Amidst the advantages which have succeeded the
peace of Europe, and that of the United States with Great Britain,
in a general invigoration of industry among us and in the extension
of our commerce, the value of which is more and more disclosing
itself to commercial nations, it is to be regretted that a depression
is experienced by particular branches of our manufactures and
by a portion of our navigation. As the first proceeds in an essential
degree from an excess of imported merchandise, which carries a
check in its own tendency, the cause in its present extent can
not be very long in duration. The evil will not, however, be viewed
by Congress without a recollection that manufacturing establishments,
if suffered to sink too low or languish too long, may not revive
after the causes shall have ceased, and that in the vicissitudes
of human affairs situations may recur in which a dependence on
foreign sources for indispensable supplies may be among the most
serious embarrassments.
The depressed state of our navigation is to be
ascribed in a material degree to its exclusion from the colonial
ports of the nation most extensively connected with us in commerce,
and from the indirect operation of that exclusion.
Previous to the late convention at London between
the United States and Great Britain the relative state of the
navigation laws of the two countries, growing out of the treaty
of 1794, had given to the British navigation a material advantage
over the American in the intercourse between the American ports
and British ports in Europe. The convention of London equalized
the laws of the two countries relating to those ports, leaving
the intercourse between our ports and the ports of the British
colonies subject, as before, to the respective regulations of
the parties. The British Government enforcing now regulations
which prohibit a trade between its colonies and the United States
in American vessels, whilst they permit a trade in British vessels,
the American navigation loses accordingly, and the loss is augmented
by the advantage which is given to the British competition over
the American in the navigation between our ports and British ports
in Europe by the circuitous voyages enjoyed by the one and not
enjoyed by the other.
The reasonableness of the rule of reciprocity
applied to one branch of the commercial intercourse has been pressed
on our part as equally applicable to both branches; but it is
ascertained that the British cabinet declines all negotiation
on the subject, with a disavowal, however, of any disposition
to view in an unfriendly light whatever countervailing regulations
the United States may oppose to the regulations of which they
complain. The wisdom of the Legislature will decide on the course
which, under these circumstances, is prescribed by a joint regard
to the amicable relations between the two nations and to the just
interests of the United States.
I have the satisfaction to state, generally,
that we remain in amity with foreign powers.
An occurrence has indeed taken place in the Gulf
of Mexico which, if sanctioned by the Spanish Government, may
make an exception as to that power. According to the report of
our naval commander on that station, one of our public armed vessels
was attacked by an over-powering force under a Spanish commander,
and the American flag, with the officers and crew, insulted in
a manner calling for prompt reparation. This has been demanded.
In the mean time a frigate and a smaller vessel of war have been
ordered into that Gulf for the protection of our commerce. It
would be improper to omit that the representative of His Catholic
Majesty in the United States lost no time in giving the strongest
assurances that no hostile order could have emanated from his
Government, and that it will be as ready to do as to expect whatever
the nature of the case and the friendly relations of the two countries
shall be found to require.
The posture of our affairs with Algiers at the
present moment is not known. The Dey, drawing pretexts from circumstances
for which the United States were not answerable, addressed a letter
to this Government declaring the treaty last concluded with him
to have been annulled by our violation of it, and presenting as
the alternative war or a renewal of the former treaty, which stipulated,
among other things, an annual tribute. The answer, with an explicit
declaration that the United States preferred war to tribute, required
his recognition and observance of the treaty last made, which
abolishes tribute and the slavery of our captured citizens. The
result of the answer has not been received. Should he renew his
warfare on our commerce, we rely on the protection it will find
in our naval force actually in the Mediterranean.
With the other Barbary States our affairs have
undergone no change.
The Indian tribes within our limits appear also
disposed to remain at peace. From several of them purchases of
lands have been made particularly favorable to the wishes and
security of our frontier settlements, as well as to the general
interests of the nation. In some instances the titles, though
not supported by due proof, and clashing those of one tribe with
the claims of another, have been extinguished by double purchases,
the benevolent policy of the United States preferring the augmented
expense to the hazard of doing injustice or to the enforcement
of justice against a feeble and untutored people by means involving
or threatening an effusion of blood. I am happy to add that the
tranquillity which has been restored among the tribes themselves,
as well as between them and our own population, will favor the
resumption of the work of civilization which had made an encouraging
progress among some tribes, and that the facility is increasing
for extending that divided and individual ownership, which exists
now in movable property only, to the soil itself, and of thus
establishing in the culture and improvement of it the true foundation
for a transit from the habits of the savage to the arts and comforts
of social life.
As a subject of the highest importance to the
national welfare, I must again earnestly recommend to the consideration
of Congress a reorganization of the militia on a plan which will
form it into classes according to the periods of life more or
less adapted to military services. An efficient militia is authorized
and contemplated by the Constitution and required by the spirit
and safety of free government. The present organization of our
militia is universally regarded as less efficient than it ought
to be made, and no organization can be better calculated to give
to it its due force than a classification which will assign the
foremost place in the defense of the country to that portion of
its citizens whose activity and animation best enable them to
rally to its standard. Besides the consideration that a time of
peace is the time when the change can be made with most convenience
and equity, it will now be aided by the experience of a recent
war in which the militia bore so interesting a part.
Congress will call to mind that no adequate provision
has yet been made for the uniformity of weights and measures also
contemplated by the Constitution. The great utility of a standard
fixed in its nature and founded on the easy rule of decimal proportions
is sufficiently obvious. It led the Government at an early stage
to preparatory steps for introducing it, and a completion of the
work will be a just title to the public gratitude.
The importance which I have attached to the establishment
of a university within this District on a scale and for objects
worthy of the American nation induces me to renew my recommendation
of it to the favorable consideration of Congress. And I particularly
invite again their attention to the expediency of exercising their
existing powers, and, where necessary, of resorting to the prescribed
mode of enlarging them, in order to effectuate a comprehensive
system of roads and canals, such as will have the effect of drawing
more closely together every part of our country by promoting intercourse
and improvements and by increasing the share of every part in
the common stock of national prosperity.
Occurrences having taken place which shew that
the statutory provisions for the dispensation of criminal justice
are deficient in relation both to places and to persons under
the exclusive cognizance of the national authority, an amendment
of the law embracing such cases will merit the earliest attention
of the Legislature. It will be a seasonable occasion also for
inquiring how far legislative interposition may be further requisite
in providing penalties for offenses designated in the Constitution
or in the statutes, and to which either no penalties are annexed
or none with sufficient certainty. And I submit to the wisdom
of Congress whether a more enlarged revisal of the criminal code
be not expedient for the purpose of mitigating in certain cases
penalties which were adopted into it antecedent to experiment
and examples which justify and recommend a more lenient policy.
The United States, having been the first to abolish
within the extent of their authority the transportation of the
natives of Africa into slavery, by prohibiting the introduction
of slaves and by punishing their citizens participating in the
traffic, can not but be gratified at the progress made by concurrent
efforts of other nations toward a general suppression of so great
an evil. They must feel at the same time the greater solicitude
to give the fullest efficacy to their own regulations. With that
view, the interposition of Congress appears to be required by
the violations and evasions which it is suggested are chargeable
on unworthy citizens who mingle in the slave trade under foreign
flags and with foreign ports, and by collusive importations of
slaves into the United States through adjoining ports and territories.
I present the subject to Congress with a full assurance of their
disposition to apply all the remedy which can be afforded by an
amendment of the law. The regulations which were intended to guard
against abuses of a kindred character in the trade between the
several States ought also to be rendered more effectual for their
humane object.
To these recommendations I add, for the consideration
of Congress, the expediency of a remodification of the judiciary
establishment, and of an additional department in the executive
branch of the Government.
The first is called for by the accruing business
which necessarily swells the duties of the Federal courts, and
by the great and widening space within which justice is to be
dispensed by them. The time seems to have arrived which claims
for members of the Supreme Court a relief from itinerary fatigues,
incompatible as well with the age which a portion of them will
always have attained as with the researches and preparations which
are due to their stations and to the juridical reputation of their
country. And considerations equally cogent require a more convenient
organization of the subordinate tribunals, which may be accomplished
without an objectionable increase of the number or expense of
the judges.
The extent and variety of executive business
also accumulating with the progress of our country and its growing
population call for an additional department, to be charged with
duties now overburdening other departments and with such as have
not been annexed to any department.
The course of experience recommends, as another
improvement in the executive establishment, that the provision
for the station of Attorney-General, whose residence at the seat
of Government, official connections with it, and the management
of the public business before the judiciary preclude an extensive
participation in professional emoluments, be made more adequate
to his services and his relinquishments, and that, with a view
to his reasonable accommodation and to a proper depository of
his official opinions and proceedings, there be included in the
provision the usual appurtenances to a public office.
In directing the legislative attention to the
state of the finances it is a subject of great gratification to
find that even within the short period which has elapsed since
the return of peace the revenue has far exceeded all the current
demands upon the Treasury, and that under any probable diminution
of its future annual products which the vicissitudes of commerce
may occasion it will afford an ample fund for the effectual and
early extinguishment of the public debt. It has been estimated
that during the year 1816 the actual receipts of revenue at the
Treasury, including the balance at the commencement of the year,
and excluding the proceeds of loans and Treasury notes, will amount
to about the sum of $47,000,000; that during the same year the
actual payments at the Treasury, including the payment of the
arrearages of the War Department as well as the payment of a considerable
excess beyond the annual appropriations, will amount to about
the sum of $38,000,000, and that consequently at the close of
the year there will be a surplus in the Treasury of about the
sum of $9,000,000.
The operations of the Treasury continued to be
obstructed by difficulties arising from the condition of the national
currency, but they have nevertheless been effectual to a beneficial
extent in the reduction of the public debt and the establishment
of the public credit. The floating debt of Treasury notes and
temporary loans will soon be entirely discharged. The aggregate
of the funded debt, composed of debts incurred during the wars
of 1776 and 1812, has been estimated with reference to the first
of January next at a sum not exceeding $110,000,000. The ordinary
annual expenses of the Government for the maintenance of all its
institutions, civil, military, and naval, have been estimated
at a sum less than $20,000,000, and the permanent revenue to be
derived from all the existing sources has been estimated at a
sum of $25,000,000.
Upon this general view of the subject it is obvious
that there is only wanting to the fiscal prosperity of the Government
the restoration of an uniform medium of exchange. The resources
and the faith of the nation, displayed in the system which Congress
has established, insure respect and confidence both at home and
abroad. The local accumulations of the revenue have already enabled
the Treasury to meet the public engagements in the local currency
of most of the States, and it is expected that the same cause
will produce the same effect throughout the Union; but for the
interests of the community at large, as well as for the purposes
of the Treasury, it is essential that the nation should possess
a currency of equal value, credit, and use wherever it may circulate.
The Constitution has intrusted Congress exclusively with the power
of creating and regulating a currency of that description, and
the measures which were taken during the last session in execution
of the power give every promise of success. The Bank of the United
States has been organized under auspices the most favorable, and
can not fail to be an important auxiliary to those measures.
For a more enlarged view of the public finances,
with a view of the measures pursued by the Treasury Department
previous to the resignation of the late Secretary, I transmit
an extract from the last report of that officer. Congress will
perceive in it ample proofs of the solid foundation on which the
financial prosperity of the nation rests, and will do justice
to the distinguished ability and successful exertions with which
the duties of the Department were executed during a period remarkable
for its difficulties and its peculiar perplexities.
The period of my retiring from the public service
being at little distance, I shall find no occasion more proper
than the present for expressing to my fellow citizens my deep
sense of the continued confidence and kind support which I have
received from them. My grateful recollection of these distinguished
marks of their favorable regard can never cease, and with the
consciousness that, if I have not served my country with greater
ability, I have served it with a sincere devotion will accompany
me as a source of unfailing gratification.
Happily, I shall carry with me from the public
theater other sources, which those who love their country most
will best appreciate. I shall behold it blessed with tranquillity
and prosperity at home and with peace and respect abroad. I can
indulge the proud reflection that the American people have reached
in safety and success their 40th year as an independent nation;
that for nearly an entire generation they have had experience
of their present Constitution, the off-spring of their undisturbed
deliberations and of their free choice; that they have found it
to bear the trials of adverse as well as prosperous circumstances;
to contain in its combination of the federate and elective principles
a reconcilement of public strength with individual liberty, of
national power for the defense of national rights with a security
against wars of injustice, of ambition, and vain-glory in the
fundamental provision which subjects all questions of war to the
will of the nation itself, which is to pay its costs and feel
its calamities. Nor is it less a peculiar felicity of this Constitution,
so dear to us all, that it is found to be capable, without losing
its vital energies, of expanding itself over a spacious territory
with the increase and expansion of the community for whose benefit
it was established.
And may I not be allowed to add to this gratifying
spectacle that I shall read in the character of the American people,
in their devotion to true liberty and to the Constitution which
is its palladium, sure presages that the destined career of my
country will exhibit a Government pursuing the public good as
its sole object, and regulating its means by the great principles
consecrated in its charger and by those moral principles to which
they are so well allied; a Government which watches over the purity
of elections, the freedom of speech and of the press, the trial
by jury, and the equal interdict against encroachments and compacts
between religion and the state; which maintains inviolably the
maxims of public faith, the security of persons and property,
and encourages in every authorized mode the general diffusion
of knowledge which guarantees to public liberty its permanency
and to those who possess the blessing the true enjoyment of it;
a Government which avoids intrusions on the internal repose of
other nations, and repels them from its own; which does justice
to all nations with a readiness equal to the firmness with which
it requires justice from them; and which, whilst it refines its
domestic code from every ingredient not congenial with the precepts
of an enlightened age and the sentiments of a virtuous people,
seeks by appeals to reason and by its liberal examples to infuse
into the law which governs the civilized world a spirit which
may diminish the frequency or circumscribe the calamities of war,
and meliorate the social and beneficent relations of peace; a
Government, in a word, whose conduct within and without may bespeak
the most noble of ambitions—that of promoting peace on earth
and good will to man.
These contemplations, sweetening the remnant
of my days, will animate my prayers for the happiness of my beloved
country, and a perpetuity of the institutions under which it is
enjoyed.
