Speech Transcript:

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

It affords me pleasure to tender my friendly greetings to you on the
occasion of your assembling at the seat of Government to enter upon
the important duties to which you have been called by the voice of
our country-men. The task devolves on me, under a provision of the
Constitution, to present to you, as the Federal Legislature of 24
sovereign States and 12,000,000 happy people, a view of our affairs,
and to propose such measures as in the discharge of my official
functions have suggested themselves as necessary to promote the
objects of our Union.

In communicating with you for the first time it is to me a source of
unfeigned satisfaction, calling for mutual gratulation and devout
thanks to a benign Providence, that we are at peace with all
man-kind, and that our country exhibits the most cheering evidence of
general welfare and progressive improvement. Turning our eyes to other
nations, our great desire is to see our brethren of the human race
secured in the blessings enjoyed by ourselves, and advancing in
knowledge, in freedom, and in social happiness.

Our foreign relations, although in their general character pacific
and friendly, present subjects of difference between us and other
powers of deep interest as well to the country at large as to many of
our citizens. To effect an adjustment of these shall continue to be
the object of my earnest endeavors, and not with standing the
difficulties of the task, I do not allow myself to apprehend
unfavorable results. Blessed as our country is with every thing which
constitutes national strength, she is fully adequate to the
maintenance of all her interests. In discharging the responsible
trust confided to the Executive in this respect it is my settled
purpose to ask nothing that is not clearly right and to submit to
nothing that is wrong; and I flatter myself that, supported by the
other branches of the Government and by the intelligence and
patriotism of the people, we shall be able, under the protection of
Providence, to cause all our just rights to be respected.

Of the unsettled matters between the United States and other powers,
the most prominent are those which have for years been the subject of
negotiation with England, France, and Spain. The late periods at which
our ministers to those Governments left the United States render it
impossible at this early day to inform you of what has been done on
the subjects with which they have been respectively charged. Relying
upon the justice of our views in relation to the points committed to
negotiation and the reciprocal good feeling which characterizes our
intercourse with those nations, we have the best reason to hope for a
satisfactory adjustment of existing differences.

With Great Britain, alike distinguished in peace and war, we may look
forward to years of peaceful, honorable, and elevated competition.
Every thing in the condition and history of the two nations is
calculated to inspire sentiments of mutual respect and to carry
conviction to the minds of both that it is their policy to preserve
the most cordial relations. Such are my own views, and it is not to
be doubted that such are also the prevailing sentiments of our
constituents. Although neither time nor opportunity has been afforded
for a full development of the policy which the present cabinet of
Great Britain designs to pursue toward this country, I indulge the
hope that it will be of a just and pacific character; and if this
anticipation be realized we may look with confidence to a speedy and
acceptable adjustment of our affairs.

Under the convention for regulating the reference to arbitration of
the disputed points of boundary under the 5th article of the treaty
of Ghent, the proceedings have hitherto been conducted in that spirit
of candor and liberality which ought ever to characterize the acts of
sovereign States seeking to adjust by the most unexceptionable means
important and delicate subjects of contention. The first sentiments
of the parties have been exchanged, and the final replication on our
part is in a course of preparation. This subject has received the
attention demanded by its great and peculiar importance to a
patriotic member of this Confederacy. The exposition of our rights
already made is such as, from the high reputation of the
commissioners by whom it has been prepared, we had a right to expect.
Our interests at the Court of the Sovereign who has evinced his
friendly disposition by assuming the delicate task of arbitration
have been committed to a citizen of the State of Maine, whose
character, talents, and intimate acquaintance with the subject
eminently qualify him for so responsible a trust. With full
confidence in the justice of our cause and in the probity,
intelligence, and uncompromising independence of the illustrious
arbitrator, we can have nothing to apprehend from the result.

From France, our ancient ally, we have a right to expect that justice
which becomes the sovereign of a powerful, intelligent, and
magnanimous people. The beneficial effects produced by the commercial
convention of 1822, limited as are its provisions, are too obvious not
to make a salutary impression upon the minds of those who are charged
with the administration of her Government. Should this result induce
a disposition to embrace to their full extent the wholesome
principles which constitute our commercial policy, our minister to
that Court will be found instructed to cherish such a disposition and
to aid in conducting it to useful practical conclusions. The claims of
our citizens for depredations upon their property, long since
committed under the authority, and in many instances by the express
direction, of the then existing Government of France, remain
unsatisfied, and must therefore continue to furnish a subject of
unpleasant discussion and possible collision between the two
Governments. I cherish, however, a lively hope, founded as well on
the validity of those claims and the established policy of all
enlightened governments as on the known integrity of the French
Monarch, that the injurious delays of the past will find redress in
the equity of the future. Our minister has been instructed to press
these demands on the French Government with all the earnestness which
is called for by their importance and irrefutable justice, and in a
spirit that will evince the respect which is due to the feelings of
those from whom the satisfaction is required.

Our minister recently appointed to Spain has been authorized to
assist in removing evils alike injurious to both countries, either by
concluding a commercial convention upon liberal and reciprocal terms
or by urging the acceptance in their full extent of the mutually
beneficial provisions of our navigation acts. He has also been
instructed to make a further appeal to the justice of Spain, in
behalf of our citizens, for indemnity for spoliations upon our
commerce committed under her authority -- an appeal which the pacific
and liberal course observed on our part and a due confidence in the
honor of that Government authorize us to expect will not be made in
vain.

With other European powers our intercourse is on the most friendly
footing. In Russia, placed by her territorial limits, extensive
population, and great power high in the rank of nations, the United
States have always found a steadfast friend. Although her recent
invasion of Turkey awakened a lively sympathy for those who were
exposed to the desolation of war, we can not but anticipate that the
result will prove favorable to the cause of civilization and to the
progress of human happiness. The treaty of peace between these powers
having been ratified, we can not be insensible to the great benefit to
be derived by the commerce of the United States from unlocking the
navigation of the Black Sea, a free passage into which is secured to
all merchant vessels bound to ports of Russia under a flag at peace
with the Porte. This advantage, enjoyed upon conditions by most of
the powers of Europe, has hitherto been withheld from us. During the
past summer an antecedent but unsuccessful attempt to obtain it was
renewed under circumstances which promised the most favorable
results. Although these results have fortunately been thus in part
attained, further facilities to the enjoyment of this new field for
the enterprise of our citizens are, in my opinion, sufficiently
desirable to insure to them our most zealous attention.

Our trade with Austria, although of secondary importance, has been
gradually increasing, and is now so extended as to deserve the
fostering care of the Government. A negotiation, commenced and nearly
completed with that power by the late Administration, has been
consummated by a treaty of amity, navigation, and commerce, which
will be laid before the Senate.

During the recess of Congress our diplomatic relations with Portugal
have been resumed. The peculiar state of things in that country
caused a suspension of the recognition of the representative who
presented himself until an opportunity was had to obtain from our
official organ there information regarding the actual and, as far as
practicable, prospective condition of the authority by which the
representative in question was appointed. This information being
received, the application of the established rule of our Government
in like cases was no longer withheld.

Considerable advances have been made during the present year in the
adjustment of claims of our citizens upon Denmark for spoliations,
but all that we have a right to demand from that Government in their
behalf has not yet been conceded. From the liberal footing, however,
upon which this subject has, with the approbation of the claimants,
been placed by the Government, together with the uniformly just and
friendly disposition which has been evinced by His Danish Majesty,
there is a reasonable ground to hope that this single subject of
difference will speedily be removed.

Our relations with the Barbary Powers continue, as they have long
been, of the most favorable character. The policy of keeping an
adequate force in the Mediterranean, as security for the continuance
of this tranquillity, will be persevered in, as well as a similar one
for the protection of our commerce and fisheries in the Pacific.

The southern Republics of our own hemisphere have not yet realized
all the advantages for which they have been so long struggling. We
trust, however, that the day is not distant when the restoration of
peace and internal quiet, under permanent systems of government,
securing the liberty and promoting the happiness of the citizens,
will crown with complete success their long and arduous efforts in
the cause of self-government, and enable us to salute them as
friendly rivals in all that is truly great and glorious.

The recent invasion of Mexico, and the effect thereby produced upon
her domestic policy, must have a controlling influence upon the great
question of South American emancipation. We have seen the fell spirit
of civil dissension rebuked, and perhaps for ever stifled, in that
Republic by the love of independence. If it be true, as appearances
strongly indicate, the spirit of independence is the master spirit,
and if a corresponding sentiment prevails in the other States, this
devotion to liberty can not be without a proper effect upon the
counsels of the mother country. The adoption by Spain of a pacific
policy toward her former colonies -- an event consoling to humanity,
and a blessing to the world, in which she herself can not fail
largely to participate -- may be most reasonably expected.

The claims of our citizens upon the South American Governments
generally are in a train of settlement, while the principal part of
those upon Brazil have been adjusted, and a decree in council
ordering bonds to be issued by the minister of the treasury for their
amount has received the sanction of His Imperial Majesty. This event,
together with the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty
negotiated and concluded in 1828, happily terminates all serious
causes of difference with that power.

Measures have been taken to place our commercial relations with Peru
upon a better footing than that upon which they have hitherto rested,
and if met by a proper disposition on the part of that Government
important benefits may be secured to both countries.

Deeply interested as we are in the prosperity of our sister
Republics, and more particularly in that of our immediate neighbor,
it would be most gratifying to me were I permitted to say that the
treatment which we have received at her hands has been as universally
friendly as the early and constant solicitude manifested by the United
States for her success gave us a right to expect. But it becomes my
duty to inform you that prejudices long indulged by a portion of the
inhabitants of Mexico against the envoy extraordinary and minister
plenipotentiary of the United States have had an unfortunate
influence upon the affairs of the two countries, and have diminished
that usefulness to his own which was justly to be expected from his
talents and zeal. To this cause, in a great degree, is to be imputed
the failure of several measures equally interesting to both parties,
but particularly that of the Mexican Government to ratify a treaty
negotiated and concluded in its own capital and under its own eye.
Under these circumstances it appeared expedient to give to Mr.
Poinsett the option either to return or not, as in his judgment the
interest of his country might require, and instructions to that end
were prepared; but before they could be dispatched a communication
was received from the Government of Mexico, through its charge'
d'affaires here, requesting the recall of our minister. This was
promptly complied with, and a representative of a rank corresponding
with that of the Mexican diplomatic agent near this Government was
appointed. Our conduct toward that Republic has been uniformly of the
most friendly character, and having thus removed the only alleged
obstacle to harmonious intercourse, I can not but hope that an
advantageous change will occur in our affairs.

In justice to Mr. Poinsett it is proper to say that my immediate
compliance with the application for his recall and the appointment of
a successor are not to be ascribed to any evidence that the imputation
of an improper interference by him in the local politics of Mexico was
well founded, nor to a want of confidence in his talents or integrity,
and to add that the truth of the charges has never been affirmed by
the federal Government of Mexico in its communications with us.

I consider it one of the most urgent of my duties to bring to your
attention the propriety of amending that part of the Constitution
which relates to the election of President and Vice-President. Our
system of government was by its framers deemed an experiment, and
they therefore consistently provided a mode of remedying its
defects.

To the people belongs the right of electing their Chief Magistrate;
it was never designed that their choice should in any case be
defeated, either by the intervention of electoral colleges or by the
agency confided, under certain contingencies, to the House of
Representatives. Experience proves that in proportion as agents to
execute the will of the people are multiplied there is danger of
their wishes being frustrated. Some may be unfaithful; all are liable
to err. So far, therefore, as the people can with convenience speak,
it is safer for them to express their own will.

The number of aspirants to the Presidency and the diversity of the
interests which may influence their claims leave little reason to
expect a choice in the first instance, and in that event the election
must devolve on the House of Representatives, where it is obvious the
will of the people may not be always ascertained, or, if ascertained,
may not be regarded. From the mode of voting by States the choice is
to be made by 24 votes, and it may often occur that one of these will
be controlled by an individual Representative. Honors and offices are
at the disposal of the successful candidate. Repeated ballotings may
make it apparent that a single individual holds the cast in his hand.
May he not be tempted to name his reward?

But even without corruption, supposing the probity of the
Representative to be proof against the powerful motives by which it
may be assailed, the will of the people is still constantly liable to
be misrepresented. One may err from ignorance of the wishes of his
constituents; another from a conviction that it is his duty to be
governed by his own judgment of the fitness of the candidates;
finally, although all were inflexibly honest, all accurately informed
of the wishes of their constituents, yet under the present mode of
election a minority may often elect a President, and when this
happens it may reasonably be expected that efforts will be made on
the part of the majority to rectify this injurious operation of their
institutions. But although no evil of this character should result
from such a perversion of the first principle of our system -- that
the majority is to govern -- it must be very certain that a President
elected by a minority can not enjoy the confidence necessary to the
successful discharge of his duties.

In this as in all other matters of public concern policy requires
that as few impediments as possible should exist to the free
operation of the public will. Let us, then, endeavor so to amend our
system that the office of Chief Magistrate may not be conferred upon
any citizen but in pursuance of a fair expression of the will of the
majority.

I would therefore recommend such an amendment of the Constitution as
may remove all intermediate agency in the election of the President
and Vice-President. The mode may be so regulated as to preserve to
each State its present relative weight in the election, and a failure
in the first attempt may be provided for by confining the second to a
choice between the two highest candidates. In connection with such an
amendment it would seem advisable to limit the service of the Chief
Magistrate to a single term of either 4 or 6 years. If, however, it
should not be adopted, it is worthy of consideration whether a
provision disqualifying for office the Representatives in Congress on
whom such an election may have devolved would not be proper.

While members of Congress can be constitutionally appointed to
offices of trust and profit it will be the practice, even under the
most conscientious adherence to duty, to select them for such
stations as they are believed to be better qualified to fill than
other citizens; but the purity of our Government would doubtless be
promoted by their exclusion from all appointments in the gift of the
President, in whose election they may have been officially concerned.
The nature of the judicial office and the necessity of securing in the
Cabinet and in diplomatic stations of the highest rank the best
talents and political experience should, perhaps, except these from
the exclusion.

There are, perhaps, few men who can for any great length of time
enjoy office and power without being more or less under the influence
of feelings unfavorable to the faithful discharge of their public
duties. Their integrity may be proof against improper considerations
immediately addressed to themselves, but they are apt to acquire a
habit of looking with indifference upon the public interests and of
tolerating conduct from which an unpracticed man would revolt. Office
is considered as a species of property, and government rather as a
means of promoting individual interests than as an instrument created
solely for the service of the people. Corruption in some and in others
a perversion of correct feelings and principles divert government from
its legitimate ends and make it an engine for the support of the few
at the expense of the many. The duties of all public officers are, or
at least admit of being made, so plain and simple that men of
intelligence may readily qualify themselves for their performance;
and I can not but believe that more is lost by the long continuance
of men in office than is generally to be gained by their experience.
I submit, therefore, to your consideration whether the efficiency of
the Government would not be promoted and official industry and
integrity better secured by a general extension of the law which
limits appointments to four years.

In a country where offices are created solely for the benefit of the
people no one man has any more intrinsic right to official station
than another. Offices were not established to give support to
particular men at the public expense. No individual wrong is,
therefore, done by removal, since neither appointment to nor
continuance in office is a matter of right. The incumbent became an
officer with a view to public benefits, and when these require his
removal they are not to be sacrificed to private interests. It is the
people, and they alone, who have a right to complain when a bad
officer is substituted for a good one. He who is removed has the same
means of obtaining a living that are enjoyed by the millions who never
held office. The proposed limitation would destroy the idea of
property now so generally connected with official station, and
although individual distress may be some times produced, it would, by
promoting that rotation which constitutes a leading principle in the
republican creed, give healthful action to the system.

No very considerable change has occurred during the recess of
Congress in the condition of either our agriculture, commerce, or
manufactures. The operation of the tariff has not proved so injurious
to the two former or as beneficial to the latter as was anticipated.
Importations of foreign goods have not been sensibly diminished,
while domestic competition, under an illusive excitement, has
increased the production much beyond the demand for home consumption.
The consequences have been low prices, temporary embarrassment, and
partial loss. That such of our manufacturing establishments as are
based upon capital and are prudently managed will survive the shock
and be ultimately profitable there is no good reason to doubt.

To regulate its conduct so as to promote equally the prosperity of
these three cardinal interests is one of the most difficult tasks of
Government; and it may be regretted that the complicated restrictions
which now embarrass the intercourse of nations could not by common
consent be abolished, and commerce allowed to flow in those channels
to which individual enterprise, always its surest guide, might direct
it. But we must ever expect selfish legislation in other nations, and
are therefore compelled to adapt our own to their regulations in the
manner best calculated to avoid serious injury and to harmonize the
conflicting interests of our agriculture, our commerce, and our
manufactures. Under these impressions I invite your attention to the
existing tariff, believing that some of its provisions require
modification.

The general rule to be applied in graduating the duties upon articles
of foreign growth or manufacture is that which will place our own in
fair competition with those of other countries; and the inducements
to advance even a step beyond this point are controlling in regard to
those articles which are of primary necessity in time of war. When we
reflect upon the difficulty and delicacy of this operation, it is
important that it should never be attempted but with the utmost
caution. Frequent legislation in regard to any branch of industry,
affecting its value, and by which its capital may be transferred to
new channels, must always be productive of hazardous speculation and
loss.

In deliberating, therefore, on these interesting subjects local
feelings and prejudices should be merged in the patriotic
determination to promote the great interests of the whole. All
attempts to connect them with the party conflicts of the day are
necessarily injurious, and should be discountenanced. Our action upon
them should be under the control of higher and purer motives.
Legislation subjected to such influences can never be just, and will
not long retain the sanction of a people whose active patriotism is
not bounded by sectional limits nor insensible to that spirit of
concession and forbearance which gave life to our political compact
and still sustains it. Discarding all calculations of political
ascendancy, the North, the South, the East, and the West should unite
in diminishing any burthen of which either may justly complain.

The agricultural interest of our country is so essentially connected
with every other and so superior in importance to them all that it is
scarcely necessary to invite to it your particular attention. It is
principally as manufactures and commerce tend to increase the value
of agricultural productions and to extend their application to the
wants and comforts of society that they deserve the fostering care of
Government.

Looking forward to the period, not far distant, when a sinking fund
will no longer be required, the duties on those articles of
importation which can not come in competition with our own
productions are the first that should engage the attention of
Congress in the modification of the tariff. Of these, tea and coffee
are the most important. They enter largely into the consumption of
the country, and have become articles of necessity to all classes. A
reduction, therefore, of the existing duties will be felt as a common
benefit, but like all other legislation connected with commerce, to be
efficacious and not injurious it should be gradual and certain.

The public prosperity is evinced in the increased revenue arising
from the sales of the public lands and in the steady maintenance of
that produced by imposts and tonnage, not withstanding the additional
duties imposed by the act of [1828-05-19], and the unusual
importations in the early part of that year.

The balance in the Treasury on [1829-01-01] was $5,972,435.81. The
receipts of the current year are estimated at $24,602,230 and the
expenditures for the same time at $26,164,595, leaving a balance in
the Treasury on [1830-01-01] of $4,410,070.81.

There will have been paid on account of the public debt during the
present year the sum of $12,405,005.80, reducing the whole debt of
the Government on [1830-01-01] to $48,565,406.50, including $7M of
the 5% stock subscribed to the Bank of the United States. The payment
on account of public debt made on [1829-07-01] was $8,715,462.87. It
was apprehended that the sudden withdrawal of so large a sum from the
banks in which it was deposited, at a time of unusual pressure in the
money market, might cause much injury to the interests dependent on
bank accommodations. But this evil was wholly averted by an early
anticipation of it at the Treasury, aided by the judicious
arrangements of the officers of the Bank of the United States.

This state of the finances exhibits the resources of the nation in an
aspect highly flattering to its industry and auspicious of the ability
of Government in a very short time to extinguish the public debt. When
this shall be done our population will be relieved from a considerable
portion of its present burthens, and will find not only new motives to
patriotic affection, but additional means for the display of
individual enterprise. The fiscal power of the States will also be
increased, and may be more extensively exerted in favor of education
and other public objects, while ample means will remain in the
Federal Government to promote the general weal in all the modes
permitted to its authority.

After the extinction of the public debt it is not probable that any
adjustment of the tariff upon principles satisfactory to the people
of the Union will until a remote period, if ever, leave the
Government without a considerable surplus in the Treasury beyond what
may be required for its current service. As, then, the period
approaches when the application of the revenue to the payment of debt
will cease, the disposition of the surplus will present a subject for
the serious deliberation of Congress; and it may be fortunate for the
country that it is yet to be decided.

Considered in connection with the difficulties which have heretofore
attended appropriations for purposes of internal improvement, and
with those which this experience tells us will certainly arise when
ever power over such subjects may be exercised by the Central
Government, it is hoped that it may lead to the adoption of some plan
which will reconcile the diversified interests of the States and
strengthen the bonds which unite them. Every member of the Union, in
peace and in war, will be benefited by the improvement of inland
navigation and the construction of high ways in the several States.
Let us, then, endeavor to attain this benefit in a mode which will be
satisfactory to all. That hitherto adopted has by many of our fellow
citizens been deprecated as an infraction of the Constitution, while
by others it has been viewed as inexpedient. All feel that it has
been employed at the expense of harmony in the legislative councils.

To avoid these evils it appears to me that the most safe, just, and
federal disposition which could be made of the surplus revenue would
be its apportionment among the several States according to their
ratio of representation, and should this measure not be found
warranted by the Constitution that it would be expedient to propose
to the States an amendment authorizings it. I regard an appeal to the
source of power in cases of real doubt, and where its exercise is
deemed indispensable to the general welfare, as among the most sacred
of all our obligations.

Upon this country more than any other has, in the providence of God,
been cast the special guardianship of the great principle of
adherence to written constitutions. If it fail here, all hope in
regard to it will be extinguished.

That this was intended to be a government of limited and specific,
and not general, powers must be admitted by all, and it is our duty
to preserve for it the character intended by its framers. If
experience points out the necessity for an enlargement of these
powers, let us apply for it to those for whose benefit it is to be
exercised, and not under-mine the whole system by a resort to
over-strained constructions. The scheme has worked well. It has
exceeded the hopes of those who devised it, and become an object of
admiration to the world. We are responsible to our country and to the
glorious cause of self-government for the preservation of so great a
good.

The great mass of legislation relating to our internal affairs was
intended to be left where the Federal Convention found it -- in the
State governments. Nothing is clearer, in my view, than that we are
chiefly indebted for the success of the Constitution under which we
are now acting to the watchful and auxiliary operation of the State
authorities. This is not the reflection of a day, but belongs to the
most deeply rooted convictions of my mind. I can not, therefore, too
strongly or too earnestly, for my own sense of its importance, warn
you against all encroachments upon the legitimate sphere of State
sovereignty. Sustained by its healthful and invigorating influence
the federal system can never fall.

In the collection of the revenue the long credits authorized on goods
imported from beyond the Cape of Good Hope are the chief cause of the
losses at present sustained. If these were shortened to 6, 9, and 12
months, and ware-houses provided by Government sufficient to receive
the goods offered in deposit for security and for debenture, and if
the right of the United States to a priority of payment out of the
estates of its insolvent debtors were more effectually secured, this
evil would in a great measure be obviated. An authority to construct
such houses is therefore, with the proposed alteration of the
credits, recommended to your attention.

It is worthy of notice that the laws for the collection and security
of the revenue arising from imposts were chiefly framed when the
rates of duties on imported goods presented much less temptation for
illicit trade than at present exists. There is reason to believe that
these laws are in some respects quite insufficient for the proper
security of the revenue and the protection of the interests of those
who are disposed to observe them. The injurious and demoralizing
tendency of a successful system of smuggling is so obvious as not to
require comment, and can not be too carefully guarded against. I
therefore suggest to Congress the propriety of adopting efficient
measures to prevent this evil, avoiding, however, as much as
possible, every unnecessary infringement of individual liberty and
embarrassment of fair and lawful business.

On an examination of the records of the Treasury I have been forcibly
struck with the large amount of public money which appears to be
outstanding. Of the sum thus due from individuals to the Government a
considerable portion is undoubtedly desperate, and in many instances
has probably been rendered so by remissness in the agents charged
with its collection. By proper exertions a great part, however, may
yet be recovered; and what ever may be the portions respectively
belonging to these two classes, it behooves the Government to
ascertain the real state of the fact. This can be done only by the
prompt adoption of judicious measures for the collection of such as
may be made available. It is believed that a very large amount has
been lost through the inadequacy of the means provided for the
collection of debts due to the public, and that this inadequacy lies
chiefly in the want of legal skill habitually and constantly employed
in the direction of the agents engaged in the service. It must, I
think, be admitted that the supervisory power over suits brought by
the public, which is now vested in an *accounting* officer of the
Treasury, not selected with a view to his legal knowledge, and
encumbered as he is with numerous other duties, operates unfavorably
to the public interest.

It is important that this branch of the public service should be
subjected to the supervision of such professional skill as will give
it efficiency. The expense attendant upon such a modification of the
executive department would be justified by the soundest principles of
economy. I would recommend, therefore, that the duties now assigned to
the agent of the Treasury, so far as they relate to the
superintendence and management of legal proceedings on the part of
the United States, be transferred to the Attorney General, and that
this officer be placed on the same footing in all respects as the
heads of the other Departments, receiving like compensation and
having such subordinate officers provided for his Department as may
be requisite for the discharge of these additional duties. The
professional skill of the Attorney General, employed in directing the
conduct of marshals and district attorneys, would hasten the
collection of debts now in suit and hereafter save much to the
Government. It might be further extended to the superintendence of
all criminal proceedings for offenses against the United States. In
making this transfer great care should be taken, however, that the
power necessary to the Treasury Department be not impaired, 1 of its
greatest securities consisting in control over all accounts until
they are audited or reported for suit.

In connection with the foregoing views I would suggest also an
inquiry whether the provisions of the act of Congress authorizing the
discharge of the persons of the debtors to the Government from
imprisonment may not, consistently with the public interest, be
extended to the release of the debt where the conduct of the debtor
is wholly exempt from the imputation of fraud. Some more liberal
policy than that which now prevails in reference to this unfortunate
class of citizens is certainly due to them, and would prove
beneficial to the country. The continuance of the liability after the
means to discharge it have been exhausted can only serve to dispirit
the debtor; or, where his resources are but partial, the want of
power in the Government to compromise and release the demand
instigates to fraud as the only resource for securing a support to
his family. He thus sinks into a state of apathy, and becomes a
useless drone in society or a vicious member of it, if not a feeling
witness of the rigor and inhumanity of his country. All experience
proves that oppressive debt is the bane of enterprise, and it should
be the care of a republic not to exert a grinding power over
misfortune and poverty.

Since the last session of Congress numerous frauds on the Treasury
have been discovered, which I thought it my duty to bring under the
cognizance of the United States court for this district by a criminal
prosecution. It was my opinion and that of able counsel who were
consulted that the cases came within the penalties of the act of the
17th Congress approved [1823-03-03], providing for punishment of
frauds committed on the Government of the United States. Either from
some defect in the law or in its administration every effort to bring
the accused to trial under its provisions proved ineffectual, and the
Government was driven to the necessity of resorting to the vague and
inadequate provisions of the common law. It is therefore my duty to
call your attention to the laws which have been passed for the
protection of the Treasury. If, indeed, there be no provision by
which those who may be unworthily intrusted with its guardianship can
be punished for the most flagrant violation of duty, extending even to
the most fraudulent appropriation of the public funds to their own
use, it is time to remedy so dangerous an omission; or if the law has
been perverted from its original purposes, and criminals deserving to
be punished under its provisions have been rescued by legal
subtleties, it ought to be made so plain by amendatory provisions as
to baffle the arts of perversion and accomplish the ends of its
original enactment.

In one of the most flagrant causes the court decided that the
prosecution was barred by the statute which limits prosecutions for
fraud to two years. In this case all the evidences of the fraud, and,
indeed, all knowledge that a fraud had been committed, were in
possession of the party accused until after the two years had
elapsed. Surely the statute ought not to run in favor of any man
while he retains all the evidences of his crime in his own
possession, and least of all in favor of a public officer who
continues to defraud the Treasury and conceal the transaction for the
brief term of two years. I would therefore recommend such an
alteration of the law as will give the injured party and the
Government two years after the disclosure of the fraud or after the
accused is out of office to commence their prosecution.

In connection with this subject I invite the attention of Congress to
a general and minute inquiry into the condition of the Government,
with a view to ascertain what offices can be dispensed with, what
expenses retrenched, and what improvements may be made in the
organization of its various parts to secure the proper responsibility
of public agents and promote efficiency and justice in all its
operations.

The report of the Secretary of War will make you acquainted with the
condition of our Army, fortifications, arsenals, and Indian affairs.
The proper discipline of the Army, the training and equipment of the
militia, the education bestowed at West Point, and the accumulation
of the means of defense applicable to the naval force will tend to
prolong the peace we now enjoy, and which every good citizen, more
especially those who have felt the miseries of even a successful
warfare, must ardently desire to perpetuate.

The returns from the subordinate branches of this service exhibit a
regularity and order highly creditable to its character. Both
officers and soldiers seem imbued with a proper sense of duty, and
conform to the restraints of exact discipline with that cheerfulness
which becomes the profession of arms. There is need, however, of
further legislation to obviate the inconveniences specified in the
report under consideration, to some of which it is proper that I
should call your particular attention.

The act of Congress of [1821-03-02], to reduce and fix the military
establishment, remaining unexecuted as it regards the command of 1 of
the regiments of artillery, can not now be deemed a guide to the
Executive in making the proper appointment. An explanatory act,
designating the class of officers out of which the grade is to be
filled -- whether from the military list as existing prior to the act
of 1821 or from it as it has been fixed by that act -- would remove
this difficulty. It is also important that the laws regulating the
pay and emoluments of officers generally should be more specific than
they now are. Those, for example, in relation to the PayMaster and
Surgeon General assign to them an annual salary of $2.500, but are
silent as to allowances which in certain exigencies of the service
may be deemed indispensable to the discharge of their duties. This
circumstance has been the authority for extending to them various
allowances at different times under former Administrations, but no
uniform rule has been observed on the subject. Similar inconveniences
exist in other cases, in which the construction put upon the laws by
the public accountants may operate unequally, produce confusion, and
expose officers to the odium of claiming what is not their due.

I recommend to your fostering care, as one of our safest means of
national defense, the Military Academy. This institution has already
exercised the happiest influence upon the moral and intellectual
character of our Army; and such of the graduates as from various
causes may not pursue the profession of arms will be scarcely less
useful as citizens. Their knowledge of the military art will be
advantageously employed in the militia service, and in a measure
secure to that class of troops the advantages which in this respect
belong to standing armies.

I would also suggest a review of the pension law, for the purpose of
extending its benefits to every Revolutionary soldier who aided in
establishing our liberties, and who is unable to maintain himself in
comfort. These relics of the War of Independence have strong claims
upon their country's gratitude and bounty. The law is defective in
not embracing within its provisions all those who were during the
last war disabled from supporting themselves by manual labor. Such an
amendment would add but little to the amount of pensions, and is
called for by the sympathies of the people as well as by
considerations of sound policy.

It will be perceived that a large addition to the list of pensioners
has been occasioned by an order of the late Administration, departing
materially from the rules which had previously prevailed. Considering
it an act of legislation, I suspended its operation as soon as I was
informed that it had commenced. Before this period, however,
applications under the new regulation had been preferred to the
number of 154, of which, on [March 27], the date of its revocation,
87 were admitted. For the amount there was neither estimate nor
appropriation; and besides this deficiency, the regular allowances,
according to the rules which have heretofore governed the Department,
exceed the estimate of its late Secretary by about $50K, for which an
appropriation is asked.

Your particular attention is requested to that part of the report of
the Secretary of War which relates to the money held in trust for the
Seneca tribe of Indians. It will be perceived that without legislative
aid the Executive can not obviate the embarrassments occasioned by the
diminution of the dividends on that fund, which originally amounted to
$100,000, and has recently been invested in United States 3% stock.

The condition and ulterior destiny of the Indian tribes within the
limits of some of our States have become objects of much interest and
importance. It has long been the policy of Government to introduce
among them the arts of civilization, in the hope of gradually
reclaiming them from a wandering life. This policy has, however, been
coupled with another wholly incompatible with its success. Professing
a desire to civilize and settle them, we have at the same time lost
no opportunity to purchase their lands and thrust them farther into
the wilderness. By this means they have not only been kept in a
wandering state, but been led to look upon us as unjust and
indifferent to their fate. Thus, though lavish in its expenditures
upon the subject, Government has constantly defeated its own policy,
and the Indians in general, receding farther and farther to the west,
have retained their savage habits. A portion, however, of the Southern
tribes, having mingled much with the whites and made some progress in
the arts of civilized life, have lately attempted to erect an
independent government within the limits of Georgia and Alabama.
These States, claiming to be the only sovereigns within their
territories, extended their laws over the Indians, which induced the
latter to call upon the United States for protection.

Under these circumstances the question presented was whether the
General Government had a right to sustain those people in their
pretensions. The Constitution declares that "no new State shall be
formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State" without
the consent of its legislature. If the General Government is not
permitted to tolerate the erection of a confederate State within the
territory of one of the members of this Union against her consent,
much less could it allow a foreign and independent government to
establish itself there.

Georgia became a member of the Confederacy which eventuated in our
Federal Union as a sovereign State, always asserting her claim to
certain limits, which, having been originally defined in her colonial
charter and subsequently recognized in the treaty of peace, she has
ever since continued to enjoy, except as they have been circumscribed
by her own voluntary transfer of a portion of her territory to the
United States in the articles of cession of 1802. Alabama was
admitted into the Union on the same footing with the original States,
with boundaries which were prescribed by Congress.

There is no constitutional, conventional, or legal provision which
allows them less power over the Indians within their borders than is
possessed by Maine or New York. Would the people of Maine permit the
Penobscot tribe to erect an independent government within their
State? And unless they did would it not be the duty of the General
Government to support them in resisting such a measure? Would the
people of New York permit each remnant of the six Nations within her
borders to declare itself an independent people under the protection
of the United States? Could the Indians establish a separate republic
on each of their reservations in Ohio? And if they were so disposed
would it be the duty of this Government to protect them in the
attempt? If the principle involved in the obvious answer to these
questions be abandoned, it will follow that the objects of this
Government are reversed, and that it has become a part of its duty to
aid in destroying the States which it was established to protect.

Actuated by this view of the subject, I informed the Indians
inhabiting parts of Georgia and Alabama that their attempt to
establish an independent government would not be countenanced by the
Executive of the United States, and advised them to emigrate beyond
the Mississippi or submit to the laws of those States.

Our conduct toward these people is deeply interesting to our national
character. Their present condition, contrasted with what they once
were, makes a most powerful appeal to our sympathies. Our ancestors
found them the uncontrolled possessors of these vast regions. By
persuasion and force they have been made to retire from river to
river and from mountain to mountain, until some of the tribes have
become extinct and others have left but remnants to preserve for a
while their once terrible names. Surrounded by the whites with their
arts of civilization, which by destroying the resources of the savage
doom him to weakness and decay, the fate of the Mohegan, the
Narragansett, and the Delaware is fast over-taking the Choctaw, the
Cherokee, and the Creek. That this fate surely awaits them if they
remain within the limits of the States does not admit of a doubt.
Humanity and national honor demand that every effort should be made
to avert so great a calamity. It is too late to inquire whether it
was just in the United States to include them and their territory
within the bounds of new States, whose limits they could control.
That step can not be retraced. A State can not be dismembered by
Congress or restricted in the exercise of her constitutional power.
But the people of those States and of every State, actuated by
feelings of justice and a regard for our national honor, submit to
you the interesting question whether something can not be done,
consistently with the rights of the States, to preserve this much-
injured race.

As a means of effecting this end I suggest for your consideration the
propriety of setting apart an ample district west of the Mississippi,
and without the limits of any State or Territory now formed, to be
guaranteed to the Indian tribes as long as they shall occupy it, each
tribe having a distinct control over the portion designated for its
use. There they may be secured in the enjoyment of governments of
their own choice, subject to no other control from the United States
than such as may be necessary to preserve peace on the frontier and
between the several tribes. There the benevolent may endeavor to
teach them the arts of civilization, and, by promoting union and
harmony among them, to raise up an interesting commonwealth, destined
to perpetuate the race and to attest the humanity and justice of this
Government.

This emigration should be voluntary, for it would be as cruel as
unjust to compel the aborigines to abandon the graves of their
fathers and seek a home in a distant land. But they should be
distinctly informed that if they remain within the limits of the
States they must be subject to their laws. In return for their
obedience as individuals they will without doubt be protected in the
enjoyment of those possessions which they have improved by their
industry. But it seems to me visionary to suppose that in this state
of things claims can be allowed on tracts of country on which they
have neither dwelt nor made improvements, merely because they have
seen them from the mountain or passed them in the chase. Submitting
to the laws of the States, and receiving, like other citizens,
protection in their persons and property, they will ere long become
merged in the mass of our population.

The accompanying report of the Secretary of the Navy will make you
acquainted with the condition and useful employment of that branch of
our service during the present year. Constituting as it does the best
standing security of this country against foreign aggression, it
claims the especial attention of Government. In this spirit the
measures which since the termination of the last war have been in
operation for its gradual enlargement were adopted, and it should
continue to be cherished as the off-spring of our national
experience. It will be seen, however, that not withstanding the great
solicitude which has been manifested for the perfect organization of
this arm and the liberality of the appropriations which that
solicitude has suggested, this object has in many important respects
not been secured.

In time of peace we have need of no more ships of war than are
requisite to the protection of our commerce. Those not wanted for
this object must lay in the harbors, where without proper covering
they rapidly decay, and even under the best precautions for their
preservation must soon become useless. Such is already the case with
many of our finest vessels, which, though unfinished, will now
require immense sums of money to be restored to the condition in
which they were when committed to their proper element.

On this subject there can be but little doubt that our best policy
would be to discontinue the building of ships of the first and second
class, and look rather to the possession of ample materials, prepared
for the emergencies of war, than to the number of vessels which we
can float in a season of peace, as the index of our naval power.
Judicious deposits in navy yards of timber and other materials,
fashioned under the hands of skillful work-men and fitted for prompt
application to their various purposes, would enable us at all times
to construct vessels as fast as they can be manned, and save the
heavy expense of repairs, except to such vessels as must be employed
in guarding our commerce.

The proper points for the establishment of these yards are indicated
with so much force in the report of the Navy Board that in
recommending it to your attention I deem it unnecessary to do more
than express my hearty concurrence in their views. The yard in this
District, being already furnished with most of the machinery
necessary for ship building, will be competent to the supply of the
two selected by the Board as the best for the concentration of
materials, and, from the facility and certainty of communication
between them, it will be useless to incur at those depots the expense
of similar machinery, especially that used in preparing the usual
metallic and wooden furniture of vessels.

Another improvement would be effected by dispensing altogether with
the Navy Board as now constituted, and substituting in its stead
bureaux similar to those already existing in the War Department. Each
member of the Board, transferred to the head of a separate bureau
charged with specific duties, would feel in its highest degree that
wholesome responsibility which can not be divided without a far more
than proportionate diminution of its force. Their valuable services
would become still more so when separately appropriated to distinct
portions of the great interests of the Navy, to the prosperity of
which each would be impelled to devote himself by the strongest
motives. Under such an arrangement every branch of this important
service would assume a more simple and precise character, its
efficiency would be increased, and scrupulous economy in the
expenditure of public money promoted.

I would also recommend that the Marine Corps be merged in the
artillery or infantry, as the best mode of curing the many defects in
its organization. But little exceeding in number any of the regiments
of infantry, that corps has, besides its lieutenant-colonel
commandant, five brevet lieutenant-colonels, who receive the full pay
and emoluments of their brevet rank, without rendering proportionate
service. Details for marine service could as well be made from the
artillery or infantry, there being no peculiar training requisite for
it.

With these improvements, and such others as zealous watchfulness and
mature consideration may suggest, there can be little doubt that
under an energetic administration of its affairs the Navy may soon be
made every thing that the nation wishes it to be. Its efficiency in
the suppression of piracy in the West India seas, and wherever its
squadrons have been employed in securing the interests of the
country, will appear from the report of the Secretary, to which I
refer you for other interesting details. Among these I would bespeak
the attention of Congress for the views presented in relation to the
inequality between the Army and Navy as to the pay of officers. No
such inequality should prevail between these brave defenders of their
country, and where it does exist it is submitted to Congress whether
it ought not to be rectified.

The report of the PostMaster General is referred to as exhibiting a
highly satisfactory administration of that Department. Abuses have
been reformed, increased expedition in the transportation of the mail
secured, and its revenue much improved. In a political point of view
this Department is chiefly important as affording the means of
diffusing knowledge. It is to the body politic what the veins and
arteries are to the natural -- conveying rapidly and regularly to the
remotest parts of the system correct information of the operations of
the Government, and bringing back to it the wishes and feelings of
the people. Through its agency we have secured to ourselves the full
enjoyment of the blessings of a free press.

In this general survey of our affairs a subject of high importance
presents itself in the present organization of the judiciary. An
uniform operation of the Federal Government in the different States
is certainly desirable, and existing as they do in the Union on the
basis of perfect equality, each State has a right to expect that the
benefits conferred on the citizens of others should be extended to
hers. The judicial system of the United States exists in all its
efficiency in only fifteen members of the Union; to three others the
circuit courts, which constitute an important part of that system,
have been imperfectly extended, and to the remaining 6 altogether
denied. The effect has been to withhold from the inhabitants of the
latter the advantages afforded (by the Supreme Court) to their fellow
citizens in other States in the whole extent of the criminal and much
of the civil authority of the Federal judiciary. That this state of
things ought to be remedied, if it can be done consistently with the
public welfare, is not to be doubted. Neither is it to be disguised
that the organization of our judicial system is at once a difficult
and delicate task. To extend the circuit courts equally throughout
the different parts of the Union, and at the same time to avoid such
a multiplication of members as would encumber the supreme appellate
tribunal, is the object desired. Perhaps it might be accomplished by
dividing the circuit judges into two classes, and providing that the
Supreme Court should be held by these classes alternately, the Chief
Justice always presiding.

If an extension of the circuit court system to those States which do
not now enjoy its benefits should be determined upon, it would of
course be necessary to revise the present arrangement of the
circuits; and even if that system should not be enlarged, such a
revision is recommended.

A provision for taking the census of the people of the United States
will, to insure the completion of that work within a convenient time,
claim the early attention of Congress.

The great and constant increase of business in the Department of
State forced itself at an early period upon the attention of the
Executive. Thirteen years ago it was, in Mr. Madison's last message
to Congress, made the subject of an earnest recommendation, which has
been repeated by both of his successors; and my comparatively limited
experience has satisfied me of its justness. It has arisen from many
causes, not the least of which is the large addition that has been
made to the family of independent nations and the proportionate
extension of our foreign relations. The remedy proposed was the
establishment of a home department -- a measure which does not appear
to have met the views of Congress on account of its supposed tendency
to increase, gradually and imperceptibly, the already too strong bias
of the federal system toward the exercise of authority not delegated
to it. I am not, therefore, disposed to revive the recommendation,
but am not the less impressed with the importance of so organizing
that Department that its Secretary may devote more of his time to our
foreign relations. Clearly satisfied that the public good would be
promoted by some suitable provision on the subject, I respectfully
invite your attention to it.

The charter of the Bank of the United States expires in 1836, and its
stock holders will most probably apply for a renewal of their
privileges. In order to avoid the evils resulting from precipitancy
in a measure involving such important principles and such deep
pecuniary interests, I feel that I can not, in justice to the parties
interested, too soon present it to the deliberate consideration of the
Legislature and the people. Both the constitutionality and the
expediency of the law creating this bank are well questioned by a
large portion of our fellow citizens, and it must be admitted by all
that it has failed in the great end of establishing an uniform and
sound currency.

Under these circumstances, if such an institution is deemed essential
to the fiscal operations of the Government, I submit to the wisdom of
the Legislature whether a national one, founded upon the credit of
the Government and its revenues, might not be devised which would
avoid all constitutional difficulties and at the same time secure all
the advantages to the Government and country that were expected to
result from the present bank.

I can not close this communication without bringing to your view the
just claim of the representatives of Commodore Decatur, his officers
and crew, arising from the recapture of the frigate Philadelphia
under the heavy batteries of Tripoli. Although sensible, as a general
rule, of the impropriety of Executive interference under a Government
like ours, where every individual enjoys the right of directly
petitioning Congress, yet, viewing this case as one of very peculiar
character, I deem it my duty to recommend it to your favorable
consideration. Besides the justice of this claim, as corresponding to
those which have been since recognized and satisfied, it is the fruit
of a deed of patriotic and chivalrous daring which infused life and
confidence into our infant Navy and contributed as much as any
exploit in its history to elevate our national character. Public
gratitude, therefore, stamps her seal upon it, and the meed should
not be withheld which may here after operate as a stimulus to our
gallant tars.

I now commend you, fellow citizens, to the guidance of Almighty God,
with a full reliance on His merciful providence for the maintenance
of our free institutions, and with an earnest supplication that what
ever errors it may be my lot to commit in discharging the arduous
duties which have devolved on me will find a remedy in the harmony
and wisdom of your counsels.