Speech Transcript:

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

When we assemble together, fellow citizens, to consider the state of
our beloved country, our just attentions are first drawn to those
pleasing circumstances which mark the goodness of that Being from
whose favor they flow and the large measure of thankfulness we owe
for His bounty. Another year has come around, and finds us still
blessed with peace and friendship abroad; law, order, and religion at
home; good affection and harmony with our Indian neighbors; our
burthens lightened, yet our income sufficient for the public wants,
and the produce of the year great beyond example. These, fellow
citizens, are the circumstances under which we meet, and we remark
with special satisfaction those which under the smiles of Providence
result from the skill, industry, and order of our citizens, managing
their own affairs in their own way and for their own use,
unembarrassed by too much regulation, unoppressed by fiscal
exactions.

On the restoration of peace in Europe that portion of the general
carrying trade which had fallen to our share during the war was
abridged by the returning competition of the belligerent powers. This
was to be expected, and was just. But in addition we find in some
parts of Europe monopolizing discriminations, which in the form of
duties tend effectually to prohibit the carrying thither our own
produce in our own vessels. From existing amities and a spirit of
justice it is hoped that friendly discussion will produce a fair and
adequate reciprocity. but should false calculations of interest
defeat our hope, it rests with the Legislature to decide whether they
will meet inequalities abroad with countervailing inequalities at
home, or provide for the evil in any other way.

It is with satisfaction I lay before you an act of the British
Parliamant anticipating this subject so far as to authorize a mutual
abolition of the duties and countervailing duties permitted under the
treaty of 1794. It shows on their part a spirit of justice and
friendly accommodation which it is our duty and our interest to
cultivate with all nations. Whether this would produce a due equality
in the navigation between the two countries is a subject for your
consideration.

Another circumstances which claims attention as directly affecting
the very source of our navigation is the defect or the evasion of the
law providing for the return of sea men, and particularly of those
belonging to vessels sold abroad. Numbers of them, discharged in
foreign ports, have been thrown on the hands of our consuls, who, to
rescue them from the dangers into which their distresses might plunge
them and save them to their country, have found it necessary in some
cases to return them at the public charge.

The cession of the Spanish Province of Louisiana to France, which
took place in the course of the late war, will, if carried into
effect, make a change in the aspect of our foreign relations which
will doubtless have just weight in any deliberations of the
Legislature connected with that subject.

There was reason not long since to apprehend that the warfare in
which we were engaged with Tripoli might be taken up by some other of
the Barbary Powers. A reenforcement, therefore, was immediately
ordered to the vessels already there. Subsequent information,
however, has removed these apprehensions for the present. To secure
our commerce in that sea with the smallest force competent, we have
supposed it best to watch strictly the harbor of Tripoli. Still,
however, the shallowness of their coast and the want of smaller
vessels on our part has permitted some cruisers to escape unobserved,
and to one of these an American vessel unfortunately fell prey. The
captain, one American sea man, and two others of color remain
prisoners with them unless exchanged under an agreement formerly made
with the Bashaw, to whom, on the faith of that, some of his captive
subjects had been restored.

The convention with the State of Georgia has been ratified by their
legislature, and a repurchase from the Creeks has been consequently
made of a part of the Talasscee country. In this purchase has been
also comprehended a part of the lands within the fork of Oconee and
Oakmulgee rivers. The particulars of the contract will be laid before
Congress so soon as they shall be in a state for communication.

In order to remove every ground of difference possible with our
Indian neighbors, I have proceeded in the work of settling with them
and marking the boundaries between us. That with the Choctaw Nation
is fixed in one part and will be through the whole within a short
time. The country to which their title had been extinguished before
the Revolution is sufficient to receive a very respectable
population, which Congress will probably see the expediency of
encouraging so soon as the limits shall be declared. We are to view
this position as an outpost of the United States, surrounded by
strong neighbors and distant from its support; and how far that
monopoly which prevents population should here be guarded against and
actual habitation made a condition of the continuance of title will be
for your consideration. A prompt settlement, too, of all existing
rights and claims within this territory presents itself as a
preliminary operation.

In that part of the Indiana Territory which includes Vincennes the
lines settled with the neighboring tribes fix the extinction of their
title at a breadth of 24 leagues from east to west and about the same
length parallel with and including the Wabash. They have also ceded a
tract of 4 miles square, including the salt springs near the mouth of
that river.

In the Department of Finance it is with pleasure I inform you, that
the receipts of external duties for the last 12 months have exceeded
those of any former year, and that the ration of increase has been
also greater than usual. This has enabled us to answer all the
regular exigencies of Government, to pay from the Treasury within 1
year upward of $8M, principal and interest, of the public debt,
exclusive of upward of $1M paid by the sale of bank stock, and making
in the whole a reduction of nearly $5.5M of principal, and to have now
in the Treasury $4.5M which are in a course of application to the
further discharge of debt and current demands. Experience, too, so
far, authorizes us to believe, if no extraordinary event supervenes,
and the expenses which will be actually incurred shall not be greater
than were contemplated by Congress at their last session, that we
shall not be disappointed in the expectations then formed. But
nevertheless, as the effect of peace on the amount of duties is not
yet fully ascertained, it is the more necessary to practice every
useful economy and to incur no expense which may be avoided without
prejudice.

The collection of the internal taxes having been completed in some of
the States, the officers employed in it are of course out of
commission. In others they will be so shortly. But in a few, where
the arrangements for the direct tax had been retarded, it will be
some time before the system is closed. It has not yet been thought
necessary to employ the agent authorized by an act of the last
session for transacting business in Europe relative to debts and
loans. Nor have we used the power confided by the same act of
prolonging the foreign debt by reloans, and of redeeming instead
thereof an equal sum of the domestic debt. Should, however, the
difficulties of remittance on so large a scale render it necessary at
any time, the power shall be executed and the money thus employed
abroad shall, in conformity with that law, be faithfully applied here
in an equivalent extinction of domestic debt.

When effects so salutary result from the plans you have already
sanctioned; when merely by avoiding false objects of expense we are
able, without a direct tax, without internal taxes, and without
borrowing to make large and effectual payments toward the discharge
of our public debt and the emancipation of our posterity from that
mortal canker, it is an encouragement, fellow citizens, of the
highest order to proceed as we have begun in substituting economy for
taxation, and in pursuing what is useful for a nation placed as we
are, rather than what is practiced by others under different
circumstances. And when so ever we are destined to meet events which
shall call forth all the energies of our country-men, we have the
firmest reliance on those energies and the comfort of leaving for
calls like these the extraordinary resources of loans and internal
taxes. In the mean time, by payments of the principal of our debt, we
are liberating annually portions of the external taxes and forming
from them a growing fund still further to lessen the necessity of
recurring to extraordinary resources.

The usual account of receipts and expenditures for the last year,
with an estimate of the expenses of the ensuing one, will be laid
before you by the Secretary of the Treasury.

No change being deemed necessary in our military establishment, an
estimate of its expenses for the ensuing year on its present footing,
as also of the sums to be employed in fortifications and other objects
within that department, has been prepared by the Secretary of War, and
will make a part of the general estimates which will be presented
you.

Considering that our regular troops are employed for local purposes,
and that the militia is our general reliance for great and sudden
emergencies, you will doubtless think this institution worthy of a
review, and give it those improvements of which you find it
susceptible.

Estimates for the Naval Department, prepared by the Secretary of the
Navy, for another year will in like manner be communicated with the
general estimates. A small force in the Mediterranean will still be
necessary to restrain the Tripoline cruisers, and the uncertain
tenure of peace with some other of the Barbary Powers may eventually
require that force to be augmented. The necessity of procuring some
smaller vessels for that service will raise the estimate, but the
difference in their maintenance will soon make it a measure of
economy.

Presuming it will be deemed expedient to expend annually a convenient
sum toward providing the naval defense which our situation may
require, I can not but recommend that the first appropriations for
that purpose may go to the saving what we already possess. No cares,
no attentions, can preserve vessels from rapid decay which lie in
water and exposed to the sun. These decays require great and constant
repairs, and will consume, if continued, a great portion of the moneys
destined to naval purposes. To avoid this waste of our resources it is
proposed to add to our navy-yard here a dock within which our present
vessels may be laid up dry and under cover from the sun. Under these
circumstances experience proves that works of wood will remain
scarcely at all affected by time. The great abundance of running
water which this situation possesses, at heights far above the level
of the tide, if employed as is practiced for lock navigation,
furnishes the means for raising and laying up our vessels on a dry
and sheltered bed. And should the measure be found useful here,
similar depositories for laying up as well as for building and
repairing vessels may hereafter be undertaken at other navy-yards
offering the same means. The plans and estimates of the work,
prepared by a person of skill and experience, will be presented to
you without delay, and from this it will be seen that scarcely more
than has been the cost of 1 vessel is necessary to save the whole,
and that the annual sum to be employed toward its completion may be
adapted to the views of the Legislature as to naval expenditure.

To cultivate peace and maintain commerce and navigation in all their
lawful enterprises;
to foster our fisheries as nurseries of navigation and for the
nurture of man, and protect the manufactures adapted to our
circumstances;
to preserve the faith of the nation by an exact discharge of its
debts and contracts, expend the public money with the same care and
economy we would practice with our own, and impose on our citizens no
unnecessary burthens;
to keep in all things within the pale of our constitutional powers,
and cherish the federal union as the only rock of safety.
These, fellow citizens, are the land-marks by which we are to guide
ourselves in all proceedings. By continuing to make these the rule of
our action we shall endear to our country-men the true principles of
their Constitution and promote an union of sentiment and of action
equally auspicious to their happiness and safety. On my part, you may
count on a cordial concurrence in every measure for the public good
and on all the information I possess which may enable you to
discharge to advantage the high functions with which you are invested
by your country.