NICHOLAS GILMAN and CHARLES CUTTS, from New Hampshire.
JOSEPH B. VARNUM, from Massachusetts.
CHAUNCEY GOODRICH, from Connecticut.
JEREMIAH B. HOWELL, from Rhode Island.
JONATHAN ROBINSON, from Vermont.
JOHN LAMBERT, from New Jersey.
MICHAEL LEIB, from Pennsylvania.
OUTERBRIDGE HORSEY, from Delaware.
SAMUEL SMITH, from Maryland.
JESSE FRANKLIN and JAMES TURNER, from North Carolina.
JOHN GAILLARD, from South Carolina.
WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD and CHARLES TAIT, from Georgia.
GEORGE W. CAMPBELL, from Tennessee.
THOS. WORTHINGTON and ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, from Ohio.
There being no quorum, the Senate adjourned till to-morrow.
TUESDAY, November 3.
ANDREW GREGG, from the State of Pennsylvania, and JOHN TAYLOR, from the
State of South Carolina, severally attended.
WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD, President _pro tempore_, resumed the chair.
_Ordered_, That the Secretary acquaint the House of Representatives
that a quorum of the Senate is assembled and ready to proceed to
business.
A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that
a quorum of the House is assembled and ready to proceed to business.
The House 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 communication that he
may be pleased to make to them.
The Senate concurred in the appointment of a joint committee on their
part, agreeably to the resolution last mentioned; and Messrs. GAILLARD,
and SMITH of Maryland, were appointed the committee.
A committee was appointed agreeably to the 42d rule for conducting
business in the Senate. Messrs. LEIB, FRANKLIN, and GREGG, are the
committee.
_Resolved_, That each Senator be supplied, during the present session,
with three such newspapers printed in any of the States as he may
choose, provided that the same be furnished at the usual rate for the
annual charge of such papers: and provided, also, that if any Senator
shall choose to take any newspapers other than daily papers, he shall
be supplied with as many such papers as shall not exceed the price of
three daily papers.
Mr. GAILLARD reported from the joint committee, that they had waited on
the President of the United States, and that the President had informed
the committee that he would make a communication to the two Houses at
twelve o'clock to-morrow.
WEDNESDAY, November 4.
OBADIAH GERMAN, from the State of New York, took his seat in the Senate.
On motion by Mr. LEIB, a committee of three members were appointed,
who, with three members of the House of Representatives, to be
appointed by the said House, shall have the direction of the money
appropriated to the purchase of books and maps for the use of the two
Houses of Congress; and Messrs. LEIB, TAIT, and CAMPBELL of Tennessee,
were appointed the committee on the part of the Senate.
_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_:
On our present meeting, it is my first duty to invite your
attention to the providential favors which our country has
experienced, in the unusual degree of health dispensed to its
inhabitants, and in the rich abundance with which the earth
has rewarded the labors bestowed on it. In the successful
cultivation of other branches of industry, and in the progress
of general improvement favorable to the national prosperity,
there is just occasion, also, for our mutual congratulations
and thankfulness.
With these blessings are necessarily mingled the pressures and
vicissitudes incident to the state of war into which the United
States have been forced by the perseverance of a foreign power
in its system of injustice and aggression.
Previous to its declaration, it was deemed proper, as a measure
of precaution and forecast, that a considerable force should be
placed in the Michigan Territory, with a general view to its
security, and, in the event of war, to such operations in the
uppermost Canada as would intercept the hostile influence of
Great Britain over the savages, obtain the command of the lake
on which that part of Canada borders, and maintain co-operating
relations with such forces as might be most conveniently
employed against other parts. Brigadier General Hull was
charged with this provisional service; having under his command
a body of troops composed of regulars and volunteers from
the State of Ohio. Having reached his destination after his
knowledge of the war, and possessing discretionary authority to
act offensively, he passed into the neighboring territory of
the enemy, with a prospect of easy and victorious progress. The
expedition, nevertheless, terminated unfortunately, not only in
a retreat to the town and fort of Detroit, but in the surrender
of both, and of the gallant corps commanded by that officer.
The causes of this painful reverse will be investigated by a
military tribunal.
A distinguishing feature in the operations which preceded and
followed this adverse event, is the use made by the enemy
of the merciless savages under their influence. Whilst the
benevolent policy of the United States invariably recommended
peace, and promoted civilization among that wretched portion of
the human race; and was making exertions to dissuade them from
taking either side in the war, the enemy has not scrupled to
call to his aid their ruthless ferocity, armed with the horrors
of those instruments of carnage and torture which are known to
spare neither age nor sex. In this outrage against the laws of
honorable war, and against the feelings sacred to humanity,
the British commanders cannot resort to a plea of retaliation;
for it is committed in the face of our example. They cannot
mitigate it, by calling it a self-defence against men in arms;
for it embraces the most shocking butcheries of defenceless
families. Nor can it be pretended that they are not answerable
for the atrocities perpetrated; since the savages are employed
with a knowledge, and even with menaces, that their fury could
not be controlled. Such is the spectacle which the deputed
authorities of a nation, boasting its religion and morality,
have not been restrained from presenting to an enlightened age.
The misfortune of Detroit was not, however, without a consoling
effect. It was followed by signal proofs that the national
spirit rises according to the pressure on it. The loss of an
important post, and of the brave men surrendered with it,
inspired every where new ardor and determination. In the States
and districts least remote, it was no sooner known, than every
citizen was ready to fly with his arms, at once, to protect
his brethren against the blood-thirsty savages let loose by
the enemy on an extensive frontier, and to convert a partial
calamity into a source of invigorated efforts. This patriotic
zeal, which it was necessary rather to limit than excite, has
embodied an ample force from the States of Kentucky and Ohio,
and from parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia. It is placed,
with the addition of a few regulars, under the command of
Brigadier General Harrison, who possesses the entire confidence
of his fellow-soldiers, among whom are citizens, some of them
volunteers in the ranks, not less distinguished by their
political stations, than by their personal merits. The greater
portion of this force is proceeding on its destination, towards
the Michigan Territory, having succeeded in relieving an
important frontier post, and in several incidental operations
against hostile tribes of savages, rendered indispensable by
the subserviency into which they had been seduced by the enemy;
a seduction the more cruel, as it could not fail to impose a
necessity of precautionary severities against those who yielded
to it.
At a recent date, an attack was made on a post of the enemy
near Niagara, by a detachment of the regular and other forces,
under the command of Major General Van Rensselaer, of the
militia of the State of New York. The attack, it appears,
was ordered, in compliance with the ardor of the troops, who
executed it with distinguished gallantry, and were, for a time,
victorious; but not receiving the expected support, they were
compelled to yield to reinforcements of British regulars and
savages. Our loss has been considerable, and is deeply to be
lamented. That of the enemy, less ascertained, will be the more
felt, as it includes, among the killed, the commanding general,
who was also Governor of the province; and was sustained by
veteran troops, from inexperienced soldiers, who must daily
improve in the duties of the field.
Our expectation of gaining the command of the lakes, by the
invasion of Canada from Detroit, having been disappointed,
measures were instantly taken to provide, on them, a naval
force superior to that of the enemy. From the talents and
activity of the officer charged with this object, every thing
that can be done may be expected. Should the present season
not admit of complete success, the progress made will insure,
for the next, a naval ascendency, where it is essential to our
permanent peace with, and control over, the savages.
Among the incidents to the measures of the war, I am
constrained to advert to the refusal of the Governors of
Massachusetts and Connecticut to furnish the required
detachments of militia towards the defence of the maritime
frontier. The refusal was founded on a novel and unfortunate
exposition of the provisions of the constitution relating to
the militia. The correspondences which will be before you,
contain the requisite information on the subject. It is obvious
that, if the authority of the United States to call into
service and command the militia for the public defence, can
be thus frustrated, even in a state of declared war, and of
course, under apprehensions of invasion preceding war, they
are not one nation for the purpose most of all requiring it;
and that the public safety may have no other resource, than
in those large and permanent military establishments which
are forbidden by the principles of our free Government, and
against the necessity of which the militia were meant to be a
constitutional bulwark.
On the coasts, and on the ocean, the war has been as
successful as circumstances inseparable from its early
stages could promise. Our public ships and private cruisers,
by their activity, and, where there was occasion, by their
intrepidity, have made the enemy sensible of the difference
between a reciprocity of captures, and the long confinement
of them to their side. Our trade, with little exception, has
safely reached our ports; having been much favored in it by
the course pursued by a squadron of our frigates, under the
command of Commodore Rodgers. And in the instance in which
skill and bravery were more particularly tried with those
of the enemy, the American flag had an auspicious triumph.
The frigate Constitution, commanded by Captain Hull, after a
close and short engagement, completely disabled and captured a
British frigate; gaining for that officer, and all on board, a
praise which cannot be too liberally bestowed; not merely for
the victory actually achieved, but for that prompt and cool
exertion of commanding talents, which, giving to courage its
highest character, and to the force applied its full effect,
proved that more could have been done in a contest requiring
more.
Anxious to abridge the evils from which a state of war cannot
be exempt, I lost no time after it was declared, in conveying
to the British Government the terms on which its progress
might be arrested, without awaiting the delays of a formal and
final pacification; and our Chargé d'Affaires at London was,
at the same time, authorized to agree to an armistice founded
upon them. These terms required that the Orders in Council
should be repealed as they affected the United States, without
a revival of blockades violating acknowledged rules; and that
there should be an immediate discharge of American seamen from
British ships, and a stop to impressment from American ships,
with an understanding that an exclusion of the seamen of each
nation from the ships of the other should be stipulated; and
that the armistice should be improved into a definitive and
comprehensive adjustment of depending controversies. Although
a repeal of the Orders susceptible of explanations meeting
the views of this Government had taken place before this
pacific advance was communicated to that of Great Britain, the
advance was declined from an avowed repugnance to a suspension
of the practice of impressments during the armistice, and
without any intimation that the arrangement proposed, with
respect to seamen, would be accepted. Whether the subsequent
communications from this Government, affording an occasion for
reconsidering the subject on the part of Great Britain, will
be viewed in a more favorable light, or received in a more
accommodating spirit, remains to be known. It would be unwise
to relax our measures, in any respect, on a presumption of such
a result.
The documents from the Department of State, which relate to
this subject, will give a view also of the propositions for
an armistice, which have been received here, one of them from
the authorities at Halifax and in Canada, the other from the
British Government itself, through Admiral Warren; and of the
grounds on which neither of them could be accepted.
Our affairs with France retain the posture which they held at
my last communications to you. Notwithstanding the authorized
expectations of an early as well as favorable issue to the
discussions on foot, these have been procrastinated to
the latest date. The only intervening occurrence meriting
attention, is the promulgation of a French decree purporting to
be a definitive repeal of the Berlin and Milan decrees. This
proceeding, although made the ground of the repeal of British
Orders in Council, is rendered, by the time and manner of it,
liable to many objections.
The final communications from our special Minister to Denmark,
afford further proofs of the good effects of his mission, and
of the amicable disposition of the Danish Government. From
Russia, we have the satisfaction to receive assurances of
continued friendship, and that it will not be affected by the
rupture between the United States and Great Britain. Sweden
also professes sentiments favorable to the subsisting harmony.
With the Barbary Powers, excepting that of Algiers, our
affairs remain on the ordinary footing. The Consul General,
residing with that Regency, has suddenly, and without cause,
been banished, together with all the American citizens found
there. Whether this was the transitory effect of capricious
despotism, or the first act of predetermined hostility, is not
ascertained. Precautions were taken by the Consul on the latter
supposition.
The Indian tribes, not under foreign instigations, remain at
peace, and receive the civilizing attentions which have proved
so beneficial to them.
With a view to that vigorous prosecution of the war to which
our national faculties are adequate, the attention of Congress
will be particularly drawn to the insufficiency of existing
provisions for filling up the Military Establishment. Such
is the happy condition of our country, arising from the
facility of subsistence and the high wages for every species
of occupation, that notwithstanding the augmented inducements
provided at the last session, a partial success only has
attended the recruiting service. The deficiency has been
necessarily supplied during the campaign by other than regular
troops, with all the inconveniences and expense incident to
them. The remedy lies in establishing more favorably for the
private soldier, the proportion between his recompense and the
term of his enlistment. And it is a subject which cannot too
soon or too seriously be taken into consideration.
The same insufficiency has been experienced in the provisions
for volunteers made by an act of the last session. The
recompense for the service required in this case is still less
attractive than in the other. And although patriotism alone has
sent into the field some valuable corps of that description,
those alone who can afford the sacrifice can be reasonably
expected to yield to that impulse.
It will merit consideration, also, whether, as auxiliary to
the security of our frontiers, corps may not be advantageously
organized, with a restriction of their services to particular
districts convenient to them. And whether the local and
occasional services of mariners and others in the seaport
towns, under a similar organization, would not be a provident
addition to the means of their defence.
I recommend a provision for an increase of the general officers
of the army, the deficiency of which has been illustrated by
the number and distance of separate commands, which the course
of the war and the advantage of the service have required.
And I cannot press too strongly on the earliest attention of
the Legislature, the importance of the reorganization of the
staff establishment, with a view to render more distinct and
definite the relations and responsibilities of its several
departments. That there is room for improvements which will
materially promote both economy and success, in what appertains
to the army and the war, is equally inculcated by the examples
of other countries, and by the experience of our own.
A revision of the militia laws for the purpose of rendering
them more systematic, and better adapting them to the
emergencies of the war, is, at this time, particularly
desirable.
Of the additional ships authorized to be fitted for service,
two will be shortly ready to sail; a third is under repair,
and delay will be avoided in the repair of the residue. Of the
appropriations for the purchase of materials for ship building,
the greater part has been applied to that object, and the
purchase will be continued with the balance.
The enterprising spirit which has characterized our naval
force, and its success, both in restraining insults and
depredations on our coasts, and in reprisals on the enemy, will
not fail to recommend an enlargement of it.
There being reason to believe that the act prohibiting the
acceptance of British licenses is not a sufficient guard
against the use of them for purposes favorable to the interests
and views of the enemy, further provisions on that subject are
highly important. Nor is it less so, that penal enactments
should be provided for cases of corrupt and perfidious
intercourse with the enemy, not amounting to treason, nor yet
embraced by any statutory provisions.
A considerable number of American vessels which were in England
when the revocation of the Orders in Council took place,
were laden with British manufactures, under an erroneous
impression that the non-importation act would immediately
cease to operate, and have arrived in the United States. It
did not appear proper to exercise, on unforeseen cases of
such magnitude, the ordinary powers vested in the Treasury
Department to mitigate forfeitures, without previously
affording to Congress an opportunity of making on the subject
such provisions as they may think proper. In their decision,
they will doubtless equally consult what is due to equitable
considerations and to the public interest.
The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the
30th of September last, have exceeded sixteen millions and a
half of dollars; which have been sufficient to defray all the
demands on the Treasury to that day, including a necessary
reimbursement of near three millions of the principal of the
public debt. In these receipts is included a sum of near five
millions eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars, received
on account of the loans authorized by the acts of the last
session: the whole sum actually obtained on loan amounts
to eleven millions of dollars, the residue of which, being
receivable subsequent to the 30th of September last, will,
together with the current revenue, enable us to defray all the
expenses of this year.
The duties on the late unexpected importations of British
manufactures will render the revenue of the ensuing year more
productive than could have been anticipated.
The situation of our country, fellow-citizens, is not
without its difficulties; though it abounds in animating
considerations, of which the view here presented of our
pecuniary resources is an example. With more than one nation
we have serious and unsettled controversies; and with one,
powerful in the means and habits of war, we are at war. The
spirit and strength of the nation are nevertheless equal to
the support of all its rights, and to carry it through all its
trials. They can be met in that confidence. Above all, we have
the inestimable consolation of knowing that the war in which
we are actually engaged, is a war neither of ambition nor of
vain glory; that it is waged, not in violation of the rights of
others, but in the maintenance of our own; that it was preceded
by a patience without example, under wrongs accumulating
without end: and that it was finally not declared until every
hope of averting it was extinguished, by the transfer of the
British sceptre into new hands clinging to former councils; and
until declarations were reiterated to the last hour, through
the British Envoy here, that the hostile edicts against our
commercial rights and our maritime independence would not be
revoked; nay, that they could not be revoked without violating
the obligations of Great Britain to other powers, as well as to
her own interests. To have shrunk, under such circumstances,
from manly resistance, would have been a degradation blasting
our best and proudest hopes; it would have struck us from
the high ranks where the virtuous struggles of our fathers
had placed us, and have betrayed the magnificent legacy
which we hold in trust for future generations. It would have
acknowledged, that, on the element which forms three-fourths
of the globe we inhabit, and where all independent nations
have equal and common rights, the American people were not an
independent people, but colonists and vassals. It was at this
moment, and with such an alternative, that war was chosen.
The nation felt the necessity of it, and called for it. The
appeal was accordingly made, in a just cause, to the just and
all-powerful Being who holds in his hand the chain of events,
and the destiny of nations. It remains only, that, faithful
to ourselves, entangled in no connections with the views of
other powers, and ever ready to accept peace from the hand of
justice, we prosecute the war with united counsels and with
the ample faculties of the nation, until peace be so obtained,
and as the only means, under the Divine blessing, of speedily
obtaining it.