The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-12-27 00:00:00

The unfor-

MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE

UNITED STATES.

The Independence, packet-ship, which sane,
York on the 9th instant, arrived at this port on Sunda.
having made the passage in fifteen days and eighteen hour:
•She brought papers up to the date of her sailing. Those o
the Bth contain the President's Message, as communicate:.
to Congress on the previous day. The news (with the
exception of the statements in the Message) is not of much
importance. It appears, by despatches received in the States,
from Vera Cruz, that the difficulties between that country
and Mexico have been brought to an amicable close. The
papers from Canada, received by this conveyance, reach the
date of the 3d instant. The Kingston Gazette states, that
Sir Charles Bagot had received by the Acadia despatches
from the Horne Government, approving of his policy in the
recent ministerial changes, and promising him every support
in following it up. We regret to say that his Excellency's
health was still precarious. and that his medical advisers had
suggested a change of climate es necessary to his restoration.
The rate of exchange (in New York) on England was 106 to
1062 sterling, and in France 5.15 to 5.421. The mail steamer
Columbia, which left this port on the 19th ult., arrived at
Boston on the morning of the 6th instant.
The message is, as usual, a lengthy document, but is on
the whole, rather satisfactory, and appears to have given
satisfaction to the American public. The Exchequer plan is
still a favourite with the President. One-fourth of the mes-
sage is occupied with an exposition of his plan,. as submitted
to Congress last session, and with reason why it should be
adopted in the present. The condition of the Treasury is
better than could have been anticipated. The revenue during
the past three quarters, from all sources, amounted to
26,616,593 dollars, of which more than fourteen millions were
from customs and about one million from the public lands.
The expenditure had been about the same as the income.
About eight millions had been applied towards the payment
of the public debt; and 600,000 dollars had been divided
amongst the States, under the .ocal distribution law.
A considerable portion of the message refers to the relations
between this country and the United States. The President
congratulates his fellow-citizens on the aspect of foreign
affairs since his last message, alludes to the difficulties at-
tending the settlement of the questions between this country
and [l)6 states, and proceeds :
The appointment of a special minister by Great Britain to
the United States, with power to negotiate upon most of the
points of difference, indicated a desire on her part amicably
to adjust them, and that minister was met by the executive
in the same spirit which had dictated his mission. The
treaty consequent thereon, having been duly ratified by the
two governments, a copy, together with the correspondence
which accompanied it, is herewith communicated. I trust
that, whilst you may see in it nothing objectionable, it may
be the means of preserving, for an indefinite period, the ami-
cable relations happily existing between the two governments.
The question of peace or war between the United States and
Great Britain is a question of the deepest interest, not only
to themselves, but to the civilized world, since it is scarcely
possible that a war could exist between them without endan-
gering the peace of Christendom. The immediate effect of
the treaty upon ourselves will be felt in the security afforded
to mercantile enterprise, which, no longer apprehensive of
interruption, adventures its speculations in the most distant
sea ; and, freighted with the diversified productions of every
land, returns to
,bless our own. .There is nothing in the
treaty which, in the slightest degree, compromises the ho-
nour or dignity of either nation.
The President next alluded to the question of our African
slave trade, as pending between the two nations, with par-
ticular reference to the right of search of American ships by
our cruisers; and as he considered that such search (even
after the explanations and correspondence with Lord Aber-
deen on the laws affecting the trade) would involve "detention
on voyages, and interruption to trade," he felt himself bound
in duty distinctly to declare in his annual message (last year)
that no such concession could be made, and that the United
States bad both the will and the ability to enforce their own
laws, and to protect their flag from being used for purposes
wholly forbidden by those laws, and obnoxious to the moral
censure of the world.
After allusion to the quadruple treaty, which provides that
each nation shall keep afloatio the African seas a force not
less than eighty guns, to act separately and apart, under in-
structions from their respective governments, and for the
enforcement of their respective laws and obligations, the
President states this provision has been fully complied with
by the United States, and that there is therefore no pretence
for interference with her commerce ; and he adds, " A simi-
lar arrangement by the other great powers could not fail to
sweep from the ocean the slave-trade, without the interpola-
tion of any new principle in the maritime code. We may
be permitted to hope, that the example thus set will be fol-
lowed by some, if not by all of them. We thereby also af-
ford suitable protection to the fair trader in those seas, thus
fulfilling, at the same time, the dictates of a sound policy,
and complying with the claims of justice and humanity."
The President next addresses himself to the settlement of
the right of claim, between this country and the United
States, to what is called the Oregon territory, embracing
the immense districts between the Rocky Mountains and the
Pacific Ocean. On this point he says :—" In advance of the
acquirement of individual rights to these lands, sound policy
dictates that every effort should be resorted to by the two
Governments to settle their respective claims. It became
manifest, at an early hour of the late negotiations, that any
attempt for the time being satisfactorily to determine those
rights would lead to a protracted discussion, which might
embrace in its failure other more pressing matters, and the
Executive did not regard it as proper to waive all the advan-
tages of an honourable adjustment of other difficulties of
great magnitude and importance, because this, not so imme-
diately pressing, stood in the way. Although the difficulty
referred to may not for several years involve the peace of the
two countries, yet I shall not delay to urge on Great Britain
the importance of its early settlement. Nor will other mat-
ters of commercial importance to the two countries be over-
looked ; and I have good reason to believe, that it will com-
port with the policy of England, as it does with that of the
United States, to seize upon this moment, when most of the
causes of irritation have passed away, to cement the peace
and unity of the two countries by wisely removing all grounds
of probable future collision.

The next question noticed is the tariff; and the President
strongly recommends a revision of its more stringent clauses,
and also the adoption of the warehousing (or bonding) sys-
tem. The following passage will be read with some interest :
" In revising the existing tariff of duties, should you deem
it proper to do so at your present session, I can only repeat
the suggestions and recommendations which, upon severai
occasions, I have heretofore felt it to be my duty to oiler to
Congress. The great, primary, and controlling interest of
the American people is union—union not only in the mere
forms of government, forms which may be broken—but
union founded in an attachment of States and individuals for
each other. This union in sentiment and feeling can only
be preserved by the adoption of that course of policy, which,
neither giving exclusive benefits to some, nor imposing un-
necessary burdens upon others, shall consult the interests of
all, by pursuing a course of moderation, and thereby seeking
to harmonize public opinion, and causing the people every
where to feel and to know that the Government is careful
of the interests of all alike. Nor is there any subject in re-
gard to which moderation, connected with a wise discri-
mination, is more necessary than in the imposition of
duties on imports. Whether reference be had to revenue,
the primary object in the imposition of taxes, or to the
incidents which necessarily flow from their imposition, this
is entirely true. Extravagant duties defeat their end and
object, not only by exciting in the public mind a hostility to
the imanufacturing interests, but by inducing a system of
smuggling on an extensive scale, and the practice of every
manner of fraud upon the revenue, which the utmost vigilance
of Government cannot effectually suppress. An opposite
course of policy would be attended by results essentially
different, of which every interest of society, and none more than
those of the manufacturer, would reap important advantages.
Amongst the most striking of its benefits would be that
derived from the general aequiescence of the country in its
support, and the consequent permanency and stability which
would be given to all the operations of industry. It cannot
be too often repeated, that no System of legislation can be
wise which is fluctuating and unceJtain. No interest can
thrive under it. The prudent capitalist will never adventure
his capital in manufacturing establishments, or in any other
leading pursuit of life, if there exsists a state of uncertainty
as to whether the Government will repeal to-morrow what it
has enacted to day. Fitful profits, however high, if threat-
ened with a ruinous reduction, by vacillating policy on the
part of Government, will scarcely tempt him to trust the
money he has acquired by life of labour upon the uncertain
adventure. I, therefore, in the spirit of conciliation, and in-
fluenced by no other desire than to rescue the great interests
of the country from the vortex of political contention, and in
the discharge of the high and solemn duties of the place
which I now occupy, recommend moderate duties, imposed
with a wise discrimination ss to their several objects, as
being not only most likely to be durable, but most advante-
geous to every interest of society."
The remainder of the message relates chiefly to the estab-
lishment of the system of Exchequer-bills (to which the
President is favourable), and upon which he debates ; but as
the subject relates solely to American finance we must, in the
pressure of other matter, leave those interested to a perusal
of the document itself—to which, however, we shall probably
revert in our next publication.