Speech Transcript:

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

In reviewing the present state of our country, our attention cannot
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 very
long in 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
over-powering 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 mean time 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 Day, 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 ad 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 may be 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 over- burdening
other departments and with such as have not been annexed to any
department.

The course of experience recommends, as another improvement in the
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
$38M, and that consequently at the close of the year there will be a
surplus in the Treasury of about the sum of $9M.

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 first of January next at a sum not
exceeding $110M. The ordinary annual expenses of the Government for
the maintenance of all its institutions, civil, military, and naval,
have been estimated at a sum of $20M, and the permanent revenue to be
derived from all the existing sources has been estimated at a sum of
$25M.

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 40th year as
an independent nation; that for nearly an entire generation they have
had experience of their present Constitution, the off-spring 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
vain-glory 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
charger 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 the 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
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.