With these blessings are necessarily mingled
the pressures and vicissitudes incident to the state of war into
which the United States have been forced by the perseverance of
a foreign power in its system of injustice and aggression.
Previous to its declaration it was deemed proper,
as a measure of precaution and forecast, that a considerable force
should be placed in the Michigan Territory with a general view
to its security, and, in the event of war, to such operations
in the uppermost Canada as would intercept the hostile influence
of Great Britain over the savages, obtain the command of the lake
on which that part of Canada borders, and maintain cooperating
relations with such forces as might be most conveniently employed
against other parts.
Brigadier-General Hull was charged with this provisional service,
having under his command a body of troops composed of regulars
and of volunteers from the State of Ohio. Having reached his destination
after his knowledge of the war, and possessing discretionary authority
to act offensively, he passed into the neighboring territory of
the enemy with a prospect of easy and victorious progress. The
expedition, nevertheless, terminated unfortunately, not only in
a retreat to the town and fort of Detroit, but in the surrender
of both and of the gallant corps commanded by that officer. The
causes of this painful reverse will be investigated by a military
tribunal.
A distinguishing feature in the operations which
preceded and followed this adverse event is the use made by the
enemy of the merciless savages under their influence. Whilst the
benevolent policy of the United States invariably recommended
peace and promoted civilization among that wretched portion of
the human race, and was making exertions to dissuade them from
taking either side in the war, the enemy has not scrupled to call
to his aid their ruthless ferocity, armed with the horrors of
those instruments of carnage and torture which are known to spare
neither age nor sex. In this outrage against the laws of honorable
war and against the feelings sacred to humanity the British commanders
can not resort to a plea of retaliation, for it is committed in
the face of our example. They can not mitigate it by calling it
a self-defense against men in arms, for it embraces the most shocking
butcheries of defenseless families. Nor can it be pretended that
they are not answerable for the atrocities perpetrated, since
the savages are employed with a knowledge, and even with menaces,
that their fury could not be controlled. Such is the spectacle
which the deputed authorities of a nation boasting its religion
and morality have not been restrained from presenting to an enlightened
age.
The misfortune at Detroit was not, however, without
a consoling effect. It was followed by signal proofs that the
national spirit rises according to the pressure on it. The loss
of an important post and of the brave men surrendered with it
inspired everywhere new ardor and determination. In the States
and districts least remote it was no sooner known than every citizen
was ready to fly with his arms at once to protect his brethren
against the blood-thirsty savages let loose by the enemy on an
extensive frontier, and to convert a partial calamity into a source
of invigorated efforts. This patriotic zeal, which it was necessary
rather to limit than excite, has embodied an ample force from
the States of Kentucky and Ohio and from parts of Pennsylvania
and Virginia. It is placed, with the addition of a few regulars,
under the command of Brigadier-General Harrison, who possesses
the entire confidence of his fellow soldiers, among whom are citizens,
some of them volunteers in the ranks, not less distinguished by
their political stations than by their personal merits. The greater
portion of this force is proceeding in relieving an important
frontier post, and in several incidental operations against hostile
tribes of savages, rendered indispensable by the subserviency
into which they had been seduced by the enemy - a seduction the
more cruel as it could not fail to impose a necessity of precautionary
severities against those who yielded to it.
At a recent date an attack was made on a post
of the enemy near Niagara by a detachment of the regular and other
forces under the command of Major-General Van Rensselaer, of the
militia of the State of New York. The attack, it appears, was
ordered in compliance with the ardor of the troops, who executed
it with distinguished gallantry, and were for a time victorious;
but not receiving the expected support, they were compelled to
yield to reenforcements of British regulars and savages. Our loss
has been considerable, and is deeply to be lamented. That of the
enemy, less ascertained, will be the more felt, as it includes
among the killed the commanding general, who was also the governor
of the Province, and was sustained by veteran troops from unexperienced
soldiers, who must daily improve in the duties of the field.
Our expectation of gaining the command of the Lakes by the invasion
of Canada from Detroit having been disappointed, measures were
instantly taken to provide on them a naval force superior to that
of the enemy. From the talents and activity of the officer charged
with this object everything that can be done may be expected.
Should the present season not admit of complete success, the progress
made will insure for the next a naval ascendancy where it is essential
to our permanent peace with and control over the savages.
Among the incidents to the measures of the war
I am constrained to advert to the refusal of the governors of
Massachusetts and Connecticut to furnish the required detachments
of militia toward the defense of the maritime frontier. The refusal
was founded on a novel and unfortunate exposition of the provisions
of the Constitution relating to the militia. The correspondences
which will be laid before you contain the requisite information
on the subject. It is obvious that if the authority of the United
States to call into service and command the militia for the public
defense can be thus frustrated, even in a state of declared war
and of course under apprehensions of invasion preceding war, they
are not one nation for the purpose most of all requiring it, and
that the public safety may have no other resource than in those
large and permanent military establishments which are forbidden
by the principles of our free government, and against the necessity
of which the militia were meant to be a constitutional bulwark.
On the coasts and on the ocean the war has been
as successful as circumstances inseparable from its early stages
could promise. Our public ships and private cruisers, by their
activity, and, where there was occasion, by their intrepidity,
have made the enemy sensible of the difference between a reciprocity
of captures and the long confinement of them to their side. Our
trade, with little exception, has safely reached our ports, having
been much favored in it by the course pursued by a squadron of
our frigates under the command of Commodore Rodgers, and in the
instance in which skill and bravery were more particularly tried
with those of the enemy the American flag had an auspicious triumph.
The frigate Constitution, commanded by Captain Hull, after a close
and short engagement completely disabled and captured a British
frigate, gaining for that officer and all on board a praise which
can not be too liberally bestowed, not merely for the victory
actually achieved, but for that prompt and cool exertion of commanding
talents which, giving to courage its highest character, and to
the force applied its full effect, proved that more could have
been done in a contest requiring more.
Anxious to abridge the evils from which a state
of war can not be exempt, I lost no time after it was declared
in conveying to the British Government the terms on which its
progress might be arrested, without awaiting the delays of a formal
and final pacification, and our charge' d'affaires at London was
at the same time authorized to agree to an armistice founded upon
them. These terms required that the orders in council should be
repealed as they affected the United States, without a revival
of blockades violating acknowledged rules, and that there should
be an immediate discharge of American seamen from British ships,
and a stop to impressment from American ships, with an understanding
that an exclusion of the seamen of each nation from the ships
of the other should be stipulated, and that the armistice should
be improved into a definitive and comprehensive adjustment of
depending controversies. Although a repeal of the orders susceptible
of explanations meeting the views of this Government had taken
place before this pacific advance was communicated to that of
Great Britain, the advance was declined from an avowed repugnance
to a suspension of the practice of impressments during the armistice,
and without any intimation that the arrangement proposed with
respect to seamen would be accepted. Whether the subsequent communications
from this Government, affording an occasion for reconsidering
the subject on the part of Great Britain, will be viewed in a
more favorable light or received in a more accommodating spirit
remains to be known. It would be unwise to relax our measures
in any respect on a presumption of such a result.
The documents from the Department of State which
relate to this subject will give a view also of the propositions
for an armistice which have been received here, one of them from
the authorities at Halifax and in Canada, the other from the British
Government itself through Admiral Warren, and of the grounds on
which neither of them could be accepted.
Our affairs with France retain the posture which
they held at my last communications to you. Notwithstanding the
authorized expectations of an early as well as favorable issue
to the discussions on foot, these have been procrastinated to
the latest date. The only intervening occurrence meriting attention
is the promulgation of a French decree purporting to be a definitive
repeal of the Berlin and Milan decrees. This proceeding, although
made the ground of the repeal of the British orders in council,
is rendered by the time and manner of it liable to many objections.
The final communications from our special minister
to Denmark afford further proofs of the good effects of his mission,
and of the amicable disposition of the Danish Government. From
Russia we have the satisfaction to receive assurances of continued
friendship, and that it will not be affected by the rupture between
the United States and Great Britain. Sweden also professes sentiments
favorable to the subsisting harmony.
With the Barbary Powers, excepting that of Algiers, our affairs
remain on the ordinary footing. The consul-general residing with
that Regency has suddenly and without cause been banished, together
with all the American citizens found there. Whether this was the
transitory effect of capricious despotism or the first act of
predetermined hostility is not ascertained. Precautions were taken
by the consul on the latter supposition.
The Indian tribes not under foreign instigations
remain at peace, and receive the civilizing attentions which have
proved so beneficial to them.
With a view to that vigorous prosecution of the
war to which our national faculties are adequate, the attention
of Congress will be particularly drawn to the insufficiency of
existing provisions for filling up the military establishment.
Such is the happy condition of our country, arising from the facility
of subsistence and the high wages for every species of occupation,
that notwithstanding the augmented inducements provided at the
last session, a partial success only has attended the recruiting
service. The deficiency has been necessarily supplied during the
campaign by other than regular troops, with all the inconveniences
and expense incident to them. The remedy lies in establishing
more favorably for the private soldier the proportion between
his recompense and the term of his enlistment, and it is a subject
which can not too soon or too seriously be taken into consideration.
The same insufficiency has been experienced in
the provisions for volunteers made by an act of the last session.
The recompense for the service required in this case is still
less attractive than in the other, and although patriotism alone
has sent into the field some valuable corps of that description,
those alone who can afford the sacrifice can be reasonably expected
to yield to that impulse.
It will merit consideration also whether as auxiliary
to the security of our frontiers corps may not be advantageously
organized with a restriction of their services to particular districts
convenient to them, and whether the local and occasional services
of mariners and others in the seaport towns under a similar organization
would not be a provident addition to the means of their defense.
I recommend a provision for an increase of the
general officers of the Army, the deficiency of which has been
illustrated by the number and distance of separate commands which
the course of the war and the advantage of the service have required.
And I can not press too strongly on the earliest
attention of the Legislature the importance of the reorganization
of the staff establishment with a view to render more distinct
and definite the relations and responsibilities of its several
departments. That there is room for improvements which will materially
promote both economy and success in what appertains to the Army
and the war is equally inculcated by the examples of other countries
and by the experience of our own.
A revision of the militia laws for the purpose
of rendering them more systematic and better adapting them to
emergencies of the war is at this time particularly desirable.
Of the additional ships authorized to be fitted
for service, two will be shortly ready to sail, a third is under
repair, and delay will be avoided in the repair of the residue.
Of the appropriations for the purchase of materials for shipbuilding,
the greater part has been applied to that object and the purchase
will be continued with the balance.
The enterprising spirit which has characterized
our naval force and its success, both in restraining insults and
depredations on our coasts and in reprisals on the enemy, will
not fail to recommend an enlargement of it.
There being reason to believe that the act prohibiting
the acceptance of British licenses is not a sufficient guard against
the use of them, for purposes favorable to the interests and views
of the enemy, further provisions on that subject are highly important.
Nor is it less so that penal enactments should be provided for
cases of corrupt and perfidious intercourse with the enemy, not
amounting to treason nor yet embraced by any statutory provisions.
A considerable number of American vessels which were in England
when the revocation of the orders in council took place were laden
with British manufactures under an erroneous impression that the
nonimportation act would immediately cease to operate, and have
arrived in the United States. It did not appear proper to exercise
on unforeseen cases of such magnitude the ordinary powers vested
in the Treasury Department to mitigate forfeitures without previously
affording to Congress an opportunity of making on the subject
such provision as they may think proper. In their decision they
will doubtless equally consult what is due to equitable considerations
and to the public interest.
The receipts into the Treasury during the year
ending on the 30th of September last have exceeded $16,500,000,
which have been sufficient to defray all the demands on the Treasury
to that day, including a necessary reimbursement of near three
millions of the principal of the public debt. In these receipts
is included a sum of near $5,850,000, received on account of the
loans authorized by the acts of the last session; the whole sum
actually obtained on loan amounts to $11,000,000, the residue
of which, being receivable subsequent to the 30th of September
last, will, together with the current revenue, enable us to defray
all the expenses of this year.
The duties on the late unexpected importations
of British manufactures will render the revenue of the ensuing
year more productive than could have been anticipated.
The situation of our country, fellow citizens,
is not without its difficulties, though it abounds in animating
considerations, of which the view here presented of our pecuniary
resources is an example. With more than one nation we have serious
and unsettled controversies, and with one, powerful in the means
and habits of war, we are at war. The spirit and strength of the
nation are nevertheless equal to the support of all its rights,
and to carry it through all its trials. They can be met in that
confidence. Above all, we have the inestimable consolation of
knowing that the war in which we are actually engaged is a war
neither of ambition nor of vainglory; that it is waged not in
violation of the rights of others, but in the maintenance of our
own; that it was preceded by a patience without example under
wrongs accumulating without end, and that it was finally not declared
until every hope of averting it was extinguished by the transfer
of the British scepter into new hands clinging to former councils,
and until declarations were reiterated to the last hour, through
the British envoy here, that the hostile edicts against our commercial
rights and our maritime independence would not be revoked; nay,
that they could not be revoked without violating the obligations
of Great Britain to other powers, as well as to her own interests.
To have shrunk under such circumstances from manly resistance
would have been a degradation blasting our best and proudest hopes;
it would have struck us from the high rank where the virtuous
struggles of our fathers had placed us, and have betrayed the
magnificent legacy which we hold in trust for future generations.
It would have acknowledged that on the element which forms three-fourth
of the globe we inhabit, and where all independent nations have
equal and common rights, the American people were not an independent
people, but colonists and vassals. It was at this moment and with
such an alternative that war was chosen. The nation felt the necessity
of it, and called for it. The appeal was accordingly made, in
a just cause, to the Just and All-powerful Being who holds in
His hand the chain of events and the destiny of nations.It remains
only that, faithful to ourselves, entangled in no connections
with the views of other powers, and ever ready to accept peace
from the hand of justice, we prosecute the war with united counsels
and with the ample faculties of the nation until peace be so obtained
and as the only means under the Divine blessing of speedily obtaining
it.
