in which you will unite, to the happy lot of our country and to the
goodness of a superintending Providence, to which we are indebted for
it. Whilst other portions of mankind are laboring under the distresses
of war or struggling with adversity in other forms, the United States
are in the tranquil enjoyment of prosperous and honorable peace. In
reviewing the scenes through which it has been attained we can rejoice
in the proofs given that our political institutions, founded in human
rights and framed for their preservation, are equal to the severest
trials of war, as well as adapted to the ordinary periods of repose. As
fruits of this experience and of the reputation acquired by the American
arms on the land and on the water, the nation finds itself possessed of
a growing respect abroad and of a just confidence in itself, which are
among the best pledges for its peaceful career. Under other aspects of
our country the strongest features of its flourishing condition are seen
in a population rapidly increasing on a territory as productive as it is
extensive; in a general industry and fertile ingenuity which find their
ample rewards, and in an affluent revenue which admits a reduction of
the public burdens without withdrawing the means of sustaining the
public credit, of gradually discharging the public debt, of providing
for the necessary defensive and precautionary establishments, and of
patronizing in every authorized mode undertakings conducive to the
aggregate wealth and individual comfort of our citizens.
It remains for the guardians of the public welfare to persevere in that
justice and good will toward other nations which invite a return of
these sentiments toward the United States; to cherish institutions which
guarantee their safety and their liberties, civil and religious; and to
combine with a liberal system of foreign commerce an improvement of the
national advantages and a protection and extension of the independent
resources of our highly favored and happy country.
In all measures having such objects my faithful cooperation will be
afforded.
JAMES MADISON.
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
WASHINGTON, _December 6, 1815_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I lay before the Senate, for their consideration and advice as to a
ratification, a treaty of peace with the Dey of Algiers concluded on
the 30th day of June, 1815, with a letter relating to the same from
the American commissioners to the Secretary of State.
JAMES MADISON.
DECEMBER 6, 1815.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I lay before the Senate, for their consideration and advice as to a
ratification, a convention to regulate the commerce between the United
States and Great Britain, signed by their respective plenipotentiaries
on the 3d of July last, with letters relating to the same from the
American plenipotentiaries to the Secretary of State, and also the
declaration with which it is the intention of the British Government
to accompany the exchange of the ratification of the convention.
JAMES MADISON.
WASHINGTON, _December 6, 1815_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I lay before the Senate, for their consideration and advice as to a
ratification, treaties which have been concluded with the following
Indian tribes, viz: Iaway tribe, Kickapoo tribe, Poutawatamie, Siouxs
of the Lakes, Piankeshaw tribe, Siouxs of the River St. Peters, Great
and Little Osage tribes, Yancton tribe, Mahas, Fox tribe, Teeton, Sac
Nation, Kanzas tribe, Chippewa, Ottawa, Potawatamie, Shawanoe, Wyandot,
Miami, Delaware, and Seneca.
I communicate also the letters from the commissioners on the part of
the United States relating to their proceedings on those occasions.
JAMES MADISON.
WASHINGTON, _December 11, 1815_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit the original of the convention between the United States and
Great Britain, as signed by their respective plenipotentiaries, on the
3d day of July last, a copy of which was laid before the Senate on the
5th instant.
I transmit also a copy of the late treaty of peace with Algiers, as
certified by one of the commissioners of the United States, an office
copy of which was laid before the Senate on the 5th instant, the
original of the treaty not having been received.
JAMES MADISON.
DECEMBER 23, 1815.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I lay before Congress copies of a proclamation notifying the convention
concluded with Great Britain on the 3d day of July last, and that the
same has been duly ratified; and I recommend to Congress such
legislative provisions as the convention may call for on the part of the
United States.
JAMES MADISON.
JANUARY 18, 1816.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
The accompanying extract from the occurrences at Fort Jackson in August,
1814, during the negotiation of a treaty with the Indians shows that the
friendly Creeks, wishing to give to General Jackson, Benjamin Hawkins,
and others a national mark of their gratitude and regard, conveyed to
them, respectively, a donation of land, with a request that the grant
might be duly confirmed by the Government of the United States.
Taking into consideration the peculiar circumstances of the case, the
expediency of indulging the Indians in wishes which they associated with
the treaty signed by them, and that the case involves an inviting
opportunity for bestowing on an officer who has rendered such
illustrious services to his country a token of its sensibility to them,
the inducement to which can not be diminished by the delicacy and
disinterestedness of his proposal to transfer the benefit from himself,
I recommend to Congress that provision be made for carrying into effect
the wishes and request of the Indians as expressed by them.
JAMES MADISON.
FEBRUARY 6, 1816.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
It is represented that the lands in the Michigan Territory designated by
law toward satisfying land bounties promised the soldiers of the late
army are so covered with swamps and lakes, or otherwise unfit for
cultivation, that a very inconsiderable proportion can be applied to the
intended grants. I recommend, therefore, that other lands be designated
by Congress for the purpose of supplying the deficiency.
JAMES MADISON.
MARCH 5, 1816.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 2d instant, they
are informed that great losses having been sustained by citizens of
the United States from unjust seizures and confiscations of their
property by the late Government of Naples, it was deemed expedient
that indemnification should be claimed by a special mission for that
purpose. The occasion may be proper, also, for securing the use and
accommodations of the Neapolitan ports, which may at any time be needed
by the public ships of the United States, and for obtaining relief for
the American commerce from the disadvantageous and unequal regulations
now operating against it in that Kingdom,
JAMES MADISON.
MARCH 9, 1816.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I lay before Congress a statement of the militia of the United States
according to the latest returns received by the Department of War.
JAMES MADISON.
APRIL 11, 1816.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
With a view to the more convenient arrangement of the important and
growing business connected with the grant of exclusive rights to
inventors and authors, I recommend the establishment of a distinct
office within the Department of State to be charged therewith, under a
director with a salary adequate to his services, and with the privilege
of franking communications by mail from and to the office. I recommend
also that further restraints be imposed on the issue of patents to
wrongful claimants, and further guards provided against fraudulent
exactions of fees by persons possessed of patents.
JAMES MADISON.
APRIL 16, 1816.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I lay before Congress copies of a convention concluded between the
United States and the Cherokee Indians on the 2d day of March last, as
the same has been duly ratified and proclaimed; and I recommend that
such provision be made by Congress as the stipulations therein contained
may require,
JAMES MADISON.
APRIL 17, 1816.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
It being presumed that further information may have changed the views
of the Senate relative to the importance and expediency of a mission to
Naples for the purpose of negotiating indemnities to our citizens for
spoliations committed by the Neapolitan Government, I nominate William
Pinkney, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Russia,
to be minister plenipotentiary to Naples, specially charged with that
trust.
JAMES MADISON.
PROCLAMATIONS.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas it has been represented that many uninformed or evil-disposed
persons have taken possession of or made a settlement on the public
lands of the United States which have not been previously sold, ceded,
or leased by the United States, or the claim to which lands by such
persons has not been previously recognized or confirmed by the United
States, which possession or settlement is by the act of Congress passed
on the 3d day of March, 1807, expressly prohibited; and
Whereas the due execution of the said act of Congress, as well as the
general interest, requires that such illegal practices should be
promptly repressed:
Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United States,
have thought proper to issue my proclamation commanding and strictly
enjoining all persons who have unlawfully taken possession of or made
any settlement on the public lands as aforesaid forthwith to remove
therefrom; and I do hereby further command and enjoin the marshal,
or officer acting as marshal, in any State or Territory where such
possession shall have been taken or settlement made to remove, from
and after the 10th day of March, 1816, all or any of the said unlawful
occupants; and to effect the said service I do hereby authorize the
employment of such military force as may become necessary in pursuance
of the provisions of the act of Congress aforesaid, warning the
offenders, moreover, that they will be prosecuted in all such other ways
as the law directs.
In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States of
America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my
hand.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, the 12th day of December, A.D. 1815, and
of the Independence of the said United States of America the fortieth.
JAMES MADISON.
By the President:
JAMES MONROE,
_Secretary of State_.
[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 10, p. 208.]
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas by the act entitled "An act granting bounties in land and extra
pay to certain Canadian volunteers," passed the 5th March, 1816, it was
enacted that the locations of the land warrants of the said volunteers
should "be subject to such regulations as to priority of choice and
manner of location as the President of the United States shall direct:"
Wherefore I, James Madison, President of the United States, in
conformity with the provisions of the act before recited, do hereby make
known that the land warrants of the said Canadian volunteers may be
located agreeably to the said act at the land offices at Vincennes or
Jeffersonville, in the Indiana Territory, on the first Monday in June
next, with the registers of the said land offices; that the warrantees
may, in person or by their attorneys or other legal representatives, in
the presence of the register and receiver of the said land district,
draw lots for the priority of location; and that should any of the
warrants not appear for location on that day they may be located
afterwards, according to their priority of presentation, the locations
in the district of Vincennes to be made at Vincennes and the locations
in the district of Jeffersonville to be made at Jeffersonville.
Given under my hand the 1st day of May, 1816.
JAMES MADISON.
By the President:
JOSIAH MEIGS,
_Commissioner of the General Land Office_.
EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
DECEMBER 3, 1816.
_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
In reviewing the present state of our country, our attention can not be
withheld from the effect produced by peculiar seasons which have very
generally impaired the annual gifts of the earth and threatened scarcity
in particular districts. Such, however, is the variety of soils, of
climates, and of products within our extensive limits that the aggregate
resources for subsistence are more than sufficient for the aggregate
wants. And as far as an economy of consumption, more than usual, may be
necessary, our thankfulness is due to Providence for what is far more
than a compensation, in the remarkable health which has distinguished
the present year.
Amidst the advantages which have succeeded the peace of Europe, and that
of the United States with Great Britain, in a general invigoration of
industry among us and in the extension of our commerce, the value of
which is more and more disclosing itself to commercial nations, it is
to be regretted that a depression is experienced by particular branches
of our manufactures and by a portion of our navigation. As the first
proceeds in an essential degree from an excess of imported merchandise,
which carries a check in its own tendency, the cause in its present
extent can not be of very long duration. The evil will not, however,
be viewed by Congress without a recollection that manufacturing
establishments, if suffered to sink too low or languish too long,
may not revive after the causes shall have ceased, and that in the
vicissitudes of human affairs situations may recur in which a dependence
on foreign sources for indispensable supplies may be among the most
serious embarrassments.
The depressed state of our navigation is to be ascribed in a material
degree to its exclusion from the colonial ports of the nation most
extensively connected with us in commerce, and from the indirect
operation of that exclusion.
Previous to the late convention at London between the United States
and Great Britain the relative state of the navigation laws of the two
countries, growing out of the treaty of 1794, had given to the British
navigation a material advantage over the American in the intercourse
between the American ports and British ports in Europe. The convention
of London equalized the laws of the two countries relating to those
ports, leaving the intercourse between our ports and the ports of the
British colonies subject, as before, to the respective regulations of
the parties. The British Government enforcing now regulations which
prohibit a trade between its colonies and the United States in American
vessels, whilst they permit a trade in British vessels, the American
navigation loses accordingly, and the loss is augmented by the advantage
which is given to the British competition over the American in the
navigation between our ports and British ports in Europe by the
circuitous voyages enjoyed by the one and not enjoyed by the other.
The reasonableness of the rule of reciprocity applied to one branch of
the commercial intercourse has been pressed on our part as equally
applicable to both branches; but it is ascertained that the British
cabinet declines all negotiation on the subject, with a disavowal,
however, of any disposition to view in an unfriendly light whatever
countervailing regulations the United States may oppose to the
regulations of which they complain. The wisdom of the Legislature will
decide on the course which, under these circumstances, is prescribed by
a joint regard to the amicable relations between the two nations and to
the just interests of the United States.
I have the satisfaction to state, generally, that we remain in amity with
foreign powers.
An occurrence has indeed taken place in the Gulf of Mexico which, if
sanctioned by the Spanish Government, may make an exception as to that
power. According to the report of our naval commander on that station,
one of our public armed vessels was attacked by an overpowering force
under a Spanish commander, and the American flag, with the officers and
crew, insulted in a manner calling for prompt reparation. This has been
demanded. In the meantime a frigate and a smaller vessel of war have
been ordered into that Gulf for the protection of our commerce. It would
be improper to omit that the representative of His Catholic Majesty in
the United States lost no time in giving the strongest assurances that
no hostile order could have emanated from his Government, and that it
will be as ready to do as to expect whatever the nature of the case and
the friendly relations of the two countries shall be found to require.
The posture of our affairs with Algiers at the present moment is not
known. The Dey, drawing pretexts from circumstances for which the United
States were not answerable, addressed a letter to this Government
declaring the treaty last concluded with him to have been annulled by
our violation of it, and presenting as the alternative war or a renewal
of the former treaty, which stipulated, among other things, an annual
tribute. The answer, with an explicit declaration that the United States
preferred war to tribute, required his recognition and observance of
the treaty last made, which abolishes tribute and the slavery of our
captured citizens. The result of the answer has not been received.
Should he renew his warfare on our commerce, we rely on the protection
it will find in our naval force actually in the Mediterranean.
With the other Barbary States our affairs have undergone no change.
The Indian tribes within our limits appear also disposed to remain
at peace. From several of them purchases of lands have been made
particularly favorable to the wishes and security of our frontier
settlements, as well as to the general interests of the nation. In some
instances the titles, though not supported by due proof, and clashing
those of one tribe with the claims of another, have been extinguished by
double purchases, the benevolent policy of the United States preferring
the augmented expense to the hazard of doing injustice or to the
enforcement of justice against a feeble and untutored people by means
involving or threatening an effusion of blood. I am happy to add that
the tranquillity which has been restored among the tribes themselves, as
well as between them and our own population, will favor the resumption
of the work of civilization which had made an encouraging progress among
some tribes, and that the facility is increasing for extending that
divided and individual ownership, which exists now in movable property
only, to the soil itself, and of thus establishing in the culture and
improvement of it the true foundation for a transit from the habits of
the savage to the arts and comforts of social life.
As a subject of the highest importance to the national welfare, I
must again earnestly recommend to the consideration of Congress a
reorganization of the militia on a plan which will form it into classes
according to the periods of life more or less adapted to military
services. An efficient militia is authorized and contemplated by the
Constitution and required by the spirit and safety of free government.
The present organization of our militia is universally regarded as less
efficient than it ought to be made, and no organization can be better
calculated to give to it its due force than a classification which will
assign the foremost place in the defense of the country to that portion
of its citizens whose activity and animation best enable them to rally
to its standard. Besides the consideration that a time of peace is the
time when the change can be made with most convenience and equity, it
will now be aided by the experience of a recent war in which the militia
bore so interesting a part.
Congress will call to mind that no adequate provision has yet been made
for the uniformity of weights and measures also contemplated by the
Constitution. The great utility of a standard fixed in its nature and
founded on the easy rule of decimal proportions is sufficiently obvious.
It led the Government at an early stage to preparatory steps for
introducing it, and a completion of the work will be a just title to
the public gratitude.
The importance which I have attached to the establishment of a
university within this District on a scale and for objects worthy of
the American nation induces me to renew my recommendation of it to the
favorable consideration of Congress. And I particularly invite again
their attention to the expediency of exercising their existing powers,
and, where necessary, of resorting to the prescribed mode of enlarging
them, in order to effectuate a comprehensive system of roads and canals,
such as will have the effect of drawing more closely together every
part of our country by promoting intercourse and improvements and by
increasing the share of every part in the common stock of national
prosperity.
Occurrences having taken place which shew that the statutory provisions
for the dispensation of criminal justice are deficient in relation both
to places and to persons under the exclusive cognizance of the national
authority, an amendment of the law embracing such cases will merit the
earliest attention of the Legislature. It will be a seasonable occasion
also for inquiring how far legislative interposition maybe further
requisite in providing penalties for offenses designated in the
Constitution or in the statutes, and to which either no penalties are
annexed or none with sufficient certainty. And I submit to the wisdom
of Congress whether a more enlarged revisal of the criminal code be not
expedient for the purpose of mitigating in certain cases penalties which
were adopted into it antecedent to experiment and examples which justify
and recommend a more lenient policy.
The United States, having been the first to abolish within the extent
of their authority the transportation of the natives of Africa into
slavery, by prohibiting the introduction of slaves and by punishing
their citizens participating in the traffic, can not but be gratified
at the progress made by concurrent efforts of other nations toward a
general suppression of so great an evil. They must feel at the same
time the greater solicitude to give the fullest efficacy to their own
regulations. With that view, the interposition of Congress appears to
be required by the violations and evasions which it is suggested are
chargeable on unworthy citizens who mingle in the slave trade under
foreign flags and with foreign ports, and by collusive importations of
slaves into the United States through adjoining ports and territories.
I present the subject to Congress with a full assurance of their
disposition to apply all the remedy which can be afforded by an
amendment of the law. The regulations which were intended to guard
against abuses of a kindred character in the trade between the several
States ought also to be rendered more effectual for their humane object.
To these recommendations I add, for the consideration of Congress, the
expediency of a remodification of the judiciary establishment, and of
an additional department in the executive branch of the Government.
The first is called for by the accruing business which necessarily
swells the duties of the Federal courts, and by the great and widening
space within which justice is to be dispensed by them. The time seems to
have arrived which claims for members of the Supreme Court a relief from
itinerary fatigues, incompatible as well with the age which a portion of
them will always have attained as with the researches and preparations
which are due to their stations and to the juridical reputation of their
country. And considerations equally cogent require a more convenient
organization of the subordinate tribunals, which may be accomplished
without an objectionable increase of the number or expense of the
judges.
The extent and variety of executive business also accumulating with
the progress of our country and its growing population call for an
additional department, to be charged with duties now overburdening other
departments and with such as have not been annexed to any department.