settlement in principle and substance--a final settlement of the dangerous
and exciting subjects which they embraced. Most of these subjects, indeed,
are beyond your reach, as the legislation which disposed of them was in its
character final and irrevocable. It may be presumed from the opposition
which they all encountered that none of those measures was free from
imperfections, but in their mutual dependence and connection they formed a
system of compromise the most conciliatory and best for the entire country
that could be obtained from conflicting sectional interests and opinions.
For this reason I recommend your adherence to the adjustment established by
those measures until time and experience shall demonstrate the necessity of
further legislation to guard against evasion or abuse.
By that adjustment we have been rescued from the wide and boundless
agitation that surrounded us, and have a firm, distinct, and legal ground
to rest upon. And the occasion, I trust, will justify me in exhorting my
countrymen to rally upon and maintain that ground as the best, if not the
only, means of restoring peace and quiet to the country and maintaining
inviolate the integrity of the Union.
And now, fellow-citizens, I can not bring this communication to a close
without invoking you to join me in humble and devout thanks to the Great
Ruler of Nations for the multiplied blessings which He has graciously
bestowed upon us. His hand, so often visible in our preservation, has
stayed the pestilence, saved us from foreign wars and domestic
disturbances, and scattered plenty throughout the land.
Our liberties, religions and civil, have been maintained, the fountains of
knowledge have all been kept open, and means of happiness widely spread and
generally enjoyed greater than have fallen to the lot of any other nation.
And while deeply penetrated with gratitude for the past, let us hope that
His all-wise providence will so guide our counsels as that they shall
result in giving satisfaction to our constituents, securing the peace of
the country, and adding new strength to the united Government under which
we live.
***
State of the Union Address
Millard Fillmore
December 2, 1851
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
I congratulate you and our common constituency upon the favorable auspices
under which you meet for your first session. Our country is at peace with
all the world. The agitation which for a time threatened to disturb the
fraternal relations which make us one people is fast subsiding, and a year
of general prosperity and health has crowned the nation with unusual
blessings. None can look back to the dangers which are passed or forward to
the bright prospect before us without feeling a thrill of gratification, at
the same time that he must be impressed with a grateful sense of our
profound obligations to a beneficent Providence, whose paternal care is so
manifest in the happiness of this highly favored land.
Since the close of the last Congress certain Cubans and other foreigners
resident in the United States, who were more or less concerned in the
previous invasion of Cuba, instead of being discouraged by its failure have
again abused the hospitality of this country by making it the scene of the
equipment of another military expedition against that possession of Her
Catholic Majesty, in which they were countenanced, aided, and joined by
citizens of the United States. On receiving intelligence that such designs
were entertained, I lost no time in issuing such instructions to the proper
officers of the United States as seemed to be called for by the occasion.
By the proclamation a copy of which is herewith submitted I also warned
those who might be in danger of being inveigled into this scheme of its
unlawful character and of the penalties which they would incur. For some
time there was reason to hope that these measures had sufficed to prevent
any such attempt. This hope, however, proved to be delusive. Very early in
the morning of the 3d of August a steamer called the Pampero departed from
New Orleans for Cuba, having on board upward of 400 armed men with evident
intentions to make war upon the authorities of the island. This expedition
was set on foot in palpable violation of the laws of the United States. Its
leader was a Spaniard, and several of the chief officers and some others
engaged in it were foreigners. The persons composing it, however, were
mostly citizens of the United States.
Before the expedition set out, and probably before it was organized, a
slight insurrectionary movement, which appears to have been soon
suppressed, had taken place in the eastern quarter of Cuba. The importance
of this movement was, unfortunately, so much exaggerated in the accounts of
it published in this country that these adventurers seem to have been led
to believe that the Creole population of the island not only desired to
throw off the authority of the mother country, but had resolved upon that
step and had begun a well-concerted enterprise for effecting it. The
persons engaged in the expedition were generally young and ill informed.
The steamer in which they embarked left New Orleans stealthily and without
a clearance. After touching at Key West, she proceeded to the coast of
Cuba, and on the night between the 11th and 12th of August landed the
persons on board at Playtas, within about 20 leagues of Havana.
The main body of them proceeded to and took possession of an inland village
6 leagues distant, leaving others to follow in charge of the baggage as
soon as the means of transportation could be obtained. The latter, having
taken up their line of march to connect themselves with the main body, and
having proceeded about 4 leagues into the country, were attacked on the
morning of the 13th by a body of Spanish troops, and a bloody conflict
ensued, after which they retreated to the place of disembarkation, where
about 50 of them obtained boats and reembarked therein. They were, however,
intercepted among the keys near the shore by a Spanish steamer cruising on
the coast, captured and carried to Havana, and after being examined before
a military court were sentenced to be publicly executed, and the sentence
was carried into effect on the 16th of August.
On receiving information of what had occurred Commodore Foxhall A. Parker
was instructed to proceed in the steam frigate Saranac to Havana and
inquire into the charges against the persons executed, the circumstances
under which they were taken, and whatsoever referred to their trial and
sentence. Copies of the instructions from the Department of State to him
and of his letters to that Department are herewith submitted.
According to the record of the examination, the prisoners all admitted the
offenses charged against them, of being hostile invaders of the island. At
the time of their trial and execution the main body of the invaders was
still in the field making war upon the Spanish authorities and Spanish
subjects. After the lapse of some days, being overcome by the Spanish
troops, they dispersed on the 24th of August. Lopez, their leader, was
captured some days after, and executed on the 1st of September. Many of his
remaining followers were killed or died of hunger and fatigue, and the rest
were made prisoners. Of these none appear to have been tried or executed.
Several of them were pardoned upon application of their friends and others,
and the rest, about 160 in number, were sent to Spain. Of the final
disposition made of these we have no official information.
Such is the melancholy result of this illegal and ill-fated expedition.
Thus thoughtless young men have been induced by false and fraudulent
representations to violate the law of their country through rash and
unfounded expectations of assisting to accomplish political revolutions in
other states, and have lost their lives in the undertaking. Too severe a
judgment can hardly be passed by the indignant sense of the community upon
those who, being better informed themselves, have yet led away the ardor of
youth and an ill-directed love of political liberty. The correspondence
between this Government and that of Spain relating to this transaction is
herewith communicated.
Although these offenders against the laws have forfeited the protection of
their country, yet the Government may, so far as consistent with its
obligations to other countries and its fixed purpose to maintain and
enforce the laws, entertain sympathy for their unoffending families and
friends, as well as a feeling of compassion for themselves. Accordingly, no
proper effort has been spared and none will be spared to procure the
release of such citizens of the United States engaged in this unlawful
enterprise as are now in confinement in Spain; but it is to be hoped that
such interposition with the Government of that country may not be
considered as affording any ground of expectation that the Government of
the United States will hereafter feel itself under any obligation of duty
to intercede for the liberation or pardon of such persons as are flagrant
offenders against the law of nations and the laws of the United States.
These laws must be executed. If we desire to maintain our respectability
among the nations of the earth, it behooves us to enforce steadily and
sternly the neutrality acts passed by Congress and to follow as far as may
be the violation of those acts with condign punishment.
But what gives a peculiar criminality to this invasion of Cuba is that,
under the lead of Spanish subjects and with the aid of citizens of the
United States, it had its origin with many in motives of cupidity. Money
was advanced by individuals, probably in considerable amounts, to purchase
Cuban bonds, as they have been called, issued by Lopez, sold, doubtless, at
a very large discount, and for the payment of which the public lands and
public property of Cuba, of whatever kind, and the fiscal resources of the
people and government of that island, from whatever source to be derived,
were pledged, as well as the good faith of the government expected to be
established. All these means of payment, it is evident, were only to be
obtained by a process of bloodshed, war, and revolution. None will deny
that those who set on foot military expeditions against foreign states by
means like these are far more culpable than the ignorant and the
necessitous whom they induce to go forth as the ostensible parties in the
proceeding. These originators of the invasion of Cuba seem to have
determined with coolness and system upon an undertaking which should
disgrace their country, violate its laws, and put to hazard the lives of
ill-informed and deluded men. You will consider whether further legislation
be necessary to prevent the perpetration of such offenses in future.
No individuals have a right to hazard the peace of the country or to
violate its laws upon vague notions of altering or reforming governments in
other states. This principle is not only reasonable in itself and in
accordance with public law, but is ingrafted into the codes of other
nations as well as our own. But while such are the sentiments of this
Government, it may be added that every independent nation must be presumed
to be able to defend its possessions against unauthorized individuals
banded together to attack them. The Government of the United States at all
times since its establishment has abstained and has sought to restrain the
citizens of the country from entering into controversies between other
powers, and to observe all the duties of neutrality. At an early period of
the Government, in the Administration of Washington, several laws were
passed for this purpose. The main provisions of these laws were reenacted
by the act of April, 1818, by which, amongst other things, it was declared
that--
If any person shall, within the territory or jurisdiction of the United
States, begin, or set on foot, or provide or prepare the means for, any
military expedition or enterprise to be carried on from thence against the
territory or dominions of any foreign prince or state, or of any colony,
district, or people, with whom the United States are at peace, every person
so offending shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and shall be
fined not exceeding $3,000 and imprisoned not more than three years.
And this law has been executed and enforced to the full extent of the power
of the Government from that day to this.
In proclaiming and adhering to the doctrine of neutrality and
nonintervention, the United States have not followed the lead of other
civilized nations; they have taken the lead themselves and have been
followed by others. This was admitted by one of the most eminent of modern
British statesmen, who said in Parliament, while a minister of the Crown,
"that if he wished for a guide in a system of neutrality he should take
that laid down by America in the days of Washington and the secretaryship
of Jefferson;" and we see, in fact, that the act of Congress of 1818 was
followed the succeeding year by an act of the Parliament of England
substantially the same in its general provisions. Up to that time there had
been no similar law in England, except certain highly penal statutes passed
in the reign of George II, prohibiting English subjects from enlisting in
foreign service, the avowed object of which statutes was that foreign
armies, raised for the purpose of restoring the house of Stuart to the
throne, should not be strengthened by recruits from England herself.
All must see that difficulties may arise in carrying the laws referred to
into execution in a country now having 3,000 or 4,000 miles of seacoast,
with an infinite number of ports and harbors and small inlets, from some of
which unlawful expeditious may suddenly set forth, without the knowledge of
Government, against the possessions of foreign states.
"Friendly relations with all, but entangling alliances with none," has long
been a maxim with us. Our true mission is not to propagate our opinions or
impose upon other countries our form of government by artifice or force,
but to teach by example and show by our success, moderation, and justice
the blessings of self-government and the advantages of free institutions.
Let every people choose for itself and make and alter its political
institutions to suit its own condition and convenience. But while we avow
and maintain this neutral policy ourselves, we are anxious to see the same
forbearance on the part of other nations whose forms of government are
different from our own. The deep interest which we feel in the spread of
liberal principles and the establishment of free governments and the
sympathy with which we witness every struggle against oppression forbid
that we should be indifferent to a case in which the strong arm of a
foreign power is invoked to stifle public sentiment and repress the spirit
of freedom in any country.
The Governments of Great Britain and France have issued orders to their
naval commanders on the West India station to prevent, by force if
necessary, the landing of adventurers from any nation on the island of Cuba
with hostile intent. The copy of a memorandum of a conversation on this
subject between the charge d'affaires of Her Britannic Majesty and the
Acting Secretary of State and of a subsequent note of the former to the
Department of State are herewith submitted, together with a copy of a note
of the Acting Secretary of State to the minister of the French Republic and
of the reply of the latter on the same subject. These papers will acquaint
you with the grounds of this interposition of two leading commercial powers
of Europe, and with the apprehensions, which this Government could not fail
to entertain, that such interposition, if carried into effect, might lead
to abuses in derogation of the maritime rights of the United States. The
maritime rights of the United States are founded on a firm, secure, and
well-defined basis; they stand upon the ground of national independence and
public law, and will be maintained in all their full and just extent. The
principle which this Government has heretofore solemnly announced it still
adheres to, and will maintain under all circumstances and at all hazards.
That principle is that in every regularly documented merchant vessel the
crew who navigate it and those on board of it will find their protection in
the flag which is over them. No American ship can be allowed to be visited
or searched for the purpose of ascertaining the character of individuals on
board, nor can there be allowed any watch by the vessels of any foreign
nation over American vessels on the coast of the United States or the seas
adjacent thereto. It will be seen by the last communication from the
British charge d'affaires to the Department of State that he is authorized
to assure the Secretary of State that every care will be taken that in
executing the preventive measures against the expeditions which the United
States Government itself has denounced as not being entitled to the
protection of any government no interference shall take place with the
lawful commerce of any nation.
In addition to the correspondence on this subject herewith submitted,
official information has been received at the Department of State of
assurances by the French Government that in the orders given to the French
naval forces they were expressly instructed, in any operations they might
engage in, to respect the flag of the United States wherever it might
appear, and to commit no act of hostility upon any vessel or armament under
its protection.
Ministers and consuls of foreign nations are the means and agents of
communication between us and those nations, and it is of the utmost
importance that while residing in the country they should feel a perfect
security so long as they faithfully discharge their respective duties and
are guilty of no violation of our laws. This is the admitted law of nations
and no country has a deeper interest in maintaining it than the United
States. Our commerce spreads over every sea and visits every clime, and our
ministers and consuls are appointed to protect the interests of that
commerce as well as to guard the peace of the country and maintain the
honor of its flag. But how can they discharge these duties unless they be
themselves protected? And if protected it must be by the laws of the
country in which they reside. And what is due to our own public
functionaries residing in foreign nations is exactly the measure of what is
due to the functionaries of other governments residing here. As in war the
bearers of flags of truce are sacred, or else wars would be interminable,
so in peace ambassadors, public ministers, and consuls, charged with
friendly national intercourse, are objects of especial respect and
protection, each according to the rights belonging to his rank and station.
In view of these important principles, it is with deep mortification and
regret I announce to you that during the excitement growing out of the
executions at Havana the office of Her Catholic Majesty's consul at New
Orleans was assailed by a mob, his property destroyed, the Spanish flag
found in the office carried off and torn in pieces, and he himself induced
to flee for his personal safety, which he supposed to be in danger. On
receiving intelligence of these events I forthwith directed the attorney of
the United States residing at New Orleans to inquire into the facts and the
extent of the pecuniary loss sustained by the consul, with the intention of
laying them before you, that you might make provision for such indemnity to
him as a just regard for the honor of the nation and the respect which is
due to a friendly power might, in your judgment, seem to require. The
correspondence upon this subject between the Secretary of State and Her
Catholic Majesty's minister plenipotentiary is herewith transmitted.
The occurrence at New Orleans has led me to give my attention to the state
of our laws in regard to foreign ambassadors, ministers, and consuls. I
think the legislation of the country is deficient in not providing
sufficiently either for the protection or the punishment of consuls. I
therefore recommend the subject to the consideration of Congress.
Your attention is again invited to the question of reciprocal trade between
the United States and Canada and other British possessions near our
frontier. Overtures for a convention upon this subject have been received
from Her Britannic Majesty's minister plenipotentiary, but it seems to be
in many respects preferable that the matter should be regulated by
reciprocal legislation. Documents are laid before you showing the terms
which the British Government is willing to offer and the measures which it
may adopt if some arrangement upon this subject shall not be made.
From the accompanying copy of a note from the British legation at
Washington and the reply of the Department of State thereto it will appear
that Her Britannic Majesty's Government is desirous that a part of the
boundary line between Oregon and the British possessions should be
authoritatively marked out, and that an intention was expressed to apply to
Congress for an appropriation to defray the expense thereof on the part of
the United States. Your attention to this subject is accordingly invited
and a proper appropriation recommended. A convention for the adjustment of
claims of citizens of the United States against Portugal has been concluded
and the ratifications have been exchanged. The first installment of the
amount to be paid by Portugal fell due on the 30th of September last and
has been paid. The President of the French Republic, according to the
provisions of the convention, has been selected as arbiter in the case of
the General Armstrong, and has signified that he accepts the trust and the
high satisfaction he feels in acting as the common friend of two nations
with which France is united by sentiments of sincere and lasting amity.
The Turkish Government has expressed its thanks for the kind reception
given to the Sultan's agent, Amin Bey, on the occasion of his recent visit
to the United States. On the 28th of February last a dispatch was addressed
by the Secretary of State to Mr. Marsh, the American minister at
Constantinople, instructing him to ask of the Turkish Government permission
for the Hungarians then imprisoned within the dominions of the Sublime
Porte to remove to this country. On the 3d of March last both Houses of
Congress passed a resolution requesting the President to authorize the
employment of a public vessel to convey to this country Louis Kossuth and
his associates in captivity. The instruction above referred to was complied
with, and the Turkish Government having released Governor Kossuth and his
companions from prison, on the 10th of September last they embarked on
board of the United States steam frigate Mississippi, which was selected to
carry into effect the resolution of Congress. Governor Kossuth left the
Mississippi at Gibraltar for the purpose of making a visit to England, and
may shortly be expected in New York. By communications to the Department of
State he has expressed his grateful acknowledgments for the interposition
of this Government in behalf of himself and his associates. This country
has been justly regarded as a safe asylum for those whom political events
have exiled from their own homes in Europe. and it is recommended to
Congress to consider in what manner Governor Kossuth and his companions,
brought hither by its authority, shall be received and treated.