Speech Transcript:

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

The representation of the people has been renewed for the 22nd time
since the Constitution they formed has been in force. For near half a
century the Chief Magistrates who have been successively chosen have
made their annual communications of the state of the nation to its
representatives. Generally these communications have been of the most
gratifying nature, testifying an advance in all the improvements of
social and all the securities of political life. But frequently and
justly as you have been called on to be grateful for the bounties of
Providence, at few periods have they been more abundantly or
extensively bestowed than at the present; rarely, if ever, have we
had greater reason to congratulate each other on the continued and
increasing prosperity of our beloved country.

Agriculture, the first and most important occupation of man, has
compensated the labors of the husband-man with plentiful crops of all
the varied products of our extensive country. Manufactures have been
established in which the funds of the capitalist find a profitable
investment, and which give employment and subsistence to a numerous
and increasing body of industrious and dexterous mechanics. The
laborer is rewarded by high wages in the construction of works of
internal improvement, which are extending with unprecedented
rapidity. Science is steadily penetrating the recesses of nature and
disclosing her secrets, while the ingenuity of free minds is
subjecting the elements to the power of man and making each new
conquest auxiliary to his comfort. By our mails, whose speed is
regularly increased and whose routes are every year extended, the
communication of public intelligence and private business is rendered
frequent and safe; the intercourse between distant cities, which it
formerly required weeks to accomplish, is now effected in a few days;
and in the construction of rail roads and the application of steam
power we have a reasonable prospect that the extreme parts of our
country will be so much approximated and those most isolated by the
obstacles of nature rendered so accessible as to remove an
apprehension some times entertained that the great extent of the
Union would endanger its permanent existence.

If from the satisfactory view of our agriculture, manufactures, and
internal improvements we turn to the state of our navigation and
trade with foreign nations and between the States, we shall scarcely
find less cause for gratulation. A beneficent Providence has provided
for their exercise and encouragement an extensive coast, indented by
capacious bays, noble rivers, inland seas; with a country productive
of every material for ship building and every commodity for gainful
commerce, and filled with a population active, intelligent,
well-informed, and fearless of danger. These advantages are not
neglected, and an impulse has lately been given to commercial
enterprise, which fills our ship yards with new constructions,
encourages all the arts and branches of industry connected with them,
crowds the wharves of our cities with vessels, and covers the most
distant seas with our canvas.

Let us be grateful for these blessings to the beneficent Being who
has conferred them, and who suffers us to indulge a reasonable hope
of their continuance and extension, while we neglect not the means by
which they may be preserved. If we may dare to judge of His future
designs by the manner in which His past favors have been bestowed, He
has made our national prosperity to depend on the preservation of our
liberties, our national force on our Federal Union, and our
individual happiness on the maintenance of our State rights and wise
institutions. If we are prosperous at home and respected abroad, it
is because we are free, united, industrious, and obedient to the
laws. While we continue so we shall by the blessing of Heaven go on
in the happy career we have begun, and which has brought us in the
short period of our political existence from a population of
3,000,000 to 13,000,000; from 13 separate colonies to 24 united
States; from weakness to strength; from a rank scarcely marked in the
scale of nations to a high place in their respect.

This last advantage is one that has resulted in a great degree from
the principles which have guided our intercourse with foreign powers
since we have assumed an equal station among them, and hence the
annual account which the Executive renders to the country of the
manner in which that branch of his duties has been fulfilled proves
instructive and salutary.

The pacific and wise policy of our Government kept us in a state of
neutrality during the wars that have at different periods since our
political existence been carried on by other powers; but this policy,
while it gave activity and extent to our commerce, exposed it in the
same proportion to injuries from the belligerent nations. Hence have
arisen claims of indemnity for those injuries. England, France,
Spain, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Naples, and lately Portugal had all
in a greater or less degree infringed our neutral rights. Demands for
reparation were made upon all. They have had in all, and continue to
have in some, cases a leading influence on the nature of our
relations with the powers on whom they were made.

Of the claims upon England it is unnecessary to speak further than to
say that the state of things to which their prosecution and denial
gave rise has been succeeded by arrangements productive of mutual
good feeling and amicable relations between the two countries, which
it is hoped will not be interrupted. One of these arrangements is
that relating to the colonial trade which was communicated to
Congress at the last session; and although the short period during
which it has been in force will not enable me to form an accurate
judgment of its operation, there is every reason to believe that it
will prove highly beneficial. The trade thereby authorized has
employed to [1831-09-30] upward of 30K tons of American and 15K tons
of foreign shipping in the outward voyages, and in the inward nearly
an equal amount of American and 20K only of foreign tonnage.
Advantages, too, have resulted to our agricultural interests from the
state of the trade between Canada and our Territories and States
bordering or the St. Lawrence and the Lakes which may prove more than
equivalent to the loss sustained by the discrimination made to favor
the trade of the northern colonies with the West Indies.

After our transition from the state of colonies to that of an
independent nation many points were found necessary to be settled
between us and Great Britain. Among them was the demarcation of
boundaries not described with sufficient precision in the treaty of
peace. Some of the lines that divide the States and Territories of
the United States from the British Provinces have been definitively
fixed.

That, however, which separates us from the Provinces of Canada and
New Brunswick to the North and the East was still in dispute when I
came into office, but I found arrangements made for its settlement
over which I had no control. The commissioners who had been appointed
under the provisions of the treaty of Ghent having been unable to
agree, a convention was made with Great Britain by my immediate
predecessor in office, with the advice and consent of the Senate, by
which it was agreed "that the points of difference which have arisen
in the settlement of the boundary line between the American and
British dominions, as described in the 5th article of the treaty of
Ghent, shall be referred, as therein provided, to some friendly
sovereign or State, who shall be invited to investigate and make a
decision upon such points of difference"; and the King of the
Netherlands having by the late President and His Britannic Majesty
been designated as such friendly sovereign, it became my duty to
carry with good faith the agreement so made into full effect. To this
end I caused all the measures to be taken which were necessary to a
full exposition of our case to the sovereign arbiter, and nominated
as minister plenipotentiary to his Court a distinguished citizen of
the State most interested in the question, and who had been one of
the agents previously employed for settling the controversy.

On [1831-01-10] His Majesty the King of the Netherlands delivered to
the plenipotentiaries of the United States and of Great Britain his
written opinion on the case referred to him. The papers in relation
to the subject will be communicated by a special message to the
proper branch of the Government with the perfect confidence that its
wisdom will adopt such measures as will secure an amicable settlement
of the controversy without infringing any constitutional right of the
States immediately interested.

It affords me satisfaction to inform you that suggestions made by my
direction to the chargé d'affaires of His Britannic Majesty to this
Government have had their desired effect in producing the release of
certain American citizens who were imprisoned for setting up the
authority of the State of Maine at a place in the disputed territory
under the actual jurisdiction of His Britannic Majesty. From this and
the assurances I have received of the desire of the local authorities
to avoid any cause of collision I have the best hopes that a good
understanding will be kept up until it is confirmed by the final
disposition of the subject.

The amicable relations which now subsist between the United States
and Great Britain, the increasing intercourse between their citizens,
and the rapid obliteration of unfriendly prejudices to which former
events naturally gave rise concurred to present this as a fit period
for renewing our endeavors to provide against the recurrence of
causes of irritation which in the event of war between Great Britain
and any other power would inevitably endanger our peace. Animated by
the sincerest desire to avoid such a state of things, and peacefully
to secure under all possible circumstances the rights and honor of
the country, I have given such instructions to the minister lately
sent to the Court of London as will evince that desire, and if met by
a correspondent disposition, which we can not doubt, will put an end
to causes of collision which, without advantage to either, tend to
estrange from each other two nations who have every motive to
preserve not only peace, but an intercourse of the most amicable
nature.

In my message at the opening of the last session of Congress I
expressed a confident hope that the justice of our claims upon
France, urged as they were with perseverance and signal ability by
our minister there, would finally be acknowledged. This hope has been
realized. A treaty has been signed which will immediately be laid
before the Senate for its approbation, and which, containing
stipulations that require legislative acts, must have the concurrence
of both houses before it can be carried into effect.

By it the French Government engage to pay a sum which, if not quite
equal to that which may be found due to our citizens, will yet, it is
believed, under all circumstances, be deemed satisfactory by those
interested. The offer of a gross sum instead of the satisfaction of
each individual claim was accepted because the only alternatives were
a rigorous exaction of the whole amount stated to be due on each
claim, which might in some instances be exaggerated by design, in
other over- rated through error, and which, therefore, it would have
been both ungracious and unjust to have insisted on; or a settlement
by a mixed commission, to which the French negotiators were very
averse, and which experience in other cases had shewn to be dilatory
and often wholly inadequate to the end.

A comparatively small sum is stipulated on our part to go to the
extinction of all claims by French citizens on our Government, and a
reduction of duties on our cotton and their wines has been agreed on
as a consideration for the renunciation of an important claim for
commercial privileges under the construction they gave to the treaty
for the cession of Louisiana.

Should this treaty receive the proper sanction, a source of
irritation will be stopped that has for so many years in some degree
alienated from each other two nations who, from interest as well as
the remembrance of early associations, ought to cherish the most
friendly relations; an encouragement will be given for perseverance
in the demands of justice by this new proof that if steadily pursued
they will be listened to, and admonition will be offered to those
powers, if any, which may be inclined to evade them that they will
never be abandoned; above all, a just confidence will be inspired in
our fellow citizens that their Government will exert all the powers
with which they have invested it in support of their just claims upon
foreign nations; at the same time that the frank acknowledgment and
provision for the payment of those which were addressed to our
equity, although unsupported by legal proof, affords a practical
illustration of our submission to the divine rule of doing to others
what we desire they should do unto us.

Sweden and Denmark having made compensation for the irregularities
committed by their vessels or in their ports to the perfect
satisfaction of the parties concerned, and having renewed the
treaties of commerce entered into with them, our political and
commercial relations with those powers continue to be on the most
friendly footing.

With Spain our differences up to [1819-02-22] were settled by the
treaty of Washington of that date, but at a subsequent period our
commerce with the States formerly colonies of Spain on the continent
of America was annoyed and frequently interrupted by her public and
private armed ships. They captured many of our vessels prosecuting a
lawful commerce and sold them and their cargoes, and at one time to
our demands for restoration and indemnity opposed the allegation that
they were taken in the violation of a blockade of all the ports of
those States. This blockade was declaratory only, and the inadequacy
of the force to maintain it was so manifest that this allegation was
varied to a charge of trade in contraband of war. This, in its turn,
was also found untenable, and the minister whom I sent with
instructions to press for the reparation that was due to our injured
fellow citizens has transmitted an answer to his demand by which the
captures are declared to have been legal, and are justified because
the independence of the States of America never having been
acknowledged by Spain she had a right to prohibit trade with them
under her old colonial laws. This ground of defense was
contradictory, not only to those which had been formerly alleged, but
to the uniform practice and established laws of nations, and had been
abandoned by Spain herself in the convention which granted indemnity
to British subjects for captures made at the same time, under the
same circumstances, and for the same allegations with those of which
we complain.

I, however, indulge the hope that further reflection will lead to
other views, and feel confident that when His Catholic Majesty shall
be convinced of the justice of the claims his desire to preserve
friendly relations between the two countries, which it is my earnest
endeavor to maintain, will induce him to accede to our demand. I have
therefore dispatched a special messenger with instructions to our
minister to bring the case once more to his consideration, to the end
that if (which I can not bring myself to believe) the same decision
(that can not but be deemed an unfriendly denial of justice) should
be persisted in the matter may before your adjournment be laid before
you, the constitutional judges of what is proper to be done when
negotiation for redress of injury fails.

The conclusion of a treaty for indemnity with France seemed to
present a favorable opportunity to renew our claims of a similar
nature on other powers, and particularly in the case of those upon
Naples, more especially as in the course of former negotiations with
that power our failure to induce France to render us justice was used
as an argument against us. The desires of the merchants, who were the
principal sufferers, have therefore been acceded to, and a mission
has been instituted for the special purpose of obtaining for them a
reparation already too long delayed. This measure having been
resolved on, it was put in execution without waiting for the meeting
of Congress, because the state of Europe created an apprehension of
events that might have rendered our application ineffectual.

Our demands upon the Government of the two Sicilies are of a peculiar
nature. The injuries on which they are founded are not denied, nor are
the atrocity and perfidy under which those injuries were perpetrated
attempted to be extenuated. The sole ground on which indemnity has
been refused is the alleged illegality of the tenure by which the
monarch who made the seizures held his crown. This defense, always
unfounded in any principle of the law of nations, now universally
abandoned, even by those powers upon whom the responsibility for the
acts of past rulers bore the most heavily, will unquestionably be
given up by His Sicilian Majesty, whose counsels will receive an
impulse from that high sense of honor and regard to justice which are
said to characterize him; and I feel the fullest confidence that the
talents of the citizen commissioned for that purpose will place
before him the just claims of our injured citizens in such as light
as will enable me before your adjournment to announce that they have
been adjusted and secured. Precise instructions to the effect of
bringing the negotiation to a speedy issue have been given, and will
be obeyed.

In the late blockade of Terceira some of the Portuguese fleet
captured several of our vessels and committed other excesses, for
which reparation was demanded, and I was on the point of dispatching
an armed force to prevent any recurrence of a similar violence and
protect our citizens in the prosecution of their lawful commerce when
official assurances, on which I relied, made the sailing of the ships
unnecessary. Since that period frequent promises have been made that
full indemnity shall be given for the injuries inflicted and the
losses sustained. In the performance there has been some, perhaps
unavoidable, delay; but I have the fullest confidence that my earnest
desire that this business may at once be closed, which our minister
has been instructed strongly to express, will very soon be gratified.
I have the better ground for this hope from the evidence of a friendly
disposition which that Government has shown an actual reduction in the
duty on rice the produce of our Southern States, authorizing the
anticipation that this important article of our export will soon be
admitted on the same footing with that produced by the most favored
nation.

With the other powers of Europe we have fortunately had no cause of
discussions for the redress of injuries. With the Empire of the
Russias our political connection is of the most friendly and our
commercial of the most liberal kind. We enjoy the advantages of
navigation and trade given to the most favored nation, but it has not
yet suited their policy, or perhaps has not been found convenient from
other considerations, to give stability and reciprocity to those
privileges by a commercial treaty. The ill health of the minister
last year charged with making a proposition for that arrangement did
not permit him to remain at St. Petersburg, and the attention of that
Government during the whole of the period since his departure having
been occupied by the war in which it was engaged, we have been
assured that nothing could have been effected by his presence. A
minister will soon be nominated, as well to effect this important
object as to keep up the relations of amity and good understanding of
which we have received so many assurances and proofs from His Imperial
Majesty and the Emperor his predecessor.

The treaty with Austria is opening to us an important trade with the
hereditary dominions of the Emperor, the value of which has been
hitherto little known, and of course not sufficiently appreciated.
While our commerce finds an entrance into the south of Germany by
means of this treaty, those we have formed with the Hanseatic towns
and Prussia and others now in negotiation will open that vast country
to the enterprising spirit of our merchants on the north -- a country
abounding in all the materials for a mutually beneficial commerce,
filled with enlightened and industrious inhabitants, holding an
important place in the politics of Europe, and to which we owe so
many valuable citizens. The ratification of the treaty with the Porte
was sent to be exchanged by the gentleman appointed our chargé
d'affaires to that Court. Some difficulties occurred on his arrival,
but at the date of his last official dispatch he supposed they had
been obviated and that there was every prospect of the exchange being
speedily effected.

This finishes the connected view I have thought it proper to give of
our political and commercial relations in Europe. Every effort in my
power will be continued to strengthen and extend them by treaties
founded on principles of the most perfect reciprocity of interest,
neither asking nor conceding any exclusive advantage, but liberating
as far as it lies in my power the activity and industry of our fellow
citizens from the shackles which foreign restrictions may impose.

To China and the East Indies our commerce continues in its usual
extent, and with increased facilities which the credit and capital of
our merchants afford by substituting bills for payments in specie. A
daring outrage having been committed in those seas by the plunder of
one of our merchant-men engaged in the pepper trade at a port in
Sumatra, and the piratical perpetrators belonging to tribes in such a
state of society that the usual course of proceedings between
civilized nations could not be pursued, I forthwith dispatched a
frigate with orders to require immediate satisfaction for the injury
and indemnity to the sufferers.

Few changes have taken place in our connections with the independent
States of America since my last communication to Congress. The
ratification of a commercial treaty with the United Republics of
Mexico has been for some time under deliberation in their Congress,
but was still undecided at the date of our last dispatches. The
unhappy civil commotions that have prevailed there were undoubtedly
the cause of the delay, but as the Government is now said to be
tranquillized we may hope soon to receive the ratification of the
treaty and an arrangement for the demarcation of the boundaries
between us. In the mean time, an important trade has been opened with
mutual benefit from St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, by caravans
to the interior Provinces of Mexico. This commerce is protected in
its progress through the Indian countries by the troops of the United
States, which have been permitted to escort the caravans beyond our
boundaries to the settled part of the Mexican territory.

From Central America I have received assurances of the most friendly
kind and a gratifying application for our good offices to remove a
supposed indisposition toward that Government in a neighboring State.
This application was immediately and successfully complied with. They
gave us also the pleasing intelligence that differences which had
prevailed in their internal affairs had been peaceably adjusted. Our
treaty with this Republic continues to be faithfully observed, and
promises a great and beneficial commerce between the two countries --
a commerce of the greatest importance if the magnificent project of a
ship canal through the dominions of that State from the Atlantic to
the Pacific Ocean, now in serious contemplation, shall be executed.

I have great satisfaction in communicating the success which has
attended the exertions of our minister in Colombia to procure a very
considerable reduction in the duties on our flour in that Republic.
Indemnity also has been stipulated for injuries received by our
merchants from illegal seizures, and renewed assurances are given
that the treaty between the two countries shall be faithfully
observed.

Chili and Peru seem to be still threatened with civil commotions, and
until they shall be settled disorders may naturally be apprehended,
requiring the constant presence of a naval force in the Pacific Ocean
to protect our fisheries and guard our commerce.

The disturbances that took place in the Empire of Brazil previously
to and immediately consequent upon the abdication of the late Emperor
necessarily suspended any effectual application for the redress of
some past injuries suffered by our citizens from that Government,
while they have been the cause of others, in which all foreigners
seem to have participated. Instructions have been given to our
minister there to press for indemnity due for losses occasioned by
these irregularities, and to take care of our fellow citizens shall
enjoy all the privileges stipulated in their favor by the treaty
lately made between the two powers, all which the good intelligence
that prevails between our minister at Rio Janeiro and the Regency
gives us the best reason to expect.

I should have placed Buenos Ayres in the list of South American
powers in respect to which nothing of importance affecting us was to
be communicated but for occurrences which have lately taken place at
the Falkland Islands, in which the name of that Republic has been
used to cover with a show of authority acts injurious to our commerce
and to the property and liberty of our fellow citizens. In the course
of the present year one of our vessels, engaged in the pursuit of a
trade which we have always enjoyed without molestation, has been
captured by a band acting, as they pretend, under the authority of
the Government of Buenos Ayres. I have therefore given orders for the
dispatch of an armed vessel to join our squadron in those seas and aid
in affording all lawful protection to our trade which shall be
necessary, and shall without delay send a minister to inquire into
the nature of the circumstances and also of the claim, if any, that
is set up by that Government to those islands. In the mean time, I
submit the case to the consideration of Congress, to the end that
they may clothe the Executive with such authority and means as they
may deem necessary for providing a force adequate to the complete
protection of our fellow citizens fishing and trading in those seas.

This rapid sketch of our foreign relations, it is hoped, fellow
citizens, may be of some use in so much of your legislation as may
bear on that important subject, while it affords to the country at
large a source of high gratification in the contemplation of our
political and commercial connection with the rest of the world. At
peace with all; having subjects of future difference with few, and
those susceptible of easy adjustment; extending our commerce
gradually on all sides and on none by any but the most liberal and
mutually beneficial means, we may, by the blessing of Providence,
hope for all that national prosperity which can be derived from an
intercourse with foreign nations, guided by those eternal principles
of justice and reciprocal good will which are binding as well upon
States as the individuals of whom they are composed.

I have great satisfaction in making this statement of our affairs,
because the course of our national policy enables me to do it without
any indiscreet exposure of what in other governments is usually
concealed from the people. Having none but a straight-forward, open
course to pursue, guided by a single principle that will bear the
strongest light, we have happily no political combinations to form,
no alliances to entangle us, no complicated interests to consult, and
in subjecting all we have done to the consideration of our citizens
and to the inspection of the world we give no advantage to other
nations and lay ourselves open to no injury.

It may not be improper to add that to preserve this state of things
and give confidence to the world in the integrity of our designs all
our consular and diplomatic agents are strictly enjoined to examine
well every cause of complaint preferred by our citizens, and while
they urge with proper earnestness those that are well founded, to
countenance none that are unreasonable or unjust, and to enjoin on
our merchants and navigators the strictest obedience to the laws of
the countries to which they resort, and a course of conduct in their
dealings that may support the character of our nation and render us
respected abroad.

Connected with this subject, I must recommend a revisal of our
consular laws. Defects and omissions have been discovered in their
operation that ought to be remedied and supplied. For your further
information on this subject I have directed a report to be made by
the Secretary of State, which I shall hereafter submit to your
consideration.

The internal peace and security of our confederated States is the
next principal object of the General Government. Time and experience
have proved that the abode of the native Indian within their limits
is dangerous to their peace and injurious to himself. In accordance
with my recommendation at a former session of Congress, an
appropriation of $500K was made to aid the voluntary removal of the
various tribes beyond the limits of the States. At the last session I
had the happiness to announce that the Chickasaws and Choctaws had
accepted the generous offer of the Government and agreed to remove
beyond the Mississippi River, by which the whole of the State of
Mississippi and the western part of Alabama will be freed from Indian
occupancy and opened to a civilized population. The treaties with
these tribes are in a course of execution, and their removal, it is
hoped, will be completed in the course of 1832.

At the request of the authorities of Georgia the registration of
Cherokee Indians for emigration has been resumed, and it is
confidently expected that half, if not two-third, of that tribe will
follow the wise example of their more westerly brethren. Those who
prefer remaining at their present homes will hereafter be governed by
the laws of Georgia, as all her citizens are, and cease to be the
objects of peculiar care on the part of the General Government.

During the present year the attention of the Government has been
particularly directed to those tribes in the powerful and growing
State of Ohio, where considerable tracts of the finest lands were
still occupied by the aboriginal proprietors. Treaties, either
absolute or conditional, have been made extinguishing the whole
Indian title to the reservations in that State, and the time is not
distant, it is hoped, when Ohio will be no longer embarrassed with
the Indian population. The same measures will be extended to Indiana
as soon as there is reason to anticipate success. It is confidently
believed that perseverance for a few years in the present policy of
the Government will extinguish the Indian title to all lands lying
within the States composing our Federal Union, and remove beyond
their limits every Indian who is not willing to submit to their
laws.

Thus will all conflicting claims to jurisdiction between the States
and the Indian tribes be put to rest. It is pleasing to reflect that
results so beneficial, not only to the States immediately concerned,
but to the harmony of the Union, will have been accomplished by
measures equally advantageous to the Indians. What the native savages
become when surrounded by a dense population and by mixing with the
whites may be seen in the miserable remnants of a few Eastern tribes,
deprived of political and civil rights, forbidden to make contracts,
and subjected to guardians, dragging out a wretched existence,
without excitement, without hope, and almost without thought.

But the removal of the Indians beyond the limits and jurisdiction of
the States does not place them beyond the reach of philanthropic aid
and Christian instruction. On the contrary, those whom philanthropy
or religion may induce to live among them in their new abode will be
more free in the exercise of their benevolent functions than if they
had remained within the limits of the States, embarrassed by their
internal regulations. Now subject to no control but the
superintending agency of the General Government, exercised with the
sole view of preserving peace, they may proceed unmolested in the
interesting experiment of gradually advancing a community of American
Indians from barbarism to the habits and enjoyments of civilized
life.

Among the happiest effects of the improved relations of our Republic
has been an increase of trade, producing a corresponding increase of
revenue beyond the most sanguine anticipations of the Treasury
Department.

The state of the public finances will be fully shown by the Secretary
of the Treasury in the report which he will presently lay before you.
I will here, however, congratulate you upon their prosperous
condition. The revenue received in the present year will not fall
short of $27,700,000, and the expenditures for all objects other than
the public debt will not exceed $14,700,000. The payment on account of
the principal and interest of the debt during the year will exceed
$16,500,000, a greater sum than has been applied to that object out
of the revenue in any year since the enlargement of the sinking fund
except the two years following immediately there after. The amount
which will have been applied to the public debt from [1829-03-04] to
[1832-01-01], which is less than three years since the Administration
has been placed in my hands, will exceed $40,000,000.

From the large importations of the present year it may be safely
estimated that the revenue which will be received into the Treasury
from that source during the next year, with the aid of that received
from the public lands, will considerably exceed the amount of the
receipts of the present year; and it is believed that with the means
which the Government will have at its disposal from various sources,
which will be fully stated by the proper Department, the whole of the
public debt may be extinguished, either by redemption or purchase,
within the four years of my Administration. We shall then exhibit the
rare example of a great nation, abounding in all the means of
happiness and security, altogether free from debt.

The confidence with which the extinguishment of the public debt may
be anticipated presents an opportunity for carrying into effect more
fully the policy in relation to import duties which has been
recommended in my former messages. A modification of the tariff which
shall produce a reduction of our revenue to the wants of the
Government and an adjustment of the duties on imports with a view to
equal justice in relation to all our national interests and to the
counteraction of foreign policy so far as it may be injurious to
those interests, is deemed to be one of the principal objects which
demand the consideration of the present Congress. Justice to the
interests of the merchant as well as the manufacturer requires that
material reductions in the import duties be prospective; and unless
the present Congress shall dispose of the subject the proposed
reductions can not properly be made to take effect at the period when
the necessity for the revenue arising from present rates shall cease.
It is therefore desirable that arrangements be adopted at your
present session to relieve the people from unnecessary taxation after
the extinguishment of the public debt. In the exercise of that spirit
of concession and conciliation which has distinguished the friends of
our Union in all great emergencies, it is believed that this object
may be effected without injury to any national interest.

In my annual message of [1829-12], I had the honor to recommend the
adoption of a more liberal policy than that which then prevailed
toward unfortunate debtors to the Government, and I deem it my duty
again to invite your attention to this subject.

Actuated by similar views, Congress at their last session passed an
act for the relief of certain insolvent debtors of the United States,
but the provisions of that law have not been deemed such as were
adequate to that relief to this unfortunate class of our fellow
citizens which may be safely extended to them. The points in which
the law appears to be defective will be particularly communicated by
the Secretary of the Treasury, and I take pleasure in recommending
such an extension of its provisions as will unfetter the enterprise
of a valuable portion of our citizens and restore to them the means
of usefulness to themselves and the community. While deliberating on
this subject I would also recommend to your consideration the
propriety of so modifying the laws for enforcing the payment of debts
due either to the public or to individuals suing in the courts of the
United States as to restrict the imprisonment of the person to cases
of fraudulent concealment of property. The personal liberty of the
citizen seems too sacred to be held, as in many cases it now is, at
the will of a creditor to whom he is willing to surrender all the
means he has of discharging his debt.

The reports from the Secretaries of the War and Navy Departments and
from the PostMaster General, which accompany this message, present
satisfactory views of the operations of the Departments respectively
under their charge, and suggest improvements which are worthy of and
to which I invite the serious attention of Congress. Certain defects
and omissions having been discovered in the operation of the laws
respecting patents, they are pointed out in the accompanying report
from the Secretary of State.

I have heretofore recommended amendments of the Federal Constitution
giving the election of President and Vice-President to the people and
limiting the service of the former to a single term. So important do I
consider these changes in our fundamental law that I can not, in
accordance with my sense of duty, omit to press them upon the
consideration of a new Congress. For my views more at large, as well
in relation to these points as to the disqualification of members of
Congress to receive an office from a President in whose election they
have had an official agency, which I proposed as a substitute, I refer
you to my former messages.

Our system of public accounts is extremely complicated, and it is
believed may be much improved. Much of the present machinery and a
considerable portion of the expenditure of public money may be
dispensed with, while greater facilities can be afforded to the
liquidation of claims upon the Government and an examination into
their justice and legality quite as efficient as the present secured.
With a view to a general reform in the system, I recommend the subject
to the attention of Congress.

I deem it my duty again to call your attention to the condition of
the District of Columbia. It was doubtless wise in the framers of our
Constitution to place the people of this District under the
jurisdiction of the General Government, but to accomplish the objects
they had in view it is not necessary that this people should be
deprived of all the privileges of self-government. Independently of
the difficulty of inducing the representatives of distant States to
turn their attention to projects of laws which are not of the highest
interest to their constituents, they are not individually, nor in
Congress collectively, well qualified to legislate over the local
concerns of this District. Consequently its interests are much
neglected, and the people are almost afraid to present their
grievances, lest a body in which they are not represented and which
feels little sympathy in their local relations should in its attempt
to make laws for them do more harm than good.

Governed by the laws of the States whence they were severed, the two
shores of the Potomac within the 10 miles square have different penal
codes -- not the present codes of Virginia and Maryland, but such as
existed in those States at the time of the cession to the United
States. As Congress will not form a new code, and as the people of
the District can not make one for themselves, they are virtually
under two governments. Is it not just to allow them at least a
Delegate in Congress, if not a local legislature, to make laws for
the District, subject to the approval or rejection of Congress? I
earnestly recommend the extension to them of every political right
which their interests require and which may be compatible with the
Constitution.

The extension of the judiciary system of the United States is deemed
to be one of the duties of the Government. One-fourth of the States
in the Union do not participate in the benefits of a circuit court.
To the States of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi,
and Louisiana, admitted into the Union since the present judicial
system was organized, only a district court has been allowed. If this
be sufficient, then the circuit courts already existing in 18 States
ought to be abolished; if it be not sufficient, the defect ought to
be remedied, and these States placed on the same footing with the
other members of the Union. It was on this condition and on this
footing that they entered the Union, and they may demand circuit
courts as a matter not of concession, but of right. I trust that
Congress will not adjourn leaving this anomaly in our system.

Entertaining the opinions heretofore expressed in relation to the
Bank of the United States as at present organized, I felt it my duty
in my former messages frankly to disclose them, in order that the
attention of the Legislature and the people should be seasonably
directed to that important subject, and that it might be considered
and finally disposed of in a manner best calculated to promote the
ends of the Constitution and subserve the public interests. Having
thus conscientiously discharged a constitutional duty, I deem it
proper on this occasion, without a more particular reference to the
views of the subject then expressed to leave it for the present to
the investigation of an enlightened people and their
representatives.

In conclusion permit me to invoke that Power which superintends all
governments to infuse into your deliberations at this important
crisis of our history a spirit of mutual forbearance and
conciliation. In that spirit was our Union formed, and in that spirit
must it be preserved.