WASHINGTON, _December 3, 1838_.
_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I congratulate you on the favorable circumstances in the condition
of our country under which you reassemble for the performance of your
official duties. Though the anticipations of an abundant harvest have
not everywhere been realized, yet on the whole the labors of the
husbandman are rewarded with a bountiful return; industry prospers in
its various channels of business and enterprise; general health again
prevails through our vast diversity of climate; nothing threatens from
abroad the continuance of external peace; nor has anything at home
impaired the strength of those fraternal and domestic ties which
constitute the only guaranty to the success and permanency of our happy
Union, and which, formed in the hour of peril, have hitherto been
honorably sustained through every vicissitude in our national affairs.
These blessings, which evince the care and beneficence of Providence,
call for our devout and fervent gratitude.
We have not less reason to be grateful for other bounties bestowed by
the same munificent hand, and more exclusively our own.
The present year closes the first half century of our Federal
institutions, and our system, differing from all others in the
acknowledged practical and unlimited operation which it has for so long
a period given to the sovereignty of the people, has now been fully
tested by experience.
The Constitution devised by our forefathers as the framework and bond
of that system, then untried, has become a settled form of government;
not only preserving and protecting the great principles upon which it
was founded, but wonderfully promoting individual happiness and private
interests. Though subject to change and entire revocation whenever
deemed inadequate to all these purposes, yet such is the wisdom of its
construction and so stable has been the public sentiment that it remains
unaltered except in matters of detail comparatively unimportant. It has
proved amply sufficient for the various emergencies incident to our
condition as a nation. A formidable foreign war; agitating collisions
between domestic, and in some respects rival, sovereignties; temptations
to interfere in the intestine commotions of neighboring countries; the
dangerous influences that arise in periods of excessive prosperity, and
the antirepublican tendencies of associated wealth--these, with other
trials not less formidable, have all been encountered, and thus far
successfully resisted.
It was reserved for the American Union to test the advantages of a
government entirely dependent on the continual exercise of the popular
will, and our experience has shown that it is as beneficent in practice
as it is just in theory. Each successive change made in our local
institutions has contributed to extend the right of suffrage, has
increased the direct influence of the mass of the community, given
greater freedom to individual exertion, and restricted more and more the
powers of Government; yet the intelligence, prudence, and patriotism
of the people have kept pace with this augmented responsibility. In
no country has education been so widely diffused. Domestic peace has
nowhere so largely reigned. The close bonds of social intercourse have
in no instance prevailed with such harmony over a space so vast. All
forms of religion have united for the first time to diffuse charity and
piety, because for the first time in the history of nations all have
been totally untrammeled and absolutely free. The deepest recesses of
the wilderness have been penetrated; yet instead of the rudeness in the
social condition consequent upon such adventures elsewhere, numerous
communities have sprung up, already unrivaled in prosperity, general
intelligence, internal tranquillity, and the wisdom of their political
institutions. Internal improvement, the fruit of individual enterprise,
fostered by the protection of the States, has added new links to
the Confederation and fresh rewards to provident industry. Doubtful
questions of domestic policy have been quietly settled by mutual
forbearance, and agriculture, commerce, and manufactures minister to
each other. Taxation and public debt, the burdens which bear so heavily
upon all other countries, have pressed with comparative lightness upon
us. Without one entangling alliance, our friendship is prized by every
nation, and the rights of our citizens are everywhere respected,
because they are known to be guarded by a united, sensitive, and
watchful people.
To this practical operation of our institutions, so evident and
successful, we owe that increased attachment to them which is among the
most cheering exhibitions of popular sentiment and will prove their best
security in time to come against foreign or domestic assault.
This review of the results of our institutions for half a century,
without exciting a spirit of vain exultation, should serve to impress
upon us the great principles from which they have sprung--constant and
direct supervision by the people over every public measure, strict
forbearance on the part of the Government from exercising any doubtful
or disputed powers, and a cautious abstinence from all interference with
concerns which properly belong and are best left to State regulations
and individual enterprise.
Full information of the state of our foreign affairs having been
recently on different occasions submitted to Congress, I deem it
necessary now to bring to your notice only such events as have
subsequently occurred or are of such importance as to require particular
attention.
The most amicable dispositions continue to be exhibited by all the
nations with whom the Government and citizens of the United States have
an habitual intercourse. At the date of my last annual message Mexico
was the only nation which could not be included in so gratifying a
reference to our foreign relations.
I am happy to be now able to inform you that an advance has been made
toward the adjustment of our differences with that Republic and the
restoration of the customary good feeling between the two nations. This
important change has been effected by conciliatory negotiations that
have resulted in the conclusion of a treaty between the two Governments,
which, when ratified, will refer to the arbitrament of a friendly power
all the subjects of controversy between us growing out of injuries
to individuals. There is at present also reason to believe that an
equitable settlement of all disputed points will be attained without
further difficulty or unnecessary delay, and thus authorize the free
resumption of diplomatic intercourse with our sister Republic.
With respect to the northeastern boundary of the United States,
no official correspondence between this Government and that of Great
Britain has passed since that communicated to Congress toward the
close of their last session. The offer to negotiate a convention for
the appointment of a joint commission of survey and exploration I am,
however, assured will be met by Her Majesty's Government in a
conciliatory and friendly spirit, and instructions to enable the British
minister here to conclude such an arrangement will be transmitted to him
without needless delay. It is hoped and expected that these instructions
will be of a liberal character, and that this negotiation, if
successful, will prove to be an important step toward the satisfactory
and final adjustment of the controversy.
I had hoped that the respect for the laws and regard for the peace and
honor of their own country which have ever characterized the citizens of
the United States would have prevented any portion of them from using
any means to promote insurrection in the territory of a power with
which we are at peace, and with which the United States are desirous of
maintaining the most friendly relations. I regret deeply, however, to
be obliged to inform you that this has not been the case. Information
has been given to me, derived from official and other sources, that
many citizens of the United States have associated together to make
hostile incursions from our territory into Canada and to aid and abet
insurrection there, in violation of the obligations and laws of the
United States and in open disregard of their own duties as citizens.
This information has been in part confirmed by a hostile invasion
actually made by citizens of the United States, in conjunction with
Canadians and others, and accompanied by a forcible seizure of the
property of our citizens and an application thereof to the prosecution
of military operations against the authorities and people of Canada.
The results of these criminal assaults upon the peace and order
of a neighboring country have been, as was to be expected, fatally
destructive to the misguided or deluded persons engaged in them and
highly injurious to those in whose behalf they are professed to have
been undertaken. The authorities in Canada, from intelligence received
of such intended movements among our citizens, have felt themselves
obliged to take precautionary measures against them; have actually
embodied the militia and assumed an attitude to repel the invasion to
which they believed the colonies were exposed from the United States.
A state of feeling on both sides of the frontier has thus been produced
which called for prompt and vigorous interference. If an insurrection
existed in Canada, the amicable dispositions of the United States toward
Great Britain, as well as their duty to themselves, would lead them to
maintain a strict neutrality and to restrain their citizens from all
violations of the laws which have been passed for its enforcement. But
this Government recognizes a still higher obligation to repress all
attempts on the part of its citizens to disturb the peace of a country
where order prevails or has been reestablished. Depredations by our
citizens upon nations at peace with the United States, or combinations
for committing them, have at all times been regarded by the American
Government and people with the greatest abhorrence. Military incursions
by our citizens into countries so situated, and the commission of acts
of violence on the members thereof, in order to effect a change in their
government, or under any pretext whatever, have from the commencement of
our Government been held equally criminal on the part of those engaged
in them, and as much deserving of punishment as would be the disturbance
of the public peace by the perpetration of similar acts within our own
territory.
By no country or persons have these invaluable principles of
international law--principles the strict observance of which is so
indispensable to the preservation of social order in the world--been
more earnestly cherished or sacredly respected than by those great and
good men who first declared and finally established the independence
of our own country. They promulgated and maintained them at an early
and critical period in our history; they were subsequently embodied
in legislative enactments of a highly penal character, the faithful
enforcement of which has hitherto been, and will, I trust, always
continue to be, regarded as a duty inseparably associated with the
maintenance of our national honor. That the people of the United States
should feel an interest in the spread of political institutions as
free as they regard their own to be is natural, nor can a sincere
solicitude for the success of all those who are at any time in good
faith struggling for their acquisition be imputed to our citizens as a
crime. With the entire freedom of opinion and an undisguised expression
thereof on their part the Government has neither the right nor, I trust,
the disposition to interfere. But whether the interest or the honor of
the United States requires that they should be made a party to any such
struggle, and by inevitable consequence to the war which is waged in
its support, is a question which by our Constitution is wisely left to
Congress alone to decide. It is by the laws already made criminal in
our citizens to embarrass or anticipate that decision by unauthorized
military operations on their part. Offenses of this character, in
addition to their criminality as violations of the laws of our country,
have a direct tendency to draw down upon our own citizens at large the
multiplied evils of a foreign war and expose to injurious imputations
the good faith and honor of the country. As such they deserve to be
put down with promptitude and decision. I can not be mistaken, I am
confident, in counting on the cordial and general concurrence of our
fellow-citizens in this sentiment. A copy of the proclamation which
I have felt it my duty to issue is herewith communicated. I can not but
hope that the good sense and patriotism, the regard for the honor and
reputation of their country, the respect for the laws which they have
themselves enacted for their own government, and the love of order
for which the mass of our people have been so long and so justly
distinguished will deter the comparatively few who are engaged in
them from a further prosecution of such desperate enterprises. In the
meantime the existing laws have been and will continue to be faithfully
executed, and every effort will be made to carry them out in their full
extent. Whether they are sufficient or not to meet the actual state of
things on the Canadian frontier it is for Congress to decide.
It will appear from the correspondence herewith submitted that the
Government of Russia declines a renewal of the fourth article of the
convention of April, 1824, between the United States and His Imperial
Majesty, by the third article of which it is agreed that "hereafter
there shall not be formed by the citizens of the United States or under
the authority of the said States any establishment upon the northwest
coast of America, nor in any of the islands adjacent, to the north of
54° 40' of north latitude, and that in the same manner there shall be
none formed by Russian subjects or under the authority of Russia south
of the same parallel;" and by the fourth article, "that during a term of
ten years, counting from the signature of the present convention, the
ships of both powers, or which belong to their citizens or subjects,
respectively, may reciprocally frequent, without any hindrance whatever,
the interior seas, gulfs, harbors, and creeks upon the coast mentioned
in the preceding article, for the purpose of fishing and trading with
the natives of the country." The reasons assigned for declining to renew
the provisions of this article are, briefly, that the only use made by
our citizens of the privileges it secures to them has been to supply
the Indians with spirituous liquors, ammunition, and firearms; that
this traffic has been excluded from the Russian trade; and as the
supplies furnished from the United States are injurious to the Russian
establishments on the northwest coast and calculated to produce
complaints between the two Governments, His Imperial Majesty thinks
it for the interest of both countries not to accede to the proposition
made by the American Government for the renewal of the article last
referred to.
The correspondence herewith communicated will show the grounds
upon which we contend that the citizens of the United States have,
independent of the provisions of the convention of 1824, a right to
trade with the natives upon the coast in question at unoccupied places,
liable, however, it is admitted, to be at any time extinguished by the
creation of Russian establishments at such points. This right is denied
by the Russian Government, which asserts that by the operation of the
treaty of 1824 each party agreed to waive the general right to land on
the vacant coasts on the respective sides of the degree of latitude
referred to, and accepted in lieu thereof the mutual privileges
mentioned in the fourth article. The capital and tonnage employed by
our citizens in their trade with the northwest coast of America will,
perhaps, on adverting to the official statements of the commerce and
navigation of the United States for the last few years, be deemed too
inconsiderable in amount to attract much attention; yet the subject
may in other respects deserve the careful consideration of Congress.
I regret to state that the blockade of the principal ports on the
eastern coast of Mexico, which, in consequence of differences between
that Republic and France, was instituted in May last, unfortunately
still continues, enforced by a competent French naval armament, and is
necessarily embarrassing to our own trade in the Gulf, in common with
that of other nations. Every disposition, however, is believed to exist
on the part of the French Government to render this measure as little
onerous as practicable to the interests of the citizens of the United
States and to those of neutral commerce, and it is to be hoped that an
early settlement of the difficulties between France and Mexico will soon
reestablish the harmonious relations formerly subsisting between them
and again open the ports of that Republic to the vessels of all friendly
nations.
A convention for marking that part of the boundary between the United
States and the Republic of Texas which extends from the mouth of the
Sabine to the Red River was concluded and signed at this city on the
25th of April last. It has since been ratified by both Governments, and
seasonable measures will be taken to carry it into effect on the part of
the United States.
The application of that Republic for admission into this Union, made in
August, 1837, and which was declined for reasons already made known to
you, has been formally withdrawn, as will appear from the accompanying
copy of the note of the minister plenipotentiary of Texas, which was
presented to the Secretary of State on the occasion of the exchange of
the ratifications of the convention above mentioned.
Copies of the convention with Texas, of a commercial treaty concluded
with the King of Greece, and of a similar treaty with the Peru-Bolivian
Confederation, the ratifications of which have been recently exchanged,
accompany this message, for the information of Congress and for such
legislative enactments as may be found necessary or expedient in
relation to either of them.
To watch over and foster the interests of a gradually increasing and
widely extended commerce, to guard the rights of American citizens whom
business or pleasure or other motives may tempt into distant climes,
and at the same time to cultivate those sentiments of mutual respect and
good will which experience has proved so beneficial in international
intercourse, the Government of the United States has deemed it expedient
from time to time to establish diplomatic connections with different
foreign states, by the appointment of representatives to reside within
their respective territories. I am gratified to be enabled to announce
to you that since the close of your last session these relations have
been opened under the happiest auspices with Austria and the Two
Sicilies, that new nominations have been made in the respective missions
of Russia, Brazil, Belgium, and Sweden and Norway in this country, and
that a minister extraordinary has been received, accredited to this
Government, from the Argentine Confederation.
An exposition of the fiscal affairs of the Government and of their
condition for the past year will be made to you by the Secretary of
the Treasury.
The available balance in the Treasury on the 1st of January next is
estimated at $2,765,342. The receipts of the year from customs and lands
will probably amount to $20,615,598. These usual sources of revenue
have been increased by an issue of Treasury notes, of which less than
$8,000,000, including interest and principal, will be outstanding at the
end of the year, and by the sale of one of the bonds of the Bank of the
United States for $2,254,871. The aggregate of means from these and
other sources, with the balance on hand on the 1st of January last, has
been applied to the payment of appropriations by Congress. The whole
expenditure for the year on their account, including the redemption of
more than eight millions of Treasury notes, constitutes an aggregate
of about $40,000,000, and will still leave in the Treasury the balance
before stated.
Nearly $8,000,000 of Treasury notes are to be paid during the coming
year in addition to the ordinary appropriations for the support of
Government. For both these purposes the resources of the Treasury will
undoubtedly be sufficient if the charges upon it are not increased
beyond the annual estimates. No excess, however, is likely to exist. Nor
can the postponed installment of the surplus revenue be deposited with
the States nor any considerable appropriations beyond the estimates be
made without causing a deficiency in the Treasury. The great caution,
advisable at all times, of limiting appropriations to the wants of the
public service is rendered necessary at present by the prospective and
rapid reduction of the tariff, while the vigilant jealousy evidently
excited among the people by the occurrences of the last few years
assures us that they expect from their representatives, and will sustain
them in the exercise of, the most rigid economy. Much can be effected
by postponing appropriations not immediately required for the ordinary
public service or for any pressing emergency, and much by reducing the
expenditures where the entire and immediate accomplishment of the
objects in view is not indispensable.
When we call to mind the recent and extreme embarrassments produced by
excessive issues of bank paper, aggravated by the unforeseen withdrawal
of much foreign capital and the inevitable derangement arising from the
distribution of the surplus revenue among the States as required by
Congress, and consider the heavy expenses incurred by the removal of
Indian tribes, by the military operations in Florida, and on account of
the unusually large appropriations made at the last two annual sessions
of Congress for other objects, we have striking evidence in the present
efficient state of our finances of the abundant resources of the country
to fulfill all its obligations. Nor is it less gratifying to find that
the general business of the community, deeply affected as it has been,
is reviving with additional vigor, chastened by the lessons of the
past and animated by the hopes of the future. By the curtailment
of paper issues, by curbing the sanguine and adventurous spirit of
speculation, and by the honorable application of all available means to
the fulfillment of obligations, confidence has been restored both at
home and abroad, and ease and facility secured to all the operations
of trade.
The agency of the Government in producing these results has been as
efficient as its powers and means permitted. By withholding from the
States the deposit of the fourth installment, and leaving several
millions at long credits with the banks, principally in one section of
the country, and more immediately beneficial to it, and at the same
time aiding the banks and commercial communities in other sections by
postponing the payment of bonds for duties to the amount of between four
and five millions of dollars; by an issue of Treasury notes as a means
to enable the Government to meet the consequences of their indulgences,
but affording at the same time facilities for remittance and exchange;
and by steadily declining to employ as general depositories of the
public revenues, or receive the notes of, all banks which refused to
redeem them with specie--by these measures, aided by the favorable
action of some of the banks and by the support and cooperation of a
large portion of the community, we have witnessed an early resumption
of specie payments in our great commercial capital, promptly followed
in almost every part of the United States. This result has been
alike salutary to the true interests of agriculture, commerce, and
manufactures; to public morals, respect for the laws, and that
confidence between man and man which is so essential in all our
social relations.
The contrast between the suspension of 1814 and that of 1837 is most
striking. The short duration of the latter, the prompt restoration
of business, the evident benefits resulting from an adherence by
the Government to the constitutional standard of value instead of
sanctioning the suspension by the receipt of irredeemable paper, and the
advantages derived from the large amount of specie introduced into the
country previous to 1837 afford a valuable illustration of the true
policy of the Government in such a crisis. Nor can the comparison fail
to remove the impression that a national bank is necessary in such
emergencies. Not only were specie payments resumed without its aid, but
exchanges have also been more rapidly restored than when it existed,
thereby showing that private capital, enterprise, and prudence are fully
adequate to these ends. On all these points experience seems to have
confirmed the views heretofore submitted to Congress. We have been
saved the mortification of seeing the distresses of the community for
the third time seized on to fasten upon the country so dangerous an
institution, and we may also hope that the business of individuals
will hereafter be relieved from the injurious effects of a continued
agitation of that disturbing subject. The limited influence of a
national bank in averting derangement in the exchanges of the country
or in compelling the resumption of specie payments is now not less
apparent than its tendency to increase inordinate speculation by sudden
expansions and contractions; its disposition to create panic and
embarrassment for the promotion of its own designs; its interference
with politics, and its far greater power for evil than for good, either
in regard to the local institutions or the operations of Government
itself. What was in these respects but apprehension or opinion when a
national bank was first established now stands confirmed by humiliating
experience. The scenes through which we have passed conclusively prove
how little our commerce, agriculture, manufactures, or finances require
such an institution, and what dangers are attendant on its power--a
power, I trust, never to be conferred by the American people upon their
Government, and still less upon individuals not responsible to them for
its unavoidable abuses.
My conviction of the necessity of further legislative provisions for
the safe-keeping and disbursement of the public moneys and my opinion
in regard to the measures best adapted to the accomplishment of those
objects have been already submitted to you. These have been strengthened
by recent events, and in the full conviction that time and experience
must still further demonstrate their propriety I feel it my duty, with
respectful deference to the conflicting views of others, again to invite
your attention to them.
With the exception of limited sums deposited in the few banks still
employed under the act of 1836, the amounts received for duties, and,
with very inconsiderable exceptions, those accruing from lands also,
have since the general suspension of specie payments by the deposit
banks been kept and disbursed by the Treasurer under his general legal
powers, subject to the superintendence of the Secretary of the Treasury.
The propriety of defining more specifically and of regulating by law the
exercise of this wide scope of Executive discretion has been already
submitted to Congress.
A change in the office of collector at one of our principal ports has
brought to light a defalcation of the gravest character, the particulars
of which will be laid before you in a special report from the Secretary
of the Treasury. By his report and the accompanying documents it will
be seen that the weekly returns of the defaulting officer apparently
exhibited throughout a faithful administration of the affairs intrusted
to his management. It, however, now appears that he commenced
abstracting the public moneys shortly after his appointment and
continued to do so, progressively increasing the amount, for the term
of more than seven years, embracing a portion of the period during which
the public moneys were deposited in the Bank of the United States, the
whole of that of the State bank deposit system, and concluding only on
his retirement from office, after that system had substantially failed
in consequence of the suspension of specie payments.
The way in which this defalcation was so long concealed and the steps
taken to indemnify the United States, as far as practicable, against
loss will also be presented to you. The case is one which imperatively
claims the attention of Congress and furnishes the strongest motive
for the establishment of a more severe and secure system for the
safe-keeping and disbursement of the public moneys than any that has
heretofore existed.
It seems proper, at all events, that by an early enactment similar to
that of other countries the application of public money by an officer
of Government to private uses should be made a felony and visited with
severe and ignominious punishment. This is already in effect the law
in respect to the Mint, and has been productive of the most salutary
results. Whatever system is adopted, such an enactment would be wise as
an independent measure, since much of the public moneys must in their
collection and ultimate disbursement pass twice through the hands of
public officers, in whatever manner they are intermediately kept.
The Government, it must be admitted, has been from its commencement
comparatively fortunate in this respect. But the appointing power can
not always be well advised in its selections, and the experience of
every country has shown that public officers are not at all times proof
against temptation. It is a duty, therefore, which the Government
owes, as well to the interests committed to its care as to the officers
themselves, to provide every guard against transgressions of this
character that is consistent with reason and humanity. Congress can not
be too jealous of the conduct of those who are intrusted with the public
money, and I shall at all times be disposed to encourage a watchful
discharge of this duty.
If a more direct cooperation on the part of Congress in the
supervision of the conduct of the officers intrusted with the custody
and application of the public money is deemed desirable, it will
give me pleasure to assist in the establishment of any judicious and
constitutional plan by which that object may be accomplished. You will
in your wisdom determine upon the propriety of adopting such a plan and
upon the measures necessary to its effectual execution. When the late
Bank of the United States was incorporated and made the depository of
the public moneys, a right was reserved to Congress to inspect at its
pleasure, by a committee of that body, the books and the proceedings of
the bank. In one of the States, whose banking institutions are supposed
to rank amongst the first in point of stability, they are subjected to
constant examination by commissioners appointed for that purpose, and
much of the success of its banking system is attributed to this watchful
supervision.
The same course has also, in view of its beneficial operation, been
adopted by an adjoining State, favorably known for the care it has
always bestowed upon whatever relates to its financial concerns.
I submit to your consideration whether a committee of Congress might
not be profitably employed in inspecting, at such intervals as might
be deemed proper, the affairs and accounts of officers intrusted with
the custody of the public moneys. The frequent performance of this duty
might be made obligatory on the committee in respect to those officers
who have large sums in their possession, and left discretionary in
respect to others. They might report to the Executive such defalcations
as were found to exist, with a view to a prompt removal from office
unless the default was satisfactorily accounted for, and report also
to Congress, at the commencement of each session, the result of
their examinations and proceedings. It does appear to me that with a
subjection of this class of public officers to the general supervision
of the Executive, to examinations by a committee of Congress at periods
of which they should have no previous notice, and to prosecution and
punishment as for felony for every breach of trust, the safe-keeping
of the public moneys might under the system proposed be placed on a
surer foundation than it has ever occupied since the establishment
of the Government.
The Secretary of the Treasury will lay before you additional information
containing new details on this interesting subject. To these I ask your
early attention. That it should have given rise to great diversity of
opinion can not be a subject of surprise. After the collection and
custody of the public moneys had been for so many years connected with
and made subsidiary to the advancement of private interests, a return
to the simple self-denying ordinances of the Constitution could not but
be difficult. But time and free discussion, eliciting the sentiments
of the people, and aided by that conciliatory spirit which has ever
characterized their course on great emergencies, were relied upon for a
satisfactory settlement of the question. Already has this anticipation,
on one important point at least--the impropriety of diverting public
money to private purposes--been fully realized. There is no reason to
suppose that legislation upon that branch of the subject would now be
embarrassed by a difference of opinion, or fail to receive the cordial
support of a large majority of our constituents.
The connection which formerly existed between the Government and banks
was in reality injurious to both, as well as to the general interests
of the community at large. It aggravated the disasters of trade and
the derangements of commercial intercourse, and administered new
excitements and additional means to wild and reckless speculations, the
disappointment of which threw the country into convulsions of panic, and
all but produced violence and bloodshed. The imprudent expansion of bank
credits, which was the natural result of the command of the revenues
of the State, furnished the resources for unbounded license in every
species of adventure, seduced industry from its regular and salutary
occupations by the hope of abundance without labor, and deranged the
social state by tempting all trades and professions into the vortex
of speculation on remote contingencies.
The same wide-spreading influence impeded also the resources of the
Government, curtailed its useful operations, embarrassed the fulfillment
of its obligations, and seriously interfered with the execution of
the laws. Large appropriations and oppressive taxes are the natural
consequences of such a connection, since they increase the profits
of those who are allowed to use the public funds, and make it their
interest that money should be accumulated and expenditures multiplied.
It is thus that a concentrated money power is tempted to become an
active agent in political affairs; and all past experience has shown
on which side that influence will be arrayed. We deceive ourselves if
we suppose that it will ever be found asserting and supporting the
rights of the community at large in opposition to the claims of the few.
In a government whose distinguishing characteristic should be a
diffusion and equalization of its benefits and burdens the advantage of
individuals will be augmented at the expense of the community at large.
Nor is it the nature of combinations for the acquisition of legislative
influence to confine their interference to the single object for which
they were originally formed. The temptation to extend it to other
matters is, on the contrary, not unfrequently too strong to be resisted.
The rightful influence in the direction of public affairs of the mass
of the people is therefore in no slight danger of being sensibly and
injuriously affected by giving to a comparatively small but very
efficient class a direct and exclusive personal interest in so important
a portion of the legislation of Congress as that which relates to the
custody of the public moneys. If laws acting upon private interests can
not always be avoided, they should be confined within the narrowest
limits, and left wherever possible to the legislatures of the States.
When not thus restricted they lead to combinations of powerful
associations, foster an influence necessarily selfish, and turn the
fair course of legislation to sinister ends rather than to objects
that advance public liberty and promote the general good.
The whole subject now rests with you, and I can not but express a hope
that some definite measure will be adopted at the present session.
It will not, I am sure, be deemed out of place for me here to remark
that the declaration of my views in opposition to the policy of
employing banks as depositories of the Government funds can not justly
be construed as indicative of hostility, official or personal, to those
institutions; or to repeat in this form and in connection with this
subject opinions which I have uniformly entertained and on all proper
occasions expressed. Though always opposed to their creation in the
form of exclusive privileges, and, as a State magistrate, aiming by
appropriate legislation to secure the community against the consequences
of their occasional mismanagement, I have yet ever wished to see them
protected in the exercise of rights conferred by law, and have never
doubted their utility when properly managed in promoting the interests
of trade, and through that channel the other interests of the community.
To the General Government they present themselves merely as State
institutions, having no necessary connection with its legislation or its
administration. Like other State establishments, they may be used or not
in conducting the affairs of the Government, as public policy and the
general interests of the Union may seem to require. The only safe or
proper principle upon which their intercourse with the Government can
be regulated is that which regulates their intercourse with the private
citizen--the conferring of mutual benefits. When the Government can
accomplish a financial operation better with the aid of the banks than
without it, it should be at liberty to seek that aid as it would the
services of a private banker or other capitalist or agent, giving the
preference to those who will serve it on the best terms. Nor can there
ever exist an interest in the officers of the General Government, as
such, inducing them to embarrass or annoy the State banks any more than
to incur the hostility of any other class of State institutions or of
private citizens. It is not in the nature of things that hostility to
these institutions can spring from this source, or any opposition to
their course of business, except when they themselves depart from the
objects of their creation and attempt to usurp powers not conferred
upon them or to subvert the standard of value established by the
Constitution. While opposition to their regular operations can not
exist in this quarter, resistance to any attempt to make the Government
dependent upon them for the successful administration of public affairs
is a matter of duty, as I trust it ever will be of inclination, no
matter from what motive or consideration the attempt may originate.
It is no more than just to the banks to say that in the late
emergency most of them firmly resisted the strongest temptations to
extend their paper issues when apparently sustained in a suspension of
specie payments by public opinion, even though in some cases invited
by legislative enactments. To this honorable course, aided by the
resistance of the General Government, acting in obedience to the
Constitution and laws of the United States, to the introduction of
an irredeemable paper medium, may be attributed in a great degree the
speedy restoration of our currency to a sound state and the business
of the country to its wonted prosperity.
The banks have but to continue in the same safe course and be content
in their appropriate sphere to avoid all interference from the General
Government and to derive from it all the protection and benefits which
it bestows on other State establishments, on the people of the States,
and on the States themselves. In this, their true position, they can
not but secure the confidence and good will of the people and the
Government, which they can only lose when, leaping from their legitimate
sphere, they attempt to control the legislation of the country and
pervert the operations of the Government to their own purposes.
Our experience under the act, passed at the last session, to grant
preemption rights to settlers on the public lands has as yet been too
limited to enable us to pronounce with safety upon the efficacy of its
provisions to carry out the wise and liberal policy of the Government in
that respect. There is, however, the best reason to anticipate favorable
results from its operation. The recommendations formerly submitted to
you in respect to a graduation of the price of the public lands remain
to be finally acted upon. Having found no reason to change the views
then expressed, your attention to them is again respectfully requested.
Every proper exertion has been made and will be continued to carry out
the wishes of Congress in relation to the tobacco trade, as indicated
in the several resolutions of the House of Representatives and the
legislation of the two branches. A favorable impression has, I trust,
been made in the different foreign countries to which particular
attention has been directed; and although we can not hope for an early
change in their policy, as in many of them a convenient and large
revenue is derived from monopolies in the fabrication and sale of this
article, yet, as these monopolies are really injurious to the people
where they are established, and the revenue derived from them may be
less injuriously and with equal facility obtained from another and a
liberal system of administration, we can not doubt that our efforts
will be eventually crowned with success if persisted in with temperate
firmness and sustained by prudent legislation.
In recommending to Congress the adoption of the necessary provisions
at this session for taking the next census or enumeration of the
inhabitants of the United States, the suggestion presents itself whether
the scope of the measure might not be usefully extended by causing it to
embrace authentic statistical returns of the great interests specially
intrusted to or necessarily affected by the legislation of Congress.
The accompanying report of the Secretary of War presents a satisfactory
account of the state of the Army and of the several branches of the
public service confided to the superintendence of that officer.
The law increasing and organizing the military establishment of the
United States has been nearly carried into effect, and the Army has
been extensively and usefully employed during the past season.
I would again call to your notice the subjects connected with
and essential to the military defenses of the country which were
submitted to you at the last session, but which were not acted upon,
as is supposed, for want of time. The most important of them is the
organization of the militia on the maritime and inland frontiers. This
measure is deemed important, as it is believed that it will furnish an
effective volunteer force in aid of the Regular Army, and may form the
basis of a general system of organization for the entire militia of
the United States. The erection of a national foundry and gunpowder
manufactory, and one for making small arms, the latter to be situated
at some point west of the Allegany Mountains, all appear to be of
sufficient importance to be again urged upon your attention.
The plan proposed by the Secretary of War for the distribution of the
forces of the United States in time of peace is well calculated to
promote regularity and economy in the fiscal administration of the
service, to preserve the discipline of the troops, and to render them
available for the maintenance of the peace and tranquillity of the
country. With this view, likewise, I recommend the adoption of the plan
presented by that officer for the defense of the western frontier. The
preservation of the lives and property of our fellow-citizens who are
settled upon that border country, as well as the existence of the Indian
population, which might be tempted by our want of preparation to rush
on their own destruction and attack the white settlements, all seem to
require that this subject should be acted upon without delay, and the
War Department authorized to place that country in a state of complete
defense against any assault from the numerous and warlike tribes which
are congregated on that border.
It affords me sincere pleasure to be able to apprise you of the entire
removal of the Cherokee Nation of Indians to their new homes west of the
Mississippi. The measures authorized by Congress at its last session,
with a view to the long-standing controversy with them, have had the
happiest effects. By an agreement concluded with them by the commanding
general in that country, who has performed the duties assigned to him
on the occasion with commendable energy and humanity, their removal has
been principally under the conduct of their own chiefs, and they have
emigrated without any apparent reluctance.
The successful accomplishment of this important object, the removal
also of the entire Creek Nation with the exception of a small number
of fugitives amongst the Seminoles in Florida, the progress already
made toward a speedy completion of the removal of the Chickasaws, the
Choctaws, the Pottawatamies, the Ottawas, and the Chippewas, with the
extensive purchases of Indian lands during the present year, have
rendered the speedy and successful result of the long-established policy
of the Government upon the subject of Indian affairs entirely certain.
The occasion is therefore deemed a proper one to place this policy in
such a point of view as will exonerate the Government of the United
States from the undeserved reproach which has been cast upon it through
several successive Administrations. That a mixed occupancy of the same
territory by the white and red man is incompatible with the safety
or happiness of either is a position in respect to which there has
long since ceased to be room for a difference of opinion. Reason and
experience have alike demonstrated its impracticability. The bitter
fruits of every attempt heretofore to overcome the barriers interposed
by nature have only been destruction, both physical and moral, to the
Indian, dangerous conflicts of authority between the Federal and State
Governments, and detriment to the individual prosperity of the citizen
as well as to the general improvement of the country. The remedial
policy, the principles of which were settled more than thirty years ago
under the Administration of Mr. Jefferson, consists in an extinction,
for a fair consideration, of the title to all the lands still occupied
by the Indians within the States and Territories of the United States;
their removal to a country west of the Mississippi much more extensive
and better adapted to their condition than that on which they then
resided; the guarantee to them by the United States of their exclusive
possession of that country forever, exempt from all intrusions by white
men, with ample provisions for their security against external violence
and internal dissensions, and the extension to them of suitable
facilities for their advancement in civilization. This has not been the
policy of particular Administrations only, but of each in succession
since the first attempt to carry it out under that of Mr. Monroe. All
have labored for its accomplishment, only with different degrees of
success. The manner of its execution has, it is true, from time to
time given rise to conflicts of opinion and unjust imputations; but in
respect to the wisdom and necessity of the policy itself there has not
from the beginning existed a doubt in the mind of any calm, judicious,
disinterested friend of the Indian race accustomed to reflection and
enlightened by experience.
Occupying the double character of contractor on its own account and
guardian for the parties contracted with, it was hardly to be expected
that the dealings of the Federal Government with the Indian tribes would
escape misrepresentation. That there occurred in the early settlement of
this country, as in all others where the civilized race has succeeded to
the possessions of the savage, instances of oppression and fraud on the
part of the former there is too much reason to believe. No such offenses
can, however, be justly charged upon this Government since it became
free to pursue its own course. Its dealings with the Indian tribes
have been just and friendly throughout; its efforts for their
civilization constant, and directed by the best feelings of humanity;
its watchfulness in protecting them from individual frauds unremitting;
its forbearance under the keenest provocations, the deepest injuries,
and the most flagrant outrages may challenge at least a comparison with
any nation, ancient or modern, in similar circumstances; and if in
future times a powerful, civilized, and happy nation of Indians shall
be found to exist within the limits of this northern continent it will
be owing to the consummation of that policy which has been so unjustly
assailed. Only a very brief reference to facts in confirmation of this
assertion can in this form be given, and you are therefore necessarily
referred to the report of the Secretary of War for further details.
To the Cherokees, whose case has perhaps excited the greatest share of
attention and sympathy, the United States have granted in fee, with a
perpetual guaranty of exclusive and peaceable possession, 13,554,135
acres of land on the west side of the Mississippi, eligibly situated, in
a healthy climate, and in all respects better suited to their condition
than the country they have left, in exchange for only 9,492,160 acres
on the east side of the same river. The United States have in addition
stipulated to pay them $5,600,000 for their interest in and improvements
on the lands thus relinquished, and $1,160,000 for subsistence and other
beneficial purposes, thereby putting it in their power to become one of
the most wealthy and independent separate communities of the same extent
in the world.
By the treaties made and ratified with the Miamies, the Chippewas, the
Sioux, the Sacs and Foxes, and the Winnebagoes during the last year the
Indian title to 18,458,000 acres has been extinguished. These purchases
have been much more extensive than those of any previous year, and have,
with other Indian expenses, borne very heavily upon the Treasury. They
leave, however, but a small quantity of unbought Indian lands within the
States and Territories, and the Legislature and Executive were equally
sensible of the propriety of a final and more speedy extinction of
Indian titles within those limits. The treaties, which were with a
single exception made in pursuance of previous appropriations for
defraying the expenses, have subsequently been ratified by the Senate,
and received the sanction of Congress by the appropriations necessary
to carry them into effect. Of the terms upon which these important
negotiations were concluded I can speak from direct knowledge, and
I feel no difficulty in affirming that the interest of the Indians in
the extensive territory embraced by them is to be paid for at its fair
value, and that no more favorable terms have been granted to the United
States than would have been reasonably expected in a negotiation with
civilized men fully capable of appreciating and protecting their own
rights. For the Indian title to 116,349,897 acres acquired since the
4th of March, 1829, the United States have paid $72,560,056 in permanent
annuities, lands, reservations for Indians, expenses of removal and
subsistence, merchandise, mechanical and agricultural establishments and
implements. When the heavy expenses incurred by the United States and
the circumstance that so large a portion of the entire territory will be
forever unsalable are considered, and this price is compared with that
for which the United States sell their own lands, no one can doubt that
justice has been done to the Indians in these purchases also. Certain
it is that the transactions of the Federal Government with the Indians
have been uniformly characterized by a sincere and paramount desire
to promote their welfare; and it must be a source of the highest
gratification to every friend to justice and humanity to learn that
notwithstanding the obstructions from time to time thrown in its way and
the difficulties which have arisen from the peculiar and impracticable
nature of the Indian character, the wise, humane, and undeviating policy
of the Government in this the most difficult of all our relations,
foreign or domestic, has at length been justified to the world in its
near approach to a happy and certain consummation.
The condition of the tribes which occupy the country set apart for them
in the West is highly prosperous, and encourages the hope of their early
civilization. They have for the most part abandoned the hunter state and
turned their attention to agricultural pursuits. All those who have been
established for any length of time in that fertile region maintain
themselves by their own industry. There are among them traders of no
inconsiderable capital, and planters exporting cotton to some extent,
but the greater number are small agriculturists, living in comfort upon
the produce of their farms. The recent emigrants, although they have in
some instances removed reluctantly, have readily acquiesced in their
unavoidable destiny. They have found at once a recompense for past
sufferings and an incentive to industrious habits in the abundance and
comforts around them. There is reason to believe that all these tribes
are friendly in their feelings toward the United States; and it is to
be hoped that the acquisition of individual wealth, the pursuits of
agriculture, and habits of industry will gradually subdue their warlike
propensities and incline them to maintain peace among themselves. To
effect this desirable object the attention of Congress is solicited
to the measures recommended by the Secretary of War for their future
government and protection, as well from each other as from the hostility
of the warlike tribes around them and the intrusions of the whites. The
policy of the Government has given them a permanent home and guaranteed
to them its peaceful and undisturbed possession. It only remains to give
them a government and laws which will encourage industry and secure
to them the rewards of their exertions. The importance of some form
of government can not be too much insisted upon. The earliest effects
will be to diminish the causes and occasions for hostilities among
the tribes, to inspire an interest in the observance of laws to which
they will have themselves assented, and to multiply the securities of
property and the motives for self-improvement. Intimately connected with
this subject is the establishment of the military defenses recommended
by the Secretary of War, which have been already referred to. Without
them the Government will be powerless to redeem its pledge of protection
to the emigrating Indians against the numerous warlike tribes that
surround them and to provide for the safety of the frontier settlers
of the bordering States.
The case of the Seminoles constitutes at present the only exception to
the successful efforts of the Government to remove the Indians to the
homes assigned them west of the Mississippi. Four hundred of this tribe
emigrated in 1836 and 1,500 in 1837 and 1838, leaving in the country,
it is supposed, about 2,000 Indians. The continued treacherous conduct
of these people; the savage and unprovoked murders they have lately
committed, butchering whole families of the settlers of the Territory
without distinction of age or sex, and making their way into the very
center and heart of the country, so that no part of it is free from
their ravages; their frequent attacks on the light-houses along that
dangerous coast, and the barbarity with which they have murdered the
passengers and crews of such vessels as have been wrecked upon the reefs
and keys which border the Gulf, leave the Government no alternative but
to continue the military operations against them until they are totally
expelled from Florida. There are other motives which would urge the
Government to pursue this course toward the Seminoles. The United
States have fulfilled in good faith all their treaty stipulations with
the Indian tribes, and have in every other instance insisted upon a
like performance of their obligations. To relax from this salutary
rule because the Seminoles have maintained themselves so long in the
territory they had relinquished, and in defiance of their frequent and
solemn engagements still continue to wage a ruthless war against the
United States, would not only evince a want of constancy on our part,
but be of evil example in our intercourse with other tribes. Experience
has shown that but little is to be gained by the march of armies through
a country so intersected with inaccessible swamps and marshes, and
which, from the fatal character of the climate, must be abandoned at the
end of the winter. I recommend, therefore, to your attention the plan
submitted by the Secretary of War in the accompanying report, for the
permanent occupation of the portion of the Territory freed from the
Indians and the more efficient protection of the people of Florida from
their inhuman warfare.
From the report of the Secretary of the Navy herewith transmitted it
will appear that a large portion of the disposable naval force is either
actively employed or in a state of preparation for the purposes of
experience and discipline and the protection of our commerce. So
effectual has been this protection that so far as the information of
Government extends not a single outrage has been attempted on a vessel
carrying the flag of the United States within the present year, in any
quarter, however distant or exposed.
The exploring expedition sailed from Norfolk on the 19th of August last,
and information has been received of its safe arrival at the island of
Madeira. The best spirit animates the officers and crews, and there is
every reason to anticipate from its efforts results beneficial to
commerce and honorable to the nation.
It will also be seen that no reduction of the force now in commission is
contemplated. The unsettled state of a portion of South America renders
it indispensable that our commerce should receive protection in that
quarter; the vast and increasing interests embarked in the trade of the
Indian and China seas, in the whale fisheries of the Pacific Ocean, and
in the Gulf of Mexico require equal attention to their safety, and a
small squadron may be employed to great advantage on our Atlantic coast
in meeting sudden demands for the reenforcement of other stations, in
aiding merchant vessels in distress, in affording active service to an
additional number of officers, and in visiting the different ports of
the United States, an accurate knowledge of which is obviously of the
highest importance.
The attention of Congress is respectfully called to that portion of the
report recommending an increase in the number of smaller vessels, and
to other suggestions contained in that document. The rapid increase and
wide expansion of our commerce, which is every day seeking new avenues
of profitable adventure; the absolute necessity of a naval force for its
protection precisely in the degree of its extension; a due regard to the
national rights and honor; the recollection of its former exploits, and
the anticipation of its future triumphs whenever opportunity presents
itself, which we may rightfully indulge from the experience of the
past--all seem to point to the Navy as a most efficient arm of our
national defense and a proper object of legislative encouragement.
The progress and condition of the Post-Office Department will be seen
by reference to the report of the Postmaster-General. The extent of
post-roads covered by mail contracts is stated to be 134,818 miles,
and the annual transportation upon them 34,580,202 miles. The number
of post-offices in the United States is 12,553, and rapidly increasing.
The gross revenue for the year ending on the 30th day of June last
was $4,262,145; the accruing expenditures, $4,680,068; excess of
expenditures, $417,923. This has been made up out of the surplus
previously on hand. The cash on hand on the 1st instant was $314,068.
The revenue for the year ending June 30, 1838, was $161,540 more
than that for the year ending June 30, 1837. The expenditures of
the Department had been graduated upon the anticipation of a largely
increased revenue. A moderate curtailment of mail service consequently
became necessary, and has been effected, to shield the Department
against the danger of embarrassment. Its revenue is now improving, and
it will soon resume its onward course in the march of improvement.
Your particular attention is requested to so much of the
Postmaster-General's report as relates to the transportation of the
mails upon railroads. The laws on that subject do not seem adequate
to secure that service, now become almost essential to the public
interests, and at the same time protect the Department from combinations
and unreasonable demands.
Nor can I too earnestly request your attention to the necessity of
providing a more secure building for this Department. The danger of
destruction to which its important books and papers are continually
exposed, as well from the highly combustible character of the building
occupied as from that of others in the vicinity, calls loudly for prompt
action.
Your attention is again earnestly invited to the suggestions and
recommendations submitted at the last session in respect to the District
of Columbia.
I feel it my duty also to bring to your notice certain proceedings at
law which have recently been prosecuted in this District in the name
of the United States, on the relation of Messrs. Stockton & Stokes, of
the State of Maryland, against the Postmaster-General, and which have
resulted in the payment of money out of the National Treasury, for
the first time since the establishment of the Government, by judicial
compulsion exercised by the common-law writ of mandamus issued by the
circuit court of this District.
The facts of the case and the grounds of the proceedings will be
found fully stated in the report of the decision, and any additional
information which you may desire will be supplied by the proper
Department. No interference in the particular case is contemplated.
The money has been paid, the claims of the prosecutors have been
satisfied, and the whole subject, so far as they are concerned, is
finally disposed of; but it is on the supposition that the case may
be regarded as an authoritative exposition of the law as it now stands
that I have thought it necessary to present it to your consideration.
The object of the application to the circuit court was to compel the
Postmaster-General to carry into effect an award made by the Solicitor
of the Treasury, under a special act of Congress for the settlement of
certain claims of the relators on the Post-Office Department, which
award the Postmaster-General declined to execute in full until he should
receive further legislative direction on the subject. If the duty
imposed on the Postmaster-General by that law was to be regarded as
one of an official nature, belonging to his office as a branch of the
executive, then it is obvious that the constitutional competency of the
judiciary to direct and control him in its discharge was necessarily
drawn in question; and if the duty so imposed on the Postmaster-General
was to be considered as merely ministerial, and not executive, it yet
remained to be shown that the circuit court of this District had
authority to interfere by mandamus, such a power having never before
been asserted or claimed by that court. With a view to the settlement of
these important questions, the judgment of the circuit court was carried
by a writ of error to the Supreme Court of the United States. In the
opinion of that tribunal the duty imposed on the Postmaster-General was
not an official executive duty, but one of a merely ministerial nature.
The grave constitutional questions which had been discussed were
therefore excluded from the decision of the case, the court, indeed,
expressly admitting that with powers and duties properly belonging to
the executive no other department can interfere by the writ of mandamus;
and the question therefore resolved itself into this: Has Congress
conferred upon the circuit court of this District the power to issue
such a writ to an officer of the General Government commanding him to
perform a ministerial act? A majority of the court have decided that it
has, but have founded their decision upon a process of reasoning which
in my judgment renders further legislative provision indispensable to
the public interests and the equal administration of justice.
It has long since been decided by the Supreme Court that neither that
tribunal nor the circuit courts of the United States, held within the
respective States, possess the power in question; but it is now held
that this power, denied to both of these high tribunals (to the former
by the Constitution and to the latter by Congress), has been by its
legislation vested in the circuit court of this District. No such direct
grant of power to the circuit court of this District is claimed, but it
has been held to result by necessary implication from several sections
of the law establishing the court. One of these sections declares that
the laws of Maryland, as they existed at the time of the cession,
should be in force in that part of the District ceded by that State,
and by this provision the common law in civil and criminal cases, as
it prevailed in Maryland in 1801, was established in that part of the
District.
In England the court of king's bench--because the Sovereign, who,
according to the theory of the constitution, is the fountain of justice,
originally sat there in person, and is still deemed to be present in
construction of law--alone possesses the high power of issuing the writ
of mandamus, not only to inferior jurisdictions and corporations, but
also to magistrates and others, commanding them in the King's name to do
what their duty requires in cases where there is a vested right and no
other specific remedy. It has been held in the case referred to that as
the Supreme Court of the United States is by the Constitution rendered
incompetent to exercise this power, and as the circuit court of this
District is a court of general jurisdiction in cases at common law,
and the highest court of original jurisdiction in the District, the
right to issue the writ of mandamus is incident to its common-law
powers. Another ground relied upon to maintain the power in question
is that it was included by fair construction in the powers granted to
the circuit courts of the United States by the act "to provide for the
more convenient organization of the courts of the United States," passed
13th February, 1801; that the act establishing the circuit court of this
District, passed the 27th day of February, 1801, conferred upon that
court and the judges thereof the same powers as were by law vested in
the circuit courts of the United States and in the judges of the said
courts; that the repeal of the first-mentioned act, which took place in
the next year, did not divest the circuit court of this District of the
authority in dispute, but left it still clothed with the powers over the
subject which, it is conceded, were taken away from the circuit courts
of the United States by the repeal of the act of 13th February, 1801.
Admitting that the adoption of the laws of Maryland for a portion of
this District confers on the circuit court thereof, in that portion, the
transcendent extrajudicial prerogative powers of the court of king's
bench in England, or that either of the acts of Congress by necessary
implication authorizes the former court to issue a writ of mandamus to
an officer of the United States to compel him to perform a ministerial
duty, the consequences are in one respect the same. The result in either
case is that the officers of the United States stationed in different
parts of the United States are, in respect to the performance of
their official duties, subject to different laws and a different
supervision--those in the States to one rule, and those in the District
of Columbia to another and a very different one. In the District their
official conduct is subject to a judicial control from which in the
States they are exempt.
Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the expediency of vesting
such a power in the judiciary in a system of government constituted
like that of the United States, all must agree that these disparaging
discrepancies in the law and in the administration of justice ought not
to be permitted to continue; and as Congress alone can provide the
remedy, the subject is unavoidably presented to your consideration.