Speech Transcript:

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
Many causes unite to make your present meeting peculiarly interesting
to out constituents. The operation of our laws on the various subjects
to which they apply, with the amendments which they occasionally
require, imposes annually an important duty on the representatives of
a free people.

Our system has happily advanced to such maturity that I am not aware
that your cares in that respect will be augmented. Other causes exist
which are highly interesting to the whole civilized world and to no
portion of it more so, in certain views, than to the United States.
Of these causes and of their bearing on the interests of our Union I
shall communicate the sentiments which I have formed with that
freedom which a sense of duty dictates. It is proper, however, to
invite your attention in the first instance to those concerns
respecting which legislative provision is thought to be particularly
urgent.

On the 24th of June last a convention of navigation and commerce was
concluded in this city between the United States and France by
ministers duly authorized for the purpose. The sanction of the
Executive having been given to this convention under a conviction
that, taking all its stipulations into view, it rested essentially on
a basis of reciprocal and equal advantage, I deemed it my duty, in
compliance with the authority vested in the Executive by the second
section of the act of the last session of the 6th of May, concerning
navigation, to suspend by proclamation until the end of the next
session of Congress the operation of the act entitled "An act to
impose a new tonnage duty on French ships and vessels, and for other
purposes", and to suspend likewise all other duties on French vessels
or the goods imported in them which exceeded the duties on American
vessels and on similar goods imported in them. I shall submit this
convention forthwith to the Senate for its advice and consent as to
the ratification.

Since your last session the prohibition which had been imposed on the
commerce between the United States and the British colonies in the
West Indies and on this continent has likewise been removed.
Satisfactory evidence having been adduced that the ports of those
colonies had been opened to the vessels of the United States by an
act of the British Parliament bearing date on the 24th of June last,
on the conditions specified therein, I deemed it proper, in
compliance with the provision of the first section of the act of the
last session above recited, to declare, by proclamation bearing date
on the 24th of August last, that the ports of the United States
should thenceforward and until the end of the next session of
Congress be opened to the vessels of Great Britain employed in that
trade, under the limitation specified in that proclamation.

A doubt was entertained whether the act of Congress applied to the
British colonies on this continent as well as to those in the West
Indies, but as the act of Parliament opened the intercourse equally
with both, and it was the manifest intention of Congress, as well as
the obvious policy of the United States, that the provisions of the
act of Parliament should be met in equal extent on the part of the
United States, and as also the act of Congress was supposed to vest
in the President some discretion in the execution of it, I thought it
advisable to give it a corresponding construction.

Should the constitutional sanction of the Senate be given to the
ratification of the convention with France, legislative provisions
will be necessary to carry it fully into effect, as it likewise will
be to continue in force, on such conditions as may be deemed just and
proper, the intercourse which has been opened between the United
States and the British colonies. Every light in the possession of the
Executive will in due time be communicated on both subjects.

Resting essentially on a basis of reciprocal and equal advantage, it
has been the object of the Executive in transactions with other
powers to meet the propositions of each with a liberal spirit,
believing that thereby the interest of our country would be most
effectually promoted. This course has been systematically pursued in
the late occurrences with France and Great Britain, and in strict
accord with the views of the Legislature. A confident hope is
entertained that by the arrangement thus commenced with each all
differences respecting navigation and commerce with the dominions in
question will be adjusted, and a solid foundation be laid for an
active and permanent intercourse which will prove equally
advantageous to both parties.

The decision of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia on the
question submitted to him by the United States and Great Britain,
concerning the construction of the first article of the treaty of
Ghent, has been received. A convention has since been concluded
between the parties, under the mediation of His Imperial Majesty, to
prescribe the mode by which that article shall be carried into effect
in conformity with that decision. I shall submit this convention to
the Senate for its advice and consent as to the ratification, and, if
obtained, shall immediately bring the subject before Congress for such
provisions as may require the interposition of the Legislature.

In compliance with an act of the last session a Territorial
Government has been established in FL on the principles of our
system. By this act the inhabitants are secured in the full enjoyment
of their rights and liberties, and to admission into the Union, with
equal participation in the Government with the original States on the
conditions heretofore prescribed to other Territories. By a clause in
the 9th article of the treaty with Spain, by which that Territory was
ceded to the United States, it is stipulated that satisfaction shall
be made for the injuries, if any, which by process of law shall be
established to have been suffered by the Spanish officers and
individual Spanish inhabitants by the late operations of our troops
in Florida. No provision having yet been made to carry that
stipulation into effect, it is submitted to the consideration of
Congress whether it will not be proper to vest the competent power in
the district court at Pensacola, or in some tribunal to be specially
organized for the purpose.

The fiscal operations of the year have been more successful than had
been anticipated at the commencement of the last session of
Congress.

The receipts into the Treasury during the three first quarters of the
year have exceeded the sum of $14.745M. The payments made at the
Treasury during the same period have exceeded $12.279M, leaving the
Treasury on the 30th day of September last, including $1,168,592.24
which were in the Treasury on the first day of January last, a sum
exceeding $4.128M.

Besides discharging all demands for the current service of the year,
including the interest and reimbursement of the public debt, the 6%
stock of 1796, amounting to $80,000, has been redeemed. It is
estimated that, after defraying the current expenses of the present
quarter and redeeming the $2M of 6% stock of 1820, there will remain
in the Treasury on the first of January next nearly $3M. It is
estimated that the gross amount of duties which have been secured
from the first of January to the 30th of September last has exceeded
$19.5M, and the amount for the whole year will probably not fall
short of $23M.

Of the actual force in service under the present military
establishment, the posts at which it is stationed, and the condition
of each post, a report from the Sec of War which is now communicated
will give a distinct idea. By like reports the state of the Academy
at West Point will be seen, as will be the progress which has been
made on the fortifications along the coast and at the national
armories and arsenals.

The organization of the several corps composing the Army is such as
to admit its expansion to a great extent in case of emergency, the
officers carrying with them all the light which they possess to the
new corps to which they might be appointed.

With the organization of the staff there is equal cause to be
satisfied. By the concentration of every branch with its chief in
this city, in the presence of the Department, and with a grade in the
chief military station to keep alive and cherish a military spirit,
the greatest promptitude in the execution of orders, with the
greatest economy and efficiency, are secured. The same view is taken
of the Military Academy. Good order is preserved in it, and the youth
are well instructed in every science connected with the great objects
of the institution. They are also well trained and disciplined in the
practical parts of the profession. It has been always found difficult
to control the ardor inseparable from that early age in such manner
as to give it a proper direction. The rights of manhood are too often
claimed prematurely, in pressing which too far the respect which is
due to age and the obedience necessary to a course of study and
instruction in every such institution are sometimes lost sight of.
The great object to be accomplished is the restraint of that ardor by
such wise regulations and Government as, by directing all the energies
of the youthful mind to the attainment of useful knowledge, will keep
it within a just subordination and at the same time elevate it to the
highest purposes. This object seems to be essentially obtained in this
institution, and with great advantage to the Union.

The Military Academy forms the basis, in regard to science, on which
the military establishment rests. It furnishes annually, after due
examination and on the report of the academic staff, many well-
informed youths to fill the vacancies which occur in the several
corps of the Army, while others who retire to private life carry with
them such attainments as, under the right reserved to the several
States to appoint the officers and to train the militia, will enable
them, by affording a wider field for selection, to promote the great
object of the power vested in Congress of providing for the
organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia. Thus by the mutual
and harmonious cooperation of the two governments in the execution of
a power divided between them, an object always to be cherished, the
attainment of a great result, on which our liberties may depend, can
not fail to be secured. I have to add that in proportion as our
regular force is small should the instruction and discipline of the
militia, the great resource on which we rely, be pushed to the utmost
extent that circumstances will admit.

A report from the Secretary of the Navy will communicate the progress
which has been made in the construction of vessels of war, with other
interesting details respecting the actual state of the affairs of
that Department. It has been found necessary for the protection of
our commerce to maintain the usual squadrons on the Mediterranean,
the Pacific, and along the Atlantic coast, extending the cruises of
the latter into the West Indies, where piracy, organized into a
system, has preyed on the commerce of every country trading thither.
A cruise has also been maintained on the coast of Africa, when the
season would permit, for the suppression of the slave trade, and
orders have been given to the commanders of all our public ships to
seize our own vessels, should they find any engaging in that trade,
and to bring them in for adjudication.

In the West Indies piracy is of recent date, which may explain the
cause why other powers have not combined against it. By the documents
communicated it will be seen that the efforts of the United States to
suppress it have had a very salutary effect. The benevolent provision
of the act under which the protection has been extended alike to the
commerce of other nations can not fail to be duly appreciated by
them.

In compliance with the act of the last session entitled "An act to
abolish the United States trading establishments", agents were
immediately appointed and instructed, under the direction of the Sec
of the Treasury, to close the business of the trading houses among
the Indian tribes and to settle the accounts of the factors and
sub-factors engaged in that trade, and to execute in all other
respects the injunction of that act in the mode prescribed therein. A
final report of their proceedings shall be communicated to Congress as
soon as it is received.

It is with great regret I have to state that a serious malady has
deprived us of many valuable citizens of Pensacola and checked the
progress of some of those arrangements which are important to the
Territory. This effect has been sensibly felt in respect to the
Indians who inhabit that Territory, consisting of the remnants of the
several tribes who occupy the middle ground between St. Augustine and
Pensacola, with extensive claims but undefined boundaries. Although
peace is preserved with those Indians, yet their position and claims
tend essentially to interrupt the intercourse between the eastern and
western parts of the Territory, on which our inhabitants are
principally settled. It is essential to the growth and prosperity of
the Territory, as well as to the interests of the Union, that those
Indians should be removed, by special compact with them, to some
other position or concentration within narrower limits where they
are. With the limited means in the power of the Executive,
instructions were given to the governor to accomplish this object so
far as it might be practicable, which was prevented by the
distressing malady referred to. To carry it fully into effect in
either mode additional funds will be necessary, to the provision of
which the powers of Congress are competent. With a view to such
provision as may be deemed proper, the subject is submitted to your
consideration, and in the interim further proceedings are suspended.

It appearing that so much of the act entitled "An act regulating the
staff of the Army", which passed on [1818-04-14], as relates to the
commissariat will expire in April next, and the practical operation
of that department having evinced its great utility, the propriety of
its renewal is submitted to your consideration.

The view which has been taken of the probable productiveness of the
lead mines, connected with the importance of the material to the
public defense, makes it expedient that they should be managed with
peculiar care. It is therefore suggested whether it will not comport
with the public interest to provide by law for the appointment of an
agent skilled in mineralogy to superintend them, under the direction
of the proper department.

It is understood that the Cumberland road, which was constructed at
great expense, has already suffered from the want of that regular
superintendence and of those repairs which are indispensable to the
preservation of such a work. This road is of incalculable advantage
in facilitating the intercourse between the Western and the Atlantic
States. Through the whole country from the northern extremity of Lake
Erie to the Mississippi, and from all the waters which empty into
each, finds and easy and direct communication to the seat of
Government, and thence to the Atlantic. The facility which it affords
to all military and commercial operations, and also to those of the
Post Office Dep't, can not be estimated too highly. This great work
is likewise an ornament and an honor to the nation.

Believing that a competent power to adopt and execute a system of
internal improvement has not been granted to Congress, but that such
a power, confined to great national purposes and with proper
limitations, would be productive of eminent advantage to our Union, I
have thought it advisable that an amendment of the Constitution to
that effect should be recommended to the several States.

A bill which assumed the right to adopt and execute such a system
having been presented for my signature at the last session, I was
compelled, from the view which I had taken of the powers of the
General Government, to negative it, on which occasion I thought it
proper to communicate the sentiments which I had formed, on mature
consideration, on the whole subject. To that communication, in all
the views in which the great interest to which it relates may be
supposed to merit your attention, I have now to refer. Should
Congress, however, deem it improper to recommend such an amendment,
they have, according to my judgment, the right to keep the road in
repair by providing for the superintendence of it and appropriating
the money necessary for repairs. Surely if they had the right to
appropriate money to make the road they have a right to appropriate
it to preserve the road from ruin. From the exercise of this power no
danger is to be apprehended.

Under our happy system the people are the sole and exclusive fountain
of power. Each Government originates from them, and to them alone,
each to its proper constituents, are they respectively and solely
responsible for the faithful discharge of their duties within their
constitutional limits; and that the people will confine their public
agents of every station to the strict line of their constitutional
duties there is no cause of doubt.

Having, however, communicated my sentiments to Congress at the last
session fully in the document to which I have referred, respecting
the right of appropriation as distinct from the right of jurisdiction
and sovereignty over the territory in question, I deem it improper to
enlarge on the subject here.

From the best information I have been able to obtain it appears that
our manufactures, though depressed immediately after the peace, have
considerably increased, and are still increasing, under the
encouragement given them by the tariff of 1816 and by subsequent
laws. Satisfied I am, whatever may be the abstract doctrine in favor
of unrestricted commerce, provided all nations would concur in it and
it was not liable to be interrupted by war, which has never occurred
and can not be expected, that there are other strong reasons
applicable to our situation and relations with other countries which
impose on us the obligation to cherish and sustain our manufactures.

Satisfied, however, I likewise am that the interest of every part of
our Union, even of those most benefitted by manufactures, requires
that this subject should be touched with the greatest caution, and a
critical knowledge of the effect to be produced by the slightest
change. On full consideration of the subject in all its relations I
am persuaded that a further augmentation may now be made of the
duties on certain foreign articles in favor of our own and without
affecting injuriously any other interest. For more precise details I
refer you to the communications which were made to Congress during
the last session.

So great was the amount of accounts for moneys advanced during the
late war, in addition to others of a previous date which in the
regular operations of the Government necessarily remained unsettled,
that it required a considerable length of time for their adjustment.
By a report from the first Comptroller of the Treasury it appears
that on [1817-03-04], the accounts then unsettled amounted to
$103,068,876.41, of which on [1922-09-30], $93,175,396.56 had been
settled, leaving on that day a balance unsettled of $9,893,479.85.
That there have been drawn from the Treasury, in paying the public
debt and sustaining the Government in all its operations and
disbursements, since [1817-03-04], $157,199,380.96, the accounts for
which have been settled to the amount of $137,501,451.12, leaving a
balance unsettled of $19,697,929.84. for precise details respecting
each of these balances I refer to the report of the Comptroller and
the documents which accompany it.

From this view it appears

that our commercial differences with France and Great Britain have
been placed in a train of amicable arrangement on conditions fair and
honorable in both instances to each party;
that our finances are in a very productive state, our revenue being
at present fully competent to all the demands upon it;
that our military force is well organized in all its branches and
capable of rendering the most important service in case of emergency
that its number will admit of;
that due progress has been made, under existing appropriations, in
the construction of fortifications and in the operations of the
Ordnance Dep't;
that due progress has in like manner been made in the construction of
ships of war;
that our Navy is in the best condition, felt and respected in every
sea in which it is employed for the protection of our commerce;
that our manufactures have augmented in amount and improved in
quality; that great progress has been made in the settlement of
accounts and in the recovery of the balances due by individuals, and
that the utmost economy is secured and observed in every Dep't of the
Administration.
Other objects will likewise claim your attention, because from the
station which the United States hold as a member of the great
community of nations they have rights to maintain, duties to perform,
and dangers to encounter.
A strong hope was entertained that peace would ere this have been
concluded between Spain and the independent governments south of the
United States in this hemisphere. Long experience having evinced the
competency of those governments to maintain the independence which
they had declared, it was presumed that the considerations which
induced their recognition by the United States would have had equal
weight with other powers, and that Spain herself, yielding to those
magnanimous feelings of which her history furnishes so many examples,
would have terminated on that basis a controversy so unavailing and at
the same time so destructive. We still cherish the hope that this
result will not long be postponed.

Sustaining our neutral position and allowing to each party while the
war continues equal rights, it is incumbent on the United States to
claim of each with equal rigor the faithful observance of our rights
according to the well-known law of nations. From each, therefore, a
like cooperation is expected in the suppression of the piratical
practice which has grown out of this war and of blockades of
extensive coasts on both seas, which, considering the small force
employed to sustain them, have not the slightest foundation to rest
on.

Europe is still unsettled, and although the war long menaced between
Russia and Turkey has not broken out, there is no certainty that the
differences between those powers will be amicably adjusted. It is
impossible to look to the oppressions of the country respecting which
those differences arose without being deeply affected. The mention of
Greece fills the mind with the most exalted sentiments and arouses in
our bosoms the best feelings of which our nature is susceptible.
Superior skill and refinement in the arts, heroic gallantry in
action, disinterested patriotism, enthusiastic zeal and devotion in
favor of public and personal liberty are associated with our
recollections of ancient Greece. That such a country should have been
overwhelmed and so long hidden, as it were, from the world under a
gloomy despotism has been a cause of unceasing and deep regret to
generous minds for ages past. It was natural, therefore, that the
reappearance of those people in their original character, contending
in favor of their liberties, should produce that great excitement and
sympathy in their favor which have been so signally displayed
throughout the United States. A strong hope is entertained that these
people will recover their independence and resume their equal station
among the nations of the earth.

A great effort has been made in Spain and Portugal to improve the
condition of the people, and it must be very consoling to all
benevolent minds to see the extraordinary moderation with which it
has been conducted. That it may promote the happiness of both nations
is the ardent wish of this whole people, to the expression of which we
confine ourselves; for whatever may be the feelings or sentiments
which every individual under our Government has a right to indulge
and express, it is nevertheless a sacred maxim, equally with the
Government and people, that the destiny of every independent nation
in what relates to such improvements of right belongs and ought to be
left exclusively to themselves.

Whether we reason from the late wars or from those menacing symptoms
which now appear in Europe, it is manifest that if a convulsion
should take place in any of those countries it will proceed from
causes which have no existence and are utterly unknown in these
States, in which there is but one order, that of the people, to whom
the sovereignty exclusively belongs.

Should war break out in any of those countries who can foretell the
extent to which it may be carried or the desolation which it may
spread? Exempt as we are from these causes, our internal tranquillity
is secure; and distant as we are from the troubled scene, and faithful
to first principles in regard to other powers, we might reasonably
presume that we should not be molested by them. This, however, ought
not to be calculated on as certain. Unprovoked injuries are often
inflicted and even the peculiar felicity of our situation might with
some be a cause for excitement and aggression.

The history of the late wars in Europe furnishes a complete
demonstration

that no system of conduct, however correct in principle, can protect
neutral powers from injury from any party;
that a defenseless position and distinguished love of peace are the
surest invitations to war, and
that there is no way to avoid it other than by being always prepared
and willing for just cause to meet it.
If there be a people on earth whose more especial duty it is to be at
all times prepared to defend the rights with which they are blessed,
and to surpass all others in sustaining the necessary burthens, and
in submitting to sacrifices to make such preparations, it is
undoubtedly the people of these States.
When we see

that a civil war of the most frightful character rages from the
Adriatic to the Black Sea;
that strong symptoms of war appear in other parts, proceeding from
causes which, should it break out, may become general and be of long
duration;
that the war still continues between Spain and the independent
governments, her late Provinces, in this hemisphere;
that it is likewise menaced between Portugal and Brazil, in
consequence of the attempt of the latter to dismember itself from the
former, and
that a system of piracy of great extent is maintained in the
neighboring seas, which will require equal vigilance and decision to
suppress it,
the reasons for sustaining the attitude which we now hold and for
pushing forward all our measures of defense with the utmost vigor
appear to me to acquire new force.
The United States owe to the world a great example, and, by means
thereof, to the cause of liberty and humanity a generous support.
They have so far succeeded to the satisfaction of the virtuous and
enlightened of every country. There is no reason to doubt that their
whole movement will be regulated by a sacred regard to principle, all
our institutions being founded on that basis. The ability to support
our own cause under any trial to which it may be exposed is the great
point on which the public solicitude rests.

It has been often charged against free governments

that they have neither the foresight nor the virtue to provide at the
proper season for great emergencies;
that their course is improvident and expensive;
that war will always find them unprepared, and, whatever may be its
calamities,
that its terrible warnings will be disregarded and forgotten as soon
as peace returns.
I have full confidence that this charge so far as relates to the
United States will be shewn to be utterly destitute of truth.