John Adams
283
close of all differences and demands between the two countries.
We are
fully persuaded that the lyegislature of the United States will cheerfully
enable you
to
reahze your
assurances
of performing on our part
all
engagements under our treaties with punctuality and the most scrupulous
good faith.
When we reflect upon the uncertainty of the result of the late mission
to France and upon the uncommon nature, extent, and aspect
of the
war now raging in Europe, which affects materially our relations with
the powers at war, and which has changed the condition of their colonies
in our neighborhood, we are of opinion with you that it would be neither
wise nor safe to relax our measures of defense or to lessen any of our
preparations to repel aggression.
Our inquiries and attention shall be carefully directed to the various
other important subjects which you have recommended to our consider-
ation, and from our experience of your past Administration we anticipate
with the highest confidence your strenuous cooperation in all measures
which have a tendency to promote and extend our national interests and
happiness.
SAMUEIv LIVERMORK,
Presideyit of the Setiate pro tempore.
Dkcbmber
9,
1799.
REPLY OF THE PRESIDENT.
United States, December 10, 1799.
Gentlemen of the Senate:
I thank you for this address.
I wish you all possible success and sat-
isfaction in your deliberations on the means which have a tendency to
promote and extend our national
interests and happiness, and
I assure
you that in all your measures directed to those great objects you may at
all times rely with the highest confidence on my cordial cooperation.
The praise of the Senate, so judiciously conferred on the promptitude
and zeal of the troops called to suppress the insurrection, as it falls from
so high authority, must make a deep impression, both as a terror to the
disobedient and an encouragement of such as do well.
JOHN ADAMS.
ADDRESS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TO JOHN ADAMS,
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES-
The President of the United States.
Sir: While the House of Representatives contemplate the flattering
prospects of abundance from the labors of the people by land and by sea,
the prosperity of our extended commerce notwithstanding the interrup-
tions occasioned by the belligerent state of a great part of the world, the
284
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
return of health, industry, and trade to those cities which have lately been
afflicted with
disease, and the various and inestimable advantages, civil
and religious, which, secured under our happy frame of Government, are
continued to us unimpaired, we can not
fail
to
offer up to a benevolent
Deity our sincere thanks for these the merciful dispensations of His pro-
tecting providence.
That any portion of the people of America should permit themselves,
amid such numerous blessings, to be seduced by the arts and misrepresen-
tations of designing men into an open resistance of a law of the United
States can not be heard without deep and serious regret.
Under a Con-
stitution where the public burthens can only be imposed by the people
themselves for
their own
benefit and to promote their own
objects, a
hope might well have been indulged that the general interest would have
been too well understood and the general welfare too highly prized to
have produced
in any of our citizens a disposition to hazard so much
felicity by the criminal effort of a part to oppose with lawless violence the
will of the whole.
While we lament that depravity which could produce
a defiance of the civil authority and render indispensable the aid of the
military force of the nation, real consolation
is to be derived from the
promptness and fidelity with which that aid was afforded.
That zealous
and active cooperation with the judicial power of the volunteers and mihtia
called into service, which has restored order and submission to the laws,
is a pleasing evidence of the attachment of our fellow-citizens to their own
free Government, and of the truly patriotic alacrity with which they will
support it.
To give due effect
to the
civil administration of Government and to
insure a just execution of the laws are objects of such real magnitude as
to secure a proper attention to your recommendation of a revision and
amendment of the judiciary system.
Highly approving as we do the pacific and humane policy which has been
invariably professed and sincerely pursued by the Executive authority of
the United States, a poHcy which our best interests enjoined, and of which
honor has permitted the observance, we consider as the most unequiv-
ocal proof of your inflexible perseverance in the same well-chosen system
your preparation to meet the
first indications on the part of the French
Republic of a disposition to accommodate the existing differences between
the two
countries by a nomination of
ministers, on certain conditions
which the honor of our country unquestionably dictated, and which its
moderation had certainly given it a right to prescribe.
When the assur-
ances thus required of the French Government, previous to the departure
of our envoys, had been given through their minister of foreign relations,
the direction that they should proceed on their mission was on your part a
completion of the measure, and manifests the sincerity with which it was
commenced.
We offer up our fervent prayers to the Supreme Ruler of
the Universe for the success of their embassy, and that it may be pro-
John Adams
285
ductive of peace and happiness to our common country.
The uniform
tenor of your conduct through a hfe useful to your fellow-citizens ana
honorable to yourself gives a sure pledge of the sincerity with which the
avowed objects of the negotiation will be pursued on your part, and we
earnestly pray that similar dispositions may be displayed on the part of
France.
The differences which unfortunately subsist between the two
nations can not fail in that event to be happily terminated.
To produce
this end, to
all so
desirable,
firmness, moderation, and union
at home
constitute, we are persuaded, the surest means.
The character of the
gentlemen you have deputed, and
still more the character of the Gov-
ernment which
deputes
them, are
safe
pledges
to
their country
thai-
nothing incompatible with
its
honor or
interest, nothing inconsistem
with our obhgations of good faith or friendship to any other nation, will
be stipulated.
We learn with pleasure that our citizens, with their property, trading
to those ports of
St. Domingo with which commercial intercourse has
been renewed have been duly respected, and that privateering from those
ports has ceased.
"With you we sincerely regret that the execution of the sixth article of
the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation with Great Britain, an arti-
cle produced by a mutual spirit of amity and justice, should have been
unavoidably interrupted.
We doubt not that the same spirit of amity and
the same sense of justice in which
it originated will lead to satisfactory
explanations, and we hear with approbation that our minister at I,oudon
will be immediately instructed to obtain them.
While the engagements
which America has contracted by her treaty with Great Britain ought to
be
fulfilled with that scrupulous punctuality and good
faith
to which
our Government has ever so tenaciously adhered, yet no motive exists
to induce, and every principle forbids us to adopt, a construction which
might extend them beyond the instrument by which they are created.
We cherish the hope that the Government of Great Britain will disclaim
such extension, and by cordially uniting with that of the United States
for the removal of
all difl&culties will soon enable the boards appointed
under the sixth and seventh articles of our treaty with that nation
to
proceed and bring the business committed to them respectively to a satis-
factory conclusion.
The buildings for the accommodation of Congress and of the President
and for the public offices of the Government at
its permanent seat being
in such a state as to admit of a removal to that District by the time pre-
scribed by the act of Congress, no obstacle,
it
is presumed, will exist to
a comphance with the law.
With you,
sir, we deem the present period
critical and momentous.
The important changes which are occurring, the new and yreat events
which are every hour preparing in the political world, the
spirit of war
which is prevalent in almost every nation with whose affairs the interests
286
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
of the United States have any connection, demonstrate how unsafe and
precarious would be our situation should we neglect the means of main-
taining our just rights.
Respecting, as we have ever done, the rights of
others, America estimates too correctly the value of her own and has
received evidence too complete that they are only to be preserved by her
own vigilance ever to permit herself to be seduced by a love of ease or
by other considerations into that deadly disregard of the means of self-
defense which could only result from a
carelessness
as criminal as
it
would be fatal concerning the future destinies of our growing Republic.
The result of the mission to France is indeed, sir, uncertain.
It depends
not on America alone.
The most
pacific temper will not always insure
peace.
We should therefore exhibit a system
of conduct as indiscreet
as it would be new in the history of the world if we considered the nego-
tiation happily terminated because we have attempted to commence
it,
and peace restored because we wish
its restoration.
But,
sir, however
this mission may terminate, a steady perseverance in a system of national
defense commensurate with our resources and the situation of our coun-
try is an obvious dictate of duty.
Experience, the parent of wisdom
and the
great
instructor of
nations, has established the truth
of your
position, that, remotely as we are placed from the belligerent nations and
desirous as we are, by doing justice to
all, to avoid offense to any, yet
nothing short of the power of repelling aggressions will secure
to our
country a rational prospect of escaping the calamities of war or national
degradation.
In the progress of the session we shall take into our serious considera-
tion the various and important matters recommended to our attention.
A hfe devoted
to the service of your country, talents and integrity
which have so justly acquired and so long retained the confidence and
affection
of your fellow-citizens, attest the sincerity of your
declaration
that it is your anxious desire so to execute the trust reposed in you as to
render the people of the United States prosperous and happy.
•
Deckmber 9,
1799.
REPLY OF THE PRESIDENT.
Unitkd States, December 10, 1799.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
This very respectful address from the Representatives of the people of
the United States, at their first assembly after a fresh election, under the
strong impression of the public opinion and national sense, at this inter-
esting and singular crisis of our public affairs, has excited my sensibility
and receives my sincere and grateful acknowledgments.
As long as we can maintain with harmony and affection the honor of
our country consistently with its peace, externally and internally, while
that is attainable, or in war when that becomes necessary, assert its real
John Adams
287
independence and sovereignty, and support the constitutional energies
and dignity of
its Government, we may
lie
perfectly
sure,
under
the
smiles of Divine Providence, that we shall effectually promote and extend
our national interest and happiness.
The applause of the Senate and House of Representatives, so justly
bestowed upon the volunteers and militia for
their zealous and
active
cooperation with the judicial power, which has restored order and sub-
mission to the laws, as it comes with peculiar weight and propriety from
the Legislature, can not
fail to have an extensive and permanent effect
for the support
of Government upon
all those ingenuous minds who
receive delight from the approving and animating voice of their country.
JOHN ADAMS.
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
United States, December^
^ 1799-
Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlevieji of the House of Representatives:
I transmit to Congress certain documents which have relation to the
communications made on Tuesday, on the subjects of the insurrection in
Pennsylvania, the renewal of commerce with St. Domingo, and the mis-
sion to the French Republic.
JOHN ADAMS.
"United States, December 6, 1799.
Gentlemen of the Senate:
I lay before you, for your consideration, a treaty of amity and com-
merce between the United States and the King of
Prussia, signed by
their ministers on the nth of July last.
JOHN ADAMS.
United States, December ig, 1799.
Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
The letter herewith transmitted will inform you that
it has pleased
Divine Providence to remove from this hfe our excellent fellow-citizen,
George Washington, by the purity of his character and a long series of
services
to
his
country
rendered
illustrious
through
the
world.
It
remains for an affectionate and grateful people, in whose hearts he can
never die, to pay suitable honors to his memory.
JOHN ADAMS-
Mount Vernon, December 15, ijg^.
The Pre;sident of the United States.
Sir:
It is with inexpressible grief that I have to announce to you the death of the
great and good General Washington.
He died
last evening between
10 and
288
Messages and Papers of the Presidejits
o'clock, after a short illness of about twenty hours.
His disorder was an inflam
matory sore throat, which proceeded f/om a cold of which he made but little com-
plaint on Friday.
On Saturday morning about 3 o'clock he became ill.
Dr. Craik
attended him in the morning, and Dr. Dick, of Alexandria, and Dr. Brown, of Port
Tobacco, were soon after called in.
Every medical assistance was offered, but with-
out the desired effect.
His last scene corresponded with the whole tenor of his life;
not a groan nor a complaint escaped him in extreme distress.
With perfect resig-
nation and in full possession of his reason, he closed his well-spent life.
I have the honor to be, with the highest respect, sir, your most obedient and very
humble servant,
TOBIAS LEAR.
The Senate, having- resolved to wait on the President of the United
States "to condole with him on the
distressing event of the death of
General George Washington," proceeded to the house of the President,
when the President of the Senate, in
their name, presented the address
which had previously been agreed to, as follows:
The President of the United States:
The Senate of the United States respectfully take leave, sir, to express
to you their deep regret for the loss their country sustains in the death
of General George Washington.
This event, so distressing to
all our fellow-citizens, must be peculiarly
heavy to you, who have long been associated with him in deeds of patri-
otism.
Permit us, sir, to mingle our tears with yours.
On this occasion
it is manly to weep.
To lose such a man at such a crisis is no common
calamity to the world.
Our country mourns her father.
The Almighty
Disposer of Human Events has taken from us our greatest benefactor and
ornament.
It becomes us to submit with reverence to Him who mak-
eth darkness His pavilion.
With patriotic pride we review the
life of our Washington and com-
pare him with those of other countries who have been preeminent
in
fame.
Ancient and modern names are diminished before him.
Great-
ness and
guilt have too often been allied, but his fame
is whiter than
it
is
brilliant.
The destroyers of nations stood abashed at the majesty
of his virtue.
It reproved the intemperance of their ambition and dark-
ened the splendor of victory.
The scene is closed, and we are no longer
anxious
lest misfortune should sully his glory.
He has traveled on to
the end
of
his journey and carried with him
an increasing weight of
honor.
He has deposited
it
safely, where
misfortune can not
tarnish
it, where malice can not blast
it.
Favored of Heaven, he departed with-
out exhibiting the weakness of humanity.
Magnanimous in death, the
darkness of the grave could not obscure his brightness.
Such was the man whom we deplore.
Thanks to God, his glory is
consummated.
Washington yet lives on earth in his spotless example
;
his spirit is in Heaven.
Let his countrymen consecrate the memory of the heroic general, the
John Adams
289
patriotic statesman, and the virtuous sage.
Let them teach their children
never to forget that the
fruit of his labors and his exampl'-. are their
inheritance.
SAMUEIv LIVERMORE,
President of the Senate pro tempore.
December
23, 1799.
To which the President replied as follows:
United States, December 23, 1799.
Gentlemen of the Senate:
I receive with the most respectful and affectionate sentiments in this
impressive address the obliging expressions of your regard for the loss
our country has sustained in the death of her most esteemed, beloved,
and admired citizen.
In the multitude of my thoughts and recollections on this melancholy
event you will permit me only to say that I have seen him in the days of
adversity, in some of the scenes of his deepest distress and most trying
perplexities;
I have also attended him in his highest elevation and most
prosperous felicity, with uniform admiration of his wisdom, moderation,
and constancy.
Among all our original associates in that memorable league of the con-
tinent in 1774, which
first expressed the sovereign will of a free nation
in America, he was the only one remaining in the General Government.
Although with a constitution more enfeebled than his at an age when
he thought
it necessary to prepare
for retirement, I
feel, myself alone
bereaved of my last brother;
yet I derive a strong consolation from the
unanimous disposition which appears in
all ages and classes to mingle
their sorrows with mine on this common calamity to the world.
The
life of our Washington can not suffer by comparison with those
of other countries who have been most celebrated and exalted by fame.
The
attributes and
decorations
of
royalty could have only served to
eclipse the majesty
of
those virtues which made him, from being a
modest citizen, a more resplendent luminary.
Misfortune, had he lived, could hereafter have suUied his glory only
with those superficial minds who, beHeving that characters and actions
are marked by success alone, rarely deserve to enjoy
it.
Mahce could
never blast his honor, and envy made him a singular exception to her
universal rule.
For himself, he had lived enough to hfe and to glory.
For his
fellow-citizens,
if
their prayers could have been answered, he
would have been immortal.
For me, his departure is at a most unfortu-
nate moment.
Trusting, however, in the wise and righteous dominion
of Providence over the passions of men and the results of their councils
and
actions,
as well as over their
lives, nothing remains
for me but
humble resignation.
290
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
His example is now complete, and
it will teach wisdom and virtue to
magistrates, citizens, and men, not only in the present age, but in future
generations as long as our history shall be read.
If a Trajan found a
Pliny, a Marcus Aurelius can never want biographers, eulogists, or
his-
^o"^^^-
JOHN ADAMS.
The House of Representatives having resolved unanimously tc wait on
the President of the United States
'
' in condolence of this national calam-
ity," the Speaker, attended by the House, withdrew to the house of the
President, when the Speaker addressed the President as follows:
Sir: The House of Representatives, penetrated with a sense of the
irreparable loss sustained by the nation in the death of that great and
good man, the illustrious and beloved Washington, wait on you,
sir, to
express their condolence on this melancholy and distressing event.
To which the President repHed as follows:
United States
December ip, 1799.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
I receive with great respect and affection the condolence of the House
of Representatives on the melancholy and affecting event in the death
of the most illustrious and beloved personage which this country ever
produced.
I sympathize with you, with the nation, and with good men
through the world in this irreparable loss sustained by us all.
JOHN ADAMS.
United States, December ji, 1799.
Gentlemen of the Senate:
I nominate Timothy Pickering,
Secretary of State;
Oliver Wolcott,
Secretary of the Treasury, and Samuel Sitgreaves, esq., of Pennsylvania,
to be commissioners to adjust and determine,, with commissioners appointed
under the legislative authority of the State of Georgia, all interfering claims
of the United States and that State to territories situate west of the river
Chatahouchee, north of the thirty-first degree of north latitude, and south
of the cession made to the United States by South Carolina; and also to
receive any proposals for the relinquishment or cession of the whole
or
any part of the other territory claimed by the State of Georgia, and out
of the ordinary jurisdiction thereof, according to the law of the United
States of the 7th of April, 1798.
JOHN ADAMS.
United States, fanuary 8, 1800.
Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives
:
In compliance with the request in one of the resolutions of Congress of
the 2ist of December last,
I transmitted a copy of these resolutions, by
John Adams
291
my secretary, Mr. Shaw, to Mrs. Washington, assuring her of the pro-
found respect Congress will ever bear
to her person and character, of
their condolence
in the
late
afflicting dispensation
of Providence, and
entreating her assent to the interment of the remains of General George
Washington
in the manner expressed
in the
first resolution.
As the
sentiments of that virtuous lady, not less beloved by this nation than she
is at present greatly afflicted, can never be so well expressed
as
in her
own words, I transmit to Congress her original letter.
It would be an attempt of too much delicacy to make any comments
upon it, but there can be no doubt that
the nation
at
large, as well as
all the branches
of
the
Government, will be
highly
gratified by any
arrangement which may diminish the sacrifice she makes of her individual
feehngs.
JOHN ADAMS.
Mount Vernon, December 31 , i^gg.
The President oe the United States,
Sir: While I feel with keenest anguish the late dispensation of Divine Providence,
I can not be insensible to the mournful tributes of respect and veneration vs^hich are
paid to the memory of my dear deceased husband; and as his best services and most
anxious wishes were always devoted to the welfare and happiness of his country, to
know that they were truly appreciated and gratefully remembered affords no incon-
siderable consolation.
Taught by the great example which I have so long had before me never to oppose
my private wishes to the public will, I must consent to the request made by Congress,
which you have had the goodness to transmit to me; and in doing this I need not,
I can not, say what a sacrifice of individual feeling I make to a sense of public duty.
With grateful acknowledgments and unfeigned thanks for the personal respect and
evidences of condolence expressed by Congress and yourself, I remain, very respect-
fully, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
MARTHA WASHINGTON.
United States, January ij, 1800.
Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentleme?i of the House of Representatives:
A report made to me on the 5th of this month by the Secretary of War
contains various matters in which the honor and safety of the nation are
deeply interested.
I transmit it, therefore, to Congress and recommend
it to their serious consideration.
JOHN ADAMS.
United States, January i^, 1800.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
As the inclosed letter from a member of your House received by me in
the night of Saturday, the nth instant, relates to the privileges of the
House, which, in my opinion, ought to be inquired into in the House
itself, if anywhere, I have thought proper to submit the whole letter and
292
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
its tendencies to your consideration without any other comments on its
mat\.er or style; but as no gross impropriety of conduct on the part of
persons holding commissions in the Army or Navy of the United States
ought to pass without due animadversion, I have directed the Secretary
of War and the Secretary of the Navy to investigate the conduct com-
plained of and to report to me without delay such a statement of facts as
will enable me to decide on the course which duty and justice shall appear
to prescribe.
JOHN ADAMS.
UniTKD States, January 2j, 1800.
Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
I transmit to Congress for the information of the members a report of
the Secretary of State of the 9th instant, a letter from Matthew Clarksou,
esq., to him of the 2d, and a list of the claims adjusted by the commis-
sioners under the twenty-first article of our treaty with Spain.
JOHN ADAMS.
United States, February j^, 1800.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith a copy of the laws enacted by the governor and
judges of the Mississippi Territory, for the inspection of Congress.
There
being but this one copy, I must request the House, when they have made
the requisite examination, to send it to the Senate.
JOHN ADAMS.
PROCLAMATIONS.
[From C. F, Adams's Works of John Adams, Vol. IX, p. 177.]
PROCLAMATION.
May
9,
1800.
Whereas by an
act of Congress of the United States passed the 27th
day of February last, entitled "An act "further to suspend the commercial
intercourse between the United States and France and the dependencies
thereof, "
it is enacted that at any time after the passing of the said act
it shall be lawful for the President of the United
States, by his order,
to remit and discontinue for the time being, whenever he
shall deem
it
expedient and
for
the
interest of
the United
States,
all or
any of
the restraints and prohibitions imposed by the said
act
in respect to
the territories of the French Republic, or to any island, port, or place
belonging to the said Republic with which, in his opinion, a commercial
John Adams
293
intercourse may be safely renewed, and to make proclamation thereof
accordingly; and it is also thereby further enacted that the whole of the
island of Hispaniola shall, for the purposes of the said act, be considered
as a dependence of the French Republic; and
Whereas the
circumstances of
certain
ports and places
of
the
said
island not comprised in the proclamation of the 26th day of June,
1799,
are such that
I deem
it expedient and
for the interest of
the United
States to remit and discontinue the restraints and prohibitions imposed
by the said act in respect to those ports and places in order that a com-
mercial intercourse with the same may be renewed:
Therefore
I, John Adams, President of the United States, by virtue
of the powers vested in me as aforesaid, do hereby remit and discontinue
the restraints and prohibitions imposed by the act aforesaid in respect to
all the ports and places in the said
island of Hispaniola from Monte
Christi on the north, round by the eastern end thereof as far as the port
of Jacmel on the south, inclusively.
And it shall henceforth be lawful
for vessels of the United States to enter and trade at any of the said ports
and places, provided
it be done with the consent of the Government of
St. Domingo.
And
for
this purpose
it
is hereby
required
that such
vessels
first enter the port of Cape Francois or Port Republicain, in the
said island, and there obtain the passports of the said Government, which
shall also be signed by the consul-general or consul of the United States
residing at Cape Francois or Port Republicain, permitting such vessel to
go thence to the other ports and places of the said
island hereinbefore
mentioned and described.
Of
all which the collectors of the customs
and
all other
officers and citizens of
the United States are to take due
notice and govern themselves.
In testimony, etc.
JOHN ADAMS.
[From Annals of Congress, Seventh Congress, second session, 1552.]
PROCLAMATION.
By John Adams, Prksident of thk United States of America.
Whereas the late wicked and treasonable insurrection against the just
authority of the United States of sundry persons in the counties of North-
ampton, Montgomery, and Bucks,
in the State of Pennsylvania, in the
year 1799, having been speedily suppressed without any of the calamities
usually attending rebellion; whereupon peace, order, and submission to
the laws of the United States were restored in the aforesaid counties, and
the ignorant, misguided, and misinformed in the counties have returned
to a proper sense of their duty, whereby it is become unnecessary for the
public good that any future prosecutions should be commenced or car-
ried on against any person or persons by reason of their being concerned
in the said insurrection:
294
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
Wherefore be
it known that
I, John Adams, President of the United
States of America, have granted, and by these presents do grant, a full,
free, and absolute pardon to
all and every person or persons concerned
in the said insurrection, excepting as hereinafter excepted, of all treasons,
misprisions of treason, felonies, misdemeanors, and other crimes by them
respectively done or committed against the United States in either of the
said counties before the 12th day of March, in the year 1799, excepting
and excluding therefrom every person who now standeth indicted or con-
victed of any treason, misprision of treason, or other offense against the
United States, whereby remedying and releasing unto all persons, except
as before excepted, all pains and penalties incurred, or supposed to be
incurred, for or on account of the premises.
Given under my hand and the seal of the United States of America,
at the city of Philadelphia, this 21st day of May, A. D.
1800,
b ^
L.J
^^^ ^£
^j^g Independence of the said States the twenty-fourth.
JOHN ADAMS.
By John Adams, President of the United States of America.
A proclamation.
Whereas by an act
of the Congress of the United States passed on
the 27th day of February
last, entitled "An act further to suspend the
commercial intercourse between the United States and France and the
dependencies thereof, "
it
is enacted
'
' that at any time after the pass-
ing of the said act
it shall be lawful for the President of the United
States, by his order, to remit and discontinue for the time being, when-
ever he shall deem it expedient and for the interest of the United States,
all or any of the restraints and prohibitions imposed by the said act in
respect to the territories of the French Republic, or to any island, port,
or place belonging to the said Republic with which, in his opinion, a
commercial intercourse may be safely renewed, and to make proclama-
tion thereof accordingly; " and it is also thereby further enacted that the
whole of the island of Hispaniola shall, for the purposes of the said act,
be considered as a dependence of the French Republic; and
Whereas the circumstances of the said
island! are such that,
in my
opinion, a commercial intercourse may safely be renewed with every part
thereof, under the limitations and
restrictions
hereinafter mentioned:
Therefore I, John Adams, President of the United States, by virtue of
the powers vested in me as aforesaid, do hereby remit and discontinue
the restraints and prohibitions imposed by the act aforesaid in respect
to every part of the said island, so that
it shall be lawful for vessels of
the United States to trade at any of the ports and places thereof, pro-
vided
it be done with the consent of the Government of St. Domingo;
and for this purpose
it
is hereby required that such vessels
first clear
Jolm Adams
295
for and enter the port of Cape Fran^ais or Port Republicain, in the said
island, and there obtain the passports of the said Government, which
shall also be signed by the consul-general of the United States, or their
consul residing at Cape Frangais, or their consul residing at Port Repub-
licain, permitting such vessels to go thence to the other ports and places
of the said island.
Of
all which the
collectors of the customs and
all
other ofl&cers and citizens of the United States are to take due notice and
govern themselves accordingly.
Given under my hand and the seal of the United States of America,
at the city of Washington, this 6th day of September, A. D.
[SEAi,.]
1800, and of the Independence of the said States the twenty-
fifth.
JOHN ADAMS.
By the President:
J. Marshall,
Secretary of State.
FOURTH ANNUAL ADDRESS.
United States, November 22, 1800.
Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentleme7i of the House of Representatives:
Immediately after the adjournment of Congress
at their
last session
in Philadelphia
I gave directions, in compliance with the
laws, for the
removal of the public
offices, records, and property.
These directions
have been executed, and the public officers have since resided and con-
ducted the ordinary business of the Government in this place.
I congratulate the people of the United States on the assembling of
Congress at the permanent
seat of their Government, and I congratu-
late you, gentlemen, on the prospect of a residence not to be changed.
Although there is cause to apprehend that accommodations are not now
so complete as might be wished, yet there is great reason to believe that
this inconvenience will cease with the present session.
It would be unbecoming the representatives of
this nation to assemble
for the first time in this solemn temple without looking up to the Supreme
Ruler of the Universe and imploring His blessing.
May this territory be the residence of virtue and happiness
!
In this
city may that piety and virtue, that wisdom and magnanimity, that con-
stancy and self-government, which adorned the great character whose
name it bears be forever held in veneration!
Here and throughout our
country may simple manners, pure morals, and
true
religion
ficurish
forever!
It is with you, gentlemen, to consider whether the local powers over
the District of Columbia vested by the Constitution in the Congress of
2g6
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
the United States shall be immediately exercised.
If in your opinion
this important trust ought now to be executed, you can not
fail while
performing it to take into view the future probable situation of the terri-
tory for the happiness of which you are about to provide.
You will
consider
it as the capital of a great nation advancing with unexampled
rapidity in arts, in commerce, in wealth, and in population, and possess-
ing within itself those energies and resources which,
if not thrown away
or lamentably misdirected, will secure to
it a long course of prosperity
and self-government.
In compliance with a law of the last session of Congress, the officers
and soldiers of the temporary army have been discharged.
It affords
real pleasure to recollect the honorable testimony they gave of the patri-
otic motives which brought them into the service of their country, by
the readiness and regularity with which they returned to the station of
private citizens.
It
is in every point of view of such primary importance to carry the
laws into prompt and faithful execution, and to render that joart of the
administration of justice which the Constitution and laws devolve on the
Federal courts as convenient
to the people as may consist with
their
present circumstances, that I can not omit once more to recommend to
your serious consideration the judiciary system
of the United
States.
No subject
is more interesting than this to the public happiness, and to
none can those improvements which may have been suggested by expe-
rience be more beneficially applied.
A treaty of amity and commerce with the King of Prussia has been
concluded and
ratified.
The ratifications have been exchanged, and
I
have directed the treaty to be promulgated by proclamation.
The difficulties which suspended the execution of the sixth article of
our treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation with Great Britain have
not yet been removed.
The negotiation on this subject is still depending.
As it must be for the interest and honor of both nations to adjust
this
difference with good
faith,
I
indulge confidently the expectation
that
the sincere endeavors of the Government of the United States to bring it
to an amicable termination will not be disappointed.
The
envoys
extraordinary and
ministers
plenipotentiary from
the
United
States to France were
received by the
First Consul with
the
respect due to their character, and three persons with equal powers were
appointed to treat with them.
Although at the date of the last official
intelligence the negotiation had not terminated, yet it is to be hoped that
our efforts to effect an accommodation will at length meet with a success
proportioned to the sincerity with which they have been so often repeated.
While our best endeavors for the preservation of harmony with
all
nations will continue to be used, the experience of the world and our own
experience admonish us of the insecurity of trusting too confidently to
their success.
We can not, without committing a dangerous impru-
John Adams
297
dence, abandon those measures of self-protection which are adapted to our
situation and to which, notwithstanding our pacific poHcy, the violence
and injustice of others may again compel us to resort
While our vast
extent of seacoast, the commercial and agricultural habits of our people,
the great
capital they will continue to trust on the ocean, suggest the
system of defense which will be most beneficial to ourselves, our distance
from Europe and our resources for maritime strength will enable us to
employ it with
effect.
Seasonable and systematic arrangements, so far
as our resources will justify, for a navy adapted to defensive war, and
which may in case of necessity be quickly brought into use, seem to be
as much recommended by a wise and true economy as by a just regard
for our future tranquilhty, for the safety of our shores, and for the pro-
tection of our property committed to the ocean.
The present Navy of the United States, called suddenly into existence
by a great national exigency, has raised us in our own esteem, and by the
protection afforded to our commerce has
effected to the extent of our
expectations the objects for which it was created.
In connection with a navy ought to be contemplated the fortification
of some of our principal seaports and harbors.
A variety of considera-
tions, which
will readily suggest themselves, urge an attention to this
measure of precaution.
To give security to our principal ports consid-
erable sums have already been expended, but the works remain incomplete.
It
is for Congress to determine whether additional appropriations shall
be made in order to render competent to the intended purposes the
forti-
fications which have been commenced.
The manufacture of arms within the United States
still invites the
attention of the National Legislature.
At a considerable expense to the
pubhc this manufacture has been brought to such a state of maturity as,
with continued encouragement, will supersede the necessity
of future
importations from foreign countries.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
I
shall
direct the estimates
of the appropriations necessary
for the
ensuing year, together with an account of the public revenue and expend-
iture to a late period, to be laid before you.
I observe with much satis-
faction that the product of the revenue during the present year has been
more considerable than during any former equal
period.
This result
affords conclusive evidence of the great resources of this country and of
the wisdom and efficiency of the measures which have been adopted by
Congress for the protection of commerce and preservation of public credit.
Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
As one of the grand community of nations, our attention is irresistibly
drawn to the important scenes which surround us.
If they have exhib-
ited an uncommon portion of calamity,
it is the province of humanity to
298
Afessao^cs and Papers of the Presidents
deplore and of wisdom
to avoid the causes wMch may have produced
it.
If, turning our eyes homeward, we
find reason
to
rejoice
at the
prospect which presents itself;
if we perceive the interior of our country
prosperous, free, and happy;
if all enjoy in safety, under the protection of
laws emanating only from the general will, the fruits of their own labor,
we ought to fortify and cling to those institutions which have been the
source of such real
felicity and resist with unabating perseverance the
progress
of
those
dangerous
innovations
which may
diminish
their
influence,
T® your patriotism, gentlemen, has been confided the honorable duty
of guarding the public interests; and while the past
is to your country a
sure pledge that it will be faithfully discharged, permit me to assure you
that your labors to promote the general happiness will receive from me
th,e most zealous cooperation.
JOHN ADAMS.
ADDRESS OF THE SENATE TO JOHN ADAMS, PRESIDENT OF TH©
UNITED STATES.
The Prksidknt op thk United States.
Sir: Impressed with the important truth that the hearts of rulers and
people are in the hand of the Almighty, the Senate of the United States
most cordially join in your invocations for appropriate blessings upon the
Government and people of this Union.
We meet you, sir, and the other branch of the National I,egislature \n
the city which
is honored by the name of our late hero and sage, the
illustrious Washington, with sensations and emotions which exceed our
power of description.
While we congratulate ourselves on the convention of the Legislature
at the permanent seat of Government, and ardently hope that permanence
and stability may be communicated as well to the Government itself as
to its seat, our minds are irresistibly led to deplore the death of him who
bore so honorable and efficient a part in the establishment of both.
Great
indeed would have been our gratification if his sum of earthly happiness
had been completed by seeing the Government thus peaceably convened
at
this place; but we derive consolation from a belief that the moment
in which we were destined to experience the loss we deplore was fixed
by that Being whose counsels can not err, and from a hope that since in
this seat of Government, which bears his name, his earthly remains will
be deposited, the members of Congress, and all who inhabit the city, with
these memorials before them, will retain his virtues in lively recollection,
and make his patriotism, morals, and piety models for imitation.
And
permit us to add,
sir, that
it
is not among the least of our consolations
that you, who have been his companion and friend from the dawning of
our national existence, and trained in the same school of exertion to effect
John Adams
299
oar independence, are still preserved by a gracious Providence in health
and activity to exercise the functions of Chief Magistrate,
The question whether the local powers over the District of Columbia,
vested by the Constitution in the Congress of the United States, shall be
immediately exercised
is of great importance, and in deliberating upon
it we shall naturally be led to weigh the attending circumstances and
every probable consequence of the measures which may be proposed.
The several subjects
for legislative
consideration contained
in your
speech to both Houses of Congress shall receive from the Senate all the
attention which they can give, when contemplating those objects, both in
respect to their national importance and the additional weight that
is
given them by your recommendation,
"We deprecate with you,
sir,
all
spirit
of innovation from whatever
quarter
it may arise, which may impair the sacred bond that connects
the different parts of this Empire, and we trust that, under the protection
of Divine Providence the wisdom and virtue of the citizens of the United
States will deliver our national compact unimpaired to a i^rateful pos-
terity.
From past experience it is impossible for the Senate of the United States
to doubt of your zealous cooperation with the Legislature in every effort
to promote the general happiness and tranquillity of the Union,
Accept, sir, our warmest wishes for your health and happiness.
JOHN E. HOWARD,
President of the Senate i)ro tempore.
November
25,
1800.
REPLY OP THE PRESIDENT.
City of Washington, November 26, 1800.
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Senate:
For this excellent address, so respectful to the memory of my illus-
trious predecessor, which I receive from the Senate of the United States
at this time and in this place with pecuhar satisfaction, I pray you to
accept of my unfeigned acknowledgments.
With you
I ardently hope
that permanence and stabiUty will be communicated as well to the Gov-
ernment
itself as to
its
beautiful and commodious
seat.
With you
I
deplore the death of that hero and sage who bore so honorable and efficient
a part in the establishment of both.
Great indeed would have been my
gratification if his sum of earthly happiness had been completed by seeing
the Government thus peaceably convened
at
this place, himself
at
it'^
head; but while we submit to the decisions of Heaven, whose councils
are inscrutable to us, we can not but hope that the members of Congress,
the officers of Government, and all who inhabit the city or the country
will retain his virtues in
lively recollection and make his patriotism,
morals, and piety models for imitation.
300
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
I thank you, gentlemen, for your assurance that the several subjects
for legislative consideration recommended
in my communication to both
Houses shall receive from the Senate a deliberate and candid attention.
With you, gentlemen,
I
sincerely deprecate
all
spirit
of innovation
which may weaken the sacred bond that connects the different parts of
this nation and Government, and with you I trust that under the protec-
tion of Divine Providence the wisdom and virtue of our
citizens
will
deliver our national compact unimpaired to a free, prosperous, happy, and
grateful posterity.
To this end
it is my fervent prayer that in
this city
the foundations of wisdom may be always opened and the streams of elo-
quence
forever
flow.
Here may the youth
of
this extensive country
forever look up without disappointment, not only to the monuments and
memorials of the dead, but to the examples of the living, in the members
of Congress and oflScers of Government, for
finished models of
all those
virtues, graces, talents, and accomplishments which constitute the dignity
of human nature and lay the only foundation for the prosperity or dura-
tion of emph es.
JOHN ADAMS.
ADDRESS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TO JOHN ADAMS,
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
John Adams,
Presideyit of the United States.
Sir: The House of Representatives have received with great respect
the communication which you have been pleased to make
to the two
Houses of Congress at the commencement of the present session.
The final establishment of the seat of National Government, which has
now taken place, within the District of Columbia is an event of no small
importance in the political transactions of our country, and we cordially
unite our wishes with yours that this Territory may be the residence of
happiness and virtue.
Nor can we on
this occasion omit to express a hope
that the
spirit
which animated the great founder of this city may descend to future gen-
erations, and that the wisdom, magnanimity, and steadiness which marked
the events of his public life may be imitated in all succeeding ages.
A consideration of those powers which have been vested in Congress
over the District of Columbia will not escape our attention, nor shall we
forget that in exercising these powers a regard must be had
to those
events which will necessarily attend the capital of America.
The cheerfulness and regularity with which the officers and soldiers of
the temporary army have returned to the condition of private citizens is
a testimony clear and conclusive of the purity of those motives which
induced them to engage in the public service, and will remain a proof on
all future occasions that an army of soldiers drawn from the citizens of
onr country deserve our confidence and respect.
John Adams
301
No subject can be more important than that of the judiciary, which
you have again recommended to our consideration, and
it shall receive
our early and deliberate attention.
The Constitution of the United States having confided the manage-
ment of our foreign negotiations to the control of the Executive power,
we cheerfully submit to its decisions on this important
subject; and in
respect to the negotiations now pending with France, we sincerely hope
that the final result may prove as fortunate to our country as the most
ardent mind can wish.
So long as a predatory war
is carried on against our commerce we
should sacrifice the interests and disappoint the expectations of our con-
stituents should we for a moment relax that system of maritime defense
which has resulted in such beneficial effects.
At this period it is confi-
dently believed that few persons can be found within the United States
who do not admit that a navy, well organized, must constitute the natural
and efi&cient defense of this country against all foreign hostility.
The progress which has been made in the manufacture of arms leaves
no doubt that the public patronage has already placed this country beyond
all necessary dependence on foreign markets for an article so indispensa-
ble for defense, and gives us assurances that, under the encouragement
which Government will continue to extend to this important object, we
shall soon rival foreign countries not only in the number but in the qual-
ity of arms completed from our own manufactories.
Few events could have been more pleasing to our constituents than
that great and rapid increase of revenue which has arisen from perma-
nent taxes.
Whilst this event explains the great and increasing resources
of our country, it carries along with it a proof which can not be resisted
that those measures of maritime defense which were calculated to meet our
enemy upon the ocean, and which have produced such extensive protec-
tion to our commerce, were founded in wisdom and policy.
The mind
must; in our opinion, be insensible to the plainest truths which can not
discern the elevated ground on which this policy has placed our country.
That national spirit which alone could vindicate our common rights has
been roused, and those latent energies which had not been fully known
were unfolded and brought into view, and our fellow-citizens were pre-
pared to meet every event which national honor or national security could
render necessary.
Nor have its effects been much less important in other
respects.
Whilst many of the nations of the earth have been impoverished and
depopulated by internal commotions and national contests, our internal
peace has not been materially impaired; our commerce has extended,
under the protection of our infant Navy,
to every part of the globe;
wealth has flowed without intermission into our seaports, and the labors
of the husbandman have been rewarded by a ready market for the pro-
ductions of the soil.
302
.
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
Be assured,
sir, that the various and important subjects recommended
to our consideration shall receive our early and deliberate attention; and,
confident of your cooperation in every measure which may be calculated
to promote the general interest, we shall endeavor on our part to testify
by our industry and dispatch the zeal and sincerity with which we regard
the public good
NOVKMBER 26, 1800.
REPLY OF THE PRESIDENT.
Washington, November zy, 1800.
Mr. Speaker and Gentleme^i of the House of Representatives:
Compelled by the habits of a long life, as well as by all the principles
of society and government which
I could ever understand and believe,
to consider the great body of the people as the source of
all legitimate
authority no less than of
all
efficient power,
it
is impossible for me to
receive this address from the immediate Representatives of the American
people at this time and in
this place without emotions which
it would
be improper to express if any language could convey them.
May the spirit which animated the great founder of this city descend
to future generations, and may the wisdom, magnanimity, and steadiness
which marked the events of his public
life be imitated in all succeed-
ing ages.
I thank you, gentlemen, for your assurance that the judiciary system
shall receive your deliberate attention.
With you, gentlemen,
I
sincerely hope that the
final
result
of the
negotiations now pending with France may prove as fortunate to our
country as they have been commenced with
sincerity and
prosecuted
with deliberation and caution.
With you I cordially agree that so long
as a predatory war is carried on against our commerce we should sacri-
fice the
interests and disappoint
the expectations of our constituents
should we for a moment relax that system of maritime defense which
has resulted in such beneficial
effects.
With you I confidently believe
that few persons can be found within the United States who do not
admit that a navy, well organized, must constitute the natiural and effi-
cient defense of this country against all foreign hostility.
Those who recollect the distress and danger to this country in former
periods from the want of
arms must exult in the assurance from their
Representatives that we shall soon rival foreign countries not only in the
number but in the quality of arms completed from our own manufactories.
With you, gentlemen, I fully agree that the great increase of revenue
is a proof that the measures of maritime defense were founded in wisdom.
This policy has raised us in the esteem of foreign nations.
That national
spirit and those latent energies which had not been and are not yet fully
known to any were not entirely forgotten by those who had lived long
John Adams
303
enough to see in former times their operation and some of their effects.
Our fellow-citizens were undoubtedly prepared to meet every event which
national honor or national security could render necessary.
These,
it is
to be hoped, are secured at the cheapest and easiest rate;
if not, they will
be secured at more expense.
I thank you, gentlemen, for your assurance that the various subjects
recommended to your consideration shall receive your deliberate atten-
tion.
No further evidence
is wanting to convince me of the zeal and
sincerity with which
the House
of Representatives regard the public
good.
I pray you, gentlemen, to accept of my best wishes for your health
and happiness.
JOHN ADAMS.
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
United States, December 75, 1800.
Gentlemen of the Senate:
I transmit to the Senate, for their consideration and decision, a conven-
tion, both in English and French, between the United States of America
and the French Republic, signed at Paris on the 30th day of September
last by the respective plenipotentiaries of the two powers.
I also trans-
mit to the Senate three manuscript volumes containing the journal of our
envoys.
JOHN ADAMS.
United States, January i, 1801.
Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Represe^itatives:
I transmit to both Houses of Congress, for their information and con-
sideration, copies of laws enacted by the governor and judges of the Mis-
sissippi Territory from
the
30th
of June
until the
31st
of December,
A. D. 1799.
JOHN ADAMS.
United
S'tAntics, January ly, 1801.
Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
I have received from Elias Boudinot, esq.. Director of the Mint of the
United States, a report of the 2d of January, representing the state of it,
together with an abstract of the coins struck at the Mint from the ist of
January to the 31st of December,
1800; an abstract of the expenditures
of the Mint from the ist of January to the 31st of December, inclusive;
a statement of gain on copper coined at the Mint from the ist of January
304
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
to the 31st of December, 1800, and a certificate from Joseph Richardson,
assayer of the Mint, ascertaining the value of Spanish milled doubloons
in proportion to the gold coins of the United States to be no more than
84 cents and \y^ parts of a cent for
i pennyweight, or 28 grains and f^fff
parts of a grain
to one
dollar.
These papers
I transmit to Congress
for their consideration,
JOHN ADAMS.
United States, January 21, 1801.
Gentlemen of the Senate:
In compliance with your request, signified in your resolution of the
20tli day of this month,
I transmit you a report made to me by the Sec-
retary of State on the same day, a letter of our late envoys to him of the
4th of October last, an extract of a letter from our minister plenipoten-
tiary in London to him of the 22d of November
last, and an extract of
another letter from the minister to the Secretary of the 31st of October
last.
The reasoning in the
letter of our late envoys to France
is so fully
supported by the writers on the law of nations, particularly by Vattel,
as well as by his great masters, Grotius and Puffendorf , that nothing is
left to be desired to settle the point that if there be a collision between
two treaties made with two different powers the more ancient has the
advantage, for no engagement contrary to
it can be entered into in the
treaty afterwards made; and
if this last be found in any case incompat-
ible with the more ancient one its execution
is considered as impossible,
because the person promising had not the power of acting contrary to his
antecedent engagement.
Although our right
is very clear to negotiate
treaties according to our own ideas of right and justice, honor and good
faith, yet
it must always be a satisfaction to know that the judgment of
other nations with whom we have connection coincides with ours, and that
we have no reason to apprehend that any disagreeable questions and discus-
sions are likely to arise.
The letters from Mr. King will therefore be
read by the Senate with particular satisfaction.
The inconveniences to public oflScers and the mischiefs to the public
arising from the publication of the dispatches of ministers abroad are so
numerous and so obvious that I request of the Senate that these papers,
especially the letters from Mr. King, be considered in close confidence.
JOHN ADAMS.
United States, January jo, 1801.
Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
I transmit to Congress for their consideration a letter from William
Thornton, Alexander White, and William Cranch,
esquires, commis-
sioners of the city of Washington, with a representation of the affairs of
John Adams
305
the city made by them to the President of the United States, dated 28th
of January,
1801, accompanied with a series of documents marked from
A to H, inclusively,
JOHN ADAMS.
United States, February 16, 1801.
Gentlemen 0/ the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
I wish to know the pleasure of Congress and request their direction
concerning the disposition of the property of the United States now in
my possession; whether
I
shall deliver
it into the hands of the heads
of Departments, or of the commissioners of the city of Washington, or of
a committee of Congress, or to any other persons Congress may appoint,
to be delivered into the hands of my successor, or whether I shall present
it myself to the President of the United States on the 4th of March next.
Any of these modes will be agreeable to me.
JOHN ADAMS.
United States, February 20, 1801.
Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
I transmit to Congress a report received
this
morning
from
Elias
Boudinot,
esq.. Director of the Mint, dated February
13, 1801, which
will require the attention and decision of Congress before the close of
the session.
JOHN ADAMS.
United States, March
2, i8ot.
Gentlemen of the Senate
:
I have considered the advice and consent of the Senate to the ratifica-
tion of the convention with France under certain conditions.
Although it
would have been more conformable to my own judgment and inclination to
have agreed to that instrument unconditionally, yet as in this point I
found I had the misfortune to differ in opinion from so high a constitu-
tional authority as the Senate,
I judged it more consistent with the honor
and interest of the United States to ratify
it under the conditions pre-
scribed than not at all.
I accordingly nominated Mr. Bayard minister
plenipotentiary to the French Republic, that he might proceed without
delay to Paris to negotiate the exchange of ratifications; but as that gen-
tleman has declined his appointment, for reasons equally applicable to
every other person suitable for the service,
I shall take no further meas-
ures relative to this business, and leave the convention, with all the docu-
ments, in the Office of State, that my successor may proceed with them
according to his wisdom.
JOHN ADAMS.
3o6
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
PROCLAMATION.
January 30,
1801.
To the Senators of the United States, respectively.
Sir:
It appearing to me proper and necessary for the public service
that the Senate of the United States should be convened on Wednesday,
the 4th of March next, you are desired to attend in the Chamber of the
Senate on that day, at
10 o'clock in the forenoon, to receive and act
upon any communications which the President of the United States may
then lay before you touching their interests, and to do and consider all
other things which may be proper and necessary for the public service
for the Senate to'do and consider.
JOHN ADAMS,
President of the United States.
Thomas Jefferson
March 4, 1801, to March 4, 1809
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unlocks the treasures of the entire publication, but it is in itself an alphabetically arranged
brief history or story of the great controlling events constituting the History of the United
States.
Under
its proper alphabetical classification the story
is told of every great subject
referred to by any of the Presidents in their official Messages, and at the end of each article
the official utterances of the Presidents themselves are cited upon the subject, so that you
may readily turn to the page in the body of the work itself for this original information.
Next to the possession of knowledge is the ability to turn at will to where knowledge
is to be found.
MONTICELLO,
VIRGINIA, HOME OF
, THOMAS JEFFERSON
With
official
portrait
er.graved from copy
of
original
in
steel
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell, Albemarle County, Va.,
on April 2 (old style),
1743.
He was the oldest son of Peter Jefferson,
who died in
1757.
After attending private schools, he entered Wilham
and Mary College in 1760.
In 1767 began the practice of the law.
In
1769 was chosen
to represent his county in the Virginia house of bur-
gesses, a station he continued to
fill up to the period of the Revolution.
He married Mrs. Martha Skelton in 1772, she being a daughter of John
Vayles, an eminent lawyer of Virginia. On March 12, 1773, was chosen
a member of the
first committee
of correspondence established by the
Colonial legislature.
Was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress
in 1775; was placed on the Committee of Five to prepare the Declaration
of Independence, and
at the request of that committee he drafted the
Declaration, which, with slight amendments, was adopted July 4,
1776.
Resigned his seat in Congress and occupied one in the Virginia legisla-
ture in October, 1776.
Was elected governor of Virginia by the legis-
lature on June
i, 1779, to succeed Patrick Henry.
Retired to private
life at the end of his term as governor, but was the same year elected
again to the legislature.
Was appointed commissioner with others to
negotiate treaties with France in 1776, but declined.
In 1782 he was
appointed by Congress
minister
plenipotentiary to
act with others
in
Europe in negotiating a treaty of peace with Great Britain.
Was again
elected a Delegate to Congress in 1783, and as a member of that body he
advocated and had adopted the dollar as the unit and the present system
of coins and decimals.
In May,
1784, was appointed minister plenipo-
tentiary to Europe to assist John Adams and Benjamin Franklin in nego-
tiating treaties of commerce.
In March,
1 785
, was appointed by Congress
minister at the French Court to succeed Dr. Franklin, and remained in
France until September, 1789.
On his arrival at Norfolk, November 23,
1789, received a letter from Washington offering him the appointment of
Secretary of State in his Cabinet.
Accepted and became the first Secre-
tary of State under the Constitution.
December 31, 1793, resigned his
place in the Cabinet and retired to private life at his home.
In 1796 was
brought forward by his friends as a candidate
for
President, but Mr.
Adams, receiving the highest number of votes, was elected President, and
Jefferson became Vice-President for four years from March 4, 1797.
^^
1800 was again voted for by his party for President.
He and Mr. Bun-
received an equal number of electoral votes, and under the Constitution
307
3o8
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
the House of Representatives was called upon to
elect.
Mr.
Jefferson
was chosen on the thirty-sixth ballot.
Was reelected in 1804, and retired
finally from public life March 4, 1809.
He died on the 4th day of July,
1826, and was buried at Mouticello, Va.
NOTIFICATION OF ELECTION.
Mr. Pinckney, from the committee instructed on the
18th instant to
wait on the President elect to notify him of his election, reported that the
committee had, according to order, performed that service, and addressed
the President elect in the following words, to wit
:
The committee beg leave to express their wishes for tne prosperity of
your Administration and their sincere desire that
it may promote your
own happiness and the welfare of our country.
To which the President elect was pleased to make the following reply
:
I
receive,
gentlemen, with profound thankfulness this testimony of
confidence from the great representative council of our nation.
It fills
up
the measure
of
that
grateful
satisfaction which had already been
derived from the suffrages of my fellow-citizens themselves, designating
me as one of those to whom they were willing to commit this charge, the
most important of
all others to them.
In deciding between the candi-
dates whom their equal vote presented to your choice, I am sensible that
age has been respected rather than more active and useful qualifications.
I know the
difficulties of the
station to which I am called, and
feel
and acknowledge my incompetence to them.
But whatsoever of under-
standing, whatsoever of diligence, whatsoever of justice or of affectionate
concern for the happiness
of
man,
it has pleased Providence to place
within the compass of my faculties shall be called forth for the discharge
of the duties confided to me, and for procuring to my fellow-citizens all
the benefits which our Constitution has placed under the guardianship of
the General Government.
Guided by the wisdom and patriotism
of those
to whom
it belongs
to express the
legislative will of the nation, I will give to that will a
faithful execution.
I pray you, gentlemen, to convey to the honorable body from which
you are deputed the homage of my humble acknowledgments and the
sentiments of zeal and fidelity by which I shall endeavor to merit these
proofs of confidence from the nation and its Representatives; and accept
yourselves my particular thanks for the obliging terms in which you
have been pleased to communicate their will,
TH: JEFFERSON.
February 20, 1801.
Thomas Jefferson
309
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT ELECT.
The President laid before the Senate a letter from the President elect
of the United States, which was read, as follows:
Washington, March 2, 1801.
The President pro tempore of the Senate.
Sir:
I beg leave through you to inform the honorable the Senate of
the United States that I propose to take the oath which the Constitution
prescribes to the President of the United States before he enters on the
execution of his o£6ce on Wednesday, the 4th instant, at 12 o'clock, in
the Senate Chamber.
I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, sir, your most obedi-
ent and most humble servant,
TH: JEFFERSON.
(The same letter was sent to the House of Representatives.)
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
AT WASHINGTON, D. C.
Friends and Fellow- Citizens.
Called upon to undertake the duties of the first executive office of our
country, I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my fellow-citi-
zens which is here assembled to express my grateful thanks for the favor
with which they have been pleased to look toward me, to declare a sin-
cere consciousness that the task is above my talents, and that I approach
it with' those anxious and awful presentiments which the greatness of the
charge and the weakness of my powers so justly inspire.
A rising nation,
spread over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the rich
productions of their industry, engaged in commerce with nations who feel
power and forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of
mortal eye—when I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the
honor, the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved country committed to
the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation,
and humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking.
Utterly,
indeed, should I despair did not the presence of many whom I here see
remind me that in the other high
authorities provided by our Consti-
tution
I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue, and of zeal on which
to rely under all difficulties.
To you, then, gentlemen, who are charged
with the sovereign functions of legislation, and to those associated with
you, I look with encouragement for that guidance and support which may
3IO
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
enable us to steer with safety the vessel in which we are all embarked
amidst the conflicting elements of a troubled world.
During the contest of opinion through which we have passed the ani-
mation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which
might impose on strangers unused to think freely and to speak and
to
write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the
nation, announced according to the rules of the Constitution, all will, of
course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite 'n com-
mon efforts for the common good.
All, too, will bear in mind this sacred
principle, that though the will of the majority is in
all cases to
;revail,
that will to be rightful must be reasonable;
that the minority possess
their equal
rights, which equal law must protect, and
to violate would
be oppression.
Let
us,
then,
fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and
one mind.
Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affec-
tion without which
liberty and even
life
itself
are but dreary
things.
And
let us
reflect
that, having banished from our land that
religious
intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet
gained
little
if we countenance a
political
intolerance as
despotic,
as
wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions.
During the
throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms
of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long-lost lib-
erty,
it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach
even this distant and peaceful shore;
that this should be more felt and
feared by some and
less by
others, and should divide opinions as
to
measures of safety.
But every difference of opinion is not a difference
of principle.
We have called by different names brethren of the same
principle.
We are
all Republicans, we are
all Federalists.
If there be
any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change
its
republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety
with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason
is
left free
to combat it.
I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a repub-
lican government can not be strong, that this Government is not strong
enough;
but would
the honest
patriot,
in
the
full
tide
of
successful
experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us
free and
firm on the
theoretic and visionary
fear
that
this Government,
the
world's best hope, may by possibility want energy to preserve itself?
I
trust not.
I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest Government on
earth.
I believe it the only one where every man, at the call of the law,
would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the
public order as his own personal concern.
Sometimes it is said that man
can not be trusted with the government of himself.
Can he, then, be
trusted with the government of others ?
Or have we found angels in the
forms of kings to govern him ?
Let history answer this question.
Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own Federal
and Republican principles, our attachment to union and representative
Thomas Jefferson
3^^
government.
Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the
exterminating havoc of one quarter
of the globe
;
too high-minded to
endure the degradations of the others
;
possessing a chosen country, with
room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth gen-
eration; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of on r own
faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence
from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from
birth, but from our actions
and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign
religion, professed,
indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty,
truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man
; acknowledging and
adoring an overruling Providence, which by all
its dispensations proves
that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness
hereafter—with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a
happy and a prosperous people?
Still one thing more, fellow-citizens—
a
wise and frugal Go^^emment, which shall restrain men from injuring one
another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of
industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor
the bread it has earned.
This
is the sum of good government, and this
is necessar>^ to close the circle of our felicities.
About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties which com-
prehend everything dear and valuable to you, it
is proper you should
understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government, and
consequently those which oughc
to shape
its Administration.
I
will
compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the
general principle, but not all its limitations.
Equal and exact
justice to
all men, of whatever state or persuasion,
religious or
political;
peace,
commerce, and honest friendship with
all nations, entangling
alliances
with none;
the support of the State governments in
all their rights, as
the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the
surest bulwarks
against antirepublican tendencies; the preservation
of
the General Government in
its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet
anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad;
a jealous care of the
right of election by the people—a mild and safe
corrective of abuses
which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies
are unprovided;
absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority,
the vital principle of republics, from which
is no appeal but to
force,
the
vital
principle
and
immediate parent
of despotism;
a
well-dis-
ciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and
for the first moments of
war,
till regulars may relieve them
; the supremacy of the civil over the
military authority; economy in the public expense, that labor may be
lightly burthened
;
the honest payment of our debts and sacred preserva-
tion of the public faith
; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce
as
its handmaid; the diffusion of information and arraignment of
all
abuses at the bar of the public reason
; freedom of religion
; freedom of the
press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus,
312
Messages mid Papers of the Presidents
and trial by juries impartially selected.
These principles form the bright
constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through
an age
of revolution and reformation.
The wisdom
of our sages and
blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment.
They should
be the
creed of
our
political
faith,
the text of
civic instruction,
the
touchstone by which to try the services of those we
trust; and should
we wander from them
in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten
to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace,
liberty, and safety.
I repair, then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have assigned me.
With
experience enough in subordinate offices to have seen the
difficulties of
this the greatest
of
all,
I have learnt to expect that
it will rarely fall
to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputation
and the favor which bring him into it.
Without pretensions to that high
confidence you reposed in our first and greatest revolutionary character,
whose preeminent services had entitled him to the first place in his coun-
try's love and destined for him the fairest page in the volume of faithful
history, I ask so much confidence only as may give firmness and effect to
the legal administration of your affairs.
I shall often go wrong through
defect
of judgment.
When
right,
I
shall often be thought wrong by
those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground.
I
ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be intentional,
and your support against the errors of others, who may condemn what
they would not if seen in all its parts.
The approbation implied by your
suffrage is a great consolation to me for the past, and my future solicitude
will be
to retain the good opinion of
those who have bestowed
it
in
advance, to conciliate that of others by doing them all the good in my
power, and to be instrumental to the happiness and freedom of
all.
Relying, then, on the patronage of your good
will,
I advance with
obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become sen-
sible how much better choice
it
is in your power to make.
And may
that Infinite Power which rules the destinies of the universe lead our
councils to what is best, and give them a favorable issue for your peace
and prosperity.
March
4, 1801.
PROCLAMATION.
[From the National Intelligencer, March 13, 1801.]
By The; President oe the United States.
Whereas by the first
article of the terms and conditions declared by
the President of the United States on the 17th day of October, 1791, for
regulating the materials and manner of buildings and improvements
Tho7uas Jefferson
313
on the lots in the city of Washington, it is provided " that the outer and
party walls of all houses in the said city shall be built of brick or stone; "
and by the third
article of the same terms and conditions
it is declared
"that the wall of no house shall be higher than 40 feet
to the roof in
any part of the
city, nor shall any be lower than 35 feet in any of the
avenues; " and
Whereas the above-recited articles were found to impede the settlement
in the city of mechanics and others whose circumstances did not admit of
erecting houses authorized by the said regulations, for which cause the
President of the United States, by a writing under his hand, bearing date
the 25th day of June,
1796, suspended the operation of the said
articles
until the first Monday of December,
1800, and the beneficial effects aris-
ing from such suspension having been experienced,
it is deemed proper
to revive the same:
Wherefore
I, Thomas
Jefferson,
President
of the United
States, do
declare that the operation of the
first and third
articles above recited
shall be, and the same is hereby, suspended until the ist day of January,
1802, and that
all the houses which shall be erected in the said city of
Washington previous to the said
ist day of January,
1802, conformable
in other respects to the regulations aforesaid, shall be considered as law-
fully erected, except that no wooden house shall be erected within 24 feet
of any brick or stone house.
Given under my hand this nth day of March,
1801.
TH: JEFFERSON.
In communicating his first message to Congress, President Jefferson
addressed the following letter to the presiding officer of each branch of
the National Legislature:
December
8,
1801.
The Honorable the President op The Senate.
Sir: The circumstances under which we find ourselves at this place
rendering inconvenient the mode heretofore practiced of making by per-
sonal address the first communications between the legislative and execu-
tive branches, I have adopted that by message, as used on all subsequent
occasions through the session.
In doing this I have had principal regard
to the convenience of the Legislature, to the economy of their time, to
their relief from the embarrassment of immediate answers on subjects
not yet fully before them, and to the
benefits thence resulting to the
public affairs.
Trusting that a procedure founded in these motives will
meet their approbation, I beg leave through you, sir, to communicate the
inclosed message, with the documents accompanying it, to the honorable
the Senate, and pray you to accept for yourself and them the homage of
my high respect and consideration.
TH: JEFFERSON.
3 14
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE.
DECEMBKR
8, t8oi.
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and Hoiise of Representatives:
It is a circumstance of sincere gratification to me
that on meeting the
great council of our nation I am able to announce to them on grounds of
reasonable certainty that the wars and troubles which have for so many
years afflicted our sister nations have at length come to an end, and that
the communications of peace and commerce are once more opening among
them.
Whilst we devoutly return thanks to the beneficent Being who has
been pleased to breathe into them the spirit of conciliation and forgive-
ness, we are bound with peculiar gratitude to be thankful
to Him that
our own peace has been preserved through so perilous a season, and our-
selves permitted quietly to cultivate the earth and to practice and improve
those arts which tend to increase our comforts.
The assurances, indeed,
of friendly disposition received from all the powers with whom we have
principal relations had inspired a confidence that our peace with them
would not have been disturbed.
But a cessation of irregularities which
had affected the commerce of neutral nations and of the irritations and
injuries produced by them can not but add to this confidence, and strength-
ens at the same time the hope that wrongs committed on unoffending
friends under a pressure of circumstances will now be reviewed with can-
dor, and will be considered as founding just claims of retribution for
the
past and new assurance for the future.
Among our Indian neighbors
also
a
spirit
of peace and friendship
generally prevails, and
I am happy to inform you that the continued
efforts to introduce among them the implements and the practice of hus-
bandry and of the household
arts have not been without success;
that
they are becoming more and more sensible of
the superiority of
this
dependence for clothing and subsistence over the precarious resources of
hunting and fishing, and already we are able to announce that instead
of that constant diminution of their numbers produced by their wars and
their wants, some of them begin to experience an increase of population.
To this state of general peace with which we have been blessed, one
only exception
exists.
Tripoli, the least considerable of the Barbary
States, had come forward with demands unfounded either in right or in
compact, and had permitted itself to denounce war on our failure to com-
ply before a given day.
The
style of the demand admitted but one
answer.
I sent a small squadron of
frigates into the Mediterranean,
with assurances to that power of our sincere desire to remain in peace,
but with orders to protect our commerce against the threatened attack.
The measure was
seasonable
and
salutary.
The Bey had
already
declared war.
His cruisers were out.
Two had arrived at Gibraltar.
TJiomas Jefferson
3^5
Our commerce
In
ttie Mediterranean was blockaded and that
of the
A-tlantic
in
peril.
The
arrival
of
our squadron dispelled the
danger.
One of the IVipolitan cruisers having fallen
in with and engaged the
small schooner Enterprise, commanded by Ivieutenant Sterret, which had
gone as a tender to our larger vessels, was captured, after a heavy slaugh-
ter of her men, without the loss of a single one on our part.
The bravery
exhibited by our citizens on that element will, I trust, be a testimony to
the world that it is not the want of that virtue which makes us seek their
peace, but a conscientious desire to direct the energies of our nation to the
multipli jation of the human race, and not to its destruction.
Unauthorized
by the Constitution, without the sanction of Congress, to go beyond the
line of defense, the vessel, being disabled from committing further hostil-
ities, was liberated with its crew.
The Legislature will doubtless consider
whether, by authorizing measures of offense also, they will place our force
on an equal footing with that
of
its adversaries.
I communicate
all
material information on this subject, that in the exercise of this impor-
tant function confided by the Constitution to the Legislature exclusively
their judgment may form
itself on a knowledge and consideration of
every circumstance of weight.
I wish I could say that our situation with all the other Barbary States
was entirely satisfactory.
Discovering that some delays had taken place
in the performance of certain articles stipulated by us,
I thought it my
duty, by immediate measures for fulfilling them, to vindicate to ourselves
the tight of considering the effect of departure from stipulation on their
side.
From the papers which will be laid before you you will be enabled
to judge whether our treaties are regarded by them as fixing at
all the
measure of their demands or as guarding from the exercise of force our
vessels within their power, and to consider how far
it will be safe and
expedient to leave our affairs with them in their present posture.
I lay before you the result of the census lately taken of our inhabitants,
to a conformity with which we are now to reduce the ensuing
ratio of
representation and taxation.
Vou will perceive that the increase of num-
bers during the
last ten years, proceeding in geometrical ratio, promises
a
duplication
in
little more than twenty-two years.
We contemplate
this rapid growth and the prospect
it holds up to us, not with a view to
the injuries it may enable us to do others in some future day, but to the
settlement
of
the extensive country still remaining vacant within our
limits to the multiplication of men susceptible of happiness, educated in
the love of order, habituated to self-government, and valuing
its bless-
ings above all price.
Other circumstances, combined with the increase of numbers, have
produced an augmentation of revenue arising from consumption in a
ratio far beyond that of population alone; and though the changes in
foreign relations now taking place so desirably for the whole world may
for a season affect this branch of revenue, yet weighing all probabilities of
3i6
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
expense as well as of income, there
is reasonable ground of confidence
that we may now safely dispense with all the internal taxes, comprehend-
ing excise, stamps, auctions,
licenses, carriages, and
refined sugars, to
which the postage on newspapers may be added to facilitate the progress
of information, and that the remaining sources of revenue will be sufficient
to provide for the support of Government, to pay the interest of the pub-
lic debts, and to discharge the principals within shorter periods than the
laws or the general expectation had contemplated.
War, indeed, and
untoward events may change this prospect of things and call for expenses
which the imposts could not meet; but sound principles will not justify
our taxing the industry of our fellow-citizens to accumulate treasure for
wars to happen we know not when, and which might not, perhaps, happen
but from the temptations offered by that treasure.
These views, however,
of reducing our burthens are formed on the
expectation that a sensible and at the same time a salutary reduction
may take place in our habitual expenditures.
For this purpose those
of the civil Government, the Army, and Navy will need revisal.
When we consider that this Government is charged with the external
and mutual relations only of these States;
that the States themselves
have principal care of our persons, our property, and our reputation, con-
stituting the great field of human concerns, we may well doubt whether
oiu: organization is not too complicated, too expensive; whether
offices
and oflScers have not been multiplied unnecessarily and sometimes inju-
riously to the service they were meant to promote.
I will cause to be
laid before you an essay toward a statement of those who, under public
employment
of various kinds, draw money from the Treasury or from
our citizens.
Time has not permitted a perfect enumeration, the ram-
ifications
of
ofl5ce being too multiplied and remote
to be completely
traced in a
first trial.
Among those who are dependent on Executive
discretion I have begun the reduction of what was deemed unnecessary.
The expenses of diplomatic agency have been considerably diminished.
The inspectors of internal revenue who were found to obstruct the
ac-
countabihty of the institution have been discontinued.
Several agencies
created by Executive authority, on salaries fixed by that also, have been
suppressed, and should suggest the expediency of regulating that power
by law, so as to subject its exercises to legislative inspection and sanc-
tion.
Other reformations of the same kind will be pursued with that
caution which is requisite in removing useless things, not to injure what is
retained.
But the great mass of public oflSces is established by law, and
therefore by law alone can be abolished.
Should the I^egislature think
it expedient to pass this roll in review and try all its parts by the test of
pubhc utiUty, they may be assured of every aid and hght which Execu-
tive information can yield.
Considering the general tendency to multiply
offices and dependencies and to increase expense to the ultimate term of
burthen which the citizen can bear,
it behooves us to avail ourselves of
Thomas Jefferson
317
every occasion which presents itself for taking off the surcharge, that it
never may be seen here that after leaving to labor the smallest portion
of its earnings on which it can subsist, Government shall itself consume
the whole residue of what it was instituted to guard.
In our care, too, of the public contributions intrusted
to our direction
it would be prudent
to multiply
barriers
against
their dissipation by
appropriating specific sums to every specific purpose susceptible of
defi-
nition
; by disallowing all applications of money varying from the appro-
priation in object or transcending it in amount; by reducing the undefined
field of contingencies and thereby circumscribing discretionary powers
over money, and by bringing back to a single department all accounta-
bilities for money, where the examinations may be prompt, efficacious,
and uniform.
An account of the receipts and expenditures of the
last year, as pre-
pared by the Secretary of the Treasury, will, as usual, be laid before you.
The success which has attended the
late sales of the public lands shews
that with attention they may be made an important source of receipt.
Among the payments those made in discharge of the principal and interest
of the national debt will shew that the public
faith has been exactly
maintained.
To these will be added an estimate of appropriations neces-
sary for the ensuing year.
This last will, of course, be aifected by such
modifications of the system of expense as you shall think proper to adopt.
A statement has been formed by the Secretary
of War,
on mature
consideration, of all the posts and stations where garrisons will be expe-
dient and of the number of men requisite for each garrison.
The whole
amount is considerably short of the present military establishment.
For
the surplus no particular use can be pointed out.
For defense against
invasion their number is as nothing, nor
is
it conceived needful or safe
that a standing army should be kept up in time of peace for that purpose.
Uncertain as we must ever be of the particular point in our circumference
where ah enemy may choose to invade
us, the only force which can be
ready at every point and competent to oppose them is the body of neigh-
boring citizens
as formed into a
militia.
On these, collected from the
parts most convenient in numbers proportioned to the invading force, it is
best to rely not only to meet the
first attack, but
if
it threatens to be
permanent
to maintain the defense
until regulars may be engaged to
relieve them.
These considerations render
it important that we should
at every session continue to amend the
defects which from time to time
shew themselves
in the laws
for regulating the
militia until they are
sufficiently perfect.
Nor should we now or at any time
separate
until
we can say we have done everything for the
militia which we could do
were an enemy at our door.
The provision of military stores on hand will be laid before you, that
you may judge of the additions still requisite.
With respect to the extent to which our naval preparations should be
3i8
Messages mid Papers of the Presidents
carried some difference of opinion may be expected to appear, but just
attention to the circumstances of every part of the Union will doubtless
reconcile
all.
A
small
force will probably continue
to be wanted for
actual service in the Mediterranean.
Whatever annual sum beyond that
3'OU may think proper to appropriate to naval preparations would perhaps
be better employed in providing those articles which may be kept without
waste or consumption, and be in readiness when any exigence calls them
into use.
Progress has been made, as will appear by papers now com-
municated, in providing materials for 74-gun ships as directed by law.
How
far the authority given by the
Legislature
for procuring and
establishing sites for naval purposes has been perfectly understood and
pursued
in the execution admits of some doubt.
A statement of the
expenses already incurred on
that
subject
is now laid before
you.
I
have in certain cases suspended or slackened these expenditures, that the
Legislature might determine whether so many yards are necessary as have
been contemplated.
The works at this place are among those permitted
to go on, and five of the seven frigates directed to be
laid up have been
brought and laid up here, where, besides the safety of their position, they
are under the eye
of the Executive Administration, as well as
of
its
agents, and where yourselves also will be guided by your own view in
the legislative provisions respecting them which may from time to time
be necessary.
They are preserved in such condition, as well the vessels
as whatever belongs to them, as to be at all times ready for sea on a short
warning.
Two others are yet to be laid up so soon as they shall have
received the repairs requisite to put them also into sound condition.
As
a superintending ofl&cer will be necessary at each
yard, his duties and
emoluments, hitherto fixed by the Executive, will be a more proper sub-
ject for legislation.
A communication will also be made of our progress
in the execution of the law respecting the vessels directed to be sold.
The fortifications of our harbors, more or
less advanced, present con-
siderations of great difi&culty.
While some of them are on a scale sufl5-
ciently proportioned to the advantages of their position, to the efficacy of
their protection, and the importance of the points within it, others are so
extensive,
will cost so much
in
their
first erection,
so much in their
maintenance, and require such a force to garrison them as to make
it
questionable what is best now to be done.
A statement of those com-
menced or projected, of the expenses already incurred, and estimates of
their future cost, as far as can be foreseen, shall be laid before you, that
you may be enabled to judge whether any alteration
is necessary in the
laws respecting this subject.
Agricultture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars
of our prosperity, are then most thriving when left most free to individual
enterprise.
Protection
from
casual
embarrassments,
however, may
sometimes be seasonably interposed.
If in the course of your observa-
tions or inquiries they should appear to need any aid within the limits of
Thomas Jefferson
319
our constitutional powers, your sense of their importance is a sufficient
assurance they will occupy your attention.
We can not, indeed, but all
feel an anxious solicitude for the difficulties under which our carrying
trade will soon be placed.
How far it can be relieved, otherwise than by
time, is a subject of important consideration.
The judiciary system of the United States, and especially that portion
of it recently erected, will of course present itself to the contemplation of
Congress, and, that they may be able to judge of the proportion which
the institution bears to the business it has to perform, I have caused to
be procured from the several States and now lay before Congress an
exact statement of all the causes decided since the first establishment of
the courts, and of those which were depending when additional courts and
judges were brought in to their aid.
And while on the judiciary organization
it will be worthy your con-
sideration whether the protection of the inestimable institution of juries
has been extended to
all the cases involving the security of our persont
and
property.
Their impartial
selection
also being
essential
to
their
value, we ought further to consider whether that is sufficiently secured in
those States where they are named by a marshal depending on Executive
will or designated by the court or by officers dependent on them.
I can not omit recommending a revisal of the laws on the subject of
naturalization.
Considering the ordinary chances of human life, a denial
of citizenship under a residence of fourteen years is a denial to a great
proportion of those who ask
it, and controls a policy pursued from their
first settlement by many of these States, and still believed of consequence
to their prosperity; and shall we refuse to the unhappy fugitives from dis-
tress that hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended to our
fathers arriving in this land ?
Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum
on
this globe ?
The Constitution indeed has wisely provided
that
for
admission to certain offices of important trust a residence shall be required
sufficient to develop character and design.
But might not the general
character and capabilities of a citizen be safely communicated to every-
one manifesting a bona fide purpose of embarking his
life and fortunes
permanently with us,
with restrictions,
perhaps, to guard against the
fraudulent usurpation
of
our
flag, an
abuse
which
brings so much
embarrassment and loss on the genuine citizen and so much danger to the
nation of being involved in war that no endeavor should be spared to
detect and suppress it?
These,
fellow-citizens,
are
the
matters respecting
the
state
of the
nation which I have thought of importance to be submitted to your con-
sideration
at this time.
Some others of less moment or not yet ready
for communication will be the subject of separate messages.
I am happy
in this opportunity of committing the arduous affairs of our Government
to the collected wisdom of the Union.
Nothing shall be wanting on my
part to
in:*^orm as far as in my power the legislative judgment, nor to
320
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
carry that judgment into faithful execution.
The prudence and temper-
ance of your discussions will promote within your own walls that concil-
iation which so much befriends rational conclusion, and by its example
will encourage among our constituents that progress of opinion which is
tending to unite them in object and in will.
That all should be satisfied
with any one order of things
is not to be expected; but
I indulge the
pleasing persuasion that the great body of our citizens will cordially con-
cur in honest and disinterested efforts which have for their object to pre-
serve the General and State Governments in their constitutional form
and equilibrium; to maintain peace abroad, and order and obedience to
the laws at home; to establish principles and practices of administration
favorable to the security of
liberty and property, and to reduce expenses
to what is necessary for the useful purposes of Government.
TH: JEFFERSON.
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
DeCEMBKR
II, 1801.
Gentlemen of the Senate:
Early in the last month I received the ratification by the First Consul of
France of
the convention between the United States and that nation.
His ratification not being pure and simple in the ordinary form,
I have
thought it my duty, in order to avoid
all misconception, to ask a second
advice and consent of the Senate before I give it the last sanction by pro-
claiming it to be a law of the land.
TH: JEFFERSON.
DKCEMBER
22,
1 801.
Gentlemen of the Senate:
The States of Georgia and Tennessee being peculiarly interested in our
carrying into execution the two acts passed by Congress on the 19th of
February, 1799 (chapter
115), and 13th May, 1800 (chapter 62), com-
missioners were appointed early in summer and other measures taken
for the purpose.
The objects of these laws requiring meetings with the
Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Creeks, the inclosed instructions
were prepared for the proceedings with the three first nations.
Our appli-
cations
to the Cherokees
failed altogether.
Those to the Chickasaws
produced the treaty now laid before you for your advice and consent,
whereby we obtained permission to open a road of communication with
the Mississippi Territory.
The commissioners are probably at this time
in conference with the Choctaws.
Further information having been
wanting when these instructions were formed to enable us to prepare
Thomas Jefferson
321
those respecting the Creeks, the commissioners were directed to proceed
with the others.
We have now reason to beheve the conferences with
the Creeks can not take place
till the spring.
The journals and letters of the commissioners relating to the subject
of the treaty now inclosed accompany it.
TH: JEFFERSON.
December
22,
1801.
Gentle7nen of the Senate and of the House of Represeyitativcs:
J. now inclose sundry documents supplementary to those communicated
to you with my message at the commencement of the session.
Two others
of considerable importance—the one relating to our transactions with the
Barbary Powers, the other presenting a view of the offices of the Govern-
ment—shall be communicated as soon as they can be completed.
TH: JEFFERSON.
December
23,
1801.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Represeyitatives:
Another return of the census of the State of Maryland is just received
from the marshal of that State, which he desires may be substituted as
more correct than the one first returned by him and communicated by
le to Congress.
This new return, with his letter, is now laid before you.
TH: JEFFERSON.
January ii,
1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives.
I now communicate to you a memorial of the commissioners of the city
Df Washington, together with a letter of later date, which, with their me-
morial of January 28, 1801, will possess the IvCgislature fully of the state
of the public interests and of those of the city of Washington confided to
them.
The moneys now due, and soon to become due, to the State of
Maryland on the loan guaranteed by the United States call for an early
attention.
The lots in the city which are chargeable with the payment
of these moneys are deemed not only equal to the indemnification of the
public, but to insiure a considerable surplus to the city to be employed
for its improvement, provided they are offered for sale only in sufficient
numbers to meet the existing demand.
But the act of
1796 requires
that they shall be positively sold in such numbers as shall be necessary
for the punctual payment of the loans.
Nine thousand dollars of interest
are
lately become due,
$3,000 quarter yearly will continue
to become
due, and $50,000, an additional loan, are reimbursable on the ist day of
November next.
These sums would require sales so far beyond
ttie
322
Messages and Papers of tJie President ts
actuai. demand of the market that it is apprehended that the whole prop-
erty may be thereby
sacrificed, the public security destroyed, and the
residuary interest of the city entirely lost.
Under these circumstances I
have thought it my duty before I proceed to direct a rigorous execution
of the law to submit the subject to the consideration of the Legislature.
Whether the public interest
will be better secured in the end and that
of the city saved by offering sales commensurate only to the demand at
market, and advancing from the Treasury in the first instance what these
may prove deficient, to be replaced by subsequent sales, rests
for the
determination of the I,egislature.
If indulgence for the funds can be ad-
mitted, they will probably form a resource of great and permanent value
;
and
their embarrassments have
been
produced
only by
overstrained
exertions to provide accommodations for the Government of the Union.
TH: JEFFERSON.
January
12,
1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate.'
I now communicate to you a letter from the Secretary of State inclos-
ing an estimate of the expenses which appear at present necessary for
carrying into effect the convention between the United States of America
and the French Republic, which has been prepared at the request of the
House of Representatives.
TH: JEFFERSON,
January
27,
1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
I lay before you the accounts of our Indian trading houses, as rendered
up to the
I St day of January, 1801, with a report 'of the Secretary of War
thereon, explaining the effects and the situation of that commerce and
the reasons in favor of its further extension.
But it is believed that the
act authorizing this trade expired so long ago as the 3d of March,
1799.
Its revival, therefore, as well as its extension, is submitted to the consid-
eration of the Legislature.
The act regulating trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes will
also expire on the 3d day of March next.
While on the subject of
its
continuance it will be worthy the consideration of the Legislature whether
the provisions of the law inflicting on Indians, in certain cases, the punish-
ment of death by hanging might not permit its commutation into death
by military execution, the form of the punishment in the former way
being peculiarly repugnant to their ideas and increasing the obstacles to
the surrender of the criminal.
These people are becoming very sensible of the baneful effects produced
on their morals, their health, and existence by the abuse of ardent spirits,
Thomas Jefferson
323
and some of them earnestly desire a prohibition of that article from being
carried among them.
The Legislature will consider whether the
effec-
tuating that desire would not be in the spirit of benevolence and liberal-
ity which they have hitherto practiced toward these our neighbors, and
which has had so happy an
effect toward conciliating their friendship.
It has been found, too, in experience that the same abuse gives frequent
rise to incidents tending much to commit our peace with the Indians.
It is now become necessary to run and mark the boundaries between
them and us in various parts.
The law last mentioned has authorized
this to be done, but no existing appropriation meets the expense.
Certain papers explanatory of the grounds of this communication are
herewith inclosed.
TH: JEFFERSON.
February
2, 1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
I now lay before you—
1. A return of ordnance, arms, and military stores the property of the
United States.
2. Returns of muskets and bayonets fabricated at the armories of the
United States at Springfield and Harpers Ferry, and of the expenditures
at those places
; and
3. An estimate of expenditures which maybe necessary for fortifica-
tions and barracks for the present year.
Besides
the permanent magazines
established
at
Springfield, West
Point, and Harpers Ferry,
it
is thought one should be
estabhshed
in
some point convenient for the States of North Carolina, South Carolina,
and Georgia.
Such a point will probably be found near the border of
the Carohnas, and some small provision by the Legislature preparatory
to the establishment will be necessary for the present year.
We find the United States in possession of certain iron mines and works
in the county of Berkeley and State of Virginia, purchased, as is presum-
able, on the idea
of
establishing works for the
fabrication of cannon
and other military articles by the public.
Whether this method of sup-
plying what may be wanted will be most advisable or that of purchasing
at market where competition brings everything to its proper level of price
and quality is for the Legislature to decide, and if the latter alternative
be preferred,
it will rest for their further consideration in what way the
subjects
of
this purchase may be
best employed or disposed
of.
The
Attorney-General's opinion on the subject of the title accompanies this.
There are in various parts of the United States small parcels of land
which have been purchased at different times for cantonments and other
military purposes.
Several of them are in situations not likely to be
accommodated to future purposes.
The loss of the records prevents a
324
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
detailed statement of these until they can be supplied by inquiry.
In
the meantime, one of them, containing 88 acres., in the county of Essex,
in New Jersey, purchased in 1799 and sold the following year to Cornelius
Vermule and Andrew Codmas, though
its price has been received, can
not be conveyed without authority from the Legislature.
I inclose herewith a letter from the Secretary of War on the subject of
the islands in the lakes and rivers of our northern boundary, and of cer-
tain lands in the neighborhood of some of our mihtary posts, on which it
may be expedient for the I^egislature to make some provisions.
TH: JEFFERSON.
February
16, 1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the Hoiise of Representatives:
I now transmit a statement of the expenses incurred by the United
States in
their transactions with the Barbary Powers, and a
roll of the
persons having
ofl&ce or employment under the United States, as was
proposed in my messages of December 7 and 22.
Neither is as perfect
as could have been wished, and the latter not so much so as further time
and inquiry may enable us to make it.
The great volmne of these communications and the delay
it would
produce to make out a second copy will, I trust, be deemed a sufficient
reason for sending one of them to the one House, and the other to the
other, with a request that they may be interchanged
for mutual infor-
mation rather than to subject both to further delay.
TH: JEFFERSON.
February
18,
1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
In a message of the 2d instant I inclosed a
letter from the Secretary
of War on the subject of certain lands in the neighborhood of our mili-
tary posts on which
it might be expedient for the Legislature to make
some provisions.
A letter recently received from the governor of Indi-
ana presents some further views of the extent to which such provision
may be needed.
I
therefore now transmit
it
for
the information of
Congress.
TH: JEFFERSON.
February 24, 1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives
:
I communicate to both Houses of Congress a report of the Secretary of
the Treasury on the subject of our marine hospitals, which appear to
require legislative attention.
As connected with the same subject, I also inclose information respect-
Thomas Jefferson
325
ing the situation of our seamen and boatmen frequenting the port of New
Orleans and suffering there from sickness and the want of accommoda-
tion.
There is good reason to beheve their numbers greater than stated
in these papers.
When we consider how great a proportion of the terri-
tory of the United States must communicate with that port singly, and
how rapidly that territory is increasing its population and productions, it
may perhaps
be thought reasonable to make hospital provisions then-
of a different order from those at foreign ports generally.
.
TH: JEFFERSON.
February
25,
1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
No occasion having arisen since the last account rendered by my pred
ecessor
of making use of any part of the moneys heretofore granted
t<.>
defray the contingent charges
of
the Government,
I now transmit
to
Congress an of&cial statement thereof to the 31st day of December last
when the whole unexpended balance, amounting to $20,911.80, was car-
ried to the credit
of the surplus fund, as provided for by law, and this
account consequently becomes finally closed.
TH: JEFFERSON.
February
26,
1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
Some statements have been
lately received of the causes decided or
depending in the courts of the Union in certain States, supplementary or
corrective of those from which was formed the general statement accom-
panying my message at the opening of the session.
I therefore commu-
nicate them to Congress, with a report of the Secretary of State noting
their effect on the former statement and correcting certain errors in it
which arose partly from inexactitude in some of the returns and partly
in analyzing, adding, and transcribing them while hurried in preparing
the other voluminous papers accompanying that message.
TH: JEFFERSON.
March
i,
1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
I transmit
for the information
of Congress letters recently received
from our consuls at Gibraltar and Algiers, presenting the latest view of
the state of our affairs with the Barbary Powers.
The sums due to the
Government of Algiers are now fully paid up, and of the gratuity which
had been promised to that of Tunis, and was in a course of preparation,
a small portion only remains still to be finished and delivered.
TH: JEFFERSON.
326
Messages and Papers oj the Presidents
March
9,
1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate:
The governor of New York has desired that, in addition to the negotia-
tions with certain Indians already authorized under the superintendence of
John Taylor, further negotiations should be held with the Oneidas and
other members of the Confederacy of the Six Nations for the purchase
of lands in and for the State of New York, which they are willing to sell,
as explained
in the
letter from the Secretary of War herewith sent.
I
have therefore thought
it better to name a commissioner to superintend
the negotiations specified with the Six Nations generally, or with any of
them.
I do accordingly nominate John Taylor, of New York, to be commis-
sioner for the United States, to hold a convention or conventions between
the State of New York and the Confederacy of the Six Nations of
Indi-
ans, or any of the nations composing it.
This nomination, if advised and consented to by the Senate, will com-
prehend and supersede that of February
i
of the same John Taylor so
far as it respected the Seneca Indians,
TH: JEFFKRSON.
March
10,
1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate*
I now submit for the ratification of the Senate a treaty entered into by
the commissioners of
the United States with the Choctaw Nation
of
Indians, and I transmit therewith so much of the instructions to the com-
missioners as related to the Choctaws, with the minutes of their proceed-
ings and the letter accompanying them,
TH: JEFFERSON.
March
29,
1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Represeyitatives:
The Secretary of State, charged with the civil affairs of the several Ter-
ritories of the United States, has received from the marshal of Colum-
bia a statement of the condition, unavoidably distressing, of the persons
committed to his custody on civil or criminal process and the urgency
for some legislative provisions for their relief.
There are other important
cases wherein the laws of the adjoining States under which the Territory
is placed, though adapted to the purposes of those States, are insufficient
for those of the Territory for the dissimilar or defective organization of
its
authorities.
The letter and statement of the marshal and the dis-
quieting state of the Territory generally are now submitted to the wisdom
and consideration of the Legislature.
TH: JEFFERSON.
Thomas Jeffersott
327
March
29,
1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate:
The commissioners who were appointed to carry into execution the
sixth article of the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation between
the United States and His Britannic Majesty having differed in opinion
qs to the objects of that article and discontinued their proceedings, the
Executive of the United States took early measures, by instructions to
our minister at the British Court, to negotiate explanations of that article.
This mode of resolving the diflEiculty, however, proved unacceptable to
the British Government, which chose rather to avoid all further discus-
sion and expense under that article by fixing at a given sum the amount
for which the United States should be held responsible under
it.
Mr.
King was consequently authorized to meet this proposition, and a settle-
ment in this way has been effected by a convention entered into with the
British Government, and now communicated for your advice and consent,
together with the instructions and correspondence relating to it.
The
greater part of these
papers
l^eing
originals, the return of them
is
re-
quested at the convenience of the Senate.
TH: JEFFERSON.
March
30,
1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
The Secretary of War has prepared an estimate of expenditures for
the Army of the United States during the year
1802, conformably to
the act fixing the military peace establishment, which estimate, with his
letter accompanying and explaining
it,
I now transmit to both Houses
of Congress.
TH: JEFFERSON.
March
31,
1802.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
According to the desire expressed in your resolution of the 23d instant,
I now transmit a report of the Secretary of State, with the letters it refers
to, shewing the proceedings which have taken place under the resolution
of Congress of the i6th of April, 1800.
The term prescribed for the exe-
cution of the resolution having elapsed before the person appointed had
sat out on the service, I did not deem it justifiable to commence a course
of expenditure after the expiration of the resolution authorizing it.
The
correspondence which has taken place, having regard to dates, will place
this subject properly under the view of the House of Representatives.
TH: JEFFERSON.
328
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
April
8, 1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate:
In order to satisfy as far as
it
is in my power the desire expressed in
your resolution of the 6th instant, I now transmit you a letter from John
Read,
agent
for the United States before the board
of commissioners
under the sixth article of the treaty with Great Britain, to the Attorney-
General, bearing date the 25th of April, 1801, in which he gives a sum-
mary view of the proceedings of those commissioners and of the principles
established or insisted on by a majority of them.
Supposing
it might be practicable for us to settle by negotiation with
Great Britain the principles which ought to govern the decisions under
the treaty,
I caused instructions to be given to Mr. Read to analyze the
claims before the board of commissioners, to class them under the prin-
ciples on which they respectively depended, and to state the sum depending
on each principle or the amount of each description of debt.
The object
of this was that we might know what principles were most important for
us to contend
for and what
others might be conceded without much
injury.
He performed this duty, and gave in such a statement during
the
last summer, but the chief clerk of the Secretary of State's
office
being absent on account of sickness, and the only person acquainted with
the airangement of the papers of the office, this particular document can
not at this time be found.
Having, however, been myself in possession
of
it a few days after its receipt, I then transcribed from it for my own
use the recapitulation
of the amount of each description of
debt.
A
copy of this transcript I shall subjoin hereto, with assurances that
it
is
substantially correct, and with the hope that
it will give a view of the
subject sufficiently precise to
fulfill the wishes of the Senate.
To save
them the delay of waiting till a copy of the agent's letter could be made,
I send the original, with the request that
it may be returned at the con-
venience of the Senate.
TH: JEFFERSON.
April
15,
1802.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
I now transmit the papers desired in your resolution of the 6th instant.
Those respecting the Berceau will sufiiciently explain themselves.
The
officer charged with her repairs states in his letter, received August 27,
1 801, that he had been led by circumstances, which he explains, to go
considerably beyond
his
orders.
In questions between nations, who
have no common umpire but reason, something must often be yielded of
mutual opinion to enable them to meet in a common point.
The allowance which had been proposed to the officers of that vessel
being represented as too small for their daily necessities, and still more so
as the means of paying before their departure debts contracted with oxir
Thojuas Jefferson
329
citizens for subsistence,
it was requested on
their behalf that the daily
pay of each might be the measure of their allowance.
This being solicited and reimbursement assumed by the agent of their
nation,
I deemed that the indulgence would have a propitious effect
in
the moment of returning friendship.
The sum of $870.83 was accordingly
furnished them
for the five months of past captivity and a proportional
allowance authorized until their embarkation.
TH: JEFFERSON.
Aprii,
20,
1802.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
I transmit you a report from the Secretary of State, with the information
desired by the House of Representatives, of the 8th of January, relative
to certain spoliations and other proceedings therein referred to.
TH; JEFFERSON.
April
26,
1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
In pursuance
of
the
act
entitled "An
act supplemental
to the
act
entitled 'An act for an amicable settlement of limits with the State of
Georgia, and authorizing the establishment of a government in the Mis-
sissippi Territory,' " James Madison, Secretary of State, Albert Gallatin,
Secretary of the Treasury, and Levi Lincoln, Attorney-General
of the
United
States, were appointed commissioners to settle by compromise
with the commissioners appointed by the State of Georgia the claims and
cession to which the said act has relation.
Articles of agreement and cession have accordingly been entered into
and signed by the said commissioners of the United States and of Georgia,
which, as they leave a right to Congress to act upon them legislatively
at any time within six months after their date, I have thought it my duty
immediately to communicate to the Legislature.
TH: JEFFERSON.
Aprii.
27,
1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
The commissioners who were appointed to carry into execution the
sixth article of the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation between
the United States and Great Britain having differed in their construction
of that article, and separated in consequence of that difference, the Presi-
dent of the United States took immediate measures for obtaining conven-
tional explanations of that article for the government of the commissioners.
Finding, however, great difficulties opposed to a settlement in that way,
SS^
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
he authorized our minister at the Court of London to meet a proposition
that the United States by the payment of a fixed sum should discharge
themselves from their responsibility for such debts as can not be recovered
from the individual debtors.
A convention has accordingly been signed,
fixing the sum to be paid at ^600,000 in three equal and annual install-
ments, which has been r.-^tified by me with the advice and consent of the
Senate.
I now transmit copies thereof to both Houses of Congress, trusting
that in the free exercise of the authority which the Constitution has given
them on the subject
of public expenditures they will deem
it for the
public interest to appropriate the sums necessary for carrying this con-
vention into execution.
TH: JEFFERSON.
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE.
Dkcember 15, 1802.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
When we assemble together,
fellow-citizens, to consider the state of
our beloved country, our just attentions are first drawn to those pleasing
circumstances which mark the goodness of that Being from whose favor
they flow and the large measure of thankfulness we owe for His bounty.
Another year has come around, and finds us still blessed with peace and
friendship abroad;
law, order, and religion at home; good affection and
hannony with our
Indian
neighbors;
our burthens lightened, yet our
income sufficient for the public wants, and the produce of the year great
beyond example.
These,
fellow-citizens,
are the circumstances under
which we meet, and we remark with special satisfaction those which
under the smiles of Providence result from the skill, industry, and order
of our citizens, managing their own affairs in their own way and for their
own use, unembarrassed by too much regulation, unoppressed by fiscal
exactions.
On the restoration of peace in Europe that portion of the general car-
rying trade which had fallen to our share during the war was abridged
by the returning competition of the belligerent powers.
This was to be
expected, and was just.
But in addition we find in some parts of Europe
monopolizing discriminations, which in the form of duties tend effectu-
ally to prohibit the carrying thither our own produce in our own vessels.
From existing amities and a
spirit of justice
it
is hoped that friendly
discussion will produce a
fair and adequate
reciprocity.
But should
false calculations of interest defeat our hope,
it rests with the Legislature
to decide whether they will meet inequalities abroad with countervailing
inequalities at home, or provide for the evil
jii any other way.
Thomas Jefferson
2>2) ^
It is with satisfaction I lay before you an act of the British Parliament
anticipating this subject so far as to authorize a mutual abolition of the
duties and countervailing duties permitted under the treaty of
1794.
It
shows on their part a spirit of justice and friendly accommodation which
it is om* duty and our interest to cultivate with all nations.
Whether this
would produce a due equahty in the navigation between the two coun-
tries is a subject for your consideration.
Another circumstance which claims attention as directly affecting the
very source of our navigal
is the defect or the evasion of the law pro-
viding for the return of
sea.
en, and particularly of those belonging to
vessels sold abroad.
Numbers of them, discharged in foreign ports, have
been thrown on the hands of our consuls, who, to rescue them from the
dangers into which their distresses might plunge them and save them to
their country, have found it necessary in some cases to return them at the
pubHc charge.
The cession of the Spanish Province of Louisiana
to France, which
took place in the course of the late war, will, if carried into effect, make
a change in the aspect of oiu" foreign relations which will doubtless have
just weight in any deliberations of the Legislature connected with that
subject.
There was reason not long since to apprehend that the warfare in which
we were engaged with Tripoh might be taken up by some other of the
Barbary Powers.
A reenforcement, therefore, was immediately ordered
to the
vessels already there.
Subsequent
information, however, has
removed these apprehensions for the present.
To secure our commerce
in that sea with the smallest force competent, we have supposed
it best
to watch strictly the harbor of Tripoh.
Still, however, the shallowness
of their coast and the want of smaller vessels on our part has permitted
some cruisers to escape unobserved, and to one of these an American
vessel unfortunately fell a prey.
The captain, one American seaman, and
two others of color remain prisoners with them unless exchanged under
an agreement formerly made with the Bashaw, to whom, on the faith of
that, some of his captive subjects had been restored.
The convention with the State of Georgia has been
ratified by their
legislature, and a repurchase from the Creeks has been consequently made
of a part of the Talasscee country.
In this purchase has been also com-
prehended a part of the lands within the fork of Oconee and Oakmulgee
rivers.
The particulars
of the contract will be laid before Congress so
soon as they shall be in a state for communication.
In order to remove every ground of difference possible with our Indian
neighbors, I have proceeded in the work of settling with them and mark-
ing the boundaries between
us.
That with the Choctaw Nation is fixed
in one part and will be through the whole within a short
time.
The
country to which their title had been extinguished before the Revolution
is sufficient to receive a very respectable population, which Congress will
332
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
probably see the expediency of encouraging so soon as the limits shall be
declared.
We are to view this position as an outpost of the United States,
surrounded by strong neighbors and distant from
its support; and how
far that monopoly which prevents population should here be guarded
against and actual habitation made a condition of the continuance of title
will be for your consideration.
A prompt settlement, too, of all existing
rights and claims within this territory presents itself as a preliminary
operation.
In that part of the Indiana Territory which includes Vincennes the lines
settled with the neighboring tribes fix the extinction of their
title at a
breadth of 24 leagues from east to west and about the same length par-
allel with and including the Wabash,
They have also ceded a tract of
4 miles square, including the salt springs near the mouth of that river.
In the Department of Finance it is with pleasure I inform you that the
receipts of external duties for the last twelve months have exceeded those
of any former year, and that the ratio of increase has been also greater
than usual.
This has enabled us to answer all the regular exigencies
of Government,
to pay from
the Treasury within one year upward of
$8,000,000, principal and interest, of the public debt, exclusive of upward
of one million paid by the sale of bank stock, and making in the whole
a reduction of nearly five millions and a half of principal, and to have
now in the Treasury $4,500,000, which are in a course of application to
the further discharge of debt and current demands.
Experience, too, so
far, authorizes us to believe,
if no extraordinary event supervenes, and
the expenses which will be actually incurred shall not be greater than
were contemplated by Congress at their last session, that we shall not be
disappointed in the expectations then formed.
But nevertheless, as the
effect of peace on the amount of duties is not yet fully ascertained, it is
the more necessary to practice every useful economy and
to incur no
expense which may be avoided without prejudice.
The collection of the internal taxes having been completed in some of
the States, the officers employed in
it are of course out of commission.
In others they will be so shortly.
But in a few, where the arrangements
for the
direct tax had been retarded,
it will be some time before the
system
is closed.
It has not yet been thought necessary to employ the
agent authorized by an act of the last session for transacting business in
Europe relative to debts and loans.
Nor have we used the power con-
fided by the same act of prolonging the foreign debt by reloans, and of
redeeming ijistead thereof an equal sum of the domestic debt.
Should,
however, the difficulties of remittance on so large a scale render it neces-
sary at any time, the power shall be executed and the money thus unem-
ployed abroad shall, in conformity with that law, be faithfully applied
here in an equivalent extinction of domestic debt.
When effects so sal-
utary result from the plans you have already sanctioned; when merely by
avoiding false objects of expense we are able, without a direct tax, with-
Thomas Jefferson
333
out internal taxes, and without borrowing to make large and effectual
payments toward the discharge of otu" public debt and the emancipation
of our posterity from that mortal canker, it is an encouragement, felloM^-
citizens, of the highest order to proceed as we have begun in substituting
economy for taxation, and in pursuing what is useful for a nation placed
as we are, rather than what is practiced by others under different circum-
stances.
And whensoever we are destined to meet events which shall
call forth all the energies of our countrymen, we have the firmest reliance
on those energies and the comfort of leaving for
calls
like these the
extraordinary resources of loans and internal taxes.
In the meantime,
by payments of the principal
of our
debt, we are
liberating annually
portions of the external taxes and forming from them a growing fund
still further to lessen the necessity of recurring to extraordinary resources.
The usual account of receipts and expenditures for the last year, with
an estimate of the expenses of the ensuing one, will be laid before you by
the Secretary of the Treasury.
No change being deemed necessary in our miHtary establishment, an
estimate of
its expenses for the ensuing year on its present footing, as
also of the sums to be employed in fortifications and other objects within
that department, has been prepared by the Secretary of War, and will
make a part of the general estimates which will be presented you.
Considering that our regular troops are employed
for local purposes,
and that the militia is our general reliance for great and sudden emer-
gencies, you will doubtless think this institution worthy of a review, and
give it those improvements of which you find it susceptible.
Estimates for the Naval Department, prepared by the Secretary of the
Navy, for another year will in
like manner be communicated with the
general estimates. A small force in the Mediterranean will still be neces-
sary to restrain the Tripoline cruisers, and the uncertain tenure of peace
with some other of the Barbary Powers may eventually require that force
to be augmented.
The necessity of procuring some smaller vessels for
that service will raise the estimate, but the difference in their maintenance
will sooii make it a measure of economy.
Presuming it will be deemed expedient to expend annually a conven-
ient sum toward providing the naval defense which our situation may
require, I can not but recommend that the
first appropriations for that
purpose may go to the saving what we already possess.
No cares, no
attentions, can preserve vessels from rapid decay which Ue in water and
exposed to the sun.
These decays require great and constant repairs,
and will consume,
if continued, a great portion of the moneys destined
to naval purposes.
To avoid this waste of our resources it is proposed to
add to our navy-yard here a dock within which our present vessels may
be laid up dry and under cover from the sun.
Under these circumstances
experience proves that works of wood will remain scarcely at all affected
by time.
The great abundance of running water which this situation
334
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
possesses, at heights far above the level of the tide, if employed as is prac-
ticed for lock navigation, furnishes the means for raising and laying up
our vessels on a dry and sheltered bed.
And should the measure be found
useful here, similar depositories for laying up as well as for building and
repairing vessels may hereafter be undertaken at other navy-yards offering
the same means.
The plans and estimates of the work, prepared by a
person of skill and experience, will be presented to you without delay,
and from this it will be seen that scarcely more than has been the cost of
one vessel is necessary to save the whole, and that the annual sum to be
employed toward its completion may be adapted to the views of the I,eg-
islature as to naval expenditure.
To cultivate peace and maintain commerce and navigation in all their
lawful enterprises;
to foster our fisheries as nurseries of navigation and
for the nurture of man, and protect the manufactures adapted to our cir-
cumstances;
to preserve the faith of the nation by an exact discharge of
its debts and contracts, expend the public money with the same care and
economy we would practice with our own, and impose on our citizens no
unnecessary burthens; to keep in all things within the pale of our consti-
tutional powers, and cherish the federal union as the only rock of safety
these, fellow-citizens, are the landmarks by which we are to guide our-
selves in all our proceedings.
By continuing to make these the rule of
our action we shall endear to our countrymen the true principles of their
Constitution and promote an union of sentiment and of action equally
auspicious to their happiness and safety.
On my part, you may count on
a cordial concurrence in every measure for the public good and on
all
the information
I possess which may enable you to discharge to advan-
tage the high functions with which you are invested by your country.
TH: JEFFERSON.
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
DECI^MBER
22,
1802.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
I now transmit a report from the Secretary of State with the mforma-
tion requested in your resolution of the 17th instant.
In making this communication I deem it proper to observe that I was
led by the regard due to the rights and interests of the United States and
to the just sensibility of the portion of our fellow-citizens more imme-
diately affected by the irregular proceeding at New Orleans to lose not
a moment in causing every step to be taken which the occasion claimed
from me, being equally aware of the obligation to maintain in all cases
the rights of the nation and to employ for that purpose those just and
honorable means which belong to the character of the United States.
TH: JEFFERSON.
Thomas Jefferson
335
EfeCEMBER
23,
1802,
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives.
In pursuance of the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
3d of May last, desiring a statement of expenditures from January
i
,
1 797,
by the Quartermaster-General and the navy agents, for the cohtingen-
cies of the naval and military establishments and the navy contracts for
timber and stores, I now transmit such statements from the offices of the
Secretaries of the Treasury, War, and Navy, where alone these expend-
itures are entered,
TH: JEFFERSON.
December
27,
1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate:
I lay before you a treaty, which has been agreed to by commissioners
duly authorized on the part of the United States and the Creek Nation
of
Indians, for the extinguishment of
the
native
title
to lands in the
Talassee County, and others between the forks of Oconee and Oakmulgee
rivers,
in
Georgia,
in
pursuance
of
the
convention with
that
State,
together with the documents explanatory thereof; and it is submitted to
your determinatioa whether you will advise and consent to the ratifica-
tion thereof.
TH: JEFFERSON.
December
27,
1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate:
I lay before you a treaty, which has been concluded between the State
of New York and the Oneida Indians, for the purchase
of lands within
that State.
One other, between the same State and the Seneca Indians, for the
purchase of other lands within the same State.
One other, between certain
individuals styled the Holland Company
with the Senecas, for the exchange of certain lands in the same State.
And one other, between Oliver Phelps, a citizen of the United States,
and the Senecas, for the exchange of lands in the same State; with sundry
explanatory papers, all of them conducted under the superintendence of
a commissioner on the part of the United States, who reports that they
have been adjusted with the
fair and free consent and understanding of
the parties.
It is therefore submitted to your determination whether you
will advise and consent to their respective ratifications.
TH: JEFFERSON.
December 27,
1802.
Gentlemen of the Senate a?id of the House of Representatives:
In my message of the
15th instant
I mentioned that plans and esti-
mates of a dry dock for the preservation of our ships of war, prepared by
336
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
a person of skill and experience, should be laid before you without delay.
These are now transmitted, the report and estimates by duplicates; but
the plans being
single
only,
I must request an intercommunication
of
them between the Houses and their return when they shall no longer be
wanting for their consideration.
TH: JEFFERSON.
December
30,
1802.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
In addition to the information accompanying my message of the 2 2d
instant,
I now transmit the copy of a letter on the same subject, recently
received.
TH: JEFFERSON.
Washington, December*jo, 1802.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Sir: Although an informal communication to the pubUc of the sub-
stance of the inclosed letter may be proper for quieting the public mind,
yet I refer to the consideration of the House of Representatives whether
the publication of
it in form might not give
dissatisfaction to the writer
and tend to discourage the freedom and confidence
of communications
between the agents of the two Governments.
Accept assurances of my
high consideration and respect.
TH: JEFFERSON.
Natchez, November 2^, 1802.
The Honorable the Secrktary of STATE,
Washington.
Sir:
I have the honor to inclose you an original copy of a communication (together
with a translation thereof) which I this morning received from the governor-genera?
of the Province of Louisiana in answer to my letters of the 28th ultimo.
I am, sir, with respect and esteem, yoiu- himible servant,
WILLIAM C.
C. CLAIBORNE.
[Translation.]
New Ori,eans, November 75, 1802.
His Excellency Wii.i.iam C.
C. CIvAIBorne.
Most Excei,i.EnT Sir:
I received a few days past your excellency's esteemed
letter of the 28th ultimo, in which your excellency, referring to the twenty-second
article of the treaty of friendship, navigation, and limits agreed upon between the
King, my master, and the United States of America, has been pleased to inquire,
after transcribing the literal text of said article (which you find so explicit as not to
require any comment nor to admit of dubious construction), if His Majesty has been
pleased to designate any other position on the banks of the Mississippi, and where
that is, if his royal pleasxu-e does not continue the permission stipulated by the said
treaty which entitled the citizens of the United States to deposit their merchandise
and effects in the port of New Orleans; and you request at the same time that, as the
Thomas Jefferson
337
affair is so interesting to the commerce of the United States and to the welfare of its
citizens, I may do you the favor to send you an answer as early as possible.
I can
now assure your excellency that His Catholic Majesty has not hitherto issued any
order for suspending the deposit, and consequently has not designated any other
position on the banks of the Mississippi for that purpose.
But I must inform you,
in answer to your inquiry, that the intendant of these provinces (who in the affairs
of his own department is independent of the general Government), at the same time
that,
in conformity with the royal commands (the peace in Europe having been
published since the 4th of May last), he suspended the commerce of neutrals, also
thought proper to suspend the tacit prolongation which continued, and to put a stop
to the infinite abuses which resulted from the deposit, contrary to the interest of the
State and of the commerce of these colonies, in consequence of the experience he
acquired of the frauds which have been committed and which it has been endeavored
to excuse under the pretext of ignorance, as is manifested by the number of causes
which now await the determination of His Majesty, as soon as they can be brought
to his royal knowledge, besides many others which have been dropt because the
individuals have absconded who introduced their properties into the deposit and did
not extract them, thus defrauding the royal interests.
It might appear on the
first view that particular cases like these ought not to
operate against a general privilege granted by a solemn treaty, and it is an incon-
testable principle that the happiness of nations consists in a great measure in main-
taining a good harmony and correspondence with their neighbors by respecting
their rights, by supporting their own, without being deficient in what is required by
humanity and civil intercourse; but it is also indubitable that for a treaty, although
solemn, to be entirely valid it ought not to contain any defect; and
if
it be perni-
cious and of an injurious tendency, although it has been effectuated with good faith
but without a knowledge of
its bad consequence, it will be necessary to undo
it,
because treaties ought to be viewed like other acts of public will, in which more
attention ought to be paid to the intention than to the words in which they are
expressed; and thus
it will not appear so repugnant that the term of three years
fixed by the twenty-second
article being completed without
the
King's having
granted
a
prolongation, the
intendancy should
not,
after putting a stop
to the
commerce of
neutrals, take upon itself the responsibility of continuing that favor
without the express mandate of the King, a circumstance equally indispensable for
designating another place on the banks of the Mississippi.
From the foregoing I trust that you will infer that as it is the duty of the intendant,
who conducts the business of his ministry with a perfect independence of the Gov-
ernment, to have informed the King of what he has done in fulfillment of what has
been expressly stipulated, it is to be hoped that His Majesty will take the measures
which are convenient to give effect to the deposit, either in this capital, if he should
not find it prejudicial to the interests of Spain, or in the place on the banks of the
Mississippi which it may be his royal pleasure to designate;
as it ought to be con-
fided that the justice and generosity of the King will not refuse to afford to the
American citizens all the advantages they can desire, a measure which does not
depend upon discretion, nor can an individual chief take it upon himself.
Besides
these principles on which the regulation of the intendant is founded, I ought at the
same time to inform you that
I myself opposed on my part, as far as I reasonably
could, the measxire of
suspending the deposit,
until the reasons adduced by the
intendant brought
it to my view; that as all events can not be prevented, and as
with time and different circumstances various others occur which can not be foreseen,
a just and rational interpretation
is always necessary.
Notwithstanding the fore-
going, the result of my own reflections,
I immediately consulted on the occasion
with my captain-general, whose answer, which can not be long delayed, will dissipate
every doubt that may be raised concerning the steps which are to be takeu.
By all
33^
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
means your excellency may live in the firm persuasion that as there has subsisted,
and does subsist, the most perfect and constant good harmony between the King,
my master, and the United States of America, I will spare no pains to preserve
it
by all the means in my power, being assured of a reciprocity of equal good offices in
observing the treaty with good
faith, ever keeping
it in view that the felicity and
glory of nations are deeply concerned
in the advantages of a wise and prudently
conducted commerce.
I have the honor to assure your excellency of the respect and high consideration
which I profess for you; and I pray the Most High to preserve your life many years.
I kiss your excellency's hands.
Yovu: most affectionate servant,
MANUEL DE SALCEDO.
January
5, 1803.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives.'
Agreeably to the request of the House of Representatives, I now trans-
mit a statement of the militia of those States from which any returns
have been made to the War Ofl&ce.
They are, as you will perceive, but
a small proportion of the whole.
I send you also the copy of a circular
letter written some time since for the purpose of obtaining returns from
all the States.
Should any others in consequence of
this be made during
the session of Congress, they shall be immediately communicated.
TH: JEFFERSON.
January
7, 1803.
Gentlemen of the Senate:
I submit for your approbation and consent a convention entered into
with the Choctaw Nation of Indians for ascertaining and marking the
limits of the territory ceded to our nation while under its former govern-
ment, and lying between the Tombigbee and Mobile rivers on the east
and the Chickasawhay River on the west.
We are now engaged in ascertaining and marking in like manner the
limits of the former cessions of the Choctaws from the river Yazoo to our
southern boundary, which will be the subject of another convention, and
we expect to obtain from the same nation a new cession of lands of con-
siderable extent between the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers.
These several tracts of country will compose that portion of the Mis-
sissippi Territory which, so soon as certain individual claims are arranged,
the United States will be free to sell and settle immediately.
TH: JEFFERSON
January ii, 1803.
Gentlemen of the Senate :
The cession of the Spanish Province of Louisiana to France, and per-
haps of the Floridas, and the late suspension of our right of deposit at
New Orleans are events of primary interest to the United States.
On
Thomas Jefferson
339
both occasions such measures were promptly taken as were thought most
Hkely amicably to remove the present and to prevent future causes
of
inquietude.
The objects of these measures were to obtain the territory
on the left bank of the Mississippi and eastward of that, if practicable, on
conditions to which the proper authorities of our country would agree, or
at
least to prevent any changes which might lessen the secure exercise
of our
rights.
While my confidence in our minister plenipotentiary at
Paris is entire and undiminished, I still think that these objects might be
promoted by joining with him a person sent from hence directly, carrying
with him the feelings and sentiments of the nation excited on the late
occurrence, impressed by full communications of all the views we enter-
tain on this interesting subject, and thus prepared to meet and to improve
to an useful result the counter propositions of the other contracting party,
whatsoever form their interests may give to them, and to secure to us the
ultimate accomplishment of our object.
I therefore nominate Robert R. Livingston to be minister plenipoten-
tiary and James Monroe to be minister extraordinary and plenipotentiary,
with full powers to both
jointly, or to either on the death of the other,
to enter into a treaty or convention with the
First Consul of France for
the purpose of enlarging and more effectually securing our rights and
interests in the river Mississippi and in the Territories eastward thereof.
But as the possession of these provinces is still in Spain, and the course
of events may retard or prevent the cession to France being carried into
effect, to secure our object it will be expedient to address equal powers
to the Government of Spain
also, to be used only in the event
of
its
being necessary.
I therefore nominate Charles Pinckney to be minister plenipotentiary,
and James Monroe, of Virginia, to be minister extraordinary and plenipo-
tentiary, with full powers to both
jointly, or to either on the death of
the other, to enter into a treaty or convention with His Catholic Majesty
for the purpose of enlarging and more effectually securing our rights and
interests in the river Mississippi and in the Territories eastward thereof.
TH: JKFFERSON.
January
ii, 1803.
Gentlemen of the Senate:
The spoliations and irregularities committed on our commerce during
the late war by subjects of Spain or by others deemed within her respon-
sibility having called for attention, instructions were accordingly given
to our minister at Madrid to urge our right to just indemnifications, and
to propose a convention for adjusting them.
The Spanish Government
listened to our proposition with an honorable readiness and agreed to a
convention, which
I now submit for your advice and consent.
It does
not go to the satisfaction of all our claims, but the express reservation of
340
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
our right to press the vaUdity of the residue has been made the ground
of further instructions to our minister on the subject of an additional
article, which it is to be hoped will not be without effect.
TH: JEFFERSON.
January
i8,
1803.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
As the continuance of the act for establishing trading houses with the
Indian
tribes will be under the consideration of the Legislature at
its
present session, I think it my duty to communicate the views which have
guided me in the execution of that act, in order that you may decide on
the policy of continuing
it in the present or any other form, or discon-
tinue it altogether if that shall, on the whole, seem most for the public
good.
The Indian tribes residing within the limits of the United States have
for a considerable time been growing more and more uneasy at the con-
stant diminution of the territory they occupy, although effected by their
own voluntary sales, and the policy has long been gaining strength with
them of refusing absolutely all further sale on any conditions, insomuch
that at this time it hazards their friendship and excites dangerous
jeal-
ousies and perturbations in their minds to make any overture for the
purchase of the smallest portions of
their land.
A very few tribes only
are not yet obstinately in these dispositions.
In order peaceably to coun-
teract this policy of theirs and to provide an extension of territory which
the rapid increase of our numbers will call for, two measures are deemed
expedient.
First. To encourage them to abandon hunting, to apply to
the raising stock, to agriculture, and domestic manufacture, and thereby
prove to themselves that less land and labor will maintain them in this
better than in their former mode of
living.
The extensive forests neces-
sary in the hunting life will then become useless, and they will see advan-
tage in exchanging them for the means of improving their farms and of
increasing
their domestic
comforts.
Secondly.
To
multiply
trading
houses among them, and place within their reach those things which will
contribute more to their domestic comfort than the possession of extensive
but uncultivated wilds.
Experience and reflection will develop to them
the wisdom of exchanging what they can spare and we want for what we
can spare and they want.
In leading them thus to agriculture, to manu-
factures, and civilization
;
in bringing together their and our sentiments,
and in preparing them ultimately to participate in the benefits of our
Government,
I trust and believe we are acting
for their greatest good.
At these trading houses we have pursued the principles of the act of Con-
gress which directs that the commerce shall be carried on liberally, and
requires only that the capital stock shall not be diminished. We conse-
quently undersell private traders, foreign and domestic, drive them from
Thomas Jefferson
34i
tlie competition, and thus, with the good will of the Indians, rid ourselves
of a description of men who are constantly endeavoring to excite in the
Indian mind suspicions, fears, and
irritations toward
us.
A letter now
inclosed shows the
effect
of our competition on the
operations of the
traders, while the Indians, perceiving the advantage of purchasing from
lis, are soliciting generally our establishment of trading houses among
them.
In one quarter this is particularly interesting.
The Legislature,
reflecting on the
late occurrences on the Mississippi, must be sensible
how desirable
it
is to possess a respectable breadth of country on that
river, from our southern limit to the Illinois, at least, so that we may pre-
sent as firm a front on that as on our eastern border.
We possess what
is below the Yazoo, and can probably acquire a certain breadth from the
Ilhnois and Wabash to the Ohio; but between the Ohio and Yazoo the
country all belongs to the Chickasaws, the most friendly tribe within our
limits, but the most decided against the alienation of lands.
The portion
of their country most important for us is exactly that which they do not
inhabit.
Their settlements are not on the Mississippi, but in the interior
country.
They have lately shown a desire to become agricultural, and
this
leads to the
desire
of buying implements and comforts.
In the
strengthening and gratifying of these wants
I see the only prospect of
planting on the Mississippi itself the means of
its own safety.
Duty has
required me to submit these views to the judgment of the Legislature,
but as their disclosure might embarrass and defeat their effect, they are
committed to the special confidence of the two Houses.
While the extension of the public commerce among the Indian tribes
may deprive of that source of profit such of our citizens as are engaged
in
it,
it might be worthy the attention of Congress in their care of indi-
vidual as well as of the general interest
to point in another
direction
the enterprise of these citizens, as profitably for themselves and more
usefully for the public.
The river Missouri and the Indians inhabiting
it are not as well known
as
is rendered desirable by their connection
with the Mississippi, and consequently with us.
It
is, however, under-
stood that the country on that river
is inhabited by numerous
tribes,
who furnish great supplies of
furs and
peltry to the trade of another
nation, carried on in a high latitude through an infinite number of port-
ages and lakes shut up by ice through a long season.
The commerce on
that line could bear no competition with that of the Missouri, traversing
a moderate climate, offering, according to the best accounts, a continued
navigation from its source, and possibly with a single portage from the
Western Ocean, and finding to the Atlantic a choice of channels through
the Illinois or Wabash, the Lakes and Hudson, through the Ohio and Sus-
quehanna, or Potomac or James rivers, and through the Tennessee and
Savannah rivers.
An intelligent officer, with ten or twelve chosen men,
fit for the enterprise and willing to undertake
it, taken from our posts
where they may be spared without inconvenience, might explore the
342
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
whole line, even to the Western Ocean, have conferences with the natives
on the subject of commercial intercourse, get admission among them for
our
traders as
others
are admitted,
agree
on convenient deposits
for
an
interchange
of
articles, and return with
the
information acquired
in the course of two summers.
Their arms and accouterments, some
instruments of observation, and light and cheap presents for the Indians
would be all the apparatus they could carry, and with an expectation of
a soldier's portion of land on
their return would constitute the whole
expense.
Their pay would be going on whether here or there.
While
other civilized nations have encountered great expense to enlarge the
boundaries of knowledge by undertaking voyages of discovery, and for
other literary purposes, in various parts and directions, our nation seems
to owe to the same object, as well as to
its own interests, to explore this
the only line of easy communication across the continent, and so directly
traversing our own part of it.
The interests of commerce place the prin-
cipal object within the constitutional powers and care of Congress, and
that
it should incidentally advance the geographical knowledge of our
own continent can not but be an additional gratification.
The nation
claiming the territory, regarding this as a literary pursuit, which it is in
the habit of permitting within
its dominions, would not be disposed to
view it with jealousy, even if the expiring state of its interests there did
not render it a matter of indifference.
The appropriation of $2,500 " f01
the purpose of extending the external commerce of the United States,"
while understood and considered by the Executive as giving the legis-
lative sanction, would cover the undertaking from notice and prevent the
obstructions which
interested
individuals might otherwise
previously
prepare ia its way.
TH: JEFFERSON.
January
18, 1803.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
I inclose a report of the Secretary of War, stating the trading houses
established in the Indian
territories, the progress which has been made
in the course of the last year in settling and marking boundaries with the
different tribes, the purchases of lands recently made from them, and the
prospect
of further progress in marking boimdaries and in new extin-
guishments of
title in the year to come, for which some appropriations
of money will be wanting.
To this I have to add that when the Indians ceded to us the salt springs
on the Wabash they expressed a hope that we would so employ them as
to enable them to procure there the necessary supplies of salt.
Indeed,
it would be the most proper and acceptable form in which the annuity
could be paid which we propose to give them for the cession.
These
springs might at the same time be rendered eminently serviceable to our
Thomas Jefferson
343
Western inhabitants by using them as the means of counteracting the
monopoHes of supplies of salt and of reducing the price
in that country
to a just level.
For these purposes a small appropriation would be neces-
sary to meet the first expenses, after which they should support them-
selves and repay those advances.
These springs are said to possess the
advantage of being accompanied with a bed of coal.
TH: JEFFERSON.
January
19,
1803.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
I now lay before Congress the annual account of the fund established
for defraying the contingent charges of Government.
A single article of
$1,440, paid
for bringing home 72 seamen discharged in foreign ports
from vessels sold abroad, is the only expenditure from that fund, leaving
an unexpended balance of $18,560 in the Treasury.
TH: JEFFERSON.
January
24,
1803.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
I transmit a report by the superintendent of the city of Washington
on the affairs of the city committed to his care.
By this you will per-
ceive that the resales of lots prescribed by an act of the last session of
Congress did not produce a sufficiency to pay the debt to Maryland to
which they are appropriated, and as it was evident that the sums neces-
sary
for the interest and installments due to that State could not be
produced by a sale of the other public
lots without an unwarrantable
sacrifice .of the property, the deficiencies were of necessity drawn from
the Treasury of the United States.
The office of the surveyor for the city, created during the former estab-
lishment, being of indispensable necessity,
it has been continued, and to
that of the superintendent, substituted instead of the board of commis-
sioners at the last session of Congress, no salary was annexed by law.
These
offices being permanent, I have supposed
it more agreeable
to
principle that their salaries should be fixed by the lyCgislature, and there-
fore have assigned them none.
Their services
to be compensated are
from the ist day of June last.
The marshal of the District of Columbia has, as directed by law, caused
a jail to be built in the city of Washington.
I inclose his statements of
the expenses already incurred and of what remains to be finished.
The
portion actually completed has rendered the situation of the persons con-
fined much more comfortable and secure than
it has been heretofore.
TH: JEFFERSON.
J44
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
FEBRUARY
3, 1803.
Ge7itle7nen of the House of Representatives:
The inclosed letter and affidavits exhibiting matter of complaint against
John Pickering, district judge
of New Hampshire, which
is not within
Executive cognizance,
I transmit them to the House of Representatives,
to whom the Constitution has confided a power of instituting proceedings
of redress,
if they shall be of opinion that the case calls for them.
TH: JEFFERSON.
February
14,
1803.
Ge7itlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
In obedience to the ordinance for the government of the Territories of
the United States requiring that the laws adopted by the governor and
judges thereof
shall be reported to Congress from time to time, I now
transmit those which have been adopted in the Indiana Territory from
January, i8oi, to February, 1802, as forwarded to the office of the Secre-
tary of State.
TH: JEFFERSON.
February
21,
1803.
Gentlemen of the Senate:
The Tuscarora Indians, having an interest in some
lands within
the
State of North Carolina, asked the superintendence of the Government
of the United States over a treaty to be held between them and the State
of North Carolina respecting these lands.
William Richardson Davie
was appointed a commissioner for this purpose, and a treaty was con-
cluded under his superintendence.
This, with his
letter on the subject,
is now
laid
before the Senate for
their advice and consent whether
it
shall be ratified.
TH; JEFFERSON.
February 23,
1803.
Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:
I lay before you a report of the Secretary of State on the case of the
Danish brigantine Henrick, taken by a French privateer in 1799, retaken
by an armed vessel of the United States, carried into a British
island,
and there adjudged to be neutral, but under allowance of such salvage
and costs as absorbed nearly the whole amount of sales of the vessel and
cargo.
Indemnification for these losses occasioned by our officers is now
claimed by the sufferers, supported by the representations of their Gov-
ernment.
I have no doubt the Legislature will give to the subject that
just attention and consideration which it
is useful as well as honorable
Thomas Jefferson
345
to practice in our transactions with other nations, and particularly with
one which
has observed toward us
the most
friendly treatment and
regard.
TH: JEFFERSON.
PROCLAMATION.
[Prom the National Intelligencer, July i8, 1803.]
By thk President of the United States of America.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas great and weighty matters claiming the consideration of the
Congress of the United States form an extraordinary occasion for con-
vening them,
I do by these presents appoint Monday, the
17th day of
October
next,
for
their
meeting
at
the
city
of
Washington, hereby
requiring
their respective Senators and Representatives then and there
to assemble in Congress, in order to receive such communications as may
then be made to them and to consult and determine on such measures
as in their wisdom may be deemed meet for the welfare of the United
States.
In testimony whereof
I have caused the seal of the United States to
be hereunto aflSxed, and signed the same with my hand.
[seal.]
Done at the city of Washington, the i6th day of July, A. D.
1803, and in the twenty-eighth year of the Independence of
the United States
TH: JEFFERSON.
By the President:
James Madison,
Secretary.
THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.
October
17,
1803.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
In
calling you together,
fellow-citizens,
at an
earlier day than was
contemplated by the act of the /ast session of Congress, I have not been
insensible to the personal inconveniences necessarily resulting from an
unexpected change in your arrangements.
But matters of great public
concernment have rendered this call necessary, and the interests you feel
in these will supersede in your minds all private considerations.
346
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
Congress witnessed
at
their late
session the extraordinary agitation
produced in the public mind by the suspension of our right of deposit at
the port of New Orleans, no assignment of another place having been
made according to treaty.
They were sensible that the continuance of
that privation would be more injurious
to our nation than any conse-
quences which could flow from any mode of redress, but reposing just
confidence in the good
faith of the Government whose officer had com-
mitted the wrong, friendly and reasonable representations were resorted
to, and the right of deposit was restored.
Previous, however, to this period we had not been unaware of the dan-
ger to which our peace would be perpetually exposed whilst so important
a key to the commerce of the Western country remained under foreign
power.
Difficulties, too, were presenting themselves as to the naviga-
tion of other streams which, arising within our territories, pass through
those adjacent.
Propositions had therefore been authorized for obtain-
ing on fair conditions the sovereignty of New Orleans and of other pos-
sessions in that quarter interesting to our quiet to such extent
as was
deemed practicable, and the provisional appropriation of $2,000,000 to
be applied and accounted
for by the President of the United States,
intended as part of the price, was considered as conveying the sanction
of Congress to the acquisition proposed.
The enlightened Government
of France sav; Vvith just discernment the importance to both nations of
such liberal arrangements as might best and permanently promote the
peace, friendship, and interests of both, and the property and sovereignty
of
all Louisiana which had been restored to them have on certain con-
ditions been transferred to the United States by instruments bearing
date the 30th of April last.
When these shall have received the consti-
tutional sanction of the Senate, they will without delay be communicated
to the Representatives also for the exercise of their functions as to those
conditions which are within the powers vested by the Constitution
in
Congress.
Whilst the property and sovereignty of the Mississippi and its waters
secure an independent outlet for the produce of the Western States and
an uncontrolled navigation through their whole course, free from colHsion
with other powers and the dangers to our peace from that source, the
fertility of the country, its climate and extent, promise in due season
important aids to our Treasury, an ample provision for our posterity, and
a wide spread for the blessings of freedom and equal laws.
With the wisdom of Congress it will rest to take those ulterior meas-
ures which may be necessary for the immediate occupation and temporary
government of the country;
for
its incorporation
into our Union;
for
rendering the change of government a blessing to our newly adopted
brethren;
for securing to them the rights of conscience and of property;
for confirming to the Indian inhabitants their occupancy and self-govern-
ment, establishing friendly and commercial relations with them, and for
Thomas Jefferson
347
ascertaining the geography of the country acquired.
Such materials, for
your information, relative to its
affairs in general as the short space of
time has permitted me to collect will be laid before you when the subject
shall be in a state for your consideration.
Another important acquisition of territory has also been made since the
last session of Congress.
The friendly tribe of Kaskaskia Indians, with
which we have never had a difference, reduced by the wars and wants
of savage
life to a few individuals unable to defend themselves against
the neighboring
tribes, has transferred
its country to the United States,
reserving only for its members what
is sufficient to maintain them in an
agricultural way.
The considerations stipulated are that we shall extend
to them our patronage and protection and give them certain annual aids
in money, in implements of agricultiure, and other articles of their choice.
This country, among the most fertile within our limits, extending along
the Mississippi from the mouth of the Illinois to and up the Ohio, though
not so necessary as a barrier since the acquisition of the other bank, may
yet be well worthy of being laid open to immediate settlement,
as
its
inhabitants may descend with rapidity in support of the lower country--
should future circumstances expose that to foreign enterprise.
As the
stipulations in this treaty also involve matters within the competence of
both Houses only,
it will be laid before Congress as soon as the Senate
shall have advised its ratification.
With many of the other Indian tribes improvements in agriculture and
household manufacture are advancing, and with all our peace and friend-
ship are established on grounds much firmer than heretofore.
The meas-
ure adopted of establishing trading houses among them and of furnishing
them necessaries in exchange for their commodities
at such moderate
prices as leave no gain, but cover us from loss, has the most conciliatory
and useful effect on them, and is that which will best secure their peace
and good -will.
The small vessels authorized by Congress with a view to the Mediter-
ranean service have been sent into that sea, and will be able more effec-
tually to confine the Tripohne cruisers within their harbors and supersede
the necessity of convoy to our commerce in that quarter.
They will sen-
sibly lessen the expenses of that service the ensuing year.
A further knowledge
of the ground
in the northeastern and north-
western
angles
of the United States has evinced that the boundaries
established by the treaty of Paris between the British territories and ours
in those parts were too imperfectly described to be susceptible of execu-
tion.
It has therefore been thought worthy of attention for preserving
and cherishing the harmony and useful intercourse subsisting between
the two nations to remove by timely arrangements what unfavorable inci-
dents might otherwise render a ground of future misunderstanding.
A
convention has therefore been entered into which provides for a practi-
cable demarcation of those limits to the satisfaction of both parties.
348
Alessages and Papers of the Presidents
An account of the receipts and expenditures of the year ending the
30th of September last, with the estimates for the service of the ensuing
year, will be laid before you by the Secretary of the Treasury so soon as
the receipts of the last quarter shall be returned from the more distant
States.
It is already ascertained that the amount paid into the Treasury
for that year has been between $11,000,000 and $12,000,000, and that
the revenue accrued during the same term exceeds the sum counted on
as sufl5cient
for our current expenses and to extinguish the public debt
within the period heretofore proposed.
The amount of debt paid for the same year is about $3, 100,000, exclu-
sive of interest, and making, with the payment of the preceding year, a
discharge of more than $8,500,000 of the principal of that debt, besides
the accruing interest; and there remain in the Treasury nearly $6,000,000,
Of these, $880,000 have been reserved ^or payment of the first installment
due under the British convention
of January 8, 1802, and two millions
are what have been before mentioned as placed by Congress under the
power and accountability of the President toward the price of New Or-
leans and other territories acquired, which, remaining untouched, are still
applicable to that object and go in diminution of the sum to be funded
for it.
Should the acquisition of lyouisiana be constitutionally confirmed and
carried into effect, a sum of nearly $13,000,000 will then be added to our
public debt, most
of which is payable after fifteen years, before which
term the present existing debts will all be discharged by the established
operation
of the sinking fund.
When we contemplate the ordinary
annual augmentation of impost from increasing population and wealth,
the augmentation of the same revenue by its extension to the new acqui-
sition, and the economies which may still be introduced into our pub-
lic expenditures,
I can not but hope that Congress in reviewing their
resources will find means to meet the intermediate interest of this addi-
tional debt without recurring to new taxes, and applying to this object
only the ordinary progression of our revenue.
Its extraordinary increase
in times of foreign war will be the proper and
sufficient fund for any
measures of safety or precaution which that state of things may render
necessary in our neutral position.
Remittances for the installments of our foreign debt having been found
practicable without
loss,
it has not been thought expedient to use the
power given by a former act of Congress of continuing them by reloans,
and of redeeming instead thereof equal sums of domestic debt, although
no difficulty was found in obtaining that accommodation.
The sum of $50,000 appropriated by Congress for providing gunboats
remains unexpended.
The favorable and peaceable turn of affairs on the
Mississippi rendered an immediate execution of that law unnecessary,
and time was desirable in order that the institution of that branch of our
force might begin on models the most approved by experience.
The
Thomas Jefferson
349
same issue of events dispensed with a resort
to the appropriation
of
$1,500,000, contemplated for purposes which were
effected by happier
means.
We have seen with sincere concern the flames of war lighted up again
in Europe, and nations with which we have the most friendly and useful
relations engaged in mutual destruction.
While we regret the miseries
in which we see others involved, let us bow with gratitude to that kind
Providence which, inspiring with wisdom and moderation our late legis-
lative councils while placed under the urgency of the greatest wrongs,
guarded us from hastily entering into the sanguinary contest and left us
only to look on and to pity its ravages.
These will be heaviest on those
immediately engaged.
Yet the nations pursuing peace will not be ex-
empt from all evil.
In the course of this conflict let it be our endeavor,
as it is our interest and desire, to cultivate the friendship of the bellig-
erent nations by every act of justice and of innocent kindness; to receive
their armed vessels with hospitality from the distresses of the sea, but to
administer the means of annoyance to none;
to establish in our harbors
such a police as may maintain law and
order;
to restrain our citizens
from embarking individually in a war in which their country takes no
part;
to punish severely those persons, citizen or alien, who shall usurp
the cover of our flag for vessels not entitled to it, infecting thereby with
suspicion those
of
real Americans and committing us into controver-
sies for the redress of wrongs not our own;
to exact from every nation
the observance toward our vessels and citizens of those principles and
practices which all civiUzed people acknowledge;
to merit the character
of a just nation, and maintain that of an independent one, preferring
every consequence to insult and habitual wrong.
Congress will consider
whether the existing laws enable us efl&caciously to maintain this course
with our citizens in all places and with others while within the limits of
our jurisdiction, and will give them the new modifications necessary for
these objects.
Some contraventions of right have already taken place,
both within our jurisdictional limits and on the high seas.
The friendly
disposition of the Governments from whose agents they have proceeded,
as well as their wisdom and regard for justice, leave us in reasonable expec-
tation that they will be
rectified and prevented in future, and that no
act will be countenanced by them which threatens to disturb our friendly
intercourse.
Separated by a wide ocean from the nations of
Europe
and from the political interests which entangle them together, with pro-
ductions and wants which render our commerce and friendship useful to
them and theirs to us,
it can not be the interest of any to assail us, nor
ours to disturb them.
We should be most unwise, indeed, were we to
cast away the singular blessings of the position in which nature has
placed us, the opportunity she has endowed us with of pursuing,
at a
distance from foreign
contentions,
the paths of industry,
peace, and
happiness, of cultivating general friendship, and of bringing collisions
350
Messages and Papers of i]ie Presidents
of interest to the umpirage of reason rather than of
force.
How desir-
able, then, must
it be in a Government hke ours to see its citizens adopt
individually the views, the interests, and the conduct which their country
should pursue,
divesting themselves
of those passions and partialities
which tend to lessen useful friendships and to embarrass and embroil us
in the calamitous scenes of Europe.
Confident, fellow-citizens, that you
will duly estimate the importance
of
neutral
dispositions toward
the
observance of neutral conduct, that you will be sensible how much it is
our duty to look on the bloody arena spread before us with commisera-
tion indeed, but with no other wish than to see it closed, I am persuaded
you will cordially cherish
these dispositions
in
all discussions among
yourselves and
in
all communications with your
constituents;
and
I
anticipate with satisfaction the measures of wisdom which the great inter-
ests now committed to you will give you an opportunity of providing,
and myself that
of approving and of carrying into execution with the
fidelity I owe to my country.
TH: JEFFERSON.
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
October
17,
1803.
Gentlemen of the Senate:
In my message of this day to both Houses of Congress I explained the
circumstances which had led to the conclusion of conventions with France
for the cession of the Province of L,ouisiana to the United States.
Those
conventions are now laid before you with such communications relating
to them as may assist in deciding whether you will advise and consent to
their ratification.
The ratification of the First Consul of France is in the hands of his
charge
d'affaires here, to be exchanged
for that of the United
States
whensoever, before the 30th instant, it shall be in readiness.
TH: JEFFERSON.
OCTOBKR
21, 1803.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
In my communication to you of the 17th instant I informed you that
conventions had been entered into with the Government of France for
the cession of Louisiana to the United States,
These, with the advice
and consent of the Senate, having now been
ratified and my ratifica-
tion exchanged for that of the First Consul of France in due form, they
are communicated to you for consideration in your legislative capacity.
You will observe that some important conditions can not be carried into
REPLICAS OF CLERMONT AND HALF MOON
THE OLYMPIC ENTERING NEW YORK, JUNE,
1911
FULTON'S CLERMONT AND THE OLYMPIC
The Clermont, as shown ia the upper panel, was
about
the
size
of an
ordinary
river
tugboat.
By comparing
the
tugs
in
the
lower panel
with
the Olympic
(in
1911, the largest ship
afloat), some
idea may be obtained
of the relative power of Fulton's feeble craft and the ocean steamer of to-day.
Every patriotic American must regret that eighty per cent, of the vessels
seen in our harbors are foreign-owned.
The problem of restoring our mer-
chant marine to its former high place in the commerce of the world has been
frequently and fully discussed by
our
Presidents.
Let us hope that some
day we will not have to depend on foreign nations for our shipping, but that
American goods will be transported in American-built and American-owned
bottoms.
(See " Commerce " in the Encyclopedic Lidex.)
Thovias Jefferson
351
execution but with the aid of the Legislature, and that time presses a
decision on them without delay.
The ulterior provisions, also suggested in the same communication, foi
the occupation and government of the country will call for early atten-
tion.
Such information relative to its government as time and distance
have permitted me to obtain will be ready to be laid before 3'ou within a
few days;
but
as permanent arrangements for this object may require
time and deliberation,
it
is for your consideration whether yoM will not
forthwith make such temporary provisions for the preservation
in the
meanwhile
of
order and
tranquillity in
the country
as
the
case may
require.
TH: JEFFERSON.
October 24,
1803.
To the Senate of the United States.'
I lay before you the convention signed on the
12th day of May last
between the United States and Great Britain for settling their boundaries
in the northeastern and northwestern parts of the United States, which
was mentioned in my general message of the 17th instant, together with
such papers relating thereto as may enable you
to determine whether
you will advise and consent to its ratification.
TH: JEFFERSON.
October
31,
1803.
To the Senate of the United States ofAmerica:
I now lay before you the treaty mentioned in my general message at
the opening of the session as having been concluded with the Kaskaskia
Indians for the transfer of their country to us under certain reservations
and conditions.
Progress having been made in the demarcation of Indian boundaries, I
am now able to communicate to you a treaty with the Delawares, Shawa-
nese, Potawatamies, Miamis, Eel-rivers, Weeas, Kickapoos, Piankeshaws,
and Kaskaskias, establishing the boundaries of the territory around St.
Vincennes.
Also a supplementary treaty with the Eel-rivers, Wyandots, Pianke-
shaws, Kaskaskias, and Kickapoos, in confirmation of the fourth article
of the preceding treaty.
Also
a
treaty with
the
Choctaws, describing
and
establishing
our
demarcation of boundaries with them.
Which several treaties are accompanied by the papers relating to them,
and are now submitted to the Senate for consideration whether they will
advise and consent to their ratification.
TH: JEFFERSON.
352
Messages and Papers 0/ the Presidents
NovSMBKR
4,
1803.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
By the copy now communicated of a letter from Captain Bainbridge,
oi WiQ. Philadelphia frigate, to our consul at Gibraltar, you will learn that
an act of hostility has been committed on a merchant vessel of the United
States by an armed ship of the Emperor of Morocco.
This conduct on
the part of that power is without cause and without explanation.
It
is
fortunate that Captain Bainbridge
fell
in with and took the capturing
vessel and her prize, and I have the satisfaction to inform you that about
the date of this transaction such a force would be arriving in the neigh-
borhood of Gibraltar, both from the east and from the west, as leaves less
to be feared for our commerce from the suddenness of the aggression.
On the 4th of September the
Constitution
frigate, Captain Preble, with
Mr. Lear on board, was within two days'
sail
of Gibraltar, where the
Philadelphia would then be arrived with her prize, and such explanations
would probably be instituted as the state of things required, and as might
perhaps arrest the progress of hostilities.
In the meanwhile it is for Congress to consider the provisional author-
ities which may be necessary to restrain the depredations of this power
should they be continued.
TH: JEFFERSON.
November
14,
1803.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I now communicate a digest of the information I have received relative
to Louisiana, which may be useful to the Legislature in providing for the
government of the country.
A translation of the most important laws
in force in that province, now in press, shall be the subject of a supple-
mentary communication, with such further and material information as
may yet come to hand.
TH: JEFFERSON.
November
24,
1803.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In conformity with the desire expressed in the resolution of the House
of Representatives of the
15th instant,
I now lay before them copies of
such documents as are in possession
of the Executive
relative
to the
arrest and confinement of Zachariah Cox by officers in the service of the
United States
in the year
1798.
From the nature of the transaction
some documents relative to it might have been expected from the War
Office; but
if any ever existed there they were probably lost when the
office and its papers were consumed by fire.
TH: JEFFERSON.
Thomas Jefferson
353
November
25, 1803,
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the U7iited States:
The treaty with the Kaskaskia Indians being
ratified with the advice
and consent of the Senate,
it
is now
laid before both Houses in their
legislative capacity.
It will inform them of the obligations which the
United States thereby contract, and particularly that of taking the tribe
under their future protection, and that the ceded country is submitted
to their immediate possession and disposal.
TH: JEFFERSON.
November
29,
1803.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I now communkate an appendix to the information heretofore given
on the subject
of Louisiana.
You will be
sensible,
from the
face
of
these papers, as well as of those to which they are a sequel, that they are
not and could not be
ofl&cial, but are furnished by different individuals
as the lesult of the best inquiries they had been able to make, and now
given as received from them, only digested under heads to prevent repe-
titions.
TH: JEFFERSON.
December
5,
1803.
To the Senate and House ofRepresentatives of the United States:
I have the satisfaction to inform you that the act of hostility men-
tioned in my message of the 4th of November to have been committed
by a cruiser of the Emperor of Morocco on a vessel of the United States
has been disavowed by the Emperor.
All differences in consequence
thereof 'have b^en amicably adjusted, and the treaty of
1786 between
this country and that has been recognized and confirmed by the Em-
peror, each party restoring to the other what had been detained or taken.
I inclose the Emperor's orders given on this occasion.
The conduct of our
officers generally who have had a part in these
transactions has merited entire approbation.
The temperate and correct course pursued by our consul, Mr. Simp-
son, the promptitude and energy
of Commodore Preble, the efficacious
cooperation of Captains Rodgers and Campbell, of the returning squad-
ron, the proper decision of Captain Bainbridge that a vessel which had
committed an open hostihty was of right to be detained for inquiry and
consideration, and the general zeal of the other officers and men are
honorable facts which I make known with pleasure.
And to these I add
what was indeed transacted in another quarter—the gallant enterprise of
Captain Rodgers in destroying on the coast of Tripoli a corvette of that
power of 22 guns.
354
Messages and Papers of the Presidents
I recommend to the consideration of Congress a just indemnification
for the interest acquired by the captors of the Mishouda and Mirboha,
yielded by them for the pubHc accommodation.
TH: JEFFERSON.
December
5,
1803.
To the Senate of the United States:
In comphance with the desire of the Senate expressed
in their resolu-
tion of the 2 2d of November, on the impressment of seamen in the service
of the United States by the agents of foreign nations,
I now lay before
the Senate a letter from the Secretary of State with a specification of the
cases of which information has been received.
TH: JEFFERSON.
December
21, 1803.
To the Senate of the United States:
On the nth of January last I
laid before the Senate, for their consid-
eration and advice, a convention with Spain on the subject of indemnities
for spoliations on our commerce committed by her subjects during the
late war, which convention
is
still before the Senate.
As this instru-
ment did not embrace French seizures and condemnations of our vessels
in the ports of Spain, for which we deemed the latter power responsible,
our minister at that Court was instructed to press for an additional article,
comprehending that branch of wrongs.
I now communicate what has
since passed on that subject.
The Senate will judge whether the pros-
pect
it offers will justify a longer suspension of that portion of indem-
nities conceded by Spain should she now take no advantage of the lapse
of the period for ratification.
As the settlement of the boundaries of
Louisiana will call for new negotiations on our receiving possession of
that Province, the claims not obtained by the convention now before the
Senate may be incorporated into those discussions.
TH: JEFFERSON.
December 31, 1803.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I now lay before Congress the annual account of the fund established
for defraying the contingent charges of Government.
No occasion hav-
ing arisen for making use of any part of it in the present year, the balance
of $18,560 unexpended at the end of the last year remains now in the
Treasiury.
TH: JEFFERSON.
Thomas Jefferson
355
January
i6,
1804.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
In execution of the act of the present session of Congress for taking
possession of
L,ouisiana, as ceded to us by France, and for the temporary
government thereof, Governor Claiborne, of the
Mississippi Territoiy,
and General Wilkinson were appointed commissioners to receive posses-
sion.
They proceeded with such regular troops as had been assembled
at Fort Adams from the nearest posts and with some militia of the Mis-
sissippi Territory to New Orleans.
To be prepared for anything unex-
pected which might
arise out of the transaction, a respectable body of
militia was ordered to be in readiness in the States of Ohio, Kentucky,
and Tennessee, and a part of those of Tennessee was moved on to the
Natchez.
No occasion, however, arose for their services.
Our commis-
sioners, on their arrival
at New
Orleans, found the Province
already
delivered by the commissioners of Spain to that of France, who delivered
it over to them on the 20th day of December, as appears by their declara-
tory act accompanying
this.
Governor Claiborne, being duly invested
with the powers heretofore exercised by
the governor and
intendant
of Louisiana, assumed
the government on the same day, and
for
the
maintenance of law and order immediately issued the proclamation and
address now communicated.
On this important acquisition, so favorable to the immediate interests
of our Western citizens, so auspicious
to the peace and security of the
nation in general, which adds to our country territories so extensive and
fertile and to our citizens new brethren
to partake of the blessings of
freedom and self-government,
I offer to Congress and our country my
sincere congratulations,
TH: JEFFKRSON.
January
24,
1804.
Gentlemen of the Senate and of the Ho^ise of Represe^itatives:
I communicate
for your information a
letter just received from Gov-
ernor Claiborne, which may throw light on the subject of the government
of Louisiana, under contemplation of the Legislature,
The paper being
original, a return is asked.
TH: JEFFERSON.
February 16, 1804.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
Information having been received some time ago that the public lands
in the neighborhood of Detroit required particular attention, the agent
appointed to transact business with the Indians
in
that quarter was