Speech Transcript:

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

The interest with which the people of the Republic anticipate the
assembling of Congress and the fulfillment on that occasion of the
duty imposed upon a new President is one of the best evidences of
their capacity to realize the hopes of the founders of a political
system at once complex and symmetrical. While the different branches
of the Government are to a certain extent independent of each other,
the duties of all alike have direct reference to the source of power.
Fortunately, under this system no man is so high and none so humble in
the scale of public station as to escape from the scrutiny or to be
exempt from the responsibility which all official functions imply.

Upon the justice and intelligence of the masses, in a government thus
organized, is the sole reliance of the confederacy and the only
security for honest and earnest devotion to its interests against the
usurpations and encroachment of power on the one hand and the assaults
of personal ambition on the other.

The interest of which I have spoken is inseparable from an inquiring,
self-governing community, but stimulated, doubtless, at the present
time by the unsettled condition of our relations with several foreign
powers, by the new obligations resulting from a sudden extension of
the field of enterprise, by the spirit with which that field has been
entered and the amazing energy with which its resources for meeting
the demands of humanity have been developed.

Although disease, assuming at one time the characteristics of a
widespread and devastating pestilence, has left its sad traces upon
some portions of our country, we have still the most abundant cause
for reverent thankfulness to God for an accumulation of signal
mercies showered upon us as a nation. It is well that a consciousness
of rapid advancement and increasing strength be habitually associated
with an abiding sense of dependence upon Him who holds in His hands
the destiny of men and of nations.

Recognizing the wisdom of the broad principle of absolute religious
toleration proclaimed in our fundamental law, and rejoicing in the
benign influence which it has exerted upon our social and political
condition, I should shrink from a clear duty did I fail to express my
deepest conviction that we can place no secure reliance upon any
apparent progress if it be not sustained by national integrity,
resting upon the great truths affirmed and illustrated by divine
revelation. In the midst of our sorrow for the afflicted and
suffering, it has been consoling to see how promptly disaster made
true neighbors of districts and cities separated widely from each
other, and cheering to watch the strength of that common bond of
brotherhood which unites all hearts, in all parts of this Union, when
danger threatens from abroad or calamity impends over us at home.

Our diplomatic relations with foreign powers have undergone no
essential change since the adjournment of the last Congress. With
some of them questions of a disturbing character are still pending,
but there are good reasons to believe that these may all be amicably
adjusted. For some years past Great Britain has so construed the
first article of the convention of the 20th of April, 1818, in regard
to the fisheries on the northeastern coast, as to exclude our citizens
from some of the fishing grounds to which they freely resorted for
nearly a quarter of a century subsequent to the date of that treaty.
The United States have never acquiesced in this construction, but
have always claimed for their fishermen all the rights which they had
so long enjoyed without molestation. With a view to remove all
difficulties on the subject, to extend the rights of our fishermen
beyond the limits fixed by the convention of 1818, and to regulate
trade between the United States and the British North American
Provinces, a negotiation has been opened with a fair prospect of a
favorable result. To protect our fishermen in the enjoyment of their
rights and prevent collision between them and British fishermen, I
deemed it expedient to station a naval force in that quarter during
the fishing season.

Embarrassing questions have also arisen between the two Governments
in regard to Central America. Great Britain has proposed to settle
them by an amicable arrangement, and our minister at London is
instructed to enter into negotiations on that subject. A commission
for adjusting the claims of our citizens against Great Britain and
those of British subjects against the United States, organized under
the convention of the 8th of February last, is now sitting in London
for the transaction of business. It is in many respects desirable
that the boundary line between the United States and the British
Provinces in the northwest, as designated in the convention of the
15th of June, 1846, and especially that part which separates the
Territory of Washington from the British possessions on the north,
should be traced and marked. I therefore present the subject to your
notice.

With France our relations continue on the most friendly footing. The
extensive commerce between the United States and that country might,
it is conceived, be released from some unnecessary restrictions to
the mutual advantage of both parties. With a view to this object,
some progress has been made in negotiating a treaty of commerce and
navigation.

Independently of our valuable trade with Spain, we have important
political relations with her growing out of our neighborhood to the
islands of Cuba and Porto Rico. I am happy to announce that since the
last Congress no attempts have been made by unauthorized expeditions
within the United States against either of those colonies. Should any
movement be manifested within our limits, all the means at my command
will be vigorously exerted to repress it. Several annoying
occurrences have taken place at Havana, or in the vicinity of the
island of Cuba, between our citizens and the Spanish authorities.
Considering the proximity of that island to our shores, lying, as it
does, in the track of trade between some of our principal cities, and
the suspicious vigilance with which foreign intercourse, particularly
that with the United States, is there guarded, a repetition of such
occurrences may well be apprehended.

As no diplomatic intercourse is allowed between our consul at Havana
and the Captain-General of Cuba, ready explanations can not be made
or prompt redress afforded where injury has resulted. All complaint
on the part of our citizens under the present arrangement must be, in
the first place, presented to this Government and then referred to
Spain. Spain again refers it to her local authorities in Cuba for
investigation, and postpones an answer till she has heard from those
authorities. To avoid these irritating and vexatious delays, a
proposition has been made to provide for a direct appeal for redress
to the Captain-General by our consul in behalf of our injured
fellow-citizens. Hitherto the Government of Spain has declined to
enter into any such arrangement. This course on her part is deeply
regretted, for without some arrangement of this kind the good
understanding between the two countries may be exposed to occasional
interruption. Our minister at Madrid is instructed to renew the
proposition and to press it again upon the consideration of Her
Catholic Majesty's Government.

For several years Spain has been calling the attention of this
Government to a claim for losses by some of her subjects in the case
of the schooner Amistad. This claim is believed to rest on the
obligations imposed by our existing treaty with that country. Its
justice was admitted in our diplomatic correspondence with the
Spanish Government as early as March, 1847, and one of my
predecessors, in his annual message of that year, recommended that
provision should be made for its payment. In January last it was
again submitted to Congress by the Executive. It has received a
favorable consideration by committees of both branches, but as yet
there has been no final action upon it. I conceive that good faith
requires its prompt adjustment, and I present it to your early and
favorable consideration.

Martin Koszta, a Hungarian by birth, came to this country in 1850,
and declared his intention in due form of law to become a citizen of
the United States. After remaining here nearly two years he visited
Turkey. While at Smyrna he was forcibly seized, taken on board an
Austrian brig of war then lying in the harbor of that place, and
there confined in irons, with the avowed design to take him into the
dominions of Austria. Our consul at Smyrna and legation at
Constantinople interposed for his release, but their efforts were
ineffectual. While thus in prison Commander Ingraham, with the United
States ship of war St. Louis, arrived at Smyrna, and after inquiring
into the circumstances of the case came to the conclusion that Koszta
was entitled to the protection of this Government, and took energetic
and prompt measures for his release. Under an arrangement between the
agents of the United States and of Austria, he was transferred to the
custody of the French consul-general at Smyrna, there to remain until
he should be disposed of by the mutual agreement of the consuls of the
respective Governments at that place. Pursuant to that agreement, he
has been released, and is now in the United States. The Emperor of
Austria has made the conduct of our officers who took part in this
transaction a subject of grave complaint. Regarding Koszta as still
his subject, and claiming a right to seize him within the limits of
the Turkish Empire, he has demanded of this Government its consent to
the surrender of the prisoner, a disavowal of the acts of its agents,
and satisfaction for the alleged outrage. After a careful
consideration of the case I came to the conclusion that Koszta was
seized without legal authority at Smyrna; that he was wrongfully
detained on board of the Austrian brig of war; that at the time of
his seizure he was clothed with the nationality of the United States,
and that the acts of our officers, under the circumstances of the
case, were justifiable, and their conduct has been fully approved by
me, and a compliance with the several demands of the Emperor of
Austria has been declined.

For a more full account of this transaction and my views in regard to
it I refer to the correspondence between the charge d'affaires of
Austria and the Secretary of State, which is herewith transmitted.
The principles and policy therein maintained on the part of the
United States will, whenever a proper occasion occurs, be applied and
enforced.

The condition of China at this time renders it probable that some
important changes will occur in that vast Empire which will lead to a
more unrestricted intercourse with it. The commissioner to that
country who has been recently appointed is instructed to avail
himself of all occasions to open and extend our commercial relations,
not only with the Empire of China, but with other Asiatic nations.

In 1852 an expedition was sent to Japan, under the command of
Commodore Perry, for the purpose of opening commercial intercourse
with that Empire. Intelligence has been received of his arrival there
and of his having made known to the Emperor of Japan the object of his
visit. But it is not yet ascertained how far the Emperor will be
disposed to abandon his restrictive policy and open that populous
country to a commercial intercourse with the United States.

It has been my earnest desire to maintain friendly intercourse with
the Governments upon this continent and to aid them in preserving
good understanding among themselves. With Mexico a dispute has arisen
as to the true boundary line between our Territory of New Mexico and
the Mexican State of Chihuahua. A former commissioner of the United
States, employed in running that line pursuant to the treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo, made a serious mistake in determining the initial
point on the Rio Grande; but inasmuch as his decision was clearly a
departure from the directions for tracing the boundary contained in
that treaty, and was not concurred in by the surveyor appointed on
the part of the United States, whose concurrence was necessary to
give validity to that decision, this Government is not concluded
thereby; but that of Mexico takes a different view of the subject.

There are also other questions of considerable magnitude pending
between the two Republics. Our minister in Mexico has ample
instructions to adjust them. Negotiations have been opened, but
sufficient progress has not been made therein to enable me to speak
of the probable result. Impressed with the importance of maintaining
amicable relations with that Republic and of yielding with liberality
to all her just claims, it is reasonable to expect that an arrangement
mutually satisfactory to both countries may be concluded and a lasting
friendship between them confirmed and perpetuated.

Congress having provided for a full mission to the States of Central
America, a minister was sent thither in July last. As yet he has had
time to visit only one of these States ( Nicaragua), where he was
received in the most friendly manner. It is hoped that his presence
and good offices will have a benign effect in composing the
dissensions which prevail among them, and in establishing still more
intimate and friendly relations between them respectively and between
each of them and the United States.

Considering the vast regions of this continent and the number of
states which would be made accessible by the free navigation of the
river Amazon, particular attention has been given to this subject.
Brazil, through whose territories it passes into the ocean, has
hitherto persisted in a policy so restricted in regard to the use of
this river as to obstruct and nearly exclude foreign commercial
intercourse with the States which lie upon its tributaries and upper
branches. Our minister to that country is instructed to obtain a
relaxation of that policy and to use his efforts to induce the
Brazilian Government to open to common use, under proper safeguards,
this great natural highway for international trade. Several of the
South American States are deeply interested in this attempt to secure
the free navigation of the Amazon, and it is reasonable to expect
their cooperation in the measure. As the advantages of free
commercial intercourse among nations are better understood, more
liberal views are generally entertained as to the common rights of
all to the free use of those means which nature has provided for
international communication. To these more liberal and enlightened
views it is hoped that Brazil will conform her policy and remove all
unnecessary restrictions upon the free use of a river which traverses
so many states and so large a part of the continent. I am happy to
inform you that the Republic of Paraguay and the Argentine
Confederation have yielded to the liberal policy still resisted by
Brazil in regard to the navigable rivers within their respective
territories. Treaties embracing this subject, among others, have been
negotiated with these Governments, which will be submitted to the
Senate at the present session.

A new branch of commerce, important to the agricultural interests of
the United States, has within a few years past been opened with Peru.
Notwithstanding the inexhaustible deposits of guano upon the islands
of that country, considerable difficulties are experienced in
obtaining the requisite supply. Measures have been taken to remove
these difficulties and to secure a more abundant importation of the
article. Unfortunately, there has been a serious collision between
our citizens who have resorted to the Chincha Islands for it and the
Peruvian authorities stationed there. Redress for the outrages
committed by the latter was promptly demanded by our minister at
Lima. This subject is now under consideration, and there is reason to
believe that Peru is disposed to offer adequate indemnity to the
aggrieved parties. We are thus not only at peace with all foreign
countries, but, in regard to political affairs, are exempt from any
cause of serious disquietude in our domestic relations.

The controversies which have agitated the country heretofore are
passing away with the causes which produced them and the passions
which they had awakened; or, if any trace of them remains, it may be
reasonably hoped that it will only be perceived in the zealous
rivalry of all good citizens to testify their respect for the rights
of the States, their devotion to the Union, and their common
determination that each one of the States, its institutions, its
welfare, and its domestic peace, shall be held alike secure under the
sacred aegis of the Constitution. This new league of amity and of
mutual confidence and support into which the people of the Republic
have entered happily affords inducement and opportunity for the
adoption of a more comprehensive and unembarrassed line of policy and
action as to the great material interests of the country, whether
regarded in themselves or in connection with the powers of the
civilized world.

The United States have continued gradually and steadily to expand
through acquisitions of territory, which, how much soever some of
them may have been questioned, are now universally seen and admitted
to have been wise in policy, just in character, and a great element
in the advancement of our country, and with it of the human race, in
freedom, in prosperity, and in happiness. The thirteen States have
grown to be thirty-one, with relations reaching to Europe on the one
side and on the other to the distant realms of Asia.

I am deeply sensible of the immense responsibility which the present
magnitude of the Republic and the diversity and multiplicity of its
interests devolves upon me, the alleviation of which so far as
relates to the immediate conduct of the public business, is, first,
in my reliance on the wisdom and patriotism of the two Houses of
Congress, and, secondly, in the directions afforded me by the
principles of public polity affirmed by our fathers of the epoch of
1798, sanctioned by long experience, and consecrated anew by the
overwhelming voice of the people of the United States.

Recurring to these principles, which constitute the organic basis of
union, we perceive that vast as are the functions and the duties of
the Federal Government, vested in or intrusted to its three great
departments--the legislative, executive, and judicial--yet the
substantive power, the popular force, and the large capacities for
social and material development exist in the respective States,
which, all being of themselves well-constituted republics, as they
preceded so they alone are capable of maintaining and perpetuating
the American Union. The Federal Government has its appropriate line
of action in the specific and limited powers conferred on it by the
Constitution, chiefly as to those things in which the States have a
common interest in their relations to one another and to foreign
governments, while the great mass of interests which belong to
cultivated men--the ordinary business of life, the springs of
industry, all the diversified personal and domestic affairs of
society--rest securely upon the general reserved powers of the people
of the several States. There is the effective democracy of the nation,
and there the vital essence of its being and its greatness.

Of the practical consequences which flow from the nature of the
Federal Government, the primary one is the duty of administering with
integrity and fidelity the high trust reposed in it by the
Constitution, especially in the application of the public funds as
drawn by taxation from the people and appropriated to specific
objects by Congress.

Happily, I have no occasion to suggest any radical changes in the
financial policy of the Government. Ours is almost, if not
absolutely, the solitary power of Christendom having a surplus
revenue drawn immediately from imposts on commerce, and therefore
measured by the spontaneous enterprise and national prosperity of the
country, with such indirect relation to agriculture, manufactures, and
the products of the earth and sea as to violate no constitutional
doctrine and yet vigorously promote the general welfare. Neither as
to the sources of the public treasure nor as to the manner of keeping
and managing it does any grave controversy now prevail, there being a
general acquiescence in the wisdom of the present system.

The report of the Secretary of the Treasury will exhibit in detail
the state of the public finances and the condition of the various
branches of the public service administered by that Department of the
Government.

The revenue of the country, levied almost insensibly to the taxpayer,
goes on from year to year, increasing beyond either the interests or
the prospective wants of the Government.

At the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1852, there remained
in the Treasury a balance of $14,632,136. The public revenue for the
fiscal year ending June 30, 1853, amounted to $58,931,865 from
customs and to $2,405,708 from public lands and other miscellaneous
sources, amounting together to $61,337,574, while the public
expenditures for the same period, exclusive of payments on account of
the public debt, amounted to $43,554,262, leaving a balance of
$32,425,447 of receipts above expenditures.

This fact of increasing surplus in the Treasury became the subject of
anxious consideration at a very early period of my Administration, and
the path of duty in regard to it seemed to me obvious and clear,
namely: First, to apply the surplus revenue to the discharge of the
public debt so far as it could judiciously be done, and, secondly, to
devise means for the gradual reduction of the revenue to the standard
of the public exigencies.

Of these objects the first has been in the course of accomplishment
in a manner and to a degree highly satisfactory. The amount of the
public debt of all classes was on the 4th of March, 1853,
$69,190,037, payments on account of which have been made since that
period to the amount of $12,703,329, leaving unpaid and in continuous
course of liquidation the sum of $56,486,708. These payments, although
made at the market price of the respective classes of stocks, have
been effected readily and to the general advantage of the Treasury,
and have at the same time proved of signal utility in the relief they
have incidentally afforded to the money market and to the industrial
and commercial pursuits of the country.

The second of the above-mentioned objects, that of the reduction of
the tariff, is of great importance, and the plan suggested by the
Secretary of the Treasury, which is to reduce the duties on certain
articles and to add to the free list many articles now taxed, and
especially such as enter into manufactures and are not largely, or at
all, produced in the country, is commended to your candid and careful
consideration.

You will find in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, also,
abundant proof of the entire adequacy of the present fiscal system to
meet all the requirements of the public service, and that, while
properly administered, it operates to the advantage of the community
in ordinary business relations.

I respectfully ask your attention to sundry suggestions of
improvements in the settlement of accounts, especially as regards the
large sums of outstanding arrears due to the Government, and of other
reforms in the administrative action of his Department which are
indicated by the Secretary; as also to the progress made in the
construction of marine hospitals, custom-houses, and of a new mint in
California and assay office in the city of New York, heretofore
provided for by Congress, and also to the eminently successful
progress of the Coast Survey and of the Light House Board.

Among the objects meriting your attention will be important
recommendations from the Secretaries of War and Navy. I am fully
satisfied that the Navy of the United States is not in a condition of
strength and efficiency commensurate with the magnitude of our
commercial and other interests, and commend to your especial
attention the suggestions on this subject made by the Secretary of
the Navy. I respectfully submit that the Army, which under our system
must always be regarded with the highest interest as a nucleus around
which the volunteer forces of the nation gather in the hour of
danger, requires augmentation, or modification, to adapt it to the
present extended limits and frontier relations of the country and the
condition of the Indian tribes in the interior of the continent, the
necessity of which will appear in the communications of the
Secretaries of War and the Interior.

In the administration of the Post-Office Department for the fiscal
year ending June 30, 1853, the gross expenditure was $7,982,756, and
the gross receipts during the same period $5,942,734, showing that
the current revenue failed to meet the current expenses of the
Department by the sum of $2,042,032. The causes which, under the
present postal system and laws, led inevitably to this result are
fully explained by the report of the Postmaster-General, one great
cause being the enormous rates the Department has been compelled to
pay for mail service rendered by railroad companies.

The exhibit in the report of the Postmaster-General of the income and
expenditures by mail steamers will be found peculiarly interesting and
of a character to demand the immediate action of Congress.

Numerous and flagrant frauds upon the Pension Bureau have been
brought to light within the last year, and in some instances merited
punishments inflicted; but, unfortunately, in others guilty parties
have escaped, not through the want of sufficient evidence to warrant
a conviction, but in consequence of the provisions of limitation in
the existing laws.

From the nature of these claims, the remoteness of the tribunals to
pass upon them, and the mode in which the proof is of necessity
furnished, temptations to crime have been greatly stimulated by the
obvious difficulties of detection. The defects in the law upon this
subject are so apparent and so fatal to the ends of justice that your
early action relating to it is most desirable.

During the last fiscal year 9,819,411 acres of the public lands have
been surveyed and 10,363,891 acres brought into market. Within the
same period the sales by public purchase and private entry amounted
to 1,083,495 acres; located under military bountys and warrants,
6,142,360 acres; located under other certificates, 9,427 acres; ceded
to the States as swamp lands, 16,684,253 acres; selected for railroad
and other objects under acts of Congress, 1,427,457 acres: total
amount of lands disposed of within the fiscal year, 25,346,992 acres,
which is an increase in quantity sold and located under land warrants
and grants of 12,231, 818 acres over the fiscal year immediately
preceding. The quantity of land sold during the second and third
quarters of 1852 was 334,451 acres; the amount received therefor was
$623,687. The quantity sold the second and third quarters of the year
1853 was 1,609,919 acres, and the amount received therefor
$2,226,876.

The whole number of land warrants issued under existing laws prior to
the 30th of September last was 266,042, of which there were
outstanding at that date 66,947. The quantity of land required to
satisfy these outstanding warrants is 4,778,120 acres. Warrants have
been issued to 30th of September last under the act of 11th February,
1847, calling for 12,879,280 acres, under acts of September 28, 1850,
and March 22, 1852, calling for 12,505,360 acres, making a total of
25,384,640 acres.

It is believed that experience has verified the wisdom and justice of
the present system with regard to the public domain in most essential
particulars.

You will perceive from the report of the Secretary of the Interior
that opinions which have often been expressed in relation to the
operation of the land system as not being a source of revenue to the
Federal Treasury were erroneous. The net profits from the sale of the
public lands to June 30, 1853, amounted to the sum of $53,289,465.

I recommend the extension of the land system over the Territories of
Utah and New Mexico, with such modifications as their peculiarities
may require.

Regarding our public domain as chiefly valuable to provide homes for
the industrious and enterprising, I am not prepared to recommend any
essential change in the land system, except by modifications in favor
of the actual settler and an extension of the preemption principle in
certain cases, for reasons and on grounds which will be fully
developed in the reports to be laid before you.

Congress, representing the proprietors of the territorial domain and
charged especially with power to dispose of territory belonging to
the United States, has for a long course of years, beginning with the
Administration of Mr. Jefferson, exercised the power to construct
roads within the Territories, and there are so many and obvious
distinctions between this exercise of power and that of making roads
within the States that the former has never been considered subject
to such objections as apply to the latter; and such may now be
considered the settled construction of the power of the Federal
Government upon the subject.

Numerous applications have been and no doubt will continue to be made
for grants of land in aid of the construction of railways. It is not
believed to be within the intent and meaning of the Constitution that
the power to dispose of the public domain should be used otherwise
than might be expected from a prudent proprietor and therefore that
grants of land to aid in the construction of roads should be
restricted to cases where it would be for the interest of a
proprietor under like circumstances thus to contribute to the
construction of these works. For the practical operation of such
grants thus far in advancing the interests of the States in which the
works are located, and at the same time the substantial interests of
all the other States, by enhancing the value and promoting the rapid
sale of the public domain, I refer you to the report of the Secretary
of the Interior. A careful examination, however, will show that this
experience is the result of a just discrimination and will be far
from affording encouragement to a reckless or indiscriminate
extension of the principle.

I commend to your favorable consideration the men of genius of our
country who by their inventions and discoveries in science and arts
have contributed largely to the improvements of the age without, in
many instances, securing for themselves anything like an adequate
reward. For many interesting details upon this subject I refer you to
the appropriate reports, and especially urge upon your early attention
the apparently slight, but really important, modifications of existing
laws therein suggested.

The liberal spirit which has so long marked the action of Congress in
relation to the District of Columbia will, I have no doubt, continue
to be manifested.

The erection of an asylum for the insane of the District of Columbia
and of the Army and Navy of the United States has been somewhat
retarded by the great demand for materials and labor during the past
summer, but full preparation for the reception of patients before the
return of another winter is anticipated; and there is the best reason
to believe, from the plan and contemplated arrangements which have
been devised, with the large experience furnished within the last few
years in relation to the nature and treatment of the disease, that it
will prove an asylum indeed to this most helpless and afflicted class
of sufferers and stand as a noble monument of wisdom and mercy. Under
the acts of Congress of August 31, 1852, and of March 3, 1853,
designed to secure for the cities of Washington and Georgetown an
abundant supply of good and wholesome water, it became my duty to
examine the report and plans of the engineer who had charge of the
surveys under the act first named. The best, if not the only, plan
calculated to secure permanently the object sought was that which
contemplates taking the water from the Great Falls of the Potomac,
and consequently I gave to it my approval.

For the progress and present condition of this important work and for
its demands so far as appropriations are concerned I refer you to the
report of the Secretary of War.

The present judicial system of the United States has now been in
operation for so long a period of time and has in its general theory
and much of its details become so familiar to the country and
acquired so entirely the public confidence that if modified in any
respect it should only be in those particulars which may adapt it to
the increased extent, population, and legal business of the United
States. In this relation the organization of the courts is now
confessedly inadequate to the duties to be performed by them, in
consequence of which the States of Florida, Wisconsin, Iowa, Texas,
and California, and districts of other States, are in effect excluded
from the full benefits of the general system by the functions of the
circuit court being devolved on the district judges in all those
States or parts of States. The spirit of the Constitution and a due
regard to justice require that all the States of the Union should be
placed on the same footing in regard to the judicial tribunals. I
therefore commend to your consideration this important subject, which
in my judgment demands the speedy action of Congress. I will present
to you, if deemed desirable, a plan which I am prepared to recommend
for the enlargement and modification of the present judicial system.

The act of Congress establishing the Smithsonian Institution provided
that the President of the United States and other persons therein
designated should constitute an "establishment" by that name, and
that the members should hold stated and special meetings for the
supervision of the affairs of the Institution. The organization not
having taken place, it seemed to me proper that it should be effected
without delay. This has been done; and an occasion was thereby
presented for inspecting the condition of the Institution and
appreciating its successful progress thus far and its high promise of
great and general usefulness.

I have omitted to ask your favorable consideration for the estimates
of works of a local character in twenty-seven of the thirty-one
States, amounting to $1,754,500, because, independently of the
grounds which have so often been urged against the application of the
Federal revenue for works of this character, inequality, with
consequent injustice, is inherent in the nature of the proposition,
and because the plan has proved entirely inadequate to the
accomplishment of the objects sought.

The subject of internal improvements, claiming alike the interest and
good will of all, has, nevertheless, been the basis of much political
discussion and has stood as a deep-graven line of division between
statesmen of eminent ability and patriotism. The rule of strict
construction of all powers delegated by the States to the General
Government has arrayed itself from time to time against the rapid
progress of expenditures from the National Treasury on works of a
local character within the States. Memorable as an epoch in the
history of this subject is the message of President Jackson of the
27th of May, 1830, which met the system of internal improvements in
its comparative infancy; but so rapid had been its growth that the
projected appropriations in that year for works of this character had
risen to the alarming amount of more than $100,000,000

In that message the President admitted the difficulty of bringing
back the operations of the Government to the construction of the
Constitution set up in 1798, and marked it as an admonitory proof of
the necessity of guarding that instrument with sleepless vigilance
against the authority of precedents which had not the sanction of its
most plainly defined powers.

Our Government exists under a written compact between sovereign
States, uniting for specific objects and with specific grants to
their general agent. If, then, in the progress of its administration
there have been departures from the terms and intent of the compact,
it is and will ever be proper to refer back to the fixed standard
which our fathers left us and to make a stern effort to conform our
action to it. It would seem that the fact of a principle having been
resisted from the first by many of the wisest and most patriotic men
of the Republic, and a policy having provoked constant strife without
arriving at a conclusion which can be regarded as satisfactory to its
most earnest advocates, should suggest the inquiry whether there may
not be a plan likely to be crowned by happier results. Without
perceiving any sound distinction or intending to assert any principle
as opposed to improvements needed for the protection of internal
commerce which does not equally apply to improvements upon the
seaboard for the protection of foreign commerce, I submit to you
whether it may not be safely anticipated that if the policy were once
settled against appropriations by the General Government for local
improvements for the benefit of commerce, localities requiring
expenditures would not, by modes and means clearly legitimate and
proper, raise the fund necessary for such constructions as the safety
or other interests of their commerce might require.

If that can be regarded as a system which in the experience of mere
than thirty years has at no time so commanded the public judgment as
to give it the character of a settled policy; which, though it has
produced some works of conceded importance, has been attended with an
expenditure quite disproportionate to their value and has resulted in
squandering large sums upon objects which have answered no valuable
purpose, the interests of all the States require it to be abandoned
unless hopes may be indulged for the future which find no warrant in
the past.

With an anxious desire for the completion of the works which are
regarded by all good citizens with sincere interest, I have deemed it
my duty to ask at your hands a deliberate reconsideration of the
question, with a hope that, animated by a desire to promote the
permanent and substantial interests of the country, your wisdom may
prove equal to the task of devising and maturing a plan which,
applied to this subject, may promise something better than constant
strife, the suspension of the powers of local enterprise, the
exciting of vain hopes, and the disappointment of cherished
expectations.

In expending the appropriations made by the last Congress several
cases have arisen in relation to works for the improvement of harbors
which involve questions as to the right of soil and jurisdiction, and
have threatened conflict between the authority of the State and
General Governments. The right to construct a breakwater, jetty, or
dam would seem necessarily to carry with it the power to protect and
preserve such constructions. This can only be effectually done by
having jurisdiction over the soil. But no clause of the Constitution
is found on which to rest the claim of the United States to exercise
jurisdiction over the soil of a State except that conferred by the
eighth section of the first article of the Constitution. It is, then,
submitted whether, in all cases where constructions are to be erected
by the General Government, the right of soil should not first be
obtained and legislative provision be made to cover all such cases.
For the progress made in the construction of roads within the
Territories, as provided for in the appropriations of the last
Congress, I refer you to the report of the Secretary of War.

There is one subject of a domestic nature which, from its intrinsic
importance and the many interesting questions of future policy which
it involves, can not fail to receive your early attention. I allude
to the means of communication by which different parts of the wide
expanse of our country are to be placed in closer connection for
purposes both of defense and commercial intercourse, and more
especially such as appertain to the communication of those great
divisions of the Union which lie on the opposite sides of the Rocky
Mountains. That the Government has not been unmindful of this
heretofore is apparent from the aid it has afforded through
appropriations for mail facilities and other purposes. But the
general subject will now present itself under aspects more imposing
and more purely national by reason of the surveys ordered by
Congress, and now in the process of completion, for communication by
railway across the continent, and wholly within the limits of the
United States.

The power to declare war, to raise and support armies, to provide and
maintain a navy, and to call forth the militia to execute the laws,
suppress insurrections, and repel invasions was conferred upon
Congress as means to provide for the common defense and to protect a
territory and a population now widespread and vastly multiplied. As
incidental to and indispensable for the exercise of this power, it
must sometimes be necessary to construct military roads and protect
harbors of refuge. To appropriations by Congress for such objects no
sound objection can be raised. Happily for our country, its peaceful
policy and rapidly increasing population impose upon us no urgent
necessity for preparation, and leave but few trackless deserts
between assailable points and a patriotic people ever ready and
generally able to protect them. These necessary links the enterprise
and energy of our people are steadily and boldly struggling to
supply. All experience affirms that wherever private enterprise will
avail it is most wise for the General Government to leave to that and
individual watchfulness the location and execution of all means of
communication.

The surveys before alluded to were designed to ascertain the most
practicable and economical route for a railroad from the river
Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. Parties are now in the field making
explorations, where previous examinations had not supplied sufficient
data and where there was the best reason to hope the object sought
might be found. The means and time being both limited, it is not to
be expected that all the accurate knowledge desired will be obtained,
but it is hoped that much and important information will be added to
the stock previously possessed, and that partial, if not full,
reports of the surveys ordered will be received in time for
transmission to the two Houses of Congress on or before the first
Monday in February next, as required by the act of appropriation. The
magnitude of the enterprise contemplated has aroused and will
doubtless continue to excite a very general interest throughout the
country. In its political, its commercial, and its military bearings
it has varied, great, and increasing claims to consideration. The
heavy expense, the great delay, and, at times, fatality attending
travel by either of the Isthmus routes have demonstrated the
advantage which would result from interterritorial communication by
such safe and rapid means as a railroad would supply.

These difficulties, which have been encountered in a period of peace,
would be magnified and still further increased in time of war. But
whilst the embarrassments already encountered and others under new
contingencies to be anticipated may serve strikingly to exhibit the
importance of such a work, neither these nor all considerations
combined can have an appreciable value when weighed against the
obligation strictly to adhere to the Constitution and faithfully to
execute the powers it confers.

Within this limit and to the extent of the interest of the Government
involved it would seem both expedient and proper if an economical and
practicable route shall be found to aid by all constitutional means
in the construction of a road which will unite by speedy transit the
populations of the Pacific and Atlantic States. To guard against
misconception, it should be remarked that although the power to
construct or aid in the construction of a road within the limits of a
Territory is not embarrassed by that question of jurisdiction which
would arise within the limits of a State, it is, nevertheless, held
to be of doubtful power and more than doubtful propriety, even within
the limits of a Territory, for the General Government to undertake to
administer the affairs of a railroad, a canal, or other similar
construction, and therefore that its connection with a work of this
character should be incidental rather than primary. I will only add
at present that, fully appreciating the magnitude of the subject and
solicitous that the Atlantic and Pacific shores of the Republic may
be bound together by inseparable ties of common interest, as well as
of common fealty and attachment to the Union, I shall be disposed, so
far as my own action is concerned, to follow the lights of the
Constitution as expounded and illustrated by those whose opinions and
expositions constitute the standard of my political faith in regard to
the powers of the Federal Government. It is, I trust, not necessary to
say that no grandeur of enterprise and no present urgent inducement
promising popular favor will lead me to disregard those lights or to
depart from that path which experience has proved to be safe, and
which is now radiant with the glow of prosperity and legitimate
constitutional progress. We can afford to wait, but we can not afford
to overlook the ark of our security.

It is no part of my purpose to give prominence to any subject which
may properly be regarded as set at rest by the deliberate judgment of
the people. But while the present is bright with promise and the
future full of demand and inducement for the exercise of active
intelligence, the past can never be without useful lessons of
admonition and instruction. If its dangers serve not as beacons, they
will evidently fail to fulfill the object of a wise design. When the
grave shall have closed over all who are now endeavoring to meet the
obligations of duty, the year 1850 will be recurred to as a period
filled with anxious apprehension. A successful war had just
terminated. Peace brought with it a vast augmentation of territory.
Disturbing questions arose bearing upon the domestic institutions of
one portion of the Confederacy and involving the constitutional
rights of the States. But notwithstanding differences of opinion and
sentiment which then existed in relation to details and specific
provisions, the acquiescence of distinguished citizens, whose
devotion to the Union can never be doubted, has given renewed vigor
to our institutions and restored a sense of repose and security to
the public mind throughout the Confederacy. That this repose is to
suffer no shock during my official term, if I have power to avert it,
those who placed me here may be assured. The wisdom of men who knew
what independence cost, who had put all at stake upon the issue of
the Revolutionary struggle, disposed of the subject to which I refer
in the only way consistent with the Union of these States and with
the march of power and prosperity which has made us what we are. It
is a significant fact that from the adoption of the Constitution
until the officers and soldiers of the Revolution had passed to their
graves, or, through the infirmities of age and wounds, had ceased to
participate actively in public affairs, there was not merely a quiet
acquiescence in, but a prompt vindication of, the constitutional
rights of the States. The reserved powers were scrupulously
respected. No statesman put forth the narrow views of casuists to
justify interference and agitation, but the spirit of the compact was
regarded as sacred in the eye of honor and indispensable for the great
experiment of civil liberty, which, environed by inherent
difficulties, was yet borne forward in apparent weakness by a power
superior to all obstacles. There is no condemnation which the voice
of freedom will not pronounce upon us should we prove faithless to
this great trust. While men inhabiting different parts of this vast
continent can no more be expected to hold the same opinions or
entertain the same sentiments than every variety of climate or soil
can be expected to furnish the same agricultural products, they can
unite in a common object and sustain common principles essential to
the maintenance of that object. The gallant men of the South and the
North could stand together during the struggle of the Revolution;
they could stand together in the more trying period which succeeded
the clangor of arms. As their united valor was adequate to all the
trials of the camp and dangers of the field, so their united wisdom
proved equal to the greater task of founding upon a deep and broad
basis institutions which it has been our privilege to enjoy and will
ever be our most sacred duty to sustain. It is but the feeble
expression of a faith strong and universal to say that their sons,
whose blood mingled so often upon the same field during the War of
1812 and who have more recently borne in triumph the flag of the
country upon a foreign soil, will never permit alienation of feeling
to weaken the power of their united efforts nor internal dissensions
to paralyze the great arm of freedom, uplifted for the vindication of
self-government.

I have thus briefly presented such suggestions as seem to me
especially worthy of your consideration. In providing for the present
you can hardly fail to avail yourselves of the light which the
experience of the past casts upon the future.

The growth of our population has now brought us, in the destined
career of our national history, to a point at which it well behooves
us to expand our vision over the vast prospective.

The successive decennial returns of the census since the adoption of
the Constitution have revealed a law of steady, progressive
development, which may be stated in general terms as a duplication
every quarter century. Carried forward from the point already reached
for only a short period of time, as applicable to the existence of a
nation, this law of progress, if unchecked, will bring us to almost
incredible results. A large allowance for a diminished proportional
effect of emigration would not very materially reduce the estimate,
while the increased average duration of human life known to have
already resulted from the scientific and hygienic improvements of the
past fifty years will tend to keep up through the next fifty, or
perhaps hundred, the same ratio of growth which has been thus
revealed in our past progress; and to the influence of these causes
may be added the influx of laboring masses from eastern Asia to the
Pacific side of our possessions, together with the probable accession
of the populations already existing in other parts of our hemisphere,
which within the period in question will feel with yearly increasing
force the natural attraction of so vast, powerful, and prosperous a
confederation of self-governing republics and will seek the privilege
of being admitted within its safe and happy bosom, transferring with
themselves, by a peaceful and healthy process of incorporation,
spacious regions of virgin and exuberant soil, which are destined to
swarm with the fast growing and fast-spreading millions of our race.

These considerations seem fully to justify the presumption that the
law of population above stated will continue to act with undiminished
effect through at least the next half century, and that thousands of
persons who have already arrived at maturity and are now exercising
the rights of freemen will close their eyes on the spectacle of more
than 100,000,000 of population embraced within the majestic
proportions of the American Union. It is not merely as an interesting
topic of speculation that I present these views for your
consideration. They have important practical bearings upon all the
political duties we are called upon to perform. Heretofore our system
of government has worked on what may be termed a miniature scale in
comparison with the development which it must thus assume within a
future so near at hand as scarcely to be beyond the present of the
existing generation.

It is evident that a confederation so vast and so varied, both in
numbers and in territorial extent, in habits and in interests, could
only be kept in national cohesion by the strictest fidelity to the
principles of the Constitution as understood by those who have
adhered to the most restricted construction of the powers granted by
the people and the States. Interpreted and applied according to those
principles, the great compact adapts itself with healthy ease and
freedom to an unlimited extension of that benign system of federative
self-government of which it is our glorious and, I trust, immortal
charter. Let us, then, with redoubled vigilance, be on our guard
against yielding to the temptation of the exercise of doubtful
powers, even under the pressure of the motives of conceded temporary
advantage and apparent temporary expediency. The minimum of Federal
government compatible with the maintenance of national unity and
efficient action in our relations with the rest of the world should
afford the rule and measure of construction of our powers under the
general clauses of the Constitution. A spirit of strict deference to
the sovereign rights and dignity of every State, rather than a
disposition to subordinate the States into a provincial relation to
the central authority, should characterize all our exercise of the
respective powers temporarily vested in us as a sacred trust from the
generous confidence of our constituents.

In like manner, as a manifestly indispensable condition of the
perpetuation of the Union and of the realization of that magnificent
national future adverted to, does the duty become yearly stronger and
clearer upon us, as citizens of the several States, to cultivate a
fraternal and affectionate spirit, language, and conduct in regard to
other States and in relation to the varied interests, institutions,
and habits of sentiment and opinion which may respectively
characterize them. Mutual forbearance, respect, and noninterference
in our personal action as citizens and an enlarged exercise of the
most liberal principles of comity in the public dealings of State
with State, whether in legislation or in the execution of laws, are
the means to perpetuate that confidence and fraternity the decay of
which a mere political union, on so vast a scale, could not long
survive.

In still another point of view is an important practical duty
suggested by this consideration of the magnitude of dimensions to
which our political system, with its corresponding machinery of
government, is so rapidly expanding. With increased vigilance does it
require us to cultivate the cardinal virtues of public frugality and
official integrity and purity. Public affairs ought to be so
conducted that a settled conviction shall pervade the entire Union
that nothing short of the highest tone and standard of public
morality marks every part of the administration and legislation of
the General Government. Thus will the federal system, whatever
expansion time and progress may give it, continue more and more
deeply rooted in the love and confidence of the people.

That wise economy which is as far removed from parsimony as from
corrupt and corrupting extravagance; that single regard for the
public good which will frown upon all attempts to approach the
Treasury with insidious projects of private interest cloaked under
public pretexts; that sound fiscal administration which, in the
legislative department, guards against the dangerous temptations
incident to overflowing revenue, and, in the executive, maintains an
unsleeping watchfulness against the tendency of all national
expenditure to extravagance, while they are admitted elementary
political duties, may, I trust, be deemed as properly adverted to and
urged in view of the more impressive sense of that necessity which is
directly suggested by the considerations now presented.

Since the adjournment of Congress the Vice-President of the United
States has passed from the scenes of earth, without having entered
upon the duties of the station to which he had been called by the
voice of his countrymen. Having occupied almost continuously for more
than thirty years a seat in one or the other of the two Houses of
Congress, and having by his singular purity and wisdom secured
unbounded confidence and universal respect, his failing health was
watched by the nation with painful solicitude. His loss to the
country, under all the circumstances, has been justly regarded as
irreparable.

In compliance with the act of Congress of March 2, 1853, the oath of
office was administered to him on the 24th of that month at Ariadne
estate, near Matanzas, in the island of Cuba; but his strength
gradually declined, and was hardly sufficient to enable him to return
to his home in Alabama, where, on the 18th day of April, in the most
calm and peaceful way, his long and eminently useful career was
terminated. Entertaining unlimited confidence in your intelligent and
patriotic devotion to the public interest, and being conscious of no
motives on my part which are not inseparable from the honor and
advancement of my country, I hope it may be my privilege to deserve
and secure not only your cordial cooperation in great public
measures, but also those relations of mutual confidence and regard
which it is always so desirable to cultivate between members of
coordinate branches of the Government.