Speech Transcript:

Fellow Citizens of the Senate & of the House of Representatives:

I have the satisfaction on our present meeting of being able to
communicate the successful termination of the war which had been
commenced against the United States by the Regency of Algiers. The
squadron in advance on that service, under Commodore Decatur, lost
not a moment after its arrival in the Mediterranean in seeking the
naval force of the enemy then cruising in that sea, and succeeded in
capturing two of his ships, one of them the principal ship, commanded
by the Algerine admiral. The high character of the American commander
was brilliantly sustained on the occasion which brought his own ship
into close action with that of his adversary, as was the accustomed
gallantry of all the officers and men actually engaged. Having
prepared the way by this demonstration of American skill and prowess,
he hastened to the port of Algiers, where peace was promptly yielded
to his victorious force.

In the terms stipulated the rights and honor of the United States
were particularly consulted by a perpetual relinquishment on the part
of the Dey of all pretensions to tribute from them. The impressions
which have thus been made, strengthened as they will have been by
subsequent transactions with the Regencies of Tunis and of Tripoli by
the appearance of the larger force which followed under Commodore
Bainbridge, the chief in command of the expedition, and by the
judicious precautionary arrangements left by him in that quarter,
afford a reasonable prospect of future security for the valuable
portion of our commerce which passes within reach of the Barbary
cruisers.

It is another source of satisfaction that the treaty of peace with
Great Britain has been succeeded by a convention on the subject of
commerce concluded by the plenipotentiaries of the two countries. In
this result a disposition is manifested on the part of that nation
corresponding with the disposition of the United States, which it may
be hoped will be improved into liberal arrangements on other subjects
on which the parties have mutual interests, or which might endanger
their future harmony. Congress will decide on the expediency of
promoting such a sequel by giving effect to the measure of confining
the American navigation to American sea men - a measure which, at the
same time that it might have that conciliatory tendency, would have
the further advantage of increasing the independence of our
navigation and the resources for our maritime defense.

In conformity with the articles in the treaty of Ghent relating to
the Indians, as well as with a view to the tranquillity of our
western and northwestern frontiers, measures were taken to establish
an immediate peace with the several tribes who had been engaged in
hostilities against the United States. Such of them as were invited
to Detroit acceded readily to a renewal of the former treaties of
friendship. Of the other tribes who were invited to a station on the
Mississippi the greater number have also accepted the peace offered
to them. The residue, consisting of the more distant tribes or parts
of tribes, remain to be brought over by further explanations, or by
such other means as may be adapted to the dispositions they may
finally disclose.

The Indian tribes within and bordering on the southern frontier, whom
a cruel war on their part had compelled us to chastise into peace,
have latterly shown a restlessness which has called for preparatory
measures for repressing it, and for protecting the commissioners
engaged in carrying the terms of the peace into execution.

The execution of the act for fixing the military peace establishment
has been attended with difficulties which even now can only be
overcome by legislative aid. The selection of officers, the payment
and discharge of the troops enlisted for the war, the payment of the
retained troops and their reunion from detached and distant stations,
the collection and security of the public property in the
Quartermaster, Commissary, and Ordnance departments, and the constant
medical assistance required in hospitals and garrisons rendered a
complete execution of the act impracticable on the 1st of May, the
period more immediately contemplated. As soon, however, as
circumstances would permit, and as far as it has been practicable
consistently with the public interests, the reduction of the Army has
been accomplished; but the appropriations for its pay and for other
branches of the military service having proved inadequate, the
earliest attention to that subject will be necessary; and the
expediency of continuing upon the peace establishment the staff
officers who have hitherto been provisionally retained is also
recommended to the consideration of Congress.

In the performance of the Executive duty upon this occasion there has
not been wanting a just sensibility to the merits of the American Army
during the late war; but the obvious policy and design in fixing an
efficient military peace establishment did not afford an opportunity
to distinguish the aged and infirm on account of their past services
nor the wounded and disabled on account of their present sufferings.

The extent of the reduction, indeed, unavoidably involved the
exclusion of many meritorious officers of every rank from the service
of their country; and so equal as well as so numerous were the claims
to attention that a decision by the standard of comparative merit
could seldom be attained. Judged, however, in candor by a general
standard of positive merit, the Army Register will, it is believed,
do honor to the establishment, while the case of those officers whose
names are not included in it devolves with the strongest interest upon
the legislative authority for such provisions as shall be deemed the
best calculated to give support and solace to the veteran and the
invalid, to display the beneficence as well as the justice of the
Government, and to inspire a martial zeal for the public service upon
every future emergency.

Although the embarrassments arising from the want of an uniform
national currency have not been diminished since the adjournment of
Congress, great satisfaction has been derived in contemplating the
revival of the public credit and the efficiency of the public
resources. The receipts into the Treasury from the various branches
of revenue during the nine months ending on the 30th of September
last have been estimated at $12.5M; the issues of Treasury notes of
every denomination during the same period amounted to the sum of
$14M, and there was also obtained upon loan during the same period a
sum of $9M, of which the sum of $6M was subscribed in cash and the
sum of $3M in Treasury notes.

With these means, added to the sum of $1.5M, being the balance of
money in the Treasury on the 1st day of January, there has been paid
between the 1st of January and the 1st of October on account of the
appropriations of the preceding and of the present year (exclusively
of the amount of the Treasury notes subscribed to the loan and of the
amount redeemed in the payment of duties and taxes) the aggregate sum
of $33.5M, leaving a balance then in the Treasury estimated at the
sum of $3M. Independent, however of the arrearages due for military
services and supplies, it is presumed that a further sum of $5M,
including the interest on the public debt payable on the 1st of
January next, will be demanded at the Treasury to complete the
expenditures of the present year, and for which the existing ways and
means will sufficiently provide.

The national debt, as it was ascertained on the 1st of October last,
amounted in the whole to the sum of $120M, consisting of the
unredeemed balance of the debt contracted before the late war ($39M),
the amount of the funded debt contracted in consequence of the war
($64M), and the amount of the unfunded and floating debt, including
the various issues of Treasury notes, $17M, which is in gradual
course of payment.

There will probably be some addition to the public debt upon the
liquidation of various claims which are depending, and a conciliatory
disposition on the part of Congress may lead honorably and
advantageously to an equitable arrangement of the militia expenses
incurred by the several States without the previous sanction or
authority of the Government of the United States; but when it is
considered that the new as well as the old portion of the debt has
been contracted in the assertion of the national rights and
independence, and when it is recollected that the public
expenditures, not being exclusively bestowed upon subjects of a
transient nature, will long be visible in the number and equipments
of the American Navy, in the military works for the defense of our
harbors and our frontiers, and in the supplies of our arsenals and
magazines the amount will bear a gratifying comparison with the
objects which have been attained, as well as with the resources of
the country.

The arrangements of the finances with a view to the receipts and
expenditures of a permanent peace establishment will necessarily
enter into the deliberations of Congress during the present session.
It is true that the improved condition of the public revenue will not
only afford the means of maintaining the faith of the Government with
its creditors inviolate, and of prosecuting successfully the measures
of the most liberal policy, but will also justify an immediate
alleviation of the burdens imposed by the necessities of the war.

It is, however, essential to every modification of the finances that
the benefits of an uniform national currency should be restored to
the community. The absence of the precious metals will, it is
believed, be a temporary evil, but until they can again be rendered
the general medium of exchange it devolves on the wisdom of Congress
to provide a substitute which shall equally engage the confidence and
accommodate the wants of the citizens throughout the Union. If the
operation of the State banks can not produce this result, the
probable operation of a national bank will merit consideration; and
if neither of these expedients be deemed effectual it may become
necessary to ascertain the terms upon which the notes of the
Government (no longer required as an instrument of credit) shall be
issued upon motives of general policy as a common medium of
circulation.

Notwithstanding the security for future repose which the United
States ought to find in their love of peace and their constant
respect for the rights of other nations, the character of the times
particularly inculcates the lesson that, whether to prevent or repel
danger, we ought not to be unprepared for it. This consideration will
sufficiently recommend to Congress a liberal provision for the
immediate extension and gradual completion of the works of defense,
both fixed and floating, on our maritime frontier, and an adequate
provision for guarding our inland frontier against dangers to which
certain portions of it may continue to be exposed.

As an improvement in our military establishment, it will deserve the
consideration of Congress whether a corps of invalids might not be so
organized and employed as at once to aid in the support of meritorious
individuals excluded by age or infirmities from the existing
establishment, and to procure to the public the benefit of their
stationary services and of their exemplary discipline.

I recommend also an enlargement of the Military Academy already
established, and the establishment of others in other sections of the
Union; and I can not press too much on the attention of Congress such
a classification and organization of the militia as will most
effectually render it the safeguard of a free state. If experience
has shewn in the recent splendid achievements of militia the value of
this resource for the public defense, it has shewn also the importance
of that skill in the use of arms and that familiarity with the
essential rules of discipline which can not be expected from the
regulations now in force.

With this subject is intimately connected the necessity of
accommodating the laws in every respect to the great object of
enabling the political authority of the Union to employ promptly and
effectually the physical power of the Union in the cases designated
by the Constitution.

The signal services which have been rendered by our Navy and the
capacities it has developed for successful cooperation in the
national defense will give to that portion of the public force its
full value in the eyes of Congress, at an epoch which calls for the
constant vigilance of all governments. To preserve the ships now in a
sound state, to complete those already contemplated, to provide amply
the imperishable materials for prompt augmentations, and to improve
the existing arrangements into more advantageous establishments for
the construction, the repairs, and the security of vessels of war is
dictated by the soundest policy.

In adjusting the duties on imports to the object of revenue the
influence of the tariff on manufactures will necessarily present
itself for consideration. However wise the theory may be which leaves
to the sagacity and interest of individuals the application of their
industry and resources, there are in this as in other cases
exceptions to the general rule. Besides the condition which the
theory itself implies of reciprocal adoption by other nations,
experience teaches that so many circumstances must concur in
introducing and maturing manufacturing establishments, especially of
the more complicated kinds, that a country may remain long without
them, although sufficiently advanced and in some respects even
peculiarly fitted for carrying them on with success. Under
circumstances giving a powerful impulse to manufacturing industry it
has made among us a progress and exhibited an efficiency which
justify the belief that with a protection not more than is due to the
enterprising citizens whose interests are now at stake it will become
at an early day not only safe against occasional competitions from
abroad, but a source of domestic wealth and even of external
commerce.

In selecting the branches more especially entitled to the public
patronage a preference is obviously claimed by such as will relieve
the United States from a dependence on foreign supplies, ever subject
to casual failures, for articles necessary for the public defense or
connected with the primary wants of individuals. It will be an
additional recommendation of particular manufactures where the
materials for them are extensively drawn from our agriculture, and
consequently impart and insure to that great fund of national
prosperity and independence an encouragement which can not fail to be
rewarded.

Among the means of advancing the public interest the occasion is a
proper one for recalling the attention of Congress to the great
importance of establishing throughout our country the roads and
canals which can best be executed under the national authority. No
objects within the circle of political economy so richly repay the
expense bestowed on them; there are none the utility of which is more
universally ascertained and acknowledged; none that do more honor to
the governments whose wise and enlarged patriotism duly appreciates
them. Nor is there any country which presents a field where nature
invites more the art of man to complete her own work for his
accommodation and benefit.

These considerations are strengthened, moreover, by the political
effect of these facilities for intercommunication in bringing and
binding more closely together the various parts of our extended
confederacy. Whilst the States individually, with a laudable
enterprise and emulation, avail themselves of their local advantages
by new roads, by navigable canals, and by improving the streams
susceptible of navigation, the General Government is the more urged
to similar undertakings, requiring a national jurisdiction and
national means, by the prospect of thus systematically completing so
inestimable a work; and it is a happy reflection that any defect of
constitutional authority which may be encountered can be supplied in
a mode which the Constitution itself has providently pointed out.

The present is a favorable season also for bringing again into view
the establishment of a national seminary of learning within the
District of Columbia, and with means drawn from the property therein,
subject to the authority of the General Government. Such an
institution claims the patronage of Congress as a monument of their
solicitude for the advancement of knowledge, without which the
blessings of liberty can not be fully enjoyed or long preserved; as a
model instructive in the formation of other seminaries; as a nursery
of enlightened preceptors, and as a central resort of youth and
genius from every part of their country, diffusing on their return
examples of those national feelings, those liberal sentiments, and
those congenial manners which contribute cement to our Union and
strength to the great political fabric of which that is the
foundation.

In closing this communication I ought not to repress a sensibility,
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 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.