hovering on our coasts was an encounter between one of them and the
American frigate commanded by Captain Rodgers, rendered unavoidable on
the part of the latter by a fire commenced without cause by the former,
whose commander is therefore alone chargeable with the blood
unfortunately shed in maintaining the honor of the American flag. The
proceedings of a court of inquiry requested by Captain Rodgers are
communicated, together with the correspondence relating to the
occurrence, between the Secretary of State and His Britannic Majesty's
envoy. To these are added the several correspondences which have passed
on the subject of the British orders in council, and to both the
correspondence relating to the Floridas, in which Congress will be made
acquainted with the interposition which the Government of Great Britain
has thought proper to make against the proceeding of the United States.
The justice and fairness which have been evinced on the part of the
United States toward France, both before and since the revocation of her
decrees, authorized an expectation that her Government would have
followed up that measure by all such others as were due to our
reasonable claims, as well as dictated by its amicable professions. No
proof, however, is yet given of an intention to repair the other wrongs
done to the United States, and particularly to restore the great amount
of American property seized and condemned under edicts which, though not
affecting our neutral relations, and therefore not entering into
questions between the United States and other belligerents, were
nevertheless founded in such unjust principles that the reparation ought
to have been prompt and ample.
In addition to this and other demands of strict right on that nation,
the United States have much reason to be dissatisfied with the rigorous
and unexpected restrictions to which their trade with the French
dominions has been subjected, and which, if not discontinued, will
require at least corresponding restrictions on importations from France
into the United States.
On all those subjects our minister plenipotentiary lately sent to Paris
has carried with him the necessary instructions, the result of which
will be communicated to you, and, by ascertaining the ulterior policy of
the French Government toward the United States, Will enable you to adapt
to it that of the United States toward France.
Our other foreign relations remain without unfavorable changes. With
Russia they are on the best footing of friendship. The ports of Sweden
have afforded proofs of friendly dispositions toward our commerce in the
councils of that nation also, and the information from our special
minister to Denmark shews that the mission had been attended with
valuable effects to our citizens, whose property had been so extensively
violated and endangered by cruisers under the Danish flag.
Under the ominous indications which commanded attention it became a duty
to exert the means committed to the executive department in providing
for the general security. The works of defense on our maritime frontier
have accordingly been prosecuted with an activity leaving little to be
added for the completion of the most important ones, and, as
particularly suited for cooperation in emergencies, a portion of the
gunboats have in particular harbors been ordered into use. The ships of
war before in commission, with the addition of a frigate, have been
chiefly employed as a cruising guard to the rights of our coast, and
such a disposition has been made of our land forces as was thought to
promise the services most appropriate and important. In this disposition
is included a force consisting of regulars and militia, embodied in the
Indiana Territory and marched toward our northwestern frontier. This
measure was made requisite by several murders and depredations committed
by Indians, but more especially by the menacing preparations and aspect
of a combination of them on the Wabash, under the influence and
direction of a fanatic of the Shawanese tribe. With these exceptions the
Indian tribes retain their peaceable dispositions toward us, and their
usual pursuits.
I must now add that the period is arrived which claims from the
legislative guardians of the national rights a system of more ample
provisions for maintaining them. Notwithstanding the scrupulous justice,
the protracted moderation, and the multiplied efforts on the part of the
United States to substitute for the accumulating dangers to the peace of
the two countries all the mutual advantages of reestablished friendship
and confidence, we have seen that the British cabinet perseveres not
only in withholding a remedy for other wrongs, so long and so loudly
calling for it, but in the execution, brought home to the threshold of
our territory, of measures which under existing circumstances have the
character as well as the effect of war on our lawful commerce.
With this evidence of hostile inflexibility in trampling on rights which
no independent nation can relinquish, Congress will feel the duty of
putting the United States into an armor and an attitude demanded by the
crisis, and corresponding with the national spirit and expectations.
I recommend, accordingly, that adequate provision be made for filling
the ranks and prolonging the enlistments of the regular troops; for an
auxiliary force to be engaged for a more limited term; for the
acceptance of volunteer corps, whose patriotic ardor may court a
participation in urgent services; for detachments as they may be wanted
of other portions of the militia, and for such a preparation of the
great body as will proportion its usefulness to its intrinsic
capacities. Nor can the occasion fail to remind you of the importance of
those military seminaries which in every event will form a valuable and
frugal part of our military establishment.
The manufacture of cannon and small arms has proceeded with due success,
and the stock and resources of all the necessary munitions are adequate
to emergencies. It will not be inexpedient, however, for Congress to
authorize an enlargement of them.
Your attention will of course be drawn to such provisions on the subject
of our naval force as may be required for the services to which it may
be best adapted. I submit to Congress the seasonableness also of an
authority to augment the stock of such materials as are imperishable in
their nature, or may not at once be attainable.
In contemplating the scenes which distinguish this momentous epoch, and
estimating their claims to our attention, it is impossible to overlook
those developing themselves among the great communities which occupy the
southern portion of our own hemisphere and extend into our neighborhood.
An enlarged philanthropy and an enlightened forecast concur in imposing
on the national councils an obligation to take a deep interest in their
destinies, to cherish reciprocal sentiments of good will, to regard the
progress of events, and not to be unprepared for whatever order of
things may be ultimately established.
Under another aspect of our situation the early attention of Congress
will be due to the expediency of further guards against evasions and
infractions of our commercial laws. The practice of smuggling, which is
odious everywhere, and particularly criminal in free governments, where,
the laws being made by all for the good of all, a fraud is committed on
every individual as well as on the state, attains its utmost guilt when
it blends with a pursuit of ignominious gain a treacherous subserviency,
in the transgressors, to a foreign policy adverse to that of their own
country. It is then that the virtuous indignation of the public should
be enabled to manifest itself through the regular animadversions of the
most competent laws.
To secure greater respect to our-mercantile flag, and to the honest
interests which it covers, it is expedient also that it be made
punishable in our citizens to accept licenses from foreign governments
for a trade unlawfully interdicted by them to other American citizens,
or to trade under false colors or papers of any sort.
A prohibition is equally called for against the acceptance by our
citizens of special licenses to be used in a trade with the United
States, and against the admission into particular ports of the United
States of vessels from foreign countries authorized to trade with
particular ports only.
Although other subjects will press more immediately on your
deliberations, a portion of them can not but be well bestowed on the
just and sound policy of securing to our manufactures the success they
have attained, and are still attaining, in some degree, under the
impulse of causes not permanent, and to our navigation, the fair extent
of which is at present abridged by the unequal regulations of foreign
governments.
Besides the reasonableness of saving our manufactures from sacrifices
which a change of circumstances might bring on them, the national
interest requires that, with respect to such articles at least as belong
to our defense and our primary wants, we should not be left in
unnecessary dependence on external supplies. And whilst foreign
governments adhere to the existing discriminations in their ports
against our navigation, and an equality or lesser discrimination is
enjoyed by their navigation in our ports, the effect can not be
mistaken, because it has been seriously felt by our shipping interests;
and in proportion as this takes place the advantages of an independent
conveyance of our products to foreign markets and of a growing body of
mariners trained by their occupations for the service of their country
in times of danger must be diminished.
The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th of
September last have exceeded $13,500,000, and have enabled us to defray
the current expenses, including the interest on the public debt, and to
reimburse more than $5,000,000 of the principal without recurring to the
loan authorized by the act of the last session. The temporary loan
obtained in the latter end of the year 1810 has also been reimbursed,
and is not included in that amount.
The decrease of revenue arising from the situation of our commerce, and
the extraordinary expenses which have and may become necessary, must be
taken into view in making commensurate provisions for the ensuing year;
and I recommend to your consideration the propriety of insuring a
sufficiency of annual revenue at least to defray the ordinary expenses
of Government, and to pay the interest on the public debt, including
that on new loans which may be authorized.
I can not close this communication without expressing my deep sense of
the crisis in which you are assembled, my confidence in a wise and
honorable result to your deliberations, and assurances of the faithful
zeal with which my cooperating duties will be discharged, invoking at
the same time the blessing of Heaven on our beloved country and on all
the means that may be employed in vindicating its rights and advancing
its welfare.
JAMES MADISON.
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
WASHINGTON, _November 13, 1811_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I communicate to Congress copies of a correspondence between the envoy
extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Great Britain and the
Secretary of State relative to the aggression committed by a British
ship of war on the United States frigate _Chesapeake_, by which it
will be seen that that subject of difference between the two countries
is terminated by an offer of reparation, which has been acceded to.
JAMES MADISON.
WASHINGTON, _December 18, 1811_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I lay before Congress two letters received from Governor Harrison, of
the Indiana Territory, reporting the particulars and the issue of the
expedition under his command, of which notice was taken in my
communication of November 5.
While it is deeply lamented that so many valuable lives have been lost
in the action which took place on the 7th ultimo, Congress will see with
satisfaction the dauntless spirit and fortitude victoriously displayed
by every description of the troops engaged, as well as the collected
firmness which distinguished their commander on an occasion requiring
the utmost exertions of valor and discipline.
It may reasonably be expected that the good effects of this critical
defeat and dispersion of a combination of savages, which appears to have
been spreading to a greater extent, will be experienced not only in a
cessation of the murders and depredations committed on our frontier, but
in the prevention of any hostile incursions otherwise to have been
apprehended.
The families of those brave and patriotic citizens who have fallen in
this severe conflict will doubtless engage the favorable attention of
Congress.
JAMES MADISON.
WASHINGTON, _December 23, 1811_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I communicate to Congress copies of an act of the legislature of New
York relating to a canal from the Great Lakes to Hudson River. In making
the communication I consult the respect due to that State, in whose
behalf the commissioners appointed by the act have placed it in my hands
for the purpose.
The utility of canal navigation is universally admitted. It is no less
certain that scarcely any country offers more extensive opportunities
for that branch of improvements than the United States, and none,
perhaps, inducements equally persuasive to make the most of them. The
particular undertaking contemplated by the State of New York, which
marks an honorable spirit of enterprise and comprises objects of
national as well as more limited importance, will recall the attention
of Congress to the signal advantages to be derived to the United States
from a general system of internal communication and conveyance, and
suggest to their consideration whatever steps may be proper on their
part toward its introduction and accomplishment. As some of those
advantages have an intimate connection with the arrangements and
exertions for the general security, it is at a period calling for those
that the merits of such a system will be seen in the strongest lights.
JAMES MADISON.
WASHINGTON, _December 27, 1811_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I lay before Congress copies of resolutions entered into by the
legislature of Pennsylvania, which have been transmitted to me with that
view by the governor of that State, in pursuance of one of the said
resolutions.
JAMES MADISON.
WASHINGTON, _January 15, 1812_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I transmit to Congress an account of the contingent expenses of the
Government for the year 1811, incurred on the occasion of taking
possession of the territory limited eastwardly by the river Perdido,
and amounting to $3,396.
JAMES MADISON.
WASHINGTON, _January 16, 1812_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I communicate to Congress a letter from the envoy extraordinary and
minister plenipotentiary of Great Britain to the Secretary of State,
with the answer of the latter.
The continued evidence afforded in this correspondence of the hostile
policy of the British Government against our national rights strengthens
the considerations recommending and urging the preparation of adequate
means for maintaining them.
JAMES MADISON.
MARCH 3, 1812.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
At the request of the convention assembled in the Territory of Orleans
on the 22d day of November last, I transmit to Congress the proceedings
of that body in pursuance of the act entitled "An act to enable the
people of the Territory of Orleans to form a constitution and State
government, and for the admission of the said State into the Union on an
equal footing with the original States, and for other purposes."
JAMES MADISON.
MARCH 9, 1812.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I lay before Congress copies of certain documents which remain in the
Department of State. They prove that at a recent period, whilst the
United States, notwithstanding the wrongs sustained by them, ceased not
to observe the laws of peace and neutrality toward Great Britain, and in
the midst of amicable professions and negotiations on the part of the
British Government, through its public minister here, a secret agent of
that Government was employed in certain States, more especially at the
seat of government in Massachusetts, in fomenting disaffection to the
constituted authorities of the nation, and in intrigues with the
disaffected, for the purpose of bringing about resistance to the laws,
and eventually, in concert with a British force, of destroying the Union
and forming the eastern part thereof into a political connection with
Great Britain.
In addition to the effect which the discovery of such a procedure ought
to have on the public councils, it will not fail to render more dear to
the hearts of all good citizens that happy union of these States which,
under Divine Providence, is the guaranty of their liberties, their
safety, their tranquillity, and their prosperity.
JAMES MADISON.
APRIL 1, 1812.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
Considering it as expedient, under existing circumstances and prospects,
that a general embargo be laid on all vessels now in port, or hereafter
arriving, for the period of sixty days, I recommend the immediate
passage of a law to that effect.
JAMES MADISON.
APRIL 20, 1812.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
Among the incidents to the unexampled increase and expanding interests
of the American nation under the fostering influence of free
constitutions and just laws has been a corresponding accumulation of
duties in the several Departments of the Government, and this has been
necessarily the greater in consequence of the peculiar state of our
foreign relations and the connection of these with our internal
administration.
The extensive and multiplied preparations into which the United States
are at length driven for maintaining their violated rights have caused
this augmentation of business to press on the Department of War
particularly, with a weight disproportionate to the powers of any single
officer, with no other aids than are authorized by existing laws. With a
view to a more adequate arrangement for the essential objects of that
Department, I recommend to the early consideration of Congress a
provision for two subordinate appointments therein, with such
compensations annexed as may be reasonably expected by citizens duly
qualified for the important functions which may be properly assigned to
them.
JAMES MADISON.
MAY 26, 1812.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I communicate to Congress, for their information, copies and extracts
from the correspondence of the Secretary of State and the minister
plenipotentiary of the United States at Paris. These documents will
place before Congress the actual posture of our relations with France.
JAMES MADISON.
WASHINGTON, _June 1, 1812_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I communicate to Congress certain documents, being a continuation of
those heretofore laid before them on the subject of our affairs with
Great Britain.
Without going back beyond the renewal in 1803 of the war in which
Great Britain is engaged, and omitting unrepaired wrongs of inferior
magnitude, the conduct of her Government presents a series of acts
hostile to the United States as an independent and neutral nation.
British cruisers have been in the continued practice of violating
the American flag on the great highway of nations, and of seizing
and carrying off persons sailing under it, not in the exercise of a
belligerent right founded on the law of nations against an enemy, but
of a municipal prerogative over British subjects. British jurisdiction
is thus extended to neutral vessels in a situation where no laws can
operate but the law of nations and the laws of the country to which the
vessels belong, and a self-redress is assumed which, if British subjects
were wrongfully detained and alone concerned, is that substitution of
force for a resort to the responsible sovereign which falls within
the definition of war. Could the seizure of British subjects in such
cases be regarded as within the exercise of a belligerent right, the
acknowledged laws of war, which forbid an article of captured property
to be adjudged without a regular investigation before a competent
tribunal, would imperiously demand the fairest trial where the sacred
rights of persons were at issue. In place of such a trial these rights
are subjected to the will of every petty commander.
The practice, hence, is so far from affecting British subjects alone
that, under the pretext of searching for these, thousands of American
citizens, under the safeguard of public law and of their national flag,
have been torn from their country and from everything dear to them; have
been dragged on board ships of war of a foreign nation and exposed,
under the severities of their discipline, to be exiled to the most
distant and deadly climes, to risk their lives in the battles of their
oppressors, and to be the melancholy instruments of taking away those of
their own brethren.
Against this crying enormity, which Great Britain would be so prompt
to avenge if committed against herself, the United States have in vain
exhausted remonstrances and expostulations, and that no proof might be
wanting of their conciliatory dispositions, and no pretext left for a
continuance of the practice, the British Government was formally assured
of the readiness of the United States to enter into arrangements such as
could not be rejected if the recovery of British subjects were the real
and the sole object. The communication passed without effect.
British cruisers have been in the practice also of violating the rights
and the peace of our coasts. They hover over and harass our entering and
departing commerce. To the most insulting pretensions they have added
the most lawless proceedings in our very harbors, and have wantonly
spilt American blood within the sanctuary of our territorial
jurisdiction. The principles and rules enforced by that nation, when
a neutral nation, against armed vessels of belligerents hovering near
her coasts and disturbing her commerce are well known. When called on,
nevertheless, by the United States to punish the greater offenses
committed by her own vessels, her Government has bestowed on their
commanders additional marks of honor and confidence.
Under pretended blockades, without the presence of an adequate force and
sometimes without the practicability of applying one, our commerce has
been plundered in every sea, the great staples of our country have been
cut off from their legitimate markets, and a destructive blow aimed
at our agricultural and maritime interests. In aggravation of these
predatory measures they have been considered as in force from the dates
of their notification, a retrospective effect being thus added, as has
been done in other important cases, to the unlawfulness of the course
pursued. And to render the outrage the more signal these mock blockades
have been reiterated and enforced in the face of official communications
from the British Government declaring as the true definition of a legal
blockade "that particular ports must be actually invested and previous
warning given to vessels bound to them not to enter."