Speech Transcript:

Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of
Representatives:
It is with peculiar satisfaction that I meet the 6th Congress of the
United States of America. Coming from all parts of the Union at this
critical and interesting period, the members must be fully possessed
of the sentiments and wishes of our constituents.

The flattering prospects of abundance from the labors of the people
by land and by sea; the prosperity of our extended commerce,
notwithstanding interruptions occasioned by the belligerent state of
a great part of the world; the return of health, industry, and trade
to those cities which have lately been afflicted with disease, and
the various and inestimable advantages, civil and religious, which,
secured under our happy frame of government, are continued to us
unimpaired, demand of the whole American people sincere thanks to a
benevolent Deity for the merciful dispensations of His providence.

But while these numerous blessings are recollected, it is a painful
duty to advert to the ungrateful return which has been made for them
by some of the people in certain counties of Pennsylvania, where,
seduced by the arts and misrepresentations of designing men, they
have openly resisted the law directing the valuation of houses and
lands. Such defiance was given to the civil authority as rendered
hopeless all further attempts by judicial process to enforce the
execution of the law, and it became necessary to direct a military
force to be employed, consisting of some companies of regular troops,
volunteers, and militia, by whose zeal and activity, in cooperation
with the judicial power, order and submission were restored and many
of the offenders arrested. Of these, some have been convicted of
misdemeanors, and others, charged with various crimes, remain to be
tried.

To give due effect to the civil administration of Government and to
insure a just execution of the laws, a revision and amendment of the
judiciary system is indispensably necessary. In this extensive
country it can not but happen that numerous questions respecting the
interpretation of the laws and the rights and duties of officers and
citizens must arise. On the one hand, the laws should be executed; on
the other, individuals should be guarded from oppression. Neither of
these objects is sufficiently assured under the present organization
of the judicial department. I therefore earnestly recommend the
subject to your serious consideration.

Persevering in the pacific and humane policy which had been
invariably professed and sincerely pursued by the Executive authority
of the United States, when indications were made on the part of the
French Republic of a disposition to accommodate the existing
differences between the 2 countries, I felt it to be my duty to
prepare for meeting their advances by a nomination of ministers upon
certain conditions which the honor of our country dictated, and which
its moderation had given it a right to prescribe.

The assurances which were required of the French Government previous
to the departure of our envoys have been given through their minister
of foreign relations, and I have directed them to proceed on their
mission to Paris. They have full power to conclude a treaty, subject
to the constitutional advice and consent of the Senate. The
characters of these gentlemen are sure pledges to their country that
nothing incompatible with its honor or interest, nothing inconsistent
with our obligations of good faith or friendship to any other nation,
will be stipulated.

It appearing probable from the information I received that our
commercial intercourse with some ports in the island of St. Domingo
might safely be renewed, I took such steps as seemed to me expedient
to ascertain that point. The result being satisfactory, I then, in
conformity with the act of Congress on the subject, directed the
restraints and prohibitions of that intercourse to be discontinued on
terms which were made known by proclamation. Since the renewal of this
intercourse our citizens trading to those ports, with their property,
have been duly respected, and privateering from those ports has
ceased.

In examining the claims of British subjects by the commissioners at
Philadelphia, acting under the 6th article of the treaty of amity,
commerce, and navigation with Great Britain, a difference of opinion
on points deemed essential in the interpretation of that article has
arisen between the commissioners appointed by the United States and
the other members of that board, from which the former have thought
it their duty to withdraw. It is sincerely to be regretted that the
execution of an article produced by a mutual spirit of amity and
justice should have been thus unavoidably interrupted. It is,
however, confidently expected that the same spirit of amity and the
same sense of justice in which it originated will lead to
satisfactory explanations.

In consequence of the obstacles to the progress of the commission in
Philadelphia, His Britannic Majesty has directed the commissioners
appointed by him under the 7th article of the treaty relating to the
British captures of American vessels to withdraw from the board
sitting in London, but with the express declaration of his
determination to fulfill with punctuality and good faith the
engagements which His Majesty has contracted by his treaty with the
United States, and that they will be instructed to resume their
functions whenever the obstacles which impede the progress of the
commission at Philadelphia shall be removed. It being in like manner
my sincere determination, so far as the same depends on me, that with
equal punctuality and good faith the engagements contracted by the
United States in their treaties with His Britannic Majesty shall be
fulfilled, I shall immediately instruct our minister at London to
endeavor to obtain the explanation necessary to a just performance of
those engagements on the part of the United States. With such
dispositions on both sides, I can not entertain a doubt that all
difficulties will soon be removed and that the 2 boards will then
proceed and bring the business committed to them respectively to a
satisfactory conclusion.

The act of Congress relative to the seat of the Government of the
United States requiring that on the 1st Monday of December next it
should be transferred from Philadelphia to the District chosen for
its permanent seat, it is proper for me to inform you that the
commissioners appointed to provide suitable buildings for the
accommodation of Congress and of the President and of the public
offices of the Government have made a report of the state of the
buildings designed for those purposes in the city of Washington, from
which they conclude that the removal of the seat of Government to that
place at the time required will be practicable and the accommodation
satisfactory. Their report will be laid before you.

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
I shall direct the estimates of the appropriations necessary for the
service of the ensuing year, together with an account of the revenue
and expenditure, to be laid before you. During a period in which a
great portion of the civilized world has been involved in a war
unusually calamitous and destructive, it was not to be expected that
the United States could be exempted from extraordinary burthens.
Although the period is not arrived when the measures adopted to
secure our country against foreign attacks can be renounced, yet it
is alike necessary for the honor of the Government and the
satisfaction of the community that an exact economy should be
maintained. I invite you, gentlemen, to investigate the different
branches of the public expenditure. The examination will lead to
beneficial retrenchments or produce a conviction of the wisdom of the
measures to which the expenditure relates.

Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of
Representatives:
At a period like the present, when momentous changes are occurring
and every hour is preparing new and great events in the political
world, when a spirit of war is prevalent in almost every nation with
whose affairs the interests of the United States have any connection,
unsafe and precarious would be our situation were we to neglect the
means of maintaining our just rights. The result of the mission to
France is uncertain; but however it may terminate, a steady
perseverance in a system of national defense commensurate with our
resources and the situation of our country is an obvious dictate of
wisdom; for, remotely as we are placed from the belligerent nations,
and desirous as we are, by doing justice to all, to avoid offense to
any, nothing short of the power of repelling aggressions will secure
to our country a rational prospect of escaping the calamities of war
or national degradation. As to myself, it is my anxious desire so to
execute the trust reposed in me as to render the people of the United
States prosperous and happy. I rely with entire confidence on your
cooperation in objects equally your care, and that our mutual labors
will serve to increase and confirm union among our fellow citizens
and an unshaken attachment to our Government.