giving the election of President and Vice-President to the people and
limiting the service of the former to a single term. So important do I
consider these changes in our fundamental law that I can not, in
accordance with my sense of duty, omit to press them upon the
consideration of a new Congress. For my views more at large, as well in
relation to these points as to the disqualification of members of
Congress to receive an office from a President in whose election they
have had an official agency, which I proposed as a substitute, I refer
you to my former messages.
Our system of public accounts is extremely complicated, and it is
believed may be much improved. Much of the present machinery and a
considerable portion of the expenditure of public money may be
dispensed with, while greater facilities can be afforded to the
liquidation of claims upon the Government and an examination into their
justice and legality quite as efficient as the present secured. With a
view to a general reform in the system, I recommend the subject to the
attention of Congress.
I deem it my duty again to call your attention to the condition of the
District of Columbia. It was doubtless wise in the framers of our
Constitution to place the people of this District under the
jurisdiction of the General Government, but to accomplish the objects
they had in view it is not necessary that this people should be
deprived of all the privileges of self-government. Independently of the
difficulty of inducing the representatives of distant States to turn
their attention to projects of laws which are not of the highest
interest to their constituents, they are not individually, nor in
Congress collectively, well qualified to legislate over the local
concerns of this District. Consequently its interests are much
neglected, and the people are almost afraid to present their
grievances, lest a body in which they are not represented and which
feels little sympathy in their local relations should in its attempt to
make laws for them do more harm than good.
Governed by the laws of the States whence they were severed, the two
shores of the Potomac within the ten miles square have different penal
codes--not the present codes of Virginia and Maryland, but such as
existed in those States at the time of the cession to the United
States. As Congress will not form a new code, and as the people of the
District can not make one for themselves, they are virtually under two
governments. Is it not just to allow them at least a Delegate in
Congress, if not a local legislature, to make laws for the District,
subject to the approval or rejection of Congress? I earnestly recommend
the extension to them of every political right which their interests
require and which may be compatible with the Constitution.
The extension of the judiciary system of the United States is deemed to
be one of the duties of the Government. One-fourth of the States in the
Union do not participate in the benefits of a circuit court. To the
States of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, and
Louisiana, admitted into the Union since the present judicial system
was organized, only a district court has been allowed. If this be
sufficient, then the circuit courts already existing in 18 States ought
to be abolished; if it be not sufficient, the defect ought to be
remedied, and these States placed on the same footing with the other
members of the Union. It was on this condition and on this footing that
they entered the Union, and they may demand circuit courts as a matter
not of concession, but of right. I trust that Congress will not adjourn
leaving this anomaly in our system.
Entertaining the opinions heretofore expressed in relation to the Bank
of the United States as at present organized, I felt it my duty in my
former messages frankly to disclose them, in order that the attention
of the Legislature and the people should be seasonably directed to that
important subject, and that it might be considered and finally disposed
of in a manner best calculated to promote the ends of the Constitution
and subserve the public interests. Having thus conscientiously
discharged a constitutional duty, I deem it proper on this occasion,
without a more particular reference to the views of the subject then
expressed to leave it for the present to the investigation of an
enlightened people and their representatives.
In conclusion permit me to invoke that Power which superintends all
governments to infuse into your deliberations at this important crisis
of our history a spirit of mutual forbearance and conciliation. In that
spirit was our Union formed, and in that spirit must it be preserved.
***
State of the Union Address
Andrew Jackson
December 4, 1832
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
It gives me pleasure to congratulate you upon your return to the seat
of Government for the purpose of discharging your duties to the people
of the United States. Although the pestilence which had traversed the
Old World has entered our limits and extended its ravages over much of
our land, it has pleased Almighty God to mitigate its severity and
lessen the number of its victims compared with those who have fallen in
most other countries over which it has spread its terrors. Not with
standing this visitation, our country presents on every side marks of
prosperity and happiness unequaled, perhaps, in any other portion of
the world. If we fully appreciate our comparative condition, existing
causes of discontent will appear unworthy of attention, and, with
hearts of thankfulness to that divine Being who has filled our cup of
prosperity, we shall feel our resolution strengthened to preserve and
hand down to our posterity that liberty and that union which we have
received from our fathers, and which constitute the sources and the
shield of all our blessings.
The relations of our country continue to present the same picture of
amicable intercourse that I had the satisfaction to hold up to your
view at the opening of your last session. The same friendly
professions, the same desire to participate in our flourishing
commerce, the same dispositions, evinced by all nations with whom we
have any intercourse. This desirable state of things may be mainly
ascribed to our undeviating practice of the rule which has long guided
our national policy, to require no exclusive privileges in commerce and
to grant none. It is daily producing its beneficial effect in the
respect shown to our flag, the protection of our citizens and their
property abroad, and in the increase of our navigation and the
extension of our mercantile operations. The returns which have been
made out since we last met will show an increase during the last
preceding year of more than 80 thousand tons in our shipping and of
near $40,000,000 in the aggregate of our imports and exports.
Nor have we less reason to felicitate ourselves on the position of our
political than of our commercial concerns. They remain in the state in
which they were when I last addressed you--a state of prosperity and
peace, the effect of a wise attention to the parting advice of the
revered Father of his Country on this subject, condensed into a maxim
for the use of posterity by one of his most distinguished
successors--to cultivate free commerce and honest friendship with all
nations, but to make entangling alliances with none. A strict adherence
to this policy has kept us aloof from the perplexing questions that now
agitate the European world and have more than once deluged those
countries with blood. Should those scenes unfortunately recur, the
parties to the contest may count on a faithful performance of the
duties incumbent on us as a neutral nation, and our own citizens may
equally rely on the firm assertion of their neutral rights.
With the nation that was our earliest friend and ally in the infancy of
our political existence the most friendly relations have subsisted
through the late revolutions of its Government, and, from the events of
the last, promise a permanent duration. It has made an approximation in
some of its political institutions to our own, and raised a monarch to
the throne who preserves, it is said, a friendly recollection of the
period during which he acquired among our citizens the high
consideration that could then have been produced by his personal
qualifications alone.
Our commerce with that nation is gradually assuming a mutually
beneficial character, and the adjustment of the claims of our citizens
has removed the only obstacle there was to an intercourse not only
lucrative, but productive of literary and scientific improvement.
From Great Britain I have the satisfaction to inform you that I
continue to receive assurances of the most amicable disposition, which
have on my part on all proper occasions been promptly and sincerely
reciprocated. The attention of that Government has latterly been so
much engrossed by matters of a deeply interesting domestic character
that we could not press upon it the renewal of negotiations which had
been unfortunately broken off by the unexpected recall of our minister,
who had commenced them with some hopes of success. My great object was
the settlement of questions which, though now dormant, might here-after
be revived under circumstances that would endanger the good
understanding which it is the interest of both parties to preserve
inviolate, cemented as it is by a community of language, manners, and
social habits, and by the high obligations we owe to our British
ancestors for many of our most valuable institutions and for that
system of representative government which has enabled us to preserve
and improve them. The question of our North-East boundary still
remains unsettled. In my last annual message I explained to you the
situation in which I found that business on my coming into office, and
the measures I thought it my duty to pursue for asserting the rights of
the United States before the sovereign who had been chosen by my
predecessor to determine the question, and also the manner in which he
had disposed of it. A special message to the Senate in their executive
capacity afterwards brought before them to the question whether they
would advise a submission to the opinion of the sovereign arbiter. That
body having considered the award as not obligatory and advised me to
open a further negotiation, the proposition was immediately made to the
British Government, but the circumstances to which I have alluded have
hitherto prevented any answer being given to the overture. Early
attention, however, has been promised to the subject, and every effort
on my part will be made for a satisfactory settlement of this question,
interesting to the Union generally, and particularly so to one of its
members.
The claims of our citizens on Spain are not yet acknowledged. On a
closer investigation of them than appears to have heretofore taken
place it was discovered that some of these demands, however strong they
might be upon the equity of that Government, were not such as could be
made the subject of national interference; and faithful to the
principle of asking nothing but what was clearly right, additional
instructions have been sent to modify our demands so as to embrace
those only on which, according to the laws of nations, we had a strict
right to insist. An inevitable delay in procuring the documents
necessary for this review of the merits of these claims retarded this
operation until an unfortunate malady which has afflicted His Catholic
Majesty prevented an examination of them. Being now for the first time
presented in an unexceptionable form, it is confidently hoped that the
application will be successful.
I have the satisfaction to inform you that the application I directed
to be made for the delivery of a part of the archives of Florida, which
had been carried to The Havannah, has produced a royal order for their
delivery, and that measures have been taken to procure its execution.
By the report of the Secretary of State communicated to you on June
25th, 1832 you were informed of the conditional reduction obtained by
the minister of the United States at Madrid of the duties on tonnage
levied on American shipping in the ports of Spain. The condition of
that reduction having been complied with on our part by the act passed
July 13th, 1832, I have the satisfaction to inform you that our ships
now pay no higher nor other duties in the continental ports of Spain
than are levied on their national vessels.
The demands against Portugal for illegal captures in the blockade of
Terceira have been allowed to the full amount of the accounts presented
by the claimants, and payment was promised to be made in three
installments. The first of these has been paid; the second, although
due, had not at the date of our last advices been received, owing, it
was alleged, to embarrassments in the finances consequent on the civil
war in which that nation is engaged.
The payments stipulated by the convention with Denmark have been
punctually made, and the amount is ready for distribution among the
claimants as soon as the board, now sitting, shall have performed their
functions.
I regret that by the last advices from our charge d'affaires at Naples
that Government had still delayed the satisfaction due to our citizens,
but at that date the effect of the last instructions was not known.
Dispatches from thence are hourly expected, and the result will be
communicated to you without delay.
With the rest of Europe our relations, political and commercial, remain
unchanged. Negotiations are going on to put on a permanent basis the
liberal system of commerce now carried on between us and the Empire of
Russia. The treaty concluded with Austria is executed by His Imperial
Majesty with the most perfect good faith, and as we have no diplomatic
agent at his Court he personally inquired into and corrected a
proceeding of some of his subaltern officers to the injury of our
consul in one of his ports.
Our treaty with the Sublime Porte is producing its expected effects on
our commerce. New markets are opening for our commodities and a more
extensive range for the employment of our ships. A slight augmentation
of the duties on our commerce, inconsistent with the spirit of the
treaty, had been imposed, but on the representation of our charge
d'affaires it has been promptly withdrawn, and we now enjoy the trade
and navigation of the Black Sea and of all the ports belonging to the
Turkish Empire and Asia on the most perfect equality with all foreign
nations.
I wish earnestly that in announcing to you the continuance of
friendship and the increase of a profitable commercial intercourse with
Mexico, with Central America, and the States of the South I could
accompany it with the assurance that they all are blessed with that
internal tranquillity and foreign peace which their heroic devotion to
the cause of their independence merits. In Mexico a sanguinary struggle
is now carried on, which has caused some embarrassment to our commerce,
but both parties profess the most friendly disposition toward us. To
the termination of this contest we look for the establishment of that
secure intercourse so necessary to nations whose territories are
contiguous. How important it will be to us we may calculate from the
fact that even in this unfavorable state of things our maritime
commerce has increased, and an internal trade by caravans from St.
Louis to Santa Fe, under the protection of escorts furnished by the
Government, is carried on to great advantage and is daily increasing.
The agents provided for by the treaty, with this power to designate the
boundaries which it established, have been named on our part, but one
of the evils of the civil war now raging there has been that the
appointment of those with whom they were to cooperate has not yet been
announced to us.
The Government of Central America has expelled from its territory the
party which some time since disturbed its peace. Desirous of fostering
a favorable disposition toward us, which has on more than one occasion
been evinced by this interesting country, I made a second attempt in
this year to establish a diplomatic intercourse with them; but the
death of the distinguished citizen whom I had appointed for that
purpose has retarded the execution of measures from which I hoped much
advantage to our commerce. The union of the three States which formed
the Republic of Colombia has been dissolved, but they all, it is
believed, consider themselves as separately bound by the treaty which
was made in their federal capacity. The minister accredited to the
federation continues in that character near the Government of New
Grenada, and hopes were entertained that a new union would be formed
between the separate States, at least for the purposes of foreign
intercourse. Our minister has been instructed to use his good offices,
when ever they shall be desired, to produce the reunion so much to be
wished for, the domestic tranquillity of the parties, and the security
and facility of foreign commerce.
Some agitations naturally attendant on an infant reign have prevailed
in the Empire of Brazil, which have had the usual effect upon
commercial operations, and while they suspended the consideration of
claims created on similar occasions, they have given rise to new
complaints on the part of our citizens. A proper consideration for
calamities and difficulties of this nature has made us less urgent and
peremptory in our demands for justice than duty to our fellow citizens
would under other circumstances have required. But their claims are not
neglected, and will on all proper occasions be urged, and it is hoped
with effect.
I refrain from making any communication on the subject of our affairs
with Buenos Ayres, because the negotiation communicated to you in my
last annual message was at the date of our last advices still pending
and in a state that would render a publication of the details
inexpedient.
A treaty of amity and commerce has been formed with the Republic of
Chili, which, if approved by the Senate, will be laid before you. That
Government seems to be established, and at peace with its neighbors;
and its ports being the resorts of our ships which are employed in the
highly important trade of the fisheries, this commercial convention can
not but be of great advantage to our fellow citizens engaged in that
perilous but profitable business.
Our commerce with the neighboring State of Peru, owing to the onerous
duties levied on our principal articles of export, has been on the
decline, and all endeavors to procure an alteration have hitherto
proved fruitless. With Bolivia we have yet no diplomatic intercourse,
and the continual contests carried on between it and Peru have made me
defer until a more favorable period the appointment of any agent for
that purpose.
An act of atrocious piracy having been committed on one of our trading
ships by the inhabitants of a settlement on the west coast of Sumatra,
a frigate was dispatched with orders to demand satisfaction for the
injury if those who committed it should be found to be members of a
regular government, capable of maintaining the usual relations with
foreign nations; but if, as it was supposed and as they proved to be,
they were a band of lawless pirates, to inflict such a chastisement as
would deter them and others from like aggressions. This last was done,
and the effect has been an increased respect for our flag in those
distant seas and additional security for our commerce.
In the view I have given of our connection with foreign powers
allusions have been made to their domestic disturbances or foreign
wars, to their revolutions or dissensions. It may be proper to observe
that this is done solely in cases where those events affect our
political relations with them, or to show their operation on our
commerce. Further than this it is neither our policy nor our right to
interfere. Our best wishes on all occasions, our good offices when
required, will be afforded to promote the domestic tranquillity and
foreign peace of all nations with whom we have any intercourse. Any
intervention in their affairs further than this, even by the expression
of an official opinion, is contrary to our principles of international
policy, and will always be avoided.
The report which the Secretary of the Treasury will in due time lay
before you will exhibit the national finances in a highly prosperous
state. Owing to the continued success of our commercial enterprise,
which has enabled the merchants to fulfill their engagements with the
Government, the receipts from customs during the year will exceed the
estimate presented at the last session, and with the other means of the
Treasury will prove fully adequate not only to meet the increased
expenditures resulting from the large appropriations made by Congress,
but to provide for the payment of all the public debt which is at
present redeemable.
It is now estimated that the customs will yield to the Treasury during
the present year upward of $28,000,000. The public lands, however, have
proved less productive than was anticipated, and according to present
information will not much exceed $2,000,000. The expenditures for all
objects other than the public debt are estimated to amount during the
year to about $16,500,000, while a still larger sum, viz, $18,000,000,
will have been applied to the principal and interest of the public
debt. It is expected, however, that in consequence of the reduced
rates of duty which will take effect after March 3d, 1833 there will be
a considerable falling off in the revenue from customs in the year
1833. It will never the less be amply sufficient to provide for all the
wants of the public service, estimated even upon a liberal scale, and
for the redemption and purchase of the remainder of the public debt. On
January 1st, 1833 the entire public debt of the United States, funded
and unfunded, will be reduced to within a fraction of $7,000,000, of
which $2,227,363 are not of right redeemable until January 1st, 1834
and $4,735,296 not until January 2d, 1835. The commissioners of the
sinking funds, however, being invested with full authority to purchase
the debt at the market price, and the means of the Treasury being
ample, it may be hoped that the whole will be extinguished within the
year 1833.
I can not too cordially congratulate Congress and my fellow citizens on
the near approach of that memorable and happy event--the extinction of
the public debt of this great and free nation.
Faithful to the wise and patriotic policy marked out by the legislation
of the country for this object, the present Administration has devoted
to it all the means which a flourishing commerce has supplied and a
prudent economy preserved for the public Treasury. Within the four
years for which the people have confided the Executive power to my
charge $58,000,000 will have been applied to the payment of the public
debt. That this has been accomplished without stinting the expenditures
for all other proper objects will be seen by referring to the liberal
provision made during the same period for the support and increase of
our means of maritime and military defense, for internal improvements
of a national character, for the removal and preservation of the
Indians, and, lastly, for the gallant veterans of the Revolution.
The final removal of this great burthen from our resources affords the
means of further provision for all the objects of general welfare and
public defense which the Constitution authorizes, and presents the
occasion for such further reductions in the revenue as may not be
required for them. From the report of the Secretary of the Treasury it
will be seen that after the present year such a reduction may be made
to a considerable extent, and the subject is earnestly recommended to
the consideration of Congress in the hope that the combined wisdom of
the representatives of the people will devise such means of effecting
that salutary object as may remove those burthens which shall be found
to fall unequally upon any and as may promote all the great interests
of the community.