by the documents transmitted herewith that the
+declaration mentioned relates to a clause in the eighth article
+concerning certain grants of land recently made by His Catholic Majesty
+in Florida, which it was understood had conveyed all the lands which
+till then had been ungranted; it was the intention of the parties to
+annul these latter grants, and that clause was drawn for that express
+purpose and for none other. The date of these grants was unknown, but it
+was understood to be posterior to that inserted in the article; indeed,
+it must be obvious to all that if that provision in the treaty had not
+the effect of annulling these grants, it would be altogether nugatory.
+Immediately after the treaty was concluded and ratified by this
+Government an intimation was received that these grants were of anterior
+date to that fixed on by the treaty and that they would not, of course,
+be affected by it. The mere possibility of such a case, so inconsistent
+with the intention of the parties and the meaning of the article,
+induced this Government to demand an explanation on the subject, which
+was immediately granted, and which corresponds with this statement. With
+respect to the other act alleged, that this Government had tolerated or
+protected an expedition against Texas, it is utterly without foundation.
+Every discountenance has invariably been given to any such attempt from
+within the limits of the United States, as is fully evinced by the acts
+of the Government and the proceedings of the courts. There being cause,
+however, to apprehend, in the course of the last summer, that some
+adventurers entertained views of the kind suggested, the attention of
+the constituted authorities in that quarter was immediately drawn to
+them, and it is known that the project, whatever it might be, has
+utterly failed.
+
+These facts will, it is presumed, satisfy every impartial mind that the
+Government of Spain had no justifiable cause for declining to ratify
+the treaty. A treaty concluded in conformity with instructions is
+obligatory, in good faith, in all its stipulations, according to the
+true intent and meaning of the parties. Each party is bound to ratify
+it. If either could set it aside without the consent of the other, there
+would be no longer any rules applicable to such transactions between
+nations. By this proceeding the Government of Spain has rendered to the
+United States a new and very serious injury. It has been stated that a
+minister would be sent to ask certain explanations of this Government;
+but if such were desired, why were they not asked within the time
+limited for the ratification? Is it contemplated to open a new
+negotiation respecting any of the articles or conditions of the treaty?
+If that were done, to what consequences might it not lead? At what time
+and in what manner would a new negotiation terminate? By this proceeding
+Spain has formed a relation between the two countries which will justify
+any measures on the part of the United States which a strong sense of
+injury and a proper regard for the rights and interests of the nation
+may dictate.
+
+In the course to be pursued these objects should be constantly held in
+view and have their due weight. Our national honor must be maintained,
+and a new and a distinguished proof be afforded of that regard for
+justice and moderation which has invariably governed the councils of
+this free people. It must be obvious to all that if the United States
+had been desirous of making conquests, or had been even willing to
+aggrandize themselves in that way, they could have had no inducement
+to form this treaty. They would have much cause for gratulation at the
+course which has been pursued by Spain. An ample field for ambition
+is open before them, but such a career is not consistent with the
+principles of their Government nor the interests of the nation.
+
+From a full view of all circumstances, it is submitted to the
+consideration of Congress whether it will not be proper for the United
+States to carry the conditions of the treaty into effect in the same
+manner as if it had been ratified by Spain, claiming on their part all
+its advantages and yielding to Spain those secured to her. By pursuing
+this course we shall rest on the sacred ground of right, sanctioned in
+the most solemn manner by Spain herself by a treaty which she was bound
+to ratify, for refusing to do which she must incur the censure of other
+nations, even those most friendly to her, while by confining ourselves
+within that limit we can not fail to obtain their well-merited
+approbation. We must have peace on a frontier where we have been so long
+disturbed; our citizens must be indemnified for losses so long since
+sustained, and for which indemnity has been so unjustly withheld from
+them. Accomplishing these great objects, we obtain all that is
+desirable.
+
+But His Catholic Majesty has twice declared his determination to send a
+minister to the United States to ask explanations on certain points and
+to give them respecting his delay to ratify the treaty. Shall we act by
+taking the ceded territory and proceeding to execute the other
+conditions of the treaty before this minister arrives and is heard? This
+is a case which forms a strong appeal to the candor, the magnanimity,
+and the honor of this people. Much is due to courtesy between nations.
+By a short delay we shall lose nothing, for, resting on the ground of
+immutable truth and justice, we can not be diverted from our purpose.
+It ought to be presumed that the explanations which may be given to the
+minister of Spain will be satisfactory, and produce the desired result.
+In any event, the delay for the purpose mentioned, being a further
+manifestation of the sincere desire to terminate in the most friendly
+manner all differences with Spain, can not fail to be duly appreciated
+by His Catholic Majesty as well as by other powers. It is submitted,
+therefore, whether it will not be proper to make the law proposed for
+carrying the conditions of the treaty into effect, should it be adopted,
+contingent; to suspend its operation, upon the responsibility of the
+Executive, in such manner as to afford an opportunity for such friendly
+explanations as may be desired during the present session of Congress.
+
+I communicate to Congress a copy of the treaty and of the instructions
+to the minister of the United States at Madrid respecting it; of his
+correspondence with the minister of Spain, and of such other documents
+as may be necessary to give a full view of the subject.
+
+In the course which the Spanish Government have on this occasion thought
+proper to pursue it is satisfactory to know that they have not been
+countenanced by any other European power. On the contrary, the opinion
+and wishes both of France and Great Britain have not been withheld
+either from the United States or from Spain, and have been unequivocal
+in favor of the ratification. There is also reason to believe that the
+sentiments of the Imperial Government of Russia have been the same, and
+that they have also been made known to the cabinet of Madrid.
+
+In the civil war existing between Spain and the Spanish Provinces in
+this hemisphere the greatest care has been taken to enforce the laws
+intended to preserve an impartial neutrality. Our ports have continued
+to be equally open to both parties and on the same conditions, and our
+citizens have been equally restrained from interfering in favor of
+either to the prejudice of the other. The progress of the war, however,
+has operated manifestly in favor of the colonies. Buenos Ayres still
+maintains unshaken the independence which it declared in 1816, and has
+enjoyed since 1810. Like success has also lately attended Chili and the
+Provinces north of the La Plata bordering on it, and likewise Venezuela.
+
+This contest has from its commencement been very interesting to other
+powers, and to none more so than to the United States. A virtuous people
+may and will confine themselves within the limit of a strict neutrality;
+but it is not in their power to behold a conflict so vitally important
+to their neighbors without the sensibility and sympathy which naturally
+belong to such a case. It has been the steady purpose of this Government
+to prevent that feeling leading to excess, and it is very gratifying
+to have it in my power to state that so strong has been the sense
+throughout the whole community of what was due to the character and
+obligations of the nation that very few examples of a contrary kind
+have occurred.
+
+The distance of the colonies from the parent country and the great
+extent of their population and resources gave them advantages which it
+was anticipated at a very early period would be difficult for Spain to
+surmount. The steadiness, consistency, and success with which they have
+pursued their object, as evinced more particularly by the undisturbed
+sovereignty which Buenos Ayres has so long enjoyed, evidently give them
+a strong claim to the favorable consideration of other nations. These
+sentiments on the part of the United States have not been withheld
+from other powers, with whom it is desirable to act in concert. Should
+it become manifest to the world that the efforts of Spain to subdue
+these Provinces will be fruitless, it may be presumed that the Spanish
+Government itself will give up the contest. In producing such a
+determination it can not be doubted that the opinion of friendly powers
+who have taken no part in the controversy will have their merited
+influence.
+
+It is of the highest importance to our national character and
+indispensable to the morality of our citizens that all violations of
+our neutrality should be prevented. No door should be left open for the
+evasion of our laws, no opportunity afforded to any who may be disposed
+to take advantage of it to compromit the interest or the honor of the
+nation. It is submitted, therefore, to the consideration of Congress
+whether it may not be advisable to revise the laws with a view to this
+desirable result.
+
+It is submitted also whether it may not be proper to designate by law
+the several ports or places along the coast at which only foreign ships
+of war and privateers may be admitted. The difficulty of sustaining the
+regulations of our commerce and of other important interests from abuse
+without such designation furnishes a strong motive for this measure.
+
+At the time of the negotiation for the renewal of the commercial
+convention between the United States and Great Britain a hope had been
+entertained that an article might have been agreed upon mutually
+satisfactory to both countries, regulating upon principles of justice
+and reciprocity the commercial intercourse between the United States and
+the British possessions as well in the West Indies as upon the continent
+of North America. The plenipotentiaries of the two Governments not
+having been able to come to an agreement on this important interest,
+those of the United States reserved for the consideration of this
+Government the proposals which had been presented to them as the
+ultimate offer on the part of the British Government, and which they
+were not authorized to accept. On their transmission here they were
+examined with due deliberation, the result of which was a new effort to
+meet the views of the British Government. The minister of the United
+States was instructed to make a further proposal, which has not been
+accepted. It was, however, declined in an amicable manner. I recommend
+to the consideration of Congress whether further prohibitory provisions
+in the laws relating to this intercourse may not be expedient. It is
+seen with interest that although it has not been practicable as yet
+to agree in any arrangement of this important branch of their commerce,
+such is the disposition of the parties that each will view any
+regulations which the other may make respecting it in the most friendly
+light.
+
+By the fifth article of the convention concluded on the 20th of October,
+1818, it was stipulated that the differences which have arisen between
+the two Governments with regard to the true intent and meaning of the
+fifth article of the treaty of Ghent, in relation to the carrying away
+by British officers of slaves from the United States after the exchange
+of the ratifications of the treaty of peace, should be referred to
+the decision of some friendly sovereign or state to be named for that
+purpose. The minister of the United States has been instructed to name
+to the British Government a foreign sovereign, the common friend to
+both parties, for the decision of this question. The answer of that
+Government to the proposal when received will indicate the further
+measures to be pursued on the part of the United States.
+
+Although the pecuniary embarrassments which affected various parts of
+the Union during the latter part of the preceding year have during the
+present been considerably augmented, and still continue to exist, the
+receipts into the Treasury to the 30th of September last have amounted
+to $19,000,000. After defraying the current expenses of the Government,
+including the interest and reimbursement of the public debt payable to
+that period, amounting to $18,200,000, there remained in the Treasury on
+that day more than $2,500,000, which, with the sums receivable during
+the remainder of the year, will exceed the current demands upon the
+Treasury for the same period.
+
+The causes which have tended to diminish the public receipts could not
+fail to have a corresponding effect upon the revenue which has accrued
+upon imposts and tonnage during the three first quarters of the present
+year. It is, however, ascertained that the duties which have been secured
+during that period exceed $18,000,000, and those of the whole year will
+probably amount to $23,000,000.
+
+For the probable receipts of the next year I refer you to the statements
+which will be transmitted from the Treasury, which will enable you to
+judge whether further provision be necessary.
+
+The great reduction in the price of the principal articles of domestic
+growth which has occurred during the present year, and the consequent
+fall in the price of labor, apparently so favorable to the success of
+domestic manufactures, have not shielded them against other causes
+adverse to their prosperity. The pecuniary embarrassments which have so
+deeply affected the commercial interests of the nation have been no less
+adverse to our manufacturing establishments in several sections of the
+Union.
+
+The great reduction of the currency which the banks have been
+constrained to make in order to continue specie payments, and the
+vitiated character of it where such reductions have not been attempted,
+instead of placing within the reach of these establishments the
+pecuniary aid necessary to avail themselves of the advantages resulting
+from the reduction in the prices of the raw materials and of labor, have
+compelled the banks to withdraw from them a portion of the capital
+heretofore advanced to them. That aid which has been refused by the
+banks has not been obtained from other sources, owing to the loss of
+individual confidence from the frequent failures which have recently
+occurred in some of our principal commercial cities.
+
+An additional cause for the depression of these establishments may
+probably be found in the pecuniary embarrassments which have recently
+affected those countries with which our commerce has been principally
+prosecuted. Their manufactures, for the want of a ready or profitable
+market at home, have been shipped by the manufacturers to the United
+States, and in many instances sold at a price below their current value
+at the place of manufacture. Although this practice may from its nature
+be considered temporary or contingent, it is not on that account less
+injurious in its effects. Uniformity in the demand and price of an
+article is highly desirable to the domestic manufacturer.
+
+It is deemed of great importance to give encouragement to our domestic
+manufacturers. In what manner the evils which have been adverted to may
+be remedied, and how far it may be practicable in other respects to
+afford to them further encouragement, paying due regard to the other
+great interests of the nation, is submitted to the wisdom of Congress.
+
+The survey of the coast for the establishment of fortifications is
+now nearly completed, and considerable progress has been made in the
+collection of materials for the construction of fortifications in the
+Gulf of Mexico and in the Chesapeake Bay. The works on the eastern bank
+of the Potomac below Alexandria and on the Pea Patch, in the Delaware,
+are much advanced, and it is expected that the fortifications at the
+Narrows, in the harbor of New York, will be completed the present year.
+To derive all the advantages contemplated from these fortifications it
+was necessary that they should be judiciously posted, and constructed
+with a view to permanence, The progress hitherto has therefore been
+slow; but as the difficulties in parts heretofore the least explored
+and known are surmounted, it will in future be more rapid. As soon as
+the survey of the coast is completed, which it is expected will be done
+early in the next spring, the engineers employed in it will proceed to
+examine for like purposes the northern and northwestern frontiers.
+
+The troops intended to occupy a station at the mouth of the St. Peters,
+on the Mississippi, have established themselves there, and those who
+were ordered to the mouth of the Yellow Stone, on the Missouri, have
+ascended that river to the Council Bluff, where they will remain
+until the next spring, when they will proceed to the place of their
+destination. I have the satisfaction to state that this measure has
+been executed in amity with the Indian tribes, and that it promises to
+produce, in regard to them, all the advantages which were contemplated
+by it.
+
+Much progress has likewise been made in the construction of ships of war
+and in the collection of timber and other materials for shipbuilding. It
+is not doubted that our Navy will soon be augmented to the number and
+placed in all respects on the footing provided for by law.
+
+The Board, consisting of engineers and naval officers, have not yet
+made their final report of sites for two naval depots, as instructed
+according to the resolutions of March 18 and April 20, 1818, but they
+have examined the coast therein designated, and their report is expected
+in the next month.
+
+For the protection of our commerce in the Mediterranean, along the
+southern Atlantic coast, in the Pacific and Indian oceans, it has been
+found necessary to maintain a strong naval force, which it seems proper
+for the present to continue. There is much reason to believe that if any
+portion of the squadron heretofore stationed in the Mediterranean should
+be withdrawn our intercourse with the powers bordering on that sea would
+be much interrupted, if not altogether destroyed. Such, too, has been
+the growth of a spirit of piracy in the other quarters mentioned, by
+adventurers from every country, in abuse of the friendly flags which
+they have assumed, that not to protect our commerce there would be to
+abandon it as a prey to their rapacity. Due attention has likewise been
+paid to the suppression of the slave trade, in compliance with a law of
+the last session. Orders have been given to the commanders of all our
+public ships to seize all vessels navigated under our flag engaged in
+that trade, and to bring them in to be proceeded against in the manner
+prescribed by that law. It is hoped that these vigorous measures,
+supported by like acts by other nations, will soon terminate a commerce
+so disgraceful to the civilized world.
+
+In the execution of the duty imposed by these acts, and of a high trust
+connected with it, it is with deep regret I have to state the loss which
+has been sustained by the death of Commodore Perry. His gallantry in a
+brilliant exploit in the late war added to the renown of his country.
+His death is deplored as a national misfortune.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1819_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit herewith to the Senate a collection of the commercial
+regulations of the different foreign countries with which the United
+States have commercial intercourse, which has been compiled in
+compliance with the resolution of the Senate of 3d March, 1817.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 14, 1819_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In conformity with the resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 24th of February last, I now transmit a report of the Secretary of
+State, with extracts and copies of several letters, touching the causes
+of the imprisonment of William White, an American citizen, at Buenos
+Ayres.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 17, 1819_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Some doubt being entertained respecting the true intent and meaning
+of the act of the last session entitled "An act in addition to the
+acts prohibiting the slave trade," as to the duties of the agents to
+be appointed on the coast of Africa, I think it proper to state the
+interpretation which has been given of the act and the measures adopted
+to carry it into effect, that Congress may, should it be deemed
+advisable, amend the same before further proceeding is had under it.
+
+The obligation to instruct the commanders of all our armed vessels to
+seize and bring into port all ships or vessels of the United States,
+wheresoever found, having on board any negro, mulatto, or person of
+color in violation of former acts for the suppression of the slave
+trade, being imperative, was executed without delay. No seizures have
+yet been made, but as they were contemplated by the law, and might be
+presumed, it seemed proper to make the necessary regulations applicable
+to such seizures for carrying the several provisions of the act into
+effect.
+
+It is enjoined on the Executive to cause all negroes, mulattoes, or
+persons of color who may be taken under the act to be removed to Africa.
+It is the obvious import of the law that none of the persons thus taken
+should remain within the United States, and no place other than the
+coast of Africa being designated, their removal or delivery, whether
+carried from the United States or landed immediately from the vessels
+in which they were taken, was supposed to be confined to that coast. No
+settlement or station being specified, the whole coast was thought to be
+left open for the selection of a proper place at which the persons thus
+taken should be delivered. The Executive is authorized to appoint one
+or more agents residing there to receive such persons, and $100,000 are
+appropriated for the general purposes of the law.
+
+On due consideration of the several sections of the act, and of its
+humane policy, it was supposed to be the intention of Congress that
+all the persons above described who might be taken under it and landed
+in Africa should be aided in their return to their former homes, or in
+their establishment at or near the place where landed. Some shelter and
+food would be necessary for them there as soon as landed, let their
+subsequent disposition be what it might. Should they be landed without
+such provision having been previously made, they might perish.
+
+It was supposed, by the authority given to the Executive to appoint
+agents residing on that coast, that they should provide such shelter
+and food, and perform the other beneficent and charitable offices
+contemplated by the act. The coast of Africa having been little
+explored, and no persons residing there who possessed the requisite
+qualifications to entitle them to the trust being known to the
+Executive, to none such could it be committed. It was believed that
+citizens only who would go hence well instructed in the views of their
+Government and zealous to give them effect would be competent to these
+duties, and that it was not the intention of the law to preclude their
+appointment. It was obvious that the longer these persons should be
+detained in the United States in the hands of the marshals the greater
+would be the expense, and that for the same term would the main purpose
+of the law be suspended. It seemed, therefore, to be incumbent on me
+to make the necessary arrangements for carrying this act into effect
+in Africa in time to meet the delivery of any persons who might be
+taken by the public vessels and landed there under it.
+
+On this view of the policy and sanctions of the law it has been decided
+to send a public ship to the coast of Africa with two such agents,
+who will take with them tools and other implements necessary for the
+purposes above mentioned. To each of these agents a small salary has
+been allowed--$1,500 to the principal and $1,200 to the other.
+
+All our public agents on the coast of Africa receive salaries for their
+services, and it was understood that none of our citizens possessing the
+requisite qualifications would accept these trusts, by which they would
+be confined to parts the least frequented and civilized, without
+a reasonable compensation, Such allowance therefore seemed to be
+indispensable to the execution of the act. It is intended also to
+subject a portion of the sum appropriated to the order of the principal
+agent for the special objects above stated, amounting in the whole,
+including the salaries of the agents for one year, to rather less than
+one third of the appropriation. Special instructions will be given to
+these agents, defining in precise terms their duties in regard to the
+persons thus delivered to them, the disbursement of the money by the
+principal agent, and his accountability for the same. They will also
+have power to select the most suitable place on the coast of Africa at
+which all persons who may be taken under this act shall be delivered to
+them, with an express injunction to exercise no power founded on the
+principle of colonization or other power than that of performing the
+benevolent offices above recited by the permission and sanction of the
+existing government under which they may establish themselves. Orders
+will be given to the commander of the public ship in which they will
+sail to cruise along the coast to give the more complete effect to the
+principal object of the act.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 17, 1819_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of Congress of the 27th March, 1818,
+the journal, acts, and proceedings of the convention which formed the
+present Constitution of the United States have been published. The
+resolution directs that 1,000 copies should be printed, of which one
+copy should be furnished to each member of the Fifteenth Congress, and
+the residue to be subject to the future disposition of Congress. The
+number of copies sufficient to supply the members of the late Congress
+having been reserved for that purpose, the remainder are now deposited
+at the Department of State subject to the order of Congress. The
+documents mentioned in the resolution of the 27th March, 1818, are
+in the process of publication.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 24, 1819_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+On the 23d of February. 1803, a message from the President of the United
+States was transmitted to both Houses of Congress, together with the
+report of the then Secretary of State, Mr. Madison, upon the case of
+the Danish brigantine _Henrick_ and her cargo, belonging to citizens
+of Hamburg, recommending the claim to the favorable consideration of
+Congress. In February, 1805, it was again presented by a message from
+the President to the consideration of Congress, but has not since been
+definitively acted upon.
+
+The minister resident from Denmark and the consul-general from Hamburg
+having recently renewed applications in behalf of the respective
+owners of the vessel and cargo, I transmit herewith copies of their
+communications for the further consideration of the Legislature, upon
+whose files all the documents relating to the claim are still existing.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 31, 1819.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate, for its advice and consent as to the
+ratification, three treaties which have been concluded in the course of
+the present year with the Kickapoos, the Chippaways, and the Kickapoos
+of the Vermillion by commissioners who were duly authorized for the
+purpose.
+
+With the Chippaways there is a supplementary article stipulating certain
+advantages in their favor on condition that the same shall be ratified
+by the Executive, with the advice and consent of the Senate, which I
+likewise submit to your consideration.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 8, 1820_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+14th December, 1819, requesting me to cause to be laid before it any
+information I may possess respecting certain executions which have been
+inflicted in the Army of the United States since the year 1815 contrary
+to the laws and regulations provided for the government of the same,
+I transmit a report from the Secretary of War containing a detailed
+account in relation to the object of the said resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 8, 1820_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 20th of January,
+1819, requesting me "to cause a report to be laid before them at their
+next session of such facts as may be within the means of the Government
+to obtain shewing how far it may be expedient or not to provide by
+law for clothing the Army with articles manufactured in the United
+States," I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which, with
+the accompanying documents, comprehends all the information required
+by the Senate in their resolution aforesaid.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 19, 1820_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives
+requesting me "to lay before it at as early a day as may be convenient
+an account of the expenditure of the several sums appropriated for
+building fortifications from the year 1816 to the year 1819, inclusive,
+indicating the places at which works of defense have been begun, the
+magnitude of the works contemplated at each place, their present
+condition, the amount already expended, and the estimated amount
+requisite for the completion of each, also the mode by which the
+fortifications are built, by contract or otherwise," I now transmit
+to the House a report from the Secretary of War, to whom the said
+resolution was referred, which, with the documents accompanying it,
+contains all the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 8, 1820_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In conformity with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+24th January, 1820, requesting me "to inform the House what loans, if
+any, have been made since the peace, to private citizens, of powder,
+lead, and other munitions belonging to the Government by officers of any
+department of the Army or Navy, specifying the times, terms, objects,
+and extent of such loans, the names of the persons by whom and to
+whom made, the different times of repayment, and also the amount of
+the ultimate loss, if any, likely to be incurred by the Government in
+consequence thereof," I now transmit a report from the Secretary of War,
+which, with the accompanying documents, contains all the information
+that can be furnished on the subject.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 1, 1820_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+4th of February last, requesting to be informed what progress has been
+made in surveying certain parts of the coast of North Carolina and in
+ascertaining the latitude and longitude of the extreme points of Cape
+Hatteras, Cape Look Out, and Cape Fear, according to a resolution of the
+19th of January, 1819, I have to state that it is intended to carry the
+resolution of the 19th of March into effect in the present year. The
+cooperation of the Board of Engineers with Naval Commissioners being
+necessary in executing that duty, and the Board having been engaged
+last year in surveying the eastern coast of our Union, it would have
+interfered with previous arrangements and been attended with increased
+expense had they been withdrawn from it. The Board will, however, be
+employed during the present summer in the regular execution of its
+duties in the survey of the coast of North Carolina, when instructions
+will be given it to afford the necessary aid to carry the resolution of
+the 19th of January of the last year into effect.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 4, 1820_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate, in pursuance of their resolution of the 4th of
+January last, a report from the Secretary of State, with a list of fines
+incurred under the act of Congress entitled "An act in addition to the
+act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States,"
+which appear from the records of the Department of State to have been
+remitted by the Executive authority of the United States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 8, 1820_.
+
+The PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE OF THE SENATE:
+
+I transmit to the Senate copies of sundry papers having relation to the
+treaty of 22d February, 1819, between the United States and Spain, which
+have been received at the Department of State, and have not before been
+communicated to the Senate.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 8, 1820_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress a report from the Secretary of the Treasury,
+which, with the accompanying documents, will shew that the act of the
+20th May, 1812, respecting the northern and western boundaries of the
+State of Ohio, has been executed.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 17, 1820_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+It being stipulated by the fourth article of the articles of agreement
+and cession entered into on the 24th of April, 1802, with the State of
+Georgia that the United States should at their own expense extinguish
+for the use of that State, as soon as it might be done on reasonable
+terms, the Indian title to all the lands within its limits, and the
+legislature of Georgia being desirous to make a further acquisition of
+said lands at this time, presuming that it may be done on reasonable
+terms; and it being also represented that property of considerable value
+which had been taken by the Creek and Cherokee Indians from citizens of
+Georgia, the restoration of which had been provided for by different
+treaties, but which has never been made, it is proposed to hold a treaty
+with those nations, and more particularly with the Creeks, in the course
+of this summer. For the attainment of these objects I submit the subject
+to the consideration of Congress, that a sum adequate to the expenses
+attending such treaty may be appropriated should Congress deem it
+expedient.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 20, 1820_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 16th of February,
+1820, requesting me to cause to be laid before it "abstracts of the
+bonds or other securities given under the laws of the United States by
+the collectors of the customs, receivers of public moneys for lands, and
+registers of public lands, paymasters in the Army, and pursers in the
+Navy, who are now in office, or who have heretofore been in office, and
+whose accounts remain unsettled, together with a statement of such other
+facts as may tend to shew the expediency or inexpediency of so far
+altering the laws respecting such officers that they may hereafter
+be appointed for limited periods, subject to removal as heretofore,"
+I transmit to the Senate a report from the Secretary of the Treasury,
+which, with the documents accompanying it, will afford all the
+information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 27, 1820_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress an extract of a letter from the minister
+plenipotentiary of the United States at St. Petersburg, of the 1st of
+November last, on the subject of our relations with Spain, indicating
+the sentiments of the Emperor of Russia respecting the nonratification
+by His Catholic Majesty of the treaty lately concluded between the
+United States and Spain, and the strong interest which His Imperial
+Majesty takes in promoting the ratification of that treaty. Of this
+friendly disposition the most satisfactory assurance has been since
+given directly to this Government by the minister of Russia residing
+here.
+
+I transmit also to Congress an extract of a letter from the minister
+plenipotentiary of the United States at Madrid of a later date than
+those heretofore communicated, by which it appears that, at the instance
+of the charge d'affaires of the Emperor of Russia, a new pledge had been
+given by the Spanish Government that the minister who had been lately
+appointed to the United States should set out on his mission without
+delay, with full power to settle all differences in a manner
+satisfactory to the parties.
+
+I have further to state that the Governments of France and Great Britain
+continue to manifest the sentiments heretofore communicated respecting
+the nonratification of the treaty by Spain, and to interpose their good
+offices to promote its ratification.
+
+It is proper to add that the Governments of France and Russia have
+expressed an earnest desire that the United States would take no steps
+for the present on the principle of reprisal which might possibly tend
+to disturb the peace between the United States and Spain. There is good
+cause to presume from the delicate manner in which this sentiment has
+been conveyed that it is founded in a belief as well as a desire that
+our just objects may be accomplished without the hazard of such an
+extremity.
+
+On full consideration of all these circumstances, I have thought it my
+duty to submit to Congress whether it will not be advisable to postpone
+a decision on the questions now depending with Spain until the next
+session. The distress of that nation at this juncture affords a motive
+for this forbearance which can not fail to be duly appreciated. Under
+such circumstances the attention of the Spanish Government may be
+diverted from its foreign concerns, and the arrival of a minister here
+be longer delayed. I am the more induced to suggest this course of
+proceeding from a knowledge that, while we shall thereby make a just
+return to the powers whose good offices have been acknowledged, and
+increase by a new and signal proof of moderation our claims on Spain,
+our attitude in regard to her will not be less favorable at the next
+session than it is at the present.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 9, 1820_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to Congress a correspondence which has taken place
+between the Secretary of State and the envoy extraordinary and
+minister plenipotentiary of His Catholic Majesty since the message
+of the 27th March last, respecting the treaty which was concluded
+between the United States and Spain on the 22d February, 1819.
+
+After the failure of His Catholic Majesty for so long a time to ratify
+the treaty, it was expected that this minister would have brought with
+him the ratification, or that he would have been authorized to give
+an order for the delivery of the territory ceded by it to the United
+States. It appears, however, that the treaty is still unratified and
+that the minister has no authority to surrender the territory. The
+object of his mission has been to make complaints and to demand
+explanations respecting an imputed system of hostility on the part of
+citizens of the United States against the subjects and dominions of
+Spain, and an unfriendly policy in their Government, and to obtain new
+stipulations against these alleged injuries as the condition on which
+the treaty should be ratified.
+
+Unexpected as such complaints and such a demand were under existing
+circumstances, it was thought proper, without compromising the
+Government as to the course to be pursued, to meet them promptly and to
+give the explanations that were desired on every subject with the utmost
+candor. The result has proved what was sufficiently well known before,
+that the charge of a systematic hostility being adopted and pursued by
+citizens of the United States against the dominions and subjects of
+Spain is utterly destitute of foundation, and that their Government in
+all its branches has maintained with the utmost rigor that neutrality in
+the civil war between Spain and the colonies which they were the first
+to declare. No force has been collected nor incursions made from within
+the United States against the dominions of Spain, nor have any naval
+equipments been permitted in favor of either party against the other.
+Their citizens have been warned of the obligations incident to the
+neutral condition of their country; their public officers have been
+instructed to see that the laws were faithfully executed, and severe
+examples have been made of some who violated them.
+
+In regard to the stipulation proposed as the condition of the
+ratification of the treaty, that the United States shall abandon the
+right to recognize the revolutionary colonies in South America, or to
+form other relations with them when in their judgment it may be just and
+expedient so to do, it is manifestly so repugnant to the honor and even
+to the independence of the United States that it has been impossible
+to discuss it. In making this proposal it is perceived that His
+Catholic Majesty has entirely misconceived the principles on which
+this Government has acted in being a party to a negotiation so long
+protracted for claims so well founded and reasonable, as he likewise has
+the sacrifices which the United States have made, comparatively, with
+Spain in the treaty to which it is proposed to annex so extraordinary
+and improper a condition.
+
+Had the minister of Spain offered an unqualified pledge that the treaty
+should be ratified by his Sovereign on being made acquainted with the
+explanations which had been given by this Government, there would have
+been a strong motive for accepting and submitting it to the Senate for
+their advice and consent, rather than to resort to other measures for
+redress, however justifiable and proper; but he gives no such pledge;
+oil the contrary, he declares explicitly that the refusal of this
+Government to relinquish the right of judging and acting for itself
+hereafter, according to circumstances, in regard to the Spanish
+colonies, a right common to all nations, has rendered it impossible for
+him under his instructions to make such engagement. He thinks that his
+Sovereign will be induced by his communications to ratify the treaty,
+but still he leaves him free either to adopt that measure or to decline
+it. He admits that the other objections are essentially removed and will
+not in themselves prevent the ratification, provided the difficulty on
+the third point is surmounted. The result, therefore, is that the treaty
+is declared to have no obligation whatever; that its ratification is
+made to depend not on the considerations which led to its adoption and
+the conditions which it contains, but on a new article unconnected with
+it, respecting which a new negotiation must be opened, of indefinite
+duration and doubtful issue.
+
+Under this view of the subject the course to be pursued would appear to
+be direct and obvious if the affairs of Spain had remained in the state
+in which they were when this minister sailed. But it is known that an
+important change has since taken place in the Government of that country
+which can not fail to be sensibly felt in its intercourse with other
+nations. The minister of Spain has essentially declared his inability to
+act in consequence of that change. With him, however, under his present
+powers nothing could be done. The attitude of the United States must now
+be assumed on full consideration of what is due to their rights, their
+interest and honor, without regard to the powers or incidents of the
+late mission. We may at pleasure occupy the territory which was intended
+and provided by the late treaty as an indemnity for losses so long
+since sustained by our citizens; but still, nothing could be settled
+definitively without a treaty between the two nations. Is this the time
+to make the pressure? If the United States were governed by views of
+ambition and aggrandizement, many strong reasons might be given in its
+favor; but they have no objects of that kind to accomplish, none which
+are not founded in justice and which can be injured by forbearance.
+Great hope is entertained that this change will promote the happiness of
+the Spanish nation. The good order, moderation, and humanity which have
+characterized the movement are the best guaranties of its success.
+
+The United States would not be justified in their own estimation should
+they take any step to disturb its harmony. When the Spanish Government
+is completely organized on the principles of this change, as it is
+expected it soon will be, there is just ground to presume that our
+differences with Spain will be speedily and satisfactorily settled.
+
+With these remarks I submit it to the wisdom of Congress whether it will
+not still be advisable to postpone any decision on this subject until
+the next session.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 11, 1820_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit herewith to the Senate a report from the Secretary of State,
+together with the returns of causes depending in the courts of the
+United States, collected conformably to a resolution of the Senate of
+the 18th of January, 1819.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 12, 1820_.
+
+The SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary
+of State, with the document prepared in pursuance of a resolution of the
+House of the 14th ultimo, on the subject of claims of citizens of the
+United States for Spanish spoliations upon their property and commerce.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 3d of
+March, 1815, so much of the several acts imposing duties on the ships
+and vessels and on goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the
+United States as imposed a discriminating duty of tonnage between
+foreign vessels and vessels of the United States and between goods
+imported into the United States in foreign vessels and vessels of the
+United States were repealed so far as the same respected the produce
+or manufacture of the nation to which such foreign ship or vessel
+might belong, such repeal to take effect in favor of any foreign
+nation whenever the President of the United States should be satisfied
+that the discriminating or countervailing duties of such foreign nation
+so far as they operate to the disadvantage of the United States have
+been abolished; and
+
+Whereas satisfactory proof has been received by me from the
+burgo-masters and senate of the free and Hanseatic city of Lubeck that
+from and after the 30th day of October, 1819, all discriminating or
+countervailing duties of the said city so far as they operated to
+the disadvantage of the United States have been and are abolished:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States of
+America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several
+acts imposing duties on the tonnage of ships and vessels and on goods,
+wares, and merchandise imported into the United States as imposed a
+discriminating duty of tonnage between vessels of the free and Hanseatic
+city of Lubeck and vessels of the United States and between goods
+imported into the United States in vessels of Lubeck and vessels of
+the United States are repealed so far as the same respect the produce
+or manufacture of the said free Hanseatic city of Lubeck.
+
+[SEAL.]
+
+Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 4th day of May,
+A.D. 1820, and forty-fourth year of the Independence of the United
+states.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _November 14, 1820_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+In communicating to you a just view of public affairs at the
+commencement of your present labors, I do it with great satisfaction,
+because, taking all circumstances into consideration which claim
+attention, I see much cause to rejoice in the felicity of our situation.
+In making this remark I do not wish to be understood to imply that
+an unvaried prosperity is to be seen in every interest of this great
+community. In the progress of a nation inhabiting a territory of such
+vast extent and great variety of climate, every portion of which is
+engaged in foreign commerce and liable to be affected in some degree
+by the changes which occur in the condition and regulations of foreign
+countries, it would be strange if the produce of our soil and the
+industry and enterprise of our fellow-citizens received at all times
+and in every quarter an uniform and equal encouragement. This would be
+more than we would have a right to expect under circumstances the most
+favorable. Pressures on certain interests, it is admitted, have been
+felt; but allowing to these their greatest extent, they detract but
+little from the force of the remarks already made. In forming a just
+estimate of our present situation it is proper to look at the whole in
+the outline as well as in the detail. A free, virtuous, and enlightened
+people know well the great principles and causes on which their
+happiness depends, and even those who suffer most occasionally in their
+transitory concerns find great relief under their sufferings from the
+blessings which they otherwise enjoy and in the consoling and animating
+hope which they administer. From whence do these pressures come? Not
+from a government which is founded by, administered for, and supported
+by the people. We trace them to the peculiar character of the epoch
+in which we live, and to the extraordinary occurrences which have
+signalized it. The convulsions with which several of the powers of
+Europe have been shaken and the long and destructive wars in which
+all were engaged, with their sudden transition to a state of peace,
+presenting in the first instance unusual encouragement to our commerce
+and withdrawing it in the second even within its wonted limit, could not
+fail to be sensibly felt here. The station, too, which we had to support
+through this long conflict, compelled as we were finally to become
+a party to it with a principal power, and to make great exertions,
+suffer heavy losses, and to contract considerable debts, disturbing
+the ordinary course of affairs by augmenting to a vast amount the
+circulating medium, and thereby elevating at one time the price of
+every article above a just standard and depressing it at another below
+it, had likewise its due effect.
+
+It is manifest that the pressures of which we complain have proceeded
+in a great measure from these causes. When, then, we take into view
+the prosperous and happy condition of our country in all the great
+circumstances which constitute the felicity of a nation--every
+individual in the full enjoyment of all his rights, the Union blessed
+with plenty and rapidly rising to greatness under a National Government
+which operates with complete effect in every part without being felt
+in any except by the ample protection which it affords, and under
+State governments which perform their equal share, according to
+a wise distribution of power between them, in promoting the public
+happiness--it is impossible to behold so gratifying, so glorious a
+spectacle without being penetrated with the most profound and grateful
+acknowledgments to the Supreme Author of All Good for such manifold and
+inestimable blessings. Deeply impressed with these sentiments, I can not
+regard the pressures to which I have adverted otherwise than in the
+light of mild and instructive admonitions, warning us of dangers to
+be shunned in future, teaching us lessons of economy corresponding
+with the simplicity and purity of our institutions and best adapted
+to their support, evincing the connection and dependence which the
+various parts of our happy Union have on each other, thereby augmenting
+daily our social incorporation and adding by its strong ties new strength
+and vigor to the political; opening a wider range, and with new
+encouragement, to the industry and enterprise of our fellow-citizens at
+home and abroad, and more especially by the multiplied proofs which it
+has accumulated of the great perfection of our most excellent system of
+government, the powerful instrument in the hands of our All-merciful
+Creator in securing to us these blessings.
+
+Happy as our situation is, it does not exempt us from solicitude and
+care for the future. On the contrary, as the blessings which we enjoy
+are great, proportionably great should be our vigilance, zeal, and
+activity to preserve them. Foreign wars may again expose us to new
+wrongs, which would impose on us new duties for which we ought to be
+prepared. The state of Europe is unsettled, and how long peace may
+be preserved is altogether uncertain; in addition to which we have
+interests of our own to adjust which will require particular attention.
+A correct view of our relations with each power will enable you to form
+a just idea of existing difficulties, and of the measures of precaution
+best adapted to them.
+
+Respecting our relations with Spain nothing explicit can now be
+communicated. On the adjournment of Congress in May last the minister
+plenipotentiary of the United States at Madrid was instructed to inform
+the Government of Spain that if His Catholic Majesty should then ratify
+the treaty this Government would accept the ratification so far as
+to submit to the decision of the Senate the question whether such
+ratification should be received in exchange for that of the United
+States heretofore given. By letters from the minister of the United
+States to the Secretary of State it appears that a communication in
+conformity with his instructions had been made to the Government of
+Spain, and that the Cortes had the subject under consideration. The
+result of the deliberations of that body, which is daily expected,
+will be made known to Congress as soon as it is received. The friendly
+sentiment which was expressed on the part of the United States in the
+message of the 9th of May last is still entertained for Spain. Among
+the causes of regret, however, which are inseparable from the delay
+attending this transaction it is proper to state that satisfactory
+information has been received that measures have been recently adopted
+by designing persons to convert certain parts of the Province of East
+Florida into depots for the reception of foreign goods, from whence
+to smuggle them into the United States. By opening a port within the
+limits of Florida, immediately on our boundary where there was no
+settlement, the object could not be misunderstood. An early accommodation
+of differences will, it is hoped, prevent all such fraudulent and
+pernicious practices, and place the relations of the two countries
+on a very amicable and permanent basis.
+
+The commercial relations between the United States and the British
+colonies in the West Indies and on this continent have undergone no
+change, the British Government still preferring to leave that commerce
+under the restriction heretofore imposed on it on each side. It is
+satisfactory to recollect that the restraints resorted to by the United
+States were defensive only, intended to prevent a monopoly under British
+regulations in favor of Great Britain, as it likewise is to know that
+the experiment is advancing in a spirit of amity between the parties.
+
+The question depending between the United States and Great Britain
+respecting the construction of the first article of the treaty of Ghent
+has been referred by both Governments to the decision of the Emperor of
+Russia, who has accepted the umpirage.
+
+An attempt has been made with the Government of France to regulate by
+treaty the commerce between the two countries on the principle of
+reciprocity and equality. By the last communication from the minister
+plenipotentiary of the United States at Paris, to whom full power had
+been given, we learn that the negotiation had been commenced there; but
+serious difficulties having occurred, the French Government had resolved
+to transfer it to the United States, for which purpose the minister
+plenipotentiary of France had been ordered to repair to this city, and
+whose arrival might soon be expected. It is hoped that this important
+interest may be arranged on just conditions and in a manner equally
+satisfactory to both parties. It is submitted to Congress to decide,
+until such arrangement is made, how far it may be proper, on the
+principle of the act of the last session which augmented the tonnage
+duty on French vessels, to adopt other measures for carrying more
+completely into effect the policy of that act.
+
+The act referred to, which imposed new tonnage on French vessels, having
+been in force from and after the 1st day of July, it has happened that
+several vessels of that nation which had been dispatched from France
+before its existence was known have entered the ports of the United
+States, and been subject to its operation, without that previous notice
+which the general spirit of our laws gives to individuals in similar
+cases. The object of that law having been merely to countervail the
+inequalities which existed to the disadvantage of the United States
+in their commercial intercourse with France, it is submitted also to
+the consideration of Congress whether, in the spirit of amity and
+conciliation which it is no less the inclination than the policy of the
+United States to preserve in their intercourse with other powers, it may
+not be proper to extend relief to the individuals interested in those
+cases by exempting from the operation of the law all those vessels which
+have entered our ports without having had the means of previously
+knowing the existence of the additional duty.
+
+The contest between Spain and the colonies, according to the most
+authentic information, is maintained by the latter with improved
+success. The unfortunate divisions which were known to exist some time
+since at Buenos Ayres it is understood still prevail. In no part of
+South America has Spain made any impression on the colonies, while in
+many parts, and particularly in Venezuela and New Grenada, the colonies
+have gained strength and acquired reputation, both for the management
+of the war in which they have been successful and for the order of the
+internal administration. The late change in the Government of Spain,
+by the reestablishment of the constitution of 1812, is an event which
+promises to be favorable to the revolution. Under the authority of the
+Cortes the Congress of Angostura was invited to open a negotiation
+for the settlement of differences between the parties, to which it
+was replied that they would willingly open the negotiation provided
+the acknowledgment of their independence was made its basis, but not
+otherwise. Of further proceedings between them we are uninformed. No
+facts are known to this Government to warrant the belief that any of
+the powers of Europe will take part in the contest, whence it may be
+inferred, considering all circumstances which must have weight in
+producing the result, that an adjustment will finally take place on
+the basis proposed by the colonies. To promote that result by friendly
+counsels with other powers, including Spain herself, has been the
+uniform policy of this Government.
+
+In looking to the internal concerns of our country you will, I am
+persuaded, derive much satisfaction from a view of the several objects
+to which, in the discharge of your official duties, your attention will
+be drawn. Among these none holds a more important place than the public
+revenue, from the direct operation of the power by which it is raised on
+the people, and by its influence in giving effect to every other power
+of the Government. The revenue depends on the resources of the country,
+and the facility by which the amount required is raised is a strong
+proof of the extent of the resources and of the efficiency of the
+Government. A few prominent facts will place this great interest in a
+just light before you. On the 30th of September, 1815, the funded and
+floating debt of the United States was estimated at $119,635,558. If to
+this sum be added the amount of 5 per cent stock subscribed to the Bank
+of the United States, the amount of Mississippi stock and of the stock
+which was issued subsequently to that date, the balances ascertained to
+be due to certain States for military services and to individuals for
+supplies furnished and services rendered during the late war, the public
+debt may be estimated as amounting at that date, and as afterwards
+liquidated, to $158,713,049. On the 30th of September, 1820, it amounted
+to $91,993,883, having been reduced in that interval by payments
+$66,879,165. During this term the expenses of the Government of the
+United States were likewise defrayed in every branch of the civil,
+military, and naval establishments; the public edifices in this city
+have been rebuilt with considerable additions; extensive fortifications
+have been commenced, and are in a train of execution; permanent arsenals
+and magazines have been erected in various parts of the Union; our Navy
+has been considerably augmented, and the ordnance, munitions of war, and
+stores of the Army and Navy, which were much exhausted during the war,
+have been replenished.
+
+By the discharge of so large a proportion of the public debt and the
+execution of such extensive and important operations in so short a
+time a just estimate may be formed of the great extent of our national
+resources. The demonstration is the more complete and gratifying when it
+is recollected that the direct tax and excise were repealed soon after
+the termination of the late war, and that the revenue applied to these
+purposes has been derived almost wholly from other sources.
+
+The receipts into the Treasury from every source to the 30th of
+September last have amounted to $16,794,107.66, whilst the public
+expenditures to the same period amounted to $16,871,534.72, leaving in
+the Treasury on that day a sum estimated at $1,950,000. For the probable
+receipts of the following year I refer you to the statement which will
+be transmitted from the Treasury.
+
+The sum of $3,000,000 authorized to be raised by loan by an act of the
+last session of Congress has been obtained upon terms advantageous to
+the Government, indicating not only an increased confidence in the faith
+of the nation, but the existence of a large amount of capital seeking
+that mode of investment at a rate of interest not exceeding 5 per cent
+per annum.
+
+It is proper to add that there is now due to the Treasury for the sale
+of public lands $22,996,545. In bringing this subject to view I consider
+it my duty to submit to Congress whether it may not be advisable to
+extend to the purchasers of these lands, in consideration of the
+unfavorable change which has occurred since the sales, a reasonable
+indulgence. It is known that the purchases were made when the price
+of every article had risen to its greatest height, and that the
+installments are becoming due at a period of great depression. It
+is presumed that some plan may be devised by the wisdom of Congress,
+compatible with the public interest, which would afford great relief
+to these purchasers.
+
+Considerable progress has been made during the present season in
+examining the coast and its various bays and other inlets, in the
+collection of materials, and in the construction of fortifications for
+the defense of the Union at several of the positions at which it has
+been decided to erect such works. At Mobile Point and Dauphin Island,
+and at the Rigolets, leading to Lake Pontchartrain, materials to
+a considerable amount have been collected, and all the necessary
+preparations made for the commencement of the works. At Old Point
+Comfort, at the mouth of James River, and at the Rip-Rap, on the
+opposite shore in the Chesapeake Bay, materials to a vast amount have
+been collected; and at the Old Point some progress has been made in the
+construction of the fortification, which is on a very extensive scale.
+The work at Fort Washington, on this river, will be completed early in
+the next spring, and that on the Pea Patch, in the Delaware, in the
+course of the next season. Fort Diamond, at the Narrows, in the harbor
+of New York, will be finished this year. The works at Boston, New York,
+Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, and Niagara have been in part repaired,
+and the coast of North Carolina, extending south to Cape Fear, has been
+examined, as have likewise other parts of the coast eastward of Boston.
+Great exertions have been made to push forward these works with the
+utmost dispatch possible; but when their extent is considered, with the
+important purposes for which they are intended--the defense of the whole
+coast, and, in consequence, of the whole interior--and that they are to
+last for ages, it will be manifest that a well-digested plan, founded on
+military principles, connecting the whole together, combining security
+with economy, could not be prepared without repeated examinations
+of the most exposed and difficult parts, and that it would also take
+considerable time to collect the materials at the several points where
+they would be required. From all the light that has been shed on this
+subject I am satisfied that every favorable anticipation which has
+been formed of this great undertaking will be verified, and that when
+completed it will afford very great if not complete protection to our
+Atlantic frontier in the event of another war--a protection sufficient
+to counterbalance in a single campaign with an enemy powerful at sea the
+expense of all these works, without taking into the estimate the saving
+of the lives of so many of our citizens, the protection of our towns
+and other property, or the tendency of such works to prevent war.
+
+Our military positions have been maintained at Belle Point, on the
+Arkansas, at Council Bluffs, on the Missouri, at St. Peters, on the
+Mississippi, and at Green Bay, on the upper Lakes. Commodious barracks
+have already been erected at most of these posts, with such works as
+were necessary for their defense. Progress has also been made in opening
+communications between them and in raising supplies at each for the
+support of the troops by their own labor, particularly those most
+remote.
+
+With the Indians peace has been preserved and a progress made in
+carrying into effect the act of Congress making an appropriation for
+their civilization, with the prospect of favorable results. As connected
+equally with both these objects, our trade with those tribes is thought
+to merit the attention of Congress. In their original state game
+is their sustenance and war their occupation, and if they find no
+employment from civilized powers they destroy each other. Left to
+themselves their extirpation is inevitable. By a judicious regulation of
+our trade with them we supply their wants, administer to their comforts,
+and gradually, as the game retires, draw them to us. By maintaining
+posts far in the interior we acquire a more thorough and direct control
+over them, without which it is confidently believed that a complete
+change in their manners can never be accomplished. By such posts, aided
+by a proper regulation of our trade with them and a judicious civil
+administration over them, to be provided for by law, we shall, it is
+presumed, be enabled not only to protect our own settlements from their
+savage incursions and preserve peace among the several tribes, but
+accomplish also the great purpose of their civilization.
+
+Considerable progress has also been made in the construction of ships of
+war, some of which have been launched in the course of the present year.
+
+Our peace with the powers on the coast of Barbary has been preserved,
+but we owe it altogether to the presence of our squadron in the
+Mediterranean. It has been found equally necessary to employ some of
+our vessels for the protection of our commerce in the Indian Sea, the
+Pacific, and along the Atlantic coast. The interests which we have
+depending in those quarters, which have been much improved of late, are
+of great extent and of high importance to the nation as well as to the
+parties concerned, and would undoubtedly suffer if such protection was
+not extended to them. In execution of the law of the last session for
+the suppression of the slave trade some of our public ships have also
+been employed on the coast of Africa, where several captures have
+already been made of vessels engaged in that disgraceful traffic.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+DECEMBER 12, 1820.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 6th of December,
+requesting that the agent employed under the act entitled "An act
+authorizing the purchase of fire engines and building houses for the
+safekeeping of the same" should report in the manner stated in the said
+resolution his conduct in execution of the said act, I now transmit
+to the Senate a report from the agent, which communicates all the
+information which has been desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 14, 1820.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I submit to the consideration of the Senate, for their advice and
+consent as to the ratification, the following treaties, concluded with
+the several Indian tribes therein mentioned since the last session
+of Congress, with their documents, viz: With the Weas, Kickapoos,
+Chippeways, Ottawas, Choctaws, and Mahas; and also a treaty with the
+Kickapoos amended as proposed by a resolution of the Senate at their
+last session.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 14, 1820_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 21st November last, requesting the President to lay before the
+House information relating to the progress and expenditures of the
+commissioners under the fifth, sixth, and seventh articles of the treaty
+of Ghent, I now transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with
+documents containing all the information in the possession of that
+Department requested by the resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 1, 1821_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+22d of November last, requesting the President to inform that House what
+naval force has been stationed for the protection of the commerce of
+our citizens in the West India Islands and parts adjacent during the
+present year, and whether any depredations by pirates or others upon the
+property of citizens of the United States engaged in such commerce have
+been reported to our Government, I now submit for the information of
+the House a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with accompanying
+documents, which contains all the information in the possession of the
+Government required by that resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 4, 1821_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+I communicate to the House of Representatives a report from the
+Secretary of State, which, with the papers accompanying it, contains
+all the information in the possession of the Executive requested by a
+resolution of the House of the 4th December last, on the subject of the
+African slave trade.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 4, 1821_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+15th of December last, requesting the President of the United States
+to cause to be laid before that House a statement of expenditures and
+receipts in the Indian Department; also the nature and extent of the
+contracts entered into, and with whom, from the 2d of March, 1811, to
+the present period, I now transmit a letter from the Secretary of War,
+with a report of the superintendent of Indian trade, which contains the
+information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 12, 1821_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary
+of State, with the inclosed documents, relating to the negotiation for
+the suppression of the slave trade, which should have accompanied a
+message on that subject communicated to the House some time since, but
+which were accidentally omitted.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 18, 1821_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 4th instant,
+"requesting the President of the United States to communicate to the
+Senate any information he may have as to the power or authority which
+belonged to Don John Bonaventure Morales and to the Baron Carondelet
+to grant and dispose of the lands of Spain in Louisiana previously to
+the year 1803," I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury,
+submitting a letter of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, with
+the document to which it refers.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 18, 1821_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives
+requesting the President to inform the House, if in his opinion proper,
+whether any, and, if any, what, negotiations since the 1st of January,
+1816, have been had with the Six Nations of Indians, or any portion
+of them, who the commissioners or agents were, the objects of the
+negotiation, the expenses of the same, the compensation of each
+commissioner, secretary, or agent, and to whom the moneys were paid,
+I now transmit a report from the Secretary of War communicating the
+information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 31, 1821_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
+
+I transmit to Congress a report from the Secretary of the Treasury
+submitting copies of the instructions given to the commissioners
+appointed under the act of the 15th of May, 1820, authorizing the
+location of a road from Wheeling, in the State of Virginia, to a point
+on the left bank of the Mississippi River between St. Louis and the
+mouth of the Illinois River, and copies of the report made by the said
+commissioners to the Treasury Department of the progress they have made
+in the execution of the duties prescribed by the said act, together
+with maps of the country through which the location is to be made.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 5, 1821.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit, in confidence, to the Senate reports from the
+Secretary of State and of the Treasury, with the papers containing the
+correspondence and the information in possession of the Government the
+communication of which was requested by the resolution of the Senate of
+the 23d of last month. It is desired that the original letters may, when
+the Senate shall have no further use for them, be returned.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 8, 1821.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 1st instant,
+requesting the President of the United States "to cause to be laid
+before the Senate any information he may have in relation to the claims
+of citizens of Georgia against the Creek Nation of Indians, and why
+these claims, if any exist, have not been heretofore adjusted and
+settled under the provisions of the treaties of 1790 and 1796," I
+now transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with accompanying
+documents, which contains all the information on this subject in the
+possession of the Executive.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 13, 1821.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+The ratification by the Spanish Government of the treaty of amity,
+settlement, and limits between the United States and Spain, signed on
+the 22d of February, 1819, and on the 24th of that month ratified on the
+part of the United States, has been received by the envoy extraordinary
+and minister plenipotentiary of that power at this place, who has given
+notice that he is ready to exchange the ratifications.
+
+By the sixteenth article of that treaty it was stipulated that the
+ratifications should be exchanged within six months from the day of its
+signature, which time having elapsed before the ratification of Spain
+was given, a copy and translation thereof are now transmitted to the
+Senate for their advice and consent to receive it in exchange for the
+ratification of the United. States heretofore executed.
+
+The treaty was submitted to the consideration of the Cortes of that
+Kingdom before its ratification, which was finally given with their
+assent and sanction. The correspondence between the Spanish minister of
+foreign affairs and the minister of the United States at Madrid on that
+occasion is also herewith communicated to the Senate, together with a
+memorandum by the Secretary of State of his conference with the Spanish
+envoy here yesterday, when that minister gave notice of his readiness
+to exchange the ratifications.
+
+The return of the original papers now transmitted, to avoid the delay
+necessary to the making of copies, is requested.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 22, 1821_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 16th instant,
+requesting "the President of the United States to cause to be laid
+before the Senate the original order for building the barracks at
+Sacketts Harbor, together with all communications between the War
+Department and Major-General Brown relative thereto, and the amount
+of public moneys expended thereon," I now transmit a report from
+the Secretary of War, with the papers inclosed, which contains the
+information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 22, 1821_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The treaty of amity, settlement, and limits between the United States
+and Spain, signed on the 22d of February, 1819, having been ratified by
+the contracting parties, and the ratifications having been exchanged,
+it is herewith communicated to Congress, that such legislative measures
+may be taken as they shall judge proper for carrying the same into
+execution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 24, 1821_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress a letter from the Secretary of War, inclosing
+an annual return of the militia of the United States, prepared by the
+Adjutant and Inspector General conformably to the militia laws on that
+subject.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 28, 1821_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit to Congress certain extracts and a copy of letters
+received by the Secretary of State from the marshal of the United States
+for the eastern district of Virginia, in relation to the execution of
+the act of the 14th of March, 1820, to provide for taking the Fourth
+Census, together with the answers returned to that marshal by the
+Secretary of State. As the time within which the assistants of the
+marshals can legally make their returns expired on the first Monday of
+the present month, it would appear by the information from the marshal
+at Richmond that the completion of the Fourth Census as it respects the
+eastern district of Virginia will have been defeated not only as it
+regards the period contemplated by law, but during the whole of the
+current year, unless Congress, to whom the case is submitted, should by
+an act of the present session allow further time for making the returns
+in question.
+
+As connected with this subject, it is also submitted for the
+consideration of Congress how far the marshals ought to be liable to
+the payment of postage on the conveyance of the papers concerning the
+census and manufactures by the mail. In one instance it has been already
+ascertained that this item of contingent expense will amount to nearly a
+moiety of the compensation of the marshal for the whole of his services.
+If the marshals are to be relieved from this charge, provision will be
+necessary by law either for the admission of it in their accounts or the
+refunding of it by the respective postmasters.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 2, 1821_.
+
+_To the Congress of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to the two Houses of Congress copies of a treaty this
+day ratified on the part of the United States, concluded and signed at
+the Indian Springs on the 8th of January last, with the Creek Nation of
+Indians, in order to such legislative measures as may be necessary for
+giving effect to it.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 3, 1821_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The treaty concluded between the United States and the Kickapoo tribe
+of Indians on the 30th of July, 1820, having been ratified by and with
+the advice and consent of the Senate, I now lay a copy of the said
+treaty before the House of Representatives in order to such legislative
+provisions being made as may be necessary to carry into effect the
+stipulations therein contained on the part of the United States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
+
+
+Fellow-Citizens: I shall not attempt to describe the grateful emotions
+which the new and very distinguished proof of the confidence of my
+fellow-citizens, evinced by my reelection to this high trust, has
+excited in my bosom. The approbation which it announces of my conduct
+in the preceding term affords me a consolation which I shall profoundly
+feel through life. The general accord with which it has been expressed
+adds to the great and never-ceasing obligations which it imposes. To
+merit the continuance of this good opinion, and to carry it with me into
+my retirement as the solace of advancing years, will be the object of my
+most zealous and unceasing efforts.
+
+Having no pretensions to the high and commanding claims of my
+predecessors, whose names are so much more conspicuously identified
+with our Revolution, and who contributed so preeminently to promote its
+success, I consider myself rather as the instrument than the cause of
+the union which has prevailed in the late election. In surmounting,
+in favor of my humble pretensions, the difficulties which so often
+produce division in like occurrences, it is obvious that other powerful
+causes, indicating the great strength and stability of our Union, have
+essentially contributed to draw you together. That these powerful causes
+exist, and that they are permanent, is my fixed opinion; that they may
+produce a like accord in all questions touching, however remotely, the
+liberty, prosperity, and happiness of our country will always be the
+object of my most fervent prayers to the Supreme Author of All Good.
+
+In a government which is founded by the people, who possess exclusively
+the sovereignty, it seems proper that the person who may be placed by
+their suffrages in this high trust should declare on commencing its
+duties the principles on which he intends to conduct the Administration.
+If the person thus elected has served the preceding term, an opportunity
+is afforded him to review its principal occurrences and to give such
+further explanation respecting them as in his judgment may be useful
+to his constituents. The events of one year have influence on those
+of another, and, in like manner, of a preceding on the succeeding
+Administration. The movements of a great nation are connected in all
+their parts. If errors have been committed they ought to be corrected;
+if the policy is sound it ought to be supported. It is by a thorough
+knowledge of the whole subject that our fellow-citizens are enabled
+to judge correctly of the past and to give a proper direction to the
+future.
+
+Just before the commencement of the last term the United States had
+concluded a war with a very powerful nation on conditions equal and
+honorable to both parties. The events of that war are too recent and
+too deeply impressed on the memory of all to require a development from
+me. Our commerce had been in a great measure driven from the sea; our
+Atlantic and inland frontiers were invaded in almost every part; the
+waste of life along our coast and on some parts of our inland frontiers,
+to the defense of which our gallant and patriotic citizens were called,
+was immense, in addition to which not less than $120,000,000 were added
+at its end to the public debt.
+
+As soon as the war had terminated, the nation, admonished by its
+events, resolved to place itself in a situation which should be better
+calculated to prevent the recurrence of a like evil, and, in case it
+should recur, to mitigate its calamities. With this view, after reducing
+our land force to the basis of a peace establishment, which has been
+further modified since, provision was made for the construction of
+fortifications at proper points through the whole extent of our coast
+and such an augmentation of our naval force as should be well adapted
+to both purposes. The laws making this provision were passed in 1815
+and 1816, and it has been since the constant effort of the Executive
+to carry them into effect.
+
+The advantage of these fortifications and of an augmented naval
+force in the extent contemplated, in a point of economy, has been
+fully illustrated by a report of the Board of Engineers and Naval
+Commissioners lately communicated to Congress, by which it appears that
+in an invasion by 20,000 men, with a correspondent naval force, in a
+campaign of six months only, the whole expense of the construction of
+the works would be defrayed by the difference in the sum necessary to
+maintain the force which would be adequate to our defense with the aid
+of those works and that which would be incurred without them. The reason
+of this difference is obvious. If fortifications are judiciously placed
+on our great inlets, as distant from our cities as circumstances will
+permit, they will form the only points of attack, and the enemy will
+be detained there by a small regular force a sufficient time to enable
+our militia to collect and repair to that on which the attack is made.
+A force adequate to the enemy, collected at that single point, with
+suitable preparation for such others as might be menaced, is all that
+would be requisite. But if there were no fortifications, then the enemy
+might go where he pleased, and, changing his position and sailing from
+place to place, our force must be called out and spread in vast numbers
+along the whole coast and on both sides of every bay and river as
+high up in each as it might be navigable for ships of war. By these
+fortifications, supported by our Navy, to which they would afford like
+support, we should present to other powers an armed front from St. Croix
+to the Sabine, which would protect in the event of war our whole coast
+and interior from invasion; and even in the wars of other powers, in
+which we were neutral, they would be found eminently useful, as, by
+keeping their public ships at a distance from our cities, peace and
+order in them would be preserved and the Government be protected from
+insult.
+
+It need scarcely be remarked that these measures have not been resorted
+to in a spirit of hostility to other powers. Such a disposition does
+not exist toward any power. Peace and good will have been, and will
+hereafter be, cultivated with all, and by the most faithful regard to
+justice. They have been dictated by a love of peace, of economy, and
+an earnest desire to save the lives of our fellow-citizens from that
+destruction and our country from that devastation which are inseparable
+from war when it finds us unprepared for it. It is believed, and
+experience, has shown, that such a preparation is the best expedient
+that can be resorted to to prevent war. I add with much pleasure that
+considerable progress has already been made in these measures of
+defense, and that they will be completed in a few years, considering the
+great extent and importance of the object, if the plan be zealously and
+steadily persevered in.
+
+The conduct of the Government in what relates to foreign powers
+is always an object of the highest importance to the nation. Its
+agriculture, commerce, manufactures, fisheries, revenue, in short, its
+peace, may all be affected by it. Attention is therefore due to this
+subject.
+
+At the period adverted to the powers of Europe, after having been
+engaged in long and destructive wars with each other, had concluded a
+peace, which happily still exists. Our peace with the power with whom we
+had been engaged had also been concluded. The war between Spain and the
+colonies in South America, which had commenced many years before, was
+then the only conflict that remained unsettled. This being a contest
+between different parts of the same community, in which other powers
+had not interfered, was not affected by their accommodations.
+
+This contest was considered at an early stage by my predecessor a civil
+war in which the parties were entitled to equal rights in our ports.
+This decision, the first made by any power, being formed on great
+consideration of the comparative strength and resources of the parties,
+the length of time, and successful opposition made by the colonies, and
+of all other circumstances on which it ought to depend, was in strict
+accord with the law of nations. Congress has invariably acted on this
+principle, having made no change in our relations with either party. Our
+attitude has therefore been that of neutrality between them, which has
+been maintained by the Government with the strictest impartiality. No
+aid has been afforded to either, nor has any privilege been enjoyed by
+the one which has not been equally open to the other party, and every
+exertion has been made in its power to enforce the execution of the
+laws prohibiting illegal equipments with equal rigor against both.
+
+By this equality between the parties their public vessels have been
+received in our ports on the same footing; they have enjoyed an equal
+right to purchase and export arms, munitions of war, and every other
+supply, the exportation of all articles whatever being permitted under
+laws which were passed long before the commencement of the contest; our
+citizens have traded equally with both, and their commerce with each
+has been alike protected by the Government.
+
+Respecting the attitude which it may be proper for the United States to
+maintain hereafter between the parties, I have no hesitation in stating
+it as my opinion that the neutrality heretofore observed should still
+be adhered to. From the change in the Government of Spain and the
+negotiation now depending, invited by the Cortes and accepted by the
+colonies, it may be presumed that their differences will be settled on
+the terms proposed by the colonies. Should the war be continued, the
+United States, regarding its occurrences, will always have it in their
+power to adopt such measures respecting it as their honor and interest
+may require.
+
+Shortly after the general peace a band of adventurers took advantage
+of this conflict and of the facility which it afforded to establish a
+system of buccaneering in the neighboring seas, to the great annoyance
+of the commerce of the United States, and, as was represented, of that
+of other powers. Of this spirit and of its injurious bearing on the
+United States strong proofs were afforded by the establishment at Amelia
+Island, and the purposes to which it was made instrumental by this band
+in 1817, and by the occurrences which took place in other parts of
+Florida in 1818, the details of which in both instances are too well
+known to require to be now recited. I am satisfied had a less decisive
+course been adopted that the worst consequences would have resulted from
+it. We have seen that these checks, decisive as they were, were not
+sufficient to crush that piratical spirit. Many culprits brought within
+our limits have been condemned to suffer death, the punishment due to
+that atrocious crime. The decisions of upright and enlightened tribunals
+fall equally on all whose crimes subject them, by a fair interpretation
+of the law, to its censure. It belongs to the Executive not to suffer
+the executions under these decisions to transcend the great purpose
+for which punishment is necessary. The full benefit of example being
+secured, policy as well as humanity equally forbids that they should be
+carried further. I have acted on this principle, pardoning those who
+appear to have been led astray by ignorance of the criminality of the
+acts they had committed, and suffering the law to take effect on those
+only in whose favor no extenuating circumstances could be urged.
+
+Great confidence is entertained that the late treaty with Spain, which
+has been ratified by both the parties, and the ratifications whereof
+have been exchanged, has placed the relations of the two countries on a
+basis of permanent friendship. The provision made by it for such of our
+citizens as have claims on Spain of the character described will, it
+is presumed, be very satisfactory to them, and the boundary which is
+established between the territories of the parties westward of the
+Mississippi, heretofore in dispute, has, it is thought, been settled
+on conditions just and advantageous to both. But to the acquisition of
+Florida too much importance can not be attached. It secures to the
+United States a territory important in itself, and whose importance is
+much increased by its bearing on many of the highest interests of the
+Union. It opens to several of the neighboring States a free passage to
+the ocean, through the Province ceded, by several rivers, having their
+sources high up within their limits. It secures us against all future
+annoyance from powerful Indian tribes. It gives us several excellent
+harbors in the Gulf of Mexico for ships of war of the largest size.
+It covers by its position in the Gulf the Mississippi and other great
+waters within our extended limits, and thereby enables the United States
+to afford complete protection to the vast and very valuable productions
+of our whole Western country, which find a market through those streams.
+
+By a treaty with the British Government, bearing date on the 20th of
+October, 1818, the convention regulating the commerce between the United
+States and Great Britain, concluded on the 3d of July, 1815, which was
+about expiring, was revived and continued for the term of ten years from
+the time of its expiration. By that treaty, also, the differences which
+had arisen under the treaty of Ghent respecting the right claimed by the
+United States for their citizens to take and cure fish on the coast of
+His Britannic Majesty's dominions in America, with other differences on
+important interests, were adjusted to the satisfaction of both parties.
+No agreement has yet been entered into respecting the commerce between
+the United States and the British dominions in the West Indies and
+on this continent. The restraints imposed on that commerce by Great
+Britain, and reciprocated by the United States on a principle of
+defense, continue still in force.
+
+The negotiation with France for the regulation of the commercial
+relations between the two countries, which in the course of the last
+summer had been commenced at Paris, has since been transferred to this
+city, and will be pursued on the part of the United States in the spirit
+of conciliation, and with an earnest desire that it may terminate in an
+arrangement satisfactory to both parties.
+
+Our relations with the Barbary Powers are preserved in the same state
+and by the same means that were employed when I came into this office.
+As early as 1801 it was found necessary to send a squadron into the
+Mediterranean for the protection of our commerce, and no period has
+intervened, a short term excepted, when it was thought advisable to
+withdraw it. The great interests which the United States have in the
+Pacific, in commerce and in the fisheries, have also made it necessary
+to maintain a naval force there. In disposing of this force in both
+instances the most effectual measures in our power have been taken,
+without interfering with its other duties, for the suppression of the
+slave trade and of piracy in the neighboring seas.
+
+The situation of the United States in regard to their resources, the
+extent of their revenue, and the facility with which it is raised
+affords a most gratifying spectacle. The payment of nearly $67,000,000
+of the public debt, with the great progress made in measures of defense
+and in other improvements of various kinds since the late war, are
+conclusive proofs of this extraordinary prosperity, especially when it
+is recollected that these expenditures have been defrayed without a
+burthen on the people, the direct tax and excise having been repealed
+soon after the conclusion of the late war, and the revenue applied to
+these great objects having been raised in a manner not to be felt. Our
+great resources therefore remain untouched for any purpose which may
+affect the vital interests of the nation. For all such purposes they
+are inexhaustible. They are more especially to be found in the virtue,
+patriotism, and intelligence of our fellow-citizens, and in the devotion
+with which they would yield up by any just measure of taxation all their
+property in support of the rights and honor of their country.
+
+Under the present depression of prices, affecting all the productions
+of the country and every branch of industry, proceeding from causes
+explained on a former occasion, the revenue has considerably diminished,
+the effect of which has been to compel Congress either to abandon these
+great measures of defense or to resort to loans or internal taxes to
+supply the deficiency. On the presumption that this depression and the
+deficiency in the revenue arising from it would be temporary, loans
+were authorized for the demands of the last and present year. Anxious
+to relieve my fellow-citizens in 1817 from every burthen which could
+be dispensed with, and the state of the Treasury permitting it, I
+recommended the repeal of the internal taxes, knowing that such relief
+was then peculiarly necessary in consequence of the great exertions made
+in the late war. I made that recommendation under a pledge that should
+the public exigencies require a recurrence to them at any time while I
+remained in this trust, I would with equal promptitude perform the duty
+which would then be alike incumbent on me. By the experiment now making
+it will be seen by the next session of Congress whether the revenue
+shall have been so augmented as to be adequate to all these necessary
+purposes. Should the deficiency still continue, and especially should it
+be probable that it would be permanent, the course to be pursued appears
+to me to be obvious. I am satisfied that under certain circumstances
+loans may be resorted to with great advantage. I am equally well
+satisfied, as a general rule, that the demands of the current year,
+especially in time of peace, should be provided for by the revenue
+of that year.
+
+I have never dreaded, nor have I ever shunned, in any situation in
+which I have been placed making appeals to the virtue and patriotism
+of my fellow-citizens, well knowing that they could never be made in
+vain, especially in times of great emergency or for purposes of high
+national importance. Independently of the exigency of the case, many
+considerations of great weight urge a policy having in view a provision
+of revenue to meet to a certain extent the demands of the nation,
+without relying altogether on the precarious resource of foreign
+commerce. I am satisfied that internal duties and excises, with
+corresponding imposts on foreign articles of the same kind, would,
+without imposing any serious burdens on the people, enhance the price
+of produce, promote our manufactures, and augment the revenue, at the
+same time that they made it more secure and permanent.
+
+The care of the Indian tribes within our limits has long been an
+essential part of our system, but, unfortunately, it has not been
+executed in a manner to accomplish all the objects intended by it.
+We have treated them as independent nations, without their having any
+substantial pretensions to that rank. The distinction has flattered
+their pride, retarded their improvement, and in many instances paved
+the way to their destruction. The progress of our settlements westward,
+supported as they are by a dense population, has constantly driven them
+back, with almost the total sacrifice of the lands which they have been
+compelled to abandon. They have claims on the magnanimity and, I may
+add, on the justice of this nation which we must all feel. We should
+become their real benefactors; we should perform the office of their
+Great Father, the endearing title which they emphatically give to the
+Chief Magistrate of our Union. Their sovereignty over vast territories
+should cease, in lieu of which the right of soil should be secured to
+each individual and his posterity in competent portions; and for the
+territory thus ceded by each tribe some reasonable equivalent should
+be granted, to be vested in permanent funds for the support of civil
+government over them and for the education of their children, for their
+instruction in the arts of husbandry, and to provide sustenance for
+them until they could provide it for themselves. My earnest hope is that
+Congress will digest some plan, founded on these principles, with such
+improvements as their wisdom may suggest, and carry it into effect as
+soon as it may be practicable.
+
+Europe is again unsettled and the prospect of war increasing. Should the
+flame light up in any quarter, how far it may extend it is impossible to
+foresee. It is our peculiar felicity to be altogether unconnected with
+the causes which produce this menacing aspect elsewhere. With every
+power we are in perfect amity, and it is our interest to remain so
+if it be practicable on just conditions. I see no reasonable cause to
+apprehend variance with any power, unless it proceed from a violation
+of our maritime rights. In these contests, should they occur, and to
+whatever extent they may be carried, we shall be neutral; but as a
+neutral power we have rights which it is our duty to maintain. For
+like injuries it will be incumbent on us to seek redress in a spirit
+of amity, in full confidence that, injuring none, none would knowingly
+injure us. For more imminent dangers we should be prepared, and
+it should always be recollected that such preparation adapted to
+the circumstances and sanctioned by the judgment and wishes of our
+constituents can not fail to have a good effect in averting dangers of
+every kind. We should recollect also that the season of peace is best
+adapted to these preparations.
+
+If we turn our attention, fellow-citizens, more immediately to the
+internal concerns of our country, and more especially to those on which
+its future welfare depends, we have every reason to anticipate the
+happiest results. It is now rather more than forty-four years since we
+declared our independence, and thirty-seven since it was acknowledged.
+The talents and virtues which were displayed in that great struggle were
+a sure presage of all that has since followed. A people who were able to
+surmount in their infant state such great perils would be more competent
+as they rose into manhood to repel any which they might meet in their
+progress. Their physical strength would be more adequate to foreign
+danger, and the practice of self-government, aided by the light of
+experience, could not fail to produce an effect equally salutary on
+all those questions connected with the internal organization. These
+favorable anticipations have been realized.
+
+In our whole system, national and State, we have shunned all the defects
+which unceasingly preyed on the vitals and destroyed the ancient
+Republics. In them there were distinct orders, a nobility and a people,
+or the people governed in one assembly. Thus, in the one instance
+there was a perpetual conflict between the orders in society for the
+ascendency, in which the victory of either terminated in the overthrow
+of the government and the ruin of the state; in the other, in which
+the people governed in a body, and whose dominions seldom exceeded the
+dimensions of a county in one of our States, a tumultuous and disorderly
+movement permitted only a transitory existence. In this great nation
+there is but one order, that of the people, whose power, by a peculiarly
+happy improvement of the representative principle, is transferred from
+them, without impairing in the slightest degree their sovereignty, to
+bodies of their own creation, and to persons elected by themselves, in
+the full extent necessary for all the purposes of free, enlightened,
+and efficient government. The whole system is elective, the complete
+sovereignty being in the people, and every officer in every department
+deriving his authority from and being responsible to them for his
+conduct.
+
+Our career has corresponded with this great outline. Perfection in our
+organization could not have been expected in the outset either in the
+National or State Governments or in tracing the line between their
+respective powers. But no serious conflict has arisen, nor any contest
+but such as are managed by argument and by a fair appeal to the good
+sense of the people, and many of the defects which experience had
+clearly demonstrated in both Governments have been remedied. By steadily
+pursuing this course in this spirit there is every reason to believe
+that our system will soon attain the highest degree of perfection of
+which human institutions are capable, and that the movement in all its
+branches will exhibit such a degree of order and harmony as to command
+the admiration and respect of the civilized world.
+
+Our physical attainments have not been less eminent. Twenty-five years
+ago the river Mississippi was shut up and our Western brethren had no
+outlet for their commerce. What has been the progress since that time?
+The river has not only become the property of the United States from its
+source to the ocean, with all its tributary streams (with the exception
+of the upper part of the Red River only), but Louisiana, with a fair and
+liberal boundary on the western side and the Floridas on the eastern,
+have been ceded to us. The United States now enjoy the complete and
+uninterrupted sovereignty over the whole territory from St. Croix to the
+Sabine. New States, settled from among ourselves in this and in other
+parts, have been admitted into our Union in equal participation in
+the national sovereignty with the original States. Our population has
+augmented in an astonishing degree and extended in every direction.
+We now, fellow-citizens, comprise within our limits the dimensions
+and faculties of a great power under a Government possessing all the
+energies of any government ever known to the Old World, with an utter
+incapacity to oppress the people.
+
+Entering with these views the office which I have just solemnly sworn to
+execute with fidelity and to the utmost of my ability, I derive great
+satisfaction from a knowledge that I shall be assisted in the several
+Departments by the very enlightened and upright citizens from whom I
+have received so much aid in the preceding term. With full confidence
+in the continuance of that candor and generous indulgence from my
+fellow-citizens at large which I have heretofore experienced, and with
+a firm reliance on the protection of Almighty God, I shall forthwith
+commence the duties of the high trust to which you have called me.
+
+MARCH 5, 1821.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATIONS.
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas information has been received that an atrocious murder,
+aggravated by the additional crime of robbery, was, on the 6th or 7th
+day of this present month, committed in the county of Alexandria and
+District of Columbia on William Seaver, late of this city; and
+
+Whereas the apprehension and punishment of the murderer or murderers and
+his or their accessary or accessaries will be an example due to justice
+and humanity and every way salutary in its operation:
+
+I have therefore thought fit to issue this my proclamation, hereby
+exhorting the citizens of the United States, and particularly those of
+this District, and requiring all officers, according to their respective
+stations, to use their utmost endeavors to apprehend and bring the
+principal or principals, accessary or accessaries, to the said murder
+to justice.
+
+And I do moreover offer a reward of $300 for each principal, if there be
+more than one, and $150 for each accessary before the fact, if there be
+more than one, who shall be apprehended after the day of the date hereof
+and brought to justice, to be paid upon his conviction of the crime or
+crimes aforesaid.
+
+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, this 10th day of July, A.D. 1821, and of
+the Independence of the United States the forty-sixth.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas the Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution of the
+2d day of March last, entitled "Resolution providing for the admission
+of the State of Missouri into the Union on a certain condition," did
+determine and declare "that Missouri should be admitted into this
+Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects
+whatever upon the fundamental condition that the fourth clause of the
+twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitution submitted
+on the part of said State to Congress shall never be construed to
+authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in
+conformity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the States of this
+Union shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and
+immunities to which such citizen is entitled under the Constitution of
+the United States: _Provided_, That the legislature of said State, by
+a solemn public act, shall declare the assent of the said State to the
+said fundamental condition, and shall transmit to the President of
+the United States on or before the first Monday in November next an
+authentic copy of said act, upon the receipt whereof the President,
+by proclamation, shall announce the fact, whereupon, and without any
+further proceeding on the part of Congress, the admission of the said
+State into this Union shall be considered as complete;" and
+
+Whereas by a solemn public act of the assembly of said State of
+Missouri, passed on the 26th of June, in the present year, entitled "A
+solemn public act declaring the assent of this State to the fundamental
+condition contained in a resolution passed by the Congress of the United
+States providing for the admission of the State of Missouri into the
+Union on a certain condition," an authentic copy whereof has been
+communicated to me, it is solemnly and publicly enacted and declared
+that that State has assented, and does assent, that the fourth clause
+of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the constitution of
+said State "shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any
+law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which
+any citizen of either of the United States shall be excluded from the
+enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizens
+are entitled under the Constitution of the United States:"
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States, in
+pursuance of the resolution of Congress aforesaid, have issued this my
+proclamation, announcing the fact that the said State of Missouri has
+assented to the fundamental condition required by the resolution of
+Congress aforesaid, whereupon the admission of the said State of
+Missouri into this Union is declared to be complete.
+
+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 10th day of August, A.D. 1821, and
+of the Independence of the said United States of America the
+forty-sixth.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 3d of
+March, 1815, so much of the several acts imposing duties on the ships
+and vessels and on goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the
+United States as imposed a discriminating duty of tonnage between
+foreign vessels and vessels of the United States and between goods
+imported into the United States in foreign vessels and vessels of the
+United States were repealed so far as the same respected the produce or
+manufacture of the nation to which such foreign ship or vessel might
+belong, such repeal to take effect in favor of any foreign nation
+whenever the President of the United States should be satisfied that
+the discriminating or countervailing duties of such foreign nation so
+far as they operate to the disadvantage of the United States have been
+abolished; and
+
+Whereas satisfactory proof has been received by me, through the charge
+d'affaires of the United States in Sweden, under date of the 30th day of
+January, 1821, that thenceforward all discriminating or countervailing
+duties in the Kingdom of Norway so far as they operated to the
+disadvantage of the United States had been and were abolished:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States of
+America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several
+acts imposing duties on the tonnage of ships and vessels and on goods,
+wares, and merchandise imported into the United States as imposed a
+discriminating duty of tonnage between vessels of the Kingdom of Norway
+and vessels of the United States and between goods imported into the
+United States in vessels of the said Kingdom of Norway and vessels of
+the United States are repealed so far as the same respect the produce
+or manufacture of the said Kingdom of Norway.
+
+Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 20th day of August,
+A.D. 1821, and the forty-sixth year of the Independence of the United
+States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 3d of
+March, 1815, so much of the several acts imposing duties on the ships
+and vessels and on goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the
+United States as imposed a discriminating duty of tonnage between
+foreign vessels and vessels of the United States and between goods
+imported into the United States in foreign vessels and vessels of the
+United States were repealed so far as the same respected the produce or
+manufacture of the nation to which such foreign ship or vessel might
+belong, such repeal to take effect in favor of any foreign nation
+whenever the President of the United States should be satisfied that
+the discriminating or countervailing duties of such foreign nation so
+far as they operate to the disadvantage of the United States have been
+abolished; and
+
+Whereas satisfactory proof has been received by me, under date of
+the 11th of May last, that thenceforward all discriminating or
+countervailing duties of the Dukedom of Oldenburg so far as they might
+operate to the disadvantage of the United States should be and were
+abolished upon His Highness the Duke of Oldenburg's being duly certified
+of a reciprocal act on the part of the United States:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States of
+America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several
+acts imposing duties on the tonnage of ships and vessels and on goods,
+wares, and merchandise imported into the United States as imposed
+a discriminating duty of tonnage between vessels of the Dukedom of
+Oldenburg and vessels of the United States and between goods imported
+into the United States in vessels of the said Dukedom of Oldenburg and
+vessels of the United States are repealed so far as the same respect
+the produce or manufacture of the said Dukedom of Oldenburg.
+
+Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 22d day of
+November, A.D. 1821, and the forty-sixth year of the Independence
+of the United States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+FIFTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 3, 1821_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+The progress of our affairs since the last session has been such as
+may justly be claimed and expected under a Government deriving all
+its powers from an enlightened people, and under laws formed by their
+representatives, on great consideration, for the sole purpose of
+promoting the welfare and happiness of their constituents. In the
+execution of those laws and of the powers vested by the Constitution in
+the Executive, unremitted attention has been paid to the great objects
+to which they extend. In the concerns which are exclusively internal
+there is good cause to be satisfied with the result. The laws have had
+their due operation and effect. In those relating to foreign powers,
+I am happy to state that peace and amity are preserved with all by
+a strict observance on both sides of the rights of each. In matters
+touching our commercial intercourse, where a difference of opinion has
+existed as to the conditions on which it should be placed, each party
+has pursued its own policy without giving just cause of offense to the
+other. In this annual communication, especially when it is addressed
+to a new Congress, the whole scope of our political concerns naturally
+comes into view, that errors, if such have been committed, may be
+corrected; that defects which have become manifest may be remedied; and,
+on the other hand, that measures which were adopted on due deliberation,
+and which experience has shewn are just in themselves and essential to
+the public welfare, should be persevered in and supported. In performing
+this necessary and very important duty I shall endeavor to place before
+you on its merits every subject that is thought to be entitled to your
+particular attention in as distinct and clear a light as I may be able.
+
+By an act of the 3d of March, 1815, so much of the several acts as
+imposed higher duties on the tonnage of foreign vessels and on the
+manufactures and productions of foreign nations when imported into the
+United States in foreign vessels than when imported in vessels of the
+United States were repealed so far as respected the manufactures and
+productions of the nation to which such vessels belonged, on the
+condition that the repeal should take effect only in favor of any
+foreign nation when the Executive should be satisfied that such
+discriminating duties to the disadvantage of the United States had
+likewise been repealed by such nation. By this act a proposition was
+made to all nations to place our commerce with each on a basis which it
+was presumed would be acceptable to all. Every nation was allowed to
+bring its manufactures and productions into our ports and to take the
+manufactures and productions of the United States back to their ports in
+their own vessels on the same conditions that they might be transported
+in vessels of the United States, and in return it was required that a
+like accommodation should be granted to the vessels of the United States
+in the ports of other powers. The articles to be admitted or prohibited
+on either side formed no part of the proposed arrangement. Each party
+would retain the right to admit or prohibit such articles from the other
+as it thought proper, and on its own conditions.
+
+When the nature of the commerce between the United States and every
+other country was taken into view, it was thought that this proposition
+would be considered fair, and even liberal, by every power. The exports
+of the United States consist generally of articles of the first
+necessity and of rude materials in demand for foreign manufactories, of
+great bulk, requiring for their transportation many vessels, the return
+for which in the manufactures and productions of any foreign country,
+even when disposed of there to advantage, may be brought in a single
+vessel. This observation is the more especially applicable to those
+countries from which manufactures alone are imported, but it applies in
+a great extent to the European dominions of every European power and in
+a certain extent to all the colonies of those powers. By placing, then,
+the navigation precisely on the same ground in the transportation of
+exports and imports between the United States and other countries it was
+presumed that all was offered which could be desired. It seemed to be
+the only proposition which could be devised which would retain even the
+semblance of equality in our favor.
+
+Many considerations of great weight gave us a right to expect that this
+commerce should be extended to the colonies as well as to the European
+dominions of other powers. With the latter, especially with countries
+exclusively manufacturing, the advantage was manifestly on their side.
+An indemnity for that loss was expected from a trade with the colonies,
+and with the greater reason as it was known that the supplies which the
+colonies derived from us were of the highest importance to them, their
+labor being bestowed with so much greater profit in the culture of other
+articles; and because, likewise, the articles of which those supplies
+consisted, forming so large a proportion of the exports of the United
+States, were never admitted into any of the ports of Europe except in
+cases of great emergency to avert a serious calamity. When no article
+is admitted which is not required to supply the wants of the party
+admitting it, and admitted then not in favor of any particular country
+to the disadvantage of others, but on conditions equally applicable to
+all, it seems just that the articles thus admitted and invited should be
+carried thither in the vessels of the country affording such supply and
+that the reciprocity should be found in a corresponding accommodation
+on the other side. By allowing each party to participate in the
+transportation of such supplies on the payment of equal tonnage a strong
+proof was afforded of an accommodating spirit. To abandon to it the
+transportation of the whole would be a sacrifice which ought not to
+be expected. The demand in the present instance would be the more
+unreasonable in consideration of the great inequality existing in
+the trade with the parent country.
+
+Such was the basis of our system as established by the act of 1815 and
+such its true character. In the year in which this act was passed a
+treaty was concluded with Great Britain, in strict conformity with
+its principles, in regard to her European dominions. To her colonies,
+however, in the West Indies and on this continent it was not extended,
+the British Government claiming the exclusive supply of those colonies,
+and from our own ports, and of the productions of the colonies in return
+in her own vessels. To this claim the United States could not assent,
+and in consequence each party suspended the intercourse in the vessels
+of the other by a prohibition which still exists.
+
+The same conditions were offered to France, but not accepted. Her
+Government has demanded other conditions more favorable to her
+navigation, and which should also give extraordinary encouragement to
+her manufactures and productions in ports of the United States. To these
+it was thought improper to accede, and in consequence the restrictive
+regulations which had been adopted on her part, being countervailed
+on the part of the United States, the direct commerce between the two
+countries in the vessels of each party has been in a great measure
+suspended. It is much to be regretted that, although a negotiation has
+been long pending, such is the diversity of views entertained on the
+various points which have been brought into discussion that there does
+not appear to be any reasonable prospect of its early conclusion.
+
+It is my duty to state, as a cause of very great regret, that very
+serious differences have occurred in this negotiation respecting the
+construction of the eighth article of the treaty of 1803, by which
+Louisiana was ceded to the United States, and likewise respecting the
+seizure of the _Apollo_, in 1820, for a violation of our revenue laws.
+The claim of the Government of France has excited not less surprise than
+concern, because there does not appear to be a just foundation for it in
+either instance. By the eighth article of the treaty referred to it is
+stipulated that after the expiration of twelve years, during which time
+it was provided by the seventh or preceding article that the vessels
+of France and Spain should be admitted into the ports of the ceded
+territory without paying higher duties on merchandise or tonnage on the
+vessels than such as were paid by citizens of the United States, the
+ships of France should forever afterwards be placed on the footing of
+the most favored nation. By the obvious construction of this article it
+is presumed that it was intended that no favor should be granted to any
+power in those ports to which France should not be forthwith entitled,
+nor should any accommodation be allowed to another power on conditions
+to which she would not also be entitled on the same conditions. Under
+this construction no favor or accommodation could be granted to any
+power to the prejudice of France. By allowing the equivalent allowed by
+those powers she would always stand in those ports on the footing of the
+most favored nation. But if this article should be so construed as that
+France should enjoy, of right, and without paying the equivalent, all
+the advantages of such conditions as might be allowed to other powers in
+return for important concessions made by them, then the whole character
+of the stipulation would be changed. She would not be placed on the
+footing of the most favored nation, but on a footing held by no other
+nation. She would enjoy all advantages allowed to them in consideration
+of like advantages allowed to us, free from every and any condition
+whatever.
+
+As little cause has the Government of France to complain of the seizure
+of the _Apollo_ and the removal of other vessels from the waters of
+the St. Marys. It will not be denied that every nation has a right to
+regulate its commercial system as it thinks fit and to enforce the
+collection of its revenue, provided it be done without an invasion of
+the rights of other powers. The violation of its revenue laws is an
+offense which all nations punish, the punishment of which gives no just
+cause of complaint to the power to which the offenders belong, provided
+it be extended to all equally. In this case every circumstance which
+occurred indicated a fixed purpose to violate our revenue laws. Had the
+party intended to have pursued a fair trade he would have entered our
+ports and paid the duties; or had he intended to carry on a legitimate
+circuitous commerce with the United States he would have entered the
+port of some other power, landed his goods at the custom-house according
+to law, and re-shipped and sent them in the vessel of such power, or
+of some other power which might lawfully bring them, free from such
+duties, to a port of the United States. But the conduct of the party
+in this case was altogether different. He entered the river St. Marys,
+the boundary line between the United States and Florida, and took his
+position on the Spanish side, on which in the whole extent of the river
+there was no town, no port or custom-house, and scarcely any settlement.
+His purpose, therefore, was not to sell his goods to the inhabitants of
+Florida, but to citizens of the United States, in exchange for their
+productions, which could not be done without a direct and palpable
+breach of our laws. It is known that a regular systematic plan had been
+formed by certain persons for the violation of our revenue system, which
+made it the more necessary to check the proceeding in its commencement.
+
+That the unsettled bank of a river so remote from the Spanish garrisons
+and population could give no protection to any party in such a practice
+is believed to be in strict accord with the law of nations. It would
+not have comported with a friendly policy in Spain herself to have
+established a custom-house there, since it could have subserved no other
+purpose than to elude our revenue law. But the Government of Spain did
+not adopt that measure. On the contrary, it is understood that the
+Captain-General of Cuba, to whom an application to that effect was made
+by these adventurers, had not acceded to it. The condition of those
+Provinces for many years before they were ceded to the United States
+need not now be dwelt on. Inhabited by different tribes of Indians and
+an inroad for every kind of adventurer, the jurisdiction of Spain may
+be said to have been almost exclusively confined to her garrisons. It
+certainly could not extend to places where she had no authority. The
+rules, therefore, applicable to settled countries governed by laws could
+not be deemed so to the deserts of Florida and to the occurrences there.
+It merits attention also that the territory had then been ceded to
+the United States by a treaty the ratification of which had not been
+refused, and which has since been performed. Under any circumstances,
+therefore, Spain became less responsible for such acts committed there,
+and the United States more at liberty to exercise authority to prevent
+so great a mischief. The conduct of this Government has in every
+instance been conciliatory and friendly to France. The construction of
+our revenue law in its application to the cases which have formed the
+ground of such serious complaint on her part and the order to the
+collector of St. Marys, in accord with it, were given two years before
+these cases occurred, and in reference to a breach which was attempted
+by the subjects of another power. The application, therefore, to the
+cases in question was inevitable. As soon as the treaty by which these
+Provinces were ceded to the United States was ratified, and all danger
+of further breach of our revenue laws ceased, an order was given for the
+release of the vessel which had been seized and for the dismission of
+the libel which had been instituted against her.
+
+The principles of this system of reciprocity, founded on the law of the
+3d of March, 1815, have been since carried into effect with the Kingdoms
+of the Netherlands, Sweden, Prussia, and with Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck,
+and Oldenburg, with a provision made by subsequent laws in regard to
+the Netherlands, Prussia, Hamburg, and Bremen that such produce and
+manufactures as could only be, or most usually were, first shipped from
+the ports of those countries, the same being imported in vessels wholly
+belonging to their subjects, should be considered and admitted as their
+own manufactures and productions.
+
+The Government of Norway has by an ordinance opened the ports of that
+part of the dominions of the King of Sweden to the vessels of the United
+States upon the payment of no other or higher duties than are paid by
+Norwegian vessels, from whatever place arriving and with whatever
+articles laden. They have requested the reciprocal allowance for the
+vessels of Norway in the ports of the United States. As this privilege
+is not within the scope of the act of the 3d of March, 1815, and can
+only be granted by Congress, and as it may involve the commercial
+relations of the United States with other nations, the subject is
+submitted to the wisdom of Congress.
+
+I have presented thus fully to your view our commercial relations with
+other powers, that, seeing them in detail with each power, and knowing
+the basis on which they rest, Congress may in its wisdom decide whether
+any change ought to be made, and, if any, in what respect. If this basis
+is unjust or unreasonable, surely it ought to be abandoned; but if it
+be just and reasonable, and any change in it will make concessions
+subversive of equality and tending in its consequences to sap the
+foundations of our prosperity, then the reasons are equally strong for
+adhering to the ground already taken, and supporting it by such further
+regulations as may appear to be proper, should any additional support
+be found necessary.
+
+The question concerning the construction of the first article of the
+treaty of Ghent has been, by a joint act of the representatives of
+the United States and of Great Britain at the Court of St. Petersburg,
+submitted to the decision of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of
+Russia. The result of that submission has not yet been received. The
+commissioners under the fifth article of that treaty not having been
+able to agree upon their decision, their reports to the two Governments,
+according to the provisions of the treaty, may be expected at an early
+day.
+
+With Spain the treaty of February 22, 1819, has been partly carried into
+execution. Possession of East and West Florida has been given to the
+United States, but the officers charged with that service by an order
+from His Catholic Majesty, delivered by his minister to the Secretary
+of State, and transmitted by a special agent to the Captain-General
+of Cuba, to whom it was directed and in whom the government of those
+Provinces was vested, have not only omitted, in contravention of the
+order of their Sovereign, the performance of the express stipulation
+to deliver over the archives and documents relating to the property
+and sovereignty of those Provinces, all of which it was expected would
+have been delivered either before or when the troops were withdrawn,
+but defeated since every effort of the United States to obtain them,
+especially those of the greatest importance. This omission has given
+rise to several incidents of a painful nature, the character of which
+will be fully disclosed by the documents which will be hereafter
+communicated.
+
+In every other circumstance the law of the 3d of March last, for
+carrying into effect that treaty, has been duly attended to. For the
+execution of that part which preserved in force, for the government of
+the inhabitants for the term specified, all the civil, military, and
+judicial powers exercised by the existing government of those Provinces
+an adequate number of officers, as was presumed, were appointed, and
+ordered to their respective stations. Both Provinces were formed into
+one Territory, and a governor appointed for it; but in consideration
+of the pre-existing division and of the distance and difficulty of
+communication between Pensacola, the residence of the governor of West
+Florida, and St. Augustine, that of the governor of East Florida,
+at which places the inconsiderable population of each Province was
+principally collected, two secretaries were appointed, the one to reside
+at Pensacola and the other at St. Augustine. Due attention was likewise
+paid to the execution of the laws of the United States relating to the
+revenue and the slave trade, which were extended to these Provinces.
+The whole Territory was divided into three collection districts, that
+part lying between the river St. Marys and Cape Florida forming one,
+that from the Cape to the Apalachicola another, and that from the
+Apalachicola to the Perdido the third. To these districts the usual
+number of revenue officers were appointed; and to secure the due
+operation of these laws one judge and a district attorney were appointed
+to reside at Pensacola, and likewise one judge and a district attorney
+to reside at St. Augustine, with a specified boundary between them;
+and one marshal for the whole, with authority to appoint a deputy. In
+carrying this law into effect, and especially that part relating to the
+powers of the existing government of those Provinces, it was thought
+important, in consideration of the short term for which it was to
+operate and the radical change which would be made at the approaching
+session of Congress, to avoid expense, to make no appointment which
+should not be absolutely necessary to give effect to those powers, to
+withdraw none of our citizens from their pursuits, whereby to subject
+the Government to claims which could not be gratified and the parties
+to losses which it would be painful to witness.
+
+It has been seen with much concern that in the performance of these
+duties a collision arose between the governor of the Territory and the
+judge appointed for the western district. It was presumed that the
+law under which this transitory government was organized, and the
+commissions which were granted to the officers who were appointed to
+execute each branch of the system, and to which the commissions were
+adapted, would have been understood in the same sense by them in which
+they were understood by the Executive. Much allowance is due to officers
+employed in each branch of this system, and the more so as there is good
+cause to believe that each acted under the conviction that he possessed
+the power which he undertook to exercise. Of the officer holding the
+principal station, I think it proper to observe that he accepted it
+with reluctance, in compliance with the invitation given him, and from
+a high sense of duty to his country, being willing to contribute to the
+consummation of an event which would insure complete protection to an
+important part of our Union, which had suffered much from incursion and
+invasion, and to the defense of which his very gallant and patriotic
+services had been so signally and usefully devoted.
+
+From the intrinsic difficulty of executing laws deriving their origin
+from different sources, and so essentially different in many important
+circumstances, the advantage, and indeed the necessity, of establishing
+as soon as may be practicable a well-organized government over that
+Territory on the principles of our system is apparent. This subject is
+therefore recommended to the early consideration of Congress.
+
+In compliance with an injunction of the law of the 3d of March last,
+three commissioners have also been appointed and a board organized for
+carrying into effect the eleventh article of the treaty above recited,
+making provision for the payment of such of our citizens as have
+well-founded claims on Spain of the character specified by that treaty.
+This board has entered on its duties and made some progress therein.
+The commissioner and surveyor of His Catholic Majesty, provided for by
+the fourth article of the treaty, have not yet arrived in the United
+States, but are soon expected. As soon as they do arrive corresponding
+appointments will be made and every facility be afforded for the due
+execution of this service.
+
+The Government of His Most Faithful Majesty since the termination of the
+last session of Congress has been removed from Rio de Janeiro to Lisbon,
+where a revolution similar to that which had occurred in the neighboring
+Kingdom of Spain had in like manner been sanctioned by the accepted
+and pledged faith of the reigning monarch. The diplomatic intercourse
+between the United States and the Portuguese dominions, interrupted
+by this important event, has not yet been resumed, but the change
+of internal administration having already materially affected the
+commercial intercourse of the United States with the Portuguese
+dominions, the renewal of the public missions between the two countries
+appears to be desirable at an early day.
+
+It is understood that the colonies in South America have had great
+success during the present year in the struggle for' their independence.
+The new Government of Colombia has extended its territories and
+considerably augmented its strength, and at Buenos Ayres, where civil
+dissensions had for some time before prevailed, greater harmony and
+better order appear to have been established. Equal success has attended
+their efforts in the Provinces on the Pacific. It has long been manifest
+that it would be impossible for Spain to reduce these colonies by force,
+and equally so that no conditions short of their independence would be
+satisfactory to them. It may therefore be presumed, and it is earnestly
+hoped, that the Government of Spain, guided by enlightened and liberal
+councils, will find it to comport with its interests and due to its
+magnanimity to terminate this exhausting controversy on that basis. To
+promote this result by friendly counsel with the Government of Spain
+will be the object of the Government of the United States.
+
+In conducting the fiscal operations of the year it has been found
+necessary to carry into full effect the act of the last session of
+Congress authorizing a loan of $5,000,000. This sum has been raised at
+an average premium of $5.59 per centum upon stock bearing an interest
+at the rate of 5 per cent per annum, redeemable at the option of the
+Government after the 1st day of January, 1835.
+
+There has been issued under the provisions of this act $4,735,296.30 of
+5 per cent stock, and there has been or will be redeemed during the year
+$3,197,030.71 of Louisiana 6 per cent deferred stock and Mississippi
+stock. There has therefore been an actual increase of the public debt
+contracted during the year of $1,538,266.69.
+
+The receipts into the Treasury from the 1st of January to the 30th of
+September last have amounted to $16,219,197.70, which, with the balance
+of $1,198,461.21 in the Treasury on the former day, make the aggregate
+sum of $17,417,658.91. The payments from the Treasury during the same
+period have amounted to $15,655,288.47, leaving in the Treasury on the
+last-mentioned day the sum of $1,762,370.44. It is estimated that the
+receipts of the fourth quarter of the year will exceed the demands which
+will be made on the Treasury during the same period, and that the amount
+in the Treasury on the 30th of September last will be increased on the
+1st day of January next.
+
+At the close of the last session it was anticipated that the progressive
+diminution of the public revenue in 1819 and 1820, which had been the
+result of the languid state of our foreign commerce in those years,
+had in the latter year reached its extreme point of depression. It
+has, however, been ascertained that that point was reached only at the
+termination of the first quarter of the present year. From that time
+until the 30th of September last the duties secured have exceeded those
+of the corresponding quarters of the last year $1,172,000, whilst the
+amount of debentures issued during the three first quarters of this year
+is $952,000 less than that of the same quarters of the last year.
+
+There are just grounds to believe that the improvement which has
+occurred in the revenue during the last-mentioned period will not only
+be maintained, but that it will progressively increase through the next
+and several succeeding years, so as to realize the results which were
+presented upon that subject by the official reports of the Treasury at
+the commencement of the last session of Congress.
+
+Under the influence of the most unfavorable circumstances the revenue
+for the next and subsequent years to the year 1825 will exceed the
+demands at present authorized by law.
+
+It may fairly be presumed that under the protection given to domestic
+manufactures by the existing laws we shall become at no distant period a
+manufacturing country on an extensive scale. Possessing as we do the raw
+materials in such vast amount, with a capacity to augment them to an
+indefinite extent; raising within the country aliment of every kind to
+an amount far exceeding the demand for home consumption, even in the
+most unfavorable years, and to be obtained always at a very moderate
+price; skilled also, as our people are, in the mechanic arts and in
+every improvement calculated to lessen the demand for and the price of
+labor, it is manifest that their success in every branch of domestic
+industry may and will be carried, under the encouragement given by the
+present duties, to an extent to meet any demand which under a fair
+competition may be made upon it.
+
+A considerable increase of domestic manufactures, by diminishing the
+importation of foreign, will probably tend to lessen the amount of the
+public revenue. As, however, a large proportion of the revenue which is
+derived from duties is raised from other articles than manufactures, the
+demand for which will increase with our population, it is believed that
+a fund will still be raised from that source adequate to the greater
+part of the public expenditures, especially as those expenditures,
+should we continue to be blessed with peace, will be diminished by the
+completion of the fortifications, dockyards, and other public works, by
+the augmentation of the Navy to the point to which it is proposed to
+carry it, and by the payment of the public debt, including pensions for
+military services.
+
+It can not be doubted that the more complete our internal resources and
+the less dependent we are on foreign powers for every national as well
+as domestic purpose the greater and more stable will be the public
+felicity. By the increase of domestic manufactures will the demand for
+the rude materials at home be increased, and thus will the dependence of
+the several parts of our Union on each other and the strength of the
+Union itself be proportionably augmented. In this process, which is very
+desirable, and inevitable under the existing duties, the resources which
+obviously present themselves to supply a deficiency in the revenue,
+should it occur, are the interests which may derive the principal
+benefit from the change. If domestic manufactures are raised by duties
+on foreign, the deficiency in the fund necessary for public purposes
+should be supplied by duties on the former. At the last session it
+seemed doubtful whether the revenue derived from the present sources
+would be adequate to all the great purposes of our Union, including
+the construction of our fortifications, the augmentation of the Navy,
+and the protection of our commerce against the dangers to which it is
+exposed. Had the deficiency been such as to subject us to the necessity
+either to abandon those measures of defense or to resort to other means
+for adequate funds, the course presented to the adoption of a virtuous
+and enlightened people appeared to be a plain one. It must be gratifying
+to all to know that this necessity does not exist. Nothing, however, in
+contemplation of such important objects, which can be easily provided
+for, should be left to hazard. It is thought that the revenue may
+receive an augmentation from the existing sources, and in a manner to
+aid our manufactures, without hastening prematurely the result which
+has been suggested. It is believed that a moderate additional duty on
+certain articles would have that effect, without being liable to any
+serious objection.
+
+The examination of the whole coast, for the construction of permanent
+fortifications, from St. Croix to the Sabine, with the exception of part
+of the territory lately acquired, will be completed in the present year,
+as will be the survey of the Mississippi, under the resolution of the
+House of Representatives, from the mouth of the Ohio to the ocean, and
+likewise of the Ohio from Louisville to the Mississippi. A progress
+corresponding with the sums appropriated has also been made in the
+construction of these fortifications at the points designated. As they
+will form a system of defense for the whole maritime frontier, and in
+consequence for the interior, and are to last for ages, the greatest
+care has been taken to fix the position of each work and to form it on
+such a scale as will be adequate to the purpose intended by it. All the
+inlets and assailable parts of our Union have been minutely examined,
+and positions taken with a view to the best effect, observing in every
+instance a just regard for economy. Doubts, however, being entertained
+as to the propriety of the position and extent of the work at Dauphine
+Island, further progress in it was suspended soon after the last session
+of Congress, and an order given to the Board of Engineers and Naval
+Commissioners to make a further and more minute examination of it in
+both respects, and to report the result without delay.
+
+Due progress has been made in the construction of vessels of war
+according to the law providing for the gradual augmentation of the Navy,
+and to the extent of existing appropriations. The vessels authorized by
+the act of 1820 have all been completed and are now in actual service.
+None of the larger ships have been or will be launched for the present,
+the object being to protect all which may not be required for immediate
+service from decay by suitable buildings erected over them. A squadron
+has been maintained, as heretofore, in the Mediterranean, by means
+whereof peace has been preserved with the Barbary Powers. This squadron
+has been reduced the present year to as small a force as is compatible
+with the fulfillment of the object intended by it. From past experience
+and the best information respecting the views of those powers it is
+distinctly understood that should our squadron be withdrawn they would
+soon recommence their hostilities and depredations upon our commerce.
+Their fortifications have lately been rebuilt and their maritime force
+increased. It has also been found necessary to maintain a naval force on
+the Pacific for the protection of the very important interests of our
+citizens engaged in commerce and the fisheries in that sea. Vessels have
+likewise been employed in cruising along the Atlantic coast, in the Gulf
+of Mexico, on the coast of Africa, and in the neighboring seas. In
+the latter many piracies have been committed on our commerce, and so
+extensive was becoming the range of those unprincipled adventurers that
+there was cause to apprehend, without a timely and decisive effort
+to suppress them, the worst consequences would ensue. Fortunately, a
+considerable check has been given to that spirit by our cruisers, who
+have succeeded in capturing and destroying several of their vessels.
+Nevertheless, it is considered an object of high importance to continue
+these cruises until the practice is entirely suppressed. Like success
+has attended our efforts to suppress the slave trade. Under the flag
+of the United States and the sanction of their papers the trade may
+be considered as entirely suppressed, and if any of our citizens are
+engaged in it under the flags and papers of other powers, it is only
+from a respect to the rights of those powers that these offenders are
+not seized and brought home to receive the punishment which the laws
+inflict. If every other power should adopt the same policy and pursue
+the same vigorous means for carrying it into effect, the trade could
+no longer exist.
+
+Deeply impressed with the blessings which we enjoy, and of which we have
+such manifold proofs, my mind is irresistibly drawn to that Almighty
+Being, the great source from whence they proceed and to whom our most
+grateful acknowledgments are due.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 16, 1821_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury,
+inclosing the report of the commissioners appointed in conformity with
+the provisions of "An act to authorize the building of light-houses
+therein mentioned, and for other purposes," approved the 3d of March,
+1821.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 16, 1821_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+By a resolution of Congress approved on the 27th of March, 1818, it was
+directed that the journal, acts, and proceedings of the Convention
+which formed the present Constitution of the United States should be
+published, under the direction of the President of the United States,
+together with the secret journals of the acts and proceedings, and the
+foreign correspondence (with a certain exception), of the Congress of
+the United States from the first meeting thereof down to the date of the
+ratification of the definitive treaty of peace between Great Britain
+and the United States, in the year 1783, and that 1,000 copies thereof
+should be printed, of which one copy should be furnished to each member
+of that (the Fifteenth) Congress, and the residue should remain subject
+to the future disposition of Congress.
+
+And by a resolution of Congress approved on the 21st April, 1820, it
+was provided that the secret journal, together with all the papers
+and documents connected with that journal, and all other papers and
+documents heretofore considered confidential, of the old Congress, from
+the date of the ratification of the definitive treaty of the year 1783
+to the formation of the present Government, which were remaining in
+the office of the Secretary of State, should be published under the
+direction of the President of the United States, and that I,000 copies
+thereof should be printed and deposited in the Library subject to the
+disposition of Congress.
+
+In pursuance of these two resolutions, 1,000 copies of the journals
+and acts of the Convention which formed the Constitution have been
+heretofore printed and placed at the disposal of Congress, and 1,000
+copies of the secret journals of the Congress of the Confederation,
+complete, have been printed, 250 copies of which have been reserved to
+comply with the direction of furnishing one copy to each member of the
+Fifteenth Congress; the remaining 750 copies have been deposited in the
+Library and are now at the disposal of Congress.
+
+By the general appropriation act of 9th April, 1818, the sum of $10,000
+was appropriated for defraying the expenses of printing done pursuant to
+the resolution of the 27th of March of that year. No appropriation has
+yet been made to defray the expenses incident to the execution of the
+resolution of 21st April, 1820. The whole expense hitherto incurred
+in carrying both resolutions into effect has exceeded by $542.56 the
+appropriation of April, 1818. This balance remains due to the printers,
+and is included in the estimates of appropriation for the year 1822.
+That part of the resolution of the 27th March, 1818, which directs
+the publication of the foreign correspondence of the Congress of the
+Confederation remains yet to be executed, and a further appropriation
+will be necessary for carrying it into effect.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 30, 1821.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate a treaty of peace and amity concluded between
+the United States and the Dey and Regency of Algiers on the 23d of
+December, 1816.
+
+This treaty is in all respects the same in its provisions with that
+which had been concluded on the 30th of June, 1815, and was ratified, by
+and with the advice and consent of the Senate, on the 26th of December
+of that year, with the exception of one additional and explanatory
+article.
+
+The circumstances which have occasioned the delay in laying the
+present treaty before the Senate for their advice and consent to its
+ratification are, that having been received in the spring of the year
+1817, during the recess of the Senate, in the interval between the time
+when the Department of State was vacated by its late Secretary and the
+entrance of his successor upon the duties of the office, and when a
+change also occurred of the chief clerk of the Department, it was not
+recollected by the officers of the Department that it remained without
+the constitutional sanction of the Senate until shortly before the
+commencement of the present session. The documents explanatory of the
+additional articles are likewise herewith transmitted.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON _January 7, 1822_.
+
+_To the Congress of the United States_:
+
+I transmit a report of the Secretary of the Navy, together with a survey
+of the coast of North Carolina, made in pursuance of a resolution of
+Congress of the 19th January, 1819.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 8, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In pursuance of a joint resolution of the two Houses of Congress of the
+3d of March, 1821, authorizing the President to cause such number of
+astronomical observations to be made by methods which might, in his
+judgment, be best adapted to insure a correct determination of the
+longitude of the Capitol, in the city of Washington, from Greenwich or
+some other known meridian in Europe, and that he cause the data, with
+accurate calculations on statements founded thereon, to be laid before
+them at their present session, I herewith transmit to Congress the
+report made by William Lambert, who was selected by me on the 10th
+of April last to perform the service required by that resolution.
+
+As no compensation is authorized by law for the execution of the duties
+assigned to Mr. Lambert, it is submitted to the discretion of Congress
+to make the necessary provision for an adequate allowance to him and to
+the assistant whom he employed to aid him in his observations.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 17, 1822.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I nominate the persons whose names are stated in the inclosed letter
+from the Secretary of War for the appointments therein respectively
+proposed for them.
+
+The changes in the Army growing out of the act of the 2d of March, 1821,
+"to reduce and fix the military peace establishment of the United
+States," are exhibited in the Official Register for the year 1822,
+herewith submitted for the information of the Senate.
+
+Under the late organization of the artillery arm, with the exception of
+the colonel of the regiment of light artillery, there were no grades
+higher than lieutenant-colonel recognized. Three of the four colonels of
+artillery provided for by the act of Congress of the 2d of March, 1821,
+were considered, therefore, as original vacancies, to be filled, as the
+good of the service might dictate, from the Army corps.
+
+The Pay Department being considered as a part of the military
+establishment, and, within the meaning of the above-recited act,
+constituting one of the corps of the Army, the then Pay master-General
+was appointed colonel of one of the regiments. A contrary construction,
+which would have limited the corps specified in the twelfth section of
+the act to the line of the Army, would equally have excluded all the
+other branches of the staff, as well that of the Pay Department,
+which was expressly comprehended among those to be reduced. Such a
+construction did not seem to be authorized by the act, since by its
+general terms it was inferred to have been intended to give a power
+of sufficient extent to make the reduction by which so many were to
+be disbanded operate with as little inconvenience as possible to the
+parties. Acting on these views and on the recommendation of the board of
+general officers, who were called in on account of their knowledge and
+experience to aid the Executive in so delicate a service, I thought
+it proper to appoint Colonel Towson to one of the new regiments of
+artillery, it being a corps in which he had eminently distinguished
+himself and acquired great knowledge and experience in the late war.
+
+In reconciling conflicting claims provision for four officers of
+distinction could only be made in grades inferior to those which they
+formerly held. Their names are submitted, with the nomination for the
+brevet rank of the grades from which they were severally reduced.
+
+It is proper also to observe that as it was found difficult in executing
+the act to retain each officer in the corps to which he belonged, the
+power of transferring officers from one corps to another was reserved
+in the general orders, published in the Register, till the 1st day of
+January last, in order that upon vacancies occurring those who had been
+put out of their proper corps might as far as possible be restored to
+it. Under this reservation, and in conformity to the power vested in
+the Executive by the first section of the seventy-fifth article of
+the general regulations of the Army, approved by Congress at the last
+session, on the resignation of Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell, of the corps
+of artillery, Lieutenant-Colonel Lindsay, who had belonged to this corps
+before the late reduction, was transferred back to it in the same grade.
+As an additional motive to the transfer, it had the effect of preventing
+Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor and Major Woolley being reduced to lower
+grades than those which they held before the reduction, and Captain Cobb
+from being disbanded under the act. These circumstances were considered
+as constituting an extraordinary case within the meaning of the section
+already referred to of the Regulations of the Army. It is, however,
+submitted to the Senate whether this is a case requiring their
+confirmation; and in case that such should be their opinion, it is
+submitted to them for their constitutional confirmation.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 20, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives
+"requesting the President of the United States to cause to be laid
+before this House an account of the expenditures made under the act to
+provide for the civilization of the Indian tribes, specifying the times
+when, the persons to whom, and the particular purpose for which such
+expenditures have been made," I herewith transmit a report from the
+Secretary of War.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 28, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the 2d instant, I transmit a report
+of the Secretary of State, with all the documents relating to the
+misunderstanding between Andrew Jackson, while acting as governor of
+the Floridas, and Eligius Fromentin, judge of a court therein; and also
+of the correspondence between the Secretary of State and the minister
+plenipotentiary of His Catholic Majesty on certain proceedings in that
+Territory in execution of the powers vested in the governor by the
+Executive under the law of the last session for carrying into effect the
+late treaty between the United States and Spain. Being always desirous
+to communicate to Congress, or to either House, all the information in
+the possession of the Executive respecting any important interest of our
+Union which may be communicated without real injury to our constituents,
+and which can rarely happen except in negotiations pending with foreign
+powers, and deeming it more consistent with the principles of our
+Government in cases submitted to my discretion, as in the present
+instance, to hazard error by the freedom of the communication rather
+than by withholding any portion of information belonging to the subject,
+I have thought proper to communicate every document comprised within
+this call.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 30, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In pursuance of a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+16th instant, requesting information with regard to outrages and abuses
+committed upon the persons of the officers and crews of American vessels
+at The Havannah and other Spanish ports in America, and whether the
+Spanish authorities have taken any measures to punish, restrain, or
+countenance such outrages, I herewith transmit to that House a report
+from the Secretary of State, containing the information called for.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 30, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In pursuance of a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+8th instant, I transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the
+Secretary of State, containing all the information procured by him in
+relation to commissions of bankruptcy in certain districts of the United
+States under the act of 4th of April, 1800, "to establish an uniform
+system of bankruptcy in the United States."
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 7, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives
+requesting the President to "cause that House to be informed whether the
+commissioners appointed to lay out the continuation of the Cumberland
+road from Wheeling, in the State of Virginia, through the States of
+Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to the Mississippi River, have completed
+the same, and, if not completed, the reason why their duties have been
+suspended," I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury,
+which furnishes the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 10, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives
+"requesting the President of the United States to cause to be laid
+before this House any information which he may have of the condition
+of the several Indian tribes within the United States and the measures
+hitherto devised and pursued for their civilization," I now transmit
+a report from the Secretary of War.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives
+"requesting the President of the United States to cause to be reported
+to this House whether the Indian title has been extinguished by the
+United States to any lands the right of soil in which has been or is
+claimed by any particular State, and, if so, the conditions upon which
+the same has been extinguished," I herewith transmit a report from the
+Secretary of War, furnishing all the information in the possession of
+that Department embraced by the resolution,
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 14th instant,
+requesting the President of the United States "to make known to the
+Senate the annual disposition which has been made of the sum of $15,000
+appropriated by an act of Congress of the year 1802 to promote
+civilization among friendly Indian tribes, showing to what tribes that
+evidence of the national bounty has been extended, the names of the
+agents who have been intrusted with the application of the money, the
+several amounts by them received, and the manner in which they have
+severally applied it to accomplish the objects of the act," I herewith
+transmit a report from the Secretary of War, furnishing all the
+information upon this subject in the possession of that Department.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 25, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Under the appropriation made by the act of Congress of the 11th of
+April, 1820, for holding treaties with the Creek and Cherokee nations of
+Indians for the extinguishment of the Indian title to lands within the
+State of Georgia, pursuant to the fourth condition of the first article
+of the articles of agreement and cession concluded between the United
+States and the State of Georgia on the 24th day of April, 1802, a treaty
+was held with the Creek Nation, the expense of which upon the settlement
+of the accounts of the commissioners who were appointed to conduct the
+negotiation was ascertained to amount to the sum of $24,695, leaving an
+unexpended balance of the sum appropriated of $5,305, a sum too small
+to negotiate a treaty with the Cherokees, as was contemplated by the
+act making the appropriation. The legislature of Georgia being still
+desirous that a treaty should be held for further extinguishment of the
+Indian title to lands within that State, and to obtain an indemnity to
+the citizens of that State for property of considerable value, which has
+been taken from them by the Cherokee Indians, I submit the subject to
+the consideration of Congress, that a further sum, which, in addition
+to the balance of the former appropriation, will be adequate to the
+expenses attending a treaty with them, may be appropriated should
+Congress deem it expedient.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 4, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+22d ultimo, requesting the President of the United States "to cause to
+be laid before this House a statement showing the amount of woolens
+purchased for the use of the Army during the years 1820 and 1821,
+comprising a description of the articles, of whom the purchases were
+made, at what prices, and what proportion thereof was of American
+manufacture," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 8, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In transmitting to the House of Representatives the documents called for
+by the resolution of that House of the 30th January, I consider it my
+duty to invite the attention of Congress to a very important subject,
+and to communicate the sentiments of the Executive on it, that, should
+Congress entertain similar sentiments, there may be such cooperation
+between the two departments of the Government as their respective rights
+and duties may require.
+
+The revolutionary movement in the Spanish Provinces in this hemisphere
+attracted the attention and excited the sympathy of our fellow-citizens
+from its commencement. This feeling was natural and honorable to
+them, from causes which need not be communicated to you. It has been
+gratifying to all to see the general acquiescence which has been
+manifested in the policy which the constituted authorities have deemed
+it proper to pursue in regard to this contest. As soon as the movement
+assumed such a steady and consistent form as to make the success of the
+Provinces probable, the rights to which they were entitled by the law
+of nations as equal parties to a civil war were extended to them. Each
+party was permitted to enter our ports with its public and private
+ships, and to take from them every article which was the subject of
+commerce with other nations. Our citizens, also, have carried on
+commerce with both parties, and the Government has protected it with
+each in articles not contraband of war. Through the whole of this
+contest the United States have remained neutral, and have fulfilled with
+the utmost impartiality all the obligations incident to that character.
+
+This contest has now reached such a stage and been attended with such
+decisive success on the part of the Provinces that it merits the most
+profound consideration whether their right to the rank of independent
+nations, with all the advantages incident to it in their intercourse
+with the United States, is not complete. Buenos Ayres assumed that rank
+by a formal declaration in 1816, and has enjoyed it since 1810 free from
+invasion by the parent country. The Provinces composing the Republic
+of Colombia, after having separately declared their independence, were
+united by a fundamental law of the 17th of December, 1819. A strong
+Spanish force occupied at that time certain parts of the territory
+within their limits and waged a destructive war. That force has since
+been repeatedly defeated, and the whole of it either made prisoners
+or destroyed or expelled from the country, with the exception of an
+inconsiderable portion only, which is blockaded in two fortresses.
+The Provinces on the Pacific have likewise been very successful. Chili
+declared independence in 1818, and has since enjoyed it undisturbed; and
+of late, by the assistance of Chili and Buenos Ayres, the revolution
+has extended to Peru. Of the movement in Mexico our information is less
+authentic, but it is, nevertheless, distinctly understood that the new
+Government has declared its independence, and that there is now no
+opposition to it there nor a force to make any. For the last three years
+the Government of Spain has not sent a single corps of troops to any
+part of that country, nor is there any reason to believe it will send
+any in future. Thus it is manifest that all those Provinces are not only
+in the full enjoyment of their independence, but, considering the state
+of the war and other circumstances, that there is not the most remote
+prospect of their being deprived of it.
+
+When the result of such a contest is manifestly settled, the new
+governments have a claim to recognition by other powers which ought not
+to be resisted. Civil wars too often excite feelings which the parties
+can not control. The opinion entertained by other powers as to the
+result may assuage those feelings and promote an accommodation between
+them useful and honorable to both. The delay which has been observed in
+making a decision on this important subject will, it is presumed, have
+afforded an unequivocal proof to Spain, as it must have done to other
+powers, of the high respect entertained by the United States for her
+rights and of their determination not to interfere with them. The
+Provinces belonging to this hemisphere are our neighbors, and have
+successively, as each portion of the country acquired its independence,
+pressed their recognition by an appeal to facts not to be contested, and
+which they thought gave them a just title to it. To motives of interest
+this Government has invariably disclaimed all pretension, being resolved
+to take no part in the controversy or other measure in regard to it
+which should not merit the sanction of the civilized world. To other
+claims a just sensibility has been always felt and frankly acknowledged,
+but they in themselves could never become an adequate cause of action.
+It was incumbent on this Government to look to every important fact and
+circumstance on which a sound opinion could be formed, which has been
+done. When we regard, then, the great length of time which this war has
+been prosecuted, the complete success which has attended it in favor
+of the Provinces, the present condition of the parties, and the utter
+inability of Spain to produce any change in it, we are compelled to
+conclude that its fate is settled, and that the Provinces which have
+declared their independence and are in the enjoyment of it ought to
+be recognized.
+
+Of the views of the Spanish Government on this subject no particular
+information has been recently received. It may be presumed that the
+successful progress of the revolution through such a long series of
+years, gaining strength and extending annually in every direction, and
+embracing by the late important events, with little exception, all the
+dominions of Spain south of the United States on this continent, placing
+thereby the complete sovereignty over the whole in the hands of the
+people, will reconcile the parent country to an accommodation with them
+on the basis of their unqualified independence. Nor has any authentic
+information been recently received of the disposition of other powers
+respecting it. A sincere desire has been cherished to act in concert
+with them in the proposed recognition, of which several were some time
+past duly apprised; but it was understood that they were not prepared
+for it. The immense space between those powers, even those which border
+on the Atlantic, and these Provinces makes the movement an affair
+of less interest and excitement to them than to us. It is probable,
+therefore, that they have been less attentive to its progress than we
+have been. It may be presumed, however, that the late events will dispel
+all doubt of the result.
+
+In proposing this measure it is not contemplated to change thereby in
+the slightest manner our friendly relations with either of the parties,
+but to observe in all respects, as heretofore, should the war be
+continued, the most perfect neutrality between them. Of this friendly
+disposition an assurance will be given to the Government of Spain,
+to whom it is presumed it will be, as it ought to be, satisfactory.
+The measure is proposed under a thorough conviction that it is in
+strict accord with the law of nations, that it is just and right as
+to the parties, and that the United States owe it to their station
+and character in the world, as well as to their essential interests,
+to adopt it. Should Congress concur in the view herein presented, they
+will doubtless see the propriety of making the necessary appropriations
+for carrying it into effect.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 9, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, together with the annual
+return of the militia of the United States, and an exhibit of the arms,
+accouterments, and ammunition of the several States and Territories of
+the United States, prepared in conformity with the militia laws on that
+subject.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 12, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I lay before the Senate the copy of a supplementary report, made by
+William Lambert, in relation to the longitude of the Capitol from
+Greenwich, in pursuance of a joint resolution of the two Houses of
+Congress of the 3d of March, 1821, and I subjoin an extract from the
+letter of Mr. Lambert submitting that report.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 26, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Congress having suspended the appropriation, at the last session,
+for the fortification at Dauphine Island, in consequence of a doubt
+which was entertained of the propriety of that position, the further
+prosecution of the work was suspended, and an order given, as intimated
+in the message of the 3d of December, to the Board of Engineers and
+Naval Commissioners to examine that part of the coast, and particularly
+that position, as also the position at Mobile Point, with which it is
+connected, and to report their opinion thereon, which has been done,
+and which report is herewith communicated.
+
+By this report it appears to be still the opinion of the Board that the
+construction of works at both these positions is of great importance to
+the defense of New Orleans and of all that portion of our Union which is
+connected with and dependent on the Mississippi and on the other waters
+which empty into the Gulf of Mexico between that river and Cape Florida.
+That the subject may be fully before Congress, I transmit also a copy
+of the former report of the Board, being that on which the work was
+undertaken and has been in part executed. Approving as I do the opinion
+of the Board, I consider it my duty to state the reasons on which I
+adopted the first report, especially as they were in part suggested by
+the occurrences of the late war.
+
+The policy which induced Congress to decide on and provide for the
+defense of the coast immediately after the war was founded on the marked
+events of that interesting epoch. The vast body of men which it was
+found necessary to call into the field through the whole extent of our
+maritime frontier, and the number who perished by exposure, with the
+immense expenditure of money and waste of property which followed, were
+to be traced in an eminent degree to the defenseless condition of the
+coast. It was to mitigate these evils in future wars, and even for the
+higher purpose of preventing war itself, that the decision was formed to
+make the coast, so far as it might be practicable, impregnable, and that
+the measures necessary to that great object have been pursued with so
+much zeal since.
+
+It is known that no part of our Union is more exposed to invasion by the
+numerous avenues leading to it, or more defenseless by the thinness of
+the neighboring population, or offers a greater temptation to invasion,
+either as a permanent acquisition or as a prize to the cupidity of
+grasping invaders from the immense amount of produce deposited there,
+than the city of New Orleans. It is known also that the seizure of no
+part of our Union could affect so deeply and vitally the immediate
+interests of so many States and of so many of our fellow-citizens,
+comprising all that extensive territory and numerous population which
+are connected with and dependent on the Mississippi, as the seizure of
+that city. Strong works, well posted, were therefore deemed absolutely
+necessary for its protection.
+
+It is not, however, by the Mississippi only, or the waters which
+communicate directly with or approach nearest to New Orleans, that the
+town is assailable. It will be recollected that in the late war the
+public solicitude was excited not so much by the danger which menaced it
+in those directions as by the apprehension that, while a feint might be
+made there, the main force, landing either in the bay of Mobile or other
+waters between that bay and the Rigolets, would be thrown above the town
+in the rear of the army which had been collected there for its defense.
+Full confidence was entertained that that gallant army, led by the
+gallant and able chief who commanded it, would repel any attack to which
+it might be exposed in front. But had such a force been thrown above the
+town, and a position taken on the banks of the river, the disadvantage
+to which our troops would have been subjected, attacked in front and
+rear as they might have been, may easily be conceived. As their supplies
+would have been cut off, they could not long have remained in the city,
+and, withdrawing from it, it must have fallen immediately into the hands
+of the force below. In ascending the river to attack the force above,
+the attack must have been made to great disadvantage, since it must have
+been on such ground and at such time as the enemy preferred. These
+considerations shew that defenses other than such as are immediately
+connected with the city are of great importance to its safety.
+
+An attempt to seize New Orleans and the lower part of the Mississippi
+will be made only by a great power or a combination of several powers,
+with a strong naval and land force, the latter of which must be brought
+in transports which may sail in shallow water. If the defenses around
+New Orleans are well posted and of sufficient strength to repel any
+attack which may be made on them, the city can be assailed only by a
+land force, which must pass in the direction above suggested, between
+the Rigolets and the bay of Mobile. It becomes, therefore, an object of
+high importance to present such an obstacle to such an attempt as would
+defeat it should it be made. Fortifications are useful for the defense
+of posts, to prevent the approach to cities and the passage of rivers;
+but as works their effect can not be felt beyond the reach of their
+cannon. They are formidable in other respects by the body of men
+within them, which may be removed and applied to other purposes.
+
+Between the Rigolets and the bay of Mobile there is a chain of islands,
+at the extremity of which is Dauphine Island, which forms, with Mobile
+Point, from which it is distant about 3-1/4 miles, the entrance into the
+bay of Mobile, which leads through that part of the State of Alabama to
+the towns of Mobile and Blakeley. The distance between Dauphine Island
+and the Rigolets is 90 miles. The principal islands between them are
+Massacre, Horn, Ship, and Cat islands, near to which there is anchorage
+for large ships of war. The first object is to prevent the landing of
+any force for the purposes above stated between the Rigolets and the bay
+of Mobile; the second, to defeat that force in case it should be landed.
+When the distance from one point to the other is considered, it is
+believed that it would be impossible to establish works so near to each
+other as to prevent the landing of such a force. Its defeat, therefore,
+should be effectually provided for. If the arrangement should be such as
+to make that result evident, it ought to be fairly concluded that the
+attempt would not be made, and thus we should accomplish in the best
+mode possible and with the least expense the complete security of this
+important part of our Union, the great object of our system of defense
+for the whole.
+
+There are some other views of this subject which it is thought will
+merit particular attention in deciding the point in question. Not being
+able to establish a chain of posts, at least for the present, along the
+whole coast from the Rigolets to Dauphine Island, or on all the islands
+between them, at which point shall we begin? Should an attack on the
+city be anticipated, it can not be doubted that an adequate force would
+immediately be ordered there for its defense. If the enemy should
+despair of making an impression on the works near the town, it may be
+presumed that they would promptly decide to make the attempt in the
+manner and in the line above suggested between the Rigolets and the
+bay of Mobile. It will be obvious that the nearer the fortification is
+erected to the Rigolets with a view to this object, should it be on Cat
+or Ship Island, for example, the wider would the passage be left open
+between that work and the bay of Mobile for such an enterprise. The main
+army, being drawn to New Orleans, would be ready to meet such an attempt
+near the Rigolets or at any other point not distant from the city. It
+is probable, therefore, that the enemy, profiting of a fair wind, would
+make his attempt at the greatest distance compatible with his object
+from that point, and at the bay of Mobile should there not be works
+there of sufficient strength to prevent it. Should, however, strong
+works be erected there, such as were sufficient not only for their own
+defense against any attack which might be made on them, but to hold a
+force connected with that which might be drawn from the neighboring
+country, capable of cooperating with the force at the city, and which
+would doubtless be ordered to those works in the event of war, it
+would be dangerous for the invading force to land anywhere between the
+Rigolets and the bay of Mobile and to pass toward the Mississippi above
+the city, lest such a body might be thrown in its rear as to cut off its
+retreat. These considerations show the great advantage of establishing
+at the mouth of the bay of Mobile very strong works, such as would be
+adequate to all the purposes suggested.
+
+If fortifications were necessary only to protect our country and cities
+against the entry of large ships of war into our bays and rivers, they
+would be of little use for the defense of New Orleans, since that city
+can not be approached so near, either by the Mississippi or in any other
+direction, by such vessels for them to make an attack on it. In the
+Gulf, within our limits west of Florida, which had been acquired since
+these works were decided on and commenced, there is no bay or river into
+which large ships of war can enter. As a defense, therefore, against an
+attack from such vessels extensive works would be altogether unnecessary
+either at Mobile Point or at Dauphine Island, since sloops of war only
+can navigate the deepest channel. But it is not for that purpose
+alone that these works are intended. It is to provide also against a
+formidable invasion, both by land and sea, the object of which may be to
+shake the foundation of our system. Should such small works be erected,
+and such an invasion take place, they would be sure to fall at once into
+the hands of the invaders and to be turned against us.
+
+Whether the acquisition of Florida may be considered as affording an
+inducement to make any change in the position or strength of these works
+is a circumstance which also merits attention. From the view which
+I have taken of the subject I am of opinion that it should not. The
+defense of New Orleans and of the river Mississippi against a powerful
+invasion being one of the great objects of such extensive works, that
+object would be essentially abandoned if they should be established
+eastward of the bay of Mobile, since the force to be collected in
+them would be placed at too great a distance to allow the cooperation
+necessary for those purposes between it and that at the city; in
+addition to which, it may be observed that by carrying them to Pensacola
+or farther to the east that bay would fall immediately, in case of such
+invasion, into the hands of the enemy, whereby such cooperation would be
+rendered utterly impossible, and the State of Alabama would also be left
+wholly unprotected.
+
+With a view to such formidable invasion, of which we should never lose
+sight, and of the great objects to which it would be directed, I think
+that very strong works at some point within the Gulf of Mexico will
+be found indispensable. I think also that those works ought to be
+established at the bay of Mobile--one at Mobile Point and the other on
+Dauphine Island--whereby the enemy would be excluded and the complete
+command of that bay, with all the advantages attending it, be secured
+to ourselves. In the case of such invasion, it will, it is presumed,
+be deemed necessary to collect at some point other than at New Orleans
+a strong force, capable of moving in any direction and affording aid
+to any part which may be attacked; and, in my judgment, no position
+presents so many advantages as a point of rendezvous for such force as
+the mouth of that bay. The fortification at the Rigolets will defend the
+entrance by one passage into Lake Pontchartrain, and also into Pearl
+River, which empties into the Gulf at that point. Between the Rigolets
+and Mobile Bay there are but two inlets which deserve the name, those of
+St. Louis and Pascagola, the entrance into which is too shallow even
+for the smallest vessels; and from the Rigolets to Mobile Bay the whole
+coast is equally shallow, affording the depth of a few feet of water
+only. Cat Island, which is nearest the Rigolets, is about 7-1/2 miles
+distant from the coast and 30 from the Rigolets. Ship Island is distant
+about 10 miles from Cat Island and 12 from the coast. Between these
+islands and the coast the water is very shallow.
+
+As to the precise depth of water in approaching those islands from the
+Gulf, the report of the topographical engineers not having yet been
+received, it is impossible to speak with precision; but admitting it
+to be such as for frigates and even ships of the line to enter, the
+anchorage at both is unsafe, being much exposed to northwest winds.
+Along the coast, therefore, there is no motive for such strong works on
+our part--no town to guard, no inlet into the country to defend--and if
+placed on the islands and the entrance to them is such as to admit large
+ships of war, distant as they are from the coast, it would be more easy
+for the enemy to assail them with effect.
+
+The position, however, at Mobile Bay is essentially different. That bay
+takes its name from the Mobile River, which is formed by the junction of
+the Alabama and Tombigbee, which extend each about 300 miles into the
+interior, approaching at their head waters near the Tennessee River.
+If the enemy possessed its mouth, and fortified Mobile Point and
+Dauphine Island, being superior at sea it would be very difficult for
+us to dispossess him of either, even of Mobile Point; and holding that
+position, Pensacola would soon fall, as without incurring great expense
+in the construction of works there it would present but a feeble
+resistance to a strong force in its rear. If we had a work at Mobile
+Point only, the enemy might take Dauphine Island, which would afford
+him great aid in attacking the point, and enable him, even should we
+succeed in repelling the attack, to render us great mischief there and
+throughout the whole Gulf. In every view which can be taken of the
+subject it appears indispensable for us to command the entrance into
+Mobile Bay, and that decision being taken, I think the considerations
+which favor the occupation of Dauphine Island by a strong work are
+conclusive. It is proper to observe that after the repulse before New
+Orleans in the late war the British forces took possession of Dauphine
+Island and held it till the peace. Under neither of the reports of the
+Board of Engineers and Naval Commissioners could any but sloops of war
+enter the bay or the anchorage between Dauphine and Pelican islands.
+Both reports give to that anchorage 18 feet at low water and 20-1/2 at
+high. The only difference between them consists in this, that in the
+first a bar leading to the anchorage, reducing the depth of water to
+12 feet at low tide, was omitted. In neither case could frigates enter,
+though sloops of war of larger size might. The whole scope, however, of
+this reasoning turns on a different principle--on the works necessary to
+defend that bay and, by means thereof, New Orleans, the Mississippi, and
+all the surrounding country against a powerful invasion both by land and
+sea, and not on the precise depth of water in any of the approaches to
+the bay or to the island.
+
+The reasoning which is applicable to the works near New Orleans and at
+the bay of Mobile is equally so in certain respects to those which are
+to be erected for the defense of all the bays and rivers along the other
+parts of the coast. All those works are also erected on a greater scale
+than would be necessary for the sole purpose of preventing the passage
+of our inlets by large ships of war. They are in most instances formed
+for defense against a more powerful invasion, both by land and sea.
+There are, however, some differences between the works which are deemed
+necessary in the Gulf and those in other parts of our Union, founded on
+the peculiar situation of that part of the coast. The vast extent of
+the Mississippi, the great outlet and channel of commerce for so many
+States, all of which may be affected by the seizure of that city, or
+of any part of the river to a great extent above it, is one of those
+striking peculiarities which require particular provision. The thinness
+of the population near the city, making it necessary that the force
+requisite for its defense should be called from distant parts and
+States, is another. The danger which the army assembled at New Orleans
+would be exposed to of being cut off in case the enemy should throw a
+force on the river above it, from the difficulty of ascending the river
+to attack it and of making a retreat in any other direction, is a third.
+For an attack on the city of New Orleans, Mobile Bay, or any part of the
+intermediate coast ships of war would be necessary only as a convoy to
+protect the transports against a naval force on their passage, and on
+their approach to the shore for the landing of the men, and on their
+return home in case they should be repulsed.
+
+On the important subject of our defenses generally I think proper to
+observe that the system was adopted immediately after the late war by
+Congress, on great consideration and a thorough knowledge of the effects
+of that war--by the enormous expense attending it, by the waste of life,
+of property, and by the general distress of the country. The amount of
+debt incurred in that war and due at its conclusion, without taking into
+the estimate other losses, having been heretofore communicated, need
+not now be repeated. The interest of the debt thus incurred is four
+times more than the sum necessary, by annual appropriations, for the
+completion of our whole system of defense, land and naval, to the extent
+provided for and within the time specified. When that system shall be
+completed the expense of construction will cease, and our expenditures
+be proportionally diminished. Should another war occur before it is
+completed, the experience of the last marks in characters too strong
+to be mistaken its inevitable consequences; and should such war occur
+and find us unprepared for it, what will be our justification to the
+enlightened body whom we represent for not having completed these
+defenses? That this system should not have been adopted before the late
+war can not be a cause of surprise to anyone, because all might wish
+to avoid every expense the necessity of which might be in any degree
+doubtful. But with the experience of that war before us it is thought
+there is no cause for hesitation. Will the completion of these works and
+the augmentation of our Navy to the point contemplated by law require
+the imposition of onerous burthens on our fellow-citizens such as they
+can not or will not bear? Have such, or any, burthens been imposed to
+advance the system to its present state? It is known that no burthens
+whatever have been imposed; on the contrary, that all the direct or
+internal taxes have been long repealed, and none paid but those which
+are indirect and voluntary, such as are imposed on articles imported
+from foreign countries, most of which are luxuries, and on the vessels
+employed in the transportation--taxes which some of our most enlightened
+citizens think ought to be imposed on many of the articles for the
+encouragement of our manufactures, even if the revenue derived from them
+could be dispensed with. It is known also that in all other respects
+our condition as a nation is in the highest degree prosperous and
+flourishing, nearly half the debt incurred in the late war having
+already been discharged, and considerable progress having also been made
+in the completion of this system of defense and in the construction of
+other works of great extent and utility, by the revenue derived from
+these sources and from the sale of the public lands. I may add also
+that a very generous provision has been made from the same sources for
+the surviving officers and soldiers of our Revolutionary army. These
+important facts show that this system has been so far executed, and may
+be completed without any real inconvenience to the public. Were it,
+however, otherwise, I have full confidence that any burthens which
+might be found necessary for the completion of this system in both
+its branches within the term contemplated, or much sooner should any
+emergency require it, would be called for rather than complained of
+by our fellow-citizens.
+
+From these views, applicable to the very important subject of our
+defenses generally as well as to the work at Dauphine Island, I think
+it my duty to recommend to Congress an appropriation for the latter.
+I considered the withholding it at the last session as the expression
+only of a doubt by Congress of the propriety of the position, and not
+as a definitive opinion. Supposing that that question would be decided
+at the present session, I caused the position and such parts of the
+coast as are particularly connected with it to be reexamined, that all
+the light on which the decision as to the appropriation could depend
+might be fully before you. In the first survey, the report of which
+was that on which the works intended for the defense of New Orleans,
+the Mississippi, the bay of Mobile, and all the country dependent on
+those waters were sanctioned by the Executive, the commissioners were
+industriously engaged about six months. I should have communicated that
+very able and interesting document then but from a doubt how far the
+interest of our country would justify its publication, a circumstance
+which I now mention that the attention of Congress may be drawn to it.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MARCH 26, 1822.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+Having executed the act entitled "An act to reduce and fix the military
+peace establishment of the United States" on great consideration and
+according to my best judgment, and inferring from the rejection of
+the nomination of Colonel Towson and Colonel Gadsden, officers of very
+distinguished merit, that the view which I took of that law has not been
+well understood, I hereby withdraw all the nominations on which the
+Senate has not decided until I can make a more full communication and
+explanation of that view and of the principles on which I have acted
+in the discharge of that very delicate and important duty.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 27, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+1st instant, requesting "the President to communicate such information
+as he may possess relative to any private claim against the piece of
+land in the Delaware River known by the name of the Peapatch, and to
+state if any, and what, process has been instituted in behalf of such
+claim," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War,
+furnishing the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 28, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+I transmit the original reports on the subject of the fortifications on
+Dauphin Island and Mobile Point, being those on which the works were
+undertaken and have been in part executed. The doubt expressed as to the
+propriety of publication is applicable to this document, which would
+have accompanied the message of the 26th had it been prepared in time.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 29, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress the translation of two letters from the minister
+of France to the Secretary of State, relating to the claim of the heirs
+of Caron de Beaumarchais upon this Government, with the documents
+therewith inclosed, recommending them to the favorable consideration
+of Congress.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 5, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate herewith to the House a report from the Secretary of War,
+containing the information requested by their resolution of the 5th
+ultimo.
+
+It may be proper further to add that the secretaries of both the
+Territories have occasionally required and received the aid of the
+military force of the United States stationed within them, respectively,
+to carry into effect the acts of their authority.
+
+The government of East and West Florida was under the Spanish dominion
+almost exclusively military. The governors of both were military
+officers and united in their persons the chief authority, both civil
+and military.
+
+The principle upon which the act of Congress of the last session
+providing for the temporary government of the newly ceded Provinces was
+carried into execution has been communicated to Congress in my message
+at the opening of the session. It was to leave the authorities of the
+country as they were found existing at the time of the cession, to be
+exercised until the meeting of Congress, when it was known that the
+introduction of a system more congenial to our own institutions would be
+one of the earliest and most important subjects of their deliberations.
+From this, among other obvious considerations, military officers were
+appointed to take possession of both Provinces. But as the military
+command of General Jackson was to cease on the 1st of June, General
+Gaines, the officer next in command, then here, who was first designated
+to take possession of East Florida, received from me a verbal direction
+to give such effect to any requisition from the governor for military
+aid to enforce his authority as the circumstances might require. It was
+not foreseen that the command in both the Provinces would before further
+legislation by Congress on that subject devolve upon the secretaries of
+the Territories, but had it been foreseen the same direction would have
+been given as applicable to them.
+
+No authority has been given to either of the secretaries to issue
+commands to that portion of the Army which is in Florida, and whenever
+the aid of _the military_ has been required by them it has been by
+written requisitions to the officers commanding the troops, who have
+yielded compliance thereto doubtless under the directions received
+from General Gaines as understood by him to be authorized.
+
+Shortly before the meeting of Congress a letter was received at the War
+Department from Colonel Brooke, the officer commanding at Pensacola,
+requesting instructions how far he was to consider these requisitions
+as authoritative, but the assurance that a new organization of the
+government was immediately to be authorized by Congress was a motive
+for superseding any specific decision upon the inquiry.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 6, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives
+requesting the President of the United States to cause to be furnished
+to that House certain information relating to the amount of the public
+money paid to the Attorney-General over and above his salary fixed by
+law since the 1st of January, 1817, specifying the time when paid and
+the fund out of which such payments have been made, I transmit a paper,
+marked A, containing the information desired. I transmit also a paper,
+marked B, containing a statement of sums paid to Attorney General of the
+United States prior to the 1st of January, 1817, and in the paper marked
+C a like statement of sums advanced to district attorneys for services
+not required of them by law. These latter documents being necessary to
+a full view of the subject, it is thought proper to comprise them in
+this communication.
+
+By the act of 24th September, 1789, instituting the office of Attorney
+General, it was made his duty to prosecute and conduct all suits in the
+Supreme Court in which the United States should be concerned, and to
+give his advice and opinion upon questions of law when required by the
+President of the United States, or when requested by the head of any
+of the Departments, touching any matters that might concern their
+Departments. It will be seen, therefore, by the statement communicated
+that no money whatever has been paid to the Attorney General for his
+services in that character, nor for any duty belonging to his office,
+beyond his salary as fixed by law.
+
+It will also be shewn by the documents communicated that the
+construction given of the laws imposing duties on the Attorney General
+and district attorneys have been invariably the same since the
+institution of the Government. On the same authority it was thought
+that the compensation allowed to the present Attorney General for
+certain services, considering their importance and the time employed
+in rendering them, did not exceed, regarding precedents, what might
+fairly be claimed.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL, 13, 1822.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+Having cause to infer that the reasons which led to the construction
+which I gave to the act of the last session entitled "An act to reduce
+and fix the peace establishment of the United States" have not been well
+understood, I consider it my duty to explain more fully the view which
+I took of that act and of the principles on which I executed the very
+difficult and important duty enjoined on me by it.
+
+To do justice to the subject it is thought proper to show the actual
+state of the Army before the passage of the late act, the force in
+service, the several corps of which it was composed, and the grades
+and number of officers commanding it. By seeing distinctly the body
+in all its parts on which the law operated, viewing also with a just
+discrimination the spirit, policy, and positive injunctions of that law
+with reference to precedents established in a former analogous case,
+we shall be enabled to ascertain with great precision whether these
+injunctions have or have not been strictly complied with.
+
+By the act of the 3d of March, 1815, entitled "An act fixing the
+military peace establishment of the United States," the whole force
+in service was reduced to 10,000 men--infantry, artillery, and
+riflemen--exclusive of the Corps of Engineers, which was retained in its
+then state. The regiment of light artillery was retained as it had been
+organized by the act of 3d March, 1814. The infantry was formed into
+9 regiments, 1 of which consisted of riflemen. The regiments of light
+artillery, infantry, riflemen, and Corps of Engineers were commanded
+each by a colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and the usual battalion and
+company officers; and the battalions of the corps of artillery, of which
+there were 8--4 for the Northern and 4 for the Southern division--were
+commanded by lieutenant-colonels or majors, there being 4 of each grade.
+There were, therefore, in the Army at the time the late law was passed
+12 colonels belonging to those branches of the military establishment.
+Two major-generals and 4 brigadiers were likewise retained in service by
+this act; but the staff in several of its branches not being provided
+for, and being indispensable and the omission inadvertent, proceeding
+from the circumstances under which the act was passed, being at the
+close of the session, at which time intelligence of the peace was
+received, it was provisionally retained by the President, and provided
+for afterwards by the act of the 24th April, 1816. By this act the
+Ordnance Department was preserved as it had been organized by the act
+of February 8, 1815, with 1 colonel, 1 lieutenant-colonel, 2 majors,
+10 captains, and 10 first, second, and third lieutenants. One Adjutant
+and Inspector General of the Army and 2 adjutants-general--1 for the
+Northern and 1 for the Southern division--were retained. This act
+provides also for a Paymaster-General, with a suitable number of
+regimental and battalion paymasters, as a part of the general staff,
+constituting the military peace establishment; and the Pay Department
+and every other branch of the staff were subjected to the Rules and
+Articles of War.
+
+By the act of March 2, 1821, it was ordained that the military peace
+establishment should consist of 4 regiments of artillery and 7 of
+infantry, with such officers of engineers, ordnance, and staff as were
+therein specified. It is provided that each regiment of artillery should
+consist of 1 colonel, 1 lieutenant-colonel, 1 major, and 9 companies,
+with the usual company officers, 1 of which to be equipped as light
+artillery, and that there should be attached to each regiment of
+artillery 1 supernumerary captain to perform ordnance duty, thereby
+merging the regiment of artillery and Ordnance Department into these
+4 regiments. It was provided also that each regiment of infantry should
+consist of 1 colonel, 1 lieutenant colonel, 1 major, and 10 companies,
+with the usual company officers. The Corps of Engineers, bombardiers
+excepted, with the topographical engineers and their assistants, were
+to be retained under the existing organization. The former establishment
+as to the number of major generals and brigadiers was curtailed one-half,
+and the office of Inspector and Adjutant General to the Army and of
+adjutant-general to each division annulled, and that of Adjutant General
+to the Army instituted. The Quartermaster, Paymaster, and Commissary
+Departments were also specially provided for, as was every other branch
+of the staff, all of which received a new modification, and were
+subjected to the Rules and Articles of War.
+
+The immediate and direct operation of this act on the military peace
+establishment of 1815 was that of reduction, from which no officer
+belonging to it was exempt, unless it might be the topographical
+engineers; for in retaining the Corps of Engineers, as was manifest
+as well by the clear import of the section relating to it as by the
+provisions of every other clause of the act, reference was had to the
+organization, and not to the officers of the Corps. The establishment
+of 1815 was reduced from 10,000 to about 6,000 men. The 8 battalions of
+artillery, constituting what was called the corps of artillery, and the
+regiment of light artillery as established by the act of 1815, were to
+be incorporated together and formed into 4 new regiments. The regiments
+of infantry were to be reduced from 9 to 7, the rifle regiment being
+broken. Three of the general officers were to be reduced, with very
+many of the officers belonging to the several corps of the Army, and
+particularly of the infantry. All the provisions of the act declare of
+what number of officers and men the several corps provided for by it
+should thenceforward consist, and not that any corps as then existing
+or any officer of any corps, unless the topographical engineers were
+excepted, should be retained. Had it been intended to reduce the
+officers by corps, or to exempt the officers of any corps from the
+operation of the law, or in the organization of the several new corps
+to confine the selection of the officers to be placed in them to the
+several corps of the like kind then existing, and not extend it to the
+whole military establishment, including the staff, or to confine the
+reduction to a proportional number of each corps and of each grade
+in each corps, the object in either instance might have been easily
+accomplished by a declaration to that effect. No such declaration was
+made, nor can such intention be inferred. We see, on the contrary, that
+every corps of the Army and staff was to be reorganized, and most of
+them reduced in officers and men, and that in arranging the officers
+from the old to the new corps full power was granted to the President
+to take them from any and every corps of the former establishment and
+place them in the latter. In this latter grant of power it is proper
+to observe that the most comprehensive terms that could be adopted were
+used, the authority being to cause the arrangement to be made from the
+officers of the several _corps_ then in the service of the United
+States, comprising, of course, every corps of the staff, as well as of
+artillery and infantry, and not from the _corps of troops_, as in the
+former act, and without any limitation as to grades.
+
+It merits particular attention that although the object of this
+latter act was reduction and such its effect on an extensive scale,
+5 new offices were created by it--4 of the grade of colonel for the
+4 regiments of artillery and that of Adjutant-General for the Army. Three
+of the first mentioned were altogether new, the corps having been newly
+created, and although 1 officer of that grade as applicable to the corps
+of light artillery had existed, yet as that regiment was reduced and
+all its parts reorganized in another form and with other duties, being
+incorporated into the 4 new regiments, the commander was manifestly
+displaced and incapable of taking the command of either of the new
+regiments or any station in them until he should be authorized to do so
+by a new appointment. The same remarks are applicable to the office of
+Adjutant-General to the Army. It is an office of new creation, differing
+from that of Adjutant and Inspector General, and likewise from that
+of adjutant-general to a division, which were severally annulled. It
+differs from the first in title, rank, and pay, and from the two latter
+because they had been created by law each for a division, whereas the
+new office, being instituted without such special designation, could
+have relation only to the whole Army. It was manifest, therefore, that
+neither of those officers had any right to this new station nor to
+any other station unless he should be specially appointed to it, the
+principle of reduction being applicable to every officer in every corps.
+It is proper also to observe that the duties of Adjutant-General under
+the existing arrangement correspond in almost every circumstance with
+those of the late Adjutant and Inspector General, and not with those
+of an adjutant-general of a division.
+
+To give effect to this law the President was authorized by the twelfth
+section to cause the officers, noncommissioned officers, artificers,
+musicians, and privates of the several corps then in the service of the
+United States to be arranged in such manner as to form and complete
+out of the same the force thereby provided for, and to cause the
+supernumerary officers, noncommissioned officers, artificers, musicians,
+and privates to be discharged from the service.
+
+In executing this very delicate and important trust I acted with the
+utmost precaution. Sensible of what I owed to my country, I felt
+strongly the obligation of observing the utmost impartiality in
+selecting those officers who were to be retained. In executing this law
+I had no personal object to accomplish or feeling to gratify--no one
+to retain, no one to remove. Having on great consideration fixed the
+principles on which the reduction should be made, I availed myself
+of the example of my predecessor by appointing through the proper
+department a board of general officers to make the selection, and
+whose report I adopted.
+
+In transferring the officers from the old to the new corps the utmost
+care was taken to place them in the latter in the grades and corps to
+which they had respectively belonged in the former, so far as it might
+be practicable. This, though not enjoined by the law, appearing to be
+just and proper, was never departed from except in peculiar cases and
+under imperious circumstances.
+
+In filling the original vacancies in the artillery and in the newly
+created office of Adjutant-General I considered myself at liberty to
+place in them any officer belonging to any part of the whole military
+establishment, whether of the staff or line. In filling original
+vacancies--that is, offices newly created--it is my opinion, as a
+general principle, that Congress have no right under the Constitution
+to impose any restraint by law on the power granted to the President
+so as to prevent his making a free selection of proper persons for these
+offices from the whole body of his fellow-citizens. Without, however,
+entering here into that question, I have no hesitation in declaring it
+as my opinion that the law fully authorized a selection from any branch
+of the whole military establishment of 1815. Justified, therefore, as
+I thought myself in taking that range by the very highest sanction, the
+sole object to which I had to direct my attention was the merit of the
+officers to be selected for these stations. Three generals of great
+merit were either to be dismissed or otherwise provided for. The
+very gallant and patriotic defender of New Orleans had intimated his
+intention to retire, but at my suggestion expressed his willingness
+to accept the office of commissioner to receive the cession of the
+Floridas and of governor for a short time of that Territory. As to one,
+therefore, there was no difficulty. For the other two provision could
+only be made in the mode which was adopted. General Macomb, who had
+signalized himself in the defense of Plattsburg, was placed at the head
+of the Corps of Engineers, to which he had originally belonged, and in
+which he had acquired great experience, Colonel Armistead, then at the
+head of that corps, having voluntarily accepted one of the new regiments
+of artillery, for which he possessed very suitable qualifications.
+General Atkinson, likewise an officer of great merit, was appointed to
+the newly created office of Adjutant-General. Brevet General Porter, an
+officer of great experience in the artillery, and merit, was appointed
+to the command of another of those regiments. Colonel Fenwick, then the
+oldest lieutenant-colonel of artillery, and who had suffered much in the
+late war by severe wounds, was appointed to a third, and Colonel Towson,
+who had served with great distinction in the same corps and been twice
+brevetted for his gallantry in the late war, was appointed to the last
+remaining one. General Atkinson having declined the office of Adjutant
+General, Colonel Gadsden, an officer of distinguished merit and believed
+to possess qualifications suitably adapted to it, was appointed in
+his stead. In making the arrangement the merits of Colonel Butler and
+Colonel Jones were not overlooked. The former was assigned to the place
+which he would have held in the line if he had retained his original
+lineal commission, and the latter to his commission in the line, which
+he had continued to hold with his staff appointment.
+
+That the reduction of the Army and the arrangement of the officers
+from the old to the new establishment and the appointments referred to
+were in every instance strictly conformable to law will, I think, be
+apparent. To the arrangement generally no objection has been heard; it
+has been made, however, to the appointments to the original vacancies,
+and particularly to those of Colonel Towson and Colonel Gadsden. To
+those appointments, therefore, further attention is due. If they were
+improper it must be either that they were illegal or that the officers
+did not merit the offices conferred on them. The acknowledged merit of
+the officers and the peculiar fitness for the offices to which they were
+respectively appointed must preclude all objection on that head. Having
+already suggested my impression that in filling offices newly created,
+to which on no principle whatever anyone could have a claim of right,
+Congress could not under the Constitution restrain the free selection of
+the President from the whole body of his fellow-citizens, I shall only
+further remark that if that impression is well founded all objection
+to these appointments must cease. If the law imposed such restraint,
+it would in that case be void. But, according to my judgment, the law
+imposed none. An objection to the legality of those appointments must be
+founded either on the principle that those officers were not comprised
+within the corps then in the service of the United States--that is, did
+not belong to the peace establishment--or that the power granted by
+the word "arrange" imposed on the President the necessity of placing
+in these new offices persons of the same grade only from the old. It is
+believed that neither objection is well founded. Colonel Towson belonged
+to one of the corps then in the service of the United States, or, in
+other words, of the military peace establishment. By the act of 1815-16
+the Pay Department, of which the Paymaster General was the chief, was
+made one of the branches of the staff, and he and all those under him
+were subjected to the Rules and Articles of War. The appointment,
+therefore, of him, and especially to a new office, was strictly
+conformable to law.
+
+The only difference between the fifth section of the act of 1815 for
+reducing the Army and the twelfth section of the act of 1821 for still
+further reducing it, by which the power to carry those laws into effect
+was granted to the President in each instance, consists in this, that by
+the former he was to cause the arrangement to be made of the officers,
+noncommissioned officers, musicians, and privates of the several _corps
+of troops_ then in the service of the United States, whereas in the
+latter the term _troops_ was omitted. It can not be doubted that that
+omission had an object, and that it was thereby intended to guard
+against misconstruction in so very material and important a circumstance
+by authorizing the application of the act unequivocally to every corps
+of the staff as well as of the line. With that word a much wider range
+was given to the act of 1815 on the reduction which then took place than
+under the last act. The omission of it from the last act, together with
+all the sanctions which were given by Congress to the construction of
+the law in the reduction made under the former, could not fail to dispel
+all doubt as to the extent of the power granted by the last law and of
+the principles which ought to guide, and on which it was thereby made
+the duty of the President to execute it. With respect to the other
+objection--that is, that officers of the same grade only ought to have
+been transferred to these new offices--it is equally unfounded. It is
+admitted that officers may be taken from the old corps and reduced and
+arranged in the new in inferior grades, as was done under the former
+reduction. This admission puts an end to the objection in this case;
+for if an officer may be reduced and arranged from one corps to another
+by an entire change of grade, requiring a new commission and a new
+nomination to the Senate, I see no reason why an officer may not be
+advanced in like manner. In both instances the grade in the old corps
+is alike disregarded. The transfer from it to the new turns on the merit
+of the party, and it is believed that the claim in this instance is felt
+by all with peculiar sensibility. The claim of Colonel Towson is the
+stronger because the arrangement of him to the office to which he is now
+nominated is not to one from which any officer has been removed, and to
+which any other officer may in any view of the case be supposed to have
+had a claim. As Colonel Gadsden held the office of Inspector-General,
+and as such was acknowledged by all to belong to the staff of the Army,
+it is not perceived on what ground his appointment can be objected to.
+
+If such a construction is to be given to the act of 1821 as to confine
+the transfer of officers from the old to the new establishment to the
+_corps of troops_--that is, to the line of the Army--the whole staff of
+the Army in every branch would not only be excluded from any appointment
+in the new establishment, but altogether disbanded from the service.
+It would follow also that all the offices of the staff under the
+new arrangement must be filled by officers belonging to the new
+establishment after its organization and their arrangement in it.
+Other consequences not less serious would follow. If the right of the
+President to fill these original vacancies by the selection of officers
+from any branch of the whole military establishment was denied, he would
+be compelled to place in them officers of the same grade whose corps had
+been reduced, and they with them. The effect, therefore, of the law as
+to those appointments would be to legislate into office men who had been
+already legislated out of office, taking from the President all agency
+in their appointment. Such a construction would not only be subversive
+of the obvious principles of the Constitution, but utterly inconsistent
+with the spirit of the law itself, since it would provide offices for
+a particular grade, and fix every member of that grade in those offices,
+at a time when every other grade was reduced, and among them generals
+and other officers of the highest merit. It would also defeat every
+object of selection, since colonels of infantry would be placed at the
+head of regiments of artillery, a service in which they might have had
+no experience, and for which they might in consequence be unqualified.
+
+Having omitted in the message to Congress at the commencement of the
+session to state the principles on which this law had been executed, and
+having imperfectly explained them in the message to the Senate of the
+17th of January last, I deem it particularly incumbent on me, as well
+from a motive of respect to the Senate as to place my conduct in the
+duty imposed on me by that act in a clear point of view, to make this
+communication at this time. The examples under the law of 1815, whereby
+officers were reduced and arranged from the old corps to the new in
+inferior grades, fully justify all that has been done under the law
+of 1821. If the power to arrange under the former law authorized the
+removal of one officer from a particular station and the location of
+another in it, reducing the latter from a higher to an inferior grade,
+with the advice and consent of the Senate, it surely justifies under
+the latter law the arrangement of these officers, with a like sanction,
+to offices of new creation, from which no one had been removed and to
+which no one had a just claim. It is on the authority of these examples,
+supported by the construction which I gave to the law, that I have acted
+in the discharge of this high trust. I am aware that many officers of
+great merit, having the strongest claims on their country, have been
+reduced and others dismissed, but under the law that result was
+inevitable. It is believed that none have been retained who had not,
+likewise, the strongest claims to the appointments which have been
+conferred on them. To discriminate between men of acknowledged merit,
+especially in a way to affect so sensibly and materially their feelings
+and interests, for many of whom I have personal consideration and
+regard, has been a most painful duty; yet I am conscious that I have
+discharged it with the utmost impartiality. Had I opened the door to
+change in any case, even where error might have been committed, against
+whom could I afterwards have closed it, and into what consequences might
+not such a proceeding have led? The same remarks are applicable to the
+subject in its relation to the Senate, to whose calm and enlightened
+judgment, with these explanations, I again submit the nominations which
+have been rejected.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL 15, 1822.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 12th instant,
+requesting the President of the United States "to cause to be laid
+before the Senate the original proceedings of the board of general
+officers charged with the reduction of the Army under the act of the 2d
+of March, 1821, together with all communications to and from said board
+on the subject of reducing the Army, including the case submitted to the
+Attorney-General, and his opinion thereon," I now transmit a report from
+the Secretary of War, furnishing the information requested.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 15, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate requesting the President
+of the United States to lay before that House any report or information
+which may be in his possession as to the most eligible situation on
+the Western waters for the erection of a national arsenal, I herewith
+transmit a report from the Secretary of War, containing all the
+information on that subject in the possession of the Executive.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 15, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+16th of February last, requesting the President of the United States
+"to communicate to that House whether any foreign government has made
+any claim to any part of the territory of the United States upon the
+coast of the Pacific Ocean north of the forty-second degree of latitude,
+and to what extent; whether any regulations have been made by foreign
+powers affecting the trade on that coast, and how it affects the interest
+of this Republic, and whether any communications have been made to this
+Government by foreign powers touching the contemplated occupation of
+Columbia River," I now transmit a report from the Secretary of State,
+containing the information embraced by that resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 18, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+I communicate to the House of Representatives copies of sundry papers
+having relation to the transactions in East and West Florida, which have
+been received at the Department of State since my message to the two
+Houses of Congress of the 28th of January last, together with copies
+of two letters from the Secretary of State upon the same subject.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+[The same message was sent to the Senate.]
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 23, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+29th January last, requesting the President of the United States to
+cause to be communicated to that House certain information relative to
+the claim made by Jonathan Carver to certain lands within the United
+States near the Falls of St. Anthony. I now transmit a report of the
+Secretary of the Treasury, which, with the accompanying documents,
+contains all the information on this subject in the possession of
+the Executive.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 26, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate, agreeably to their resolution of yesterday, a
+report from the Secretary of State, with copies of the papers requested
+by that resolution, in relation to the recognition of the South American
+Provinces.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 29, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary
+of State, in pursuance of their resolution of the 20th instant,[A]
+"requesting to be furnished with a copy of the judicial proceedings
+in the United States court for the district of Louisiana in the case
+of the French slave ship _La Pensee_."
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+[Footnote: A: An error; so in the original message. The date of the
+resolution is the 18th of April.]
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 30, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate, requesting the President
+of the United States to cause to be laid before the Senate certain
+information respecting the practical operation of the system of
+subsisting the Army under the provisions of the act passed the 14th
+of April, 1818, etc., I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary
+of War, furnishing the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 1, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In the message to both Houses of Congress at the commencement of their
+present session it was mentioned that the Government of Norway had
+issued an ordinance for admitting the vessels of the United States and
+their cargoes into the ports of that Kingdom upon the payment of no
+other or higher duties than are paid by Norwegian vessels, of whatever
+articles the said cargoes may consist and from whatever ports the
+vessels laden with them may come.
+
+In communicating this ordinance to the Government of the United States
+that of Norway has requested the benefit of a similar and reciprocal
+provision for the vessels of Norway and their cargoes which may enter
+the ports of the United States.
+
+This provision being within the competency only of the legislative
+authority of Congress, I communicate to them herewith copies of the
+communications received from the Norwegian Government in relation to
+the subject, and recommend the same to their consideration.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 1, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit herewith to Congress copies of letters received at the
+Department of State from the minister of Great Britain on the subject
+of the duties discriminating between imported rolled and hammered iron.
+I recommend them particularly to the consideration of Congress, believing
+that although there may be ground for controversy with regard to the
+application of the engagements of the treaty to the case, yet a liberal
+construction of those engagements would be compatible at once with a
+conciliatory and a judicious policy.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 4, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+19th of April, requesting the President "to cause to be communicated to
+the House, if not injurious to the public interest, any letter which
+may have been received from Jonathan Russell, one of the ministers
+who concluded the treaty of Ghent, in conformity with the indications
+contained in his letter of the 25th of December, 1814," I have to state
+that having referred the resolution to the Secretary of State, and
+it appearing, by a report from him, that no such document had been
+deposited among the archives of the Department, I examined and found
+among my private papers a letter of that description marked "private"
+by himself. I transmit a copy of the report of the Secretary of State,
+by which it appears that Mr. Russell, on being apprised that the document
+referred to by the resolution had not been deposited in the Department
+of State, delivered there "a paper purporting to be the duplicate of a
+letter written by him from Paris on the 11th of February, 1815, to the
+then Secretary of State, to be communicated to the House as the letter
+called for by the resolution."
+
+On the perusal of the document called for I find that it communicates
+a difference of opinion between Mr. Russell and a majority of his
+colleagues in certain transactions which occurred in the negotiations at
+Ghent, touching interests which have been since satisfactorily adjusted
+by treaty between the United States and Great Britain. The view which
+Mr. Russell presents of his own conduct and that of his colleagues in
+those transactions will, it is presumed, call from the two surviving
+members of that mission who differed from him a reply containing
+their view of those transactions and of the conduct of the parties
+in them, and who, should his letter be communicated to the House of
+Representatives, will also claim that their reply should be communicated
+in like manner by the Executive--a claim which, on the principle of
+equal justice, could not be resisted. The Secretary of State, one of the
+ministers referred to, has already expressed a desire that Mr. Russell's
+letter should be communicated, and that I would transmit at the same
+time a communication from him respecting it.
+
+On full consideration of the subject I have thought it would be improper
+for the Executive to communicate the letter called for unless the House,
+on a knowledge of these circumstances, should desire it, in which case
+the document called for shall be communicated, accompanied by a report
+from the Secretary of State, as above suggested. I have directed a copy
+to be delivered to Mr. Russell, to be disposed of as he may think
+proper, and have caused the original to be deposited in the Department
+of State, with instruction to deliver a copy to any person who may be
+interested.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 6, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
+
+I transmit to Congress translations of two letters from Don Joaquin
+d'Anduaga to the Secretary of State, which have been received at the
+Department of State since my last message communicating copies of big
+correspondence with this Government.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+_Don Joaquin de Anduaga to the Secretary of State_.
+
+[Translation.]
+
+PHILADELPHIA, _April 24, 1822_.
+
+SIR: As soon as the news was received in Madrid of the recent
+occurrences in New Spain after the arrival at Vera Cruz of the
+Captain-General and supreme political chief appointed for those
+Provinces, Don Juan O. Donoju, and some papers were seen relative to
+those same transactions, it was feared that for forming the treaty
+concluded in Cordova on the 24th of August last between the said General
+and the traitor, Colonel Dr. Augustine Iturbide, it had been falsely
+supposed that the former had power from His Catholic Majesty for that
+act, and in a little time the correctness of those suspicions was found,
+as, among other things, the said O. Donoju, when on the 26th of the same
+August he sent this treaty to the governor of Vera Cruz, notifying
+him of its prompt and punctual observance, he told him that at his
+sailing from the Peninsula preparation for the independence of Mexico
+was already thought of, and that its bases were approved of by the
+Government and by a commission of the Cortes. His Majesty, on sight
+of this and of the fatal impression which so great an imposture had
+produced in some ultramarine Provinces, and what must without difficulty
+be the consequence among the rest, thought proper to order that, by
+means of a circular to all the chiefs and corporations beyond seas,
+this atrocious falsehood should be disbelieved; and now he has deigned
+to command me to make it known to the Government of the United States
+that it is false as far as General O. Donoju published beyond his
+instructions, by pointing out to it that he never could have been
+furnished with other instructions than those conformable to
+constitutional principles.
+
+In compliance with this order of His Majesty, I can do no less than
+observe to you, sir, how unfounded one of the reasons is in your note
+of the 6th instant for the recognition by this Government of those of
+the insurgent Provinces of Spanish-America--that it was founded on the
+treaty made by O. Donoju with Iturbide--since not having had that power
+nor instruction to conclude it it is clearly null and of no value.
+
+I repeat to you, sir, the sentiments of my distinguished consideration,
+and pray God that you live many years.
+
+JOAQUIN DE ANDUAGA.
+
+
+
+_Don Joaquin de Anduaga to the Secretary of State_.
+
+[Translation.]
+
+PHILADELPHIA, _April 26, 1822_.
+
+
+
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+_Secretary of State_.
+
+SIR: I have received your note of the 15th instant, in which you are
+pleased to communicate to me the reasons which induce the President
+not only to refuse to His Catholic Majesty the satisfaction which he
+demanded in his royal name for the insults offered by General Jackson
+to the Spanish commissaries and officers, but to approve fully of the
+said chief's conduct.
+
+Before answering the contents of the said note I thought it my duty to
+request instructions from my Government, and therefore without delay I
+have laid it before them. Until they arrive, therefore, I have confined
+myself to two observations:
+
+First. If in my note of the 18th of November last I said that as General
+Jackson had not specified the actions which had induced him to declare
+the Spanish officers expelled from the Floridas criminal, nor given
+proof of them, I thought myself authorized to declare the accusation
+false, I did not this through inadvertency, but upon the evident
+principle that every person accused has a right to declare an accusation
+destitute of proof false, and, much more, an accusation not pretended
+to be proved. This assertion of mine does not presume that I am not
+persuaded of the merit of the said General and of the claim which he has
+upon the gratitude of his country; but although it is believed the duty
+of his country to eulogize and reward his eminent services, yet it will
+be lawful for the representative of a power outraged by him to complain
+of his conduct. I can not persuade myself that to aggravate my said
+expression you could have thought that I had been wanting in due
+respect, it not being possible for that opinion to have entered your
+mind, when by his orders Mr. Forsyth had sent to the Spanish minister
+on the 1st of September last a note, in which, complaining of the
+Captain-General of the island of Cuba, he accuses him of dishonorable
+pecuniary motives in not having delivered the archives, without giving
+any proof of so injurious an assertion; and I must remark that the rank
+of General Mabry in Spain is at least as elevated as that of General
+Jackson in the United States, and that the services performed by him to
+his country have rendered him as worthy as he of its consideration and
+respect.
+
+Second. Although you are pleased to tell me that part of the papers
+taken from Colonel Coppinger are ready to be delivered, which the
+American commissioners, _after having examined them_, have adjudged to
+be returned to Spain, I do not think myself authorized to admit their
+return in this manner, but in the mode which I demanded in my note of
+the 22d of November last.
+
+As I have seen by the public papers that the President has communicated
+to Congress the note which you were pleased to address to me, dated
+the 15th instant, and that it has been ordered to be printed, I take
+the liberty of requesting that you will have the goodness to use your
+influence that this my answer may be treated in the same manner, that
+Congress and the public may be informed that if I have not answered the
+first part of it as respects the general business, it is only to wait
+for the instructions of my Government, but that I have answered what
+was personal.
+
+I renew to you, sir, the sentiments of my distinguished consideration.
+
+JOAQUIN DE ANDUAGA.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 6, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 26th of April,
+requesting the President of the United States "to communicate to the
+Senate the report of the Attorney-General relative to any persons
+(citizens of the United States) who have been charged with or suspected
+of introducing any slaves into the United States contrary to existing
+laws," I transmit herewith two reports from the Attorney-General.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 7, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 25th of April,
+requesting certain information concerning lead mines on lands of the
+United States, I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 7, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+23d of April, requesting the President of the United States to cause to
+be communicated to that House certain information respecting the lead
+mines of the State of Missouri, I herewith transmit a report of the
+Secretary of War.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 7, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 7th of May, requesting the President to communicate to that House
+a letter of Jonathan Russell, esq., referred to in his message of the
+4th instant, together with such communications as he may have received
+relative thereto from any of the other ministers of the United States
+who negotiated the treaty of Ghent, I herewith transmit a report from
+the Secretary of State, with the documents called for by that
+resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+VETO MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 4, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+Having duly considered the bill entitled "An act for the preservation
+and repair of the Cumberland road," it is with deep regret, approving
+as I do the policy, that I am compelled to object to its passage and to
+return the bill to the House of Representatives, in which it originated,
+under a conviction that Congress do not possess the power under the
+Constitution to pass such a law.
+
+A power to establish turnpikes with gates and tolls, and to enforce the
+collection of tolls by penalties, implies a power to adopt and execute a
+complete system of internal improvement. A right to impose duties to be
+paid by all persons passing a certain road, and on horses and carriages,
+as is done by this bill, involves the right to take the land from the
+proprietor on a valuation and to pass laws for the protection of the
+road from injuries, and if it exist as to one road it exists as to any
+other, and to as many roads as Congress may think proper to establish.
+A right to legislate for one of these purposes is a right to legislate
+for the others. It is a complete right of jurisdiction and sovereignty
+for all the purposes of internal improvement, and not merely the
+right of applying money under the power vested in Congress to make
+appropriations, under which power, with the consent of the States
+through which this road passes, the work was originally commenced, and
+has been so far executed. I am of opinion that Congress do not possess
+this power; that the States individually can not grant it, for although
+they may assent to the appropriation of money within their limits for
+such purposes, they can grant no power of jurisdiction or sovereignty by
+special compacts with the United States. This power can be granted only
+by an amendment to the Constitution and in the mode prescribed by it.
+
+If the power exist, it must be either because it has been specifically
+granted to the United States or that it is incidental to some power
+which has been specifically granted. If we examine the specific grants
+of power we do not find it among them, nor is it incidental to any power
+which has been specifically granted.
+
+It has never been contended that the power was specifically granted.
+It is claimed only as being incidental to some one or more of the powers
+which are specifically granted. The following are the powers from which
+it is said to be derived:
+
+First, from the right to establish post-offices and post-roads; second,
+from the right to declare war; third, to regulate commerce; fourth,
+to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare;
+fifth, from the power to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying
+into execution all the powers vested by the Constitution in the
+Government of the United States or in any department or officer thereof;
+sixth and lastly, from the power to dispose of and make all needful
+rules and regulations respecting the territory and other property of
+the United States.
+
+According to my judgment it can not be derived from either of those
+powers, nor from all of them united, and in consequence it does not
+exist.
+
+Having stated my objections to the bill, I should now cheerfully
+communicate at large the reasons on which they are founded if I had
+time to reduce them to such form as to include them in this paper. The
+advanced stage of the session renders that impossible. Having at the
+commencement of my service in this high trust considered it a duty to
+express the opinion that the United States do not possess the power in
+question, and to suggest for the consideration of Congress the propriety
+of recommending to the States an amendment to the Constitution to vest
+the power in the United States, my attention has been often drawn to the
+subject since, in consequence whereof I have occasionally committed my
+sentiments to paper respecting it. The form which this exposition has
+assumed is not such as I should have given it had it been intended for
+Congress, nor is it concluded. Nevertheless, as it contains my views
+on this subject, being one which I deem of very high importance, and
+which in many of its bearings has now become peculiarly urgent, I will
+communicate it to Congress, if in my power, in the course of the day,
+or certainly on Monday next.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 4, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+I transmit the paper alluded to in the message of this day, on the
+subject of internal improvements.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+VIEWS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES ON THE SUBJECT OF INTERNAL
+IMPROVEMENTS.
+
+It may be presumed that the proposition relating to internal
+improvements by roads and canals, which has been several times before
+Congress, will be taken into consideration again either for the purpose
+of recommending to the States the adoption of an amendment to the
+Constitution to vest the necessary power in the General Government or
+to carry the system into effect on the principle that the power has
+already been granted. It seems to be the prevailing opinion that great
+advantage would be derived from the exercise of such a power by Congress.
+Respecting the right there is much diversity of sentiment. It is of the
+highest importance that this question should be settled. If the right
+exist, it ought forthwith to be exercised. If it does not exist, surely
+those who are friends to the power ought to unite in recommending an
+amendment to the Constitution to obtain it. I propose to examine this
+question.
+
+The inquiry confined to its proper objects and within the most limited
+scale is extensive. Our Government is unlike other governments both in
+its origin and form. In analyzing it the differences in certain respects
+between it and those of other nations, ancient and modern, necessarily
+come into view. I propose to notice these differences so far as they are
+connected with the object of inquiry, and the consequences likely to
+result from them, varying in equal degree from those which have attended
+other governments. The digression, if it may be so called, will in every
+instance be short and the transition to the main object immediate and
+direct.
+
+To do justice to the subject it will be necessary to mount to the source
+of power in these States and to pursue this power in its gradations and
+distribution among the several departments in which it is now vested.
+The great division is between the State governments and the General
+Government. If there was a perfect accord in every instance as to
+the precise extent of the powers granted to the General Government,
+we should then know with equal certainty what were the powers which
+remained to the State governments, since it would follow that those
+which were not granted to the one would remain to the other. But it is
+on this point, and particularly respecting the construction of these
+powers and their incidents, that a difference of opinion exists, and
+hence it is necessary to trace distinctly the origin of each government,
+the purposes intended by it, and the means adopted to accomplish them.
+By having the interior of both governments fully before us we shall have
+all the means which can be afforded to enable us to form a correct
+opinion of the endowments of each.
+
+Before the Revolution the present States, then colonies, were separate
+communities, unconnected with each other except in their common relation
+to the Crown. Their governments were instituted by grants from the
+Crown, which operated, according to the conditions of each grant, in
+the nature of a compact between the settlers in each colony and the
+Crown. All power not retained in the Crown was vested exclusively in
+the colonies, each having a government consisting of an executive, a
+judiciary, and a legislative assembly, one branch of which was in every
+instance elected by the people. No office was hereditary, nor did any
+title under the Crown give rank or office in any of the colonies. In
+resisting the encroachments of the parent country and abrogating the
+power of the Crown the authority which had been held by it vested
+exclusively in the people of the colonies, By them was a Congress
+appointed, composed of delegates from each colony, who managed the war,
+declared independence, treated with foreign powers, and acted in all
+things according to the sense of their constituents. The Declaration of
+Independence confirmed in form what had before existed in substance.
+It announced to the world new States, possessing and exercising complete
+sovereignty, which they were resolved to maintain. They were soon after
+recognized by France and other powers, and finally by Great Britain
+herself in 1783.
+
+Soon after the power of the Crown was annulled the people of each
+colony established a constitution or frame of government for themselves,
+in which these separate branches--legislative, executive, and
+judiciary--were instituted, each independent of the others. To these
+branches, each having its appropriate portion, the whole power of the
+people not delegated to Congress was communicated, to be exercised for
+their advantage on the representative principle by persons of their
+appointment, or otherwise deriving their authority immediately from
+them, and holding their offices for stated terms. All the powers
+necessary for useful purposes held by any of the strongest governments
+of the Old World not vested in Congress were imparted to these State
+governments without other checks than such as are necessary to prevent
+abuse, in the form of fundamental declarations or bills of right. The
+great difference between our governments and those of the Old World
+consists in this, that the former, being representative, the persons who
+exercise their powers do it not for themselves or in their own right,
+but for the people, and therefore while they are in the highest degree
+efficient they can never become oppressive. It is this transfer of
+the power of the people to representative and responsible bodies in
+every branch which constitutes the great improvement in the science
+of government and forms the boast of our system. It combines all the
+advantages of every known government without any of their disadvantages.
+It retains the sovereignty in the people, while it avoids the tumult
+and disorder incident to the exercise of that power by the people
+themselves. It possesses all the energy and efficiency of the most
+despotic governments, while it avoids all the oppressions and abuses
+inseparable from those governments.
+
+In every stage of the conflict from its commencement until March,
+1781, the powers of Congress were undefined, but of vast extent.
+The assemblies or conventions of the several colonies being formed by
+representatives from every county in each colony and the Congress by
+delegates from each colonial assembly, the powers of the latter for
+general purposes resembled those of the former for local. They rested
+on the same basis, the people, and were complete for all the purposes
+contemplated. Never was a movement so spontaneous, so patriotic, so
+efficient. The nation exerted its whole faculties in support of its
+rights, and of its independence after the contest took that direction,
+and it succeeded. It was, however, foreseen at a very early stage
+that although the patriotism of the country might be relied on in
+the struggle for its independence, a well-digested compact would be
+necessary to preserve it after obtained. A plan of confederation was
+in consequence proposed and taken into consideration by Congress even
+at the moment when the other great act which severed them from Great
+Britain and declared their independence was proclaimed to the world.
+This compact was ratified on the 21st March, 1781, by the last State,
+and thereupon carried into immediate effect.
+
+The following powers were vested in the United States by the Articles
+of Confederation. As this, the first bond of union, was in operation
+nearly eight years, during which time a practical construction was given
+to many of its powers, all of which were adopted in the Constitution
+with important additions, it is thought that a correct view of those
+powers and of the manner in which they are executed may shed light on
+the subject under consideration. It may fairly be presumed that where
+certain powers were transferred from one instrument to the other and
+in the same terms, or terms descriptive only of the same powers, that
+it was intended that they should be construed in the same sense in
+the latter that they were in the former.
+
+Article I declares that the style of the Confederacy shall be "The
+United States of America."
+
+Article II. Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and
+independence, and every power and right which is not expressly delegated
+to the United States.
+
+Article III. The States severally enter into a firm league of friendship
+with each other for their common defense, the security of their
+liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves
+to assist each other against all force offered to or attacks made upon
+them on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, etc.
+
+Article IV. The free inhabitants of each State, paupers, vagabonds, and
+fugitives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all the privileges
+and immunities of free citizens in the several States, etc. Fugitives
+from justice into any of the States shall be delivered up on the demand
+of the executive of the State from which they fled. Full faith and
+credit shall be given in each State to the records and acts of every
+other State.
+
+Article V. Delegates shall be annually appointed by the legislature of
+each State to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November, with a
+power to recall, etc. No State shall appoint less than two nor more than
+seven, nor shall any delegate hold his office for more than three in six
+years. Each State shall maintain its own delegates. Each State shall
+have one vote. Freedom of speech shall not be impeached, and the members
+shall be protected from arrests, except for treason, etc.
+
+Article VI. No State shall send or receive an embassy or enter into a
+treaty with a foreign power. Nor shall any person holding any office of
+profit or trust under the United States or any State accept any present,
+emolument, office, or title from a foreign power. Nor shall the United
+States or any State grant any title of nobility. No two States shall
+enter into any treaty without the consent of Congress. No State shall
+lay any imposts or duties which may interfere with any treaties entered
+into by the United States. No State shall engage in war unless it be
+invaded or menaced with invasion by some Indian tribe, nor grant letters
+of marque or reprisal unless it be against pirates, nor keep up vessels
+of war nor any body of troops in time of peace without the consent of
+Congress; but every State shall keep up a well regulated militia, etc.
+
+Article VII. When land forces are raised by any State for the common
+defense, all officers of and under the rank of colonel shall be
+appointed by the legislature of each State.
+
+Article VIII. All charges of war and all other expenses which shall be
+incurred for the common defense or general welfare shall be defrayed
+out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several
+States in proportion to the value of all the land in each State
+granted to individuals. The taxes for paying each proportion shall
+be levied by the several States.
+
+Article IX. Congress shall have the sole and exclusive right and power
+of determining on peace and war, except in the cases mentioned in
+the sixth article; of sending and receiving ambassadors; entering
+into alliances, except, etc.; of establishing rules for deciding what
+captures on land and water shall be legal; of granting letters of marque
+and reprisal in time of peace; appointing courts for the trial of
+piracies and felonies on the high seas; for deciding controversies
+between the States and between individuals claiming lands under two or
+more States whose jurisdiction has been adjusted; of regulating the
+alloy and value of coin struck by their authority and of foreign coin;
+fixing the standard of weights and measures; regulating the trade with
+the Indians; establishing and regulating post offices from one State to
+another and throughout all the States, and exacting such postage as may
+be requisite to defray the expenses of the office; of appointing all
+officers of the land forces except the regimental; appointing all the
+officers of the naval forces; to ascertain the necessary sums of money
+to be raised for the service of the United States and appropriate the
+same; to borrow money and emit bills of credit; to build and equip a
+Navy; to agree on the number of land forces and to make requisitions
+on each State for its quota; that the assent of nine States shall be
+requisite to these great acts.
+
+Article X regulates the powers of the committee of the States to sit in
+the recess of Congress.
+
+Article XI provides for the admission of Canada into the Confederation.
+
+Article XII pledges the faith of the United States for the payment of
+all bills of credit issued and money borrowed on their account.
+
+Article XIII. Every State shall abide by the determination of the United
+States on all questions submitted to them by the Confederation, the
+Articles of the Confederation to be perpetual and not to be altered
+without the consent of every State.
+
+This bond of union was soon found to be utterly incompetent to the
+purposes intended by it. It was defective in its powers; it was
+defective also in the means of executing the powers actually granted by
+it. Being a league of sovereign and independent States, its acts, like
+those of all other leagues, required the interposition of the States
+composing it to give them effect within their respective jurisdictions.
+The acts of Congress without the aid of State laws to enforce them were
+altogether nugatory. The refusal or omission of one State to pass such
+laws was urged as a reason to justify like conduct in others, and thus
+the Government was soon at a stand.
+
+The experience of a few years demonstrated that the Confederation could
+not be relied on for the security of the blessings which had been
+derived from the Revolution. The interests of the nation required
+a more efficient Government, which the good sense and virtue of the
+people provided by the adoption of the present Constitution.
+
+The Constitution of the United States was formed by a convention of
+delegates from the several States, who met in Philadelphia, duly
+authorized for the purpose, and it was ratified by a convention in each
+State which was especially called to consider and decide on the same.
+In this progress the State governments were never suspended in their
+functions. On the contrary, they took the lead in it. Conscious of their
+incompetency to secure to the Union the blessings of the Revolution,
+they promoted the diminution of their own powers and the enlargement of
+those of the General Government in the way in which they might be most
+adequate and efficient. It is believed that no other example can be
+found of a Government exerting its influence to lessen its own powers,
+of a policy so enlightened, of a patriotism so pure and disinterested.
+The credit, however, is more especially due to the people of each State,
+in obedience to whose will and under whose control the State governments
+acted.
+
+The Constitution of the United States, being ratified by the people of
+the several States, became of necessity to the extent of its powers the
+paramount authority of the Union. On sound principles it can be viewed
+in no other light. The people, the highest authority known to our
+system, from whom all our institutions spring and on whom they depend,
+formed it. Had the people of the several States thought proper to
+incorporate themselves into one community, under one government, they
+might have done it. They had the power, and there was nothing then nor
+is there anything now, should they be so disposed, to prevent it. They
+wisely stopped, however, at a certain point, extending the incorporation
+to that point, making the National Government thus far a consolidated
+Government, and preserving the State governments without that limit
+perfectly sovereign and independent of the National Government. Had the
+people of the several States incorporated themselves into one community,
+they must have remained such, their Constitution becoming then, like the
+constitution of the several States, incapable of change until altered
+by the will of the majority. In the institution of a State government
+by the citizens of a State a compact is formed to which all and every
+citizen are equal parties. They are also the sole parties and may amend
+it at pleasure. In the institution of the Government of the United
+States by the citizens of every State a compact was formed between the
+whole American people which has the same force and partakes of all the
+qualities to the extent of its powers as a compact between the citizens
+of a State in the formation of their own constitution. It can not be
+altered except by those who formed it or in the mode prescribed by the
+parties to the compact itself.
+
+This Constitution was adopted for the purpose of remedying all
+defects of the Confederation, and in this it has succeeded beyond
+any calculation that could have been formed of any human institution.
+By binding the States together the Constitution performs the great
+office of the Confederation; but it is in that sense only that it has
+any of the properties of that compact, and in that it is more effectual
+to the purpose, as it holds them together by a much stronger bond; and
+in all other respects in which the Confederation failed the Constitution
+has been blessed with complete success. The Confederation was a compact
+between separate and independent States, the execution of whose
+articles in the powers which operated internally depended on the State
+governments. But the great office of the Constitution, by incorporating
+the people of the several States to the extent of its powers into one
+community and enabling it to act directly on the people, was to annul
+the powers of the State governments to that extent, except in cases
+where they were concurrent, and to preclude their agency in giving
+effect to those of the General Government. The Government of the United
+States relies on its own means for the execution of its powers, as the
+State governments do for the execution of theirs, both governments
+having a common origin or sovereign, the people--the State governments
+the people of each State, the National Government the people of every
+State--and being amenable to the power which created it. It is by
+executing its functions as a Government thus originating and thus acting
+that the Constitution of the United States holds the States together and
+performs the office of a league. It is owing to the nature of its powers
+and the high source from whence they are derived--the people--that it
+performs that office better than the Confederation or any league which
+ever existed, being a compact which the State governments did not form,
+to which they are not parties, and which executes its own powers
+independently of them.
+
+There were two separate and independent governments established over
+our Union, one for local purposes over each State by the people of
+the State, the other for national purposes over all the States by
+the people of the United States. The whole power of the people, on the
+representative principle, is divided between them. The State governments
+are independent of each other, and to the extent of their powers are
+complete sovereignties. The National Government begins where the State
+governments terminate, except in some instances where there is a
+concurrent jurisdiction between them. This Government is also, according
+to the extent of its powers, a complete sovereignty. I speak here, as
+repeatedly mentioned before, altogether of representative sovereignties,
+for the real sovereignty is in the people alone.
+
+The history of the world affords no such example of two separate and
+independent governments established over the same people, nor can it
+exist except in governments founded on the sovereignty of the people.
+In monarchies and other governments not representative there can be no
+such division of power. The government is inherent in the possessor;
+it is his, and can not be taken from him without a revolution. In such
+governments alliances and leagues alone are practicable. But with us
+individuals count for nothing in the offices which they hold; that
+is, they have no right to them. They hold them as representatives, by
+appointment from the people, in whom the sovereignty is exclusively
+vested. It is impossible to speak too highly of this system taken
+in its twofold character and in all its great principles of two
+governments, completely distinct from and independent of each other,
+each constitutional, founded by and acting directly on the people, each
+competent to all its purposes, administering all the blessings for which
+it was instituted, without even the most remote danger of exercising
+any of its powers in a way to oppress the people. A system capable
+of expansion over a vast territory not only without weakening either
+government, but enjoying the peculiar advantage of adding thereby new
+strength and vigor to the faculties of both; possessing also this
+additional advantage, that while the several States enjoy all the rights
+reserved to them of separate and independent governments, and each is
+secured by the nature of the Federal Government, which acts directly on
+the people, against the failure of the others to bear their equal share
+of the public burdens, and thereby enjoys in a more perfect degree all
+the advantages of a league, it holds them together by a bond altogether
+different and much stronger than the late Confederation or any league
+that was ever known before--a bond beyond their control, and which can
+not even be amended except in the mode prescribed by it. So great an
+effort in favor of human happiness was never made before; but it became
+those who made it. Established in the new hemisphere, descended from the
+same ancestors, speaking the same language, having the same religion and
+universal toleration, born equal and educated in the same principles of
+free government, made independent by a common struggle and menaced by
+the same dangers, ties existed between them which never applied before
+to separate communities. They had every motive to bind them together
+which could operate on the interests and affections of a generous,
+enlightened, and virtuous people, and it affords inexpressible
+consolation to find that these motives had their merited influence.
+
+In thus tracing our institutions to their origin and pursuing them
+in their progress and modifications down to the adoption of this
+Constitution two important facts have been disclosed, on which it may
+not be improper in this stage to make a few observations. The first is
+that in wresting the power, or what is called the sovereignty, from
+the Crown it passed directly to the people. The second, that it passed
+directly to the people of each colony and not to the people of all the
+colonies in the aggregate; to thirteen distinct communities and not
+to one. To these two facts, each contributing its equal proportion,
+I am inclined to think that we are in an eminent degree indebted for
+the success of our Revolution. By passing to the people it vested in
+a community every individual of which had equal rights and a common
+interest. There was no family dethroned among us, no banished pretender
+in a foreign country looking back to his connections and adherents here
+in the hope of a recall; no order of nobility whose hereditary rights in
+the Government had been violated; no hierarchy which had been degraded
+and oppressed. There was but one order, that of the people, by whom
+everything was gained by the change. I mention it also as a circumstance
+of peculiar felicity that the great body of the people had been born
+and educated under these equal and original institutions. Their habits,
+their principles, and their prejudices were therefore all on the side
+of the Revolution and of free republican government.
+
+Had distinct orders existed, our fortune might and probably would have
+been different. It would scarcely have been possible to have united so
+completely the whole force of the country against a common enemy. A
+contest would probably have arisen in the outset between the orders for
+the control. Had the aristocracy prevailed, the people would have been
+heartless. Had the people prevailed, the nobility would probably have
+left the country, or, remaining behind, internal divisions would have
+taken place in every State and a civil war broken out more destructive
+even than the foreign, which might have defeated the whole movement.
+Ancient and modern history is replete with examples proceeding from
+conflicts between distinct orders, of revolutions attempted which proved
+abortive, of republics which have terminated in despotism. It is owing
+to the simplicity of the elements of which our system is composed that
+the attraction of all the parts has been to a common center, that every
+change has tended to cement the union, and, in short, that we have been
+blessed with such glorious and happy success.
+
+And that the power wrested from the British Crown passed to the people
+of each colony the whole history of our political movement from the
+emigration of our ancestors to the present day clearly demonstrates.
+What produced the Revolution? The violation of our rights. What rights?
+Our chartered rights. To whom were the charters granted, to the people
+of each colony or to the people of all the colonies as a single
+community? We know that no such community as the aggregate existed,
+and of course that no such rights could be violated. It may be added
+that the nature of the powers which were given to the delegates by
+each colony and the manner in which they were executed show that the
+sovereignty was in the people of each and not in the aggregate. They
+respectively presented credentials such as are usual between ministers
+of separate powers, which were examined and approved before they entered
+on the discharge of the important duties committed to them. They voted
+also by colonies and not individually, all the members from one colony
+being entitled to one vote only. This fact alone, the first of our
+political association and at the period of our greatest peril, fixes
+beyond all controversy the source from whence the power which has
+directed and secured success to all our measures has proceeded.
+
+Had the sovereignty passed to the aggregate, consequences might have
+ensued, admitting the success of our Revolution, which might even yet
+seriously affect our system. By passing to the people of each colony
+the opposition to Great Britain, the prosecution of the war, the
+Declaration of Independence, the adoption of the Confederation and
+of this Constitution are all imputable to them. Had it passed to the
+aggregate, every measure would be traced to that source; even the State
+governments might be said to have emanated from it, and amendments of
+their constitutions on that principle be proposed by the same authority.
+In short it is not easy to perceive all the consequences into which such
+a doctrine might lead. It is obvious that the people in mass would have
+had much less agency in all the great measures of the Revolution and in
+those which followed than they actually had, and proportionably less
+credit for their patriotism and services than they are now entitled to
+and enjoy. By passing to the people of each colony the whole body in
+each were kept in constant and active deliberation on subjects of the
+highest national importance and in the supervision of the conduct of all
+the public servants in the discharge of their respective duties. Thus
+the most effectual guards were provided against abuses and dangers of
+every kind which human ingenuity could devise, and the whole people
+rendered more competent to the self-government which by an heroic
+exertion they had acquired.
+
+I will now proceed to examine the powers of the General Government,
+which, like the governments of the several States, is divided into three
+branches--a legislative, executive, and judiciary--each having its
+appropriate share. Of these the legislative, from the nature of its
+powers, all laws proceeding from it, and the manner of its appointment,
+its members being elected immediately by the people, is by far the most
+important. The whole system of the National Government may be said to
+rest essentially on the powers granted to this branch. They mark the
+limit within which, with few exceptions, all the branches must move
+in the discharge of their respective functions. It will be proper,
+therefore, to take a full and correct view of the powers granted to it.
+
+By the eighth section of the first article of the Constitution it is
+declared that Congress shall have power--
+
+First. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay
+the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the
+United States;
+
+Second. To borrow money;
+
+Third. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several
+States, and with the Indian tribes;
+
+Fourth. To establish an uniform rule of naturalization and uniform laws
+respecting bankruptcies;
+
+Fifth. To coin money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin,
+and fix the standard of weights and measures;
+
+Sixth. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities
+and current coin of the United States;
+
+Seventh. To establish post offices and post-roads;
+
+Eighth. To promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing
+for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their
+respective writings and discoveries;
+
+Ninth. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court, to define
+and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and
+offenses against the laws of nations;
+
+Tenth. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make
+rules concerning captures on land and water;
+
+Eleventh. To raise and support armies;
+
+Twelfth. To provide and maintain a navy;
+
+Thirteenth. To make rules for the government of the land and naval
+forces;
+
+Fourteenth. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws
+of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions;
+
+Fifteenth. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the
+militia, and for governing such part of them as may be in the service
+of the United States, reserving to the States the appointment of the
+officers and the authority of training the militia according to the
+discipline prescribed by Congress;
+
+Sixteenth. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatever over
+such district (not exceeding 10 miles square) as may, by the cession of
+particular States and the acceptance of by Congress, become the seat of
+Government of the United States; and to exercise like authority over all
+places purchased, by the consent of the legislature of the State in
+which the same may be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals,
+dockyards, and other needful buildings;
+
+Seventeenth. And to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper
+for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers
+vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States or
+in any department or officer thereof.
+
+To the other branches of the Government the powers properly belonging to
+each are granted. The President, in whom the executive power is vested,
+is made commander in chief of the Army and Navy, and militia when called
+into the service of the United States. He is authorized, with the advice
+and consent of the Senate, two-thirds of the members present concurring,
+to form treaties, to nominate and, with the advice and consent of the
+Senate, to appoint ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls,
+judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers whose appointments
+are not otherwise provided for by law. He has power to grant reprieves
+and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases
+of impeachment. It is made his duty to give to Congress from time to
+time information of the state of the Union, to recommend to their
+consideration such measures as he may judge necessary and expedient, to
+convene both Houses on extraordinary occasions, to receive ambassadors,
+and to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
+
+The judicial power is vested in one Supreme Court and in such inferior
+courts as Congress may establish; and it is made to extend to all cases
+in law and equity arising under the Constitution, the laws of the
+United States, and treaties made under their authority. Cases affecting
+ambassadors and other public characters, cases of admiralty and maritime
+jurisdiction, causes in which the United States are a party, between two
+or more States, between citizens of different States, between citizens
+of the same State claiming grants of land under different States,
+between a State or the citizens thereof and foreign States, are
+specially assigned to these tribunals.
+
+Other powers have been granted in other parts of the Constitution which,
+although they relate to specific objects, unconnected with the ordinary
+administration, yet, as they form important features in the Government
+and may shed useful light on the construction which ought to be given
+to the powers above enumerated, it is proper to bring into view.
+
+By Article I, section 9, clause 1, it is provided that the migration
+or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall
+think proper to admit shall not be prohibited by Congress prior to the
+year 1808, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation not
+exceeding $10 for each person.
+
+By Article III, section 3, clause 1, new States may be admitted by
+Congress into the Union, but that no new State shall be formed within
+the jurisdiction of another State, nor any State be formed by the
+junction of two or more States or parts of States without the consent of
+the legislature of the States concerned as well as of the United States.
+And by the next clause of the same article and section power is vested
+in Congress to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations
+respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United.
+States, with a proviso that nothing in the Constitution shall be so
+construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States or of any
+particular State.
+
+By Article IV, section 4, the United States guarantee to every State a
+republican form of government and engage to protect each of them against
+invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive
+when the legislature can not be convened, against domestic violence.
+
+Of the other parts of the Constitution relating to power, some form
+restraints on the exercise of the powers granted to Congress and others
+on the exercise of the powers remaining to the States. The object in
+both instances is to draw more completely the line between the two
+governments and also to prevent abuses by either. Other parts operate
+like conventional stipulations between the States, abolishing between
+them all distinctions applicable to foreign powers and securing to the
+inhabitants of each State all the rights and immunities of citizens in
+the several States.
+
+By the fifth article it is provided that Congress, whenever two-thirds
+of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments, or, on
+the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several States,
+shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which in either case
+shall be valid as a part of the Constitution when ratified by the
+legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by conventions
+in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode may be proposed
+by Congress: _Provided_, That no State, without its consent, shall be
+deprived of its equal vote in the Senate, and that no amendment which
+may be made prior to the year 1808 shall affect the first and fourth
+clauses in the ninth section of the first article.
+
+By the second section of the sixth article it is declared that the
+Constitution, and laws of the United States which shall be made in
+pursuance thereof, and all treaties made under the authority of the
+United States, shall be the supreme law of the land, and that the judges
+in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or
+laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. This right in the
+National Government to execute its powers was indispensable to its
+existence. If the State governments had not been restrained from
+encroaching on the powers vested in the National Government, the
+Constitution, like the Confederation, would soon have been set at
+naught; and it was not within the limit of the human mind to devise
+any plan for the accomplishment of the object other than by making a
+national constitution which should be to the extent of its powers the
+supreme law of the land. This right in the National Government would
+have existed under the Constitution to the full extent provided for by
+this declaration had it not been made. To prevent the possibility of
+a doubt, however, on so important a subject it was proper to make the
+declaration.
+
+Having presented above a full view of all the powers granted to the
+United States, it will be proper to look to those remaining to the
+States. It is by fixing the great powers which are admitted to belong
+to each government that we may hope to come to a right conclusion
+respecting those in controversy between them. In regard to the National
+Government, this task was easy because its powers were to be found in
+specific grants in the Constitution; but it is more difficult to give a
+detail of the powers of the State governments, as their constitutions,
+containing all powers granted by the people not specifically taken
+from them by grants to the United States, can not well be enumerated.
+Fortunately, a precise detail of all the powers remaining to the State
+governments is not necessary in the present instance. A knowledge of
+their great powers only will answer every purpose contemplated, and
+respecting these there can be no diversity in opinion. They are
+sufficiently recognized and established by the Constitution of the
+United States itself. In designating the important powers of the
+State governments it is proper to observe, first, that the territory
+contemplated by the Constitution belongs to each State in its separate
+character and not to the United States in their aggregate character.
+Bach State holds territory according to its original charter, except in
+cases where cessions have been made to the United States by individual
+States. The United States had none when the Constitution was adopted
+which had not been thus ceded to them and which they held on the
+conditions on which such cession had been made. Within the individual
+States it is believed that they held not a single acre; but if they did
+it was as citizens held it, merely as private property. The territory
+acquired by cession lying without the individual States rests on a
+different principle, and is provided for by a separate and distinct part
+of the Constitution. It is the territory within the individual States to
+which the Constitution in its great principles applies, and it applies
+to such territory as the territory of a State and not as that of the
+United States. The next circumstance to be attended to is that the
+people composing this Union are the people of the several States, and
+not of the United States in the full sense of a consolidated government.
+The militia are the militia of the several States; lands are held under
+the laws of the States; descents, contracts, and all the concerns of
+private property, the administration of justice, and the whole criminal
+code, except in the cases of breaches of the laws of the United States
+made under and in conformity with the powers vested in Congress and of
+the laws of nations, are regulated by State laws. This enumeration shows
+the great extent of the powers of the State governments. The territory
+and the people form the basis on which all governments are founded.
+The militia constitutes their effective force. The regulation and
+protection of property and of personal liberty are also among the
+highest attributes of sovereignty. This, without other evidence, is
+sufficient to show that the great office of the Constitution of the
+United States is to unite the States together under a Government
+endowed with powers adequate to the purposes of its institution,
+relating, directly or indirectly, to foreign concerns, to the discharge
+of which a National Government thus formed alone could be competent.
+
+This view of the exclusive jurisdiction of the several States over the
+territory within their respective limits, except in cases otherwise
+specially provided for, is supported by the obvious intent of the
+several powers granted to Congress, to which a more particular attention
+is now due. Of these the right to declare war is perhaps the most
+important, as well by the consequences attending war as by the other
+powers granted in aid of it. The right to lay taxes, duties, imposts,
+and excises, though necessary for the support of the civil government,
+is equally necessary to sustain the charges of war; the right to raise
+and support armies and a navy and to call forth and govern the militia
+when in the service of the United States are altogether of the latter
+kind. They are granted in aid of the power to make war and intended to
+give effect to it. These several powers are of great force and extent,
+and operate more directly within the limits and upon the resources of
+the States than any of the other powers. But still they are means only
+for given ends. War is declared and must be maintained, an army and a
+navy must be raised, fortifications must be erected for the common
+defense, debts must be paid, For these purposes duties, imposts, and
+excises are levied, taxes are laid, the lands, merchandise, and other
+property of the citizens are liable for them; if the money is not paid,
+seizures are made and the lands are sold. The transaction is terminated;
+the lands pass into other hands, who hold them, as the former
+proprietors did, under the laws of the individual States. They were
+means only to certain ends; the United States have nothing further to
+do with them. The same view is applicable to the power of the General
+Government over persons. The militia is called into the service of the
+United States; the service is performed; the corps returns to the State
+to which it belongs; it is the militia of such State, and not of the
+United States. Soldiers are required for the Army, who may be obtained
+by voluntary enlistment or by some other process founded in the
+principles of equality. In either case the citizen after the tour of
+duty is performed is restored to his former station in society, with his
+equal share in the common sovereignty of the nation. In all these cases,
+which are the strongest which can be given, we see that the right of
+the General Government is nothing more than what it is called in the
+Constitution, a power to perform certain acts, and that the subject on
+which it operates is a means only to that end; that it was both before
+and after that act under the protection and subject to the laws of the
+individual State within which it was.
+
+To the other powers of the General Government the same remarks are
+applicable and with greater force. The right to regulate commerce with
+foreign powers was necessary as well to enable Congress to lay and
+collect duties and imposts as to support the rights of the nation in
+the intercourse with foreign powers. It is executed at the ports of
+the several States and operates almost altogether externally. The right
+to borrow and coin money and to fix its value and that of foreign
+coin are important to the establishment of a National Government, and
+particularly necessary in support of the right to declare war, as,
+indeed, may be considered the right to punish piracy and felonies on
+the high seas and offenses against the laws of nations. The right to
+establish an uniform rule of naturalization and uniform laws respecting
+bankruptcies seems to be essentially connected with the right to
+regulate commerce. The first branch of it relates to foreigners entering
+the country; the second to merchants who have failed. The right to
+promote the progress of useful arts and sciences may be executed without
+touching any of the individual States. It is accomplished by granting
+patents to inventors and preserving models, which may be done
+exclusively within the Federal district. The right to constitute courts
+inferior to the Supreme Court was a necessary consequence of the
+judiciary existing as a separate branch of the General Government.
+Without such inferior court in every State it would be difficult and
+might even be impossible to carry into effect the laws of the General
+Government. The right to establish post-offices and post-roads is
+essentially of the same character. For political, commercial, and social
+purposes it was important that it should be vested in the General
+Government. As a mere matter of regulation, and nothing more, I presume,
+was intended by it, it is a power easily executed and involving little
+authority within the States individually. The right to exercise
+exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over the Federal district
+and over forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful
+buildings with the consent of the State within which the same may be is
+a power of a peculiar character, and is sufficient in itself to confirm
+what has been said of all the other powers of the General Government.
+Of this particular grant further notice will hereafter be taken.
+
+I shall conclude my remarks on this part of the subject by observing
+that the view which has been presented of the powers and character of
+the two Governments is supported by the marked difference which is
+observable in the manner of their endowment. The State governments
+are divided into three branches--a legislative, executive, and
+judiciary--and the appropriate duties of each assigned to it without
+any limitation of power except such as is-necessary to guard against
+abuse, in the form of bills of right. But in instituting the National
+Government an entirely different principle was adopted and pursued. The
+Government itself is organized, like the State governments, into three
+branches, but its powers are enumerated and defined in the most precise
+form. The subject has already been too fully explained to require
+illustration by a general view of the whole Constitution, every part
+of which affords proof of what is here advanced. It will be sufficient
+to advert to the eighth section of the first article, being that more
+particularly which defines the powers and fixes the character of the
+Government of the United States. By this section it is declared that
+Congress shall have power, first, to lay and collect taxes, duties,
+imposts, and excises, etc.
+
+Having shown the origin of the State governments and their endowments
+when first formed; having also shown the origin of the National
+Government and the powers vested in it, and having shown, lastly, the
+powers which are admitted to have remained to the State governments
+after those which were taken from them by the National Government,
+I will now proceed to examine whether the power to adopt and execute
+a system of internal improvement by roads and canals has been vested
+in the United States.
+
+Before we can determine whether this power has been granted to the
+General Government it will be necessary to ascertain distinctly the
+nature and extent of the power requisite to make such improvements.
+When that is done we shall be able to decide whether such power is
+vested in the National Government.
+
+If the power existed it would, it is presumed, be executed by a board of
+skillful engineers, on a view of the whole Union, on a plan which would
+secure complete effect to all the great purposes of our Constitution.
+It is not my intention, however, to take up the subject here on this
+scale. I shall state a case for the purpose of illustration only. Let
+it be supposed that Congress intended to run a road from the city of
+Washington to Baltimore and to connect the Chesapeake Bay with the
+Delaware and the Delaware with the Raritan by a canal, what must be
+done to carry the project into effect? I make here no question of the
+existing power. I speak only of the power necessary for the purpose.
+Commissioners would be appointed to trace a route in the most direct
+line, paying due regard to heights, water courses, and other obstacles,
+and to acquire the right to the ground over which the road and canal
+would pass, with sufficient breadth for each. This must be done by
+voluntary grants, or by purchases from individuals, or, in case they
+would not sell or should ask an exorbitant price, by condemning the
+property and fixing its value by a jury of the vicinage. The next object
+to be attended to after the road and canal are laid out and made is to
+keep them in repair. We know that there are people in every community
+capable of committing voluntary injuries, of pulling down walls that are
+made to sustain the road, of breaking the bridges over water courses,
+and breaking the road itself. Some living near it might be disappointed
+that it did not pass through their lands and commit these acts of
+violence and waste from revenge or in the hope of giving it that
+direction, though for a short time. Injuries of this kind have been
+committed and are still complained of on the road from Cumberland to the
+Ohio. To accomplish this object Congress should have a right to pass
+laws to punish offenders wherever they may be found. Jurisdiction over
+the road would not be sufficient, though it were exclusive. It would
+seldom happen that the parties would be detected in the act. They would
+generally commit it in the night and fly far off before the sun
+appeared. The power to punish these culprits must therefore reach them
+wherever they go. They must also be amenable to competent tribunals,
+Federal or State. The power must likewise extend to another object not
+less essential or important than those already mentioned. Experience
+has shown that the establishment of turnpikes, with gates and tolls and
+persons to collect the tolls, is the best expedient that can be adopted
+to defray the expense of these improvements and the repairs which they
+necessarily require. Congress must therefore have power to make such
+an establishment and to support it by such regulations, with fines and
+penalties in the case of injuries, as may be competent to the purpose.
+The right must extend to all those objects, or it will be utterly
+incompetent. It is possessed and exercised by the States individually,
+and it must be possessed by the United States or the pretension must be
+abandoned.
+
+Let it be further supposed that Congress, believing that they do
+possess the power, have passed an act for those purposes, under which
+commissioners have been appointed, who have begun the work. They are met
+at the first farm on which they enter by the owner, who forbids them
+to trespass on his land. They offer to buy it at a fair price or at
+twice or thrice its value. He persists in his refusal. Can they, on the
+principle recognized and acted on by all the State governments that in
+cases of this kind the obstinacy and perverseness of an individual must
+yield to the public welfare, summon a jury of upright and discreet men
+to condemn the land, value it, and compel the owner to receive the
+amount and to deliver it up to them? I believe that very few would
+concur in the opinion that such a power exists.
+
+The next object is to preserve these improvements from injury. The locks
+of the canal are broken, the walls which sustained the road are pulled
+down, the bridges are broken, the road itself is plowed up, toll is
+refused to be paid, the gates of the canal or turnpike are forced.
+The offenders are pursued, caught, and brought to trial. Can they
+be punished? The question of right must be decided on principle. The
+culprits will avail themselves of every barrier that may serve to screen
+them from punishment. They will plead that the law under which they
+stand arraigned is unconstitutional, and that question must be decided
+by the court, whether Federal or State, on a fair investigation of the
+powers vested in the General Government by the Constitution. If the
+judges find that these powers have not been granted to Congress, the
+prisoners must be acquitted, and by their acquittal all claim to the
+right to establish such a system is at an end.
+
+I have supposed an opposition to be made to the right in Congress by the
+owner of the land and other individuals charged with breaches of laws
+made to protect the works from injury, because it is the mildest form in
+which it can present itself. It is not, however, the only one. A State,
+also, may contest the right, and then the controversy assumes another
+character. Government might contend against government, for to a certain
+extent both the Governments are sovereign and independent of each other,
+and in that form it is possible, though not probable, that opposition
+might be made. To each limitations are prescribed, and should a contest
+rise between them respecting their rights and the people sustain it with
+anything like an equal division of numbers the worst consequences might
+ensue.
+
+It may be urged that the opposition suggested by the owner of the
+land or by the States individually may be avoided by a satisfactory
+arrangement with the parties. But a suppression of opposition in that
+way is no proof of a right in Congress, nor could it, if confined to
+that limit, remove all the impediments to the exercise of the power.
+It is not sufficient that Congress may by the command and application
+of the public revenue purchase the soil, and thus silence that class of
+individuals, or by the accommodation afforded to individual States put
+down opposition on their part. Congress must be able rightfully to
+control all opposition or they can not carry the system into effect.
+Cases would inevitably occur to put the right to the test. The work must
+be preserved from injury, tolls must be collected, offenders must be
+punished. With these culprits no bargain can be made. When brought
+to trial they must deny the validity of the law, and that plea being
+sustained all claim to the right ceases.
+
+If the United States possess this power, it must be either because it
+has been specifically granted or that it is incidental and necessary
+to carry into effect some specific grant. The advocates for the power
+derive it from the following sources: First, the right to establish
+post-offices and post-roads; second, to declare war; third, to regulate
+commerce among the several States; fourth, from the power to pay the
+debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the
+United States; fifth, from the power to make all laws necessary and
+proper for carrying into execution all the powers vested by the
+Constitution in the Government of the United States or in any department
+or officer thereof; sixth and lastly, from the power to dispose of and
+make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and
+other property of the United States. It is to be observed that there
+is but little accord among the advocates for this power as to the
+particular source from whence it is derived. They all agree, however,
+in ascribing it to some one or more of those above mentioned. I will
+examine the ground of the claim in each instance.
+
+The first of these grants is in the following words: "Congress shall
+have power to establish post-offices and post-roads." What is the just
+import of these words and the extent of the grant? The word "establish"
+is the ruling term; "post-offices and post-roads" are the subjects on
+which it acts. The question therefore is, What power is granted by that
+word? The sense in which words are commonly used is that in which they
+are to be understood in all transactions between public bodies and
+individuals. The intention of the parties is to prevail, and there is
+no better way of ascertaining it than by giving to the terms used their
+ordinary import. If we were to ask any number of our most enlightened
+citizens, who had no connection with public affairs and whose minds were
+unprejudiced, what was the import of the word "establish" and the extent
+of the grant which it controls, we do not think there would be any
+difference of opinion among them. We are satisfied that all of them
+would answer that a power was thereby given to Congress to fix on the
+towns, court-houses, and other places throughout our Union at which
+there should be post-offices, the routes by which the mails should be
+carried from one post-office to another, so as to diffuse intelligence
+as extensively and to make the institution as useful as possible, to
+fix the postage to be paid on every letter and packet thus carried, to
+support the establishment, and to protect the post-office and mails from
+robbery by punishing those who should commit the offense. The idea of a
+right to lay off the roads of the United States on a general scale of
+improvement, to take the soil from the proprietor by force, to establish
+turnpikes and tolls, and to punish offenders in the manner stated above
+would never occur to any such person. The use of the existing road by
+the stage, mail carrier, or postboy in passing over it as others do is
+all that would be thought of, the jurisdiction and soil remaining to the
+State, with a right in the State or those authorized by its legislature
+to change the road at pleasure.
+
+The intention of the parties is supported by other proof, which ought
+to place it beyond all doubt. In the former act of Government, the
+Confederation, we find a grant for the same purpose expressed in the
+following words: "The United States in Congress assembled shall have
+the sole and exclusive right and power of establishing and regulating
+post-offices from one State to another throughout all the United States,
+and exacting such postage on the papers passing through the same as
+may be requisite to defray the expenses of the said office." The term
+"establish" was likewise the ruling one in that instrument, and was
+evidently intended and understood to give a power simply and solely to
+fix where there should be post-offices. By transferring this term from
+the Confederation into the Constitution it was doubtless intended that
+it should be understood in the same sense in the latter that it was
+in the former instrument, and to be applied alike to post-offices and
+post-roads. In whatever sense it is applied to post-offices it must
+be applied in the same sense to post-roads. But it may be asked, If
+such was the intention, why were not all the other terms of the grant
+transferred with it? The reason is obvious. The Confederation being a
+bond of union between independent States, it was necessary in granting
+the powers which were to be exercised over them to be very explicit
+and minute in defining the powers granted. But the Constitution to the
+extent of its powers having incorporated the States into one Government
+like the government of the States individually, fewer words in defining
+the powers granted by it were not only adequate, but perhaps better
+adapted to the purpose. We find that brevity is a characteristic of the
+instrument. Had it been intended to convey a more enlarged power in the
+Constitution than had been granted in the Confederation, surely the same
+controlling term would not have been used, or other words would have
+been added, to show such intention and to mark the extent to which the
+power should be carried. It is a liberal construction of the powers
+granted in the Constitution by this term to include in it all the powers
+that were granted in the Confederation by terms which specifically
+defined and, as was supposed, extended their limits. It would be absurd
+to say that by omitting from the Constitution any portion of the
+phraseology which was deemed important in the Confederation the import
+of that term was enlarged, and with it the powers of the Constitution,
+in a proportional degree, beyond what they were in the Confederation.
+The right to exact postage and to protect the post-offices and mails
+from robbery by punishing the offenders may fairly be considered as
+incidents to the grant, since without it the object of the grant might
+be defeated. Whatever is absolutely necessary to the accomplishment of
+the object of the grant, though not specified, may fairly be considered
+as included in it. Beyond this the doctrine of incidental power can not
+be carried.
+
+If we go back to the origin of our settlements and institutions and
+trace their progress down to the Revolution, we shall see that it was in
+this sense, and in none other, that the power was exercised by all our
+colonial governments. Post-offices were made for the country, and not
+the country for them. They are the offspring of improvement; they never
+go before it. Settlements are first made, after which the progress is
+uniform and simple, extending to objects in regular order most necessary
+to the comfort of man--schools, places of public worship, court-houses,
+and markets; post-offices follow. Roads may, indeed, be said to be
+coeval with settlements; they lead to all the places mentioned, and
+to every other which the various and complicated interests of society
+require.
+
+It is believed that not one example can be given, from the first
+settlement of our country to the adoption of this Constitution,
+of a post-office being established without a view to existing roads or
+of a single road having been made by pavement, turnpike, etc., for the
+sole purpose of accommodating a post-office. Such, too, is the uniform
+progress of all societies. In granting, then, this power to the United
+States it was undoubtedly intended by the framers and ratifiers of the
+Constitution to convey it in the sense and extent only in which it had
+been understood and exercised by the previous authorities of the
+country.
+
+This conclusion is confirmed by the object of the grant and the
+manner of its execution. The object is the transportation of the mail
+throughout the United States, which may be done on horseback, and was
+so done until lately, since the establishment of stages. Between the
+great towns and in other places where the population is dense stages are
+preferred because they afford an additional opportunity to make a profit
+from passengers; but where the population is sparse and on crossroads it
+is generally carried on horseback. Unconnected with passengers and other
+objects, it can not be doubted that the mail itself may be carried in
+every part of our Union with nearly as much economy and greater dispatch
+on horseback than in a stage, and in many parts with much greater. In
+every part of the Union in which stages can be preferred the roads are
+sufficiently good provided those which serve for every other purpose
+will accommodate them. In every other part where horses alone are used
+if other people pass them on horseback surely the mail carrier can. For
+an object so simple and so easy in its execution it would doubtless
+excite surprise if it should be thought proper to appoint commissioners
+to lay off the country on a great scheme of improvement, with the
+power to shorten distances, reduce heights, level mountains, and pave
+surfaces.
+
+If the United States possessed the power contended for under this grant,
+might they not in adopting the roads of the individual States for the
+carriage of the mail, as has been done, assume jurisdiction over them
+and preclude a right to interfere with or alter them? Might they not
+establish turnpikes and exercise all the other acts of sovereignty
+above stated over such roads necessary to protect them from injury and
+defray the expense of repairing them? Surely if the right exists these
+consequences necessarily followed as soon as the road was established.
+The absurdity of such a pretension must be apparent to all who examine
+it. In this way a large portion of the territory of every State might be
+taken from it, for there is scarcely a road in any State which will not
+be used for the transportation of the mail. A new field for legislation
+and internal government would thus be opened.
+
+From this view of the subject I think we may fairly conclude that the
+right to adopt and execute a system of internal improvement, or any part
+of it, has not been granted to Congress under the power to establish
+post-offices and post-roads; that the common roads of the country only
+were contemplated by that grant and are fully competent to all its
+purposes.
+
+The next object of inquiry is whether the right to declare war
+includes the right to adopt and execute this system of improvement.
+The objections to it are, I presume, not less conclusive than those
+which are applicable to the grant which we have just examined.
+
+Under the last-mentioned grant a claim has been set up to as much of
+that system as relates to roads. Under this it extends alike to roads
+and canals.
+
+We must examine this grant by the same rules of construction that
+were applied to the preceding one. The object was to take this power
+from the individual States and to vest it in the General Government.
+This has been done in clear and explicit terms, first by granting the
+power to Congress, and secondly by prohibiting the exercise of it by
+the States. "Congress shall have a right to declare war." This is the
+language of the grant. If the right to adopt and execute this system
+of improvement is included in it, it must be by way of incident only,
+since there is nothing in the grant itself which bears any relation to
+roads and canals. The following considerations, it is presumed, prove
+incontestably that this power has not been granted in that or any other
+manner.
+
+The United States are exposed to invasion through the whole extent of
+their Atlantic coast by any European power with whom we might be engaged
+in war--on the northern and northwestern frontier on the side of Canada
+by Great Britain, and on the southern by Spain or any power in alliance
+with her. If internal improvements are to be carried to the full extent
+to which they may be useful for military purposes, the power as it
+exists must apply to all the roads of the Union, there being no
+limitation to it. Wherever such improvements may facilitate the march
+of troops, the transportation of cannon, or otherwise aid the operations
+or mitigate the calamities of war along the coast or in any part of the
+interior they would be useful for military purposes, and might therefore
+be made. The power following as an incident to another power can be
+measured as to its extent by reference only to the obvious extent of the
+power to which it is incidental. So great a scope was, it is believed,
+never given to incidental power.
+
+If it had been intended that the right to declare war should include
+all the powers necessary to maintain war, it would follow that nothing
+would have been done to impair the right or to restrain Congress from
+the exercise of any power which the exigencies of war might require.
+The nature and extent of this exigency would mark the extent of the
+power granted, which should always be construed liberally, so as to be
+adequate to the end. A right to raise money by taxes, duties, excises,
+and by loan, to raise and support armies and a navy, to provide for
+calling forth, arming, disciplining, and governing the militia when
+in the service of the United States, establishing fortifications and
+governing the troops stationed in them independently of the State
+authorities, and to perform many other acts is indispensable to the
+maintenance of war--no war with any great power can be prosecuted with
+success without the command of the resources of the Union in all these
+respects. These powers, then, would of necessity and by common consent
+have fallen within the right to declare war had it been intended to
+convey by way of incident to that right the necessary powers to maintain
+war. But these powers have all been granted specifically with many
+others, in great detail, which experience had shown were necessary for
+the purposes of war. By specifically granting, then, these powers it
+is manifest that every power was thus granted which it was intended
+to grant for military purposes, and that it was also intended that no
+important power should be included in this grant by way of incident,
+however useful it might be for some of the purposes of the grant.
+
+By the sixteenth of the enumerated powers, Article I, section 8,
+Congress are authorized to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases
+whatever over such district as may by cession of particular States and
+the acceptance of Congress, not exceeding 10 miles square, become the
+seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like
+authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature
+of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts,
+magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other useful buildings. If any doubt
+existed on a view of other parts of the Constitution respecting the
+decision which ought to be formed on the question under consideration,
+I should suppose that this clause would completely remove it. It has been
+shown after the most liberal construction of all the enumerated powers
+of the General Government that the territory within the limits of the
+respective States belonged to them; that the United States had no right
+under the powers granted to them, with the exception specified in this
+grant, to any the smallest portion of territory within a State, all
+those powers operating on a different principle and having their full
+effect without impairing in the slightest degree this right in the
+States; that those powers were in every instance means to ends, which
+being accomplished left the subject--that is, the property, in which
+light only land could be regarded--where it was before, under the
+jurisdiction and subject to the laws of the State governments.
+
+The second number of the clause, which is applicable to military
+and naval purposes alone, claims particular attention here. It fully
+confirms the view taken of the other enumerated powers, for had it been
+intended to include in the right to declare war, by way of incident,
+any right of jurisdiction or legislation over territory within a State,
+it would have been done as to fortifications, magazines, arsenals,
+dockyards, and other needful buildings. By specifically granting the
+right as to such small portions of territory as might be necessary for
+these purposes and on certain conditions, minutely and well defined,
+it is manifest that it was not intended to grant it as to any other
+portion on any condition for any purpose or in any manner whatsoever.
+
+It may be said that although the authority to exercise exclusive
+legislation in certain cases within the States with their consent may
+be considered as a prohibition to Congress to exercise like exclusive
+legislation in any other case, although their consent should be granted,
+it does not prohibit the exercise of such jurisdiction or power within
+a State as would be competent to all the purposes of internal
+improvement. I can conceive no ground on which the idea of such a power
+over any part of the territory of a State can be inferred from the power
+to declare war. There never can be an occasion for jurisdiction for
+military purposes except in fortifications, dockyards, and the like
+places. If the soldiers are in the field or are quartered in garrisons
+without the fortifications, the civil authority must prevail where they
+are. The government of the troops by martial law is not affected by it.
+In war, when the forces are increased and the movement is on a greater
+scale, consequences follow which are inseparable from the exigencies
+of the state. More freedom of action and a wider range of power in the
+military commanders, to be exercised on their own responsibility, may
+be necessary to the public safety; but even here the civil authority
+of the State never ceases to operate. It is also exclusive for all
+civil purposes.
+
+Whether any power short of that stated would be adequate to the purposes
+of internal improvement is denied. In the case of territory one
+government must prevail for all the purposes intended by the grant.
+The jurisdiction of the United States might be modified in such manner
+as to admit that of the State in all cases and for all purposes not
+necessary to the execution of the proposed power; but the right of the
+General Government must be complete for all the purposes above stated.
+It must extend to the seizure and condemnation of the property, if
+necessary; to the punishment of offenders for injuries to the roads and
+canals; to the establishment and enforcement of tolls, etc. It must be
+a complete right to the extent above stated or it will be of no avail.
+That right does not exist.
+
+The reasons which operate in favor of the right of exclusive legislation
+in forts, dockyards, etc., do not apply to any other places. The safety
+of such works and of the cities which they are intended to defend, and
+even of whole communities, may sometimes depend on it. If spies are
+admitted within them in time of war, they might communicate intelligence
+to the enemy which might be fatal. All nations surround such works
+with high walls and keep their gates shut. Even here, however, three
+important conditions are indispensable to such exclusive legislation:
+First, the ground must be requisite for and be applied to those
+purposes; second, it must be purchased; third, it must be purchased by
+the consent of the State in which it may be. When we find that so much
+care has been taken to protect the sovereignty of the States over the
+territory within their respective limits, admitting that of the United
+States over such small portions and for such special and important
+purposes only, the conclusion is irresistible not only that the power
+necessary for internal improvements has not been granted, but that it
+has been clearly prohibited.
+
+I come next to the right to regulate commerce, the third source from
+whence the right to make internal improvements is claimed. It is
+expressed in the following words: "Congress shall have power to regulate
+commerce with foreign nations and among the several States and with the
+Indian tribes." The reasoning applicable to the preceding claims is
+equally so to this. The mischief complained of was that this power could
+not be exercised with advantage by the individual States, and the object
+was to transfer it to the United States. The sense in which the power
+was understood and exercised by the States was doubtless that in which
+it was transferred to the United States. The policy was the same
+as to three branches of this grant, and it is scarcely possible to
+separate the two first from each other in any view which may be taken
+of the subject. The last, relating to the Indian tribes, is of a
+nature distinct from the others for reasons too well known to require
+explanation. Commerce between independent powers or communities is
+universally regulated by duties and imposts. It was so regulated by the
+States before the adoption of this Constitution equally in respect to
+each other and to foreign powers. The goods and vessels employed in the
+trade are the only subjects of regulation. It can act on none other.
+A power, then, to impose such duties and imposts in regard to foreign
+nations and to prevent any on the trade between the States was the only
+power granted.
+
+If we recur to the causes which produced the adoption of this
+Constitution, we shall find that injuries resulting from the regulation
+of trade by the States respectively and the advantages anticipated from
+the transfer of the power to Congress were among those which had the
+most weight. Instead of acting as a nation in regard to foreign powers,
+the States individually had commenced a system of restraint on each
+other whereby the interests of foreign powers were promoted at their
+expense. If one State imposed high duties on the goods or vessels of
+a foreign power to countervail the regulations of such power, the next
+adjoining States imposed lighter duties to invite those articles into
+their ports, that they might be transferred thence into the other
+States, securing the duties to themselves. This contracted policy in
+some of the States was soon counteracted by others. Restraints were
+immediately laid on such commerce by the suffering States, and thus had
+grown up a state of affairs disorderly and unnatural, the tendency of
+which was to destroy the Union itself and with it all hope of realizing
+those blessings which we had anticipated from the glorious Revolution
+which had been so recently achieved. From this deplorable dilemma, or,
+rather, certain ruin, we were happily rescued by the adoption of the
+Constitution.
+
+Among the first and most important effects of this great Revolution
+was the complete abolition of this pernicious policy. The States were
+brought together by the Constitution as to commerce into one community
+equally in regard to foreign nations and each other. The regulations
+that were adopted regarded us in both respects as one people. The duties
+and imposts that were laid on the vessels and merchandise of foreign
+nations were all uniform throughout the United States, and in the
+intercourse between the States themselves no duties of any kind were
+imposed other than between different ports and counties within the
+same State.
+
+This view is supported by a series of measures, all of a marked
+character, preceding the adoption of the Constitution. As early as
+the year 1781 Congress recommended it to the States to vest in the
+United States a power to levy a duty of 5 per cent on all goods imported
+from foreign countries into the United States for the term of fifteen
+years. In 1783 this recommendation, with alterations as to the kind of
+duties and an extension of this term to twenty-five years, was repeated
+and more earnestly urged. In 1784 it was recommended to the States
+to authorize Congress to prohibit, under certain modifications, the
+importation of goods from foreign powers into the United States for
+fifteen years. In 1785 the consideration of the subject was resumed,
+and a proposition presented in a new form, with an address to the
+States, explaining fully the principles on which a grant of the power
+to regulate trade was deemed indispensable. In 1786 a meeting took place
+at Annapolis of delegates from several of the States on this subject,
+and on their report a convention was formed at Philadelphia the ensuing
+year from all the States, to whose deliberations we are indebted for
+the present Constitution.
+
+In none of these measures was the subject of internal improvement
+mentioned or even glanced at. Those of 1784, 1785, 1786, and 1787,
+leading step by step to the adoption of the Constitution, had in view
+only the obtaining of a power to enable Congress to regulate trade with
+foreign powers. It is manifest that the regulation of trade with the
+several States was altogether a secondary object, suggested by and
+adopted in connection with the other. If the power necessary to this
+system of improvement is included under either branch of this grant,
+I should suppose that it was the first rather than the second. The
+pretension to it, however, under that branch has never been set up.
+In support of the claim under the second no reason has been assigned
+which appears to have the least weight.
+
+The fourth claim is founded on the right of Congress to "pay the debts
+and provide for the common defense and general welfare" of the United
+States. This claim has less reason on its side than either of those
+which we have already examined. The power of which this forms a part
+is expressed in the following words: "Congress shall have power to lay
+and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; to pay the debts and
+provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States;
+but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the
+United States." That the second part of this grant gives a right to
+appropriate the public money, and nothing more, is evident from the
+following considerations: First. If the right of appropriation is not
+given by this clause, it is not given at all, there being no other grant
+in the Constitution which gives it directly or which has any bearing
+on the subject, even by implication, except the two following: First,
+the prohibition, which is contained in the eleventh of the enumerated
+powers, not to appropriate money for the support of armies for a longer
+term than two years; and, second, the declaration of the sixth member
+or clause of the ninth section of the first article that no money shall
+be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by
+law. Second. This part of the grant has none of the characteristics of
+a distinct and original power. It is manifestly incidental to the great
+objects of the first part of the grant, which authorizes Congress to lay
+and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, a power of vast extent,
+not granted by the Confederation, the grant of which formed one of the
+principal inducements to the adoption of this Constitution. If both
+parts of the grant are taken together (as they must be, for the one
+follows immediately after the other in the same sentence), it seems
+to be impossible to give to the latter any other construction than
+that contended for. Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes,
+duties, imposts, and excises. For what purpose? To pay the debts and
+provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States,
+an arrangement and phraseology which clearly show that the latter part
+of the clause was intended to enumerate the purposes to which the money
+thus raised might be appropriated. Third. If this is not the real object
+and fair construction of the second part of this grant, it follows
+either that it has no import or operation whatever or one of much
+greater extent than the first part. This presumption is evidently
+groundless in both instances. In the first because no part of the
+Constitution can be considered useless; no sentence or clause in it
+without a meaning. In the second because such a construction as made the
+second part of the clause an original grant, embracing the same object
+with the first, but with much greater power than it, would be in the
+highest degree absurd. The order generally observed in grants, an order
+founded in common sense, since it promotes a clear understanding of
+their import, is to grant the power intended to be conveyed in the
+most full and explicit manner, and then to explain or qualify it, if
+explanation or qualification should be necessary. This order has, it
+is believed, been invariably observed in all the grants contained in
+the Constitution. In the second because if the clause in question is
+not construed merely as an authority to appropriate the public money,
+it must be obvious that it conveys a power of indefinite and unlimited
+extent; that there would have been no use for the special powers to
+raise and support armies and a navy, to regulate commerce, to call forth
+the militia, or even to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and
+excises. An unqualified power to pay the debts and provide for the
+common defense and general welfare, as the second part of this clause
+would be if considered as a distinct and separate grant, would extend to
+every object in which the public could be interested. A power to provide
+for the common defense would give to Congress the command of the whole
+force and of all the resources of the Union; but a right to provide for
+the general welfare would go much further. It would, in effect, break
+down all the barriers between the States and the General Government and
+consolidate the whole under the latter.
+
+The powers specifically granted to Congress are what are called the
+enumerated powers, and are numbered in the order in which they stand,
+among which that contained in the first clause holds the first place
+in point of importance. If the power created by the latter part of the
+clause is considered an original grant, unconnected with and independent
+of the first, as in that case it must be, then the first part is
+entirely done away, as are all the other grants in the Constitution,
+being completely absorbed in the transcendent power granted in the
+latter part; but if the clause be construed in the sense contended for,
+then every part has an important meaning and effect; not a line, a word,
+in it is superfluous. A power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts,
+and excises subjects to the call of Congress every branch of the public
+revenue, internal and external, and the addition to pay the debts and
+provide for the common defense and general welfare gives the right of
+applying the money raised--that is, of appropriating it to the purposes
+specified according to a proper construction of the terms. Hence it
+follows that it is the first part of the clause only which gives a power
+which affects in any manner the power remaining to the States, as the
+power to raise money from the people, whether it be by taxes, duties,
+imposts, or excises, though concurrent in the States as to taxes and
+excises must necessarily do. But the use or application of the money
+after it is raised is a power altogether of a different character.
+It imposes no burden on the people, nor can it act on them in a sense
+to take power from the States or in any sense in which power can be
+controverted, or become a question between the two Governments. The
+application of money raised under a lawful power is a right or grant
+which may be abused. It may be applied partially among the States, or
+to improper purposes in our foreign and domestic concerns; but still
+it is a power not felt in the sense of other power, since the only
+complaint which any State can make of such partiality and abuse is
+that some other State or States have obtained greater benefit from the
+application than by a just rule of apportionment they were entitled to.
+The right of appropriation is therefore from its nature secondary and
+incidental to the right of raising money, and it was proper to place
+it in the same grant and same clause with that right. By rinding them,
+then, in that order we see a new proof of the sense in which the grant
+was made, corresponding with the view herein taken of it.
+
+The last part of this grant, which provides that all duties, imposts,
+and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States, furnishes
+another strong proof that it was not intended that the second part
+should constitute a distinct grant in the sense above stated, or
+convey any other right than that of appropriation. This provision
+operates exclusively on the power granted in the first part of the
+clause. It recites three branches of that power--duties, imposts, and
+excises--those only on which it could operate, the rule by which the
+fourth--that is, taxes--should be laid being already provided for in
+another part of the Constitution. The object of this provision is to
+secure a just equality among the States in the exercise of that power
+by Congress. By placing it after both the grants--that is, after that
+to raise and that to appropriate the public money--and making it apply
+to the first only it shows that it was not intended that the power
+granted in the second should be paramount to and destroy that granted in
+the first. It shows also that no such formidable power as that suggested
+had been granted in the second, or any power against the abuse of which
+it was thought necessary specially to provide. Surely if it was deemed
+proper to guard a specific power of limited extent and well-known
+import against injustice and abuse, it would have been much more so
+to have guarded against the abuse of a power of such vast extent and so
+indefinite as would have been granted by the second part of the clause
+if considered as a distinct and original grant.
+
+With this construction all the other enumerated grants, and, indeed,
+all the grants of power contained in the Constitution, have their full
+operation and effect. They all stand well together, fulfilling the great
+purposes intended by them. Under it we behold a great scheme, consistent
+in all its parts, a Government instituted for national purposes, vested
+with adequate powers for those purposes, commencing with the most
+important of all, that of the revenue, and proceeding in regular order
+to the others with which it was deemed proper to endow it, all, too,
+drawn with the utmost circumspection and care. How much more consistent
+is this construction with the great objects of the institution and with
+the high character of the enlightened and patriotic citizens who framed
+it, as well as of those who ratified it, than one which subverts every
+sound principle and rule of construction and throws everything into
+confusion.
+
+I have dwelt thus long on this part of the subject from an earnest
+desire to fix in a clear and satisfactory manner the import of the
+second part of this grant, well knowing from the generality of the terms
+used their tendency to lead into error. I indulge a strong hope that
+the view herein presented will not be without effect, but will tend to
+satisfy the unprejudiced and impartial that nothing more was granted by
+that part than a power to _appropriate_ the public money raised under
+the other part. To what extent that power may be carried will be the
+next object of inquiry.
+
+It is contended on the one side that as the National Government is
+a government of limited powers it has no right to expend money except
+in the performance of acts authorized by the other specific grants
+according to a strict construction of their powers; that this grant
+in neither of its branches gives to Congress discretionary power of
+any kind, but is a mere instrument in its hands to carry into effect
+the powers contained in the other grants. To this construction I was
+inclined in the more early stage of our Government; but on further
+reflection and observation my mind has undergone a change, for reasons
+which I will frankly unfold.
+
+The grant consists, as heretofore observed, of a twofold power--the
+first to raise, the second to appropriate, the public money--and the
+terms used in both instances are general and unqualified. Bach branch
+was obviously drawn with a view to the other, and the import of each
+tends to illustrate that of the other. The grant to raise money gives
+a power over every subject from which revenue may be drawn, and is made
+in the same manner with the grants to declare war, to raise and support
+armies and a navy, to regulate commerce, to establish post-offices
+and post-roads, and with all the other specific grants to the General
+Government. In the discharge of the powers contained in any of these
+grants there is no other check than that which is to be found in the
+great principles of our system, the responsibility of the representative
+to his constituents. If war, for example, is necessary, and Congress
+declare it for good cause, their constituents will support them in it.
+A like support will be given them for the faithful discharge of their
+duties under any and every other power vested in the United States.
+It affords to the friends of our free governments the most heartfelt
+consolation to know--and from the best evidence, our own experience--that
+in great emergencies the boldest measures, such as form the strongest
+appeals to the virtue and patriotism of the people, are sure to obtain
+the most decided approbation. But should the representative act
+corruptly and betray his trust, or otherwise prove that he was unworthy
+of the confidence of his constituents, he would be equally sure to lose
+it and to be removed and otherwise censured, according to his deserts.
+The power to raise money by taxes, duties, imposts, and excises is alike
+unqualified, nor do I see any check on the exercise of it other than
+that which applies to the other powers above recited, the responsibility
+of the representative to his constituents. Congress know the extent of
+the public engagements and the sums necessary to meet them; they know
+how much may be derived from each branch of revenue without pressing
+it too far; and, paying due regard to the interests of the people,
+they likewise know which branch ought to be resorted to in the first
+instance. From the commencement of the Government two branches of this
+power, duties and imposts, have been in constant operation, the revenue
+from which has supported the Government in its various branches and met
+its other ordinary engagements. In great emergencies the other two,
+taxes and excises, have likewise been resorted to, and neither was the
+right or the policy ever called in question.
+
+If we look to the second branch of this power, that which authorizes the
+appropriation of the money thus raised, we find that it is not less
+general and unqualified than the power to raise it. More comprehensive
+terms than to "pay the debts and provide for the common defense and
+general welfare" could not have been used. So intimately connected with
+and dependent on each other are these two branches of power that had
+either been limited the limitation would have had the like effect on
+the other. Had the power to raise money been conditional or restricted
+to special purposes, the appropriation must have corresponded with it,
+for none but the money raised could be appropriated, nor could it be
+appropriated to other purposes than those which were permitted. On the
+other hand, if the right of appropriation had been restricted to certain
+purposes, it would be useless and improper to raise more than would be
+adequate to those purposes. It may fairly be inferred these restraints
+or checks have been carefully and intentionally avoided. The power in
+each branch is alike broad and unqualified, and each is drawn with
+peculiar fitness to the other, the latter requiring terms of great
+extent and force to accommodate the former, which have been adopted,
+and both placed in the same clause and sentence.
+
+Can it be presumed that all these circumstances were so nicely adjusted
+by mere accident? Is it not more just to conclude that they were the
+result of due deliberation and design? Had it been intended that
+Congress should be restricted in the appropriation of the public money
+to such expenditures as were authorized by a rigid construction of the
+other specific grants, how easy would it have been to have provided for
+it by a declaration to that effect. The omission of such declaration is
+therefore an additional proof that it was not intended that the grant
+should be so construed.
+
+It was evidently impossible to have subjected this grant in either
+branch to such restriction without exposing the Government to very
+serious embarrassment. How carry it into effect? If the grant had been
+made in any degree dependent upon the States, the Government would have
+experienced the fate of the Confederation. Like it, it would have
+withered and soon perished. Had the Supreme Court been authorized, or
+should any other tribunal distinct from the Government be authorized,
+to impose its veto, and to say that more money had been raised under
+either branch of this power--that is, by taxes, duties, imposts, or
+excises--than was necessary, that such a tax or duty was useless, that
+the appropriation to this or that purpose was unconstitutional, the
+movement might have been suspended and the whole system disorganized.
+It was impossible to have created a power within the Government or
+any other power distinct from Congress and the Executive which should
+control the movement of the Government in this respect and not destroy
+it. Had it been declared by a clause in the Constitution that the
+expenditures under this grant should be restricted to the construction
+which might be given of the other grants, such restraint, though the
+most innocent, could not have failed to have had an injurious effect on
+the vital principles of the Government and often on its most important
+measures. Those who might wish to defeat a measure proposed might
+construe the power relied on in support of it in a narrow and contracted
+manner, and in that way fix a precedent inconsistent with the true
+import of the grant. At other times those who favored a measure might
+give to the power relied on a forced or strained construction, and,
+succeeding in the object, fix a precedent in the opposite extreme.
+Thus it is manifest that if the right of appropriation be confined
+to that limit, measures may oftentimes be carried or defeated by
+considerations and motives altogether independent of and unconnected
+with their merits, and the several powers of Congress receive
+constructions equally inconsistent with their true import. No such
+declaration, however, has been made, and from the fair import of the
+grant, and, indeed, its positive terms, the inference that such was
+intended seems to be precluded.
+
+Many considerations of great weight operate in favor of this
+construction, while I do not perceive any serious objections to it.
+If it be established, it follows that the words "to provide for the
+common defense and general welfare" have a definite, safe, and useful
+meaning. The idea of their forming an original grant, with unlimited
+power, superseding every other grant, is abandoned. They will be
+considered simply as conveying a right of appropriation, a right
+indispensable to that of raising a revenue and necessary to expenditures
+under every grant. By it, as already observed, no new power will be
+taken from the States, the money to be appropriated being raised under
+a power already granted to Congress. By it, too, the motive for giving
+a forced or strained construction to any of the other specific grants
+will in most instances be diminished and in many utterly destroyed.
+The importance of this consideration can not be too highly estimated,
+since, in addition to the examples already given, it ought particularly
+to be recollected that to whatever extent any specified power may be
+carried the right of jurisdiction goes with it, pursuing it through
+all its incidents. The very important agency which this grant has in
+carrying into effect every other grant is a wrong argument in favor of
+the construction contended for. All the other grants are limited by
+the nature of the offices which they have severally to perform, each
+conveying a power to do a certain thing, and that only, whereas this is
+coextensive with the great scheme of the Government itself. It is the
+lever which raises and puts the whole machinery in motion and continues
+the movement. Should either of the other grants fail in consequence of
+any condition or limitation attached to it or misconstruction of its
+powers, much injury might follow, but still it would be the failure of
+one branch of power, of one item in the system only. All the others
+might move on. But should the right to raise and appropriate the public
+money be improperly restricted, the whole system might be sensibly
+affected, if not disorganized. Each of the other grants is limited by
+the nature of the grant itself; this, by the nature of the Government
+only. Hence it became necessary that, like the power to declare war,
+this power should be commensurate with the great scheme of the
+Government and with all its purposes.
+
+If, then, the right to raise and appropriate the public money is not
+restricted to the expenditures under the other specific grants according
+to a strict construction of their powers, respectively, is there no
+limitation to it? Have Congress a right to raise and appropriate the
+money to any and to every purpose according to their will and pleasure?
+They certainly have not. The Government of the United States is a
+limited Government, instituted for great national purposes, and for
+those only. Other interests are committed to the States, whose duty
+it is to provide for them. Each government should look to the great
+and essential purposes for which it was instituted and confine itself
+to those purposes. A State government will rarely if ever apply money to
+national purposes without making it a charge to the nation. The people
+of the State would not permit it. Nor will Congress be apt to apply
+money in aid of the State administrations for purposes strictly local
+in which the nation at large has no interest, although the State should
+desire it. The people of the other States would condemn it. They would
+declare that Congress had no right to tax them for such a purpose, and
+dismiss at the next election such of their representatives as had voted
+for the measure, especially if it should be severely felt. I do not
+think that in offices of this kind there is much danger of the two
+Governments mistaking their interests or their duties. I rather expect
+that they would soon have a clear and distinct understanding of them
+and move on in great harmony.
+
+Good roads and canals will promote many very important national
+purposes. They will facilitate the operations of war, the movements of
+troops, the transportation of cannon, of provisions, and every warlike
+store, much to our advantage and to the disadvantage of the enemy in
+time of war. Good roads will facilitate the transportation of the mail,
+and thereby promote the purposes of commerce and political intelligence
+among the people. They will by being properly directed to these objects
+enhance the value of our vacant lands, a treasure of vast resource to
+the nation. To the appropriation of the public money to improvements
+having these objects in view and carried to a certain extent I do not
+see any well-founded constitutional objection.
+
+In regard to our foreign concerns, provided they are managed with
+integrity and ability, great liberality is allowable in the application
+of the public money. In the management of these concerns no State
+interests can be affected, no State rights violated. The complete and
+exclusive control over them is vested in Congress. The power to form
+treaties of alliance and commerce with foreign powers, to regulate by
+law our commerce with them, to determine on peace or war, to raise
+armies and a navy, to call forth the militia and direct their operations
+belongs to the General Government. These great powers, embracing the
+whole scope of our foreign relations, being granted, on what principle
+can it be said that the minor are withheld? Are not the latter clearly
+and evidently comprised in the former? Nations are sometimes called upon
+to perform to each other acts of humanity and kindness, of which we see
+so many illustrious examples between individuals in private life. Great
+calamities make appeals to the benevolence of mankind which ought not
+to be resisted. Good offices in such emergencies exalt the character
+of the party rendering them. By exciting grateful feelings they soften
+the intercourse between nations and tend to prevent war. Surely if the
+United States have a right to make war they have a right to prevent it.
+How was it possible to grant to Congress a power for such minor purposes
+other than in general terms, comprising it within the scope and policy
+of that which conveyed it for the greater?
+
+The right of appropriation is nothing more than a right to apply the
+public money to this or that purpose. It has no incidental power, nor
+does it draw after it any consequences of that kind. All that Congress
+could do under it in the case of internal improvements would be to
+appropriate the money necessary to make them. For every act requiring
+legislative sanction or support the State authority must be relied on.
+The condemnation of the land, if the proprietors should refuse to sell
+it, the establishment of turnpikes and tolls, and the protection of the
+work when finished must be done by the State. To these purposes the
+powers of the General Government are believed to be utterly incompetent.
+
+To the objection that the United States have no power in any instance
+which is not complete to all the purposes to which it may be made
+instrumental, and in consequence that they have no right to appropriate
+any portion of the public money to internal improvements because they
+have not the right of sovereignty and jurisdiction over them when made,
+a full answer has, it is presumed, been already given. It may, however,
+be proper to add that if this objection was well founded it would not
+be confined to the simple case of internal improvements, but would
+apply to others of high importance. Congress have a right to regulate
+commerce. To give effect to this power it becomes necessary to establish
+custom-houses in every State along the coast and in many parts of
+the interior. The vast amount of goods imported and the duties to be
+performed to accommodate the merchants and secure the revenue make it
+necessary that spacious buildings should be erected, especially in the
+great towns, for their reception. This, it is manifest, could best be
+performed under the direction of the General Government. Have Congress
+the right to seize the property of individuals if they should refuse
+to sell it, in quarters best adapted to the purpose, to have it valued,
+and to take it at the valuation? Have they a right to exercise
+jurisdiction within those buildings? Neither of these claims has ever
+been set up, nor could it, as is presumed, be sustained. They have
+invariably either rented houses where such as were suitable could be
+obtained, or, where they could not, purchased the ground of individuals,
+erected the buildings, and held them under the laws of the State. Under
+the power to establish post-offices and post-roads houses are also
+requisite for the reception of the mails and the transaction of the
+business of the several offices. These have always been rented or
+purchased and held under the laws of the State in the same manner as
+if they had been taken by a citizen. The United States have a right to
+establish tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court, and such have been
+established in every State of the Union. It is believed that the houses
+for these inferior courts have invariably been rented. No right of
+jurisdiction in them has ever been claimed, nor other right than that of
+privilege, and that only while the court is in session. A still stronger
+case may be urged. Should Congress be compelled by invasion or other
+cause to remove the Government to some town within one of the States,
+would they have a right of jurisdiction over such town, or hold even the
+house in which they held their session under other authority than the
+laws of such State? It is believed that they would not. If they have
+a right to appropriate money for any of these purposes, to be laid out
+under the protection of the laws of the State, surely they have an equal
+right to do it for the purposes of internal improvements.
+
+It is believed that there is not a corporation in the Union which does
+not exercise great discretion in the application of the money raised
+by it to the purposes of its institution. It would be strange if the
+Government of the United States, which was instituted for such important
+purposes and endowed with such extensive powers, should not be allowed
+at least equal discretion and authority. The evil to be particularly
+avoided is the violation of State rights. Shunning that, it seems to be
+reasonable and proper that the powers of Congress should be so construed
+as that the General Government in its intercourse with other nations and
+in our internal concerns should be able to adopt all such measures lying
+within the fair scope and intended to facilitate the direct objects of
+its powers as the public welfare may require and a sound and provident
+policy dictate.
+
+The measures of Congress have been in strict accord with the view taken
+of the right of appropriation both as to its extent and limitation, as
+will be shown by a reference to the laws, commencing at a very early
+period. Many roads have been opened, of which the following are the
+principal: The first from Cumberland, at the head waters of the Potomac,
+in the State of Maryland, through Pennsylvania and Virginia, to the
+State of Ohio (March 29, 1806; see vol. 4, p. 13, of the late edition
+of the laws). The second from the frontiers of Georgia, on the route
+from Athens to New Orleans, to its intersection with the thirty-first
+degree of north latitude (April 31, 1806, p. 58). The third from the
+Mississippi at a point and by a route described to the Ohio (same act).
+The fourth from Nashville, in Tennessee, to Natchez (same act). The
+fifth from the thirty-first degree of north latitude, on the route
+from Athens to New Orleans, under such regulations as might be agreed
+on between the Executive and the Spanish Government (March 3, 1807,
+p. 117). The sixth from the foot of the rapids of the river Miami,
+of Lake Erie, to the western line of the Connecticut Reserve (December
+12, 1811, p. 364). The seventh from the Lower Sandusky to the boundary
+line established by the treaty of Greenville (same act). The eighth from
+a point where the United States road leading from Vincennes to the
+Indian boundary line, established by the treaty of Greenville, strikes
+the said line, to the North Bend, in the State of Ohio (January 8, 1812,
+p. 367). The ninth for repairing and keeping in repair the road between
+Columbia, on Duck River, in Tennessee, and Madisonville, in Louisiana,
+and also the road between Fort Hawkins, in Georgia, and Fort Stoddard
+(April 27, 1816, p. 104 of the acts of that year). The tenth from the
+Shawneetown, on the Ohio River, to the Sabine, and to Kaskaskias,
+in Illinois (April 27, 1816, p. 112). The eleventh from Reynoldsburg,
+on Tennessee River, in the State of Tennessee, through the Chickasaw
+Nation, to intersect the Natchez road near the Chickasaw old town (March
+3, 1817, p. 252). The twelfth: By this act authority was given to the
+President to appoint three commissioners for the purpose of examining
+the country and laying out a road from the termination of the Cumberland
+road, at Wheeling, on the Ohio, through the States of Ohio, Indiana,
+and Illinois, to a point to be chosen by them, on the left bank of the
+Mississippi, between St. Louis and the mouth of the Illinois River, and
+to report an accurate plan of the said road, with an estimate of the
+expense of making it. It is, however, declared by the act that nothing
+was thereby intended to imply an obligation on the part of the United
+States to make or defray the expense of making the said road or any part
+thereof.
+
+In the late war two other roads were made by the troops for military
+purposes--one from the Upper Sandusky, in the State of Ohio, through
+the Black Swamp, toward Detroit, and another from Plattsburg, on Lake
+Champlain, through the Chatauga woods toward Sacketts Harbor, which have
+since been repaired and improved by the troops. Of these latter there
+is no notice in the laws. The extra pay to the soldiers for repairing
+and improving those roads was advanced in the first instance from the
+appropriation to the Quartermaster's Department and afterwards provided
+for by a specific appropriation by Congress. The necessity of keeping
+those roads open and in good repair, being on the frontier, to
+facilitate a communication between our posts, is apparent.
+
+All of these roads except the first were formed merely by cutting down
+the trees and throwing logs across, so as to make causeways over such
+parts as were otherwise impassable. The execution was of the coarsest
+kind. The Cumberland road is the only regular work which has been
+undertaken by the General Government or which could give rise to any
+question between the two Governments respecting its powers. It is a
+great work, over the highest mountains in our Union, connecting from
+the seat of the General Government the Eastern with the Western waters,
+and more intimately the Atlantic with the Western States, in the
+formation of which $1,800,000 have been expended. The measures pursued
+in this case require to be particularly noticed as fixing the opinion
+of the parties, and particularly of Congress, on the important question
+of the right. Passing through Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia,
+it was thought necessary and proper to bring the subject before their
+respective legislatures to obtain their sanction, which was granted by
+each State by a legislative act, approving the route and providing for
+the purchase and condemnation of the land. This road was founded on an
+article of compact between the United States and the State of Ohio,
+under which that State came into the Union, and by which the expense
+attending it was to be defrayed by the application of a certain portion
+of the money arising from the sale of the public lands within that
+State. In this instance, which is by far the strongest in respect to
+the expense, extent, and nature of the work done, the United States have
+exercised no act of jurisdiction or sovereignty within either of the
+States by taking the land from the proprietors by force, by passing acts
+for the protection of the road, or to raise a revenue from it by the
+establishment of turnpikes and tolls, or any other act founded on the
+principle of jurisdiction or right. Whatever they have done has, on the
+contrary, been founded on the opposite principle, on the voluntary and
+unqualified admission that the sovereignty belonged to the State and not
+to the United States, and that they could perform no act which should
+tend to weaken the power of the State or to assume any to themselves.
+All that they have done has been to appropriate the public money to
+the construction of this road and to cause it to be constructed, for
+I presume that no distinction can be taken between the appropriation
+of money raised by the sale of the public lands and of that which
+arises from taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; nor can I believe that
+the power to appropriate derives any sanction from a provision to that
+effect having been made by an article of compact between the United
+States and the people of the then Territory of Ohio. This point may,
+however, be placed in a clearer light by a more particular notice of
+the article itself.
+
+By an act of April 30, 1802, entitled "An act to enable the people of
+the eastern division of the territory northwest of the river Ohio to
+form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of such
+State into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, and
+for other purposes," after describing the limits of the proposed new
+State and authorizing the people thereof to elect a convention to
+form a constitution, the three following propositions were made to the
+convention, to be obligatory on the United States if accepted by it:
+First, that section No. 16 of every township, or, where such section
+had been sold, other lands equivalent thereto, should be granted to the
+inhabitants of such township for the use of free schools. Second, that
+the 6 miles' reservation, including the salt springs commonly called
+the Sciota Salt Springs, the salt springs near the Muskingum River and
+in the military tract, with the sections which include the same, should
+be granted to the said State for the use of the people thereof, under
+such regulations as the legislature of the State should prescribe:
+_Provided_, That it should never sell or lease the same for more than
+ten years. Third, that one twentieth part of the proceeds of the public
+lands lying within the said State which might be sold by Congress from
+and after the 30th June ensuing should be applied to the laying out and
+making public roads from the navigable waters emptying into the
+Atlantic, to the Ohio, and through the State of Ohio, such roads to be
+laid out under the authority of Congress, with the consent of the
+several States through which they should pass.
+
+These three propositions were made on the condition that the convention
+of the State should provide by an ordinance, irrevocable without the
+consent of the United States, that every tract of land sold by Congress
+after the 30th of June ensuing should remain for the term of five years
+after sale exempt from every species of tax whatsoever.
+
+It is impossible to read the ordinance of the 23d of April, 1784, or
+the provisions of the act of April 30, 1802, which are founded on it,
+without being profoundly impressed with the enlightened and magnanimous
+policy which dictated them. Anticipating that the new States would be
+settled by the inhabitants of the original States and their offspring,
+no narrow or contracted jealousy was entertained of their admission
+into the Union in equal participation in the national sovereignty with
+the original States. It was foreseen at the early period at which that
+ordinance passed that the expansion of our Union to the Lakes and to
+the Mississippi and all its waters would not only make us a greater
+power, but cement the Union itself. These three propositions were well
+calculated to promote these great results. A grant of land to each
+township for free schools, and of the salt springs to the State, which
+were within its limits, for the use of its citizens, with 5 per cent of
+the money to be raised from the sale of lands within the State for the
+construction of roads between the original States and the new State, and
+of other roads within the State, indicated a spirit not to be mistaken,
+nor could it fail to produce a corresponding effect in the bosoms of
+those to whom it was addressed. For these considerations the sole return
+required of the convention was that the new State should not tax the
+public lands which might be sold by the United States within it for the
+term of five years after they should be sold. As the value of these
+lands would be enhanced by this exemption from taxes for that term, and
+from which the new State would derive its proportionable benefit, and
+as it would also promote the rapid sale of those lands, and with it
+the augmentation of its own population, it can not be doubted, had this
+exemption been suggested unaccompanied by any propositions of particular
+advantage, that the convention would, in consideration of the relation
+which had before existed between the parties, and was about to be so
+much improved, most willingly have acceded to it and without regarding
+it as an onerous condition.
+
+Since, then, it appears that the whole of the money to be employed in
+making this road was to be raised from the sale of the public lands, and
+which would still belong to the United States, although no mention had
+been made of them in the compact, it follows that the application of the
+money to that purpose stands upon the same ground as if such compact had
+not been made, and in consequence that the example in favor of the right
+of appropriation is in no manner affected by it.
+
+The same rule of construction of the right of appropriation has been
+observed and the same liberal policy pursued toward the other new
+States, with certain modifications adapted to the situation of each,
+which were adopted with the State of Ohio. As, however, the reasoning
+which is applicable to the compact with Ohio in relation to the right
+of appropriation, in which light only I have adverted to it, is equally
+applicable to the several compacts with the other new States, I deem it
+unnecessary to take a particular notice of them.
+
+It is proper to observe that the money which was employed in the
+construction of all the other roads was taken directly from the
+Treasury. This fact affords an additional proof that in the
+contemplation of Congress no difference existed in the application of
+money to those roads between that which was raised by the sale of lands
+and that which was derived from taxes, duties, imposts, and excises.
+
+So far I have confined my remarks to the acts of Congress respecting the
+right of appropriation to such measures only as operate internally and
+affect the territory of the individual States. In adverting to those
+which operate externally and relate to foreign powers I find only two
+which appear to merit particular attention. These were gratuitous grants
+of money for the relief of foreigners in distress--the first in 1794
+to the inhabitants of St. Domingo, who sought an asylum on our coast
+from the convulsions and calamities of the island; the second in 1812
+to the people of Caracas, reduced to misery by an earthquake. The
+considerations which were applicable to these grants have already
+been noticed and need not be repeated.
+
+In this examination of the right of appropriation I thought it proper
+to present to view also the practice of the Government under it, and to
+explore the ground on which each example rested, that the precise nature
+and extent of the construction thereby given of the right might be
+clearly understood. The right to raise money would have given, as is
+presumed, the right to use it, although nothing had been said to that
+effect in the Constitution; and where the right to raise it is granted
+without special limitation, we must look for such limitation to other
+causes. Our attention is first drawn to the right to appropriate, and
+not finding it there we must then look to the general powers of the
+Government as designated by the specific grants and to the purposes
+contemplated by them, allowing to this (the right to raise money), the
+first and most important of the enumerated powers, a scope which will
+be competent to those purposes. The practice of the Government, as
+illustrated by numerous and strong examples directly applicable, ought
+surely to have great weight in fixing the construction of each grant.
+It ought, I presume, to settle it, especially where it is acquiesced
+in by the nation and produces a manifest and positive good. A practical
+construction, thus supported, shows that it has reason on its side and
+is called for by the interests of the Union. Hence, too, the presumption
+that it will be persevered in. It will surely be better to admit that
+the construction given by these examples has been just arid proper than
+to deny that construction and still to practice on it--to say one thing
+and to do another.
+
+Wherein consists the danger of giving a liberal construction to the
+right of Congress to raise and appropriate the public money? It has
+been shown that its obvious effect is to secure the rights of the
+States from encroachment and greater harmony in the political movement
+between the two governments, while it enlarges to a certain extent
+in the most harmless way the useful agency of the General Government
+for all the purposes of its institution. Is not the responsibility of
+the representative to his constituent in every branch of the General
+Government equally strong and as sensibly felt as in the State
+governments, and is not the security against abuse as effectual in the
+one as in the other government? The history of the General Government
+in all its measures fully demonstrates that Congress will never venture
+to impose unnecessary burdens on the people or any that can be avoided.
+Duties and imposts have always been light, not greater, perhaps, than
+would have been imposed for the encouragement of our manufactures had
+there been no occasion for the revenue arising from them; and taxes and
+excises have never been laid except in cases of necessity, and repealed
+as soon as the necessity ceased. Under this mild process and the sale
+of some hundreds of millions of acres of good land the Government will
+be possessed of money, which may be applied with great advantage to
+national purposes. Within the States only will it be applied, and,
+of course, for their benefit, it not being presumable that such appeals
+as were made to the benevolence of the country in the instances of
+the inhabitants of St. Domingo and Caracas will often occur. How,
+then, shall this revenue be applied? Should it be idle in the Treasury?
+That our resources will be equal to such useful purposes I have no
+doubt, especially if by completing our fortifications and raising and
+maintaining our Navy at the point provided for immediately after the
+war we sustain our present altitude and preserve by means thereof for
+any length of time the peace of the Union.
+
+When we hear charges raised against other governments of breaches
+of their constitutions, or, rather, of their charters, we always
+anticipate the most serious consequences--communities deprived of
+privileges which they have long enjoyed, or individuals oppressed and
+punished in violation of the ordinary forms and guards of trial to
+which they were accustomed and entitled. How different is the situation
+of the United States! Nor can anything mark more strongly the great
+characteristics of that difference than the grounds on which like
+charges are raised against this Government. It is not alleged that any
+portion of the community or any individual has been oppressed or that
+money has been raised under a doubtful title. The principal charges are
+that a work of great utility to the Union and affecting immediately
+and with like advantage many of the States has been constructed; that
+pensions to the surviving patriots of our Revolution, to patriots who
+fought the battles and promoted the independence of their country, have
+been granted, by money, too, raised not only without oppression, but
+almost without being felt, and under an acknowledged constitutional
+power.
+
+From this view of the right to appropriate and of the practice under
+it I think that I am authorized to conclude that the right to make
+internal improvements has not been granted by the power "to pay the
+debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare," included
+in the first of the enumerated powers; that that grant conveys nothing
+more than a right to appropriate the public money, and stands on the
+same ground with the right to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts,
+and excises, conveyed by the first branch of that power; that the
+Government itself being limited, both branches of the power to raise
+and appropriate the public money are also limited, the extent of the
+Government as designated by the specific grants marking the extent
+of the power in both branches, extending, however, to every object
+embraced by the fair scope of those grants and not confined to a strict
+construction of their respective powers, it being safer to aid the
+purposes of those grants by the appropriation of money than to extend
+by a forced construction the grant itself; that although the right to
+appropriate the public money to such improvements affords a resource
+indispensably necessary to such a scheme, it is nevertheless deficient
+as a power in the great characteristics on which its execution depends.
+
+The substance of what has been urged on this subject may be expressed in
+a few words. My idea is that Congress have an unlimited power to raise
+money, and that in its appropriation they have a discretionary power,
+restricted only by the duty to appropriate it to purposes of common
+defense and of general, not local, national, not State, benefit.
+
+I will now proceed to the fifth source from which the power is said to
+be derived, viz, the power to make all laws which shall be necessary
+and proper for carrying into execution all the powers vested by the
+Constitution in the Government of the United States or in any department
+or officer thereof. This is the seventeenth and last of the enumerated
+powers granted to Congress.
+
+I have always considered this power as having been granted on a
+principle of greater caution to secure the complete execution of all
+the powers which had been vested in the General Government. It contains
+no distinct and specific power, as every other grant does, such as to
+lay and collect taxes, to declare war, to regulate commerce, and the
+like. Looking to the whole scheme of the General Government, it gives
+to Congress authority to make all laws which should be deemed necessary
+and proper for carrying all its powers into effect. My impression has
+been invariably that this power would have existed substantially if this
+grant had not been made; for why is any power granted unless it be to be
+executed when required, and how can it be executed under our Government
+unless it be by laws necessary and proper for the purpose--that is, well
+adapted to the end? It is a principle universally admitted that a grant
+of a power conveys as a necessary consequence or incident to it the
+means of carrying it into effect by a fair construction of its import.
+In the formation, however, of the Constitution, which was to act
+directly upon the people and be paramount to the extent of its powers
+to the constitutions of the States, it was wise in its framers to leave
+nothing to implication which might be reduced to certainty. It is known
+that all power which rests solely on that ground has been systematically
+and zealously opposed under all governments with which we have any
+acquaintance; and it was reasonable to presume that under our system,
+where there was a division of the sovereignty between the two
+independent governments, the measures of the General Government would
+excite equal jealousy and produce an opposition not less systematic,
+though, perhaps, less violent. Hence the policy by the framers of our
+Government of securing by a fundamental declaration in the Constitution
+a principle which in all other governments had been left to implication
+only. The terms "necessary" and "proper" secure to the powers of all
+the grants to which the authority given in this is applicable a fair
+and sound construction, which is equally binding as a rule on both
+Governments and on all their departments.
+
+In examining the right of the General Government to adopt and execute
+under this grant a system of internal improvement the sole question
+to be decided is whether the power has been granted under any of the
+other grants. If it has, this power is applicable to it to the extent
+stated. If it has not, it does not exist at all, for it has not been
+hereby granted. I have already examined all the other grants (one only
+excepted, which will next claim attention) and shown, as I presume, on
+the most liberal construction of their powers that the right has not
+been granted by any of them; hence it follows that in regard to them
+it has not been granted by this.
+
+I come now to the last source from which this power is said to be
+derived, viz, the power to dispose of and make all needful rules and
+regulations respecting the territory or other property of the United
+States, which is contained in the second clause of the third section
+of the fourth article of the Constitution.
+
+To form a just opinion of the nature and extent of this power it will
+be necessary to bring into view the provisions contained in the first
+clause of the section of the article referred to, which makes an
+essential part of the policy in question. By this it is declared that
+new States shall be admitted into the Union, but that no new States
+shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State,
+nor any States be formed by the junction of two or more States or parts
+of States, without the consent of the legislatures of the States
+concerned as well as of the United States.
+
+If we recur to the condition of our country at the commencement of
+the Revolution, we shall see the origin and cause of these provisions.
+By the charters of the several colonies limits by latitude and other
+descriptions were assigned to each. In commencing the Revolution the
+colonies, as has already been observed, claimed by those limits,
+although their population extended in many instances to a small portion
+of the territory lying within them. It was contended by some of the
+States after the declaration of independence that the vacant lands lying
+within any of the States should become the property of the Union, as by
+a common exertion they would be acquired. This claim was resisted by the
+others on the principle that all the States entered into the contest in
+the full extent of their chartered rights, and that they ought to have
+the full benefit of those rights in the event of success. Happily this
+controversy was settled, as all interfering claims and pretensions
+between the members of our Union and between the General Government and
+any of these members have been, in the most amicable manner and to the
+satisfaction of all parties. On the recommendation of Congress the
+individual States having such territory within their chartered limits
+ceded large portions thereof to the United States on condition that it
+should be laid off into districts of proper dimensions, the lands to
+be sold for the benefit of the United States, and that the districts
+be admitted into the Union when they should obtain such a population
+as it might be thought proper and reasonable to prescribe. This is the
+territory and this the property referred to in the second clause of the
+fourth article of the Constitution.
+
+All the States which had made cessions of vacant territory except
+Georgia had made them before the adoption of the Constitution, and
+that State had made a proposition to Congress to that effect which
+was under consideration at the time the Constitution was adopted. The
+cession was completed after the adoption of the Constitution. It was
+made on the same principle and on similar conditions with those which
+had been already made by the other States. As differences might arise
+respecting the right or the policy in Congress to admit new States
+into the Union under the new Government, or to make regulations for the
+government of the territory ceded in the intermediate state, or for the
+improvement and sale of the public lands, or to accept other cessions,
+it was thought proper to make special provisions for these objects,
+which was accordingly done by the above-recited clause in the
+Constitution.
+
+Thus the power of Congress over the ceded territory was not only
+limited to these special objects, but was also temporary. As soon as
+the territory became a State the jurisdiction over it as it had before
+existed ceased. It extended afterwards only to the unsold lands, and
+as soon as the whole were sold it ceased in that sense also altogether.
+From that moment the United States have no jurisdiction or power in the
+new States other than in the old, nor can it be obtained except by an
+amendment of the Constitution.
+
+Since, then, it is manifest that the power granted to Congress to
+dispose of and make all needful regulations respecting the territory
+and other property of the United States relates solely to the territory
+and property which had been ceded by individual States, and which after
+such cession lay without their respective limits, and for which special
+provision was deemed necessary, the main power of the Constitution
+operating internally, not being applicable or adequate thereto, it
+follows that this power gives no authority, and has even no bearing on
+the question of internal improvement. The authority to admit new States
+and to dispose of the property and regulate the territory is not among
+the enumerated powers granted to Congress, because the duties to be
+performed under it are not among the ordinary duties of that body, like
+the imposition of taxes, the regulation of commerce, and the like. They
+are objects in their nature special, and for which special provision was
+more suitable and proper.
+
+Having now examined all the powers of Congress under which the right
+to adopt and execute a system of internal improvement is claimed and
+the reasons in support of it in each instance, I think that it may
+fairly be concluded that such a right has not been granted. It appears
+and is admitted that much may be done in aid of such a system by the
+right which is derived from several of the existing grants, and more
+especially from that to appropriate the public money. But still it is
+manifest that as a system for the United States it can never be carried
+into effect under that grant nor under all of them united, the great
+and essential power being deficient, consisting of a right to take up
+the subject on principle; to cause our Union to be examined by men of
+science, with a view to such improvements; to authorize commissioners to
+lay off the roads and canals in all proper directions; to take the land
+at a valuation if necessary, and to construct the works; to pass laws
+with suitable penalties for their protection; and to raise a revenue
+from them, to keep them in repair, and make further improvement by the
+establishment of turnpikes and tolls, with gates to be placed at the
+proper distances.
+
+It need scarcely be remarked that this power will operate, like many
+others now existing, without affecting the sovereignty of the States
+except in the particular offices to be performed. The jurisdiction of
+the several States may still exist over the roads and canals within
+their respective limits, extending alike to persons and property, as if
+the right to make and protect such improvements had not been vested in
+Congress. The right, being made commensurate simply with the purposes
+indispensable to the system, may be strictly confined to them. The
+right of Congress to protect the works by laws imposing penalties would
+operate on the same principles as the right to protect the mail. The act
+being punishable only, a jurisdiction over the place would be altogether
+unnecessary and even absurd.
+
+In the preceding inquiry little has been said of the advantages which
+would attend the exercise of such a power by the General Government.
+I have made the inquiry under a deep conviction that they are almost
+incalculable, and that there was a general concurrence of opinion among
+our fellow-citizens to that effect. Still, it may not be improper for
+me to state the grounds upon which my own impression is founded. If it
+sheds no additional light on this interesting part of the subject, it
+will at least show that I have had more than one powerful motive for
+making the inquiry. A general idea is all that I shall attempt.
+
+The advantages of such a system must depend upon the interests to be
+affected by it and the extent to which they may be affected, and those
+must depend on the capacity of our country for improvement and the means
+at its command applicable to that object.
+
+I think that I may venture to affirm that there is no part of our globe
+comprehending so many degrees of latitude on the main ocean and so
+many degrees of longitude into the interior that admits of such great
+improvement and at so little expense. The Atlantic on the one side, and
+the Lakes, forming almost inland seas, on the other, separated by high
+mountains, which rise in the valley of the St. Lawrence and determine
+in that of the Mississippi, traversing from north to south almost the
+whole interior, with innumerable rivers on every side of those mountains,
+some of vast extent, many of which take their sources near to each other,
+give the great outline. The details are to be seen on the valuable maps
+of our country.
+
+It appears by the light already before the public that it is practicable
+and easy to connect by canals the whole coast from its southern to its
+northern extremity in one continued inland navigation, and to connect in
+like manner in many parts the Western lakes and rivers with each other.
+It is equally practicable and easy to facilitate the intercourse between
+the Atlantic and the Western country by improving the navigation of
+many of the rivers which have their sources near to each other in the
+mountains on each side, and by good roads across the mountains between
+the highest navigable points of those rivers. In addition to the example
+of the Cumberland road, already noticed, another of this kind is now in
+train from the head waters of the river James to those of the Kanawha;
+and in like manner may the Savannah be connected with the Tennessee. In
+some instances it is understood that the Eastern and Western waters may
+be connected together directly by canals. One great work of this kind is
+now in its progress and far advanced in the State of New York, and there
+is good reason to believe that two others may be formed, one at each
+extremity of the high mountains above mentioned, connecting in the one
+instance the waters of the St. Lawrence with Lake Champlain, and in
+the other some of the most important of the Western rivers with those
+emptying into the Gulf of Mexico, the advantage of which will be seen
+at the first glance by an enlightened observer.
+
+Great improvements may also be made by good roads in proper directions
+through the interior of the country. As these roads would be laid out
+on principle on a full view of the country, its mountains, rivers, etc.,
+it would be useless, if I had the knowledge, to go into detail respecting
+them. Much has been done by some of the States, but yet much remains to
+be done with a view to the Union.
+
+Under the colonial governments improvements of this kind were not
+thought of. There was, it is believed, not one canal and little
+communication from colony to colony. It was their policy to encourage
+the intercourse between each colony and the parent country only. The
+roads which were attended to were those which led from the interior of
+each colony to its principal towns on the navigable waters. By those
+routes the produce of the country was carried to the coast, and shipped
+thence to the mercantile houses in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, or other
+towns to which the trade was carried on. It is believed that there was
+but one connected route from North to South at the commencement of the
+Revolution, and that a very imperfect one. The existence and principle
+of our Union point out the necessity of a very different policy.
+
+The advantages which would be derived from such improvements are
+incalculable. The facility which would thereby be afforded to the
+transportation of the whole of the rich productions of our country
+to market would alone more than amply compensate for all the labor
+and expense attending them. Great, however, as is that advantage, it
+is one only of many and by no means the most important, Every power of
+the General Government and of the State governments connected with the
+strength and resources of the country would be made more efficient
+for the purposes intended by them. In war they would facilitate the
+transportation of men, ordnance, and provisions, and munitions of war of
+every kind to every part of our extensive coast and interior on which an
+attack might be made or threatened. Those who have any knowledge of the
+occurrences of the late war must know the good effect which would result
+in the event of another war from the command of an interior navigation
+alone along the coast for all the purposes of war as well as of commerce
+between the different parts of our Union. The impediments to all
+military operations which proceeded from the want of such a navigation
+and the reliance which was placed, notwithstanding those impediments,
+on such a commerce can not be forgotten. In every other line their
+good effect would be most sensibly felt. Intelligence by means of the
+Post-Office Department would be more easily, extensively, and rapidly
+diffused. Parts the most remote from each other would be brought more
+closely together. Distant lands would be made more valuable, and the
+industry of our fellow-citizens on every portion of our soil be better
+rewarded.
+
+It is natural in so great a variety of climate that there should be
+a corresponding difference in the produce of the soil; that one part
+should raise what the other might want. It is equally natural that the
+pursuits of industry should vary in like manner; that labor should be
+cheaper and manufactures succeed better in one part than in another;
+that were the climate the most severe and the soil less productive,
+navigation, the fisheries, and commerce should be most relied on.
+Hence the motive for an exchange for mutual accommodation and active
+intercourse between them. Each part would thus find for the surplus
+of its labor, in whatever article it consisted, an extensive market
+at home, which would be the most profitable because free from duty.
+
+There is another view in which these improvements are of still more
+vital importance. The effect which they would have on the bond of union
+itself affords an inducement for them more powerful than any which have
+been urged or than all of them united. The only danger to which our
+system is exposed arises from its expansion over a vast territory.
+Our union is not held together by standing armies or by any ties other
+than the positive interests and powerful attractions of its parts toward
+each other. Ambitious men may hereafter grow up among us who may promise
+to themselves advancement from a change, and by practicing upon the
+sectional interests, feelings, and prejudices endeavor under various
+pretexts to promote it. The history of the world is replete with
+examples of this kind--of military commanders and demagogues becoming
+usurpers and tyrants, and of their fellow-citizens becoming their
+instruments and slaves. I have little fear of this danger, knowing well
+how strong the bond which holds us together is and who the people are
+who are thus held together; but still, it is proper to look at and to
+provide against it, and it is not within the compass of human wisdom
+to make a more effectual provision than would be made by the proposed
+improvements. With their aid and the intercourse which would grow out
+of them the parts would soon become so compacted and bound together
+that nothing could break it.
+
+The expansion of our Union over a vast territory can not operate
+unfavorably to the States individually. On the contrary, it is believed
+that the greater the expansion within practicable limits--and it is not
+easy to say what are not so--the greater the advantage which the States
+individually will derive from it. With governments separate, vigorous,
+and efficient for all local purposes, their distance from each other can
+have no injurious effect upon their respective interests. It has already
+been shown that in some important circumstances, especially with the aid
+of these improvements, they must derive great advantage from that cause
+alone--that is, from their distance from each other. In every other way
+the expansion of our system must operate favorably for every State in
+proportion as it operates favorably for the Union. It is in that sense
+only that it can become a question with the States, or, rather, with
+the people who compose them. As States they can be affected by it only
+by their relation to each other through the General Government and by
+its effect on the operations of that Government. Manifest it is that to
+any extent to which the General Government can sustain and execute its
+functions with complete effect will the States--that is, the people who
+compose them--be benefited. It is only when the expansion shall be
+carried beyond the faculties of the General Government so as to enfeeble
+its operations to the injury of the whole that any of the parts can be
+injured. The tendency in that stage will be to dismemberment and not to
+consolidation. This danger should, therefore, be looked at with profound
+attention as one of a very serious character. I will remark here that
+as the operations of the National Government are of a general nature,
+the States having complete power for internal and local purposes, the
+expansion may be carried to very great extent and with perfect safety.
+It must be obvious to all that the further the expansion is carried,
+provided it be not beyond the just limit, the greater will be the
+freedom of action to both Governments and the more perfect their
+security, and in all other respects the better the effect will be to
+the whole American people. Extent of territory, whether it be great
+or small, gives to a nation many of its characteristics. It marks the
+extent of its resources, of its population, of its physical force.
+It marks, in short, the difference between a great and a small power.
+
+To what extent it may be proper to expand our system of government is a
+question which does not press for a decision at this time. At the end of
+the Revolutionary war, in 1783, we had, as we contended and believed,
+a right to the free navigation of the Mississippi, but it was not until
+after the expiration of twelve years, in 1795, that that right was
+acknowledged and enjoyed. Further difficulties occurred in the bustling
+of a contentious world when, at the expiration of eight years more, the
+United States, sustaining the strength and energy of their character,
+acquired the Province of Louisiana, with the free navigation of the
+river from its source to the ocean and a liberal boundary on the western
+side. To this Florida has since been added, so that we now possess all
+the territory in which the original States had any interest, or in which
+the existing States can be said, either in a national or local point
+of view, to be in any way interested. A range of States on the western
+side of the Mississippi, which already is provided for, puts us
+essentially at ease. Whether it will be wise to go further will turn
+on other considerations than those which have dictated the course
+heretofore pursued. At whatever point we may stop, whether it be at
+a single range of States beyond the Mississippi or by taking a greater
+scope, the advantage of such improvements is deemed of the highest
+importance. It is so on the present scale. The further we go the greater
+will be the necessity for them.
+
+It can not be doubted that improvements for great national purposes
+would be better made by the National Government than by the governments
+of the several States. Our experience prior to the adoption of the
+Constitution demonstrated that in the exercise by the individual States
+of most of the powers granted to the United States a contracted rivalry
+of interest and misapplied jealousy of each other had an important
+influence on all their measures to the great injury of the whole. This
+was particularly exemplified by the regulations which they severally
+made of their commerce with foreign nations and with each other. It
+was this utter incapacity in the State governments, proceeding from
+these and other causes, to act as a nation and to perform all the duties
+which the nation owed to itself under any system which left the General
+Government dependent on the States, which produced the transfer of
+these powers to the United States by the establishment of the present
+Constitution. The reasoning which was applicable to the grant of any of
+the powers now vested in Congress is likewise so, at least to a certain
+extent, to that in question. It is natural that the States individually
+in making improvements should look to their particular and local
+interests, The members composing their respective legislatures represent
+the people of each State only, and might not feel themselves at liberty
+to look to objects in these respects beyond that limit. If the resources
+of the Union were to be brought into operation under the direction of
+the State assemblies, or in concert with them, it may be apprehended
+that every measure would become the object of negotiation, of bargain
+and barter, much to the disadvantage of the system, as well as discredit
+to both governments. But Congress would look to the whole and make
+improvements to promote the welfare of the whole. It is the peculiar
+felicity of the proposed amendment that while it will enable the United
+States to accomplish every national object, the improvements made with
+that view will eminently promote the welfare of the individual States,
+who may also add such others as their own particular interests may
+require.
+
+The situation of the Cumberland road requires the particular and early
+attention of Congress. Being formed over very lofty mountains and in
+many instances over deep and wide streams, across which valuable bridges
+have been erected, which are sustained by stone walls, as are many other
+parts of the road, all these works are subject to decay, have decayed,
+and will decay rapidly unless timely and effectual measures are adopted
+to prevent it.
+
+The declivities from the mountains and all the heights must suffer from
+the frequent and heavy falls of water and its descent to the valleys,
+as also from the deep congelations during our severe winters. Other
+injuries have also been experienced on this road, such as the displacing
+the capping of the walls and other works, committed by worthless people
+either from a desire to render the road impassable or to have the
+transportation in another direction, or from a spirit of wantonness to
+create employment for idlers. These considerations show that an active
+and strict police ought to be established over the whole road, with
+power to make repairs when necessary, to establish turnpikes and tolls
+as the means of raising money to make them, and to prosecute and punish
+those who commit waste and other injuries.
+
+Should the United States be willing to abandon this road to the States
+through which it passes, would they take charge of it, each of that
+portion within its limits, and keep it in repair? It is not to be
+presumed that they would, since the advantages attending it are
+exclusively national, by connecting, as it does, the Atlantic with the
+Western States, and in a line with the seat of the National Government.
+The most expensive parts of this road lie within Pennsylvania and
+Virginia, very near the confines of each State and in a route not
+essentially connected with the commerce of either.
+
+If it is thought proper to vest this power in the United States,
+the only mode in which it can be done is by an amendment of the
+Constitution. The States individually can not transfer the power
+to the United States, nor can the United States receive it. The
+Constitution forms an equal and the sole relation between the General
+Government and the several States, and it recognizes no change in it
+which shall not in like manner apply to all. If it is once admitted
+that the General Government may form compacts with individual States
+not common to the others, and which the others might even disapprove,
+into what pernicious consequences might it not lead? Such compacts are
+utterly repugnant to the principles of the Constitution and of the most
+dangerous tendency. The States through which this road passes have given
+their sanction only to the route and to the acquisition of the soil
+by the United States, a right very different from that of jurisdiction,
+which can not be granted without an amendment to the Constitution, and
+which need not be granted for the purposes of this system except in the
+limited manner heretofore stated. On full consideration, therefore, of
+the whole subject I am of opinion that such an amendment ought to be
+recommended to the several States for their adoption.
+
+I have now essentially executed that part of the task which I imposed
+on myself of examining the right of Congress to adopt and execute a
+system of internal improvement, and, I presume, have shown that it does
+not exist. It is, I think, equally manifest that such a power vested in
+Congress and wisely executed would have the happiest effect on all the
+great interests of our Union. It is, however, my opinion that the power
+should be confined to great national works only, since if it were
+unlimited it would be liable to abuse and might be productive of evil.
+For all minor improvements the resources of the States individually
+would be fully adequate, and by the States such improvements might be
+made with greater advantage than by the Union, as they would understand
+better such as their more immediate and local interests required.
+
+In the view above presented I have thought it proper to trace the
+origin of our institutions, and particularly of the State and National
+Governments, for although they have a common origin in the people, yet,
+as the point at issue turned on what were the powers granted to the
+one government and what were those which remained to the other, I was
+persuaded that an analysis which should mark distinctly the source of
+power in both governments, with its progress in each, would afford the
+best means for obtaining a sound result. In our political career there
+are, obviously, three great epochs. The colonial state forms the first;
+the Revolutionary movement from its commencement to the adoption of the
+Articles of Confederation the second, and the intervening space from
+that event to the present day the third. The first may be considered
+the infant state. It was the school of morality, of political science
+and just principles. The equality of rights enjoyed by the people of
+every colony under their original charters forms the basis of every
+existing institution, and it was owing to the creation by those
+charters of distinct communities that the power, when wrested from the
+Crown, passed directly and exclusively to the people of each colony.
+The Revolutionary struggle gave activity to those principles, and its
+success secured to them a permanent existence in the governments
+of our Union, State and National. The third epoch comprises the
+administration under the Articles of Confederation, with the adoption
+of the Constitution and administration under it. On the first and
+last of these epochs it is not necessary to enlarge for any purpose
+connected with the object of this inquiry. To the second, in which we
+were transferred by a heroic exertion from the first to the third stage,
+and whose events give the true character to every institution, some
+further attention is due. In tracing in greater detail the prominent
+acts of a movement to which we owe so much I shall perform an office
+which, if not useful, will be gratifying to my own feelings, and I hope
+not unacceptable to my readers.
+
+Of the Revolutionary movement itself sentiments too respectful, too
+exalted, can not be entertained. It is impossible for any citizen having
+a just idea of the dangers which we had to encounter to read the record
+of our early proceedings and to see the firmness with which they were
+met and the wisdom and patriotism which were displayed in every stage
+without being deeply affected by it. An attack on Massachusetts was
+considered an attack on every colony, and the people of each moved in
+her defense as in their own cause. The meeting of the General Congress
+in Philadelphia on the 6th of September, 1774, appears to have been
+the result of a spontaneous impulse in every quarter at the same time.
+The first public act proposing it, according to the Journals of
+the First Congress, was passed by the house of representatives of
+Connecticut on the 3d of June of that year; but it is presumed that the
+first suggestion came from Massachusetts, the colony most oppressed,
+and in whose favor the general sympathy was much excited. The exposition
+which that Congress made of grievances, in the petition to the King, in
+the address to the people of Great Britain, and in that to the people
+of the several colonies, evinced a knowledge so profound of the English
+constitution and of the general principles of free government and of
+liberty, of our rights founded on that constitution and on the charters
+of the several colonies, and of the numerous and egregious violations
+which had been committed of them, as must have convinced all impartial
+minds that the talent on this side of the Atlantic was at least equal
+to that on the other. The spirit in which those papers were drawn, which
+was known to be in strict accord with the public sentiment, proved that,
+although the whole people cherished a connection with the parent country
+and were desirous of preserving it on just principles, they nevertheless
+stood embodied at the parting line, ready to separate forever if
+a redress of grievances, the alternative offered, was not promptly
+rendered. That alternative was rejected, and in consequence war and
+dismemberment followed.
+
+The powers granted to the delegates of each colony who composed the
+First Congress looked primarily to the support of rights and to a
+redress of grievances, and, in consequence, to the restoration of
+harmony, which was ardently desired. They justified, however, any
+extremity in case of necessity. They were ample for such purposes,
+and were executed in every circumstance with the utmost fidelity.
+It was not until after the meeting of the Second Congress, which took
+place on the 10th May, 1775, when full proof was laid before it of the
+commencement of hostilities in the preceding month by a deliberate
+attack of the British troops on the militia and inhabitants of Lexington
+and Concord, in Massachusetts, that war might be said to be decided on,
+and measures were taken to support it. The progress even then was slow
+and reluctant, as will be seen by their second petition to the King and
+their second address to the people of Great Britain, which were prepared
+and forwarded after that event. The arrival, however, of large bodies of
+troops and the pressure of war in every direction soon dispelled all
+hope of accommodation.
+
+On the 15th of June, 1775, a commander in chief of the forces raised and
+to be raised for the defense of American liberty was appointed by the
+unanimous vote of Congress, and his conduct in the discharge of the
+duties of that high trust, which he held through the whole of the war,
+has given an example to the world for talents as a military commander;
+for integrity, fortitude, and firmness under the severest trials; for
+respect to the civil authority and devotion to the rights and liberties
+of his country, of which neither Rome nor Greece have exhibited the
+equal. I saw him in my earliest youth, in the retreat through Jersey,
+at the head of a small band, or rather in its rear, for he was always
+next the enemy, and his countenance and manner made an impression on me
+which time can never efface. A lieutenant then in the Third Virginia
+Regiment, I happened to be on the rear guard at Newark, and I counted
+the force under his immediate command by platoons as it passed me, which
+amounted to less than 3,000 men. A deportment so firm, so dignified,
+so exalted, but yet so modest and composed, I have never seen in any
+other person.
+
+On the 6th July, 1775, Congress published a declaration of the causes
+which compelled them to take up arms, and immediately afterwards took
+measures for augmenting the Army and raising a navy; for organizing the
+militia and providing cannon and small arms and military stores of every
+kind; for raising a revenue and pushing the war offensively with all the
+means in their power. Nothing escaped the attention of that enlightened
+body. The people of Canada were invited to join the Union, and a force
+sent into the province to favor the Revolutionary party, which, however,
+was not capable of affording any essential aid. The people of Ireland
+were addressed in terms manifesting due respect for the sufferings, the
+talents, and patriotism of that portion of the British Empire, and a
+suitable acknowledgment was made to the assembly of Jamaica for the
+approbation it had expressed of our cause and the part it had taken
+in support of it with the British Government.
+
+On the 2d of June, 1775, the convention of Massachusetts, by a letter
+signed by their president, of May the 10th, stated to Congress that they
+labored under difficulties for the want of a regular form of government,
+and requested to be favored with explicit advice respecting the taking
+up and exercising the powers of civil government, and declaring their
+readiness to submit to such a general plan as the Congress might direct
+for the colonies, or that they would make it their great study to
+establish such a form of government there as should not only promote
+their own advantage, but the union and interest of all America. To this
+application an answer was given on the 9th, by which it was recommended
+to the convention "to write letters to the inhabitants of the several
+places entitled to representation in assembly, requesting them to choose
+such representatives, and that the assembly, when chosen, should elect
+councilors, and that said assembly or council should exercise the powers
+of government until a governor of His Majesty's appointment will consent
+to govern the colony according to its charter."
+
+On the 18th October of the same year the delegates from New Hampshire
+laid before Congress an instruction from their convention "to use their
+utmost endeavors to obtain the advice and direction of Congress with
+respect to a method for administering justice and regulating their civil
+police." To this a reply was given on the 3d November, by which it was
+recommended to the convention "to call a full and free representation of
+the people, and that the representatives, if they thought it necessary,
+should establish such a form of government as in their judgment would
+best promote the happiness of the people and most effectually secure
+peace and good order in the Province during the continuance of the
+present dispute between Great Britain and the colonies."
+
+On the 4th November it was resolved by Congress "that if the convention
+of South Carolina shall find it necessary to establish a form of
+government in that colony it be recommended to that convention to
+call a full and free representation of the people; and the said
+representatives, if they think it necessary, shall establish such a
+form of government as in their judgment will best promote the happiness
+of the people and most effectually secure peace and good order in the
+colony during the continuance of the present dispute between Great
+Britain and the colonies."
+
+On the 4th December following a resolution passed recommending the same
+measure, and precisely in the same words, to the convention of Virginia.
+
+On the 10th May, 1776, it was recommended to the respective assemblies
+and conventions of the united colonies, where no government sufficient
+to the exigencies of their affairs had been established, "to adopt such
+government as should, in the opinion of the representatives of the
+people, best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents
+in particular and America in general."
+
+On the 7th June resolutions respecting independence were moved and
+seconded, which were referred to a committee of the whole on the 8th
+and 10th, on which latter day it was resolved to postpone a decision on
+the first resolution or main question until the 1st July, but that no
+time might be lost in case the Congress agree thereto that a committee
+be appointed to prepare a declaration to the effect of that resolution.
+On the 11th June, 1776, Congress appointed a committee to prepare and
+digest a plan of confederation for the colonies. On the 12th July the
+committee reported a draft of articles, which were severally afterwards
+debated and amended until the 15th November, 1777, when they were
+adopted. These articles were then proposed to the legislatures of the
+several States, with a request that if approved by them they would
+authorize their delegates to ratify the same in Congress, and, which
+being done, to become conclusive. It was not until the 21st of March,
+1781, as already observed, that they were ratified by the last State
+and carried into effect.
+
+On the 4th July, 1776, independence was declared by an act which
+arrested the attention of the civilized world and will bear the test
+of time. For force and condensation of matter, strength of reason,
+sublimity of sentiment and expression, it is believed that no document
+of equal merit exists. It looked to everything, and with a reach,
+perspicuity, and energy of mind which seemed to be master of everything.
+
+Thus it appears, in addition to the very important charge of managing
+the war, that Congress had under consideration at the same time the
+Declaration of Independence, the adoption of a confederation for the
+States, and the propriety of instituting State governments, with the
+nature of those governments, respecting which it had been consulted by
+the conventions of several of the colonies. So great a trust was never
+reposed before in a body thus constituted, and I am authorized to add,
+looking to the great result, that never were duties more ably or
+faithfully performed.
+
+The distinguishing characteristic of this movement is that although the
+connection which had existed between the people of the several colonies
+before their dismemberment from the parent country was not only not
+dissolved but increased by that event, even before the adoption of the
+Articles of Confederation, yet the preservation and augmentation of that
+tie were the result of a new creation, and proceeded altogether from
+the people of each colony, into whose hands the whole power passed
+exclusively when wrested from the Crown. To the same cause the greater
+change which has since occurred by the adoption of the Constitution is
+to be traced.
+
+The establishment of our institutions forms the most important epoch
+that history hath recorded. They extend unexampled felicity to the whole
+body of our fellow-citizens, and are the admiration of other nations.
+To preserve and hand them down in their utmost purity to the remotest
+ages will require the existence and practice of virtues and talents
+equal to those which were displayed in acquiring them. It is ardently
+hoped and confidently believed that these will not be wanting.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATIONS.
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas by the second section of an act of Congress of the 6th of May
+last, entitled "An act in addition to the act concerning navigation,
+and also to authorize the appointment of deputy collectors," it is
+provided that in the event of the signature of any treaty or convention
+concerning the navigation or commerce between the United States and
+France the President of the United States, if he should deem the same
+expedient, may suspend by proclamation until the end of the next session
+of Congress the operation of the act entitled "An act to impose a new
+tonnage duty on French ships and vessels, and for other purposes," and
+also to suspend, as aforesaid, all other duties on French vessels or
+the goods imported in the same which may exceed the duties on American
+vessels and on similar goods imported in the same; and
+
+Whereas a convention of navigation and commerce between the United
+States of America and His Majesty the King of France and Navarre has
+this day been duly signed by John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, on
+the part of the United States, and by the Baron Hyde de Neuville, envoy
+extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary from France, on the part of
+His Most Christian Majesty, which convention is in the words following:
+
+[Here follows the treaty.]
+
+Now, therefore, be it known that I, James Monroe, President of the
+United States, in pursuance of the authority aforesaid, do hereby
+suspend from and after the 1st day of October next until the end of
+the next session of Congress, the operation of the act aforesaid,
+entitled "An act to impose a new tonnage duty on French ships and
+vessels, and for other purposes," and also all other duties on French
+vessels and the goods being the growth, produce, and manufacture of
+France imported in the same which may exceed the duties on American
+vessels and on similar goods imported in the same, saving only the
+discriminating duties payable on French vessels and on articles the
+growth, produce, and manufacture of France imported in the same
+stipulated by the said convention to be paid.
+
+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 Washington, the 24th day of June, A.D. 1822, and of the
+Independence of the-United States the forty-sixth.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
+
+A PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States passed on the
+6th day of May last it was provided that on satisfactory evidence being
+given to the President of the United States that the ports in the
+islands or colonies in the West Indies under the dominion of Great
+Britain have been opened to the vessels of the United States the
+President should be, and thereby was, authorized to issue his
+proclamation declaring that the ports of the United States should
+thereafter be open to the vessels of Great Britain employed in the trade
+and intercourse between the United States and such islands or colonies,
+subject to such reciprocal rules and restrictions as the President of
+the United States might by such proclamation make and publish, anything
+in the laws entitled "An act concerning navigation" or an act entitled
+"An act supplementary to an act concerning navigation" to the contrary
+notwithstanding; and
+
+Whereas satisfactory evidence has been given to the President of the
+United States that the ports hereinafter named in the islands or
+colonies in the West Indies under the dominion of Great Britain have
+been opened to the vessels of the United States; that is to say, the
+ports of Kingston, Savannah le Mar, Montego Bay, Santa Lucia, Antonio,
+St. Ann, Falmouth, Maria, Morant Bay, in Jamaica; St. George, Grenada;
+Roseau, Dominica; St. Johns, Antigua; San Josef, Trinidad; Scarborough,
+Tobago; Road Harbour, Tortola; Nassau, New Providence; Pittstown,
+Crooked Island; Kingston, St. Vincent; Port St. George and Port
+Hamilton, Bermuda; any port where there is a custom-house, Bahamas;
+Bridgetown, Barbadoes; St. Johns, St. Andrews, New Brunswick; Halifax,
+Nova Scotia; Quebec, Canada; St. Johns, Newfoundland; Georgetown,
+Demerara; New Amsterdam, Berbice; Castries, St. Lucia; Besseterre, St.
+Kitts; Charlestown, Nevis; and Plymouth, Montserrat:
+
+Now, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States of
+America, do hereby declare and proclaim that the ports of the United
+States shall hereafter, and until the end of the next session of the
+Congress of the United States, be open to the vessels of Great Britain
+employed in the trade and intercourse between the United States and the
+islands and colonies hereinbefore named, anything in the laws entitled
+"An act concerning navigation" or an act entitled "An act supplementary
+to an act concerning navigation" to the contrary notwithstanding, under
+the following reciprocal rules and restrictions, namely:
+
+To vessels of Great Britain, bona fide British built, owned and the
+master and three-fourths of the mariners of which at least shall belong
+to Great Britain, or any United States built ship or vessel which has
+been sold to and become the property of British subjects, such ship or
+vessel being also navigated with a master and three-fourths of the
+mariners at least belonging to Great Britain: _And provided always_,
+That no articles shall be imported into the United States in any such
+British ship or vessel other than articles of the growth, produce, or
+manufacture of the British islands and colonies in the West Indies when
+imported in British vessels coming from any such island or colony, and
+articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture of the British colonies
+in North America or of the island of Newfoundland in vessels coming from
+the port of St. Johns, in that island, or from any of the aforesaid
+ports of the British colonies in North America.
+
+Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 24th day of August,
+A.D. 1822, and in the forty-seventh year of the Independence of the
+United States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+By the President:
+  JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+    _Secretary of State_.
+
+
+
+
+SIXTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 3, 1822_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives_:
+
+Many causes unite to make your present meeting peculiarly interesting to
+our constituents. The operation of our laws on the various subjects to
+which they apply, with the amendments which they occasionally require,
+imposes annually an important duty on the representatives of a free
+people. Our system has happily advanced to such maturity that I am not
+aware that your cares in that respect will be augmented. Other causes
+exist which are highly interesting to the whole civilized world, and to
+no portion of it more so, in certain views, than to the United States.
+Of these causes and of their bearing on the interests of our Union I
+shall communicate the sentiments which I have formed with that freedom
+which a sense of duty dictates. It is proper, however, to invite your
+attention in the first instance to those concerns respecting which
+legislative provision is thought to be particularly urgent.
+
+On the 24th of June last a convention of navigation and commerce was
+concluded in this city between the United States and France by ministers
+duly authorized for the purpose. The sanction of the Executive having
+been given to this convention under a conviction that, taking all its
+stipulations into view, it rested essentially on a basis of reciprocal
+and equal advantage, I deemed it my duty, in compliance with the
+authority vested in the Executive by the second section of the act of
+the last session of the 6th of May, concerning navigation, to suspend by
+proclamation until the end of the next session of Congress the operation
+of the act entitled "An act to impose a new tonnage duty on French ships
+and vessels, and for other purposes," and to suspend likewise all other
+duties on French vessels or the goods imported in them which exceeded
+the duties on American vessels and on similar goods imported in them.
+I shall submit this convention forthwith to the Senate for its advice
+and consent as to the ratification.
+
+Since your last session the prohibition which had been imposed on the
+commerce between the United States and the British colonies in the West
+Indies and on this continent has likewise been removed. Satisfactory
+evidence having been adduced that the ports of those colonies had been
+opened to the vessels of the United States by an act of the British
+Parliament bearing date on the 24th of June last, on the conditions
+specified therein, I deemed it proper, in compliance with the provision
+of the first section of the act of the last session above recited, to
+declare, by proclamation bearing date on the 24th of August last, that
+the ports of the United States should thenceforward and until the end of
+the next session of Congress be opened to the vessels of Great Britain
+employed in that trade, under the limitation specified in that
+proclamation.
+
+A doubt was entertained whether the act of Congress applied to the
+British colonies on this continent as well as to those in the West
+Indies, but as the act of Parliament opened the intercourse equally
+with both, and it was the manifest intention of Congress, as well as
+the obvious policy of the United States, that the provisions of the act
+of Parliament should be met in equal extent on the part of the United
+States, and as also the act of Congress was supposed to vest in the
+President some discretion in the execution of it, I thought it advisable
+to give it a corresponding construction.
+
+Should the constitutional sanction of the Senate be given to the
+ratification of the convention with France, legislative provisions will
+be necessary to carry it fully into effect, as it likewise will be to
+continue in force, on such conditions as may be deemed just and proper,
+the intercourse which has been opened between the United States and the
+British colonies. Every light in the possession of the Executive will
+in due time be communicated on both subjects.
+
+Resting essentially on a basis of reciprocal and equal advantage, it
+has been the object of the Executive in transactions with other powers
+to meet the propositions of each with a liberal spirit, believing that
+thereby the interest of our country would be most effectually promoted.
+This course has been systematically pursued in the late occurrences with
+France and Great Britain, and in strict accord with the views of the
+Legislature. A confident hope is entertained that by the arrangement
+thus commenced with each all differences respecting navigation and
+commerce with the dominions in question will be adjusted, and a solid
+foundation be laid for an active and permanent intercourse which will
+prove equally advantageous to both parties.
+
+The decision of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia on the
+question submitted to him by the United States and Great Britain,
+concerning the construction of the first article of the treaty of Ghent,
+has been received. A convention has since been concluded between the
+parties, under the mediation of His Imperial Majesty, to prescribe the
+mode by which that article shall be carried into effect in conformity
+with that decision. I shall submit this convention to the Senate for
+its advice and consent as to the ratification, and, if obtained, shall
+immediately bring the subject before Congress for such provisions as
+may require the interposition of the Legislature.
+
+In compliance with an act of the last session a Territorial government
+has been established in Florida on the principles of our system. By
+this act the inhabitants are secured in the full enjoyment of their
+rights and liberties, and to admission into the Union, with equal
+participation in the Government with the original States on the
+conditions heretofore prescribed to other Territories. By a clause in
+the ninth article of the treaty with Spain, by which that Territory was
+ceded to the United States, it is stipulated that satisfaction shall
+be made for the injuries, if any, which by process of law shall be
+established to have been suffered by the Spanish officers and individual
+Spanish inhabitants by the late operations of our troops in Florida. No
+provision having yet been made to carry that stipulation into effect,
+it is submitted to the consideration of Congress whether it will not be
+proper to vest the competent power in the district court at Pensacola,
+or in some tribunal to be specially organized for the purpose.
+
+The fiscal operations of the year have been more successful than had
+been anticipated at the commencement of the last session of Congress.
+
+The receipts into the Treasury during the three first quarters of the
+year have exceeded the sum of $14,745,000. The payments made at the
+Treasury during the same period have exceeded $12,279,000, leaving in
+the Treasury on the 30th day of September last, including $1,168,592.24
+which were in the Treasury on the 1st day of January last, a sum
+exceeding $4,128,000.
+
+Besides discharging all demands for the current service of the year,
+including the interest and reimbursement of the public debt, the 6 per
+cent stock of 1796, amounting to $80,000, has been redeemed. It is
+estimated that, after defraying the current expenses of the present
+quarter and redeeming the two millions of 6 per cent stock of 1820,
+there will remain in the Treasury on the 1st of January next nearly
+$3,000,000. It is estimated that the gross amount of duties which have
+been secured from the 1st of January to the 30th of September last has
+exceeded $19,500,000, and the amount for the whole year will probably
+not fall short of $23,000,000.
+
+Of the actual force in service under the present military establishment,
+the posts at which it is stationed, and the condition of each post,
+a report from the Secretary of War which is now communicated will give
+a distinct idea. By like reports the state of the Academy at West Point
+will be seen, as will be the progress which has been made on the
+fortifications along the coast and at the national armories and
+arsenals.
+
+The position on the Red River and that at the Sault of St. Marie are
+the only new posts that have been taken. These posts, with those
+already occupied in the interior, are thought to be well adapted to the
+protection of our frontiers. All the force not placed in the garrisons
+along the coast and in the ordnance depots, and indispensably necessary
+there, is placed on the frontiers.
+
+The organization of the several corps composing the Army is such as to
+admit its expansion to a great extent in case of emergency, the officers
+carrying with them all the light which they possess to the new corps to
+which they might be appointed.
+
+With the organization of the staff there is equal cause to be satisfied.
+By the concentration of every branch with its chief in this city, in
+the presence of the Department, and with a grade in the chief military
+station to keep alive and cherish a military spirit, the greatest
+promptitude in the execution of orders, with the greatest economy and
+efficiency, are secured. The same view is taken of the Military Academy.
+Good order is preserved in it, and the youth are well instructed in
+every science connected with the great objects of the institution. They
+are also well trained and disciplined in the practical parts of the
+profession. It has been always found difficult to control the ardor
+inseparable from that early age in such manner as to give it a proper
+direction. The rights of manhood are too often claimed prematurely, in
+pressing which too far the respect which is due to age and the obedience
+necessary to a course of study and instruction in every such institution
+are sometimes lost sight of. The great object to be accomplished is the
+restraint of that ardor by such wise regulations and government as, by
+directing all the energies of the youthful mind to the attainment of
+useful knowledge, will keep it within a just subordination and at the
+same time elevate it to the highest purposes. This object seems to be
+essentially obtained in this institution, and with great advantage to
+the Union.
+
+The Military Academy forms the basis, in regard to science, on which
+the military establishment rests. It furnishes annually, after due
+examination and on the report of the academic staff, many well-informed
+youths to fill the vacancies which occur in the several corps of the
+Army, while others who retire to private life carry with them such
+attainments as, under the right reserved to the several States to
+appoint the officers and to train the militia, will enable them, by
+affording a wider field for selection, to promote the great object of
+the power vested in Congress of providing for the organizing, arming,
+and disciplining the militia. Thus by the mutual and harmonious
+cooperation of the two governments in the execution of a power divided
+between them, an object always to be cherished, the attainment of a
+great result, on which our liberties may depend, can not fail to be
+secured. I have to add that in proportion as our regular force is small
+should the instruction and discipline of the militia, the great resource
+on which we rely, be pushed to the utmost extent that circumstances
+will admit.
+
+A report from the Secretary of the Navy will communicate the progress
+which has been made in the construction of vessels of war, with other
+interesting details respecting the actual state of the affairs of
+that Department. It has been found necessary for the protection of
+our commerce to maintain the usual squadrons on the Mediterranean,
+the Pacific, and along the Atlantic coast, extending the cruises of the
+latter into the West Indies, where piracy, organized into a system, has
+preyed on the commerce of every country trading thither. A cruise has
+also been maintained on the coast of Africa, when the season would
+permit, for the suppression of the slave trade, and orders have been
+given to the commanders of all our public ships to seize our own
+vessels, should they find any engaged in that trade, and to bring
+them in for adjudication.
+
+In the West Indies piracy is of recent date, which may explain the
+cause why other powers have not combined against it. By the documents
+communicated it will be seen that the efforts of the United States to
+suppress it have had a very salutary effect. The benevolent provision
+of the act under which the protection has been extended alike to the
+commerce of other nations can not fail to be duly appreciated by them.
+
+In compliance with the act of the last session entitled "An act
+to abolish the United States trading establishments," agents were
+immediately appointed and instructed, under the direction of the
+Secretary of the Treasury, to close the business of the trading houses
+among the Indian tribes and to settle the accounts of the factors and
+subfactors engaged in that trade, and to execute in all other respects
+the injunctions of that act in the mode prescribed therein. A final
+report of their proceedings shall be communicated to Congress as soon
+as it is received.
+
+It is with great regret I have to state that a serious malady has
+deprived us of many valuable citizens at Pensacola and checked the
+progress of some of those arrangements which are important to the
+Territory. This effect has been sensibly felt in respect to the Indians
+who inhabit that Territory, consisting of the remnants of several tribes
+who occupy the middle ground between St. Augustine and Pensacola, with
+extensive claims but undefined boundaries. Although peace is preserved
+with those Indians, yet their position and claims tend essentially to
+interrupt the intercourse between the eastern and western parts of the
+Territory, on which our inhabitants are principally settled. It is
+essential to the growth and prosperity of the Territory, as well as to
+the interests of the Union, that these Indians should be removed, by
+special compact with them, to some other position or concentrated within
+narrower limits where they are. With the limited means in the power of
+the Executive, instructions were given to the governor to accomplish
+this object so far as it might be practicable, which was prevented by
+the distressing malady referred to. To carry it fully into effect in
+either mode additional funds will be necessary, to the provision of
+which the powers of Congress alone are competent. With a view to such
+provision as may be deemed proper, the subject is submitted to your
+consideration, and in the interim further proceedings are suspended.
+
+It appearing that so much of the act entitled "An act regulating the
+staff of the Army," which passed on the 14th April, 1818, as relates to
+the commissariat will expire in April next, and the practical operation
+of that department having evinced its great utility, the propriety of
+its renewal is submitted to your consideration.
+
+The view which has been taken of the probable productiveness of the
+lead mines, connected with the importance of the material to the public
+defense, makes it expedient that they should be managed with peculiar
+care. It is therefore suggested whether it will not comport with the
+public interest to provide by law for the appointment of an agent
+skilled in mineralogy to superintend them, under the direction of
+the proper department.
+
+It is understood that the Cumberland road, which was constructed at
+a great expense, has already suffered from the want of that regular
+superintendence and of those repairs which are indispensable to the
+preservation of such a work. This road is of incalculable advantage
+in facilitating the intercourse between the Western and the Atlantic
+States. Through it the whole country from the northern extremity of Lake
+Erie to the Mississippi, and from all the waters which empty into each,
+finds an easy and direct communication to the seat of Government, and
+thence to the Atlantic. The facility which it affords to all military
+and commercial operations, and also to those of the Post-Office
+Department, can not be estimated too highly. This great work is likewise
+an ornament and an honor to the nation. Believing that a competent power
+to adopt and execute a system of internal improvement has not been
+granted to Congress, but that such a power, confined to great national
+purposes and with proper limitations, would be productive of eminent
+advantage to our Union, I have thought it advisable that an amendment
+of the Constitution to that effect should be recommended to the several
+States. A bill which assumed the right to adopt and execute such a
+system having been presented for my signature at the last session,
+I was compelled, from the view which I had taken of the powers of the
+General Government, to negative it, on which occasion I thought it
+proper to communicate the sentiments which I had formed, on mature
+consideration, on the whole subject. To that communication, in all the
+views in which the great interest to which it relates may be supposed
+to merit your attention, I have now to refer. Should Congress, however,
+deem it improper to recommend such an amendment, they have, according to
+my judgment, the right to keep the road in repair by providing for the
+superintendence of it and appropriating the money necessary for repairs.
+Surely if they had the right to appropriate money to make the road they
+have a right to appropriate it to preserve the road from ruin. From the
+exercise of this power no danger is to be apprehended. Under our happy
+system the people are the sole and exclusive fountain of power. Each
+government originates from them, and to them alone, each to its proper
+constituents, are they respectively and solely responsible for the
+faithful discharge of their duties within their constitutional limits;
+and that the people will confine their public agents of every station
+to the strict line of their constitutional duties there is no cause to
+doubt. Having, however, communicated my sentiments to Congress at the
+last session fully in the document to which I have referred, respecting
+the right of appropriation as distinct from the right of jurisdiction
+and sovereignty over the territory in question, I deem it improper to
+enlarge on the subject here.
+
+From the best information that I have been able to obtain it appears
+that our manufactures, though depressed immediately after the peace,
+have considerably increased, and are still increasing, under the
+encouragement given them by the tariff of 1816 and by subsequent
+laws. Satisfied I am, whatever may be the abstract doctrine in favor of
+unrestricted commerce, provided all nations would, concur in it and it
+was not liable to be interrupted by war, which has never occurred and
+can not be expected, that there are other strong reasons applicable to
+our situation and relations with other countries which impose on us the
+obligation to cherish and sustain our manufactures. Satisfied, however,
+I likewise am that the interest of every part of our Union, even of
+those most benefited by manufactures, requires that this subject should
+be touched with the greatest caution, and a critical knowledge of
+the effect to be produced by the slightest change. On full consideration
+of the subject in all its relations I am persuaded that a further
+augmentation may now be made of the duties on certain foreign articles
+in favor of our own and without affecting injuriously any other
+interest. For more precise details I refer you to the communications
+which were made to Congress during the last session.
+
+So great was the amount of accounts for moneys advanced during the late
+war, in addition to others of a previous date which in the regular
+operations of the Government necessarily remained unsettled, that it
+required a considerable length of time for their adjustment. By a report
+from the First Comptroller of the Treasury it appears that on the 4th of
+March, 1817, the accounts then unsettled amounted to $103,068,876.41, of
+which, on the 30th of September of the present year, $93,175,396.56 had
+been settled, leaving on that day a balance unsettled of $9,893,479.85.
+That there have been drawn from the Treasury, in paying the public debt
+and sustaining the Government in all its operations and disbursements,
+since the 4th of March, 1817, $157,199,380.96, the accounts for which
+have been settled to the amount of $137,501,451.12, leaving a balance
+unsettled of $19,697,929.84. For precise details respecting each of
+these balances I refer to the report of the Comptroller and the
+documents which accompany it.
+
+From this view it appears that our commercial differences with France
+and Great Britain have been placed in a train of amicable arrangement on
+conditions fair and honorable in both instances to each party; that our
+finances are in a very productive state, our revenue being at present
+fully competent to all the demands upon it; that our military force is
+well organized in all its branches and capable of rendering the most
+important service in case of emergency that its number will admit of;
+that due progress has been made, under existing appropriations, in the
+construction of fortifications and in the operations of the Ordnance
+Department; that due progress has in like manner been made in the
+construction of ships of war; that our Navy is in the best condition,
+felt and respected in every sea in which it is employed for the
+protection of our commerce; that our manufactures have augmented in
+amount and improved in quality; that great progress has been made in
+the settlement of accounts and in the recovery of the balances due by
+individuals, and that the utmost economy is secured and observed in
+every Department of the Administration.
+
+Other objects will likewise claim your attention, because from the
+station which the United States hold as a member of the great community
+of nations they have rights to maintain, duties to perform, and dangers
+to encounter.
+
+A strong hope was entertained that peace would ere this have been
+concluded between Spain and the independent governments south of the
+United States in this hemisphere. Long experience having evinced the
+competency of those governments to maintain the independence which they
+had declared, it was presumed that the considerations which induced
+their recognition by the United States would have had equal weight with
+other powers, and that Spain herself, yielding to those magnanimous
+feelings of which her history furnishes so many examples, would have
+terminated on that basis a controversy so unavailing and at the same
+time so destructive. We still cherish the hope that this result will
+not long be postponed.
+
+Sustaining our neutral position and allowing to each party while the war
+continues equal rights, it is incumbent on the United States to claim of
+each with equal rigor the faithful observance of our rights according to
+the well-known law of nations. From each, therefore, a like cooperation
+is expected in the suppression of the piratical practice which has grown
+out of this war and of blockades of extensive coasts on both seas,
+which, considering the small force employed to sustain them, have not
+the slightest foundation to rest on.
+
+Europe is still unsettled, and although the war long menaced between
+Russia and Turkey has not broken out, there is no certainty that the
+differences between those powers will be amicably adjusted. It is
+impossible to look to the oppressions of the country respecting which
+those differences arose without being deeply affected. The mention of
+Greece fills the mind with the most exalted sentiments and arouses
+in our bosoms the best feelings of which our nature is susceptible.
+Superior skill and refinement in the arts, heroic gallantry in action,
+disinterested patriotism, enthusiastic zeal and devotion in favor of
+public and personal liberty are associated with our recollections of
+ancient Greece. That such a country should have been overwhelmed and so
+long hidden, as it were, from the world under a gloomy despotism has
+been a cause of unceasing and deep regret to generous minds for ages
+past. It was natural, therefore, that the reappearance of those people
+in their original character, contending in favor of their liberties,
+should produce that great excitement and sympathy in their favor which
+have been so signally displayed throughout the United States. A strong
+hope is entertained that these people will recover their independence
+and resume their equal station among the nations of the earth.
+
+A great effort has been made in Spain and Portugal to improve the
+condition of the people, and it must be very consoling to all benevolent
+minds to see the extraordinary moderation with which it has been
+conducted. That it may promote the happiness of both nations is the
+ardent wish of this whole people, to the expression of which we confine
+ourselves; for whatever may be the feelings or sentiments which every
+individual under our Government has a right to indulge and express,
+it is nevertheless a sacred maxim, equally with the Government and
+people, that the destiny of every independent nation in what relates
+to such improvements of right belongs and ought to be left exclusively
+to themselves.
+
+Whether we reason from the late wars or from those menacing symptoms
+which now appear in Europe, it is manifest that if a convulsion should
+take place in any of those countries it will proceed from causes which
+have no existence and are utterly unknown in these States, in which
+there is but one order, that of the people, to whom the sovereignty
+exclusively belongs. Should war break out in any of those countries, who
+can foretell the extent to which it may be carried or the desolation
+which it may spread? Exempt as we are from these causes, our internal
+tranquillity is secure; and distant as we are from the troubled scene,
+and faithful to first principles in regard to other powers, we might
+reasonably presume that we should not be molested by them. This,
+however, ought not to be calculated on as certain. Unprovoked injuries
+are often inflicted, and even the peculiar felicity of our situation
+might with some be a cause for excitement and aggression. The history
+of the late wars in Europe furnishes a complete demonstration that no
+system of conduct, however correct in principle, can protect neutral
+powers from injury from any party; that a defenseless position and
+distinguished love of peace are the surest invitations to war, and that
+there is no way to avoid it other than by being always prepared and
+willing for just cause to meet it. If there be a people on earth whose
+more especial duty it is to be at all times prepared to defend the
+rights with which they are blessed, and to surpass all others in
+sustaining the necessary burdens, and in submitting to sacrifices to
+make such preparations, it is undoubtedly the people of these States.
+
+When we see that a civil war of the most frightful character rages
+from the Adriatic to the Black Sea; that strong symptoms of war appear
+in other parts, proceeding from causes which, should it break out, may
+become general and be of long duration; that the war still continues
+between Spain and the independent governments, her late Provinces,
+in this hemisphere; that it is likewise menaced between Portugal and
+Brazil, in consequence of the attempt of the latter to dismember
+itself from the former, and that a system of piracy of great extent is
+maintained in the neighboring seas, which will require equal vigilance
+and decision to suppress it, the reasons for sustaining the attitude
+which we now hold and for pushing forward all our measures of defense
+with the utmost vigor appear to me to acquire new force.
+
+The United States owe to the world a great example, and, by means
+thereof, to the cause of liberty and humanity a generous support.
+They have so far succeeded to the satisfaction of the virtuous and
+enlightened of every country. There is no reason to doubt that their
+whole movement will be regulated by a sacred regard to principle, all
+our institutions being founded on that basis. The ability to support our
+own cause under any trial to which it may be exposed is the great point
+on which the public solicitude rests. It has been often charged against
+free governments that they have neither the foresight nor the virtue to
+provide at the proper season for great emergencies; that their course is
+improvident and expensive; that war will always find them unprepared,
+and, whatever may be its calamities, that its terrible warnings will
+be disregarded and forgotten as soon as peace returns. I have full
+confidence that this charge so far as relates to the United States
+will be shewn to be utterly destitute of truth.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+DECEMBER 4, 1822.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+The convention between the United States and France, concluded at
+Washington on the 24th day of June last, is now transmitted to the
+Senate for their advice and consent with regard to its ratification,
+together with the documents relating to the negotiation, which may serve
+to elucidate the deliberations of the Senate concerning its objects and
+the purposes to which it was adapted.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 4, 1822.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit herewith to the Senate, for their constitutional
+consideration and decision thereon, a convention between the United
+States and Great Britain, concluded at St. Petersburg on the 12th day
+of July last, under the mediation of His Imperial Majesty of all the
+Russias, together with the documents appertaining thereto, and which
+may elucidate the motives for its negotiation and the objects for the
+accomplishment of which it is intended.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 6, 1822_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+7th of May last, requiring that a plan for the peace establishment of
+the Navy of the United States and also of the Marine Corps should be
+communicated to that House at the present session, I transmit a report
+of the Secretary of the Navy, containing a plan which has been prepared
+for the proposed establishment.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 8th of May last,
+requesting "information relative to the copper mines on the southern
+shore of Lake Superior, their number, value, and position, the names of
+the Indian tribes who claim them, the practicability of extinguishing
+their titles, and the probable advantages which may result to the
+Republic from the acquisition and working these mines," I herewith
+transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which comprises the
+information desired in the resolution referred to.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 9, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+Recent information of the multiplied outrages and depredations which
+have been committed on our seamen and commerce by the pirates in the
+West Indies and Gulf of Mexico, exemplified by the death of a very
+meritorious officer, seems to call for some prompt and decisive measures
+on the part of the Government. All the public vessels adapted to that
+service which can be spared from other indispensable duties are already
+employed in it; but from the knowledge which has been acquired of the
+places from whence these outlaws issue and to which they escape from
+danger it appears that it will require a particular kind of force,
+capable of pursuing them into the shallow waters to which they retire,
+effectually to suppress them. I submit to the consideration of the
+Senate the propriety of organizing such force for that important object.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+[The same message, dated December 6, 1822, was sent to the House of
+Representatives.]
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 9, 1822_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 22d of February
+last, "requesting the President of the United States to cause to be
+collected and communicated to the Senate at the commencement of the next
+session of Congress the best information which he may be able to obtain
+relative to certain Christian Indians and the lands intended for their
+benefit on the Muskingum, in the State of Ohio, granted under an act
+of Congress of June 1, 1796, to the Society of the United Brethren
+for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen, showing as correctly as
+possible the advance or decline of said Indians in numbers, morals, and
+intellectual endowments; whether the lands have inured to their sole
+benefit, and, if not, to whom, in whole or in part, have such benefits
+accrued," I transmit a report from the Secretary of War with the
+accompanying documents.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 3, 1823_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the three resolutions of the Senate of the 5th April,
+1822, requesting the President of the United States to communicate in
+detail the expenses of building each vessel of war authorized by the act
+of the 2d of January, 1813, and its supplements, and also the names,
+number, grade, etc., of the officers and men employed at each navy-yard
+and naval station during the two years immediately preceding the 1st of
+January, 1822, I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of the
+Navy, with the accompanying documents, which contains the desired
+information.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 3, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolutions of the House of Representatives of
+the 8th of January, 7th May, and 17th December, 1822, requesting the
+President of the United States to cause to be laid before that House a
+detailed statement of the current expenses of the Ordnance Department
+for the years 1817, 1818, 1819, 1820, and 1821, and as much as can be
+shewn for the year 1822, and also the number and local position of each
+of the armories, arsenals, and magazines of the United States, the total
+expense of constructing and repairing the same up to the year 1821; the
+number of cannon and other arms annually made at each, and the expenses
+of each armory and arsenal for each year from 1816 to 1821, inclusive,
+I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War, accompanied by
+such documents as will be found to contain the desired information.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 3, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+United States of the 19th of December, 1822, requesting the President of
+the United States to cause to be laid before that House the several laws
+which have been made by the governor and legislative council of Florida,
+together with such information as may be in the possession of the
+Executive, I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of State,
+with the accompanying documents, which contains the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 6, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+19th of December last, requesting the President of the United States
+to communicate to the House the progress which has been made in the
+execution of the act of the last session entitled "An act to abolish
+the Indian trading establishments," with a report from the factories,
+respectively, as the same were made to him, I transmit a report from
+the Secretary of the Treasury, with the documents referred to by that
+resolution. In further execution of the act of the last session treaties
+have since been made with the Osage and Sac Indians by which those
+tribes have severally relinquished to the United States their right
+under preceding treaties to the maintenance of a factory within each,
+respectively.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 6, 1823.
+
+_To the Senate_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate, for their advice and consent as to the
+ratification, treaties which have been made with the Osage and Sac
+tribes of Indians in execution of the provision contained in the act
+of the last session entitled "An act to abolish the Indian trading
+establishments."
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 10, 1823_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate requesting the President
+of the United States "to cause to be laid before the Senate the number
+of arms required annually to supply the militia of the West according to
+acts of Congress; the probable number necessary to be placed in military
+deposits located or to be located on the Western waters; the cost of
+transportation of arms to the Western States and deposits; the probable
+cost of manufacturing arms in the West; the probable cost of erecting at
+this time on the Western waters such an armory as that at Harpers Ferry
+or at Springfield, and such other information as he may deem important
+to establish the expediency of erecting on the Western waters a national
+armory," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War
+containing the desired information.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 16, 1823_.
+
+The VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE:
+
+The convention concluded and signed at St. Petersburg on the 21st of
+July last under the mediation of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of all
+the Russias having been ratified by the three powers parties thereto,
+and the ratifications of the same having been duly exchanged, copies of
+it are now communicated to Congress, to the end that the measures for
+carrying it on the part of the United States into execution may obtain
+the cooperation of the Legislature necessary to the accomplishment of
+some of its provisions. A translation is subjoined of three explanatory
+documents, in the French language, referred to in the fourth article of
+the convention and annexed to it. The agreement executed at the exchange
+of the ratifications is likewise communicated.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+[The same message was addressed to the Speaker of the House of
+Representatives.]
+
+
+
+JANUARY 22, 1823.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of December 12, 1822, requesting
+that the President would cause to be laid before the Senate a
+statement exhibiting the amount in aggregate of the goods, wares,
+and merchandise exported from the United States to France, and imported
+from thence, in each year from and after the year 1814 to the year
+1820, discriminating in the reports between the articles of the growth,
+produce, or manufacture of the United States and those of foreign
+countries, and also stating the national character of the vessels in
+which such exports and imports have been made, I transmit a report from
+the Secretary of the Treasury, which contains the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 22, 1823.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
+
+
+In carrying fully into effect the intention of Congress in making an
+appropriation of $5,000 by the act of the 14th April, 1820, for the
+survey of the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers from the Rapids of the
+Ohio at Louisville to the Balize, for the purpose of facilitating and
+ascertaining the most practicable route of improving the navigation of
+these rivers, orders were given through the proper department to the
+Board of Engineers to examine and survey the said rivers with reference
+to those objects, and to report their opinion thereon, which they have
+done, and which report I now communicate for the information of
+Congress.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 25, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+I transmit herewith to the House of Representatives a report from the
+Secretary of State, together with the documents which contain the
+information requested by the resolution of the House of the 10th of
+December last, relating to the establishment at the mouth of Columbia
+River.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of the Navy, containing
+one from Captain John Rodgers, president of the Naval Board, accompanied
+by a description of the inclined plane, dock, and fixtures for hauling
+up ships, and an estimate of the cost and materials and workmanship
+necessary for the completion of a dock and wharves, proposed to be
+connected with the inclined plane constructed at the navy-yard,
+Washington, and recommend the same to the attentive consideration of
+Congress.
+
+It is confidently believed that this invention combines advantages so
+highly useful as to justify the appropriation required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+JANUARY 28, 1823
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 3, 1823.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+Having lately received a memorial from the legislative council of the
+Territory of Florida on subjects very interesting to the inhabitants of
+the Territory and also to the United States, which require legislative
+provision, I transmit the same to Congress and recommend it to their
+consideration,
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+[The same message was addressed to the Speaker of the House of
+Representatives.]
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 3, 1823_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit herewith a resolution of the legislature, with an extract
+of a letter from the governor, of Georgia, and a memorial of the
+legislature of Missouri, relative to the extinguishment of the Indian
+title to lands within the limits of these States, respectively.
+Believing the present time to be propitious for holding treaties for the
+attainment of cessions of land from the Indians within those States,
+I submit the subject to the consideration of Congress, that adequate
+appropriations for such treaties may be made should Congress deem it
+expedient.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 4, 1823.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+12th of December last, requesting the President "to communicate to the
+House such information as he might possess with regard to any expedition
+prepared in the United States and having sailed from thence within the
+year 1822 against the territory or dependency of any power in amity
+with the United States, and to inform the House whether any measures
+have been taken to bring to condign punishment persons who have been
+concerned in such expedition contrary to the laws," I transmit to the
+House reports from the Secretaries of State and of the Treasury, with
+the documents mentioned in each. Those documents contain all the
+information in possession of the Executive relating to the subject of
+the resolution.
+
+That a force of a very limited extent has been equipped in the ports
+of the United States and sailed from thence for the purpose described
+in the resolution is manifest from the documents now communicated. The
+reports from the collectors of Philadelphia and New York will shew in
+what manner this equipment escaped their notice.
+
+The first information of this equipment was received from St.
+Bartholomews, the place of its rendezvous. This was confirmed afterwards
+from Curracoa with an account of its failure. Should any of those
+persons return within the jurisdiction of the United States care will
+be taken that the laws applicable to such offenses are duly enforced
+against them. Whether any aid was afforded by others to the parties
+engaged in this unlawful and contemptible adventure in the ports in
+which it was planned, inconsistent with ordinary commercial transactions
+and contrary to the laws of the United States, will be referred to the
+Attorney-General, on whose advice any measures in regard to them will
+depend.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 6, 1823.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 28th of January last, requesting information "whether the treaty
+concluded with the Choctaw Nation of Indians on the 18th of October,
+1820, has been executed so far as respects the cession of certain lands
+to said nation west of the river Mississippi, and if possession has been
+given of the lands ceded to them; if not, that he assign the reasons
+which prevented the immediate execution of the stipulations of said
+treaty, and whether the difficulties have diminished or increased by the
+delay in its execution," I communicate a report from the Secretary of
+War, with the documents referred to in it,
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 10, 1823.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of February 3, requesting
+a statement of the number and size of cannon, mortars, and howitzers
+necessary for the armament of the fortifications already built and
+intended to be built, with an estimate of the sum necessary for their
+construction, I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, prepared
+in execution of instructions given him to that effect.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 13, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of 22d
+January last, requesting the communication to the House of all the
+correspondence between the Governments of the United States and Great
+Britain relating to the negotiation of the convention of the 20th
+October, 1818, which may not be inconsistent with the public interest,
+I transmit herewith to the House a report from the Secretary of State,
+together with the papers requested by the resolution of the House.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 14, 1823.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 11th of this month,
+requesting the President to cause to be communicated to the Senate
+an estimate of the amount of land in the State of Georgia to which the
+Indian title has been extinguished by the United States since the
+cession of a portion of the territory of Georgia to the United States,
+with a statement of the cost of such extinguishment, and also an
+estimate of the amount of land within the said State to which the Indian
+title still remains to be extinguished, and by what tribes claimed,
+I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which contains the
+information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 17, 1823.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+17th of December, requesting the President to communicate to the House
+a statement of the amount expended for the current expenses of the
+Ordnance Department during the years 1817, 1818, 1819, 1820, and 1821,
+and as much as can be shewn for the year 1822, with the items for which
+the money was expended, the place where and the persons to whom paid,
+what quantity of timber has been procured for gun carriages and
+caissons, its cost annually, and where deposited; the quantity of
+ordnance of every kind that has been procured during those years or
+paid for, and the whole amount of arms of every description now
+belonging to the United States; the sum expended in the purchase of
+sites for arsenals since the peace, the cost of the buildings erected
+thereon, and whether all those arsenals are necessary for the service of
+the United States, I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with
+the documents mentioned therein, which contains the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 18, 1823_.
+
+The VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE:
+
+The convention of navigation and commerce between the United States of
+America and His Majesty the King of France and Navarre, concluded and
+signed at Washington on the 24th of June, 1822, with the first separate
+article thereto annexed, having been ratified by the two parties, and
+the ratifications of the same having been duly exchanged, copies of it
+and of the separate article referred to are now communicated to the two
+Houses of Congress, to the end that the necessary measures for carrying
+it into execution on the part of the United States may be adopted by the
+Legislature.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+[The same message was sent to the House of Representatives.]
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 19, 1823.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 11th of December last, I transmit to the House a report from the
+Secretary of the Treasury, containing the information requested, of
+the amount of moneys advanced to agents, subagents, contractors,
+subcontractors, or individuals since the 1st of January, 1817, which
+have not been accounted for on settlement, and of the loss sustained
+in each case, the sureties taken, and the names of the sureties.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 19, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives, in pursuance of a resolution
+of that House of the 31st of last month, a report from the Secretary of
+State, relative to the commissioners appointed for the purpose of
+ascertaining the titles and claims to land in Florida.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 19, 1823.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives an additional report from
+the Secretary of the Treasury, with the documents referred to therein,
+containing further information of the proceedings in execution of the
+law of the last session respecting the trade with the Indian tribes,
+called for by the resolution of the 19th of December last.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 22, 1823.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+11th of this month, requesting information whether any prize agents have
+neglected to render an account of their agency and to pay over the money
+in their hands, the names of those who have failed, the sums unaccounted
+for, and whether any of those thus failing are in the employ of the
+Government, and their compensation has been in consequence suspended,
+I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with the documents
+referred to by him.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 25, 1823.
+
+_To the Congress of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress the general returns of the militia of the several
+States and Territories for the year 1822, with an account of the arms,
+accouterments, ammunition, ordnance, etc., belonging to each as far as
+the returns have been received, in compliance with the provision of the
+act of 1803.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 25, 1823.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+By a resolution of the 27th of December last the President of the United
+States was requested to communicate to the Senate such information as
+he might possess respecting the political state of the island of St.
+Domingo; whether the Government thereof was claimed by any European
+nation, what our commercial relations with the Government of the island
+were, and whether any further commercial relations with that Government
+would be consistent with the interest and safety of the United States.
+
+From the import of the resolution it is inferred that the Senate were
+fully aware of the delicate and interesting nature of the subject
+embraced by it in all its branches. The call supposes something peculiar
+in the nature of the Government of that island and in the character of
+its population, to which attention is due. Impressed always with an
+anxious desire to meet every call of either House for information,
+I most willingly comply in this instance and with a view to the
+particular circumstances alluded to.
+
+In adverting to the political state of St. Domingo I have to observe
+that the whole island is now united under one Government, under a
+constitution which retains the sovereignty in the hands of the people
+of color, and with provisions which prohibit the employment in the
+Government of all white persons who have emigrated there since 1816,
+or who may hereafter emigrate there, and which prohibit also the
+acquisition by such persons of the right of citizenship or to real
+estate in the island. In the exercise of this sovereignty the Government
+has not been molested by any European, power. No invasion of the island
+has been made or attempted by any power. It is, however, understood that
+the relations between the Government of France and the island have not
+been adjusted, that its independence has not been recognized by France,
+nor has peace been formally established between the parties.
+
+The establishment of a Government of people of color in the island on
+the principles above stated evinces distinctly the idea of a separate
+interest and a distrust of other nations. Had that jealousy been
+confined to the inhabitants of the parent country it would have been
+less an object of attention; but by extending it to the inhabitants of
+other countries with whom no difference ever existed the policy assumes
+a character which does not admit of a like explanation. To what extent
+that spirit may be indulged or to what purposes applied our experience
+has yet been too limited to enable us to form a just estimate. These
+are inquiries more peculiarly interesting to the neighboring islands.
+They nevertheless deserve the attention of the United States.
+
+Between the United States and the island a commercial intercourse
+exists, and it will continue to be the object of this Government to
+promote it. Our commerce there has been subjected to higher duties than
+have been imposed on like articles from some other nations. It has
+nevertheless been extensive, proceeding from the wants of the respective
+parties and the enterprise of our citizens. Of this discrimination
+to our injury we had a right to complain and have complained. It is
+expected that our commercial intercourse with the island will be placed
+on the footing of the most favored nation. No preference is sought
+in our favor, nor ought any to be given to others. Regarding the high
+interest of our happy Union and looking to every circumstance which
+may by any possibility affect the tranquillity of any part, however
+remotely, and guarding against such injury by suitable precautions, it
+is the duty of this Government to promote by all the means in its power
+and by a fair and honorable policy the best interest of every other
+part, and thereby of the whole. Feeling profoundly the force of this
+obligation, I shall continue to exert with unwearied zeal my best
+faculties to give it effect.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 26, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives, in pursuance of a resolution
+of that House of the 30th January last, a report from the Secretary
+of State, containing the information required in relation to the
+transactions of the commissioners under the sixth and seventh articles
+of the treaty of Ghent, and also as to the measures which have been
+taken under the fourth article of the treaty with Spain of the 22d of
+February, 1819, for fixing the boundary line described in the third
+article of the last-mentioned treaty.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 27, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary
+of State, made in pursuance of their resolution of the 21st of January
+last, requesting the President of the United States to cause to be
+arranged and laid before that House a digest shewing such changes in the
+commercial regulations of the different foreign countries with which the
+United States have intercourse as shall have been adopted and come to
+the knowledge of the Executive subsequently to the formation of the
+digest communicated to the Senate on the 7th December, 1819.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 28, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary
+of State, with copies of sundry papers which should have been included
+among those which accompanied my message of the 13th instant, being part
+of the correspondence with Great Britain relating to the negotiation of
+the convention of 20th of October, 1818, but which were accidentally
+omitted from the papers communicated to the House with that message.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 28, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+24th of January, requesting the President to communicate to the House
+the number of persons and the amount due from each whose compensation
+has been withheld or suspended, in pursuance of the law prohibiting
+payments to persons in arrears to the United States; whether the amount
+withheld has been applied in all cases to the extinguishment of their
+debts to the Government; whether the said laws have been enforced in
+all cases against securities who are liable for the payment of any
+arrears due; whether any disbursing officer, within the knowledge of
+the President, has given conclusive evidence of his insolvency, and,
+if so, whether he is still retained in the service of the United States,
+I transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of the Treasury,
+with the documents mentioned therein.
+
+The report has been confined to the operations of the law. Respecting
+the circumstances of individuals in their transactions without the
+sphere of their public duties I have no means of information other
+than those which are common to all.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 7, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of this
+day, requesting information of the measures taken with regard to the
+illegal blockade of the ports of the Spanish Main, and to depredations
+of privateers fitted out from Porto Rico and other Spanish islands on
+the commerce of the United States, I transmit to the House a report
+from the Secretary of State containing the information required by
+the resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+SEVENTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 2, 1823_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives_:
+
+Many important subjects will claim your attention during the
+present session, of which I shall endeavor to give, in aid of your
+deliberations, a just idea in this communication. I undertake this duty
+with diffidence, from the vast extent of the interests on which I have
+to treat and of their great importance to every portion of our Union.
+I enter on it with zeal from a thorough conviction that there never
+was a period since the establishment of our Revolution when, regarding
+the condition of the civilized world and its bearing on us, there
+was greater necessity for devotion in the public servants to their
+respective duties, or for virtue, patriotism, and union in our
+constituents.
+
+Meeting in you a new Congress, I deem it proper to present this view
+of public affairs in greater detail than might otherwise be necessary.
+I do it, however, with peculiar satisfaction, from a knowledge that in
+this respect I shall comply more fully with the sound principles of our
+Government. The people being with us exclusively the sovereign, it is
+indispensable that full information be laid before them on all important
+subjects, to enable them to exercise that high power with complete
+effect. If kept in the dark, they must be incompetent to it. We are
+all liable to error, and those who are engaged in the management of
+public affairs are more subject to excitement and to be led astray by
+their particular interests and passions than the great body of our
+constituents, who, living at home in the pursuit of their ordinary
+avocations, are calm but deeply interested spectators of events and
+of the conduct of those who are parties to them. To the people
+every department of the Government and every individual in each are
+responsible, and the more full their information the better they can
+judge of the wisdom of the policy pursued and of the conduct of each in
+regard to it. From their dispassionate judgment much aid may always be
+obtained, while their approbation will form the greatest incentive
+and most gratifying reward for virtuous actions, and the dread of
+their censure the best security against the abuse of their confidence.
+Their interests in all vital questions are the same, and the bond, by
+sentiment as well as by interest, will be proportionably strengthened as
+they are better informed of the real state of public affairs, especially
+in difficult conjunctures. It is by such knowledge that local prejudices
+and jealousies are surmounted, and that a national policy, extending its
+fostering care and protection to all the great interests of our Union,
+is formed and steadily adhered to.
+
+A precise knowledge of our relations with foreign powers as respects our
+negotiations and transactions with each is thought to be particularly
+necessary. Equally necessary is it that we should form a just estimate
+of our resources, revenue, and progress in every kind of improvement
+connected with the national prosperity and public defense. It is by
+rendering justice to other nations that we may expect it from them.
+It is by our ability to resent injuries and redress wrongs that we may
+avoid them. The commissioners under the fifth article of the treaty of
+Ghent, having disagreed in their opinions respecting that portion of
+the boundary between the Territories of the United States and of Great
+Britain the establishment of which had been submitted to them, have
+made their respective reports in compliance with that article, that
+the same might be referred to the decision of a friendly power. It
+being manifest, however, that it would be difficult, if not impossible,
+for any power to perform that office without great delay and much
+inconvenience to itself, a proposal has been made by this Government,
+and acceded to by that of Great Britain, to endeavor to establish that
+boundary by amicable negotiation. It appearing from long experience
+that no satisfactory arrangement could be formed of the commercial
+intercourse between the United States and the British colonies in this
+hemisphere by legislative acts while each party pursued its own course
+without agreement or concert with the other, a proposal has been made
+to the British Government to regulate this commerce by treaty, as it has
+been to arrange in like manner the just claim of the citizens of the
+United States inhabiting the States and Territories bordering on the
+lakes and rivers which empty into the St. Lawrence to the navigation of
+that river to the ocean. For these and other objects of high importance
+to the interests of both parties a negotiation has been opened with the
+British Government which it is hoped will have a satisfactory result.
+
+The commissioners under the sixth and seventh articles of the treaty of
+Ghent having successfully closed their labors in relation to the sixth,
+have proceeded to the discharge of those relating to the seventh. Their
+progress in the extensive survey required for the performance of their
+duties justifies the presumption that it will be completed in the
+ensuing year.
+
+The negotiation which had been long depending with the French Government
+on several important subjects, and particularly for a just indemnity for
+losses sustained in the late wars by the citizens of the United States
+under unjustifiable seizures and confiscations of their property, has
+not as yet had the desired effect. As this claim rests on the same
+principle with others which have been admitted by the French Government,
+it is not perceived on what just ground it can be rejected. A minister
+will be immediately appointed to proceed to France and resume the
+negotiation on this and other subjects which may arise between the two
+nations.
+
+At the proposal of the Russian Imperial Government, made through the
+minister of the Emperor residing here, a full power and instructions
+have been transmitted to the minister of the United States at St.
+Petersburg to arrange by amicable negotiation the respective rights and
+interests of the two nations on the northwest coast of this continent.
+A similar proposal had been made by His Imperial Majesty to the
+Government of Great Britain, which has likewise been acceded to. The
+Government of the United States has been desirous by this friendly
+proceeding of manifesting the great value which they have invariably
+attached to the friendship of the Emperor and their solicitude to
+cultivate the best understanding with his Government. In the discussions
+to which this interest has given rise and in the arrangements by which
+they may terminate the occasion has been judged proper for asserting,
+as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States
+are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent
+condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be
+considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.
+
+Since the close of the last session of Congress the commissioners
+and arbitrators for ascertaining and determining the amount of
+indemnification which may be due to citizens of the United States
+under the decision of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia,
+in conformity to the convention concluded at St. Petersburg on the 12th
+of July, 1822, have assembled in this city, and organized themselves
+as a board for the performance of the duties assigned to them by that
+treaty. The commission constituted under the eleventh article of the
+treaty of the 22d of February, 1819, between the United States and Spain
+is also in session here, and as the term of three years limited by the
+treaty for the execution of the trust will expire before the period of
+the next regular meeting of Congress, the attention of the Legislature
+will be drawn to the measures which may be necessary to accomplish the
+objects for which the commission was instituted.
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives adopted
+at their last session, instructions have been given to all the ministers
+of the United States accredited to the powers of Europe and America to
+propose the proscription of the African slave trade by classing it under
+the denomination, and inflicting on its perpetrators the punishment, of
+piracy. Should this proposal be acceded to, it is not doubted that this
+odious and criminal practice will be promptly and entirely suppressed.
+It is earnestly hoped that it will be acceded to, from the firm belief
+that it is the most effectual expedient that can be adopted for the
+purpose.
+
+At the commencement of the recent war between France and Spain it was
+declared by the French Government that it would grant no commissions
+to privateers, and that neither the commerce of Spain herself nor
+of neutral nations should be molested by the naval force of France,
+except in the breach of a lawful blockade. This declaration, which
+appears to have been faithfully carried into effect, concurring with
+principles proclaimed and cherished by the United States from the
+first establishment of their independence, suggested the hope that
+the time had arrived when the proposal for adopting it as a permanent
+and invariable rule in all future maritime wars might meet the
+favorable consideration of the great European powers. Instructions have
+accordingly been given to our ministers with France, Russia, and Great
+Britain to make those proposals to their respective Governments, and
+when the friends of humanity reflect on the essential amelioration to
+the condition of the human race which would result from the abolition of
+private war on the sea and on the great facility by which it might be
+accomplished, requiring only the consent of a few sovereigns, an earnest
+hope is indulged that these overtures will meet with an attention
+animated by the spirit in which they were made, and that they will
+ultimately be successful.
+
+The ministers who were appointed to the Republics of Colombia and Buenos
+Ayres during the last session of Congress proceeded shortly afterwards
+to their destinations. Of their arrival there official intelligence has
+not yet been received. The minister appointed to the Republic of Chile
+will sail in a few days. An early appointment will also be made to
+Mexico. A minister has been received from Colombia, and the other
+Governments have been informed that ministers, or diplomatic agents of
+inferior grade, would be received from each, accordingly as they might
+prefer the one or the other.
+
+The minister appointed to Spain proceeded soon after his appointment
+for Cadiz, the residence of the Sovereign to whom he was accredited.
+In approaching that port the frigate which conveyed him was warned off
+by the commander of the French squadron by which it was blockaded and
+not permitted to enter, although apprised by the captain of the frigate
+of the public character of the person whom he had on board, the landing
+of whom was the sole object of his proposed entry. This act, being
+considered an infringement of the rights of ambassadors and of nations,
+will form a just cause of complaint to the Government of France against
+the officer by whom it was committed.
+
+The actual condition of the public finances more than realizes the
+favorable anticipations that were entertained of it at the opening of
+the last session of Congress. On the 1st of January there was a balance
+in the Treasury of $4,237,427.55. From that time to the 30th September
+the receipts amounted to upward of $16,100,000, and the expenditures to
+$11,400,000. During the fourth quarter of the year it is estimated that
+the receipts will at least equal the expenditures, and that there will
+remain in the Treasury on the 1st day of January next a surplus of
+nearly $9,000,000.
+
+On the 1st of January, 1825, a large amount of the war debt and a part
+of the Revolutionary debt become redeemable. Additional portions of the
+former will continue to become redeemable annually until the year 1835.
+It is believed, however, that if the United States remain at peace the
+whole of that debt may be redeemed by the ordinary revenue of those
+years during that period under the provision of the act of March 3,
+1817, creating the sinking fund, and in that case the only part of the
+debt that will remain after the year 1835 will be the $7,000,000 of
+5 per cent stock subscribed to the Bank of the United States, and the
+3 per cent Revolutionary debt, amounting to $13,296,099.06, both of
+which are redeemable at the pleasure of the Government.
+
+The state of the Army in its organization and discipline has been
+gradually improving for several years, and has now attained a high
+degree of perfection. The military disbursements have been regularly
+made and the accounts regularly and promptly rendered for settlement.
+The supplies of various descriptions have been of good quality,
+and regularly issued at all of the posts. A system of economy and
+accountability has been introduced into every branch of the service
+which admits of little additional improvement. This desirable state
+has been attained by the act reorganizing the staff of the Army,
+passed on the 14th of April, 1818.
+
+The moneys appropriated for fortifications have been regularly and
+economically applied, and all the works advanced as rapidly as the
+amount appropriated would admit. Three important works will be completed
+in the course of this year--that is, Fort Washington, Fort Delaware, and
+the fort at the Rigolets, in Louisiana.
+
+The Board of Engineers and the Topographical Corps have been in constant
+and active service in surveying the coast and projecting the works
+necessary for its defense.
+
+The Military Academy has attained a degree of perfection in its
+discipline and instruction equal, as is believed, to any institution
+of its kind in any country.
+
+The money appropriated for the use of the Ordnance Department has been
+regularly and economically applied. The fabrication of arms at the
+national armories and by contract with the Department has been gradually
+improving in quality and cheapness. It is believed that their quality
+is now such as to admit of but little improvement.
+
+The completion of the fortifications renders it necessary that there
+should be a suitable appropriation for the purpose of fabricating the
+cannon and carriages necessary for those works.
+
+Under the appropriation of $5,000 for exploring the Western waters
+for the location of a site for a Western armory, a commission was
+constituted, consisting of Colonel McRee, Colonel Lee, and Captain
+Talcott, who have been engaged in exploring the country. They have not
+yet reported the result of their labors, but it is believed that they
+will be prepared to do it at an early part of the session of Congress.
+
+During the month of June last General Ashley and his party, who were
+trading under a license from the Government, were attacked by the
+Ricarees while peaceably trading with the Indians at their request.
+Several of the party were killed and wounded and their property taken
+or destroyed.
+
+Colonel Leavenworth, who commanded Fort Atkinson, at the Council Bluffs,
+the most western post, apprehending that the hostile spirit of the
+Ricarees would extend to other tribes in that quarter, and that thereby
+the lives of the traders on the Missouri and the peace of the frontier
+would be endangered, took immediate measures to check the evil.
+
+With a detachment of the regiment stationed at the Bluffs he
+successfully attacked the Ricaree village, and it is hoped that such
+an impression has been made on them as well as on the other tribes on
+the Missouri as will prevent a recurrence of future hostility.
+
+The report of the Secretary of War, which is herewith transmitted, will
+exhibit in greater detail the condition of the Department in its various
+branches, and the progress which has been made in its administration
+during the three first quarters of the year.
+
+I transmit a return of the militia of the several States according to
+the last reports which have been made by the proper officers in each to
+the Department of War. By reference to this return it will be seen that
+it is not complete, although great exertions have been made to make it
+so. As the defense and even the liberties of the country must depend in
+times of imminent danger on the militia, it is of the highest importance
+that it be well organized, armed, and disciplined throughout the Union.
+The report of the Secretary of War shews the progress made during the
+three first quarters of the present year by the application of the
+fund appropriated for arming the militia. Much difficulty is found in
+distributing the arms according to the act of Congress providing for
+it from the failure of the proper departments in many of the States to
+make regular returns. The act of May 12, 1820, provides that the system
+of tactics and regulations of the various corps of the Regular Army
+shall be extended to the militia. This act has been very imperfectly
+executed from the want of uniformity in the organization of the militia,
+proceeding from the defects of the system itself, and especially in its
+application to that main arm of the public defense. It is thought that
+this important subject in all its branches merits the attention of
+Congress.
+
+The report of the Secretary of the Navy, which is now communicated,
+furnishes an account of the administration of that Department for the
+three first quarters of the present year, with the progress made in
+augmenting the Navy, and the manner in which the vessels in commission
+have been employed.
+
+The usual force has been maintained in the Mediterranean Sea, the
+Pacific Ocean, and along the Atlantic coast, and has afforded the
+necessary protection to our commerce in those seas.
+
+In the West Indies and the Gulf of Mexico our naval force has been
+augmented by the addition of several small vessels provided for by
+the "act authorizing an additional naval force for the suppression of
+piracy," passed by Congress at their last session. That armament has
+been eminently successful in the accomplishment of its object. The
+piracies by which our commerce in the neighborhood of the island of
+Cuba had been afflicted have been repressed and the confidence of
+our merchants in a great measure restored.
+
+The patriotic zeal and enterprise of Commodore Porter, to whom the
+command of the expedition was confided, has been fully seconded by
+the officers and men under his command. And in reflecting with high
+satisfaction on the honorable manner in which they have sustained the
+reputation of their country and its Navy, the sentiment is alloyed
+only by a concern that in the fulfillment of that arduous service the
+diseases incident to the season and to the climate in which it was
+discharged have deprived the nation of many useful lives, and among
+them of several officers of great promise.
+
+In the month of August a very malignant fever made its appearance
+at Thompsons Island, which threatened the destruction of our station
+there. Many perished, and the commanding officer was severely attacked.
+Uncertain as to his fate and knowing that most of the medical officers
+had been rendered incapable of discharging their duties, it was thought
+expedient to send to that post an officer of rank and experience, with
+several skillful surgeons, to ascertain the origin of the fever and the
+probability of its recurrence there in future seasons; to furnish every
+assistance to those who were suffering, and, if practicable, to avoid
+the necessity of abandoning so important a station. Commodore Rodgers,
+with a promptitude which did him honor, cheerfully accepted that trust,
+and has discharged it in the manner anticipated from his skill and
+patriotism. Before his arrival Commodore Porter, with the greater
+part of the squadron, had removed from the island and returned to the
+United States in consequence of the prevailing sickness. Much useful
+information has, however, been obtained as to the state of the island
+and great relief afforded to those who had been necessarily left there.
+
+Although our expedition, cooperating with an invigorated administration
+of the government of the island of Cuba, and with the corresponding
+active exertions of a British naval force in the same seas, have almost
+entirely destroyed the unlicensed piracies from that island, the success
+of our exertions has not been equally effectual to suppress the same
+crime, under other pretenses and colors, in the neighboring island
+of Porto Rico. They have been committed there under the abusive
+issue of Spanish commissions. At an early period of the present year
+remonstrances were made to the governor of that island, by an agent
+who was sent for the purpose, against those outrages on the peaceful
+commerce of the United States, of which many had occurred. That officer,
+professing his own want of authority to make satisfaction for our just
+complaints, answered only by a reference of them to the Government of
+Spain. The minister of the United States to that court was specially
+instructed to urge the necessity of the immediate and effectual
+interposition of that Government, directing restitution and indemnity
+for wrongs already committed and interdicting the repetition of them.
+The minister, as has been seen, was debarred access to the Spanish
+Government, and in the meantime several new cases of flagrant outrage
+have occurred, and citizens of the United States in the island of Porto
+Rico have suffered, and others been threatened with assassination for
+asserting their unquestionable rights even before the lawful tribunals
+of the country.
+
+The usual orders have been given to all our public ships to seize
+American vessels engaged in the slave trade and bring them in for
+adjudication, and I have the gratification to state that not one so
+employed has been discovered, and there is good reason to believe
+that our flag is now seldom, if at all, disgraced by that traffic.
+It is a source of great satisfaction that we are always enabled to
+recur to the conduct of our Navy with pride and commendation. As a
+means of national defense it enjoys the public confidence, and is
+steadily assuming additional importance. It is submitted whether a more
+efficient and equally economical organization of it might not in several
+respects be effected. It is supposed that higher grades than now exist
+by law would be useful. They would afford well-merited rewards to those
+who have long and faithfully served their country, present the best
+incentives to good conduct, and the best means of insuring a proper
+discipline; destroy the inequality in that respect between military and
+naval services, and relieve our officers from many inconveniences and
+mortifications which occur when our vessels meet those of other nations,
+ours being the only service in which such grades do not exist.
+
+A report of the Postmaster-General, which accompanies this
+communication, will shew the present state of the Post-Office Department
+and its general operations for some years past.
+
+There is established by law 88,600 miles of post-roads, on which the
+mail is now transported 85,700 miles, and contracts have been made
+for its transportation on all the established routes, with one or two
+exceptions. There are 5,240 post-offices in the Union, and as many
+postmasters. The gross amount of postage which accrued from the 1st
+July, 1822, to the 1st July, 1823, was $1,114,345.12. During the
+same period the expenditures of the Post-Office Department amounted
+to $1,169,885.51, and consisted of the following items, viz:
+Compensation to postmasters, $353,995.98; incidental expenses,
+$30,866.37; transportation of the mail, $784,600.08; payments into
+the Treasury, $423.08. On the 1st of July last there was due to the
+Department from postmasters $135,245.28; from _late_ postmasters and
+contractors, $256,749.31; making a total amount of balances due to the
+Department of $391,994.59. These balances embrace all delinquencies
+of postmasters and contractors which have taken place since the
+organization of the Department. There was due by the Department
+to contractors on the 1st of July last $26,548.64.
+
+The transportation of the mail within five years past has been greatly
+extended, and the expenditures of the Department proportionably
+increased. Although the postage which has accrued within the last three
+years has fallen short of the expenditures $262,821.46, it appears that
+collections have been made from the outstanding balances to meet the
+principal part of the current demands.
+
+It is estimated that not more than $250,000 of the above balances can
+be collected, and that a considerable part of this sum can only be
+realized by a resort to legal process. Some improvement in the receipts
+for postage is expected. A prompt attention to the collection of moneys
+received by postmasters, it is believed, will enable the Department
+to continue its operations without aid from the Treasury, unless the
+expenditures shall be increased by the establishment of new mail routes.
+
+A revision of some parts of the post-office law may be necessary;
+and it is submitted whether it would not be proper to provide for the
+appointment of postmasters, where the compensation exceeds a certain
+amount, by nomination to the Senate, as other officers of the General
+Government are appointed.
+
+Having communicated my views to Congress at the commencement of the
+last session respecting the encouragement which ought to be given to our
+manufactures and the principle on which it should be founded, I have
+only to add that those views remain unchanged, and that the present
+state of those countries with which we have the most immediate political
+relations and greatest commercial intercourse tends to confirm them.
+Under this impression I recommend a review of the tariff for the purpose
+of affording such additional protection to those articles which we are
+prepared to manufacture, or which are more immediately connected with
+the defense and independence of the country.
+
+The actual state of the public accounts furnishes additional evidence
+of the efficiency of the present system of accountability in relation
+to the public expenditure. Of the moneys drawn from the Treasury since
+the 4th March, 1817, the sum remaining unaccounted for on the 30th of
+September last is more than a million and a half of dollars less than on
+the 30th of September preceding; and during the same period a reduction
+of nearly a million of dollars has been made in the amount of the
+unsettled accounts for moneys advanced previously to the 4th of March,
+1817. It will be obvious that in proportion as the mass of accounts of
+the latter description is diminished by settlement the difficulty of
+settling the residue is increased from the consideration that in many
+instances it can be obtained only by legal process. For more precise
+details on this subject I refer to a report from the First Comptroller
+of the Treasury.
+
+The sum which was appropriated at the last session for the repairs of
+the Cumberland road has been applied with good effect to that object.
+A final report has not yet been received from the agent who was
+appointed to superintend it. As soon as it is received it shall be
+communicated to Congress.
+
+Many patriotic and enlightened citizens who have made the subject an
+object of particular investigation have suggested an improvement of
+still greater importance. They are of opinion that the waters of the
+Chesapeake and Ohio may be connected together by one continued canal,
+and at an expense far short of the value and importance of the object
+to be obtained. If this could be accomplished it is impossible to
+calculate the beneficial consequences which would result from it.
+A great portion of the produce of the very fertile country through
+which it would pass would find a market through that channel. Troops
+might be moved with great facility in war, with cannon and every kind
+of munition, and in either direction. Connecting the Atlantic with the
+Western country in a line passing through the seat of the National
+Government, it would contribute essentially to strengthen the bond of
+union itself. Believing as I do that Congress possess the right to
+appropriate money for such a national object (the jurisdiction remaining
+to the States through which the canal would pass), I submit it to your
+consideration whether it may not be advisable to authorize by an
+adequate appropriation the employment of a suitable number of the
+officers of the Corps of Engineers to examine the unexplored ground
+during the next season and to report their opinion thereon. It will
+likewise be proper to extend their examination to the several routes
+through which the waters of the Ohio may be connected by canals with
+those of Lake Erie.
+
+As the Cumberland road will require annual repairs, and Congress have
+not thought it expedient to recommend to the States an amendment to the
+Constitution for the purpose of vesting in the United States a power to
+adopt and execute a system of internal improvement, it is also submitted
+to your consideration whether it may not be expedient to authorize the
+Executive to enter into an arrangement with the several States through
+which the road passes to establish tolls, each within its limits, for
+the purpose of defraying the expense of future repairs and of providing
+also by suitable penalties for its protection against future injuries.
+
+The act of Congress of the 7th of May, 1822, appropriated the sum of
+$22,700 for the purpose of erecting two piers as a shelter for vessels
+from ice near Cape Henlopen, Delaware Bay. To effect the object of the
+act the officers of the Board of Engineers, with Commodore Bainbridge,
+were directed to prepare plans and estimates of piers sufficient to
+answer the purpose intended by the act. It appears by their report,
+which accompanies the documents from the War Department, that the
+appropriation is not adequate to the purpose intended; and as the piers
+would be of great service both to the navigation of the Delaware Bay and
+the protection of vessels on the adjacent parts of the coast, I submit
+for the consideration of Congress whether additional and sufficient
+appropriation should not be made.
+
+The Board of Engineers were also directed to examine and survey the
+entrance of the harbor of the port of Presquille, in Pennsylvania, in
+order to make an estimate of the expense of removing the obstructions
+to the entrance, with a plan of the best mode of effecting the same,
+under the appropriation for that purpose by act of Congress passed 3d
+of March last. The report of the Board accompanies the papers from the
+War Department, and is submitted for the consideration of Congress.
+
+A strong hope has been long entertained, founded on the heroic struggle
+of the Greeks, that they would succeed in their contest and resume their
+equal station among the nations of the earth. It is believed that the
+whole civilized world take a deep interest in their welfare. Although
+no power has declared in their favor, yet none, according to our
+information, has taken part against them. Their cause and their
+name have protected them from dangers which might ere this have
+overwhelmed any other people. The ordinary calculations of interest and
+of acquisition with a view to aggrandizement, which mingles so much in
+the transactions of nations, seem to have had no effect in regard to
+them. From the facts which have come to our knowledge there is good
+cause to believe that their enemy has lost forever all dominion over
+them; that Greece will become again an independent nation. That she
+may obtain that rank is the object of our most ardent wishes.
+
+It was stated at the commencement of the last session that a great
+effort was then making in Spain and Portugal to improve the condition of
+the people of those countries, and that it appeared to be conducted with
+extraordinary moderation. It need scarcely be remarked that the result
+has been so far very different from what was then anticipated. Of events
+in that quarter of the globe, with which we have so much intercourse
+and from which we derive our origin, we have always been anxious and
+interested spectators. The citizens of the United States cherish
+sentiments the most friendly in favor of the liberty and happiness
+of their fellow-men on that side of the Atlantic. In the wars of the
+European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken
+any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to do. It is only when
+our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or
+make preparation for our defense. With the movements in this hemisphere
+we are of necessity more immediately connected, and by causes which must
+be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The political
+system of the allied powers is essentially different in this respect
+from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists
+in their respective Governments; and to the defense of our own, which
+has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured
+by the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under which we
+have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe
+it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between
+the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider
+any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this
+hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing
+colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered
+and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared
+their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have,
+on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could
+not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or
+controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power
+in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly
+disposition toward the United States. In the war between those new
+Governments and Spain we declared our neutrality at the time of their
+recognition, and to this we have adhered, and shall continue to adhere,
+provided no change shall occur which, in the judgment of the competent
+authorities of this Government, shall make a corresponding change on
+the part of the United States indispensable to their security.
+
+The late events in Spain and Portugal shew that Europe is still
+unsettled. Of this important fact no stronger proof can be adduced than
+that the allied powers should have thought it proper, on any principle
+satisfactory to themselves, to have interposed by force in the internal
+concerns of Spain. To what extent such interposition may be carried, on
+the same principle, is a question in which all independent powers whose
+governments differ from theirs are interested, even those most remote,
+and surely none more so than the United States. Our policy in regard
+to Europe, which was adopted at an early stage of the wars which have
+so long agitated that quarter of the globe, nevertheless remains the
+same, which is, not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of
+its powers; to consider the government _de facto_ as the legitimate
+government for us; to cultivate friendly relations with it, and to
+preserve those relations by a frank, firm, and manly policy, meeting
+in all instances the just claims of every power, submitting to injuries
+from none. But in regard to those continents circumstances are eminently
+and conspicuously different. It is impossible that the allied powers
+should extend their political system to any portion of either continent
+without endangering our peace and happiness; nor can anyone believe that
+our southern brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their
+own accord. It is equally impossible, therefore, that we should behold
+such interposition in any form with indifference. If we look to the
+comparative strength and resources of Spain and those new Governments,
+and their distance from each other, it must be obvious that she can
+never subdue them. It is still the true policy of the United States
+to leave the parties to themselves, in the hope that other powers will
+pursue the same course.
+
+If we compare the present condition of our Union with its actual state
+at the close of our Revolution, the history of the world furnishes no
+example of a progress in improvement in all the important circumstances
+which constitute the happiness of a nation which bears any resemblance
+to it. At the first epoch our population did not exceed 3,000,000.
+By the last census it amounted to about 10,000,000, and, what is more
+extraordinary, it is almost altogether native, for the immigration
+from other countries has been inconsiderable At the first epoch half
+the territory within our acknowledged limits was uninhabited and a
+wilderness. Since then new territory has been acquired of vast extent,
+comprising within it many rivers, particularly the Mississippi, the
+navigation of which to the ocean was of the highest importance to the
+original States. Over this territory our population has expanded in
+every direction, and new States have been established almost equal in
+number to those which formed the first bond of our Union. This expansion
+of our population and accession of new States to our Union have had the
+happiest effect on all its highest interests. That it has eminently
+augmented our resources and added to our strength and respectability
+as a power is admitted by all. But it is not in these important
+circumstances only that this happy effect is felt. It is manifest that
+by enlarging the basis of our system and increasing the number of
+States the system itself has been greatly strengthened in both its
+branches. Consolidation and disunion have thereby been rendered equally
+impracticable. Each Government, confiding in its own strength, has less
+to apprehend from the other, and in consequence each, enjoying a greater
+freedom of action, is rendered more efficient for all the purposes
+for which it was instituted. It is unnecessary to treat here of the
+vast improvement made in the system itself by the adoption of this
+Constitution and of its happy effect in elevating the character and in
+protecting the rights of the nation as well as of individuals. To what,
+then, do we owe these blessings? It is known to all that we derive them
+from the excellence of our institutions. Ought we not, then, to adopt
+every measure which may be necessary to perpetuate them?
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+WASHINGTON CITY, _December 7, 1823_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+By an act of the last session of Congress it was made the duty of
+the accounting officers of the Treasury to adjust and settle the
+accounts of Daniel D. Tompkins, late governor of the State of New
+York, on principles of equity and justice, subject to the revision and
+final decision of the President of the United States. The accounting
+officers have, in compliance with this act, reported to me a balance of
+$35,190 in favor of Governor Tompkins, which report I have had under
+consideration, together with his claim to an additional allowance,
+and should have decided on the same before the present time had I not
+delayed my decision at his request. From the view which I have taken
+of the subject I am satisfied, considering all the circumstances of
+the case, that a larger sum ought to be allowed him than that reported
+by the accounting officers of the Treasury. No appropriation, however,
+having been made by the act, and it appearing by recent information from
+him that the sum reported would afford him an essential accommodation
+at this time, the subject is submitted to the consideration of Congress
+with a view to that object.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate, for its advice and consent as to the
+ratification, a treaty lately concluded with the Seminole Indians in
+Florida, whereby a cession of territory is made to the United States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+DECEMBER 15, 1823.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 23, 1823_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit to Congress a statement by William Lambert,
+explanatory of his astronomical calculations with a view to establish
+the longitude of the Capitol.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 31, 1823_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary
+of State, with accompanying documents, containing the information
+requested by the resolution of the House of the 19th instant, relating
+to the condition and future prospects of the Greeks.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 5, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+18th of December last, requesting copies of contracts for cannon, cannon
+shot, muskets, and other small arms which have been entered into since
+the 1st of January, 1820, and for other detailed information therein
+specified, I herewith transmit a report, with accompanying documents,
+from the Department of War,
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 9, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Agreeably to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 18th
+of December, 1823, requesting copies of all contracts for cannon,
+cannon shot, muskets, and other small arms entered into since the
+1st of January, 1820, I herewith transmit a report from the Department
+of the Navy, with other documents relating thereto.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 12, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In answer to a resolution of the House of Representatives of December
+24, requesting the President of the United States to lay before the
+House such information as he may possess, and which may be disclosed
+without injury to the public good, relative to the determination of
+any sovereign, or combination of sovereigns, to assist Spain in the
+subjugation of her late colonies on the American continent, and whether
+any Government of Europe is disposed or determined to oppose any aid or
+assistance which such sovereign or combination of sovereigns may afford
+to Spain for the subjugation of her late colonies above mentioned,
+I have to state that I possess no information on that subject not known
+to Congress which can be disclosed without injury to the public good.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 30, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+15th of December last, requesting the President of the United States "to
+communicate a plan for a peace establishment of the Navy of the United
+States," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of the Navy,
+which contains the plan required.
+
+In presenting this plan to the consideration of Congress, I avail myself
+of the occasion to make some remarks on it which the importance of the
+subject requires and experience justifies.
+
+If a system of universal and permanent peace could be established, or
+if in war the belligerent parties would respect the rights of neutral
+powers, we should have no occasion for a navy or an army. The expense
+and dangers of such establishments might be avoided. The history of all
+ages proves that this can not be presumed; on the contrary, that at
+least one-half of every century, in ancient as well as modern times,
+has been consumed in wars, and often of the most general and desolating
+character. Nor is there any cause to infer, if we examine the condition
+of the nations with which we have the most intercourse and strongest
+political relations, that we shall in future be exempt from that
+calamity within any period to which a rational calculation may be
+extended. And as to the rights of neutral powers, it is sufficient to
+appeal to our own experience to demonstrate how little regard will be
+paid to them whenever they come in conflict with the interests of the
+powers at war while we rely on the justice of our cause and on argument
+alone. The amount of the property of our fellow-citizens which was
+seized and confiscated or destroyed by the belligerent parties in the
+wars of the French Revolution, and of those which followed before we
+became a party to the war, is almost incalculable.
+
+The whole movement of our Government from the establishment of our
+independence has been guided by a sacred regard for peace. Situated as
+we are in the new hemisphere, distant from Europe and unconnected with
+its affairs, blessed with the happiest Government on earth, and having
+no objects of ambition to gratify, the United States have steadily
+cultivated the relations of amity with every power; and if in any
+European wars a respect for our rights might be relied on, it was
+undoubtedly in those to which I have adverted. The conflict being vital,
+the force being nearly equally balanced, and the result uncertain, each
+party had the strongest motives of interest to cultivate our good will,
+lest we might be thrown into the opposite scale. Powerful as this
+consideration usually is, it was nevertheless utterly disregarded
+in almost every stage of and by every party to those wars. To these
+encroachments and injuries our regard for peace was finally forced
+to yield.
+
+In the war to which at length we became a party our whole coast from St.
+Croix to the Mississippi was either invaded or menaced with invasion,
+and in many parts with a strong imposing force both land and naval.
+In those parts where the population was most dense the pressure was
+comparatively light, but there was scarcely an harbor or city on any
+of our great inlets which could be considered secure. New York and
+Philadelphia were eminently exposed, the then existing works not being
+sufficient for their protection. The same remark is applicable in a
+certain extent to the cities eastward of the former, and as to the
+condition of the whole country southward of the latter the events which
+mark the war are too recent to require detail. Our armies and Navy
+signalized themselves in every quarter where they had occasion to meet
+their gallant foe, and the militia voluntarily flew to their aid with
+a patriotism and fought with a bravery which exalted the reputation of
+their Government and country and which did them the highest honor. In
+whatever direction the enemy chose to move with their squadrons and to
+land their troops our fortifications, where any existed, presented but
+little obstacle to them. They passed those works without difficulty.
+Their squadrons, in fact, annoyed our whole coast, not of the sea only,
+but every bay and great river throughout its whole extent. In entering
+those inlets and sailing up them with a small force the effect was
+disastrous, since it never failed to draw out the whole population on
+each side and to keep it in the field while the squadron remained there.
+The expense attending this species of defense, with the exposure of
+the inhabitants and the waste of property, may readily be conceived.
+
+The occurrences which preceded the war and those which attended it were
+alike replete with useful instruction as to our future policy. Those
+which marked the first epoch demonstrate clearly that in the wars of
+other powers we can rely only on force for the protection of our neutral
+rights. Those of the second demonstrate with equal certainty that in any
+war in which we may be engaged hereafter with a strong naval power the
+expense, waste, and other calamities attending it, considering the vast
+extent of our maritime frontier, can not fail, unless it be defended
+by adequate fortifications and a suitable naval force, to correspond
+with those which were experienced in the late war. Two great objects
+are therefore to be regarded in the establishment of an adequate naval
+force: The first, to prevent war so far as it may be practicable; the
+second, to diminish its calamities when it may be inevitable. Hence the
+subject of defense becomes intimately connected in all its parts in war
+and in peace, for the land and at sea. No government will be disposed in
+its wars with other powers to violate our rights if it knows we have the
+means, are prepared and resolved to defend them. The motive will also be
+diminished if it knows that our defenses by land are so well planned and
+executed that an invasion of our coast can not be productive of the
+evils to which we have heretofore been exposed.
+
+It was under a thorough conviction of these truths, derived from the
+admonitions of the late war, that Congress, as early as the year 1816,
+during the term of my enlightened and virtuous predecessor, under whom
+the war had been declared, prosecuted, and terminated, digested and made
+provision for the defense of our country and support of its rights,
+in peace as well as in war, by acts which authorized and enjoined the
+augmentation of our Navy to a prescribed limit, and the construction
+of suitable fortifications throughout the whole extent of our maritime
+frontier and wherever else they might be deemed necessary. It is to the
+execution of these works, both land and naval, and under a thorough
+conviction that by hastening their completion I should render the best
+service to my country and give the most effectual support to our free
+republican system of government that my humble faculties would admit of,
+that I have devoted so much of my time and labor to this great system of
+national policy since I came into this office, and shall continue to do
+it until my retirement from it at the end of your next session.
+
+The Navy is the arm from which our Government will always derive most
+aid in support of our neutral rights. Every power engaged in war will
+know the strength of our naval force, the number of our ships of each
+class, their condition, and the promptitude with which we may bring them
+into service, and will pay due consideration to that argument. Justice
+will always have great weight in the cabinets of Europe; but in long and
+destructive wars exigencies often occur which press so vitally on them
+that unless the argument of force is brought to its aid it will be
+disregarded. Our land forces will always perform their duty in the event
+of war, but they must perform it on the land. Our Navy is the arm which
+must be principally relied on for the annoyance of the commerce of the
+enemy and for the protection of our own, and also, by cooperation with
+the land forces, for the defense of the country. Capable of moving in
+any and every direction, it possesses the faculty, even when remote from
+our coast, of extending its aid to every interest on which the security
+and welfare of our Union depend. Annoying the commerce of the enemy and
+menacing in turn its coast, provided the force on each side is nearly
+equally balanced, it will draw its squadrons from our own; and in case
+of invasion by a powerful adversary by a land and naval force, which is
+always to be anticipated and ought to be provided against, our Navy may,
+by like cooperation with our land forces, render essential aid in
+protecting our interior from incursion and depredation.
+
+The great object in the event of war is to stop the enemy at the coast.
+If this is done our cities and whole interior will be secure. For the
+accomplishment of this object our fortifications must be principally
+relied on. By placing strong works near the mouths of our great inlets
+in such positions as to command the entrances into them, as may be done
+in many instances, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for ships
+to pass them, especially if other precautions, and particularly that of
+steam batteries, are resorted to in their aid. In the wars between other
+powers into which we may be drawn in support of our neutral rights it
+can not be doubted that this defense would be adequate to the purpose
+intended by it, nor can it be doubted that the knowledge that such works
+existed would form a strong motive with any power not to invade our
+rights, and thereby contribute essentially to prevent war. There are,
+it is admitted, some entrances into our interior which are of such
+vast extent that it would be utterly impossible for any works, however
+extensive or well posted, to command them. Of this class the Chesapeake
+Bay, which is an arm of the sea, may be given as an example. But, in my
+judgment, even this bay may be defended against any power with whom we
+may be involved in war as a third party in the defense of our neutral
+rights. By erecting strong works at the mouth of James River, on both
+sides, near the capes, as we are now doing, and at Old Point Comfort and
+the Rip Raps, and connecting those works together by chains whenever the
+enemy's force appeared, placing in the rear some large ships and steam
+batteries, the passage up the river would be rendered impracticable.
+This guard would also tend to protect the whole country bordering on the
+bay and rivers emptying into it, as the hazard would be too great for
+the enemy, however strong his naval force, to ascend the bay and leave
+such a naval force behind; since, in the event of a storm, whereby his
+vessels might be separated, or of a calm, the ships and steam batteries
+behind the works might rush forth and destroy them. It could only be in
+the event of an invasion by a great power or a combination of several
+powers, and by land as well as by naval forces, that those works could
+be carried; and even then they could not fail to retard the movement of
+the enemy into the country and to give time for the collection of our
+regular troops, militia, and volunteers to that point, and thereby
+contribute essentially to his ultimate defeat and expulsion from our
+territory.
+
+Under a strong impression that a peace establishment of our Navy is
+connected with the possible event of war, and that the naval force
+intended for either state, however small it may be, is connected with
+the general system of public defense, I have thought it proper in
+communicating this report to submit these remarks on the whole subject.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 2, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+11th of December last, requesting the President of the United States to
+communicate to the House all such parts of the correspondence with the
+Government of Spain relating to the Florida treaty to the period of its
+final ratification, not heretofore communicated, which, in his opinion,
+it might not be inconsistent with the public interest to communicate,
+I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with copies
+of the correspondence requested.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The House of Representatives on the 12th instant having "resolved that
+the President of the United States be requested to inform this House
+whether the rules and regulations compiled by General Scott for the
+government of the Army are now in force in the Army, or any part
+thereof, and by what authority the same has been adopted and enforced,"
+I herewith transmit a report from the Department of War, which contains
+the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Agreeably to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 11th
+instant, requesting the President of the United States "to inform this
+House if the line intended to constitute the western boundary of the
+Territory of Arkansas has been run in conformity with the provisions
+of the third section of the act of Congress of the 3d of March, 1823,
+entitled 'An act making appropriation for the military service of the
+United States for the year 1823, and for other purposes,' and, if said
+line has not been run, that he inform this House what instructions have
+been given or measures adopted in relation to the execution of the
+provision of the law, and what causes have prevented said line from
+being run," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War,
+which contains the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The House of Representatives on the 26th ultimo having "resolved that
+the President of the United States be requested to cause to be laid
+before the House an estimate of the expense which would be incurred by
+transporting 200 of the troops now at the Council Bluffs to the mouth
+of the Columbia or Oregon River," I herewith transmit a report of the
+Secretary of War, which contains the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1824_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit to Congress certain documents relating to a claim
+of Massachusetts for services rendered by the militia of that State
+in the late war, and for which payment was made by the State. From the
+particular circumstances attending this claim I have thought it proper
+to submit the subject to the consideration of Congress.
+
+In forming a just estimate of this claim it will be necessary to recur
+to the cause which prevented its admission, or the admission of any part
+thereof, at an earlier day. It will be recollected that when a call was
+made on the militia of that State for service in the late war, under
+an arrangement which was alike applicable to the militia of all the
+States and in conformity with the acts of Congress, the executive of
+Massachusetts refused to comply with the call, on the principle that
+the power vested in Congress by the Constitution to provide for
+calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress
+insurrections, and repel invasions was not a complete power for
+those purposes, but conditional, and dependent on the consent of the
+executives of the several States, and, also, that when called into
+service, such consent being given, they could not be commanded by a
+regular officer of the United States, or other officer than of the
+militia, except by the President in person. That this decision of
+the executive of Massachusetts was repugnant to the Constitution of
+the United States, and of dangerous tendency, especially when it is
+considered that we were then engaged in a war with a powerful nation
+for the defense of our common rights, was the decided opinion of this
+Government; and when the period at which that decision was formed was
+considered, it being as early as the 5th of August, 1812, immediately
+after the war was declared, and that it was not relinquished during the
+war, it was inferred by the Executive of the United States that the
+decision of the executive of that State was alike applicable to all the
+services that were rendered by the militia of the State during the war.
+
+In the correspondence with the governor of Massachusetts at that
+important epoch, and on that very interesting subject, it was announced
+to him by the Secretary of War that if the militia of the State were
+called into service by the executive of the State, and not put under the
+command of the Major-General of the United States, as the militia of
+the other States were, the expense attending their service would be
+chargeable to the State, and not to the United States. It was also
+stated to him at the same time that any claim which the State might
+have for the reimbursement of such expenses could not be allowed by the
+Executive of the United States, since it would involve principles on
+which that branch of the Government could not decide.
+
+Under these circumstances a decision on the claim of the State of
+Massachusetts has hitherto been suspended, and it need not be remarked
+that the suspension has proceeded from a conviction that it would be
+improper to give any sanction by its admission, or by the admission
+of any part thereof, either to the construction of the Constitution
+contended for by the then executive of that State or to its conduct
+at that period toward the General Government and the Union.
+
+In January, 1823, the Representatives in Congress from Massachusetts and
+Maine suggested, by memorial, that the constitutional objection could
+not apply to a portion of the claim, and requested that the accounting
+officer of the Government might be instructed to audit and admit such
+part as might be free from that objection. In all cases where claims
+are presented for militia service it is the duty and the practice of
+the accounting officer to submit them to the Department for instruction
+as to the legality of the claim; that is, whether the service had been
+rendered by order of the competent authority, or otherwise, under
+circumstances to justify the claim against the United States, admitting
+that the evidence in support of it should be satisfactory. To this
+request there appeared to be no well-founded objection, under the
+reservation as to the constitutional principle, and accordingly an order
+was given to the accounting officers of the Treasury to proceed in
+auditing the claim with that reservation.
+
+In conformity with this arrangement, the executive of Massachusetts
+appointed two citizens of that State commissioners to attend to the
+settlement of its claim, and who, in execution of the trust reposed in
+them, have presented to the accounting officer of the Treasury that
+portion comprehending the services of the fifth division of the militia
+of the State, which has been audited and reported for consideration,
+subject to the objection above stated. I have examined this report, with
+the documents presented by the commissioners, and am of opinion that
+the services rendered by that division were spontaneous, patriotic, and
+proper, necessary for self-defense, to repel in some instances actual
+invasion and in others to meet by adequate preparation invasions that
+were menaced. The commissioners of the State having intimated that other
+portions of service stood on similar ground, the accounting officer has
+been instructed, in auditing the whole, to do it in such manner as to
+enable the Department to show distinctly under what circumstances each
+portion of service was rendered, whether voluntary, called out by
+invasion or the menace of invasion, or by public authority, and in such
+case whether the militia rendering such service was placed under the
+authority of the United States or retained under that of the State.
+
+It affords me great pleasure to state that the present executive of
+Massachusetts has disclaimed the principle which was maintained by the
+former executive, and that in this disclaimer both branches of the
+legislature have concurred. By this renunciation the State is placed on
+the same ground in this respect with the other States, and this very
+distressing anomaly in our system is removed. It is well known that the
+great body of our fellow-citizens in Massachusetts are as firmly devoted
+to our Union and to the free republican principles of our Government as
+our fellow-citizens of the other States. Of this important truth their
+conduct in every stage of our Revolutionary struggle and in many other
+emergencies bears ample testimony; and I add with profound interest and
+a thorough conviction that, although the difficulty adverted to in the
+late war with their executive excited equal surprise and regret, it
+was not believed to extend to them. There never was a moment when the
+confidence of the Government in the great body of our fellow-citizens
+of that State was impaired, nor is a doubt entertained that they were
+at all times willing and ready to support their rights and repel an
+invasion by the enemy.
+
+The commissioners of Massachusetts have urged, in compliance with their
+instructions, the payment of so much of their claim as applies to the
+services rendered by the fifth division, which have been audited, and
+I should have no hesitation in admitting it if I did not think, under
+all the circumstances of the case, that the claim in all its parts was
+cognizable by Congress alone. The period at which the constitutional
+difficulty was raised by the executive of the State was in the highest
+degree important, as was the tendency of the principle for which it
+contended, and which was adhered to during the war. The public mind
+throughout the Union was much excited by that occurrence, and great
+solicitude was felt as to its consequences. The Executive of the United
+States was bound to maintain, and did maintain, a just construction of
+the Constitution, in doing which it is gratifying to recollect that the
+most friendly feelings were cherished toward their brethren of that
+State. The executive of the State was warned, in the correspondence
+which then took place, of the light in which its conduct was viewed
+and of the effect it would have, so far as related to the right of the
+Executive of the United States, on any claim which might afterwards be
+presented by the State to compensation for such services. Under these
+circumstances the power of the Executive of the United States to settle
+any portion of this claim seems to be precluded. It seems proper, also,
+that this claim should be decided on full investigation before the
+public, that the principle on which it is decided may be thoroughly
+understood by our fellow-citizens of every State, which can be done by
+Congress alone, who alone, also, possess the power to pass laws which
+may be necessary to carry such decision into effect.
+
+In submitting this subject to the calm and enlightened judgment of
+Congress, I do it with peculiar satisfaction, from a knowledge that you
+are now placed, by the course of events, in a situation which will
+enable you to adopt such measures as will not only comport with the
+sound principles of our Government, but likewise be conducive to other
+the highest interests of our Union. By the renunciation of the principle
+maintained by the then executive of Massachusetts, as has been done by
+its present executive and both branches of the legislature in the most
+formal manner and in accord with the sentiments of the great body of the
+people, the Constitution is restored in a very important feature (that
+connected with the public defense) and in the most important branch
+(that of the militia) to its native strength. It is very gratifying to
+know that this renunciation has been produced by the regular, orderly,
+and pacific operation of our republican system, whereby those who
+were in the right at the moment of difficulty and who sustained the
+Government with great firmness have daily gained strength until this
+result was accomplished. The points on which you will have to decide
+are, What is fairly due for the services which were actually rendered?
+By what means shall we contribute most to cement the Union and give the
+greatest support to our most excellent Constitution? In seeking each
+object separately we are led to the same result. All that can be claimed
+by our fellow-citizens of Massachusetts is that the constitutional
+objection be waived, and that they be placed on the same footing with
+their brethren in the other States; that regarding the services rendered
+by the militia of other States, for which compensation has been made,
+giving to the rule the most liberal construction, like compensation be
+made for similar services rendered by the militia of that State.
+
+I have been led to conclude on great consideration that the principles
+of justice as well as a due regard for the great interests of our Union
+require that this claim in the extent proposed should be acceded to.
+Essential service was rendered in the late war by the militia of
+Massachusetts, and with the most patriotic motives. It seems just,
+therefore, that they should be compensated for such services in like
+manner with the militia of the other States. The constitutional
+difficulty did not originate with them, and has now been removed. It
+comports with our system to look to the service rendered and to the
+intention with which it was rendered, and to award the compensation
+accordingly, especially as it may now be done without the sacrifice of
+principle. The motive in this instance is the stronger because well
+satisfied I am that by so doing we shall give the most effectual support
+to our republican institutions. No latent cause of discontent will be
+left behind. The great body of the people will be gratified, and even
+those who now survive who were then in error can not fail to see with
+interest and satisfaction this distressing occurrence thus happily
+terminated. I therefore consider it my duty to recommend it to Congress
+to make provision for the settlement of the claim of Massachusetts
+for services rendered in the late war by the militia of the State,
+in conformity with the rules which have governed in the settlement of
+the claims for services rendered by the militia of the other States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+FEBRUARY 24, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of War, containing the
+information called for by a resolution of the House of Representatives
+of the United States, passed on the 4th instant, respecting any suit or
+suits which have been or are now depending, in which the United States
+are interested, for the recovery of the Pea Patch.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 25, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In conformity with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+17th instant, I now transmit the report of the Secretary of the Navy,
+accompanied by statements marked A and B, shewing "the amount of money
+expended in conformity with the provisions of the act entitled 'An act
+for the gradual increase of the Navy of the United States,' approved
+April 29, 1816, and of the act to amend said act, approved 3d of March,
+1821; also the number of vessels built or now on the stocks, with their
+rates, the value of the timber purchased, or for which contracts
+have been made, and whether sufficient timber has been purchased or
+contracted for to build the vessels contemplated by the provisions of
+said acts."
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MARCH 3, 1824.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate a report of the Secretary of the Treasury,
+containing copies of the contracts made by the Surveyor-General,
+and called for by a resolution of the Senate bearing date the 24th
+February, 1824.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MARCH 4, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit a report of the Secretary of the Treasury, which communicates
+all the information in possession of the Department called for by a
+resolution of the House requesting a copy of the report of the register
+of the land office in the eastern district of Louisiana, bearing date
+the 6th of January, 1821, together with all the information from the
+said register to the Treasury Department.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 4, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+1st March, 1823, requesting information of the number and position of
+the permanent fortifications which have been and are now erecting for
+the defense of the coasts, harbors, and frontiers of the United States,
+with the classification and magnitude of each, with the amount expended
+on each, showing the work done and to be done, the number of guns of
+every caliber for each fortification, the total cost of a complete
+armament for each, the force required to garrison each in time of peace
+and of war, I transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of War
+containing the information required by the resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 8, 1824_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+On the 3d March, 1819, James Miller was first commissioned as governor
+of the Territory of Arkansas for the term of three years from that date.
+
+Before the expiration of that time, and in the winter of 1821-22, a
+nomination of him for reappointment was intended, and believed by me
+to have been made to the Senate, and to have received the confirmation
+of that body.
+
+By some accident, the cause of which is unknown, it appears that this
+impression was erroneous, and in December, 1822, it was discovered that
+Mr. Miller had not then been recommissioned, though in the confidence
+that he had been he had continued to act in that capacity. He was then
+renominated to the Senate, with the additional proposal that his
+commission should take effect from 3d March, 1822, when his first
+commission had expired.
+
+The nomination was confirmed by the Senate so far as regarded the
+appointment, but without concurrence in the retrospective effect
+proposed to be given to the commission.
+
+His second commission, therefore, bears date on the 3d January, 1823,
+and the interposition of the Legislature becomes necessary to legalize
+his official acts in the interval between 3d March, 1822, and that time,
+a subject which I recommend to the consideration of Congress.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MARCH 17, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+17th of February last, requesting "information whether any measures had
+been taken for carrying into effect the resolution of Congress of June
+17, 1777, directing a monument to be erected to the memory of David
+Wooster, a brigadier-general in the Army of the United States, who fell
+in defending the liberties of America and bravely repelling an inroad
+of the British forces to Danbury, in Connecticut," I have caused the
+necessary inquiries to be made, and find by the report of the Register
+of the Treasury that no monument has been erected to the memory of that
+patriotic and gallant officer, nor has any money been paid to the
+executive of Connecticut on that account.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 25, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 25th of February, requesting information whether the title of the
+United Brethren for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen to certain
+sections of land in Ohio has been purchased for the United States, and,
+if so, to cause a copy of the contract and of the papers relating
+thereto to be laid before the House, I transmit herewith all the
+documents required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 25, 1824_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+Having seen with regret that occasional errors have been made in
+nominations to the Senate, sometimes by the omission of a letter in
+the name, proceeding from casualties in the Departments and in my own
+office, it would be satisfactory to me if an arrangement could be made
+whereby such errors might be corrected without the formality of a
+special message. Where there is an accord as to the person there seems
+to be no reason for resorting to a renomination for the correction of
+such trivial errors. Any mode which the Senate may adopt will be
+satisfactory to me.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MARCH 25, 1824.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Having stated to Congress on the 7th of December last that Daniel D.
+Tompkins, late governor of New York, was entitled to a larger sum than
+that reported in his favor by the accounting officers of the Government,
+and that in the execution of the law of the last session I had the
+subject still under consideration, I now communicate to you the result.
+
+On full consideration of the law by which this duty was enjoined on me
+and of the report of the committee on the basis of which the law was
+founded, I have thought that I was authorized to adopt the principles
+laid down in that report in deciding on the sum which should be allowed
+to him for his services. With this view and on a comparison of his
+services with those which were rendered by other disbursing officers,
+taking into consideration also his aid in obtaining loans, I had decided
+to allow him 5 per cent for all sums borrowed and disbursed by him, and
+of which decision I informed him. Mr. Tompkins has since stated to me
+that this allowance will not indemnify him for his advances, loans,
+expenditures, and losses in rendering those services, nor place him
+on the footing of those who loaned money to the Government at that
+interesting period. He has also expressed a desire that I would submit
+the subject to the final decision of Congress, which I now do. In
+adopting this measure I think proper to add that I concur fully in the
+sentiments expressed by the committee in favor of the very patriotic and
+valuable services which were rendered by Mr. Tompkins in the late war.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MARCH 28, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit a report of the Secretary of War, together with a
+report from the Commissioner of the General Land Office, accompanied
+by the necessary documents, communicating the information heretofore
+requested by a resolution of the House in relation to the salt springs,
+lead and copper mines, together with the probable value of each of them
+and of the reservations attached to each, the extent to which they have
+been worked, the advantages and proximity of each to navigable waters,
+and the origin, nature, and extent of any claim made to them by
+individuals or companies, which reports contain all the information
+at present possessed on the subjects of the said resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MARCH 30, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+14th instant, requesting information whether an advance of compensation
+had been made to any of the commissioners who had been appointed for
+the examination of titles and claims to land in Florida, and by what
+authority such advance, if any, had been made, I transmit a report of
+the Secretary of State, which contains the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _March 30, 1824_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to Congress certain papers enumerated in a report from the
+Secretary of War, relating to the compact between the United States and
+the State of Georgia entered into in 1802, whereby the latter ceded to
+the former a portion of the territory then within its limits on the
+conditions therein specified. By the fourth article of that compact
+it was stipulated that the United States should at their own expense
+extinguish for the use of Georgia the Indian title to all the lands
+within the State as soon as it might be done _peaceably_ and on
+_reasonable_ conditions. These papers show the measures adopted by the
+Executive of the United States in fulfillment of the several conditions
+of the compact from its date to the present time, and particularly the
+negotiations and treaties with the Indian tribes for the extinguishment
+of their title, with an estimate of the number of acres purchased and
+sums paid for lands they acquired. They show also the state in which
+this interesting concern now rests with the Cherokees, one of the tribes
+within the State, and the inability of the Executive to make any further
+movement with this tribe without the special sanction of Congress.
+
+I have full confidence that my predecessors exerted their best endeavors
+to execute this compact in all its parts, of which, indeed, the sums
+paid and the lands acquired during their respective terms in fulfillment
+of its several stipulations are a full proof. I have also been animated
+since I came into this office with the same zeal, from an anxious
+desire to meet the wishes of the State, and in the hope that by the
+establishment of these tribes beyond the Mississippi their improvement
+in civilization, their security and happiness would be promoted. By the
+paper bearing date on the 30th of January last, which was communicated
+to the chiefs of the Cherokee Nation in this city, who came to protest
+against any further appropriations of money for holding treaties with
+them, the obligation imposed on the United States by the compact with
+Georgia to extinguish the Indian title to the right of soil within the
+State, and the incompatibility with our system of their existence as
+a distinct community within any State, were pressed with the utmost
+earnestness. It was proposed to them at the same time to procure and
+convey to them territory beyond the Mississippi in exchange for that
+which they hold within the limits of Georgia, or to pay them for it its
+value in money. To this proposal their answer, which bears date 11th of
+February following, gives an unqualified refusal. By this it is manifest
+that at the present time and in their present temper they can be removed
+only by force, to which, should it be deemed proper, the power of the
+Executive is incompetent.
+
+I have no hesitation, however, to declare it as my opinion that the
+Indian title was not affected in the slightest circumstance by the
+compact with Georgia, and that there is no obligation on the United
+States to remove the Indians by force. The express stipulation of the
+compact that their title should be extinguished at the expense of the
+United States when it may be done _peaceably_ and on _reasonable_
+conditions is a full proof that it was the clear and distinct
+understanding of both parties to it that the Indians had a right to
+the territory, in the disposal of which they were to be regarded as
+free agents. An attempt to remove them by force would, in my opinion,
+be unjust. In the future measures to be adopted in regard to the Indians
+within our limits, and, in consequence, within the limits of any State,
+the United States have duties to perform and a character to sustain
+to which they ought not to be indifferent. At an early period their
+improvement in the arts of civilized life was made an object with the
+Government, and that has since been persevered in. This policy was
+dictated by motives of humanity to the aborigines of the country, and
+under a firm conviction that the right to adopt and pursue it was
+equally applicable to all the tribes within our limits.
+
+My impression is equally strong that it would promote essentially the
+security and happiness of the tribes within our limits if they could be
+prevailed on to retire west and north of our States and Territories on
+lands to be procured for them by the United States, in exchange for
+those on which they now reside. Surrounded as they are, and pressed
+as they will be, on every side by the white population, it will be
+difficult if not impossible for them, with their kind of government, to
+sustain order among them. Their interior will be exposed to frequent
+disturbances, to remedy which the interposition of the United States
+will be indispensable, and thus their government will gradually lose its
+authority until it is annihilated. In this process the moral character
+of the tribes will also be lost, since the change will be too rapid to
+admit their improvement in civilization to enable them to institute and
+sustain a government founded on our principles, if such a change were
+compatible either with the compact with Georgia or with our general
+system, or to become members of a State, should any State be willing
+to adopt them in such numbers, regarding the good order, peace, and
+tranquillity of such State. But all these evils may be avoided if these
+tribes will consent to remove beyond the limits of our present States
+and Territories. Lands equally good, and perhaps more fertile, may be
+procured for them in those quarters. The relations between the United
+States and such Indians would still be the same.
+
+Considerations of humanity and benevolence, which have now great weight,
+would operate in that event with an augmented force, since we should
+feel sensibly the obligation imposed on us by the accommodation which
+they thereby afforded us. Placed at ease, as the United States would
+then be, the improvement of those tribes in civilization and in all
+the arts and usages of civilized life would become the part of a general
+system which might be adopted on great consideration, and in which every
+portion of our Union would then take an equal interest. These views have
+steadily been pursued by the Executive, and the moneys which have
+been placed at its disposal have been so applied in the manner best
+calculated, according to its judgment, to produce this desirable result,
+as will appear by the documents which accompany the report of the
+Secretary of War.
+
+I submit this subject to the consideration of Congress under a high
+sense of its importance and of the propriety of an early decision on it.
+This compact gives a claim to the State which ought to be executed in
+all its conditions with perfect good faith. In doing this, however, it
+is the duty of the United States to regard its strict import, and to
+make no sacrifice of their interest not called for by the compact nor
+contemplated by either of the parties when it was entered into, nor
+to commit any breach of right or of humanity in regard to the Indians
+repugnant to the judgment and revolting to the feelings of the whole
+American people. I submit the subject to your consideration, in full
+confidence that you will duly weigh the obligations of the compact with
+Georgia, its import in all its parts, and the extent to which the United
+States are bound to go under it. I submit it with equal confidence that
+you will also weigh the nature of the Indian title to the territory
+within the limits of any State, with the stipulations in the several
+treaties with this tribe respecting territory held by it within the
+State of Georgia, and decide whether any measure on the part of Congress
+is called for at the present time, and what such measure shall be if any
+is deemed expedient.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL 9, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit the report of the Secretary of War, with the
+accompanying documents, containing the information requested by a
+resolution of the House of the 10th ultimo, and which communicates
+the accounts of all the generals of the Army, likewise of the
+Inspector-General, the chiefs of the Engineer and Ordnance Corps, and
+Surgeon-General for the two years preceding the 30th of September last;
+also shewing the amount of money paid to each under the different heads
+of pay, fuel, straw, quarters, transportation, and all other extra and
+contingent allowances; which report, together with the statements
+herewith transmitted, furnishes all the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+The executive of Virginia having requested payment of the amount of
+interest paid by the State for moneys borrowed and paid by it for
+services rendered by the militia in the late war, and such claim not
+being allowable according to the uniform decisions of the accounting
+officers of the Government, I submit the subject to your consideration,
+with a report from the Secretary of War and all the documents connected
+with it.
+
+The following are the circumstances on which this claim is founded:
+From an early stage of the war the squadrons of the enemy entered
+occasionally the Chesapeake Bay, and, menacing its shores and those of
+the principal rivers emptying into it, subjected the neighboring militia
+to calls from the local authorities for the defense of the parts thus
+menaced. The pressure was most sensibly felt in 1814, after the attack
+on this city and its capture, when the invading force, retiring to its
+squadron, menaced alike Baltimore, Norfolk, and Richmond. The attack
+on this city had induced a call by the Department of War for large
+detachments of the militia of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia,
+which, being collected in this quarter, and the enemy bearing, in the
+first instance, on Baltimore, were ordered to its defense. As early
+as the 31st of August notice was given by the Secretary of War to the
+governor of Virginia of the position of the enemy and of the danger to
+which Richmond as well as Norfolk and Baltimore were exposed, and he was
+also authorized and enjoined to be on his guard, prepared at every point
+and in every circumstance to meet and repel the invaders. This notice
+was repeated several times afterwards, until the enemy left the bay and
+moved to the south.
+
+In the course of the war the State had augmented its taxes to meet the
+pressure, but the funds being still inadequate, it borrowed money to a
+considerable amount, which was applied to the payment of the militia for
+the services thus rendered. The calls which had been made, except for
+the brigades in this quarter and at Norfolk, being made by the State,
+the settlement with those corps and the payment for their services were
+made according to the rules and usage of the Department by the State
+and not by the United States. On the settlement by the State, after the
+peace, with the accounting officers of the Government the reimbursement
+of the interest which the State had paid on the sums thus borrowed and
+paid to the militia was claimed, but not allowed for the reason above
+stated. It is this claim which I now submit to the consideration of
+Congress.
+
+It need scarcely be remarked that where a State advances money for the
+use of the General Government for a purpose authorized by it that the
+claim for the interest on the amount thus advanced, which has been paid
+by the State, is reasonable and just. The claim is the stronger under
+the circumstance which existed when those advances were made, it being
+at a period of great difficulty, when the United States were compelled
+to borrow very large sums for the prosecution of the war. Had the State
+not borrowed this money the militia, whose services have been recognized
+since by the nation, must have been disbanded and the State left without
+defense.
+
+The claim is, in my opinion, equally well founded where a State advances
+money which it has in its treasury, or which it raises by taxes, to meet
+the current demand.
+
+In submitting this claim to your consideration it is proper to observe
+that many other States have like claims with those of Virginia, and that
+all those similarly circumstanced should be placed on the same footing.
+
+I invite your attention to a principle which is deemed just, and with a
+view that the provision which may be made respecting it may be extended
+alike to all the States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+APRIL, 12, 1824.
+
+
+
+APRIL, 16, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+8th of April, requesting information whether the fifth section of the
+act of the 3d March, 1803, relating to a township of land lying within
+John Cleves Symmes's patent, had been executed, and, if not, what
+reasons had prevented it, I transmit a report from the Secretary of
+the Treasury, which affords the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL, 16, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the Secretary of
+War, containing the information requested by a resolution of the House
+dated 25th ultimo, shewing the reason why the engineers appointed to
+examine the most suitable site for a national armory on the Western
+waters have not made their report.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL, 16, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report from
+the Secretary of War, which contains the information requested by a
+resolution of the 8th instant, respecting the proposals that were made
+by certain Indians, therein described, of the Cherokee Nation for the
+cession of their lands to the United States.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 18, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+13th instant, requesting a detailed account of the disbursement of the
+sums appropriated by the acts of the 30th April, 1818, and of the 3d
+March, 1819, for making certain improvements in the grounds connected
+with the public offices and the President's house, I transmit a report
+from the Commissioner of the Public Buildings, which contains the
+information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL, 23, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In conformity with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+yesterday, I have received a copy of the proceedings of the committee to
+whom was referred a communication from Ninian Edwards, lately appointed
+a minister plenipotentiary to Mexico, in which it is decided that
+his attendance in this city for the purpose of being examined by the
+committee on matters contained in the said communication was requisite.
+As soon as I was apprised that such a communication had been made to the
+House, anticipating that the attendance of Mr. Edwards might be desired
+for the purpose stated, I thought it proper that he should be informed
+thereof, and instructed him not to proceed on his mission, but to await
+such call as might be made on him either by the House or its committee,
+and in consequence a letter was addressed to him to that effect by the
+Secretary of State.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL 27, 1824.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In conformity with the resolution of the Senate of the 19th instant,
+requesting information whether the Executive, through the agency of
+the War Department, borrowed any money during the late war, under the
+condition of applying the same to the defense of the State wherein the
+said loans were made, to what amount, and whether interest was paid by
+the United States for such loans, etc., I herewith transmit a report
+from the Secretary of War containing all the information in that
+Department in relation to the resolution.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL, 28, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+The House of Representatives having referred back the accounts and
+claims of Daniel D. Tompkins, late governor of New York, to be settled
+on the principles established by the report of the committee and the law
+founded on it in the last session I have reconsidered the subject, and
+now communicate the result.
+
+By the report of the committee, which it was understood was adopted by
+the House, it was decided that his accounts and claims should be settled
+on the four following principles:
+
+First. That interest should be allowed him on all moneys advanced by
+him for the public from the time of the advance to that of his being
+reimbursed.
+
+Second. That a reasonable commission should be allowed him on all moneys
+disbursed by him during the late war.
+
+Third. That an indemnity should be allowed for all losses which he had
+sustained by the failure of the Government to fulfill its engagements
+to send him money or Treasury notes within the time specified to be
+deposited in certain banks as collateral security for loans procured
+by him at the request and on account of the Government.
+
+Fourth. That he should not be held responsible for losses incurred by
+the frauds and failures of subagents to whom moneys were advanced
+through his hands.
+
+On the first, that of interest on his advances for the public, I have
+allowed him $14,438.68. This allowance is made on advances admitted by
+the accounting department, and on the declaration of Mr. Tompkins that
+the remittances made to him, after his advances and previous to the
+24th of December, 1814, when a very large sum was remitted to him, were
+applied to public purposes and not to the reimbursement of his advances.
+
+On the second head, that of a reasonable commission for his
+disbursements during the late war, I have allowed him 5 per cent on
+the whole sum disbursed by him, amounting to $92,213.13. I have made
+him this extra allowance in consideration of the aid which he afforded
+to the Government at that important epoch in obtaining the loan of a
+considerable part of the sums thus disbursed.
+
+On the third head, that of an indemnity for losses sustained by him in
+consequence of the failure of the Government to fulfill its engagements
+to send him money or Treasury notes within the time specified, I have
+allowed him $4,411.25, being the amount of the loss sustained on the
+sale of Treasury notes, for which he was responsible.
+
+On the fourth head, that of losses sustained by him by any frauds or
+failures of subagents, none such having been shewn no allowance whatever
+has been made to him.
+
+From the amount thus allowed to Mr. Tompkins after deducting the sum
+paid him under the act of the present session and the moneys charged
+to his account there will remain a balance due him of $60,238.46, as
+appears by the sketch herewith communicated.
+
+In making a final decision on Mr. Tompkins's claims a question arises,
+Shall interest be allowed him on the amount of the commission on his
+disbursements? The law of the last session grants to the President
+a power to allow interest on moneys advanced by him to the public,
+but does not authorize it on the commission to be allowed on his
+disbursements. To make such allowance belongs exclusively to Congress.
+Had his claims been settled at the end of the last war on the principles
+established by the law of the last session a commission on disbursements
+would then have been allowed him. This consideration operates with great
+force in favor of the allowance of interest on that commission at this
+time, which I recommend to Congress.
+
+I think proper to add that the official relation which I bore to
+Governor Tompkins at that very interesting epoch, under the highly
+distinguished and meritorious citizen under whom we both served,
+enabling me to feel very sensibly the value of his services, excites a
+strong interest in his favor, which I deem it not improper to express.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _April 30, 1824_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate, for their constitutional advice with regard
+to its ratification, a convention for the suppression of the African
+slave trade, signed at London on the 13th ultimo by the minister of the
+United States residing there on their part, with the plenipotentiaries
+of the British Government on the part of that nation, together with
+the correspondence relating thereto, a part of which is included in a
+communication made to the House of Representatives on the 19th ultimo,
+a printed copy of which is among the documents herewith sent.
+
+Motives of accommodation to the wishes of the British Government
+render it desirable that the Senate should act definitively upon
+this convention as speedily as may be found convenient.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+APRIL 30, 1824.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to the Senate a treaty entered into with the Cherokee
+Nation as early as 1804, but which, owing to causes not now understood,
+has never been carried into effect. Of the authenticity of the
+transaction a report from the Secretary of War, with the documents
+accompanying it, furnishes the most unquestionable proof. I submit it
+to the Senate for its advice and consent as to the ratification.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 7, 1824_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I communicate herewith to the Senate a report from the Secretary
+of State, with the documents relating to the present state of the
+commercial intercourse between the United States and Portugal,
+requested by the resolution of the Senate of the 13th ultimo.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MAY 11, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report of
+the Secretary of War, containing the information called for by the
+resolution of the 10th of March, requesting the names of all the
+officers of the Army who have been brevetted, stating their lineal rank
+and brevet rank, when brevetted, and the amount of money paid to each
+and when paid, which report, with the accompanying documents, contains
+the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MAY 13, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 15th of April, requesting the President to cause to be communicated
+to the House a statement of the supplies which have been sent from the
+United States to any ports of South America for the use of our squadron
+in the Pacific Ocean, of the amount paid for such supplies, with the
+names of the owners of the vessels, and other details therein specified,
+I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of the Navy, which, with
+the documents accompanying it, furnishes the information desired.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MAY 14, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the
+Secretary of the Navy, together with the proceedings of a court-martial
+lately held at Norfolk for the trial of Lieutenant Beverly Kennon, as
+requested by a resolution of the House bearing date the 25th of April,
+1824.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 18, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate to the House a report, with accompanying documents,
+received from Alexander Hamilton, one of the commissioners of land
+titles in East Florida, deeming the statements therein contained to be
+worthy of the particular attention of the House, and of a nature which
+may, perhaps, require their interposition or that of both branches of
+the Legislature.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _May 21, 1824_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+Apprehending from the delay in the decision that some difficulty exists
+with the Senate respecting the ratification of the convention lately
+concluded with the British Government for the suppression of the slave
+trade by making it piratical, I deem it proper to communicate for your
+consideration such views as appear to me to merit attention. Charged
+as the Executive is, and as I have long been, with maintaining the
+political relations between the United States and other nations, I
+consider it my duty, in submitting for your advice and consent as to
+the ratification any treaty or convention which has been agreed on
+with another power, to explain, when the occasion requires it, all
+the reasons which induced the measure. It is by such full and frank
+explanation only that the Senate can be enabled to discharge the high
+trust reposed in them with advantage to their country. Having the
+instrument before them, with the views which guided the Executive in
+forming it, the Senate will possess all the light necessary to a sound
+decision.
+
+By an act of Congress of 15th May, 1820, the slave trade, as described
+by that act, was made piratical, and all such of our citizens as might
+be found engaged in that trade were subjected, on conviction thereof
+by the circuit courts of the United States, to capital punishment. To
+communicate more distinctly the import of that act, I refer to its
+fourth and fifth sections, which are in the following words:
+
+  SEC. 4. _And be it further enacted_, That if any citizen of the United
+  States, being of the crew or ship's company of any foreign ship or
+  vessel engaged in the slave trade, or any person whatever, being of the
+  crew or ship's company of any ship or vessel owned in the whole or part
+  or navigated for or in behalf of any citizen or citizens of the United
+  States, shall land from any such ship or vessel, and on any foreign
+  shore seize any Negro or Mulatto not held to service or labor by the
+  laws of either of the States or Territories of the United States, with
+  intent to make such Negro or Mulatto a slave, or shall decoy or forcibly
+  bring or carry, or shall receive, such Negro or Mulatto on board any
+  such ship or vessel, with intent as aforesaid, such citizen or person
+  shall be adjudged a pirate, and on conviction thereof before the circuit
+  court of the United States for the district wherein he may be brought or
+  found shall suffer death.
+
+  SEC. 5. _And be it further enacted_, That if any citizen of the United
+  States, being of the crew or ship's company of any foreign ship or
+  vessel engaged in the slave trade, or any person whatever, being of the
+  crew or ship's company of any ship or vessel owned wholly or in part, or
+  navigated for or in behalf of, any citizen or citizens of the United
+  States, shall forcibly confine or detain, or aid and abet in forcibly
+  confining or detaining, on board such ship or vessel any Negro or
+  Mulatto not held to service by the laws of either of the States or
+  Territories of the United States, with intent to make such Negro or
+  Mulatto a slave, or shall on board any such ship or vessel offer or
+  attempt to sell as a slave any Negro or Mulatto not held to service as
+  aforesaid, or shall on the high seas or anywhere on tide water transfer
+  or deliver over to any other ship or vessel any Negro or Mulatto not
+  held to service as aforesaid, with intent to make such Negro or mulatto
+  a slave, or shall land or deliver on shore from on board any such ship
+  or vessel any such Negro or mulatto, with intent to make sale of, or
+  having previously sold such Negro or Mulatto as a slave, such citizen or
+  person shall be adjudged a pirate, and on conviction thereof before the
+  circuit court of the United States for the district wherein he may be
+  brought or found shall suffer death.
+
+And on the 28th February, 1823, the House of Representatives, by a
+majority of 131 to 9, passed a resolution to the following effect:
+
+  _Resolved_, That the President of the United States be requested to
+  enter upon and prosecute from time to time such negotiations with the
+  several maritime powers of Europe and America as he may deem expedient
+  for the effectual abolition of the African slave trade and its ultimate
+  denunciation as piracy under the law of nations, by the consent of the
+  civilized world.
+
+By the act of Congress above referred to, whereby the most effectual
+means that could be devised were adopted for the extirpation of the
+slave trade, the wish of the United States was explicitly declared, that
+all nations might concur in a similar policy. It could only be by such
+concurrence that the great object could be accomplished, and it was by
+negotiation and treaty alone that such concurrence could be obtained,
+commencing with one power and extending it to others. The course,
+therefore, which the Executive, who had concurred in the act, had to
+pursue was distinctly marked out for it. Had there, however, been any
+doubt respecting it, the resolution of the House of Representatives,
+the branch which might with strict propriety express its opinion, could
+not fail to have removed it.
+
+By the tenth article of the treaty of peace between the United States
+and Great Britain, concluded at Ghent, it was stipulated that both
+parties should use their best endeavors to accomplish the abolition
+of the African slave trade. This object has been accordingly pursued
+by both Governments with great earnestness, by separate acts of
+legislation, and by negotiation almost uninterrupted, with the purpose
+of establishing a conceit between them in some measure which might
+secure its accomplishment.
+
+Great Britain in her negotiations with other powers had concluded
+treaties with Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands, in which, without
+constituting the crime as piracy or classing it with crimes of that
+denomination, the parties had conceded to the naval officers of each
+other the right of search and capture of the vessels of either that
+might be engaged in the slave trade, and had instituted courts
+consisting of judges, subjects of both parties, for the trial of the
+vessels so captured.
+
+In the negotiations with the United States Great Britain had earnestly
+and repeatedly pressed on them the adoption of similar provisions.
+They had been resisted by the Executive on two grounds: One, that
+the constitution of mixed tribunals was incompatible with their
+Constitution; and the other, that the concession of the right of search
+in time of peace for an offense not piratical would be repugnant to the
+feelings of the nation and of dangerous tendency. The right of search is
+the right of war of the belligerent toward the neutral. To extend it in
+time of peace to any object whatever might establish a precedent which
+might lead to others with some powers, and which, even if confined to
+the instance specified, might be subject to great abuse.
+
+Animated by an ardent desire to suppress this trade, the United States
+took stronger ground by making it, by the act above referred to,
+piratical, a measure more adequate to the end and free from many of
+the objections applicable to the plan which had been proposed to them.
+It is this alternative which the Executive, under the sanction and
+injunctions above stated, offered to the British Government, and which
+that Government has accepted. By making the crime piracy the right of
+search attaches to the crime, and which when adopted by all nations will
+be common to all; and that it will be so adopted may fairly be presumed
+if steadily persevered in by the parties to the present convention. In
+the meantime, and with a view to a fair experiment, the obvious course
+seems to be to carry into effect with every power such treaty as may be
+made with each in succession.
+
+In presenting this alternative to the British Government it was made
+an indispensable condition that the trade should be made piratical
+by act of Parliament, as it had been by an act of Congress. This was
+provided for in the convention, and has since been complied with. In
+this respect, therefore, the nations rest on the same ground. Suitable
+provisions have also been adopted to protect each party from the abuse
+of the power granted to the public ships of the other. Instead of
+subjecting the persons detected in the slave trade to trial by the
+courts of the captors, as would be the case if such trade was piracy by
+the laws of nations, it is stipulated that until that event they shall
+be tried by the courts of their own country only. Hence there could be
+no motive for an abuse of the right of search, since such abuse could
+not fail to terminate to the injury of the captor.
+
+Should this convention be adopted, there is every reason to believe
+that it will be the commencement of a system destined to accomplish the
+entire abolition of the slave trade. Great Britain, by making it her
+own, confessedly adopted at the suggestion of the United States, and
+being pledged to propose and urge its adoption by other nations in
+concert with the United States, will find it for her interest to abandon
+the less-effective system of her previous treaties with Spain, Portugal,
+and the Netherlands, and to urge on those and other powers their
+accession to this. The crime will then be universally proscribed as
+piracy, and the traffic be suppressed forever.
+
+Other considerations of high importance urge the adoption of this
+convention. We have at this moment pending with Great Britain sundry
+other negotiations intimately connected with the welfare and even the
+peace of our Union. In one of them nearly a third part of the territory
+of the State of Maine is in contestation. In another the navigation of
+the St. Lawrence, the admission of consuls into the British islands, and
+a system of commercial intercourse between the United States and all the
+British possessions in this hemisphere are subjects of discussion. In a
+third our territorial and other rights upon the northwest coast are to
+be adjusted, while a negotiation on the same interest is opened with
+Russia. In a fourth all the most important controvertible points of
+maritime law in time of war are brought under consideration, and in
+the fifth the whole system of South American concerns, connected with
+a general recognition of South American independence, may again from
+hour to hour become, as it has already been, an object of concerted
+operations of the highest interest to both nations and to the peace
+of the world.
+
+It can not be disguised that the rejection of this convention can not
+fail to have a very injurious influence on the good understanding
+between the two Governments on all these points. That it would place
+the Executive Administration under embarrassment, and subject it, the
+Congress, and the nation to the charge of insincerity respecting the
+great result of the final suppression of the slave trade, and that
+its first and indispensable consequence will be to constrain the
+Executive to suspend all further negotiation with every European and
+American power to which overtures have been made in compliance with the
+resolution of the House of Representatives of 28th February, 1823, must
+be obvious. To invite all nations, with the statute of piracy in our
+hands, to adopt its principles as the law of nations and yet to deny
+to all the common right of search for the pirate, whom it would be
+impossible to detect without entering and searching the vessel, would
+expose us not simply to the charge of inconsistency.
+
+It must be obvious that the restriction of search for pirates to the
+African coast is incompatible with the idea of such a crime. It is
+not doubted also if the convention is adopted that no example of the
+commission of that crime by the citizens or subjects of either power
+will ever occur again. It is believed, therefore, that this right as
+applicable to piracy would not only extirpate the trade, but prove
+altogether innocent in its operation.
+
+In further illustration of the views of Congress on this subject, I
+transmit to the Senate extracts from two resolutions of the House of
+Representatives, one of the 9th February, 1821, the other of 12th April,
+1822. I transmit also a letter from the charge d'affaires of the British
+Government, which shows the deep interest which that Government takes
+in the ratification of the treaty.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON CITY, _May 22, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the Secretary of
+the Navy, in compliance with their resolution of the 14th of April last,
+respecting prize agents, which report contains the information
+requested.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MAY 24, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+13th instant, requesting the President to communicate any information
+he may possess in relation to the intercourse and trade now carried on
+between the people of the United States (and particularly the people
+of the State of Missouri) and the Mexican Provinces, how and by what
+route that trade or intercourse is carried on, in what it consists, the
+distances, etc., the nations of Indians through which it passes, their
+dispositions, whether pacific or otherwise, the advantages resulting or
+likely to result from that trade or intercourse, I herewith transmit
+a communication from the Department of State, which contains all the
+information which has yet been collected in relation to those subjects.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+MAY 24, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the 20th instant, I transmit
+herewith to the House of Representatives a report of David Shriver,
+superintendent of the Cumberland road, stating the manner in which the
+appropriation made at the last session for the repair of that road has
+been expended, and also the present condition of the road.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1824_.
+
+_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
+
+The view which I have now to present to you of our affairs, foreign and
+domestic, realizes the most sanguine anticipations which have been
+entertained of the public prosperity. If we look to the whole, our
+growth as a nation continues to be rapid beyond example; if to the
+States which compose it, the same gratifying spectacle is exhibited.
+Our expansion over the vast territory within our limits has been
+great, without indicating any decline in those sections from which the
+emigration has been most conspicuous. We have daily gained strength by
+a native population in every quarter--a population devoted to our happy
+system of government and cherishing the bond of union with fraternal
+affection. Experience has already shewn that the difference of climate
+and of industry, proceeding from that cause, inseparable from such vast
+domains, and which under other systems might have a repulsive tendency,
+can not fail to produce with us under wise regulations the opposite
+effect. What one portion wants the other may supply; and this will be
+most sensibly felt by the parts most distant from each other, forming
+thereby a domestic market and an active intercourse between the extremes
+and throughout every portion of our Union. Thus by a happy distribution
+of power between the National and State Governments, Governments which
+rest exclusively on the sovereignty of the people and are fully adequate
+to the great purposes for which they were respectively instituted,
+causes which might otherwise lead to dismemberment operate powerfully
+to draw us closer together. In every other circumstance a correct view
+of the actual state of our Union must be equally gratifying to our
+constituents. Our relations with foreign powers are of a friendly
+character, although certain interesting differences remain unsettled
+with some. Our revenue under the mild system of impost and tonnage
+continues to be adequate to all the purposes of the Government Our
+agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and navigation flourish. Our
+fortifications are advancing in the degree authorized by existing
+appropriations to maturity, and due progress is made in the augmentation
+of the Navy to the limit prescribed for it by law. For these blessings
+we owe to Almighty God, from whom we derive them, and with profound
+reverence, our most grateful and unceasing acknowledgments.
+
+In adverting to our relations with foreign powers, which are always
+an object of the highest importance, I have to remark that of the
+subjects which have been brought into discussion with them during the
+present Administration some have been satisfactorily terminated, others
+have been suspended, to be resumed hereafter under circumstances more
+favorable to success, and others are still in negotiation, with the hope
+that they may be adjusted with mutual accommodation to the interests
+and to the satisfaction of the respective parties. It has been the
+invariable object of this Government to cherish the most friendly
+relations with every power, and on principles and conditions which might
+make them permanent. A systematic effort has been made to place our
+commerce with each power on a footing of perfect reciprocity, to settle
+with each in a spirit of candor and liberality all existing differences,
+and to anticipate and remove so far as it might be practicable all
+causes of future variance.
+
+It having been stipulated by the seventh article of the convention of
+navigation and commerce which was concluded on the 24th of June, 1822,
+between the United States and France, that the said convention should
+continue in force for two years from the 1st of October of that year,
+and for an indefinite term afterwards, unless one of the parties should
+declare its intention to renounce it, in which event it should cease
+to operate at the end of six months from such declaration, and no
+such intention having been announced, the convention having been
+found advantageous to both parties, it has since remained, and still
+remains, in force. At the time when that convention was concluded many
+interesting subjects were left unsettled, and particularly our claim to
+indemnity for spoliations which were committed on our commerce in the
+late wars. For these interests and claims it was in the contemplation
+of the parties to make provision at a subsequent day by a more
+comprehensive and definitive treaty. The object has been duly attended
+to since by the Executive, but as yet it has not been accomplished. It
+is hoped that a favorable opportunity will present itself for opening
+a negotiation which may embrace and arrange all existing differences
+and every other concern in which they have a common interest upon the
+accession of the present King of France, an event which has occurred
+since the close of the last session of Congress.
+
+With Great Britain our commercial intercourse rests on the same footing
+that it did at the last session. By the convention of 1815 the commerce
+between the United States and the British dominions in Europe and the
+East Indies was arranged on a principle of reciprocity. That convention
+was confirmed and continued in force, with slight exceptions, by a
+subsequent treaty for the term of ten years from the 20th of October,
+1818, the date of the latter. The trade with the British colonies in the
+West Indies has not as yet been arranged, by treaty or otherwise, to our
+satisfaction. An approach to that result has been made by legislative
+acts, whereby many serious impediments which had been raised by the
+parties in defense of their respective claims were removed. An earnest
+desire exists, and has been manifested on the part of this Government,
+to place the commerce with the colonies, likewise, on a footing of
+reciprocal advantage, and it is hoped that the British Government,
+seeing the justice of the proposal and its importance to the colonies,
+will ere long accede to it.
+
+The commissioners who were appointed for the adjustment of the boundary
+between the territories of the United States and those of Great Britain,
+specified in the fifth article of the treaty of Ghent, having disagreed
+in their decision, and both Governments having agreed to establish that
+boundary by amicable negotiation between them, it is hoped that it may
+be satisfactorily adjusted in that mode. The boundary specified by the
+sixth article has been established by the decision of the commissioners.
+From the progress made in that provided for by the seventh, according to
+a report recently received, there is good cause to presume that it will
+be settled in the course of the ensuing year.
+
+It is a cause of serious regret that no arrangement has yet been finally
+concluded between the two Governments to secure by joint cooperation
+the suppression of the slave trade. It was the object of the British
+Government in the early stages of the negotiation to adopt a plan for
+the suppression which should include the concession of the mutual right
+of search by the ships of war of each party of the vessels of the other
+for suspected offenders. This was objected to by this Government on
+the principle that as the right of search was a right of war of a
+belligerent toward a neutral power it might have an ill effect to extend
+it by treaty, to an offense which had been made comparatively mild, to
+a time of peace. Anxious however, for the suppression of this trade,
+it was thought advisable, in compliance with a resolution of the House
+of Representatives, founded on an act of Congress, to propose to the
+British Government an expedient which should be free from that objection
+and more effectual for the object, by making it piratical. In that
+mode the enormity of tho crime would place the offenders out of the
+protection of their Government, and involve no question of search or
+other question between the parties touching their respective rights.
+It was believed, also, that it would completely suppress the trade
+in the vessels of both parties, and by their respective citizens and
+subjects in those of other powers, with whom it was hoped that the odium
+which would thereby be attached to it would produce a corresponding
+arrangement, and by means thereof its entire extirpation forever. A
+convention to this effect was concluded and signed in London on the
+13th day of March, 1824, by plenipotentiaries duly authorized by both
+Governments, to the ratification of which certain obstacles have arisen
+which are not yet entirely removed. The difference between the parties
+still remaining has been reduced to a point not of sufficient magnitude,
+as is presumed, to be permitted to defeat an object so near to the heart
+of both nations and so desirable to the friends of humanity throughout
+the world. As objections, however, to the principle recommended by the
+House of Representatives, or at least to the consequences inseparable
+from it, and which are understood to apply to the law, have been raised,
+which may deserve a reconsideration of the whole subject, I have thought
+it proper to suspend the conclusion of a new convention until the
+definitive sentiments of Congress may be ascertained. These documents
+relating to the negotiation are with that intent submitted to your
+consideration.
+
+Our commerce with Sweden has been placed on a footing of perfect
+reciprocity by treaty, and with Russia, the Netherlands, Prussia,
+the free Hanseatic cities, the Dukedom of Oldenburg, and Sardinia by
+internal regulations on each side, founded on mutual agreement between
+the respective Governments.
+
+The principles upon which the commercial policy of the United States
+is founded are to be traced to an early period. They are essentially
+connected with those upon which their independence was declared, and
+owe their origin to the enlightened men who took the lead in our
+affairs at that important epoch. They are developed in their first
+treaty of commerce with France of 6th February, 1778, and by a formal
+commission which was instituted immediately after the conclusion of
+their Revolutionary struggle, for the purpose of negotiating treaties
+of commerce with every European power. The first treaty of the United
+States with Prussia, which was negotiated by that commission, affords
+a signal illustration of those principles. The act of Congress of the
+3d March. 1815. adopted immediately after the return of a general peace,
+was a new overture to foreign nations to establish our commercial
+relations with them on the basis of free and equal reciprocity. That
+principle has pervaded all the acts of Congress and all the negotiations
+of the Executive on the subject since.
+
+A convention for the settlement of important questions in relation
+to the northwest coast of this continent and its adjoining seas was
+concluded and signed at St. Petersburg on the 5th day of April last by
+the minister plenipotentiary of the United States and plenipotentiaries
+of the Imperial Government of Russia. It will immediately be laid before
+the Senate for the exercise of the constitutional authority of that body
+with reference to its ratification. It is proper to add that the manner
+in which this negotiation was invited and conducted on the part of the
+Emperor has been very satisfactory.
+
+The great and extraordinary changes which have happened in the
+Governments of Spain and Portugal within the last two years, without
+seriously affecting the friendly relations which under all of them
+have been maintained with those powers by the United States, have been
+obstacles to the adjustment of the particular subjects of discussion
+which have arisen with each. A resolution of the Senate adopted at their
+last session called for information as to the effect produced upon our
+relations with Spain by the recognition on the part of the United States
+of the independent South American Governments. The papers containing
+that information are now communicated to Congress.
+
+A charge d'affaires has been received from the independent Government of
+Brazil. That country, heretofore a colonial possession of Portugal, had
+some years since been proclaimed by the Sovereign of Portugal himself an
+independent Kingdom. Since his return to Lisbon a revolution in Brazil
+has established a new Government there with an imperial title, at the
+head of which is placed a prince, in whom the regency had been vested by
+the King at the time of his departure. There is reason to expect that by
+amicable negotiation the independence of Brazil will ere long be
+recognized by Portugal herself.
+
+With the remaining powers of Europe, with those on the coast of Barbary,
+and with all the new South American States our relations are of a
+friendly character. We have ministers plenipotentiary residing with the
+Republics of Colombia and Chile, and have received ministers of the same
+rank from Colombia, Guatemala, Buenos Ayres, and Mexico. Our commercial
+relations with all those States are mutually beneficial and increasing.
+With the Republic of Colombia a treaty of commerce has been formed, of
+which a copy is received and the original daily expected. A negotiation
+for a like treaty would have been commenced with Buenos Ayres had it not
+been prevented by the indisposition and lamented decease of Mr. Rodney,
+our minister there, and to whose memory the most respectful attention
+has been shewn by the Government of that Republic. An advantageous
+alteration in our treaty with Tunis has been obtained by our consular
+agent residing there, the official document of which when received will
+be laid before the Senate.
+
+The attention of the Government has been drawn with great solicitude
+to other subjects, and particularly to that relating to a state of
+maritime war, involving the relative rights of neutral and belligerent
+in such wars. Most of the difficulties which we have experienced and of
+the losses which we have sustained since the establishment of our
+independence have proceeded from the unsettled state of those rights and
+the extent to which the belligerent claim has been carried against the
+neutral party. It is impossible to look back on the occurrences of the
+late wars in Europe, and to behold the disregard which was paid to our
+rights as a neutral power, and the waste which was made of our commerce
+by the parties to those wars by various acts of their respective
+Governments, and under the pretext by each that the other had set the
+example, without great mortification and a fixed purpose never to submit
+to the like in future. An attempt to remove those causes of possible
+variance by friendly negotiation and on just principles which should
+be applicable to all parties could, it was presumed, be viewed by none
+other than as a proof of an earnest desire to preserve those relations
+with every power. In the late war between France and Spain a crisis
+occurred in which it seemed probable that all the controvertible
+principles involved in such wars might be brought into discussion and
+settled to the satisfaction of all parties. Propositions having this
+object in view have been made to the Governments of Great Britain,
+France, Russia, and of other powers, which have been received in a
+friendly manner by all, but as yet no treaty has been formed with either
+for its accomplishment. The policy will, it is presumed, be persevered
+in, and in the hope that it may be successful.
+
+It will always be recollected that with one of the parties to those
+wars, and from whom we received those injuries, we sought redress by
+war. From the other, by whose then reigning Government our vessels
+were seized in port as well as at sea and their cargoes confiscated,
+indemnity has been expected, but has not yet been tendered. It was under
+the influence of the latter that our vessels were likewise seized by
+the Governments of Spain, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and Naples, and
+from whom indemnity has been claimed and is still expected, with the
+exception of Spain, by whom it has been rendered. With both parties we
+had abundant cause of war, but we had no alternative but to resist that
+which was most powerful at sea and pressed us nearest at home. With this
+all differences were settled by a treaty, founded on conditions fair and
+honorable to both, and which has been so far executed with perfect good
+faith. It has been earnestly hoped that the other would of its own
+accord, and from a sentiment of justice and conciliation, make to our
+citizens the indemnity to which they are entitled, and thereby remove
+from our relations any just cause of discontent on our side.
+
+It is estimated that the receipts into the Treasury during the current
+year, exclusive of loans, will exceed $18,500,000, which, with the sum
+remaining in the Treasury at the end of the last year, amounting to
+$9.463,922.81, will, after discharging the current disbursements of the
+year, the interest on the public debt, and upward of $11,633,011.52 of
+the principal, leave a balance of more than $3,000,000 in the Treasury
+on the 1st day of January next.
+
+A larger amount of the debt contracted during the late war, bearing an
+interest of 6 per cent, becoming redeemable in the course of the ensuing
+year than could be discharged by the ordinary revenue, the act of the
+26th of May authorized a loan of $5,000,000 at 4-1/2 per cent to meet
+the same. By this arrangement an annual saving will accrue to the public
+of $75,000.
+
+Under the act of the 24th of May last a loan of $5,000,000 was
+authorized, in order to meet the awards under the Florida treaty,
+which was negotiated at par with the Bank of the United States at 4-1/2
+percent, the limit of interest fixed by the act. By this provision the
+claims of our citizens who had sustained so great a loss by spoliations,
+and from whom indemnity had been so long withheld, were promptly paid.
+For these advances the public will be amply repaid at no distant day by
+the sale of the lands in Florida. Of the great advantages resulting from
+the acquisition of the Territory in other respects too high an estimate
+can not be formed.
+
+It is estimated that the receipts into the Treasury during the year
+1825 will be sufficient to meet the disbursements of the year,
+including the sum of $10,000,000, which is annually appropriated by
+the act constituting the sinking fund to the payment of the principal
+and interest of the public debt.
+
+The whole amount of the public debt on the 1st of January next may be
+estimated at $86,000,000, inclusive of $2,500,000 of the loan authorized
+by the act of the 26th of May last. In this estimate is included a stock
+of $7,000,000, issued for the purchase of that amount of the capital
+stock of the Bank of the United States, and which, as the stock of the
+bank still held by the Government will at least be fully equal to its
+reimbursement, ought not to be considered as constituting a part of the
+public debt. Estimating, then, the whole amount of the public debt at
+$79,000,000 and regarding the annual receipts and expenditures of the
+Government, a well-founded hope may be entertained that, should no
+unexpected event occur, the whole of the public debt may be discharged
+in the course of ten years, and the Government be left at liberty
+thereafter to apply such portion of the revenue as may not be necessary
+for current expenses to such other objects as may be most conducive
+to the public security and welfare. That the sums applicable to these
+objects will be very considerable may be fairly concluded when it is
+recollected that a large amount of the public revenue has been applied
+since the late war to the construction of the public buildings in this
+city; to the erection of fortifications along the coast and of arsenals
+in different parts of the Union; to the augmentation of the Navy; to the
+extinguishment of the Indian title to large tracts of fertile territory;
+to the acquisition of Florida; to pensions to Revolutionary officers and
+soldiers, and to invalids of the late war. On many of these objects the
+expense will annually be diminished and cease at no distant period on
+most of them. On the 1st of January, 1817, the public debt amounted
+to $123,491,965.16, and, notwithstanding the large sums which have
+been applied to these objects, it has been reduced since that period
+$37,446,961.78. The last portion of the public debt will be redeemable
+on the 1st of January, 1835, and while there is the best reason to
+believe that the resources of the Government will be continually
+adequate to such portions of it as may become due in the interval, it
+is recommended to Congress to seize every opportunity which may present
+itself to reduce the rate of interest on every part thereof. The high
+state of the public credit and the great abundance of money are at this
+time very favorable to such a result. It must be very gratifying to our
+fellow-citizens to witness this flourishing state of the public finances
+when it is recollected that no burthen whatever has been imposed upon
+them.
+
+The military establishment in all its branches, in the performance of
+the various duties assigned to each, justifies the favorable view which
+was presented of the efficiency of its organization at the last session.
+All the appropriations have been regularly applied to the objects
+intended by Congress, and so far as the disbursements have been made the
+accounts have been rendered and settled without loss to the public.
+The condition of the Army itself, as relates to the officers and men,
+in science and discipline is highly respectable. The Military Academy,
+on which the Army essentially rests, and to which it is much indebted
+for this state of improvement, has attained, in comparison with any
+other institution of a like kind, a high degree of perfection.
+Experience, however, has shewn that the dispersed condition of the corps
+of artillery is unfavorable to the discipline of that important branch
+of the military establishment. To remedy this inconvenience, eleven
+companies have been assembled at the fortification erected at Old Point
+Comfort as a school for artillery instruction, with intention as they
+shall be perfected in the various duties of that service to order them
+to other posts, and to supply their places with other companies for
+instruction in like manner. In this mode a complete knowledge of the
+science and duties of this arm will be extended throughout the whole
+corps of artillery.-But to carry this object fully into effect will
+require the aid of Congress, to obtain which the subject is now
+submitted to your consideration.
+
+Of the progress which has been made in the construction of
+fortifications for the permanent defense of our maritime frontier,
+according to the plan decided on and to the extent of the existing
+appropriations, the report of the Secretary of War, which is herewith
+communicated, will give a detailed account. Their final completion can
+not fail to give great additional security to that frontier, and to
+diminish proportionably the expense of defending it in the event of war.
+
+The provisions in the several acts of Congress of the last session for
+the improvement of the navigation of the Mississippi and the Ohio, of
+the harbor of Presqu'isle, on Lake Erie, and the repair of the Plymouth
+beach are in a course of regular execution; and there is reason to
+believe that the appropriation in each instance will be adequate
+to the object. To carry these improvements fully into effect, the
+superintendence of them has been assigned to officers of the Corps
+of Engineers.
+
+Under the act of 30th April last, authorizing the President to cause a
+survey to be made, with the necessary plans and estimates, of such roads
+and canals as he might deem of national importance in a commercial or
+military point of view, or for the transportation of the mail, a board
+has been instituted, consisting of two distinguished officers of the
+Corps of Engineers and a distinguished civil engineer, with assistants,
+who have been actively employed in carrying into effect the object of
+the act. They have carefully examined the route between the Potomac and
+the Ohio rivers; between the latter and Lake Erie; between the Alleghany
+and the Susquehannah; and the routes between the Delaware and the
+Raritan, Barnstable and Buzzards Bay, and between Boston Harbor and
+Narraganset Bay. Such portion of the Corps of Topographical Engineers
+as could be spared from the survey of the coast has been employed in
+surveying the very important route between the Potomac and the Ohio.
+Considerable progress has been made in it, but the survey can not be
+completed until the next season. It is gratifying to add, from the view
+already taken, that there is good cause to believe that this great
+national object may be fully accomplished.
+
+It is contemplated to commence early in the next season the execution of
+the other branch of the act--that which relates to roads--and with the
+survey of a route from this city, through the Southern States, to New
+Orleans, the importance of which can not be too highly estimated. All
+the officers of both the corps of engineers who could be spared from
+other services have been employed in exploring and surveying the routes
+for canals. To digest a plan for both objects for the great purposes
+specified will require a thorough knowledge of every part of our Union
+and of the relation of each part to the others and of all to the seat of
+the General Government. For such a digest it will be necessary that the
+information be full, minute, and precise. With a view to these important
+objects, I submit to the consideration of the Congress the propriety of
+enlarging both the corps of engineers--the military and topographical.
+It need scarcely be remarked that the more extensively these corps are
+engaged in the improvement of their country, in the execution of the
+powers of Congress, and in aid of the States in such improvements as lie
+beyond that limit, when such aid is desired, the happier the effect will
+be in many views of which the subject is susceptible. By profiting of
+their science the works will always be well executed, and by giving to
+the officers such employment our Union will derive all the advantage, in
+peace as well as in war, from their talents and services which they can
+afford. In this mode, also, the military will be incorporated with the
+civil, and unfounded and injurious distinctions and prejudices of every
+kind be done away. To the corps themselves this service can not fail to
+be equally useful, since by the knowledge they would thus acquire they
+would be eminently better qualified in the event of war for the great
+purposes for which they were instituted.
+
+Our relations with the Indian tribes within our limits have not been
+materially changed during the year. The hostile disposition evinced by
+certain tribes on the Missouri during the last year still continues,
+and has extended in some degree to those on the Upper Mississippi and
+the Upper Lakes. Several parties of our citizens have been plundered
+and murdered by those tribes. In order to establish relations of
+friendship with them, Congress at the last session made an appropriation
+for treaties with them and for the employment of a suitable military
+escort to accompany and attend the commissioners at the places appointed
+for the negotiations. This object has not been effected. The season
+was too far advanced when the appropriation was made and the distance
+too great to permit it, but measures have been taken, and all the
+preparations will be completed to accomplish it at an early period
+in the next season.
+
+Believing that the hostility of the tribes, particularly on the Upper
+Mississippi and the Lakes, is in no small degree owing to the wars which
+are carried on between the tribes residing in that quarter, measures
+have been taken to bring about a general peace among them, which, if
+successful, will not only tend to the security of our citizens, but
+be of great advantage to the Indians themselves.
+
+With the exception of the tribes referred to, our relations with all
+the others are on the same friendly footing, and it affords me great
+satisfaction to add that they are making steady advances in civilization
+and the improvement of their condition. Many of the tribes have already
+made great progress in the arts of civilized life. This desirable result
+has been brought about by the humane and persevering policy of the
+Government, and particularly by means of the appropriation for the
+civilization of the Indians. There have been established under the
+provisions of this act 32 schools, containing 916 scholars, who are
+well instructed in several branches of literature, and likewise in
+agriculture and the ordinary arts of life.
+
+Under the appropriation to authorize treaties with the Creeks and
+Quaupaw Indians commissioners have been appointed and negotiations
+are now pending, but the result is not yet known.
+
+For more full information respecting the principle which has been
+adopted for carrying into effect the act of Congress authorizing
+surveys, with plans and estimates for canals and roads, and on every
+other branch of duty incident to the Department of War. I refer you
+to the report of the Secretary.
+
+The squadron in the Mediterranean has been maintained in the extent
+which was proposed in the report of the Secretary of the Navy of the
+last year, and has afforded to our commerce the necessary protection
+in that sea. Apprehending, however, that the unfriendly relations which
+have existed between Algiers and some of the powers of Europe might
+be extended to us, it has been thought expedient to augment the force
+there, and in consequence the _North Carolina_, a ship of the line,
+has been prepared, and will sail in a few days to join it.
+
+The force employed in the Gulf of Mexico and in the neighboring seas
+for the suppression of piracy has likewise been preserved essentially in
+the state in which it was during the last year. A persevering effort has
+been made for the accomplishment of that object, and much protection has
+thereby been afforded to our commerce, but still the practice is far
+from being suppressed. From every view which has been taken of the
+subject it is thought that it will be necessary rather to augment than
+to diminish our force in that quarter. There is reason to believe that
+the piracies now complained of are committed by bands of robbers who
+inhabit the land, and who, by preserving good intelligence with the
+towns and seizing favorable opportunities, rush forth and fall on
+unprotected merchant vessels, of which they make an easy prey. The
+pillage thus taken they carry to their lurking places, and dispose of
+afterwards at prices tending to seduce the neighboring population. This
+combination is understood to be of great extent, and is the more to be
+deprecated because the crime of piracy is often attended with the murder
+of the crews, these robbers knowing if any survived their lurking places
+would be exposed and they be caught and punished. That this atrocious
+practice should be carried to such extent is cause of equal surprise and
+regret. It is presumed that it must be attributed to the relaxed and
+feeble state of the local governments, since it is not doubted, from
+the high character of the governor of Cuba, who is well known and much
+respected here, that if he had the power he would promptly suppress
+it. Whether those robbers should be pursued on the land, the local
+authorities be made responsible for these atrocities, or any other
+measure be resorted to to suppress them, is submitted to the
+consideration of Congress.
+
+In execution of the laws for the suppression of the slave trade a vessel
+has been occasionally sent from that squadron to the coast of Africa
+with orders to return thence by the usual track of the slave ships, and
+to seize any of our vessels which might be engaged in that trade. None
+have been found, and it is believed that none are thus employed. It is
+well known, however, that the trade still exists under other flags.
+
+The health of our squadron while at Thompsons Island has been much
+better during the present than it was the last season. Some improvements
+have been made and others are contemplated there which, it is believed,
+will have a very salutary effect.
+
+On the Pacific our commerce has much increased, and on that coast, as
+well as on that seas the United States have many important interests
+which require attention and protection. It is thought that all the
+considerations which suggested the expediency of placing a squadron
+on that sea operate with augmented force for maintaining it there, at
+least in equal extent.
+
+For detailed information respecting the state of our maritime force
+on each sea, the improvement necessary to be made on either in the
+organization of the naval establishment generally, and of the laws for
+its better government I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the
+Navy, which is herewith communicated.
+
+The revenue of the Post-Office Department has received a considerable
+augmentation in the present year. The current receipts will exceed the
+expenditures, although the transportation of the mail within the year
+has been much increased. A report of the Postmaster-General, which is
+transmitted, will furnish in detail the necessary information respecting
+the administration and present state of this Department.
+
+In conformity with a resolution of Congress of the last session, an
+invitation was given to General Lafayette to visit the United States,
+with an assurance that a ship of war should attend at any port of France
+which he might designate, to receive and convey him across the Atlantic,
+whenever it might be convenient for him to sail. He declined the offer
+of the public ship from motives of delicacy, but assured me that he
+had long intended and would certainly visit our Union in the course of
+the present year. In August last he arrived at New York, where he was
+received with the warmth of affection and gratitude to which his very
+important and disinterested services and sacrifices in our Revolutionary
+struggle so eminently entitled him. A corresponding sentiment has since
+been manifested in his favor throughout every portion of our Union, and
+affectionate invitations have been given him to extend his visits to
+them. To these he has yielded all the accommodation in his power.
+At every designated point of rendezvous the whole population of the
+neighboring country has been assembled to greet him, among whom it
+has excited in a peculiar manner the sensibility of all to behold the
+surviving members of our Revolutionary contest, civil and military, who
+had shared with him in the toils and dangers of the war, many of them
+in a decrepit state. A more interesting spectacle, it is believed, was
+never witnessed, because none could be founded on purer principles, none
+proceed from higher or more disinterested motives. That the feelings
+of those who had fought and bled with him in a common cause should
+have been much excited was natural. There are, however, circumstances
+attending these interviews which pervaded the whole community and
+touched the breasts of every age, even the youngest among us. There
+was not an individual present who had not some relative who had not
+partaken in those scenes, nor an infant who had not heard the relation
+of them. But the circumstance which was most sensibly felt, and which
+his presence brought forcibly to the recollection of all, was the great
+cause in which we were engaged and the blessings which we have derived
+from our success in it. The struggle was for independence and liberty,
+public and personal, and in this we succeeded. The meeting with one who
+had borne so distinguished a part in that great struggle, and from such
+lofty and disinterested motives, could not fail to affect profoundly
+every individual and of every age. It is natural that we should all take
+a deep interest in his future welfare, as we do. His high claims on our
+Union are felt, and the sentiment universal that they should be met in
+a generous spirit. Under these impressions I invite your attention to
+the subject, with a view that, regarding his very important services,
+losses, and sacrifices, a provision may be made and tendered to him
+which shall correspond with the sentiments and be worthy the character
+of the American people.
+
+In turning our attention to the condition of the civilized world,
+in which the United States have always taken a deep interest, it is
+gratifying to see how large a portion of it is blessed with peace.
+The only wars which now exist within that limit are those between
+Turkey and Greece, in Europe, and between Spain and the new Governments,
+our neighbors, in this hemisphere. In both these wars the cause of
+independence, of liberty and humanity, continues to prevail. The success
+of Greece, when the relative population of the contending parties is
+considered, commands our admiration and applause, and that it has had a
+similar effect with the neighboring powers is obvious. The feeling of
+the whole civilized world is excited in a high degree in their favor.
+May we not hope that these sentiments, winning on the hearts of their
+respective Governments, may lead to a more decisive result; that they
+may produce an accord among them to replace Greece on the ground which
+she formerly held, and to which her heroic exertions at this day so
+eminently entitle her?
+
+With respect to the contest to which our neighbors are a party, it is
+evident that Spain as a power is scarcely felt in it. These new States
+had completely achieved their independence before it was acknowledged by
+the United States, and they have since maintained it with little foreign
+pressure. The disturbances which have appeared in certain portions of
+that vast territory have proceeded from internal causes, which had their
+origin in their former Governments and have not yet been thoroughly
+removed. It is manifest that these causes are daily losing their effect,
+and that these new States are settling down under Governments elective
+and representative in every branch, similar to our own. In this course
+we ardently wish them to persevere, under a firm conviction that it will
+promote their happiness. In this, their career, however, we have not
+interfered, believing that every people have a right to institute for
+themselves the government which, in their judgment, may suit them best.
+Our example is before them, of the good effect of which, being our
+neighbors, they are competent judges, and to their judgment we leave
+it, in the expectation that other powers will pursue the same policy.
+The deep interest which we take in their independence, which we have
+acknowledged, and in their enjoyment of all the rights incident
+thereto, especially in the very important one of instituting their own
+Governments, has been declared, and is known to the world. Separated as
+we are from Europe by the great Atlantic Ocean, we can have no concern
+in the wars of the European Governments nor in the causes which produce
+them. The balance of power between them, into whichever scale it may
+turn in its various vibrations, can not affect us. It is the interest
+of the United States to preserve the most friendly relations with every
+power and on conditions fair, equal, arid applicable to all. But in
+regard to our neighbors our situation is different. It is impossible
+for the European Governments to interfere in their concerns, especially
+in those alluded to, which are vital, without affecting us; indeed, the
+motive which might induce such interference in the present state of the
+war between the parties, if a war it may be called, would appear to be
+equally applicable to us. It is gratifying to know that some of the
+powers with whom we enjoy a very friendly intercourse, and to whom
+these views have been communicated, have appeared to acquiesce in them.
+
+The augmentation of our population with the expansion of our Union and
+increased number of States have produced effects in certain branches
+of our system which merit the attention of Congress. Some of our
+arrangements, and particularly the judiciary establishment, were made
+with a view to the original thirteen States only. Since then the United
+States have acquired a vast extent of territory; eleven new States have
+been admitted into the Union, and Territories have been laid off for
+three others, which will likewise be admitted at no distant day. An
+organization of the Supreme Court which assigns to the judges any
+portion of the duties which belong to the inferior, requiring their
+passage over so vast a space under any distribution of the States that
+may now be made, if not impracticable in the execution, must render
+it impossible for them to discharge the duties of either branch with
+advantage to the Union. The duties of the Supreme Court would be of
+great importance if its decisions were confined to the ordinary limits
+of other tribunals, but when it is considered that this court decides,
+and in the last resort, on all the great questions which arise under our
+Constitution, involving those between the United States individually,
+between the States and the United States, and between the latter and
+foreign powers, too high an estimate of their importance can not be
+formed. The great interests of the nation seem to require that the
+judges of the Supreme Court should be exempted from every other duty
+than those which are incident to that high trust. The organization of
+the inferior courts would of course be adapted to circumstances. It is
+presumed that such an one might be formed as would secure an able and
+faithful discharge of their duties, and without any material
+augmentation of expense.
+
+The condition of the aborigines within our limits, and especially
+those who are within the limits of any of the States, merits likewise
+particular attention. Experience has shown that unless the tribes be
+civilized they can never be incorporated into our system in any form
+whatever. It has likewise shown that in the regular augmentation of
+our population with the extension of our settlements their situation
+will become deplorable, if their extinction is not menaced. Some
+well-digested plan which will rescue them from such calamities is due
+to their rights, to the rights of humanity, and to the honor of the
+nation. Their civilization is indispensable to their safety, and this
+can be accomplished only by degrees. The process must commence with the
+infant state, through whom some effect may be wrought on the parental.
+Difficulties of the most serious character present themselves to the
+attainment of this very desirable result on the territory on which they
+now reside. To remove them from it by force, even with a view to their
+own security and happiness, would be revolting to humanity and utterly
+unjustifiable. Between the limits of our present States and Territories
+and the Rocky Mountains and Mexico there is a vast territory to which
+they might be invited with inducements which might be successful. It is
+thought if that territory should be divided into districts by previous
+agreement with the tribes now residing there and civil governments be
+established in each, with schools for every branch of instruction in
+literature and the arts of civilized life, that all the tribes now
+within our limits might gradually be drawn there. The execution of
+this plan would necessarily be attended with expense, and that not
+inconsiderable, but it is doubted whether any other can be devised
+which would be less liable to that objection or more likely to succeed.
+
+In looking to the interests which the United States have on the
+Pacific Ocean and on the western coast of this continent, the propriety
+of establishing a military post at the mouth of Columbia River, or at
+some other point in that quarter within our acknowledged limits, is
+submitted to the consideration of Congress. Our commerce and fisheries
+on that sea and along the coast have much increased and are increasing.
+It is thought that a military post, to which our ships of war might
+resort, would afford protection to every interest, and have a tendency
+to conciliate the tribes to the northwest, with whom our trade is
+extensive. It is thought also that by the establishment of such a post
+the intercourse between our Western States and Territories and the
+Pacific and our trade with the tribes residing in the interior on each
+side of the Rocky Mountains would be essentially promoted. To carry this
+object into effect the appropriation of an adequate sum to authorize the
+employment of a frigate, with an officer of the Corps of Engineers,
+to explore the mouth of the Columbia River and the coast contiguous
+thereto, to enable the Executive to make such establishment at the most
+suitable point, is recommended to Congress.
+
+It is thought that attention is also due to the improvement of this
+city. The communication between the public buildings and in various
+other parts and the grounds around those buildings require it. It is
+presumed also that the completion of the canal from the Tiber to the
+Eastern Branch would have a very salutary effect. Great exertions have
+been made and expenses incurred by the citizens in improvements of
+various kinds; but those which are suggested belong exclusively to the
+Government, or are of a nature to require expenditures beyond their
+resources. The public lots which are still for sale would, it is not
+doubted, be more than adequate to these purposes.
+
+From the view above presented it is manifest that the situation of the
+United States is in the highest degree prosperous and happy. There is no
+object which as a people we can desire which we do not possess or which
+is not within our reach. Blessed with governments the happiest which the
+world ever knew, with no distinct orders in society or divided interests
+in any portion of the vast territory over which their dominion extends,
+we have every motive to cling together which can animate a virtuous and
+enlightened people. The great object is to preserve these blessings,
+and to hand them down to the latest posterity. Our experience ought to
+satisfy us that our progress under the most correct and provident policy
+will not be exempt from danger. Our institutions form an important epoch
+in the history of the civilized world. On their preservation and in
+their utmost purity everything will depend. Extending as our interests
+do to every part of the inhabited globe and to every sea to which our
+citizens are carried by their industry and enterprise, to which they are
+invited by the wants of others, and have a right to go, we must either
+protect them in the enjoyment of their rights or abandon them in certain
+events to waste and desolation. Our attitude is highly interesting as
+relates to other powers, and particularly to our southern neighbors. We
+have duties to perform with respect to all to which we must be faithful.
+To every kind of danger we should pay the most vigilant and unceasing
+attention, remove the cause where it may be practicable, and be prepared
+to meet it when inevitable.
+
+Against foreign danger the policy of the Government seems to be already
+settled. The events of the late war admonished us to make our maritime
+frontier impregnable by a well-digested chain of fortifications, and
+to give efficient protection to our commerce by augmenting our Navy
+to a certain extent, which has been steadily pursued, and which it is
+incumbent upon us to complete as soon as circumstances will permit.
+In the event of war it is on the maritime frontier that we shall be
+assailed. It is in that quarter, therefore, that we should be prepared
+to meet the attack. It is there that our whole force will be called
+into action to prevent the destruction of our towns and the desolation
+and pillage of the interior. To give full effect to this policy great
+improvements will be indispensable. Access to those works by every
+practicable communication should be made easy and in every direction.
+The intercourse between every part of our Union should also be promoted
+and facilitated by the exercise of those powers which may comport with
+a faithful regard to the great principles of our Constitution. With
+respect to internal causes, those great principles point out with
+equal certainty the policy to be pursued. Resting on the people as
+our Governments do, State and National, with well-defined powers,
+it is of the highest importance that they severally keep within the
+limits prescribed to them. Fulfilling that sacred duty, it is of equal
+importance that the movement between them be harmonious, and in case
+of any disagreement, should any such occur, a calm appeal be made to
+the people, and that their voice be heard and promptly obeyed. Both
+Governments being instituted for the common good, we can not fail to
+prosper while those who made them are attentive to the conduct of their
+representatives and control their measures. In the pursuit of these
+great objects let a generous spirit and national views and feelings be
+indulged, and let every part recollect that by cherishing that spirit
+and improving the condition of the others in what relates to their
+welfare the general interest will not only be promoted, but the local
+advantage be reciprocated by all.
+
+I can not conclude this communication, the last of the kind which I
+shall have to make, without recollecting with great sensibility and
+heartfelt gratitude the many instances of the public confidence and the
+generous support which I have received from my fellow-citizens in the
+various trusts with which I have been honored. Having commenced my
+service in early youth, and continued it since with few and short
+intervals, I have witnessed the great difficulties to which our Union
+has been exposed, and admired the virtue and intelligence with which
+they have been surmounted. From the present prosperous and happy state
+I derive a gratification which I can not express. That these blessings
+may be preserved and perpetuated will be the object of my fervent and
+unceasing prayers to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+SPECIAL MESSAGES.
+
+
+DECEMBER 6, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Agreeably to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 13th of
+May last, requesting the President to cause to be made and submitted to
+the House on the first day of the next [present] session of Congress a
+full and complete statement of the exact number of lots belonging to
+the United States in the city of Washington which have been sold by the
+public agents for that purpose; when sold, by whom, to whom, and for
+what price each lot was purchased; what part of the purchase money has
+been paid, the amount due, and by whom due, and when payable; whether
+the debts are well secured, and whether the money received has been
+applied, to what purposes, and by whom, I herewith transmit a report and
+statements from the Commissioner of Public Buildings, which will afford
+the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DECEMBER 13, 1824.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with an act of Congress which originated in the House
+of Representatives, passed the 26th of May, 1824, "to authorize the
+President of the United States to enter into certain negotiations
+relative to lands located under Virginia military land warrants, lying
+between Ludlow's and Roberts's lines, in the State of Ohio," I herewith
+transmit a report, with accompanying documents, from the Commissioner
+of the General Land Office, shewing the measures which have been taken
+under the provisions of the aforesaid act.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 13, 1824_.
+
+The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE PRO TEMPORE:
+
+I transmit to the Senate a convention, negotiated and signed by Samuel
+D. Heap, acting consul of the United States, on the part of the United
+States, and Mahmoud Bashaw, Bey of Tunis, on the 24th day of February
+last, together with copies of Mr. Heap's correspondence appertaining
+to the negotiation of the same, for the constitutional consideration
+of the Senate with regard to its ratification.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 13, 1824_.
+
+The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES PRO TEMPORE:
+
+I transmit to the Senate the convention, signed by the plenipotentiaries
+of the United States and of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia
+at St. Petersburg on the 5th (17th) of April last, referred to in
+my message to both Houses of Congress, together with the documents
+appertaining to the negotiation of the same, for the constitutional
+consideration of the Senate with regard to its ratification.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 23, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Agreeably to a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+15th instant, requesting the President to lay before the House a copy
+of the instructions under which the articles of a treaty with the
+Cherokee Indians were formed by Daniel Smith and R.J. Meigs, acting as
+commissioners of the United States, at Telico on the 24th October, 1804,
+with copies of all the correspondence or other documents relating to
+that instrument in either of the Executive Departments, with a statement
+of the causes which prevented an earlier decision upon it, I herewith
+transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with the documents referred
+to in it.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 23, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of State,
+with copies of the correspondence with the Government of France
+requested by the resolution of the House of the 26th May last.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
+
+_Washington, December 23, 1824_.
+
+  The Secretary of State, to whom has been referred a resolution of the
+  House of Representatives of the 26th of May last, requesting that the
+  President of the United States would lay before that House at the
+  then next session, as early as the public interest would permit, the
+  correspondence which might be held with the Government of France prior
+  to that time on the subject of injuries sustained by citizens of the
+  United States since the year 1806, has the honor of reporting to the
+  President copies of the documents requested by that resolution.
+
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
+
+
+
+[Extract of a letter from Mr. Adams (No. 1) to Mr. Sheldon, dated
+Department of State, Washington, August 13, 1823.]
+
+I have had the honor of receiving your dispatches Nos. 1 and 2, the
+latter dated the 10th of June. Mr. Gallatin arrived with his family
+at New York on the 24th of that month.
+
+I inclose herewith copies of the recent correspondence between the
+Count de Menou, the charge d'affaires of France, and this Department
+on various subjects highly interesting to the relations between the
+two countries.
+
+With regard to the Count's note of the 11th of July, the President
+received with great satisfaction the testimonial of the Viscount de
+Chateaubriand to the candor and ability with which Mr. Gallatin has
+performed the duties of his official station in France. The proposal
+to renew the negotiation in behalf of the well-founded claims of our
+citizens upon the French Government in _connection_ with a claim on
+the part of France to special privileges in the ports of Louisiana,
+which, after a very full discussion, had in the views of this Government
+been proved utterly groundless, could neither be accepted nor considered
+as evidence of the same conciliatory spirit. The claims of our citizens
+are for mere justice; they are for reparation of unquestionable
+wrongs--for indemnity or restitution of property taken from them or
+destroyed without shadow or color of right. The claim under the eighth
+article of the Louisiana convention has nothing to rest upon but a
+forced construction of the terms of the stipulation, which the American
+Government considered, and have invariably considered, as totally
+without foundation. These are elements not to be coupled together in the
+same negotiation, and while we yet trust to the final sense of justice
+of France for the adjustment of the righteous claims of our citizens, we
+still hope that their unquestionable character will ultimately secure
+to them a consideration unencumbered with other discussions. You will
+respectfully make this representation to the Viscount de Chateaubriand,
+with the assurance of the readiness of this Government to discuss the
+question upon the Louisiana convention further if desired by France,
+but of our final conviction that it is not to be blended with the claims
+of our citizens for mere justice.
+
+
+
+_Count de Menou to Mr. Adams_.
+
+[Translation.]
+
+LEGATION OF FRANCE TO THE UNITED STATES,
+
+_Washington, July 11, 1823_.
+
+The Honorable SECRETARY OF STATE:
+
+His Excellency the Viscount de Chateaubriand, in announcing to me that
+Mr. Gallatin was about to leave France, expresses his regret at his
+departure in such terms that I should do him injustice were I not to use
+his own expressions. "My correspondence with this minister," he remarks
+to me, "has caused me to appreciate his talents, his ability, and his
+attachment to the system of friendship that unites the two powers. It
+is with regret that I suspend my communications with him."
+
+I esteem myself happy, sir, in conveying to you such sentiments toward
+the representative of the United States in France, and I should have
+thought that I had but imperfectly apprehended the design of the
+Viscount de Chateaubriand had I neglected to communicate them to the
+Federal Government.
+
+The minister for foreign affairs reminds me also on this occasion that
+Mr. Gallatin having frequently laid before him claims of Americans
+against the French Government, he had shown himself disposed to enter
+upon a general negotiation, in which they should be comprehended with
+claims of French citizens against the Federal Government at the same
+time with the arrangement relative to the execution of the eighth
+article of the treaty of Louisiana, The object of his excellency was to
+arrive at a speedy and friendly disposition of all difficulties that
+might subsist between the two powers, well assured that France and the
+United States would be found to have the same views of justice and
+conciliation.
+
+His excellency regrets that Mr. Gallatin, who, he says, "has convinced
+him how pleasing and advantageous it is to negotiate with a statesman
+who exhibits candor and ability in his discussions," did not receive
+from his Government during his stay in France the necessary powers for
+this double negotiation. But he informs me that the Government of His
+Majesty remains always disposed to open it, either with Mr. Gallatin
+should he return with these powers, or with Mr. Sheldon if the Federal
+Government should think proper to confer them on him.
+
+I greatly desire, sir, to see these propositions acceded to by the
+Federal Government and to be able to reply to his excellency, as he
+expresses his wish that an arrangement putting an end to every subject
+of discussion might soon be expected.
+
+I pray the Secretary of State to receive the renewed assurance of my
+high consideration.
+
+The charge d'affaires of France near the United States,
+
+MENOU.
+
+
+
+_Mr. Adams to Count de Menou_.
+
+DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
+
+_Washington, August 12, 1823_.
+
+The COUNT DE MENOU,
+
+_Charge d'Affaires from France_.
+
+SIR: Your letter of the 11th of last month has been submitted to the
+consideration of the President of the United States, by whom I am
+directed to express the high satisfaction that he has felt at the manner
+in which His Excellency the Viscount de Chateaubriand has noticed in
+his correspondence with you the temporary absence of Mr. Gallatin from
+France and the terms of regard and esteem with which he notices the
+character and conduct of that minister. The anxious desire of the
+President for the promotion of the good understanding between the United
+States and France could not be more gratified than by the testimonial of
+His Most Christian Majesty's Government to the good faith and ability
+with which the minister of the United States at his Court has performed
+his official duties.
+
+With regard to the assurance of His Excellency the Viscount de
+Chateaubriand's disposition to enter upon a negotiation with Mr.
+Gallatin in the event of his return to France, or with Mr. Sheldon
+during his absence, concerning the claims of citizens of the United
+States on the Government of France in connection with an arrangement
+concerning the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty, I am directed to
+observe that those subjects rest upon grounds so totally different that
+the Government of the United States can not consent to connect them
+together in negotiation.
+
+The claims of the citizens of the United States upon the French
+Government have been of many years' standing, often represented by
+successive ministers of the United States, and particularly by Mr.
+Gallatin during a residence of seven years, with a perspicuity of
+statement and a force of evidence which could leave to the Government
+of the United States no desire but that they should have been received
+with friendly attention and no regret but that they should have proved
+ineffectual. The justice of these claims has never been denied by
+France, and while the United States are still compelled to wait for
+their adjustment, similar and less forceful claims of the subjects of
+other nations have been freely admitted and liquidated.
+
+A long and protracted discussion has already taken place between the
+two Governments in relation to the claim of France under the eighth
+article of the Louisiana convention, the result of which has been a
+thorough conviction on the part of the American Government that the
+claim has no foundation in the treaty whatever. The reasons for this
+conviction have been so fully set forth in the discussion that it was
+not anticipated a further examination of it would be thought desirable.
+As a subject of discussion, however, the American Government is willing
+to resume it whenever it may suit the views of France to present further
+considerations relating to it; but while convinced that the claim is
+entirely without foundation, they can not place it on a footing of
+concurrent negotiation with claims of their citizens, the justice of
+which is so unequivocal that they have not even been made the subject
+of denial.
+
+From the attention which His Excellency the Viscount de Chateaubriand
+has intimated his willingness to give to the consideration of these
+claims the President indulges the hope that they will be taken into view
+upon their own merits, and in that hope the representative of the United
+States at Paris will at an early day be instructed to present them again
+to the undivided and unconditional sense of the justice of France.
+
+I pray you, sir, to accept the renewed assurance of my distinguished
+consideration.
+
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
+
+
+
+[Extract of a letter from Mr, Sheldon (No. 2) to Mr, Adams, dated
+Paris, October 16, 1823.]
+
+I took an early occasion after the receipt of your dispatch No. 1, of
+the 10th August, to communicate the subjects of it in a conversation
+I had with Viscount de Chateaubriand. His observations in relation to
+that of the claims, as connected with the pretensions of France under
+the Louisiana treaty, were of a very general nature and amounted to
+little more than a repetition of his readiness to enter upon the
+consideration of whatever subjects of discussion might exist between the
+two countries and the expression of his satisfaction at the prospect of
+being soon relieved from the labor which the affairs of Spain had thrown
+upon him, and having thus more time to devote to those of the United
+States and others not of the same pressing nature. He avoided any
+intimation of a disposition to take up the claims by themselves, and
+it can hardly be expected that the French Government will at this time
+relax from the ground they have so lately taken upon that point. I
+informed him that I should communicate in writing an answer to the
+overture made by Count de Menou at Washington for uniting in a new
+negotiation this subject with that of the Louisiana treaty, in substance
+the same as that gentleman had already received there, and should again
+press upon the French Government the consideration of the claims by
+themselves; to which he replied that any communication I might make
+would be received and treated with all the attention to which it was
+entitled on his part.
+
+
+
+_Mr. Sheldon to the Viscount de Chateaubriand_.
+
+PARIS, _October 11, 1823_.
+
+SIR: Mr. Gallatin, during his residence as minister of the United
+States in France, had upon various occasions called the attention
+of His Majesty's Government to the claims of our citizens for the
+reparation of wrongs sustained by them from the unjust seizure,
+detention, and confiscation of their property by officers and agents
+acting under authority of the Government of France. During the past
+year His Majesty's ministers had consented to enter upon the
+consideration of these claims, but they proposed to couple with it
+another subject having no connection with those claims, either in its
+nature, its origin, or the principles on which it depended--a question
+of the disputed construction of one of the articles of the treaty of
+cession of Louisiana, by virtue of which France claimed certain
+commercial privileges in the ports of that Province. Mr. Gallatin had
+not received from his Government any authority to connect these two
+dissimilar subjects in the same negotiation, or, indeed, to treat upon
+the latter, which had already been very amply discussed at Washington
+between the Secretary of State of the United States and His Majesty's
+minister at that place, without producing any result except a conviction
+on the part of the Government of the United States that the privileges
+for French vessels, as claimed by the minister of France, never could
+have been, and were not in fact, conceded by the treaty in question.
+A stop was then put to the negotiations already commenced in relation
+to the claims, and with which had been united, on the proposition of
+the French Government, and as being naturally connected with it, the
+consideration of certain claims of French citizens on the Government
+of the United States.
+
+The charge d'affaires of France at Washington has lately, on behalf
+of his Government, expressed to that of the United States a wish that
+this double negotiation might be resumed and that a definitive
+arrangement might be made as well in relation to the disputed article of
+the Louisiana treaty as of the subject of the claims upon the one side
+and upon the other. The Government of the United States has nothing
+more at heart than to remove by friendly arrangements every subject of
+difference which may exist between the two countries, and to examine
+with the greatest impartiality and good faith as well the nature and
+extent of the stipulations into which they have entered as the appeals
+to their justice made by individuals claiming reparation for wrongs
+supposed to have been sustained at their hands.
+
+But these two subjects are essentially dissimilar; there are no points
+of connection between them; the principles upon which they depend are
+totally different; they have no bearing upon each other; and the justice
+which is due to individuals ought not to be delayed or made dependent
+upon the right or the wrong interpretation by one or the other party of
+a treaty having for its object the regulation of entirely distinct and
+different interests.
+
+The reclamations of American citizens upon the Government of France
+are for mere justice--for the reparation of unquestionable wrongs,
+indemnity or restitution of property taken from them or destroyed
+forcibly and without right. They are of ancient date, and justice has
+been long and anxiously waited for. They have been often represented to
+the Government of France, and their validity is not disputed. Similar
+reclamations without greater merit or stronger titles to admission
+presented by citizens of other nations have been favorably received,
+examined, and liquidated, and it seems to have been hitherto reserved
+to those of the United States alone to meet with impediments at every
+juncture and to seek in vain the moment in which the Government of
+France could consent to enter upon their consideration. Although the
+question arising under the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty has
+already been fully examined, the Government of the United States is
+ready, if it is desired by France, and if it is thought that any new
+light can be thrown upon it, to discuss the subject further whenever it
+shall be presented anew by France to their consideration. But they are
+convinced that by blending it with the claims not only will no progress
+be made toward its solution, but that these last, standing upon their
+own unquestionable character, ought not to be trammeled with a subject
+to which they are wholly foreign.
+
+I am instructed to bring them anew before your excellency, and to
+express the hope of the President that His Majesty's Government will not
+continue to insist upon connecting together two subjects of so different
+a nature, but that the claims may be taken up on their own merits and
+receive the consideration which they deserve, unencumbered with other
+discussions.
+
+I request your excellency to accept the assurance, etc,
+
+D. SHELDON.
+
+
+
+[Extracts of a letter from the Secretary of State to Mr. Brown, dated
+Washington, December 23, 1823.]
+
+You will immediately after your reception earnestly call the attention
+of the French Government to the claims of our citizens for indemnity.
+
+You will at the same time explicitly make known that this Government
+can not consent to connect this discussion with that of the pretension
+raised by France on the construction given by her to the eighth article
+of the Louisiana cession treaty. The difference in the nature and
+character of the two interests is such that they can not with propriety
+be blended together. The claims are of reparation to individuals for
+their property taken from them by manifest and undisputed wrong. The
+question upon the Louisiana treaty is a question of _right_ upon the
+meaning of a contract. It has been fully, deliberately, and thoroughly
+investigated, and the Government of the United States is under the
+entire and solemn conviction that the pretension of France is utterly
+unfounded. We are, nevertheless, willing to resume the discussion if
+desired by France; but to refuse justice to individuals unless the
+United States will accede to the construction of an article in a treaty
+contrary to what they believe to be its real meaning would be not only
+incompatible with the principles of equity, but submitting to a species
+of compulsion derogatory to the honor of the nation.
+
+
+
+[Extract of a letter (No. 2) from James Brown, envoy extraordinary and
+minister plenipotentiary of the United States, dated April 28, 1824.]
+
+I have in a letter to M. de Chateaubriand, copy of which I have now the
+honor to send, made an effort to separate the claims of our citizens
+from the Louisiana question.
+
+
+
+_Mr. Brown to M. de Chateaubriand_.
+
+PARIS, _April 28, 1824_.
+
+His Excellency VISCOUNT DE CHATEAUBRIAND,
+
+_Minister of Foreign Affairs, etc_.
+
+SIR: In the conference with which your excellency honored me a few
+days ago I mentioned a subject deeply interesting to many citizens
+of the United States, on which I have been instructed to address your
+excellency, and to which I earnestly wish to call your immediate
+attention.
+
+It is well known to your excellency that my predecessor, Mr. Gallatin,
+during several years made repeated and urgent applications to His
+Majesty's Government for the adjustment of claims to a very large
+amount, affecting the interests of American citizens and originating in
+gross violations of the law of nations and of the rights of the United
+States, and that he never could obtain from France either a settlement
+of those claims or even an examination and discussion of their validity.
+To numerous letters addressed by him to His Majesty's ministers on that
+subject either no answers were given or answers which had for their only
+object to postpone the investigation of the subject. Whilst, however,
+he indulged the hope that these delays would be abandoned, and that the
+rights of our citizens, which had been urged for so many years, would at
+length be taken up for examination, he learned with surprise and regret
+that His Majesty's Government had determined to insist that they should
+be discussed in connection with the question of the construction of
+the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty of cession. Against this
+determination he strongly but ineffectually remonstrated in a letter
+to Mr. De Villele, dated the 12th November, 1822.
+
+It is notorious that the Government of the United States, whenever
+requested by that of His Majesty, have uniformly agreed to discuss any
+subject presented for their consideration, whether the object has been
+to obtain the redress of public or private injuries. Acting upon this
+principle, the question of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty
+was, upon the suggestion of the minister of France, made the subject of
+a voluminous correspondence, in the course of which all the arguments
+of the parties respectively were fully made known to each other and
+examined. The result of this discussion has been a thorough conviction
+on the part of the Government of the United States that the construction
+of that article of the treaty contended for by France is destitute of
+any solid foundation and wholly inadmissible. After a discussion so
+full as to exhaust every argument on that question, the attempt to
+renew it in connection with the question of the claims of our citizens
+appeared to the Government of the United States to be a measure so
+contrary to the fair and regular course of examining controverted
+points between nations that they instructed Mr, Sheldon, their charge
+d'affaires, to prepare and present a note explaining their views of the
+proceeding, which he delivered on the 11th of October, 1823. To this
+note no answer has ever been received.
+
+I have the express instructions of the Government again to call the
+attention of that of His Majesty to this subject, and to insist that
+the claims of our citizens may continue to be discussed as a distinct
+question, without connecting it in any way with the construction of the
+Louisiana treaty. The two subjects are in every respect dissimilar. The
+difference in the nature and character of the two interests is such as
+to prevent them from being blended in the same discussion. The claims
+against France are of reparation to individuals for their property taken
+from them by undisputed wrong and injustice; the claim of France under
+the treaty is that of a right founded on a contract. In the examination
+of these questions the one can impart no light to the other; they are
+wholly unconnected, and ought on every principle to undergo a distinct
+and separate examination. To involve in the same investigation the
+indisputable rights of American citizens to indemnity for losses and
+the doubtful construction of a treaty can have no other effect than to
+occasion an indefinite postponement of the reparation due to individuals
+or a sacrifice on the part of the Government of the United States of a
+treaty stipulation in order to obtain that reparation. The United States
+would hope that such an alternative will not be pressed upon them by the
+Government of His Majesty.
+
+Whilst I indulge a hope that the course to which I have objected will no
+longer be insisted on by His Majesty's ministers, permit me to renew to
+your excellency the sincere assurance that the United States earnestly
+desire that every subject of difference between the two countries should
+be amicably adjusted and all their relations placed upon the most
+friendly footing. Although they believe that any further discussion of
+the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty would be wholly unprofitable,
+they will be at all times ready to renew the discussion of that article
+or to examine any question which may remain to be adjusted between them
+and France.
+
+I request your excellency to accept, etc.
+
+JAMES BROWN.
+
+
+
+[Extract of a letter (No. 3) from James Brown to the Secretary of State,
+dated Paris, May 11, 1824.]
+
+I have the honor to inclose a copy of the answer of the minister of
+foreign affairs to the letter which I addressed to him on the 27th
+ultimo, upon the subject of the claims of our citizens against the
+French Government. You will perceive that no change has been made in
+the determination expressed to Mr. Gallatin of connecting in the same
+discussion the question on the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty
+of cession and the claims of the citizens of the United States against
+France. In expressing this resolution it has not been considered
+necessary even to notice the arguments made use of to induce them
+to adopt a different opinion.
+
+
+
+_Viscount Chateaubriand to Mr. Brown_.
+
+[Translation.]
+
+PARIS, _May 7, 1824_.
+
+SIR: The object of the letter which you did me the honor to address to
+me on the 28th of April is to recall the affair of American claims,
+already repeatedly called up by your predecessors, that they may be
+regulated by an arrangement between the two powers, and that in this
+negotiation the examination of the difficulties which were raised about
+the execution of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty should not
+be included.
+
+Although the claims made by France upon this last point be of a
+different nature from those of the Americans, yet no less attention
+ought to be paid to arrange both in a just and amicable manner.
+
+Our claims upon the eighth article had already been laid before the
+Federal Government by His Majesty's plenipotentiary when he was
+negotiating the commercial convention of 24th June, 1822.
+
+The negotiators not agreeing upon a subject so important, the King's
+Government did not wish this difficulty to suspend any longer the
+conclusion of an arrangement which might give more activity to commerce
+and multiply relations equally useful to the two powers. It reserves to
+itself the power of comprehending this object in another negotiation,
+and it does not renounce in any manner the claim which it urged.
+
+It is for this reason, sir, that my predecessors and myself have
+constantly insisted that the arrangements to be made upon the eighth
+article of the Louisiana treaty should be made a part of those which
+your Government were desirous of making upon other questions still at
+issue.
+
+It is the intention of His Majesty not to leave unsettled any subject
+of grave discussion between the two States, and the King is too well
+convinced of the friendly sentiments of your Government not to believe
+that the United States will be disposed to agree with France on all the
+points.
+
+His Majesty authorizes me, sir, to declare to you that a negotiation
+will be opened with you upon the American claims if this negotiation
+should also include the French claims, and particularly the arrangements
+to be concluded concerning the execution of the eighth article of the
+Louisiana treaty.
+
+Accept, sir, the assurances of the very distinguished consideration with
+which I have the honor to be, etc.,
+
+CHATEAUBRIAND.
+
+
+
+[Extracts of a letter (No. 4) from the Secretary of State to Mr. Brown,
+dated Department of State, Washington, August 14, 1824.]
+
+The subject which has first claimed the attention of the President
+has been the result of your correspondence with the Viscount de
+Chateaubriand in relation to the claims of numerous citizens of
+the United States upon the justice of the French Government.
+
+I inclose herewith a copy of the report of the Committee on Foreign
+Relations of the House of Representatives upon several petitions
+addressed to that body at their last session by some of those claimants
+and a resolution of the House adopted thereupon.
+
+The President has deliberately considered the purport of M. de
+Chateaubriand's answer to your note of the 28th of April upon this
+subject, and he desires that you will renew with earnestness the
+application for indemnity to our citizens for claims notoriously just
+and resting upon the same principle with others which have been admitted
+and adjusted by the Government of France.
+
+In the note of the Viscount de Chateaubriand to you of 7th May it is
+said that he is authorized to declare a negotiation will be opened with
+you upon the American claims if this negotiation should also include
+French claims, and particularly the arrangements to be concluded
+concerning the execution of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty.
+
+You are authorized in reply to declare that any just claims which
+subjects of France may have upon the Government of the United States
+will readily be included in the negotiation, and to stipulate any
+suitable provision for the examination, adjustment, and satisfaction
+of them.
+
+But the question relating to the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty
+is not only of a different character--it can not be blended with that of
+indemnity for individual claims without a sacrifice on the part of the
+United States of a principle of right. The negotiation for indemnity
+presupposes that wrong has been done, that indemnity ought to be made,
+and the object of any treaty stipulation concerning it can only be to
+ascertain what is justly due and to make provision for the payment of
+it. By consenting to connect with such a negotiation that relating to
+the eighth article of the Louisiana convention the United States would
+abandon the _principle_ upon which the whole discussion concerning
+it depends. The situation of the parties to the negotiation would be
+unequal. The United States, asking reparation for admitted wrong, are
+told that France will not discuss it with them unless they will first
+renounce their own sense of right to admit and discuss with it a claim
+the _justice_ of which they have constantly denied.
+
+The Government of the United States is prepared to renew the discussion
+with that of France relating to the eighth article of the Louisiana
+treaty in any manner which may be desired and by which they shall not
+be understood to admit that France has _any_ claim under it whatever.
+
+
+
+_Mr. Brown to Mr. Adams_ (_No. 12_).
+
+PARIS, _August 12, 1824_.
+
+SIR: Some very unimportant changes have taken place in the composition
+of the ministry. The Baron de Damas, late minister of war, is now
+minister of foreign affairs; the Marquis de Clermont Tonnese is
+appointed to the department of war, and the Count Chabrol de Crousal
+to that of the marine.
+
+These appointments are believed to correspond with the wishes of the
+president of the Council of Ministers, and do not inspire a hope that
+our claims will be more favorably attended to than they have been under
+the former administrations. The interpretation of the eighth article
+of the Louisiana treaty contended for by France will, I apprehend,
+be persisted in and all indemnity refused until it shall have been
+discussed and decided. After the correspondence which has already passed
+upon that article, it would appear that any further discussion upon it
+would be wholly unprofitable. With a view, however, of ascertaining the
+opinions of the minister of foreign affairs, I shall at an early day
+solicit a conference with him, and inform you of the result.
+
+I have had the honor of receiving your letter recommending the claim of
+Mr. Kingston to my attention. The difficulties which that claim must
+experience, from its antiquity and from the operation of the treaty of
+1803, can not have escaped your observation. It has also to encounter,
+in common with all our claims, the obstacle presented by the eighth
+article, which is found broad enough to be used as a shield to protect
+France, in the opinion of ministers, from the examination and adjustment
+of any claim which we can present.
+
+I have the honor to be, with great respect, sir, your most obedient and
+humble servant,
+
+JAMES BROWN.
+
+
+
+_Mr. Brown to Mr. Adams_ (_No. 14_).
+
+PARIS, _September 28, 1824_.
+
+SIR: Little has occurred of importance during the present month, except
+the death of the King. This event had been anticipated for nearly a
+year; he had declined gradually, and the affairs of the Government
+have been for some time almost wholly directed by Monsieur, who on his
+accession to the throne has declared that his reign would be only a
+continuation of that of the late King. No change in the policy of the
+Government is expected, and probably none in the composition of the
+ministry. The present King is satisfied with Mr. De Villele, who is at
+its head; and if any of its members should be changed the spirit in
+which public affairs are directed will not, it is believed, be affected
+by that circumstance.
+
+The ceremonies attending the change of the Crown have principally
+occupied the public attention for the last fortnight. It will, I
+presume, be officially announced by the French minister at Washington,
+and, according to the forms observed here, will, I understand, require
+fresh letters of credence for all foreign ministers at this Court,
+addressed to the new King.
+
+My health has not permitted me (having been confined for some weeks to
+the bed by a rheumatic affection) to confer with the Baron de Damas on
+our affairs since his appointment as minister of the foreign department.
+I should regret this the more if I were not satisfied that the same
+impulse will direct the decisions of the Government upon these points
+now as before he had this department in charge, and that no favorable
+change in those decisions can be expected from any personal influence
+which might be exerted by the new minister. I shall, however, take the
+earliest opportunity that my health will allow to mention the subject
+to him and ascertain what his views of it are.
+
+I have the honor to be, with great respect, sir, your most obedient and
+humble servant.
+
+JAMES BROWN.
+
+
+
+[Extracts of a letter from Mr. James Brown to Mr, Adams (No. 16).]
+
+PARIS, _October 23, 1824_.
+
+The packet ship which sailed from New York on the 1st of September
+brought me the letter which you did me the honor to address to me on
+the 14th of August.
+
+In conformity with the instructions contained in that letter, I have
+addressed one to the Baron de Damas, minister of foreign affairs, a copy
+of which I now inclose. I expect to receive his answer in time to be
+sent by the packet which will sail from Havre on the 1st of next month,
+in which event it may probably reach Washington about the 15th of
+December.
+
+The recent changes which have been made in the ministry, of which I have
+already informed you, do not justify any very strong expectation that a
+change of measures in relation to our affairs at this Court will follow.
+The same individuals fill different places in the ministry from those
+which they formerly held, but in all probability adhere to their former
+opinions in relation to the subjects of discussion between the United
+States and France. On the point to which my letter to the Baron de
+Damas particularly relates the Count de Villele has already given his
+deliberate views in his letters to Mr. Gallatin dated 6th and 15th
+November, 1822, and I have every reason to believe that they remain
+unchanged. Having bestowed much attention on the subject, it is probable
+his opinion will be in a great measure decisive as to the answer which
+shall be given to my letter. It is the opinion of many well-informed men
+that in the course of a few months important changes will be made in the
+composition of the ministry. As these changes, however, will proceed
+from causes wholly unconnected with foreign affairs, I am by no means
+sanguine in my expectations that under any new composition of the
+ministry we may hope for a change of policy as it relates to our claims.
+The eighth article of the Louisiana treaty will be continually put
+forward as a bar to our claims and its adjustment urged as often as
+we renew our claim for indemnity.
+
+The Journal des Debats of this morning states that at a superior council
+of commerce and of the colonies at which His Majesty yesterday presided
+Mr. De St. Cricq, president of the bureau de commerce, made a report on
+the commercial convention of the 24th June, 1822, between the United
+States and France.
+
+
+
+_Mr. Brown to Baron de Damas_.
+
+PARIS, _October 22, 1824_.
+
+His Excellency BARON DE DAMAS,
+
+_Minister of Foreign Affairs, etc_.
+
+SIR: I availed myself of the earliest opportunity to transmit to my
+Government a copy of the letter which I had the honor to address to the
+Viscount de Chateaubriand on the 28th day of April last, together with
+a copy of his answer to that letter, dated 7th of May.
+
+After a candid and deliberate consideration of the subject of that
+correspondence, my Government has sent me recent instructions to
+renew with earnestness the application, already so frequently and so
+ineffectually made, for indemnity to our citizens for claims notoriously
+just, and resting on the same principles with others which have been
+admitted and adjusted by the Government of France.
+
+In reply to that part of the Viscount de Chateaubriand's letter in
+which he offers to open with me a negotiation upon American claims if
+that negotiation should also include French claims, and particularly
+the arrangements to be concluded concerning the eighth article of the
+Louisiana treaty, I have been instructed to declare that any just claims
+which the subjects of France may have upon the Government of the United
+States will readily be embraced in the negotiation, and that I am
+authorized to stipulate any suitable provision for the examination,
+adjustment, and satisfaction of them.
+
+The question relating to the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty is
+viewed by my Government as one of a very different character. It can
+not be blended with that of indemnity for individual claims without
+a sacrifice on the part of the United States of a principle of right.
+Every negotiation for indemnity necessarily presupposes that some wrong
+has been done, and that indemnity ought to be made; and the object of
+every treaty stipulation respecting it can only be to ascertain the
+extent of the injury, and to make provision for its adequate reparation.
+This is precisely the nature of the negotiation for American claims
+which has been for so many years the subject of discussion between
+the Governments of the United States and of France. The wrongs done to
+our citizens have never been denied, whilst their right to indemnity
+has been established by acts done by the French Government in cases
+depending upon the same principles under which they derive their claim.
+By consenting to connect with such a negotiation that relating to the
+eighth article of the Louisiana treaty the United States would abandon
+the principle upon which the whole discussion depends. When asking for
+reparation for acknowledged wrong the United States have been told that
+France will not discuss it with them unless they will first renounce
+their own sense of right and admit and discuss in connection with it a
+claim the justice of which they have hitherto constantly denied. In any
+negotiation commenced under such circumstances the situation of the
+parties would be unequal. By consenting to connect the pretensions of
+France under the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty with claims for
+indemnity for acknowledged injustice and injury the United States would
+be understood as admitting that those pretensions were well founded;
+that wrong had been done to France for which reparation ought to be
+made. The Government of the United States, not having yet been convinced
+that this is the case, can not consent to any arrangement which shall
+imply an admission so contrary to their deliberate sense of right.
+
+I am authorized and prepared on behalf of the United States to enter
+upon a further discussion of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty
+in any manner which may be desired, and by which they shall not be
+understood previously to admit that the construction of that article
+claimed by France is well founded; and also to renew the separate
+negotiation for American claims, embracing at the same time all just
+claims winch French subjects may have upon the Government of the
+United States.
+
+The change which has lately taken place in His Majesty's department of
+foreign affairs encourages the hope that this important subject will
+be candidly reconsidered; that the obstacles which have arrested the
+progress of the negotiation may be removed, and that the subjects of
+contestation between the two Governments may be ultimately adjusted upon
+such principles as may perpetuate the good understanding and harmony
+which have so long subsisted between the United States and France.
+
+Should I, however, be disappointed in the result of this application,
+it is to be seriously apprehended that as the United States have not
+hitherto seen in the course of the discussion any just claim of France
+arising from the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty, so in the
+persevering refusal of the French Government to discuss and adjust
+the well-founded claims of citizens of the United States to indemnity
+for wrongs unless in connection with one which they are satisfied
+is unfounded the United States will ultimately perceive only a
+determination to deny justice to the claimants.
+
+Permit me respectfully to request that at as early a day as your
+convenience will allow your excellency will favor me with an answer
+to this letter.
+
+I embrace with pleasure this occasion to offer to your excellency the
+renewed assurance, etc.,
+
+JAMES BROWN.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 24, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+23d December, 1823, requesting that a negotiation should be opened with
+the British Government "for the cession of so much land on the island of
+Abaco at or near the Hole-in-the-Wall, and on such other places within
+the acknowledged dominions of that power on the islands, keys, or shoals
+of the Bahama Banks as may be necessary for the erection and support of
+light-houses, beacons, buoys, or floating lights for the security of
+navigation over or near the said banks, and to be used solely for that
+purpose," directions were given to the minister of the United States at
+London on the 1st of January, 1824, to communicate the purport of that
+resolution to the Government of Great Britain with a view to their
+acceding to the wish of this; and I transmit to the House copies of Mr.
+Rush's correspondence upon this subject, communicating the result of
+his application to the British Government.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _December 28, 1824_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+the 27th instant, requesting information explanatory of the character
+and objects of the visit of the naval officer of the United States
+commanding in the West Indies to the town of Faxyardo, in the island
+of Porto Rico, on the ---- day of November last, I herewith transmit
+a report of the Secretary of the Navy, with a letter from Commodore
+Porter, which contains all the information in possession of the
+Executive on the subject.
+
+Deeming the transactions adverted to of high importance, an order has
+been sent to Commodore Porter to repair hither without delay, that all
+the circumstances connected therewith may be fully investigated.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 5, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+As the term of my service in this high trust will expire at the end
+of the present session of Congress, I think it proper to invite your
+attention to an object very interesting to me, and which in the movement
+of our Government is deemed on principle equally interesting to the
+public. I have been long in the service of my country and in its most
+difficult conjunctures, as well abroad as at home, in the course of
+which I have had a control over the public moneys to a vast amount.
+If in the course of my service it shall appear on the most severe
+scrutiny, which I invite, that the public have sustained any loss by
+any act of mine, or of others for which I ought to be held responsible,
+I am willing to bear it. If, on the other hand, it shall appear on a
+view of the law and of precedents in other cases that justice has been
+withheld from me in any instance, as I have believed it to be in many,
+and greatly to my injury, it is submitted whether it ought not to be
+rendered. It is my wish that all matters of account and claims between
+my country and myself be settled with that strict regard to justice
+which is observed in settlements between individuals in private life.
+It would be gratifying to me, and it appears to be just, that the
+subject should be now examined in both respects with a view to a
+decision hereafter. No bill would, it is presumed, be presented for my
+signature which would operate either for or against me, and I would
+certainly sanction none in my favor. While here I can furnish testimony,
+applicable to any case, in both views, which a full investigation may
+require, and the committee to whom the subject may be referred, by
+reporting facts now with a view to a decision after my retirement, will
+allow time for further information and due consideration of all matters
+relating thereto. Settlements with a person in this trust, which could
+not be made with the accounting officers of the Government, should
+always be made by Congress and before the public. The cause of the delay
+in presenting these claims will be explained to the committee to whom
+the subject may be referred. It will, I presume, be made apparent that
+it was inevitable; that from the peculiar circumstances attending each
+case Congress alone could decide on it, and that from considerations of
+delicacy it would have been highly improper for me to have sought it
+from Congress at an earlier period than that which is now proposed--the
+expiration of my term in this high trust.
+
+Other considerations appear to me to operate with great force in
+favor of the measure which I now propose. A citizen who has long served
+his country in its highest trusts has a right, if he has served with
+fidelity, to enjoy undisturbed tranquillity and peace in his retirement.
+This he can not expect to do unless his conduct in all pecuniary
+concerns shall be placed by severe scrutiny on a basis not to be shaken.
+This, therefore, forms a strong motive with me for the inquiry which I
+now invite. The public may also derive considerable advantage from the
+precedent in the future movement of the Government. It being known that
+such scrutiny was made in my case, it may form a new and strong barrier
+against the abuse of the public confidence in future.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 10, 1825_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I should hasten to communicate to you the documents called for by the
+resolution of the House of Representatives of the 4th instant, relating
+to the conduct of the officers of the Navy of the United States on the
+Pacific Ocean and of other public agents in South America, if such a
+communication might now be made consistently with the public interest or
+with justice to the parties concerned. In consequence of several charges
+which have been alleged against Commodore Stewart, touching his conduct
+while commanding the squadron of the United States on that sea, it has
+been deemed proper to suspend him from duty and to subject him to trial
+on these charges. It appearing also that some of those charges have been
+communicated to the Department by Mr. Prevost, political agent at this
+time of the United States at Peru, and heretofore at Buenos Ayres and
+Chile, and apparently with his sanction, and that charges have likewise
+been made against him by citizens of the United States engaged in
+commerce in that quarter, it has been thought equally just and proper
+that he should attend here, as well to furnish the evidence in his
+possession applicable to the charges exhibited against Commodore
+Stewart as to answer such as have been exhibited against himself.
+
+In this stage the publication of those documents might tend to excite
+prejudices which might operate to the injury of both. It is important
+that the public servants in every station should perform their duty with
+fidelity, according to the injunctions of the law and the orders of the
+Executive in fulfillment thereof. It is peculiarly so that this should
+be done by the commanders of our squadrons, especially on distant seas,
+and by political agents who represent the United States with foreign
+powers, for reasons that are obvious in both instances. It is due to
+their rights and to the character of the Government that they be not
+censured without just cause, which can not be ascertained until, on
+a view of tho charges, they are heard in their defense, and after a
+thorough and impartial investigation of their conduct. Under these
+circumstances it is thought that a communication at this time of those
+documents would not comport with the public interest nor with what is
+due to the parties concerned.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 13, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with two resolutions of the Senate, the first of the
+21st and the second of the 23d December last, requesting information
+respecting the injuries which have been sustained by our citizens by
+piratical depredations, and other details connected therewith, and
+requesting also information of the measures which have been adopted for
+the suppression of piracy, and whether in the opinion of the Executive
+it will not be necessary to adopt other means for the accomplishment
+of the object, and, in that event, what other means it will be most
+advisable to recur to, I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary
+of State, and likewise a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with
+the documents referred to in each.
+
+On the very important question submitted to the Executive as to the
+necessity of recurring to other more effectual means for the suppression
+of a practice so destructive of the lives and property of our citizens,
+I have to observe that three expedients occur--one by the pursuit of the
+offenders to the settled as well as the unsettled parts of the island
+from whence they issue, another by reprisal on the property of the
+inhabitants, and a third by the blockade of the ports of those islands.
+It will be obvious that neither of these measures can be resorted to
+in a spirit of amity with Spain otherwise than in a firm belief that
+neither the Government of Spain nor the government of either of the
+islands has the power to suppress that atrocious practice, and that the
+United States interposed their aid for the accomplishment of an object
+which is of equal importance to them as well as to us. Acting on this
+principle, the facts which justify the proceeding being universally
+known and felt by all engaged in commerce in that sea, it may fairly be
+presumed that neither will the Government of Spain nor the government
+of either of those islands complain of a resort to either of those
+measures, or to all of them, should such resort be necessary. It is
+therefore suggested that a power commensurate with either resource be
+granted to the Executive, to be exercised according to his discretion
+and as circumstances may imperiously require. It is hoped that the
+manifestation of a policy so decisive will produce the happiest result;
+that it will rid these seas and this hemisphere of this practice. This
+hope is strengthened by the belief that the Government of Spain and the
+governments of the islands, particularly of Cuba, whose chief is known
+here, will faithfully cooperate in such measures as may be necessary
+for the accomplishment of this very important object. To secure such
+cooperation will be the earnest desire and, of course, the zealous
+and persevering effort of the Executive.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 17, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate, for its advice and consent as to the
+ratification, a treaty which has been concluded by a commissioner duly
+authorized for the purpose with the Quapaw Indians in Arkansas for the
+cession of their claim to the lands in that Territory. I transmit also
+a report from the Secretary of War, with other documents, relating to
+this subject.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+JANUARY 17, 1825.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+Agreeably to the resolution of the Senate of 19th May last, requesting
+the President to cause to be laid before the Senate a report "shewing
+the amount of duties which shall have accrued on importations into the
+United States for the three quarters of a year ending June 30, 1824;
+also the amount of duties which would have accrued on the same
+importations at such higher rates of duty as may be imposed by any act
+of the present session of Congress," I herewith transmit a report from
+the Secretary of the Treasury, which contains the information required.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 18, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate herewith to both Houses of Congress copies of the
+convention between the United States and His Majesty the Emperor of
+all the Russias, concluded at St. Petersburg on the 5th (17th) of April
+last, which has been duly ratified on both sides, and the ratifications
+of which were exchanged on the 11th instant.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 20, 1825_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
+19th of December, 1822, requesting the President to communicate "what
+progress has been made in the execution of the act of the last session
+entitled 'An act to abolish the Indian trading establishments,' with
+a report from the factories, respectively, as the same may be made to
+him," I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury,
+with documents, which contains the information requested.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 27, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Being deeply impressed with the opinion that the removal of the Indian
+tribes from the lands which they now occupy within the limits of the
+several States and Territories to the country lying westward and
+northward thereof, within our acknowledged boundaries, is of very
+high importance to our Union, and may be accomplished on conditions and
+in a manner to promote the interest and happiness of those tribes, the
+attention of the Government has been long drawn with great solicitude
+to the object. For the removal of the tribes within the limits of the
+State of Georgia the motive has been peculiarly strong, arising from
+the compact with that State whereby the United States are bound to
+extinguish the Indian title to the lands within it whenever it may
+be done peaceably and on reasonable conditions. In the fulfillment of
+this compact, I have thought that the United States should act with a
+generous spirit; that they should omit nothing which should comport with
+a liberal construction of the instrument and likewise be in accordance
+with the just rights of those tribes. From the view which I have taken
+of the subject I am satisfied that in the discharge of these important
+duties in regard to both the parties alluded to the United States will
+have to encounter no conflicting interests with either. On the contrary,
+that the removal of the tribes from the territory which they now inhabit
+to that which was designated in the message at the commencement of
+the session, which would accomplish the object for Georgia, under a
+well-digested plan for their government and civilization, which should
+be agreeable to themselves, would not only shield them from impending
+ruin, but promote their welfare and happiness. Experience has clearly
+demonstrated that in their present state it is impossible to incorporate
+them in such masses, in any form whatever, into our system. It has also
+demonstrated with equal certainty that without a timely anticipation
+of and provision against the dangers to which they are exposed, under
+causes which it will be difficult, if not impossible, to control, their
+degradation and extermination will be inevitable.
+
+The great object to be accomplished is the removal of these tribes to
+the territory designated on conditions which shall be satisfactory to
+themselves and honorable to the United States. This can be done only by
+conveying to each tribe a good title to an adequate portion of land to
+which it may consent to remove, and by providing for it there a system
+of internal government which shall protect their property from invasion,
+and, by the regular progress of improvement and civilization, prevent
+that degeneracy which has generally marked the transition from the one
+to the other state.
+
+I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, which presents
+the best estimate which can be formed, from the documents in that
+Department, of the number of Indians within our States and Territories
+and of the amount of lands held by the several tribes within each; of
+the state of the country lying northward and westward thereof, within
+our acknowledged boundaries; of the parts to which the Indian title has
+already been extinguished, and of the conditions on which other parts,
+in an amount which may be adequate to the object contemplated, may be
+obtained. By this report it appears that the Indian title has already
+been extinguished to extensive tracts in that quarter, and that other
+portions maybe acquired to the extent desired on very moderate
+conditions. Satisfied I also am that the removal proposed is not only
+practicable, but that the advantages attending it to the Indians may be
+made so apparent to them that all the tribes, even those most opposed,
+may be induced to accede to it at no very distant day.
+
+The digest of such a government, with the consent of the Indians,
+which should be endowed with sufficient power to meet all the objects
+contemplated--to connect the several tribes together in a bond of amity
+and preserve order in each; to prevent intrusions on their property;
+to teach them by regular instruction the arts of civilized life and make
+them a civilized people--is an object of very high importance. It is
+the powerful consideration which we have to offer to these tribes as
+an inducement to relinquish the lands on which they now reside and
+to remove to those which are designated. It is not doubted that this
+arrangement will present considerations of sufficient force to surmount
+all their prejudices in favor of the soil of their nativity, however
+strong they may be. Their elders have sufficient intelligence to discern
+the certain progress of events in the present train, and sufficient
+virtue, by yielding to momentary sacrifices, to protect their families
+and posterity from inevitable destruction. They will also perceive that
+they may thus attain an elevation to which as communities they could not
+otherwise aspire.
+
+To the United States the proposed arrangement offers many important
+advantages in addition to those which have been already enumerated.
+By the establishment of such a government over these tribes with
+their consent we become in reality their benefactors. The relation of
+conflicting interests which has heretofore existed between them and our
+frontier settlements will cease. There will be no more wars between them
+and the United States. Adopting such a government, their movement will
+be in harmony with us, and its good effect be felt throughout the whole
+extent of our territory to the Pacific. It may fairly be presumed that,
+through the agency of such a government, the condition of all the tribes
+inhabiting that vast region may be essentially improved; that permanent
+peace may be preserved with them, and our commerce be much extended.
+
+With a view to this important object I recommend it to Congress to
+adopt, by solemn declaration, certain fundamental principles in accord
+with those above suggested, as the basis of such arrangements as may
+be entered into with the several tribes, to the strict observance of
+which the faith of the nation shall be pledged, I recommend it also to
+Congress to provide by law for the appointment of a suitable number
+of commissioners who shall, under the direction of the President, be
+authorized to visit and explain to the several tribes the objects of
+the Government, and to make with them, according to their instructions,
+such arrangements as shall be best calculated to carry those objects
+into effect.
+
+A negotiation is now depending with the Creek Nation for the cession of
+lands held by it within the limits of Georgia, and with a reasonable
+prospect of success. It is presumed, however, that the result will not
+be known during the present session of Congress. To give effect to this
+negotiation and to the negotiations which it is proposed to hold with
+all the other tribes within the limits of the several States and
+Territories on the principles and for the purposes stated, it is
+recommended that an adequate appropriation be now made by Congress.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 27, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate a treaty concluded in this city with a
+deputation from the Choctaw Indians, accompanied with the report from
+the Secretary of War, with a copy of the correspondence connected with
+the negotiations, for the advice and consent of the Senate.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 2, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I communicate herewith to both Houses of Congress copies of the
+alterations in the treaty of peace and friendship of August, 1797,
+between the United States and the Bashaw Bey of Tunis, concluded at
+the Palace of Bardo, near Tunis, on the 24th of February last, and
+of treaties between the United States and the Sock and Fox tribes of
+Indians and the Ioway tribe of Indians, concluded at the city of
+Washington on the 4th of August last, which have been duly ratified.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 4, 1825_.
+
+The PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE OF THE SENATE:
+
+It appearing by certain provisions contained in a late act of the
+general assembly of Virginia, entitled "An act incorporating the
+Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company," that the assent of Congress will
+be necessary to carry the said act into effect, I herewith transmit
+a copy thereof, that it may be considered with a view to the object
+contemplated.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+[The same message was sent to the House of Representatives.]
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 7, 1825_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit herewith to the House a report from the Secretary of State,
+with copies of the correspondence relating to the claims of the citizens
+of the United States upon the Government of the Netherlands, requested
+by a resolution of the House of the 18th of January last.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 11, 1825_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
+January 5, I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of the Navy,
+with copies of the proceedings of the courts-martial in the cases of
+Lieutenants Weaver and Conner.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 14, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with a report
+to him by the Chief Engineer, of the examination which has been made by
+the Board of Engineers for Internal Improvement, in obedience to their
+instructions, of the country between the Potomac and Ohio rivers,
+between the latter and Lake Erie, between the Allegheny and Schuylkill
+rivers, the Delaware and the Raritan, between Buzzards and Barnstable
+bays, and the Narraganset roads and Boston Harbor, with explanatory
+observations on each route. From the view which I have taken of these
+reports I contemplate results of incalculable advantage to our Union,
+because I see in them the most satisfactory proof that certain
+impediments which had a tendency to embarrass the intercourse between
+some of its most important sections may be removed without serious
+difficulty, and that facilities may be afforded in other quarters which
+will have the happiest effect. Of the right in Congress to promote these
+great results by the appropriation of the public money, in harmony
+with the States to be affected by them, having already communicated
+my sentiments fully and on mature consideration, I deem it unnecessary
+to enlarge at this time.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 16, 1825_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary
+of State, containing the information called for by their resolution of
+the 1st of this month, touching the capture and detention of American
+fishermen during the last season.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 17, 1825_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I herewith transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of State,
+with copies of the correspondence with the Government of France,
+requested by the resolution of the House of the 25th of January last.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 17, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I invite the attention of Congress to the peculiar situation of this
+District in regard to the exposure of its inhabitants to contagious
+diseases from abroad, against which it is thought that adequate
+provision should now be made. The exposure being common to the whole
+District, the regulation should apply to the whole, to make which
+Congress alone possesses the adequate power. That the regulation should
+be made by Congress is the more necessary from the consideration that
+this being the seat of the Government, its protection against such
+diseases must form one of its principal objects.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 21, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, with a report
+to him from the Third Auditor, of the settlement in the amount stated
+of the claims of the State of Massachusetts for services rendered by
+the militia of that State in the late war, the payment of which has
+hitherto been prevented by causes which are well known to Congress.
+Having communicated my sentiments on this subject fully in a message
+bearing date on the 23d of February, 1824, it is unnecessary to repeat
+in detail here what I there advanced. By recurring to that message and
+to the documents referred to in it it will be seen that the conduct of
+the executive of that State in refusing to place the militia thereof at
+that difficult conjuncture under the direction of the Executive of the
+United States, as it was bound to do by a fair construction of the
+Constitution, and as the other States did, is the great cause to which
+the difficulty adverted to is to be ascribed. It will also be seen on a
+view of those documents that the executive of the State was warned at
+the time if it persevered in the refusal that the consequences which
+have followed would be inevitable; that the attitude assumed by the
+State formed a case which was not contemplated by the existing laws
+of the United States relating to militia services; that the payment
+of the claims of the State for such services could be provided for by
+Congress only and by a special law for the purpose. Having made this
+communication while acting in the Department of War to the governor
+of Massachusetts, with the sanction and under the direction of my
+enlightened and virtuous predecessor, it would be improper in any view
+which may be taken of the subject for me to change the ground then
+assumed, to withdraw this great question from the consideration of
+Congress, and to act on it myself. Had the Executive been in error,
+it is entitled to censure, making a just allowance for the motive which
+guided it. If its conduct was correct, the ground then assumed ought
+to be maintained by it. It belongs to Congress alone to terminate this
+distressing incident on just principles, with a view to the highest
+interests of our Union.
+
+From the view which I have taken of the subject I am confirmed in the
+opinion that Congress should now decide on the claim and allow to the
+State such portions thereof as are founded on the principles laid down
+in the former message. If those principles are correct, as on great
+consideration I am satisfied they are, it appears to me to be just
+in itself and of high importance that the sums which may be due in
+conformity therewith should no longer be withheld from the State.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 21, 1825_.
+
+The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE PRO TEMPORE:
+
+I transmit to the Senate a convention, signed by the plenipotentiaries
+of the United States and of the Republic of Colombia at Bogota on the
+10th of December, 1824, together with the documents appertaining to the
+negotiation of the same, for the constitutional consideration of the
+Senate with regard to its ratification,
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 21, 1825_.
+
+The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE PRO TEMPORE:
+
+I transmit to the Senate a convention of general peace, amity,
+navigation, and commerce, signed by the plenipotentiaries of the United
+States and of the Republic of Colombia at Bogota on the 3d of October,
+1824, together with the documents appertaining to the negotiation of the
+same, for the constitutional consideration of the Senate with regard to
+its ratification.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1825_.
+
+_To the House of Representatives_:
+
+I transmit to the House of Representatives a further report from the
+Secretary of State, in pursuance of their resolution of the 1st instant,
+with the papers to which it refers, upon the subject of the capture and
+detention of American fishermen the past season in the Bay of Fundy.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 25, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
+
+I communicate herewith to both Houses of Congress copies of the treaties
+between the United States and the Quapaw Nation of Indians, concluded at
+Harringtons, in the Territory of Arkansas, on the 15th day of November
+last, and between the United States and the Choctaw Nation of Indians,
+concluded at the city of Washington on the 20th day of January last,
+which have been duly ratified.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 26, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
+
+Just before the termination of the last session an act entitled "An
+act concerning wrecks on the coast of Florida," which then passed,
+was presented to me with many others and approved, and, as I thought,
+signed. A report to that effect was then made to Congress. It appeared,
+however, after the adjournment that the evidence of such approbation
+had not been attached to it. Whether the act may be considered in
+force under such circumstances is a point on which it belongs not
+to me to decide. To remove all doubt on the subject, I submit to the
+consideration of Congress the propriety of passing a declaratory act
+to that effect.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+WASHINGTON, _February 28, 1825_.
+
+_To the Senate of the United States_:
+
+I transmit to the Senate, for the exercise of its constitutional power,
+a treaty lately concluded at the Indian Springs, by commissioners of
+the United States duly authorized, with the chiefs of the Creek Nation,
+assembled there in council, with the documents connected therewith.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+PROCLAMATION.
+
+
+[From Senate Journal, Eighteenth Congress, second session, p. 269.]
+
+WASHINGTON, _January 19, 1825_.
+
+_The President of the United States to ------, Senator for the State
+of ------_:
+
+Certain matters touching the public good requiring that the Senate of
+the United States should be convened on Friday, the 4th day of March
+next, you are desired to attend at the Senate Chamber, in the city of
+Washington, on that day, then and there to receive and deliberate on
+such communications as shall be made to you.
+
+JAMES MONROE.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Compilation of the Messages and
+Papers of the Presidents, by James D. Richardson
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES MONROE ***
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