GEORGE CLINTON, Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.
NICHOLAS GILMAN and NAHUM PARKER, from New Hampshire.
TIMOTHY PICKERING, from Massachusetts.
JAMES HILLHOUSE and CHAUNCEY GOODRICH, from Connecticut.
BENJAMIN HOWLAND and ELISHA MATHEWSON, from Rhode Island.
STEPHEN R. BRADLEY and JONATHAN ROBINSON, from Vermont.
SAMUEL L. MITCHILL and JOHN SMITH, from New York.
JOHN CONDIT and AARON KITCHEL, from New Jersey.
SAMUEL MACLAY, from Pennsylvania.
SAMUEL WHITE, from Delaware.
WILLIAM B. GILES, from Virginia.
JAMES TURNER, from North Carolina.
THOMAS SUMTER and JOHN GAILLARD, from South Carolina.
WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD, from Georgia.
BUCKNER THRUSTON and JOHN POPE, from Kentucky.
DANIEL SMITH, from Tennessee.
EDWARD TIFFIN, from Ohio.
JAMES LLOYD, jun., appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State
of Massachusetts, to supply the place of John Quincy Adams, resigned,
took his seat in the Senate, and produced his credentials, which were
read, and the oath prescribed by law was administered to him.
_Ordered_, That the Secretary acquaint the House of Representatives
that a quorum of the Senate is assembled and ready to proceed to
business; and that Messrs. BRADLEY and POPE be a committee on the part
of the Senate, together with such committee as may be appointed by the
House of Representatives on their part, to wait on the President of
the United States and notify him that a quorum of the two Houses is
assembled.
A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that
a quorum of the House is assembled and ready to proceed to business;
and that the House had appointed a committee on their part, jointly
with the committee appointed on the part of the Senate, to wait on the
President of the United States and notify him that a quorum of the two
Houses is assembled.
_Resolved_, That JAMES MATHERS, Sergeant-at-Arms and Doorkeeper to
the Senate, be, and he is hereby, authorized to employ one assistant
and two horses, for the purpose of performing such services as are
usually required by the Doorkeeper to the Senate; and that the sum
of twenty-eight dollars be allowed him weekly for that purpose, to
commence with, and remain during the session, and for twenty days after.
On motion, by Mr. BRADLEY,
_Resolved_, That two Chaplains, of different denominations, be
appointed to Congress during the present session, one by each House,
who shall interchange weekly.
Mr. BRADLEY reported, from the joint committee, that they had waited on
the President of the United States, agreeably to order, and that the
President of the United States informed the committee that he would
make a communication to the two Houses at 12 o'clock to-morrow.
TUESDAY, November 8.
SAMUEL SMITH and PHILIP REED, from the State of Maryland, attended.
The following Message was received from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES:
_To the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States_:
It would have been a source, fellow-citizens, of much
gratification, if our last communications from Europe had
enabled me to inform you that the belligerent nations, whose
disregard of neutral rights has been so destructive to our
commerce, had become awakened to the duty and true policy of
revoking their unrighteous edicts. That no means might be
omitted to produce this salutary effect, I lost no time in
availing myself of the act authorizing a suspension, in whole,
or in part, of the several embargo laws. Our Ministers at
London and Paris were instructed to explain to the respective
Governments there, our disposition to exercise the authority in
such manner as would withdraw the pretext on which aggressions
were originally founded, and open the way for a renewal of that
commercial intercourse which it was alleged, on all sides,
had been reluctantly obstructed. As each of those Governments
had pledged its readiness to concur in renouncing a measure
which reached its adversary through the incontestable rights
of neutrals only, and as the measure had been assumed by
each as a retaliation for an asserted acquiescence in the
aggressions of the other, it was reasonably expected that
the occasion would have been seized by both for evincing the
sincerity of their professions, and for restoring to the
commerce of the United States its legitimate freedom. The
instructions of our Ministers, with respect to the different
belligerents, were necessarily modified with a reference to
their different circumstances, and to the condition annexed by
law to the Executive power of suspension requiring a degree of
security to our commerce which would not result from a repeal
of the decrees of France. Instead of a pledge therefore of a
suspension of the embargo as to her, in case of such a repeal,
it was presumed that a sufficient inducement might be found in
other considerations, and particularly in the change produced
by a compliance with our just demands by one belligerent, and
a refusal by the other, in the relations between the other
and the United States. To Great Britain, whose power on the
ocean is so ascendant, it was deemed not inconsistent with
that condition to state, explicitly, on her rescinding her
orders in relation to the United States, their trade would be
opened with her, and remain shut to her enemy, in case of his
failure to rescind his decrees also. From France no answer has
been received, nor any indication that the requisite change
in her decrees is contemplated. The favorable reception of
the proposition to Great Britain was the less to be doubted,
as her Orders of Council had not only been referred for their
vindication to an acquiescence on the part of the United
States no longer to be pretended, but as the arrangement
proposed, whilst it resisted the illegal decrees of France,
involved, moreover, substantially, the precise advantages
professedly aimed at by the British Orders. The arrangement
has, nevertheless, been rejected.
This candid and liberal experiment having thus failed, and
no other event having occurred on which a suspension of the
embargo by the Executive was authorized, it necessarily remains
in the extent originally given to it. We have the satisfaction,
however, to reflect, that in return for the privations imposed
by the measure, and which our fellow-citizens in general
have borne with patriotism, it has had the important effects
of saving our mariners, and our vast mercantile property,
as well as of affording time for prosecuting the defensive
and provisional measures called for by the occasion. It has
demonstrated to foreign nations the moderation and firmness
which govern our councils, and to our citizens the necessity of
uniting in support of the laws and the rights of their country,
and has thus long frustrated those usurpations and spoliations
which, if resisted, involved war, if submitted to, sacrificed a
vital principle of our national independence.
Under a continuance of the belligerent measures, which, in
defiance of laws which consecrate the rights of neutrals,
overspread the ocean with danger, it will rest with the wisdom
of Congress to decide on the course best adapted to such a
state of things; and bringing with them, as they do, from
every part of the Union, the sentiments of our constituents,
my confidence is strengthened that, in forming this decision,
they will, with an unerring regard to the essential rights
and interests of the nation, weigh and compare the painful
alternatives out of which a choice is to be made. Nor should
I do justice to the virtues which, on other occasions, have
marked the character of our fellow-citizens, if I did not
cherish an equal confidence that the alternative chosen,
whatever it may be, will be maintained with all the fortitude
and patriotism which the crisis ought to inspire.
The documents containing the correspondences on the subject
of foreign edicts against our commerce, with the instructions
given to our Ministers at London and Paris, are now laid before
you.
The communications made to Congress at their last session
explained the posture in which the close of the discussions
relating to the attack by a British ship of war on the frigate
Chesapeake, left a subject on which the nation had manifested
so honorable a sensibility. Every view of what had passed
authorized a belief that immediate steps would be taken by the
British Government for redressing a wrong, which, the more it
was investigated, appeared the more clearly to require what
had not been provided for in the special mission. It is found
that no steps have been taken for the purpose. On the contrary,
it will be seen, in the documents laid before you, that the
inadmissible preliminary, which obstructed the adjustment,
is still adhered to; and, moreover, that it is now brought
into connection with the distinct and irrelative case of the
Orders in Council. The instructions which had been given to our
Minister at London, with a view to facilitate, if necessary,
the reparation claimed by the United States, are included in
the documents communicated.
Our relations with the other powers of Europe have undergone
no material changes since our last session. The important
negotiations with Spain, which had been alternately suspended
and resumed, necessarily experience a pause under the
extraordinary and interesting crisis which distinguishes her
internal situation.
With the Barbary Powers we continue in harmony, with the
exception of an unjustifiable proceeding of the Dey of
Algiers towards our Consul to that Regency. Its character and
circumstances are now laid before you, and will enable you to
decide how far it may, either now or hereafter, call for any
measures not within the limits of the Executive authority.
Of the gun boats authorized by the act of December last, it
has been thought necessary to build only one hundred and three
in the present year. These, with those before possessed, are
sufficient for the harbors and waters most exposed, and the
residue will require little time for their construction when it
shall be deemed necessary.
Under the act of the last session for raising an additional
military force, so many officers were immediately appointed as
were necessary for carrying on the business of recruiting; and
in proportion as it advanced, others have been added. We have
reason to believe their success has been satisfactory, although
such returns have not yet been received as enable me to present
you a statement of the number engaged.
The suspension of our foreign commerce, produced by the
injustice of the belligerent powers, and the consequent losses
and sacrifices of our citizens, are subjects of just concern.
The situation into which we have thus been forced has impelled
us to apply a portion of our industry and capital to internal
manufactures and improvements. The extent of this conversion
is daily increasing, and little doubt remains that the
establishments formed and forming will, under the auspices of
cheaper materials and subsistence, the freedom of labor from
taxation with us, and of protecting duties and prohibitions,
become permanent. The commerce with the Indians, too, within
our own boundaries, is likely to receive abundant aliment from
the same internal source, and will secure to them peace and the
progress of civilization, undisturbed by practices hostile to
both.
The accounts of the receipts and expenditures during the year
ending on the thirtieth day of September last, being not yet
made up, a correct statement will hereafter be transmitted from
the Treasury. In the mean time, it is ascertained that the
receipts have amounted to near eighteen millions of dollars,
which, with the eight millions and a half in the Treasury at
the beginning of the year, have enabled us, after meeting the
current demands, and interest incurred, to pay two millions
three hundred thousand dollars of the principal of our funded
debt, and left us in the Treasury, on that day, near fourteen
millions of dollars. Of these, five millions three hundred and
fifty thousand dollars will be necessary to pay what will be
due on the first day of January next, which will complete the
reimbursement of the eight per cent. stock. These payments,
with those made in the six years and a half preceding, will
have extinguished thirty-three millions five hundred and eighty
thousand dollars of the principal of the funded debt, being
the whole which could be paid or purchased within the limits
of the law and our contracts; and the amount of principal
thus discharged will have liberated the revenue from about
two millions of dollars of interest, and added that sum
annually to the disposable surplus. The probable accumulation
of the surpluses of revenue beyond what can be applied to the
payment of the public debt, whenever the freedom and safety
of our commerce shall be restored, merits the consideration
of Congress. Shall it lie unproductive in the public vaults?
Shall the revenue be reduced? Or, shall it not rather be
appropriated to the improvements of roads, canals, rivers,
education, and other great foundations of prosperity and union,
under the powers which Congress may already possess, or such
amendment of the constitution as may be approved by the States?
While uncertain of the course of things, the time may be
advantageously employed in obtaining the powers necessary for a
system of improvement, should that be thought best.
Availing myself of this, the last occasion which will occur, of
addressing the two Houses of the Legislature at their meeting,
I cannot omit the expression of my sincere gratitude for the
repeated proofs of confidence manifested to me by themselves
and their predecessors since my call to the administration,
and the many indulgences experienced at their hands. The
same grateful acknowledgments are due to my fellow-citizens
generally, whose support has been my great encouragement under
all embarrassments. In the transaction of their business I
cannot have escaped error. It is incident to our imperfect
nature. But I may say with truth my errors have been of the
understanding, not of intention, and that the advancement
of their rights and interests has been the constant motive
for every measure. On these considerations I solicit their
indulgence. Looking forward with anxiety to their future
destinies, I trust that, in their steady character, unshaken by
difficulties, in their love of liberty, obedience to law, and
support of the public authorities, I see a sure guarantee of
the permanence of our Republic; and retiring from the charge
of their affairs, I carry with me the consolation of a firm
persuasion that Heaven has in store for our beloved country
long ages to come of prosperity and happiness.