Washington,
_December 6, 1825_.
_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
In taking a general survey of the concerns of our beloved country, with
reference to subjects interesting to the common welfare, the first
sentiment which impresses itself upon the mind is of gratitude to the
Omnipotent Disposer of All Good for the continuance of the signal
blessings of His providence, and especially for that health which to an
unusual extent has prevailed within our borders, and for that abundance
which in the vicissitudes of the seasons has been scattered with
profusion over our land. Nor ought we less to ascribe to Him the glory
that we are permitted to enjoy the bounties of His hand in peace and
tranquillity--in peace with all the other nations of the earth, in
tranquillity among ourselves. There has, indeed, rarely been a period in
the history of civilized man in which the general condition of the
Christian nations has been marked so extensively by peace and
prosperity.
Europe, with a few partial and unhappy exceptions, has enjoyed ten years
of peace, during which all her Governments, whatever the theory of their
constitutions may have been, are successively taught to feel that the
end of their institution is the happiness of the people, and that the
exercise of power among men can be justified only by the blessings it
confers upon those over whom it is extended.
During the same period our intercourse with all those nations has been
pacific and friendly; it so continues. Since the close of your last
session no material variation has occurred in our relations with any one
of them. In the commercial and navigation system of Great Britain
important changes of municipal regulation have recently been sanctioned
by acts of Parliament, the effect of which upon the interests of other
nations, and particularly upon ours, has not yet been fully developed.
In the recent renewal of the diplomatic missions on both sides between
the two Governments assurances have been given and received of the
continuance and increase of the mutual confidence and cordiality by
which the adjustment of many points of difference had already been
effected, and which affords the surest pledge for the ultimate
satisfactory adjustment of those which still remain open or may
hereafter arise.
The policy of the United States in their commercial intercourse with
other nations has always been of the most liberal character. In the
mutual exchange of their respective productions they have abstained
altogether from prohibitions; they have interdicted themselves the power
of laying taxes upon exports, and whenever they have favored their own
shipping by special preferences or exclusive privileges in their own
ports it has been only with a view to countervail similar favors and
exclusions granted by the nations with whom we have been engaged in
traffic to their own people or shipping, and to the disadvantage of
ours. Immediately after the close of the last war a proposal was fairly
made by the act of Congress of the 3d of March, 1815, to all the
maritime nations to lay aside the system of retaliating restrictions and
exclusions, and to place the shipping of both parties to the common
trade on a footing of equality in respect to the duties of tonnage and
impost. This offer was partially and successively accepted by Great
Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, the Hanseatic cities, Prussia,
Sardinia, the Duke of Oldenburg, and Russia. It was also adopted, under
certain modifications, in our late commercial convention with France,
and by the act of Congress of the 8th January, 1824, it has received a
new confirmation with all the nations who had acceded to it, and has
been offered again to all those who are or may hereafter be willing to
abide in reciprocity by it. But all these regulations, whether
established by treaty or by municipal enactments, are still subject to
one important restriction.
The removal of discriminating duties of tonnage and of impost is limited
to articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture of the country to
which the vessel belongs or to such articles as are most usually first
shipped from her ports. It will deserve the serious consideration of
Congress whether even this remnant of restriction may not be safely
abandoned, and whether the general tender of equal competition made in
the act of 8th January, 1824, may not be extended to include all
articles of merchandise not prohibited, of what country soever they may
be the produce or manufacture. Propositions to this effect have already
been made to us by more than one European Government, and it is probable
that if once established by legislation or compact with any
distinguished maritime state it would recommend itself by the experience
of its advantages to the general accession of all.
The convention of commerce and navigation between the United States and
France, concluded on the 24th of June, 1822, was, in the understanding
and intent of both parties, as appears upon its face, only a temporary
arrangement of the points of difference between them of the most
immediate and pressing urgency. It was limited in the first instance to
two years from the 1st of October, 1822, but with a proviso that it
should further continue in force till the conclusion of a general and
definitive treaty of commerce, unless terminated by a notice, six months
in advance, of either of the parties to the other. Its operation so far
as it extended has been mutually advantageous, and it still continues in
force by common consent. But it left unadjusted several objects of great
interest to the citizens and subjects of both countries, and
particularly a mass of claims to considerable amount of citizens of the
United States upon the Government of France of indemnity for property
taken or destroyed under circumstances of the most aggravated and
outrageous character. In the long period during which continual and
earnest appeals have been made to the equity and magnanimity of France
in behalf of these claims their justice has not been, as it could not
be, denied. It was hoped that the accession of a new Sovereign to the
throne would have afforded a favorable opportunity for presenting them
to the consideration of his Government. They have been presented and
urged hitherto without effect. The repeated and earnest representations
of our minister at the Court of France remain as yet even without an
answer. Were the demands of nations upon the justice of each other
susceptible of adjudication by the sentence of an impartial tribunal,
those to which I now refer would long since have been settled and
adequate indemnity would have been obtained. There are large amounts of
similar claims upon the Netherlands, Naples and Denmark. For those upon
Spain prior to 1819 indemnity was, after many years of patient
forbearance, obtained; and those upon Sweden have been lately
compromised by a private settlement, in which the claimants themselves
have acquiesced. The Governments of Denmark and of Naples have been
recently reminded of those yet existing against them, nor will any of
them be forgotten while a hope may be indulged of obtaining justice by
the means within the constitutional power of the Executive, and without
resorting to those means of self-redress which, as well as the time,
circumstances, and occasion which may require them, are within the
exclusive competency of the Legislature.
It is with great satisfaction that I am enabled to bear witness to the
liberal spirit with which the Republic of Colombia has made satisfaction
for well-established claims of a similar character, and among the
documents now communicated to Congress will be distinguished a treaty of
commerce and navigation with that Republic, the ratifications of which
have been exchanged since the last recess of the Legislature. The
negotiation of similar treaties with all the independent South American
States has been contemplated and may yet be accomplished. The basis of
them all, as proposed by the United States, has been laid in two
principles--the one of entire and unqualified reciprocity, the other the
mutual obligation of the parties to place each other permanently upon
the footing of the most favored nation. These principles are, indeed,
indispensable to the effectual emancipation of the American hemisphere
from the thraldom of colonizing monopolies and exclusions, an event
rapidly realizing in the progress of human affairs, and which the
resistance still opposed in certain parts of Europe to the
acknowledgment of the Southern American Republics as independent States
will, it is believed, contribute more effectually to accomplish. The
time has been, and that not remote, when some of those States might, in
their anxious desire to obtain a nominal recognition, have accepted of a
nominal independence, clogged with burdensome conditions, and exclusive
commercial privileges granted to the nation from which they have
separated to the disadvantage of all others. They are all now aware that
such concessions to any European nation would be incompatible with that
independence which they have declared and maintained.
Among the measures which have been suggested to them by the new
relations with one another, resulting from the recent changes in their
condition, is that of assembling at the Isthmus of Panama a congress, at
which each of them should be represented, to deliberate upon objects
important to the welfare of all. The Republics of Colombia, of Mexico,
and of Central America have already deputed plenipotentiaries to such a
meeting, and they have invited the United States to be also represented
there by their ministers. The invitation has been accepted, and
ministers on the part of the United States will be commissioned to
attend at those deliberations, and to take part in them so far as may be
compatible with that neutrality from which it is neither our intention
nor the desire of the other American States that we should depart.
The commissioners under the seventh article of the treaty of Ghent have
so nearly completed their arduous labors that, by the report recently
received from the agent on the part of the United States, there is
reason to expect that the commission will be closed at their next
session, appointed for the 22d of May of the ensuing year.
The other commission, appointed to ascertain the indemnities due for
slaves carried away from the United States after the close of the late
war, have met with some difficulty, which has delayed their progress in
the inquiry. A reference has been made to the British Government on the
subject, which, it may be hoped, will tend to hasten the decision of the
commissioners, or serve as a substitute for it.
Among the powers specifically granted to Congress by the Constitution
are those of establishing uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies
throughout the United States and of providing for organizing, arming,
and disciplining the militia and for governing such part of them as may
be employed in the service of the United States. The magnitude and
complexity of the interests affected by legislation upon these subjects
may account for the fact that, long and often as both of them have
occupied the attention and animated the debates of Congress, no systems
have yet been devised for fulfilling to the satisfaction of the
community the duties prescribed by these grants of power. To conciliate
the claim of the individual citizen to the enjoyment of personal
liberty, with the effective obligation of private contracts, is the
difficult problem to be solved by a law of bankruptcy. These are objects
of the deepest interest to society, affecting all that is precious in
the existence of multitudes of persons, many of them in the classes
essentially dependent and helpless, of the age requiring nurture, and of
the sex entitled to protection from the free agency of the parent and
the husband. The organization of the militia is yet more indispensable
to the liberties of the country. It is only by an effective militia that
we can at once enjoy the repose of peace and bid defiance to foreign
aggression; it is by the militia that we are constituted an armed
nation, standing in perpetual panoply of defense in the presence of all
the other nations of the earth. To this end it would be necessary, if
possible, so to shape its organization as to give it a more united and
active energy. There are laws for establishing an uniform militia
throughout the United States and for arming and equipping its whole
body. But it is a body of dislocated members, without the vigor of unity
and having little of uniformity but the name. To infuse into this most
important institution the power of which it is susceptible and to make
it available for the defense of the Union at the shortest notice and at
the smallest expense possible of time, of life, and of treasure are
among the benefits to be expected from the persevering deliberations of
Congress.
Among the unequivocal indications of our national prosperity is the
flourishing state of our finances. The revenues of the present year,
from all their principal sources, will exceed the anticipations of the
last. The balance in the Treasury on the 1st of January last was a
little short of $2,000,000, exclusive of two millions and a half, being
the moiety of the loan of five millions authorized by the act of 26th of
May, 1824. The receipts into the Treasury from the 1st of January to the
30th of September, exclusive of the other moiety of the same loan, are
estimated at $16,500,000, and it is expected that those of the current
quarter will exceed $5,000,000, forming an aggregate of receipts of
nearly twenty-two millions, independent of the loan. The expenditures of
the year will not exceed that sum more than two millions. By those
expenditures nearly eight millions of the principal of the public debt
have been discharged. More than a million and a half has been devoted to
the debt of gratitude to the warriors of the Revolution; a nearly equal
sum to the construction of fortifications and the acquisition of
ordnance and other permanent preparations of national defense; half a
million to the gradual increase of the Navy; an equal sum for purchases
of territory from the Indians and payment of annuities to them; and
upward of a million for objects of internal improvement authorized by
special acts of the last Congress. If we add to these $4,000,000 for
payment of interest upon the public debt, there remains a sum of about
seven millions, which have defrayed the whole expense of the
administration of Government in its legislative, executive, and
judiciary departments, including the support of the military and naval
establishments and all the occasional contingencies of a government
coextensive with the Union.
The amount of duties secured on merchandise imported since the
commencement of the year is about twenty-five millions and a half, and
that which will accrue during the current quarter is estimated at five
millions and a half; from these thirty-one millions, deducting the
drawbacks, estimated at less than seven millions, a sum exceeding
twenty-four millions will constitute the revenue of the year, and will
exceed the whole expenditures of the year. The entire amount of the
public debt remaining due on the 1st of January next will be short of
$81,000,000.
By an act of Congress of the 3d of March last a loan of $12,000,000 was
authorized at 4-1/2 per cent, or an exchange of stock to that amount of
4-1/2 per cent for a stock of 6 per cent, to create a fund for
extinguishing an equal amount of the public debt, bearing an interest of
6 per cent, redeemable in 1826. An account of the measures taken to give
effect to this act will be laid before you by the Secretary of the
Treasury. As the object which it had in view has been but partially
accomplished, it will be for the consideration of Congress whether the
power with which it clothed the Executive should not be renewed at an
early day of the present session, and under what modifications.
The act of Congress of the 3d of March last, directing the Secretary of
the Treasury to subscribe, in the name and for the use of the United
States, for 1,500 shares of the capital stock of the Chesapeake and
Delaware Canal Company, has been executed by the actual subscription for
the amount specified; and such other measures have been adopted by that
officer, under the act, as the fulfillment of its intentions requires.
The latest accounts received of this important undertaking authorize the
belief that it is in successful progress.
The payments into the Treasury from the proceeds of the sales of the
public lands during the present year were estimated at $1,000,000. The
actual receipts of the first two quarters have fallen very little short
of that sum; it is not expected that the second half of the year will be
equally productive, but the income of the year from that source may now
be safely estimated at a million and a half. The act of Congress of 18th
May, 1824, to provide for the extinguishment of the debt due to the
United States by the purchasers of public lands, was limited in its
operation of relief to the purchaser to the 10th of April last. Its
effect at the end of the quarter during which it expired was to reduce
that debt from ten to seven millions. By the operation of similar prior
laws of relief, from and since that of 2d March, 1821, the debt had been
reduced from upward of twenty-two millions to ten. It is exceedingly
desirable that it should be extinguished altogether; and to facilitate
that consummation I recommend to Congress the revival for one year more
of the act of 18th May, 1824, with such provisional modification as may
be necessary to guard the public interests against fraudulent practices
in the resale of the relinquished land. The purchasers of public lands
are among the most useful of our fellow-citizens, and since the system
of sales for cash alone has been introduced great indulgence has been
justly extended to those who had previously purchased upon credit. The
debt which had been contracted under the credit sales had become
unwieldy, and its extinction was alike advantageous to the purchaser and
to the public. Under the system of sales, matured as it has been by
experience, and adapted to the exigencies of the times, the lands will
continue as they have become, an abundant source of revenue; and when
the pledge of them to the public creditor shall have been redeemed by
the entire discharge of the national debt, the swelling tide of wealth
with which they replenish the common Treasury may be made to reflow in
unfailing streams of improvement from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
The condition of the various branches of the public service resorting
from the Department of War, and their administration during the current
year, will be exhibited in the report of the Secretary of War and the
accompanying documents herewith communicated. The organization and
discipline of the Army are effective and satisfactory. To counteract the
prevalence of desertion among the troops it has been suggested to
withhold from the men a small portion of their monthly pay until the
period of their discharge; and some expedient appears to be necessary to
preserve and maintain among the officers so much of the art of
horsemanship as could scarcely fail to be found wanting on the possible
sudden eruption of a war, which should take us unprovided with a single
corps of cavalry. The Military Academy at West Point, under the
restrictions of a severe but paternal superintendence, recommends itself
more and more to the patronage of the nation, and the numbers of
meritorious officers which it forms and introduces to the public service
furnishes the means of multiplying the undertakings of public
improvements to which their acquirements at that institution are
peculiarly adapted. The school of artillery practice established at
Fortress Monroe is well suited to the same purpose, and may heed the aid
of further legislative provision to the same end. The reports of the
various officers at the head of the administrative branches of the
military service, connected with the quartering, clothing, subsistence,
health, and pay of the Army, exhibit the assiduous vigilance of those
officers in the performance of their respective duties, and the faithful
accountability which has pervaded every part of the system.
Our relations with the numerous tribes of aboriginal natives of this
country, scattered over its extensive surface and so dependent even for
their existence upon our power, have been during the present year highly
interesting. An act of Congress of 25th of May, 1824, made an
appropriation to defray the expenses of making treaties of trade and
friendship with the Indian tribes beyond the Mississippi. An act of 3d
of March, 1825, authorized treaties to be made with the Indians for
their consent to the making of a road from the frontier of Missouri to
that of New Mexico, and another act of the same date provided for
defraying the expenses of holding treaties with the Sioux, Chippeways,
Menomenees, Sauks, Foxes, etc., for the purpose of establishing
boundaries and promoting peace between said tribes. The first and the
last objects of these acts have been accomplished, and the second is yet
in a process of execution. The treaties which since the last session of
Congress have been concluded with the several tribes will be laid before
the Senate for their consideration conformably to the Constitution. They
comprise large and valuable acquisitions of territory, and they secure
an adjustment of boundaries and give pledges of permanent peace between
several tribes which had been long waging bloody wars against each
other.
On the 12th of February last a treaty was signed at the Indian Springs
between commissioners appointed on the part of the United States and
certain chiefs and individuals of the Creek Nation of Indians, which was
received at the seat of Government only a very few days before the close
of the last session of Congress and of the late administration. The
advice and consent of the Senate was given to it on the 3d of March, too
late for it to receive the ratification of the then President of the
United States; it was ratified on the 7th of March, under the
unsuspecting impression that it had been negotiated in good faith and in
the confidence inspired by the recommendation of the Senate. The
subsequent transactions in relation to this treaty will form the subject
of a separate communication.
The appropriations made by Congress for public works, as well in the
construction of fortifications as for purposes of internal improvement,
so far as they have been expended, have been faithfully applied. Their
progress has been delayed by the want of suitable officers for
superintending them. An increase of both the corps of engineers,
military and topographical, was recommended by my predecessor at the
last session of Congress. The reasons upon which that recommendation was
founded subsist in all their force and have acquired additional urgency
since that time. It may also be expedient to organize the topographical
engineers into a corps similar to the present establishment of the Corps
of Engineers. The Military Academy at West Point will furnish from the
cadets annually graduated there officers well qualified for carrying
this measure into effect.
The Board of Engineers for Internal Improvement, appointed for carrying
into execution the act of Congress of 30th of April, 1824, "to procure
the necessary surveys, plans, and estimates on the subject of roads and
canals," have been actively engaged in that service from the close of
the last session of Congress. They have completed the surveys necessary
for ascertaining the practicability of a canal from the Chesapeake Bay
to the Ohio River, and are preparing a full report on that subject,
which, when completed, will be laid before you. The same observation is
to be made with regard to the two other objects of national importance
upon which the Board have been occupied, namely, the accomplishment of a
national road from this city to New Orleans, and the practicability of
uniting the waters of Lake Memphramagog with Connecticut River and the
improvement of the navigation of that river. The surveys have been made
and are nearly completed. The report may be expected at an early period
during the present session of Congress.
The acts of Congress of the last session relative to the surveying,
marking, or laying out roads in the Territories of Florida, Arkansas,
and Michigan, from Missouri to Mexico, and for the continuation of the
Cumberland road, are, some of them, fully executed, and others in the
process of execution. Those for completing or commencing fortifications
have been delayed only so far as the Corps of Engineers has been
inadequate to furnish officers for the necessary superintendence of the
works. Under the act confirming the statutes of Virginia and Maryland
incorporating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, three commissioners
on the part of the United States have been appointed for opening books
and receiving subscriptions, in concert with a like number of
commissioners appointed on the part of each of those States. A meeting
of the commissioners has been postponed, to await the definitive report
of the board of engineers. The light-houses and monuments for the safety
of our commerce and mariners, the works for the security of Plymouth
Beach and for the preservation of the islands in Boston Harbor, have
received the attention required by the laws relating to those objects
respectively. The continuation of the Cumberland road, the most
important of them all, after surmounting no inconsiderable difficulty in
fixing upon the direction of the road, has commenced under the most
promising auspices, with the improvements of recent invention in the
mode of construction, and with the advantage of a great reduction in the
comparative cost of the work.
The operation of the laws relating to the Revolutionary pensioners may
deserve the renewed consideration of Congress. The act of the 18th of
March, 1818, while it made provision for many meritorious and indigent
citizens who had served in the War of Independence, opened a door to
numerous abuses and impositions. To remedy this the act of 1st May,
1820, exacted proofs of absolute indigence, which many really in want
were unable and all susceptible of that delicacy which is allied to many
virtues must be deeply reluctant to give. The result has been that some
among the least deserving have been retained, and some in whom the
requisites both of worth and want were combined have been stricken from
the list. As the numbers of these venerable relics of an age gone by
diminish; as the decays of body, mind, and estate of those that survive
must in the common course of nature increase, should not a more liberal
portion of indulgence be dealt out to them? May not the want in most
instances be inferred from the demand when the service can be proved,
and may not the last days of human infirmity be spared the mortification
of purchasing a pittance of relief only by the exposure of its own
necessities? I submit to Congress the expediency of providing for
individual cases of this description by special enactment, or of
revising the act of the 1st of May, 1820, with a view to mitigate the
rigor of its exclusions in favor of persons to whom charity now bestowed
can scarcely discharge the debt of justice.
The portion of the naval force of the Union in actual service has been
chiefly employed on three stations--the Mediterranean, the coasts of
South America bordering on the Pacific Ocean, and the West Indies. An
occasional cruiser has been sent to range along the African shores most
polluted by the traffic of slaves; one armed vessel has been stationed
on the coast of our eastern boundary, to cruise along the fishing
grounds in Hudsons Bay and on the coast of Labrador, and the first
service of a new frigate has been performed in restoring to his native
soil and domestic enjoyments the veteran hero whose youthful blood and
treasure had freely flowed in the cause of our country's independence,
and whose whole life has been a series of services and sacrifices to the
improvement of his fellow-men. The visit of General Lafayette, alike
honorable to himself and to our country, closed, as it had commenced,
with the most affecting testimonials of devoted attachment on his part,
and of unbounded gratitude of this people to him in return. It will form
hereafter a pleasing incident in the annals of our Union, giving to real
history the intense interest of romance and signally marking the
unpurchasable tribute of a great nation's social affections to the
disinterested champion of the liberties of human-kind.
The constant maintenance of a small squadron in the Mediterranean is a
necessary substitute for the humiliating alternative of paying tribute
for the security of our commerce in that sea, and for a precarious
peace, at the mercy of every caprice of four Barbary States, by whom it
was liable to be violated. An additional motive for keeping a
respectable force stationed there at this time is found in the maritime
war raging between the Greeks and the Turks, and in which the neutral
navigation of this Union is always in danger of outrage and depredation.
A few instances have occurred of such depredations upon our merchant
vessels by privateers or pirates wearing the Grecian flag, but without
real authority from the Greek or any other Government. The heroic
struggles of the Greeks themselves, in which our warmest sympathies as
freemen and Christians have been engaged, have continued to be
maintained with vicissitudes of success adverse and favorable.
Similar motives have rendered expedient the keeping of a like force on
the coasts of Peru and Chile on the Pacific. The irregular and
convulsive character of the war upon the shores has been extended to the
conflicts upon the ocean. An active warfare has been kept up for years
with alternate success, though generally to the advantage of the
American patriots. But their naval forces have not always been under the
control of their own Governments. Blockades, unjustifiable upon any
acknowledged principles of international law, have been proclaimed by
officers in command, and though disavowed by the supreme authorities,
the protection of our own commerce against them has been made cause of
complaint and erroneous imputations against some of the most gallant
officers of our Navy. Complaints equally groundless have been made by
the commanders of the Spanish royal forces in those seas; but the most
effective protection to our commerce has been the flag and the firmness
of our own commanding officers. The cessation of the war by the complete
triumph of the patriot cause has removed, it is hoped, all cause of
dissension with one party and all vestige of force of the other. But an
unsettled coast of many degrees of latitude forming a part of our own
territory and a flourishing commerce and fishery extending to the
islands of the Pacific and to China still require that the protecting
power of the Union should be displayed under its flag as well upon the
ocean as upon the land.
The objects of the West India Squadron have been to carry into execution
the laws for the suppression of the African slave trade; for the
protection of our commerce against vessels of piratical character,
though bearing commissions from either of the belligerent parties; for
its protection against open and unequivocal pirates. These objects
during the present year have been accomplished more effectually than at
any former period. The African slave trade has long been excluded from
the use of our flag, and if some few citizens of our country have
continued to set the laws of the Union as well as those of nature and
humanity at defiance by persevering in that abominable traffic, it has
been only by sheltering themselves under the banners of other nations
less earnest for the total extinction of the trade than ours. The
irregular privateers have within the last year been in a great measure
banished from those seas, and the pirates for months past appear to have
been almost entirely swept away from the borders and the shores of the
two Spanish islands in those regions. The active, persevering, and
unremitted energy of Captain Warrington and of the officers and men
under his command on that trying and perilous service have been crowned
with signal success, and are entitled to the approbation of their
country. But experience has shown that not even a temporary suspension
or relaxation from assiduity can be indulged on that station without
reproducing piracy and murder in all their horrors; nor is it probable
that for years to come our immensely valuable commerce in those seas can
navigate in security without the steady continuance of an armed force
devoted to its protection.
It were, indeed, a vain and dangerous illusion to believe that in the
present or probable condition of human society a commerce so extensive
and so rich as ours could exist and be pursued in safety without the
continual support of a military marine--the only arm by which the power
of this Confederacy can be estimated or felt by foreign nations, and the
only standing military force which can never be dangerous to our own
liberties at home. A permanent naval peace establishment, therefore,
adapted to our present condition, and adaptable to that gigantic growth
with which the nation is advancing in its career, is among the subjects
which have already occupied the foresight of the last Congress, and
which will deserve your serious deliberations. Our Navy, commenced at an
early period of our present political organization upon a scale
commensurate with the incipient energies, the scanty resources, and the
comparative indigence of our infancy, was even then found adequate to
cope with all the powers of Barbary, save the first, and with one of the
principal maritime powers of Europe.
At a period of further advancement, but with little accession of
strength, it not only sustained with honor the most unequal of
conflicts, but covered itself and our country with unfading glory. But
it is only since the close of the late war that by the numbers and force
of the ships of which it was composed it could deserve the name of a
navy. Yet it retains nearly the same organization as when it consisted
only of five frigates. The rules and regulations by which it is governed
earnestly call for revision, and the want of a naval school of
instruction, corresponding with the Military Academy at West Point, for
the formation of scientific and accomplished officers, is felt with
daily increasing aggravation.
The act of Congress of 26th of May, 1824, authorizing an examination and
survey of the harbor of Charleston, in South Carolina, of St. Marys, in
Georgia, and of the coast of Florida, and for other purposes, has been
executed so far as the appropriation would admit. Those of the 3d of
March last, authorizing the establishment of a navy-yard and depot on
the coast of Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, and authorizing the
building of ten sloops of war, and for other purposes, are in the course
of execution, for the particulars of which and other objects connected
with this Department I refer to the report of the Secretary of the Navy,
herewith communicated.
A report from the Postmaster-General is also submitted, exhibiting the
present flourishing condition of that Department. For the first time for
many years the receipts for the year ending on the 1st of July last
exceeded the expenditures during the same period to the amount of more
than $45,000. Other facts equally creditable to the administration of
this Department are that in two years from the 1st of July, 1823, an
improvement of more than $185,000 in its pecuniary affairs has been
realized; that in the same interval the increase of the transportation
of the mail has exceeded 1,500,000 miles annually, and that 1,040 new
post-offices have been established. It hence appears that under
judicious management the income from this establishment may be relied on
as fully adequate to defray its expenses, and that by the discontinuance
of post-roads altogether unproductive others of more useful character
may be opened, till the circulation of the mail shall keep pace with the
spread of our population, and the comforts of friendly correspondence,
the exchanges of internal traffic, and the lights of the periodical
press shall be distributed to the remotest corners of the Union, at a
charge scarcely perceptible to any individual, and without the cost of a
dollar to the public Treasury.
Upon this first occasion of addressing the Legislature of the Union,
with which I have been honored, in presenting to their view the
execution so far as it has been effected of the measures sanctioned by
them for promoting the internal improvement of our country, I can not
close the communication without recommending to their calm and
persevering consideration the general principle in a more enlarged
extent. The great object of the institution of civil government is the
improvement of the condition of those who are parties to the social
compact, and no government, in whatever form constituted, can accomplish
the lawful ends of its institution but in proportion as it improves the
condition of those over whom it is established. Roads and canals, by
multiplying and facilitating the communications and intercourse between
distant regions and multitudes of men, are among the most important
means of improvement. But moral, political, intellectual improvement are
duties assigned by the Author of Our existence to social no less than to
individual man. For the fulfillment of those duties governments are
invested with power, and to the attainment of the end--the progressive
improvement of the condition of the governed--the exercise of delegated
powers is a duty as sacred and indispensable as the usurpation of powers
not granted is criminal and odious. Among the first, perhaps the very
first, instrument for the improvement of the condition of men is
knowledge, and to the acquisition of much of the knowledge adapted to
the wants, the comforts, and enjoyments of human life public
institutions and seminaries of learning are essential. So convinced of
this was the first of my predecessors in this office, now first in the
memory, as, living, he was first in the hearts, of our countrymen, that
once and again in his addresses to the Congresses with whom he
cooperated in the public service he earnestly recommended the
establishment of seminaries of learning, to prepare for all the
emergencies of peace and war--a national university and a military
academy. With respect to the latter, had he lived to the present day, in
turning his eyes to the institution at West Point he would have enjoyed
the gratification of his most earnest wishes; but in surveying the city
which has been honored with his name he would have seen the spot of
earth which he had destined and bequeathed to the use and benefit of his
country as the site for an university still bare and barren.
In assuming her station among the civilized nations of the earth it
would seem that our country had contracted the engagement to contribute
her share of mind, of labor, and of expense to the improvement of those
parts of knowledge which lie beyond the reach of individual acquisition,
and particularly to geographical and astronomical science. Looking back
to the history only of the half century since the declaration of our
independence, and observing the generous emulation with which the
Governments of France, Great Britain, and Russia have devoted the
genius, the intelligence, the treasures of their respective nations to
the common improvement of the species in these branches of science, is
it not incumbent upon us to inquire whether we are not bound by
obligations of a high and honorable character to contribute our portion
of energy and exertion to the common stock? The voyages of discovery
prosecuted in the course of that time at the expense of those nations
have not only redounded to their glory, but to the improvement of human
knowledge. We have been partakers of that improvement and owe for it a
sacred debt, not only of gratitude, but of equal or proportional
exertion in the same common cause. Of the cost of these undertakings, if
the mere expenditures of outfit, equipment, and completion of the
expeditions were to be considered the only charges, it would be unworthy
of a great and generous nation to take a second thought. One hundred
expeditions of circumnavigation like those of Cook and La Pérouse would
not burden the exchequer of the nation fitting them out so much as the
ways and means of defraying a single campaign in war. But if we take
into the account the lives of those benefactors of mankind of which
their services in the cause of their species were the purchase, how
shall the cost of those heroic enterprises be estimated, and what
compensation can be made to them or to their countries for them? Is it
not by bearing them in affectionate remembrance? Is it not still more by
imitating their example--by enabling countrymen of our own to pursue the
same career and to hazard their lives in the same cause?
In inviting the attention of Congress to the subject of internal
improvements upon a view thus enlarged it is not my design to recommend
the equipment of an expedition for circumnavigating the globe for
purposes of scientific research and inquiry. We have objects of useful
investigation nearer home, and to which our cares may be more
beneficially applied. The interior of our own territories has yet been
very imperfectly explored. Our coasts along many degrees of latitude
upon the shores of the Pacific Ocean, though much frequented by our
spirited commercial navigators, have been barely visited by our public
ships. The River of the West, first fully discovered and navigated by a
countryman of our own, still bears the name of the ship in which he
ascended its waters, and claims the protection of our armed national
flag at its mouth. With the establishment of a military post there or at
some other point of that coast, recommended by my predecessor and
already matured in the deliberations of the last Congress, I would
suggest the expediency of connecting the equipment of a public ship for
the exploration of the whole northwest coast of this continent.
The establishment of an uniform standard of weights and measures was one
of the specific objects contemplated in the formation of our
Constitution, and to fix that standard was one of the powers delegated
by express terms in that instrument to Congress. The Governments of
Great Britain and France have scarcely ceased to be occupied with
inquiries and speculations on the same subject since the existence of
our Constitution, and with them it has expanded into profound,
laborious, and expensive researches into the figure of the earth and the
comparative length of the pendulum vibrating seconds in various
latitudes from the equator to the pole. These researches have resulted
in the composition and publication of several works highly interesting
to the cause of science. The experiments are yet in the process of
performance. Some of them have recently been made on our own shores,
within the walls of one of our own colleges, and partly by one of our
own fellow-citizens. It would be honorable to our country if the sequel
of the same experiments should be countenanced by the patronage of our
Government, as they have hitherto been by those of France and Britain.
Connected with the establishment of an university, or separate from it,
might be undertaken the erection of an astronomical observatory, with
provision for the support of an astronomer, to be in constant attendance
of observation upon the phenomena of the heavens, and for the periodical
publication of his observations. It is with no feeling of pride as an
American that the remark may be made that on the comparatively small
territorial surface of Europe there are existing upward of 130 of these
light-houses of the skies, while throughout the whole American
hemisphere there is not one. If we reflect a moment upon the discoveries
which in the last four centuries have been made in the physical
constitution of the universe by the means of these buildings and of
observers stationed in them, shall we doubt of their usefulness to every
nation? And while scarcely a year passes over our heads without bringing
some new astronomical discovery to light, which we must fain receive at
second hand from Europe, are we not cutting ourselves off from the means
of returning light for light while we have neither observatory nor
observer upon our half of the globe and the earth revolves in perpetual
darkness to our unsearching eyes?
When, on the 25th of October, 1791, the first President of the United
States announced to Congress the result of the first enumeration of the
inhabitants of this Union, he informed them that the returns gave the
pleasing assurance that the population of the United States bordered on
4,000,000 persons. At the distance of thirty years from that time the
last enumeration, five years since completed, presented a population
bordering upon 10,000,000. Perhaps of all the evidences of a prosperous
and happy condition of human society the rapidity of the increase of
population is the most unequivocal. But the demonstration of our
prosperity rests not alone upon this indication. Our commerce, our
wealth, and the extent of our territories have increased in
corresponding proportions, and the number of independent communities
associated in our Federal Union has since that time nearly doubled. The
legislative representation of the States and people in the two Houses of
Congress has grown with the growth of their constituent bodies. The
House, which then consisted of 65 members, now numbers upward of 200.
The Senate, which consisted of 26 members, has now 48. But the executive
and, still more, the judiciary departments are yet in a great measure
confined to their primitive organization, and are now not adequate to
the urgent wants of a still growing community.
The naval armaments, which at an early period forced themselves upon the
necessities of the Union, soon led to the establishment of a Department
of the Navy. But the Departments of Foreign Affairs and of the Interior,
which early after the formation of the Government had been united in
one, continue so united to this time, to the unquestionable detriment of
the public service. The multiplication of our relations with the nations
and Governments of the Old World has kept pace with that of our
population and commerce, while within the last ten years a new family of
nations in our own hemisphere has arisen among the inhabitants of the
earth, with whom our intercourse, commercial and political, would of
itself furnish occupation to an active and industrious department. The
constitution of the judiciary, experimental and imperfect as it was even
in the infancy of our existing Government, is yet more inadequate to the
administration of national justice at our present maturity. Nine years
have elapsed since a predecessor in this office, now not the last, the
citizen who, perhaps, of all others throughout the Union contributed
most to the formation and establishment of our Constitution, in his
valedictory address to Congress, immediately preceding his retirement
from public life, urgently recommended the revision of the judiciary and
the establishment of an additional executive department. The exigencies
of the public service and its unavoidable deficiencies, as now in
exercise, have added yearly cumulative weight to the considerations
presented by him as persuasive to the measure, and in recommending it to
your deliberations I am happy to have the influence of his high
authority in aid of the undoubting convictions of my own experience.
The laws relating to the administration of the Patent Office are
deserving of much consideration and perhaps susceptible of some
improvement. The grant of power to regulate the action of Congress upon
this subject has specified both the end to be obtained and the means by
which it is to be effected, "to promote the progress of science and
useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the
exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." If an
honest pride might be indulged in the reflection that on the records of
that office are already found inventions the usefulness of which has
scarcely been transcended in the annals of human ingenuity, would not
its exultation be allayed by the inquiry whether the laws have
effectively insured to the inventors the reward destined to them by the
Constitution--even a limited term of exclusive right to their
discoveries?
On the 24th of December, 1799, it was resolved by Congress that a marble
monument should be erected by the United States in the Capitol at the
city of Washington; that the family of General Washington should be
requested to permit his body to be deposited under it, and that the
monument be so designed as to commemorate the great events of his
military and political life. In reminding Congress of this resolution
and that the monument contemplated by it remains yet without execution,
I shall indulge only the remarks that the works at the Capitol are
approaching to completion; that the consent of the family, desired by
the resolution, was requested and obtained; that a monument has been
recently erected in this city over the remains of another distinguished
patriot of the Revolution, and that a spot has been reserved within the
walls where you are deliberating for the benefit of this and future
ages, in which the mortal remains may be deposited of him whose spirit
hovers over you and listens with delight to every act of the
representatives of his nation which can tend to exalt and adorn his and
their country.
The Constitution under which you are assembled is a charter of limited
powers. After full and solemn deliberation upon all or any of the
objects which, urged by an irresistible sense of my own duty, I have
recommended to your attention should you come to the conclusion that,
however desirable in themselves, the enactment of laws for effecting
them would transcend the powers committed to you by that venerable
instrument which we are all bound to support, let no consideration
induce you to assume the exercise of powers not granted to you by the
people. But if the power to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases
whatsoever over the district of Columbia; if the power to lay and
collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and
provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States;
if the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the
several States and with the Indian tribes, to fix the standard of
weights and measures, to establish post-offices and post-roads, to
declare war, to raise and support armies, to provide and maintain a
navy, to dispose of and make all heedful rules and regulations
respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United
States, and to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for
carrying these powers into execution--if these powers and others
enumerated in the Constitution may be effectually brought into action by
laws promoting the improvement of agriculture, commerce, and
manufactures, the cultivation and encouragement of the mechanic and of
the elegant arts, the advancement of literature, and the progress of the
sciences, ornamental and profound, to refrain from exercising them for
the benefit of the people themselves would be to hide in the earth the
talent committed to our charge--would be treachery to the most sacred of
trusts.
The spirit of improvement is abroad upon the earth. It stimulates the
hearts and sharpens the faculties not of our fellow-citizens alone, but
of the nations of Europe and of their rulers. While dwelling with
pleasing satisfaction upon the superior excellence of our political
institutions, let us not be unmindful that liberty is power; that the
nation blessed with the largest portion of liberty must in proportion to
its numbers be the most powerful nation upon earth, and that the tenure
of power by man is, in the moral purposes of his Creator, upon condition
that it shall be exercised to ends of beneficence, to improve the
condition of himself and his fellow-men. While foreign nations less
blessed with that freedom which is power than ourselves are advancing
with gigantic strides in the career of public improvement, were we to
slumber in indolence or fold up our arms and proclaim to the world that
we are palsied by the will of our constituents, would it not be to cast
away the bounties of Providence and doom ourselves to perpetual
inferiority? In the course of the year now drawing to its close we have
beheld, under the auspices and at the expense of one State of this
Union, a new university unfolding its portals to the sons of science and
holding up the torch of human improvement to eyes that seek the light.
We have seen under the persevering and enlightened enterprise of another
State the waters of our Western lakes mingle with those of the ocean. If
undertakings like these have been accomplished in the compass of a few
years by the authority of single members of our Confederation, can we,
the representative authorities of the whole Union, fall behind our
fellow-servants in the exercise of the trust committed to us for the
benefit of our common sovereign by the accomplishment of works important
to the whole and to which neither the authority nor the resources of any
one State can be adequate?
Finally, fellow-citizens, I shall await with cheering hope and faithful
cooperation the result of your deliberations, assured that, without
encroaching upon the powers reserved to the authorities of the
respective States or to the people, you will, with a due sense of your
obligations to your country and of the high responsibilities weighing
upon yourselves, give efficacy to the means committed to you for the
common good. And may He who searches the hearts of the children of men
prosper your exertions to secure the blessings of peace and promote the
highest welfare of our country.
John Quincy Adams.