NICHOLAS GILMAN and CHARLES CUTTS, from New Hampshire.
CHAUNCEY GOODRICH and SAMUEL W. DANA, from Connecticut.
JONATHAN ROBINSON, from Vermont.
OBADIAH GERMAN, from New York.
MICHAEL LEIB, from Pennsylvania.
OUTERBRIDGE HORSEY, from Delaware.
SAMUEL SMITH, from Maryland.
WILLIAM B. GILES, from Virginia.
JOHN GAILLARD, from South Carolina.
WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD and CHARLES TAIT, from Georgia.
JOHN POPE, from Kentucky.
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, from Ohio.
JOHN GAILLARD, President _pro tempore_, resumed the chair.
The number of Senators present not being sufficient to constitute a
quorum, the Senate adjourned.
TUESDAY, December 4.
JOHN LAMBERT, from the State of New Jersey, ELISHA MATHEWSON, from the
State of Rhode Island, and PHILIP REED, from the State of Maryland,
severally attended.
The credentials of CHARLES CUTTS, appointed a Senator by the
Legislature of the State of New Hampshire, in place of Nahum Parker,
Esq., resigned; also, of SAMUEL W. DANA, appointed a Senator by the
Legislature of the State of Connecticut, in place of James Hillhouse,
Esq., resigned, were severally read; and the oath required by law was,
by the PRESIDENT, administered to them, respectively.
_Ordered_, That the Secretary acquaint the House of Representatives
that a quorum of the Senate is assembled and ready to proceed to
business.
_Ordered_, That Messrs SMITH, of Maryland, and GILMAN, 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 and ready to receive any communications that he may
be pleased to make to them.
A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that
a quorum of the House of Representatives is assembled and ready to
proceed to business. The House of Representatives have appointed
a committee on their part, jointly with such committee as may be
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 and ready to receive any communications that he may be
pleased to make to them.
On motion, by Mr. SMITH, of Maryland,
_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.
Mr. SMITH, of Maryland, reported from the joint committee that they had
waited on the President of the United States, and that the President
informed the committee that he would make a communication to the two
Houses to-morrow at 12 o'clock.
WEDNESDAY, December 5.
TIMOTHY PICKERING, from the State of Massachusetts, and STEPHEN R.
BRADLEY, from the State of Vermont, severally attended.
_President's Annual Message._
The following Message was received from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES:
_Fellow-citizens of the Senate
and House of Representatives_:
The embarrassments which have prevailed in our foreign
relations, and so much employed the deliberations of Congress,
make it a primary duty in meeting you to communicate whatever
may have occurred in that branch of our national affairs.
The act of the last session of Congress concerning the
commercial intercourse between the United States and Great
Britain and France, and their dependencies, having invited, in
a new form, a termination of their edicts against our neutral
commerce; copies of the act were immediately forwarded to our
Ministers at London and Paris, with a view that its object
might be within the early attention of the French and British
Governments.
By the communication received through our Minister at Paris, it
appeared that a knowledge of the act by the French Government
was followed by a declaration that the Berlin and Milan decrees
were revoked, and would cease to have effect on the first day
of November ensuing. These being the only known edicts of
France within the description of the act, and the revocation of
them being such that they ceased at that date to violate our
neutral commerce, the fact, as prescribed by law, was announced
by a proclamation, bearing date the second day of November.
It would have well accorded with the conciliatory views
indicated by this proceeding on the part of France, to have
extended them to all the grounds of just complaint which now
remain unadjusted with the United States. It was particularly
anticipated that, as a further evidence of just dispositions
towards them, restoration would have been immediately made of
the property of our citizens, seized under a misapplication of
the principle of reprisals, combined with a misconstruction of
the law of the United States. This expectation has not been
fulfilled.
From the British Government, no communication on the subject
of the act has been received. To a communication, from our
minister at London, of a revocation, by the French Government,
of its Berlin and Milan decrees, it was answered, that the
British system would be relinquished as soon as the repeal of
the French decrees should have actually taken effect, and the
commerce of neutral nations have been restored to the condition
in which it stood previously to the promulgation of those
decrees. This pledge, although it does not necessarily import,
does not exclude, the intention of relinquishing, along with
the Orders in Council, the practice of those novel blockades,
which have a like effect of interrupting our neutral commerce:
and this further justice to the United States is the rather to
be looked for, inasmuch as the blockades in question, being
not more contrary to the established law of nations than
inconsistent with the rules of blockade formerly recognized by
Great Britain herself, could have no alleged basis other than
the plea of retaliation, alleged as the basis of the Orders
in Council. Under the modification of the original orders of
November, 1807, into the orders of April, 1809, there is,
indeed, scarcely a nominal distinction between the orders and
the blockades. One of those illegitimate blockades, bearing
date in May, 1806, having been expressly avowed to be still
unrescinded, and to be, in effect, comprehended in the Orders
in Council, was too distinctly brought within the purview of
the act of Congress not to be comprehended in the explanation
of the requisites to a compliance with it. The British
Government was accordingly apprised by our Minister near it,
that such was the light in which the subject was to be regarded.
On the other important subjects depending between the United
States and that Government, no progress has been made from
which an early and satisfactory result can be relied on.
In this new posture of our relations with those powers,
the consideration of Congress will be properly turned to a
removal of doubts which may occur in the exposition, and of
difficulties in the execution, of the act above cited.
The commerce of the United States with the north of Europe,
heretofore much vexed by licentious cruisers, particularly
under the Danish flag, has latterly been visited with fresh
and extensive depredations. The measures pursued in behalf
of our injured citizens, not having obtained justice for
them, a further and more formal interposition with the Danish
Government is contemplated. The principles which have been
maintained by that Government in relation to neutral commerce,
and the friendly professions of His Danish Majesty towards the
United States, are valuable pledges in favor of a successful
issue.
Among the events growing out of the state of the Spanish
monarchy, our attention was imperiously attracted to the change
developing itself in that portion of West Florida which, though
of right appertaining to the United States, had remained in
the possession of Spain, awaiting the result of negotiations
for its actual delivery to them. The Spanish authority was
subverted, and a situation produced exposing the country to
ulterior events which might essentially affect the rights and
welfare of the Union. In such a conjuncture I did not delay the
interposition required for the occupancy of the territory west
of the river Perdido, to which the title of the United States
extends, and to which the laws provided for the Territory of
Orleans are applicable. With this view, the proclamation, of
which a copy is laid before you, was confided to the Governor
of that Territory, to be carried into effect. The legality and
necessity of the course pursued, assure me of the favorable
light in which it will present itself to the Legislature,
and of the promptitude with which they will supply whatever
provisions may be due to the essential rights and equitable
interests of the people thus brought into the bosom of the
American family.
Our amity with the Powers of Barbary, with the exception of a
recent occurrence at Tunis, of which an explanation is just
received, appears to have been uninterrupted, and to have
become more firmly established.
Whilst it is universally admitted that a well-instructed people
alone can be permanently a free people, and while it is evident
that the means of diffusing and improving useful knowledge
form so small a proportion of the expenditures for national
purposes, I cannot presume it to be unseasonable to invite
your attention to the advantages of superadding to the means
of education, provided by the several States, a seminary of
learning, instituted by the National Legislature, within the
limits of their exclusive jurisdiction, the expense of which
might be defrayed or reimbursed out of the vacant grounds which
have accrued to the nation within those limits.
Such an institution, though local in its legal character, would
be universal in its beneficial effects. By enlightening the
opinions, by expanding the patriotism, and by assimilating
the principles, the sentiments, and the manners, of those who
might resort to this temple of science, to be redistributed,
in due time, through every part of the community, sources of
jealousy and prejudice would be diminished, the features of
national character would be multiplied, and greater extent
given to social harmony. But, above all, a well-constituted
seminary, in the centre of the nation, is recommended by the
consideration that the additional instruction emanating from it
would contribute not less to strengthen the foundations than to
adorn the structure of our free and happy system of Government.
Among the commercial abuses still committed under the American
flag, and leaving in force my former reference to that subject,
it appears that American citizens are instrumental in carrying
on a traffic in enslaved Africans, equally in violation of
the laws of humanity, and in defiance of those of their own
country. The same just and benevolent motives which produced
the interdiction in force against this criminal conduct, will
doubtless be felt by Congress in devising further means of
suppressing the evil.
In the midst of uncertainties necessarily connected with the
great interests of the United States, prudence requires a
continuance of our defensive and precautionary arrangement.
The Secretary of War and Secretary of the Navy will submit
the statements and estimates which may aid Congress in
their ensuing provisions for the land and naval forces. The
statements of the latter will include a view of the transfers
of appropriations in the naval expenditures, and the grounds on
which they were made.
The corps of engineers, with the Military Academy, are entitled
to the early attention of Congress. The buildings at the seat
fixed by law for the present academy are so far in decay, as
not to afford the necessary accommodation. But a revision
of the law is recommended principally with a view to a more
enlarged cultivation and diffusion of the advantages of such
institutions, by providing professorships for all the necessary
branches of military instruction, and by the establishment of
an additional academy at the Seat of Government or elsewhere.
The means by which war, as well for defence as for offence, is
now carried on, render these schools of the more scientific
operations an indispensable part of every adequate system.
Even among nations whose large standing armies and frequent
wars afford every other opportunity of instruction, these
establishments are found to be indispensable for the due
attainment of the branches of military science which require
a regular course of study and experiment. In a Government
happily without the other opportunities, seminaries, where the
elementary principles of the art of war can be taught without
actual war, and without the expense of extensive and standing
armies, have the precious advantage of uniting an essential
preparation against external danger, with a scrupulous regard
to internal safety. In no other way, probably, can a provision
of equal efficacy for the public defence be made at so little
expense, or more consistently with the public liberty.
Reserving for future occasions, in the course of the session,
whatever other communications may claim your attention, I close
the present, by expressing my reliance, under the blessing of
Divine Providence, on the judgment and patriotism which will
guide your measures, at a period particularly calling for
united councils, and inflexible exertions, for the welfare of
our country, and by assuring you of the fidelity and alacrity
with which my co-operation will be afforded.