WILLIAM PLUMER and NICHOLAS GILMAN, from New Hampshire.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS and TIMOTHY PICKERING, from Massachusetts.
JAMES HILLHOUSE and URIAH TRACY, from Connecticut.
JAMES FENNER, from Rhode Island.
STEPHEN R. BRADLEY and ISRAEL SMITH, from Vermont.
SAMUEL L. MITCHILL, from New York.
JOHN CONDIT and AARON KITCHEL, from New Jersey.
GEORGE LOGAN and SAMUEL MACLAY, from Pennsylvania.
SAMUEL WHITE, from Delaware.
SAMUEL SMITH, from Maryland.
DAVID STONE, from North Carolina.
THOMAS SUMTER and JOHN GAILLARD, from South Carolina.
ABRAHAM BALDWIN, from Georgia.
DAVID SMITH, from Tennessee.
THOMAS WORTHINGTON, from Ohio.
The VICE PRESIDENT being absent, the Senate proceeded to the election of
a President _pro tem._, as the constitution provides, and the Honorable
SAMUEL SMITH was appointed.
The credentials of the following Senators were read, viz:
Of ABRAHAM BALDWIN, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State
of Georgia, for the term of six years, from the 3d day of March last;
of JAMES A. BAYARD, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the
State of Delaware, for the term of six years, from the 3d day of March
last; of JAMES FENNER, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the
State of Rhode Island, for the term of six years, from the 3d day of
March last; of NICHOLAS GILMAN, appointed a Senator by the Legislature
of the State of New Hampshire, for the term of six years, from the
3d day of March last; of AARON KITCHEL, appointed a Senator by the
Legislature of the State of New Jersey, to serve during the term limited
by the constitution; of TIMOTHY PICKERING, appointed a Senator by the
Legislature of the State of Massachusetts, for the term of six years,
to commence on the 4th day of March last; of DANIEL SMITH, appointed a
Senator by the Legislature of the State of Tennessee, for the term of six
years, from the 3d of March last; and of BUCKNER THRUSTON, appointed a
Senator by the Legislature of the State of Kentucky.
The oath was administered by the President to the following Senators, as
the law prescribes: Mr. BALDWIN, Mr. FENNER, Mr. GILMAN, Mr. KITCHEL, Mr.
PICKERING, and Mr. SMITH of Tennessee; also, to Mr. SUMTER, appointed a
Senator by the Legislature of the State of South Carolina, for the term
of six years, commencing on the 4th day of March last.
_Ordered_, That the Secretary wait on the President of the United States,
and acquaint him that a quorum of the Senate is assembled, and that, in
the absence of the Vice President, they have elected the Honorable SAMUEL
SMITH President of the Senate _pro tempore_.
_Ordered_, That the Secretary make a like communication to the House of
Representatives.
_Ordered_, That Messrs. SUMTER and MITCHILL be a committee, on the part
of the Senate, with such committee as the House of Representatives may
appoint 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 communication that he may be pleased to make to them.
TUESDAY, December 3.
JOSEPH ANDERSON, from the State of Tennessee; BUCKNER THRUSTON, from
the State of Kentucky; and ROBERT WRIGHT, from the State of Maryland,
attended.
A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that a
quorum of the House of Representatives is assembled, and have appointed
NATHANIEL MACON, Esq., one of the Representatives for North Carolina,
their Speaker, and are ready to proceed to business. The House of
Representatives have 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, and ready to receive any communications that he may
be pleased to make to them. The House of Representatives agree to the
resolution of the Senate for the appointment of two Chaplains.
Mr. SUMTER reported, from the committee appointed yesterday to wait on
the President of the United States, that they had performed the service,
and that the President of the United States informed the committee that
he would make his communications to the two Houses at twelve o’clock this
day.
The oath prescribed by law was administered to Mr. THRUSTON.
The following message was received from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES:
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America_:
At a moment when the nations of Europe are in commotion, and
arming against each other, and when those with whom we have
principal intercourse are engaged in the general contest, and
when the countenance of some of them towards our peaceable
country threatens that even that may not be unaffected by
what is passing on the general theatre, a meeting of the
Representatives of the nation in both Houses of Congress has
become more than usually desirable. Coming from every section
of our country they bring with them the sentiments and the
information of the whole, and will be enabled to give a
direction to the public affairs, which the will and the wisdom
of the whole will approve and support.
Since our last meeting the aspect of our foreign relations
has considerably changed. Our coasts have been infested, and
our harbors watched, by private armed vessels, some of them
without commissions, some with illegal commissions, others with
those of legal form, but committing piratical acts beyond the
authority of their commissions. They have captured in the very
entrance of our harbors, as well as on the high seas, not only
the vessels of our friends coming to trade with us, but our
own also. They have carried them off under pretence of legal
adjudication; but, not daring to approach a court of justice,
they have plundered and sunk them by the way, or in obscure
places, where no evidence could arise against them; maltreated
the crews, and abandoned them in boats in the open sea, or
on desert shores, without food or covering. These enormities
appearing to be unreached by any control of their sovereigns,
I found it necessary to equip a force to cruise within our
own seas, to arrest all vessels of these descriptions found
hovering on our coasts, within the limits of the Gulf Stream,
and to bring the offenders in for trial as pirates.
The same system of hovering on our coasts and harbors, under
color of seeking enemies, has been also carried on by public
armed ships, to the great annoyance and oppression of our
commerce. New principles, too, have been interpolated into the
law of nations, founded neither in justice nor the usage or
acknowledgment of nations. According to these, a belligerent
takes to itself a commerce with its own enemy which it denies
to a neutral, on the ground of its aiding that enemy in the
war. But reason revolts at such an inconsistency, and the
neutral, having equal right with the belligerent to decide the
question, the interests of our constituents, and the duty of
maintaining the authority of reason, the only umpire between
just nations, impose on us the obligation of providing an
effectual and determined opposition to a doctrine so injurious
to the rights of peaceable nations. Indeed, the confidence
we ought to have in the justice of others still countenances
the hope that a sounder view of those rights will, of itself,
induce from every belligerent a more correct observance of them.
With Spain, our negotiations for a settlement of differences
have not had a satisfactory issue. Spoliations during a
former war, for which she had formally acknowledged herself
responsible, have been refused to be compensated but on
conditions affecting other claims in nowise connected with
them. Yet the same practices are renewed in the present war,
and are already of great amount. On the Mobile, our commerce
passing through that river continues to be obstructed by
arbitrary duties and vexatious searches. Propositions for
adjusting amicably the boundaries of Louisiana have not been
acceded to. While, however, the right is unsettled, we have
avoided changing the state of things by taking new posts or
strengthening ourselves in the disputed territories, in the
hope that the other power would not, by a contrary conduct,
oblige us to meet their example, and endanger conflicts of
authority the issue of which may not be easily controlled.
But in this hope we have now reason to lessen our confidence.
Inroads have been recently made into the territories of Orleans
and Mississippi, our citizens have been seized and their
property plundered in the very parts of the former which had
been actually delivered up by Spain, and this by the regular
officers and soldiers of that Government. I have, therefore,
found it necessary, at length, to give orders to our troops
on that frontier to be in readiness to protect our citizens,
and to repel by arms any similar aggressions in future. Other
details, necessary for your full information of the state of
things between this country and that, shall be the subject of
another communication. In reviewing these injuries from some of
the belligerent powers, the moderation, the firmness, and the
wisdom, of the Legislature will all be called into action. We
ought still to hope that time and a more correct estimate of
interest, as well as of character, will produce the justice we
are bound to expect. But should any nation deceive itself by
false calculations, and disappoint that expectation, we must
join in the unprofitable contest of trying which party can do
the other the most harm.
Considerable provision has been made, under former authorities
from Congress, of materials for the construction of ships of
war of seventy-four guns. These materials are on hand, subject
to the further will of the Legislature.
An immediate prohibition of the exportation of ammunition is
also submitted to your determination.
Turning from these unpleasant views of violence and wrong, I
congratulate you on the liberation of our fellow-citizens who
were stranded on the coast of Tripoli and made prisoners of
war. In a Government bottomed on the will of all, the life
and liberty of every individual citizen become interesting to
all. In the treaty, therefore, which has concluded our warfare
with that State, an article for the ransom of our citizens has
been agreed to. An operation by land, by a small band of our
countrymen, and others engaged for the occasion, in conjunction
with the troops of the ex-bashaw of that country, gallantly
conducted by our late Consul Eaton, and their successful
enterprise on the city of Derne, contributed, doubtless, to the
impression which produced peace; and the conclusion of this,
prevented opportunities of which the officers and men of our
squadron, destined for Tripoli, would have availed themselves
to emulate the acts of valor exhibited by their brethren in
the attack of the last year. Reflecting with high satisfaction
on the distinguished bravery displayed, whenever occasions
permitted, in the late Mediterranean service, I think it would
be a useful encouragement, as well as a just reward, to make
an opening for some present promotion, by enlarging our peace
establishment of captains and lieutenants.
With Tunis some misunderstandings have arisen, not yet
sufficiently explained, but friendly discussions with their
Ambassador, recently arrived, and a mutual disposition to do
whatever is just and reasonable, cannot fail of dissipating
these. So that we may consider our peace on that coast,
generally, to be on as sound a footing as it has been at any
preceding time. Still, it will not be expedient to withdraw,
immediately, the whole of our force from that sea.
The law providing for a Naval Peace Establishment fixes the
number of frigates which shall be kept in constant service in
time of peace, and prescribes that they shall be manned by not
more than two-thirds of their complement of seamen and ordinary
seamen. Whether a frigate may be trusted to two-thirds only of
her proper complement of men, must depend on the nature of the
service on which she is ordered. That may sometimes for her
safety, as well as to ensure her object, require her fullest
complement. In adverting to this subject, Congress will,
perhaps, consider whether the best limitation on the Executive
discretion in this case, would not be by the number of seamen
which may be employed in the whole service, rather than by the
number of vessels. Occasions oftener arise for the employment
of small than of large vessels, and it would lessen risk as
well as expense, to be authorized to employ them of preference.
The limitation suggested by the number of seamen would admit a
selection of vessels best adapted to the service.
Our Indian neighbors are advancing, many of them, with spirit,
and others beginning to engage in the pursuits of agriculture
and household manufacture. They are becoming sensible that the
earth yields subsistence with less labor and more certainty
than the forest, and find it their interest, from time to
time, to dispose of parts of their surplus and waste lands for
the means of improving those they occupy, and of subsisting
their families while they are preparing their farms. Since
your last session, the northern tribes have sold to us the
lands between the Connecticut Reserve and the former Indian
boundary, and those on the Ohio, from the same boundary to the
Rapids, and for a considerable depth inland. The Chickasaws
and Cherokees have sold us the country between and adjacent to
the two districts of Tennessee, and the Creeks the residue of
their lands in the fork of Ocmulgee, up to the Ulcofauhatche.
The three former purchases are important, inasmuch as they
consolidate disjoined parts of our settled country, and render
their intercourse secure; and the second particularly so, as,
with the small point on the river, which we expect is by this
time ceded by the Piankeshaws, it completes our possession of
the whole of both banks of the Ohio, from its source to near
its mouth, and the navigation of that river is thereby rendered
for ever safe to our citizens settled and settling on its
extensive waters. The purchase from the Creeks too has been for
some time particularly interesting to the State of Georgia.
The several treaties which have been mentioned will be
submitted to both Houses of Congress for the exercise of their
respective functions.
Deputations, now on their way to the seat of Government, from
various nations of Indians inhabiting the Missouri and other
parts beyond the Mississippi, come charged with assurances of
their satisfaction with the new relations in which they are
placed with us, of their dispositions to cultivate our peace
and friendship, and their desire to enter into commercial
intercourse with us. A state of our progress in exploring
the principal rivers of that country, and of the information
respecting them hitherto obtained, will be communicated so soon
as we shall receive some further relations which we have reason
shortly to expect.
The receipts at the Treasury during the year ending on the
30th day of September last, have exceeded the sum of thirteen
millions of dollars, which, with not quite five millions in the
Treasury at the beginning of the year, have enabled us, after
meeting other demands, to pay nearly two millions of the debt
contracted under the British treaty and convention, upwards
of four millions of principal of the public debt, and four
millions of interest. These payments, with those which had been
made in three years and a half preceding, have extinguished of
the funded debt nearly eighteen millions of principal.
Congress, by their act of November 10, 1803, authorized us to
borrow $1,750,000, towards meeting the claims of our citizens,
assumed by the convention with France. We have not, however,
made use of this authority; because, the sum of four millions
and a half, which remained in the Treasury on the same 30th day
of September last, with the receipts which we may calculate on
for the ensuing year, besides paying the annual sum of eight
millions of dollars, appropriated to the funded debt, and
meeting all the current demands which may be expected, will
enable us to pay the whole sum of three millions seven hundred
and fifty thousand dollars, assumed by the French convention,
and still leave us a surplus of nearly a million of dollars at
our free disposal. Should you concur in the provisions of arms
and armed vessels, recommended by the circumstances of the
times, this surplus will furnish the means of doing so.
On the first occasion of addressing Congress, since, by the
choice of my constituents, I have entered on a second term
of administration, I embrace the opportunity to give this
public assurance, that I will exert my best endeavors to
administer faithfully the Executive Department, and will
zealously co-operate with you in every measure which may tend
to secure the liberty, property, and personal safety, of our
fellow-citizens, and to consolidate the republican forms and
principles of our Government.
In the course of your session, you shall receive all the aid
which I can give, for the despatch of public business, and all
the information necessary for your deliberations, of which the
interests of our own country, and the confidence reposed in us
by others, will admit a communication.