Washington,
_December 4, 1827_
_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
A revolution of the seasons has nearly been completed since the
representatives of the people and States of this Union were last
assembled at this place to deliberate and to act upon the common
important interests of their constituents. In that interval the
never-slumbering eye of a wise and beneficent Providence has continued
its guardian care over the welfare of our beloved country; the blessing
of health has continued generally to prevail throughout the land; the
blessing of peace with our brethren of the human race has been enjoyed
without interruption; internal quiet has left our fellow-citizens in the
full enjoyment of all their rights and in the free exercise of all their
faculties, to pursue the impulse of their nature and the obligation of
their duty in the improvement of their own condition; the productions of
the soil, the exchanges of commerce, the vivifying labors of human
industry, have combined to mingle in our cup a portion of enjoyment as
large and liberal as the indulgence of Heaven has perhaps ever granted
to the imperfect state of man upon earth; and as the purest of human
felicity consists in its participation with others, it is no small
addition to the sum of our national happiness at this time that peace
and prosperity prevail to a degree seldom experienced over the whole
habitable globe, presenting, though as yet with painful exceptions, a
foretaste of that blessed period of promise when the lion shall lie down
with the lamb and wars shall be no more. To preserve, to improve, and to
perpetuate the sources and to direct in their most effective channels
the streams which contribute to the public weal is the purpose for which
Government was instituted. Objects of deep importance to the welfare of
the Union are constantly recurring to demand the attention of the
Federal Legislature, and they call with accumulated interest at the
first meeting of the two Houses after their periodical renovation. To
present to their consideration from time to time subjects in which the
interests of the nation are most deeply involved, and for the regulation
of which the legislative will is alone competent, is a duty prescribed
by the Constitution, to the performance of which the first meeting of
the new Congress is a period eminently appropriate, and which it is now
my purpose to discharge.
Our relations of friendship with the other nations of the earth,
political and commercial, have been preserved unimpaired, and the
opportunities to improve them have been cultivated with anxious and
unremitting attention. A negotiation upon subjects of high and delicate
interest with the Government of Great Britain has terminated in the
adjustment of some of the questions at issue upon satisfactory terms and
the postponement of others for future discussion and agreement. The
purposes of the convention concluded at St. Petersburg on the 12th day
of July, 1822, under the mediation of the late Emperor Alexander, have
been carried into effect by a subsequent convention, concluded at London
on the 13th of November, 1826, the ratifications of which were exchanged
at that place on the 6th day of February last. A copy of the
proclamation issued on the 19th day of March last, publishing this
convention, is herewith communicated to Congress. The sum of $1,204,960,
therein stipulated to be paid to the claimants of indemnity under the
first article of the treaty of Ghent, has been duly received, and the
commission instituted, comformably to the act of Congress of the 2d of
March last, for the distribution of the indemnity to the persons
entitled to receive it are now in session and approaching the
consummation of their labors. This final disposal of one of the most
painful topics of collision between the United States and Great Britain
not only affords an occasion of gratulation to ourselves, but has had
the happiest effect in promoting a friendly disposition and in softening
asperities upon other objects of discussion; nor ought it to pass
without the tribute of a frank and cordial acknowledgment of the
magnanimity with which an honorable nation, by the reparation of their
own wrongs, achieves a triumph more glorious than any field of blood can
ever bestow.
The conventions of 3d July, 1815, and of 20th October, 1818, will expire
by their own limitation on the 20th of October, 1828. These have
regulated the direct commercial intercourse between the United States
and Great Britain upon terms of the most perfect reciprocity; and they
effected a temporary compromise of the respective rights and claims to
territory westward of the Rocky Mountains. These arrangements have been
continued for an indefinite period of time after the expiration of the
above-mentioned conventions, leaving each party the liberty of
terminating them by giving twelve months' notice to the other. The
radical principle of all commercial intercourse between independent
nations is the mutual interest of both parties. It is the vital spirit
of trade itself; nor can it be reconciled to the nature of man or to the
primary laws of human society that any traffic should long be willingly
pursued of which all the advantages are on one side and all the burdens
on the other. Treaties of commerce have been found by experience to be
among the most effective instruments for promoting peace and harmony
between nations whose interests, exclusively considered on either side,
are brought into frequent collisions by competition. In framing such
treaties it is the duty of each party not simply to urge with unyielding
pertinacity that which suits its own interest, but to concede liberally
to that which is adapted to the interest of the other. To accomplish
this, little more is generally required than a simple observance of the
rule of reciprocity, and were it possible for the statesmen of one
nation by stratagem and management to obtain from the weakness or
ignorance of another an overreaching treaty, such a compact would prove
an incentive to war rather than a bond of peace. Our conventions with
Great Britain are founded upon the principles of reciprocity. The
commercial intercourse between the two countries is greater in magnitude
and amount than between any two other nations on the globe. It is for
all purposes of benefit or advantage to both as precious, and in all
probability far more extensive, than if the parties were still
constituent parts of one and the same nation. Treaties between such
States, regulating the intercourse of peace between them and adjusting
interests of such transcendent importance to both, which have been found
in a long experience of years mutually advantageous, should not be
lightly canceled or discontinued. Two conventions for continuing in
force those above mentioned have been concluded between the
plenipotentiaries of the two Governments on the 6th of August last, and
will be forthwith laid before the Senate for the exercise of their
constitutional authority concerning them.
In the execution of the treaties of peace of November, 1782, and
September, 1783, between the United States and Great Britain, and which
terminated the war of our independence, a line of boundary was drawn as
the demarcation of territory between the two countries, extending over
near 20 degrees of latitude, and ranging over seas, lakes, and
mountains, then very imperfectly explored and scarcely opened to the
geographical knowledge of the age. In the progress of discovery and
settlement by both parties since that time several questions of boundary
between their respective territories have arisen, which have been found
of exceedingly difficult adjustment. At the close of the last war with
Great Britain four of these questions pressed themselves upon the
consideration of the negotiators of the treaty of Ghent, but without the
means of concluding a definitive arrangement concerning them. They were
referred to three separate commissions consisting of two commissioners,
one appointed by each party, to examine and decide upon their respective
claims. In the event of a disagreement between the commissioners it was
provided that they should make reports to their several Governments, and
that the reports should finally be referred to the decision of a
sovereign the common friend of both. Of these commissions two have
already terminated their sessions and investigations, one by entire and
the other by partial agreement. The commissioners of the fifth article
of the treaty of Ghent have finally disagreed, and made their
conflicting reports to their own Governments. But from these reports a
great difficulty has occurred in making up a question to be decided by
the arbitrator. This purpose has, however, been effected by a fourth
convention, concluded at London by the plenipotentiaries of the two
Governments on the 29th of September last. It will be submitted,
together with the others, to the consideration of the Senate.
While these questions have been pending incidents have occurred of
conflicting pretensions and of dangerous character upon the territory
itself in dispute between the two nations. By a common understanding
between the Governments it was agreed that no exercise of exclusive
jurisdiction by either party while the negotiation was pending should
change the state of the question of right to be definitively settled.
Such collision has, nevertheless, recently taken place by occurrences
the precise character of which has not yet been ascertained. A
communication from the governor of the State of Maine, with accompanying
documents, and a correspondence between the Secretary of State and the
minister of Great Britain on this subject are now communicated. Measures
have been taken to ascertain the state of the facts more correctly by
the employment of a special agent to visit the spot where the alleged
outrages have occurred, the result of whose inquiries, when received,
will be transmitted to Congress.
While so many of the subjects of high interest to the friendly relations
between the two countries have been so far adjusted, it is matter of
regret that their views respecting the commercial intercourse between
the United States and the British colonial possessions have not equally
approximated to a friendly agreement.
At the commencement of the last session of Congress they were informed
of the sudden and unexpected exclusion by the British Government of
access in vessels of the United States to all their colonial ports,
except those immediately bordering upon our own territories. In the
amicable discussions which have succeeded the adoption of this measure,
which, as it affected harshly the interests of the United States, became
a subject of expostulation on our part, the principles upon which its
justification has been placed have been of a diversified character. It
has been at once ascribed to a mere recurrence to the old,
long-established principle of colonial monopoly and at the same time to
a feeling of resentment because the offers of an act of Parliament
opening the colonial ports upon certain conditions had not been grasped
at with sufficient eagerness by an instantaneous conformity to them. At
a subsequent period it has been intimated that the new exclusion was in
resentment because a prior act of Parliament, of 1822, opening certain
colonial ports, under heavy and burdensome restrictions, to vessels of
the United States, had not been reciprocated by an admission of British
vessels from the colonies, and their cargoes, without any restriction or
discrimination whatever. But be the motive for the interdiction what it
may, the British Government have manifested no disposition, either by
negotiation or by corresponding legislative enactments, to recede from
it, and we have been given distinctly to understand that neither of the
bills which were under the consideration of Congress at their last
session would have been deemed sufficient in their concessions to have
been rewarded by any relaxation from the British interdict. It is one of
the inconveniences inseparably connected with the attempt to adjust by
reciprocal legislation interests of this nature that neither party can
know what would be satisfactory to the other, and that after enacting a
statute for the avowed and sincere purpose of conciliation it will
generally be found utterly inadequate to the expectations of the other
party, and will terminate in mutual disappointment.
The session of Congress having terminated without any act upon the
subject, a proclamation was issued on the 17th of March last,
conformably to the provisions of the sixth section of the act of 1st
March, 1823, declaring the fact that the trade and intercourse
authorized by the British act of Parliament of 24th June, 1822, between
the United States and the British enumerated colonial ports had been by
the subsequent acts of Parliament of 5th July, 1825, and the order of
council of 27th July, 1826, prohibited. The effect of this proclamation,
by the terms of the act under which it was issued, has been that each
and every provision of the act concerning navigation of 18th April,
1818, and of the act supplementary thereto of 15th May, 1820, revived
and is in full force. Such, then, is the present condition of the trade
that, useful as it is to both parties, it can, with a single momentary
exception, be carried on directly by the vessels of neither. That
exception itself is found in a proclamation of the governor of the
island of St. Christopher and of the Virgin Islands, inviting for three
months from the 28th of August last the importation of the articles of
the produce of the United States which constitute their export portion
of this trade in the vessels of all nations. That period having already
expired, the state of mutual interdiction has again taken place. The
British Government have not only declined negotiation upon this subject,
but by the principle they have assumed with reference to it have
precluded even the means of negotiation. It becomes not the self-respect
of the United States either to solicit gratuitous favors or to accept as
the grant of a favor that for which an ample equivalent is exacted. It
remains to be determined by the respective Governments whether the trade
shall be opened by acts of reciprocal legislation. It is, in the
meantime, satisfactory to know that apart from the inconveniences
resulting from a disturbance of the usual channels of trade no loss has
been sustained by the commerce, the navigation, or the revenue of the
United States, and none of magnitude is to be apprehended from this
existing state of mutual interdict.
With the other maritime and commercial nations of Europe our intercourse
continues with little variation. Since the cessation by the convention
of 24th June, 1822, of all discriminating duties upon the vessels of the
United States and of France in either country our trade with that nation
has increased and is increasing. A disposition on the part of France has
been manifested to renew that negotiation, and in acceding to the
proposal we have expressed the wish that it might be extended to other
subjects upon which a good understanding between the parties would be
beneficial to the interests of both. The origin of the political
relations between the United States and France is coeval with the first
years of our independence. The memory of it is interwoven with that of
our arduous struggle for national existence. Weakened as it has
occasionally been since that time, it can by us never be forgotten, and
we should hail with exultation the moment which should indicate a
recollection equally friendly in spirit on the part of France. A fresh
effort has recently been made by the minister of the United States
residing at Paris to obtain a consideration of the just claims of
citizens of the United States to the reparation of wrongs long since
committed, many of them frankly acknowledged and all of them entitled
upon every principle of justice to a candid examination. The proposal
last made to the French Government has been to refer the subject which
has formed an obstacle to this consideration to the determination of a
sovereign the common friend of both. To this offer no definitive answer
has yet been received, but the gallant and honorable spirit which has at
all times been the pride and glory of France will not ultimately permit
the demands of innocent sufferers to be extinguished in the mere
consciousness of the power to reject them.
A new treaty of amity, navigation, and commerce has been concluded with
the Kingdom of Sweden, which will be submitted to the Senate for their
advice with regard to its ratification. At a more recent date a minister
plenipotentiary from the Hanseatic Republics of Hamburg, Lubeck, and
Bremen has been received, charged with a special mission for the
negotiation of a treaty of amity and commerce between that ancient and
renowned league and the United States. This negotiation has accordingly
been commenced, and is now in progress, the result of which will, if
successful, be also submitted to the Senate for their consideration.
Since the accession of the Emperor Nicholas to the imperial throne of
all the Russias the friendly dispositions toward the United States so
constantly manifested by his predecessor have continued unabated, and
have been recently testified by the appointment of a minister
plenipotentiary to reside at this place. From the interest taken by this
Sovereign in behalf of the suffering Greeks and from the spirit with
which others of the great European powers are cooperating with him the
friends of freedom and of humanity may indulge the hope that they will
obtain relief from that most unequal of conflicts which they have so
long and so gallantly sustained; that they will enjoy the blessing of
self-government, which by their sufferings in the cause of liberty they
have richly earned, and that their independence will be secured by those
liberal institutions of which their country furnished the earliest
examples in the history of mankind, and which have consecrated to
immortal remembrance the very soil for which they are now again
profusely pouring forth their blood. The sympathies which the people and
Government of the United States have so warmly indulged with their cause
have been acknowledged by their Government in a letter of thanks, which
I have received from their illustrious President, a translation of which
is now communicated to Congress, the representatives of that nation to
whom this tribute of gratitude was intended to be paid, and to whom it
was justly due.
In the American hemisphere the cause of freedom and independence has
continued to prevail, and if signalized by none of those splendid
triumphs which had crowned with glory some of the preceding years it has
only been from the banishment of all external force against which the
struggle had been maintained. The shout of victory has been superseded
by the expulsion of the enemy over whom it could have been achieved. Our
friendly wishes and cordial good will, which have constantly followed
the southern nations of America in all the vicissitudes of their war of
independence, are succeeded by a solicitude equally ardent and cordial
that by the wisdom and purity of their institutions they may secure to
themselves the choicest blessings of social order and the best rewards
of virtuous liberty. Disclaiming alike all right and all intention of
interfering in those concerns which it is the prerogative of their
independence to regulate as to them shall seem fit, we hail with joy
every indication of their prosperity, of their harmony, of their
persevering and inflexible homage to those principles of freedom and of
equal rights which are alone suited to the genius and temper of the
American nations. It has been, therefore, with some concern that we have
observed indications of intestine divisions in some of the Republics of
the south, and appearances of less union with one another than we
believe to be the interest of all. Among the results of this state of
things has been that the treaties concluded at Panama do not appear to
have been ratified by the contracting parties, and that the meeting of
the congress at Tacubaya has been indefinitely postponed. In accepting
the invitations to be represented at this congress, while a
manifestation was intended on the part of the United States of the most
friendly disposition toward the southern Republics by whom it had been
proposed, it was hoped that it would furnish an opportunity for bringing
all the nations of this hemisphere to the common acknowledgment and
adoption of the principles in the regulation of their internal relations
which would have secured a lasting peace and harmony between them and
have promoted the cause of mutual benevolence throughout the globe. But
as obstacles appear to have arisen to the reassembling of the congress,
one of the two ministers commissioned on the part of the United States
has returned to the bosom of his country, while the minister charged
with the ordinary mission to Mexico remains authorized to attend at the
conferences of the congress whenever they may be resumed.
A hope was for a short time entertained that a treaty of peace actually
signed between the Governments of Buenos Ayres and of Brazil would
supersede all further occasion for those collisions between belligerent
pretensions and neutral rights which are so commonly the result of
maritime war, and which have unfortunately disturbed the harmony of the
relations between the United States and the Brazilian Governments. At
their last session Congress were informed that some of the naval
officers of that Empire had advanced and practiced upon principles in
relation to blockades and to neutral navigation which we could not
sanction, and which our commanders found it necessary to resist. It
appears that they have not been sustained by the Government of Brazil
itself. Some of the vessels captured under the assumed authority of
these erroneous principles have been restored, and we trust that our
just expectations will be realized that adequate indemnity will be made
to all the citizens of the United States who have suffered by the
unwarranted captures which the Brazilian tribunals themselves have
pronounced unlawful.
In the diplomatic discussions at Rio de Janeiro of these wrongs
sustained by citizens of the United States and of others which seemed as
if emanating immediately from that Government itself the chargé
d'affaires of the United States, under an impression that his
representations in behalf of the rights and interests of his countrymen
were totally disregarded and useless, deemed it his duty, without
waiting for instructions, to terminate his official functions, to demand
his passports, and return to the United States. This movement, dictated
by an honest zeal for the honor and interests of his country--motives
which operated exclusively on the mind of the officer who resorted to
it--has not been disapproved by me. The Brazilian Government, however,
complained of it as a measure for which no adequate intentional cause
had been given by them, and upon an explicit assurance through their
chargé d'affaires residing here that a successor to the late
representative of the United States near that Government, the
appointment of whom they desired, should be received and treated with
the respect due to his character, and that indemnity should be promptly
made for all injuries inflicted on citizens of the United States or
their property contrary to the laws of nations, a temporary commission
as charge d'affaires to that country has been issued, which it is hoped
will entirety restore the ordinary diplomatic intercourse between the
two Governments and the friendly relations between their respective
nations.
Turning from the momentous concerns of our Union in its intercourse with
foreign nations to those of the deepest interest in the administration
of our internal affairs, we find the revenues of the present year
corresponding as nearly as might be expected with the anticipations of
the last, and presenting an aspect still more favorable in the promise
of the next. The balance in the Treasury on January 1 last was
$6,358,686.18. The receipts from that day to the 30th of September last,
as near as the returns of them yet received can show, amount to
$16,886,581.32. The receipts of the present quarter, estimated at
$4,515,000, added to the above form an aggregate of $21,400,000 of
receipts. The expenditures of the year may perhaps amount to
$22,300,000, presenting a small excess over the receipts. But of these
twenty-two millions, upward of six have been applied to the discharge of
the principal of the public debt, the whole amount of which, approaching
seventy-four millions on the 1st of January last, will on the first day
of the next year fall short of sixty-seven millions and a half. The
balance in the Treasury on the 1st of January next it is expected will
exceed $5,450,000, a sum exceeding that of the 1st of January, 1825,
though falling short of that exhibited on the 1st of January last.
It was foreseen that the revenue of the present year would not equal
that of the last, which had itself been less than that of the next
preceding year. But the hope has been realized which was entertained,
that these deficiencies would in nowise interrupt the steady operation
of the discharge of the public debt by the annual ten millions devoted
to that object by the act of 3d March, 1817.
The amount of duties secured on merchandise imported from the
commencement of the year until the 30th of September last is
$21,226,000, and the probable amount of that which will be secured
during the remainder of the year is $5,774,000, forming a sum total of
$27,000,000. With the allowances for drawbacks and contingent
deficiencies which may occur, though not specifically foreseen, we may
safely estimate the receipts of the ensuing year at $22,300,000--a
revenue for the next equal to the expenditure of the present year.
The deep solicitude felt by our citizens of all classes throughout the
Union for the total discharge of the public debt will apologize for the
earnestness with which I deem it my duty to urge this topic upon the
consideration of Congress--of recommending to them again the observance
of the strictest economy in the application of the public funds. The
depression upon the receipts of the revenue which had commenced with the
year 1826 continued with increased severity during the two first
quarters of the present year. The returning tide began to flow with the
third quarter, and, so far as we can judge from experience, may be
expected to continue through the course of the ensuing year. In the
meantime an alleviation from the burden of the public debt will in the
three years have been effected to the amount of nearly sixteen millions,
and the charge of annual interest will have been reduced upward of one
million. But among the maxims of political economy which the stewards of
the public moneys should never suffer without urgent necessity to be
transcended is that of keeping the expenditures of the year within the
limits of its receipts. The appropriations of the two last years,
including the yearly ten millions of the sinking fund, have each equaled
the promised revenue of the ensuing year. While we foresee with
confidence that the public coffers will be replenished from the receipts
as fast as they will be drained by the expenditures, equal in amount to
those of the current year, it should not be forgotten that they could
ill suffer the exhaustion of larger disbursements.
The condition of the Army and of all the branches of the public service
under the superintendence of the Secretary of War will be seen by the
report from that officer and the documents with which it is accompanied.
During the last summer a detachment of the Army has been usefully and
successfully called to perform their appropriate duties. At the moment
when the commissioners appointed for carrying into execution certain
provisions of the treaty of August 19, 1825, with various tribes of the
Northwestern Indians were about to arrive at the appointed place of
meeting the unprovoked murder of several citizens and other acts of
unequivocal hostility committed by a party of the Winnebago tribe, one
of those associated in the treaty, followed by indications of a menacing
character among other tribes of the same region, rendered necessary an
immediate display of the defensive and protective force of the Union in
that quarter. It was accordingly exhibited by the immediate and
concerted movements of the governors of the State of Illinois and of the
Territory of Michigan, and competent levies of militia, under their
authority, with a corps of 700 men of United States troops, under the
command of General Atkinson, who, at the call of Governor Cass,
immediately repaired to the scene of danger from their station at St.
Louis. Their presence dispelled the alarms of our fellow-citizens on
those borders, and overawed the hostile purposes of the Indians. The
perpetrators of the murders were surrendered to the authority and
operation of our laws, and every appearance of purposed hostility from
those Indian tribes has subsided.
Although the present organization of the Army and the administration of
its various branches of service are, upon the whole, satisfactory, they
are yet susceptible of much improvement in particulars, some of which
have been heretofore submitted to the consideration of Congress, and
others are now first presented in the report of the Secretary of War.
The expediency of providing for additional numbers of officers in the
two corps of engineers will in some degree depend upon the number and
extent of the objects of national importance upon which Congress may
think it proper that surveys should be made conformably to the act of
the 30th of April, 1824. 'Of the surveys which before the last session
of Congress had been made under the authority of that act, reports were
made--
1. Of the Board of Internal Improvement, on the Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal.
2. On the continuation of the national road from Cumberland to the tide
waters within the district of Columbia.