 |
The report from the Postmaster-General exhibits the condition of that Department as highly satisfactory for the present and still more promising for the future. Its receipts for the year ending the 1st of July last amounted to $1,473,551, and exceeded its expenditures by upward of $100,000. It can not be an oversanguine estimate to predict that in less than ten years, of which one-half have elapsed, the receipts will have been more than doubled. In the meantime a reduced expenditure upon established routes has kept pace with increased facilities of public accommodation and additional services have been obtained at reduced rates of compensation. Within the last year the transportation of the mail in stages has been greatly augmented. The number of post-offices has been increased to 7,000, and it may be anticipated that while the facilities of intercourse between fellow-citizens in person or by correspondence will soon be carried to the door of every villager in the Union, a yearly surplus of revenue will accrue which may be applied as the wisdom of Congress under the exercise of their constitutional powers may devise for the further establishment and improvement of the public roads, or by adding still further to the facilities in the transportation of the mails. Of the indications of the prosperous condition of our country, none can be more pleasing than those presented by the multiplying relations of personal and intimate intercourse between the citizens of the Union dwelling at the remotest distances from each other.
Among the subjects which have heretofore occupied the earnest solicitude and attention of Congress is the management and disposal of that portion of the property of the nation which consists of the public lands. The acquisition of them, made at the expense of the whole Union, not only in treasure but in blood, marks a right of property in them equally extensive. By the report and statements from the General Land Office now communicated it appears that under the present Government of the United States a sum little short of $33,000,000 has been paid from the common Treasury for that portion of this property which has been purchased from France and Spain, and for the extinction of the aboriginal titles. The amount of lands acquired is near 260,000,000 acres, of which on the 1st of January, 1826, about 139,000,000 acres had been surveyed, and little more than 19,000,000 acres had been sold. The amount paid into the Treasury by the purchasers of the public lands sold is not yet equal to the sums paid for the whole, but leaves a small balance to be refunded. The proceeds of the sales of the lands have long been pledged to the creditors of the nation, a pledge from which we have reason to hope that they will in a very few years be redeemed.
The system upon which this great national interest has been managed was the result of long, anxious, and persevering deliberation. Matured and modified by the progress of our population and the lessons of experience, it has been hitherto eminently successful. More than nine-tenths of the lands still remain the common property of the Union, the appropriation and disposal of which are sacred trusts in the hands of Congress. Of the lands sold, a considerable part were conveyed under extended credits, which in the vicissitudes and fluctuations in the value of lands and of their produce became oppressively burdensome to the purchasers. It can never be the interest or the policy of the nation to wring from its own citizens the reasonable profits of their industry and enterprise by holding them to the rigorous import of disastrous engagements. In March, 1821, a debt of $22,000,000, due by purchasers of the public lands, had accumulated, which they were unable to pay. An act of Congress of the 2d March, 1821, came to their relief, and has been succeeded by others, the latest being the act of the 4th of May, 1826, the indulgent provisions of which expired on the 4th July last. The effect of these laws has been to reduce the debt from the purchasers to a remaining balance of about $4,300,000 due, more than three-fifths of which are for lands within the State of Alabama. I recommend to Congress the revival and continuance for a further term of the beneficent accommodations to the public debtors of that statute, and submit to their consideration, in the same spirit of equity, the remission, under proper discriminations, of the forfeitures of partial payments on account of purchases of the public lands, so far as to allow of their application to other payments.
There are various other subjects of deep interest to the whole Union which have heretofore been recommended to the consideration of Congress, as well by my predecessors as, under the impression of the duties devolving upon me, by myself. Among these are the debt, rather of justice than gratitude, to the surviving warriors of the Revolutionary war; the extension of the judicial administration of the Federal Government to those extensive and important members of the Union which, having risen into existence since the organization of the present judiciary establishment, now constitute at least one-third of its territory, power, and population; the formation of a more effective and uniform system for the government of the militia, and the amelioration in some form or modification of the diversified and often oppressive codes relating to insolvency. Amidst the multiplicity of topics of great national concernment which may recommend themselves to the calm and patriotic deliberations of the Legislature, it may suffice to say that on these and all other measures which may receive their sanction my hearty cooperation will be given, conformably to the duties enjoined upon me and under the sense of all the obligations prescribed by the Constitution.
John Quincy Adams.
* * * * *
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
Washington, December 6, 1827. To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 19th of February last, requesting a statement of all the expenses annually incurred in carrying into effect the act of March 2, 1819, for prohibiting the slave trade, including the cost of keeping the ships of war on the coast of Africa and all the incidental expenses growing out of the operation of that act, I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with the statement, so far as it can be made, required by the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, December 11, 1827. To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate—
1. A convention between the United States and Great Britain for the continuance in force of the convention of 3d July, 1815, after the 20th October, 1828, the term at which it would otherwise expire.
2. A convention between the same parties for continuing in force after the 20th October, 1828, the provisions of the third article of the convention of 20th October, 1818, in relation to the territories westward of the Rocky Mountains.
3. A convention between the same parties for the reference to a friendly sovereign of the points of difference between them relating to the northeastern boundary of the United States.
The first and second of these conventions were signed by the plenipotentiaries of the respective parties at London on the 6th day of August and the third on the 29th day of September last.
Copies of them are also communicated, together with the correspondence and documents illustrative of their negotiation.
I request the advice of the Senate with regard to the ratification of each of them.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, December 11, 1827
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate, for their advice with regard to its ratification, a treaty of commerce and navigation between the United States and the Kingdom of. Sweden and Norway, signed at Stockholm by the plenipotentiaries of the two Governments on the 4th day of July last.
A copy of the treaty, with a translation, and the instructions and correspondence relating to the negotiation are also communicated.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, December 12, 1827
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit herewith to Congress copies of a report of the surveyor-general of lands northwest of Ohio, with a plat of the northern boundary line of the State of Indiana, surveyed in conformity to the act of Congress to authorize the President of the United States to ascertain and designate the northern boundary of the State of Indiana, passed the 2d of March, 1827.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, December 24, 1827
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 14th instant, requesting a communication of the instructions to the American minister at London for the negotiation of the convention of the 13th of November, 1826, with Great Britain, for indemnity to the claimants under the first article of the treaty of Ghent, together with the letters of the minister accompanying and explaining the said convention, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, together with the documents desired.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 4, 1828
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 19th of last month, I communicate herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with copies of the correspondence with the British Government relating to the establishment of light-houses, light-vessels, buoys, and other improvements to the navigation within their jurisdiction, opposite to the coast of Florida, referred to in the resolution,
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 7, 1828.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 17th of last month, I transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of State and the correspondence with the Government of Great Britain relative to the free navigation of the river St. Lawrence.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 9, 1828.
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 7th instant, I transmit herewith Mitchell's map and the map marked A,[013] as requested by the resolution, desiring that when the Senate shall have no further use for them they may be returned.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 15, 1828.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 2d instant, requesting information respecting the recovery of debts and property in the Mexican States from persons absconding from the United States, and also respecting the boundary between the State of Louisiana and the Province of Texas, I now transmit a report from the Secretary of State on the subject-matter of the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 22, 1828.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate, for their consideration and advice, articles of agreement signed at the Creek Agency on the 15th of November last by Thomas L. McKenney and John Crowell in behalf of the United States and by the Little Prince and other chiefs and headmen of the Creek Nation, with a supplementary article concluded by the said John Crowell with the chiefs and headmen of the nation in general council convened on the 3d instant, embracing a cession by the Creek Nation of all the remnant of their lands within the State of Georgia. Documents connected with the negotiation of the treaty and the instructions under which it was effected are also communicated to the Senate.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 22, 1828.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
By the report of the Secretary of War and the documents from that Department exhibited to Congress at the commencement of their present session they were advised of the measures taken for carrying into execution the act of 4th May, 1826, to authorize the President of the United States to run and mark a line dividing the Territory of Florida from the State of Georgia, and of their unsuccessful result. I now transmit to Congress copies of communications received from the governor of Georgia relating to that subject.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 23, 1828.
To the Senate of the United States:
A resolution of the Senate of the 9th instant requested information relative to the trade between the United States and the colonies of France. A report from the Secretary of State, with a translation of the ordinance of the King of France of the 5th of February, 1826, is herewith transmitted, containing the information desired by the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 28, 1828.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate—
1. A treaty concluded at the Butte des Morts, on Fox River, in the Territory of Michigan, on 11th of August, 1827, between Lewis Cass and Thomas L. McKenney, commissioners of the United States, and the chiefs and headmen of the Chippewa, Menomonie, and Winnebago tribes of Indians.
2. A treaty concluded at St. Joseph, in the Territory of Michigan, on the 19th of September, 1827, between Lewis Cass, commissioner of the United States, and the chiefs and warriors of the Potawatamie tribe of Indians.
Upon which treaties I request the advice of the Senate. The instructions and other documents relating to the negotiation of them are here-with communicated.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 29.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
A report from the Secretary of State, with copies of a recent correspondence between the charge d'affaires from Brazil and him on the subjects of discussion between this Government and that of Brazil,[014] is transmitted to the House of Representatives, in compliance with a resolution of the House of the 2d instant.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, February 6, 1828.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I communicate herewith to Congress copies of a treaty of commerce and navigation between the United States and His Majesty the King of Sweden and Norway, concluded at Stockholm on the 4th of July, 1827, and the ratifications of which were exchanged on the 18th ultimo at this city.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, February 14, 1828
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 11th instant, requesting copies of the instructions to Andrew Ellicott, commissioner for running the line between the United States and Spain, and of any journal or report of the commissioners, I communicate herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with the documents requested, so far as they are found in the files of that Department.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, February 21, 1828
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
In transmitting to Congress copies of a communication received from the governor of Pennsylvania, with certain resolutions of the legislature of that Commonwealth, relating to the Cumberland road, I deem it my duty to recommend to the consideration of Congress an adequate provision for the permanent preservation and repair of that great national work.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, March 3, 1828.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary of State, with documents, containing the instructions of the Government of the United States to Thomas Pinckney under which was negotiated the treaty of San Lorenzo el Real, and relating to the boundary line between the United States and the dominions, at that time, of Spain as requested by a resolution of the House of the 18th ultimo.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, March 3, 1828.
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 3d of January last, requesting the communication of information in my possession relative to alleged aggression on the rights of citizens of the United States by persons claiming authority under the government of the Province of New Brunswick, I communicate a report from the Secretary of State, with a copy of that of the special agent mentioned in my message at the commencement of the present session of Congress as having been sent to visit the spot where the cause of complaint had occurred to ascertain the state of the facts, and the result of whose inquiries I then promised to communicate to Congress when it should be received.
The Senate are requested to receive this communication as the fulfillment of that engagement; and in making it I deem it proper to notice with just acknowledgment the liberality with which the minister of His Britannic Majesty residing here and the government of the Province of New Brunswick have furnished the agent of the United States with every facility for the attainment of the information which it was the object of his mission to procure.
Considering the exercise of exclusive territorial jurisdiction upon the grounds in controversy by the government of New Brunswick in the arrest and imprisonment of John Baker as incompatible with the mutual understanding existing between the Governments of the United States and of Great Britain on this subject, a demand has been addressed to the provincial authorities through the minister of Great Britain for the release of that individual from prison, and of indemnity to him for his detention'. In doing this it has not been intended to maintain the regularity of his own proceedings or of those with whom he was associated, to which they were not authorized by any sovereign authority of this country.
The documents appended to the report of the agent being original papers belonging to the files of the Department of State, a return of them is requested when the Senate shall have no further use for them.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, March 7, 1828.
To the Senate of the United States:
The resolution of the Senate of the 28th ultimo, requesting me to cause to be laid before the Senate all papers which might be in the Department of War relating to the treaty concluded at the Butte des Morts, on Fox River, between Lewis Cass and Thomas L. McKenney, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the Chippewa, Menomonie, and Winnebago tribes of Indians, having been referred to the Secretary of War, the report of that officer thereon is herewith inclosed. The papers therein referred to were all transmitted to the Senate with the treaty. Before that event, however, a petition and several other papers had been addressed directly to me, in behalf of certain Indians originally and in part still residing within the State of New York, objecting to the ratification of the treaty, as affecting injuriously their rights and interests. The treaty was itself withheld from the Senate until it was understood at the War Department and by me that by the consent of the persons representing the New York Indians their objections were withdrawn, as by one of them, the Reverend Eleazer Williams, I was personally assured. Those papers, however, addressed directly to me, and which have not been upon the files of the War Department, are now transmitted to the Senate.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, March 14, 1828.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate, for their consideration and advice, a treaty concluded at the Wyandot village, near the Wabash, in the State of Indiana, between John Tipton, commissioner on the part of the United States, and the chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the Eel River or Thorntown party of Miami Indians, on the 11th day of February last.
A letter from the commissioner to the Secretary of War, with a copy of the journal of the proceedings which led to the conclusion of the treaty, are communicated with it to the Senate.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, March 15, 1828.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of the 21st ultimo, requesting me to lay before the House correspondence not heretofore communicated between the Government of the United States and that of Great Britain on the subject of the claims of the two Governments to the territory westward of the Rocky Mountains, I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State, with the documents requested by the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, March 21, 1828.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit to Congress copies of a treaty concluded on the 15th day of November, 1827, by commissioners of the United States and the chiefs and headmen of the Creek Nation of Indians, which was duly ratified on the 4th instant.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, March 22, 1828.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 3d instant, touching the formation of a new government by the Cherokee tribe of Indians within the States of North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama, and requesting copies of certain correspondence relating thereto, I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary of War, together with the documents desired by the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, March 25, 1828.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, prepared in compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 25th of February last, requesting copies of instructions and correspondence relating to the settlement of the boundary lines of the United States, or any one of them, under the Government of the Confederated States and by the definitive treaty of peace of 3d September, 1783, with Great Britain.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, April 8, 1828
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 22d ultimo, on the subject of the treaty with the Creek Nation of Indians of the 15th November last, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, with the documents, containing the information desired by the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, April 15, 1828.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with the resolution of the House of the 9th instant, requesting copies of the charges preferred against the agent of the United States for the Creek tribe of Indians since the 1st of January, 1826, and of proceedings had thereon, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, with documents, containing the information desired by the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, April 17, 1828.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
In conformity with the practice of all my predecessors, I have during my service in the office of President transmitted to the two Houses of Congress from time to time, by the same private secretary, such messages as a proper discharge of my constitutional duty appeared to me to require. On Tuesday last he was charged with the delivery of a message to each House. Having presented that which was intended for the House of Representatives, whilst he was passing, within the Capitol, from their Hall to the Chamber of the Senate, for the purpose of delivering the other message, he was waylaid and assaulted in the Rotunda by a person, in the presence of a member of the House, who interposed and separated the parties.
I have thought it my duty to communicate this occurrence to Congress, to whose wisdom it belongs to consider whether it is of a nature requiring from them any animadversion, and also whether any further laws or regulations are necessary to insure security in the official intercourse between the President and Congress, and to prevent disorders within the Capitol itself.
In the deliberations of Congress upon this subject it is neither expected nor desired that any consequence shall be attached to the private relation in which my secretary stands to me.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, April 21, 1828.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate, for their consideration and advice, a treaty of limits between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, concluded by the plenipotentiaries of the two Governments on the 12th of January last. A copy of the treaty and the protocols of conference between the plenipotentiaries during the negotiation are inclosed with it.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, April 22,1828.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
A copy of the opinion of the Attorney-General, dated 17th May, 1826, upon the construction of the award of the Emperor of Russia under the treaty of Ghent and upon certain questions propounded to him in relation thereto, subjoined to a report from the Secretary of State, are herewith communicated to the House, in compliance with their resolution of the 17th instant.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, April 24, 1828.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate, for the exercise of their constitutional authority thereon, a treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, signed by their respective plenipotentiaries on the 14th of February last, with a copy of the treaty and the protocols of conference during and subsequent to the negotiation.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, April 28,1828.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 9th instant, requesting a communication of the correspondence between this Government and that of Great Britain on the subject of the trade between the United States and the British colonial possessions in the West Indies and North America, not heretofore communicated, I transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of State, with the correspondence desired.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, April 30, 1828.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
In the month of December last 121 African negroes were landed at Key West from a Spanish slave-trading vessel stranded within the jurisdiction of the United States while pursued by an armed schooner in His Britannic Majesty's service. The collector of the customs at Key West took possession of these persons, who were afterwards delivered over to the marshal of the Territory of East Florida, by whom they were conveyed to St. Augustine, where they still remain.
Believing that the circumstances under which they have been cast upon the compassion of the country are not embraced by the provisions of the act of Congress of 3d March, 1819, or of the other acts prohibiting the slave trade, I submit to the consideration of Congress the expediency of a supplementary act directing and authorizing such measures as may be necessary for removing them from the territory of the United States and for fulfilling toward them the obligations of humanity.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, May 1, 1828. To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 17th ultimo, relating to the removal of the Indian agency from Fort Wayne, in the State of Indiana, I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with the documents and information requested by the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, May 5, 1828.
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 30th ultimo, requesting information concerning any regulation of the Government of Brazil relative to the reduction of certain duties, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, exhibiting the information received at that Department on the subject.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, May 5,1828.
To the Senate of the United States:
I communicate to the Senate, for their consideration and advice, a treaty of commerce and navigation between the United States and His Majesty the King of Prussia, signed on the 1st instant at this place by the Secretary of State and the charge d'affaires of Prussia residing here. A copy of the treaty is also transmitted.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, May 9, 1828.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
The report of the Secretary of War herewith transmitted, with the documents annexed, contains the information requested by a resolution of the 3d of April last, relating to the payments made to the citizens of Georgia under the fourth article of the treaty with the Creek Nation of 8th February, 1821, and to the disallowances of certain claims exhibited under that treaty, and to the reasons for rejecting the same.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, May 12, 1828.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate, for their consideration and advice, the articles of a convention concluded at this place on the 6th instant between the Secretary of War and the chiefs and headmen of the Cherokee Nation west of the Mississippi, duly authorized by their nation. A report from the Secretary of War, with certain documents, and a map illustrative of the convention are submitted with it to the Senate.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, May 16, 1828.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
By a communication received from the charge d'affaires of Prussia, a translation of which is herewith transmitted, it appears that in the ports of that Kingdom all discriminating duties so far as they affected the vessels of the United States and their cargoes have been abolished since the 15th of April, 1826. I recommend to the consideration of Congress a legislative provision whereby the reciprocal application of the same principle may be extended to Prussian vessels and their cargoes which may have arrived in the ports of the United States from and after that day.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, May 19, 1828.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit to Congress copies of three conventions concluded between the United States of America and His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the ratifications of which were exchanged at London on the 2d of last month:
1. A convention concluded 6th August, 1827, for continuing in force the provisions of the convention of 3d July, 1815.
2. A convention concluded 6th August, 1827, for continuing in force the provisions of the third article of the convention of 20th October, 1818.
3. A convention concluded 29th September, 1827, for carrying into effect the provisions of the fifth article of the treaty of Ghent in relation to the northeastern boundary of the United States.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, May 21, 1828.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit to the House a report[015] from the Secretary of State, with a copy of the note of the minister of the United States to Spain dated 20th January, 1826, requested by a resolution of the House of the 19th instant.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, May 22, 1828.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
The inclosed report from the Secretary of State is accompanied by copies of the correspondence between this Government and the minister of His Britannic Majesty residing here relating to the arrest and imprisonment of John Baker,[016] requested by a recent resolution of the House.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, May 22, 1828.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit to Congress copies of a treaty between the United States of America and the Eel River or Thornton party of Miami Indians, concluded on the 11th of February last at the Wyandot village, near the Wabash, and duly ratified on the 7th instant.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, May 23, 1828.
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 8th instant, relating to the accounts and official conduct of Thomas A. Smith, receiver of public moneys at Franklin, Mo., I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, with documents, containing the information desired by the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, May 23, 1828.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 30th ultimo, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with copies of the correspondence[017] with the Brazilian Government, and shewing the measures taken by the Government of the United States in relation to the several topics noticed in the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
* * * * *
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 7th of January, 1824, entitled "An act concerning discriminating duties of tonnage and impost," it is provided that upon satisfactory evidence being given to the President of the United States by the government of any foreign nation that no discriminating duties of tonnage or impost are imposed or levied within the ports of the said nation upon vessels belonging wholly to citizens of the United States or upon merchandise the produce or manufacture thereof imported in the same, the President is thereby authorized to issue his proclamation declaring that the foreign discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the United States are and shall be suspended and discontinued so far as respects the vessels of the said nation and the merchandise of its produce or manufacture imported into the United States in the same, the said suspension to take effect from the time of such notification being given to the President of the United States, and to continue so long as the reciprocal exemption of vessels belonging to citizens of the United States and merchandise as aforesaid thereon laden shall be continued, and no longer; and
Whereas satisfactory evidence has been received by me from His Britannic Majesty, as King of Hanover, through the Right Honorable Charles Richard Vaughan, his envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, that vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the United States or merchandise the produce or manufacture thereof imported in such vessels are not nor shall be on their entering any Hanoverian port subject to the payment of higher duties of tonnage or impost than are levied on Hanoverian ships or merchandise the produce or manufacture of the United States imported in such vessels:
Now, therefore, I, John Quincy Adams, 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 the vessels of the Kingdom of Hanover and vessels of the United States and between goods imported into the United States in vessels of the Kingdom of Hanover and vessels of the United States are suspended and discontinued so far as the same respect the produce or manufacture of the said Kingdom of Hanover, the said suspension to take effect this day and to continue henceforward so long as the reciprocal exemption of the vessels of the United States and of the merchandise laden therein as aforesaid shall be continued in the ports of the Kingdom of Hanover.
Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 1st day of July, A. D. 1828, and the fifty-second year of the Independence of the United States.
John Quincy Adams.
By the President:
H. Clay, Secretary of State.
* * * * *
EXECUTIVE ORDER.
Department of War, February 28, 1828.
The Secretary of War, by direction of the President of the United States, announces to the Army the painful intelligence of the decease (the 24th of February) of Major-General Brown.
To say that he was one of the men who have rendered most important services to his country would fall far short of the tribute due to his character. Uniting with the most unaffected simplicity the highest degree of personal valor and of intellectual energy, he stands preeminent before the world and for after ages in that band of heroic spirits who upon the ocean and the land formed and sustained during the second war with Great Britain the martial reputation of their country. To this high and honorable purpose General Brown may be truly said to have sacrificed his life, for the disease which abridged his days and has terminated his career at a period scarcely beyond the meridian of manhood undoubtedly originated in the hardships of his campaigns on the Canada frontier, and in that glorious wound which, though desperate, could not remove him from the field of battle till it was won.
Quick to perceive, sagacious to anticipate, prompt to decide, and daring in execution, he was born with the qualities which constitute a great commander. His military coup d'oeil his intuitive penetration, his knowledge of men and his capacity to control them were known to all his companions in arms, and commanded their respect; while the gentleness of his disposition, the courtesy of his deportment, his scrupulous regard to their rights, his constant attention to their wants, and his affectionate attachment to their persons universally won their hearts and bound them to him as a father.
Calm and collected in the presence of the enemy, he was withal tender of human life; in the hour of battle more sparing of the blood of the soldier than his own. In the hour of victory the vanquished enemy found in him a humane and compassionate friend. Not one drop of blood shed in wantonness or cruelty sullies the purity of his fame. Defeat he was never called to endure, but in the crisis of difficulty and danger he displayed untiring patience and fortitude not to be overcome.
Such was the great and accomplished captain whose loss the Army has now, in common with their fellow-citizens of all classes, to deplore. While indulging the kindly impulses of nature and yielding the tribute of a tear upon his grave, let it not be permitted to close upon his bright example as it must upon his mortal remains. Let him be more nobly sepulchered in the hearts of his fellow-soldiers, and his imperishable monument be found in their endeavors to emulate his virtues.
The officers of the Army will wear the badge of mourning for six months on the left arm and hilt of the sword. Guns will be fired at each military post at intervals of thirty minutes from the rising to the setting of the sun on the day succeeding the arrival of this order, during which the National flag will be suspended at half-mast.
James Barbour.
* * * * *
FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
Washington, December 2, 1828.
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
If the enjoyment in profusion of the bounties of Providence forms a suitable subject of mutual gratulation and grateful acknowledgment, we are admonished at this return of the season when the representatives of the nation are assembled to deliberate upon their concerns to offer up the tribute of fervent and grateful hearts for the never-failing mercies of Him who ruleth over all. He has again favored us with healthful seasons and abundant harvests; He has sustained us in peace with foreign countries and in tranquillity within our borders; He has preserved us in the quiet and undisturbed possession of civil and religious liberty; He has crowned the year with His goodness, imposing on us no other conditions than of improving for our own happiness the blessings bestowed by His hands, and, in the fruition of all His favors, of devoting the faculties with which we have been endowed by Him to His glory and to our own temporal and eternal welfare.
In the relations of our Federal Union with our brethren of the human race the changes which have occurred since the close of your last session have generally tended to the preservation of peace and to the cultivation of harmony. Before your last separation a war had unhappily been kindled between the Empire of Russia, one of those with which our intercourse has been no other than a constant exchange of good offices, and that of the Ottoman Porte, a nation from which geographical distance, religious opinions and maxims of government on their part little suited to the formation of those bonds of mutual benevolence which result from the benefits of commerce had kept us in a state, perhaps too much prolonged, of coldness and alienation. The extensive, fertile, and populous dominions of the Sultan belong rather to the Asiatic than the European division of the human family. They enter but partially into the system of Europe, nor have their wars with Russia and Austria, the European States upon which they border, for more than a century past disturbed the pacific relations of those States with the other great powers of Europe. Neither France nor Prussia nor Great Britain has ever taken part in them, nor is it to be expected that they will at this time. The declaration of war by Russia has received the approbation or acquiescence of her allies, and we may indulge the hope that its progress and termination will be signalized by the moderation and forbearance no less than by the energy of the Emperor Nicholas, and that it will afford the opportunity for such collateral agency in behalf of the suffering Greeks as will secure to them ultimately the triumph of humanity and of freedom.
The state of our particular relations with France has scarcely varied in the course of the present year. The commercial intercourse between the two countries has continued to increase for the mutual benefit of both. The claims of indemnity to numbers of our fellow-citizens for depredations upon their property, heretofore committed during the revolutionary governments, remain unadjusted, and still form the subject of earnest representation and remonstrance. Recent advices from the minister of the United States at Paris encourage the expectation that the appeal to the justice of the French Government will ere long receive a favorable consideration.
The last friendly expedient has been resorted to for the decision of the controversy with Great Britain relating to the northeastern boundary of the United States. By an agreement with the British Government, carrying into effect the provisions of the fifth article of the treaty of Ghent, and the convention of 29th September, 1827, His Majesty the King of the Netherlands has by common consent been selected as the umpire between the parties. The proposal to him to accept the designation for the performance of this friendly office will be made at an early day, and the United States, relying upon the justice of their cause, will cheerfully commit the arbitrament of it to a prince equally distinguished for the independence of his spirit, his indefatigable assiduity to the duties of his station, and his inflexible personal probity.
Our commercial relations with Great Britain will deserve the serious consideration of Congress and the exercise of a conciliatory and forbearing spirit in the policy of both Governments. The state of them has been materially changed by the act of Congress, passed at their last session, in alteration of the several acts imposing duties on imports, and by acts of more recent date of the British Parliament. The effect of the interdiction of direct trade, commenced by Great Britain and reciprocated by the United States, has been, as was to be foreseen, only to substitute different channels for an exchange of commodities indispensable to the colonies and profitable to a numerous class of our fellow-citizens. The exports, the revenue, the navigation of the United States have suffered no diminution by our exclusion from direct access to the British colonies. The colonies pay more dearly for the necessaries of life which their Government burdens with the charges of double voyages, freight, insurance, and commission, and the profits of our exports are somewhat impaired and more injuriously transferred from one portion of our citizens to another. The resumption of this old and otherwise exploded system of colonial exclusion has not secured to the shipping interest of Great Britain the relief which, at the expense of the distant colonies and of the United States, it was expected to afford. Other measures have been resorted to more pointedly bearing upon the navigation of the United States, and which, unless modified by the construction given to the recent acts of Parliament, will be manifestly incompatible with the positive stipulations of the commercial convention existing between the two countries. That convention, however, may be terminated with twelve months' notice, at the option of either party.
A treaty of amity, navigation, and commerce between the United States and His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, has been prepared for signature by the Secretary of State and by the Baron de Lederer, intrusted with full powers of the Austrian Government. Independently of the new and friendly relations which may be thus commenced with one of the most eminent and powerful nations of the earth, the occasion has been taken in it, as in other recent treaties concluded by the United States, to extend those principles of liberal intercourse and of fair reciprocity which intertwine with the exchanges of commerce the principles of justice and the feelings of mutual benevolence. This system, first proclaimed to the world in the first commercial treaty ever concluded by the United States—that of 6th February, 1778, with France—has been invariably the cherished policy of our Union. It is by treaties of commerce alone that it can be made ultimately to prevail as the established system of all civilized nations. With this principle our fathers extended the hand of friendship to every nation of the globe, and to this policy our country has ever since adhered. Whatever of regulation in our laws has ever been adopted unfavorable to the interest of any foreign nation has been essentially defensive and counteracting to similar regulations of theirs operating against us.
Immediately after the close of the War of Independence commissioners were appointed by the Congress of the Confederation authorized to conclude treaties with every nation of Europe disposed to adopt them. Before the wars of the French Revolution such treaties had been consummated with the United Netherlands, Sweden, and Prussia. During those wars treaties with Great Britain and Spain had been effected, and those with Prussia and France renewed. In all these some concessions to the liberal principles of intercourse proposed by the United States had been obtained; but as in all the negotiations they came occasionally in collision with previous internal regulations or exclusive and excluding compacts of monopoly with which the other parties had been trammeled, the advances made in them toward the freedom of trade were partial and imperfect. Colonial establishments, chartered companies, and shipbuilding influence pervaded and encumbered the legislation of all the great commercial states; and the United States, in offering free trade and equal privilege to all, were compelled to acquiesce in many exceptions with each of the parties to their treaties, accommodated to their existing laws and anterior engagements.
The colonial system by which this whole hemisphere was bound has fallen into ruins, totally abolished by revolutions converting colonies into independent nations throughout the two American continents, excepting a portion of territory chiefly at the northern extremity of our own, and confined to the remnants of dominion retained by Great Britain over the insular archipelago, geographically the appendages of our part of the globe. With all the rest we have free trade, even with the insular colonies of all the European nations, except Great Britain. Her Government also had manifested approaches to the adoption of a free and liberal intercourse between her colonies and other nations, though by a sudden and scarcely explained revulsion the spirit of exclusion has been revived for operation upon the United States alone.
The conclusion of our last treaty of peace with Great Britain was shortly afterwards followed by a commercial convention, placing the direct intercourse between the two countries upon a footing of more equal reciprocity than had ever before been admitted. The same principle has since been much further extended by treaties with France, Sweden, Denmark, the Hanseatic cities, Prussia, in Europe, and with the Republics of Colombia and of Central America, in this hemisphere. The mutual abolition of discriminating duties and charges upon the navigation and commercial intercourse between the parties is the general maxim which characterizes them all. There is reason to expect that it will at no distant period be adopted by other nations, both of Europe and America, and to hope that by its universal prevalence one of the fruitful sources of wars of commercial competition will be extinguished.
Among the nations upon whose Governments many of our fellow-citizens have had long-pending claims of indemnity for depredations upon their property during a period when the rights of neutral commerce were disregarded was that of Denmark. They were soon after the events occurred the subject of a special mission from the United States, at the close of which the assurance was given by His Danish Majesty that at a period of more tranquillity and of less distress they would be considered, examined, and decided upon in a spirit of determined purpose for the dispensation of justice. I have much pleasure in informing Congress that the fulfillment of this honorable promise is now in progress; that a small portion of the claims has already been settled to the satisfaction of the claimants, and that we have reason to hope that the remainder will shortly be placed in a train of equitable adjustment. This result has always been confidently expected, from the character of personal integrity and of benevolence which the Sovereign of the Danish dominions has through every vicissitude of fortune maintained.
The general aspect of the affairs of our highborn American nations of the south has been rather of approaching than of settled tranquillity. Internal disturbances have been more frequent among them than their common friends would have desired. Our intercourse with all has continued to be that of friendship and of mutual good will. Treaties of commerce and of boundaries with the United Mexican States have been negotiated, but, from various successive obstacles, not yet brought to a final conclusion.
The civil war which unfortunately still prevails in the Republics of Central America has been unpropitious to the cultivation of our commercial relations with them; and the dissensions and revolutionary changes in the Republics of Colombia and of Peru have been seen with cordial regret by us, who would gladly contribute to the happiness of both. It is with great satisfaction, however, that we have witnessed the recent conclusion of a peace between the Governments of Buenos Ayres and of Brazil, and it is equally gratifying to observe that indemnity has been obtained for some of the injuries which our fellow-citizens had sustained in the latter of those countries. The rest are in a train of negotiation, which we hope may terminate to mutual satisfaction, and that it may be succeeded by a treaty of commerce and navigation, upon liberal principles, propitious to a great and growing commerce, already important to the interests of our country.
The condition and prospects of the revenue are more favorable than our most sanguine expectations had anticipated. The balance in the Treasury on the 1st of January last, exclusive of the moneys received under the convention of 13th of November, 1826, with Great Britain, was $5,861,972.83. The receipts into the Treasury from the 1st of January to the 30th of September last, so far as they have been ascertained to form the basis of an estimate, amount to $18,633,580.27, which, with the receipts of the present quarter, estimated at $5,461,283.40, form an aggregate of receipts during the year of $24,094,863.67. The expenditures of the year may probably amount to $25,637,111.63, and leave in the Treasury on the 1st of January next the sum of $5,125,638.14.
The receipts of the present year have amounted to near two millions more than was anticipated at the commencement of the last session of Congress.
The amount of duties secured on importations from the 1st of January to the 30th of September was about $22,997,000, and that of the estimated accruing revenue is five millions, forming an aggregate for the year of near twenty-eight millions. This is one million more than the estimate made last December for the accruing revenue of the present year, which, with allowances for drawbacks and contingent deficiencies, was expected to produce an actual revenue of $22,300,000. Had these only been realized the expenditures of the year would have been also proportionally reduced, for of these twenty-four millions received upward of nine millions have been applied to the extinction of public debt, bearing an interest of 6 per cent a year, and of course reducing the burden of interest annually payable in future by the amount of more than half a million. The payments on account of interest during the current year exceed $3,000,000, presenting an aggregate of more than twelve millions applied during the year to the discharge of the public debt, the whole of which remaining due on the 1st of January next will amount only to $58,362,135.78.
That the revenue of the ensuing year will not fall short of that received in the one now expiring there are indications which can scarcely prove deceptive. In our country an uniform experience of forty years has shown that whatever the tariff of duties upon articles imported from abroad has been, the amount of importations has always borne an average value nearly approaching to that of the exports, though occasionally differing in the balance, sometimes being more and sometimes less. It is, indeed, a general law of prosperous commerce that the real value of exports should by a small, and only a small, balance exceed that of imports, that balance being a permanent addition to the wealth of the nation. The extent of the prosperous commerce of the nation must be regulated by the amount of its exports, and an important addition to the value of these will draw after it a corresponding increase of importations. It has happened in the vicissitudes of the seasons that the harvests of all Europe have in the late summer and autumn fallen short of their usual average. A relaxation of the interdict upon the importation of grain and flour from abroad has ensued, a propitious market has been opened to the granaries of our country, and a new prospect of reward presented to the labors of the husbandman, which for several years has been denied. This accession to the profits of agriculture in the middle and western portions of our Union is accidental and temporary. It may continue only for a single year. It may be, as has been often experienced in the revolutions of time, but the first of several scanty harvests in succession. We may consider it certain that for the approaching year it has added an item of large amount to the value of our exports and that it will produce a corresponding increase of importations. It may therefore confidently be foreseen that the revenue of 1829 will equal and probably exceed that of 1828, and will afford the means of extinguishing ten millions more of the principal of the public debt.
This new element of prosperity to that part of our agricultural industry which is occupied in producing the first article of human subsistence is of the most cheering character to the feelings of patriotism. Proceeding from a cause which humanity will view with concern, the sufferings of scarcity in distant lands, it yields a consolatory reflection that this scarcity is in no respect attributable to us; that it comes from the dispensation of Him who ordains all in wisdom and goodness, and who permits evil itself only as an instrument of good; that, far from contributing to this scarcity, our agency will be applied only to the alleviation of its severity, and that in pouring forth from the abundance of our own garners the supplies which will partially restore plenty to those who are in heed we shall ourselves reduce our stores and add to the price of our own bread, so as in some degree to participate in the wants which it will be the good fortune of our country to relieve.
The great interests of an agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing nation are so linked in union together that no permanent cause of prosperity to one of them can operate without extending its influence to the others. All these interests are alike under the protecting power of the legislative authority, and the duties of the representative bodies are to conciliate them in harmony together. So far as the object of taxation is to raise a revenue for discharging the debts and defraying the expenses of the community, its operation should be adapted as much as possible to suit the burden with equal hand upon all in proportion with their ability of bearing it without oppression. But the legislation of one nation is sometimes intentionally made to bear heavily upon the interests of another. That legislation, adapted, as it is meant to be, to the special interests of its own people, will often press most unequally upon the several component interests of its neighbors. Thus the legislation of Great Britain, when, as has recently been avowed, adapted to the depression of a rival nation, will naturally abound with regulations of interdict upon the productions of the soil or industry of the other which come in competition with its own, and will present encouragement, perhaps even bounty, to the raw material of the other State which it can not produce itself, and which is essential for the use of its manufactures, competitors in the markets of the world with those of its commercial rival. Such is the state of the commercial legislation of Great Britain as it bears upon our interests. It excludes with interdicting duties all importation (except in time of approaching famine) of the great staple of productions of our Middle and Western States; it proscribes with equal rigor the bulkier lumber and live stock of the same portion and also of the Northern and Eastern part of our Union. It refuses even the rice of the South unless aggravated with a charge of duty upon the Northern carrier who brings it to them. But the cotton, indispensable for their looms, they will receive almost duty free to weave it into a fabric for our own wear, to the destruction of our own manufactures, which they are enabled thus to undersell.
Is the self-protecting energy of this nation so helpless that there exists in the political institutions of our country no power to counteract the bias of this foreign legislation; that the growers of grain must submit to this exclusion from the foreign markets of their produce; that the shippers must dismantle their ships, the trade of the North stagnate at the wharves, and the manufacturers starve at their looms, while the whole people shall pay tribute to foreign industry to be clad in a foreign garb; that the Congress of the Union are impotent to restore the balance in favor of native industry destroyed by the statutes of another realm? More just and more generous sentiments will, I trust, prevail. If the tariff adopted at the last session of Congress shall be found by experience to bear oppressively upon the interests of any one section of the Union, it ought to be, and I can not doubt will be, so modified as to alleviate its burden. To the voice of just complaint from any portion of their constituents the representatives of the States and of the people will never turn away their ears. But so long as the duty of the foreign shall operate only as a bounty upon the domestic article; while the planter and the merchant and the shepherd and the husbandman shall be found thriving in their occupations under the duties imposed for the protection of domestic manufactures, they will not repine at the prosperity shared with themselves by their fellow-citizens of other professions, nor denounce as violations of the Constitution the deliberate acts of Congress to shield from the wrongs of foreign laws the native industry of the Union. While the tariff of the last session of Congress was a subject of legislative deliberation it was foretold by some of its opposers that one of its necessary consequences would be to impair the revenue. It is yet too soon to pronounce with confidence that this prediction was erroneous. The obstruction of one avenue of trade not unfrequently opens an issue to another. The consequence of the tariff will be to increase the exportation and to diminish the importation of some specific articles; but by the general law of trade the increase of exportation of one article will be followed by an increased importation of others, the duties upon which will supply the deficiencies which the diminished importation would otherwise occasion. The effect of taxation upon revenue can seldom be foreseen with certainty. It must abide the test of experience. As yet no symptom? of diminution are perceptible in the receipts of the Treasury. As yet little addition of cost has even been experienced upon the articles burdened with heavier duties by the last tariff. The domestic manufacturer supplies the same or a kindred article at a diminished price, and the consumer pays the same tribute to the labor of his own countryman which he must otherwise have paid to foreign industry and toil.
The tariff of the last session was in its details not acceptable to the great interests of any portion of the Union, not even to the interest which it was specially intended to subserve. Its object was to balance the burdens upon native industry imposed by the operation of foreign laws, but not to aggravate the burdens of one section of the Union by the relief afforded to another. To the great principle sanctioned by that act—one of those upon which the Constitution itself was formed—I hope and trust the authorities of the Union will adhere. But if any of the duties imposed by the act only relieve the manufacturer by aggravating the burden of the planter, let a careful revisal of its provisions, enlightened by the practical experience of its effects, be directed to retain those which impart protection to native industry and remove or supply the place of those which only alleviate one great national interest by the depression of another.
The United States of America and the people of every State of which they are composed are each of them sovereign powers. The legislative authority of the whole is exercised by Congress under authority granted them in the common Constitution. The legislative power of each State is exercised by assemblies deriving their authority from the constitution of the State. Each is sovereign within its own province. The distribution of power between them presupposes that these authorities will move in harmony with each other. The members of the State and General Governments are all under oath to support both, and allegiance is due to the one and to the other. The case of a conflict between these two powers has not been supposed, nor has any provision been made for it in our institutions; as a virtuous nation of ancient times existed more than five centuries without a law for the punishment of parricide.
More than once, however, in the progress of our history have the people and the legislatures of one or more States, in moments of excitement, been instigated to this conflict; and the means of effecting this impulse have been allegations that the acts of Congress to be resisted were unconstitutional. The people of no one State have ever delegated to their legislature the power of pronouncing an act of Congress unconstitutional, but they have delegated to them powers by the exercise of which the execution of the laws of Congress within the State may be resisted. If we suppose the case of such conflicting legislation sustained by the corresponding executive and judicial authorities, patriotism and philanthropy turn their eyes from the condition in which the parties would be placed, and from that of the people of both, which must be its victims.
The reports from the Secretary of War and the various subordinate offices of the resort of that Department present an exposition of the public administration of affairs connected with them through the course of the current year. The present state of the Army and the distribution of the force of which it is composed will be seen from the report of the Major-General. Several alterations in the disposal of the troops have been found expedient in the course of the year, and the discipline of the Army, though not entirely free from exception, has been generally good.
The attention of Congress is particularly invited to that part of the report of the Secretary of War which concerns the existing system of our relations with the Indian tribes. At the establishment of the Federal Government under the present Constitution of the United States the principle was adopted of considering them as foreign and independent powers and also as proprietors of lands. They were, moreover, considered as savages, whom it was our policy and our duty to use our influence in converting to Christianity and in bringing within the pale of civilization.
As independent powers, we negotiated with them by treaties; as proprietors, we purchased of them all the lands which we could prevail upon them to sell; as brethren of the human race, rude and ignorant, we endeavored to bring them to the knowledge of religion and of letters. The ultimate design was to incorporate in our own institutions that portion of them which could be converted to the state of civilization. In the practice of European States, before our Revolution, they had been considered as children to be governed; as tenants at discretion, to be dispossessed as occasion might require; as hunters to be indemnified by trifling concessions for removal from the grounds from which their game was extirpated. In changing the system it would seem as if a full contemplation of the consequences of the change had not been taken. We have been far more successful in the acquisition of their lands than in imparting to them the principles or inspiring them with the spirit of civilization. But in appropriating to ourselves their hunting grounds we have brought upon ourselves the obligation of providing them with subsistence; and when we have had the rare good fortune of teaching them the arts of civilization and the doctrines of Christianity we have unexpectedly found them forming in the midst of ourselves communities claiming to be independent of ours and rivals of sovereignty within the territories of the members of our Union. This state of things requires that a remedy should be provided—a remedy which, while it shall do justice to those unfortunate children of nature, may secure to the members of our confederation their rights of sovereignty and of soil. As the outline of a project to that effect, the views presented in the report of the Secretary of War are recommended to the consideration of Congress.
The report from the Engineer Department presents a comprehensive view of the progress which has been made in the great systems promotive of the public interest, commenced and organized under authority of Congress, and the effects of which have already contributed to the security, as they will hereafter largely contribute to the honor and dignity, of the nation.
The first of these great systems is that of fortifications, commenced immediately after the close of our last war, under the salutary experience which the events of that war had impressed upon our countrymen of its necessity. Introduced under the auspices of my immediate predecessor, it has been continued with the persevering and liberal encouragement of the Legislature, and, combined with corresponding exertions for the gradual increase and improvement of the Navy, prepares for our extensive country a condition of defense adapted to any critical emergency which the varying course of events may bring forth. Our advances in these concerted systems have for the last ten years been steady and progressive, and in a few years more will be so completed as to leave no cause for apprehension that our seacoast will ever again offer a theater of hostile invasion.
The next of these cardinal measures of policy is the preliminary to great and lasting works of public improvement in the surveys of roads, examination for the course of canals, and labors for the removal of the obstructions of rivers and harbors, first commenced by the act of Congress of 30th of April, 1824.
The report exhibits in one table the funds appropriated at the last and preceding sessions of Congress for all these fortifications, surveys, and works of public improvement, the manner in which these funds have been applied, the amount expended upon the several works under construction, and the further sums which may be necessary to complete them; in a second, the works projected by the Board of Engineers which have not been commenced, and the estimate of their cost; in a third, the report of the annual Board of Visitors at the Military Academy at West Point.
For thirteen fortifications erecting on various points of our Atlantic coast, from Rhode Island to Louisiana, the aggregate expenditure of the year has fallen little short of $1,000,000. For the preparation of five additional reports of reconnaissances and surveys since the last session of Congress, for the civil constructions upon thirty-seven different public works commenced, eight others for which specific appropriations have been made by acts of Congress, and twenty other incipient surveys under the authority given by the act of 30th April, 1824, about one million more of dollars has been drawn from the Treasury.
To these $2,000,000 is to be added the appropriation of $250,000 to commence the erection of a breakwater near the mouth of the Delaware River, the subscriptions to the Delaware and Chesapeake, the Louisville and Portland, the Dismal Swamp, and the Chesapeake and Ohio canals, the large donations of lands to the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Alabama for objects of improvements within those States, and the sums appropriated for light-houses, buoys, and piers on the coast; and a full view will be taken of the munificence of the nation in the application of its resources to the improvement of its own condition.
Of these great national undertakings the Academy at West Point is among the most important in itself and the most comprehensive in its consequences. In that institution a part of the revenue of the nation is applied to defray the expense of educating a competent portion of her youth chiefly to the knowledge and the duties of military life. It is the living armory of the nation. While the other works of improvement enumerated in the reports now presented to the attention of Congress are destined to ameliorate the face of nature, to multiply the facilities of communication between the different parts of the Union, to assist the labors, increase the comforts, and enhance the enjoyments of individuals, the instruction acquired at West Point enlarges the dominion and expands the capacities of the mind. Its beneficial results are already experienced in the composition of the Army, and their influence is felt in the intellectual progress of society. The institution is susceptible still of great improvement from benefactions proposed by several successive Boards of Visitors, to whose earnest and repeated recommendations I cheerfully add my own.
With the usual annual reports from the Secretary of the Navy and the Board of Commissioners will be exhibited to the view of Congress the execution of the laws relating to that department of the public service. The repression of piracy in the West Indian and in the Grecian seas has been effectually maintained, with scarcely any exception. During the war between the Governments of Buenos Ayres and of Brazil frequent collisions between the belligerent acts of power and the rights of neutral commerce occurred. Licentious blockades, irregularly enlisted or impressed seamen, and the property of honest commerce seized with violence, and even plundered under legal pretenses, are disorders never separable from the conflicts of war upon the ocean. With a portion of them the correspondence of our commanders on the eastern aspect of the South American coast and among the islands of Greece discover how far we have been involved. In these the honor of our country and the rights of our citizens have been asserted and vindicated. The appearance of new squadrons in the Mediterranean and the blockade of the Dardanelles indicate the danger of other obstacles to the freedom of commerce and the necessity of keeping our naval force in those seas. To the suggestions repeated in the report of the Secretary of the Navy, and tending to the permanent improvement of this institution, I invite the favorable consideration of Congress.
A resolution of the House of Representatives requesting that one of our small public vessels should be sent to the Pacific Ocean and South Sea to examine the coasts, islands, harbors, shoals, and reefs in those seas, and to ascertain their true situation and description, has been put in a train of execution. The vessel is nearly ready to depart. The successful accomplishment of the expedition may be greatly facilitated by suitable legislative provisions, and particularly by an appropriation to defray its necessary expense. The addition of a second, and perhaps a third, vessel, with a slight aggravation of the cost, would contribute much to the safety of the citizens embarked on this undertaking, the results of which may be of the deepest interest to our country.
With the report of the Secretary of the Navy will be submitted, in conformity to the act of Congress of 3d March, 1827, for the gradual improvement of the Navy of the United States, statements of the expenditures under that act and of the measures taken for carrying the same into effect. Every section of that statute contains a distinct provision looking to the great object of the whole—the gradual improvement of the Navy. Under its salutary sanction stores of ship timber have been procured and are in process of seasoning and preservation for the future uses of the Navy. Arrangements have been made for the preservation of the live-oak timber growing on the lands of the United States, and for its reproduction, to supply at future and distant days the waste of that most valuable material for shipbuilding by the great consumption of it yearly for the commercial as well as for the military marine of our country. The construction of the two dry docks at Charlestown and at Norfolk is making satisfactory progress toward a durable establishment. The examinations and inquiries to ascertain the practicability and expediency of a marine railway at Pensacola, though not yet accomplished, have been postponed but to be more effectually made. The navy-yards of the United States have been examined, and plans for their improvement and the preservation of the public property therein at Portsmouth, Charlestown, Philadelphia, Washington, and Gosport, and to which two others are to be added, have been prepared and received my sanction; and no other portion of my public duties has been performed with a more intimate conviction of its importance to the future welfare and security of the Union.
With the report from the Postmaster-General is exhibited a comparative view of the gradual increase of that establishment, from five to five years, since 1792 till this time in the number of post-offices, which has grown from less than 200 to nearly 8,000; in the revenue yielded by them, which from $67,000 has swollen to upward of a million and a half, and in the number of miles of post-roads, which from 5,642 have multiplied to 114,536. While in the same period of time the population of the Union has about thrice doubled, the rate of increase of these offices is nearly 40, and of the revenue and of traveled miles from 20 to 25 for 1. The increase of revenue within the last five years has been nearly equal to the whole revenue of the Department in 1812.
The expenditures of the Department during the year which ended on the 1st of July last have exceeded the receipts by a sum of about $25,000. The excess has been occasioned by the increase of mail conveyances and facilities to the extent of near 800,000 miles. It has been supplied by collections from the postmasters of the arrearages of preceding years. While the correct principle seems to be that the income levied by the Department should defray all its expenses, it has never been the policy of this Government to raise from this establishment any revenue to be applied to any other purposes. The suggestion of the Postmaster-General that the insurance of the safe transmission of moneys by the mail might be assumed by the Department for a moderate and competent remuneration will deserve the consideration of Congress.
A report from the commissioner of the public buildings in this city exhibits the expenditures upon them in the course of the current year. It will be seen that the humane and benevolent intentions of Congress in providing, by the act of 20th May, 1826, for the erection of a penitentiary in this district have been accomplished. The authority of further legislation is now required for the removal to this tenement of the offenders against the laws sentenced to atone by personal confinement for their crimes, and to provide a code for their employment and government while thus confined.
The commissioners appointed, conformably to the act of 2d March, 1827, to provide for the adjustment of claims of persons entitled to indemnification under the first article of the treaty of Ghent, and for the distribution among such claimants of the sum paid by the Government of Great Britain under the convention of 13th of November, 1826, closed their labors on the 30th of August last by awarding to the claimants the sum of $1,197,422.18, leaving a balance of $7,537.82, which was distributed ratably amongst all the claimants to whom awards had been made, according to the directions of the act.
The exhibits appended to the report from the Commissioner of the General Land Office present the actual condition of that common property of the Union. The amount paid into the Treasury from the proceeds of lands during the year 1827 and the first half of 1828 falls little short of $2,000,000. The propriety of further extending the time for the extinguishment of the debt due to the United States by the purchasers of the public lands, limited by the act of 21st March last to the 4th of July next, will claim the consideration of Congress, to whose vigilance and careful attention the regulation, disposal, and preservation of this great national inheritance has by the people of the United States been intrusted.
Among the important subjects to which the attention of the present Congress has already been invited, and which may occupy their further and deliberate discussion, will be the provision to be made for taking the fifth census or enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States. The Constitution of the United States requires that this enumeration should be made within every term of ten years, and the date from which the last enumeration commenced was the first Monday of August of the year 1820. The laws under which the former enumerations were taken were enacted at the session of Congress immediately preceding the operation; but considerable inconveniences were experienced from the delay of legislation to so late a period. That law, like those of the preceding enumerations, directed that the census should be taken by the marshals of the several districts and Territories of the Union under instructions from the Secretary of State. The preparation and transmission to the marshals of those instructions required more time than was then allowed between the passage of the law and the day when the enumeration was to commence. The term of six months limited for the returns of the marshals was also found even then too short, and must be more so now, when an additional population of at least 3,000,000 must be presented upon the returns. As they are to be made at the short session of Congress, it would, as well as from other considerations, be more convenient to commence the enumeration from an earlier period of the year than the 1st of August. The most favorable season would be the spring. On a review of the former enumerations it will be found that the plan for taking every census has contained many improvements upon that of its predecessor. The last is still susceptible of much improvement. The Third Census was the first at which any account was taken of the manufactures of the country. It was repeated at the last enumeration, but the returns in both cases were necessarily very imperfect. They must always be so, resting, of course, only upon the communications voluntarily made by individuals interested in some of the manufacturing establishments. Yet they contained much valuable information, and may by some supplementary provision of the law be rendered more effective. The columns of age, commencing from infancy, have hitherto been confined to a few periods, all under the number of 45 years. Important knowledge would be obtained by extending these columns, in intervals of ten years, to the utmost boundaries of human life. The labor of taking them would be a trifling addition to that already prescribed, and the result would exhibit comparative tables of longevity highly interesting to the country. I deem it my duty further to observe that much of the imperfections in the returns of the last and perhaps of preceding enumerations proceeded from the inadequateness of the compensations allowed to the marshals and their assistants in taking them.
In closing this communication it only remains for me to assure the Legislature of my continued earnest wish for the adoption of measures recommended by me heretofore and yet to be acted on by them, and of the cordial concurrence on my part in every constitutional provision which may receive their sanction during the session tending to the general welfare.
John Quincy Adams.
* * * * *
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
Washington, December 8, 1828.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 2d of April last, I transmit a copy of the letter from the Cherokee Council to Colonel Hugh Montgomery, the agent, requested by the resolution, with a report[018] from the Secretary of War.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, December 8, 1828.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 23d of May last, I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with documents, containing the information requested, relating to the harbors, roads, and other works of internal improvements undertaken and projected since the 30th April, 1824.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, December 8, 1828.
To the Senate of the United States:
I communicate to the Senate, for their advice with regard to its ratification, a treaty made and concluded at the missionary establishment upon the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan the 20th day of September last, between Lewis Cass and Pierre Menard, commissioners of the United States, and the Potawatamie tribe of Indians, the journal and report of the commissioners accompanying the treaty.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, December 8, 1828.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate a report from the Secretary of War, with documents, prepared in compliance with their resolution of the 26th of May last, concerning the practicability and probable cost of constructing an artificial harbor, commonly called a "breakwater," at or near the mouth of the Mississippi.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, December 9, 1828.
To the Senate of the United States:
The inclosed report from the Secretary of State and subjoined documents are transmitted to the Senate in compliance with their resolution of 25th April last, requesting information concerning the number of free taxable inhabitants who are not freeholders in certain States and Territories of the Union.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, December 15, 1828.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 8th instant, referring to a negotiation of the British Government, by virtue of a resolution of the House of the 10th of May last, relative to the surrender of fugitive slaves, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with copies of instructions and correspondence, containing the desired information.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, December 15, 1828.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate, for their constitutional advice, an additional article, signed on the 4th day of June last, to the convention of friendship, commerce, and navigation between the United States and the Hanseatic Republics of Lubeck, Bremen, and Hamburg concluded at this place on the 20th December, 1827. A copy of the article is likewise inclosed.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, December 16, 1828.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate, for their advice, articles of agreement concluded at Green Bay, in the Territory of Michigan, on the 20th of August last, between Lewis Cass and Pierre Menard, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the chiefs of the Winnebago tribe and of the united tribes of the Potawatamies, Chippewas, and Ottawas, being a temporary arrangement concerning the occupation of a certain portion of the mining country which has not heretofore been ceded to the United States.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, December 22, 1828.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary of War, with documents, reported in compliance with the resolution of the House of the 10th instant, requesting a copy of the instructions given for the government of the agent of the United States superintendent of the lead mines in Missouri and Illinois.
Also a report from the Secretary of War, in compliance with the resolution of the House of the 15th instant, setting forth the reasons upon which it has not been deemed expedient to nominate commissioners to hold a treaty with the Choctaw Nation of Indians for the purchase of a certain tract of land, as authorized by the act of Congress of the 24th of May last.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 1, 1829.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 18th ultimo, I communicate to the House a report from the Secretary of War, containing the information required in relation to the intended frauds upon the revenue, which has rendered expedient the stationing additional troops on the Niagara frontier. The other evidence embraced by the resolution, and in possession of the Government, does not, in my judgment, at present render any further employment of a regular armed force for the enforcement of the revenue laws necessary.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 7, 1829.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 19th May last, requesting a copy of the correspondence between the minister of the United States at the Court of Madrid and the Government of Spain on the subject of claims of citizens of the United States against the said Government, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with the correspondence desired by the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 14, 1829.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith to the Senate a report from the Secretary of State, with supplemental returns of free taxable inhabitants not freeholders in certain States and Territories of the United States, which returns have been received since my message to the Senate of the 9th December last.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 17, 1829.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 13th instant, I transmit herewith a report[019] from the Secretary of War, with an application from the Creek Indians, through the agent of the United States, and an opinion of counsel in behalf of the Indians, having relation to the subject of the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 21, 1829.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with two resolutions of the House of Representatives of the 5th instant, requesting information received not heretofore communicated in relation to the arrest and trial in the British Province of New Brunswick of John Baker, a citizen of the United States, and the correspondence between the Government of the United States and that of Great Britain in relation to the said arrest and to the usurpation of jurisdiction by the British government of New Brunswick within the limits of the State of Maine, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with the information and correspondence requested by the House.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 21, 1829.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit to Congress copies of two treaties with Indian tribes, which have been ratified:
1. Articles of agreement between the United States of America and the Winnebago tribe and the united tribes of Potawatamie, Chippeways; and Ottawa Indians, concluded at Green Bay 25th August, 1828.
2. Treaty between the United States of America and the Potawatamie tribe of Indians, concluded at the missionary establishment upon the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan 20th September, 1828.
Both by Lewis Cass and Pierre Menard, commissioners on the part of the United States, with certain chiefs and warriors of the respective tribes.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 26, 1829
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 17th instant, requesting copies of the instructions to the commissioners of the United States who made the treaty at the Indian Springs in 1821, I transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of War of the 22d instant, with copies of those instructions.
And in compliance with a resolution of the House of the 20th instant, requesting a communication of the journal of the above-mentioned commissioners, I transmit a report from the Secretary of War of the 24th instant, with copies of the papers, which it is believed will supply the information desired by the resolution, no regular journal having been transmitted by the commissioners to the Department.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 26, 1829.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with voluminous documents prepared and collected in compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 13th January, 1825, calling for a statement of convictions, executions, and pardons for capital offenses under the authority of the Government of the United States since the adoption of the Constitution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 26, 1829.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit to Congress copies of a convention of friendship, commerce, and navigation between the United States and the free Hanseatic Republics of Lubeck, Bremen, and Hamburg, the ratifications of which were exchanged at this place on the 2d day of June last; and also of an additional article to the same convention, signed on the 4th day of June last, and the ratifications of which were exchanged at this city on the 14th of the present month.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 29, 1829
The President of the Senate of the United States
Sir:
I transmit herewith a letter which I have received from Mr. David, member of the Institute of France, professor of the School of Painting at Paris, and member of the Legion of Honor, the artist who presents to Congress the bust of General Lafayette which has been received with it; and I have to request the favor that after it has been communicated to the Senate it may be transmitted to the Speaker of the House of Representatives for similar communication to that body.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 29, 1829.
To the Senate of the United States:
I nominate Stephen Clin, of Georgia, to be secretary of the legation of the United States at the Court of Great Britain.
Jesse H. Willis, of Florida, to be collector of the customs for the recently established district of St. Marks and inspector of the revenue for the port of Magnolia, in Florida.
And I nominate for reappointment Callender Irvine, of Pennsylvania, to be Commissary-General of Purchases. It is proper to apprise the Senate that this office is one of those which by the act of Congress of 15th May, 1820, is limited to the term of four years; that it was held by Mr. Irvine at the time of the passage of that act, but that by some inadvertence he has not hitherto been nominated for reappointment. The fact having but just now been ascertained by me, I deem it my duty to make the nomination. Mr. Irvine has hitherto performed the duties of the office under his original appointment.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 30, 1829.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 13th instant, requesting information of the measures taken in execution of the act of 9th May last, making an appropriation for carrying into effect the articles of agreement and cession of 24th April, 1802, between the State of Georgia and the United States, and also in execution of certain provisions of the treaty of May last with the Cherokee Indians, I transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of War, with documents, comprising the desired information.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, February 2, 1829.
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 20th ultimo, requesting information received since the last session of Congress from the Mexican Government respecting the recovery of debts in that country due to American citizens, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with copies of a letter of instructions to the minister of the United States in Mexico, and of his answer, relating to the subject of the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, February 6, 1829
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 9th of December last, requesting a detailed statement of the amount expended by the Federal Government upon works of internal improvement within the limits of the several States, with an estimate of the amount necessary to complete any work begun and not yet completed, I transmit herewith reports from the Secretaries of the Treasury and of War, with documents, containing the information desired by the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, February 6, 1829.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 4th instant, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, with that of the commissioner appointed to locate the national road from Zanesville, in Ohio, to the seat of government of the State of Missouri.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, February 11, 1829.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
By the act of Congress of the 23d of May last, "supplementary to the several acts providing for the settlement and confirmation of private land claims in Florida," provision was made for the final adjudication of such claims by the judges of the superior courts of the districts wherein the lands claimed respectively lie, and by appeal from them to the Supreme Court of the United States; and the attorneys of the United States in the several districts were charged with the duty, in every case where the decision should be against the United States by the judge of the superior court of the district, to make out and transmit to the Attorney-General of the United States a statement containing the facts of the case and the points of law on which the same was decided, and it was made the duty of the Attorney-General in most of those cases to direct an appeal to be made to the Supreme Court of the United States and to appear for the United States and prosecute such appeals. By the same act the President of the United States was authorized to appoint a law agent to superintend the interests of the United States in the premises, and to employ assistant counsel if in his opinion the public interest should require the same. |
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