executive establishment, that the provision for the station of
Attorney-General, whose residence at the seat of Government, official
connections with it, and the management of the public business before
the judiciary preclude an extensive participation in professional
emoluments, be made more adequate to his services and his
relinquishments, and that, with a view to his reasonable accommodation
and to a proper depository of his official opinions and proceedings,
there be included in the provision the usual appurtenances to a public
office.
In directing the legislative attention to the state of the finances it
is a subject of great gratification to find that even within the short
period which has elapsed since the return of peace the revenue has far
exceeded all the current demands upon the Treasury, and that under any
probable diminution of its future annual products which the vicissitudes
of commerce may occasion it will afford an ample fund for the effectual
and early extinguishment of the public debt. It has been estimated that
during the year 1816 the actual receipts of revenue at the Treasury,
including the balance at the commencement of the year, and excluding
the proceeds of loans and Treasury notes, will amount to about the sum
of $47,000,000; that during the same year the actual payments at the
Treasury, including the payment of the arrearages of the War Department
as well as the payment of a considerable excess beyond the annual
appropriations, will amount to about the sum of $38,000,000, and that
consequently at the close of the year there will be a surplus in the
Treasury of about the sum of $9,000,000.
The operations of the Treasury continued to be obstructed by
difficulties arising from the condition of the national currency, but
they have nevertheless been effectual to a beneficial extent in the
reduction of the public debt and the establishment of the public credit.
The floating debt of Treasury notes and temporary loans will soon be
entirely discharged. The aggregate of the funded debt, composed of
debts incurred during the wars of 1776 and 1812, has been estimated
with reference to the 1st of January next at a sum not exceeding
$110,000,000. The ordinary annual expenses of the Government for the
maintenance of all its institutions, civil, military, and naval, have
been estimated at a sum less than $20,000,000, and the permanent revenue
to be derived from all the existing sources has been estimated at a sum
of about $25,000,000,
Upon this general view of the subject it is obvious that there is only
wanting to the fiscal prosperity of the Government the restoration of an
uniform medium of exchange. The resources and the faith of the nation,
displayed in the system which Congress has established, insure respect
and confidence both at home and abroad. The local accumulations of the
revenue have already enabled the Treasury to meet the public engagements
in the local currency of most of the States, and it is expected that the
same cause will produce the same effect throughout the Union; but for
the interests of the community at large, as well as for the purposes
of the Treasury, it is essential that the nation should possess a
currency of equal value, credit, and use wherever it may circulate.
The Constitution has intrusted Congress exclusively with the power of
creating and regulating a currency of that description, and the measures
which were taken during the last session in execution of the power
give every promise of success. The Bank of the United States has been
organized under auspices the most favorable, and can not fail to be an
important auxiliary to those measures.
For a more enlarged view of the public finances, with a view of the
measures pursued by the Treasury Department previous to the resignation
of the late Secretary, I transmit an extract from the last report of
that officer. Congress will perceive in it ample proofs of the solid
foundation on which the financial prosperity of the nation rests, and
will do justice to the distinguished ability and successful exertions
with which the duties of the Department were executed during a period
remarkable for its difficulties and its peculiar perplexities.
The period of my retiring from the public service being at little
distance, I shall find no occasion more proper than the present for
expressing to my fellow-citizens my deep sense of the continued
confidence and kind support which I have received from them. My grateful
recollection of these distinguished marks of their favorable regard can
never cease, and with the consciousness that, if I have not served my
country with greater ability, I have served it with a sincere devotion
will accompany me as a source of unfailing gratification.
Happily, I shall carry with me from the public theater other sources,
which those who love their country most will best appreciate. I shall
behold it blessed with tranquillity and prosperity at home and with
peace and respect abroad. I can indulge the proud reflection that the
American people have reached in safety and success their fortieth year
as an independent nation; that for nearly an entire generation they have
had experience of their present Constitution, the offspring of their
undisturbed deliberations and of their free choice; that they have found
it to bear the trials of adverse as well as prosperous circumstances:
to contain in its combination of the federate and elective principles
a reconcilement of public strength with individual liberty, of national
power for the defense of national rights with a security against wars of
injustice, of ambition, and of vainglory in the fundamental provision
which subjects all questions of war to the will of the nation itself,
which is to pay its costs and feel its calamities. Nor is it less a
peculiar felicity of this Constitution, so dear to us all, that it is
found to be capable, without losing its vital energies, of expanding
itself over a spacious territory with the increase and expansion of the
community for whose benefit it was established.
And may I not be allowed to add to this gratifying spectacle that I
shall read in the character of the American people, in their devotion
to true liberty and to the Constitution which is its palladium, sure
presages that the destined career of my country will exhibit a
Government pursuing the public good as its sole object, and regulating
its means by the great principles consecrated in its charter and by
those moral principles to which they are so well allied; a Government
which watches over the purity of elections, the freedom of speech and
of the press, the trial by jury, and the equal interdict against
encroachments and compacts between religion and the state; which
maintains inviolably the maxims of public faith, the security of persons
and property, and encourages in every authorized mode that general
diffusion of knowledge which guarantees to public liberty its permanency
and to those who possess the blessing the true enjoyment of it; a
Government which avoids intrusions on the internal repose of other
nations, and repels them from its own; which does justice to all nations
with a readiness equal to the firmness with which it requires justice
from them; and which, whilst it refines its domestic code from every
ingredient not congenial with the precepts of an enlightened age and the
sentiments of a virtuous people, seeks by appeals to reason and by its
liberal examples to infuse into the law which governs the civilized
world a spirit which may diminish the frequency or circumscribe the
calamities of war, and meliorate the social and beneficent relations of
peace; a Government, in a word, whose conduct within and without may
bespeak the most noble of all ambitions---that of promoting peace on
earth and good will to man.
These contemplations, sweetening the remnant of my days, will animate my
prayers for the happiness of my beloved country, and a perpetuity of the
institutions under which it is enjoyed.
JAMES MADISON.
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
DECEMBER 6, 1816.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
The ninth section of the act passed at the last session of Congress "to
authorize the payment for property lost, captured, or destroyed by the
enemy while in the military service of the United States, and for other
purposes," having received a construction giving to it a scope of great
and uncertain extent, I thought it proper that proceedings relative to
claims under that part of the act should be suspended until Congress
should have an opportunity of defining more precisely the cases
contemplated by them. With that view I now recommend the subject to
their consideration. They will have an opportunity at the same time of
considering how far other provisions of the act may be rendered more
clear and precise in their import.
JAMES MADISON.
DECEMBER 10, 1816.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I lay before the Senate, for their consideration and advice as to
a ratification, treaties concluded with the several Indian tribes
according to the following statement:
A LIST OF INDIAN TRIBES WITH WHOM TREATIES HAVE BEEN MADE SINCE THE LAST
SESSION OF CONGRESS.
_Weas and Kickapoos tribes of Indians_.--Treaty concluded at Fort
Harrison between Benjamin Parke and the chiefs and headmen of those
tribes the 4th June, 1816.
_Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottowotomees_.--Treaty concluded at St. Louis
between Governors Clarke, Edwards, and Colonel Choteau and the chiefs
and headmen of those tribes on the 24th August, 1816.
_Winnebago tribes_.--Made by the same persons on part United States
and the headmen of this tribe at St. Louis 3d June, 1816.
_Sacks of Rock River_.--Made by same at St. Louis 13th May, 1816.
_Siouxs composing three tribes, the Siouxs of the Leaf, the Siouxs of
the Broad Leaf, and the Siouxs who Shoot on the Pine-tops_.--Made and
concluded by the same at St. Louis 1st June, 1816.
_Chickasaw tribe_.--Treaty made by General Jackson, David Merrewether,
esq., and Jesse Franklin, esq., and the headmen of that nation at
Chickasaw council house 20th September, 1816.
_Cherokee tribe_.--Treaty made by General Jackson, David Merrewether,
esq., and Jesse Franklin, esq., and the headmen of that nation at Turkey
Town on the 4th October, 1816.
_Choctaw tribe_.--Treaty made by General John Coffee, John Rhea, and
John McKee, esquires, and the headmen and warriors of that nation at
the Choctaw trading house on the 24th of October, 1816.
JAMES MADISON.
DECEMBER 13, 1816.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
A treaty of commerce between the United States and the King of Sweden
and Norway having been concluded and signed on the 4th day of September
last by their plenipotentiaries, I lay the same before the Senate for
their consideration and advice as to a ratification.
JAMES MADISON.
DECEMBER 21, 1816.
_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of
the 6th instant, I transmit to them the proceedings of the commissioner
appointed under the act "to authorize the payment for property lost,
captured, or destroyed by the enemy while in the military service of the
United States, and for other purposes," as reported by the commissioner
to the Department of War.
JAMES MADISON.
DECEMBER 26, 1816.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
It is found that the existing laws have not the efficacy necessary to
prevent violations of the obligations of the United States as a nation
at peace toward belligerent parties and other unlawful acts on the high
seas by armed vessels equipped within the waters of the United States.
With a view to maintain more effectually the respect due to the laws, to
the character, and to the neutral and pacific relations of the United
States, I recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency of
such further legislative provisions as may be requisite for detaining
vessels actually equipped, or in a course of equipment, with a warlike
force within the jurisdiction of the United States, or, as the case may
be, for obtaining from the owners or commanders of such vessels adequate
securities against the abuse of their armaments, with the exceptions in
such provisions proper for the cases of merchant vessels furnished with
the defensive armaments usual on distant and dangerous expeditions, and
of a private commerce in military stores permitted by our laws, and
which the law of nations does not require the United States to prohibit.
JAMES MADISON.
JANUARY 25, 1817.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I lay before Congress copies of ratified treaties between the United
States and the following Indian tribes:
First. The Wea and Kickapoo.
Second. The united tribes of Ottawas, Chippawas, and Potowotomies
residing on the Illinois and Melwakee rivers and their waters and
on the southwestern parts of Lake Michigan.
Third. That portion of the Winnebago tribe or nation residing on the
Ouisconsin River,
Fourth. The Sacs of Rock River and the adjacent country.
Fifth. Eight bands of the Siouxs, composing the three tribes called the
Siouxs of the Leaf, the Siouxs of the Broad Leaf, and the Siouxs who
Shoot in the Pine Tops.
Sixth. The Chickasaw tribe of Indians.
Seventh. The Cherokee tribe of Indians.
Eighth. The Chactaw tribe of Indians.
Congress will take into consideration how far legislative provisions may
be necessary for carrying into effect stipulations contained in the said
treaties,
JAMES MADISON.
JANUARY 31, 1817.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
The envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of His Most
Christian Majesty having renewed, under special instructions from his
Government, the claim of the representative of Baron de Beaumarchais for
1,000,000 livres, which were debited to him in the settlement of his
accounts with the United States, I lay before Congress copies of the
memoir on that subject addressed by the said envoy to the Secretary of
State.
Considering that the sum of which the million of livres in question made
a part was a gratuitous grant from the French Government to the United
States, and the declaration of that Government that that part of the
grant was put into the hands of M. de Beaumarchais as its agent, not as
the agent of the United States, and was duly accounted for by him to
the French Government; considering also the concurring opinions of two
Attorneys-General of the United States that the said debit was not
legally sustainable in behalf of the United States, I recommend the case
to the favorable attention of the Legislature, whose authority alone can
finally decide on it.
JAMES MADISON.
FEBRUARY 3, 1817.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
The Government of Great Britain, induced by the posture of the relations
with the United States which succeeded the conclusion of the recent
commercial convention, issued an order on the 17th day of August, 1815,
discontinuing the discriminating duties payable in British ports on
American vessels and their cargoes. It was not until the 22d of December
following that a corresponding discontinuance of discriminating duties
on British vessels and their cargoes in American ports took effect under
the authority vested in the Executive by the act of March, 1816. During
the period between those two dates there was consequently a failure
of reciprocity or equality in the existing regulations of the two
countries. I recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency
of paying to the British Government the amount of the duties remitted
during the period in question to citizens of the United States, subject
to a deduction of the amount of whatever discriminating duties may have
commenced in British ports after the signature of that convention and
been collected previous to the 17th of August, 1815.
JAMES MADISON.
FEBRUARY 6, 1817.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
On comparing the fourth section of the act of Congress passed March 31,
1814, providing for the indemnification of certain claimants of public
lands in the Mississippi Territory, with the article of agreement and
cession between the United States and State of Georgia, bearing date
April 30, 1802, it appears that the engagements entered into with the
claimants interfere with the rights and interests secured to that State.
I recommend to Congress that provision be made by law for payments to
the State of Georgia equal to the amount of Mississippi stock which
shall be paid into the Treasury until the stipulated sum of $1,250,000
shall be completed.
JAMES MADISON.
VETO MESSAGE.
MARCH 3, 1817.
_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
Having considered the bill this day presented to me entitled "An act
to set apart and pledge certain funds for internal improvements,"
and which sets apart and pledges funds "for constructing roads and
canals, and improving the navigation of water courses, in order to
facilitate, promote, and give security to internal commerce among
the several States, and to render more easy and less expensive the
means and provisions for the common defense," I am constrained by
the insuperable difficulty I feel in reconciling the bill with the
Constitution of the United States to return it with that objection
to the House of Representatives, in which it originated.
The legislative powers vested in Congress are specified and enumerated
in the eighth section of the first article of the Constitution, and it
does not appear that the power proposed to be exercised by the bill is
among the enumerated powers, or that it falls by any just interpretation
within the power to make laws necessary and proper for carrying into
execution those or other powers vested by the Constitution in the
Government of the United States.
"The power to regulate commerce among the several States" can not
include a power to construct roads and canals, and to improve the
navigation of water courses in order to facilitate, promote, and secure
such a commerce without a latitude of construction departing from the
ordinary import of the terms strengthened by the known inconveniences
which doubtless led to the grant of this remedial power to Congress.
To refer the power in question to the clause "to provide for the common
defense and general welfare" would be contrary to the established and
consistent rules of interpretation, as rendering the special and careful
enumeration of powers which follow the clause nugatory and improper.
Such a view of the Constitution would have the effect of giving to
Congress a general power of legislation instead of the defined and
limited one hitherto understood to belong to them, the terms "common
defense and general welfare" embracing every object and act within the
purview of a legislative trust. It would have the effect of subjecting
both the Constitution and laws of the several States in all cases not
specifically exempted to be superseded by laws of Congress, it being
expressly declared "that the Constitution of the United States and laws
made in pursuance thereof shall be the supreme law of the land, and
the judges of every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the
constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." Such
a view of the Constitution, finally, would have the effect of excluding
the judicial authority of the United States from its participation in
guarding the boundary between the legislative powers of the General and
the State Governments, inasmuch as questions relating to the general
welfare, being questions of policy and expediency, are unsusceptible of
judicial cognizance and decision.
A restriction of the power "to provide for the common defense and
general welfare" to cases which are to be provided for by the
expenditure of money would still leave within the legislative power of
Congress all the great and most important measures of Government, money
being the ordinary and necessary means of carrying them into execution.
If a general power to construct roads and canals, and to improve the
navigation of water courses, with the train of powers incident thereto,
be not possessed by Congress, the assent of the States in the mode
provided in the bill can not confer the power. The only cases in which
the consent and cession of particular States can extend the power of
Congress are those specified and provided for in the Constitution.
I am not unaware of the great importance of roads and canals and the
improved navigation of water courses, and that a power in the National
Legislature to provide for them might be exercised with signal advantage
to the general prosperity. But seeing that such a power is not expressly
given by the Constitution, and believing that it can not be deduced from
any part of it without an inadmissible latitude of construction and a
reliance on insufficient precedents; believing also that the permanent
success of the Constitution depends on a definite partition of powers
between the General and the State Governments, and that no adequate
landmarks would be left by the constructive extension of the powers of
Congress as proposed in the bill, I have no option but to withhold
my signature from it, and to cherishing the hope that its beneficial
objects may be attained by a resort for the necessary powers to the same
wisdom and virtue in the nation which established the Constitution in
its actual form and providently marked out in the instrument itself a
safe and practicable mode of improving it as experience might suggest.
JAMES MADISON.
PROCLAMATION.
[From Annals of Congress, Fourteenth Congress, second session, 218.]
WASHINGTON, _January 1, 1817_.
_To the Senators of the United States, respectively_:
SIR: Objects interesting to the United States requiring that the Senate
should be in session on the 4th of March next to receive such
communications as may be made to it on the part of the Executive, your
attendance in the Senate Chamber in this city on that day is accordingly
requested.
JAMES MADISON.