fairly and fully made, whether freedom of discussion, unaided by power,
is not sufficient for the propagation and protection of truth--whether
a government conducting itself in the true spirit of its constitution,
with zeal and purity, and doing no act which it would be unwilling
the whole world should witness, can be written down by falsehood and
defamation. The experiment has been tried: you have witnessed the scene;
our fellow-citizens looked on, cool and collected; they saw the latent
source from which these outrages proceeded; they gathered around their
public functionaries, and when the Constitution called them to the
decision by suffrage, they pronounced their verdict, honorable to those
who had served them and consolatory to the friend of man who believes
that he may be trusted with the control of his own affairs.
No inference is here intended that the laws provided by the States
against false and defamatory publications should not be enforced; he
who has time renders a service to public morals and public tranquillity
in reforming these abuses by the salutary coercions of the law; but
the experiment is noted to prove that, since truth and reason have
maintained their ground against false opinions in league with false
facts, the press, confined to truth, needs no other legal restraint;
the public judgment will correct false reasonings and opinions on a
full hearing of all parties; and no other definite line can be drawn
between the inestimable liberty of the press and its demoralizing
licentiousness. If there be still improprieties which this rule would
not restrain, its supplement must be sought in the censorship of public
opinion.
Contemplating the union of sentiment now manifested so generally as
auguring harmony and happiness to our future course, I offer to our
country sincere congratulations. With those, too, not yet rallied to
the same point the disposition to do so is gaining strength; facts are
piercing through the veil drawn over them, and our doubting brethren
will at length see that the mass of their fellow-citizens with whom they
can not yet resolve to act as to principles and measures, think as they
think and desire what they desire; that our wish as well as theirs is
that the public efforts may be directed honestly to the public good,
that peace be cultivated, civil and religious liberty unassailed, law
and order preserved, equality of rights maintained, and that state of
property, equal or unequal, which results to every man from his own
industry or that of his father's. When satisfied of these views it is
not in human nature that they should not approve and support them. In
the meantime let us cherish them with patient affection, let us do them
justice, and more than justice, in all competitions of interest, and we
need not doubt that truth, reason, and their own interests will at
length prevail, will gather them into the fold of their country, and
will complete that entire union of opinion which gives to a nation the
blessing of harmony and the benefit of all its strength.
I shall now enter on the duties to which my fellow-citizens have again
called me, and shall proceed in the spirit of those principles which
they have approved. I fear not that any motives of interest may lead me
astray; I am sensible of no passion which could seduce me knowingly from
the path of justice, but the weaknesses of human nature and the limits
of my own understanding will produce errors of judgment sometimes
injurious to your interests. I shall need, therefore, all the indulgence
which I have heretofore experienced from my constituents; the want of
it will certainly not lessen with increasing years. I shall need, too,
the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers, as
Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country
flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered
our infancy with His providence and our riper years with His wisdom and
power, and to whose goodness I ask you to join in supplications with
me that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their
councils, and prosper their measures that whatsoever they do shall
result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship,
and approbation of all nations.
MARCH 4, 1805.
FIFTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
DECEMBER 3, 1805.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_.
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 toward our peaceable country threatens that even that
may not be unaffected by what is passing on the general theater, 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.
In taking a view of the state of our country we in the first place
notice the late affliction of two of our cities under the fatal fever
which in latter times has occasionally visited our shores. Providence in
His goodness gave it an early termination on this occasion and lessened
the number of victims which have usually fallen before it. In the course
of the several visitations by this disease it has appeared that it
is strictly local, incident to cities and on the tide waters only,
incommunicable in the country either by persons under the disease or by
goods carried from diseased places; that its access is with the autumn
and it disappears with the early frosts. These restrictions within
narrow limits of time and space give security even to our maritime
cities during three-fourths of the year, and to the country always.
Although from these facts it appears unnecessary, yet to satisfy the
fears of foreign nations and cautions on their part not to be complained
of in a danger whose limits are yet unknown to them I have strictly
enjoined on the officers at the head of the customs to certify with
exact truth for every vessel sailing for a foreign port the state of
health respecting this fever which prevails at the place from which she
sails. Under every motive from character and duty to certify the truth,
I have no doubt they have faithfully executed this injunction. Much real
injury has, however, been sustained from a propensity to identify with
this endemic and to call by the same name fevers of very different
kinds, which have been known at all times and in all countries, and
never have been placed among those deemed contagious. As we advance in
our knowledge of this disease, as facts develop the source from which
individuals receive it, the State authorities charged with the care of
the public health, and Congress with that of the general commerce, will
become able to regulate with effect their respective functions in these
departments. The burthen of quarantines is felt at home as well as
abroad; their efficacy merits examination. Although the health laws of
the States should be found to need no present revisal by Congress, yet
commerce claims that their attention be ever awake to them.
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 pretense 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 no wise
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 the 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. Some of these injuries may perhaps admit a peaceable remedy. Where
that is competent it is always the most desirable. But some of them are
of a nature to be met by force only, and all of them may lead to it.
I can not, therefore, but recommend such preparations as circumstances
call for. The first object is to place our seaport towns out of the
danger of insult. Measures have been already taken for furnishing them
with heavy cannon for the service of such land batteries as may make a
part of their defense against armed vessels approaching them. In aid of
these it is desirable we should have a competent number of gunboats, and
the number, to be competent, must be considerable. If immediately begun,
they may be in readiness for service at the opening of the next season.
Whether it will be necessary to augment our land forces will be decided
by occurrences probably in the course of your session. In the meantime
you will consider whether it would not be expedient for a state of peace
as well as of war so to organize or class the militia as would enable
us on any sudden emergency to call for the services of the younger
portions, unencumbered with the old and those having families. Upward
of 300,000 able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 26 years, which
the last census shews we may now count within our limits, will furnish
a competent number for offense or defense in any point where they may
be wanted, and will give time for raising regular forces after the
necessity of them shall become certain; and the reducing to the early
period of life all its active service can not but be desirable to our
younger citizens of the present as well as future times, inasmuch as it
engages to them in more advanced age a quiet and undisturbed repose in
the bosom of their families. I can not, then, but earnestly recommend
to your early consideration the expediency of so modifying our militia
system as, by a separation of the more active part from that which is
less so, we may draw from it when necessary an efficient corps fit for
real and active service, and to be called to it in regular rotation.
Considerable provision has been made under former authorities from
Congress of materials for the construction of ships of war of 74 guns.
These materials are on hand subject to the further will of the
Legislature.
An immediate prohibition of the exportation of arms and 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 an
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
can not 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 insure 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 the 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 forever 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 $13,000,000, 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, upward 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 toward 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 $8,000,000 appropriated to the funded debt and meeting
all the current demands which may be expected, will enable us to pay
the whole sum of $3,750,000 assumed by the French convention and still
leave us a surplus of nearly $1,000,000 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 this 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 cooperate 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 dispatch 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.
TH. JEFFERSON.
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
DECEMBER 6, 1805.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
The depredations which had been committed on the commerce of the United
States during a preceding war by persons under the authority of Spain
are sufficiently known to all. These made it a duty to require from that
Government indemnifications for our injured citizens. A convention was
accordingly entered into between the minister of the United States at
Madrid and the minister of that Government for foreign affairs, by which
it was agreed that spoliations committed by Spanish subjects and carried
into ports of Spain should be paid for by that nation, and that those
committed by French subjects and carried into Spanish ports should
remain for further discussion. Before this convention was returned
to Spain with our ratification the transfer of Louisiana by France to
the United States took place, an event as unexpected as disagreeable
to Spain. From that moment she seemed to change her conduct and
dispositions toward us. It was first manifested by her protest against
the right of France to alienate Louisiana to us, which, however, was
soon retracted and the right confirmed. Then high offense was manifested
at the act of Congress establishing a collection district on the Mobile,
although by an authentic declaration immediately made it was expressly
confined to our acknowledged limits; and she now refused to ratify the
convention signed by her own minister under the eye of his Sovereign
unless we would consent to alterations of its terms which would have
affected our claims against her for the spoliations by French subjects
carried into Spanish ports.