At the close of the last session of Congress
it was hoped that the successive confirmations of the extinction
of the French decrees, so far as they violated our neutral commerce,
would have induced the Government of Great Britain to repeal its
orders in council, and thereby authorize a removal of the existing
obstructions to her commerce with the United States.
Instead of this reasonable step toward satisfaction and friendship
between the two nations, the orders were, at a moment when least
to have been expected, put into more rigorous execution; and it
was communicated through the British envoy just arrived that whilst
the revocation of the edicts of France, as officially made known
to the British Government, was denied to have taken place, it
was an indispensable condition of the repeal of the British orders
that commerce should be restored to a footing that would admit
the productions and manufactures of Great Britain, when owned
by neutrals, into markets shut against them by her enemy, the
United States being given to understand that in the meantime a
continuance of their nonimportation act would lead to measures
of retaliation.
At a later date it has indeed appeared that a
communication to the British Government of fresh evidence of the
repeal of the French decrees against our neutral trade was followed
by an intimation that it had been transmitted to the British plenipotentiary
here in order that it might receive full consideration in the
depending discussions. This communication appears not to have
been received; but the transmission of it hither, instead of founding
on it an actual repeal of the orders or assurances that the repeal
would ensue, will not permit us to rely on any effective change
in the British cabinet. To be ready to meet with cordiality satisfactory
proofs of such a change, and to proceed in the meantime in adapting
our measures to the views which have been disclosed through that
minister will best consult our whole duty.
In the unfriendly spirit of those disclosures indemnity and redress
for other wrongs have continued to be withheld, and our coasts
and the mouths of our harbors have again witnessed scenes not
less derogatory to the dearest of our national rights than vexation
to the regular course of our trade.
Among the occurrences produced by the conduct
of British ships of war hovering on our coasts was an encounter
between one of them and the American frigate commanded by Captain
Rodgers, rendered unavoidable on the part of the latter by a fire
commenced without cause by the former, whose commander is therefore
alone chargeable with the blood unfortunately shed in maintaining
the honor of the American flag. The proceedings of a court of
inquiry requested by Captain Rodgers are communicated, together
with the correspondence relating to the occurrence, between the
Secretary of State and His Britannic Majesty's envoy. To these
are added the several correspondences which have passed on the
subject of the British orders in council, and to both the correspondence
relating to the Floridas, in which Congress will be made acquainted
with the interposition which the Government of Great Britain has
thought proper to make against the proceeding of the United States.
The justice and fairness which have been evinced
on the part of the United States toward France, both before and
since the revocation of her decrees, authorized an expectation
that her Government would have followed up that measure by all
such others as were due to our reasonable claims, as well as dictated
by its amicable professions. No proof, however, is yet given of
an intention to repair the other wrongs done to the United States,
and particularly to restore the great amount of American property
seized and condemned under edicts which, though not affecting
our neutral relations, and therefore not entering into questions
between the United States and other belligerents, were nevertheless
founded in such unjust principles that the reparation ought to
have been prompt and ample.
In addition to this and other demands of strict
right on that nation, the United States have much reason to be
dissatisfied with the rigorous and unexpected restrictions to
which their trade with the French dominions has been subjected,
and which, if not discontinued, will require at least corresponding
restrictions on importations from France into the United States.
On all those subjects our minister plenipotentiary
lately sent to Paris has carried with him the necessary instructions,
the result of which will be communicated to you, and, by ascertaining
the ulterior policy of the French Government toward the United
States, will enable you to adapt to it that of the United States
toward France.
Our other foreign relations remain without unfavorable
changes. With Russia they are on the best footing of friendship.
The ports of Sweden have afforded proofs of friendly dispositions
toward our commerce in the councils of that nation also, and the
information from our special minister to Denmark shews that the
mission had been attended with valuable effects to our citizens,
whose property had been so extensively violated and endangered
by cruisers under the Danish flag.
Under the ominous indications which commanded
attention it became a duty to exert the means committed to the
executive department in providing for the general security. The
works of defense on our maritime frontier have accordingly been
prosecuted with an activity leaving little to be added for the
completion of the most important ones, and, as particularly suited
for cooperation in emergencies, a portion of the gunboats have
in particular harbors been ordered into use. The ships of war
before in commission, with the addition of a frigate, have been
chiefly employed as a cruising guard to the rights of our coast,
and such a disposition has been made of our land forces as was
thought to promise the services most appropriate and important.
In this disposition is included a force consisting of regulars
and militia, embodied in the Indiana Territory and marched toward
our northwestern frontier. This measure was made requisite by
several murders and depredations committed by Indians, but more
especially by the menacing preparations and aspect of a combination
of them on the Wabash, under the influence and direction of a
fanatic of the Shawanese tribe. With these exceptions the Indian
tribes retain their peaceable dispositions toward us, and their
usual pursuits.
I must now add that the period is arrived which claims from the
legislative guardians of the national rights a system of more
ample provisions for maintaining them. Notwithstanding the scrupulous
justice, the protracted moderation, and the multiplied efforts
on the part of the United States to substitute for the accumulating
dangers to the peace of the two countries all the mutual advantages
of reestablished friendship and confidence, we have seen that
the British cabinet perseveres not only in withholding a remedy
for other wrongs, so long and so loudly calling for it, but in
the execution, brought home to the threshold of our territory,
of measures which under existing circumstances have the character
as well as the effect of war on our lawful commerce.
With this evidence of hostile inflexibility in
trampling on rights which no independent nation can relinquish,
Congress will feel the duty of putting the United States into
an armor and an attitude demanded by the crisis, and corresponding
with the national spirit and expectations.
I recommend, accordingly, that adequate provisions
be made for filling the ranks and prolonging the enlistments of
the regular troops; for an auxiliary force to be engaged for a
more limited term; for the acceptance of volunteer corps, whose
patriotic ardor may court a participation in urgent services;
for detachments as they may be wanted of other portions of the
militia, and for such a preparation of the great body as will
proportion its usefulness to its intrinsic capacities. Nor can
the occasion fail to remind you of the importance of those military
seminaries which in every event will form a valuable and frugal
part of our military establishment.
The manufacture of cannon and small arms has proceeded with due
success, and the stock and resources of all the necessary munitions
are adequate to emergencies. It will not be inexpedient, however,
for Congress to authorize an enlargement of them.
Your attention will of course be drawn to such
provisions on the subject of our naval force as may be required
for the services to which it may be best adapted. I submit to
Congress the seasonableness also of an authority to augment the
stock of such materials as are imperishable in their nature, or
may not at once be attainable.
In contemplating the scenes which distinguish
this momentous epoch, and estimating their claims to our attention,
it is impossible to overlook those developing themselves among
the great communities which occupy the southern portion of our
own hemisphere and extend into our neighborhood. An enlarged philanthropy
and an enlightened forecast concur in imposing on the national
councils an obligation to take a deep interest in their destinies,
to cherish reciprocal sentiments of good will, to regard the progress
of events, and not to be unprepared for whatever order of things
may be ultimately established.
Under another aspect of our situation the early
attention of Congress will be due to the expediency of further
guards against evasions and infractions of our commercial laws.
The practice of smuggling, which is odious everywhere, and particularly
criminal in free governments, where, the laws being made by all
for the good of all, a fraud is committed on every individual
as well as on the state, attains its utmost guilt when it blends
with a pursuit of ignominious gain a treacherous subserviency,
in the transgressors, to a foreign policy adverse to that of their
own country. It is to them that the virtuous indignation of the
public should be enabled to manifest itself through the regular
animadversions of the most competent laws.
To secure greater respect to our mercantile flag,
and to the honest interests which it covers, it is expedient also
that it be made punishable in our citizens to accept licenses
from foreign governments for a trade unlawfully interdicted by
them to other American citizens, or to trade under false colors
or papers of any sort.
Although other subjects will press more immediately
on your deliberations, a portion of them can not but be well bestowed
on the just and sound policy of securing to our manufactures the
success they have attained, and are still attaining, in some degree,
under the impulse of causes not permanent, and to our navigation,
the fair extent of which is at present abridged by the unequal
regulations of foreign governments.
Besides the reasonableness of saving our manufactures
from sacrifices which a change of circumstances might bring on
them, the national interest requires that, with respect to such
articles at least as belong to our defense and our primary wants,
we should not be left in unnecessary dependence on external supplies.
And whilst foreign governments adhere to the existing discriminations
in their ports against our navigation, and an equality or lesser
discrimination is enjoyed by their navigation in our ports, the
effect can not be mistaken, because it has been seriously felt
by our shipping interests; and in proportion as this takes place
the advantages of an independent conveyance of our products to
foreign markets and of a growing body of mariners trained by their
occupations for the service of their country in times of danger
must be diminished.
The receipts into the Treasury during the year
ending on the 30th day of September last have exceeded $13,500,000,
and have enabled us to defray the current expenses, including
the interest on the public debt, and to reimburse more than $5,000,000
of the principal without recurring to the loan authorized by the
act of the last session. The temporary loan obtained in the latter
end of the year 1810 has also been reimbursed, and is not included
in that amount.
The decrease of revenue arising from the situation of our commerce,
and the extraordinary expenses which have and may become necessary,
must be taken into view in making commensurate provisions for
the ensuing year; and I recommend to your consideration the propriety
of insuring a sufficiency of annual revenue at least to defray
the ordinary expenses of Government, and to pay the interest on
the public debt, including that on new loans which may be authorized.
I can not close this communication without expressing
my deep sense of the crisis in which you are assembled, my confidence
in a wise and honorable result to your deliberations, and assurances
of the faithful zeal with which my cooperating duties will be
discharged, invoking at the same time the blessing of Heaven on
our beloved country and on all the means that may be employed
in vindicating its rights and advancing its welfare.
